This past Sunday was spent fleeing the burning wreckage of my undergraduate theater company's 15th anniversary reunion. As I was the getaway driver, I was careful not to marinate my liver too thoroughly the night before. I woke up a lot less hung-over than I did on Saturday, but that didn't make Sheetz breakfast any less appropriate.
Smonster. How grotesque. How abusive. Two pillows of eggstuff, two sausage patties, two helpings of cheese, smooshed into one biscuit. I take mine with ketchup. They put your stomach where it needs to be to soak up unwanted juices and then slough the whole pile away on little greasy ice skates. I also had a chicken biscuit and a hash brown for good measure.
That swillpile held me up for the better part of the day. I didn't eat again till dinner, when I had the great fortune to have one of my oldest friends and his boyfriend over for dinner. Dinner was a bed of langostino risotto nestling a bread bowl of mushroom-potato soup.
The soup was very vegetarian and made from scratch. I'd made the soup stock last week and had some set asside for this particular soup. There were criminis, portabellas and black forrest mushrooms in the mix along with potatoes to lend weight to the broth. The breadbowl soaked most of the moisture out of the soup though, leaving it more of a herbed mushroom puree that was nonetheless very satisfying with our cold winter winds wipping around the windows. We finished the soup with a healthy splash of madeira to help ward off the chill.
The risotto was designed more to provide rich, long-lasting insulation rather than an immediate injection of boozy warmth. Though I did use a little barley sochu (a light Japanese grain alcohol) in the earlier stages of cooking the rice, the key feature here was the creamy finish layered with more floral herbs to match the langostinos' own natural perfumes.
Both dishes sported a fairly complex set of aromas while still qualifying as hearty winter fare. The supple curves of the langostino, simmered in the vegetable stock infused with dried chantrelles, danced lithely around a bright melody of taragon and oregano supported by the warm tones of creamy carrots and shallots. The soup was much more trim in terms of texture, owing much of it's character to the delicate flesh of stewed mushroom caps, but boasted an aroma like a deeply stained plank of walnut, woody and dark revealing layers with careful inspection. The black forrest mushrooms alone give off the most seductive musk that I pause everytime I use a few just to breathe in the soul of them as it insinuates it's way out of their plastic bag.
Both dishes, being balanced in and of themselves, still complimented each other very well. All they might have wanted for was a little bit of salt. A dash or two of adobo seasoning and there was no room left for desert, except, of course, for finishing the bottle of madeira.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, i like you. I really, really like you.
From the most humble beginnings can come the most thorough satisfaction. When we're talking about vanilla yogurt and Kashi 7 whole grain nuggets, that thorough satisfaction is similar to the satisfaction one gets from crawling through a rugby scrum.
With this rocky start (as in I ate a bowl of gravel and cream) I laid a foundation for some deep satiation.
Lunch was leftovers plus. I'd made a chicken stir-fry the night before with this chili paste I'd bought in Chinatown sometime in the spring. I marinated deboned, chopped chicken thighs in this paste along with sesame oil and lime juice. After sauteing the chicken lightly, I reserved it and sauteed onion and carrot slices on a very low heat until they started to soften, progressively adding red peppers, white wine, snow peas and then reintroducing the chicken. You know a dish's flavors are in the right proportion when even the soft lilt and squeaky edge of sponginess from snow peas and chicken subjected to microwaving still manage to drive your fork back to the bowl almost as soon as it unloads. I supplemented the leftovers with a quinoa salad with dried blueberries and toasted almonds and a Thai noodle salad with cashew and asparagus from the Whole Foods ready foods bar. If you're eating in at Whole Foods and you just take moderate portions in the re-usable bowls, the prices are very reasonable. I think both my side portions of about half a cup each were only $2.50 or so. Both were very good and provided just enough compliment to the leftovers that it didn't feel like a rehash at all.
Admittedly, though, most of the satisfaction from lunch probably came from all that chicken fat in the thighs. Nothing cuts through a windy November afternoon like warm chicken fat drizzling through your intestines.
I would say dinner was equally simple, but I guess most people don't consider quinoa simple. They also maybe wouldn't find a toasted turkey, apple and brie sandwich to be simple either, so yeah, equally as simple, just as satisfying. The only details missing from the above description are the mustard and the whole wheat bread we spread it on, "we" being this girl I really, really like. One caveat from a mistake we made: although you don't need to use butter to toast a sandwich if you have nice enough pans, you do have to use a very low heat. It takes a while for the brie to start to melt and the turkey and mustard to get their mojo on, and you don't want to scorch the bread before they're ready to go. I scorched the bread a little bit. All the same, the combination of brie and turkey next to the bread on either side, warming, starting to open their flavors, and the apples still crisp in the middle playing with the bite of the mustard all came together to build a sandwich I feel ought to be considered a classic if it isn't already on your short list by now. Even the over-toasted bread provided it's own layer to the harmonious melange.
A handful of the right ingredients in the right places, even though somewhere while making it you make a mistake or two, when the mix is right, simple satisfies.
With this rocky start (as in I ate a bowl of gravel and cream) I laid a foundation for some deep satiation.
Lunch was leftovers plus. I'd made a chicken stir-fry the night before with this chili paste I'd bought in Chinatown sometime in the spring. I marinated deboned, chopped chicken thighs in this paste along with sesame oil and lime juice. After sauteing the chicken lightly, I reserved it and sauteed onion and carrot slices on a very low heat until they started to soften, progressively adding red peppers, white wine, snow peas and then reintroducing the chicken. You know a dish's flavors are in the right proportion when even the soft lilt and squeaky edge of sponginess from snow peas and chicken subjected to microwaving still manage to drive your fork back to the bowl almost as soon as it unloads. I supplemented the leftovers with a quinoa salad with dried blueberries and toasted almonds and a Thai noodle salad with cashew and asparagus from the Whole Foods ready foods bar. If you're eating in at Whole Foods and you just take moderate portions in the re-usable bowls, the prices are very reasonable. I think both my side portions of about half a cup each were only $2.50 or so. Both were very good and provided just enough compliment to the leftovers that it didn't feel like a rehash at all.
Admittedly, though, most of the satisfaction from lunch probably came from all that chicken fat in the thighs. Nothing cuts through a windy November afternoon like warm chicken fat drizzling through your intestines.
I would say dinner was equally simple, but I guess most people don't consider quinoa simple. They also maybe wouldn't find a toasted turkey, apple and brie sandwich to be simple either, so yeah, equally as simple, just as satisfying. The only details missing from the above description are the mustard and the whole wheat bread we spread it on, "we" being this girl I really, really like. One caveat from a mistake we made: although you don't need to use butter to toast a sandwich if you have nice enough pans, you do have to use a very low heat. It takes a while for the brie to start to melt and the turkey and mustard to get their mojo on, and you don't want to scorch the bread before they're ready to go. I scorched the bread a little bit. All the same, the combination of brie and turkey next to the bread on either side, warming, starting to open their flavors, and the apples still crisp in the middle playing with the bite of the mustard all came together to build a sandwich I feel ought to be considered a classic if it isn't already on your short list by now. Even the over-toasted bread provided it's own layer to the harmonious melange.
A handful of the right ingredients in the right places, even though somewhere while making it you make a mistake or two, when the mix is right, simple satisfies.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
almost two months...
Last Updated on August 25, 2008
I am such a putz. But now, by incessant demand, I shall resume my quest to exhaustively chronicle my eats, from the inane to the insane.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Caloric intake for the day started with a Jeno's frozen pizza, which I had heated up the night before, eaten three bites out of, and then wrapped up in a ziploc sandwich bag. I had every intention of reheating it in our office's toaster oven, but when the time came to start feeding the genius machine, I just couldn't hold out for the toaster oven's slow-loving touch. I had that gibbus moon of sausage, pepperoni, "cheese," sauce and starch cold, soggy and folded in half. It was a terrible thing I did in the name of food, and I loved every bite of it.
Then came an amazingly decadent surprise. A co-worker brought in some indulgently decadent baked goods to share with the office. They were mini-loaves of ginger cake with a honey and cream cheese icing and sliced candied ginger on top. She'd gone for apple sauce instead of oil for the ginger cake which made them very dense and moist. Even for my butter-mad palate, the icing more than made up for any oil that might have been missing from the cake and the candied ginger was surpirsingly moist as well, making for a warm, creamy hug of a breakfast-ender.
Lunch time was time for leftovers, although with soup, really, the left-overs can be the main event. The soup du jour was actually the soup du last Thursday, an Italian wedding soup I made in the burgeoning throes of romance. Emotional context infused the layers of this eclectic take on the traditional Italian layers. The soup started with an onion, celery and green and red pepper "trinity" that soon folded around garlic, chantrelles, zucchini, and red, white and blue potatoes. The whole mess stewed in a blend of beef and chicken stock and then we finished the soup with green beans, frozen meat balls and whole wheat rotini. A little cheating in the name of expediency here and there, but the results were grandly satisfying, even days later.
I also snuck a piece or two of WholeFoods' brown rice salmon roll and a few bites of barley soup from my lunch partner, because, honestly, why else do you eat with other people if not to steal their food?
Then, as so often happens at my office, just when you get back from lunch, you are informed of a room full of leftovers from some faculty luncheon or another, and you make your way dutifully down to bond with your fellow scavengers. I had a grilled chicken wrap with roasted vegetables inside. The veggies were mushy, the chicken was, bite to bite, possibly very dry and uninviting, and yet somehow I ate all of it. I also availed myself of some tortelini antipasta and some macaroni salad, not to mention a handful of cookies, of course. The antipasta was good, but already very picked over when I got there so there wasn't much actual tortelini left in the bowl. The macaroni salad was tolerable, though cloying. Mayonaise dressings with a lot of sugar in them can be downright unsettling. The caterer would have done a lot better to cut back on the goop and add more fresh veggies to compete with the syrupy oversaturation of eggs, oil and geuh.
Free samples! In the ridiculously long line at Trader Joe's, thankfully accompanied by the most pleasant company I could think of, we threw back some jerk chicken. Mine was gone in two bites, seconds after we picked up our little pleated paper cups, prompting my companion to comment on the disparity between our portions. Not one to take credit for chivalry unintended, I didn't so much pass on the lion's share as I wolfed down the sizable portion I took for myself. As much as I can remember tasting it, it was pretty darn good.
Dinner, when it finally came, was an old stand-by come back to visit: Pork Gyoza, fried, then steamed, then fried again. I prepared a dipping bowl of ponzu (soy sauce and vinegar flavored with yuzu, a citrus similar to grapefruit) and chili oil, that about a dozen of the wrinkly little bags of awesome, fried a crispy brown on one side, slid through on their way into my welcoming gob. What iconic perfection. I managed to hold myself off at a dozen by suplementing the dinner with a large crisp corn tortilla as I was cooking and then a flour tortilla, fried and then smeared with goat cheese and wildflower honey as a desert. As awesome as you might think that desert might be, I have to admit that I did not have actual butter on hand in my kitchen (oh, the horror) and had to instead fry the tortilla smeared in SmartBalance. Geuh. Still, it wasn't a bad finish and there was no mistake in my stomach that caloric intake had reached a fitting end for the day.
It was time to wash it all down with several tall glasses of water and start thinking about breakfast...
I am such a putz. But now, by incessant demand, I shall resume my quest to exhaustively chronicle my eats, from the inane to the insane.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Caloric intake for the day started with a Jeno's frozen pizza, which I had heated up the night before, eaten three bites out of, and then wrapped up in a ziploc sandwich bag. I had every intention of reheating it in our office's toaster oven, but when the time came to start feeding the genius machine, I just couldn't hold out for the toaster oven's slow-loving touch. I had that gibbus moon of sausage, pepperoni, "cheese," sauce and starch cold, soggy and folded in half. It was a terrible thing I did in the name of food, and I loved every bite of it.
Then came an amazingly decadent surprise. A co-worker brought in some indulgently decadent baked goods to share with the office. They were mini-loaves of ginger cake with a honey and cream cheese icing and sliced candied ginger on top. She'd gone for apple sauce instead of oil for the ginger cake which made them very dense and moist. Even for my butter-mad palate, the icing more than made up for any oil that might have been missing from the cake and the candied ginger was surpirsingly moist as well, making for a warm, creamy hug of a breakfast-ender.
Lunch time was time for leftovers, although with soup, really, the left-overs can be the main event. The soup du jour was actually the soup du last Thursday, an Italian wedding soup I made in the burgeoning throes of romance. Emotional context infused the layers of this eclectic take on the traditional Italian layers. The soup started with an onion, celery and green and red pepper "trinity" that soon folded around garlic, chantrelles, zucchini, and red, white and blue potatoes. The whole mess stewed in a blend of beef and chicken stock and then we finished the soup with green beans, frozen meat balls and whole wheat rotini. A little cheating in the name of expediency here and there, but the results were grandly satisfying, even days later.
I also snuck a piece or two of WholeFoods' brown rice salmon roll and a few bites of barley soup from my lunch partner, because, honestly, why else do you eat with other people if not to steal their food?
Then, as so often happens at my office, just when you get back from lunch, you are informed of a room full of leftovers from some faculty luncheon or another, and you make your way dutifully down to bond with your fellow scavengers. I had a grilled chicken wrap with roasted vegetables inside. The veggies were mushy, the chicken was, bite to bite, possibly very dry and uninviting, and yet somehow I ate all of it. I also availed myself of some tortelini antipasta and some macaroni salad, not to mention a handful of cookies, of course. The antipasta was good, but already very picked over when I got there so there wasn't much actual tortelini left in the bowl. The macaroni salad was tolerable, though cloying. Mayonaise dressings with a lot of sugar in them can be downright unsettling. The caterer would have done a lot better to cut back on the goop and add more fresh veggies to compete with the syrupy oversaturation of eggs, oil and geuh.
Free samples! In the ridiculously long line at Trader Joe's, thankfully accompanied by the most pleasant company I could think of, we threw back some jerk chicken. Mine was gone in two bites, seconds after we picked up our little pleated paper cups, prompting my companion to comment on the disparity between our portions. Not one to take credit for chivalry unintended, I didn't so much pass on the lion's share as I wolfed down the sizable portion I took for myself. As much as I can remember tasting it, it was pretty darn good.
Dinner, when it finally came, was an old stand-by come back to visit: Pork Gyoza, fried, then steamed, then fried again. I prepared a dipping bowl of ponzu (soy sauce and vinegar flavored with yuzu, a citrus similar to grapefruit) and chili oil, that about a dozen of the wrinkly little bags of awesome, fried a crispy brown on one side, slid through on their way into my welcoming gob. What iconic perfection. I managed to hold myself off at a dozen by suplementing the dinner with a large crisp corn tortilla as I was cooking and then a flour tortilla, fried and then smeared with goat cheese and wildflower honey as a desert. As awesome as you might think that desert might be, I have to admit that I did not have actual butter on hand in my kitchen (oh, the horror) and had to instead fry the tortilla smeared in SmartBalance. Geuh. Still, it wasn't a bad finish and there was no mistake in my stomach that caloric intake had reached a fitting end for the day.
It was time to wash it all down with several tall glasses of water and start thinking about breakfast...
Monday, August 25, 2008
A Sunday for Fatasses
Well, it wasn't so fattening, but it wasn't so unfattening either, kna'mean?
First things first: a frozen Nutty Buddy a la Little Debbie. These things are just so great frozen. They take on an extra crispiness and the peanut butter makes this odd extra cold sensation on your tongue. It's not so much breakfast as the thing you eat to give you the energy you need to really make a decent Sunday brunch.
Scrambled eggs with green peppers and monterray jack cheese, black beans, chorizo gravy and a cilantro, onion, lime and tomato salsa fresca. Wrap it all in a tortilla, eat it after noon with a beer on the side, and you have a pretty mean brunch. I was afraid the gravy and the salsa fresca would fight, but they got along wonderfully, aside from the salsa fresca having a ton of water to it and causing unsightly green trails to creep out the back of the tortilla and down my arm. The two tortillas worth of awesome I put down had me pretty well set for the rest of the day, really. The rest of the day is just a blur of snacking on things I probably shouldn't have bothered to eat, since I never actually felt hungry.
The closest I came to lunch was a cold egg roll from the fridge. When my roommate ordered Chinese Saturday evening, I had him tack on a few egg rolls specifically with the intent of eating them later, cold. Alternately smudging on a little karashi (Japanese mustard) and La Yu chili oil, they just go down so easy on a hot afternoon.
From there I moved on to a seemingly endless parade of snacks: Generic brand "Golden Grahams" that I like better than actual Golden Grahams; Chips-a-Hoy white fudge super-chunk cookies; a few choice selections from Pepperidge Farms' Distinctive Cookie Sampler, I believe a chessmen cookie and a raspberry lace thing were involved; some twists of crunchy puffed and fried corn starch glazed with cinnamon and sugar, mostly sugar, that were intended to be something like Taco Bell's cinnamon twists; and, rice crispy treats that I made from scratch with a little cinnamon, almond extract and sesame oil mixed into the marshmallows before adding rice crispies and some of the genero-graham cereal. The sesame makes much more aroma than taste, and all my trickery made for an interesting deviation from the rice crispy treat norm, but I think a batch of the regular, no frills, traditional variety will have to happen shortly.
Marginally Related Side-Note:
Do you remember rice crispy treats cereal? It was just chunks of rice crispies glopped together by marshmallow, and then you eat them with milk and pretend your breakfast won't speed the onset of diabetes. I loved that stuff when I was a kid, sometime around being 22 or 23. Nowadays we have even worse cereal. As extra insult to the Crystal Skull injury levied against the Indiana Jones series of films, there is now an "Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull: the cereal" available for your tooth-rotting pleasure. This obnoxious mix of cocoa puffs with malformed marshmallows similar to lucky charms marshmallows (but these all in just yellow and white representations of crystal skulls and other ancient loot) does for breakfast cereal what the movie does for George Lucas' reputation as a cinematic auteur.
First things first: a frozen Nutty Buddy a la Little Debbie. These things are just so great frozen. They take on an extra crispiness and the peanut butter makes this odd extra cold sensation on your tongue. It's not so much breakfast as the thing you eat to give you the energy you need to really make a decent Sunday brunch.
Scrambled eggs with green peppers and monterray jack cheese, black beans, chorizo gravy and a cilantro, onion, lime and tomato salsa fresca. Wrap it all in a tortilla, eat it after noon with a beer on the side, and you have a pretty mean brunch. I was afraid the gravy and the salsa fresca would fight, but they got along wonderfully, aside from the salsa fresca having a ton of water to it and causing unsightly green trails to creep out the back of the tortilla and down my arm. The two tortillas worth of awesome I put down had me pretty well set for the rest of the day, really. The rest of the day is just a blur of snacking on things I probably shouldn't have bothered to eat, since I never actually felt hungry.
The closest I came to lunch was a cold egg roll from the fridge. When my roommate ordered Chinese Saturday evening, I had him tack on a few egg rolls specifically with the intent of eating them later, cold. Alternately smudging on a little karashi (Japanese mustard) and La Yu chili oil, they just go down so easy on a hot afternoon.
From there I moved on to a seemingly endless parade of snacks: Generic brand "Golden Grahams" that I like better than actual Golden Grahams; Chips-a-Hoy white fudge super-chunk cookies; a few choice selections from Pepperidge Farms' Distinctive Cookie Sampler, I believe a chessmen cookie and a raspberry lace thing were involved; some twists of crunchy puffed and fried corn starch glazed with cinnamon and sugar, mostly sugar, that were intended to be something like Taco Bell's cinnamon twists; and, rice crispy treats that I made from scratch with a little cinnamon, almond extract and sesame oil mixed into the marshmallows before adding rice crispies and some of the genero-graham cereal. The sesame makes much more aroma than taste, and all my trickery made for an interesting deviation from the rice crispy treat norm, but I think a batch of the regular, no frills, traditional variety will have to happen shortly.
Marginally Related Side-Note:
Do you remember rice crispy treats cereal? It was just chunks of rice crispies glopped together by marshmallow, and then you eat them with milk and pretend your breakfast won't speed the onset of diabetes. I loved that stuff when I was a kid, sometime around being 22 or 23. Nowadays we have even worse cereal. As extra insult to the Crystal Skull injury levied against the Indiana Jones series of films, there is now an "Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Crystal Skull: the cereal" available for your tooth-rotting pleasure. This obnoxious mix of cocoa puffs with malformed marshmallows similar to lucky charms marshmallows (but these all in just yellow and white representations of crystal skulls and other ancient loot) does for breakfast cereal what the movie does for George Lucas' reputation as a cinematic auteur.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
wednesday? really? what happened to tuesday? oh, that's right, i ate it.
This will not be one of those entries wherein I go into detail about some great restaurant or meal I made at home. Yesterday was, to frame it properly, the day before payday, and my life and pay schedule conspired to put me in a position where my food budget for yesterday was $0.
In the morning I had spring rolls made from left-over mu shu pork wrapped in Vietnamese cold rice wrappers, the ones you use for fresh spring rolls. The mu shu was actually very good cold, but there was only enough left to make three rolls, each about 3 1/2 " long and about an inch wide.
This left me pretty hungry still, and so, when co-workers were headed to the re-opening of the Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner building after their summer vacation (the bakery was on vacation, not my co-workers) I decided I should dip into my laundry budget in the interest of bolstering my caloric intake for the day. Who needs clean underwear when you have Gold Bond, anyway? I suppose $2.75 for an almond croissant filled with raspberry jam is reasonable for Manhattan, especially on the corner of Central Park in the same building as a Whole Foods, Godiva Chocolate and numerous offices of various executives in assorted Time Warner fiefdoms. The croissant was quite good, although I don't know if I was in the right frame of mind to really enjoy splurging on decadent pastries. Though I didn't develop any unsightly chaffing or rashes as a result of delaying my laundry washing, the creeping fear of such consequences may have unfairly colored my experience. Also, as a fan of excellent coffee and the beneficiary of quite a bit of mediocre free coffee, spending any amount of money on their bland latte was a big mistake.
Somehow, after the croissant, I forgot to stop and eat lunch. It wasn't that I didn't have food for lunch, there was black bean and chorizo pasta in my fridge at work, but I was so hypnotised by the repetitive act of folding letters and stuffing them into envelopes that the afternoon just sort of faded away. The next thing I knew it was time for a co-worker's reception in honor of his years of service as he left our school to work somewheres else. This means that my lunch was not only late, but also comprised mostly of crackers, cheese and fruit. I know this isn't the most filling fare and wasn't really enough food to be lunch for a kindergarten student, but I did get my vegetables, carrots, red peppers, brocoli and cucumbers, all dipped in some kind of french onion/ranch hybrid. There was american cheese, brie, some kind of marbled brown-and-gouda-looking cheese, and a havarti dill. I also availed myself of the pineapple and blueberries, the latter of which cleaned my palate and complimented the complimentary Heineken very well. I guess if you gave a kindergarten student a Heineken his lunch would be pretty effectively over, so ok, it was a full enough lunch. It was too bad I had to clock another two hours of overtime after the party, because my liver steadily put an end to the free booze as I clicked away at my computer and my co-workers took the party to a nearby bar. By the time I was done I wasn't so much drunk or sober as just wiped out. Sorry, Dwayne. Raincheck!
Dinner was equally as unimpressive, left over thai curry with brown rice, that wasn't even my leftovers, but was the leftovers of a friend who left them in our fridge before leaving the country. Under British Naval Statutes, that makes the food fair plunder, so down below decks it went, a utilitarian end to a make-do day.
In the morning I had spring rolls made from left-over mu shu pork wrapped in Vietnamese cold rice wrappers, the ones you use for fresh spring rolls. The mu shu was actually very good cold, but there was only enough left to make three rolls, each about 3 1/2 " long and about an inch wide.
This left me pretty hungry still, and so, when co-workers were headed to the re-opening of the Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner building after their summer vacation (the bakery was on vacation, not my co-workers) I decided I should dip into my laundry budget in the interest of bolstering my caloric intake for the day. Who needs clean underwear when you have Gold Bond, anyway? I suppose $2.75 for an almond croissant filled with raspberry jam is reasonable for Manhattan, especially on the corner of Central Park in the same building as a Whole Foods, Godiva Chocolate and numerous offices of various executives in assorted Time Warner fiefdoms. The croissant was quite good, although I don't know if I was in the right frame of mind to really enjoy splurging on decadent pastries. Though I didn't develop any unsightly chaffing or rashes as a result of delaying my laundry washing, the creeping fear of such consequences may have unfairly colored my experience. Also, as a fan of excellent coffee and the beneficiary of quite a bit of mediocre free coffee, spending any amount of money on their bland latte was a big mistake.
Somehow, after the croissant, I forgot to stop and eat lunch. It wasn't that I didn't have food for lunch, there was black bean and chorizo pasta in my fridge at work, but I was so hypnotised by the repetitive act of folding letters and stuffing them into envelopes that the afternoon just sort of faded away. The next thing I knew it was time for a co-worker's reception in honor of his years of service as he left our school to work somewheres else. This means that my lunch was not only late, but also comprised mostly of crackers, cheese and fruit. I know this isn't the most filling fare and wasn't really enough food to be lunch for a kindergarten student, but I did get my vegetables, carrots, red peppers, brocoli and cucumbers, all dipped in some kind of french onion/ranch hybrid. There was american cheese, brie, some kind of marbled brown-and-gouda-looking cheese, and a havarti dill. I also availed myself of the pineapple and blueberries, the latter of which cleaned my palate and complimented the complimentary Heineken very well. I guess if you gave a kindergarten student a Heineken his lunch would be pretty effectively over, so ok, it was a full enough lunch. It was too bad I had to clock another two hours of overtime after the party, because my liver steadily put an end to the free booze as I clicked away at my computer and my co-workers took the party to a nearby bar. By the time I was done I wasn't so much drunk or sober as just wiped out. Sorry, Dwayne. Raincheck!
Dinner was equally as unimpressive, left over thai curry with brown rice, that wasn't even my leftovers, but was the leftovers of a friend who left them in our fridge before leaving the country. Under British Naval Statutes, that makes the food fair plunder, so down below decks it went, a utilitarian end to a make-do day.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sunday, so many days left behind
Brunch with a friend leaving the country for a few weeks was a nice excuse to do something a little above the usual breakfast burrito and frozen pizza fare I subsist on. Instead, I tried to plate something a little more daring, an omelet. This was not your average bacon and cheese, no, not even a western omelet. This was green peppers and garlic with a blue cheese and blackberry ricotta filling. The textures were perfect. I timed the omelets just right so that they had just barely set and you could cut through them with a fork without displacing all the filling. The ricotta filling could have used a little salt, but otherwise the recipe was sound. I served them with a salad of mixed baby greens and Munster cheese in an apple cider vinegar and horseradish dressing an couscous drizzled with chili oil and honey.
Lunch and dinner were much more humble. I snuck one of my frozen bean burritos into the show at McCarren Park Pool and ate it during the Aesop Rock set once it had finally thawed. I was apprehensive about eating them without reheating them, since I imagined frozen baked beans would not be very appealing. This burrito was just refrigerator cold with no frozen bits left. It was quite good that way and I will probably eat the rest of them cold. The microwave just slows me down.
Dinner was just one single sweet plantain and pork pastry from the cuchifritos joint near my house. I am addicted to them now, but there are worse addictions, really. At least with this addiction I'm only spending $1.50 to be pretty thoroughly satisfied.
Lunch and dinner were much more humble. I snuck one of my frozen bean burritos into the show at McCarren Park Pool and ate it during the Aesop Rock set once it had finally thawed. I was apprehensive about eating them without reheating them, since I imagined frozen baked beans would not be very appealing. This burrito was just refrigerator cold with no frozen bits left. It was quite good that way and I will probably eat the rest of them cold. The microwave just slows me down.
Dinner was just one single sweet plantain and pork pastry from the cuchifritos joint near my house. I am addicted to them now, but there are worse addictions, really. At least with this addiction I'm only spending $1.50 to be pretty thoroughly satisfied.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
tuesday takes another chance at life
A lot of old favorites took pretty hard swings at my colon yesterday. I'm happy to report I'm still processing food more or less normally, although I'm going to stay away from spicy food for a while, I think, well, outside of the small army of bean burritos I made Monday night and froze for easy eating at work the next few days. I two of those burritos for lunch, but I've gotten ahead of myself, haven't I. Save the burrito talk for later.
For breakfast I had burritos, breakfast burritos. This time round it was hot dog, green pepper and a cheddar and monterray jack chese blend. I wrapped them in a paper towel before wrapping them in saran wrap in an attempt to control the moisture of freshly cooked foods wrapped immediately in plastic. Instead of nice, moderately moist burritos, however, I discovered that paper towel and flour tortilla will begin to bond into a single, homogeneous given enough time and moisture. They seemed almost organically fused with each other, and it was more like peeling garlic or an onion than removing two previously separate surfaces from one another. It made me wonder if we couldn't grow burrito trees that produce bean burritos like fruit. They were such a pain to finally peel apart, though, that I abandoned the idea, thinking it was too much of a pain in the ass to really become popular in the modern food market.
Throughout the afternoon there was some peanut brittle, a Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked oatmeal cookie, and two very naughty looking Drakes cakes. It was a particularly weak day for snacking.
Then there were the bean burritos, refried beans, rice, green peppers, the monterray/cheddar blend from breakfast and some Kick Ass hot sauce, a very fiery habanero-based version of liquid pain that I find quite pleasant in moderate doses. Having premade the burritos while on the phone with my parents, some burritos are more moderate than others, and it's a bit of a crapshoot just how much eating one is going to hurt. One of the ones I had for lunch was spicier than most people find appealing.
The one I had with dinner was pretty tame, but maybe I was just getting used to them by then.
Along with my fifth burrito for the day, I had tomato coconut soup. This is a great idea that I stole from Honey's in Philadelphia. The basic recipe is a can of tomato soup, a can of coconut milk, and half a can of water, heated. I like to step it up a little, though. This time I heated about 2 Tbsp of my ginger/garlic paste in olive oil, then added a quarter cup of the spicy tomato soup from my uncle's greenhouse and about a quarter cup of brown rice. After letting them get to know each other for a bit, I added the coconut milk, and then, after about 5 min, I added the can of tomato soup and a can and a half of water. I covered this and cooked it on a very low boil until the rice was tender. Then I finished the top with a little dried basil and cumin powder.
The spice was a little fast up front, but stuck around with a nice, long, caring burn that didn't overpower the interplay between the coconut and tomato. My dinner guest and I really enjoyed it, and both finished heaping bowls, but between the burritos and the heat from the spicy tomato soup, well, lets say my colon was still a bit mad at me when I woke up today.
For breakfast I had burritos, breakfast burritos. This time round it was hot dog, green pepper and a cheddar and monterray jack chese blend. I wrapped them in a paper towel before wrapping them in saran wrap in an attempt to control the moisture of freshly cooked foods wrapped immediately in plastic. Instead of nice, moderately moist burritos, however, I discovered that paper towel and flour tortilla will begin to bond into a single, homogeneous given enough time and moisture. They seemed almost organically fused with each other, and it was more like peeling garlic or an onion than removing two previously separate surfaces from one another. It made me wonder if we couldn't grow burrito trees that produce bean burritos like fruit. They were such a pain to finally peel apart, though, that I abandoned the idea, thinking it was too much of a pain in the ass to really become popular in the modern food market.
Throughout the afternoon there was some peanut brittle, a Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked oatmeal cookie, and two very naughty looking Drakes cakes. It was a particularly weak day for snacking.
Then there were the bean burritos, refried beans, rice, green peppers, the monterray/cheddar blend from breakfast and some Kick Ass hot sauce, a very fiery habanero-based version of liquid pain that I find quite pleasant in moderate doses. Having premade the burritos while on the phone with my parents, some burritos are more moderate than others, and it's a bit of a crapshoot just how much eating one is going to hurt. One of the ones I had for lunch was spicier than most people find appealing.
The one I had with dinner was pretty tame, but maybe I was just getting used to them by then.
Along with my fifth burrito for the day, I had tomato coconut soup. This is a great idea that I stole from Honey's in Philadelphia. The basic recipe is a can of tomato soup, a can of coconut milk, and half a can of water, heated. I like to step it up a little, though. This time I heated about 2 Tbsp of my ginger/garlic paste in olive oil, then added a quarter cup of the spicy tomato soup from my uncle's greenhouse and about a quarter cup of brown rice. After letting them get to know each other for a bit, I added the coconut milk, and then, after about 5 min, I added the can of tomato soup and a can and a half of water. I covered this and cooked it on a very low boil until the rice was tender. Then I finished the top with a little dried basil and cumin powder.
The spice was a little fast up front, but stuck around with a nice, long, caring burn that didn't overpower the interplay between the coconut and tomato. My dinner guest and I really enjoyed it, and both finished heaping bowls, but between the burritos and the heat from the spicy tomato soup, well, lets say my colon was still a bit mad at me when I woke up today.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
the turning tides of monday
bacon, leaving fat
mushrooms and spinach take it
eggs, bleu cheese, om'let
an embrace of lips
somehow describes this parcel
chocolate, foil, flag
a year past the date
Campbell's chicken and stars soup
Here's hoping I live
Stolen, well, kind of
from a dish of "free" choc'late
milky way dark, twix
ah, soft-baked oatmeal
too large to be just a snack
mini-meal of my heart
sandwich as present
half a cuban, left over
motainai
someone else's gift
sweet edible souvenir
peanuts and brittle
a bowl of white rice
meditative, simple, pure
pepper topped finish
tastes of future food
stolen fresh from the hearth's heat
nicked from cutting boards
bottles of water
bottles and bottles of water
cold, warm, tepid, chugged
mushrooms and spinach take it
eggs, bleu cheese, om'let
an embrace of lips
somehow describes this parcel
chocolate, foil, flag
a year past the date
Campbell's chicken and stars soup
Here's hoping I live
Stolen, well, kind of
from a dish of "free" choc'late
milky way dark, twix
ah, soft-baked oatmeal
too large to be just a snack
mini-meal of my heart
sandwich as present
half a cuban, left over
motainai
someone else's gift
sweet edible souvenir
peanuts and brittle
a bowl of white rice
meditative, simple, pure
pepper topped finish
tastes of future food
stolen fresh from the hearth's heat
nicked from cutting boards
bottles of water
bottles and bottles of water
cold, warm, tepid, chugged
Monday, August 11, 2008
sunday sticks it in
Sunday brunch, long part of the NYC mythos, has yet to appear in these blog pages. Well, here's my NYC brunch debut, which wasn't really anything to write home about.
We ate at Phoebe's in Brooklyn. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and I was immediately pleased to see cans of Genesee Cream Ale tucked into their refrigerated display case up front. The back yard sports a few tables that stayed mostly full our whole time there. All in all it seemed pretty popular, but I'm not exactly sure why.
The menu was fairly reasonable for brunch, but the food that came out was not worth my $8. We all had the steamed eggs, which are like scrambled eggs, but cooked via a cappuccino milk steamer. There were scallions, red peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes mixed in with the eggs, and while I'm sure some people appreciate the low-fat take on egg preparation, the technique did not live up to the culinary magic that eggs can and should be. What came out on two drooping leaves of lettuce, topped with some unoffensive white cheese with a salsa fresca on one side and roasted yams on the other, was a rubbery lump of 3 eggs worth of protein with under-prepared vegetables haplessly suspended, unable to make a break for more appetizing platings. Their 7-grain toast was quite good and the roasted yams were much better than I expected them to be, but for a signature dish they should really work on improving the technique of their appointed egg steamerists.
Later that day I had a lunch/dinner fusion meal, fusing more the time and function than any real menu differences. I mixed cucumbers, carrots, hot sausage, mushrooms fried in hot sausage grease, and bleu cheese into couscous drizzled with sesame and chili oils. It would have been a great power lunch or an easy, one-bowl dinner. I ate it late enough to be dinner, but considering I slept through most of the afternoon and I was up until after midnight, it felt more lunchy than anything.
That evening, in my friends' apartment in Red Hook I caught a few long tosses of Tostito's Hint of Lime tortilla chips. those things are seasoned perfectly for eating 4 or 5, so that's what I did. Any more and they become a bit overwhelming.
And that was it for the evening. Though I felt a little snacky, I decided a few big glasses of water before bed would be better than a raid on the crouton box.
We ate at Phoebe's in Brooklyn. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and I was immediately pleased to see cans of Genesee Cream Ale tucked into their refrigerated display case up front. The back yard sports a few tables that stayed mostly full our whole time there. All in all it seemed pretty popular, but I'm not exactly sure why.
The menu was fairly reasonable for brunch, but the food that came out was not worth my $8. We all had the steamed eggs, which are like scrambled eggs, but cooked via a cappuccino milk steamer. There were scallions, red peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes mixed in with the eggs, and while I'm sure some people appreciate the low-fat take on egg preparation, the technique did not live up to the culinary magic that eggs can and should be. What came out on two drooping leaves of lettuce, topped with some unoffensive white cheese with a salsa fresca on one side and roasted yams on the other, was a rubbery lump of 3 eggs worth of protein with under-prepared vegetables haplessly suspended, unable to make a break for more appetizing platings. Their 7-grain toast was quite good and the roasted yams were much better than I expected them to be, but for a signature dish they should really work on improving the technique of their appointed egg steamerists.
Later that day I had a lunch/dinner fusion meal, fusing more the time and function than any real menu differences. I mixed cucumbers, carrots, hot sausage, mushrooms fried in hot sausage grease, and bleu cheese into couscous drizzled with sesame and chili oils. It would have been a great power lunch or an easy, one-bowl dinner. I ate it late enough to be dinner, but considering I slept through most of the afternoon and I was up until after midnight, it felt more lunchy than anything.
That evening, in my friends' apartment in Red Hook I caught a few long tosses of Tostito's Hint of Lime tortilla chips. those things are seasoned perfectly for eating 4 or 5, so that's what I did. Any more and they become a bit overwhelming.
And that was it for the evening. Though I felt a little snacky, I decided a few big glasses of water before bed would be better than a raid on the crouton box.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, make it work again.
Like a train, I seem to be going through a regular schedule of starts and stops. Much like the NYC Metro and not the Japanese rail system, the slightest problem can lead to massive derailment and widespread system failure. Somehow, these past two weeks I have managed to establish a routine of writing for a month, and then falling off the face of the Earth for a while. There's nothing to do but dig your nails in where you are and start to crawl your way back up.
Monday was a bit out of sorts since I didn't have an opportunity to make breakfast as I was digging through beer bottles and watermelon rinds in an attempt to find my wallet. It ended up being in my book bag all along, which is often the way these things go. At least I did eventually have my wallet so that I could go to a sandwich cart and get the ubiquitous bacon, egg and cheese on a roll. I also found a bottle opener in the trash that we had inadvertently thrown away. Bonus!
The cart was on 60th Street between Columbus Ave. and Broadway. I don't recommend them unless you like cavorting with bacon's sad, soggy spin-off, turkey bacon. I respect other people's convictions that prevent them from eating pig bacon, or any food made on the same griddle as pig bacon, so long as they respect my right to avoid establishments that won't serve me Babe thinly sliced and fried till crispy.
And amazingly enough, that sandwich lasted me all day. I must have eaten a lot over the weekend. Since I haven't written about it yet, you don't know.
Dinner was bar food, but very good bar food. I was at Piano's on Ludlow south of Houston St. I had their chipotle buffalo wings and their calamari. The calamari came out just on the tail end of their perfect texture period, so I had to devour them before they started to rubberize. The wings were very large pieces for chicken parts, almost like turkey wings. The sauce was a very pleasant level of spicy that rang on the lips well after eating. Considering each plate was $5 during happy hour, it was a pretty good spread for the value, definitely enough to share.
Monday was a bit out of sorts since I didn't have an opportunity to make breakfast as I was digging through beer bottles and watermelon rinds in an attempt to find my wallet. It ended up being in my book bag all along, which is often the way these things go. At least I did eventually have my wallet so that I could go to a sandwich cart and get the ubiquitous bacon, egg and cheese on a roll. I also found a bottle opener in the trash that we had inadvertently thrown away. Bonus!
The cart was on 60th Street between Columbus Ave. and Broadway. I don't recommend them unless you like cavorting with bacon's sad, soggy spin-off, turkey bacon. I respect other people's convictions that prevent them from eating pig bacon, or any food made on the same griddle as pig bacon, so long as they respect my right to avoid establishments that won't serve me Babe thinly sliced and fried till crispy.
And amazingly enough, that sandwich lasted me all day. I must have eaten a lot over the weekend. Since I haven't written about it yet, you don't know.
Dinner was bar food, but very good bar food. I was at Piano's on Ludlow south of Houston St. I had their chipotle buffalo wings and their calamari. The calamari came out just on the tail end of their perfect texture period, so I had to devour them before they started to rubberize. The wings were very large pieces for chicken parts, almost like turkey wings. The sauce was a very pleasant level of spicy that rang on the lips well after eating. Considering each plate was $5 during happy hour, it was a pretty good spread for the value, definitely enough to share.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, for now.
Breakfast was mac n cheese with hot dog slices and some of the lentil curry. The fridge on my floor is one of those small fridges with the freezer box inside the main fridge compartment and my food always freezes, even when it's two shelves below the freezer. The freezing was good for the texture of the lentil curry, though, and they made a nice pair with my boxed mac n cheese.
I was in the mood for more substantial lunch fare, though, so when co-workers suggested the burger joint in Le Parker Meridien Hotel, I, of course, agreed. I had mine medium rare with the works and split a side of fries with one of my co-workers. I've had better burgers at dinner time. The lunch crowd was definitely more hectic than the evenings so maybe that contributed to the slip in quality. It's still a great burger, and at $7.50 for just the burger, it's still pricey for my lunch standards, but that doesn't keep me from going back about once a month.
Then there was pop corn at my new favorite bar, Rehab. They have an old-school popcorn machine, like you might have found in a 1950's movie house. It's a nice touch on a space that's already doing a brilliant job of straddling the line between decor and decrepitude.
And then, that evening, just for the ABA plot structure, it was mac n cheese with hot dogs round deux. When I get in the mood, I can eat pounds of the stuff.
I was in the mood for more substantial lunch fare, though, so when co-workers suggested the burger joint in Le Parker Meridien Hotel, I, of course, agreed. I had mine medium rare with the works and split a side of fries with one of my co-workers. I've had better burgers at dinner time. The lunch crowd was definitely more hectic than the evenings so maybe that contributed to the slip in quality. It's still a great burger, and at $7.50 for just the burger, it's still pricey for my lunch standards, but that doesn't keep me from going back about once a month.
Then there was pop corn at my new favorite bar, Rehab. They have an old-school popcorn machine, like you might have found in a 1950's movie house. It's a nice touch on a space that's already doing a brilliant job of straddling the line between decor and decrepitude.
And then, that evening, just for the ABA plot structure, it was mac n cheese with hot dogs round deux. When I get in the mood, I can eat pounds of the stuff.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday was not as nutritionally unsound as it could have otherwise been.
Some days you eat a bowl of oatmeal, some yogurt, a light salad, reasonable dinner, you feel so energized and full of life.
Yesterday I woke up tired and a touch hung-over after about four hours of sleep. I was not in the mood for oatmeal.
Breakfast was two, yes, two Jeno's frozen supreme pizzas. I knew that I'd need more push to keep the engine running today and more calories for all the caffeine to bounce off of and not tear holes in my stomach.
To that end, I gladly accepted a sugar cookie from my office-mate. She likes to dust them with cinnamon.
Even with two pizzas under my belt, well, suspended just above my belt, really, I needed to eat an early lunch and slammed a bowl of ramen while working on a project at work.
But that's not all I ate at work! Thanks to some sort of summer seminar, there was a wealth of free Indian food in the atrium in the afternoon. There was channa saag (spinach and chickpeas), chicken korma (spicy, creamy red sauce) and some kind of lentil curry as well as naan, rice, raita (sour yogurt with vegetables) and even the cilantro and tamarind chutneys. the saag and the korma were very good, although there was not much chicken left in the chicken korma by the time I went down. The lentil curry had some strange texture to the sauce. It felt a little plastic.
I went up for a pretty hefty second helping of the channa saag. I also had two helpings of the desert, which seemed to me to have more in common with Midwest family reunions than it did with Indian buffet, but it was so good, I really can't complain. It was an orange pudding, possibly butterscotch, mixed with fruit salad and a meringue-like topping. The combination of the heavy, creamy dessert and the light, fluffy desert just piled instant satisfaction into your face.
There was so much curry left over that was going to be thrown away, I got the tupperware I used for ramen and filled it up with some of each of the curries. I was so full I didn't eat dinner that evening either, although I did have a bite of mac n cheese with hot dogs that I made for Thursday. Sorry for the spoiler. I know how my fans are such purists.
Yesterday I woke up tired and a touch hung-over after about four hours of sleep. I was not in the mood for oatmeal.
Breakfast was two, yes, two Jeno's frozen supreme pizzas. I knew that I'd need more push to keep the engine running today and more calories for all the caffeine to bounce off of and not tear holes in my stomach.
To that end, I gladly accepted a sugar cookie from my office-mate. She likes to dust them with cinnamon.
Even with two pizzas under my belt, well, suspended just above my belt, really, I needed to eat an early lunch and slammed a bowl of ramen while working on a project at work.
But that's not all I ate at work! Thanks to some sort of summer seminar, there was a wealth of free Indian food in the atrium in the afternoon. There was channa saag (spinach and chickpeas), chicken korma (spicy, creamy red sauce) and some kind of lentil curry as well as naan, rice, raita (sour yogurt with vegetables) and even the cilantro and tamarind chutneys. the saag and the korma were very good, although there was not much chicken left in the chicken korma by the time I went down. The lentil curry had some strange texture to the sauce. It felt a little plastic.
I went up for a pretty hefty second helping of the channa saag. I also had two helpings of the desert, which seemed to me to have more in common with Midwest family reunions than it did with Indian buffet, but it was so good, I really can't complain. It was an orange pudding, possibly butterscotch, mixed with fruit salad and a meringue-like topping. The combination of the heavy, creamy dessert and the light, fluffy desert just piled instant satisfaction into your face.
There was so much curry left over that was going to be thrown away, I got the tupperware I used for ramen and filled it up with some of each of the curries. I was so full I didn't eat dinner that evening either, although I did have a bite of mac n cheese with hot dogs that I made for Thursday. Sorry for the spoiler. I know how my fans are such purists.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, I ate burritos.
I did, it's true, and nothing but.
Breakfast was two of the bacon and eggs variety accented with a tidy little wedge of Monterrey jack cheese, one with a smattering of horseradish, the other with a spritzing of McIlheny's chipotle Tabasco sauce.
Then, in the afternoon were leftover bean burritos from yesterday. I stored the beans and the tortillas separately the night before, so I wrapped them fresh in the morning with their own wedges of Monterrey jack cheese before going to work. I ate one at about 2:30PM and the other one around 6:30, and then that was it for the day.
And I thought Monday was simple...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday because the hits don't stop
I just keep on eating, but my life provides much more time to eat than it does time to write.
Monday was a throwback to earlier eating habits starting with a frozen Jeno's supreme pizza for breakfast.
Then there were a few Chips Ahoy cookies left over from last Wednesday and some left-overs from last Thursday's lunch, which was itself left over from two other days in the last two weeks. Surprisingly, the mash of papa rellena, enchilada and meat from the chicken wings melded into a very tasty, if not very attractive lunch.
Back at home, there was the semi-traditional (at least when available) celery and peanut butter.
And finally, rounding out what must be one of my all-time simplest days of food, were burritos stuffed with black beans, red beans, green peppers, cubanelle peppers and hot Italian sausage.
I guess I really dropped the ball there, only using one kind of sausage. I also used only one kind of onion, white, one kind of garlic, the kind that comes pre-peeled in a jar, one kind of tortilla, flour, one kind of cream, sour, one kind of cheese, monterray jack, and one kind of hot sauce, McIlheny's chipotle. There was also a little crushed cumin, fresh black pepper, chili powder, mace and fresh thyme and a ton of fresh cilantro. I had two of them for dinner with quite a few cold ones.
I know, you totally should have come over.
Monday was a throwback to earlier eating habits starting with a frozen Jeno's supreme pizza for breakfast.
Then there were a few Chips Ahoy cookies left over from last Wednesday and some left-overs from last Thursday's lunch, which was itself left over from two other days in the last two weeks. Surprisingly, the mash of papa rellena, enchilada and meat from the chicken wings melded into a very tasty, if not very attractive lunch.
Back at home, there was the semi-traditional (at least when available) celery and peanut butter.
And finally, rounding out what must be one of my all-time simplest days of food, were burritos stuffed with black beans, red beans, green peppers, cubanelle peppers and hot Italian sausage.
I guess I really dropped the ball there, only using one kind of sausage. I also used only one kind of onion, white, one kind of garlic, the kind that comes pre-peeled in a jar, one kind of tortilla, flour, one kind of cream, sour, one kind of cheese, monterray jack, and one kind of hot sauce, McIlheny's chipotle. There was also a little crushed cumin, fresh black pepper, chili powder, mace and fresh thyme and a ton of fresh cilantro. I had two of them for dinner with quite a few cold ones.
I know, you totally should have come over.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Friday kicked it in Wildwood, NJ
This weekend was almost too big for words. If I gave this my regular treatment, the post would be even more abusively long than usual, so I've stocked up on pictures and I took my succinct writing pill.
Taylor pork roll, two eggs and Cooper sharp cheddar on toasted white bread. This is what I would eat for breakfast four days a week if it wouldn't lead to a heart attack in few months. If you're not familiar with Taylor pork roll, imagine salt-cured bacon made into bologna. It can get crispy if you want, but mostly it's an extremely salty and succulent way to induce heart failure.
I feel buffalo chicken "pizza" is almost always a bad idea. My friend decided to take the gamble and much like you can't not look at the decapitated corpse in the flaming wreckage on the side of the highway, I took a bite of this pizza. The sauce was mostly vinegar and cayenne, which doesn't leave a lot of room for a subtle balance of flavors. A healthy dose of bleu cheese dressing would have been very welcome here.
Back at the house it was snack time: Reduced fat potato chips, cherries, salted pistachios and Cooper sharp. Much like Pringles, "reduced fat" and "lite" potato chips usually compensate by putting on a lot more salt. I'm pretty happy with that. The salty foods danced well with the first beer of the afternoon, and the cherries and cheese danced pretty well around each other.
Entenmann's chocolate donut holes with sprinkles vs Tastykake's plain/powdered/cinnamon powdered donut assortment: if you're going for irresistibility, Entenmann's has the edge. I had three or four over the course of the day. Owing a lot to their small size and, I feel, a more home-made texture, the donut holes were just a lot easier to pop. I did have a piece of a cinnamon donut later in the day, as well as one of the plain donuts for desert after dinner.
Speaking of which, here are the sides: a variation of my simple spinach salad featuring the Cooper sharp cheese and hot dog buns soaked in olive oil and lamb juices and then grilled and cut into croûtons and corn on the cob, grilled in the husk.
And the main event was roasted lamb tenderloins with a nice layer of fat on one side. The lamb was from Elysian Fields farm in Western Pennsylvania. Their lambs have been served in the French Laundry and their quality was very apparent here, even after freezing and shipping. Grilled to a juicy medium-rare while allowing time for the fat to char a bit, this might have been the best lamb I've ever eaten. I've had Elysian Fields lamb as a roast in the past, but freshly grilled and still very rare on the inside, the meat managed to balance delicacy with richness.
It was so good I used a plain Tastykake donut to sop up the juices on the plate. Mmm, meat desert.
Third desert was a chocolate covered strawberry. Second desert, not pictured here, was a swiss roll. They could have made a nice desert together, but the chocolate shell on the strawberry would not have stood up to slicing of any kind. I tried to take a small bite, but had to slam the entire thing as chocolate chunks started to drop into my lap.
Then, later on the boardwalk again, I decided it was time for a corn dog. This one was a little under done. I can eat cold hot dogs, and the gooey edge to the inner-most batter was actually pretty good, but all in all, I would have preferred my corn dog was at least genuinely warm on the inside. The batter was very light and smooth, more corn starch than corn meal, so it took on a very brisk crunchiness (where not still verging on raw) as opposed to cakier versions I have had elsewhere.
And of course this weekend had to feature boardwalk fries somewhere. These were from a Stewart's Rootbeer restaurant/stand. Excellent cheese-to-fry ratio: enough for each fry while leaving the occaisional dry spot that maintained crunchiness and let you eat with your fingers amongst friends without having to lick your fingers clean between rounds. UNSANITARY!
Later, back at the house again, there were Canadian Tommies, a twist on the Texas Tommy with Canadian bacon instead of strip bacon. My friend and I each had two, one with some packet of hot sauce from a Chinese restaurant that was left over in the beach house fridge, and the other with a squirt of mayo. I think we managed to out-swill the boardwalk, and that takes some effort, ingenuity and a dangerous disregard for the safety of your colon. The Chinese hot sauce caught me off guard as much spicier than I expected. I had to slog the first bite down with a chase of beer. The mayo CT was fantastic, though. Nothing gets me ready for bed like abusive ingestion of cholesterol.
But first, just to clean off the ol' palate before bed, a freezer pop. How much does your inner child just scream in delight just looking at this glorious orange rod of icy awesome? There was a whole bag left in the freezer, and if this weren't already the fourteenth course of food for the day I would not have been able to hold myself to just one. I'm going to have to stock up on these for the rest of summer.
Taylor pork roll, two eggs and Cooper sharp cheddar on toasted white bread. This is what I would eat for breakfast four days a week if it wouldn't lead to a heart attack in few months. If you're not familiar with Taylor pork roll, imagine salt-cured bacon made into bologna. It can get crispy if you want, but mostly it's an extremely salty and succulent way to induce heart failure.
I feel buffalo chicken "pizza" is almost always a bad idea. My friend decided to take the gamble and much like you can't not look at the decapitated corpse in the flaming wreckage on the side of the highway, I took a bite of this pizza. The sauce was mostly vinegar and cayenne, which doesn't leave a lot of room for a subtle balance of flavors. A healthy dose of bleu cheese dressing would have been very welcome here.
Back at the house it was snack time: Reduced fat potato chips, cherries, salted pistachios and Cooper sharp. Much like Pringles, "reduced fat" and "lite" potato chips usually compensate by putting on a lot more salt. I'm pretty happy with that. The salty foods danced well with the first beer of the afternoon, and the cherries and cheese danced pretty well around each other.
Entenmann's chocolate donut holes with sprinkles vs Tastykake's plain/powdered/cinnamon powdered donut assortment: if you're going for irresistibility, Entenmann's has the edge. I had three or four over the course of the day. Owing a lot to their small size and, I feel, a more home-made texture, the donut holes were just a lot easier to pop. I did have a piece of a cinnamon donut later in the day, as well as one of the plain donuts for desert after dinner.
Speaking of which, here are the sides: a variation of my simple spinach salad featuring the Cooper sharp cheese and hot dog buns soaked in olive oil and lamb juices and then grilled and cut into croûtons and corn on the cob, grilled in the husk.
And the main event was roasted lamb tenderloins with a nice layer of fat on one side. The lamb was from Elysian Fields farm in Western Pennsylvania. Their lambs have been served in the French Laundry and their quality was very apparent here, even after freezing and shipping. Grilled to a juicy medium-rare while allowing time for the fat to char a bit, this might have been the best lamb I've ever eaten. I've had Elysian Fields lamb as a roast in the past, but freshly grilled and still very rare on the inside, the meat managed to balance delicacy with richness.
It was so good I used a plain Tastykake donut to sop up the juices on the plate. Mmm, meat desert.
Third desert was a chocolate covered strawberry. Second desert, not pictured here, was a swiss roll. They could have made a nice desert together, but the chocolate shell on the strawberry would not have stood up to slicing of any kind. I tried to take a small bite, but had to slam the entire thing as chocolate chunks started to drop into my lap.
Then, later on the boardwalk again, I decided it was time for a corn dog. This one was a little under done. I can eat cold hot dogs, and the gooey edge to the inner-most batter was actually pretty good, but all in all, I would have preferred my corn dog was at least genuinely warm on the inside. The batter was very light and smooth, more corn starch than corn meal, so it took on a very brisk crunchiness (where not still verging on raw) as opposed to cakier versions I have had elsewhere.
And of course this weekend had to feature boardwalk fries somewhere. These were from a Stewart's Rootbeer restaurant/stand. Excellent cheese-to-fry ratio: enough for each fry while leaving the occaisional dry spot that maintained crunchiness and let you eat with your fingers amongst friends without having to lick your fingers clean between rounds. UNSANITARY!
Later, back at the house again, there were Canadian Tommies, a twist on the Texas Tommy with Canadian bacon instead of strip bacon. My friend and I each had two, one with some packet of hot sauce from a Chinese restaurant that was left over in the beach house fridge, and the other with a squirt of mayo. I think we managed to out-swill the boardwalk, and that takes some effort, ingenuity and a dangerous disregard for the safety of your colon. The Chinese hot sauce caught me off guard as much spicier than I expected. I had to slog the first bite down with a chase of beer. The mayo CT was fantastic, though. Nothing gets me ready for bed like abusive ingestion of cholesterol.
But first, just to clean off the ol' palate before bed, a freezer pop. How much does your inner child just scream in delight just looking at this glorious orange rod of icy awesome? There was a whole bag left in the freezer, and if this weren't already the fourteenth course of food for the day I would not have been able to hold myself to just one. I'm going to have to stock up on these for the rest of summer.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday dove into the wild.
I'm on the road, trekking into the heart of darkness in search of classic summer victuals for your vicarious enjoyment. While there are no photos yet, they are coming. For now, a bit of a teaser.
oatmeal +
leftover lunch
dippin' dots
hot dog
softserve
chips
pretzels
gourmet leftovers
dosidos and milk
and last but not least
pop rocks and beer.
oatmeal +
leftover lunch
dippin' dots
hot dog
softserve
chips
pretzels
gourmet leftovers
dosidos and milk
and last but not least
pop rocks and beer.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday brings more oatmeal titlation.
Yesterday, the Oatmeal Revolution marched on. Here we see my black sesame oatmeal. Black sesame seeds are a very common food additive in Japan. You can even get black sesame spread for toast or anything else upon which you may want to spread peanut butter or icing. I won't deign to attempt an exhaustive list.
The black sesame seeds gave a flavor similar to peanut butter, but a little lighter. I also added sesame oil, brown sugar, salt and a dash of mirin to the oatmeal as it boiled. The result was a markedly different cultural perspective on oatmeal. I love black sesame seeds, so this is likely to be a repeat offender in the breakfast line up.
Todays yogurt was a Stonyfield Farm lowfat vanilla. It's my favorite of their flavors, although some days I prefer the cream-on-top version. With a steamy summer swelter brewing outside, though, the more refreshing bite of lowfat is definitely preferable.
And just because of the staunch nutritionists in the audience, I made sure to eat my chocolate-covered nutrition waffle twins.
Then, randomly on the street, I was offered a handful of salted almonds. Yeah, I ate them. What? I'm a gonzo food journalist, after all.
The street eventually led a co-worker and myself to Gray's Papaya Dog on 72nd St. and Broadway. Gray's is a chain of hot dog joints that have spawned a few imitators around the city. Collectively, the garish yellow store-fronts and the rows of franks slowly crisping on sheets of aluminum foil are often cited as a food-tourist must if you visit Manhattan.
I had the "recession special" "with everything" with a pina colada "juice."
To translate, that's two dogs and a drink for $3.50, not bad. "With everything" here doesn't include chili or cheese, although some other Papaya locations do cater more to the chilicheeseonionmustardkrautpile that true colonic masochists come to expect from a dog with "everything." At the Gray's Papaya, though, "with everything" is a healthy lading of sauerkraut with onions stewed in a red sauce ladled over top. I like to squirt a little brown mustard on the top of that. And as for "juice," well, there are discernible bits of what I hope was actually coconut in the pina colada, so I guess we'll let that one go.
Since I was working till 8 last night, I had to have a snack a little after 6PM. I packed the leftover chalupa and some of the honey ginger chicken wings for the occasion. As far as leftovers go, the chicken fared better than the chalupa. The fresh vegetables were too much of a pain to remove before reheating in the microwave, but didn't really fare well. All the water that released from the veggies made the shell very soft. It started to fall apart on me, still delicious, but a pain to handle.
And then, when I got home, it was leftover couscous with a much more profound helping of the yogurt sauce. This was a much more pleasant leftover experience, although still not as good as leftover saag paneer. Since everything had been sitting in the fridge it was all cold which made the vegetables all the more brighter. That and a few cold ones and I barely noticed how disgustingly hot a 5th floor Manhattan apartment can get in July.
The black sesame seeds gave a flavor similar to peanut butter, but a little lighter. I also added sesame oil, brown sugar, salt and a dash of mirin to the oatmeal as it boiled. The result was a markedly different cultural perspective on oatmeal. I love black sesame seeds, so this is likely to be a repeat offender in the breakfast line up.
Todays yogurt was a Stonyfield Farm lowfat vanilla. It's my favorite of their flavors, although some days I prefer the cream-on-top version. With a steamy summer swelter brewing outside, though, the more refreshing bite of lowfat is definitely preferable.
And just because of the staunch nutritionists in the audience, I made sure to eat my chocolate-covered nutrition waffle twins.
Then, randomly on the street, I was offered a handful of salted almonds. Yeah, I ate them. What? I'm a gonzo food journalist, after all.
The street eventually led a co-worker and myself to Gray's Papaya Dog on 72nd St. and Broadway. Gray's is a chain of hot dog joints that have spawned a few imitators around the city. Collectively, the garish yellow store-fronts and the rows of franks slowly crisping on sheets of aluminum foil are often cited as a food-tourist must if you visit Manhattan.
I had the "recession special" "with everything" with a pina colada "juice."
To translate, that's two dogs and a drink for $3.50, not bad. "With everything" here doesn't include chili or cheese, although some other Papaya locations do cater more to the chilicheeseonionmustardkrautpile that true colonic masochists come to expect from a dog with "everything." At the Gray's Papaya, though, "with everything" is a healthy lading of sauerkraut with onions stewed in a red sauce ladled over top. I like to squirt a little brown mustard on the top of that. And as for "juice," well, there are discernible bits of what I hope was actually coconut in the pina colada, so I guess we'll let that one go.
Since I was working till 8 last night, I had to have a snack a little after 6PM. I packed the leftover chalupa and some of the honey ginger chicken wings for the occasion. As far as leftovers go, the chicken fared better than the chalupa. The fresh vegetables were too much of a pain to remove before reheating in the microwave, but didn't really fare well. All the water that released from the veggies made the shell very soft. It started to fall apart on me, still delicious, but a pain to handle.
And then, when I got home, it was leftover couscous with a much more profound helping of the yogurt sauce. This was a much more pleasant leftover experience, although still not as good as leftover saag paneer. Since everything had been sitting in the fridge it was all cold which made the vegetables all the more brighter. That and a few cold ones and I barely noticed how disgustingly hot a 5th floor Manhattan apartment can get in July.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday begins the March of the Oatmeals
But first, let's take a look at another fine breakfast tradition, the Nutty Buddy. I think this is a food item that deserves more serious consideration from nutritionists. It looks like a waffle, so that makes it a good breakfast. It also has peanut butter in it. I ate this one, well, this pair, on the way from the 72nd street 2 stop to the Lincoln Center. Also, at $1.39 per box of 8, they are a fantastic nutritional value.
Ok, now for the Oatmeal Revolution! You think it's boring. You think it's too hot for oatmeal. You think Wilfred Brimley should have shaved the mustache. YOU ARE WRONG!
This is your standard classic oatmeal with just a few bells and whistles. As a rule, I don't cook food with fewer than 7 ingredients. When I make eggs I find small, chemically inert objects to put in the pan and take out later.
So, in keeping with this grand ideal, in addition to the oats and water, this breakfast contained salt, brown sugar, a tablespoon of butter and a dash of cinnamon. That's seven ingredients if you count the BS about me only ever cooking with at least 7 ingredients as an ingredient itself. Mmmmm, bull shit. My favorite.
From cold water to oatmeal takes maybe 10 minutes, tops. As soon as it has taken up all the water, I pour it into my Tupperware and throw it into my bag. By the time I get to work, it has cooled to a very pleasant temperature for summer eating.
This wasn't just breakfast. I ate the oatmeal in bites as I worked through the morning and didn't finish the bowl till about 2PM. There was the vanilla yogurt on the side, but the slow eating over the course of 5 hours was very good for me. Even as the oatmeal cooled, it still remained engaging. It also led me to realize that as the food cooled, my desire for sugar decreased and my desire for salt increased. Fascinating, huh?
Expect a new oatmeal every day this week. I plan on pushing past the grey, cardboard walls of what you thought you knew about oatmeal and take this old favorite in some new directions.
Not a preview shot of upcoming oatmeal, This is a closeup of the base couscous and vegetables I made for dinner. After finishing my oatmeal around 2, I managed to make it to dinner with two handfuls of microwave pop corn, a pineapple lifesaver and
A stick of celery with peanut butter. How glorious does that look? How triumphant? Truly, this is the food of kings.
But back to dinner. I was aiming for light summer fare without too much heat involved in the cooking. Couscous is great for that, because given enough time, you don't even have to boil the water. I did, just to speed the process, though it didn't boil for very long. I also dropped a tablespoon of butter and a shot of adobo to the water as it boiled. After the water was boiling and the butter had melted, I poured the hot water into dry couscous in a glass bowl and then mixed in some snow peas.
This gave them just the lightest edge of steaming without overdoing them. After it cooled for about 5 minutes, I fluffed it and added diced red onions, red peppers, carrots, tomato and a very liberal amount of cilantro.
Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, I fried a slice of bacon and about a half inch worth of a chorizo link till their fat rendered, and then reserved the meat on the side while I fried shrimp and scallops in the fat.
The scallops were dusted with adobo and allowed to soak up the saltiness for about 15 minutes. The shrimp had a similar marinade time in fresh lime juice and a light dash of adobo. I fried the shrimp first, adding the scallops second, adding a shot of beer to the pan to prevent the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan from burning. The great thing about shrimp and scallops is they take almost no time to finish cooking, so there was not a long process of slaving over a hot stove.
By way of a dressing, I ground whole cumin, taragon, oregano, chili powder and a few black peppercorns in my mortar and added them to a cup of whole milk yogurt.
Then I plated the couscous over a cucumber dill salad. The cucumbers were sliced and salted with adobo when I started cooking and allowed to set in the fridge. Right before I started frying the sea food, I tossed in a dash of vegetable oil, a liberal slopping of balsamic vinegar and a very generous heap of fresh dill.
I poured a few tablespoons of the yogurt sauce over the top of the couscous, arranged the seafood in a little flower spread on top of the yogurt, and then, to finish, I sprinkled on the bacon and chorizo pieces that I used for fat to fry the seafood in.
It was very light and filling summer fare, perhaps too light for me. I could have stood to have been a lot more liberal with the yogurt sauce. Crunchy health food types would probably prefer this version, maybe minus the bacon-fried sea food, but I refuse to live in fear of fat. Here's a nice fence-straddler dish between indulgence and calorie counting.
Speaking of calorie counting, I would be remiss if I did not also mention my ice cream sandwich for desert/temperature control. Just a generic black rectangular cookie with white ice cream in the center. I don't even know if fancy descriptions like "chocolate" and "vanilla" are appropriate. They're just good freezer swill.
Ok, now for the Oatmeal Revolution! You think it's boring. You think it's too hot for oatmeal. You think Wilfred Brimley should have shaved the mustache. YOU ARE WRONG!
This is your standard classic oatmeal with just a few bells and whistles. As a rule, I don't cook food with fewer than 7 ingredients. When I make eggs I find small, chemically inert objects to put in the pan and take out later.
So, in keeping with this grand ideal, in addition to the oats and water, this breakfast contained salt, brown sugar, a tablespoon of butter and a dash of cinnamon. That's seven ingredients if you count the BS about me only ever cooking with at least 7 ingredients as an ingredient itself. Mmmmm, bull shit. My favorite.
From cold water to oatmeal takes maybe 10 minutes, tops. As soon as it has taken up all the water, I pour it into my Tupperware and throw it into my bag. By the time I get to work, it has cooled to a very pleasant temperature for summer eating.
This wasn't just breakfast. I ate the oatmeal in bites as I worked through the morning and didn't finish the bowl till about 2PM. There was the vanilla yogurt on the side, but the slow eating over the course of 5 hours was very good for me. Even as the oatmeal cooled, it still remained engaging. It also led me to realize that as the food cooled, my desire for sugar decreased and my desire for salt increased. Fascinating, huh?
Expect a new oatmeal every day this week. I plan on pushing past the grey, cardboard walls of what you thought you knew about oatmeal and take this old favorite in some new directions.
Not a preview shot of upcoming oatmeal, This is a closeup of the base couscous and vegetables I made for dinner. After finishing my oatmeal around 2, I managed to make it to dinner with two handfuls of microwave pop corn, a pineapple lifesaver and
A stick of celery with peanut butter. How glorious does that look? How triumphant? Truly, this is the food of kings.
But back to dinner. I was aiming for light summer fare without too much heat involved in the cooking. Couscous is great for that, because given enough time, you don't even have to boil the water. I did, just to speed the process, though it didn't boil for very long. I also dropped a tablespoon of butter and a shot of adobo to the water as it boiled. After the water was boiling and the butter had melted, I poured the hot water into dry couscous in a glass bowl and then mixed in some snow peas.
This gave them just the lightest edge of steaming without overdoing them. After it cooled for about 5 minutes, I fluffed it and added diced red onions, red peppers, carrots, tomato and a very liberal amount of cilantro.
Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, I fried a slice of bacon and about a half inch worth of a chorizo link till their fat rendered, and then reserved the meat on the side while I fried shrimp and scallops in the fat.
The scallops were dusted with adobo and allowed to soak up the saltiness for about 15 minutes. The shrimp had a similar marinade time in fresh lime juice and a light dash of adobo. I fried the shrimp first, adding the scallops second, adding a shot of beer to the pan to prevent the bits stuck to the bottom of the pan from burning. The great thing about shrimp and scallops is they take almost no time to finish cooking, so there was not a long process of slaving over a hot stove.
By way of a dressing, I ground whole cumin, taragon, oregano, chili powder and a few black peppercorns in my mortar and added them to a cup of whole milk yogurt.
Then I plated the couscous over a cucumber dill salad. The cucumbers were sliced and salted with adobo when I started cooking and allowed to set in the fridge. Right before I started frying the sea food, I tossed in a dash of vegetable oil, a liberal slopping of balsamic vinegar and a very generous heap of fresh dill.
I poured a few tablespoons of the yogurt sauce over the top of the couscous, arranged the seafood in a little flower spread on top of the yogurt, and then, to finish, I sprinkled on the bacon and chorizo pieces that I used for fat to fry the seafood in.
It was very light and filling summer fare, perhaps too light for me. I could have stood to have been a lot more liberal with the yogurt sauce. Crunchy health food types would probably prefer this version, maybe minus the bacon-fried sea food, but I refuse to live in fear of fat. Here's a nice fence-straddler dish between indulgence and calorie counting.
Speaking of calorie counting, I would be remiss if I did not also mention my ice cream sandwich for desert/temperature control. Just a generic black rectangular cookie with white ice cream in the center. I don't even know if fancy descriptions like "chocolate" and "vanilla" are appropriate. They're just good freezer swill.
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