Life After People: the McDonald's Edition

Hat tip to the GOOD Blog via the Daily Dish (neither is a food site), another reason to heed Morgan Spurlock and Super Size Me: a McDonald's Happy Meal looks (though perhaps doesn't taste) pretty much the same after 4 1/2 months. Manitoba-born New York City artist Sally Davies found out as much and the Refinery 29 website chronicles a sample of her work.

This is a typical Happy Meal after 137 days:


My guess is the ice, at least, would have melted.

Back to Mango Grove

I was in Columbia the other day, and decided to stop by one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants, Mango Grove. I've been here before, and in general I liked it (one semi-famous commenter did not, though she was later called out on it). I liked it enough to return for their $10 lunch buffet. At about noon, it was only moderately busy, unlike the dozens upon dozens of unlucky bastards waiting half an hour or more to go through the drive-thrus at McDonald's, Wendy's and Chick-Fil-A. Efficient, indeed.

Just a reminder: this restaurant, which specifically offers many Southern Indian dishes (dosas, idli, etc), will fill you up. Also, it will easily remind you (pace PETA) that eating vegetarian does not necessarily keep you from gaining weight. You could easily gain weight off this wonderful food. Just a few excellent things that popped out for me:

• the idli is tangy, but unlike other idlis I've had at area buffets, this black lentil and rice cake didn't have the funky taste I've found with others. It was a great complement to the channa dishes on the buffet, which came with their own oily fried puffed breads.
• I don't remember if aloo gobhi was on the buffet, but I ate something like it. Filling and delicious.
• Don't knock their various chutneys. My favorite was the tamarind chutney, which tasted almost like a very tangy barbecue sauce - in a good way. Close behind was a coconut milk chutney that was wonderful on the various breads I had on my plate.
• They had two types of basmati rice on the buffet: plain and lemon. Go with the lemon. It's light enough to not overpower, but strong enough that you will taste it.
  
• Also, their papadums are some of the most delicately-spiced (though deceptively sturdy) I've ever found at an Indian buffet.
• The waiter brought out a complementary dosa with a lentil filling. The texture was a little dry but it still had a lovely flavor.
  

So there's another endorsement for an inexpensive, filling and meatless (I didn't say not fattening) Indian buffet. Please, people, dispense with the 30 minute wait at Wendy's, chick-Fil-A and Micky D's. By the time you get in and out of the buffet (or the one at the attached and very much not meatless Mirchi Wok) you would've gotten through the drive-thru anyway.

If I Were Trader Joe's...

I didn't even know this strange homage to Trader Joe's even existed... until this morning while listening to NPR's Morning Edition. Trader Joe's is amazing. Its popularity is really due to word of mouth. I was first introduced to it not when it came to Towson a decade ago. Instead, it was just after I moved to Riverside, California in '97, and my fellow grad students mentioned it and just about had an... well let's just say they were in love with it. One of them had a friend in St. Louis which did not, at the time, have a Trader Joe's, and she begged her West Coast friends to bring some out to her. In the late 90's, almost all of the nation's Trader Joe's stores were in the Pacific Time Zone. Now they're everywhere.

The cars that won't fit in the parking lot. Y'all can say that again.

Gluten-Free Pancakes Wow Local Girl with Autism

My sister and I hit up Mount Washington Whole Foods and the Health Concern in Towson for gluten-free stuff. Cathy wanted me along since I had done some research on this very topic (NB: I'm still playing with the idea of some allergen-free crumb cake again). The reason? My neice has autism, and much research suggests that a person with autism can benefit from a gluten-free diet. AutismWeb.com summarizes the lowdown for parents interested in fighting autism with allergen-free food:

According to one theory, some people with autism spectrum disorders cannot properly digest gluten and casein, which form peptides, or substances that act like opiates in their bodies. The peptides then alter the person's behavior, perceptions, and responses to his environment. Some scientists now believe that peptides trigger an unusual immune system response in certain people. Research in the U.S. and Europe has found peptides in the urine of a significant number of children with autism. A doctor can order a urinary peptide test to see if proteins are being digested properly.

Studies are underway to examine the effectiveness of the GFCF diet, which has not gained widespread acceptance in the medical community. One recent study found behavioral improvements in children on a GFCF diet, while another study found no significant effects from the diet.

Changing the diet of children with autism is particularly difficult due to their often perseverative nature. This will often result in a very limited diet - for example, there are only a few key foods that my niece will eat, such as pizza, chicken nuggets and pancakes. She refuses to eat much else, no matter what my sister offers her. It's easier said than done to say "Well just make her eat it!" This sort of thing is often said by people who don't have autistic children.

So Cathy's line of attack is to make gluten-free versions of those foods that her daughter doesn't reject.

She bought all kinds of flours, including cake mixes and brownie mixes, pancake mixes and pizza crust mixes, tapioca and brown rice flours and xanthan gum. Again remember, as the helpful customer at WF reminded us, that the best brown rice flour comes from Authentic Foods, because it's ground really fine. Arrowhead Mills' on the other hand regularly makes for a gritty baked good.

Cathy left a phone message for me today: she made gluten-free pancakes for my niece. At first it looked like she wouldn't eat them, so Cathy sadly put them in the fridge. Her daughter said, "No, please," and wanted to finish them. Hopefully this trend continues, and hopefully the gluten-free diet will actually help!

So much pesto...

I accidentally let some of my basil go to flower in the garden. A little of it was bitter - as what normally happens when basil plants go to flower. I ended up harvesting about half of the basil I had in my garden plot at Clifton Park. I now have a good cup and a half of pesto, and a seemingly endless supply of basil. In fact, not just basil, but also mint (lots of uses for that), oregano (same) and rue (I used it in a recipe once). In addition, I picked a few tomatoes, including some San Marzanos that I grew from seed (I have lots of green San Marzano tomatoes). Also got some chilies, and a squash that another person just up and gave me since he was going out of town. In fact, he also let me have as many squash blossoms as I could gather, since the plant was about at the end of its rope. I hope to use them in some Mexican-style recipes soon enough.

Syracuse Salt Potatoes

I don't know how or where I stumbled upon this recipe, but when I did I found it intriguing. The thing that most intrigued me was this: in our day and age, we are trying to find ways to cut back on sodium (as my friend Eric reminded me last night at the Korean BBQ, when he was grilling me as to the nature of my inexplicable fascination with Sonic). That said, a recipe that encourages you to use as much salt as possible seems, well, odd. But that is exactly what I found recently: a recipe for salt potatoes. This comes from Syracuse, New York, America's "salt city". This is a simple and hearty recipe that grows out of three things: poverty (more so in the 19th century than today), proximity to a central area for the American salt industry, and a large Irish-American population.

As I found in this recipe from All Recipes.com the dish really is not that difficult. It is a little disturbing with all that salt you have to use, but it's rather easy. To summarize this recipe (again, it's not mine):

Take 4 pounds of potatoes (I used ones from the farmers' market) and clean (don't peel) them, then boil them in boiling water into which you have dissolved - gasp - 1 1/2 cups of salt.

That's a lotta salt

The recipe calls for fine salt but all I had was kosher. Perhaps there would be more salt penetration with fine salt. That's an exercise for another day. Boil for 15 minutes, and pour a stick of melted butter over top. To make the recipe a little less heart-unfriendly, I cut it down to 1/2 a stick of butter.


The potatoes indeed do not need salt. Even the kosher salt penetrates and makes them softer and more flavorful than merely boiling them in unsalted water. A commenter on one site said the potatoes take on a baked potato-like consistency. I don't know how often I will do this - it does use up a lot of salt, though you will still end up consuming far less than the 1 1/2 cups the recipe calls for. But it is a simple and, I might add, very filling way to use up your potatoes.

AAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!

I haven't read the Cathy comic strip for years. It got tedious. And yet, I'm a little wistful that Cathy Guisewite is shutting it down in October. No more of this...

So, when are they shutting down Garfield (yes, please)?

It's Baltimore Restaurant Week again?

Yes it is. As a gentle reminder, dinner prices at participating restaurants are now $35 not $30, but lunch prices remain $20 at restaurants that do Restaurant Week lunch. It runs from today through August 22 at most restaurants that take part. And remember, a handful of these places are letting Restaurant Week go on beyond the 22nd, but check the websites to find out who is doing that.

And all this while Sonic celebrates its first day open in Baltimore. Yay, Sonic! But that's for another post...

Green Tomato and Pickle Salsa

My sister made crab cakes last night - with crab meat picked by her own hands - and I saved it for lunch today. As an accompaniment, I was thinking how to use the vegetables and herbs from my garden, and realize that many things in my fridge are things I love to eat fried: green tomatoes (from the garden), pickle chips (not from the garden), and zucchini (from the farmers' market). I saved the zucchini for later, and used the green tomato and pickle chips for the basis of a salsa. Green tomatoes are common in salsas. Pickles are common in relishes, which are kind of like a salsa if you think about it hard enough. But I've not seen green tomatoes and pickles in a salsa together. Well, that's over.

Green Tomato and Pickle Salsa

2 firm medium green tomatoes, diced
4 to 5 sweet pickle chips, diced, or 1 small sweet pickle spear, diced
1 - 2 tablespoons juice from the pickle jar
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
3 small green chili peppers, diced (with or without seeds as to your liking)
1 large clove garlic, diced
1/2 to 1 small red onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt
several sprigs mint, basil or cilantro, chopped

Fry the garlic, red onion and chili pepper in the olive oil with a little sprinkle of salt over medium heat until soft and slightly brown, to release the flavors. Meanwhile, mix the green tomato, pickles and herb together in the pickle juice and lemon or lime juice. Add the fried items and mix well. Refrigerate.

Note: This salsa is based on stuff I had lying around and was rather cheap for me to make. One thing here or there can be omitted if you don't have it around. You could also experiment to see what might be a good addition. But the green tomatoes and pickle chips are mandatory.

I was surprised at how well it turned out. Usually, when I get a last-minute idea for a recipe it does not always turn out too well. The pickles were a nice, surprising addition and the mint seemed to tie the whole salsa together.

Recent Eats - Dog Days 2010 Edition

Just a few notes on a few places I've eaten at lately...

1. Lumbini

I had planned to stop at Sláinte Pub to see the big Manchester City-AC Milan game on July 31, but an emergency kept me from doing that. So I headed out to look for a TV that had the game. With no luck there, I gave up completely and went for Nepalese. Instead of Kumari, which usually impresses me, I decided to try out Lumbini on Charles Street. I was willing to try out something different than the norm. For me that was the sukuti lamb with bhatmas sandeko (fried soybeans) and puffed flattened rice. The waitress warned me ahead of time that the sukuti lamb is a love it or hate it sort of dish. I was still willing to try it. The verdict? Well, as she said it would be, it was very chewy and dry, and probably not something I would order again. But I'm not sure I'd go back to Lumbini anyway. Despite the fairly empty dining space, the service was quite slow - I admit that this is possibly due to what I ordered, so I can give them a pass on that. But the items that were not all that unusual were also more or less average. Particularly unsatisfying was their garlic naan, which didn't have much of a garlic flavor for me. I don't know. You may like it, but I'm sticking with Kumari.

2. Thai Landing

It's been a while since I've been to Thai Landing. I should head back more often. I'm glad I did before the summer ended, since soft shells are featured on their summer menu. You can have your soft shell crab prepared in any of four different ways. Mine, the pu nim chu chee, was a mixture of coconut milk and Thai chili paste with carrots and snow peas and a nice crispy soft shell crab in the middle (I had just one for $16; two will run you $26). It didn't look as filling as it turned out to be.

3. Stoneleigh Bakery Café

This place is literally a five minute drive from my apartment and I haven't set foot into it before this week. I've already been back a second time. They have sandwiches, salads and bagels, plus their own cream cheeses, but it's their cookies I have come for. Try their Linzer Cookies, a jam-filled sandwich cookie that feels so good in the mouth when it gets warm and soft. My favorite is their Chickpea Delight. It feels dry but just dissolves in your mouth in seconds.
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