Thanksgiving Redux from 2008

My family and I had a fairly low-key Thanksgiving this year.  No orgy of cooking, no triple-figure totals at the supermarket having nothing to do with any one expensive item, no feelings of wanting to throw up afterwards because I'm too damn full.  No excess!  And it still feels like we had too much.

Just looking at my Thanksgiving posts from before the first Obama administration makes my stomach hurt.  It's a little embarrassing.  But there's still leftover dressing / stuffing.  What to do with it?  I tried to figure out some use four years ago with this stuffed mushroom recipe:

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Stuffing-Dressed (or Dressing-Stuffed) Mushrooms (originally posted November 30, 2008)

I am the last person in my family to get through his or her Thanksgiving leftovers. The food was good, at least, and the turkey was delicious if I do say so myself. We didn't eat much, and we did not have all the leftovers we figured we would. Thank God for that!

It's quite easy to find recipes for leftover turkey, leftover vegetables, leftover cranberry sauce, etc. But one thing that is almost impossible to find recipes for is stuffing, aka dressing, which I will use interchangeably.* This staple of many a Thanksgiving meal reared its delicious head in two forms this year, as my grandmother's traditional dressing and my sister's father-in-law's sausage dressing with butter. But Google either "stuffing as ingredient" or "dressing as ingredient" and the only thing you get is 10,000 pages of recipes for dressing and stuffing.

So how the hell do you use it as anything other than stuffing!?!?

One commenter on one Thanksgiving website had a solution. She noted that she uses hers to stuff mushrooms. It's so simple! Just take mushroom caps, stuff them with dressing, and bake them. I baked mine at 350°F for half an hour and that was all. The stuffing is crispier on the top, even if you stick a little piece of cheese in the middle. Fried onions on top are also a good addition. And unless it's a rather big mushroom cap, you need to pop the whole thing in your mouth. Just make sure it cools down a little bit first.

* I'm sorry I keep going back and forth between "stuffing" and "dressing". I have always called it both and used them interchangeably. Technically, it's my Nana's dressing, because it never goes into a turkey - in fact, that is anathema to my family, stuffing a bird with anything. But we also ate so much Stove Top growing up that I've become used to calling it stuffing. I'm not even sure what we call it locally - dressing is more traditionally Southern, and stuffing is more traditionally Northern. And of course, Maryland, being smack dab in the middle, seems to call it both. Native Marylanders specifically, what do you call your dressing/stuffing?

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I still call it both, natch.  And I didn't even make any this year (Mom did that).  Fortunately while shopping this year I didn't run into any of the irritation at Wegman's or Giant or (had it been here in 2008) Harris Teeter that I did four years ago.  I still hhhhaaaatttteeee shopping on the day before Thanksgiving - the Black Wednesday of supermarket shopping, so to speak.

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I should not be allowed into Wegman's, like, ever (originally published November 25, 2008)

I just got my inner geek on with that Doctor Who thing [NB: link added November 23, 2012, which is Doctor Who's 49th birthday, I might add]. Now my inner bitch wants some time, too.

Wegman's is wonderful - absolutely wonderful. Except during the week of Thanksgiving. Then it's a zoo. I was reminded of that the hard way when I went there Sunday to buy the last few things I needed for Thanksgiving. Some cilantro here, some oranges there, a bit of lemon juice (Emeril's Funky Turkey again - the family loves it, only I double the recipe and replace Emeril's Essence with Old Bay). And no, I found out there are no Jellybabies at Wegman's (hat tip Meg) [NB: Wegman's of Hunt Valley now sells Jelly Babies.  Don't know about Abingdon or Columbia yet].

My GOD, those people are so SLOW to move! There seems to be two types of people who go shopping at Wegman's the fourth week of November: the ones who cannot be bothered to move very fast, and the ones who cannot be bothered to move at all. Perhaps many of those in the former category (as I found myself in) would move were it not for those people in the latter category who just stand there deciding whether or not they really need the $4 a pound navel oranges, or the $3.19 a pound navel oranges (really, what's the difference?). JESUS, PEOPLE, MOVE!!!

Coincidentally, this is also why I should not be allowed to drive, as I find myself cutting people off in the aisles at Wegman's, muttering under my breath about how some people don't know that I cannot walk through them! Actually, you would be surprised that I'm not an aggressive driver, despite my six years and seven months in California and my propensity to speed up when those people who race toward the end of merge lanes in order to cut everybody off try to get in front of me. (Only one has gotten over in the last year, ha!, and I've been around the Beltway a lot this year, as you've read.)

Now I am mindful when I'm shopping. I try my best to move my cart and my butt out of everybody's way when I'm shopping. If I have to stop in a high-traffic area, I pull over so others can get by me. I don't just stand there blocking everybody. Just imagine if someone did that on 695. "Uh, dude, stop the car right here in the middle of the lane. I need to look at the map again. Dude, is this Parkville or Pikesville?" AAAAAAAAAARGH! Just f*cking pull over or move, people! Gawd, this isn't rocket science!!!

Shopping really does bring out the worst in me. I guess the recession is good in that it has forced me to limit my supermarket visits to once a week. Otherwise I'd have a stroke right there in the produce section. Really, I need to take up yoga or something.

End of rant :)

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Well, almost.  At least she's not eatin' like this anymore.

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Anything can be fried if you put your mind to it. (originally published November 26, 2008)

Commenter Joshua C just reminded me of the disturbing joys of fried stuffing, as he found my site while searching for a post about it. With that in mind, here's one of my favorite pics of the holiday (Thanksgiving, not Chrismukkwanzakah) season.

Rock on, Miss Paula. Rock on.

Flashback: How to Pack Beer and Wine into Your Luggage (originally published 6/3/09)

State posts start back up next Sunday, Labor Day weekend.  Many people will be traveling and wanting to bring back beer and wine.  True, Maryland's interstate-shipping-of-wine laws are finally changing for the better (slowly), but you still can't really mail yourself beer or wine.  Legally, anyway.  To wit: a primer on what you need to do to smuggle it into the luggage that the folks on the tarmac will almost certainly hurl into the plane as hard as they can.

Also note: since this post, Fat Tire as well as all of New Belgium's beers are now available throughout Maryland, Virginia and the District.  So if you're flying from California or Colorado, please don't bother to pack that Hoptober.  Not sure if Joseph Filippi Wineries out of Rancho Cucamonga, CA, has a Maryland wine shipping license yet.

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How to Pack Beer and Wine into Your Luggage (originally published June 3, 2009)



Yesterday was my day to reminisce around the Inland Empire and stock up on groceries that I cannot find Back East. I am surprised that I only spent $14 at the Fresh and Easy on supplies to take back home. I also went to BevMo, the local big box store for beer, wine and liquor, to pick up a 12-pack of Fat Tire Beer. Again, this is the good stuff that we can't get in Maryland or almost anywhere east of the Mississippi River (they sell it in Tennessee, and maybe now North Carolina, but I'm not hedging my bets on that).

If I lived in most other states, this would not be a problem, and I could just ship it back home. But we live in a state with such blaring blue laws that we are not even allowed to mail alcoholic beverages to our own houses. They can also sell alcohol in their supermarkets outside the Old Line State, people. On Sundays. Everywhere. It's true, people.

So my real challenge was to find some way to fit all this beer, along with the two bottles of wine from Rancho Cucamonga's Joseph Filippi Winery, into my luggage while at the same time:

1. making sure they don't break; and
2. making sure they don't push the total weight of the luggage above 50 lbs.

After doing some quick research on the internet, I found some good tips from people who transport or have transported a lot of beer and wine through their luggage. The most common tips I found suggested the following for a case of beer: wrap each bottle in a sock (and/or bubble wrap), and then zip it up in a Ziploc bag. Make sure the beers are all packed as close to the center of your luggage as possible. It's similar for wine: wrap each bottle in a towel and/or bubble wrap, and then wrap it all in a plastic bag. If you have a big enough Ziploc bag, put it in there.

Since I couldn't really use other people's socks, I had to buy some. This required a trip to the local 99¢ Only (a big and increasingly popular chain in California and much of the Southwest), where I bought two packages of ankle biters for a grand total of $1 each. Add to that a box of 12 Ziploc bags for $1 and two dish towels for $1 each, and I was ready to do my packing (NB: I also found Cadbury Cream Eggs from Easter for 25¢ each; only a few were oozing).

When I found out that a 12 pack of Fat Tire weighs all of 15 pounds (thanks for the use of the scale, Jim), I had the new problem of decreasing the weight in my suitcase. As a result, I am using some of my clothes as packing material for those groceries I bought.

Awww... the world's first beer cozy

My first step was to take the beer out of its box and start wrapping each one in a sock. At first I just slipped it over the beer, but I figured out that by readjusting the sock I could cover top and bottom, and then staple the sock shut. The part of the sock that still exposed some of the bottle got some toilet paper stuffed next to it before I fit it snugly into its gallon-size Ziploc bag.

I felt like a mad scientist

With all of the extra padding I could only fit ten of the bottles into the box. Don't fret, beer fans! I left some for Gil (I would've left some for Jim, but he isn't really a beer person). Even better, after all was said and done the total weight of the box had decreased to 13.5 pounds! That was minus 2.5 pounds for losing two bottles of beer, and adding one pound of packing material (socks, Ziploc bags, newspaper, tape).

The things one will do for beer

The wines, which added another 7 pounds of weight, were a different matter, as they didn't come in their own convenient box. The first step was to wrap each wine bottle in its own towel, and then wrap the towel in a plastic bag.

A nice rosé towels off after a hard day of being a rosé

Voila! The final product. Yes, those are Berger's cookies in the background. I always bring them as gifts. Of course, I've heard no complaints yet.

After sandwiching the 13.5 lb box of Fat Tire and the two Joseph Filippi Wines into my suitcase amidst tennis shoes, travel kit and clothes, I took one final measurement. The final weight: 40 pounds! I had a convenient 10 lb buffer zone just in case I needed to slip something else into my luggage.

I'll let you know tomorrow how well it worked.

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NB: As I recall, it worked beautifully

Flashback: Rehoboth Beach... in Haiku (originally posted 7/17/10)

Ah, summer is coming to an end.  Why not celebrate it with a trip to the beach?  Too little room in OC? How about a side trip to Reho?  Plus the haiku is a format I haven't had on here in a while.  For those of you not familiar with Rehoboth Beach, please note: the subject of the final photo is still on display the last I checked.

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Rehoboth Beach... in Haiku (originally posted July 17, 2010)


It's been a week since my visit to fabulously hot Rehoboth Beach - and a good long while since I posted anything in poetry format. So to help cope with the heat, a little silliness in haiku format.

My stay started at
The Rehoboth Guest House - a
Charming place to stay.

Dogfish Head Brew Pub

Dinner was Dogfish
Head Brewpub, one of my main
Reasons to go down.

So many beers, all
Mem'rable. But enough to
Cloud my brain a tad.

I must recommend
Their five dollar sampler of
Five beers with your meal.

With that I got the
Fried squid - crunchy, nice, although
Not too flavorful.

Alongside, their In-
dulgence burger (just nine bucks),
Piled with lots of stuff:

Cheddar, bacon, and
A fried onion ring - I asked
For it to be rare.

Flavorful, juicy,
A bit messy (duh) - quite good.
Get it if you can.

Walked to Double L,
One of the rare gay bars that
Has Guinness on tap.

What a cute couple,
Standing on the Boardwalk on
Drizzly Thursday morn.

The Bake Shoppe

Stopped by the Bake Shoppe
On Rehoboth Av for a
Croissant and a chat.

Crusty, happy guy
Who grew up in Baltimore
Told me about two

Women who baked pies
In his 'hood in South B'more
Back when he was young.

Baywatch: Delaware!

Lifeguards training in the sand.
Yum. I stared a bit.

And of course, I get
On the beach and it drizzles.
I still got sunburned :\

In contrast: what the
Trendy woman wore here a
Hundred years ago.

Also checked out an
Exhibit on Rehoboth's
Archaeology.

Leave it to me to
Go to the beach, and end up
In a museum.

Seafood ShackFor a post-beach lunch,
I stopped at the Seafood ShackOn Baltimore Av

With my Dos Equis,
Got a po'boy which was a
Three seafood sampler:

A mini-crabcake,
Three oysters, and two shrimps - for
all of thirteen bucks.

Po'boy did the job,
In a friendly setting not
Far from the Boardwalk.

Visit at night for
Music from lesbian and
Straight female singers!

Dogfish Head Brew Pub Part TwoOn back to Dogfish,
For their down-scale brew pub tour
Free at 4:30

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Thursdays. No free samples
Like in Milton though.

Showed me their vodkas,
Including an intriguing
Peanut Butter one.

I had to try this.
A shot for five bucks tastes JUST
like peanut butter.

Finbar's Pub and GrillHowever, dinner
Was at Finbar's - the locals'
Favorite for dinner.

The service, at first,
Was lacking. But I was helped
Eventually.

With a thick Guinness,
I got a big fish and chips
For seventeen bucks:

A humongous piece
Of Irish ale-battered cod
With a rémoulade.

The fish was tender,
And the batter not soggy.
Locals must love it!

While fries are often
A throwaway, these chips were
A nice complement.

Finbar's, by the way,
Is easy to find: Dogfish
Brew Pub is next door.

Blue MoonBookending dinner,
A visit to the Blue Moon,
So close to my room.

Dinner is pricey.
So I only went for their
Happy Hour at first.

After dinner, I
Returned to meet up with friends,
Watch karaoke.

Had yet more Dogfish:
Two (or three) Shelter Pale Ales,
But Happy Hour-priced.

And please check out the
Entertaining Pamala
Stanley at Blue Moon!

Late? Karaoke
With Mona Lotts (just don't sing
Off-key like some guys)

Finally found the
Fabled gay end of the beach
(and much eye candy...)

So nice to see gays
With their kids, even some straights,
Gay couples and groups.

If you're looking, it's
13 minute walk from there
To Rehoboth Av.

Hobo's Restaurant and Bar

For my send-off lunch,
Hobo's offered one very
Eye-popping option:

The place looks like they
Took Artscape and made it in-
to a restaurant.

My lunch: a combo
Quesadilla of blue crab
Mixed with melted brie.

For nine bucks, it is
Melted with arugula
And artichokes, too.

You would not think to
Mix crab and brie, but my God
What a great combo!

Topped with rémoulade
and red bell peppers, which made
The meal quite complete.

Of course, I had to
Stop at Dolle's for car'mel corn -
A six dollar tub.

And Candy Kitchen:
For a pound of fudge to take
Back for family.

Did I mention the
Eye-candy? I did. Just had
To revisit it.

No haiku verse here: this speaks for itself.

Flashback: Julia Child's Cheese Quiche, Almost (originally published 1/13/08)

Julia Child would have been 100 years old today.  Hopefully Child's kitchen will go back on display soon at the American History Museum in DC (the wing is merely closed for renovations, so it is coming back).  Child-mania has rightfully come back, if it ever died down in the first place, since Julie & Julia (which I have my own ideas on from this post in 2009).  One of my favorite Child recipes was her simple and easy omelette.  A bit more difficult is her cheese quiche, which didn't really turn out well at first.

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Julia Child's Cheese Quiche, Almost (originally published January 13, 2008)


I have tackled the master, and the master has won.

At least at first.

A week or so ago I scored this great used copy of Julia Child's French Chef Cookbook. It was a lesser-known edition but the same recipes. I didn't have a Julia Child cookbook, so this was a nice edition to my library. Child, of course, needs no introduction. Born and raised in Pasadena - California, not Maryland, of course - and introduced to French cuisine by her husband, she eventually mastered French cookin', popularizing French cuisine and fine dining in mainstream America. She also was a pioneer in instructional cooking television. She is, of course, the Goddess. How many chefs could say their entire kitchen was transported and replicated in the National Museum of American History? In the Smithsonian for Heaven's sake? Bobby Flay brags about many things, but I doubt he will ever brag about that one. Same for Rachael Ray or Paula Deen or Anthony Bourdain. I'm going on a ridiculous tangent so I'll just go on.

We should demand a Food Network Classic for Julia Child. Her, Jeff Smith and the Galloping Gourmet. Anyway...

I had some eggs burning a hole in my fridge (strange picture in my mind), and a bag of mozzarella ready to turn. I needed to use them. So I found a few quiche recipes in the cookbook and settled on her quiche au fromage (Cheese Quiche, p. 257 in this edition - but aw hell, there are so many editions you should just look it up in the index). My first thought was: aren't all quiches "cheese quiches"? But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.


As always I cannot reprint the recipe. Just know that I needed to layer the bottom with 2/3 of a cup of Swiss. Only problem: no Swiss in my fridge! But like I said, I had that mozzarella to get rid of, so I used that.  Then I needed to mix egg, nutmeg, salt, pepper and milk. Whoa, hold on. I have no milk either. Yes, that's right, no milk. I did have some buttermilk to use up though. After mixing in the buttermilk, I poured it all into the pie shell, sprinkled on the rest of the cheese and dots of butter (my arteries are hardening already) and, just for some pizazz, a chopped-up shallot. Next I bake it for 30 minutes at 375 degrees.

I occasionally do some dumb things, and after half an hour the quiche was about half-baked. Perhaps the buttermilk meant that I needed to cook it longer. Perhaps - I had to bake it almost twice as long to get it to resemble anything more than runny scrambled eggs.



After a night in the fridge it felt and looked much more like a real quiche. This is probably much closer to what Julia Child had in mind in the first place. And it tastes lovely. So next time I will adjust the cooking time if I use buttermilk. Though I'm curious to see what it'll be like if I actually follow the directions, which I'll do next time. Never mess with the master, at least not the first time around.



Source:

Child, Julia. The French Chef Cookbook (1971, 1968: Bantam Books, New York, NY)

Flashback: Food Truck Crawl on the Miracle Mile in LA! (originally published 5/25/11)

I'm visiting friends in SoCal right now.  I didn't get the chance to visit Los Angeles like I normally do; it's mostly California's "Inland Empire" that I'm spending time in.  But last year I spent some food trucking time along LA's Miracle Mile.  As much as our food truck scene is flourishing, LA's is still something to revel in.

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Food Truck Crawl on the Miracle Mile in LA! (originally published May 25, 2011)

En route to an hour of eating. I'm following that guy. Okay, I'm going the same direction as that guy, not really following him so to speak.

Tuesday was my day to venture into the wilds of Downtown Los Angeles. I had chosen Tuesday because I was going to a Web Soup taping that evening - fun as always, and the nice people there helped me find my lost keys and even gave me a bottle of water to make me feel better. Awww... (plus, Web Soup Chris Hardwick is coming back to the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse in June).

But I started my day in LA by seeking out food trucks. It all started out the night before when I read on my new phone about the Dim Sum Truck (Twitter: @dimsumtruck - NB: since so many of these food trucks get their word out through Twitter, I will post links to their Twitter feeds. This will be helpful if you visit LA, or if you actually are visiting my Bawlmer-based blog from the City of Angels). It's one of those Android phones (Hey, these things really are useful!!!) and I downloaded one of those free "apps" to tell me where food trucks are. The Dim Sum Truck was at the Miracle Mile yesterday, right across from the LA County Museum of Art (or LACMA). I had even set my GPS to its location (5850 Wilshire Blvd, LA, CA) to just go right there. What I found, however, was more than just the Dim Sum Truck. Oh yes, much, much more.

If you see this across the street, you are in the right place.

In retrospect, there were about sixteen trucks along three blocks of the Miracle Mile, including the Cool Haus ice cream truck (Twitter: @COOLHAUS) on the other side of the street. When I first saw the trucks I almost short circuited: I literally wanted to go to each one, but I knew this was not going to happen. So I had to peruse them all. A few of the many standouts:

* The Wien (Twitter: @thewientruck), one of two wiener trucks there, with regular, all beef, Polish, spicy Polish and (if I remember correctly) veggie dogs all priced around $5, before toppings and stuff. A dog is still going to run you not much more than $6 or $7 if you get a few toppings. And yes there is a bacon dog.
* Bool BBQ (Twitter: @BoolBBQ), which I ate from last year, with its revolutionary Korean BBQ tacos
* La Rue de Paris (Twitter: @laruedeparis), which sells pastries and especially crepes from between $4 and $8.
* No less than two Indian and two Mediterranean trucks, selling everything from tikka masala (New Delhi Express, Twitter: @newdelhiexpress) to pitas (Pita Pusher, Twitter: @pitapusher) to Mediterranean-Mexican fusion (Kabob Express, Twitter: @mykabobexpress).
* And of course, several taco trucks, including one of at least three Korean food trucks (the aforementioned Bool BBQ).

The Dim Sum Truck

After much hemming and hawing, I finally settled on three. The first one was the whole reason I went to the Miracle Mile in the first place: the Dim Sum Truck, which was the very last food truck I stumbled upon. For just $6, I got three pieces each of pork shu mai ($3) and shrimp har gow dumplings ($3), along with a garlicky soy dipping sauce. And I got my food almost instantly, too - warm as is usually the case from dim sum carts, and flavorful. This was as good as I've had dim sum lately, certainly better than your standard "Asian buffet" or "frozen" variety, and as good as the stuff you'll usually find in most restaurants.

dim sum and samosas

The next one I stopped by was the Bollywood Bites food truck (Twitter: @BOLLYWOOD_BITES). I stepped up to it before the enthusiastic guy came out to draw in customers, and went for the cheaper $2 order of potato and pea samosas. Theirs came with two dipping sauces, and were incredibly fragrant, flaky and tender. The filling also was better than many samosas I have eaten, even at many restaurants.

The Bollywood Bites food truck

My last stop was a taco truck. This time I stopped at the Komodo Food Truck (Twitter: @komodofood). Though I almost went with the Bool BBQ truck again, what drew me to Komodo was not its intriguing pan-international fusion tacos, but the Baltimore Ravens flag hanging from above the window.

There it is, hons.

Yes, I am a sucker for a Bawlmer ex-pat. I bought one of the Java tacos - Indonesian spices with pork, scallion and cucumber for $3.


While not nearly as spicy as they advertised (it didn't make my mouth hurt anyway), it was still a juicy, slightly sweet and savory, and tasty soft taco. I had some flashbacks to a cochinita pibil that I had made a while back, not so much for the flavor as for the look. Ooooh, I wonder if anyone is planning a Yucatecan food truck? (Note: some of the trucks take Visa or Mastercard. Komodo does, but you must spend at least $10. They make this easy for you, since they offer whole meals that cost $10).

I drove away from the Miracle Mile thinking that this was, by far, the best $15 I had ever spent on lunch in Los Angeles, and I have had more than a few of those over the last several years.

Finally, a helpful list of food trucks that showed up at the Miracle Mile on Tuesday. I have posted Twitter links wherever I could.

All-American Gourmet Grill (American food - Twitter: @AllAmericanGG)

Bollywood Bites (Indian - Twitter: @BOLLYWOOD_BITES)

Bool BBQ (Korean fusion, including their legendary Korean BBQ tacos - Twitter: @BoolBBQ)

Chili Dancer (pan-international dishes, focusing specifically on Thai and Southeast Asian food, that showcase chilis - Facebook: The Chili Dancer, though nothing is posted; Twitter account has been so inactive that I'm not sure it's even theirs)

Cool Haus (gourmet ice cream sandwiches - Twitter: @COOLHAUS)

The Greasy Wiener (hot dogs, including New Jersey-style "rippers" - Twitter: @TheGreasyWiener)

Happy Cup Ramen Truck (ramen noodles, duh - Twitter: @HappyCupRamen)

Kabob Express (Mediterranean-Latino fusion - Twitter: @mykabobexpress)

KoManna (Korean - Twitter: @KoManna)

Komodo Food Truck (pan-Asian and pan-international tacos - Twitter: @komodofood)

La Rue de Paris (pastries and crepes - Twitter: @laruedeparis)

New Delhi Express (Indian - Twitter: @newdelhiexpress)

New York Galbi (Korean - Phone: (213) 985-8219 - I cannot find a Twitter or Facebook account for them)

Pita Pusher (Mediterranean - Twitter: @pitapusher

Vchos (pupusas and "Central American-inspred tapas" - Twitter: @vchostruck)

The Wien (hot dogs - Twitter: @thewientruck)
Other photos:

The view towards the Mediterranean food trucks
Got pupusas indeed!
All those food trucks

Guido-Approved for the Left Coast. Orange people welcome.
And from New Jersey to New York, all in a small section of the Miracle Mile.

Flashback: Highlights from London (originally published between 12/29/06 and 1/6/07)

As the London 2012 Olympics wind down, I fondly remember my one trip to the British Isles at the end of 2006 - start of 2007.  I was in London for New Year's, staying with some friends who were working there at the time.  I had some incredible food.  I also met one or two folks whom I had hoped to keep in touch with, y'know, to have a place to crash during these Olympic Games. 5 1/2 years later: I am watching stateside.  Oh well.  Some of my favorite places to eat and drink while I was there were the pubs, London's Chinatown and the country's oldest Indian restaurant.

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London Post 1: Postcard from London / Marlborough Head Pub (originally posted 12/29/06)

Haven't posted in a while. I have been so damn busy! It is now Friday, the day after my plane landed. And oh my, British Airways is amazing, simply for the stuff they provide on the flight that American airplanes used to provide. For example, a meal. I had a braised beef which, considering it was airplane food, pretty decent. Also had a salad, a Cadbury crunchie candy (kind of like a butterfinger, only it didn't fall apart as soon as I bit into it), and I think a mini mince pie - those are popular for Christmas over here, as they bring good luck if you eat one. By the way, it is the fifth day of Christmas over here. On the contrary, back home in Bawlmer it is, simply, Friday.

In the airport I ran into this gay couple from San Francisco. It was such a coincidence because one of them was originally from Cockeysville! Both had been to London before, and let me in on a few sights to see and things to do. Small world after all, I guess.

After my small encounter with the London tube (subway)* yesterday, which puts Baltimore's to shame (but any subway system puts Baltimore's to shame, so what am I talking about), I walked to my friend's flat (apartment). He lives very close to London's central mosque and we are very close to a big and bustling Muslim section of town. My first thought: mmm, Middle Eastern food. But there is also Turkish, Pakistani, and I've hardly scratched the surface. A lot of cheap takeaway (take-out) places selling shawerma and kebabs, lots of halal (and one kosher) store. And we are near the popular Tesco food market.

Because I prefer to get a look at what the locals do, I avoided the touristy things on Thursday and walked around with my friend to see the local things. We went into two popular department stores that both sell food (and may be the basis of lunch soon), Selfridge's (like a more expensive Nieman Marcus), where I bought one small container of Turkish delight (I wouldn've bought a shirt for only £20 - but it shouwed everything underneath, so, uh, no) and the much more reasonable Marks & Spencer (like Macy's), where I bought a damn fine looking shirt for £15 (most shirts were at least £25, but they had jeans on sale for £9.50 (that's 9 pounds, 50 p - said like "50 pee," for pence)

For lunch we ate at the Marlborough Head Pub. My friend and his partner call it the "Scary Pub" because it has all this morbid stuff around it - coffin-shaped boards on the outside advertizing nightly specials and whatnot. He opted for the chicken Caesar salad. I went more local and got fish (haddock, in this case) and chips. It came with peas (different from the mushy peas of Café Anglais in Frederick), which I hardly ate, and vinegar and tartare (tartar) sauce. All in all, very tasty. Though I have been warned: that's as good as indigenous English food gets.

Today, I hope to try some Chinese, or maybe M&S. or perhaps even the UK's national cuisine: Indian food!


* Whenever there is a word that is popularly used in the UK but not in the US, I'll give the US version of that word in parentheses - for example, flat (apartment).

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Veeraswamy (originally published 1/3/07)

As I hinted at in an earlier post, there was so little time and so much to do in London that I simply gave up on blogging about each place I visited whilst there. Instead, I am going to post about a few of the notable places at which I ate. And as y'all can see, yes, I did take photos! And possibly annoyed my friend during his lunch.

Veeraswamy was founded in 1926. Legend has it the proprietor was the descendant of an English general and a Mughal princess (if I remember it correctly). Today, its interior is posh and colorful, yet very elegant. We went to the Picadilly Circus tube (subway) stop and walked around for a while, just looking at all the sites (well, my one friend, who had off from work that day, had seen it all by now). We hit a long semicircular row of beautiful buildings. Okay, it was just one looooong building occupied by many businesses, like a long rowhouse (here's a Google map image of it).

We went into the lobby and saw this stainless steel wall tile (very neat), then went up an elevator to get to the dining room. And a lovely dining room it is, all covered in lush tones with rainbow light fixtures above. The luxurious feel continued in the seats themselves, with purple pillows festooning the benches that served as much of the seating, and rose petals strewn all over each table.

For lunch, we went for the fixed price meal for £16 (about $32, but that is disturbingly cheap for a nice restaurant such as Veeraswamy). This gave me three courses of things I would never have thought to order by themselves. For starters, we got a concoction the size of a large muffin, but certainly more interesting! Served on a neatly cut banana leaf, this appetizer featured wheat biscuit, yogurt, pomegranate and other good stuff. I actually can't remember it all, and the photo didn't turn out, sadly.

Then came our main course, a chicken tikka in a not-so-spicy coriander sauce. This came with okra in a ginger sauce that my friend said was the first okra he has ever liked (me too, for the most part, as it's so often slimy when I do eat it). I really loved this, despite the small amount of food. Normally, this paltry amount would not be worth 33% of $32 - and, okay, it isn't. But if anything comes close to being worth that amount, it was this.  Very yummy and tender, this chicken tikka was more tender than most chicken tikka I have eaten. And yeah, the okra was pretty good, again with a lovely presentation.

Our final course came in the form of a blood orange sherbet. Both of us were thrown for a loop by this one, as this pinkish sherbet was served with rose petals and a raspberry in a martini glass. It didn't taste like an orange, but it was tasty nonetheless. And again, there's that ubiquitous banana leaf. Not for eating, mind you, but decoration.

Altogether, our bill came to about £44. This includes two meals for £16 each and two bottles of water, plus tax and tip. This water, by the way, is made by the Belu company, whose profits all go to water conservation and clean water projects, both in the UK and in other countries. One project involves the digging of wells in Mali. We got served with classy glass bottles, though Belu touts its biodegradable corn bottles. It is very proud of only using local sources of water, instead of imported water from other countries.

I am trying to think of the closest Bawlmer-area match to Veeraswamy. Although I haven't been in yet, my best guess would be the Brass Elephant. Although I have never eaten there (and after this trip, probably won't for a while), the atmosphere certainly is of the same caliber as Veeraswamy. OpenTable.com quotes the restaurant's description of itself, the restaurant telling us to step back in time, dine in "an opulent Victorian mansion of hand carved teak, tiffany skylights and lavishly appointed dining rooms."

The menu shows not a drop of Indian cuisine, but for its atmosphere alone it may offer a similar dining experience.

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Aroma (originally published 1/6/07)

To further play catch-up on my trip to London, I will write a little bit about a very good Chinese restaurant that we dined at. Charles and Kevin knew that I wanted to eat in London's miniscule Chinatown at least once, so they took me to this great place called Aroma. It's squooshed inside, like many of the Chinatown establishments, but we got a cozy table in the middle of the jam-packed, brightly-lit dining area.

Like several of the restaurants I ate at in London, Aroma was several tightly-squeezed stories, with bathrooms downstairs and a cooking area on the bottom floor. Apparently there was some dish-washing room on the top floor because I saw a few used plates going up in that direction. Apparently, Aroma is a "mini-chain," with two buildings throughout the city. Many are overpriced, and though I wouldn't call this cheap (what is cheap to an American in London, what with the value of the dollar being what it is?), it is cheap compared to many of the places you could eat at. True, there are some truly rock-bottom places - all you can eat buffets for a mere £4.50, but these are, um, probably not the best places to eat. But the guys liked Aroma, and I was happy to go on their recommendation.

We started with a starter (appetizer), a duck with rice pancakes. The waitress brought half a whole roasted duck, some cuke sticks and thin strips of spring onion, and a plate of covered-up thin rice pancakes. It was like a Chinese fajita of sorts. Before we could do anything, she took fork and knife and quickly made work of that duck! She pulled that meat apart like wrapping paper through a shredder! It was so cool to see her rip the meat from the bone the way she did, and she made short work of it, too - a mere one or two minutes after she started, we were eating shredded duck fajitas and tacos (sorry, the best analogy I know). This appetizer was about £13, but my friends said it was on them, so who was I to object?

It was all so good, and so filling that we hardly had room for our main course. Kevin and Charles ordered chicken dishes with chicken fried rice, which looked and smelled wonderful. I got an amazing duck in plum sauce (yes, more duck, I know), with plain old egg fried rice. The sauce was so rich and delicious, and the duck came in a dessert-bowl-sized mound of meat and plum sauce. I ate this alternately with the rice, and it was quite satisfying. But I labored to finish this dish, of all about £6.40 for the duck plus £2.50 for the rice, because of all the duck I had already eaten before!

Oh, I just found out a co-worker of mine is going this August to visit a Jamaican friend who lives there, so I have a use for my travel guides now! Maybe I will have to follow her there when she goes. If I do, I may reserve my restaurant visits for other places I haven't tried yet. But if I can, I think I will find a path back to here, or at least recommend it to my coworker. And you, if you find yourself in London at some point! Otherwise, I will just head to the Jasmine Asian Bistro in Towson, which is not exclusively Chinese, and doesn't please everybody, but is tasty nonetheless. Try their Thai bento box!

I have no idea who these people are, but I thought it would make for a good photo.

Sabbatical Flashback 6: On "Julie & Julia" and the act of food blogging

My sabbatical is coming to an end, and I after my long break I'm looking forward to getting back into it. It's just felt so weird eating, cooking, baking, or reading about something food-related, and just relying on Twitter to relate my thoughts. It has made me a little more "zen" about having to relay absolutely everything I do and eat - in other words, I don't need to do that - but instead to focus on the things that really impress upon me the most.

To end the sabbatical, I wanted to repost a reflection I had a while back on the very nature of blogging. It's good to back and look again on why you do this in the first place, no?

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On "Julie & Julia" and the act of food blogging

(originally posted Friday, August 14, 2009)

I went to see Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia this afternoon during a matinee. As many of you know, the film is adapted from Julie Powell's memoir of the same name and the book My Life in France by Child & Alex Prud'homme. It's a movie that shows the lives of the two women at seminal moments in their lives - Julia in 1949 and the decade after learning how to master the art of French cooking - and translating that for an American audience, Julie over a period of 12 months from 2002 to 2003 learning how to master the art of French cooking - and disseminating that experience in a new online format known as a "blog" (what's a "blog" anyway?).

Mrs. Child, with fish, taken by husband Paul

It's charming and much, much funnier than I expected it to be. It also has a few surprises, such as how utterly Meryl Streep transforms herself into Julia Child, and how Amy Adams only once reminded me of her Disney princess character from Enchanted, and how Powell's husband Eric worked for Archaeology Magazine (the issue blown up in the background in his office? I bought a copy of that issue).

Ms. Powell, with book, from 2005

The movie also made me hungry - not only that, but also made me want to get the damn cookbook and try this myself. I'm not going to do that, of course. It's already been done, and I don't have the time or money to do this anyway. But I will have to get a copy for my own cookbook library. That tattered little copy of The French Chef I found at the Book Thing doesn't stay open by itself anyway. At the very least, I want to make the boeuf bourgignon that partly inspired Powell to love food the way she does (did I interpret that correctly?), and that ended up getting Child's book published by Alfred Knopf in the first place. I might even try to debone a duck!

I don't have a whole lot else to say about the movie at this point. But I did take some time both before and afterwards to read Julie Powell's reflection on the movie itself, in a brief article she wrote for The Atlantic Monthly. She notes that the "Julie Powell" in the movie isn't exactly like the Julie Powell in real life. She's grateful - after all, how many people can say that their first book was made into a movie? All the same, she marvels at the self-awareness of it all. This passage from her article (no I haven't read her book) resonates with me the most:

I like to think I was more self-aware--just as narcissistic, maybe, but at least conscious of my narcissism and able to poke fun at it. In my experience--even if many contemporary bloggers might take issue with this--the blogging was, at least in part, an exercise in self-involvement. Cooking through Mastering changed my life on many levels. It made me a better cook and a more confident person.

I have to agree: I think the very act, er, art of blogging is a narcissistic act in and of itself. Why else would most of us be writing these blogs anyway? Certainly we wouldn't bother unless we just wanted to. Heaven knows there have been times I was just tired of doing this, and other times where I just had no time and literally had to scale back. But I always came back to it because I enjoyed it.

But then Powell turns it back around, and mentions some of the other things it gave her. To avoid quoting the whole piece, I'll specifically mention the "intoxication" she felt from reading her comments (including the deflation at her first-ever commenter being her mother). As she says in her article:

On the one hand, it gave me readers--passionate readers, involved readers, almost insanely devoted readers--who encouraged, cajoled, prodded, and harassed me into both completing the project and developing my voice as a writer.

Some of us have more commenters than others (I might have more if I was better at keeping up on reading more blogs!). But there's the rub: I know I don't just speak for myself, or just paraphrase Julie Powell even, when I say that writing this blog has also been an act of both narcissism and devotion to my readership. When I published my very first post in '06, I certainly didn't think I would have a book deal. Mind you, I still don't expect to, unless I give myself one through one of those self-publishing outfits.

A blog really is the end result of a desire to talk about yourself and what you enjoy. I would not have enjoyed writing about my crazy life - I'm too frazzled there as it is. But writing about food has focused me and given me sort of a place to stand out there and reveal myself. And yet, would I have ever finished that Beltway Snacking series had people not read it? (Still getting comments on that, by the way.) In a big way, I both did it and put so much detail into it for myself, but also for my readers. The comments were more than just gravy; they were the motivation to keep on doing it. To clarify, I don't mean the comments in and of themselves, but the interaction from readers sharing their own perspectives.

Powell also notes how the whole project is indeed a tribute to Julia Child, perhaps one of the main themes of the film (watch this hit home when she visits the Julia Child kitchen exhibit at the Smithsonian at the end of the film). For me, blogging is obviously not a tribute to anyone in particular - I haven't done anything particularly "gimmicky" except for that Beltway Snacking thing. But it's not fair to call it "gimmicky" and that sounds worse than it is. Nothing wrong with a gimmick - it's just a modus operandi.

The poster

Perhaps the fact that this post about Julie & Julia has turned into a post about this blog is the best testament to the fact that blogging is indeed a narcissistic venture. Well, thank you, Julie Powell, for motivating me to reflect on that. I dedicate this post to you.