Venison to NYC

I have to admit I was horribly nervous about sharing the way I had learned to cook venison in Tennessee with my snobby sophisticate gourmet New York friends. Bringing an entire back strap with me from Knoxville (not a tenderloin as I had thought), I was determined to show off and impress. With some fancy unsweetened cocoa from Simon's favorite Jewish market and the perpetual Baleine fine sea salt, I set out to prepare an unforgettable dish. Dressed as a clown (literally), not sober, and surrounded by good friends, I loosened up and just went to it. As I let the meat rest before bringing it to Simon's skilled sashimi slicing hands, I did not know what to expect. What happenned as I passed the sliced thin 4 inch diameter disks of perfectly cooked meat for ninja turtles and ravens and Yosemite Sam to eat should not have surprised me. Simon had prepared a warm space for his friends to enjoy a beautiful beautiful fall day in NY, and this dish was able to complement it. Smiles to laughs to the visceral pleasure of a great bite, I was really happy to be able to share. Great memories of people place and food. Thank you.

Sanguinaccio!

The resident gourmand from Napoli, Marco (student in the same school as me), told me about Sanguinaccio. It's chocolate and pig's blood... can you imagine? And apparently it's absolutely delicious. He was telling me how his mother used to make it often, and as a kid he'd be scared because he'd open the refigerator and there would be a jar of pig's blood in there. But he claims that the taste is divine. Does anyone know more about this, or tried it before?? (p.s. I don't think they make the real ones in the US, and though they've apparently created a version without the blood...)

Esqueixada de Bacalla'

We went to the Set Portes, an old portside restaurant in Barcelona which has opened in 1836. Experience and an old-world decor complete with dusty piano player didn't prevent the place from having awful paella and fideua' (and they were out of my favorite: the arros negre which is the squid's ink paella). But the chilled salad of bean kernels were exquisite and these esqueixada were the best I've ever had. Go there for the appetizers. The salted bacalao (cod) were fresh, fleshy and tangy, and the green pungence of the extra virgin olive oil and the bed of crispy onions were masterful, along with the rosy puree of tomato that topped the affair. Esqueixada (pronounced something like "as-ka-sha-da") is a typical cold tapas of the region which tickles my Japanese sensibility for the half-raw. The actual recipe is here but unfortunately only in Catalan.

Fair trade Coffee!

McDonald's is selling Fairtrade coffee! Monica finally convinced them! Comparatively, I was in a Starbuck's yesterday, and only one of their (many) roasts was Fairtrade. Monica, please keep us updated on how this changes the market!

http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=62276&dm=yes

Fairtrade groups have welcomed the announcement by fastfood giant McDonald’s that it is partnering Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to sell Newman's Own Organics Blend coffee in more than 650 McDonald's restaurants in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Albany, NY.

Created exclusively for McDonald's, Newman's Own Organics Blend, made from Fair Trade Certified and organic specialty coffees, will be available as both regular and decaffeinated.

Fairtrade product certifier TransFair said it joined Oxfam America in welcoming the move with the hope that McDonald’s extends the launch to its restaurants across the US.

"This is a great moment for the Fair Trade movement – one that will have an immensely positive impact on Fair Trade farmers and serve as an example for other companies that are still considering whether to respond to consumer demand for Fair Trade products," said Paul Rice, president and CEO of TransFair USA.

"Our hope is that McDonald's will embrace Fair Trade across its entire system and convert all of its US restaurants to Fair Trade in the next year or two."

Rice added: "Companies such as Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Costco and Sam's Club, as well as thousands of smaller independent companies, are selling Fair Trade Certified coffee and McDonald's will help to accelerate the trend."

Huckleberry Trout

This week Patrick and I had the opportunity to fish on Little River in the Smoky Mountains after work, and it was beautiful. We picked a promising stretch of river, and fished together, him on the holes to the right side, I to the left. We caught bunches of fish. I was lucky enough to look up just as he set the hook into a fish upstream of me that turned out to be glorious. I watched him play the fish, and was at his side shortly after he landed it. More than a foot long and stunning, this rainbow trout was a true Smoky Mountain trophy. Unfortunately, the hook had been set deep in the mouth of the fish, and it was bleeding, so Patrick, still a bit traumatized, worked on releasing the hook, as I proceeded to fantasize about how it would end up in my belly. We have caught a couple of hundred trout in the Smokies this year between us, and we have released them all. I even got two whoppers in the hole beneath Patrick's earlier this spring, it could have been one of those fish. This one did not have a very good chance of surviving after a tough hooking, and I do not regret killing this beautiful fish.
A salt and pepper coat later, the fish was grilled until the skin was crispy and the flesh still wet but falling off the bone. I am a sucker for skin, as most of you know from some lechon/salmon "only the skin is important" experiences with me, but the flesh once the skin was pulled away was also divine. Beautiful at every point: alive, dead, gutted, powdered in Korean black pepper and Utah salt (pink and glistening), and presented whole on the plate. What a glorious night.
Note: Those are wild muscadine grapes surrounding the fish. They lined nearly the entire stretch of river and were small tough skinned and heavily seeded, but they had a delicious sweet burst of juice at each pop. Patrick, ceaselessly teasing, called me Huckleberry as I popped grapes while walking streamside with my fishing pole, and found the name for this memorable stretch of river.

the Future of Food

Amazing documentary that wasn't goofy like Michael Moore nor preachy like Catholic homilies. Instead, this movie I brave on a heavily raining school night for a 9:55pm(!) showing at the IFC was brilliant. Director Deborah Garcia, sister of Jerry Garcia (yes, from the Grateful Dead), educated me on GMOs aka Genetically Modified Organisms. The silent havoc on Nature from the likes of agribusinesses likeMonsanto makes one wonder about the state of affairs on our global food system. Gene splitting, patenting of seeds, suicide seeds, and the death of family farms.
http://www.thefutureoffood.com

Da Dinners

One thing I'm always impressed by with my colleagues leaving in the countryside chateaux / farmhouses is somehow their ability to conjure themselves from the dark abyss of the perennial MBA hangover and get their act together enough to organize weekly dinners. And when they get their proverbial ass in gear, it's not like we boil up some pasta to some canned ragu for several unexpectant friends. It's a serious affair involving aperitifs and cocktails and little Japanese-style fingerfoods. The fact that some houses get this catered in not withstanding, it's quite and impressive feat to have something like 30 people over for any sort of collective feeding.
Many of the houses do this out of their sheer surplus energy and volition, which I find incredibly admirable. One of the first of these little soiree affairs that I was invited to happened at Le Vivier, a connivingly far-off farmhouse in the netherlands of between Fontainebleau and Paris. Some of the most witty, friendly, and engaging people live in this languid villa, along with what appeared to be a half-dozen chicken. I was fortunate enough to be invited before they got a clue and started getting their dinners catered. We were treated to a full-course with drinks at the bar, dinner, and dessert and digestifs in the smoking room. Whatever a smoking room is. Jessica's albondigas were to die for-- real homemade cooking, the succlent tomato sauce complementing the soft little meat balls. And Veronica brought out the best of her Fordism by a serious mass-production of bright fusilli salad to the tune of being able to save all of Uganda from hunger and starvation-- I mean I wouldn't be surprised if she literally filled the bathtub with hot water and poured the pasta right in to make it. It was a serious amount. I believe that with our collective appetite (of like a dozen people), we managed to consume about a hundredth of the entire amount manufactured-- somehow the demand curve and supply curve were taking a trip to the fifth dimension. This may have caused the abrupt switch to catering, though it's not a bullet-proof theory.
In any case, the company was excellent. I wasn't driving. The food was beautifully if voluminously prepared. It was a wonderful night, and cheers to the entire Le Vivier team for this excellent production.

Amy - Artist

In komida's first post I wrote:
"Whereas we did not always understand how much our taste buds could guide our lifestyles, we have become aggressive eaters who proactively expand and refine our experience. This is a medium where we can contribute to each other's goals, and together we can progress towards living beautifully."
What I did not appreciate was that it is not the food that guides us, but the people we share our lives with. This past Sunday Amy created an event that did not give people the choice as to whether they would or could live beautifully. She brought an idea into art, and shared it with us. It was not until I was intoxicated with her performance that I realized that it had nothing to do with the table cloths, the fancy clothes, the wine, the startling succession of divine dishes, but instead everything to do with her, with my friends who had come to share this celebration of my birth, and me. Thank you Amy for clarifying the power of people, and the beauty that we can create when we commune.

Monterrey - Cabrito

All out war this past weekend in Monterrey Mexico with the crew I grew up with. Us drunkards versus more stunningly beautiful super-ultra-conservative Mexican oligarch daughters than we knew what to do with, unfortunately, I don't think we won a single battle.
Thankfully, there was the food, and even though Monterrey is a fairly new inland industrial town, they do have one specialty - cabrito, baby roasted goat. We had our first chance to explore its wonders at El Rey del Cabrito, a block-long, mounted endangered species displaying, Monterrey baby-goat themed restaurant. We knew it was a bit gaijin-oriented when they kept offering us tequila, but we stayed positive and determined. The menu offered cabrito, every cut possible, but since we had a group of 12 and I was ordering, we ordered a whole goat and a half, and a head for me (there was no way I was going to let that one go). Cooked in a style similar to our Japanese ayu (see komida post photo 5/19/2005), split and ?grilled for a long period of time surrounding a steady fire, it was good. Not spectacular, but that was because it could have been better. The cabrito chicharron was not nearly as respected as it could have been (this was not the case in the rest of Monterrey, as I saw a 4 foot by 4 foot piece of chicharron at a supermarket = heaven), and was a disappointment coming from my "that is the only important part of the pig" tradition. What made it worse was that it looked like pork. Tender and clean tasting (expected), I had forgotten that baby animals don't have that much meat (lots of bones), so don't forget that the next time you push yourself through a third world hangover with fantasies of huge chunks of meat. Baby goat is definitely worth eating, even a delicacy, but next time, I will cook it myself.

Check THIS Out

So I'm a bit back-logged in my postings because I've been too busy eating. I live in some decandent forest of France now, but my photos are crammed full of foods from Asia-- the tamarind sauces, the savory zest of lime squeezed on fried noodles, the fragrance of burnt peppercorn and chili... something which seems a distant memory away. So here another distant if drool-inducing image. Sticky rice, steamed in a thick fond-de-je-ne-sais-quoi then fried with crab eggs and scallions, served with soups. This is from one of my favorite restaurants in Taipei, the Hao Chi restaurant. The You Dou Fu there is also excellent, with a mild oily sauce coating a the flan-like white tofu. The oyster omlette with the sweet gravy. The searing smell of the scampi in the skillet, infused with the fragrance of rice wine, salt and cilantro. The night market foods of Taipei are concoted with the unassuming practical genius of a hungry worker with Taipei beer in hand and looking madly for perfect and rapid aperitif, unsubtle in taste and bold in volume, and ever satisfying.

Fast Food of Kagawa

This happened in July. We rode around aimlessly for four hours, searching across the rustic countryside of Kagawa prefecture in western Japan, home of the legendary Sanuki Udon. My friend Koji and I had taken the exit off the highway and were winding across streams and hills and up into the wild borderlands of Tokushima, when we finally (after having missed the turn several times) came across THE udon place. We found it a bit incredulous that there were so many Udon shops in Kagawa, but here high school girls after school pop into their local Udon joint and order a quick freshly prepared Udon as if they were ordering fries from McDonald's. The Sanuki Udon, famous for the slippery dense al-dente texture, the white glistening surface of the thick noodles, is best served with the famous dashi (broth) from the same prefecture. One can also serve it with some grated raddish and a dash of broth-infused soy-sauce and some scallions. Koji and I were both crying with joy at the perfrection of the Udon here... two ruddy guys with big arms basically beating the shit out of the doughy pasta to give it its texture, and then rapidly boiling it in this big vat (which was constantly being heated by a massive wood fire underneath... the whole scene was Bosch-like and quite frightening). Along with the firm aroma of the bonito dashi and the cold mountain air, the individual noodles ran dan my throat in a lively casade of flavor and texture. But a four hour drive is a long time for what's basically fast food.

Pierre Androuet

My mother picked up Pierre Androuet's The Complete Encyclopedia of French Cheese, published in English in 1973 (originally in French, Guide du Fromage), and it is the best cheese monger perspective cheese book I have ever seen. The methods this guy uses to discriminate quality in cheeses are inordinately precise, so much so that you realize he is using them to pick out his personal preferences in each cheese, not necessarily the best representation of a cheese(whatever that means). He is the first person I have seen that uses the commonsense idea that cheese quality (for non-pasteurized cheeses) is seasonal. He makes it very clear that for every cheese one must know:

1. The approximate date when the cows are put out to pasture;
2. The length of time it takes to make the cheese.

Only with this information can one correlate the best milk producing period with the time a cheese hits the market, and have a better chance of finding the best cheeses truly sublime. I think it is interesting that the three special moments within the pasturing season when the cows give such milk are:

1. The sprouting of the grass (germination);
2. The prime flowering of the meadows;
3. The second growth of grass.

Fortunately, we do not need to discover these times in France (they are included in the book), and have the much more enjoyable duty of finding the best non-pasteurized cheeses when they are in their prime. I would live in France for more than a year just to do that. Shota, I found the French version, when you send me your address, you will get the book, the only commitment is that you need to share your experiences!

Fast Food Memories

How sad. My childhood is filled with memories of chicken sandwiches at Burger King and 25 count fried shrimp baskets at IHOP. My grandparents, Ita and Andrew, were the only ones that would ever take us to fast food. A few years ago I realized the french fries at BK had changed and the chicken sandwich had shrunk. Last night (~2:30 AM) I realized that the shrimp at IHOP no longer have the shells attached to the end of the tails (probably my first experience with this, god, look at how an innocent introduction to a simple American meal degenerated! - crab shells, fish heads, anything, etc.), and that they are indistinguishable from clam strips (strong breading, bland seafood).

Formatting

We had some formatting issues using the current template, but I finally figured out what was wrong. When including text (esp. hyperlinks), break it/them up into smaller parcels, for example:

http://www.stonybrook.edu/
sb/winecenter/SBcampusevents.shtml

Thanks.

The Art of Eating Mag

Have any of you ever read (or even seen) a copy of The Art of Eating magazine?
http://www.artofeating.com/

New York Food Blog School

www.obsessionwithfood.com's contributors are offering a food and wine blog lecture at Stony Brook. New Yorkers, consider attending!

http://www.stonybrook.edu/
sb/winecenter/SBcampusevents.shtml

Wine for the Web: Bloggers Unite!
Thursday, October 20: 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Impressed by all the wonderful information available on the Web? Love to look up recipes and research wine and food pairings? Read the latest on high scoring wines? New Yorker Lenn Thompson and Californian Derrick Schneider have both turned their amateur internet wine and food blogs into professional writing opportunities. Join them, and see how to turn a taste into a turn of phrase. Complete with wine and food explorations, of course.

A Different Blog

Thought you might be interested in someone else's blog:
http://www.obsessionwithfood.com/

Jamaican Sugarloaf Drinks NYT

We have harvested from the water, but it looks like we should be harvesting from Mom's garden as well! Have we already begun drying Hibiscus flowers? http://www.nytimes.com/
2005/07/20/dining/20soda.html?

Recipe: Sorrel Punch
Time: 10 minutes, plus at least 4 hours' steeping

1½ cups dried sorrel (hibiscus) flowers, available at Caribbean grocers
¼ cup coarsely chopped ginger
1 cup sugar
Lime wedges for garnish.

1. Boil 6 cups water. Pick over sorrel, discarding discolored pieces. Combine sorrel and ginger in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Let mixture steep for at least 4 hours or overnight.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine 1 cup water and sugar; boil. Reduce heat to medium and stir until sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
3. Strain sorrel mixture into a jar, add sugar water and taste. Punch should be slightly tart.

4. Chill punch and serve over ice, garnished with lime wedges. For a spritzer, fill a glass 1/3 full with punch and top off with sparkling water. Punch may also be mixed with rum and lime for a cocktail.

Yield: About 6 cups.

Recipe: Ginger Beer
Time: 10 minutes, plus at least 4 hours' steeping

12 ounces ginger, washed and roughly chopped (about 2 cups); peel if you want a lighter-colored beverage
1 bay leaf
¾ cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon.

1. Place chopped ginger in a large bowl. Add bay leaf. Boil 10 cups water and pour it over ginger. Let mixture sit for at least 4 hours or overnight.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, place ¾ cup water and the sugar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer just until sugar has melted, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool.

3. Strain ginger mixture into a pitcher or a glass jar, mix in sugar water and lemon juice. Stir and serve over ice.

Yield: About 10 cups.

Pyongyang Noodles - North Korea

There is a NY Times Editorial/Op-Ed video featuring Pyongyang noodles in North Korea out today. They look like a brown/purple vermicelli, are served cold in a clear broth, include toppings (similar to Japanese ramen: ex-post), and are condimented with a splash of vinegar (like my local greens!) and soy sauce. Definitely more delicate than I would expect from NK.

Whole Baked Grouper

Using another age proven recipe, my mother stuffed this grouper with tomatoes and onions and baked it. This fish was perfect for its size and feast potential, but I am not sure the baking brought the best out of the species. We traditionally prepare the dish with a very lean fish, usually from the snapper family (mangrove, dog, mutton, etc.), and it is always a celebration (at least for the fishermen), because big snappers are trophy fish. This recipe preserves all the juices of the meat, and really allows you to experience the full depth these fish have to offer. Grouper is fatty and flavorful, and I think that sort of flavor conservation is not required, and actually pushes towards excessive concentration. In general, I think a good rule would be to cook snapper as if it was chicken, grouper as if it was pork.

Toronto Food Site

Even though I have not yet made my way through this entire site, each time I return, I am impressed. Great food site. http://gremolata.com/ Anyone ever try gremolata?

Should we find such places next time in Italy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1516719,00.html

gelato from ciao bella on elisabeth st.  

Gelato

Thank god for the gelato trend. I had the chance to try avocado and cranberry in Toronto yesterday, and am really happy about where this is going (prevalent, evolving, etc.). Miami has a number of Italian branded places, but the real surprise is places like Dulcianna on Lincoln Road (South Beach) that is a straight Argentine franchise. No big deal in Miami, but to find Dolcezza in Georgetown (Wisconsin Ave), an Argentine family-owned shop, makes it clear that the entire US is benefitting from Latin America's instabilities.

Sweet Toronto Dim Sum

Dim Sum is a gift. I was in Toronto all weekend, and had the chance to get a chowhound recommendation for Bright Pearl Seafood Restaurant 346-348 Spadina Ave. The food was divine, the selection extraordinary. I definitely recommend weekday Dim Sum. Anyone have any favorite dishes? Where is the best Dim Sum in NY? Any recommendations for how to recover (enough to go back to work) after one of these meals?

Murray's Farm

Drove three hours out to Tamaqua, PA to visit Koch's Farm. This family farm produces all of Murray's turkeys. It's surrounded by hills and silos with no cell phone service and not surprisingly, I had pull into another farm to ask for Koch's farm. Directions include a bit of the over the river, through the woods to Grandmother's house. Mr. Koch had us over for lunch with ginger teriyaki turkey, smoked turkey, spicy Korean turkey(kimchi turkey?!), and turkey on white heroes. Seven years ago, he went natural after almost going bankrupt like many family farms who raise commodity birds that couldn't make a sustainable living. The tilting mechanical trays of eggs mimic the hen (moms) who would ordinarily rotate the eggs in the nest. I forgot to ask about turkey eggs? Can you eat turkey eggs? Hmm. The little things get debeaked (burnt off) and it falls off after one week's time. The large toms and hens live freely outside in a large pen. The space the turkeys get are more than commodity birds which helps in the loading and slaughtering since they are more at ease with the world. Good metaphor for humans as well. I wonder what will happen to the next generation of farmers? Who will inherit the raising of animals and care of US agriculture? How many 20-40 year olds view farming as a "good career"? Will all this go to the big multinationals of the world?

Sansho - Investigatory

Have any of you had any success extending sansho from the unagi ideal? I came across a fantastic spice shop (also have a great shichimi togarashi, apparently also known as nanairo togarashi in Tokyo, but I have never heard it referred to as such) near Kiyomizudera in Kyoto, and have been trying to figure out how I can use sansho ever since. As of now, I know it doesn’t make an especially good tea (even though it is the substance behind one of the funniest phone calls I have ever received – Simon, please explain!), but I have had some success with tomatoes, both cooked and raw. I assumed this might extend its application to foods of similar acidity, but then I read in a spice guide at Amy’s house that the key to sansho was fatty foods. As all of you know, olive oil is a necessity for me, and it might have actually been the oil that the sansho had complemented so well on my tomatoes. Do any of you use it in your cooking? Should we stick to using it as a table condiment (after all the cooking is done)? I am really excited to use it on some grilled fatty fish (salmon, grouper, etc.) especially my favorite, grilled (chicharroned) grouper head (shioyaki – with only salt). Hopefully we can spear a few this 4th of July weekend in Sugarloaf.

Sansho Questions:
Where is it used besides with unagi?
Does it complement tomatoes?
Does it complement olive oils?
Have any of you used it on fatty foods? fish? beef? pork?
Can we cook with it, or should it be used as a table condiment?

Japanese/Korean Cookie Cracker - try to find them! 

Food Romp III Jackson Heights

Food Romp I, 2003 - Manhattan. Food Romp II, 2004 - Flushing, Queens. Food Romp III, 2005 - Jackson Heights, Queens
My cousin, Ambrose's high school friend, Corey and I have organized a food romp (tour of sorts) that started organically three years ago after our professed love of eating all foods. Corey does all the work which include a well plotted walking map (and I throw in a few comments) two months prior. Thus, starting an annual tradition that has grown in number each year. A few weeks ago, we hosted a group of 15 or so avid eaters who were brave enough to go Jackson Heights from the likes of New Haven to Manhattan in order to visit the vibrant, bustling neighborhood loaded with all sorts of goodies - the Indian market(s) to Spanish grocer, who stayed open late to pour a bottle of wine on the house for us.
We kicked off the day with 11am Indian, Indian vegetarian, followed by the Kebab King, then Peruvian, Argentian, Tibetan, etcetera and in-between a sidewalk devouring of tres leches cake (see below). The day ended with some sangria and ceviche towards 3pm to stave off the sugar. Thank you, Corey.

Food Romp III, Jackson Heights NY 2005