7 posts tagged “food”

Did you know...

Where I come from, we call any kind of athletic footwear tennis shoes, whether or not we actually play tennis in them?

And that the area between the sidewalk and the curb is actually a portal to hell?

devilstrip

Ok I think I have really run out of things to say.  I don't like any of the questions of the day.  I'm not excited about Harry Potter, and I wish I knew more people who, like me, have never read a book or seen a movie and are still living rich, full lives.  Let me go check to see what the oldest thing in my fridge is.

...

It's a six-way tie between 1/3 bag frozen edamame, frozen unopened bag of Cascadian Farm Organic Veggie Medley, 1/16 jar mango chutney, 1/2 bottle tamari soy sauce, pine nuts, and the bottom tray of ice cubes.

Actually I think the bottom tray of ice cubes wins.  Like the French, I drink my water and Coca-Cola sans glace.

So in conclusion, this vaguely depressing activity was actually worthwhile, because it reminded me it's that time of the year again: I need to do some serious defrostification.

Pinkberry combo du jour... wait for it... Plain with blackberry + yogurt chips. 

Banh mi in the Bee Kay.  I had some business to attend to in the 'Slope over the weekend and so I thought it would be a perfect time to do some outer borough banh mi traipsing.  I decided to check out Ba Xuyen after hearing from several sources that it could deliver the goods.  And had tables inside... very important to an uptown girl like myself, who cannot bear the thought of a long subway ride on a very cold day just to find somewhere to sit and chow the freak down on a Vietnamese hoagie.  Also, they tend to be a bit on the messy side.  Or I tend to be on the messy side.  Whichever.

So it begins.  I trekked out to Sunset Park on the D line.  I had never been to that 'hood before so it was interesting.  I'm always amazed by the palpable differences in neighborhoods in this city, each one has a totally unique je ne sais quoi all the while staying totally New Yorktastic.  Or New Yorktarded.  Especially working in the library, I only ever feel exposed to three out of five boros (actually two as I've never been to Staten Island, shock!!!)

Anyway the banh mi at Ba Xuyen was pretty fab.  Lots and lots of veggies, if that's your thing; also lots and lots of meat (I had a #1).  After a while the meat started to gross me out though.  I think it was the ham.  In my second-to-last bite I got a chunk of something hard in there, like cartilage.  Let me apologize to any vegans who might be reading this, I had no idea that was possible.  In fact I was really turned off.  Next time I would probably get BBQ only. But in reality I will probably stick to the Manhattan banh mi (Vietnam Banh Mi So #1 or Saigon Banh Mi).  Maybe I will go back if I am ever again in the neighborhood or if I am with an attractive hipster dude who wants me to take him out on the town in Brooklyn, because of course that's where all the attractive hipster dudes live.  And for $3 you can't really complain about some stray cartilage.  Overall I'm glad I tried Ba Xuyen, it was a nice way to waste a Sunday.

Tonight I made this fabolous gorgonzola cauliflower soup.  It was really simple and efficiently tasty.  Except I was a little concerned about the cheese: it was well within the "Purchase by" realm of existence but had a gooey texture and a faintly ammonia smell.  I rationalized it by telling myself that it is actually dolce gorg, a creamier variety.  Plus I have eaten way ammonia-ier brie wedges (with gusto) in my day.  But it brings up an interesting quandary: How do you know when stinky, moldy-ass cheese has taken a TURN for the WORSE?  Where do you draw that line?  The soup turned out pretty good and delightfully funky, great for dunking into with some crusty bread.

And for the record, I'd just like to second the goodness of dates 'n' tahini.  Try it you will like it.

Wednesday night, 10:30 p.m.: snack attack time.  I wanted something a little carby.  I was fresh out of Flax Plus cereal products.  For some reason the most logical thing I could construct out of the contents of my fridge was a peanut butter and pickle sandwich on Eli's health nut bread.

But: sweet or sour?

I did a little internet research and could not come to any solid conclusion.  I didn't even attempt to look for "peanut butter and cornichons," which are all I have, because God knows the French are not big on le buerre d'arachide and it's probably some kind of gastronomic heresy to consider combining those two condiments.  So I did what any gourmet chowhound foodie would do: I arranged a taste test.  Cornichons vs. sweet pickle relish.

The verdict: I would have to give a thumbs up to both sour and sweet.  But I will state that the crunchy texture was definitely an asset for the cornichons, with the soggyness a liability for the relish. Next time I will be sure to pick up some bread and butter pickles for exactly this purpose.  Maybe dill too, just to do the full comparison.

And no I am not a pregnant lady.

Last night in celebration of Susan's birthday, we went to Momofuku Ssäm Bar to try out the late night menu.  We had already experienced the burritos and buns on the daytime menu, and found them to be quite fabulous.  So this was the logical next step in our neverending quest for delicious pork.

Seasonal pickles: This is actually not an $8 plate of gherkins.  It's a nice assortment of pickled veggies (baby carrots, daikon, corn on the cob, haricots verts, other unidentifiable but yummy things) with a spicy sauce. 

Steamed buns:  Of course, these were good.  A different cut of pork than the daytime or the Momofuku Noodle Bar buns.  All are divine.  They have simply ruined me for Chinese takeout buns.  And the little slice of pickle in there is perfect.

Three terrine sandwich:  Described as a gourmet take on the banh mi, this tiny sandwich contains ham, chicken liver paté, headcheese and some spiky cousin of cilantro.  I suspected I would probably like it; turns out it was even better than I could have imagined.  But I was also a little drunk and a lot starving.  I said it tasted like God.  The birthday girl on the other hand seemed unimpressed.

Fried cauliflower:  Despite appearances to the contrary, NOT VEGETARIAN.  I was not crazy about this dish, anyway I was too busy with the three terrines to care.

Mochi ice cream sampler:  Pretty much what you would expect but pretty good.  Helped to wash down the hammy aftertastes.  Flavors were lychee, pumpkin, red bean, mint chocolate and something else.  Pumpkin was the best.

After we ordered our server warned us that that was not really "heaps" of food.  I think it turned out to be plenty, although Mason was not partaking in as much pork as Susan and I.  It certainly cost enough.  But I think it was worth it.  Next time I'm going to go all out and get the bacon wrapped grilled pork sausage.  Or better yet, the Bo Ssäm party platter for me and seven of my closest friends.  My birthday is coming up!  Anyone ready for a vegan vacation?

So I've been all over fall foods lately.  Fall Foods in Full Effect.  Last night was spaghetti squash with pesto, and in the past week or so acorn squash, baked sweet potato fries (twice), pasta fagioli, rainbow slaw, lupini beans, and collard greens.  Tonight after a long day at work and a harrowing excursion to Trader Joe's, the temperature dropped and it became very windy.  I came home to a burnt out light bulb in the kitchenette that was twisted too tightly for me to change.  Also I was having flashbacks to the last time I tried to reach something really high in my apartment.  Thankfully Joe the (super!) super was around and he got it out.  Apparently there was something wrong with the socket, but with the aid of some wooden chopsticks I had lying around (yeah I don't know how he did it), the bulb was replaced and I got to cookin'.

I made baked polenta fries with fontina fondue, a mishmash of recipes that in the end turned out to be perfetto.  I've really been into chow.com lately and they had an interesting recipe, however I didn't feel like preparing and then frying up this foodstuff that my dad still insists on telling childhood horror stories about.  So I took this simple Everyday Food recipe for baked fries and whipped some up with that.  They turned out super crunchy and yummy, in retrospect I should have used the whole package instead of half.  

BTW, Agata & Valentina is my new place, I've given up on Eli for the time being.  It's more of a hike but it's so freaking Italian in there (and weirdly affordable) that I am just in love with it.

For the fondue, I used the Terra Australis Chardonnay from Trader Joe's and it worked pretty well; in fact right now I am using it to get drunk and fall asleep.  This is an exceptionally good wine for the cork-retarded, as it has a twist-off cap.  When I requested a sample at the store from the dude he spent a long time examining my Ohio ID.  I told him it said I was 25 but he said he was also looking to see that it was legit.  The whole time I was thinking don't I look pretty haggard right now to be a 20 year old NYU student?  Do you really think I'm here to play games?  Don't you see the liberry all over my face? But anyway... is it my fault that Ohio makes some fancy looking IDs compared to some other (ok, NEW YORK) states I know, that look like laminated pieces of shit?  In Ohio, we have holograms of the state seal!  HOLOGRAMS!  As in, nineteen-eighties futuristic... as in, freaking Jem and the Holograms.  That reminds me I really should get a NY ID, seeing as I've been here for over three years and all.  When is the whole "shelf life" thing supposed to kick in guys, 'cause I think I might be starting to feel it.  But thankfully the new jobby job starts on the 30th, just in time for me to miss out on Hallow'een hiijinks in da Bronx.  I'm looking forward to my new midtown digs.  I just hope the 'wichcraft guys are ready.

Seriously, they did not just pay me to say that.  But they might as well have.  They actually credited me for the possibly fecal-bacteria laden spinach I ordered for delivery tonight.  It doesn't expire for another week so I thought maybe I'd hang on to it anyway and see if this whole scare blows over... I hope so because I really like spinach a lot.  Diarrhea, not so much.

I got an incredible amount of food for about $40... Rachel Ray eat your chubbo heart out (sorry for the pun you know it just means I miss knitting with Cassandra.)

goat cheese.  1% milk.  two drinkable yogurts.  sundried tomatoes.  moroccan oil cured olives. peanuts. 1 mango.  4 ginger gold apples.  brawny paper towels.  pumpkin flax plus (i.e., the crack laced granola that is oftentimes my only reason for getting up in the morning).  bran muffins.  broccoli.  swiss chard.  5 yellow onions.  2 red onions.  carrots.  savoy cabbage.  And they threw in some strawberries on top of that, free of charge.  Sweet.  My fridge is now packed.  Even if that doesn't seem like such a big whoop (it's mostly produce) understand that if I had gone to Eli it would have cost twice as much.  And I didn't even have to carry anything anywhere, except from the door to the mini hallway to the mini kitchen to the mini fridge, which are all barely within inches of each other.

Oh so swiss chard... pain in the ass.  Took like an hour to clean and put it the hell away.  I just hope it tastes as good as the spinach I been missin'...

Today it rained nonstop.  Rainy Sundays can be good for being hungover, being lazy, drinking tea and listening to Rachel's and Galaxie 500... but I'm upset that I haven't had any quality time with my bike lately.  I thought about calling friends for dinner but it's really just too gross outside, plus I don't want to spend any more money this week.  But the day was not wholly unproductive.  I invented a recipe, and it doesn't taste weird or anything!

Last night's bachelorette get-together (yeah, I think the wildest moment was probably during pin the "tail" on the "donkey") featured a fabulous dip that our hostess claims she made up right there on the spot.  I forced her to write down how she did it and so now I have a piece of paper with the ingredients and no measurements or other guidance.  Apparently it involves cilantro, pumpkin seeds, lime, silken tofu, tahini, salt and pepper.  I'm afraid I will never be able to replicate that dip... my brain needs clear, step by step instructions in order to cook, knit, or assemble something from IKEA.  I'm a librarian.  I like order.  Almost to the point of OCD but not quite.

So normally I don't trust myself enough to "wing it" while cooking.  But today I did and I'm pretty proud of the results.  A couple days ago I made tuna and artichoke panini with a recipe my mom told me about from Giada (my mom has a little bit of a girl crush on Giada, it's cute), so today I still had some artichokes left over.  I wanted to use some of my spinach too so I did a quick search to see what kind of recipes there are. I couldn't find any.  If the internets are to be trusted, no one has ever attempted to cross the Spinach Artichoke dip threshold into the realm of pasta.  So I made something up.  (In the interest of Type A cooks everywhere I will try to make my measurements a little more precise than Sabre's.)

tbsp butter
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
couple handfuls of spinach
half a can of artichokes, quartered
crushed red pepper
1 C penne, uncooked
small cube of fontina cheese, chopped up

So you saute the garlic in the butter, add the spinach and cook until it's all wilted.  Add the artichokes.  Add a little crushed red pepper.  If you haven't already boiled water and started cooking the pasta, get your freaking act together.  Once the pasta is al dente, drain and return to the pot.  Add the spinach artichoke mixture.  Add the cubed up cheese and stir until it gets all melty and delicious.  Grind some black pepper all over that; devour.

Vegan version: substitute olive oil for butter.  Take out the cheese.  But are you really, really sure you don't want the cheese?  It makes life worth living if you ask me.  With that said, let me give props to Whole Foods Union Square for their little basket of sample cheeses you can pick up for a buck or so each.  That's where I got the fontina and a little comte.  Cheeses I wouldn't normally buy in a big brick but that are perfect in small, adorably priced packages.  Eli, are you listening?

Also, Whole Foods' sweet chili pecans are delish, as is the whole "nut bar" concept they have going on over there.