Cookie Exchange Party 2008
Sat 12/20/08: 1st annual Cookie Exchange Party. Six parties showed up and swapped 4 dozen each. Clockwise: spritz flower chocolate ginger molasses with M&M, spritz heart chocolate ginger molasses with sanding sugar, Pfeffernüsse, Earl Grey tea cookie, raspberry Jammie butter cookie, Chewy Cherry Choc Roca bar, and peanut butter cookie with Hershey's kiss.
Awesomely, ALL of the cookies were delicious and luckily, very different from one another. (There was the chance that 3 people could've brought chocolate chip cookies or that 2 would show up with the same thing since i didn't implement strict rules. I did not specify "only holiday cookies" nor "no duplicate recipes allowed.")
We served mushroom puffs, 3 kinds of little sandwiches, assorted cheeses, artichoke dip, tangerines and pepp patts. The party was a good length at about 1.5 hours. The *only* thing i would change for next time is: MORE COOKIES. Our bunch was barely enough for ourselves plus a little for both of our families -- and since be and i baked separate batches, we netted a combined 8 dozen+! The cookies were all so delicious i didn't want to give any away! Anyone up for a spring swap? I really don't feel like waiting a whole year to do this again!
Cheap
Saw this
article from the NYTimes on
Jenny 8's blog:
...there’s a good chance that your deliveryman is being paid almost nothing, with cash tips being his only real source of income. And restaurant delivery workers — particularly Asian-restaurant deliverymen — labor under brutal conditions. These are not union workers at hotel restaurants shrieking about the loss of a pedicure benefit or some other luxury.
Asian-restaurant deliverymen risk their lives every time they set out on their bicycles and travel miles to deliver orders. When they are robbed, a Saigon Grill worker reported, they have to compensate the restaurant for the lost money. When the weather is bad, the workload increases because more customers order in — and then complain if their food takes longer than usual to arrive.
Consumers are largely to blame for this state of affairs. We demand rock-bottom prices. Plenty of New Yorkers are happy to pay extra for organic groceries of dubious merit, but if pork fried rice goes up a dollar at one place we order from any of the five other places in the same delivery radius. We expect free cold sesame noodles, quartered oranges and cans of soda.
And because the price of the food is so low, even the tip isn’t high as an absolute number. There’s only so much money a deliveryman can make $2 at a time.
Not to mention the extremely high murder rate for deliverymen, particularly Chinese immigrant men working in urban areas.
It's interesting to me how people refuse to pay more than $5 per entree at Chinese restaurants or for delivery. These are the same people who routinely pay upwards of $20 for Italian entrees that consist of nothing more than mushy pasta.
Pepp Patts
It's 3am / can't sleep / had an annoying day. Good thing i'm still in the mood to bake and cook; our first ever cookie exchange party is tomorrow in about 13 hours. I'm serving tea sandwiches, hot drinks and savory appetizers since it's between meals.
Tonight i baked 8 dozen
Earl Grey Tea Cookies which came out awesomely crumbly, citrusy and a wee bit salty. So far, all the Martha Stewart cookie recipes i've tried have been delicious. I really wanted to make the
Chocolate Crackle Cookies but have had no luck finding Dutch processed cocoa in Philadelphia. If i don't find it at
Fantes in the morning then no Crackles! (Note the online version of the recipe is different than the one published in the special Holiday Cookies magazine i have.)
While the EGTCs froze, i made a batch of
DIY Peppermint Patties.
J sent me the recipe a while back and i LOVE peppermint patties. Annoyingly, my hand mixer busted in the middle of whipping the middles -- anyone recommend a decent hand mixer? -- so i had to finish it by hand. Shockingly, the middles are quite tasty. "Shockingly," because it's basically a ball of buttery, minty powdered sugar. If i did it again i would actually temper the chocolate and perhaps use a different kind. The 70% Gran Saman from
El Rey is good on its own but too bitter with the sweet creamy middles. Overall i would say they're good and i would definitely make them again. I got 43 patties, each larger than a Junior Mint but smaller than a York.
But what i REALLY want to make are the SNICKLES from Chow's
Make Your Own Halloween Candy Bars. All of the bars look awesome but the Snickles picture makes me salivate. Perhaps i'll attempt that later this month!
Fruits
I think my two most favorite fruits of all time are Moro blood oranges and black raspberries. They've bumped Champagne mangoes, persimmons and crispy Pink Lady apples from the top. Blueberries and Bing cherries are up there somewhere, too.
I'm resisting myself from ordering boxes and boxes of Fruit Delights from
Liberty Orchards. While Trader Joes sells the same thing for much less, they don't offer a Tropical, Fiesta (sweet hot & sour!) or Locoum assortment. I'm salivating thinking about the Locoum flavors: Cinnamon-Walnut, Rose-Pistachio, Orange-Blossom-Almond, and Lemon Delight. be and i are almost done with our Trader Joes Fruits of Fancy box and i'm getting worried...
I'd also love to check out the Pates de Fruits from Whole Foods. They also sell the
Charles Chocolate version which includes: Raspberry, Blood Orange, White Peach, Papaya, and Passion Fruit. Damn, i'm going to have to personally indulge in that $22 box of craziness.
Am i lacking vitamin C or something? All i want to do is gorge on fruits!
Candy!
A few weeks ago we attempted to watch the
giant pinata get demolished. Good thing we left early! The only positive thing about the day was FREE CANDY. Sure, most of it was Frooties (fruit Tootsie Rolls) and Caramel Creams but free candy is free candy. We also picked up some Big Hunk, Abba Zabba and Look! made by the
Annabelle Candy Co. I wasn't into the Look! and Abba Zabba, but the Big Hunk was strangely delicious -- i think it was the peanuts.
Last weekend be and i stumbled upon old skool candy jackpot bizarreness. It seems that someone at the $5 Below store at the Gallery Mall is a fan of candy; one could find the typical movie-sized boxes of everything, alongside old skool candy, gimmicky candy and some small-company candies. We walked away with a Peanut Butter
Goo Goo Cluster, a
Zero bar and a
Zagnut. The Zero and Zagnut bars are now manufactured by Hershey's but the Goo Goo is still independent.
I love nuts and peanut butter but the Goo Goo Cluster didn't do it for me. Perhaps it was the cheapy chocolate coating? I'll give it another try just in case. Zagnut is basically a crispier Butterfinger with a coating of toasted coconut flakes. Definitely sweet and delicious. The Zero was strange at first but as i kept eating it, it really, really grew on me. Once you get over the "white fudge" coating (aka fake white chocolate), the inside is a nice, chewy, nutty, roasty, caramel stripey block of goodness. And now that i've taken this picture, i can finally consume the remains of my candy!
Hot Soupness
As i've stated
before, the best vegetarian sausages are from
Field Roast. We love eating the Smoked Apple Sage sausages grilled or pan-fried, and using the Mexican Chipotle ones in recipes that call for chorizo. Luckily, my repeated requests to Philadelphia-are stores have been answered!
Essene stocks all of the flavors and Bella Vista Natural Foods stocks two. We even saw Celebration Roast at Whole Foods; we'll get around to trying that soon.
Recently, i've been making an awesomely hot and hearty soup using the Mexican Chipotle sausages, two per pot of soup.
707 Kale, Potato & Sausage SoupServes about 6
2 T olive oil
1 small onion, diced fine
2-3 medium waxy potatoes, peeled and cubed
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb kale, washed well, stalks removed and leaves chopped
1-1.5 qts (4 - 6 cups) vegetable stock
1 small can tomato sauce
1 can chickpeas
2 Field Roast Mexican Chipotle sausages, cut into half lengthwise and then rounds
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
Heat the oil in a big stockpot on medium heat. Add onions and potatoes. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and kale, cover to wilt for 1-2 minutes. Add stock, tomato sauce, chickpeas, Field Roast and bay leaves. Add a few cups of water if it's not soupy enough. Stir well and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a full boil, then lower heat back to low and simmer 5-10 minutes until potatoes are done. Caution - soup will be very spicy hot!
Huitlacoche, Essene, and Free Stuff from Philadelphia
1) At
Headhouse Farmers' Market i've eaten at the
Los Taquitos de Puebla stand a few times. Usually we order a plate of three tacos filled with either squash blossom, mushroom or corn smut, generously top them with hot sauce and devour. I didn't think anything of this "corn smut" except that it was a "corn fungus," similar to mushrooms. It looked like finely chopped up black bits and tasted like mushrooms. No big deal. Squash blossom was better, anyways. Okay, but now thanks to O and his
internet forays, i cannot bear to think of corn smut aka Huitlacoche without feeling ill.
The Steve Don't Eat It series, although hilarious, does not even show the worst of Huitlacoche. Don't believe me? Google "Huitlacoche" and check out the images of this disgusting-looking bizarre alien mold podness. Apparently people are trying to rename "corn smut" to "Mexican Truffle" but i'm not sure it's going to take off unless no one ever sees what it really looks like. But yes, it does taste like mushrooms. Would i choose to eat it again? NO! But if it was chopped up fine and called "mushrooms?" I guess?
2) The Madame X fudge from
Betty's Tasty Buttons was the bomb! L and i wanted to purchase some but they were already sold out!
3) I'm going to make the "Rutabaga and Leek Chowder with Crisp Smoky Croutons" from Deborah Madison's
Vegetable Soups book. I've never used rutabagas before but our
CSA was offering them last week, so i thought we'd try something new. I bought 2 leeks from Headhouse and kept smelling delicious onionness wafting from my bag as i walked around the rest of the day. I *may* try to make the stock from scratch, as L strongly suggests, but i may take the lazy route and use bouillon cubes.
4) YAAAY to
Essene for stocking
Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows! I bought a box of the coconut ones and we're rationing ourselves to two per day.
5) A little booness to Essene for not stocking the Mexican Chipotle flavor of
Field Roast vegan sausages. (But Essene does deserve props for stocking Field Roast at all!) I'm going to send them an email right now. I love the Smoked Apple Sage ones the best, but i need the Mexican Chipotle ones for my vegetarian chorizo soup!
6) I am in love with Smokehouse Almond
Nut Thins.
7) be harvested over 20 gallons of compost from our
Earth Machine composter! It's amazing how all of our vegetable scraps, peelings, coffee grounds and dead tomato plants + leaves have turned into black compost for our garden. To get your own backyard composter in Philadelphia, check
here for upcoming workshops. Sadly, there are no more workshops for a
free rain barrel this year, but we're so there in 2009!
8) Sometime this week i'm planning on making: apple butter (from our recent apple picking trip), biscotti, Earl Grey tea cookies and meringues.
Treats Truck
Yesterday i was walking up to Cafe Zaiya for onigiri when i came across the
Treats Truck. This sugar mobile was such a find! The line was very long on my first pass, but on my second it was much shorter. I asked the owner Kim Ina what she recommended and finally walked away with a peanut butter sandwich cookie, a homemade "Oreo" and a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts. The truck that day also carried cupcakes, ice cream cone cupcakes, Rice Krispies treats, little pies, bars and brownies. It was quite hard to decide but in the end it didn't matter -- each of the three cookies were EXCELLENT. Excellent to the point of restraining myself from polishing them off in a second. I wanted be to try them so i saved half of each one. I kept thinking about the half cookies the rest of the day. I even felt bad not mentioning the Treats Truck to my office in case they wanted to try the remains of my cookies!
That evening, be had a bite of each cookie half and thought they were good. I couldn't understand why he wasn't crying from deliciousness but when i finished them off, i realized that the cookies had lost some of their wonderful texture from sitting around for many hours. The homemade Oreo was crisp when i first ate it, but last night it was soft. The melting crumble of the peanut butter cookies was changed to a soft bite. The chocolate chip cookie held up the best but lesson learned: EAT THE COOKIES FAST. Another lesson: SHARING IS FOR LOSERS.
The Treats Truck makes various stops throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn during the week. You know where i'll be each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon!
3 Quick Reviews
1)
Almaz Cafe on 20th at Sansom. We must've walked past this place a billion times on our way to the 20th St Capogiro location and always thought it was just a cafe/sandwich shop! If you read the menu closely you'll see that they have meat and vegetarian Ethiopian dishes. We shared the vegetarian sampler which was more than enough food for the two of us. All five dishes were very tasty (and the servings were super generous), the injera was delicious and the service was ultra friendly. My only complaint was that the spicy dishes could've been much hotter, but according to be it's because i'm insane. Definitely going back to have more vegetarian dishes here. I would love to compare it to the much-loved Dahlak in West Philly but we've only been there once with a group with picky eaters, so our choices were limited.
2)
Mustard Greens on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. We've been meaning to try this place for the longest time! The menu isn't huge at this neighborhood-institution Chinese restaurant, nor are there many vegetarian options, but the service is knowledgeable and friendly. Our waiter asked us to clarify if eggs were okay when we inquired about a noodle dish being vegetarian -- so this isn't a place where the answer is automatically "yes" and i like that! We had the sauteed Chinese broccoli and the noodles with vegetables. Both dishes were amazingly simple and delicious; we finished both quickly and contemplated ordering a tofu dish just to try something else. The noodle dish was one of the best i'd had in a years! Definitely going back to check out more!
3)
Cedars on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. Again, we'd been meaning to check this place out for the longest time. Too bad we were the only ones there that night because the food was great. We shared the vegetarian plate (hommus, falafel, baba gannouj and grape leaves), spanakopita, tabouli salad and two desserts. Everything we had was delicious but the tabouli salad was out of this world -- crazy fragrant abundant parsley in a perfect lemony tomatoey juicy dressing with barely any bulghur (cracked wheat) at all. We both agreed that the tabouli was the best dish of the evening. Next time, we might try the $25 sampler of everything they serve, depending on whether that's worth it for vegetarians or not. Otherwise, we'd probably order the same but each get our own order of tabouli salad.
And for the record, our two blueberry bushes (Saul Tigh on the right and Lucy Lawless on the left) [don't ask us to explain the names] made approximately 112 and 30 more berries since the first major pickings from early summer.
Midtownies
This morning i was on a rampage for onigiri/omusubi/rice balls. I've been meaning to check out
oms/b but since it was too far to walk to before work, i settled for
Chiyoda which was only 9 blocks from my office. The seaweed salad i had was tasty but the only vegetarian rice ball available was edamame/seaweed, without the seaweed wrapper (just plain in a plastic triangular box), and they claimed they weren't bringing out any more ume ones (pickled plum, my favorite). While the rice ball was good, i really missed the crispy seaweed contrast. But i'm not a quitter, so i did more internet research and found a place called Cafe Zaiya (also on 41st) with a
good post about it from Midtown Lunch. I'm so there, right after work but before the bus! Check out this
useful rice ball locator for New York City. Now only if i can find them in Philadelphia...
Today i also tried
Red Mango, Pinkberry's main competitor in the frozen yogurt war. Working in the middle of 32nd St, i'm pretty much in the literal middle of it. I got a small plain with blueberries and my serving seemed more generous than the 4 oz i paid for. Overall, i liked the creaminess of Red Mango more than the icy tartness of Pinkberry. I'm not a loyal frozen yogurt addict like some -- i'll eat anything sweet as long as it's vegetarian -- but if i had to choose i'd go with Red Mango.
Sal(i)vation
Everytime i open the jar, all hell breaks loose in my mouth.
Fresh Hot Pepper & Garlic Sauce8-10 very hot peppers (i used a mix of Czech Black, Bulgarian Carrot and Habanero peppers from the CSA)
3 cloves garlic (i used our very own homegrown hardneck garlic)
1/4-1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 t sea salt
Wash and destem the peppers, peel the garlic. In a blender or food processor, chop the peppers and garlic with some of the vinegar. You'll have to stop and push the mixture down a few times. Add the salt and more vinegar to your liking. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator, and use it in ramen, on beans or wherever you want a hot, garlicky, vinegar kick. You can do this with jalepeno peppers but it won't be the same.
Peach Reductor = Jammer
On Saturday the Peach Crew and i headed over to
Highland Orchards in West Chester, PA, for a mega Pick Your Own trip. Our first trip out there was in June for
blueberries and
black raspberries; be and i picked over 10 lbs of berriness, a quarter of which is still in our freezer for unspecified usage. This 2nd trip was mainly for peaches but we ended up picking blackberries as well.
The peaches were "hail kist" meaning that most were scarred from a recent hailstorm -- the Orchard was offering a $12.50 box you could fill with as many peaches as possible. I'm not really sure how many lbs we picked but the final tally (not including the ripe ones we found and ate) was 131 peaches, ranging from small to large. The 131 was just for be and i! The Rs and the KAs each filled their own boxes as well! Peach overload for sure.
Next we sampled a few blackberries and ended up picking a few lbs of those too. The buses near the ends of the rows were picked over, but if one braved the overgrowth and spiderwebs, the middle of each long row held delicious berries ranging from medium to mega large. be and i picked 3.4 lbs and the others ranged a little higher and lower.
(After fruit picking, we headed into town for lunch at
Iron Hill Brewery, chosen for its interesting beer offerings. Note the
sampler is much fun.)
So... back at home we first processed a bunch of the ripe peaches, cutting them into chunks. Then we separated the nice looking peaches to give out to friends. Another trayload stayed on the kitchen table to ripen for us to eat, while the majority went into the fridge. Apparently one is supposed to refrigerate peaches and take them out to ripen (in about 1-2 days) as needed.
My usual peach reduction recipe is Peach Crisp from
Pillsbury Best Desserts but that really only uses 8-10 per dish. I needed more ways to reduce peaches so i decided to try making jam. Since the blackberries were going bad fastest, i froze half of them and used the rest for blackberry jam. The
recipe i used was a pectin-free one from Martha Stewart; i halved the recipe, used only 1.75 cups of sugar and left out the bay leaf. The plate test really works, too! I tested the jam four times before it wrinkled correctly, and now the jam is a nice, spreadable yet firm consistency. I love the faint lemony hint due to the lemon rind. Overall a delicious jam -- so delicious i can't believe it was that easy.
The peach jam recipe search was harder. Most recipes used pectin, were too simplistic or overly complicated. I wasn't going to sterilize jars to preserve the jam on my shelf, nor was i going to shell out $ for a box of pectin when plenty of people have made successful jam in the old skool method. I ended up using the Martha Stewart recipe as a basis and tweaked it from other information online. The jam cooked up nicely although it's a little looser than i would've liked; i plate tested twice and it seemed okay, but perhaps a little more cooking would've made it just right. Regardless, it's the best peach jam i've ever tasted. I'm not even that into jam -- but the last few days have had me eating toast & jam, baguette & jam, crackers & jam, just spoonfuls of jam...
This weekend i'm really tempted to find some small canning jars or jam jars to really try to make JAM, as in, the jars you sterilize and boil until they vacuum seal themselves so you can store them forever on your shelf. We still have a thousand peaches so if it doesn't work out, no big deal. If it does, then everyone's getting homemade jam for the holidays!
be's Peach Jam #16 cups peaches*, peeled and chopped
2 cups white sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
Put two small plates in the freezer to get cold. Use a potato masher and crush up the peaches until it's half mush, half chunks. Add the peaches to a heavy pot with the sugar and lemon juice. Heat on medium high until boiling. Skim off the foam (this will take a few minutes) and boil the jam for 10-12 minutes until it looks syrupy. Take the pot off the heat, drop a spoonful of jam onto one of the cold plates, freeze for 2 minutes and test. If it wrinkles a bit and is not super liquidy anymore, it's done. Otherwise put the pot back on the heat and cook for another 1-2 minutes and repeat the test. Keep repeating this cycle until the jam is the correct consistency. Put the jam into glass jars and keep refrigerated. Use within a few weeks. (This made about 28 oz of jam for me: one 24 oz Classico pasta sauce Mason jar, one 4 oz glass jam jar.)
*Some people online state that slightly underripe fruit makes better jam since it has a naturally higher pectin content.
Polystyrene Thermal Insulation
YAAY to Phileo Yogurt for switching their bowls from styrofoam to paper! A bunch of us headed over tonight after Liz Phair's 15th anniversary concert of
"Exile in Guyville"* and were happily surprised to notice the change. be even told the owner he was glad for it! This time we counted exactly 16 flavors offered. I got a mix of blueberry tart with fresh blueberries, and peach with blackberries and Oreo bits. be stuck with plain tart yogurt + fruit, while dude got a mix of plain, blueberry and strawberry + fruit. be's sister had a small bowl of peach while her bf R got cheesecake with cheesecake bits, Cap'n Crunch and other cereals.
But on a bad styrofoam note, our lunch at
Bitar's was served on a multitude of foam bowls, plates and platters. How is it that foam is so acceptable now? Maybe i'm old, but wasn't there a huge fight to convince McDonald's and other fast food joints to get rid of foam in the '80s? Is it cheaper to buy than paper? BTW the "bitzza (or was it "bizza?") was sprinkled with an awesome zaatar (spice mixture with herbs and sesame seeds) that i can't stop thinking about!
* This album defines my first year of college! Great concert. Now i must upload the album to my iPod to listen on the bus.
Yogurt Love
Tonight be, the Rice House and i checked out the new Phileo Yogurt on South Street (btwn 4th & 5th Streets) in Philadelphia. The frozen yogurt + toppings concept is not new -- i have plenty of experience with eating that thanks to Pinkberry in Midtown, New York -- but what makes Phileo Yogurt BETTER is that it's 100% self serve!
First of all, the decor is ultra modern but quite nice in a kiwi-green kind of way. There are a few small tables and stools for you to eat in the shop but most customers we witnessed opted to take out. At the back of the shop is an incredible row of yogurt machines, offering every flavor from plain tart yogurt to strawberry to things like snickerdoodle and taro! I asked if i could sample some flavors and was given two tiny paper cups to do so. Once you fill up your bowl with frozen yogurt, you walk over to the toppings bar, which had many kinds of chopped fruit, candies and cereals, but also chocolate syrups, cheesecake bits, cookie dough bits, crushed graham crackers and red bean sauce! Right next to the toppings bar are two registers where your bowl is weighed. At 49 cents per ounce, you can keep it under a few bucks by using restraint, or go nuts and pay a hefty sum. All of us pretty much filled our bowls and the prices ranged from $4-5 each. Note that fruit chunks are definitely the heaviest topping but totally worth it.
I ended up tasting mango, plain, blueberry and taro yogurts. I finally decided on a bowl of mainly plain yogurt with granola and Oreos, with some blueberry yogurt with fresh blueberries and kiwi chunks. I LOVED the blueberry on blueberry -- the blueberry yogurt was so flavorful and tart -- while the plain was a solid standby. I thought granola and Oreos would be neat but i actually could've just done with one or the other, not both. Dude ate his yogurt the quickest and spent the rest of the time looking sad while watching us finish, while be ate his very quick and convinced himself to be satisfied with the amount he ate (instead of getting another bowl). Maybe that's why it's a good idea to take out; watching numerous other folks making their fro yo creations is just too tempting.
We all loved Phileo Yogurt. Great concept, addictive yogurt, fun place for a treat. We're going at least once a week, although we all really would love to go every day! My *only* complaint is the use of styrofoam bowls. Hopefully they'll switch to paper and/or offer an edible bowl soon!
Pizzito
I'm happy to report that we've finally discovered "our" pizza and burrito joints in Philadelphia!
1) L's friend tipped everyone off to
La Fourno on South Street. We must have walked past it dozens of times without giving it another thought; it looks like your average Italian restaurant and not particularly like a neighborhood pizza joint. Our waitress was extremely nice and helpful. We opted for half Margherita and half Pesto because we couldn’t decide. The small pie was cut into 6 slices, the equivalent of 1.5 regular big pie slices for each of us. Both be and I loved the pizza. The problem we’d been having with pizza in Philly was the crust – toppings, cheese and sauce were usually fine to great, but all the crusts we’d come across were soft, floppy and lacking in salt. La Fourno gets it right, with a thin crisp crust, flavored well and a pleasure to eat. Note however, if you’re ordering a saucy or topping heavy pizza, you’d better eat fast lest your crust gets soggy and wet!
2) Yesterday, on L's recommendation, we had burritos at
Santa Fe Burrito on 11th Street. We've had good burritos all around Philadelphia but nothing so far had been exactly what we've wanted. For instance, the guacamole at
El Fuego was excellent but the beans and hot sauce were lacking. Walking into Santa Fe, we were delighted to find numerous vegetarian, vegan and unusual burrito options that included things like tofu, jalepeno hummus, roasted vegetables and even FAUX MEAT made from wheat gluten! I opted for a "mini" burrito with beans, rice and cheese while be pounced on the faux meat large burrito. Both were very well flavored and delicious. The wheat gluten was cooked in a spiced sauce and was so meaty that we were a bit worried they mistakenly gave us real meat! My rice was real rice (not converted as many places tend to use) and the black beans were addictive. Next time i'm going to ask for hot sauce or chiles but otherwise my burrito was perfect!
New New Samosa
Last night we decided to try
New Samosa again. This all vegetarian Indian restaurant recently added an ice cream counter in the front and revamped their menu. When it first opened last year, we checked out the buffet and proclaimed it fine -- nothing excellent but nothing horrible either. be's coworkers (none of whom are vegetarian) went a few weeks ago with him, all got the buffet and loved it. be ordered two samosas and really liked them, so we went again to try the menu items.
Two things really make New Samosa stick out: 1) they have SOUTH Indian specialties like dosas and uttappam! and, 2) they use various soy proteins (fake meats) to create vegetarian versions of meaty dishes (ie: tandoori grilled meats, chicken tikka masala). The only other Indian restaurant i've ever seen use soy protein was
Madras in New York.
Two other small things: 1) ice cream with mix-ins can be purchased in the front! We didn't confirm this, but it seemed that the ice cream was made in-house. At the very least the owner made all the cones herself. and, 2) they offer vegetarian chicken cheesesteaks, wraps and sandwiches. Basically think of an Indian restaurant with a Cold Stone and mini
Govinda's Gourmet To Go up front.
The bottom line is: definitely order off the menu. The samosas we got were so freshly fried they were too hot to touch, but not oily or greasy at all. My dosa came with a deliciously spiced potato filling. (I'm glad there's a place even offering dosas at all in Philadelphia!) be ordered a mixed tandoori grilled meats plate, containing fake shrimp, fish, chicken and lamb. He really liked it except for the red peppers and onions. We're certainly going back to try more dishes.
Choco Fest Taste Test #1 Results
Last month we bought 12 chocolate bars as evidenced
here. (You can find links to the manufacturers there as well as a picture of the stack.)
Over two dinner parties, 9 individuals of various chocolate-loving backgrounds sampled, rated and reviewed the dozen. Of the individuals, most claimed to "love" chocolate but overall had no other similar tastes. Some claimed to like "plain" chocolate, some "didn't like bits" in their chocolate, and others "didn't like fruits and spices" in their chocolate.
Here are the results:
1) The two bars that tied for 1st place in averaged scores were the Ginger bar from Green & Black's, and the 35% Dark with Roasted Salted Peanuts from Vintage Plantations. (7.5/10)
2) The bar earning the lowest score was Hachez's Cocoa D'Arriba Mango Chili. (3.2/10)
3) When asked to pick 1st place and 2nd place favorite bars, when tallied the results were as follows: Green & Black's Ginger (7 points), Lindt's Intense Pear (4 points) and Frey's Supreme Cinnamon & Blood Orange (4 points). Although the Lindt and Frey bars did not overall score high, it was named as a favorite at a higher rate than bars that scored better.
For anyone who needs the details, you can see a quick PDF i made here.Comments:
a) Dark Chocolate Raspberry Lemon Biscotti Truffle Bar by Choxie: "i always hated getting the choc w/a cherry in it" "too strong raspberry" "a bit like candy"
b) Cocoa D'arriba Strawberry & Pepper by Hachez: "bad temper, okay fruit taste" "bitter, soapy, what's stuck in my teeth?"
c) Tropical Fruit Bits Passion Fruit by Santander: "it's not for me but it's very zingy which other folks might like" "odd, cherrylike weirdness"
d) Cocoa D'Arriba Mango Chili by Hachez: "tastes like suntan lotion" "bad temper, gross taste" "interesting but artificial like potpourri"
e) Ginger by Green & Black's: "yum!" "wow" "i like ginger"
f) 35% Dark with Roasted Salted Peanuts by Vintage Plantations: "just the right mix of nuts & cocoa" "a better Mr. Goodbar" "nostalgic flavor"
g) Oaxaca Bar by Vosges: "bitter & gross" "sharp aftertaste" "nice complexity but not delicious"
h) 65% Dark with Cocoa Nibs by Vintage Plantations: "good choc but needs to be harder" "good but too much debris"
i) Red Fire Bar by Vosges: "i like the smokey flavor which is unusual" "overwhelming at the end" "complex, but not smooth enough"
j) Crave Comfort Apricot by Newtree: "too sweet" "i have no idea what's going on" "creamy, surprising flavor"
k) Intense Pear by Lindt: "eh. had potential but crashed" "too grainy, artificial tasting" "great texture"
l) Supreme Cinnamon & Blood Orange by Frey: "candied orange peel red hot weirdness" "smooth, creamy, complex" "sparkly, resplendent, lasting"
Analysis:
1) Originally we bought the bars on a whim. be and i were in the mood to try unusual chocolate bar flavors and we had no rhyme nor reason to the ones we chose, besides the fact they sounded good, even though we both have stated our preference for different types of chocolate bars.
2) When taste testing, one group was vocal during the test, sharing opinions and trying to guess flavors together. The other group was absolutely silent like during a real test at school. Although each group took the test differently, the results were still all over the place.
3) Surprisingly, a few of the bars that one group HATED, were LOVED by the other group and vice versa. Is taste learned? Does living with a partner who loves chile or hates creamy white chocolate, affect you eventually? Or is it because what we served for dinner beforehand one night, ruined the subtle flavor of a certain bar while what we served the other night, enhanced it?
4) If i had to do it again, i would've served nothing beforehand, offered better palate cleansers in between, had the entire group of testers taste at the same time, and chosen bars that were more similar. These bars were all over the place but next time, a test of the best plain 75%+ bars from different manufacturers would be fun. Or perhaps a single manufacturer but chocolate of various regions.
5) The ONE single thing i learned from this was that there's a chocolate bar for everyone. Something you hate is certainly loved by someone out there. And the bar you love is despised by someone else, maybe the person sitting right next to you who sleeps in your bed. The next few things i've gotten out of this test are: a) good temper and texture are key, b) childhood combos like peanuts and chocolate are generally acceptable to everyone, c) what you claim you like best is not necessarily the one you decide to choose under pressure.
So, there you have it testers! I hope you enjoyed taking the choco test as much as i did! And for the record, i liked Voges' Red Fire Bar and Vintage Plantation's 35% with Peanuts the best. But for my most favorite ever bars, check my post
here.
First Blueberries
Last year we planted two blueberry bushes. Two little scrappy twiggy things that didn't look like they'd grow, much less produce berries. They were of two different varieties because apparently that leads to better pollination or something. Our yard dirt is mainly comprised of trash and rubble under an inch of topsoil, so we built a big raised box for the blueberry bushes, filled it with a mix of soil (hoping it was acidic enough) and sat back.
Over the winter they hardly looked different, but they did end up growing, producing flowers and berries this year. be even built a wire cage over the bushes to protect the berries from birds and squirrels. The bush on the left had berries ready to eat first while the right bush is running a few weeks later. Lefty had about 100 total berries and be picked 30 of them two nights ago. The test is if they come off easily when you rub them lightly. That means we have about 70 left to go on Lefty, and even fewer on Righty.
The berries were ultra plump, larger than your average store-bought berries, very firm and crisp, and totally delicious. 15 berries for each of us lasted about a minute, and we were eating slowly. Makes you realize how mass production affects the quality and flavor of things. Can't get any more local than your own backyard!
I'm really worried though. All the blueberry wisdom out there says we have to pluck blossoms the first 2 or even 3 years so the bushes have more energy to grow large instead of producing fruit. Then one is rewarded with tons and tons and tons of berries, apparently. Well, as you can guess we didn't pluck blossoms because be wanted fruit so badly this year. The berries are so excellent, but i don't know if 175 berries is enough. Does anyone know if it's too late to pluck blossoms next year? Our bushes are still small but look healthy. I'm happy but sad. Ugh.
Quadates
1) The
CSA is kicking our botts. Untuffly, we roped in the Rice House to share it with us. Now, both houses get 5 vegetables every Tuesday, but we get the sole fruit share every other Tuesday. Even with less produce we've still been freaking out. Last night i cooked up some collards and mustard greens, 2 bunches of kale into colcannon, and random things like peach crisp, cornbread and
Quorn Chik'n cutlets. A few nights before that, i cooked up the baby bok choy while be cooked the swiss chard. Currently, we still have in the fridge: green garlic, green leaf lettuce, a handful of small turnips, and swiss chard; and (not from the CSA): garlic scapes, a bag of carrots, 1 watermelon, 3 mangoes, 7-8 bananas, 1 cucumber, and 2 limes.
2) I've been hearing rumblings about the results of
Capogiro Gelato's Pick Me Pick Me Flavor Contest! Nothing's been confirmed yet, but i'll just say that some people won a free pint... More later at
our blog.
3) The second round of the Choco Fest Taste Test was completed last week. I promise i will tabulate the scores and post the results soon!
4) We finally finished the dining room and kitchen this weekend! It's painted a deep red, like oxblood but not as brown, and we've installed better lighting, storage shelves and a pantry/bartop. Now we just need to reduce unitasker appliances, food we're never going to eat, and random knickknacks; finish organizing the pantry and paint that last wall. (What color goes with deep red and lavender ice at the same time?)
More Bits
1) GRILLED garlic scapes are insane! INSANE! It took away the garlic hotness, but left a strong garlicy roasty charcoal smell which permeated everything. We loved it and kept smelling the scapes over and over. The texture softened a good amount. Some parts of the scapes (the lower stalks) were too stringy to bite into so we just gnawed on them, sort of like sugarcane. Highly recommended!
2) Chocolate Tasting Part One went very well! As soon as Part Deux with a whole new crew happens, we'll tabulate all the scores and i'll post the verdicts on these twelve bars. Some of the comments were hilarious!
3) I love
Chapterhouse Cafe in Philadelphia! I just finished an annoying questionnaire for work that was taking me weeks, in under 45 minutes. Don't get the Thai style iced tea, though. It's not that great. Stick to the coffee, brewed teas and sodas.
4) OMG i wish someone stocked all the
Tofutti Cutie flavors. KEY LIME PIE? COFFEE? STRAWBERRY WAVE? I love the Mint Chocolate Chip ones, but sure wish i could try the others.
5) I finally got into
Battlestar Galactica after years of be whining and begging me to watch the series. We're watching 2-3 episodes per night!
6) Pantryness. Since the move, we've been using a white bookshelf and another white cabinet thing -- which weren't cutting it on the attractiveness nor the functionality levels. We did a lot of math and finally chose pieces from the EFFEKTIV system at Ikea. Now we just need to paint the dining room so we can install the pantry! (Oh, and also get rid of crap!)
