Snacking State-by-State: Washington IV - WE ARE THE STARBORG. YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

I've never been a coffee person.  Yes, I know: many of you are looking at your computer/RSS feed/mobile device thinking “WHAT!? What kind of human being doesn't love the rich, mellow, caffeinated goodness of coffee!?” This kind, that’s who. It’s just not something I really enjoyed.  Give me tea, hot chocolate or – gasp – soda for any caffeine fix I might need.  And though I can and do appreciate bitterness in my food, I just don’t care for it in coffee format.

Official Name: State of Washington
State Nickname: The Evergreen State
Admission to the US: November 11, 1889 (#42)
Capital: Olympia (21st largest)
Other Important Cities: Seattle (largest), Spokane (2nd largest), Tacoma (3rd largest) 
Region: Northwest, Pacific, Pacific Rim; Pacific (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Salmon
Bordered by: Pacific Ocean (west), Oregon (south), Idaho (east), British Columbia (Canada) (north)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: apple (fruit); bluebunch wheatgrass (grass); steelhead trout (fish); Walla Walla sweet onion (vegetable)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Pacific coast seafood, including but not limited to: Dungeness crab, salmon, trout, scallops of many varieties, Geoduck clam, mussels, oysters, halibut, cod; blackberries, apples, huckleberries, cranberries, cherries; hazelnuts; coffee

And yet, a survey of Washington would be completely remiss without a nod to that most world-famous Seattle export, coffee.  Hold up, I know you’re thinking: coffee doesn't come from Seattle!  Well no, that's absurd.  Coffee was first cultivated thousands of years ago in Ethiopia.  Only in the last few centuries did it spread to Europe and the Americas.

When I talk about coffee and Seattle, I’m talking about that most famous of Seattle-area food businesses, Starbucks (you can debate if Nordstrom or Amazon are more famous, but you don't find a Nordstrom on every other corner, now do you?).  Yes, one of the Evil Empires that has now taken over the world and (in this case) much of its coffee market, a business that doesn't mind out-competing even itself – so I saw in grad school back in Riverside, California, several years ago, when there was a dining-slash-theater complex net to the university with not one but two separate Starbucks facilities in it.  I think they’re back down to one now but you get the picture.  And even though you see the resurgence of local, community, Mom & Pop (or even Mom & Ma) coffee shops all over big and small town America, the groundwork is laid: Starbucks has taken over America, much like those creepy androids built by enterprising engineering grad students will soon take over the world and enslave us all.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

While Starbucks is by no means the only coffee business in Seattle, it is the most successful.  According to the Coffee.org website, Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl started Starbucks in 1971 in Seattle, first selling coffee beans and coffee making equipment before graduating to selling actual cups of coffee in the 1980's.  Since then it has expanded across the United States, North America and around the world, spreading its Cyberman-like influence into other coffee corporations, including fellow Seattle-based company Seattle's Best.  There are now about 17.000 of these places in 55 countries, with well over half of these in the US [Coffee.org, date unknown]

For this post, it wasn't my goal to make a recipe that uses Starbucks coffee in it: I actually wanted to replicate a Starbucks beverage in my own kitchen.  For this I first turned to the Top Secret Recipes series by Todd Wilbur.  I figured I would easily find a recipe in there.  But surprisingly, TSR was silent about replicating Starbucks, at least in the books I looked in.  (NB: A search online yielded several replicated top secret Starbucks recipes, which I failed to even consider, for some odd reason.  Note that if you do try his website you may need to pay for some of these recipes - as with his caramel macchiato recipe). Undaunted, I searched elsewhere.  After muddling through a few websites from Starbucks talking about how to use their products (I think these were meant specifically to be used in-house.  I’m surprised they were that easy to find), I eventually stumbled upon a small handful of “Make your own Starbucks” websites.  The one that intrigued me the most, from the Squidoo website, by user "kiwisoutback"[2008], featured a few recipes for Starbucks-like drinks - and this one I did not have to pay for.  Notably, the recipe that jumped out at me the most was one for Iced Latte, utilizing two to three shots of espresso, recommendably from Starbucks itself if possible (CAFFEINE OVERLOAD WOW WWWWOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!!).  With all this caffeine, is this wild amount of espresso, um, safe?  

The Recipe: Iced Latte

To be your own barista right at home, assemble the following:

* milk (preferably whole - I had some in the fridge)
* espresso (two shots, which I found to be somewhat stronger than I am used to.  I did use Starbucks brand for about $2.50.  Did they only charge me for one shot?)
* simple syrup (I've had this in the fridge since I made that mint julep a while back)
* ice (preferably crushed or small cubes; again, these I had on hand)

Pour the simple syrup in a cup.

Next add the espresso to the cup.

Add your ice.

And finally, add the milk.

Shake well to combine it all.

How can I describe this drink?  It was tasty.  It was also strong.  Very, very strong.  In fact so strong it aggravated some reflux mighty bad.  This drink is way too strong for me, but for those who like these iced lattes, it sure will wake you up.

- - - - -

It's time to say a final goodbye to the Pacific Northwest, as we head for one last time to Appalachia and the place where South, Northeast and Midwest all meet together.  It's time for pepperoni rolls!  Yes, we are hitting West Virginia.

Sources:

Douglas, Tom.  Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen.  William Morrow: New York, 2001.

"kiwisoutback" (Squidoo.com user).  "How to Make a Starbucks Iced Latte."  In "Starbucks Coffee Drink Recipes", Copyright 2008, Squidoo.com.  All rights reserved.

Washington Apple Commission.  "Crop facts."  Copyright 2010 Washington Apple Commission.  All rights reserved. 


Washington Apple Commission.  "Golden Apples and Yams."  Copyright 2010 Washington Apple Commission.  All rights reserved.

Coffee.org.  "History of Starbucks."  Date unknown.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Washington" page and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "Washington".

Snacking State-by-State: Puerto Rico IV - If you like piña coladas, but don't like sitting through annoying easy listening songs.

Ah, the piña colada, that simple and sweet concoction of coconut cream, pineapple juice and (hopefully) Puerto Rican rum.  Many a piña colada has ended its life by a poolside bar or lounge chair.  Once I even had to get a dry one during a visit to Acapulco in 2000 - coinciding with the presidential election that year (it is illegal to sell alcohol in Mexico during election weekend. This is different than the US, where our elections might actually motivate us to drink more.)  And of course, the piña colada is not an Anglo creation, not a Mexican innovation, and not a Cuban concoction.  Esta es boricua, pa'que nosotros lo sepamos.

Official Name: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico)
Is it a state? Nope, it's a territory - the largest one in the United States
Official Languages: Spanish and English, with Spanish as the more widely spoken language
Territorial Nicknames: La Isla del Encanto (The Island of Enchantment); Borinquen (from the original Taíno name for the island, Borikén)
Cession to the US: December 10, 1898 (after winning autonomy from Spain on November 25, 1897)
Capital: San Juan (largest)
Other Important Cities: Bayamón (2nd largest), Carolina (3rd largest), Ponce (4th largest)
Region: Caribbean; South Atlantic (US Census)
Bordered by: the Caribbean Sea (all sides)
Closest land mass: Dominican Republic, a little more than 50 miles to the west
Official Territorial Foods and Edible Things: none
Some Famous and Typical Foods: Puerto Rican food (duh) - a mixture of Taíno, West African and Spanish influences, including: sofrito, tostones, arroz con habichuleas (con gandules around Christmas), mofongo, tembleque; ají dulce (sweet peppers indigenous to Puerto Rico); piña colada

As many a source says, the specific origin story of the piña colada is not certain, and there are a few narratives.  Nicholas Gill [2009] writing for the New World Review lists at least four different origin myths for the piña colada, including one that says the drink originated in the 19th century, another more popular one that gives the credit to Spanish ex-patriate Ricardo García who created it at the glamorous Caribe Hilton in San Juan in 1954, and yet another one that sets the creation of the drink in Buenos Aires (!) in 1963.  As Gill suggests, the most credible theory gives the cred to another employee of the Caribe Hilton, Ramon “Monchito” Marrero at the hotel's Beachcomber Bar, also in 1954.  At any rate, the legendary piña colada was almost certainly born in San Juan, and is an widely known drink throughout Puerto Rico, the United States and the world, even wending its way into the first #1 song of the 1980's, a song by Rupert Holmes that many a radio listener has tried to "Escape" before suffering it for too long.

The Recipe: Piña colada

The piña colada is not too difficult to make.  The International Bartender Association suggests one part white rum to one part cream of coconut to three parts of pineapple juice (3.0 cl to 3.0 cl to 9.0 cl respectively).  Most recipes, including the one I followed on the Goya website, say you need just the following:

* pineapple juice (this is a bit more expensive than I had expected, at about $2 a can)
* coconut cream (not coconut milk but cream, again not too cheap at about $3 a can)
* rum, preferably white rum, most preferably Puerto Rican rum (this smallish bottle of Bacardi Puerto Rican rum set me back about $7 at the Wine Source.  I didn't want a larger one because I don't drink many cocktails or liquors)
* ice (you will crush this)

You should typically have pineapple slices and maraschino cherries for garnish (one each per glass), but I'm not mass producing these things here.  I will go without all that "faincy" stuff.

Into a blender, throw in your ice.

Next, add the pineapple juice...

... the cream of coconut...

...and the rum.

Blend until smooth and serve.

Now this is a pleasant summer drink, and as warm as this past winter was, you just know we're going to need a few of these in what promises to be a subtropical sort of summer (90 degrees at the end of May?  In Baltimore!?  Well, a piña colada will help me cool down...

- - - - -

And we're done with the Isle of Enchantment.  We fly back from Puerto Rico (or a few hours up 95 if you're kickin' it Nuyorican style) to the teensiest state in the Union, where you will miss all the good Italian, Portuguese and hearty Yankee cooking if you blink en route between Connecticut and Massachusetts.  You've guessed it: next we're exploring Rhode Island.

Sources:

Deane, Zain.  "Mofongo".  Go Puerto Rico (GoPuertoRico.About.com), date unknown.  Copyright 2012, About.com, All rights reserved.

El Boricua (ElBoricua.com).  "Mofongo".  Date unknown.  Coyright 2012, El Boricua, All rights reserved.

Gill, Nicholas.  "The History of the Piña Colada".  New World Review, 2009.  Copyright 2009, New World Review, All rights reserved.

Goya.  "Piña Colada: How to Make Piña Colada".  Date unknown.  Copyright 2012 Goya Foods, Inc., All rights reserved.

Goya.  "Tembleque - Coconut Pudding: Quick, Coconut Gelatin".  Date unknown.  Copyright 2012 Goya Foods, Inc., All rights reserved.

International Bartender Association. "Piña Colada".  Last accessed 2010 (archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, Archive.org)

Rivera, Oswald.  Puerto Rican Cuisine in America: Nuyorican and Bodega Recipes.  Second edition.  Four Walls Eight Windows: New York, 2002.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Puerto Rico" and "Puerto Rican cuisine" pages and other pages.

Snacking State-by-State: New York III - A Brooklyn Original

So many classic American recipes were created in New York City (except maybe the Reuben sandwich, but I won't rehash that here).  There's the Waldorf salad, the Baked Alaska (yes, a New York City invention), the Bloody Mary, the black and white cookie, Delmonico steak, even vichyssoise and even General Tso's chicken.  Another simple recipe is the chocolate egg cream, a beverage that hasn't spread too far outside the Big Apple.  It's pretty easy to make, as long as you have the right versions of the ingredients.

Official Name: State of New York
State Nicknames: The Empire State
Admission to the US: July 26, 1788 (#11)
Capital: Albany (6th largest)
Other Important Cities: New York City (largest in the state, largest in the nation!), Buffalo (2nd largest), Rochester (3rd largest), Syracuse (5th largest) 
Region: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic; Mid-Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Maple Syrup; Wild Rice; Clambake
Bordered by: Québec (Canada) (north), Lake Ontario (northwest), Ontario (Canada) & Lake Erie (west), Pennsylvania (south and southwest), New Jersey (south), Connecticut & Long Island Sound (southeast), Massachusetts & Vermont (east)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: apple (fruit), milk (beverage), sugar maple (tree - for the maple syrup), rose (flower - they are edible, you know), trout (fish), apple muffin (muffin), bay scallop (shell), beaver (mammal, though outside of "Bizarre Foods" you won't see many people eating these)
Some Famous and Typical Foods: In New York City, anything and everything - it is one of the most multicultural and diverse cities in the United States, and is a culinary capital of the nation; typical NYC foods include: Waldorf salad, bagels & bialys, corned beef and pastrami, chocolate egg creams, hot dogs, New York pizza, General Tso's chicken, Baked Alaska (invented in New York City), and so on; New York cheesecake; "garbage plate" (Rochester only); Buffalo wings (Buffalo of course); apples and maple syrup, and of course, more apples

The chocolate egg cream, mind you, has neither eggs nor cream (discuss).  According to Linda Stradley of What's Cooking America.net, the chocolate egg cream has its origins in New York City, though historians debate if it got started in Brooklyn or in Manhattan's Lower East Side. While one origin myth suggests that it was a creation of Yiddish performer Boris Thomashevsky, who found a similar drink while on tour in Europe, most historians pin its creation to Brooklyn:

According to most historians, the Egg Cream was allegedly created in the early 1900s by a Jewish candy shop owner, Louis Auster, who came to America and opened a candy store in Brooklyn, New York. It is reported that 3,000 Egg Creams a day were sold until the day the store closed. [Stradley 2004]

Broooklynites will tell you that a proper egg cream must be made with Fox's U-bet Chocolate Syrup.  This stuff is probably easy to find in New York City.  It is not so easy to find down here.  Since it is a kosher product, I immediately headed to 7 Mile Market, assuming I would find it.  I found a wide variety of kosher chocolate syrups, but alas, no U-bet.  I went to Wegman's. No luck (though they do carry it during Passover).  Harris Teeter?  Nope.  Finally on a whim, I stopped in the Waverly Giant after going to the 33rd Street Farmers' Market.  They have it there, in the chocolate syrup section (didn't check the kosher section though). So U-bet is locally available here in Baltimore.  You just have to look for it.


U-bet has its own chocolate egg cream recipe on its bottle, but I was more captivated by the recipe I found in The Brooklyn Cookbook [1991], a compendium of recipes that gives a very thick slice of the culinary history and diversity of Brooklyn, NY.  One person interviewed for the book, high school teacher Ron Schweiger, describes his grandfather's chocolate egg cream, sold at his soda fountain in the 1940's: 

"First, you use Fox's U-Bet.  Take a tall Coke-type glass, from the 1950's.  Put in 3/4 inch of syrup, then milk up to one-third of the glass.  Then you add seltzer from a spritz bottle, the heavy kind with seltzer under pressure.  You tilt the glass; if it's tilted, the force of the seltzer squirted under the milk and syrup pushes foam up on the other side.  Fill the rest of the glass with more seltzer, stirring as you spritz.  The foam should be white, and at least 1/2 in thick. [Stallworth and Kennedy 1991:359]

Okay, I didn't do it exactly like Schweiger says, but I did get some foam.  Okay, maybe a quarter inch.


The Recipe: Chocolate Egg Cream

For your chocolate egg cream, assemble the following, along with a tall glass and very long teaspoon:

* chocolate syrup (yes, Fox's U-bet, which was about $3.  But I'll tell you what: I almost gave up and went back to 7 Mile for another Brooklyn-based chocolate syrup I found.  I cannot for the life of me remember the name, but I figured if I couldn't find U-bet at least I could get some brand from Brooklyn)
* seltzer water (alas, I have no seltzer water spray bottle.  I used a bottle from Giant instead)
* milk (had it)

Pour the chocolate syrup into your glass.  I eyeballed the 3/4 inch.

And top it off with the milk to about a third of the glass.

Fill the rest of the glass with seltzer.  I admit, I should have tilted the glass, but... well you try doing that and taking this photo all at once!

And there you have it!  Probably the head of foam isn't as big as it could have been had I tilted the glass.  That said, it was a sweet and silky drink that I almost couldn't finish.  I guess it's sweeter a syrup than I'm used to, or maybe it's the chocolate itself.  It is a tasty drink.  I just don't think I can indulge in a chocolate egg cream too often!

Sources:


Anchor Bar.  "The Original Buffalo Wings Story".  Published 2008.  Copyright 2008 The Anchor Bar.  All rights reserved.


Beekman 1802 (Josh Kilmer-Purcell & Brent Ridge).  "December 12" (Maureen Lodes' Apple Cake).  Posted on the "Sharon Springs Heirloom Recipe Advent Calendar" page, Beekman 1802 website.  Copyright 2011, 2012 Beekman1802.com. All rights reserved.


Beekman 1802 (Josh Kilmer-Purcell & Brent Ridge).  "Sharon Springs Heirloom Recipe Advent Calendar" page, Beekman 1802 website.  Copyright 2011, 2012 Beekman1802.com. All rights reserved.


Bon Appétit.  "Old-Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup".  Posted on the Epicurious website, December 1998.  Copyright 1998, 2012 Epicurious.  All rights reserved.  


Center for Jewish History.  "Jews In America: Our Story".  Copyright 2005 Center for Jewish History.  All rights reserved.


Mannur, Anita.  "Indian Food in the US: 1909-1921".  Published on the South Asian American Digital Archive website October 18, 2011.  Copyright 2008-2012, South Asian American Digital Archive.  All rights reserved.


Mitzewich, John.  "Authentic Anchor Bar Buffalo Chicken Wings".  Published on About.com, date unknown. Copyright 2012 About.com.  All rights reserved.

Roberts, Adam (Amateur Gourmet).  "Fall Out Of Fall With A Matzah Ball".  Posted November 21, 2006.  Copyright 2004-2012 Adam Roberts.  All rights reserved.


Sahni, Julie.  Classic Indian Cooking.  William Morrow & Company: New York, 1980.


Sheraton, Mimi.  "Introduction: A Table Before Me".  In The New York Times Jewish Cookbook, edited by Linda Amster.  St. Martin's Press: New York, 2003.


Stradley, Linda.  "New York Egg Cream - How To Make An Egg Cream".  Published on What's Cooking America (WhatsCookingAmerica.net) 2004.  Copyright 2004, 2012 What's Cooking America.  All rights reserved.


Suddath, Claire.  "A Brief History of Buffalo Wings".  Published on the Time Magazine website (Time.com), September 3, 2009.


Sussman, Lance J.  "Jewish History Resources: New York Jewish History".  Posted on the New York State Archives website, date unknown.  Copyright 2012 New York State Archives.  All rights reserved.

Stallworth, Lyn, and Rod Kennedy Jr. The Brooklyn Cookbook.  From the Knopf Cooks American series.  Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 1991. 


Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "New York" and "Demographics of New York City" pages and other pages, and the Food Timeline State Foods link to "New York".

Things found at Fresh Market

The new Fresh Market is open now in Towson.  I stopped in to buy some eggs tonight and found a few things I had never set eyes on before.

The strangest things I saw (and tasted) were okra chips.  For $12 per lb in the bulk section (a plastic ziploc bag will probably run about $2), these are not what you would imagine.  They're just crispy dried okra.  There is a very slight residual sliminess inside - that's okra for you - but apart from that they are crispy and crunchy and fall apart quite easy.  The check out person said they are popular.  They have to be since they're pushing them like crazy.  It's a clean, crisp okra like I have never eaten before.

I also found something called Moxie.  This is a soft drink very popular in New England and unheard of here.  Any of you all New England transplants looking for it can find it at the Fresh Market in Towson.

Snacking State-by-State: Florida Part 1B (The Northern Half) - It's the only kind of tea that matters

As I said in the last post, the barbecued shrimp goes well with a certain ubiquitous Southern beverage that you simply can never find unsweetened. But it's just "tea" in the South.

Official Name: State of Florida
State Nicknames: The Sunshine State
Admission to the US: March 3, 1845 (#27)
Capital: Tallahassee (8th largest city)
Other Important Cities: Jacksonville (largest city), Miami (2nd largest), Tampa (3rd largest), St. Petersburg (4th largest), Orlando (5th largest)
Region: South, Gulf Coast; South Atlantic (US Census)
RAFT Nations: Cornbread & BBQ, Crabcake, Gumbo
Bordered by: Alabama (northwest), Georgia (north), Atlantic Ocean (east), Caribbean Sea (south), Gulf of Mexico (west)
Official State Foods and Edible Things: Key lime pie (pie), orange (fruit)
Some Famous & Typical Foods: Cuban food (southern Florida), Key lime pie, seafood (stone crab, shrimp, conch, crawfish, etc), alligator (northern Florida) typical Deep Southern foods (northern Florida), foods of New York/New Jersey especially Italian & Jewish (southern Florida)

I admit two things: 1) I hate drinking unsweetened iced tea; 2) Diabetes runs on both sides of my family. So usually I just grab some Splenda or Sweet & Low and put that in my tea. But once in a while you just have to have the real stuff. This recipe is even easier than the last, and takes far less time.

The Recipe: Iced (Sweet) Tea

For (sweet) tea, you'll need:


* quart size tea bags (I used Luzianne, but any tea bag will do.)
* sugar - I added a cup for a little more than 3 quarts.
* water - lots of water (I started with about 3 quarts, and then added a little more at the end to top it off)

Boil the water and steep the tea bags as usual.

Wow. This is hard.

Even harder.

But here’s the important thing: add the sugar while the tea is still hot. Also note that most recipes call for much more sugar per quart than this. Some recipes I’ve seen call for a cup of sugar for every 2 to 4 cups of water.


This is the sweet stuff here, a dessert you can drink.

Next we head south with the snowbirds, retirees and Golden Girls to explore what the southern half of the state has in store food-wise.

Sources:

Voltz, Jeanne, and Caroline Stuart. The Florida Cookbook: From Gulf Coast Gumbo to Key Lime Pie. Random House: New York, 1993.

Some information about the diversity of Floridian cuisine comes from the following websites, in addition to the Voltz and Stuart book:

Essman, Elliot. “Florida Cuisine”. Life in the USA, 2010. Copyright Elliot Essman 2010.

Rattray, Diana. “Florida Cuisine - The many flavors of Florida”. Southernfood.About.com, publication date unknown. Copyright 2011 About.com

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia's "Florida" page and other pages, and theFood Timeline State Foods link to "Florida".

Well THIS puts my mind at ease...

But are there real eggs in it?

Taken at a Wawa gas station in Bel Air

Green v Black Iced Tea

Just a brief note: I've been making a lot of iced tea lately. I have been making iced green tea and iced black tea. I am finding the black tea to just produce a richer, tastier tea. That's all.

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.

Tidbits...

1. Rice milk really doesn't taste all that bad straight up.

2. National Pi Day is coming up. What will you bake to commemorate it? Better not be some damn cake. If you're at the Maryland Science Center on 3/14 (get it? 3? 14?), you could take part in a pie eating contest, with pies courtesy of Morton's Steakhouse. Here's the press release I was sent (H/T - Todd Scott):

Parents should round up their kids, take a digression from their usual weekend plans, and find the best root to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on Sunday, March 14 when the Maryland Science Center will host its annual Pi Day celebration in honor of π, the mathematical symbol for the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Visitors can participate in multiple activities including a pie-eating contest with Key Lime pies donated by Morton’s The Steakhouse, a hula-hoop endurance challenge, (because it’s a circle!) and show off their Pi memorization skills in a fun competition, and listen to Pi related music all day.

All events are free with paid admission to the Maryland Science Center . The Maryland Science Center is located at 601 Light Street at Baltimore ’s Inner Harbor . For information and ticket prices, visit www.marylandsciencecenter.org or call the 24-Hour Information Line at 410-685-5225.

Round up? Oy.

3. Liz at McCormick & Schmick's emailed me some info about an event that celebrates crabs both in and outside the Chesapeake. As she told me:

The special menu ends at the end of April!McCormick & Schmick’s is giving guests the opportunity to “Discover America’s Crab” with a special menu showcasing several varieties and preparation styles for crab. With everything from Regional Crab Cakes to King Crab Legs to Lobster Ravioli Topped with Blue Crab on the menu, there’s something to please every palate.

The special menu runs through the end of April!

4. The Sun Plus has a new story up about the whoopie pie, that classic Yankee dessert that's finally found its way across the Mason-Dixon Line for good. Author Jill Rosen talks about some local businesses that deal in whoopie pie goodness, and argues that Baltimore, surprisingly, is the unassuming epicenter of a whoopie pie renaissance. That's ironic, since Baltimore to me has always seemed like more of a moon pie town. She did email me about the story, due to my own recent post on the topic, but I think I got back to her way too late to be helpful (sorry!!!). Since I don't know too much about whoopie pies beyond what I wrote here, I probably wouldn't have been much help anyway. Regardless, here's her story! I'll be using it to find some more whoopie pies in the area, plus a recipe.

5. This weekend my birthday is coming up. I don't want to think about it, but I want cake. Can I have the cake without the turning older?

Sua dose diária do estranho *

It doesn't get really weird until the gorilla shows up towards the end. This is an açaí fruit juice ad from Brazil's Do Bem.

do bem™ - Açaí Juice 100% fruit (Tic Tic Tac Wafer's Keyboard) from Hardcuore on Vimeo.

* Your daily dose of strangeness

Notes from the Wine Source

• I've been noticing over the months that a few select beer companies are putting out a line of sodas. Saranac, from out of upstate New York, is selling a ginger beer. In fact, they say they've been selling soft drinks (root beer, ginger beer, cream soda) since 1888, putting about two years younger than Coke, and five shy of the oldest soft drink in America, Dr. Pepper. And Abita out of New Orleans is making a root beer. I just bought the Abita root beer; I'll drink it tomorrow.
• Southern Tier Brewing Company sells a fairly large $10 bottle of its Choklit Stout. This should go quite well with the mild Amish bleu cheese I bought.
• I saw a bright white wine for $8 (all I remember was the word "YOUNG" on the gleaming yellow label), and then the Brewer's Art's latest concoction, their Green Peppercorn Tripel for $9. I would've bought both had I the money.
  
• And then I saw Bud may technically no longer be an American beer, but it still prides itself on being "America's lager." Which, I guess, is why there's a picture of three superstars from the (extremely English) Manchester United FC right behind it? Ah yes, Bud: Wayne Rooney's cheap American beer of choice.
  
• Oh yeah, I need to get some Bailey's soon, don't I?
  

Diet Inka Kola - and something nobody could've figured out

I stopped by Perchi's in Glen Burnie today - picking up some menus and seeing if there were any places I missed the first time around for the Beltway Snacking series (I'm doing some recaps in the near future). And hunger took me over as the memory of delicious Peruvian rotisserie chicken flooded my mind. Before I knew it I dropped $7.75 on a quarter-chicken with rice and beans, and a side of chicken chaufa (Peruvian chicken fried rice). After that, I noticed the refrigerated case next to the counter had canned horchata - never heard of that - and Inka Kola - the "cola dorada" (golden cola). I wouldn't have gotten it had I not seen the gold-on-white can of Diet Inka Kola! At just zero calories, it tastes pretty much the same as Inka Kola regular. That's a bubble gum-like flavor that I'm not such a big fan of. But it's not really obnoxious and I'd get it again.

In other, non-food-related news...

I'm surprised he didn't wait until National Coming Out Day for this, but the boy is relatively new to this whole "I'm gay" thing so it's understandable:

Linked from the Huffington Post website

Why am I showing this? Frankly I'm surprised. No, not at the news, just at the fact that he's finally come out on his own! So congrats to Clay Aiken. This is never easy to do (let me assure you). I imagine it's especially so if you're in the public eye. And people have been pretty cruel in their speculations.

Still, for the rest of us - gay and not - let me be one of many to send up a collective "Yawn...." before just shelving this for good.

A-Drinkin' Tea and Co-CAAAA Co-LA

Just an observation - taste-servation? - no, observation: following iced green tea (with vanilla bean Splenda*) with Pepsi One leaves a fascinating taste in one's mouth. Nice, subtle hints of the green tea in the coke, er, Pepsi, er, soda. I'll have to drink some more of this while I'm reading the new, final book in the Y: The Last Man series, which is finally released today!

* Forgot to mention, but should have: you can't buy vanilla bean Splenda. What I did was take a large bag, slit a vanilla bean and stuck it in. Coming from a family of diabetics, I need a do-it-yourselfer to keep my sugar down before I join their ranks, too.

DRINK IT. DRINK IT.

Sarah Jane and crew*

Doctor Who is spinning shows off like mad. Bleary eyed, I caught the series premiere Friday night of the second recent spin off of the show in three years, The Sarah Jane Adventures. Unlike DW (premiering next Friday night on the SciFi Channel before Battlestar Galactica), which is generally a family-oriented show, and the much more overtly sexual Torchwood (on BBC America right now), SJA is geared specifically towards children (the CBBC - think a British PBS Kids - has its own Blogger page about the show). The show is centered around the popular character Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), a journalist who has always carried a torch for her favorite time-and-space-travelin' title character. She was one of the first women on the show who insisted on not standing around screaming and waiting to be rescued every episode (you go girl). This was back in 1974. It's now over 30 years later, and after having a guest appearance on an ep of the recent version of the show, she's bAAAAaaack.

Her first episode defies description, so just read about it here. But one thing in it disturbs me: the leading antagonist to our heroine and her motley crue of kiddie crusaders is a living, parasitic alien creature that gets into people by hiding in a soft drink. When they were ready, their commander-in-chief commanded everybody who drank it to turn into soda-wielding zombies ready to force the rest of the world to DRINK IT, DRINK IT. It's like a mash-up of Doctor Who and Night of the Living Dead for children.

And it makes me never want to drink Fanta again, that's for damn sure. Those Fanta people are crazy!

* Picture is linked from the page "Live and Kicking", from the CBBC's SARAH-JANE.tv blog. Please don't sue me.

A few recommendations...

Those of you who write blogs know that it can at times be, well, time-consuming. Especially for such a focused blog like this one. As such, there are too many restaurants and too many meals, too many funny videos and too many other things I do that I just don't get to mention. So here they are: a few things I haven't mentioned lately that don't really merit a whole post (unlike my recent trip to Green Spring Station - I'll post on that soon).

• If y'all read about my excursion off Exit 17 to Woodlawn, you'll remember that the Shaheen Indian-Pakistani Restaurant was recommended to me. Well I went - twice. Pretty good stuff. 100% halal for the observant Muslim diner. Their goat is some of the best and least bony I have eaten in a while. $5.99 per lb. to take out their lunch buffet (the first I've seen do it by the pound), plus a section of desserts. Good stuff.
• Plus, did you know my post about that very subject is the first one that comes up when you Google "shaheen security square mall"?
  
• Speaking of which: just this past week I stopped by a place off Rossville and Bel Air Road, the recently opened Mount Everest (for which I can find no links whatsoever), which serves Nepalese and Indian food, as well as Italian, Greek and American. It's the "pizza-subs-and-curry" place turned into a festive-looking Nepalese restaurant. Their chicken tikka masala is a bit dry, despite floating in all that tikka masala sauce. Their saag paneer (Indian cheese in spinach) is quite good. $8.99 per box.
• I stopped by Pepe's Pizza on Falls Road. For $3.45 after tax I got enough Hawaiian pizza to last me two meals. Good and filling pizza. BTW: my recent Exit 23A post is the second hit when you Google "pepe's pizza mount washington".
  
• My sister treated me to dinner tonight at Damon's Grill (she's so nice). There is a smattering of locations in Maryland, but it's mostly based in Pennsylvania and Ohio. We got some great burgers for $7.95 plus 50 cents per topping. Get too much (fried mushrooms, fried onions, guac and Provolone cheese) and it'll all slip and slide off. Her mudslide was also tasty. The apple cobbler that we split was okay. I've had better, but it was decent.
• Oh, Cloverfield rocked.
  
• Whole Foods' rice milk really isn't all that bad when compared to the real thing, at least in hot chocolate and in cereal. Just avoid rice drink - it's not the same.
• And I made one more recipe from a book I bought in California and have had on my shelf for a while, Paulette Mitchell's 15-Minute Single Gourmet: 100 Deliciously Simple Recipes for One (1996: Macmillan, New York, NY). It was her basil pesto. It didn't turn out the way it should have - either I had too little basil or else I used walnuts instead of pine nuts. It's more like a chunky basil paste. it's still edible, just not what I had had in mind.
• And I'm still waiting to take advantage of the smokelessness of the local bars. They did this too in California when I lived there. Even though I am a militant non-smoker, at first I thought it was silly. I mean, it's a bar for God's sake. But it didn't hit California businesses bad at all - most of them just installed outdoor patios if they didn't already have them, and they worked just fine. Put up a few outdoor heaters and Maryland's bars will be just fine too.

Remember, remember, the 5th of **HIC** December...

Today is Repeal Day, the day that drunkards and all non-temperate folks in America celebrate the repeal of the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the United States (which really only exacerbated it - speakeasy and organized crime, anyone?). Oh, the amendment that repealed it on this date in 1933? The 21st.

So drink 'em if you got 'em. I would urge y'all to go out to the local pub, but since there are is three inches of snow on the ground outside (and it hasn't stopped), that's pretty fruitless. And I don't want drunks on the road anyway - the sober people are driving bad enough in this weather!

Foodless in Seattle?

Looking at the foodie and other area blogs, no less than three different bloggers are either in or heading to the Rainy City (my nickname, not theirs). Charm City Cupcake is in Seattle right now. Look at the delicious coffee she got!

Lovely! And recent commenter Cham is also in Washington State right now - she, too, got some "fāncy" coffee. And from NYC, Adam up at the Amateur Gourmet - not a local, I know, but the boy is one of my favorite foodie bloggers - is heading there soon to meet up with his boyfriend.

Why the sudden epidemic of Seattle visitation? I don't know, but it's a fun place to visit. They sell those Dungeness crabs freshly cooked (boiled or, yes, steamed) right at the markets for you to eat (not as good as our blues but, well, as far as Pacific crustaceans go, they're tasty). I haven't been to Seattle since '98. Looks like I should go back sometime. But I'm doing too much traveling in the near future so I'll hold off.

OC Road Trip #2: On the Boardwalk

It’s so weird being able to enter just about any business wearing nothing but your swim trunks. But I got over that yesterday when I headed out to the Boardwalk. My camera's batteries are dead, so pictures are forthcoming (no, not of me in my shorts).

I went for a brief jog on the Boardwalk (sand is hard to jog on), and then some of the most uninspiring scrambled eggs I have ever had at the hotel (they did come with admission). Then I trekked off to the Boardwalk, leaving everybody else behind. I was still trying to get them all out of the hotel room when I started writing this before dinner last night. They are on a totally different schedule than I am.

After learning that I have indeed forgotten how to ride a bike (thanks to Mike’s Bikes for the rental; they helped me find a bike that was just my size), I walked back to the Boardwalk. I sprayed on a generous helping of sunscreen and bought a backpack at the Edwards store on the boardwalk to put in all the crap I had to carry – my shirt, my bathing suit, my camera, and whatever else I got along the way. I never used the bathing suit; I just used my shorts. But I brought two shirts – a guy can never be too prepared. They both wound up in the backpack while I defied the sun’s rays with the thin coat of sunscreen on my chest and shoulders.

Ooh, did I forget my legs? Shit.

Even though I didn’t really need to – this is the beach, after all – I put my shirt back on as I entered Shenanigan’s Irish Pub for a little Guinness. And the guy behind the counter, who doesn’t look old enough to even drink what he is serving, knows how to pour a pint of Guinness right! Just let it sit there and then refill it. Mmmm. I had two pints at Shenanigan’s ($5 each), and then almost left when I noticed the specials menu. One was a bucket o’ baby burgers ($6.50). These three burgers are the sizes of breakfast sausages, but were soft and tasty. And the waffle fries that came with them were pretty decent. I have had some bad waffle fries in my day, so I was not looking forward to this part of my meal.

I got out to the beach, and put more sunscreen on my upper body and my legs. I made it to the end of the Boardwalk and back! Woo-hoo! I celebrated my hike with a Corona at an outdoor bar whose name completely escapes me, and a vanilla milkshake at the Alaska Stand (not all at the same time). Interesting fact: the Alaska Stand was the first place I ever ate at the first time I visited OC way back in 199(mumble).

One last stop I made for the afternoon was the Candy Kitchen. I always had to stop by here before going home. Again, it’s for the fudge. For $11 I got four quarter-pounds (you do the math) each of chocolate, Swiss chocolate, vanilla and butter pecan. I’ve never enjoyed chocolate fudge as much as other, seemingly more exotic flavors, but I’m not going to eat all the fudge myself. And speaking of OC institutions, don’t ask if I stopped at that one last one, Thrasher’s Fries. I have never understood why people like putting vinegar on a French fry. Bleh.

Oh, for the record, I did get a little sunburned:

• Chest? OK.
• Back? OK.
• Arms? OK.
• Face and scalp (I’m not bald, but it still burns easily)? OK
• Legs? OK.
• Feet? A little burnt.
• Shoulders? Owwwie.

UPDATE: Hammer Heads Raw Bar and Grill. That's where I had that Corona.

Cucumber?

This is real. But when is Pepsi Ice Cucumber hitting our store shelves?

Food haiku:

Pepsi's going green
With soda that tastes like cukes!
Ah, the Japanese!

This Owen guy is so weird...

And he seems to love doggie puppets. It's another Sierra Mist Squeeze ad from the silly man who just can't keep his clothes on.



Just to reiterate: I hate lemon-lime drinks, so this is not at all meant as free advertising. I just think the ads are funny :) . The little barrage of previews at the bottom? Not so funny. Maybe they just want people to stop embedding their videos?