5 posts tagged “food”

In a quest to finish up the two large heads of lettuce I received in my organic farm share box this past week, I am about to have my third Caesar salad in as many days. Even though technically they aren't Caesar salads (I am using green and red lettuce, not romaine), they just as tasty, especially with homemade fixins: dressing, croutons and chicken grilled on my little Weber.  Almost as good as the Caesar salad at the awesome Italian deli near where I used to work in Soho.

And everything was so quick and easy to prepare!  I used my blender to pulverize the tiny anchovies, garlic, oil, etc. into the dressing.  Croutons were equally simple: I cut a couple of french demi-baguettes in crouton-sized cubes, tossed with a little olive oil and kosher salt, then baked in the oven for ten minutes til crispy.

Sadly, Josh and I finished up the chicken in our salads last night, but that was grilled with a brushing of olive oil, more kosher salt and pepper, then sliced crosswise into strips.  Toss everything together with a sprinkle of parmesean cheese and (as Gordon Ramsay would say): DONE.

Since I forgot to take pictures of the salads, here's one from my other current food obsession: rainbow chard. Thankfully, I also got a big bunch of the stuff in my weekly farm share box. Chopped rainbow chard stems are both pretty and tasty, especially when sauteed with finely diced bacon.

There was an interview with the CEO of Kraft Foods in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that I found both hilarious and depressing.  Here's a choice excerpt:

WSJ: Do people still want to cook?

Ms. Rosenfeld: A lot of people consider microwaving their nacho chips with Cheez Whiz on it as cooking. I think consumers very much like to cook. I think the definition of cooking has changed dramatically. Whereas our mothers were more inclined to using their oven and their stove when they cooked, today's consumers think about using their microwave. They think about assembly as opposed to necessarily cooking.

I'm excited about this new product we just launched in January called Deli Creations. These are hot sandwiches that are made with our high-quality ingredients like Oscar Mayer meats, Kraft cheese and A1 and Grey Poupon sauces. But what's so cool about them is you stick them in your microwave, it takes 60 seconds and it tastes freshly baked.

WSJ: Do people feel like that's cooking?

Ms. Rosenfeld: In all honesty, no.

Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.

I don't remember ever being explicitly taught to cook, though I certainly absorbed all of the basics from my mother.  She cooked dinner from scratch for our family almost every night.  And around the holidays there was always something baking up in the oven.

It wasn't until I got older and found myself in the kitchen with friends who really didn't know how to cook that I realized that I already knew things like the importance of heating up oil before tossing something in the frying pan, why you should always set the timer for sooner than the recipe says, and how a written recipe is always a jumping-off point for your own creativity.

Tonight I made beef short ribs with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and I definitely wouldn't have had the nerve to try a two-day, multi-step, multi-hour-cook-time recipe (the ribs) without the culinary foundation that mom provided.  And the results were more than edible:

What's your favorite restaurant?

I don't have any one "favorite" restaurant -- more like a handful of favorites in each of the cities in which I've lived.  But one that would be a favorite if it were located here in Seattle is Cuvee, in New Orleans, where I had the best meal in recent history with dishes like these:

• Sweet-spicy frog legs, baby spinach; farmers' cheese vinaigrette
• Steen's cane syrup-cured-smoked duck breast and whole confit leg, walnut-blue cheese risotto, seared Hudson Valley foie gras; pear glace
• Chocolate torte; strawberry - almond ice cream; aged balsamic caramel

Favorite in Seattle would probably be Thai Tom, where the $6 spicy noodle is soooo fiery good with a tall Thai iced coffee.

Someday I will end up spending more than a couple of days at a time in my old city, but this was a quick weekend hop to meet up with some old friends I haven't seen in ages (even -- gulp, years!), hang with a few interweb mentalists (you know who you are), and see my favorite band at this moment.

Some scenes from my weekend:

Friday

We finally get airborne after a two-and-a-half hour delay that sets my teeth grinding as I ponder the possibility of being so late that I would miss the show that night.  The view of the Cascades outside my window is somewhat calming:

No time to stop at the hotel first, I rush from Newark to Penn Station to downtown to meet up with Steve at this cool little club called the Cake Shop.  His friend Corbi Wright is playing, and I am charmed enough by her Victoria Williams-esque warbling to purchase a beautifully-packaged, limited-edition (30 only!), lathe-cut 7" single.  Ah, I am a sucker for the vinyl.

Next stop: Brooklyn.  But after cabbing it over to Warsaw to be sure we don't miss Burma, we arrive to a fairly empty club.  Oh yeah, shows don't start that early in New York!  After chilling in the bar for a bit to catch up and drink up, we head back to the stage area, ear protection at the ready for the show.

Mission of Burma don't disappoint, as usual.  And other people are actually dancing and moving (take that, Seattle!) and getting into the cacophonous/harmonious whoosh.  They hit the hits (Revolver, Academy Fight Song), the crowd-pleasers (Uncertain Fate, Photograph) and a good chunk of the new album, before killing us with a Syd-tribute (Astronomy Domine).  Oh my, oh yes.

After the show, another damn-I-haven't-seen-you-in-ages encounter leads us and the former compadre to a Polish old-man bar around the block.  Turns out I'm the only one who isn't an old man, as my attempt to buy everyone another round is thwarted and we cab it back to Manhattan en route to our respective sleepytimes.

Saturday

Time to sleep in, then wander around lower Manhattan.  I almost feel like a tourist, simply because I never explored the Wall St area much in the eight or so years I lived in NYC.  Fighting the waves of people rolling out of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, I make my way down into the dank subway station.  Right, hot and humid -- welcome to the East Coast!

Some time later, I emerge in Jackson Heights for my long-anticipated Indian buffet feast at the Jackson Diner.  I had almost forgotten how good naan tastes when it's properly crispy, when masala sauce is appropriately spiced and how much a tall, cool mango lassi hits the spot when you've been walking around the grimy streets of New York in the middle of summer.

Later on, dueling dinner plans resolved themselves pretty nicely, as I met up with some peeps at a new Grand Sichuan on, of all places, the strip on St. Marks.  But the tea-smoked duck was just as good as I remembered from their midtown outpost, and I sampled some new things (chili-spiced conch) as well.

After excusing myself and promising to rejoin the crew, I caught up with Derin and Ronnie over their dinner.  After much girly gabbing, the restaurant closed for the night, we loitered on the sidewalk some more until too many people kept asking us if we were in line for the ultra-cool, secret club next door (ha!) and the gals headed off for the subway.

But this is New York, where the nights stretch on and on!  I wandered back to the East Village to rejoin my dinner buddies for drinks and discussion of musical trivia fueled by the jukebox they'd stuffed with their song picks.

After more drinks and various shenanigans involving texted messages/pictures from my cameraphone and observing a, uh, golf trophy being used as a beer stein, 4am eventually rolled around and it was time to call it a night.

Sunday

Time to leave, boo-hoo.  And the thought of schlepping a shoulder bag filled with my things plus recent purchases at H&M (clothes so pretty!) all over Manhattan in 92-degree weather was equally unappealing.  I resolved to make it over to the diner in my old 'hood for a grilled cheese-and-bacon sandwich.

I decided to skip the subway for a pleasant, air-conditioned, above-ground ride on a city bus all the way up through Wall Street, Chinatown, the East Village to 42nd St.  Walking through Times Sq, I jaywalked around the swarming hordes like I always do -- only back here no one gives you a dirty look for it.

Arriving at the diner, I find that it has just closed due to a power outage.  Doh!  Walking a few blocks farther north, I see that my alternate diner is all boarded-up.  Sadness!  Time for a mozzarella sandwich on black olive ficelle from Amy's Bread.  And some treats to take home for later.  Then back down a few blocks for coffee at my old local (urgh, how did I ever think this was good coffee??), then to the Cupcake Cafe to score a buttercream-frosted beauty for someone special.

Laden with treats, I beat a retreat back to Newark for the long flight home.