Author: foodnerd

omg Best Idea Evar: Sahagun Ka-Pow

While we were in Chicago, C gave me a li’l box of treasure from Sahagun, the Portland OR chocolatier. I have been sampling it, enjoying a chocolate covered meyer lemon peel (swoon) and a salty peanut bark, but today I went for the bit I’d been saving: Ka-Pow, the not-a-chocolate made from coffee beans plus cocoa butter and sugar.

Dayum.

It’s a little gritty, with the texture of fine coffee grounds, but it’s got the melting loveliness of the cocoa fats, and just the barest hint of sweetness to temper the bitter. And the two tiny squares I ate packed enough of a wallop to get me through both an annoying conference call and the post-carb lag of a spaghetti lunch.

Completely awesome, in both the sensory experience it provides and in the sheer coolness of its concept. Huzzah, and big thanks to C!

just like old times: FoodNerd and WineNerd loose in Chicago, part 1 – Humboldt Park

Last week I went to Chicago for work, and FINALLY, after years of waiting, my trip coincided with one of C’s trips. WAHOO!

The first night, we went out with Bar to Borinquen, to introduce C to the glories of the jibarito. We started with a tamale (meh) and some “fried meat” (a little dry, but crispy and good in general), then each of us ordered a jibarito.  Bar & I both went with the chicken, and we pointed C toward the pork, so we could compare and contrast. C admitted later that he’d been skeptical of the raptures we described, since a) how good could it really be and b) he doesn’t actually like plantain that much. His first bite changed his mind, and because C has a truly enviable capacity to consume, he ORDERED A SECOND ONE when he finished the first. This one turned out even better than the first, crispier and saltier, probably because it came straight from the griddle instead of waiting for two other sandwiches to be ready.

Then, because we were so close by, I took them to the California Clipper for a drink or two. But since C had failed to bring his ID with him, the big dope, they wouldn’t let us past the door — even though it was dead as a doornail in there. (The complete emptiness of various venues on this trip was odd and scary… i should post about that later.) They pointed us down the block but that place was jammed, so we bailed out and walked down Augusta to Western, where we figured if we couldn’t find a bar we could at least find a cab.

We decided we’d try the first Old Style sign we saw once we got to the corner. So we did — but the door was locked. Oh shit. But they came right over and let us in, which turned out to be completely awesome, because it was a textbook example of the old fashioned Chicago neighborhood bar. Old wooden bar, crappy linoleum tile, beer signs, and middle aged Polish folks clustered at the far end of the bar playing the jukebox. Perfect. We sat there for over an hour, drinking Old Style, running the Polish pop songs through the iPhone (it did remarkably well IDing them) and watching men’s figure skating on TV. At one point C ordered “whiskey” and was given Jack Daniels in a shotglass. Around 10:30 we remembered we are theoretically responsible grown-up people and attempted to go home, but we couldn’t hail a taxi, so rather than freeze to death we went to the OTHER Old Style sign across the street to try and call the guy who dropped us off at Borinquen.

This turned out to be the cheesy modern Polish neighborhood bar, also with a locked door, this time with a homemade wooden bar, Christmas lights, a friendly Polish girl about our age tending bar, and one weird dude sitting at the bar. Also men’s figure skating. They didn’t have even crappy whiskey, so we drank the Polish vodka, also from shotglasses. We got points from the barmaid for wanting just plain vodka, no mix. The cab dude didn’t answer his phone nor did he show up, so after a half hour or so, despite a very good time being had by all (including the weird dude), we went back out to try and hail a cab and this time we managed it. Everybody got home in one piece, and no one’s hangover was too wretched. And that is the sort of evening that Chicago does better than anyplace, as far as I can tell.

Tune in next post for part 2 – Moto.

chili, well under $3 a serving

It’s been cold, so we felt like having a batch of chili. Two pounds of ground turkey and a bag of small red beans and a bottle of Rogue Mocha Porter later, among other things, we had a big pot of tallasiandude’s special-recipe chili. Yum!

And because we are both nerds, and both thinking about how to save money on food, we tried to figure out how cost-effective this chili really is. So far we reckon it’s about 10-11 person-meals’ worth of food, and it cost us $21 to make.  That’s $2.10 per meal.  If you also count the accessories (plain yogurt, brown rice, cheddar cheese, toast, and corn chips), that’s an extra $5 to the total… leaving the per-meal cost still pretty damn low, at $2.60.

That’s not too shabby, considering we used expensive beer and kosher meat and organic vegetables (for the most part).  It’s a good meaty chili, flavorful and filling.

Saute 3 roughly-chopped onions and 1/2 a head chopped garlic in 2 tbs butter (or bacon fat if you have it).  Add the turkey and cook through.  Chop half a head of celery, and saute in 1 tbs butter in the soup pot.  Stem and seed 6 serranos and 3 anaheims (or whatever chiles suit you), chop and add to celery.  Dump the turkey and onions into the pot with the chiles.  Add 1 lb of small red beans, previously soaked (or quick-soaked), and 1 large can of whole tomatoes, plus half a can of water and a bottle of dark beer.  Add 3-5 mini Hershey bars and/or dark chocolate mini squares, whatever you have around — unsweetened chocolate does tend to make it too bitter though.  Add chili powder, cumin, black pepper and salt to your liking.  Stew the heck out of it for a few hours on low heat.  Serve hot with toast or rice, topped with cheddar cheese and/or plain yogurt and a tangy hot sauce if you want a little more than the mild oomph the fresh chiles give.  Tortilla chips are nice with it too.

mood cure

How much of mood can be attributed plain and simple to vitamin deficiency? I just had a weird and sudden attack of the Oh My God Everything Is Pointless and Can’t I Just Go Watch TV blues.

Trying really hard not to eat my way out of it, I went and took a multivitamin and a fish oil capsule, and half an hour later I am feeling significantly better (though I still kind of want to curl up and watch a couple hours of Tony Bourdain). Last night I drank one of those energy/vitamin packets and had a similar rise in energy and willingness to deal with my fellow humans.

I always assume that because I eat a varied diet full of vegetables and proteins that I’m unlikely to be deficient in anything particular, but I am really starting to wonder now.

I never remember to take the damn vitamins though they are right out on the kitchen counter. Morning head is a problem for me. Maybe I should bring the bottles up and sit ’em on my desk near the computer, so when I get all mopey and unfocused I can immediately squash the problem with NUTRIENTS.

lawdy, why am i so HUNGRY?

OK, granted, I did actually exercise for 45 minutes or so this morning, but why am I on constant hunger alert today? I ate granola and yogurt and black tea for breakfast right after the workout, then brown rice and smoked salmon and broccoli for lunch, plus some dark chocolate when I was still hungry afterward, and then some leftover chicken hash with turnips and sweet potatoes because I was hungry AGAIN two hours later, and now again two hours later I am STILL HUNGRY. I am drinking water, even. Healthy food, reasonable portions, lots of fiber and protein. WTF?

Sigh. I am going to go drink some more water.

winter fruit treat

A friend makes a cranberry-orange relish at Thanksgiving that is to die for, and all she does is throw cranberries and oranges in the food processor to chowder them up. So good!
And I had a handful of leftover cranberries from the last upside-down cake, and one lingering clementine, so I figured I’d just grind ’em up and eat them with something. But the pork roast I envisioned is getting delayed by all the other leftovers in the house, so I threw some of my ground-up goodness into some yogurt with a splash of the orange syrup left over from candying oranges at Christmas.
Yum.

Matt the farm-fresh cocktail man

While in LA we went out for drinks with our pal hedge and wound up at the Library Bar in the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. Hedge met Matt the bartender at the farmer’s market that morning by happenstance and when we suggested drinks she had just the place to try.
A sampling of Matt’s creations:
– umami manhattan: shiitake infused Basil Hayden bourbon, bitters, italian cherry
– arugula gimlet: arugula, mint, lime, sugar, Hendrick’s gin
– Last Tango in Modena: strawberries, balsamic, Hendrick’s, with St. Germain foam
– vanilla Basil Hayden, ginger beer, lime, sugar, mint
– wo kaffir lime drinks…. one with cherry liqueur foam — we’d prefer an orange foam or no foam in that one. I much preferred the kaffir lime, Hendrick’s, coconut milk thing he whipped up for the folks next to us (he gave us a sample).
We got a couple tastes of his saffron vodka and fresh coconut/pineapple rum, both quite interesting and complex.
And then he whipped up a new drink on the spot based on a single phrase: Just The Tip. This ended up being a multi-part extravaganza in a nipped-waist vessel, with a 20 yr Pappy Van Winkle old fashioned in the bottom, followed by a cherry to block the narrow part of the glass, then lemon, sugar, aperol, and possibly vodka in the top section, with cherry foam on just the tip. Insane. Awesome.

tempura sifu

363/365 Tempura at 1000 Cranes
We went to the fancy tempura bar here in LA at the Kyoto Grand hotel, where they sit you at the bar and the tempura master brings you morsel after morsel.
The master barked orders at the waiters just like in the sushi bar scene with Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill, which we found entirely charming in its absurdity. We got a bit of sashimi and some jellyfish and mountain vegetable in sesame sauce to start, and then the parade of fried goodness began. There was a lemon wedge and some green tea salt to dip in, which I rather enjoyed as an occasional break from the delicious ponzu with daikon.
The best of them were the astonishingly tender squid and the delectable orange roughy with green onion, though I enjoyed them all, from the asparagus to the eggplant to the lotus root to the crab claw to the unagi to the shiitake. Nom nom.

why Boston needs another Shanghai restaurant STAT

While we’ve been in LA, we’ve gotten xiao long bao from Mei Lung Garden, and braised pork belly with preserved vegetable and clear fried shrimp from Mandarin Chateau. All of these are even better versions than what we used to have at Wing’s, but our reaction has been one of overwhelming sadness that we cannot have these tastes any more in our home city. We have perfectly reasonable Cantonese places, spectacular Sichuan places, and a reliably excellent diner-style place, but we have nowhere to go for Shanghai cooking at an equivalent level.
Shanghai emigre community of Massachusetts, hear my plea! Start a decent restaurant and I promise to eat in it and drag all my friends too.