Stick a fork in this year, it's done

I hope next year is better than this one. It hasn't been the greatest year. Still no full-time work - though I did find a lot more part-time work than I did have, so things have been much better for me than they could've been.

A few things that were pretty good about this year, which I probably will forget since it's been a relatively rough one:

1. The City Paper really likes me. I mean, it really likes me. Which is good, since I really like them too!

2. I managed to make Ethiopian food that would never be eaten in Ethiopia - not by Muslims, not by Jews, and not by Christians. It's because of all the bacon.

3. I got to reconnect with many long-disconnected friends this year - online, over Christmas and in New Orleans.

4. Okay, so we didn't win the World Cup. We didn't even make it to the Round of 8. But at least Spain won for the first time. That and the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco Giants won the Super Bowl and World Series for the first time.

5. My family and friends are still here.

6. Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone and Prop 8 is Unconstitutional!

7. I've branched out into new pursuits (sports and horticulture, for example) and flourished in others (singing, for example). The New Year is likely to be filled with more Broadway, soccer and community gardening than I ever thought it would be this time last year.

8. I went to my first-ever television show taping (It's Academic in high school doesn't count) - Web Soup in LA. Chris Hardwick is a gentleman and a nerd scholar.

9. We finally have a Sonic in town (although the opening was less climactic than I had expected).

10. And finally, this didn't happen last week:

Picture is from the Snowpocalypse that happened in Baltimore this time last year.

Here's to a much better and more prosperous 2011 for all of us, y'all!

That's some pretty strange-lookin' kiwi...

Maybe somebody should let the folks at Towson Super Fresh in on the big secret...


...that this isn't kiwi.

On the third day of Kwanzaa my true love gave to me

Kathy beat me to it, and found a higher quality version - AND we get to see Aunt Sandy EAT her abomination creation, too! Me, I opted for the rougher one that I've linked to, oh, maybe six or seven times in the past four years. This television event should not be hidden. It should be broadcast from the mountaintops. It is quintessential Sandra Lee. Well, that and this:

Once again, the infamous "Angel Food Harvest Cake". Bonus: try to catch a glimpse of the "Hanukkah" "Cake" sitting on the side.

He PROBABLY heard it from his FATHER

One thing I got for Christmas. The box alone makes it worthwhile:


The fudge itself is okay. But you gotta love that box.

Because it's Christmas Day

And because it's my blog, damnit.

Janice and Ray Do Christmas: THIS is unbelievable...

Catherine Tate works her comedic wonders once again, this time for the Christmas holidays. And Ray is not a fan of the Caribbean curry.



The dirty bastards!

Itty Bitty Smith Island Cakes at Giant!

Look what I bought recently:


Yes, the Original Smith Island Cake Company is making mini-cakes and selling them at area Giants in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas. My assumption: you can probably find them more easily on the Eastern Shore, too. They come in regular (yellow cake with chocolate icing), red velvet and a pumpkin cake. And they are all handmade. One day I will successfully make a Smith Island Cake. I tried once. It was not pretty.

Exits 4, 5 and 6A-B Revisited

I admit: I don't get to the I-97 section of the Beltway very often, and so I have explored it very little. But when I got around here the first time, I simply did not explore nearly enough. I've tried to rectify this second go round. I know I'm probably missing other noteworthy eateries. It's up to all y'all to point them out.

Exits 4, 5 and 6A-B -
Section of the Beltway - the Glen Burnie Section (S. Baltimore City, N. Anne Arundel County)
Towns & neighborhoods along the way - Ferndale, Nottingham, Linthicum, Linthicum Heights, Pumphrey, BWI Airport
Routes that branch off - I-97, MD-648, MD-170

Places that have shut down since I last visited

Many of the victims of the recent recession in this part of town were of the Chinese carry-out variety. Gone is the massive Beijing Buffet (website no longer works) in the Burwood Village Plaza on B&A Blvd - in its place is, well, nothing.

Yep, empty.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant off of I-97 still seems to be around, surprisingly so, but then again the incredibly cheap food may have improved since the last time I was there, and almost got sick off it.

Restaurants I didn't get around to the first time

Despite the empty hull of what was Beijing Buffet, most of the locations in Burwood have not shut down: for example, there's still the Buffalo Wings & Beer (map) and Italia's Corner Café (same map). Italia's is a nice place. It's not a suit and tie place, but it is a satisfying evening out with Mee-Maw and the kids. Or your rambunctious little league football team, which one guy brought with him. That wasn't really a problem for me since I was doing take-out. But you may want to sit yourself down (if that little league football team isn't around, that is): Italia's is inviting, bright and comfortable, with both indoor and (for the warmer weather) outdoor seating. And somebody there must be quick of foot since there are a few prominent soccer trophies mounted above the counter. I could only hope to earn even one in my lifetime.

Italia's offers much more than the typical pizza and subs fare: they've got soup and pasta, antipasti and tiramisù, plus a wine selection. And of course, they do have pizza and subs. I went for the stromboli ($7.50), featuring various types of meat (sausage, ham, pepperoni) wrapped in mozzarella.

The stromboli, outside...

...and inside

It was filling, but I just about finished the whole thing in one sitting. Rarely these days do I find Italian take-out that I actually enjoy eating. I enjoyed this: the dough wasn't hard and dry like so many stromboli doughs can be. The mozzarella and meat together were just soft and sinful. I feel almost like I'm channeling my napoletano ancestors here! Though in truth, I have no idea if they ate stromboli in their little mountain village outside of Salerno 110 years ago (Yes I know Stromboli the town is in Sicily. I have ancestors from Sicily, too. And I am certain none of them was orange). If you want this stromboli you can most easily reach Italia's off of Exit 5.

As for Exit 6: when I took it the last time I went about half a mile in each direction, lulling myself into that false sense of being sure that all I would continue to see were houses. I should have bothered to keep going, as I learned to do with future exits. I would have found a Ferndale-area institution in the Shipley Linthicum Shopping Center on South Camp Meade Road, just on the other side of BWI. Keller's Bakery (map), now in its 70th year, was taking orders for Thanksgiving pies when I stopped by (yes, I'm only now getting around to writing this). It's a small operation, but they take many orders and always run out. The woman behind the counter when I showed up showed me some of their popular flavors - well, those they had left at least: apple, French apple, blueberry, just to name a handful. Hopefully you've gotten your order in for Christmas, too. Commenters on the Baltimore City Search site for Keller's also rave about their turnovers and donuts. I had no cash on me at all, so I was out of luck altogether, seeing as how they do not take cards.

Restaurants that have since opened

A few doors down in the Shipley Shopping Center, one place that I don't think was around at all the first time I stopped by was Matsu Japanese (map), which has two locations, in Linthicum and Annapolis. Matsu is a smallish, few frills sushi and Japanese restaurant that satisfies your sushi need quickly and cheaply. I was impressed at how fast I got served - granted, there were, maybe, five people there for the lunch rush. Their lunch specials are good for the price: a $10 bento box was what caught my eye before anything else, and unlike most times when I dawdle over the menu I knew I had to get this. A relatively quick ten minutes later, if that, I had my lunch.


Matsu's lunch bento box is smaller than most you will have had. With just four modest compartments, you get a few slices of California roll, a couple shumai dumplings and your choice of one other item, with soup and rice on the side. In my case, I got the 5 piece sashimi. The items in the bento box were about as modest as the restaurant itself: smaller amounts of things, which I guess justifies the $10 price. The flavor could also best be described as modest. While the food was good, it was not great - once again, $10 bento box. Nevertheless, it got the job done. Matsu is at least worth a visit.

I just wish that the entire staff - and I mean the entire staff - had not sat down to lunch right as I had finished eating and was anticipating my check. No, I did not need my check right away. But I figured that, since my waitress had sat down to eat like everybody else, it might be a good long while before anyone even noticed I was done. Fortunately, my waitress happened to look behind her and see that I was done. She quickly stopped her lunch, got my check, and proceeded to toss it in front of me. Well, more half-toss, half-drop it in front of me. Way to make your customer feel like he's not a burden! I never leave anything less than a 15% tip, and rarely leave less than 20%. I left 10% this time.

A few other restaurants have popped up around BWI. One I have yet to try is the Acqua Restaurant (map) - offering, as it says right on its splash page, "bay fresh cuisine in an elegant setting" near the BWI Hilton. Another is the snazzy Los Portales Restaurant (map), to meet your craving for Mexican food as soon as you get out of the airport. And if you head back to Burwood you can at least try the Bamboo House (same map as Italia's), which is the only Chinese food you will find in lieu of the Beijing Buffet.

So, what did I miss?

Again I need your help and suggestions. Tell me what I missed. I know I missed something. Or what about the places I didn't visit this time: ringing endorsements of Acqua or Los Portales, or something in the airport that I need to check out the next time I'm taking a flight?

Places I got back to

Italia's Corner Café (Italian/pizza and subs) - 7089 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. (Burwood Village Plaza), Suite F, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 684-3817

• Would I eat there again? Yes
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Sure

Matsu Japanese Restaurant (Japanese/sushi) - 517 South Camp Meade Road (Shipley Linthicum Shopping Center), Linthicum, MD 21090 ; Phone: (410) 850-0009 or (410) 850-0012

• Would I eat there again? If I was in the area
  
• Would I go out of my way to eat there again? Likely not

A few places to look up later

Acqua Restaurant (Chesapeake/seafood) - 1739 West Nursery Rd., Linthicum, MD 21090; Phone: (410) 694-0808 ext. 5176

Bamboo House (Chinese/sushi) - 7089 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd (Burwood Village Plaza), Glen Burnie, MD 21061

Buffalo Wings & Beer (pub fare; wings) - 7089 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd (Burwood Village Plaza), Suites C & D, Glen Burnie MD 21061; Phone: (410) 760-2337

Keller's Bakery (bakery) - 509 South Camp Meade Rd. (Shipley Linthicum Shopping Center), Linthicum Heights, MD 21090; Phone: (410) 859-8228

Los Portales Restaurant (Mexican) - 6938 Aviation Boulevard, Suites D & E, Glen Burnie, MD 21061; Phone: (410) 766-9800

Snacking State-by-State: Arizona II - Cactus for Breakfast

While the previous machaca burro recipe was very filling, I still wanted to get some use out of nopal cactus. Also known as the prickly pear (or occasionally, the tuna) cactus, Southwesterners have been subsisting off both the cactus pads and fruits for generations.

Snacking State-by-State: Arizona

Official Name: State of Arizona
State Nicknames: The Grand Canyon State; The Copper State
Admission to the US: February 14, 1912 (#48)
Capital: Phoenix (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Tucson (2nd largest), Mesa (3rd largest), Glendale (4th largest)
Region: West (Southwest); Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Chile Pepper, Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: Utah (north); New Mexico (east); Sonora (south); California, Nevada & Baja California (west); Colorado (northeast corner - Arizona is one of the Four Corners states)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Arizona Trout (fish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: chiles (mild in the south), tortillas (flour in the south), Navajo taco, beef, nopal cactus (both pad and fruit), burritos, chimichangas, menudo

The first time I ever ate them, not long after moving to California in the late 90's, I was less than enthused. A few years later I had a large tostada topped with just about everything while strolling through the Zócalo in Mexico City. It had nopal on it, and again, I was less than enthused. But I was willing to give it one more try, for the sake of social science, and the blog.

The recipe: Nopales con Huevos

I have been unable to find an Arizona-specific recipe with nopal in it (note: I might have to give up this notion of only state-specific recipes if I want this project to continue). The closest thing I could find was a recipe on the AZCentral.com website, which was good enough. Among a list of nopal recipes was a Mexican favorite: nopales con huevos - nopal with eggs.

This one is much simpler and faster than the whole machaca recipe - and yes, the most exotic thing you will need will be the nopal. It's not so easy to find nopal pads in the supermarket, but it is easier than it used to be: there are more and more Latin American markets all over Baltimore (and DC has far more, and isn't that far away), plus some of the bigger supermarkets carry them. But they are a pain in the ass to prepare - you have to remove the stickers completely, then prep and wash them, and remove the gooeyness. Or you could just do what I did, and buy precut nopal in a jar. Doña Maria is an easy brand to find in this area.

I had all of the ingredients on hand once I bought the nopal in a jar (note: the recipe I used was too big, so again, I halved it):

* nopal (a jar runs about $2.50 or $3)
* eggs (four in this case; this will last a few servings)
* salt and pepper, of course
* olive oil (no bacon grease this time)
* onion and garlic
* again, tortillas and salsa

Whisk the eggs with salt and pepper, then chop the nopales and fry them up for a few minutes in olive oil with garlic and onions, Pour in the eggs, and cook for a few minutes. I did not scramble them, but I would recommend that you do.

There you have it! Scrambled eggs with nopal cactus. This time, I did not find the nopal as offensive as I had before. In fact, I hardly tasted it at all - it was kind of like a green bean, with less flavor. But none of the typical sliminess that often goes with not-so-well-prepared nopal.


I am almost done with the A-states. We've gotten through the Deep South, the Arctic North and the desert Southwest. Next I head back to the South - not that Deep, but South nonetheless, for The Natural State and the first of the year: Arkansas.

Sources:

Alters Jamison, Cheryl, and Bill Jamison. The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. The Harvard Common Press: Boston, 1995.

AZCentral.com. Nopales recipes. Posted date June 24, 2005.

Long, Kathi. The Southwest: New American Cooking. From the Williams-Sonoma "New American Cooking" series, Chuck Williams, general editor. Time-Life Books: San Francisco, 2001.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Arizona" page and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Arizona".

Snacking State-by-State: Arizona I - El Burro Más Grande

I have visited Arizona a few times, none of which was recently. My sister and her husband and their dog used to live in Phoenix, and my crazy uncle (we all have a crazy uncle) and his ex-wife still does. So I am not too unfamiliar with the distinctly Southwestern flavors of Arizona: Navajo and Hopi in the northeast (and Native American throughout), cattle rancher in the north, plus the heaviest doses of Mexican all over the whole of the state.

Snacking State-by-State: Arizona

Official Name: State of Arizona
State Nicknames: The Grand Canyon State; The Copper State
Admission to the US: February 14, 1912 (#48)
Capital: Phoenix (largest city)
Other Important Cities: Tucson (2nd largest), Mesa (3rd largest), Glendale (4th largest)
Region: West (Southwest); Mountain (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Chile Pepper, Pinyon Nut
Bordered by: Utah (north); New Mexico (east); Sonora (south); California, Nevada & Baja California (west); Colorado (northeast corner - Arizona is one of the Four Corners states)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Arizona Trout (fish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: chiles (mild in the south), tortillas (flour in the south), Navajo taco, beef, nopal cactus (both pad and fruit), burritos, chimichangas, menudo

The Mexican aspect of Arizona's cuisine is specifically tied to the cuisine of Sonora, the Mexican state right across the border. The two mirror each other very well. Note: I've also passed through Sonora state, on a major bus trip from Morelia (Michoacán) to Mexicali (Baja California) by way of Guadalajara (Jalisco), but that's a story for another day.

If you want to pin down Southwestern food, it is fairly easy. If you want to pin down what is specifically Arizonan, that is a bit more difficult. Kathi Long tries to do this in her cookbook on The Southwest from Williams-Sonoma, focusing on the most notable influences in Arizona cooking, from Mexico:

Arizona cooks have...looked to Mexico for inspiration. The southern part of the state borrowed from the cooking of Sonora, which lies directly across the border, a culinary alliance that reveals itself in large, thin flour tortillas, the use of nopal cactus, and a menu of mildly spiced dishes. Elsewhere in the state, residents traditionally dine on Mexican chimichangas..., menudo..., and giant burritos, as well as the more staid ranch fare introduced by early cattlemen and other settlers from the Midwest and East Coast. [Long, p. 12]

In the spirit of Arizona's Sonoran influences, I wanted to find a recipe that incorporated all three of these elements: nopal (that is, prickly pear) cactus, mild chiles and large, flour tortillas. They are out there, but I hadn't found them before I stumbled upon the massive compendium by Cheryl and Bill Jamison, The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico (also on Google Books). In Arizona, burritos are standard fare - particulary massive ones. The Jamisons rightly call those burros, since a burrito is just a "little burro".

Among their many recipes for burros and burritos, one breakfast creation specifically piqued my interest: their machaca breakfast burro. Since it comes straight from Phoenix, it seemed like a good place to start.

The recipe: Machaca Breakfast Burro

As the Jamisons point out, machaca originally referred to beef or other meat.

Machaca originally referred to meat (usually beef) that was seasoned, dried for preservation, and later tenderized by pulverizing and cooking. The word comes from the verb machacar, meaning to pound or crush... Many people now use the term to describe any beef cooked well-done with seasonings and then shredded. [Alters Jamison et al., p. 75]

I don't buy a lot of meat these days, but I saw this as a great way to use up some frozen beef in my freezer. Before my former neighbor moved to Nova Scotia a few months ago he gave me some frozen beef he would've otherwise thrown out. Thawed it amounted to a pound and a half - perfect for a halved version of this recipe. This made the amount of money I put out for this recipe unusually light:

* beef (free!!! Thanks, Dale, if you ever read this)
* salt and pepper (have)
* bacon grease (if you have the bacon, it's not that difficult to make some on the spot)
* beef stock (had none, so I had to turn to the Maggi chicken bouillon in my pantry)
* onion (have)
* garlic (have)
* small Roma tomatoes (about $1 for two)
* mild green chiles (one poblano chile for about 50 cents)
* fresh lime juice (one lime for about the same)
* egg (this was optional - I wasn't planning to use one at the time but decided to add one later)
* burrito-size flour tortillas (the priciest item, about $3 for a package of eight)

This recipe was a bit more involved than many I do. First, you must briefly brown the beef in some of the bacon grease, then cook in a Dutch oven over low heat for over an hour with broth, onion & garlic. Wait for it to cool down a little, then break it up and - here's the part that I haven't done before - throw it in your food processor until shredded. You must do this in small batches lest it not shred everything.

Fry the beef a bit more until slightly drier and until some patches of beef look darker and more dessicated. Remove it, and cook the rest of the onion & garlic with the rest of the bacon grease, the reserved liquid from the Dutch oven, tomato, chile pepper (roasted and chopped) and lime juice. Add the beef and cook for about 25 minutes.

I never thought I would do this, but why the hell not?
I'm not making this for PETA after all...

The closeup hides the fact that I still need to clean my stove

25 minutes later... okay, so the stove isn't that bad...

Here is where I put the machaca mixture in the fridge, which the Jamisons say you can do at this point. I brought it out a day or so later and added an egg. Really, it added very little to the dish. I could neither taste it nor even see it at all. In retrospect, it was not necessary, and I wouldn't add it again. To be sure, the Jamisons day that part is optional.

The rest is ridiculously easy: just spoon the hot mixture into a large (Sonoran-style) flour tortilla and make yourself a burro. Eat it with salsa (my choice: a roasted tomato salsa from the Jamison's same book called salsa del norte).

Okay, mine really was more the size of a burrito, but still...

The thing about machaca-style beef: it isn't supposed to be soft and juicy, per se. Perhaps I did something wrong. I mean, it wasn't dripping and wet, but it was pleasantly soft and just a bit moist. Plus, the long, slow cooking with tomatoes and roasted poblano chile pepper, onions and garlic, bacon grease (yet another use!!!) and lime juice just blends together in the most beautiful way. I'm sorry if I'm starting to sound "foodie-ish". I really don't mean to. It was just a beautiful thing to eat. Even if you decide to turn that burro into the more diminutive burrito.

I have been subsisting off machaca burros and burritos since. I may even make a quesadilla if the mood strikes me, complete with thinkly sliced queso fresco, which is not easy to melt, let me tell you.

Sources:

Alters Jamison, Cheryl, and Bill Jamison. The Border Cookbook: Authentic Home Cooking of the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. The Harvard Common Press: Boston, 1995.

AZCentral.com. Nopales recipes. Posted date June 24, 2005.

Long, Kathi. The Southwest: New American Cooking. From the Williams-Sonoma "New American Cooking" series, Chuck Williams, general editor. Time-Life Books: San Francisco, 2001.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Arizona" page and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Arizona".

AAAAOOOO I want Crabs fer Chrismiss...

The David DeBoy classic. And if you think that's funny, try this version which is the same, only much shorter, weirder (yes, weirder) and with crabs!

@Cookbook

It figures: I find out about something inextricably linked to new social media by going to the library and picking up a print-bound cookbook. But that's just what I did the other day, when I found Eat Tweet by Maureen Evans (@cookbook on Twitter; her secondary, recipe-free handle is @cookbookmaureen). If you know Twitter at all, then you can imagine what this is: complete recipes in 140 characters or less. And it's not just the mundane stuff that I've tried to describe in as complete a sentence as I could. Maureen has very complex recipes, boiled down to their grammatical abbreviated essence. Take her October 27 recipe for Beef Wellington:

Beef Wellington: sear,chill 4filet/2T buttr. Brwn 2c mincdshroom/s+p/T oil; simmr9m+⅓c wtwine/¼t thyme; top4puffpastry,wrap filet. 30m@400℉.less than a minute ago via webMaureen Evans
cookbook

Embeddable Tweet courtesy of Blackbird Pie

As you can see, the lingo makes it possible to write a rather long recipe in Twitter format:

"Sear, then chill four filets and 2 tablespoons butter. Brown 2 cups of minced mushrooms, salt & pepper, and at tablespoon of oil. Simmer for 9 minutes, add 1/3 cup of white wine, 1/4 teaspoon thyme. Top with four puff pastries, wrap filets. 30 minutes at 400°F." And she has to find special characters that take up as little space as possible ("1/3", "1/4" and even "°F" all exist as one character each apparently). It doesn't take too long to figure out, and she has a key in the cookbook if you get lost. And now that I have the cookbook (again, library) I can scroll through the recipes even when I am off line!

Amazing what salvage archaeology will unearth

Chinese archaeologists have found what they believe to be bone soup, as reported by the BBC:

Tests are being carried out to identify the ingredients. An odourless liquid, believed to be wine, was also found.

The pots were discovered in a tomb being excavated to make way for an extension to the local airport.

"It's the first discovery of bone soup in Chinese archaeological history," the newspaper quoted Liu Daiyun of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology as saying.

"The discovery will play an important role in studying the eating habits and culture of the Warring States Period (475-221BC)."

This would be the world's oldest soup ever unearthed. Eagerly waiting for the archaeologists to discover the chemical composition of the liquid so they can figure out what exactly went into it.

The ONE thing I hate about farmers' markets

The ONE thing I hate about farmers' markets is the individual who moves as slowly as possible, not because others are blocking his or her path, but because he or she is soaking in the sights!

The smells!

The good vibes and karma!

The handmade cheeses and farm fresh apples, garlic and kale grown just 50 miles away by the same farmers who are handing it to you!

Sometimes stopping to chat with friends right in the middle of the thoroughfare!

Taking fliers and circulars about socialism and veganism!

All the while never realizing that they are in your fucking way!!!

That's the one and only thing I hate about farmers' markets.

Obrycki's is closing, hon*

Yes, Obrycki's is closing its doors (as reported by the Sun's Richard Gorelick):

Obrycki's will open again in March. But when the crab season concludes in November, the family's Fells Point restaurant will close for good, according to Robert M. "Rob" Cernak, who operates the business with two sisters. Cernak said the family decided to close "for quality of life" reasons. The Cernaks expect to open a smaller crab house soon at the planned slots parlor near Arundel Mills mall.

As you just read, fortunately they are opening a smaller place at the Arundel Mills slots parlor (couldn't have done that without Anne Arundel County voters). Still, 2011 is the year to enjoy a Baltimore tradition one last time. I remember people in grad school in Riverside, California, who mail-ordered Obrycki's crabs across the continent. Yes, it is a sad day. God speed to the Cernak family.

* Apologies to Café Hon

Well this is just silly, hons

Denise Whiting of Café Hon has copyrighted the word "hon" - at least on printed merchandise, as ABC 2's Cheryl Conner reports:

In fact, the word has been for about 10 years, along with “Honfest”and “Hon Bar.” We talked to restaurant owner Denise Whiting on the phone, who says she's just trying to protect the brand she created 20 years ago.

I get that she has popularized the brand. And yes, she said she would be unlikely to actually prosecute someone for using it. And yes, I know countless people have said today that people have been saying this word for generations in this city, and that it is ludicrous to copyright a word in common parlance.

That said, it is ludicrous to copyright a word in common parlance. Copyright "HonFest" if you want, but "hon"? Seriously, hons. But I got dibs on the collective noun my friend Eric came up with a few HonFests ago:

spray (noun, collective) - a gathering of two or more "hons", typically seen during the HonFest event in Baltimore, Maryland.

There's no smell like roasted chiles for the holidays...

Chiles are forgiving. I found that out yesterday when I tried to resuscitate some partially-dried chile peppers that I had grown in my garden plot at Clifton Park (note to self: check on the herbs and whatnot you still have growing there). I had tried to dry them out in the oven but got exasperated when I had to stop and come back to it another day. I never came back to it, so those half-dried chiles were sitting wilted in a covered dish in my refrigerator for a week or two. They weren't exactly dry anymore. But only one or two had to be thrown out; the rest were doing alright. So I had a go at finishing the process.

This time, like last, I spread the chiles out on a cookie sheet, no oil or anything. This time I took the rest of the chiles I had gathered since then (I also grabbed a few to freeze instead of dry), and spread them out on the same baking sheet. Yes, I knew they wouldn't all dry at the same time. This time, I correctly started drying them: I turned down the oven as low as possible, about 150°F, and placed a dish towel in the door to keep it slightly wedged open. Mr. Freak-Out here had worried at first that the towel might catch fire, but I realized that was highly unlikely. Several hours later, with the lovely smell of homegrown chile peppers permeating the house (seems like New Mexico), some of the first chiles had finally dried out altogether.

This is often a multi-day process, especially if some of your chile peppers are not super-thin. So over the next few days I will continue to dry out these chiles for use throughout the winter and spring.

Fire on Charles Street!

Best wishes for the folks whose businesses were damaged in the fire on Charles Street. Donna's, My Thai, Indigma and the Helmand were all damaged, and I have eaten at all of them. I don't know enough, based on what I've seen and read. Some restaurants may be back in a matter of days, others may take a while. Let's hope they and their staffs are able to get things back up and running soon. This is a bad time for their employees to be out of a job!

Also: does anyone know about Thairish or any of the other businesses on that side of the block?

Haute Dog Carte for a frigid day

The Haute Dog Carte is still out daily, folks. It hasn't stopped operations yet, though I think they are scaling back during the snowy months. So make sure you get a knockwurst in beer butter sauerkraut or their tasty Filipino Maharlika dog - unless you just want the classic 1/2 pound all-beef Angus (none more than $5). Just do it. You will be happy you did.

Snacking State-by-State: Alaska II - Salmon on Wood!

As Chef Glenn Denkler suggests in a prologue to Severson's book, you do not have to feel bad about not following the letter of the recipe. He insists

A recipe should be considered a starting point. A cook must learn to taste and not be a slave to a recipe... [T]reat these recipes with respect; respect the talent of the cooks who came up with the ideas, but have fun. If you don't like an ingredient or amount, be bold and experiment. If you can't get wild Alaska salmon or Kodiak scallops, find the best seafood you can, given the state of your local fish market... Let your heart and your taste buds rule. [Denkler, in Severson, xxiii]

I was already experimenting with the wood, so why not?

Snacking State-by-State: Alaska

Official Name: State of Alaska
State Nickname: The Last Frontier
Admission to the US: January 3, 1959 (#49)
Capital: Juneau (3rd largest city)
Other Important Cities: Anchorage (largest), Fairbanks (2nd largest), Sitka (4th largest)
Region: West (Northwest, Pacific); Pacific (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Salmon
Bordered by: Arctic Ocean (north); Yukon Territory & British Columbia (Canada) (east); Gulf of Alaska (south); Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea & Chukchi Peninsula (Siberia, Russia) (west)
Official State Foods: King Salmon (fish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: salmon, halibut, herring, Alaska king crab, moose, caribou, pemmican, northern Alaskan berries - and not Baked Alaska

I did play around with some of the ingredients, but only a little: parsley instead of dill, leaving out the dried berries (alas, none in the pantry), an addition of a little bit of sea salt. But I did want to at least find Alaskan salmon, even if it couldn't be wild. Trader Joe's is probably the best place to find it without bankrupting yourself, and the fresh stuff was $16 a pound! Thankfully I was there when they were out, and it dawned on me to check amongst the frozen fish section.


There it was, wild Alaska sockeye salmon fillets, frozen, for only $8 per pound. Jackpot!

The recipe: Oven Roasted Cedar Plank Salmon

With the most important ingredients now in my possession (the salmon and the plank), I just had to look around the kitchen for the rest:

* butter (a pound to 1.5 pounds of fish - since I only had a pound of fish, I didn't need so much butter. I didn't have the good stuff, but the chef recommends you do)
* fresh parsley (instead of the dill - hey, I had it from the farmers' market for $2)
* lemon juice (from an actual lemon, or just use the bottled stuff)
* chopped berries (unfortunately I had none on me, so I omitted them)
* crushed pepper mélange (again, I only had black peppercorns)
* vegetable or olive oil for seasoning (check)


You can do the prep while the cedar plank is soaking. Note: you will need to anchor it down for that whole hour, otherwise it'll float right up to the top. It must be submerged, with at least a quarter inch of water completely covering the surface. This is to keep it from catching on fire in the oven. Also note that you must sterilize the plank in the oven for about 10 minutes at the cooking temperature, in this case 400°F.

First seared...

When you get close to when you need to use the salmon, scale it and make slits in the skin, then sear it in "shimmering" oil for 30 seconds on the skin side. Cut it into portion sizes, place it skin-side down on the plank, and smear it with the butter, whipped together with the remaining ingredients. Bake it for 8 minutes, and serve it off the plank.

...then smeared.

I have not eaten anything roasted on a plank before, so I was not sure what to expect. The cedar flavor ended up being especially subtle, delicately lingering in the background while the salmon was quite robust, more so than I am used to eating, since most of the salmon I eat is the cheaper Atlantic variety. I ate this with some cranberry sauce I had just made, and it was damn amazing.

Amazing what big plank o' wood can do for your food.

For my next post, I trade the Northwest for the Southwest, and head for the flavors of Arizona, a combination of flavors from Sonora, Spain, Navajo, Pueblo and the cowboys - ingredients and cooking styles that by and large don't involve a whole lot of sockeye salmon, or muktuk.

Sources:

Severson, Kim, with Glenn Denkler. The New Alaska Cookbook: Recipes from the Last Frontier's Best Chefs. 2001 : Sasquatch Books, Seattle.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Alaska" page and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Alaska". It's a lot of info for the enterprising Lower 48'er to process.

Snacking State-by-State: Alaska I - From Home Depot to Your Table

When we think of Alaska, we usually think of salmon. True, it is much more than that: it's moose, it's king crab, it's halibut, it's herring, it's pemmican. But salmon really is one of the most important foods - if not the most important. Even the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has created a resource for teachers to instruct students on just how important salmon is to the culture and cuisine of the state. It is so quintessentially Alaskan that for this state's dish, I really had little choice.

Snacking State-by-State: Alaska

Official Name: State of Alaska
State Nickname: The Last Frontier
Admission to the US: January 3, 1959 (#49)
Capital: Juneau (3rd largest city)
Other Important Cities: Anchorage (largest), Fairbanks (2nd largest), Sitka (4th largest)
Region: West (Northwest, Pacific); Pacific (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Salmon
Bordered by: Arctic Ocean (north); Yukon Territory & British Columbia (Canada) (east); Gulf of Alaska (south); Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea & Chukchi Peninsula (Siberia, Russia) (west)
Official State Foods: King Salmon (fish)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: salmon, halibut, herring, Alaska king crab, moose, caribou, pemmican, northern Alaskan berries - and not Baked Alaska

Perhaps the biggest misconception - that I may unintentionally be helping to spread - is that Alaska is all salmon, all the time. Granted, salmon is important, but it is more than that. This isn't the only misconception. Journalist and author Kin Severson writes in her The New Alaska Cookbook about the reaction she got from her fellow San Franciscans when she talked about her many years reporting from Alaska:

Here in San Francisco, a place many argue is the epicenter of the American food scene, people find that funny. "Lots of whale blubber recipes?" they ask. [Severson, p. xi]

Whale blubber - that is, the Inuit dish muktuk - is, actually, something I used to think they ate a lot in Alaska. Of course, not many people eat it there anymore - no more than do many Californians eat things made out of acorns. As to Alaska's many culinary riches, Severson notes:

Nearly round-the-clock daylight in the summer produces an abundance of herbs, greens, and other vegetables, including cabbages so big a single one might easily keep a restaurant in cole slaw for weeks. In the state's interior, morel mushrooms can grow as big as your hand. Unusual game meats, such as caribou and moose, present themselves in the fall and winter... Any serious eater who has visited Alaska leaves pleasantly surprised by the quality of the cuisine served in both city restaurants and remote fishing lodges. [Severson, p. xii]

Long story short: it ain't all muktuk.

What Severson offers in her tome is what, to me, seems like a haute Alaskan cuisine, since the various contributors to The New Alaska Cookbook have many innovative takes on Alaska's native ingredients. They often prepare and plate their unique mixture of Northwestern and international ingredients and flavors in various ways that we in the Lower 48 would find familiar: Southwestern, Southern, New England, Tex-Mex, Creole, California-style, and so on. They even have mini-Baked Alaskas in there. By the way, just to get it out there: no, Baked Alaska is not from Alaska; it was made by chefs at Manhattan's Delmonico in the 1870's to celebrate the acquisition of Alaska from Russia. And yet, despite the innovations of many of Alaska's top chefs (now that is a show I'd like to see: Top Chef: Anchorage), I still wanted less haute Alaska and more traditional Alaska.

One recipe that seemed simple and easy (enough) comes to us from Chef Jens Hansen of Jens' Restaurant and Bodega in Anchorage. His recipe for alder plank-roasted salmon is similar to what Native Alaskans have been doing with either alder or cedar for thousands of years to prepare their salmon. As you probably know, grilling salmon, halibut or other seafood on the wood imparts a mid taste of the wood. And not only can you grill it, you can also bake it in the oven. This is Hansen's preferred method, and it was mine too. There were just three problems for me. One, I could only find cedar, not alder. Two, The cedar planks at the grocery stores were pretty damn pricey. And three, most people recommended that I not use it in my oven. The first was easily solved by buying cedar. The second was almost as easy: with some research I was able to find out how to make my own, much, much cheaper cedar roasting plank. The last one just took a little prep and some careful watching.

The prep work: How to prep a cedar plank for cooking


User "zoetical" from eHow.com gives some useful instructions for making your own cedar cooking plank. All you need is the cedar plank, a saw, sandpaper and a dab of olive or vegetable oil. And if you go to Home Depot or Lowe's, you can omit the saw because they will saw it for you! Just be persistent about finding cedar. One guy at the Home Depot I went to had no idea that they even sold cedar. In fact, he was fairly certain they did not. Thankfully his coworker led us both right to it.

One thing that is absolutely critical: the wood must be untreated. Think about it: if you're baking on grilling salmon on a piece of wood that's been coated with chemicals to help preserve it, the least of your worries is that the chemicals will get into the food. Beyond the flavor and the, um, toxicity, you also have to worry about the fumes and possibly the ensuing explosion, depending on what the wood was treating with. Please don't let this happen to you! Fortunately, the oils in the cedar act as a natural preservative, so cedar is by and large untreated anyway. The Home Depot guy was pretty certain of this. I imagine the same can be said for alder, but don't quote me on this.

Home Depot sells 8' x 1" cedar planks for about $6. Pretty sweet if you're using it for cooking, since a cedar plank in the stores will run you at least $15 to $20. That's for a whole foot of wood that you might get one use out of if you grill it, two or three if you bake it. I am able to get eight cedar planks out of mine - at $6 for 8 feet, that runs about 75¢ a foot. 1,500¢ vs 75¢. I think I know which one I'm going with.


The tough part was the sanding, which wasn't tough at all. You just need to get out all the splinters, lest you get one in your tongue (that almost happened to me with one of those cheap wooden chopsticks). So sand it, season it (one tablespoon per usable side), and soak it for an hour before using it. That's it.

Sources:

Severson, Kim, with Glenn Denkler. The New Alaska Cookbook: Recipes from the Last Frontier's Best Chefs. 2001 : Sasquatch Books, Seattle.

Zoetical (eHow user). How to Make Cedar Cooking Planks That Are Reusable. Posted date unknown.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Alaska" page and the Food Timeline State Foods webpage link to "Alaska". It's a lot of info for the enterprising Lower 48'er to process.

Milk & Honey

While in Mount Vernon running errands yesterday morning, I had the chance to finally stop into Milk & Honey, the new small storefront on Cathedral Street that bills itself as a "neighborhood grocery/café/deli". You won't find a wide variety of products here - that's not Milk & Honey's modus operandi. What you will find is a small but high-quality selection of organic groceries and higher quality goods, many from around the area. Not just local milk and honey, of course (though they do have those), but cheeses from around the world, sodas, butter (including the high-quality European butter Plugrá for a little over $6 per pound) and organic produce (very locally grown fingerling sweet potatoes for $4 per pound, for example) among other things.

They have some unique and almost impossible to find groceries that not even most health food stores carry. For example, I found a box of Lundberg gluten-free vegan brown rice couscous ($3.99). Back when I was really investigating gluten-free products, I had seen a wide variety of gluten-free flours, pastas, breads, rolls, cereals and so on, but no gluten-free couscous (yes, technically a type of pasta). No area health food stores carry it (some hadn't even heard of it), but Milk & Honey does. I bought a box, though I have yet to try it (watch for that post soon).

When you enter the big, sunny Milk & Honey, your attention will not immediately go to the groceries, though those are the first things you will encounter to either side of you. What you will first encounter is the big glass deli case in front of you, which holds a small variety of baked goods and sandwiches (looks like Milk & Honey is definitely going for quality over quantity). I was quite lucky to have gotten there when a few free samples of their ham and cheese biscuit were sitting out for the taking, as that helped me (and the two women in front of me) make my purchasing decision. Though out of that variety of biscuit, they did have an equally luscious bacon & chipotle biscuit. I don't throw around words like "luscious" very often, but underlying that crumbly outer surface is a moist, savory and I dare say luscious little biscuit. It's also a large (for me) and filling biscuit and I do recommend it. You will need something to go with that biscuit, by the way. I bought a half-chocolate-dipped sandwich cookie for $1.25, which was simple and tasty. On the beverage front, order anything from soda to coffee to hot chocolate. Sit there in their little café, or head outside. I wish I had. Hot chocolate will be a very nice choice this upcoming week.

Happy Hanukkah, Bobby Flay!

For the Jewish Festival of Lights, a most unusual brisket - with a barbecue twist!?