Airline Meals!

I wish I had known about this site during the scary meal I had on IcelandAir that one time I flew from Baltimore via Boston and Reykjavik to Amsterdam.

My first strawberry!

I bet it'll taste ten times better than those sorry excuses for "strawberries" they sell in the supermarket.

Little Phoenix

I had the pleasure of going to Little Phoenix in Catonsville for some orange chicken. It's a little more money than most Chinese lunch deals, but you do taste it. Most orange chickens I have had come coated in a crisp, sometimes overly chewy coating with a little too much breading in the middle, even at some of my favorite Chinese take outs. The orange chicken at Little Phoenix tasted juicier and less "processed". That doesn't mean it wasn't processed, just that it didn't taste like it. Plus, the coating was not gummy or hard at all. It wasn't particularly crispy, but the flavor and the juiciness made me forget about that. I was also impressed that the food was still hot enough to burn my mouth after the half hour drive home. That has never happened before. I also had fresh and crisp broccoli and a dried red chili pepper - this last thing is not something I often see in orange chicken.

On the minus side, I wasn't particularly sold on the rice - I should've specified that I wanted white rice instead of stir-fried - but I dealt with it. For $6 it was a tasty and filling meal. Really. Normally I eat half and put the rest away. I almost ate the whole thing this time.

It's iced tea time!

Yes, spring must be here. I just brewed my first pitcher of iced tea. I find it sweeter when I add sugar (or artificial sweetener) to the cup instead of the whole pitcher. May also try mint or even a little basil in the tea somewhere down the line.

The tea of choice? This time, it's Trader Joe's Green Tea ($1.99 for 48 bags). Cheaper per bag than the green tea at Whole Foods, though both are good.

Food Ethnography on a Budget: Papua New Guinea I: Kaukau na painap

My next Food Ethnography takes me somewhere that few Americans have ever heard of - at least those who aren't anthropologists. My first exposure to Papua New Guinea was, yes, as a lowly undergrad taking my very first anthro class. Several years and student loans later, I probably know more about the place than most people I know! Most of us, however, know Papua New Guinea - the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, just north of Australia - for two things:

1. its coffee beans: just go to Zeke's for coffee from all over the world, and you will probably find their sustainable single-origin Papua New Guinea blend.
2. Discovery and Travel Channel-worthy shows such as Living with the Mek with gorgeous Brit adventurers Mark and Olly.

In terms of its cultural diversity, Papua New Guinea is pretty diverse considering how relatively small it is: about 1,000 cultures in a country of about 6,000,000. So there is really no one cuisine of Papua New Guinea. Instead, there are many common ingredients. Taro and yams are indigenous to Papua New Guinea, and were supplanted by the sweet potato about 300 years ago (introduced from South America). Yucca also came to Papua New Guinea from South America, but sweet potatoes are now one of the most popular crops.

Even though Papua New Guinea has no easy-to-pin-down "cuisine", some have tried to find one. The University of Papua New Guinea just put out a cookbook last month of the Papua New Guinea Cook Book. Edited by Louise Shelly, many recipes are in English, and a few are in another one of the country's common tongues, Tok Pisin, Before that, one notable cookbook among them is by Australian author Anne MacGregor, who penned the extremely rare (and now extremely expensive) Papua New Guinea Cookbook. It's not available in libraries, and the only ones you can buy cost $100 used. Maybe easier to find in Australia or, say, Papua New Guinea. But as a grad student out in Cali, I found a copy of MacGregor's cookbook in the voluminous University of California library and made a photocopy of a few recipes here and there. This is pretty much the only way I can try these recipes, much less share them with anyone.

Food Ethnography: Papua New Guinea
Located in: Melanesia in the Pacific Ocean, nestled snugly between Indonesia (to the west) and Australia (to the south)
Some common ingredients: yams, sweet potatoes (kaukau), taro root, pig, coconuts, yucca, fish and shellfish on the coast
Number of Papua New Guinean restaurants in the Baltimore area: You're kidding, right?
Number of Papua New Guinean restaurants in the DC area: 0, though there is one embassy (for all of the Americas) near Dupont Circle.
Kind of like: Hawaiian but heavy on the yams

The dish: Kaukau na Painap (Sweet Potato with Pineapple)

This is it. This is all I needed.

The rarity of Papua New Guinea recipes in the US or on the internet is made up for by the relative cheapness of most of Papua New Guinea's ingredients. Including the bamboo skewers, I spent all of $5 for enough kaukau na painap to fill me up for a week. It showcases one of the most important staples of Papua New Guinea: the sweet potato (again, not the same as the yam, which is also common there), and in a very tropical way no less.

• I got some sweet potatoes cheap at the produce stand on Joppa Road for all of 75¢, and ended up using only a few of them. I am now up to my eyeballs in sweet potatoes.
• The pineapple was only $2.50. I bought it pre-cut because, for some reason, it looked like Wegman's was selling whole pineapples for $7! Maybe I misread something, because I later saw one at Whole Paycheck Foods for half the price. Maybe Wegman's pineapple was organic?
• Since I had butter on hand (note to self: buy more butter), the only other thing I had to buy was a package of skewers, which set me back $2 at Giant.
  

I wanted to grill the kaukau-kebabs outside, but I didn't have a lot of time when I did it, and it was somewhat crappy outside anyway. So instead I got out the cast iron griddle instead.

The preparation for this recipe is very easy, so easy in fact that I don't have to repeat MacGregor's recipe word-for-word for you (which would violate some sort of copyright anyway). Basically, here's what you do:

• Partially boil (I did mine for 10 minutes - the key is to undercook them), peel and cube the sweet potatoes. I did it a little bass-ackwards, first peeling, then cubing and finally boiling them. I didn't do perfect cubes, but cubes will make it easier for them to fit on the grill.
• Next, skin and cube the pineapple (or buy it pre-cubed like I did, as noted above).
• Skewer the sweet potato and pineapple - and remember to soak those skewers first! Next, melt the butter and brush it over the skewers. Or you could go bass-ackwards again, and dip everything in butter before skewering. It's messier but I didn't have a brush so it was a bit easier for me.
• Grill until the sweet potatoes are nicely browned. I was impatient so I didn't do it as long as I wanted.

I added a little salt to one and a little chili pepper to the other.

And here's the final product.

Perhaps this should be a no-brainer sort of recipe, but it wasn't. I hadn't really considered pairing sweet potatoes and pineapples together. Despite the textural differences, the flavors blend nicely. In fact, what I may do with the remaining sweet potatoes and pineapple cubes is to purée them together with some butter and a wee bit of salt. I'd guess it's been done before, but I haven't seen it yet.

Eating near Churchville

A few tidbits from Harford County:

1. Across the street from Harford Community College are various eating establishments I need to familiarize myself with. I've started with Richard's Fish and Crabs.


I am usually up that way on Tuesdays & Wednesdays when they have their $1-$2 crab deals. Currently, you can get smallish females for $1, small males for $1.50 and larger males for $2. I got three females and two small males (total: $6). Twenty minutes later and they were done! If you're not in a crab mood, they have everything from rockfish to shrimp, frozen and fresh.


2. I stopped in at Broom's Bloom Farm Products yesterday and saw tables of patrons happily sipping freshly-made soup and homemade ice cream. I first went to the fridge and freezer section, with frozen lamb, beef, pork and various sausages (anywhere from $3.50 to $10 per lb), and fresh farm milk, buttermilk, yogurt, butter and eggs. Nestled among them were plates of quiche and other ready-to-eat dishes, all made at Broom's Bloom Farm.


I was drawn to the ice cream, for $7.50 per quart. It seems steep - and, well, it is - but it is such good ice cream. I bought a small cup of vanilla (about $2.50) and figured I would bring it home to eat. Half way between Exit 80 and the Beltway it was already gone. It is not easy to eat a bowl of creamy, almost buttery ice cream while you are driving a stick shift, I'll tell you what! Also had a silky yet still crumbly corn muffin for only 85 cents.

Both businesses are open Tuesday through Sunday. that's not a Harford County thing, is it?

Up next in my food ethnography series...

One hint: it's a place where they eat a lot of taro.

The Double-Down: not quite the end of civilization

I'm not eating that thing, but at only 540 calories it's not as much of a travesty as many fast food sandwiches. So points out acclaimed numbers man Nate Silver at 538.com. Why he's pontificating about food and not political or sports stats - all of which he usually nails - is anybody's guess. Though he develops a chart to show just how bad the Double-Down is in comparison to many popular chicken sandwiches (one DD = 1.00, so if a sandwich is worse nutritionally than the Double-Down, it will have a DD value of over 1.00, and if better then the DD value will be under 1.00). It's worse than many chicken sandwiches, but there are worse ones - check out that Panera Chipotle thing:

I love graphs. Courtesy of Fivethirtyeight.com.

Also note that many hamburgers are worse than the Double-Down!

But even though there are much less unhealthy items on any fast food menu than this thing, it's actually no worse than a Big Mac (also 540 calories), and calorie-wise is quite tame in comparison to some of the stuff at the other places:

• Back to McDonald's, who is not exactly a great choice for healthy eating: their Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese (would that be a Half Pounder?) is 740 calories.
  
• Just a Baconator Single at Wendy's is 610 calories.
  
• "We pride ourselves on clogging your arteries" Burger King, and their Whopper (670 calories), Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich (800 calories) or Triple Whopper (1,160 calories!!!)

And yes, that's before you even consider info about fat, carbohydrates and sodium! But Silver has another metric: Double-Downs per Calorie (DDPC), which shows that you're actually getting more crap per calorie than any other sandwich in his metric:

Also courtesy of Fivethirtyeight.com

Silver explains this second chart this way:

...here, things don't look very good at all for the Double Down, since for all that crap you're taking in, you're only getting about one-quarter of the calories that you need. On this basis, not only is the Double Down worse for you than any of the chicken products (Chick-Fil-A's Chargrilled Chicken Club, at 0.91 DDPCs, is the next-worst), but also all of the burgers as well -- even the Triple Baconator (0.98 DDPCs) and the infamous Thickburger (0.92 DDPCs). In fact, the only thing that beats than the Original Recipe Double Down is the supposedly healthier grilled Double Down (1.19 DDPCs), which is almost 20 percent worse for you than the signature version on a per-calorie basis.

I still won't be eating one, but you can easily find worse. Unless you stop to consider how much crap you're taking in per bite, in which case it starts to look like the end of civilization after all!.

If you break a mercury thermometer in a pot of boiling oil...

Yes, I just had the problem described in the title, as I was readying to fry up some lovely Chincoteague urshters (had to consign them to the pan instead). There are three little balls of shiny silver mercury at the bottom of a very hot metal pot of cooking oil. I tried to find the solution online, but there is no information about this anywhere.

So I am creating that information, based on what the Poison Control Center told me. I mean, this is mercury we're talking about, so it's serious and stuff.

The environmentally safe thing to do is to take it to your local hazardous waste disposal site. Otherwise, remove the mercury and the oil without making contact with your skin - pretend it's still hot - and seal it all up, and dispose of it accordingly.

The metal pot itself should be okay, but if I must dispose of it, it won't be a big loss as I got the pot for about $3 at the Goodwill.

Thai Restaurant

Few restaurants have a more generic-sounding name than Waverly's aptly-named Thai Restaurant. But as I am sure various reviewers have pointed out before, the food is anything but generic. Various friends of mine have gone before and have usually left satisfied.

Eric and I headed to Thai Restaurant on Saturday night for a taste of what he has said was some pretty good and relatively inexpensive Thai food. We arrived after one or two large parties, so we hoped the service would not be terribly slow. The back entrance to the wood-grained dining room gives the illusion of a small and cozy restaurant. Though a little cramped, there is room for several parties. This doesn't really slow down the kitchen, though our waitress was a little on the slow side (no doubt something she'll grow out of as she learns the ropes).


We started with some drinks - Eric got the my tai and I opted for the passable Chang Beer - and followed that up with a few appetizers (these and more on the menu, posted here). Eric ordered the shredded green papaya salad (don't recall the price) and gai sawan ($8).


The salad was tangy and sweet but not my favorite dish, though that's really more because of the papaya in general than the recipe itself. The gai sawan is a fascinating dish, as Eric explained it to me: four chicken wings, but with all the meat and skin pushed up to one end as if to resemble a drumstick. Inside that crispy skin is stuffed a small amount of crab meat. The end result was fattening, scary and delicious, particularly with the sweet and sour sauce that came with it. This is something to order even though you know your waistline will regret it later. But since we shared the gai sawan, two drumstick-wings per person isn't going to do that much damage to me.

Gai sawan, flanking my tom ka gai soup

As I've said before, my measure for how good a Thai restaurant may be is how its tom ka gai ($5) measures up to others I have eaten. Thai Restaurant's tom ka gai is one of the less spicy ones I have eaten, but that is made up for by the richness of its coconut milk broth. In addition, it had edible pieces of lemongrass, which I rarely find used in this soup as anything other than a flavor enhancer. Their tom ka gai is one of the better ones I have eaten lately.


My entrée was the luscious and fiery pad panang curry ($14). A bit different than their standard panang curry, it adds lime leaves to the coconut milk and bell peppers already in it. As many Thai places will do, Thai Restaurant varies the price of this and other entrées based on the meat or lack thereof that you request with it: far more than just beef, chicken, vegetarian and pork (the last being my choice), you can also order it with shrimp, mussels, duck, scallops and squid (price range: $13 to $17). Other entrées, such as their hot and sour dishes, include such diverse additions as tofu and Chinese sausage. Some of those entrées come a little pricier than their typical $12 to $17 stir fries and curries, such as market price fish (upwards of $30 for whole-fried rockfish or flounder, for instance) or their crispy duck, which Eric got (also delicious).

The crispy duck

As for my pork pad panang curry, I needed a fair bit of rice as Thai Restaurant does not joke around with the heat. It was quite rich with coconut milk and panang curry sauce. In fact, the coconut milk seemed to overpower the dish just a little bit, but not enough that I wouldn't recommend it. It was quite rich, as was most of my food, so I had to get a take-home container. Strange as it seems, the curry was actually less fiery the second day around. It was better the second day.

I can see myself going back to Thai Restaurant. It seems like the hip spot that both many locals and JHU, Loyola and Notre Dame students head to regularly. That's not why I would go back - a crowded restaurant usually means you won't get your food for a while, as I have found. I would have to go back for more of the rich Thai food I got this past weekend, specifically that tom ka gai and those evil little drumstick-looking things (that would be the gai sawan).

My seeds are sprouting!

One week after starting them. The ones on the left are Roma tomatoes. Look at them all! Next to them is a scraggly little catnip sprout I just saw today, and then a sweet pepper sprout. My chili peppers aren't sprouting yet.

From Sotto Sopra to Sugarloaf to BEER: events coming up

A few happenings around town that readers have brought to my attention:

• The folks at Sotto Sopra are doing a tax relief $1 Pasta Night on (you guessed it) April 15. More than that, your donations will go to benefit Kennedy Krieger Institute. The press release follows:

(Baltimore, MD-April 4, 2010) Dollar Pasta Night - dine at Sotto Sopra Restaurant at 405 N. Charles Street on tax day, Thursday, April 15th, make a donation (cash, check or credit card) to the Kennedy Krieger Institute that night and for just one dollar ($1) you can order from a selection of nine pastas - it is that simple. Sotto Sopra will be donating 10% of the evening’s proceeds to Kennedy Krieger Institute along with your donations. Reservations are required and will be taken starting at 5 p.m. through to 10 p.m. Call 410.625-

0534 for reservations.

Dollar Pasta Menu

Spaghetti alla Bolognese
Penne with Salmon and Pernod
Rigatoni with Eggplant and Mozzarella
Cappellini al Pomodoro
Fettucine with Mint and Pistachio
Penne Zucchine
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Spaghetti all'Amatriciana
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca

A limited menu of salads, entrees and desserts will be offered this evening.

www.sottosopra.us

More about Kennedy Krieger

Internationally recognized for improving the lives of children and adolescents with disorders and injuries of the brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system, the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD serves more than 14,000 individuals each year through inpatient and outpatient clinics, home and community services and school-based programs. Kennedy Krieger provides a wide range of services for children with developmental concerns mild to severe, and is home to a team of investigators who are contributing to the understanding of how disorders develop while pioneering new interventions and earlier diagnosis. For more information on Kennedy Krieger Institute, visit www.kennedykrieger.org.

• The following weekend the 32nd spring Sugarloaf Crafts Festival (April 16-18) happens at the Fairgrounds. I had no idea they actually had things of foodie interest but apparently they do! Exhibitors this time around will include exhibitors from as far as Massachusetts and Oklahoma, among others:
  
  
  Berkshire Sweet Gold Maple Farm
  Ron & Franks Gourmet Beverage Mixes
  Bittersweet Herb Farm
  Leonard Mountain Specialty Foods
  Meadowcroft Farms
  Deedee Desserts
  d’marie Gourmet Foods
  The Toffee House
  Terra Verde Farms
  Rising Sun Farms

• And don't forget what's going on at the Fairgrounds this weekend: The Beer, Bourbon and BBQ Festival! Granted it's a bit pricey but if you've got the cash and the love for beer and Bourbon AND BBQ, this might be the thing for you.
  

The Urban Farming Experiment

I recently rented a plot of land at the urban garden at Clifton Park. It's part of the Baltimore City Farms project, to get people to start growing their own food. I haven't planted anything in years, not since I lived in SoCal (what about that earthquake, huh?) and had a little yard I grew things in. So I am going to start small, first by setting up the plot (in the process now) and then planting in it. A friend who has been growing stuff there for years recommended Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening, now in a new edition! I'm finding it helpful.

I've started some seeds inside, and I'm trying to figure out exactly where to leave them in my apartment. For now I've put the seed starters in my kitchen window. I am growing Romas, chili peppers, bell peppers and catnip indoors. Will try plant carrots, lettuce and onions outdoors.

Candy Overload

Even though I'm well into my 30's, I appreciate that my mother wants to give me the same kinds of fun stuff for Easter that she gave me when I was a wee lad. But I just don't eat this much junk anymore! Ack!

Because It's Still Easter

I thought I'd post some more Easter videos, since today is Easter in both the Eastern and Western calendars (which is kind of an uncommon occurrence).

Paula is making a candy egg that my mother had a recipe for when I was young! I don't remember her making this, but I remember the recipe: mashed potato candy Easter eggs! Please pardon the out-of-sync audio. I just like this recipe so much that I'm dealing with it.



And if that doesn't satisfy you, an e-card "classic" from 2005. Because it's my blog and I'll post what I damn well want to:

Because It's Easter

A Peep-tacular classic from 2008

Road Trip to Rehoboth! (Dogfish Head Update and Apologia)

I haven't gotten around to posting about my recent, very impromptu trip to Rehoboth Beach last weekend (again, glad I could help you out, Eric, and thanks everyone - I had fun). Before last week, I had only once visited this gay mecca of the Mid-Atlantic region. Go figure. Along the way there and back I did get to try some food I rarely get the chance to eat.

Before I go on, however, I have to note that I very sadly did not get the chance to stop at the awesome and fabled Dogfish Head Brewpub (I didn't mean to disappoint you, Brad)! As I noted in a comment below: I had very little time in Rehoboth - just an overnight, and I only had about 1/2 an hour to myself before I had to leave. I couldn't rush a trip to Dogfish! But it will definitely happen next time. And hey, at least I brought a four pack of Midas Touch down with me, so there was some Dogfish Head-ness for me after all.

Sonic Drive-In


There is a Sonic Drive-In in Bridgeville, Delaware! Sure, there are other Sonics in Delmarva, even in the Maryland part of it, but they are on the way to OC and I wasn't going there. For those of you who hanker for Sonic but are just headed straight to Rehoboth, you are in luck because it is right along the way. No fried pickles at this one like the one I stopped at in Hinesville, Georgia, last summer. Bummer. But I did get a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings (only 30 cents more to get onion rings instead of fries) and a medium soda. Total price: around $6.50.


The burger was filling and even had an onion ring sandwiched in between the burger and the bun. It is a bit of a messy burger to eat if you're not careful. Still, I actually found the side order of onion rings more satisfying. Hardly like Burger King's little perfect circles of what I could only call "processed onion food", these are thick rings of onion covered in crispy and a little greasy batter. When those Sonics open up in the Baltimore area soon I will probably go just for that.

Blue Moon Restaurant

...is also a gay bar! That's not a tough thing to find in Rehoboth, mind you. I went with several friends and we closed the place (at 1 AM)! I got me a Guinness for about $5. I was certainly enjoying myself, by the way. You should've heard my rendition of "Poker Face" on the dance floor (yes, it is actually in my range, and I am a damn good singer). They had finger foods out for patrons all night, like little quiches and some sort of breaded cheese.

Louie's Pizza


Eric recommended Louie's (by the Boardwalk) for their subs, which he always stops to get before the drive home. They told me it would take 10 minutes for my Italian super cold cut sub. It only took five. A juicy, meaty six inch sub that is very difficult to eat while driving will cost you about $6.


Eventually I had to resort to just picking up individual cold cuts to eat on their own.

Candy Kitchen

Candy Kitchens are almost like Starbucks in Rehoboth. I didn't shop at this one. At least I don't think I did.

How could I leave the Eastern Shore or the Delmarva Peninsula without a stop at the Candy Kitchen? It wasn't easy, so I stopped. Got a half pound of fudge - a quarter each of vanilla and chocolate for about $5. Candy Kitchen fudge, I have missed you.

And one strange aside...

I won't go into too many details about why I headed down to Rehoboth, since it would take a while to explain anyway, and since there are photos that I really don't want floating around the internet. But all I will say is this: it all had to do with a murder mystery weekend that some of the guys had planned, with more than a few gay men in drag - and they do this every year. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the next one.

That said, since this was the first one I had ever been to, I was put through a disturbing culinary rite of passage. Due to its secrecy, I shall not reveal it so as not to piss anyone off. But as awful as it was, and as hopeful as I am to never do that again, it actually wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time. But it was bad.

Other photos -

Facing away from the Boardwalk

Facing the Atlantic Ocean and Dolle's, which I did not get the chance to stop at.

Maryland's flag is so much more bizarre and interesting than Delaware's! Or most state flags for that matter. Is that the county flag on the left?

Fields of pretty flowers

And back over the mighty Chesapeake, a ride that always manages to freak me out.