ooh, and another thing from this past weekend: One of my fellow cabinmates sliced up some of that nasty shelf-stable summer sausage, the kind you often get at xmas from Hickory Farms, and put it on the grill, and it came off dee-licious. It renders some of the fat, I think, and toasts up the edges, giving it a little more texture. Who knew?
Author: foodnerd
my favorite food
Speaking of Wu Chon House…. I’ve never had a “favorite food.” It always felt like choosing one of my many beloved children as the favorite — impossible. My fallback answer has always been “cheese.” Just cheese? Yes, all cheeses — never met one i didn’t like.
But into my life has come the perfect food. It has all the necessary attributes for a food: spicy, meaty, sweet, vinegary, fatty, savory, contrasting textures. And I am deliriously happy whenever I am eating it. Tofu kimchi bokum, particularly as made by Wu Chon House, is my favorite food. (Hedge tells me Koreans just call it tofu kimchi and all is understood. But I found it at Wu Chon, and I call it what they call it.)
Take kimchi and onions and fry till caramelized. Add thin slices of fatty pork belly and fry some more. Add a sauce made of gochu jang (spicy pepper soybean paste), brown sugar, soy sauce and garlic. Add a half cup or so of water to it, because you’re going to add some rice pucks and they’ll need water to soften up. Simmer this till everything is soft, the sauce thickens and the pucks are chewy soft. Put some cool sliced tofu next to it on the plate. Eat and be happy. Or just go to Wu Chon and order some — no one else makes it better.
(Thanks to Hedge for the recipe — I shall never again lack for my favorite food.)
Loved It/Hated It – Artisanal
Another from our friend, littlelee:
Prologue: “A” Gets a Reservation. “A” strikes up a conversation with her coworker who loves to talk about food! Turns out she worked for Artisanal (woo hoo!) and we can get a reservation for Friday night, when “J” will hit New York.
Act I: Friday Night. 3 very hungry people looking forward to a wonderful dinner at Artisanal – the reviews are excellent, the place is packed, and we all love cheese.
Act II: Appetizers. We had a wonderful waitress – cheerful, French, attentive – everything was perfect. Delicious cheese puffs came in a paper cone with some of the strongest drinks ever. They were the only drinks we’ve ever paid $12 for that were actually worth $12. (In fact, it is a miracle we can remember the meal…) The Artisanal Blend Fondue (not too stinky!) with apples and bread arrived in due course – we had no compunctions about ordering two separate cheese-based appetizers. At this point, after pouring the wine, our beautiful French waitress informs us that as she is in training, she has to leave for the evening. At this point, they really should have sounded the death knell on dinner, but we were oblivious…
Act III: Entrees? We were exposed like Kate Winslet on an iceberg to the horrors of “team serving.” No fewer than 7 different waiters, and 2 managers “helped” us with our meal. Needless to say, the raclette (yes, another appetizer) arrived 1 hour after the wild mushroom risotto (shared by “A” and “J”) and the hanger steak (“C”). Not only that, but it took no fewer than 3 requests – of different people – before we got that raclette. Now, this didn’t make us as upset as you might think, because the food was fabulous (and hey – we were still doublefisting!)
Act IV: Deserted with Dessert. We didn’t learn. and we ordered dessert anyway, from waiter #7. We got a baba rhum (wonderful), and the piece de resistance, the cheese plate. As “J” described it, “transcendent.” (Def: Transcending the Aristotelian categories…) We picked one creamy (Stanser Flada from Switzerland), one tangy (Tourmalet from France) and one STINKY (Il Caprino Tartufo from Italy). “J”s reaction to the latter: “Barnyard.” “A’s” reaction: “Public bathroom.” They were not kidding when they described it as stinky cheese. It was gross, but oddly compelling, and the next day when “J” was in Princeton she walked by a freshly fertilized garden and thought to herself, “Now what does that make me think of? Oh – right! The cheese!” After getting 1/6 of the bill knocked off because of the poor service the night was complete.
FIN
corn black bean salsa/salad
A new thing created this weekend that was very popular with the assembled triathletes and adventure racers and one lone hiking foodslut. Make it this way:
1 bag Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn, thawed
2 cans black beans, rinsed
half a vidalia onion, chopped
make vinaigrette w/ olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon or lime juice, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, minced garlic and minced chipotle in adobo. Add to the above and let marinate (I let it sit overnight, but I don’t think it matters much).
When you’re ready to eat, add a box of grape tomatoes, sliced in half, and if you don’t have any cilantrophobes, add a handful of chopped cilantro. I think the cilantro is fairly important, so if you have phobes, serve it on the side for the rest of us.
Woo hoo! Nummy. Especially good with grilled chicken and veg or picnicky things of that kind.
fruity dessert at its best
fresh california strawberries plus homemade lime sherbet = pure dessert bliss. Dang.
albany mexican and strawberries
Thanks to P for taking us to a great mexican place in Albany — El Mariachi. Authentic dishes, good flavors, fresh ingredients… mmmm. Try the sangria — it’s excellent and better than the margaritas. WHY don’t we have any decent mexican food here? Perhaps it’s hiding in the neighborhoods I don’t frequent, much the way the decent BBQ is in Dorchester.
California strawberries are in season again, and cheeep in the markets. Get ’em while they’re yummy!
Monument to processed cheese
from brian:
The following appeared on Boston.com:
Headline: Monument to processed cheese planned
Date: April 29, 2004
“Moscow, not short of monuments, will soon boast one to a Soviet-era processed cheese.”
I love my friends. They know me so well.
Etorki
While on a rampage at the den of temptation known as the Whole Foods Cheese Department, I acquired a hunk of sheep’s-milk cheese from France: Etorki. It’s just wonderful: it’s creamy, yet nutty and slightly pungent and ever so faintly sheepy. Mild-cheese lovers like it, stinky-cheese lovers like it, and it’s a perfect eating cheese. Good on bread or plain.
best food in Waltham
There is always a scallop dish on the menu at Tuscan Grill, and it is always sublime. They get lovely fresh sweet scallops, and sear them so they’re barely cooked inside but all crunchy, golden and salty on the outside. They put good stuff on the plate next to them too, but those little bivalves, man, they rock.
the holy grail
the holy grail of chips, while we’re on the subject, is Herr’s Hot Cheese Curls. These things are fucking transcendent. They are the best snack EVER. They are everything a snack should be: crunchy, salty, spicy, cheesy, savory. I get chills just thinking about it. (And while on the Herr’s site, I noticed they make/sell the Glenny’s Soy Chip line, which strangely doesn’t suck — they’re good for you, protein/carb balanced, and deliver full doses of flavor crystals. Good for those times you need salty goodness but feel virtuous.)
hmm, and these are good too, but I have no idea where to buy them in these parts.