eat.sweet

Many families and cultures have their own Sunday dinner traditions. For me, it’s either Sunday dim sum or pho, eaten in the early afternoon and leaving you stuffed the rest of the day. Then 8:00 rolls around, I’m sort-of hungry, and I haven’t touched a vegetable all day. On those evenings, I like to whip up something quick, light and green. Dinner salads, fruit & cheese plate, and bruschetta are popular choices.

Last Sunday, we had giant bowls of pho at my mom’s house around 3:00. Later on, I started to get hungry during our long drive home so we stopped at the grocery store because I knew the fridge was empty. I’m usually really lost unless I have a recipe on me, but I managed to pick up some ingredients for a tomato salad. Instead of the usual bruschetta, I got home and decided to try it as panzanella.

I knew what panzanella was, but the thought of soggy bread seemed strange to me. But lo and behold, it was actually really good! I made my own recipe, but it was really similar to this one. Also, I only had fresh bread, not stale, so I “express stale’d” it. Cut the bread into cubes, put it in the microwave for a minute, stir, microwave another minute and let it cool. Instant stale. There are other panzanella recipes where you actually dunk the bread into a bowl of water, squeeze the water out, and crumble the mushy bits over the salad – now that just icks me out.

It was yummy, fresh, and the soggy bread wasn’t as scary as I thought. I even had the leftover for lunch the next day and the bread wasn’t much soggier than it was the night before, which surprised me.

San Francisco – Rogue Pub

Originally uploaded by oh_hello

I never had a bloody mary before. I ordered it just to see what this Shark Week-themed drink was all about.

The new half-season of No Reservations starts tonight, and I don’t have a TV to watch it I wonder if they’ll put it on Hulu. Tony kicks it the season by going to Chile.

Latin food is my new obsession, and I’ve already used past episodes to guide my food journey. My first intro to the world of rice and beans was Puerto Rican food, which I ate a lot I was working in non-profit in a PR community. Then I moved to Providence and craved it all year long. I finally started branching out and trying other types of latin food that Rhode Island had to offer and wasn’t disappointed. I ate Peruvian for the first time two weeks ago (wasn’t too excited by it), and the other day I had Salvadoran tamales, another thing I missed from my non-profit days. Anyway, my motto “WWABE – What Would Anthony Bourdain Eat” hasn’t failed me in picking adventurous things to eat.

Unfortunately, the new San Francisco episode airs the day after I get back from San Fran.

I like to do weird things. Check out this absolutely insane-sounding dinner/performance that I’m going to this weekend:

You are cordially invited to celebrate the passé-ist glory of Futurist degustation: a tactile seven-course meal of gastronomic revolution. Those without suitable tactilist garb will be loaned one upon entry.

That didn’t quite give me enough information, so I looked into what the heck tactile dinner parties were like. They’re based on The Futuristic Cookbook, written in 1931, by F.T. Marinetti. Here’s an exerpt from the book’s instructions for a tactile dinner party:

Polyrhythmic salad: the waiters approach the tables carrying for each guest a box with a crank on the left side and a china bowl. In the bowl, undressed lettuce leaves, dates, and grapes. Without the help of cutler, each diner uses his right hand to feed himself from the bowl while he turns the crank with his left. The box thus emits musical rhythms: and the waiters dance slowly with grand geometrical gestures in front of the table until the food has been eaten.

I’ve only been able to read articles written about the book, but it’s amazing how similar the food sounds to what I would consider today’s futuristic and modernist foods (French Laundry and Alinea most obvs). And it was written in 1932! Futuristic then, still futuristic 70+ years later.

If it sparks your interest, read some more passages from the original book.

Anyway, I’m excited to be witness to this crazyness and I even convinced two of my classmates to go with me. I’m not sure how much they’ll be into it, but they’re generally adventurous and it’ll make a good story to tell our friends back at Brown.

This was breakfast on Sunday. Much better than my bean & cheese burrito breakfast today.

Peregrine espresso

Originally uploaded by oh_hello

Ode to Pork

Originally uploaded by oh_hello

Want! A 10-week online course dedicated to Food Writing. I was thinking about taking a Continuing Ed class at RISD, which costs about the same amount, but maybe I could do this instead…

Then again, I might be able to use my AmeriCorps Education award to pay for the RISD class but definitely not the food writing thing.

After we were dumped with a foot of snow on Friday, we decided to truge over to Providence’s famous Al Forno restaurant. They only take reservations for parties of 6 or more, so dinner for 2 usually means waiting at least an hour. Thus we decided that the middle of a blizzard would be a great time to go without any wait. There’s a semi-outdoor garden area where you can eat in the summer, and we had to walk through it to get to the front door. It’s beautiful in the snow!

We weren’t the only ones in the restaurant, but we didn’t have to wait either. They are famous for their Italian-American style influences and wood-grilled pizzas and meats, and the smells that come out of that place during the summer are awesome. The owners even have two cookbooks out.

Brian started with a buffalo mozzarella salad. Slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella sitting on wafer-thin lemon slices, and with an olive oil-lemon dressing and a little salad on top. The flavor of the mozzarella and lemon dressing was beautiful. The olive oil taste was strong, and the lemon zest made it lemony without being tart, and each slice had the perfect amount of crunchy salt. And there must have been 8 oz of  mozzarella there. No one should eat that much cheese! Lucky for me he shared.

For dinner I had roasted clams, spicy sausage, and onions in a light tomato sauce, with mashed potatoes and shaved endive. The clams were fresh and tender, no dirt at all. The tomato sauce complimented the clams perfectly; it had a tiny bit of creamyness but was very light and not too acidic or salty. The spicy sausage was really good on its own, but I thought it was too strong for the clams. The smashed potatoes were made with red potatoes, my favorite kind!

Brian had veal cutlets that were stuffed with fontina and scallions, then breaded & fried and topped with gremolata, which I later learned is garlic, parsley and lemon peel finelely chopped and sprinkled on top. It came with sauteed broccoli rabe. He ate one cutlet, and I just ate the other one for lunch. Both of our meals had really good “balance.” The rich veal cutlets with the simply cooked greens, with bitterness to cut the richness; the light sauce for the clams and the rich potatoes.

The restaurant had a really cozy feel. This was the view from our table:

The desserts are made to order, which is why you have to order them at the same time you order your meal. At other restaurants, the desserts are pre-made and they just drizzle some sauce on it before serving. So made-to-order means it actually gets made and put into the oven fresh for you. For dessert we chose the “double chocolate cake with fresh whipped cream.” And get this: For an extra $20, you can add a personal bottle (for 2) of tawny port. A genius idea! I thought the cake looked rather small when it arrived, but it turned out to be flourless and more like a ganache, with solid chips of chocolate hidden inside. It was very dark and chocolatey and rich, so it was definitely enough to share. Our entire dessert cost $30 which sounds like a lot, but the cost of 1 dessert + 2 glasses of port would be the same. This way, we each got almost 2 full pours of port. Obviously I’m not an expert wine taster, but this port was not as “thick”, and a little more red wine-ish than ports we usually drink. It was actually a great compliment to the thick chocolate, because a richer port would have been way too much sweet going on at the same time. Again, these folks really know how to balance tastes & textures.

When I read amateur reviews of the place, the first thing people complain about is it being super expensive. I was nervous about how much it would cost, since no one actually said what the costs were. Here’s a general rundown of the prices:

Appetizers = $15
Pizza and pasta entrees = $20
Meats & roasts = $30
Desserts = $15.

So I dunno, its a splurge for someone like me with little income but I don’t get why people complain sooo much. The prices are slightly lower than “upscale” and on par many other good places in the city.

We eyed these at Pottery Barn at the beginning of the summer. (The salad plates & bowls; the dinner plate is from their everyday collection) Kept going back to visit them, and finally in October they were on sale. All of our food looks so much better on the new dishes!

The curly-cues on the salad plates remind me of this club I used to go to in New Orleans – The Red Room. The outside was covered in steel that supposedly came from the Eiffel Tower. They let my 17 year old ass into that club my first few days at Tulane and the tone was set. There was one night of the week when it was “Ladies’ night” where between 10pm to midnight, it was a $5 cover but free drinks for girls, so there was a whole lot of drinking in two hours. And even though it was a club, I don’t ever remember it being really crowded, or ever being bothered by douchebag dudes that we might have run into across town on Bourbon St. Other people I knew claimed that fancy frat parties & public sex happened in the private rooms but my innocence kept me away from all of that. I just remember it as fun times with the girls and rum punch.

The Very Good Taste blog writes, “Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food – but a good omnivore should really try it all.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.”

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare – no, but I’ve had carpaccio
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi – but it was from the food court @ school
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras – but I like pate
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more – I just drank from a 4.5 LITER bottle of Johnny Walker Black. I bet it cost more than $120, so that counts. Please take a moment to imagine what a 4.5 liter bottle looks like)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala – again, food court @ school
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone – in sushi
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads – why give such a misleading name?
63. Kaolin – uh, it’s dirt
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake – mmmm…. I crave beignets and chicory coffee
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (I think I’ve tried them at dim sum)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.  – MY DREAM. Once I get a real job, i think it will be worth it to save up $600-$1000 to do this.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers – I just made fried squash blossoms the other day
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I think I got around 46? Roughly half? All of the food bloggers out there seem to be posting this list, but honestly I don’t think it’s a very good list, and it seems very…. Western-centric. And what’s with all of the Indian dishes? I’d rather see a list of 100 Must-Eats from Anthony Bourdiain, or a real chef, or someone who has been all over the world. But I guess that’s not fair to say, since I don’t know anything about the bloggers who wrote the list.

*Edited to add:* Oops, many of my criticisms have been addressed in this interview. I do respect them for thinking about making the foods accessible though and not all like “freshly slaughtered chicken sashimi @ blah blah restaurant in Tokyo”.