Jamie's Stomach

Movin' On Up (to a new blogging platform)

2010-05-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

Dear loyal readers,
I am making the big switch over to Tumblr. All of my archives have been imported to my new(ish) site, and I will be posting all future entires to this URL:

www.jamiesstomach.tumblr.com

Thanks!

Icelandic Bounty

2010-05-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

So, I went to Iceland on vacation. Perfect timing, right? Actually, I was there about a week before Eyjafjallajokel blew the big one, so I'm feeling pretty smug about things right now. Iceland has a ton to offer in the epic nature/scenery department, but maybe not so much in the culinary treats. It is, after all, a frozen, isolated island just south of the Arctic. (Worth noting, however, is the country's extensive geothermal greenhouse system, which does provide a huge amount of local produce. Check it out here.)Nonetheless, I did manage to find some worthwhile snacks, sampled below:

Plokkfiskur: hashed fish stew with milk, potato, onion, and butter. Typically made with cod or haddock. Not exactly diet food, described by Icelanders alternately as "old-man food" and "a hangover cure." This particular microwaveable specimen was picked up at a gas station near Hvolsvollur, and photographed on the dashboard of our rented Toyota Yaris.

Hakarl: Fermented shark meat. Perhaps Iceland's most well-known stomach-turner. It's shark fermented in an ammonia brine and hung to dry for several months. The smell alone can be vomit-inducing. At fish markets, vendors sell bite-sized pieces with toothpicks, lest you touch it with your bare hands. Typically washed down with a shot of Brennevin, a licorice-tasting spirit that is disgusting in its own right.

Smoked puffin with mustard sauce. Gosh, those little penguins sure are adorable, right? Well, they taste good too. Very lean and iron-y, almost like venison. Made me feel alive.

And last but certainly not least, the Icelandic hotdog. I unfortunately do not have a glamour shot of the sausage itself, but please enjoy this photo instead. What makes the Icelandic hotdog so special? Look, I'm not exaggerating this: hotdogs are often referred to as Iceland's national food, and in August 2006, The Gaurdian selected the Baejarins Beztu Pylsur stand in downtown Reykjavik as Europe's best hotdog. (Full article, in Icelandic, with accompanying Bill Clinton photo, here.) Icelandic hotdogs come with ketchup, sweet mustard, raw onions, fried onions, and a mayo-based remoulade with sweet relish. They are disgusting and amazing all at once, and available literally everywhere, even the most remote parts of the country. I enjoyed my first one so much (see above) that I made the mistake of getting another less than 12 hours later, after which I did not eat any more for the remainder of my time in Iceland. But in that brief, glorious moment outside on Laugavegur at 3 a.m., the pylsur was the best part of my trip.

Ethnic Eating Adventures: Arthur Ave., Bronx

2010-04-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

In which my intrepid band of eating adventurers travel north to the Bronx, to check out the "real" Little Italy.

The commercial and historical center of this area is Arthur Avenue itself, near 187th St. These blocks are lined with old-school Italian butchers, bakers, cheesemakers, and more. We trekked up on a Saturday afternoon, and the area was more than hopping.

Our route included:

The Arthur Ave. retail market (2344 Arthur Ave.)

Calabria Pork Store (2338 Arthur Ave.)

Madonia Bros. Bakery (2348 Arthur Ave.)

Teitl Bros. Market (2372 Arthur Ave.)

Dominick's Restaurant (2335 Arthur Ave.)

Casa della Mozzarella (604 E. 187th St.)

Borgatti's Ravioli and Egg Noodles (632 E. 187th St.)

DeLillo's Bakery (606 E. 187th St.)

Check out the video for the history and fun facts (Hillary Clinton loved Madonia Bros! DeLillo's was once owned by author Don DeLillo's family! Flat sopressata takes 6-8 weeks to age hanging from the ceiling!), and stay tuned for more (videotaped?) adventures.

VIDEO*:

http://vimeo.com/10670293

*Apologies for the awful editing. My current software is very rudimentary. I will be getting something new soon.

Oscar Party Menu

2010-03-14T19:03:00.000-07:00

A crowning achievement, even if I lost the pool for the first time in 5+ years.

Ethnic Eating Adventures: Sunset Park Edition

2010-01-19T20:49:00.000-08:00

Last week, my intrepid band of adventuresome eaters journeyed to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for an afternoon of cross-cultural snacking. Sunset Park is the perfect microcosm of the multi-ethnic diversity that makes NYC as a whole such an exciting place to eat. Since the 1970s, SP has been home to a large number of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants--in fact, by 1990s, 50% of the nabe's population was of Hispanic descent. * And since the 1980s, the west side of the park has been home to many East Asian immigrants, who've spread out along 8th Ave. and turned this part of the hood into Brooklyn's large and thriving Chinatown.
But enough of all this demographic background--I'm just trying to get across that an afternoon walking and eating in SP can result in a stomach full of tacos, tortas, bahn mi, dumplings, noodles and more, all within blocks of each other. And that, simply put, is awesome.
Here's a look at our afternoon of face-cramming-- it was cheap (we hit five places and I don't think anyone spent more than $8 at any one place), more than filling, and crazy delicious. I tried to get at least one unflattering action shot of everyone who came, but a select few escaped the the lens. Lucky bastards. Anyhow, some highlights and notes from our trip, below:

Ari slurping dumpling soup from Yunnan Flavor Snack. The soup ($4) was a red-hot, oily, smelly mess of chili oil, pork broth, and thinly wrapped, brain-looking dumplings. YFS is, as far as I can tell, the only Chinese restaurant in NYC serving Yunnan (a southwestern Chinese province)-style cuisine, which is characteristically spicy, herbal, and noodle-heavy. YFS looks like a dump from the outside, but don't be fooled. Get the pork noodle soup (more on this below) or the aforementioned dumplings.

Portrait of a pork noodle soup.

Rizzo, really psyched about some Asian soft drink.

Bertie with the (literally)-finger-licking good pambazo ($6) (see glamour shot below) from Tacos Xochimilco. Pambazos are a cousin to tortas, except that the bread of the sandwich is dipped in a red guajillo pepper sauce and seared on the outside, meaning your figers will be seared in sauce, too. But that's okay, when the filling--potatos, chorizo, avocado, refried beans, queso freco and shredded lettuce-- is this good, a little guajillo pepper stain is worth it in the long run. I've never seen pambazos on a menu before, and I'd like to give credit to the incredible NYC Food Guy for introducing them to me.

The pambazo, bisected.

Tony preparing to inhale a taco supreme at Tacos Matmoros.

A sampling of tacos from Matamoros ($1.25 each)-- chorizo, tripe, tongue, chicken, carne asada, and carnitas. What makes Matamoros stand out from the rest of the many tacos joints lining 5th Ave. is their attention to detail--griddling the tortillas before filling them, providing multiple salsas and sauces, and the overall quality of the meats. The standouts here were the chorizo (which is hard to screw up anyway), the carne asada, and the tripe. I'm not a huge tripe fan due to my aversion to rubbery, smooth textures, but this tripe was thinly sliced, heavily seasoned, and sauteed until it was deeply smoky and crsip--almost like bacon. I was pleasantly surprised and seriously impressed. Skip the tongue (too watery) and chicken (bland, though maybe that's to be expected).

Justin graphically devouring a pastry from Las Conchitas.

Las Conchitas is a fairly typical Mexican bakery, and while none of the offerings here were truly outstanding, they were fresh and dirt-cheap (I spent $10 on 10 pastries and 2 drinks). There was one bun, filled with a crumbly cinnamon-sugar core, that was particularly tasty. The Mexican cheesecake was also good--dense and tangy.

Yours truly, with bahn mi all over my face. Ba Xuyen is a longstanding Chowhound favorite for bahn mi in the city. The baguette was still warm, crispy on the outside, and I liked that they divvied up full-sized loafs for the sandwiches, meaning you could get lucky and end up with a middle piece that didn't taper down at one end. However, I was disappointed with the lack of spiciness on my #1 ($3.50), and I found the meatballs on the #4 borderline-gelatinous in texture. Points given for an even distribution of cilantro and pickled veggies, though, which is a pet peeve of mine at some Vietnamese sandwich places.

Super close-up ot TJ with YFS noodles--kind of looks like he's eating a tiny squid, eh? You're welcome, Teej.

Overall, a very successful trip. 5 stops left us plenty full but wasn't gout-inducing, and the view from the top of Sunset Park itself (the highest point in Brooklyn) is worth the trip alone-- though that wouldn't be nearly as much fun as bringing a crew and stuffing your face.

*NYC Dept. of City Planning

Guide:

Yunnan Flavor Snack

775 49th St., near 8th Ave.

Tacos Xochimilco

4501 5th Ave., near 45th St.

Tacos Matamoros

4508 5th Ave., near 46th St.

Las Conchitas Bakery

4811 5th Ave., near 48t St.

Ba Xuyen

4222 8th Ave., near 41st St.

Greenpoint Meat Picnic

2010-01-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

A lovely Sunday afternoon in Greenpoint's McGolrick Park: keilbasa, pork pate, poppy-seed rolls. And spicy mustard. Total cost: $7.62.

Dim Sum A Go-Go

2010-01-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

I've previously sung the praises of the 7 train, the elevated subway that cuts east-west across Manhattan and Queens, exposing the deep belly of some of the city's best ethnic eats. God, I love that train. I'd ride it start to finish, and in fact I did just that a few weeks ago, when I trekked out to its last stop, Main St/Flushing. Flushing is home to the country's largest population of Chinese immigrants east of the Rockies*. It's at once more dense and less hectic than Manhattan or Brooklyn's Chinatowns, and a real culinary wonderland. I've previously compiled entire walkable dumpling tours covering wide swaths of Flushing, but mostly focused on smallish stalls and restaurants doling out seriously cheap eats. This time, my trip was little different: I was out for dim sum, in the grandest fashion possible.

Tropical tiki tripe

Dim sum is not a casual affair in Flushing: massive, ornate banquet halls heave and ho with the weight of hundreds of diners, pressed tightly into circular tables, barking back and forth with the brusque waitstaff hawking their miniature wares. After some research, we settled on Ocean Jewels as our venue; it has a reputation for serving excellent seafood for dinner but is also renowned for their weekend dim sum feast. At Ocean Jewels, it’s best to stay seated to avoid losing a foot (or worse) to one of the ladies torpedoing down the aisles with a cart full of pork buns. It's also best to come with a group, to ensure maximum variety in dishes tasted, and it's probably best to designate one loud, slightly bossy person to deal with the cart-staff and order for the table.

Our bill after several hours of eating-- that's 37 plates

Major kudos to my adventuresome friends, who woke up early on a Saturday, rode the subway for over an hour, and were promptly greeted with braised tripe and abalone dumplings. Here's a sampling of some of our wares: some were fairly standard, some a bit more advanced. We had shrimp cakes, steamed pork buns, jellified tripe, egg custards, sweet bean rolls, sautéed morning glory, chicken feet, the aforementioned abalone dumplings, and a creamy, milky dessert with lychee and mung beans. This was dim sum for the masses: nothing was transcendent, but everything was solid and fresh. And when brunch for 8 comes to a grand total of $120, I’d take the 7 there and back again.

*Lee, Jennifer 8. “In This Chinatown, Chinese Is Just a Start.” The New York Times. 23 July 2006.

Ruminations: Space, Place, and Diet

2009-03-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

Leaving your hometown and eating elsewhere raises worthwhile questions about the relationship between place and food. I've been reading Yi-Fu Tuan's Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience and it's gotten me thinking:

Specific memories, senses, and associations are deeply assigned to certain spaces, but this sensation is highly subjective. According to Tuan, when a space feels familiar, it has become a place-- but the definition of space and place vary by individual. Beyond that, every individual's personal sense of place is ringed by a haze of mythical space, which is the "fuzzy area of defective knowledge surrounding the empirically known; it frames pragmatic space." Mythical space is the area with which we are familiar, but weren't necessarily taught, and it is often too abstract to be illustrated. For some places, physical structures are representation enough (i.e., the Empire State Building = NYC), but for many others, it is fleeting sensations and memories that describe them best.

With relation to food, this mythical space can be understood as the knowledge that certain regions have certain specialities: in the US alone, think of chowder in the Northeast, muffalettos in New Orleans, or bagels in New York. We may not like these foods or ever have eaten them, but our inherent knowledge that they represent a place can convince us of their value. We need not necessarily consume these foods to feel connected to a place-- oftentimes, the mere mention of them (imagined consumption) is enough.

When I was in Cape Cod last week, I found myself affected by a common travel-diet sensation: the desire to eat foods representative of the region, i.e., chowder or stuffed quahogs. On a superficial level, it's simple: I can't get quahogs in New York, therefore, I should take advantage of them on the Cape. But after a few days, I began to question my subconscious motivation: am I ordering X, Y, or Z because I want to, or because I think I should? Because by eating this bowl of clam chowder I can shift my experience of Cape Cod from a space to a place? The consumption, or the idea of the consumption of these foods can become a physical representation of an intimate experience of place.

A big part of why we travel is not only to participate in new, novel experiences, but also to become a part of older, more established ones. Foods are one of the most tangible manifestations of mythical space. Eating a black-and-white cookie in New York or deep-dish pizza in Chicago is a simple way to make those spaces more familiar--that is, to make them a place.

Cape Cod Redux

2009-03-23T08:39:00.001-07:00

Most people probably don't think of Cape Cod as a premier Spring Break destination. (Well, some people do). In March, it's cold. Very cold. And due to the Cape's highly seasonal economy, many stores and restaurants aren't open until May. But that didn't stop M, D and I from hopping a Chinatown bus to Boston and driving out to spend a week in at the Commodore Inn in West Harwich. It was quiet, chilly, and completely lovely. We ate long breakfasts, visited Plymouth Rock, and drank a lot of wine. Here's what some of those breakfasts, plus a few lunches, looked like:

Two eggs over easy over corned beef hash with toasts and homefries, @ The Lighthouse Cafe, Harwich

Bacon, cheddar and onion omelette with toast and homefries @ The Lighthouse Cafe, Harwich

"Bacon bennies" with homemade hollandaise and homefies @ Sandi's Diner, Chatham

Cranbery pancakes and two eggs over easy @ Sandi's Diner, Chatham

We didn't always eat eggs: grilled cheese sandwich with chips and a pickle @ The Lighthouse Cafe, Harwich

Fried shrimp "early-bird" special @ Captain Parker's, Yarmouth

And last, but certainly not least, "meal unto itself" clam chowder @ Captain Parker's, Yarmouth

Secret Supper Club

2009-03-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

The menu, and a view from above.

Secret supper clubs are a buzztopic that have been making the rounds for some time now (see here, here, and here), but I always assumed the trend would pass me by, partly because I've never sought them out. Well, assuming makes an ass out of you and me, because after months of ambivalence toward these little gatherings, I was invited to one. What's it like to be in with the in crowd? I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you...kind of. While the details can and should remain hazy, let these photos give you some clues as to what the scene was like:

The handwritten menu this week had a loose Southern theme, in celebration of visitors from Atlanta. Gritz-Carltons (see photo below), buttermilk biscuits with pulled short ribs and pickles, a Dirty South salad with buttermilk dressing and bacon, and classic chicken'n'waffles all made appearances. Without giving too much away, the dinner was in a private home, prepared and served by an incredibly gracious and talented couple who actually find the time to entertain weekly. It's not a publicity stunt in any way-- more like a classy (but not stuffy) dinner party, with seriously home-style dishes (and plenty of wine).

Buttermilk biscuits with pulled short ribs and pickles--way better than trendy sliders.

Chicken'n'waffles'n'mashed potatoes'n'gravy. The thumbs-up pretty much says it all. Amazingly, this chicken was fried in a skillet, not a deep-fryer, but it still came out crispy and tender in all the right places.

Dumplings in a spicy tomato sauce .

The Gritz-Carlton in all its glory-- grits in a spoon, with spicy merguez sausage .

Caramel apple cake, which was later topped with homemade lemon-thyme ice cream.

It was quite a spread, quite a crowd, and quite the night. I hope that I passed the initial testing period and will be invited back. Because what's better than going in to eat?

The Unicorned Rainbow Cake: A Photo Essay

2009-03-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, in my house, The Best Cake Ever was made. Notice that "it was made," not "I made it," since I hate baking. I just found the cake and then forced my roommate and friend to make it instead.
Also, I stole the idea from Omnomicon, but we changed the recipe a lot, so that instead of using diet soda and no-sugar pudding mix, we used full-fat, full-sugar EVERYTHING. Now that credit has been given where credit is due, let's move on to appreciating the extreme beauty and ridiculousness of the Unicorned Rainbow Cake.

This cake is not something to be casually whipped up. You will have to separate and mix many bowls of colored batter. You will have to use vaguely mathematical calculations to ensure your layers are layered correctly. But it's totally worth it. I don't know why bakeries don't make all of their cakes look like this, since everybody seems to love them.*

Actually, we made two completely separate cakes with reverse-corresponding color layers, and then put one cake on top of the other.

As if the cake itself isn't enough, we then proceeded to decorate its exterior with a unicorn. A glittery unicorn. Oh yes. The design was sketched out beforehand, and then applied with a steady hand and a damp paintbrush. I again must give full props here to D and J, who made this artistic fantasy a reality.

So now we're at the party, and obviously Dave and Marci are impressed with the outside of the cake. They see the unicorn and the glitter and the frosting and start fawning already. Little do they know what treasures lie in store beneath the layer of frosting! And actually, neither did we, since after we baked all the layers of colored batter, we couldn't really cut into the finished product. The moment of revelation was upon us, and lo, it was awesome. Check it!

After hours of labor, we were left with the glittery, desecrated remains of the unicorn. RIP, Best Cake Ever Made. You will be missed.

*Upon further thought, I have realized that a large part of the reason people do love this cake so much is its novelty, so perhaps it's better that bakeries aren't pumping them out en masse.

Birds Stealing Ice Cream

2009-03-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

Heatwrenching.

http://jet-point.com/2009/02/24/birds-stealing-ice-cream/
[via SeriousEats]

On Bubbies and Babka

2009-03-02T19:21:00.000-08:00

The epic smoked meat counter. Take a number, or else.

Despite living in New York for nearly five years, I for some reason had never been to Zabar's until recently. Zabar's is something of an institution here, billed as "New York City's Gourmet Epicurean Empire!" It's been around since 1934, and currently takes up almost an entire city block on the Upper West Side. It's known for selling gourmet coffees and cheeses, plus smoked fish and other Jewish-style appetizings. And since the Upper West Side is populated almost exclusively by old Jews, I felt completely at home when I paid a visit.

Look, here we are at the Strudel and Knish Corner! YAY! They sell strudel at by the foot here. I ate six inches of cheese-filled before heading to the fish counter.

Where this guy grudgingly gave me many, many samples of lox (or, as my great grandmother Bibby used to say, "novie."). I also tried some pickled herring. I smelled great!

This woman cut me in line for the novie. Look at the indignant expression on her face! I almost slapped her. But then I was soothed by a sample of some chocolate babka.

Overall, a worthwhile adventure. As an added bonus, Zabar's in conveniently located next to H & H Bagels, which may very well be the finest bagel producer in the city. I concluded my visit by sloppily arranging a half pound of sable on a fresh onion bagel on the streetcorner. It wasn't the prettiest scene, and I reeked for the whole subway ride downtown, but there's nothing I love more than getting in touch with my cultural roots...by jostling with 50 other crotchety grandparents for a slice of smoked fish.

Treasure Trove: Jackon Heights Edition

2008-11-30T11:27:00.000-08:00

The 7 train is probably the best subway line in New York, as far as eating adventures go. It cuts diagonally across some of Queens' most interesting ethnic neighborhoods: Sunnsyide (Latin America), Flushing ("The Real Chinatown"), and my personal favorite, Jackson Heights. JH was traditionally an Indian/South Asian stronghld, though in recent years a profliferation of taco trucks and Peruvian restaurants have started springing up along Roosevelt Ave. Still, the 74 St/ Broadway stop is rife with regional Indian delicacies, and with most things packed together tight in a 5-10 block radius, the JH Indian sector is a colorful, easy-to-navigate chunk of fun. Below, some of my favorite finds from Patel Brothers, an Indian grocery store on 37th Ave.

DeDe "Basil Seed Drink with Honey." Look at those crazy basil seeds floating around in there! It's like bubble tea but better. The seeds just kind of hang there, suspended in the liquid, perhaps indefinitely. Although the instructions read "Shake Well," I'm not sure why exactly this step is necessary.

100% pure cow ghee, by the gallon. Like many things, ghee is not very exciting to look at until you see it packaged in huge quantities. There's like 1 million calories in there. Cool!

Kawan brand Jalapeno & Cheese Naan. I just sense that somewhere, some preciousIndian grandma is cringing at the sight of this "traditional leavened bread" being bastardized with the unofficial flavoring pairing of 7-11s everywhere.

Breakfast of Champions

2008-11-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

Brunch, as the last stop for the week's goods, is a time of great creativity in kitchens. Unexpected treats oftentimes crop up on brunch menus, and it's also one of the few acceptable times to drink before noon.

I am firmly in the pro-brunch camp, as evidenced by the photo above.
This particular plate was a special at Lodge, one of my most frequent brunch haunts in south Williamsburg. It's a pile of cheddar grits, pulled BBQ pork, and poached eggs.
Look at this monster! Oh, it was a glorious conquest.

Tuna Takeover 2000

2008-11-10T22:52:00.000-08:00

I think my love of the absurd reached its zenith last weekend, when B and I crossed state lines to attend Mitsuwa Marketplace's "Fresh Giant Bluefin Tune Cut Performance" in Edgewater, New Jersey. The event is fairly self-explanatory, but in a nutshell, a team of Japanese master chefs reduced a 400-lb bluefin tuna to sashimi before a thong of adoring fans. It was a beautiful display of knifemanship, slightly morbid, and totally ridiculous.
Check out a video (not mine), here.

Mitsuwa is one of the largest Japanese supermarkets in America (other Mitsuwa stores are located in Chicago and California), featuring a vast array of imported produce and meats, a foodcourt, a bookstore and more. Families can often be found carrying empty suitcases or coolers into the store and stocking up Japanese provisions.

All that was left of the tuna after about 4 hours of slicing and dicing.

This was by far one of our more epic food adventures. B and I have literally waited hours for ramen and gone to the depths of Queens for curry chicken, but rarely do our meals involve taking a shuttle bus from Port Authority. This one did, and was entirely worth it. My next post will review some of our non-tuna purchases, like Japanese pancake mix and, of course, candy.

The final product.

Weird Science

2008-10-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

Cheddar Cauliflower, xoxo
I used to be a straight-up cauliflower hater. Why? Because the typical white, limp cauliflower is nothing but a useless filler on vegetable platters around the world. I pride myself on my ability to avoid cauliflower in any incarnation.

But last week at the market, I was, perhaps unsurprisingly, drawn to a booth with a little hotplate setup that was handing out samples of something smelling lovely. Without even thinking, I plopped a toothpick into the bowl and pronounced the fluffy orange stuff in it delicious. Lo and behold, I was informed that I had consumed cauliflower.
After panicking for a moment, I calmed down. Turns out I had eaten some cheddar cauliflower, which is really pretty and contains 25x more beta carotene than lamewad white cauliflower. So I bought a head, which is delicious when sauteed with a nothing more than garlic, salt and pepper.

Mathematician's Delight
And then D, who is a lover of all things fractal , came home with another crazy cauliflower, the Romanesco variety. It was was even cooler-looking than the cheddar, though I cannot yet vouch for its flavor.

The moral of the story: Try new things. Cauliflower can be good. Nature is cool.

Fall Market Report

2008-10-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Alex at Maxwell's Farmstand displays a fine gooseneck gourd

It's fall! It's fall! It's fall and the Greenmarket is overflowing! Oh, I do love summer, with its tank tops, berries, and sun, but nothing beats the produce of fall, when apples and pumpkins and squashes of all colors take center stage. It's all awful pretty. Below, a sampling of some offerings at the Union Square Greenmarket this past Monday:

Non-edible dried wheat. Roommate B will kill me if I bring home more decorative plants, but damn if these didn't tempt me.

Amazing technicolor squashes. Cornucopia much?

Apples! Yes, apples are available year-round, but they're at their crisp, juicy peak now.

Heh.

Portrait of a Saturday Morning

2008-10-18T12:13:00.000-07:00

My house. Noon.

There used to be eggs and toast on this plate, too.

Brioche cinnamon buns, from What Geeks Eat.

What D wears to make brioche cinnamon buns.

Tales of Southeast Asia

2008-10-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

The wreckage of our table at Skyway

I'm big into adventures. Parachuting, ice luging, cliff diving, whatever. I've done them all.* But I particularly enjoy eating adventures. Recently, I have been exploring the wilds of Southeast Asian cuisine, specifically Malaysian and Thai food. I gathered the troops for one trip to Skyway Malaysian in lower Manhattan, and another to SriPraPhai Thai in Woodside, Queens. Skyway was written up by Robery Sietsema in the Village Voice, and SriPraPhai is one of the most hotly-contested restaurants on Chowhound, due to the widely held belief that it is the best Thai restaurant in New York City. I slipped into my dungarees and set off to see for myself.

A sampling of appetizers at SriPraPhai. Crispy catfish meat salad (ha! I love meat salads!), Mee-Krob (sweet and sour crispy vermicelli with shrimp), and BBQ pork topped with garlic, chili and lemon juice. The catfish was very strange--little airy puffs with a fishy essence, and smothered with the Thai flavor trademarks of chili and citrus. The BBQ pork was supertender, though not really like the BBQ pork they sell at roadside carts in Bangkok, which is more like the Chinese-style with a red lacquering on the outside. The mee-krob was fine, though I'm not sure it needed that weird avant-garde plating.

Pedestrian red curry with chicken, and, for the sake of posterity, a vegetable: Chinese broccoli. Oh wait, the broccoli came with crispy fried pork bits. We tried. Everyone who writes about SriPraPhai raves about how spicy it is, and I don't mean to sound like I'm superbadass but I was doing okay on the tongue-singing scale. Maybe it just went numb and I couldn't tell. The broccoli was good, probably because it was swimming in pork grease.

One word of warning should you make the trek to Woodside for SriPraPhai: prepare to wait. Seriously. We went on a Saturday night around 8, and weren't seated until after 9. They close the kitchen by 10, and there were definitely people who didn't make the cut. This is no hidden gem, friends.

Skyway, on the other hand, may be. On a not-so-scenic stretch of Allen Street, it's got a goofy tiki decor and a not many patrons (or at least not when I was there, on a Friday for lunch. Though the fact that it was a Friday afternoon in the outskirts of Chinatown may explain the lack of diners. Anyhow.). I'm not that familiar with Malaysian cuisine, but given Malaysia's proximity to Thailand and my intense love of Thai sour-sweet flavor combinations, I wasn't anticipating problems finding something delicious. Indeed, my problems at Skyway stemmed more from needing to limit my ordering than trying to find something I wanted.

Chicken Rendang, cooked over low heat with coconut milk, chiles, cinnamon and other spices. This was incredible. I still crave it. The meat (which, it should be noted, is a random assortment of lopsided bone-in pieces) is tender and saturated all the way to the bone with an intense spice marinade. I know this picture might not be the most flattering, but I was absolutely blown away by this dish. The sauce has the consistency of some curries but not the flavor, and is also available on beef or lamb.

These are ginger duck noodles in soup with a duck-soy sauce broth. It was pretty gamey but still good. The duck meat in the soup is great for flavoring, but not so much for eating.

Malaysian food seems pretty cosmopolitan, borrowing ingredients and techniques from India, China, and Singapore. We got Ron Telur, a traditional Indian pancake filled with egg and onion, served with a chicken curry dipping sauce, a huge baby oyster-and-chive omelette, and Singapore-style fried rice noodles with shrimp, onion, bean sprout, egg and lop cheong (Chinese sausage). The omelette, for those who love oysters, is a ridiculous bargain at $7. The noodles were good, but a bit sweet.

We did not even begin to do justice to the menu at Skyway, which is enormous. I straight up do not know what half of the foods on there are. But I have every intention of going back to find out.

* lies.

SriPraPhai Thai
64-13 39th Ave 11
Woodside, Queens 11377
718 899-9599

Skyway Malaysian
11 Allen St (at Canal)
New York, NY 10002
212 625-1163

Condiments I Have Known and Loved

2008-09-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

From the makers of BaconSalt: Baconnaise.

Not technically a condiment, but looks delicious nonetheless.

The Church of Baconology

2008-09-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Awesome.
Normally I wouldn't publicize my religious views, but I want to spread the good word.

In-Home Entertainment

2008-09-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

With all the bacon and dumplings and oddly-flavored naan lately, I know it looks like I never actually eat at home.
Which I do.
Sometimes.

Proof: This pizza, which I made last week. In my house. I have this troublesome compulsion to grocery shop, buy a ton of perishable goods, and then eat out every night until everything I bought goes bad. I know I have a problem, and this pizza is part of the solution. Pizza is a great way to use up whatever's hanging around the fridge, on the brink of moldy death. In my case, critical patients included prosciutto, mushrooms, spinach, cherry tomatoes, and a tub of ricotta cheese.

I know that making pizza dough is really easy and cheap and blah blah, so shoot me, I bought prepackaged dough from Trader Joe's because it costs all of $2 and saved me at least an hour of prep time. Some might argue that this whole defense of me cooking at home isn't even cooking, because I'm actually really just assembling all my groceries on top of store-bought dough, to which I respond "meh" and point out that I had to turn on the both the stove and the oven for this venture, which constitutes cooking.

Anyhow. Here's the recipe:

1 bag pizza dough
4 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 lb fresh spinach, washed
1 cup cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced in half
(optional) 5-6 thin slices prosciutto or other cured meat
fresh mozzarella cheese
fresh ricotta cheese
1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pizza dough to fit whatever you're cooking it on (I used a cookie sheet, so my pizza was rectangular). Brush with 2 tbsp olive oil.

Heat the remaining oil in a saute pan over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the onions and garlic. Cook until onions get soft, 5-7 minutes. Add the spinach and saute for an additional 2-3 minutes.

That's all the cooking we'll be doing today.

Arrange your pizza: I layered the prosciutto on the bottom, then mozzarella, the spinach/onion mix, mushrooms, and sprinkled the tomatoes and olives on top . And then spooned globs of ricotta over that. Salt, pepper and red pepper flakes were last.

Bake for appx. 25 minutes, or until crust is brown.

This recipe screams for adaptations, substitutions, additions or subtractions. I was trying to use up what was in my fridge, and pizza is pretty much a blank slate. It's stupid easy to make, but for some reason people are always really impressed with homemade pizzas. So remember, kids, every once in a while it's ok to have a night in.

On Gluttony

2008-09-11T06:23:00.000-07:00

Those who know me know I love pork. Those who love pork know that bacon is the crown jewel of pigs.
It is with this introduction that I present chocolate-covered bacon, the penultimate sweet/savory snack. It is sold at Roni-Sue's Candy Shoppe in lower Manhattan's Essex Market. Roni starts by taking 6 lbs of raw bacon, renders it down to about 1 lb, and then dips each strip into milk or dark chocolate.
Roni is a twisted genius.

Close-up on this magical, artery-clogging treat.

Dumpling$$!

2008-09-05T14:52:00.000-07:00

Xiao long bao from Nan Shian Dumpling House in Flushing, Queens. Wrapper thicker than traditional Shanghai-style, but still not doughy. XLB's nickname "soup dumplings" stems from the melted gelatin "broth" that spills out once the first bite is taken. Potentially very dangerous to the roof of the mouth. Hasty eaters, proceed with caution.

So I've been on blahg vacation. What did I do over my summer break? Mostly, I ate. (Shocker.) In particular, I ate a veritable shitton of my favorite food ever: DUMPLINGSSSS. I was actually reluctant to even post this because I worry that I might launch into some epic dumpling rhapsody that never ends. I love dumplings in all of their cultural/ethnic incarnations:
gyoza, ravioli/tortellini, kreplach, peirogi, mandoo, shu mai, gnocchi, matzoh balls, etc. Whatever. I'll take it all.

But my favorite dumplings are Chinese ones: xiao long bao (soup dumplings), jiaozi, potstickers, wontons, bready steamed bao, and probably 999 others I can't think of right now. It is not at all uncommon for me go significantly out of my way (i.e., Flushing) in the hunt for quality dumplings. I never get sick of them. Maybe this is a product of living in China for 5 months, but I seem to recall that my obsession with these bad boys began much earlier--in all seriousness, I once asked the counselors at my Jewish summer camp if any of our SYSCO-catered meals would include pork dumplings.

Hong-Kong style shrimp/pork/ black mushroom wontons from Sifu Chio in Flushing, Queens. Very thin wrapper, chunky filling (whole shrimp), garnished with sliced scallions. Broth unexceptional. These wontons kind of look like brains, no?

I can't even begin to break down the regional dumpling differences across China, so suffice it to say that I am careful with my ordering: never expect quality XLB (xiao long bao) at a Cantonese restaurant (if they offer them at all)--XLB are Shanghai specialties, nowhere near the southern Canton province. Conversely, the best steamed bbq pork bao are usually found at southern bakeries, and the potstickers from Fuzhou-style shops usually have thinner wrappers and lighter filling than their heavier, doughier Beijing jiaozi counterparts. I'm not even going to attempt to tackle dim sum.

!!!SERIOUSLY THE BEST DUMPLINGS EVER!!! I am so psyched about this place. Lan Zhou Hand-Pulled Noodle on East Broadway in Manhattan. Fuzhou-style potstickers, impossibly thin wrapper, fried gently on the bottom, with a nice coating of wok hay, then steamed on top. Filling is only pork and tons of scallions. Served with a sweet-garlic soy sauce mixed with Sriracha. $2/10 dumplings. OMFG! I LOVE LZHPN.

Traditionally, dumplings are a great way to dispose of leftovers: nasty little bits of meat, the top end of scallions, random chunks of vegetables from other dishes. I prefer to completely ignore any of the potentially unsavory aspects of my little pets; why do you think they're so cheap? No one ever died from tainted dumplings. It strengthens your immune system. Get over it.

Spicy Shanghai-style pork/cabbage wontons, with hot pepper oil, from Unnamed Wholesale Dumpling Distributor Place That Looks Confused Every Time I Go There, by my house in Brooklyn. I love it when Asian places ask white kids if they want their food spicy, and the white kid says yes, and then the Asian cook goes apeshit with the hot oil and the white kid is left clutching their tongue and gasping for breath while attempting to eat in a public place. These were pretty good.

In conclusion, dumplings are basically God's Ideal Food. And I <3 dumplings of all shapes and sizes. But especially the Chinese ones.

Chicago Redux: Sausage Fest

2008-08-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

Mural on the bathroom wall of Hot Doug's

Last week I ventured back to my great Midwestern homeland, Chicago. I was there at the insistence of my father, who bribed me with the promise of a trip to Hot Doug's Encased Meat Emporium and Sausage Superstore.

Eager encased meat fans line up

I have previously pledged my allegiance to the Chicago-style hotdog on this blog, and Hot Doug's is further proof that Chicago is the most sausage-centric city ever known to man. Although the recent James Beard Foundation White Paper concludes that the hamburger is the iconic American dish, to paraphrase Mr. Hot Doug Sohn himself, "There are no two finer words in the English language than 'encased meat.'" Sohn has built a massive Chicago following (we waited outside for 1 hour and 15 minutes) dedicated to his unwieldy sausages, made of the likes of buffalo meat and jerk pork, to name a few. Hot Doug's is also (in)famous in Chicago for being the first restaurant ticketed for running afoul of the (now defunct) foie gras ban, which Sohn served atop the "Foie Gras and Sauternes Duck Sausage with Black Truffle Sauce Moutare, Foie Gras Mousse and Sel Gris." This is not your corner hotdog shop. Still, Hot Doug's offers perfectly serviceable "normal" options, like bratwursts and corndogs and (obviously) the grilled Chicago dog. But if you're going to stand in line for upwards of an hour, it really doesn't make sense to walk out without having tried something a bit more…exotic.

Our table, groaning under the weight of much meat

Below, I present a visual smorgasboard of my encased meat fiesta: 8 dogs for 3 people, 1 order of regular-fried French fries, 1 order of weekends-only duck fat-fried French fries, 4 cans of Dr. Brown's Cherry Soda, 1 bottle Jones Orange Cream Soda, appx. 67 napkins, and (not pictured) a large handful of Tums. This meal was easily one of the most disgusting and awesome things I have ever taken part in. God bless America.

Char-Grilled Beer Brat with Caramelized Onions and Spicy Mustard.

Brown Ale and Chipotle Buffalo Sausage with Bacon-Garlic Mayonnaise and Smoked Cheddar Cheese

Jamaican Jerk Pork Sausage with Roasted Pepper-Avocado Sauce and Crispy Fried Onions

BACON SAUSAGE with Creme Fraiche, Caramelized Onions and Comte Cheese

Tomato-Basil Chicken Sausage with Pesto Genovese, Roma Tomatoes and Burrata Cheese

Irish Banger with Guinness Stout Mustard and Red Leicester Cheese

Not pictured: Chicago style-dog, the second bacon sausage we ordered, multiple bags of French fries.

The Moon & Me

2008-08-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

So here's this thing that I didn't write for my blog, but is still about food and worth reading.
Trawling the Urban Food Wastelands--Tumbleweed Slim's Bushwick Bodega Rice & Beans, which I was asked to write for The New York Moon, a smart, subversive online magazine matched to the lunar cycle. I highly encourage you to take a look at other articles in past issues, because I think The Moon is pretty damn neat.

Tour de Noodles

2008-07-30T13:35:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that I eat a lot of noodles. Nobody really went out of their way to point this out to me, but in reviewing my diet this past week, I've noticed an abundance of pasta. I love me some carbs. I like bread, straight up. Rice is okay, too. I also live in fear that I will one day wake up and weigh 300 lbs.

This is my version of Chinese Dan Dan noodles, which is basically an Asian version of spaghetti bolognese. Mine was mouth-inceratingly spicy, so tread lightly with hot bean sauce.

The finished product: goes well with beer.

1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh ginger
1/4 cup chopped fresh garlic
2-3 tbsp hot bean sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 cup chopped scallions

1 lb fresh egg noodles
1 tsp sesame oil

Chop the pork into an even finer mince.
In a wok or heavy pan over high heat, heat peanut oil. Add ginger and garlic and stir briefly, about 20 seconds. Add the pork and stir 2-3 min to separate the grains, but do not brown.

Meanwhile, boil (unsalted) water for the pasta.

When the pork has separated and changed color, add the bean sauce, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar. Cook, stirring often, 3-4 min. When the pork has cooked through, turn off heat and stir in scallions.

Boil noodles 3 1/2- 5 min. Drain and toss with sesame oil. Serve with meat sauce.

It's your call on keeping the meat separate from the noodles. Whatever floats your boat. Also works well with peanuts, cucumbers, and/ or cilantro thrown in at the end.

Next up: Something a little lighter, perhaps, after all that pork. But I clearly have an Asian fixation. This is a Japanese dish called Otsu. It's ridiculously good, and one of the few things I actually follow a recipe for, unlike my ungodly Dan Dan concoction above. The recipe calls for tofu as the protein of choice, but I also like to use sliced avocado.

Tofu: My roommate likes it. I prefer avocado, aka "The Bacon of Fruit"

For the dressing:
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1-inch cube fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
3/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup unseasoned brown rice vinegar
1/3 cup shoyu (soy) sauce
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

For the rest:
1 package soba noodles
1 package extra-firm tofu
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cucumber, roughly chopped
toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Recipe adapted from Heidi Swanson, 101cookbooks.com

The dressing for otsu is really what makes it. It's perfect for summertime, and I use the leftovers on top of salads, rice, and other bland things.

The final leg: Something not Asian. Remember my first post, about garlic scapes? Yeah, I'm still pretty into them. Despite my initial hesitation, I ended up making scape pesto last week. It was actually too strong by itself (a shock, given my abrasive-taste tendencies), so I blended in a can of cannellini beans to make a sort of pesto/hummus/pasta sauce/ spread thing. I then put this multi-hyphenated spread on top of fettucini, along with a nice healthy handful (or two) of grated Parm, and fried up some sweet onions for texture on top. That's it. No recipe. You should be able to figure this one out.

The cannellini beans give these noodles a great creamy feel without actually using any cream (don't get me wrong--the cheese didn't hurt, but I'd like to think the healthful properties of beans made up for some of that dairy goodness).

And that is all in my Tour de Noodles--for this week, anyway.

Market Report

2008-07-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

It's summertime in the city, which means an abundance of produce at the market. I don't wish to get overly involved in the politics of the urban Greenmarket: for my part, the Union Square market is close to work, fun to browse, and pretty to look at.
Offering my two cents on the locavore/ Slow Food/ sustainable agriculture trend and its consequences seems, to be frank, a bit tired to me. It's not that I don't care--these topics are certainly pertinent to my personal and professional life--I simply don't feel the need to embroil myself in an already much-publicized, highly complicated batch of issues. I do, however, offer the following as food for thought, if you are so inclined:

Epicurious Seasonal Ingredient Map
(One of my personal, thought-provoking favorites): A Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss
NY Times Opinion: Do We Really Need a Few Billion Locavores?

Now.
Moving along.

The point here is to share with you the delicious wealth of fruits and veggies (and meats and cheeses and breads) arriving with the warm temperatures. Above, we have gorgeous stone fruits, a colorful trifecta of beans; below, an assortment of cabbages and scallions, plus carrots, radishes and a strange creature ("famous," according to its signage) known as the Avocado Squash.

Sometimes shopping at the Greenmarket can be intimidating. There are too many booths, too many people, and way too much to choose from. Sometimes I panic when foods with a limited season arrive, because I think I need to buy those garlic scapes/ artichokes/ sour cherries/ one billion other potential things RIGHT NOW BEFORE THEY GO AWAY FOREVER. These feelings are natural. It is important to breathe deeply and soldier on when the panic sets in, lest it become too overwhelming and you miss out on [whatever food] entirely.

Anyhow, this is just a small sampling of what's on display now. Check the Council on the Environment of NYC's Greenmarket Guide for a complete list of market locations, seasonal updates, volunteer information and more. (Also, if anyone has actually done some work at any of the city's Greenmarket, let me know! I want some firsthand perspective.)

Wait, are these really famous? What do I do with them?

Uncommon Goods

2008-07-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

Things I covet:

Toast Mattress

Finger Food Plates

If pressed, I would choose the mattress over the plates.

Turning Japanese

2008-07-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have always had a strange obsession with grocery shopping. I find the practice highly therapeutic--grocery stores provide me with anonymity, alone time, and plenty of eye candy. In New York, sometimes the process is grueling: larger stores are jam-packed at rush hour, thus destroying the relaxing quality I miss from my suburban supermarket youth. But the city has something my childhood strip malls (mostly) didn't: ethnic grocery stores.

One of my favorite things about living here are these kinds of speciality shops, which usually cater to homesick expats and immigrants, not curious little white girls like me. Perhaps it's some subconscious fascination with The Other, or maybe it's just that I like looking at weird foodstuffs. Although I won't pick favorites, I do have a tendency to go for Asian in particular, a habit that started even before I spent time in Thailand and China. While some ethnic enclaves require epic subway rides to depths of Brooklyn or Queens, there are a few more centrally located. Of the various options (Manhattan's Chinatown, K-Town, etc.), there is a small(ish) but highly visible Japanese contingent in the East Village, centered near the shitshow of St. Mark's but radiating several blocks out from there. In this zone, there are several grocery stores catering to Japanese clientele, stores that go deep beyond the typical sushi-and-ramen noodles stuff. This weekend I took a mini-field trip to Sunrise Mart, a store on the second floor above the St. Mark's Bookshop, to see what I could find.

Shiitakes #1 & #2, respectively. Note the price difference.

The problem with many of my adventures is that I don't go with a plan: I don't usually need (or sometimes even want) to buy anything, and most of the time I wouldn't know what to do with the stuff even if I did. But I can't be stopped. I am a machine.

Jumbo sardines (does that count as an oxymoron?).

I always feel slightly awkward wandering around, food-stoned and happy, while other shoppers go about their business with no concern for the novelty around them.

Endless condiment choices!

Despite my occasional confusion and the potential annoyance of shoppers around me, my little culinary jaunts are usually worth it. Case in point: I got a bag of dried shiitakes, three rice balls, a tub of pickled vegetables and imported yam-flavored soba noodles for about $7.

Sunrise Mart
4 Stuyvesant St., 2nd Fl. (near 3rd Ave.)
New York, NY 10003
(212) 598-3040
Map

This Week's Diet

2008-07-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

Some things I have eaten recently:

Cotton candy at Brighton Beach. I forgot what a strange and lovely sensation it is to have pure sugar disintegrate in your mouth.

Additionally, Brighton Beach is one of my favorite places in the world. I'm not entirely sure why. It's gaudy and tacky and utterly delightful. I always come home smelling of poppy-seed pastries and smoked fish and sunscreen.

Deep-fried tortillas at home, as part of D's authentic Mexican tostadas.

Sautéed dandelion greens from Philoxenia, in Astoria, Queens. Bitter and pungent, not altogether that pleasant. This was my first trek to Astoria in search of Greek food. Sadly, entering Queens is not the same as entering the Greek Isles. I was hoping for more of an overwhelming cultural explosion, the way I feel when I venture to Chinatown or even the aforementioned Brighton Beach. Clearly, not all ethnic enclaves share (or want to share) the same aesthetic character.

Tiny and perfect marinated taro at Soba-Ya in the East Village. I have a disproportionately high tendency to crave Japanese food, perhaps because the intricate attention to detail appeals to the OCD-infected side of me. This was a precursor to my bowl of hot duck-and-scallion soba noodles, 85-degree heat totally irrelevant.

Dumpling Dilemma

2008-07-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

Some kitchen tasks go above and beyond the realm of “practical.” Last month, the New York Times published an article on “recipe deal breakers;” which vary, of course, according to the chef, their budget and their kitchen space. The following is an account of a recipe that had many, many deal breakers for me: the use of cheesecloth, a 24-hour refrigeration period, expensive ingredients, tedious dumpling folding, and more. Why, might you ask, would I ever subject myself to such a recipe? Sometimes you have no choice. As part of my work, I cross-test recipes submitted by various chefs to determine if they’re acceptable for the “average” home cook. As for this Tomato Essence with Chanterelle Mushroom Dumpling number, I’ll let you be the judge:

First, I ground close to 5 lbs of roma and vine-ripe tomatoes, along with a basil leaf, a tablespoon of sherry vinegar and some black pepper, in the food processor until it was liquefied. Then I poured the soupy mess into a cheesecloth, tied it up, and hung it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Yes. Hung it in the refrigerator. For 24 hours. I sadly do not have pictures of this step, but suffice it to say that my jerry-rigged string “hook” to dangle the blob of raw tomato pulp over a bowl for 24 hours was not pretty. What’s even less appealing is that the entire purpose of this exercise was to extract the tomato’s “essence,” all of the juice that dripped through the cheesecloth.

This is what 5 lbs of tomatoes drained of their essence looks like.

The resulting liquid was almost clear, with a strong flavor and aroma of tomatoes (without the nuisance of actually seeing or eating them).

On to the dumplings: The filling was made of sautéed chanterelle mushrooms(clocking in at approximately $30/ lb), which were later chopped to a rough paste in the food processor.

After chilling the mushroom paste, I painstakingly folded tablespoon-sized dollops into 50 (thankfully pre-made) dumpling wrappers and sealed the edges with an egg yolk. Then the dumplings were boiled in the tomato essence, creating what was essentially a highbrow version of wonton soup.

After bringing in a sampling of the dish to my bosses at work, we all decided that perhaps this was not the best recipe for the “average” home cook. Was it that difficult? No, but it certainly was time-consuming, not to mention expensive and somewhat tedious. Then again, there are home cooks out there who love taking their time with recipes and handcrafting every component, in which case: go for it. For now, I’ll stick with Golden Dragon takeout when my craving for dumpling soup sets in.

American Beauty

2008-07-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

In a belated show of patriotism, I would like to present one of God's most beautiful creatures: The Chicago Hotdog.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andyfrankwick/122379529/

Behold! This is the weiner of my hometown, and something I sorely miss here in New York. It's an all-beef dog in a steamed poppy-seed bun, gloriously complete with neon-green relish, sliced tomato, raw onion, hot sport peppers, a quartered pickle, yellow mustard and celery salt. No. Ketchup. Ever.

Related: "This American Life" explores Chicago's legendary Weiner's Circle...

Pork Emporium

2008-07-01T06:41:00.000-07:00

Bib Bim Bap I: Unmixed, still pretty.

Last week I had the pleasure of doing business over lunch at Momofuku Ssam Bar. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision based mostly on the fact that the business at hand revolved around an impending conference on Chinese cuisine. No, Momofuku isn't really Chinese food, but when you're in the neighborhood discussing the merits of various bao fillings, it's only natural that someone should bring up David Chang's super-hyped pork-belly buns.

But those buns lost their appeal to me (well, not really "lost," more like "were overshadowed by") when I saw bib bim bap on the menu, which is definitely not Chinese (try Korea)—but whatever—I am not one to deny my tongue or arteries the pleasure of shredded Berkshire pork (usually beef in more traditional versions) and a poached egg (usually fried) over rice, especially when the bowl also included pickled shiitake mushrooms, red kimchee puree, pickled baby cucumbers, caramelized shallots and seasonally-appropriate broad beans. Any bowl of bib bim bap is essentially an assortment of toppings (the word literally means "stirred or mixed meal"), and this one only differs in its toppings of choice.

Pickled Vegetables & Chap Chae: Meh.

As with most Momofuku fare, this is probably the richest, heaviest version of bib bim bap in the city. It's not really an indicator of what you would get in any Korean restaurant, but that's kind of the point. The poached egg (which, surprisingly, must be requested as a $1 add-on) was really the kicker—while I find that noodles with poached eggs (i.e., Momo ramen) can get a bit slimy, rice actually seems to absorb some of the yolk, making a lovely, sticky stew. The pork was, as it is always in a Chang production, generous, tender and fatty. The mess of pickled vegetables on top were a smart addition: their vinegary bite helped cut some of the egg/pork richness, though I did find it slightly disconcerting that the rice, egg and pork were all served warm while the vegetables were room-temperature or colder. (Note: once everything was stirred up into a big swampy mess in the bowl, the temperature evened out.) My side of chap chae, Korean-style vermicelli noodles with vinegar-kissed carrots, shiitake and scallions, was underwhelming and probably unnecessary, as the bib bim bap is easily 2,000 calories and awful filling by itself.

Bib Bim Bap II: Let the oozing destruction begin!

For all the hype surrounding the Momofuku mini-empire, it's nice to know that they still turn out a good product. The bib bim bap is only available during lunch, and is a (relative) bargain at $14. And while the Chang-sanctioned version of this Korean standby is by no means traditional, it still maintains the basic values of the dish: simple, hearty and delicious.

Scape Session

2008-06-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

I come from a smelly, smelly family. We love garlic. We love it a lot. My mom used to roast entire heads and we’d pop the cloves straight. I always thought we were somehow unique, until someone (Melissa Clark) with a much larger readership than me wrote in last week’s New York Times about her family’s garlic worship . Turns out I’m not the only smelly kid. Anyhow, Clark details her trials and tribulations with the beautiful and elusive garlic scape, the early-budding flower shoots of the subterranean garlic bulb. I was immediately on a mission (admittedly, a short one, since the Union Square Greenmarket is blocks away from the office). Here are the fruits of my labor:

In her article, Clark recommends making scape pesto, but I didn’t have enough and felt strangely opposed to chopping the shit and shape out of the gorgeous green tendrils. So I decided to make an almost disgustingly healthy and simple stir fry with some fresh sugar-snap peas (also from the USQ market) and leftover cremini mushrooms. Yeah, that’s it. No rice. No noodles. No chicken, no shrimp, no real protein of any kind. Whatever, I try to keep it light one meal a week to offset the bacon/burger/dairy overload I usually clog my insides with. So basically it’s all that vegetable goodness, plus soy sauce (liquid salt—nom nom), sesame oil, a splash of red wine vin, and a wee little bit of fresh ginger.

It was good. The scapes, snacked on raw by a few brave/stupid people (me), lost some of their sinus-clogging bite after they’d been cooked for a few, though I kind of wish they’d kept more…garlicy flavor? It was a bit too mellow for me. The mushrooms absorbed most of the soy sauce and became tender little salt-bombs, and the sugar snap peas remained snappy (side note: does anyone else feel like they’re eating Gushers when the little pods explode while you chew?)

Summertime = vegetables = happy stomach.