beXnlog

Skittles-crazy

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:28:00 +0000

FYI Skittles are now gelatin-free and i've been making up for almost two decades of missing out! (Note the (discontinued?) Chocolate Mix was apparently always gelatin-free, but you'll still have to read the package in case your store hasn't gotten a new shipment of the other flavors.) An interesting list of all their flavors ever can be found here.

Top to bottom, left to right:

Original: strawberry, orange, lemon, lime, grape
Wild Berry: berry punch, raspberry, melon berry, strawberry, wild cherry
Chocolate Mix: vanilla, s'mores, chocolate caramel, chocolate pudding, brownie batter
Tropical: strawberry starfruit, mango tangelo, banana berry, kiwi lime, pineapple passionfruit
Crazy Cores: blue raspberry/lemon, strawberry/watermelon, mango/peach, melon/berry, cherry/lemonade

I Love Pink Grapefruit Mentos

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:16:00 +0000

I was cleaning out the chocolate & candy tins and came across an old, old roll of Pink Grapefruit Mentos. I don't recall where i even got them since they were never officially sold in the U.S. I ate one and remembered how delicious the flavor was. It's probably why i saved half the roll instead of just polishing it off!

So, i've been popping a PG Mento every few days here and there. Down to only four, i went online to order more. And crapin A this is what i found here on Candy Blog:

UPDATE 5/31/2008: I have word that Pink Grapefruit Mentos are discontinued. They are no longer listed on the Mentos website and I got confirmation from Mentos North America (as if they ever carried them here).

Since it's been many months since the discontinuation, everyone who ever sold them is now out of stock. This is horrible news since Pink Grapefruit is the BEST flavor Mentos ever created. It's perfect. And now i only have FOUR left. I know i should be glad i even got to try this awesome flavor, but i'm extremely sad that i didn't eat that one i just popped, really really slowly to get the maximum amount of flavor out of it.

BOM

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

On 1/26/09 (New Year's Day) i finished making my first attempt at Blood Orange Marmalade. Unlike the Blood Orange Jam, this time i strained the juice (of 13 blood oranges!) and mixed it with apple water as per Christine Ferber's recipe in Mes Confitures. Unlike her recipe, i used the julienned peel of 4 blood oranges instead of two thinly sliced whole oranges. I'm not super into peel and neither is be, so thin strips sounded more appealing than whole messy orange rounds.

Another huge change was my reduction of sugar from the 4.66 cups she recommended to the 1.33 cups i used, which was the same 3:1 ratio as the BOJ. That ratio of orange to sugar was perfect for me -- not too sweet and very very orangey. I know a lot of jammers out there love making it really sweet, but i tend to like the least amount of sugar possible while still allowing it to gel. So far everything before has gelled fine, once even too hard (blueberry)! The grapefruit marmalade as per CF was very good in my opinion -- but a little too sweet -- so cutting out some sugar for blood orange marmalade didn't seem like a big deal.

The problem with this batch was that a 3:1 ratio of juice to sugar was MUCH too little. For a chunky jam it worked but this batch wasn't having it. I boiled it like nuts for almost 30 minutes, hoping it would gel. At 222 degrees it still looked like red water and had reduced from over 4 cups of liquid to around 2.5. I plate tested twice hoping i was wrong, but shit was not gelling. The only thing i could think of doing was to dump in another 1/3 cup of sugar. And luckily, the batch immediately thickened and plate tasted fine. I only got 1 half-pint and 3 quarter-pints out of the batch due to so much of the water boiling out... but at least it made the marmalade super concentrated. And yes, it gelled up shockingly nicely, like wiggly jelly -- no powdered pectin at all!

The next morning we tried some of the BOM on toast. It was tasty and somewhat sour but sadly, not as "fresh" tasting as the BOJ. It tasted more "cooked" in comparison to the jam, which contained pips and chunks and seemed to contain more of the essential oils. Perhaps i just cooked and reduced the BOM batch too much, so if i try again i'll use 1.66 cups of sugar for every 2.5 cups of juice and see what happens at 10 minutes of boiling.

Overall, though, the BOM is a beautiful dark, opaque blood red. I filled the half-pint jar first so all the rind floated to the top, but the quarter-pints have a more even distribution. Not a failure but not a grand success, either. It seems to have grown on be the more he ate it, so maybe i'll think the same when i eat it again.

BOJ

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:13:00 +0000

The blood orange jam came out good yet bad. It's technically a "jam" in my book since it's chunky and contains the juicy orange bits because it's not strained. I added some julienned peel strips, too. It's not a marmalade, which according to my research, should be only citrus juice and peel. Thick or thin peel is up to preference. It does get confusing, though, since some marmalades use the fruit part without detaching it from the pith and peel. Well...whatever i made came out fine.

I didn't find many recipes for blood orange things so i ended up winging it, using multiple jamming ideas from my past attempts. The gelling ended up fine since i boiled it ferociously. It tastes amazing: bitter and sour, punchy and bold, just a little bit sweet since i reduced the sugar majorly. Overall it's really good. The problem, however, is in the looks. The dark red color is beautiful but it's ruined by chunks and pips and bits of whitish pith. Now i totally understand why one strains the citrus!

Next attempt (using the additional 24 blood oranges i bought yesterday) i'll go back to Christine Ferber's 2 day marmalade recipe and strain that shit with some sour apple juice. I'll reduce the sugar but otherwise make it like i did the grapefruit.

'70s Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:44:00 +0000

Brown and orange soup next to my (newly acquired vintage) avocado green slow cooker. The 16 bean and barley soup came out much, much better than i expected!

Scurvy Prevention

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:39:00 +0000

We bought another 50+ blood oranges this week! (BTW the 10 for $1 tangerines at Iovine's are delicious. I forgot how intense a regular tangerine was compared to a sweet Clementine.)

A Citrus Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:10:00 +0000

1) Bought a copy of Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber a few weeks ago. It's a really interesting book, organized by seasons and containing unusual combinations.

2) Grapefruit is all the sale rage; picked up three at Iovine Brothers and five at Whole Foods.

2.5) We've also gone through three cases of clementines and countless lemons and limes!

3) Ran to Reading Terminal yesterday morning to check for blood oranges again. We've been checking every few days since the beginning of the year! HIT THE JACKPOT again at Iovine, 4 for $1.00. We load up on 20. Peeled and shared one on the walk out = so delicious and raspberry. Must go back for more...

4) Spent 2 days making the "Pink Grapefruit Jelly" recipe from Mes Confitures. It's my 1st marmalade but overall 7th fruit conserve project*. This recipe involved multiple steps like making clear sour apple juice, poaching citrus rind strips in salt water and tying the seeds in a little bag for the extra pectin. The batch took a long time to set (much longer than the 10 minutes the recipe suggested) but it's a good honey-like consistency now. The marmalade is not overly bitter and has a sparkling sweetness. It's very clear with an orangey hue, with slivers of suspended rind. Overall it's good and i like it, but for batch #2 my changes would be as follows:

a) Find intensely delicious grapefruit. The ones i used were good but not amazing.
b) Use a little less sugar. Even though this marmalade is bittersweet, i think i would prefer it more bitter than sweet.
c) Boil it harder for less time. I should have maxed out on heat at a crazy boil instead of a regular boil.
d) Get a decent thermometer. The one i have is crap. Even though i'm getting the feel of when the gelling point is, it doesn't hurt to back it up with a thermometer and the freezer plate test.

5) Current plan: make blood orange jam or marmalade.

6) Future plans: strawberry jam, megaload black raspberry jam**, blackberry jam.

* For the record. In 2008 i made (in order): blueberry jam, blackberry jam, peach jam, black raspberry jam, peach jam #2, peach jam #3. In 2009 i've made: grapefruit marmalade.

** This is the best jam i've ever had. The berries were perfectly amazing and i'm going to pick POUNDS this year.

Snapply Grause

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:40:00 +0000

This past Sunday i cleaned out the fridge. It's really scary what accumulates (and how it changes) in the darkness.

A few of the apples from our Fall 08 picking were still good n crisp but about a dozen of them were wrinkly and not so fresh. Applesauce seemed to make sense, so be chopped, cored and peeled the lot. Into a pot with a little water, he cooked them down and crushed the mass with the potato masher. Upon tasting it wasn't sweet enough, but the magic of a little cinnamon, ground ginger and nutmeg did wonders. No added sugar, chunky, delicious applesauce. The jar is almost done!

The Linux of Food

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:18:00 +0000

Check out this awesome article at Restructure about Jennifer 8. Lee's video breaking it all down:

...Jennifer 8. Lee’s Italian friend was surprised to learn that fried gelato did not originate in China, and remarked, “It’s not? But they serve it at all the Chinese restaurants in Italy!” This incident illustrates the limitations of anecdotal experience as a source of knowledge... This incident also reveals that when the national culture is so pervasive, the cultural aspect of a practice that comes from the national culture is invisible to the ethnic majority. For example, White Italians do not see the Italian influence of fried gelato, only the perceived Chinese aspect of it. To Americans, however, the Italian influence of fried gelato is apparent, while fried gelato’s Chinese influence is not. Similarly, Americans generally do not see the American influence of General Tso’s Chicken, only the perceived Chinese aspect of it... The dish known in the United States as “General Tso’s Chicken” is 100% American...

I've read The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and loved it. Definitely check it out! (I saw the article first at angryasianman and Racialicious.)

Cookie Exchange Party 2008

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 06:56:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:49:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:52:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:34:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:25:00 +0000

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 Soup
Serves 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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:33:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:11:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Everytime i open the jar, all hell breaks loose in my mouth.

Fresh Hot Pepper & Garlic Sauce

8-10 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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:07:00 +0000

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 #1

6 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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 04:14:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:59:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:57:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (beXn) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:01:00 +0000

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.