Recipes

October 24, 2010 Uncategorized

Fall Foliage: A Taste of Autumn

The last time I took a dedicated road trip with just one other person to look at fall foliage, I ended up getting engaged to him.

Yes I know, it's been that long.

It's not like I haven't seen foliage every autumn. The leaves in Boston alone are absolutely stunning. Cambridge, especially around Harvard University, is aglow in fiery hues this time of year.

Nevertheless, whatever the reason, Bryan and I have not taken a dedicated leaf-peeping road trip together ever since our engagement.

That is, until this past Saturday.

For Round 6 of Project Food Blog, I had to design a meal and take it "on the road." The goal? To prepare a meal that carries well and tastes great. We decided that Walden Pond would be the perfect place to enjoy a picnic while taking in Boston's amazing fall foliage.

Walden Pond was made famous by Henry David Thoreau, who lived there for two years between 1845 and 1847. Tired of the busy world, he sought out refuge in this quiet and tranquil place.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau's stay at the pond inspired the book Walden, which some say brought awareness and respect for the natural environment.

In the spirit of Thoreau's ideas regarding our respect for nature, I decided to create an autumn-themed meal where all the dishes would be served in natural "bowls." Minimal trash would be created from this picnic. Instead, all the "bowls" would either be eaten or composted.

Each course would be inspired by autumn, yet would be modified appropriately so that it would travel well and still taste delicious after reaching the final destination.

After shopping and cooking for several hours on Friday evening and partially on Saturday, I finally had everything ready to pack up for our special picnic. Foodbuzz had sent us an insulated cooler a few days earlier. One of the rules of this challenge? Your entire meal has to fit inside the bag.

Phew! Everything fit!

We hopped in the car (with all our cameras in tow) and drove to Walden Pond.

After wandering down the trail for a bit ( bags were getting heavy!) we finally settled upon this fantastic location right next to the lake.

The fall foliage was absolutely beautiful, with red, orange, and golden hues everywhere.

I unpacked and set up the meal.

Of course, can't forget the pictures!

First Course: Maple Butternut Squash Soup

This velvety-smooth soup is pretty easy to make. Simply saute onions in olive oil or butter, add cut up butternut squash and broth, and then cook until the squash is soft. Blend the soup (most easily done with a hand blender), and that's it! Add maple syrup and salt to taste.

The key to packing this is to have a very good vacuum bottle (such as Thermos). The bottle will keep soup very hot for hours (!) which is so satisfying to drink on a chilly fall afternoon. Once you arrive at the location and right before eating, pour out the soup into hollowed out butternut squash "shells." Serve!

Main Course: Pumpkin Shepherd's Pie

This dish is a twist on the traditional Shepherd's pie because it replaces mashed potatoes with a trio of mashed pumpkin, sweet potato, and red potatoes. The mashed mixture is layered with ground beef sauteed with carrots and onions. You should ideally pack the filling (potatoes + beef) separately in insulated containers and then plate it right before serving so that the dish stays warm.

Side dish: Stuffed Peppers

As a twist on the traditional stuffed pepper, I made a healthy version that would taste good either warm or cold. Mix together chopped bell peppers, onions, and wild rice. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, feta cheese, olives, and (optionally) chopped up cured meat, such as ham. Fill each pepper up with the mixture and serve. Since this side can be eaten cold, you can pack this side dish beforehand and serve as is. I rubberbanded my peppers shut to ensure none of the filling came out!

Drink: Mulled Cider
I made mulled apple cider at home by cooking apple cider with cinnamon chips, allspice, sweet orange peel, anise, clove, and nutmeg. After filtering the liquid, I packed it in another insulated vacuum bottle, which kept the cider nice and hot. I cored out apples which served as cups and poured the cider into the apples right before drinking.

Dessert: Inside Out Apple Pie

Keeping with the theme of having fruits and gourds as my "containers," I made mini-apple pies which fit perfectly within a hollowed-out granny smith apple.

Homemade pastry dough is surprisingly easy to make (yes, this was my first time). I found this great recipe which involves using a food processor and frozen cubes of butter. I used a muffin tin to bake mini apple pies and then placed these pies into my hollowed out apples. I packed the pies and the hollowed out apples separately, combining then right before serving.

Food, Nature, and Simplicity

We enjoyed a fantastic, relaxing picnic - just the two of us - while staring out at Walden Pond, savoring the simplicity of nature.

Although it was slightly chilly, we were blessed with sunshine and a beautiful backdrop.

After lunch, we hiked around the lake and enjoyed our own Thoreau moments.

And finally, a toast to a successful meal and a wonderful afternoon.

Cheers!

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I can't believe I'm still in this competition! Thank you so much for those of you who voted for me the last several rounds. This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s sixth challenge: Road Trip! If you are so inclined, please vote for this entry (voting begins Monday, October 25). Thanks so much for your support!

October 22, 2010 Beijing

Made in China [Grand Hyatt Hotel]

This is part 3 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Other posts in this series include part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing, part 2: Xian'r Lao Man and some other preview posts: China: Lost in Translation, and Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks.

Welcome to one of the most beautiful dining rooms I visited while in Beijing.

Even before we left for China, we had already heard about "Made In China," the elegant Chinese restaurant inside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Beijing. People raved about the Peking duck, conceding that while the prices were high, the quality of the duck was definitely worth it.

After first having a minor taxi snafu where we ended up at the wrong Hyatt and had to pay our driver more than twice [grrrr - he reset the meter], we finally arrived at the beautiful Grand Hyatt Hotel (backpack, sneakers, and all) to get a taste of what the imperial palace would have enjoyed over a century ago.

Just a tiny bit of background first - Peking duck was something that only those in the imperial palace enjoyed. It was not until the late 1800's during the Qing Dynasty that Yang Renquan brought Peking duck to the masses by opening the first Quanjude (now a popular chain in China).

Made In China is a beautiful venue in which to enjoy this Beijing specialty. There are multiple open kitchens, many of which are surrounded by glass. It's fascinating just to watch the chefs expertly prepare handmade buns, dumplings, hot wok dishes, and (of course) duck.

I took the liberty to wander around the restaurant with my big fat camera. 🙂

* * *

In one corner you'll see huge steamers cooking dim sum dishes.

In another corner, you'll find the dumpling guy meticulously rolling out dumpling skins, one by one.

Arguably the best seats in the house face the Peking duck station, complete with a roaring fire inside a massive brick oven.

It's fascinating to watch the chefs prepare the ducks, roast them, and then carve them.

In Beijing, the ritual seems to always be the same. First, they cut off slices of the crispy skin, which you're supposed to eat on its own dipped in sugar. Though it sounds a bit strange, it's surprisingly good.

Then you get slices that have both meat and skin. This is typically the leg meat, and maybe some other parts of the duck. Finally, you get leaner meat without skin, which is usually the breast meat. Of course, they also provide these wonderfully fresh, moist pancakes which you use to make your duck wraps!

Using chopsticks, pick up a few cucumbers / scallions and dip them in the sweet brown sauce (like Hoisin sauce). Add some duck meat and then wrap it up.

Enjoy! Smile while savoring the perfect, heavenly bite. Repeat until the duck is all gone.

At a traditional Peking duck place, they typically saute any remaining meat into a stir fry dish and/or bring out a huge pot of soup. We saw this in Taiwan at (what I still think is) one of the best Peking duck places in the world. Here at this fancier restaurant, they merely brought out a little bamboo cup of soup.

Though tiny, this soup was mind-blowingly good. It had an intense, fragrant "ducky" flavor (for lack of a better word). It had tons of umami, yet was not overbearingly salty at all. I slowly sipped it, deliberately savoring each satisfying taste. I silently wished for more, wondering why they gave me such a puny little cup when most restaurants give you a huge bowl.

As a side note, we actually went back to this restaurant our last day in Beijing (since Bryan decided it was his favorite one). Sadly, the soup the second time around was not as transcendent as the first one. It was still good, but more on par with other places.

Made In China serves a lot of other food aside from Peking duck. Between our two visits there, we tried several. All noodles are homemade (yay!). The za jiang mian (noodles with meat sauce) was very good, as was the tomato and egg noodles. I thought the dry fried green beans were only average (a bit too oily for my tastes), but the tong hao salad was refreshingly interesting. Tong hao is a vegetable that I associate with Chinese hot pots, so it was novel for me to eat it raw.

This spicy stir fried cabbage had the perfect crunchy texture. It was quite spicy, though, and I needed to take breaks from it!

These beautiful "snowflake" pan-fried dumplings had a delicate, intricate "crust" that resembled snowflakes.

This black sesame pancake was interesting, though I think at the end of the day I still prefer scallion pancakes!

Overall, the duck here is one of the best in Beijing. We tried three very reputable duck places in Beijing, and this one was definitely the best. On top of the excellent duck, you have unbeatable ambiance, excellent service, and solid dishes in general. Prices are considered high - a duck costs 198 RMB (close to $30 US). Compare that to a typical duck at a normal place, around 60 RMB ($9 US).

You have to call ahead to reserve a duck (or half duck - $140 RMB). I believe they accept reservations but only up to 6PM. Credit cards are accepted, and they have English menus and English speaking staff.

Made in China
Grant Hyatt Hotel
1 East Chang An Avenue
Beijing, 100738
Tel: +86 10 8518 1234 ext. 3608
Within China: 010-8518-1234 ext. 3608

October 20, 2010 Beijing

Xian'r Lao Man (馅老满) [Beijing Dumplings]

This is part 2 of the China Series detailing my recent trip to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai. Other posts in this series include part 1: Wander the Streets of Beijing and some other preview posts: China: Lost in Translation, and Happy Birthday Bryan: an Ode to Noodles and Ducks.

Even though Peking duck might be the first thing you think of when considering Beijing food, you can't ignore the humble little dumpling. In fact, in many ways, the dumpling is more of a traditional common man's food than the Peking duck, which was really imperial food until just the last century or so. Because rice was only for the wealthy, most Beijingers subsisted on wheat-based foods, like mantou, shaobing, and our humble little dumpling (jiaozi).

Nowaways, Beijing has plenty of rice to go around, though dumplings are still extremely popular and very prevalent all over the city. We scoured reviews and narrowed ourselves down to two dumplings places we knew we had to try when we came to Beijing.

"Xian'r Lao Man" (roughly translated, full of stuffing) is true to its name, and the dumplings have a wonderfully high filling to skin ratio. Prices are dirt cheap too, compared to US standards. A plate of dumplings (10 plump ones) costs about $1.50 US. Our entire meal of 20 dumplings, tea, and a variety of snacks was under $5 US.

It's hard to enjoy a ton of variety if there's only two of you because the minimum per order is two "两" (50g orders / about 5 dumplings) of each flavor. They make all dumplings to order, and thus they will only make a whole steamer's worth at once (10 dumplings total).

The menu is vast and seems to have an endless variety of dumpling choices. Unfortunately, since we had to order 10 of each type, we were limited in how many different ones we could order. This was compounded by the fact that I couldn't really read the all-Chinese menu. In defeat, we just asked them for their recommendations. The server recommended pork & corn and pork, leek, & shrimp.

We both liked the pork, leek, & shrimp one better (how can you go wrong with this classic combination of flavors?), although both dumplings were excellent. The skin was obviously handmade, and the fillings were juicy and flavorful.

The server also recommended that we get a few "snacks." Unfortunately my Chinese was not good enough to really know exactly what these snacks were (I really have a hard time understanding the Beijing accent!). They turned out to be different varieties of mochi and red bean sweets. Although I love mochi and red bean, Bryan is not a huge fan, and he ended up not eating any at all!

My favorite was the rolled up mochi, red bean, soybean powder covered roll shown above.

We did have a hard time finding this place. OK, our taxi driver had a hard time finding it, so I'm not sure if the hotel concierge just gave us the wrong address or what. Most taxi drivers in Beijing don't really speak English, so you either have to tell them your destination (in Chinese), or hand them a slip with the location clearly written out in Chinese. Usually, we would just ask the hotel concierge to print us out a map and address. I'm not sure why it failed this time.

Anyway . . we thankfully found our way to this excellent dumpling shop (the taxi driver was really nice and even got out of the car to look around for it). I definitely would return again (hopefully with a bigger crowd and someone who reads Chinese!) to try many more of their dishes. Overall, tthe ambiance is pleasant, the service is fast, and the food is delicious and cheap. For more information, this post has an excellent review and suggestions for what to order.

Xian'r Lao Man (or Xian Lao Man)
东城区安定门内大街252号
No. 252 Andingmen nei street,
Dongcheng district
Tel: 010-6404 6944

October 19, 2010 Beijing

Wandering the Streets of Beijing

Hutong (alley) in Beijing

I really had no idea what to expect when I stepped off that plane to China.

I mean, sure, I had seen pictures of Beijing while watching the Olympics back in 2008. And I'd seen countless pictures in calendars - of farmers in their rice paddies, bicycles swarming the streets of Beijing, and temples soaring into the sky.

But I'd never set foot in China.

Just like a thousand words can hardly describe a picture, scores of television footage and photos can't even touch the experience of actually stepping foot in a country and immersing oneself in its food, people, and culture.

My favorite way to enjoy a city?

Walk it.

And that's exactly what we did in Beijing that first day. We walked and walked and walked the streets of Beijing, taking in as many sights, smells, and tastes (of course!) that we possible could.

* * *

Welcome to the first official post of the China Food Series. A few unofficial posts already sneaked their way onto this blog, such as the one about Bryan's favorite foods or the one describing hilariously translated English signs and weird flavored snacks. Nevertheless, this marks the official start of the series where I will explore various types of foods, restaurants, and my general impressions of the country.

* * *

You never know what you might find on the streets of Beijing . . .

Maybe a man painting Chinese characters with a water brush . . .

Or a really Chinese-looking Starbucks.

We stumbled upon the cutest little cooking school located in the back alleys of Beijing (called hutongs).

The owner was really nice, and invited us in to take pictures even though there was no class in session. Check out the mirror high up in front where you can see everything the instructor is doing.

Hou hai is one of three man-made lakes that used to feed into canals that served as waterways to the Imperial Palace. Now it's a beautiful recreational area surrounded by a walking path lined with hip restaurants and bars.

We tried a very popular and well known snack called "shuang pi nai." It literally means "double skinned milk" and is this delightfully creamy and gelatinous cold dessert that sort of reminds me of custard, but much lighter. I believe it's native to Hong Kong, but we went to a place that was one of the most popular in Beijing. I loved it because it wasn't too sweet, similar to most Asian desserts.

Random Street Place
The best thing about China, of course, is the food. We randomly walked into this little restaurant on a random street in Beijing in the Chaoyang district (which is where we were staying).

Don't be fooled by its humble exterior!

Check out the fantastic meal we got!

The best part? This entire meal (6 dishes!) only cost us $15 US.

And it tasted better than most of the Chinese restaurants in Boston.

My favorite was the spicy fish (literally called "water cooked fish" / shui zhu yu). The portion was humongous (I swear there was a whole fish in there), and the flavors were addictively spicy, peppery, and fragrant. The beef noodle soup was great too, especially because the noodles were all hand-drawn! No misses here, really. It's amazing - you walk into a random street restaurant and the food is fantastic.

Up next: Our first dumpling restaurant in Beijing!

It's not to late to vote for this blog for Project Food Blog, Round 5. Voting is open until Thursday night, October 14th! You can check out my post and vote here.

October 18, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Voting is Open for Project Food Blog Round 5!

Hi everyone,

I cannot thank you enough for your support through these last five rounds of this competition! Seriously, it's exhausting, but so much fun at the same time! I am totally stretching myself as a cook, writer, and photographer throughout this entire experience. I really do believe I will come out of this a better blogger in the end no matter what happens. 🙂

Anyway, just wanted to announce that voting for Project Food Blog Round 5 is now open! You can check out my entry and vote here.

For this round we had to make pizza. Come see my artistic interpretation of pizza (as flags!), as well as stories from the various trips I've taken to these countries in the past decade or so.

My vain attempts that throwing pizza dough

October 17, 2010 World Travel

A Pizza Tour of My Travels

My family has always loved traveling. Even though my parents were incredible frugal with everything else, we somehow always could afford plane tickets to fly to various parts of the world. Heck, my paternal grandfather founded what became the largest travel agency in Taiwan. When you have something like that in your lineage, you know you're destined to travel.

To this day, the travel bug has never left me, and I'm always wondering what trip to take next.

The next round in Project Food Blog is to create our own interpretation of pizza. I decided to take this opportunity to reflect upon the last decade or so of travel and express those trips by creating the flags of the countries I have visited as pizzas.

Now mind you, I do mostly Asian cooking (although Bryan does have an affinity for fresh pasta, so I do make lots of various pasta dishes). Nevertheless, I have never ever made pizza before.

Pizza dough is easy enough to make, ha ha, if you have a bread machine, which I do.

Pizza Dough

¾ cup warm water

1 T olive oil

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon dry yeast

Just throw in water, oil, flour, salt, sugar, and yeast into the machine (in that order), set the machine to "dough only cycle," and before you know it, out pops some pizza dough. Of course, you can also purchase pizza dough, either from the supermarket or your favorite pizzeria. You'd be surprised to learn that they are often willing to sell the dough for a very reasonable price.

Silly me, I thought you had to toss the pizza dough and magically stretch it in this laborious way.

So Not true. Rolling out with a rolling pin works just fine.

In fact, it's a lot easier to control the shape of the pizza dough that way, which was important for me, since I needed rectangles for my flags.

You don't need a pizza stone, but it really makes the pizza taste so much better. It's best to heat the pizza stone in the oven for about 30 minutes at 450 to 500 °F before putting the pizzas onto the stone. After that, bake for about 10-12 minutes.

It's really surprisingly simple. And you can totally use your creativity for the toppings - heh, just like the way I did in creating these pizzas. I tried my best to incorporate bits of each country's actual cuisine into the pizzas (in some cases easier than others).

Sooooo . . . without any further adieu, allow me to take you on a short, virtual tour of my travels in the form of pizza flags!

Canada

I grew up about an hour's drive from Windsor, Canada, so my family went there frequently to shop for Asian groceries and eat good Chinese dim sum. However, my most memorable trip to Canada was a family trip to the Canadian Rockies in 1998. This is seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. The scenery is breathtaking, especially the soaring mountains and the unusually turquoise water.

Canadian Rockies, Canada

This pizza takes an ordinary pepperoni pizza and jazzes it up by caramelizing the maple-leaf shaped pepperonis with maple syrup in a toaster oven. The red sauce on the side is a simple tomato, butter, and onion sauce. Feel free to use your favorite tomato sauce recipe.

The United Kingdom

I visited London for the first time back in 1999 when my college a cappella group went to work with a Chinese church in London for a week. I have fond memories exchanging cultural ideas with those Chinese Christians in London.

This pizza is a play on "Bangers and Mash," a British dish I learned about during that trip. The pizza sits on base of purple mashed potatoes ("mash"), and has strips of sausage ("bangers") as the red stripes. Thinly sliced mozarella cheese act as the white part of the flag.

Italy

Bryan and I spent our honeymoon in Rome, Venice, and Florence. We enjoyed absolutely fantastic food in Italy, and learned how good, fresh ingredients can really make simple dishes shine. This pizza is inspired by the classic Italian salad Insalate Caprese (tomato, basil, and fresh mozarella). In this case, instead of using basil, I have added peppercress, a pungent and fragrant green that adds a lovely bite to the pizza.

A rooftop champagne toast in Venice, Italy

France

I studied French in high school and have always loved the beautiful language. For a special milestone birthday, Bryan and I spent a week in Paris, staying right on the grounds of Versaille. It was in Paris where I first discovered my love for the Pierre Hermes Ispahan macaron.

This simple French flag pizza comprises fresh tomato slices, fresh mozzarella cheese, and mashed blue potatoes. The flavors are simple yet delicious when you use high quality, fresh ingredients. For a taste of France, you can incorporate a strong blue cheese into the mashed potatoes for a more unique flavor.

Versaille, France

USA

Bryan’s family loves to camp at national parks, and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of seeing some of these beautiful parks with his family ever since we got married.

Capitol Reef, Utah

This USA flag contains blue potato slices, mozzarella cheese, and a simple red tomato sauce. The stars are sprinklings of feta cheese. For an alternative way, you can use a base of mozarella cheese and then make the red stripes using bacon.

Japan

I studied Japanese in college and spent a summer working as an intern right outside of Tokyo. I fell in love with the food and culture of Japan while I was there. However, it wasn’t until 10 years later that I had the chance to return, this time with Bryan. Bryan and I enjoyed incredible food in Japan (fresh sushi and Kobe beef, just to name a few). This rice-based pizza is inspired by the sushi that we had in Japan. Prebake a "crust" by baking a square of dough without any toppings. After the crust is done, top with sushi rice and sushi-quality raw tuna (maguro). Optionally, put a dab of wasabi right underneath the tuna (out of sight).

Kyubei in Tokyo (my favorite sushi place!)

Taiwan

Of course, my parents are from Taiwan, so I went to Taiwan frequently as a child. My favorite foods in Taiwan? Traditional Taiwanese breakfast, shaved ice, and dumplings! I gave this pizza an Asian twist by blending roasted red peppers and “spiking” the mixture with Sriracha sauce to create a spicy and sweet base sauce. The blue portion is mashed blue potatoes, and the “sun” is a sliced mushroom.

Ice Monster, Taipei Taiwan

So that's it! I have hardly touched every country I've visited, but at least I've taken you to visit some of them, albeit brief! Thank you so much for joining me on this journey around the world in the form of pizzas!

Bon Appetit!

Thank you so much for those of you who voted for me the last several rounds. This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s fifth challenge: Pizza! If you are so inclined, please vote for this entry. Thanks so much for your support!

October 14, 2010 Harvard Square

Tory Row

When the Greenhouse Cafe left Harvard Square, it really felt like a Harvard Square institution had left. Never mind if you liked it or not (its popularity was definitely debated), it was such a landmark right in the middle of the square that things definitely felt just a bit different after it left.

Soon afterwards, the previously old and tired looking space transformed into a gleaming, modern bar with huge open-air windows, tall tables and seats, and a large chalkboard filled with a listing of draft beers.

Welcome to Cambridge Tory Row!

Owners Matthew W. Curtis and Christopher A. Lutes are no newcomers to the Cambridge restaurant scene. In fact, they already own four other successful restaurants in the Boston area: Middlesex Lounge, Audobon Circle, Cambridge 1, and Miracle of Science. I personally am a HUGE fan of Miracle of Science, and I really like the grilled pizzas at Cambridge 1 as well. So it's not a surprise that we found the food at Tory Row to be quite pleasant and surprisingly reasonably priced, especially considering its prime location.

local burrata, heirloom tomatoes, microgreens, honey sherry vinaigrette - $12

Tory Row tries to offer fresh local ingredients when possible. During the summer, for example, they had this fantastic local burrata salad (you know how much I love burrata), complete with summer fresh tomatoes and microgreens.

Depending on when you go, you could get yellow tomatoes, or maybe even a mix of two different types! This dish is quite reasonably priced at $12.

confit duck salad, poached cherries, pickled shallots, frisee, arugula, pink vinaigrette - $13

The first time we went, Bryan ordered the confit duck salad, which he actually really enjoyed. It had good flavor, quality ingredients, and only cost $13!

We got the local sweet corn chowder ($7), which was pretty good, though nothing earth-shattering. There was also a kitchen mix up, so we got the soup after we got our entrees. Oops. We actually sent back our entrees and told them we wanted to enjoy our soup first.

heirloom tomato, robiola, almonds, balsamic reduction - $10
Their flatbreads, which are only $10 each, can easily be shared as an appetizer between 2-3 people or ordered as an entree for one.

smoked bacon, vermont white cheddar, baby spinach, bermuda onion - $10

bacon cheeseburger, mixed greens, roasted potatoes = $10
The burger was solid and cooked a proper medium rare. The roasted potatoes are the same ones that you get at Miracle of Science, which are absolutely delicious.

Croque monsieur, black forest ham, gruyere, whole grain mustard, mixed greens - $10

grilled tuna, haricots vert, whole grain mustard–ginger vinaigrette $16
I thought the tuna was pretty good. We asked them to cook it "as rare as possible," which they obliged. (sorry, no picture of it cut up!)

braised beef chili, vermont cheddar $8

Tory Row won a Harvard Square chili contest with this chili! It's cheesy, hearty, and definitely delivers a nice spicy kick! We both thought it was pretty good and could totally see why it could win a local contest!

Impressions
Overall, we were pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food here. We walked in the first time expecting to find ordinary pub food. Imagine our surprise when we saw duck confit salad and burrata on the menu for under $15 each! You have access to some great local ingredients cooked into some pretty decent dishes. Nothing is earth shattering or wildly inventive, as most of the dishes would probably be considered classic "comfort" foods. Nevertheless, they've done a nice job of taking familiar foods and giving them just a tiny oomph, jazzing them up to the next level.

We would definitely consider coming back here again if we were in Harvard Square and wanted to enjoy a simple and enjoyable meal without breaking the bank.

Tory Row
3 Brattle St
Cambridge, MA 02138

Disclaimer
Time to time I receive free products, meals, etc. as a food blogger. I do not receive any payment for blog posts/reviews. The views expressed in this post are completely my own. One of the two meals documented in this post was provided by Tory Row.

October 13, 2010 Boston

Tiny Urban Tidbits #16 - CHOPPED!

Imagine this scenario.

You're a chef at a well known local institution, a well-known restaurant on a prominent street that most people recognize. One random day while you're just doing your job, you get this crazy phone call from none other than the Food Network. They want to know if you'd be interested in competing in one of their shows. Your jaw drops, and you're like, "uhhh . . . heck yeah! when do I start?"

This is a very rough paraphrase of what basically happened to Chef Corey Comeau, local Boston chef of Stephanie's on Newbury and Stephi's on Tremont. Last night on the Food Network show Chopped, Corey was featured as one of four chefs competing for the $10,000 prize.
Watching Corey Comeau on Chopped The entire competition just lasts one hour and only took one day to film. Essentially, 4 chefs are given a basket of surprise ingredients (which often have NOTHING to do with each other). They must create a course within 20 or 30 minutes incorporating all the ingredients. After each course, one chef is CHOPPED, until only one remains.

Last night I attended a viewing party at Stephi's On Tremont where Corey's fans watched the show in nervous anticipation. Keep in mind, Corey is totally sworn to secrecy about the results. No one in the room knew the final results except for Corey.

While watching the show, we sampled a few items from the new fall menu (which is coming out quite soon). These signature macaroni and cheese deep fried balls on a stick were delicious. I loved the gooey cheesiness of the inside, which contrasted the lovely outer crunch.

Gorgonzola, bacon, and pear. Need I say more? I may have actually liked these even better than the macaroni and cheese balls. I liked the sweet and salty contrast of the pears with the bacon and Gorgonzola.

One by one, as other contestants were "CHOPPED," the buzz in the room got greater and greater.

Here's Corey (guy with the baseball cap) watching with his immediate family in a small room right outside the bar. When the last contestant was CHOPPED and Corey was crowned the winner, the whole bar erupted into applause.

General manager Leo Fonseca and Corey gave a few words afterwards.

And then Corey's wife surprised him with a cake.

He only took a bite though since he's been avoiding flour and sugar. Can you believe he's lost 40 pounds since filming this back in March?

I had a chance to speak to Corey a bit after the show ended.

What was the filming experience like?
He said it was exhausting. They picked him up at 5AM the morning of the filming. Even though on the show it looks like the judges decide in a matter of minutes, they actually discussed for a good hour or so between each course. Meanwhile, the contestants just had to sit in this little room and wait.

Of course, the entire time they are in that little room, they are being filmed.

Corey also mentioned that it was interesting to see the show in its final edited form. Last night was his first time watching it as well, and he found it quite interesting how the editors strategically cut footage in a way to support a storyline that they might be trying to emphasize.

Overall, though, it seemed reasonably accurate. He said he became pretty good friends with Mona, the second to last competitor to be eliminated.

What's he going to do with the prize earnings? Take his wife to New Zealand in November! So, if you want to visit Stephi's on Tremont while Corey is in the kitchen, you better go this month!
IMG_3587-1
Let's congratulate our local chef for winning this competition!

It's not to late to vote for this blog for Project Food Blog, Round 4. Voting is open until Thursday night, October 14th! You can check out my post and vote for me here.

Disclaimer
Time to time I receive free products, meals, etc. as a food blogger. I do not receive any payment for blog posts/reviews. The views expressed in this post are completely my own. The fall menu preview food items were provided for free by Stephi's on Tremont.

October 12, 2010 Beijing

China: Lost in Translation

One of my favorite things to do when I visit a new country is to visit its grocery stores. It's the furthest thing from a majestic tourist site, yet I love going because I feel like I'm really getting a taste of the local culture. I love seeing what kinds of cookies, snacks, and packaged foods they eat. It's also fascinating to see the local produce, especially if it's very different from what I can get where I live. When I lived in Japan for a summer, I would spend countless hours perusing the aisles of the supermarket. I was often tickled at how things were adapted to fit the local culture.

One thing that makes browsing Chinese supermarkets especially fun is the added dimension of the English words on the packaging. It could be a funny brand name, or just a translation that went awry. Sometimes you wonder, "how in the WORLD did they come up with this one?"

Bryan and I had a field day with our cameras this one afternoon while we were shopping for some drinking water at a local market. Check out some of our favorites.

Can you believe it? Lays chips with braised pork belly and mustard greens flavor (mei gan kou rou). The Stax with Kiwi is kind of weird too, because it's still salty!

Pringles also had their fair share of interesting flavors. Aromatic crispy chicken or seaweed anyone?

Product names that never would have made it past the marketing department in the US

Enough said.

Ditto.

Read the fine print.

Is old aged soybean actually older? Or is it for older people?

Mmm . . . red blood cells anyone?

Huh?

One all-beef patty special sauce lettuce cheese tomatoes on a Scallion Pancake Bun!

Likelihood of Confusion
Under US trademark law, there is this standard called the "likelihood of confusion" standard. Essentially, in order to prove trademark infringement, you have to demonstrate that there is a likelihood of confusion between the infringing mark and your own trademark.

Here's a coffee shop I saw in China at the airport.

Confusing? I sure did a double take.

And finally, some translated signs in Shanghai.

Hope you enjoyed our fun little series. Up next - Beijing!

It's not to late to vote for this blog for Project Food Blog, Round 4. Voting is open until Thursday. You can check out my post and vote for me here.

October 11, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Voting for Project Food Blog Round 4 is open!

Hi everyone! Voting for Project Food Blog Round 4 is open!

I can't thank you enough for your support the last three rounds. I'm tickled and pleasantly surprised I'm still in the running. It makes my weekends pretty stressful (why am I such a procrastinator?), but I'm also challenging and stretching myself in ways I would never have done without this competition.

Anyhow, I decided to finally try one of my favorite family recipes, handed down from my grandmother. It's a complicated recipe that involves lots of planning and steps (not to mention some skill in assembling the whole thing!). I was nervous about trying it, but I'm so glad I did! It turned out to be not nearly as bad as I thought. Yes, that final picture is a victory photo of sorts proving that I did indeed make these things. 🙂

You can see my entry and vote for it here.

In other news, I'm almost done working up our pictures from China, so be on the lookout for some China posts really soon!

October 10, 2010 Appetizer

Project Food Blog Round IV: Bah-Tzangs (Taiwanese Rice Dumplings)

I've been keeping a secret.

There's a dish that I've wanted to blog about for a long time.

And yet, for some reason, I was afraid to try it. It's one of the most complicated recipes I know. At the same time it's such an integral part of my family's heritage, I knew some day I had to muster up the courage to make it.

Why? This is the one and only recipe passed down from my maternal grandmother.

My maternal grandmother, who we affectionately called “Gramma,” was the oldest of 13 kids (10 of whom lived to adulthood). Because her own mother was disabled early on in life, Gramma started cooking for the entire family at the age of nine! As a result, she was an amazing cook and made all sorts of traditional Taiwanese dishes.

One of our favorites was “bah-tzang,” a Taiwanese bamboo-wrapped sticky-rice dumpling that is a delight to eat. Bah-tzangs have sticky rice on the outside and are filled with a fragrant mixture of pork, mushrooms, shrimp, and other ingredients. The best part? The entire dumpling is infused with the sweet essence of bamboo leaves, which I love.

I ate these growing up, and often helped my mom make them when I was a kid. Despite all that, I still have never attempted to make the entire thing from scratch on my own. So finally, what better opportunity to challenge myself than for Round 4 of Project Food Blog?

Before we get to the recipe, though, let me give you just a brief history about “bah-tzang” (or “zhongzi” in Mandarin).

Brief Historical Context
It’s unclear exactly what the origins of bah-tzangs are, but legend has it that they came about in honor of a famous Chinese scholar, Qu Yuan, who was a poet and minister serving the King of Chu during the Zhou Dynasty (around 340 – 278 BC). He was much opposed to the power neighboring Qin State, and spent much of his life energy focused on how to defend against the Qin.

When he finally heard that the Qin troops had conquered Chu’s capital, he committed suicide by tying a heavy stone around his body and flinging himself into the river. The concerned townspeople, who loved him, desperately threw bah-tzangs into the river so as to prevent the fish from eating his body. To this day, the Chinese celebrate Duan Wu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival), in honor of Qu Yuan. Key traditions include eating lots of bah-tzangs and holding dragon boat races.

Bah-tzangs are complicated to make, and benefit greatly from a photo tutorial, which is why I finally decided to use this special opportunity to share my grandmother’s family recipe.

Each family and region has its own interpretation of bah-tzangs. The basics are the same: glutinous rice, bamboo leaves, and a filling that typically consists of pork, mushrooms, and dried shrimp. Beyond that, variations abound. For example, people from southern Taiwan sometimes like to add peanuts to the rice mixture. People from Nantou, Taiwan like to add black-eyed peas. My family? We like to add chestnuts.

So this weekend, I finally mustered up the courage and determination to attempt this recipe all by myself. I confess, I talked to my mom several times over the phone this weekend, but I did it! I made bah-tzangs! And I would love to share with you how to make them.

Voila – the “Liu” family (grandmother’s maiden name) bah-tzang recipe.

Taiwanese Sticky Rice Dumplings (Bah-tzang, Zhong Zi)
Rice Mixture
Sticky/glutinous rice 5 cups
Raw peanuts (with skin) 8 oz

Meat Mixture
pork butt/shoulder 2 lbs
Dried shitake mushroom 9 oz
Dried shrimp 1 oz
Dried pickled radish (optional) 4 oz
Scallions 3 stalks
Water ½ cup
Sugar 4 T
Soy sauce 2 T
Hot sauce to taste (optional)
Fried dry shallots 1 T
Salt about 1 t (to taste)

Covering
Bamboo leaves 8 oz

Prep Work (Preferably Night Before)

Mushrooms, Shrimp
Soak mushrooms and shrimp in hot water. After mushrooms are softened (around 10-15 minutes), cut off the mushroom stems. Slice the mushroom caps into quarters. Drain shrimp and set aside.

Peanuts
Soak peanuts in warm water for 1 hr. Bring peanuts to a boil in a pot of water and simmer for about 20 minutes. Then, soak peanuts in water overnight.

Rice
Soak rice in water overnight.

Pickled radish (optional)
Dice into 1 cm cubes

Bamboo Leaves
Bring bamboo leaves to a boil and then reduce to medium heat and cook until the leaves are completely soaked and the water has turned a little brown (about 25 minutes). Rinse the leaves and drain the water. You can optionally wash each leaf individually with a scrub if they still seem to be dirty.

Next Day
Drain the rice and the peanuts, which have been soaking overnight. Mix the two together in a big bowl.

Stir Fry
Put the meat in a pot of cold water and bring the water to a boil. The pork will release bit of blood and other scum. Discard the dirty water. Fill the pot again with cold water and bring the meat to a boil again. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until the meat is soft. Drain the water and salt the meat on each side. After the meat is cool enough to touch, cut off the fat and cut the meat into small 1 ½ cm cubes.

Saute the fatty bits of pork (medium high heat) to render the fat out.

Absorb the rendered fat with a paper towel. Add about 2 T of vegetable oil. (Note - if you don't mind "fatty pork," you can omit this step and just use the pork fat for the stir fry. My family is very health-conscious).

Add the lean pork and stir fry. After about 5 minutes, add scallions (white part), and dried shrimp. Stir fry for another 2 minutes. Then add the green part of the scallions and also the mushrooms. Optional: add hot pepper flakes and pickled radish cubes. Add water, sugar, and soy sauce. Let the liquid evaporate. Finally, add fried shallots and salt to taste (about 1 tsp).

Check saltiness by trying a mushroom. It should taste relatively salty (keep in mind it will be combined with lots of sticky rice!). If it's not that salty, add more soy sauce and reduce the liquid. Add some black pepper to taste.

Lay everything out in preparation for wrapping! Get some twine and tie together 10-12 strands, each strand being about 1.5 ft long.

Hang the twine somewhere at a comfortable height for tying! (I used my kitchen cabinet handle)

How to Wrap a Bah-Tzang
step by step photo instructional

1. Grab about two leaves and place together on top of each other.

2. Fold in half and crease the tip about 1 cm over.

3. Turn the leaves around to form a funnel/cone.

4. Hold leaves like an ice cream cone.
5. Scoop in enough rice/peanut mixture to fill the cone up about ¾ full, leaving a small well for the meat and vegetables.

6. Add the meat and vegetable mixture (about a tablespoon).
7. Add a little more rice to cover. Add a chestnut (optional).

8. Fold the top edge over to close the gap.
9. Pull tightly, and wrap both sides of the cover around the rest of the bottom portion.

10. Pinch shut the last fold.

11. Fold over the flap.
12. Tie together the entire thing with twine.

Boil bah-tzangs for about 45 minutes or until soft.

Serve!

Yum yum yum . . .

Unwrap. Don't eat the bamboo leaves!

Best when enjoyed fresh. If reheating, try to steam if possible. If not possible, wrap in a wet paper towel and microwave for about 1 minute.

Epilogue
Thanks so much to my mom for all her help (over the phone) this weekend! As I said earlier, this is the first time in my life that I have singlehandedly made bah-tzangs from scratch all the way from the beginning.

Gramma passed away over a decade ago, so I'll never be able to share with her the joy I got from finally being able to make this family recipe. I'd like to dedicate this post to her. I'm so grateful to be able to experience just a tiny bit of what she had to share through recreating this recipe.

Thank you so much for those of you who voted for me last round. This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s fourth challenge: Picture Perfect: create a step-by-step instructional tutorial. If you are so inclined, please vote for this blog. Thanks so much for your support!

October 8, 2010 Restaurant

Bergamot - A Celebration of Two Birthdays

It's been a whirlwind of a week for me, between frantically preparing my crazy 5-course Chinese dinner and blog post for Project Food Blog Round 3; recovering from jet lag (kept falling asleep so early every evening - couldn't find the energy to blog!!); celebrating TWO birthdays (more on that shortly); and catching up on work, I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

Onto the birthdays! As you may know, this past Wednesday was Bryan's birthday and we celebrated with a fantastic "Ultimate Chef's Tasting" at Craigie on Main. The last time we tried it was three years ago when Tony Maws was still at the old location. I will definitely be posting about that meal shortly.

Well, Bryan's birthday happens to be only about a week off from his best friend, Peter's birthday. Peter was the best man at Bryan's wedding, and he and his wife Chia Chi are often our food buddies. In fact, Peter has guest posted on this blog a few times, and he and his wife were very helpful in helping me out with my Project Food Blog Round 3 luxury meal.

Peter picked out a few special wines from his personal collection and asked Bergamot to create a tasting menu that would go with the wines. Lucky for us, this was a joint celebration in honor of both Peter's and Bryan's birthday and Peter and Chia Chi's anniversary! Yippee! Here's a look at the fantastic courses we enjoyed.

Amuse Bouche
Warm pear salad, walnut, greens, sweet potato crisp, balsamic reduction
Beautiful marriage of flavors here - we absolutely loved this amuse, which, I believe, is just a smaller version of one of their appetizers right now.

Salt Cod Croquette
Picholine Olive, Tomato Sauce, Saffron Foam, Chorizo Dust
Complex mix of tastes and textures here, though the dish was just a tad too salty for my personal taste (keep in mind, I tend to be pretty sensitive to salt).

Panko-Crusted Sweetbreads
Gold Beets, Honshimeki Mushrooms, Celeriac, Shiso Aioli

I really liked this course. I love shiso, and the flavor comes out strongly in this dish. The deep fried hot pepper also adds an interesting component (thankfully it wasn't TOO hot!), and overall the dish worked.

We enjoyed the first few courses with a Mount Eden 2006 Chardonnay, Santa Cruz Mountains (WS 96, WA 93). Beautifully crisp taste, lots of nice fruit on the nose.

Peter: I am convinced that white wines are underappreciated and undervalued, but I think there are as many perfect pairings of food with white wines as there are with red wines. As a result, I have been slowly stockpiling a wide range of whites in my collection to round out my cellar. The Mount Eden is one of the more exciting whites I have picked up recently. It has a buttery and silky mouthfeel and is not too heavy in oak. A full-bodied white with a long finish and a great deal of character. You get fruity notes of peach and pear that transforms to have more mineral and floral elements. It is very good now, but feels like it can cellar.

* * * * *

The next set of courses were paired with an E. Guigal 1997 Cote Rotie 'La Mouline' (WS 97, WA 96). The bottle was actually a gift that we gave to Peter about 2 years ago for his birthday. Thanks for sharing the bottle with us in celebration of both birthdays! What a treat!

Peter: I have been looking forward to popping this wine for two years. The Cote Rotie La Mouline is the wine that Robert Parker says he would drink if he had only one wine to drink. The '97 La Mouline is best described as seductive and sensual rather than powerful or racy. Drinking this aged masterpiece made me realize how often I drink wines too early and how much my selection of reds favor cabernet. The tannins are soft, there is almost no acidity and the balance is perfect. You get casis fruit, smoky coffee and chocolate flavors and the finish is elegantly long. The wine paired very well with the risotto and the pork butt. Both dishes had subtle flavors that would have been drowned out with a more intense wine. Thanks Jen and Bryan for this amazing gift!

Braised Rabbit Risotto
Roasted Butternut Squash, Arugula, Fontina

The braised rabbit risotto had a deep rich flavor with perfectly cooked rice that was nicely al dente in flavor. It paired really nicely with the wine, which nicely cut the richness of the dish.

Confit of Boston Pork Butt
Creamed Spinach, Delicata Squash, Chestnuts, Pork Jus

This pork butt, which had been cooked for hours, was super soft and easily cut with a fork. Because it was cured, it was quite salty on its own, but worked very well when enjoyed together with the squash, chestnuts, spinach, and the wine.

A nice palate cleanser - yogurt with huckleberries!

* * * * *

Lemon and Lemon Curd Cake
Vanilla Butter Cream, Almonds

Peter is a huge fan of Bergamot's pastry chef, Stacy Mirabellois, and personally requested that she make the lemon cake. The cake was delicious, with strong lemon flavor and decadent buttercream frosting. Peter didn't expect this, but the cake actually paired surprisingly well with the sauternes, a 2001 Chateau Suduiraut (WS 98/WA 98, WS 2004 Top 100 #9), that he had brought.

In general, I'll let Peter comment more specifically on the wine pairings, maybe in the comments or an updated post!

Peter: Believe it or not, my first experience with sauternes was about two months ago, and I had the great privilege of having a 1999 Chateau d'Yquem (WA 92). The d'Yquem left an impression and no doubt you have tasted something special. I was certain if ambrosia existed, this is what it would taste like. The finish was minutes and the sweetness was perfectly controlled. I knew from that single experience that satuernes would be one of my favorite wine varieties and that I had to get more.

The 2001 vintage of satuernes is one of the best in recent history. So even lesser vineyards like Chateau Suduiraut put out a great product. This wine did not have the finish of the d'Yquem but it did have great notes of honey, pineapple and lemony citrus allowing it to pear perfectly with the lemon and lemon curd cake. It's sweetness complemented the tang of the cake. Overall, a fantastic wine.

After dinner passion fruit caramels

Overall, we had a fantastic time at Bergamot. The folks at Bergamot love doing this kind of stuff. Keith Pooler (executive chef/proprietor), and Kai Gagnon (wine director) had a lot of fun creating this birthday menu with the wines that we gave them. They are always open to doing this, so definitely contact them if you're interested!

The tasting was only $60 per person, which we thought was quite reasonable for such a quality meal.

Happy Birthday Bryan and Peter!

Trying to blow out those candles . . .

Bergamot
118 Beacon St
Somerville, MA 02143

October 6, 2010 China

Happy Birthday Bryan - an Ode to Noodles and Ducks

Today is Bryan's birthday, so I've dedicated this post to him and the foods he loves.

My husband Bryan absolutely LOVES noodles. Fresh, handmade noodles. The fatter, the chewier, the better. Pictured above? Biang biang noodles. I'd never heard of them, but they are among the widest handmade noodles I'd ever seen. We tried them in Xian, China. They were delicious, and only cost like $2.

He also LOVES Peking duck. And guess what? We were in Beijing for the first week of our trip.

So guess what we ate everyday?

Thick, Chewy, Hand-pulled Noodles
Northern China is totally known for its noodles, so of course we had to seek out la mian, hand-pulled noodles. It's been depressing in Boston ever since the one and only hand-pulled noodle place, Noodle Alcove, closed years ago. Since we have no access to la mian normally here in Boston, we had to maximize our noodle opportunities in Beijing.

One the second day of our trip, we walked to this cute little noodle bar (called Noodle Bar) in Beijing that made fantastic, hand-pulled noodles. We had a great time sitting at the bar watching the noodle master pull noodles right in front of our eyes. Of course, the soups were delicious.

Best Peking Duck?
People will argue forever about the best Peking duck in Beijing, but I consistently read fantastic reviews about a restaurant called Made In China. I'll post a more detailed review later, but look how happy Bryan looks eating his Peking duck!

Hole In the Wall
We met up with some friends in Beijing who took us to this restaurant they affectionately called "Hole-In-the- Wall." More details to come in a later post, but are you surprised that we ordered dao xiao mian (knife cut noodles) and Peking duck?

Da Dong
In my research, this other Peking duck restaurant called Da Dong popped up a lot as a favorite. Even though Bryan still maintains that Made In China makes the best Peking duck, I personally had a lot more fun at this restaurant because they have a huge extensive menu with lots of other interesting dishes. More pictures from that meal coming soon!

World Expo 2010 Shanghai
When we finally landed in Shanghai I told Bryan I was sick of Peking duck and I really wanted to try some other food! Ha ha . . we moved onto trying lots of xiao long baos (soup dumplings), one of Shanghai's specialties.

But wait! While at "Chinese Food Street," a huge food court at the World Expo showcasing all the different foods from China's various provinces, we stumbled upon the Beijing section, which, of course, was featuring Quanjude, the most famous Peking duck place in Beijing.

Quanjude was established in 1864 during the Qing Dynasty. The first Quanjude manager, Yang Renquan, took the imperial recipe for Peking duck and used it to open the first Quanjude in Beijing, thus introducing this amazing dish to the common folks.

So of course, Bryan had to squeeze one last Peking duck dish into our trip! Look how happy he looks!

Great Wall of China

I have so much more to share from our amazing trip. This is just a tiny peek. Look out the next couple weeks for posts related to some fantastic meals we had in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

It's still not to late to vote for Project Food Blog, Round 3. You can see my entry and vote here.

October 4, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Project Food Blog - Round 3 Voting is Open!

Just wanted to announce that voting is open for Project Food Blog! My entry is here.

Project Food Blog is a contest held by Foodbuzz seeking out the next "Food Blog Star." Over 1800 contestants have entered for a chance to blog their way through a series of challenges. With each round, about half of the contestants get eliminated. We are now in round three, where 200 contestants are narrowed down to 100!

If you are so inclined, you can vote for me here.

In other news, we finally are back in Boston after 2 weeks in China. Together Bryan and I took close to 2000 pictures! It will take us some time to sort through them all, but look out for a food series on Beijing (we sampled many great Peking ducks and dumplings!), Xian (mutton bread soup!), and Shanghai (we tasted many different types of xiaolongbaos!) - plus photos from cool places like the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, and the World Expo.

October 3, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Project Food Blog Round 3: A Luxury Interpretation of China

China is a vast and beautiful country. Despite the fact that Bryan and I spent over 2 weeks there, we really felt that we had barely scratched the surface of seeing everything that China has to offer.

We visited many amazing historical sites, such as the Forbidden City, the Great Wall of China, and the Summer Palace.

One of the best things about China is the food. You can get absolutely amazing food for really really cheap prices. We tried several handmade dumplings in Beijing (top left photo), and also tried spicy Sichuan fish (top right photo). Congee or "jook" is a popular breakfast item (bottom left photo), and of course, we had to eat Peking duck while we were in Beijing (bottom right). Oftentimes an entire meal between the two of us would cost less than $5 U.S. It was so cheap and infinitely better than the Chinese food we get in the US.

Even though China is filled with cheap, delicious Chinese food, it also has its share of expensive high-end food. You can enjoy imperial banquet-type dishes that royalty used to enjoy, or sample a modern chef's take on Asian fusion concepts. Here in America, in contrast, Chinese food is almost always considered a cheap cuisine. People seem reluctant to pay a lot for Chinese food, and you'd be hard pressed to find fancy Chinese Michelin-starred restaurants (though there are a few exceptions).

The challenge for Round 3 for Project Food Blog is "create a luxury dinner party." Inspired by the foods we had enjoyed in China and as a nod to my ethnic heritage, I decided to do a luxury interpretation of Chinese cuisine.

I devised a menu that was largely influenced by the foods I had enjoyed while in China.

How does one go about creating what looks like a hugely intimidating meal? In my case, I literally got home off the plane from China around midnight on Friday evening. I knew I essentially had less than 24 hours in which to create the meal, serve it, and write a post.

I called up my foodie friends Peter and Chia Chi.

"Hey guys, are you free for dinner Saturday evening? Wanna help cook up a crazy 5-course meal?"

I love my crazy friends who say yes to these seemingly impossible tasks.

Fois Gras and Pork Dumplings
I was inspired to make these dumplings after having tried goose liver xiao long baos (soup dumplings) at my favorite restaurant in China. I didn't have time to make soup dumplings, so instead I made up my own version by mixing ground pork with scallions and fois gras. I also rolled out my own dumpling wrappers.

Inspired by an absolutely divine black truffle xiaolongbao that I had also tried in China, I invented my own interpretation by mixing chopped wood ear mushrooms and scallions with ground pork and fois gras. I finished it off by drizzling in a generous amount of black truffle oil. These were also made with the homemade wrappers I had rolled out earlier.

Lobster and Scallop "Jook"
Traditional Chinese congee is made with chicken stock or water and can be filled with various ingredients such as pickled cucumbers, pork floss, peanuts, and salty duck eggs. Peter and Chia Chi suggested making a high-end version using scallops and butter/truffle oil poached lobster.

This version was extremely complex to make, as it involved making lobster broth by baking the lobster shells, blending them with broth, and then filtering the mixture through a cheese cloth. Once you have the clear broth, you cook rice in the broth, creating a congee with a lovely rich lobster essence.

On top of all that, you take the lobster meat and cook it sous vide at 140 °F for about 20 minutes with butter and truffle oil. It smelled absolutely amazing and tasted divine.

I have to thank Chia Chi for doing most of the legwork for this dish!

Chilean Sea Bass with Black Bean Sauce
This dish was the most straightforward, as it just involved steaming a few ingredients together. The "luxury" aspect of this dish was the use of Chilean sea bass (MSW certified!), which is a beautiful buttery fish that tastes absolutely amazing with the black bean sauce, scallions, and ginger.

Peking Duck Two Ways
Bryan loves Peking duck and we had it many times while in Beijing. I decided to do an elevated version of this dish by cooking the duck sous vide and then presenting it in a slightly different way.

Again, I made homemade wrappers by rolling out a dough made from water and flour and then steaming it in bamboo steamers.

I tried drying out the duck as much as possible in order to ensure crispy skin. Peter was very helpful in the kitchen as he took care of searing the duck and plating it.

Finally for dessert, black sesame ice cream! This is my signature dish with my friends and I've made it a million times. It incorporates a common Asian ingredient (black sesame) and makes it into a fusion dessert.

The Grand Finale . . .
And finally, after about 4 hours in the kitchen, we plated our crazy, crazy luxurious interpretation of high-end Chinese cuisine.

Lobster and Scallop Jook with Caviar

Fois Gras and Pork Dumplings
Fois Gras, Wood Ear, Black Truffle, and Pork Dumplings

"Peking Duck" - Sous Vide Duck Breast with Scallions, Hoisin Sauce, and Handmade Wrappers

Chilean Sea Bass with Ginger, Scallions, and Black Bean Sauce over a bed of Korean Spinach Salad

Black Sesame Ice Cream

To top off the luxurious evening, we enjoyed dinner with a fantastic bottle of champagne.

Epilogue
I am now official exhausted! Spending the afternoon cooking at least helped keep me awake in spite of the serious jet lag that I had. Thanks so much to my wonderful friends for helping to create this fantastic meal. Seriously, Chinese food can totally be high-end as well, even though it's not really considered that way in America. Hopefully by doing this little experiment I can help you all to think a little differently about Chinese cuisine.

Thank you so much for those of you who voted for me last round. This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s third challenge: A Luxury Dinner Party. If you are so inclined, ~~please~~ ~~vote for this blog~~. Voting for Round 3 has ended, but you can still vote for this blog in Round 4. Thanks so much for your support!

September 29, 2010 Cambridge

Atasca

I am currently in China right now and will be there for one more week. This is the third of several posts that I had prepared beforehand for when I was away. Please understand that during this time my response to comments / e-mails / etc. will be slower than normal. Finally, if you are so inclined, you can vote for me here for Project Food Blog round 2.

It seems like virtually the entire staff at my building is Portuguese. The head concierge, other security staff, the live-in superintendent . . . . It's one of those family things. One refers another, and pretty soon they are all working at my building.

I absolutely love it. During our annual holiday party, one of them always makes this fantastic Portuguese dessert. They will also cater all sorts of cool Portuguese dishes, such as linguica, salt cod potatoes, and my all time favorite, pasteis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts - sooo good!).

Not only that, since I live in Cambridge, I happen to live steps away from one of the densest Portuguese areas in the city. Towards Inman Square and East Cambridge, there are countless Portuguese restaurants (Casa Portugal, Sunset Cafe, Portugalia, just to name a few) and markets as well (Courthouse Seafood, Casal Bakery). There's even a Portuguese Credit Union, and the Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers in the area.

I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to exploring this section of town.

However, there is one place that we frequent regularly, a place that even our Portuguese staff will acknowledge is one of the best.

I'm always surprised how easy it is to get a seat at Atasca on a weeknight. It's almost like our "back up" place if we don't feel like waiting for a seat at some of our other favorite ethnic restaurants in East Cambridge. One of my favorite things there is actually the bread. For some reason, I am severely addicted to this dense, Portuguese bread (I've seen it in Spanish restaurants too!). I absolutely cannot get enough of it!

Fresh Grilled Sardines with Chimichurri Sauce

We decided to be adventurous and order the whole fresh grilled sardines. Apparently it's one of their more popular dishes (at least for those who aren't grossed out by eating a whole fish!). We ordered it and agreed that it was quite fragrant and well prepared, although we couldn't get past the strong smell of the sardines themselves. It's really strong, and you have to like sardines to enjoy this dish.

We ate one fish and brought the rest back to one of Bryan's friends who LOVES both sardines and Chimichurri sauce. He absolutely loved the dish.

Arroz de Marisco
Seafood risotto with mussels, clams and squid

Bryan loves getting the "paella" here, which is very generously sized and priced. In fact, it's meant to be shared by two, and is definitely plenty of food as it is filled with all sorts of seafood.

Roasted peppers stuffed with dry salt cod

I love salt cod, which is such a classic ingredient in Portuguese food. In this rendition, roasted peppers are stuffed with a mixture of salt cod and other aromatic vegetables. I really enjoyed this dish.

Lobster ravioli

Although at $9 this felt slightly expensive, after one bite we realized it was totally worth it. The texture of the uniquely striped pasta was absolutely perfect (nice and al dente with the perfect chewiness). Furthermore, the lobster filling was fragrant, juicy, and all-around delicious. Everything worked perfectly with the lobster cream sauce.

We had hesitated to order this initially because it seemed to be too Italian, but the waiter actually recommended this as a great dish, and we wholehearted agree.

And how could I forget my favorite?

Pasteis de nata! (Portuguese egg custards) - YUM! They dress up the traditional pasteis de nata by adding blueberries, a dash of cinnamon, and an orange liqueur sauce. We both love this dessert so much we usually order one for each of us!

Bryan tried a Portuguese rum-spiked coffee, which was interesting. I personally preferred my perfectly brewed cappuccino.

I really like this place. It has nice ambiance, good service, and excellent food. It's easy to get a table on a weeknight. Surprisingly, I don't think I've ever had to wait to get a table at this place. Although this newer larger location lacks a bit of the charm of the original Broadway location (they moved here several years ago), the food is still just as good, and the extra seating is definitely not a bad thing!

Atasca
50 Hampshire St
Cambridge, MA 02139

September 27, 2010 Misc

Project Food Blog - Round 2 Voting is Open!

Just wanted to announce that voting is open for Project Food Blog! My entry is here.

Project Food Blog is a contest held by Foodbuzz seeking out the next "Food Blog Star." Over 1800 contestants have entered for a chance to blog their way through a series of challenges. With each round, about half of the contestants get eliminated. We are now in round two, where 400 contestants are narrowed down to 200!

Anyways, if you have a chance, please vote for me by clicking here.

In other news, I've spent a little over a week in China and have one more week to go. I am having a great time here. So much amazing food and culture! I can't wait to share it with you all. We've taken tons of photos and have seems some pretty incredible stuff!

Off to the World Expo . . .

September 26, 2010 Appetizer

Project Food Blog:The Classics - Kaddo Bourani

“Are you more Chinese or American?”

My American friends in Beijing and I laughed as we reminisced about this all-too-familiar phrase my dad loved to ask while we were growing up. Every time he stumbled upon an “ABC” (American-born Chinese), that question would invariably emerge in some form or another.

I never knew exactly how to answer. I grew up with immigrant Taiwanese parents who cooked Asian food, held Asian values, and spoke Chinese at home. On the other hand, I went to American schools my entire life and I’ve never lived outside the U.S.

I’m in China right now on a whirlwind two week trip that Bryan and I had planned months and months ago. It’s my first time here, and the experience has been nothing short of fascinating.

People look at us and assume we speak perfect Chinese (we don’t) and then they are tickled when they find out that we are actually Americans. One taxi driver was impressed that I spoke decent Chinese yet thought it was funny that Bryan was basically mute in China. The woman at the spa even dared ask me who I would support if the two countries went to war (I quickly steered the conversation away from that topic!!)

Not only am I culturally Chinese/Taiwanese and American, I also studied French and Japanese in school, spending time in both countries as part of school exchange programs. Furthermore, my sister married a Korean, and I had many Indian friends in high school.

Having been exposed to such a wide variety of cultures, I found this next Project Food Blog challenge (create a classic dish outside your comfort zone) a bit more challenging.

What culture and cuisine is totally foreign to me? What would be outside my comfort zone?

And then it hit me.

I know absolutely nothing about Afghanistan.

Well, there is that one restaurant in Cambridge that I love. A wonderful Afghan restaurant that churns of absolutely fantastic food. My all-time favorite dish there is kaddo bourani (also kadu bouranee), a baked pumpkin dish with transcendent flavor combinations that are truly out of this world.

Sheepishly, I realized that even though I loved the food at The Helmand, I knew absolutely nothing about Afghanistan or its cuisine.

As I began doing research on this fascinating country's cuisine, I realized that kaddo bourani embodies many classic aspects of Afghan cooking.

First, kaddo bourani uses many classic Afghan spices. Afghan cuisine incorporates ideas from Persia, India, and Mongolia. Why such a wide influence? Afghan kings in Kabul commissioned chefs from all over the empire to create dishes for the royal kingdom. Afghan dishes often use Indian spices in particular, such as garam masala, coriander, cloves, cardamon, mint, and tumeric. Here for kaddo bourani, we use coriander, mint, and tumeric.

Second, kaddo bourani incorporates several other classic Afghan ingredients such as yogurt, onions, and tomatoes, all of which are very important in Afghan cooking. Yogurt sauces are ubiquitous in Afghan cuisine. This fragrant yet simple yogurt sauce consists of plain yogurt, minced garlic, salt, and mint.

Finally, kaddo bourani embodies what I think is one Afghan cuisines' greatest strengths: well balanced but wonderfully contrasting flavors. Kaddo bourani is an absolutely beautiful dish because its three contrasting components (candied sugar pumpkin, savory meat sauce, and a garlic mint yogurt sauce) come together so perfectly. The pumpkin is too sweet on its own. Similarly, the yogurt is sort of sour and garlicky but not that tasty by itself. Yet, when you pair the sweet pumpkin with the savory meat sauce and the cool, refreshing yogurt, you create a simply extraordinary dish.

I tackled this dish the evening before I left for China. Between packing my suitcase and tying up loose ends at home, I prepared the meat and yogurt sauces while caramelizing the sugar pumpkins in the oven.

And right before I hopped on that plane to China, I enjoyed this as my last meal before heading to the airport.

Oh YUM.

Seriously, heaven on a plate.

The magical combination of flavors was totally there - sweet & savory & cool and minty all at the same time. Absolutely amazing.

I've come to appreciate Afghan cuisine so much more as a result of this mini-food journey. This is probably my first time tackling a dish from ~~the Middle East~~ this region and it's been an enriching experience. In general, I still feel like I know so little about Afghanistan. Its culture is so rich and diverse, and I have really only tapped the surface by recreating one of their dishes.

At the end of the day, I'm still mostly American and Chinese/Taiwanese, with bits of European culture thrown in there for good measure. I'm still woefully ignorant when it comes to really understanding the cuisine and culture of Afghanistan. However, this little project has given me a greater appreciation for this amazing country, its rich history, and its fantastic food.

Thank you so much for those of you who voted for me last round. This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s second challenge: The Classics. ~~If you are so inclined, please~~ ~~vote for this blog~~. Round 2 is over, but you can still vote in Round 4. I figured out how to access Blogger through VPN in China (yay!) so I am still able to participate. Thanks so much for your support!

Kaddo Bourani
adapted from The Helmand as published in SF Gate

For the pumpkin
2 Sugar Pie pumpkins, each about 3 pounds
¼ cup + 2 T corn oil
3 C sugar

For the Yogurt Sauce
2 C plain yogurt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried mint
½tsp salt

For the Meat Sauce
¼ C corn oil
1 large onion, finely diced
1 ½ lbs. ground beef
1 large tomato, seeded and finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 ¼tsp ground coriander
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 ⅓ C water

Preheat oven to 300ºF. Cut pumpkins in half and scrape out the insides (seeds + stringy bits). Cut each half into 3-4 inch pieces. Using a peeler, remove the rind. Place the pumpkin slices hollow side up in a single layer in a baking dish and cover with the oil. Pour the sugar on top (yes, all three cups!). Cover the pan with foil and bake for about 3 hours and 15 minutes (or until the pumpkin has caramelized into a deep, orange color). Note: after 2 ½ hours into baking, baste the pumpkin pieces with the juices below and then continue baking for another 45 minutes or so.

While the pumpkin is baking, prepare the yogurt and meat sauce. For the yogurt sauce, combine all the ingredients and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

For the meat sauce, saute onions over medium high heat in a heavy bottomed skillet until golden brown (about 18 minutes). Add beef and saute, breaking up the pieces until the meat is no longer pink (5 minutes). Add remaining ingredients (except tomato paste and water). Blend in tomato paste. Add water and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce, and simmer for 15 minutes.

To serve, place the pumpkin on the bottom. Add yogurt sauce and then top with meat sauce. Serve!

September 24, 2010 Italian

Easy Homemade Basil Pesto (Tomato Pesto Papardelle)

I am currently in China right now and will be there for the next two weeks. This is the second of several posts that I had prepared beforehand for when I was away. Please understand that during this time my response to comments / e-mails / etc. will be slower than normal. Finally, if you are so inclined, you can vote for me here for Project Food Blog.

What does everyone do when they have too much basil? Make pesto, of course.

For some reason, I never did this, and instead always (sadly) let my basil rot before I could finish using it.

This summer I learned an awesome trick from the weekly newsletter that I get from my farm share. The best way to preserve basil is to keep it in a glass of water at room temperature. It will last for a week or two like this! Granted, the basil we get still have their roots on, so they are still alive and thus can live easily like this. I doubt this would work for supermarket packaged or cut basil.

Despite being able to save the basil, I still accumulated TONS of basil that I could not use, so finally I decided it was time for me to learn how to make pesto.

This is probably review for most of you, but I'm willing to bet there's at least some of you out there who have still not tried this. I mean, I've been cooking for over a decade, and it wasn't until this summer that I finally sat down and tried making my own pesto.

And you know what? It really is just as easy as it sounds.

Homemade Basil Pesto
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 cups fresh basil leaves
½ cup sharp dry cheese*
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
⅓ cup pine nuts
3 cloves garlic

*preferably Pecorino, but Parmesan-Romano works too

Combine pine nuts, garlic, and basil in a food processor. Pulse until shredded and combined. In a slow stream, add the extra virgin olive oil while running the food processor. Finally, stir in the cheese and serve.

Note: the cheese does not freeze well. If you want to make basil to freeze, omit the cheese and stir it back in when thawed.

You can do all sorts of stuff with this pesto. Use it as a sauce for chicken, toss it with the carbohydrate of your choice. I just simply tossed it with pasta and fresh tomatoes from the farm share for a beautiful, refreshing meal.

September 22, 2010 Cambridge

Lord Hobo

I am currently in China right now and will be there for the next two weeks. This is the first of several posts that I had prepared beforehand for when I was away. Please understand that during this time my response to comments / e-mails / etc. will be slower than normal. Finally, if you are so inclined, you can vote for me here for Project Food Blog.

40 microbrews? Hard to find beers from around the world?

Owner Daniel Lanigan is no stranger to this beer business, having run two "cult beer bars" in Amherst and Northampton. The last time I had encountered such a diversity of craft beers was probably at Granville Moore's in Washington D.C.

Bryan and I finally got a chance to check out Lord Hobo (which took over the old B-side Lounge in East Cambridge) this past weekend. I had heard great things about it, so I was anxious to see if it lived up to the hype.

The ambiance inside is dark yet hip, with tall wooden stools and chairs spread through a wide open space. The center bar, which boasts all those interesting drafts, clearly steals the show as it is prominently displayed in the center of the restaurant. I found the room to be uncomfortably cold, to the point where I was almost shivering.

Of course, the focus is on the beer, and the drink menu literally takes up over three quarters of the menu. There's one page of food and about 4-5 pages of drinks. It's mind boggling and overwhelming, to say the least. Thankfully, the server is happy to bring you little "tastes" of their brews free of charge. I tried three different ones before deciding on the St. Bernardus (shown on the left). The servers are very knowledgeable about the beers (I'm sure they are used to having guests come in who have no idea what to order), and can certainly guide you along in a mini-tasting, which is quite fun.

The food was surprisingly good! We're talking nice, gastropub food. Bryan likened it to the style of Garden at the Cellar, one of our favorite restaurants. We started with a lovely crab and avocado salad, which was very nice - fresh ingredients, lightly seasoned, it was the perfect start of a pretty good dinner.

I got the seared halibut, which came with a nice succotash of corn and peas that tasted very fresh. The fish was nicely seared, although just a tad on the dry side. I guess sous vide cooking has really made me kind of picky when it comes to meat textures!

Bryan got the steak which was seasoned with chimichurri sauce and came with a side of fries. We requested that the fries be served with the truffle aoili, which was actually really intense and truffly (yum!). Bryan thought the steak was cooked a perfect medium rare, and he liked the chimichurri sauce, so he was quite pleased.

We were surprisingly impressed with the food at Lord Hobo. The prices are reasonable, although you can quickly spend a lot if you each get a few craft beers. Although Cambridge boasts a lot of gastropubs that serve very good food, Lord Hobo shines when it comes to beer. You really can't get this many hard-to-find beers anywhere else close by.

If you like trying all sorts of interesting beers in a fun environment with good food, definitely check out Lord Hobo. Just don't forget to bring an extra sweater.

Lord Hobo
92 Hampshire St.
Cambridge, MA 02139

September 20, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Project Food Blog Voting is Open!

Just wanted to announce that voting is open for Project Food Blog! My entry is here.

In a nutshell, Project Food Blog is a contest held by Foodbuzz seeking out the next "Food Blog Star." Over 1800 contestants have entered for a chance to blog their way through a series of challenges. With each round, about half of the contestants get eliminated. The first round is pretty brutal though, as these 1800 are cut down to 400!

Anyways, if you have a chance, please vote for me by clicking here.

In other exciting news, I am about to leave for China (I will have arrived by the time this publishes!)! I'm sitting in the airport lounge at O'Hare right now (yay for husbands who are million milers and can get me access to these fancy flagship lounges complete with free internet, free food, and a free cocktail bar!)

Unfortunately, China chose to ban Blogger access not too long ago, which is what I use to run Tiny Urban Kitchen. Accordingly, you will likely not see too much response from me when you comment. I'm not even sure if I will be able to follow anything that's going on here!

Anyway, I think I'll still be able to find ways to update the blog, but it may not be as refined as normal!

So, I've prepared a few posts for you guys to enjoy while I am gone. Other than that, I'll "see" you when I get back from China!

September 17, 2010 Sponsored

Saucy Mama Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Biz from My Bizzy Kitchen who wins the 6-pack of sauces from Saucy Mama.

Biz said,

"Have a safe trip! Oh my gosh, I bet the food in China is amazing - any noodle soup dish would work for me - as long as its spicy!

Oh, and I want that lime chipotle sauce, so pick me! :D"

Guess what Biz? You're going to get the lime chipotle sauce plus 5 other bottles!

Thanks for playing, everyone!

Biz, please e-mail me at jen[at]tinyurbankitchen[dot]com and send me your address so I can ship you the sauces! I'll be in China the next two weeks so I won't be able to send you the sauces until early October - but I promise you will get them!

September 17, 2010 ProjectFoodBlog

Project Food Blog: Ready, Set, Blog!

I am restless by nature. I love trying new things, I love learning, and I’m always looking to see what to do next. As a child, I never stuck with one activity for too long – one week watercolors, the next week writing and recording 80’s style pop songs.

I think at the core, I am still very much the same person today.

After graduating from law school in 2007 (a grueling 3 ½ years in which I worked all day, went to school at night, and didn’t have time for much else), I felt free! Free to finally try tons of different things!

My list of things to try was predictably ambitious, with activities ranging from “taking an art class” to “running a 10k.” Buried in the middle of that list somewhere was “start a food blog.”

Consistent with my personality, I didn’t stick with anything for a long time. I dabbled in an acting class before switching to oil painting. I learned Brazilian capoeira and stuck with it for about 6 months. Most recently, I became obsessed with sewing, churning out handbag after handbag. Alas, that only lasted 3 months before a trip to Japan cut that momentum short.

In the background during this whole time, my tiny little personal food blog, “jglee’s food musings,” silently hummed along. Unlike all those other activities, this one stuck.

I registered tinyurbankitchen.com in September of 2009 when I decided to “go public” with the blog (happy 1-year birthday!) . I signed on with Foodbuzz and began interacting with other food bloggers on the blogosphere. I recently renewed my URL for another 5 years. Clearly, Tiny Urban Kitchen isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Why do I have the passion and stamina to passionately pursue this "hobby" while I inevitably lose interest in most other things? What makes this blog so unique? What defines this blog?

After some soul searching, here’s what I came up with . . .

Fearless Pursuit of Crazy, Ambitious, and Fun Ideas
To say I’m overly ambitious is probably an understatement. Sometimes, it’s tough because I set myself up for failure. Usually, however, I think it pushes me so much further than I ever would have gone without the crazy ideas and goals I set in place. I’ve tried all sorts of crazy things on this blog, like making an entire meal look like Japanese anime characters, preparing a multi-course meal from Michelin-starred chefs’ recipes using sous vide, and bravely experiencing a “tasting of offal” which involved things like lambs brains and duck testicles. Heck, I even made a bento that looked like my husband. I’m not afraid to try most things at least once, and I love a good challenge. This past March, I entered and shockingly won the coveted spot to attended the S. Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef Competition in Napa Valley on behalf of Foodbuzz. Life is an adventure, and there are so many amazing things to experience. Seize the day and make most out of each meal. In short, this blog is defined by my personality - creative, ambitious, slightly crazy, and never the same thing twice.

A Deep Commitment and Passion for the Local Community
I have lived in Cambridge for over 15 years and I absolutely love the city. It has a wealth of restaurants that belie its small geographical area. I especially love the wonderful diversity and concentration of ethnic restaurants – Brazilian, Afghan, Tunisian, Eritrean, the list goes on and on.

I am highly committed to supporting these local businesses and partnering with them in various things. I take my camera with me wherever I go, and I blog about almost every restaurant I visit (complete with many photos and a detailed review). I strongly support events that promote fair trade, sustainability, and helping out those who are in need. Furthermore, I really enjoy the relationships I have developed with chefs, restaurant owners, and marketing people in the local food industry.

A Love of Food, Photography, and Friendship
Bryan’s mom is really observant and wise, and had some keen insights about why she thought food blogging was so perfect for me.

“You are relational, you really like people, and you like to share with others.”

I’m not the most introspective person by any means, so her comment actually surprised me. It seemed to be so true yet was something I had never realized.

Now don’t get me wrong. I do love food. Heck, I’m willing to travel anywhere for good food, and I center my trips around the interesting meals I want to enjoy.

And I also love photography. Instead of watching TV to relax, I actually like to process my pictures. It’s oddly calming for me to adjust exposure and white balance all while munching on a snack (yes, I'm nuts).

But most importantly, beyond all that, it’s the people that really motivate me to keep this blog going. This food blog would be NOTHING without its readers. Seriously, at the end of the day, why do I keep on blogging? Why haven’t I abandoned this “hobby” unlike most things I try?

Because it’s not just about cataloguing cooking experiments. It’s not just about writing down restaurant impressions or taking pretty pictures. In fact, if it were just about those things, I probably would have abandoned this a long time ago. Instead, I’ve kept on writing because of the people. I love sharing my ideas with others. I am relational at the core, and I love the interactions, conversations, and support I receive from my readers.

I could have all the passion in the world about cooking, eating and photography. Yet without readers, I would have no motivation to write.

So thank you. Thank you all for interacting with me, encouraging me, and pushing me to try my absolute best to make this blog as good as it can be. I sincerely appreciate it and I will try my hardest to fulfill that goal.

Folks, Tiny Urban Kitchen is here to stay.

This blog entry is my submission for The Next Food Blog Star’s first challenge: what defines your blog? If you are so inclined, please vote for this blog. I will be in China the next two weeks, (no access to Blogger. Grrr . . Chinese government censorship) so in many ways, this contest is sort of a blind ride for me. By the time I come back, the contest will be well into Round 3!

September 16, 2010 Appetizer

Spicy Potato Bacon Bites + Giveaway

It's been a long week.

I an in the midst of preparing for my trip to China this Friday (!!). I've never been to China, so I'm super excited about the trip. However, that also means that things have been absolutely crazy around here as I wrap up stuff for work, church, and Tiny Urban Kitchen.

So here I am, past midnight, finally writing the post about this giveaway that I've been planning on hosting for awhile. I really should go to bed, as the cough is still lingering. Thankfully, the doctor gave me some cough medicine with codeine, so I think I'll have no trouble sleeping tonight. 😉

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Saucy Mama about a recipe contest they were holding. Of course, the contest involves developing a recipe using one of their sauces. The best part about the contest? They sent the contestants six bottles of their most popular sauces to try! Better yet, they sent me another six bottles for me to give away.

After being inspired by the most amazing hash browns I've ever had, I decided to do my own twist on it. This version is much simpler, and is really easy to make. The hot wing sauce adds the kick to the bacon & potatoes, while the added mayonnaise adds a bit of creaminess and moisture. I added a small amount of sugar just to temper the saltiness of the potatoes and the hot sauce. The amount is really personal preference - some people (like me) like sweet sauces while others (like Bryan) hate it.

Spicy Potato Bacon Bites
12 small Yukon gold potatoes, sliced into ⅕ inch slices
6 strips of bacon
1 stalk of scallions, finely chopped
1 T Saucy Mama's Hot Wing Sauce
3 T mayonnaise
Sugar to taste

Cook bacon over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crispy (about 10 minutes). Remove bacon and set aside on paper towels. Pan fry the potatoes in the bacon fat for about 10 minutes, flipping occasionally until they are browned on both sides.

In a separate bowl, combine Saucy Mama's Hot Wing Sauce, mayonnaise, and sugar to taste. To assemble, layer the potato with the bacon and a dab of sauce. Sprinkle scallions on top for garnish. You can stack the potatoes and bacon to make them as tall as you wish.

Enjoy!

Giveaway
I have 6 bottles of Saucy Mama sauce to give away to one lucky winner. The flavors are:

Sweet Onion Marmalade
Lime Chipotle Marinade
Hot Wing Sauce
Jalapeno Stuffed Olives
Cracked Pepper Marinade
Chipotle Mustard

To enter the contest, please leave a comment below telling me what you think I should eat when I go to China. Giveaway ends this Friday at noon. Good luck!

September 13, 2010 Greater Boston

Golden Garden

If you were to take a random person off the street in the U.S. and ask him what Chinese food was, you'd be lucky if he knew the difference between Cantonese and Sichuan food. I would be even more impressed if he knew what Taiwanese food was, or Hunan food.

And then, what if you asked him about Dongbei food?

Dong what???

Donbei literally means "East North" in Chinese, and refers to the area of China that was once Manchuria. A region surrounded by Mongolia to the west, Russia to the north, and Korea to the east, Donbei is far from famous when it comes to food. In fact, many Chinese southerners actually look down upon Dongbei cuisine, regarding it as more simplistic - less refined, if you will.

Defining characteristics of this cuisine would include dumplings, steamed buns of all sorts, potatoes (often stir-fried with vinegar), and lamb. They eat all parts of an animal, and it's not rare to see various types of offal on the menu. Cumin is heavily featured. Surprisingly, rice is rare, a luxury only enjoyed during the holidays. This is partly due to the poverty in the region - most rice is exported to richer areas of China. Instead, the staple is typically a combination of steamed bread (mantou), noodles, and potatoes.

I was thrilled to stumble upon an authentic Dongbei restaurant in Belmont (less than a mile from Cambridge) this past weekend. This place is the real deal. The owners ran a restaurant in China for 10 years before moving to the U.S. The food is decidedly authentic, and very tasty. Here's what we got.

Roast Beef Tendon and Tripe with Chili Sauce ($7.50)
Admittedly, this is actually a Sichuan dish, but they do it really well. The spicy mala sauce has tons of flavor, and overall the dish was really enjoyable.

Cucumber with Fresh Garlic ($5.95)
This dish was cool, refreshing, and tasted fine. I probably wouldn't order it again, though, since I can just make it myself pretty easily. If I am going to eat out I might as well order stuff I can't make, right?

Green Bean Noodle with Sesame Sauce ($4.95)
Mung bean noodle would be a more appropriate name for this dish, which is not made with American green beans (it's confusing because mung beans are called "green-colored" beans in Chinese). These delicate, soft blocks are made from mung bean flour and tossed with a savory sesame sauce. I found this cold dish to be refreshingly light yet nutty and fragrant at the same time. I really liked it!

Sauteed Shredded Potato with Sour Sauce ($7.95)
I had never had anything like this before! After one bite, I was pleasantly surprised. This dish is very classic Dongbei cuisine. Potatoes are thinly shredded and stir fried with vinegar. The potato still maintains a slight "bite" to it - it's not mushy at all. In fact, it tastes more like you are eating a vegetable than a tuber. The acidity of the vinegar adds a nice brightness that I really enjoyed.

Lamb with Dry Chili Sauce ($12.95)
This dish had solid flavors, and wasn't too spicy. The texture of the meat was not the most tender in the world, but the super thin slices made up for that and the dish was overall pretty enjoyable.

Pork with Chinese Cabbage / Pork with Leek (12 pieces for $6.95)
The handmade dumplings are decent - similar to those you would find at Qingdao, though I think I like Qingdao's dumplings slightly better. Some compare their dumplings to the dumplings at Wang's, though I've never been to Wang's so I can't really do a direct comparison.

General Thoughts
I was really pleasantly surprised with this restaurant. Seriously, you would NEVER have guessed it from looking at the front of the restaurant. That tacky red and yellow sign does not scream "authentic Dongbei cuisine!" by any stretch of the imagination.

I have to say though - it's in a tough spot. It's in sort of a dead area in Belmont. At least it's close to Cambridge - about a mile from Fresh Pond towards Belmont. And I think Cambridge sort of has a dearth of decent Chinese restaurants, so this is really a breath of fresh air.

Overall, the food is solid and authentic. I've only been there once, but I was reasonably pleased with my dining experience. The service is good, the owners are really friendly, and the food was refreshingly unique yet enjoyable at the same time. The menu has some really unique items, such as Sauteed Snails with Cilantro, Pork Intestines with Spicy Sauce, Pork Kidney with Spicy Chili Sauce, and Steamed Beef Tripe. Of course, at the other extreme, they also have all your classic Americanized Chinese dishes such as Crab Rangoons, Chicken Wings, General Gau's chicken (although they call it General Tso's - a nod to Mandarin Chinese), and Kung Pao Chicken.

So, if you're in the neighborhood, or even if you're not, head out to Golden Garden in Belmont to get a unique taste of Northeastern Chinese food. Golden Garden has only been open for a month, so not that many people know about them yet. Definitely check them out and support them if you like their food. Let's try to keep some good Chinese restaurants close to Cambridge. 🙂

September 13, 2010 Beef

48 hour Sous Vide Short Ribs (Momofuku)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. These short ribs were the "Korean" portion of that meal.

I decided to pick this dish for my third entree in my crazy sous vide filled dinner for a few reasons. First, I wanted to challenge myself by trying to make dishes that come from well-known, well-respected chefs. Second, I wanted to choose dishes that spanned several different cultures.

Thus, I was thrilled to find a sous vide recipe in David Chang's new book, Momofuku. Perfect! Not only is David Chang;s Momofuku empire one of the hottest out there right now, his food is Asian, which is different from most of the French things you see in the sous vide world.

This interesting dish is David Chang's modern take on kalbi, a traditional Korean marinated shortribs dish.

This recipe is not really horribly hard except for the fact that you have to plan well in advance. The cooking alone takes 48 hours, and then you still need a few days to prepare the other components.

48 hour Sous Vide Short Ribs (Momofuku)
adapted from David Chang's recipe in Momofuku

2 ⅔ cups (600g) water
½ cup plus 2 T (150 g) light soy sauce (usukuchi)
3 T plus 1 t (42 g) pear juice
3 T plus 1 t (42 g) apple juice
2 ½ T (23g) mirin
1 T (13g) Asian sesame oil
1 ¼ cup (250g) sugar
10 grinds black pepper
½ small onion
1 small carrot
3 scallions (whites only)
2 garlic cloves
8 pieces bone-in short ribs (5-6 ounces each; 140-170g) trimmed of any silverskin and cut into individual ribs
Grapeseed or other neutral oil for frying

Scallions, daikon, pickled mustard seeds, maldon salt, pickled carrots

Step 1: (upper left) Make marinade: combine water, soy sauce, pear and apple juices, mirin, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, onion, carrot, scallions, and garlic in a large pot and bring to a boil over high eat. Reduce heat so liquid simmers gently adn cook for 10 min.

Step 2: (upper right) Strain solids out of the marinade and cool in refrigerator. (can be stored, covered, for a few days.

Step 3: (lower left) Cut short ribs into similarly sized 3-4 inch long pieces

Step 4: (lower right) Combine each shortribe with ½ cup marinade in vacuum sealed bag. Double bag!! You are cooking this thing for 48 hours. You don't want to risk the bag breaking and ruining everything.

A Note on Vacuum Packing Liquids
Traditional home vacuum sealers typically are not able to vacuum pack liquid. In commercial kitchens, they use chamber vacuum sealers. There are a couple ways around this. You can freeze the liquid and then vacuum seal the solid liquid chunks along with the meat.

Or, you can try to seal the liquid-filled bag by hanging the bag down as far as possible (see photo above). This allows most of the air to be removed before the machine starts trying to suck up the liquid, at which point you manually turn the machine off.

Step 5: Cook in sous vide supreme at 60 °C (140.2 °F) for 48 hours.

Step 6: Remove from Sous Vide Supreme and plunge in ice water - store. (or use right away)

Step 7: Cut ribs out of the bags, making sure you save the braising liquid.

Step 8: Strain liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a small sauce pan. Boil over high heat and reduce until you have about 2 cups (10 min max). Set aside until plating.

Step 9: Slide bones out of the ribs. Trim off obvious pieces of fat and trim ribs into neat cube/rectangles about 3oz each

Step 10: Blanch scallions (10 seconds) in salted water. Immediately cook in ice bath. Set aside

Step 11: Heat 1-2 quarts of oil to 365 °C in high sided pan over medium-high heat. Line plate with double paper towels. Fry short rib chunks in batches (don’t crowd the pan!) 3-4 minutes. “They should be mahogany brown outside and warm all the way through.”

Presentation
Put reserved braising liquid in the center of each white plate. Lay pickled carrot across pool of liquid & nestle braised daikon disc up against it.Lay green part of scallion across carrot. Shingle the sliced chuck of short rib (3-4 ⅜ inch slices) over scallion green (I forgot to slice mine!). Wrap scallion back around the meat, put a dollop of mustard (I used Grey Poupon, David Chang makes his own from mustard seeds) on top of daikon, and sprinkle with sea salt.

I would definitely recommend slicing it (against the grain) before serving. It looks much better and actually is easier to eat.

Enjoy!

September 10, 2010 Italian

(Deconstructed) Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

There's something really magical about the sous vide egg. It's creamy, soft, and has the most unique custardy texture. You could seriously just enjoy it with a touch of sea salt and truffle oil and call it a day.

Or you can add it to any dish that is based on an egg sauce.

In this twist on the traditional spaghetti carbonara, you toss pasta with bacon fat, cheese, white wine, and parsley and then drop a sous vide egg on top - especially fun for those who love to break up runny yolks and mix it with everything.

thinly sliced pancetta

Guanciale

People in Rome tend to use guanciale (cured pork jowls) or pancetta for this recipe. Since these are harder to find, bacon works fine as well.

It's best to get thick cut bacon if you can. I accidentally asked the butcher to slice my pancetta (oops) and thus I had to use very thinly sliced pieces, which still works OK.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

⅓ pound pancetta
3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 T extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup dry white wine
4 large eggs
¼ cup romano cheese (grated)
½ cup Parmesan-Reggiano cheese (grated)
Black pepper, ground
2 T chopped parsley
1 lb pasta

Sous Vide Egg
Set sous vide machine at 146 °F and cook eggs (in their shells) for 45 minutes.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook pasta. Meanwhile, cut pancetta into ¼ inch wide strips. Saute garlic and olive oil over medium heat in a skillet until the garlic is golden brown. Remove garlic. Add pancetta and cook until the edges begin to crisp. Add wine to deglaze the pan (1-2 minutes). Add cheese, chopped parsley, and ground pepper to the pancetta/wine/oil mixture and mix well. Add the cooked pasta and toss to combine.

At presentation, make a little well in the center of the pasta and drop in the sous vide egg.

Enjoy!

September 9, 2010 French

Duck leg confit, Pomme Sarladaise, Fried Hen Egg, and Frisee Salad

The problem with only having professional cookbooks at your disposal when you are exploring a new, relatively unused home cooking technique is that the recipes you encounter will inevitably be geared towards a restaurant kitchen.

I'm not sure WHAT I was thinking when I decided to propose making a complete meal using sous vide. Not only that, but a complete meal using recipes from the likes of Michelin starred chefs, like Thomas Keller and David Chang.

I should have known it would be challenging.

I tried picking the easiest recipe out of Thomas Keller's book, Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, and still this recipe was by far the most complicated, step-intensive, and messy recipe.

Thomas Keller mentions how the sous vide method is invaluable in a commercial kitchen where a million things are going on at the same time and everything has to be cooked to perfection at a moment's notice. Not surprisingly, multiple elements of this salad are made using sous vide.

I will provide brief descriptions for each element below. For detailed instructionals, click through to the appropriate links.

Sous Vide Duck Confit (instructional)
Sous vide Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (instructional)
Deep Fried Hen Egg (instructional)
Frisee Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette (instructional)

First, you want to cure the duck legs with salt with a bunch of herbs for at least 6 hours.

Second, seal the rinsed and dried duck legs with duck fat and herbs. Cook sous vide for 8 hours at 180° F. Cool, dry, and pan sear the duck legs until the skin is browned and crisp. Serve skin side up.

Similarly, cook the potatoes sous vide in duck fat with an herb sachet filled with herbs.

Finally, to make the egg "tempura," bring a pot of water to boiling and cook a very fresh egg for 5 minutes. After carefully peeling the egg, cover it in flour, beaten eggs, and potato starch, and then deep fry for about 3 minutes.

Make salad dressing by reducing down a mixture of red wine vinegar with sugar and then mixing this concentrated syrup with duck fat. Pour over frisee.

Finally, bring ALL the components together. I veered a bit from the Thomas Keller recipe, which actually involves deboning the duck leg, pressing it down, and cutting out a nice 2x2 inch square for service. You can cut the fried egg open to allow the runny yolks to ooze all over the plate. Delicious dish that really worked well together. This was probably the guests' favorite dish.

Epilogue
As I mentioned before, this was the guests' favorite dish. I would happily make this dish again, although I must confess the fried hen egg, though delicious, was a PAIN to make. It was difficult to execute well. Furthermore, it made my tiny kitchen horribly messy. Need more counter space!

For regular meals, I'm happy to make this humbler version (just shred the duck meat withour searing and add the 5-minute egg without deep frying) which still tastes almost as good (and healthier!).

September 9, 2010 Appetizer

Duck Fat Fried Potatoes ( Pomme Sarladaise) Sous vide

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. These potatoes (pomme sarladaise) was a component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

When you usually read articles about sous vide, you probably hear authors extolling sous vide's wonderful abilities to make a perfectly rare steak or a beautifully soft short rib. Less often do you hear about people using sous vide to cook vegetables.

Yet sous vide is often used in high-end restaurants, and Thomas Keller uses it extensively both at per se and The French Laundry.

Here, potatoes are cooked sous vide in duck fat. This method reduces the sheer volume of duck fat that needs to be used in order to fully coat the potatoes. Furthermore, excess cooking won't cause the potatoes to become too mushy and lose their shape.

You can buy a duck and render your own duck fat. Or, if you're like me, you can go to your local gourmet market and buy a tub of this stuff. It's not horribly expensive, and will last you a long time.

Potatoes need to be kept in a single layer in the vacuum bag.

Put garlic, thyme, and other herbs in a small bag. I use these disposable empty tea bags, which work pretty well.

Seal it up!

Cook at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 ½ minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Duck Fat Fried Potatoes (Sous vide)
4 thin slices garlic
2 thyme sprigs
2 small bay leaves
10 black peppercorns
24 Yukon Gold potato rounds
Kosher Salt
150g rendered duck fat
Canola Oil
25g unsalted butter
10 g minced shallots
flat leaf parsley (minced)

Make herb sachet with garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns (I used a tea bag to hold it all together). Cut potatoes into ⅜ inch rounds (24 slices). Seal in a vacuum bag with duck fat (mixed with a sprinkling of salt), and herb sachet. Cook sous vide at 180 °F for 20-25 minutes. Remove from bag and pan-fry about 1 ½ minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

Enjoy with your class duck confit salad, or just on its own!

September 9, 2010 French

Duck Leg Confit (sous vide)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This duck confit was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

Traditional duck confit is a pain to make because you need so much duck fat. Essentially, you are cooking the duck in its own fat. In order to really achieve this, you need enough fat so that duck meat can be submerged all the way. I watched one instructional video where the chef literally had over a quart of fat just for half a duck and a duck leg. It was crazy.

A great advantage of using sous vide to make duck confit is that you can drastically reduce the amount of duck fat you need. You can still cover the entire piece of meat much less fat inside a sous vide bag.

This recipe (from Thomas Keller) makes a flavorful and tender duck leg. It works great as an add-on to the tart frisee salad that typically accompanies this dish.

Visual "Movie Frames" of Duck Salting

Duck legs are first salted overnight in a 1.3 kg bed of kosher salt mixed with garlic and herbs.

You are basically curing the meat in the refrigerator for 6 hours. The beauty of this method is that, once the meat is cured, it will last a VERY LONG TIME in the refrigerator. Salt is a natural preservative!

After six hours, the legs will lose some water content, become a bit more firm, and, of course, be pretty salty. That's why you have to be sure to rinse the legs really well. Otherwise, it will be WAY too salty.

Place the duck legs in a bag with duck fat and an herb sachet full of garlic, thyme, and peppercorns.

Seal it up and cook for 8 hours.

Some say to cook longer, but I was running out of time, so I took it out after 8 hours. See how the duck leg is cooking in the fat?

Take out the legs, dry them, and then pan sear for service. You can also shred up the meat and serve it in the salad without bones, like a traditional duck confit salad (see second picture).

Duck Confit
4 duck legs (1.86kg)
1.33 kg kosher salt
3 bay leaves
6 thyme leaves
6 garlic cloves
400g rendered Duck Fat
Canola Oil

Mix salt, bay leaves, thyme leaves, and garlic cloves together. Cover duck legs completely in salt mixture and salt for 6 hours. Remove from salt and rinse very well. Dry the duck legs. Pan sear, skin side down, until the skin is crispy and golden brown. Serve whole or shredded up in a frisee salad with duck fat fried potatoes and a fried hen egg.

Or go the humble route and just shred the duck meat up and mix it throughout - still tastes delicious!

Enjoy!

September 9, 2010 French

Frisee Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This frisee salad was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

I have always wondered how restaurants were able to get such a fragrant dressing flavor that I could never recreate. It wasn't until I tried out Thomas Keller's Frisee Salad recipe (as part of a larger recipe for a whole Duck Confit Salad), that I realized the secret ingredient.

Yup, that's right. Instead of using olive oil, duck fat is mixed with reduced vinegar and sugar to make this fragrant, rich salad dressing.

Frisee works great for this dish because its curly texture is able to hold the dressing really well.

Reduce a 1:10 ratio of sugar:red wine vinegar (by weight) until it is almost dry.

Add duck fat to taste (you can start with approximately the same amount as the amount of sugar you added)

Mix and serve!

Red Wine Vinaigrette
250g red wine vinegar
20g granulated sugar
20g rendered duck fat

frisee leaves

Heat red wine vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan until almost dry (getting near syrupy consistency). Turn off heat and add duck fat. Combine to create a "broken" vinaigrette.

Serve with duck confit, pomme sarladine, and a 5-minute egg for the classic French bistro salad. This is the more humble cousin of Thomas Keller's fancy version, which involves deep-frying the egg and pan searing the duck.

September 9, 2010 Appetizer

Egg Tempura (deep fried 5-minute egg)

This post is part of a larger post titled Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style. In that post, I created a 3-course dinner showcasing the sous vide technique on a variety of cuisines. This fried hen egg was one component in the duck confit salad, the French part of the meal.

Oh my goodness - have you every had a deep fried egg? The kind where, when you cut it open, the yolk still oozes out?

I finally challenged myself this weekend by attempting a recipe from Thomas Keller's Under Pressure, a book dedicated to the art of sous vide. This beautiful coffee-table ready book provides sous vide recipes from his two restaurants, per se and The French Laundry.

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I proposed attempting such a feat (especially in this tiny kitchen). The fried egg was messy, difficult to handle, and made my kitchen look like a tornado hit it.

Ohhh . . but it was so worth it.

First, heat up a pot of water to boiling and then drop in the eggs. Cook for exactly 5 minutes. To stop further cooking, cool immediately in an ice bath.

OK . . here comes the tricky part. CAREFULLY peel the eggs. I had a super hard time doing this. The eggs are still really wobbly because the insides are essentially liquid. Worse yet, if you are using fresh eggs (which you are supposed to use since you are eating these close to raw), the shells are even harder to remove because fresh eggs tend to have very tight shells.

I struggled, broke most of my eggs, and managed to salvage one or two out of the five that I had made.

Dip your intact egg first into flour (to coat), then into a beaten egg mixture, and finally in potato starch. Deep fry for 3 minutes in a 325 °F oil bath before removing and serving immediately.

This made a crazy mess of my kitchen, but it's worth trying once.

Deep Fried Hen Egg
from Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

4 fresh eggs
all purpose flour
beaten eggs (1-2)
potato starch
neutral oil for frying

Cook eggs in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Immediately shock in cold water to prevent further cooling. Dry eggs, carefully peel off the shell. Coat in flour, then beaten eggs, and then potato flour. Deep fry in 325 °F oil bath for about 3 minutes, drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.

September 7, 2010 Beef

Foodbuzz 24x24: Culinary Tour Around the World - Sous Vide Style

This special blog post today is sponsored by both Foodbuzz and Electrolux. Electrolux has committed $750,000 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and Foodbuzz is getting involved not only by sponsoring all the 24x24 posts, but also by donating a matching amount to the OCRF.

Having spent my career working at companies that research cancer-fighting drugs, I find this cause particularly close to my heart. I'm sure all of you know someone who has struggled with cancer and can agree that current treatments are far from satisfactory. Thanks so much to Foodbuzz and Electrolux for investing in this important cause.

Although cooking in a water bath has been a technique that’s been around since medieval times, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that sous vide, a method of cooking food under vacuum in precisely temperature-controlled water baths, was invented in France. It would not be adopted in the US until 2000, when Daniel Boulud learned this fascinating technique from French chef Gerard Bertholon.

With the recent popularity of food shows and celebrity chefs, this method has taken the cooking world by a storm. In fact, many fine dining establishments across America now use this technique.

Despite its popularity in restaurants, it has not really caught on at home. A quick search of Amazon.com only yielded a handful of books about sous vide cooking at home, three of which published within the last six months.

"Sous vide" literally means "under vacuum" in French. Sort of a misnomer, this method of cooking actually involves two parts. Food is first sealed under vacuum in a plastic bag and then cooked in a water bath set at a very precise temperature.

Sous vide cooking has a lot of interesting benefits. First, because you can precisely control the temperature of your water bath, you won't overcook your food. This is great for restaurant cooks who can't always predict exactly when something needs to be served. You can keep a steak at 130�° F (medium rare) for hours in that water bath and take it out to sear just moments before the guests arrive.

Second, this technique allows you to obtain textures of food you could not obtain with traditional cooking. I'll go into this more later, but a sous vide egg has an beautiful velvety creamy texture that is difficult to obtain with traditional methods. Likewise, you can cook shortribs at a low temperature for hours, softening it until it is melt-in-your-mouth tender yet still medium rare at the same time!

Finally, sous vide cooking, in many instances, allows you to reduce significantly the amount of cooking liquid you use. You can marinate with just a small amount marinade in the bag. Similarly, you can confit a piece of meat with just a small amount of fat, unlike the traditional method where you needed to submerge the entire piece of meat in a pot of melted fat.

You can rig your own sous-vide system with a magic cooker, beer cooler, or a cast iron pot. I've tried the magic cooker method, with great success. Alternatively, if you're not the tinkering type, you can use a professional unit, such as the SousVide Supreme

An Exploration of Sous Vide Cooking Applied to Various Cuisines
Thanks to Foodbuzz, I was able to create a meal exploring sous vide through various cultures for this month's 24, 24. I decided to be ambitious and try using this method on a variety of different cuisines and different "classes" of restaurants.

First, we will look at traditional French cooking done in super high-end fashion as interpreted by Thomas Keller. This fancy take on the traditional French duck confit bistro salad, uses sous vide in several of the components. This is a recipe for a dish actually served at his flagship restaurants per se and The French Laundry.

Second, we will explore homestyle Italian cuisine. I have taken a traditional Italian recipe by Marcella Hazan for spaghetti carbonara but have "deconstructed" it by removing the eggs from the sauce. Instead, we will cook an egg sous vide and break it over the top during service.

Finally, we will look at Korean cuisine via David Chang of Momofuku. His 48-hour short ribs are served at Ko, his Michelin-starred flagship restaurant. He transforms a humble piece of meat into something glorious partly by using the sous vide method.

Course 1: Traditional French Bistro Salad with a High End Twist
from Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

Confit of Liberty Pekin Duck Leg, Pommes Sarladaise, Fried Hen Egg, and Frisee Salad

Thomas Keller mentions how the sous vide method is invaluable in a commercial kitchen where a million things are going on at the same time and everything has to be cooked to perfection at a moment's notice. In this dish, you prepare multiple components using sous vide.

First, you cure duck legs in an herbed salt mixture for at least 6 hours.

Second, seal the rinsed and dried duck legs in a vaccum bag with duck fat and herbs. Cook sous vide for 8 hours at 180° F. Cool, dry, and pan sear the duck legs until the skin is browned and crispy. Serve skin side up.

Similarly, cook the potatoes sous vide in duck fat with an herb sachet filled with herbs. Pan fry these for about a minute afterwards to crisp them up.

Finally, bring a pot of water to boiling and cook a very fresh egg for 5 minutes. After carefully peeling the egg, cover it in flour, beaten eggs, and potato starch, and then deep fry for about 3 minutes.

Make salad dressing by reducing down a mixture of red wine vinegar and sugar and then mixing this concentrated syrup with duck fat to make a "broken vinaigrette." Pour over frisee and toss.

Finally, bring ALL the components together. I veered a bit from the Thomas Keller recipe, which actually involves deboning the duck leg, pressing it down, and cutting out a nice 2x2 inch square for service. You can cut the fried egg open to allow the runny yolks to ooze all over the plate. Delicious dish that really worked well together. This was probably the guests' favorite dish.

Course 2: Traditional Homestyle Italian Pasta
from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

This recipe was MUCH easier than the other two since it came out of a home cooking cookbook (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan). The carbonara part is pretty much the same. I pan-fried some pancetta, tossed it with olive oil, grated cheese, parsley, and pasta, and then just put the sous vide egg on top.

Sous vide egg is one of the easiest things to make - you don't even need a vacuum sealer! Just drop the egg into the sous vide machine and cook at 146°F for about 45 minutes. Some say that the "perfect" sous vide egg is actually cooked at 148°F. I think it depends on what you want from your egg.

If you want a runny yolk, 148°F is probably too high. I went with 146°F, which creates this wonderfully creamy yet still raw-ish egg yolk. It's not exactly runny, so if that's what you're looking for, you may be a bit disappointed. My guests had wanted to mix the sous vide egg yolk all over the pasta. Since this custardy egg was not as runny, they all unanimously told me they preferred the fried hen egg (5-minute egg) from the first course.

Course 3: A Twist on Traditional Korean Kalbi
from Momofuku by David Chang

48 hour Short Ribs with Dashi Braised Daikon

This dish by far took the most planning. The ribs themselves are cooked for 48 hours before being briefly deep fried and served with dashi-braised daikon, a blanched scallion, and pickled carrots.

Traditional home vacuum sealers typically are not able to vacuum pack liquid. In commercial kitchens, they use chamber vacuum sealers. There are a couple ways around this if you don't have one of those fancy chamber vacuum sealers. One, you can freeze the liquid and then vacuum seal the frozen liquid chunks along with the meat. Or, you can try to seal the liquid-filled bag by hanging the bag down as far as possible (see photo above). This allows most of the air to be removed before the machine starts trying to suck up the liquid, at which point you manually turn the machine off.

After cooking for 48 hours, the meat was still pink (medium rare?) but very soft from having been cooked for so long. Because I was not cooking this right away, I dunked the bag quickly in an ice bath to chill rapidly (for food safey reasons, see below) and stored the marinated meat in the refrigerator for a few days. On the day of service, I removed the blocks, briefly deep fried the pieces, and served with the other components: braised daikon, pickled carrots, blanched scallions, and mustard.

This dish had beautiful flavors which paired with each other very nicely. My short ribs were not "fall-apart melt-in-your-mouth" soft despite being cooked for 48 hours. I think I may have deep fried them for too long. Nevertheless, the flavors were great and the guests enjoyed the meal.

Safety
A few notes on food safety
The US food code recommends that raw or unpasteurized food be held at temperature between 41°F (5°C) and 130°F (54.4°C) for a maximum of four hours. Anything longer than that will give harmful pathogens a chance to multiply to possibly dangerous levels.

On top of that, one particular hazard that relates specifically to sous-vide cooking are bacteria that can proliferate in anaerobic (oxygen-free) environments. Salmonella, Clostridium botulinum, E. coli, and Listeria can multiply to dangerous levels in the anaerobic conditions of a vacuum pack when held at temperatures in the "danger zone" (40°F (4.4°C) and 140°F (60°C).

What's the practical application of this? Be VERY CAREFUL when handling raw foods that will be cooked sous-vide. Basically, treat the food as you would any raw meat product. Make sure you purchase very fresh meat, and keep meat refrigerated until just before cooking. Similarly, if you plan on storing sous-vide cooked food after cooking, cool the cooked meat immediately in an ice bath to bring the temperature down below the danger zone as quickly as possible. Finally, don't cook meats at temperatures in the "danger zone" for more than four hours.

Epilogue
In general, I think the sous vide method is a wonderful additional cooking "tool." There are so many interesting advantages related to this method. I love how you can confit duck in such a smaller amount of fat compared to the traditional method. After all, you need enough to cover the duck leg while it's sitting in the bag.

The textures of food made with this method are really unique too. The sous vide egg is delicious and definitely worth trying. Similarly, it's cool how you can take tough cuts of meat and transform them into really soft and buttery high-end dishes.

There are drawbacks, though. The most difficult part of making sous vide at home is that you have to cook everything serially. Unlike in a restaurant, where there may be various different water baths going at different precise temperatures, I only have one machine. Virtually every sous vide component I was making for this meal needed to be cooked at a different temperature. The result? I had to start the 48-hour short ribs on Wednesday morning in order to finish cooking all the components in time for this meal!

Although there may not be much active work that needs to be done, you need to be VERY WELL ORGANIZED and plan ahead in order to pull off such a multi-course meal. I barely finished, and in the end had to take certain short cuts in order to get the meal on the table.

I have learned to have an even greater appreciation for some of the really nice meals I have had in high-end restaurants. After seeing the crazy amount of work that goes into just one course, I can understand why a meal at The French Laundry or per se costs so much. There really is an insane amount of work that goes into each course!

Again, thanks so much to Foodbuzz and Electrolux for sponsoring this meal. Stay tuned later on this week as I post specific tutorials (step by step photos) along with the actual recipes for all of these dishes!

Sous Vide Posts
Basics
Sous vide Steak
Sous vide Chicken
Sous vide Scallops
Sous vide Salmon
Sous vide Octopus
Sous vide Lobster

Fancy
Duck leg confit, Pomme Sarladaise, Fried Hen Egg, and Frisee Salad
Confit of Liberty Pekin Duck Leg
Pommes Sarladaise
Fried Hen Egg
Frisee Salad
48 hour Short Ribs with Dashi Braised Daikon
Spaghetti Carbonara with Sous Vide Egg

September 7, 2010 Italian

Gnocchi with Summer Roasted Tomatoes

I love love love tomatoes.

During the summertimes when I was growing up, we would often grow tomatoes in our backyard in Ohio. No supermarket tomato can even come close to the vine-ripen tomatoes that come out of a home garden. Picked right at the peak of ripeness, fresh "backyard" tomatoes can't be beat.

Well, I don't have a backyard garden in my tiny urban condo, but I do belong to a farm share that picks the tomatoes the same morning they deliver them to me.

When tomatoes taste this good inherently, there's not much that needs to be done with them. Hence, I kept it super simple in this bright, clean and addictive pasta dish that really takes advantage of the tomato's inherent beautiful flavors.

It really can't be easier than this. Just cut the tomatoes in half, toss with a bit of salt, and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes (this allows some flavor molecules to be released). Tossed with some olive oil, and roast in the convection oven for about 30 minutes at 350 °F. (If you are short on time, you can skip the salting step and just add salt with the oil before roasting - it will still be very good!)

They'll come out a bit wrinkly and will have nicely concentrated tomato flavors!

Add some chopped basil and toss with pasta or gnocchi! Optionally add some fresh mozarella if desired.

For fun I bought this rice gnocchi from an Italian store, mostly because I was curious how it would taste. I tried making rice gnocchi once. Although it wasn't bad, both Bryan and I agreed that we liked traditional gnocchi better. I wanted to see how a commercial version compared to the one I made.

Well guess what? The flavor was similar, but I think the texture of the commercial one was a bit better. I also loved how the tomato sauce tasted, so I actually thought the final dish was really really good, and I couldn't stop eating it!

You can always add a splash of sugar to sweeten things up if your tomatoes are not super sweet. Sometimes it's hard to predict, but now is the best time to stock up on those farm fresh tomatoes and make some super flavorful sauce!

September 3, 2010 Dessert

[VIDEO] Rice Crispy Critters and Sushi

Look Ma! I'm on television!

OK, not exactly . . . but I got to make my first video a few weeks ago! How2Heroes, a Cambridge-based company with an excellent "How To" site devoted to food-related instructional videos, contacted me several weeks ago and asked whether I would be interested in making a video about my cute little rice crispy treats.

Wow, real live cameramen right in my own kitchen? They really use those clapboards like you see in the movies! I felt like a movie star!

I was so nervous. I've never been on TV for anything, let alone a tutorial for how to cook things. Heck, I don't even watch that much TV, so I'm not even sure how to act like a food TV personality.

The people at How2Heroes were super friendly and really put me at ease. They were so encouraging, and they even helped me take some of these photos. Thanks guys!

It was really easy to relax and just have fun, which is exactly what I did.

Check out the video (embedded below). For some reason, this version is a little distorted. If you want to see a higher-res non-distorted version, check out the video directly from the How2Heroes website.

For more information about the recipes in the video, check out the following pages:
Totoro Rice Crispy Treats
Hello Kitty Rice Crispy Treats
Sushi Rice Crispy Treats

September 2, 2010 Appetizer

Genoa-style Pan Fried Potatoes

Do you remember as a kid how anchovies were seen as something really gross? People would always talk about anchovies on pizza, and then go "ewwwww!!!" I had no idea what anchovies really were until I was much older, and then still, for years, I thought they were something gross that shouldn't be touched.

It wasn't until just a few years ago that I started to venture out and try anchovies. First it was on Caesar salads, and then in pasta dishes. I soon learned to love and appreciate the beautifully deep and rich flavors that anchovies contribute to a dish. Anchovies are packed full of umami, and can really provide depth of flavor to almost anything.

So when I saw this simple classic Italian recipe for pan-roasted potatoes with anchovies, I knew I had to try it.

The original recipe calls for peeling the potatoes, soaking them for 15 minutes in cold water, and then drying them on towels. I tend to like the skin on the potatoes. Plus, they are packed with nutrients, so I decided to keep them on. If these were conventionally grown potatoes, I might be reconsider since potatoes harbor some of the highest amounts of pesticides (check out the "dirty dozen list.") However, since my potatoes were organic, I thought this was not really a problem.

I also purchased anchovies at an Italian market in the North End. The better quality anchovies you use, the better this dish will taste. Don't skimp on your anchovies! Cheap anchovies often lack the super deep umami flavor and merely contribute a shallow saltiness to the dish.

I think the amount of anchovies is flexible, and I think I snuck in an extra one just because I wanted a bit more flavor.

Overall, this dish came together relatively easily and was a hit. The anchovies add a nice subtle depth of flavor to the potatoes without making them taste fishy. This was also easy enough that it would be something I would definitely be willing to make again.

Pan-Roasted Potatoes with Anchovies, Genoa Style
adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan

1 ½ pounds round, waxy, boiling potatoes
2 flat anchovy filets
3 T EVOO
2 T butter
Fresh ground black pepper
salt
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
3 T chopped parsley

Cut the potatoes into ¼ in thick slices. Soak the slices in a bowl of cold water for 15 minutes. Drain, and pat dry with a towel. Choose a saute pan that can fit all the potato slices stacked up about 1 ½ inches high. I used my trusty All-Clad stainless steel 12-inch fry pan (review here) which worked great.

Chop anchovies to a pulp and heat them over low heat with the oil and butter. Continue mashing the anchovies in the pan until they begin to dissolve. Add the sliced potatoes and a few "grinds" of pepper. Turn the potatoes over 2-3 times to ensure that they are coated. Turn the heat up to medium and cover, cooking for another 15 minutes, flipping from time to time.

Add salt, garlic, and parley to taste.

Serve!

Note, I did not have parsley and therefore they are omitted in this picture. It's still delicious even without the parsley!

September 1, 2010 Boston

Menton

Has it already been a year? It really feels like just yesterday that Bryan and I celebrated our 8th anniversary at Barbara Lynch's then flagship restaurant. And then - woosh - all of a sudden a year has flown by and, again, we are visiting Barbara Lynch's new flagship restaurant for our anniversary.

It's been nearly five months since Menton (pronounced "Mon-ton") opened in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. With Menton, Barbara Lynch ambitiously set out to out-do even herself in offering a new level of haute cuisine here in Boston. The service, the food, the ambiance - Menton aims to be at the level of a Michelin-starred restaurant. Barbara Lynch is convinced that there is a market for fine dining in Boston, and she's willing to take the risk on Menton to prove this point.

In celebration of our 9th anniversary (which is actually today!), we visited Menton on Sunday evening.

The space is modern, bright, and airy. Bryan had requested a window seat for us (what a thoughtful husband!) so that I could have good lighting for my pictures. Of course, since it was our anniversary, we opted for the 7-course Chef's Tasting ($145). You can also get a 4-course meal for $95. The wine pairing with the Chef's tasting menu is an additional $105.

Amuse bouche: white bean veloute with forbidden rice, wild mushroom
We started with a lovely amuse bouch, which was really just 1-2 spoonfuls of a light, velvety white bean soup. Lovely flavors, and a great way to whet the appetite. The croissant came early in the meal (lower left), and the rest of the bread came a little later. I loved all the different types of bread, which tasted fantastic with whatever butter was served alongside them.

Rock Crab Salad
Grapefruit, Almond, White Sturgeon Caviar
2008 Heidi Schrock Muscat

The first course was incredible. Beautifully plated with such precision, this dish also have wonderfully complex flavors. I loved how the grapefruit added just a little citrus-y bitterness, which cut the richness of the caviar and the crab perfectly.

Clean Seas' Bluefin Tuna Tartare
Heirloom Tomato, Lemon Cucumber, Yogurt
2009 Chateau Peyrassol Cotes de Provence Rose

Again, I was really impressed with the presentation of this dish. Each individual flower seemed to be placed with the utmost care in its own special place on the plate. The tuna itself was high quality and tasted very good -not a hint of stringiness. Bryan did comment that the way in which the tuna was cut reminded him more of a poke than a tartare. He couldn't help but think about the super-finely cut cubes we've seen from other high-end establishments. To him, this slightly "rougher" cutting style made this dish just a little less refined than some of the top restaurants we've visited.*

Maine Lobster
Pain Perdu, Grilled Local Romaine, Dill
2007 Qupe Roussanne "Bien Nacido Hillside Estate"

Bryan commented that this meal felt very "New England," which I think is pretty unique. Who else than Barbara Lynch to take Boston's quintessential dishes and transform them into her version of haute cuisine? It's something unique that she can offer which distinguishes her from other chefs in other regions of the country. Bryan thought this dish tasted really good. The lobster is succulent, juicy, and poached in butter! The pain perdu on top is essentially a fancy French toast. According to the server, this is Barbara Lynch's interpretation of a Lobster Roll, deconstructed.

Carnaroli Risotto
Summer Vegetables, Lobster Mushroom
2007 Nigl Gruner Veltliner "Privat"

Our next course was a total surprise, since it was not on the menu. The chef sent out an extra course. This deeply rich risotto had a wonderfully rich mushroom essence from the lobster mushrooms. The risotto had that perfect, chewy texture, and the vegetables tasted aromatic and sweet. Bryan was shocked to find out that this dish was completely vegetarian since it had such strong umami flavors. Really really good.

Seared Fois Gras de Canard
Wild Maine Blueberries, Lemon, Basil
NV Velenosi Lacrima di Morro d'Alba, "Visciole"

Another New England twist, this seared fois gras is paired with Main blueberries, which, according to Bryan, "works surprisingly well." I don't usually like fois gras that much, but for some reason I really enjoyed this entree and actually ate the whole thing (usually I end up giving Bryan my fois gras). The fois gras was perfectly grilled and had a nice, seared crust. Bryan agreed that it was one of the best seared fois gras he has ever had (and that's saying a lot!).

St. Canut Farm's Porcelet
Green Tomato Jam, Fava Beans, Rapini
2008 Hirsch Estate Pinot Noir "Storyteller's Cuvee"

By this point I was starting regret eating all that bread in the beginning because I was really getting full! That extra risotto course (thought delicious) did not help the stomach-size problem. This dish was an interesting take on pork in three ways. I can't remember all three, but I think it was pork loin, pork belly, and tete de cochon (pig's head - we had something similar at the French Laundry). All three bites were delicious, and I liked how the rich pork contrasted with the bitter rapini. The slight tartness from the green tomato jam was also a great addition. It really made me want to try making tomato jam.
_1040879
PT Farm's Strip Loin of Beef
Carrot, Langue de Boeuf, Sauce Perigueux

Although this beef was fine, it was not earth-shattering in anyway. The flavors were nice, but did not stand out as being particularly inventive or amazing. "Solidly prepared, but nothing extraordinary."
_1040880
I was about to pop when the server rolled out the cheese cart. Of course, Bryan LOVES cheese and was still very game to keep on eating. Our server did a fantastic job of describing all the different cheeses, and Bryan ended up picking the ones she seemed to rave about the most.

Hooligan - Connecticut
Nostrale di Elva - Piedmont, Italy
Chiviri - Extremadura, Spain
2007 Kracher Beeranauslese Cuvee

Excellent choices! My favorite was the Hooligan, which is great since it's kind of locally made. I also really liked the tangy chiviri, which was great on the little toasts that they gave us.

Oeufs a la Neige

Raspberry, Vanilla, Black Sesame, Mint

Espresso

We had a few lovely baby macarons in all different flavors. Bryan thought they were way too sweet, but then he doesn't even like macarons. I thought they were sweet too, and definitely nowhere as good as other ones I've had. I did think it was unique that they had a black sesame flavored macaron though. I mean, how often do you see that flavor?

We finally ended with a lovely chocolate dessert. Read the plate!

Chocolate Cake
Vanilla Glace, Cherry, Marcona Almond
2009 Marenco Brachetto d'Acqui "pineto"

This deeply rich chocolate cake was paired with a light, bright sparkling red wine - something I've never had before. The pairing worked surprisingly well, and I really enjoyed it. Even though I did not order the wine pairing, they were nice enough to give me a glass "just for a taste." In fact, they did this twice, also giving me a complimentary glass of wine with our "surprise" risotto course. It was great service on their part to invite me to try a few of these "tastes" at no cost.

After the meal, we had a chance to check out one of their cool private dining rooms called The Chef's Table. This room has a direct view into the kitchen. Isn't that SO COOL?? You can just stand there and watch them prepare food all night while enjoying your own dinner. Unfortunately, there's a $1500 minimum to reserve this room (it seats up to 12), but hey, you never know, sometimes restaurants will waive that fee if you call last minute.

Final Thoughts
We had a wonderful time at Menton and we both agreed that it sets a new standard for Boston. There's no question it's one of the nicest restaurants in Boston. It definitely reminds me a lot more of the restaurants in New York.

The service was definitely top notch. If my water glass was even a tad empty, someone would come straight away to refill it. Timing was impeccable. The moment after I finished the last bite of a dish, someone would come and whisk it away. At one point in the evening, a woman even came up to me and offered me a shawl because I looked cold. Now THAT's service!

Bryan thinks it still doesn't quite reach the level of the 3-star Michelin restaurants we've visited, but then, it's not priced that way either. Most of those restaurants are over $200/person, while Menton comes in right under $150. Considering how there are many subpar tasting menus in Boston that still cost over $100, Menton is (in a twisted way) almost a bargain when you consider the level of food, service, and ambiance you are enjoying.

I think it's funny how we've visited Barbara Lynch restaurants two anniversaries in a row. People are like, "what are you going to do for your tenth, fly Thomas Keller to your home so he can cook for you?" [update! - this is where we went]

Ha ha, I wish - as if we need to top ourselves every year. In truth, it doesn't really matter where I go for my next anniversary. I'm just as happy sitting at home and eating a simple home-cooked meal. As long as we're together, I don't care where we spend our next anniversary.

Happy Anniversary Bryan!

Menton
354 Congress St.
Boston, MA 02210

* yes, we're being nit-picky at this point, but if you are aiming to be world class restaurant, than all of a sudden you're under a pretty crazy standard

August 31, 2010 Chinese

Fritillaria (chuan bei mu)

*Cough cough cough cough*

I have been battling an awful cough for the last 5 weeks. I haven't been this sick since the same thing happened to me 8 years ago. I get these violent coughing spasms that are so disruptive I usually have to leave the room so as not to freak out everyone. Worse yet, I think I bruised the intercostal muscles in my ribcage, which makes it pretty painful whenever I do cough.

So August has been sort of a drag. I can't exercise anymore (sorry boot camp!), and yet I know that the warm weather will be leaving soon. Such a bummer!

My mom heard of my plight and offered to send me some Chinese herbal medicine. Apparently she always makes this for my dad and it helps out with coughs. Well, I know from past experience that even Robitussin with codeine can't really stop my coughs, so I was curious about this ancient pear soup that people in China have been drinking for centuries.

So what the heck am I actually eating here?

Fritillaria (know as chuan bei in Chinese) is a bulbous flowering plant often used in Chinese medicine to treat coughs or other lung conditions. According to traditional Chinese medicine, this compound is "cooling" and affects the "heart and lung meridians." It is typically used to moisten dry mucous membranes, loosen phlegm, and suppress coughing.

I know a lot of people in America are quite skeptical about Chinese medicine, and I still don't know exactly what I think either, so I thought I would at least investigate the science a little bit.

Research conducted in China has shown that compounds in fritillaria (including verticine, verticinone, imperialine and thymidine) help inhibit the contraction of bronchial smooth muscle and decrease mucus secretion. The unprocessed bulb is poisonous, although commercially available bulbs are usually processed.

verticinone

There have been no toxicities associated with oral administration of the medicine, although high IV doses have been associated with reduced blood pressure, slower heart rate, pupil dilation, and tremors. I've seen warnings that pregnant women and children should not take this either, but I am not certain of the reasons.

More recently, scientists have even synthesized analogs of these isosteroidal alkaloid compounds and have shown that they have even stronger antitusstive and expectorant properties.

Bottom line: It looks like there are definitely active compounds in this bulb that have been shown to have clinical effect on coughs, though at higher doses they might affect other things too. Overall it seems reasonably safe if taken orally in small doses, and it seems to work for my dad.

At this point I had been coughing for over 4 weeks so I was happy to try anything.

Epilogue (sort of, not really yet)
That was two days ago, and I've had two bowls of this stuff so far. My cough virtually disappeared yesterday afternoon (after having it for breakfast), but it came back with a vengeance right around 9PM. I had it again this morning and so far the cough has been suppressed. Only time will tell.

As for taste, this soup tastes good for a Chinese remedy. It tastes like a light, slightly sweet pear soup with tiny bits of barley in it. It's soothing for someone who's sick. The bulbs themselves are just slightly bitter, but the sweetness of the pear and the rock sugar really take most of that bitterness away.

Fritillaria Pear Soup
~ 1 T fritillaria
Rock candy or honey to taste (optional)
1 Asian pear, sliced

Put the semi-crushed fritillaria "beads," rock sugar, and diced pear in a ceramic bowl. Fill up the bowl with hot water and steam for about 30-45 minutes, or until the pear is soft. Serve immediately.

Disclaimer
I am by no means a doctor (unless if you count juris doctors) and all of the information I discuss above was taken straight off of the internet. If you are seriously considering taking chuan bei mu (fritillaria) for your cough, definitely consult a medical professional. I have no idea if it interferes with other compounds (e.g., other cough medicines, alcohol, other medications, etc.). Personally I don't take Mucinex or Robitusson if I've had chuan bei mu, but then I tend to be a little paranoid/overly cautious about drug/drug interactions. 🙂

August 29, 2010 Vegetables

Summer Salad Lyonnaise ("Frisee" Aux Lardons)

I visited my local Farmers Market in Central Square the other day. Yes, yes, I know I belong to a CSA, and I really really don't need any more vegetables than the bounty that I get every week. But it was so hard to resist, and when I started walking along the stands and seeing such beautiful produce, I couldn't help myself. I ended up buying tons of stuff, including some beautiful tomatoes, amazing locally-made burrata, and some fresh corn.

The summer harvest is so bountiful right now. This is really the perfect time to enjoy vegetables at the peak of their flavor.

Salade Lyonnaise (Frisee aux Lardons) is a traditional French bistro salad that consists of bacon, poached eggs, and bitter greens (usually frisee). I decided to take advantage of the bountiful summer vegetables that are in season right now to create my own take on this delicious salad.

The basics are the same, but I've added some summer twists, such as fresh corn, basil infused tomatoes, and sliced avocados.

I was inspired to do this when Olivia's Organics contacted me and asked whether I would be interested in submitting a recipe to their Summer Harvest Recipe Contest. I'm a huge fan of fresh, leafy green vegetables, and I try to buy organic vegetables when I can.

I was really pleased to find out that Olivia's Organics is a local company based out of Chelsea, Massachusetts, that sells USDA certified organic salad mixes to the local area. They care about their community, and donate a portion of their proceeds to local children's charities. Furthermore, the plastic clamshell boxes in which the salad is sold are made out of 50% recycled plastic.

I happily agreed to try creating a recipe with Olivia's Organics salad. I started out with the traditional salade Lyonnaise ingredients and basically added all of Bryan's favorite ingredients to the salad. Maybe I should call this Salade Bryannaise, since he also loves bacon and runny eggs.

Salad Lyonnaise (with a summer twist) a.k.a Salade Bryannaise
Serves 4

Dressing

8 slices bacon

1 T chopped shallots

1 T red wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)

1 ½ t dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil

Salad

1 large beefsteak tomato, sliced

Fresh basil, finely chopped
1 ripe avocado, sliced
4 eggs
1 package Olivia's Organics Herb Salad
homemade croutons
2-3 ears of corn (cooked in the microwave and kernels cut off)

Preparing the tomatoes

Place the slices on the plate and sprinkle kosher salt on top of each slice. Sprinkle each tomato with some chopped basil. Let sit for ~10 minutes to allow ample tomato flavor molecules to be released.

Making the Dressing
Cook bacon over medium heat until crispy and most of the fat is rendered (about 10 minutes). Remove the bacon slices, place on paper towels, and set aside. Add shallots to the rendered bacon fat and saute for about 1 minute. Mix together red wine vinegar and dijon mustard in a separate container and then whisk this mixture into the bacon fat/shallot mixture in the pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss the greens with the dressing and set aside

Poaching the Egg
Bring a pot of water just under boiling. Add about 1 T vinegar to the water mixture. Crack an egg and place it in a small cup. Gently slide the egg into the water and let it cook for 2-3 minutes (2 minutes for a pretty runny egg) . Remove immediately with a slotted spoon and gently place on top of the salad.

If you want to get a nicely shaped poached egg, you can slowly lower the rim of the cup into the hot water (letting some water into the cup). Keep the egg inside the cup for the first 30 second or so (until the whites start to turn opague), and then slowly pouring the rest of the egg into the hot water).

Assembly
Arrange the sliced tomatoes, sliced avocados, and corn around the bed of greens (which have already been dressed with the bacon, shallot, mustard vinaigrette). Crumble the bacon and sprinkle it on top of the greens. Top with croutons and sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt and freshly ground pepper. You can optionally add cheese as well, such as crumbled blue cheese or goat cheese.

Notes
A traditional salad Lyonnaise only has greens, the bacon vinaigrette, and the poached egg. You typically want greens that are a little bitter (like arugula, frisee, or dandelion greens). I found that Olivia's Organics Herb Salad mix worked best for this recipe because it includes a nice variety of bitter greens. You can be creative with the "additional ingredients" and there is no need to add all the same ones that I added. Be creative with what's available from your garden, what catches your eye at the farmers market, or what your spouse likes. During this season, things taste the best if they are in season and fresh, so feel free to experiment!

Make your own version of Salade Bryannaise. 😉

Enjoy!

Oh, I almost forgot! Remember to break open the egg and use the yolk to dress the greens.

Disclaimer
As a food blogger, time to time I receive products from vendors to try out, to review, etc. The Olivia's Organics Herb Salad was provided by Olivia's Organics as part of their Summer Harvest Recipe Contest. The views expressed in the posts are completely my own.

August 27, 2010 Misc

Tiny Urban Tidbits #15

Hey All!

Hope you are having a wonderful Friday. I really should have done this two weeks ago but I just did not have a chance to get around to it. Tonight is the last official day of Restaurant Week, although some places (like Smith & Wollensky, I think), are extending it another week.

I've had mixed experiences during Restaurant Week, with most of them being sub-optimal. Nevertheless, I have compiled my reviews for restaurants participating in Restaurant Week below. The ones with an asterisk are actual reviews of a Restaurant Week meal.

I've had good Restaurant Week experiences at UpStairs on the Square (lunch) and Sorellina. Henrietta's Table was also decent because it's just stuff off their regular menu. I often find that lesser known restaurants or new restaurants will tend to work harder during Restaurant Week to attract new customers. I bet places like Bergamot (which is already an excellent restaurant, btw), will be a pretty good bet since it's relatively new and the head chef is still in the kitchen most days.

Bergamot

Personally, if I had to pick a place for tonight, I think I would pick Bergamot, Oishii Boston, Mamma Maria, or UpStairs on the Square. A person who is in the mood for seafood or meat might opt for a place like Oceanaire Seafood Room, Capital Grille, or Smith & Wollensky at Boston's Castle.

Of course, there are also great restaurants that not participating in Restaurant Week but have their own deals, such as Craigie on Main, Garden at the Cellar, and Ten Tables.

One of these days I think I will compile all the great dining deals around Boston. There are various great prix fixe menus at a lot of these restaurants that go on year round. No need to wait for Restaurant Week! I'll work on that kind of post sometime in the next two weeks!

A Selection of Restaurant Week Restaurants
Beacon Hill Bistro
Bergamot
Bina Osteria
Blue Room
Capital Grille
EVOO Restaurant
Grafton Street Pub & Grill
Henrietta's Table**
KO Prime**
Legal Sea Foods (only Park Square & Copley are participating)
Mamma Maria
Mare
Market by Jean-Georges
Oceanaire Seafood Room
Oishii Boston
Rialto
Russell House Tavern
Sandrine's Bistro
Sel de la Terre (Natick)
Sel de la Terre (Back Bay)
Smith & Wollensky at Boston's Castle
Sorellina**
Tango Restaurant
Tapeo Restaurant & Tapas Bar
Taranta
Trattoria di Monica
Uni Sashimi Bar**
UpStairs on the Square