Yeah yeah, like every other blogger out there, I'm a slacker. What can I say? Oh yeah, I can say this: people pay me to write stuff, so sometimes I don't want to write more when I get home at the end of the day. And sometimes I do, but that time is not now.
Three things:
1. I wrote an opener a couple of weeks ago for TOC called "What's In A Name?"
2. Then I got to contribute to TOC's 2008 Eat Out Awards. I worked on the readers' choice portion. Thanks to Olivia for going with me to Molly's and Fat Cat.
3. Finally in this week's issue (three weeks in a row, what what) I did a Taste Quest of Hyde Park. I was really proud of this piece, for a number of reasons. Firstly, I pitched it a long, long time ago and kept up on the editor, months later. Two, I think it's actually a worthwhile piece, as people complain about food in Hyde Park all the time, when really it's not that bad. Seriously. Drinking options are crappy, for sure, but food wise, there's lots to pick from. And thirdly, I thought it was well-written. I'm generally my harshest critic, and of these three pieces, this is the only one that I felt like I nailed (obviously there isn't much to nail in a bunch of short blurbs, but you get what I mean).
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
A little bit of my genius...
I have a "Top Nosh" write-up in this week's TOC. Alas, I didn't get a chance to visit the warehouse I wrote about, but I'm hoping to.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A Hand to A Mano
Last week, I met Jack, a friend from my Adler days, for a drink and a bite at A Mano. I'm almost never downtown these days; a combination of working in Ravenswood and living in Ukrainian Village makes heading that direction, especially for a quick weekday meet-up, a rare occurrence.
I'm very glad I did.
Chicago has tons of happy hour food specials, but a lot of tends to be things I wouldn't normally eat; $1 burgers, hot wings, spinach and artichoke dip (OK, that's a lie—that stuff is like crack to me). But A Mano's menu is full of things I love to chow down on; pizzas with ingredients like prosciutto and arugala, cured olives, bruschetta, and other Italian treats. I also ordered their "signature" polenta fries, which came served with a heavenly tomato aioli. And each thing on the menu is only $5. With the exception of the pizza, these specials are all night long in the bar section, which makes me think this would be a perfect place to go for an after movie bite as well.
Alas, I didn't try any of the wines, which is a shame, since A Mano is run by the same people who do Bin 36. The Peroni I had, however—spot on.
I'm very glad I did.
Chicago has tons of happy hour food specials, but a lot of tends to be things I wouldn't normally eat; $1 burgers, hot wings, spinach and artichoke dip (OK, that's a lie—that stuff is like crack to me). But A Mano's menu is full of things I love to chow down on; pizzas with ingredients like prosciutto and arugala, cured olives, bruschetta, and other Italian treats. I also ordered their "signature" polenta fries, which came served with a heavenly tomato aioli. And each thing on the menu is only $5. With the exception of the pizza, these specials are all night long in the bar section, which makes me think this would be a perfect place to go for an after movie bite as well.
Alas, I didn't try any of the wines, which is a shame, since A Mano is run by the same people who do Bin 36. The Peroni I had, however—spot on.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Whole Grains
Part of the result of my trip to LA (besides being incredibly envious of the "cold" weather —you have no idea how many people apologized for it being 50 degrees outside) was a re-emergence in the California healthy eating style. Kara and her roommate Alexa are super healthy. They eat yogurt! Whole wheat! Fresh produce! Needless to say, I don't believe they would count hummus a vegetable as I do ("but chickpeas are sort of like vegis, right?").
While hanging out there, I picked up Super Natural Cooking. It's the cookbook by the lovely and talented Heidi, of 101 Cookbooks. It's all about eating well, whole grains, super food, and the whole lot. It's very aspirational, to me, anyway. No where in the book does it give you an allowance for say, a penchant for dirty chais, or a nasty habit of imbibing cheap, midwestern beer. Still, I was willing to take a chance.
I was overly optimistic in my attempt, and thought I had all of the ingredients, when really I had... most. Still, for the most part, it turned out well. A word to the wise: these whole grains FILL YOU UP. As in, after eating this four or five times, there's still a vat of it in my fridge that will probably never be consumed. Alas.
Risotto-Style Barley
Slightly adapted from Super Natural Cooking
Ingredients
3 tbs oive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 cups pearl barley
1 cup white wine
6 cups water
1 tangerine
zest of one lemon
3/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese (full fat)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
two big handfuls of baby spinach
Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onions, garlic and salt, stirring until onion begins to soften.
Add the barley and stir until it's coated with a "nice sheen." Add the white wine and simmer until it's liquid has been absorbed by the barley. Cup by cup, add the water. After each cup, the barley should absorb the liquid before the next cup is added. This part of the recipe will take about 40 minutes.
Zest the tangerine, and then peel and segment it, and cut the segments into small pieces. When all the water has been absorbed, toss in the tangerine and lemon zest, segments, cheese, and cottage cheese. Stir in the spinach, and finish off with the toasted walnuts.
While hanging out there, I picked up Super Natural Cooking. It's the cookbook by the lovely and talented Heidi, of 101 Cookbooks. It's all about eating well, whole grains, super food, and the whole lot. It's very aspirational, to me, anyway. No where in the book does it give you an allowance for say, a penchant for dirty chais, or a nasty habit of imbibing cheap, midwestern beer. Still, I was willing to take a chance.
I was overly optimistic in my attempt, and thought I had all of the ingredients, when really I had... most. Still, for the most part, it turned out well. A word to the wise: these whole grains FILL YOU UP. As in, after eating this four or five times, there's still a vat of it in my fridge that will probably never be consumed. Alas.
Risotto-Style Barley
Slightly adapted from Super Natural Cooking
Ingredients
3 tbs oive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
2 cups pearl barley
1 cup white wine
6 cups water
1 tangerine
zest of one lemon
3/4 cup grated Parmesean cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese (full fat)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
two big handfuls of baby spinach
Directions
Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the onions, garlic and salt, stirring until onion begins to soften.
Add the barley and stir until it's coated with a "nice sheen." Add the white wine and simmer until it's liquid has been absorbed by the barley. Cup by cup, add the water. After each cup, the barley should absorb the liquid before the next cup is added. This part of the recipe will take about 40 minutes.
Zest the tangerine, and then peel and segment it, and cut the segments into small pieces. When all the water has been absorbed, toss in the tangerine and lemon zest, segments, cheese, and cottage cheese. Stir in the spinach, and finish off with the toasted walnuts.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Escape from Chicago
I'm a few weeks late, but hey, I'll just blame it on the god damn freezing temps. In case you were wondering, waking up on a Monday morning and seeing that it's -2 outside is not something that really inspires you to do anything except turn your alarm off and go right back to bed.
Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to journey out west to visit the lovely Kara (pictured below) and Amelia (not pictured, alas).
Kara picked me up from the airport (thanks for driving all the way to LAX, K!) and we went to a hippy-dippy super LA restaurant, M Cafe De Chaya. It was on Melrose and seemed very LA to me. People were talking about Sharon Stone's agent on one time ("a real dick") and there were some PETA-esque animal rights people on the other. I ordered the vegetarian club sandwich. It was HUGE. Now I know why people always order this—it's enough food for two meals. This particular one had vegetarian bacon made out of tempe on it. Words cannot describe the deliciousness of this sandwich.
I knew that no trip to LA would be complete without a trip to Pinkberry. And so we went, in a neighborhood whose name I don't remember, but sort of resembled a mix between downtown Palo Alto and downtown Los Altos. Pinkberry was so good! Mom - if you are reading, you will love this stuff. It tastes like yogurt, but frozen, something that most frozen yogurt seems to manage not to do. With the mango on top... mmm. Why does a stupid Starfruit Keifer cafe have to open near me? WE WANT PINKBERRY AND WE WANT IT NOW!
Fast forward: we met up with Amelia that night and headed to Buddha's Belly, a pan-asian restaurant in West Hollywood. Food was yummy, though nothing stands out, but the real highlight was seeing my first LA celebrity (and the only for that matter): Mr. Zac Efron, he of High School Musical fame.
After our celebrity encounter we went out to some bars in LA: The Room, and Tokyo something something. Or maybe it was just called Tokyo. Much dancing occurred, and it's possible an 18-year-old tried to hit on me/Kara/both of us.
The next day, we went to see the Murakami exhibit at MOCA. We stopped off beforehand to eat some delicious Mexican food. I love Chicago (and its Mexican) but there's something about Mexi-Cali food that's just... yum. Here's the ensenada style fish taco I enjoyed pre-museum. It's a crappy picture, but it was so full of slaw, battered fish, guac, and other fixings, that I was forced to eat it with a knife and fork, as attempting to eat it taco style was proving messy and unsuccessful.
In the midst of all this, Kara and I found time to make an entire, delicious, homemade loaf of wheat bread. How did you do this, you might ask, if you were running around LA meeting celebrities? Aha! Because this is one of those magic loaves of no-knead bread. Ours was a slight variation, so it required 15 seconds of kneading, but as you can see, it turned out fantastically. Complete recipe/retelling of the bread story, here.
And then, I willingly got on a plane and returned to the land of 0 degrees. Not so fun. But I'm hoping that once it's warm, I can return the hosting favor to Kara and Amelia. And maybe we can even make bread again. Celebrities however, I'm not making any promises of.
Anyway, a couple of weekends ago, I was lucky enough to journey out west to visit the lovely Kara (pictured below) and Amelia (not pictured, alas).
Kara picked me up from the airport (thanks for driving all the way to LAX, K!) and we went to a hippy-dippy super LA restaurant, M Cafe De Chaya. It was on Melrose and seemed very LA to me. People were talking about Sharon Stone's agent on one time ("a real dick") and there were some PETA-esque animal rights people on the other. I ordered the vegetarian club sandwich. It was HUGE. Now I know why people always order this—it's enough food for two meals. This particular one had vegetarian bacon made out of tempe on it. Words cannot describe the deliciousness of this sandwich.
I knew that no trip to LA would be complete without a trip to Pinkberry. And so we went, in a neighborhood whose name I don't remember, but sort of resembled a mix between downtown Palo Alto and downtown Los Altos. Pinkberry was so good! Mom - if you are reading, you will love this stuff. It tastes like yogurt, but frozen, something that most frozen yogurt seems to manage not to do. With the mango on top... mmm. Why does a stupid Starfruit Keifer cafe have to open near me? WE WANT PINKBERRY AND WE WANT IT NOW!
Fast forward: we met up with Amelia that night and headed to Buddha's Belly, a pan-asian restaurant in West Hollywood. Food was yummy, though nothing stands out, but the real highlight was seeing my first LA celebrity (and the only for that matter): Mr. Zac Efron, he of High School Musical fame.
After our celebrity encounter we went out to some bars in LA: The Room, and Tokyo something something. Or maybe it was just called Tokyo. Much dancing occurred, and it's possible an 18-year-old tried to hit on me/Kara/both of us.
The next day, we went to see the Murakami exhibit at MOCA. We stopped off beforehand to eat some delicious Mexican food. I love Chicago (and its Mexican) but there's something about Mexi-Cali food that's just... yum. Here's the ensenada style fish taco I enjoyed pre-museum. It's a crappy picture, but it was so full of slaw, battered fish, guac, and other fixings, that I was forced to eat it with a knife and fork, as attempting to eat it taco style was proving messy and unsuccessful.
In the midst of all this, Kara and I found time to make an entire, delicious, homemade loaf of wheat bread. How did you do this, you might ask, if you were running around LA meeting celebrities? Aha! Because this is one of those magic loaves of no-knead bread. Ours was a slight variation, so it required 15 seconds of kneading, but as you can see, it turned out fantastically. Complete recipe/retelling of the bread story, here.
And then, I willingly got on a plane and returned to the land of 0 degrees. Not so fun. But I'm hoping that once it's warm, I can return the hosting favor to Kara and Amelia. And maybe we can even make bread again. Celebrities however, I'm not making any promises of.
Dissapointment
I think that in generally, my parents are proud of me and the person I've become. But every so often, I do something, or think something, or—even worse—eat something, that I think would make them disappointed in me.
Today I got home from the gym, and there was Takie Outit on the counter. Takie Outit is also known as the worst, greasiest Chinese food in my neighborhood. Complaining about MSG doesn't even begin to describe it. It's doubtful a fresh vegetable has ever made it into the place.
No, I thought to myself. I won't eat it. I'll have a salad and reheat some soup instead.
Alas, I think what if my parents saw what passes for salad in my book, the might disown me. I picked through a 20-minutes-from-being-compost bag of salad mix to find some salvageable pieces, added some walnuts, and cut up the remnant of an apple that was sitting out—from breakfast. Farmers' Market fresh, it was not.
On second thought, maybe I should have eaten the Takie Outit.
Today I got home from the gym, and there was Takie Outit on the counter. Takie Outit is also known as the worst, greasiest Chinese food in my neighborhood. Complaining about MSG doesn't even begin to describe it. It's doubtful a fresh vegetable has ever made it into the place.
No, I thought to myself. I won't eat it. I'll have a salad and reheat some soup instead.
Alas, I think what if my parents saw what passes for salad in my book, the might disown me. I picked through a 20-minutes-from-being-compost bag of salad mix to find some salvageable pieces, added some walnuts, and cut up the remnant of an apple that was sitting out—from breakfast. Farmers' Market fresh, it was not.
On second thought, maybe I should have eaten the Takie Outit.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Guest Post From My Dad/Words of Warning
Last night I decided to cook up a storm (again). I invited Anna,
Duncan, Paul, Joan, and Marty (Bobbie is still here). I decided to
revisit the crab cakes I made on New Years, primarily because they were
so delicious and I wanted to reassure myself that I could eat them and
not get food poisoning. As an accompaniment, I decided to try my hand
at making pom frites. So, I looked up a recipe in Julia Childs where
she instructs that properly made pom frites are first fried in oil (a
deep frier) for 2 minutes at 330deg, then refried up to a few hours
later to a crisp.
With Bobbie's help, we rotatoed (yes, that's a word...but don't look it
up) the potatoes, ran them through the mandolin without cutting my self,
and soaked them in water (following Julia's recommendation) to remove
the starch. Meanwhile, I put a gallon of canola oil that I bought at
Costco in the big steamer pot and started heating it with a candy
thermometer mounted on the side to measure the temperature. I filled the
pot about half way with oil. I remember thinking to myself, that's
perhaps too much oil, but adding the remainder only increased the level
about 1-2 inches. Mistake #1
When all the potatoes were cut, I drained them but didn't dry them like
Julia said. That was mistake #2. Meanwhile, since I didn't have a deep
frier, I had a flame under the pot of oil, but since I was concentrating
on cutting potatoes into fries and not cutting my fingers, I didn't
carefully monitor the temperature and it was not 330, but 375. So,
what's the big deal? 330, 375. Same dif. Mistake #3
I grabbed a handful of slightly wet raw potatoes, dumped them into the
pot, and whoooosh. Immediately the water on the potatoes caused the oil
to foam up like crazy and overflow the pot for about 30 sec. It was
hard to tell, but I would estimate that at least a quart of very hot oil
flowed into the brand new stove. Most of it was caught in the black
embayment, but not all. Some of it cascaded down the front of the stove
onto the floor. Worse, some of it overflowed the embayment and entered
deeper into the stove. There was nothing to be done but watch it
happen. Mom, Bobbie, and I just stood there helpless.
The good news, such as it is, was that because I knew the temperature of
the oil was too high, I turned the flame off before I put in the
potatoes. I remember thinking that the cool potatoes would drop the
temperature of the oil quickly, and when it got down to 330, I'd put on
the flame again. Well, that was my good fortune, because if the flame
had been on (or if the stove had a pilot light like in the old days),
I'm quite certain that the very hot oil that overflowed would have
ignited, setting off one huge stove fire. Fortunately, that didn't
happen, or I would be writing a different email.
Since company was coming in about 90 minutes, I just threw a bunch of
rags into the embayment to soak up the oil, cleaned up the mess as best
I could, and tried to keep my composure. The pom frites ended up being
oven baked (they were ok, but not what i had in mind). I managed to
clean up the mess and fortunately got all of the burners working, but
there is now oil inside the stove where I cannot reach. Maybe I'll
dismantle the stove this weekend if I can screw up my confidence to not
make matters worse by breaking the stove.
So, that's my precautionary tale. My practical advice .... never deep
fry anything. It makes a mess, stinks up the house for days, presents a
waste disposal problem, and can be downright dangerous.
My closing thought is one of hubris. I think of myself as an experienced
cook. I'm no expert, but I've been at it for almost 40 years and still
like to try out new recipes and techniques. Even with all of that
experience (and associated mistakes), I just demonstrated that I am
capable of making a major mistake that could have turned catastrophic.
Or, I could have badly cut myself with that exceedingly sharp (and
excellent) knife that you gave to me for Chunkaka. In other words,
there's a larger lesson here. It just takes a second of carelessness,
so be mindful and take the extra second.
My dad is smart. And full of advice to give.
Duncan, Paul, Joan, and Marty (Bobbie is still here). I decided to
revisit the crab cakes I made on New Years, primarily because they were
so delicious and I wanted to reassure myself that I could eat them and
not get food poisoning. As an accompaniment, I decided to try my hand
at making pom frites. So, I looked up a recipe in Julia Childs where
she instructs that properly made pom frites are first fried in oil (a
deep frier) for 2 minutes at 330deg, then refried up to a few hours
later to a crisp.
With Bobbie's help, we rotatoed (yes, that's a word...but don't look it
up) the potatoes, ran them through the mandolin without cutting my self,
and soaked them in water (following Julia's recommendation) to remove
the starch. Meanwhile, I put a gallon of canola oil that I bought at
Costco in the big steamer pot and started heating it with a candy
thermometer mounted on the side to measure the temperature. I filled the
pot about half way with oil. I remember thinking to myself, that's
perhaps too much oil, but adding the remainder only increased the level
about 1-2 inches. Mistake #1
When all the potatoes were cut, I drained them but didn't dry them like
Julia said. That was mistake #2. Meanwhile, since I didn't have a deep
frier, I had a flame under the pot of oil, but since I was concentrating
on cutting potatoes into fries and not cutting my fingers, I didn't
carefully monitor the temperature and it was not 330, but 375. So,
what's the big deal? 330, 375. Same dif. Mistake #3
I grabbed a handful of slightly wet raw potatoes, dumped them into the
pot, and whoooosh. Immediately the water on the potatoes caused the oil
to foam up like crazy and overflow the pot for about 30 sec. It was
hard to tell, but I would estimate that at least a quart of very hot oil
flowed into the brand new stove. Most of it was caught in the black
embayment, but not all. Some of it cascaded down the front of the stove
onto the floor. Worse, some of it overflowed the embayment and entered
deeper into the stove. There was nothing to be done but watch it
happen. Mom, Bobbie, and I just stood there helpless.
The good news, such as it is, was that because I knew the temperature of
the oil was too high, I turned the flame off before I put in the
potatoes. I remember thinking that the cool potatoes would drop the
temperature of the oil quickly, and when it got down to 330, I'd put on
the flame again. Well, that was my good fortune, because if the flame
had been on (or if the stove had a pilot light like in the old days),
I'm quite certain that the very hot oil that overflowed would have
ignited, setting off one huge stove fire. Fortunately, that didn't
happen, or I would be writing a different email.
Since company was coming in about 90 minutes, I just threw a bunch of
rags into the embayment to soak up the oil, cleaned up the mess as best
I could, and tried to keep my composure. The pom frites ended up being
oven baked (they were ok, but not what i had in mind). I managed to
clean up the mess and fortunately got all of the burners working, but
there is now oil inside the stove where I cannot reach. Maybe I'll
dismantle the stove this weekend if I can screw up my confidence to not
make matters worse by breaking the stove.
So, that's my precautionary tale. My practical advice .... never deep
fry anything. It makes a mess, stinks up the house for days, presents a
waste disposal problem, and can be downright dangerous.
My closing thought is one of hubris. I think of myself as an experienced
cook. I'm no expert, but I've been at it for almost 40 years and still
like to try out new recipes and techniques. Even with all of that
experience (and associated mistakes), I just demonstrated that I am
capable of making a major mistake that could have turned catastrophic.
Or, I could have badly cut myself with that exceedingly sharp (and
excellent) knife that you gave to me for Chunkaka. In other words,
there's a larger lesson here. It just takes a second of carelessness,
so be mindful and take the extra second.
My dad is smart. And full of advice to give.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sometimes the cold requires...
... something delicious, decadent, and totally rich. I made this sort of bootleg version of scalloped potatoes a week or so ago. On a sunday night I got home simply craving a soothing, warming potato dish. A quick perusal of my refrigerator (and trust me, this was not a "I'll just run to the store and pick up a few more things kind of evening) led me to cream, cheese (both parmesan and gruyere), parsley, an onion, and some leftover chicken broth. Was it sophisticated? Hardly. Was in healthy? Not in the least. Did it warm my poor little hands and help build me up for another cold week ahead? Why yes, yes it did.
Bootleg scalloped potatoes
Ingredients
4 russet potatoes
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tbs dried thyme
3 tbs fresh chopped parsley
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 tbs butter
1 cup of your favorite cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat over to 375.
Heat the butter over medium heat. Add in the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add in the milk and cream, turn heat down, and let simmer.
Meanwhile, peal and then slice the potatoes. If you had a mandonlin, this would be a good time to use it. Otherwise, just bust out your best santoku knife and cut, so the slices are about 1/8 inch thick.
Add in the herbs to the milk mixture, stir, season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.
Pour some of the milk mixture into a loaf pan (the kind you use for making banana bread in). Add in a layer of potatoes. Now a layer of cheese. Now a splash of the broth, and then some more of the milk mixture. Repeat until all the ingredients are used up, and finish up with some more cheese on top.
Bake until the potatoes are soft. Don't worry if it looks a little soupy at the end - that's the good stuff!
If you want to be healthy, serve with an arugula salad with a lemon vinaigrette. If you don't care, enjoy with a big glass of red wine.
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