Saturday, July 23, 2011

Takoyaki mania!

A happy Happy Hour on the terrace (OK, it's a coralled sidewalk) in the dappled sun with coworkers at Nijo reminded me of takoyaki. Because we had some. Because I love takoyaki.

We had octopus takoyaki with scallion, really, really good. Fluffy and hot. Not too much sauce. Accompanied by $4 Lychee Martinis. Very fresh, matched the nice weather and soft afternoon breezes and bonhomie.

One of the things I really like about the Nijo menu is that it is full of vegetarian dishes alongside the seafood, so we can bring our whole design team, some of whom are from India.

If you don't know what takoyaki is (An Osaka specialty, along with okonomiyaki which I also LOVE) or need a new song to get stuck in your head, I have helpfully provided this video.

I have never made takoyaki myself, but I have the maker (no, not the one in the video, alas) somewhere. It's cast-iron and has little octopi in bas-relief in each little cup so the balls get a little tattoo. Maybe it's time to dust it off and dive into fullscale takoyaki production.

Rusty celery

You're at an airport. You're making food choices to accommodate a group. You don't expect much. Sigh.

But what you do not expect, even with the expectations at rock-bottom, is celery that looks like it was scavenged from the back of a shelf in the walk-in, vintage unknown. Boo, Chili's.

When a chain earns comments like, "Bad even for Chili's," I guess you know to stay away from the entire operation, even at airports under duress. Will do.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Catfish banh mi

Back in Houston, and of course there's a little food to discuss. It's a work trip, so it's not as if each meal is special: time is short, control is shared, and logistics are tied to who needs to be where, when. So here's what has been up:
  1. Some takeout from Whole Foods: ** 1/2
  2. Fage Greek Yogurt from Whole Foods: ****
  3. A few bites of corporate campus Thai food: ** 1/2
  4. Homemade Indian snacks (Paneer Pakoras, sliced kiwis and mangoes) at my colleague's cousin's house in Sugarland: ***** +
  5. Dinner at Vegas-themed Gringo's Tex-Mex in Sugar Land: * (apologies to the lovely hosts, may they never see this post!)
  6. Lunch at India's:  **** (Zagat: "Excellent")
  7. Dinner sandwiches at...remember the catfish banh mi at Givral's, "for the Lenten season?" I had it! **** 1/2
First, some mis-en-scène.

Bellaire Blvd. in Westchase has a pretty amazing strip of Asian, mostly Vietnamese, strip malls and commercial complexes of various vintages stretching a few miles. To the East of Sam Houston Tollway:


And now, back on the downtown side of the Sam Houston Tollway, but not by much, the sublime Catfish banh mi and accompanying Café du Monde Vietnamese coffee (ca phe) before hot or iced (hot!!!) water was added:


Hopefully, you can see the perfect cooking of the fish and the SIZE of the seeds-in (hot!!!) jalapeño pieces in the sandwich, as well as the light, flaky, freshness of the baguette. Abundance of cilantro.

Want a glimpse of less ethereal food locales mentioned above but not featured? OK! Let's Go:


And at the above establishment, a salad Xx bigger than your head (Ho-Hum-Food Department):



Sunday, July 17, 2011

What is your potsticker wearing?

Pretty much everywhere I go, potstickers seem to be served with soy sauce. Period.

I object! This is not the way to eat potstickers. Once you try them with the right dressing, you'll be a sad, sad individual like me at restaurants, staring down potstickers looking naked with a wardrobe of the wrong things to wear.

What send potstickers into the firmament is:

Rice vinegar + hot chili oil.

That's it. Srsly. Not chili paste or chili sauce, but chili oil. When it mixes on the plate with the vinegar, it makes a glaze, potsticker-centric vinaigrette that absolutely sends you.

Try it, Tell me if I am not über-correct. Tell me if after trying this you prefer soy sauce. Good luck.

NOTE: When I was 10, we moved from Vermont to San Francisco and within what seems like weeks we were experiencing amazing flavors and International traditions, and this edict of mine comes from forays to Hunan, one of the city's first pepper-driven, no-MSG, western-friendly Chinese restaurants. It was located mere blocks from Chinatown proper, but in an akward fringe part of the downtown business zone, and hence felt neither inscrutable nor touristy to its slavering patrons.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The best sale page!

Thanks to the sale page at Capri Flavors, I am now the proud owner of many, many packages of really nice Italian dried penne, etc. pasta made in bronze dies. Though we often make pasta at home, it's nice to have a pantry.

I also fell for the packaged "croissants," not sure what to expect. As it happens, these pastries taste just like wonderful, spongy panettone and who doesn't love that?!

BTW, a Panettone-buying tip: In my opinion, the boxed pannetone with dust on it often exceeds the flavor of fresh panettone, so don't be deterred or suspicious. It's made to last and gets better with age!

French honey & Vermont maple cream

Two disclaimers: My childhood was spent in Vermont. I am a little iffy on honey in general.

Another pantry thing I picked up at Garagiste the other day is a jar of Maquis Honey, something I had never heard of. It's got the consistency of a paste, rather than a viscous liquid. It has crystallized regions of the jar.

It is usually made in Corsica, but this one's from Haute Languedoc (let your browser translate from French for you if you follow that link), near the southern central coast of France. I am reading here and there that its savory flavor and lack of the usual sweetness is the result of herb-ridden and scrub-brushy terrain where the bees forage. It's said to taste like lavender, myrtle and whatnot.

A taste test was proposed, pitting this lovely honey against my beloved maple cream — spreadable maple sugar!

What happened was surprise: On a nice Macrina  ficelle toast, this pasty honey made the maple cream seem too sweet and simple in comparison.

I can see having the Maquis honey with cheeses. In fact, one of my favorite recent-ish dining-out dishes was a really amazing cheese and honey pairing at Hitchcock.

The maple cream is still up there in my pantheon of foods, though.

Mustard


Mustards like no other, conveniently delivered in a well-designed tube: Tubissime, from Paris. These mustards first came into my life as a gift from a superfriend.

Then, they showed up at Garagiste, where we sometimes buy really interesting and delicious wine based on subscription list offerings (Cool service: you buy wine and they store it until you want to schedule a Seattle pickup or ask for shipping of everything you've bought). Yay!

If you are skeptical about whether this mustard is truly delicious or just a novelty, the little picture at the left should straighten you out. 

We have enjoyed these mustards in the following flavors: 3 peppers, tarragon, truffle. Now, we will be embarking on the Espelette (a Basque paprika-like delight) and with-nuts flavors. Can't wait!

Friday, July 15, 2011

Lunch review: Starbucks chicken lettuce wraps Bistro Box

Who knew that the Bistro Boxes had been introduced at Starbucks just 2 days before I tried one? Not me. But it's fun to be able to weigh in on a newly launched lunch idea that people are talking about.

I bought the Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and overall liked them quite a bit. The julienned vegetables and generous cilantro were fresh and tasty, I loved that there were crunchy peanuts (kept separate to preserve crunchiness), and the minced cooked chicken had nice flavors.

Contrary to some opinions, I found it to be right-sized and refreshing, at 360 calories. Here's the official Starbucks description:
Build your wrap with crisp red lettuce leaves and Cantonese-inspired chicken filling.  Served with chopped peanuts, a mix of fresh vegetables — cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, cilantro, and peanut sauce.  For dessert, a premium Starbucks chocolate.
2 detractions:

  • The lettuce leaves were a little thin and some had tears in them, making wrapping a little difficult
  • There has to be a way to use less plastic and still keep everything separate and orderly
Perhaps interesting:
Huff Post compares the Bistro Boxes with chain competitors' menu items here.
A very like-minded review to mine here.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

3 cheers for @qualityrye

Loved this so much:


the $80 brunch | DailyCandy

DailyCandy is selling a $40 brunch deal ($80 for a couple) at the Kimberly Hotel in Midtown East. That includes an entree, dessert and two cocktails. It represents a “35 percent” discount. To explain why this is BAD DEAL, let’s listen to a conversation between Renee and Charlee, a young (and fictional) Williamsburg couple with lovably androgynous names, and who always get into fights over deals. Observe: 
CHARLEE: Hey babe. Wanna have brunch in Midtown Manhattan?  
RENEE: Not really, who goes to Midtown on the weekends? 
CHARLEE: But I bought us this great offer: two courses and two cocktails.
RENEE: $40 bucks? A cocktail each? Sure That’s enough to share. 
CHARLEE: Wait, sweetie, there’s no sharing allowed with this deal. So I had to buy two vouchers. So technically that’s $80 bucks. 
RENEE: Hold on, I thought we were saving money? 
CHARLEE: Yes, we’re saving 35 percent! Of course, we’re supposed to tip on the original price of $63 per person, so after tax and 18% tip that comes to $109. 
RENEE: We’re spending $109 on brunch? Listen, we could have gone to Balthazar, ordered two Bloody Marys, half a dozen oysters, foie gras terrine and apple pancakes for $79 bucks — and we’d tipping on $79, not some fictional $123 that we’d never have spent anyway!  Can we at least get some oysters and foie gras at the Kimberly?  
CHARLEE: No sweetie. We can get lobster benedict or whatever then we have to get dessert at The Kimberly. The second course is dessert.  
RENEE: Two dessert courses? What is this a fanny-pack convention at TGI Friday’s? No one orders dessert at brunch! And now we’re stuck with two. Listen, just return the offer and let’s go to Balthazar. 
CHARLEE: The DailyCandy deal is non-refundable.
RENEE: Why didn’t you ask me before buying? 
CHARLEE: I thought the deal was going to sell out. 
RENEE: Sell out? SELL OUT? Did you think they were gonna sell out of brunch? Is this brunch endangered like bluefin tuna or Iranian caviar? 
CHARLEE: Well its DailyCandy you know, I trusted them.
RENEE: I know you did honey. I know you did. Don’t hate yourself. Hate the people who sold you this crummy deal. 
CHARLEE: Okay, let’s go get some tattoos. 
RENEE: Cool. 

Monday, July 11, 2011

Canelé

When our local bakery, Pane D'Amore, proved to have canelés issuing from their ovens, I could not have been more excited.
If you're not familiar with this treat, Chow will fill you in:



I am not sure about what the concerns are that led the baker in this video to limit production to 12 canelés per day. Hmmm. The well-loved organic bakery in Paris that introduced me to canelés, on rue Daguerre, certainly produces more than 12 per day; untold  masses would not be amused to encounter an empty tray by, say, 8:12 AM.

Cheri Pye (I did not make up that name) at Greenhouse Design did a really gorgeous behind-the-scenes photo tour of this bakery, Le Moulin de la Vierge, which should not be missed.

Sometimes I suspect that the only thing I would like more than a perfect canelé is a perfect canelé surrounded by its friends. Luckily, my local bakery is happy to make this happen for me.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

What was that McTakeover email you mentioned in your last post, Abigail, anyway?

In case you're curious, here's the thread about the McTakeover fundraiser. You'll notice that the most recent communication in the thread was my response to a call for volunteers, sent to the full list of 31 cc'd people (PTO members, other parents) 15 months ago. The response was utter silence. And I really tried to be polite and articulate and reasonable! How do you think I did?

From: Abigail Hamilton
Date: Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 3:42 PM
Subject: Re: McTakeOver 4/14...We need your help!
To: [email]
Cc: [31 email addresses]

I know this is probably the wrong venue for this type of comment, but I don't know any other avenue, and wanted to share my perspective on the McTakeovers. I know they make heaps of money. I know the school NEEDS heaps of money.


But. I tried to have a good attitude last time there was a McTakeover fundraiser, and attended and bought food. I felt very conflicted for a couple of reasons. First, I had seen all the posters around the school that the children had spent time making. These posters advertised McDonalds and its unhealthy food, using the logo, arches, etc. I felt like that it was inappropriate for children to spend their school time creating advertisements for a fast food restaurant.

I also felt that the very idea of fundraising by encouraging people eat McDonalds food was very much in conflict with the nutrition education they get at school. I know we all have eaten and probably will again eat fast food. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. That's a personal choice and anything goes. But within the context of the school and its educational messages, this seemed really undermining.

I hope the event is a great success, but I can't help or partake, and I do hope the next fundraiser is just as, or even more successful and does not involve a tie-in between unhealthy food and the school, and doesn't encourage kids to eat fast food.

Thanks for listening, maybe this note can spark some good discussion and lead to some new ideas for the future.

All the best,
Abigail


On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 12:28 PM, <name> wrote:


Hi Third Grade Parents! 
We hope you had a great spring break!  This is a quick reminder that next Wednesday, April 14th is our McTakeOver at McDonalds to raise money for Outdoor Ed scholarships.  We will receive 40% of food sales between the hours of 6-8 pm!  In addition, McDonalds will make an additional donation to Ronald McDonald House based upon our event sales.  For those of you who attended last year's event, it was a lot of fun.  This year could be event more fun since Ronald McDonald himself will be making an appearance between 7-7:30 pm!!!
We need your help to make this event a success.  We need parent volunteers to help staff McDonalds (they will have their full staff, but will need assistance taking orders and cleaning tables).  Volunteers need to be there by 5:45 for training.  Please let us know if you can help between 5:45-7 or from 7 - 8 pm.  Also, we need a couple of people to stand with signs at the road to pull in customers, and a couple of kid/parent teams to sell coupon books.  Please email [link] or [link] if you can help.  Let us know which job and 1 hour shift you would like to help out with.
We will be sending out school announcements over the next week.  Please be sure to invite your friends, neighbors and family members!
Thank you!
name, name



School Lunch, opening salvo

This is going to be a frequent topic here, because, sadly, it needs to be. There are so many prismatic angles to discuss.

I live in a school district with an economically diverse population. There are many, many families that live or die by what's in the WSJ, with plenty of cash on hand for vacations in Fiji and conveyances in the BMW-Lexus-Mercedes-Porsche-Land Rover family. There are plenty of mothers and fathers  in these families who are able to, and choose to, be heavily involved in the PTO and volunteer frequently in many capacities.

There are also many families whose parent(s) work long service jobs and have little extra time or money to contribute to the school district. These families rely on the school to  provide the high-quality education — including nutritional education and good lunches — it is capable of. And except the lunches and some undermining PTO fundraisers, it does. The school district is consistently ranked #1 or #2 in the state.

If you have the stomach for it, head over to Holy Taco
to see what other delights are on school menus
    Which brings me to lunch.
    For 6 years I have watched:
    • Kids spend 20 minutes eating lunch at their desks because there is no lunchroom. Really?! Yes.

    • Lunch menus that week-in-week-out offer the likes of: Chicken Fryz and Waffle Sticks, with the option of "organic salad bar items." OK, they're doing a little better lately, but still! Look! These lunches with milk now cost $3.50.

    • The "kitchen" relying on collated cold-room food and reheating, the cooking ranges no longer being used. No doubt these foods comply to the letter of the law with nutrition requirements, but isn't that a problem in and of itself? Where are the required/integrated vegetables? Why so much frying over grilling? Why do the children see no sign of cooking in preparation of their lunches? Honestly, the kitchen pretty much looks like a pared-down, non-customer-facing fast-food operation.

    • The PTO organizing fundraising McTakeovers that undermine all the nutritional education the children receive in class. (I wrote a response to the PTO mailing list when they were asking for help, and not one person on the thread replies with so much as a word.)

    • The PTO also sponsoring a Capri Sun Fundraiser:
    ITS (sic) EASY, HERE IS HOW TO EARN MONEY FOR BLAKELY:
    If you have a Capri Sun Pouch, there is a special garbage next to the garbage area after lunch. The container is labeled with Capri Sun Packaging. Just remove the straw and place your EMPTY pouch in the Capri Sun container. Then Blakely Elementary will earn 2¢ per pouch. 
    This money can add up fast, so let’s get drinking Capri Sun for Blakely! (My emphasis added)
    Caprisun (sic) does have organic and 100% juice varieties!
    • My own children, who eat so well at home — and this DOES include treats and compromises sometimes — often preferring to eat the crappy school lunch over home lunch for a variety of reasons during different periods of time.
    Screen grab of Sound Food's
    wonderful local map
    This is in a community where the Farmer's Market is a Saturday "must," thanks to plentiful, verdant farms within 2 to 20 miles. This is in a community where fresh local eggs can be picked up from "honor boxes" at the foot of many driveways. This is a community rife with organizations such as:

    EduCulture Project at Suyematsu Farm (Where Akio Suyematsu still farms at 89 years old and has inspired, despite himself, a Friends of the Farms Annual Award in his name), Friends of the Farms, Sound FoodPort Madison Goat Farm and CreameryIslandwood, Farm Kitchen, Tani Creek Farm, Laughing Crow FarmPersephone Farm, Butler Greens, to name only a handful.

    This is in an elementary school whose 60s-era building has a central courtyard perfect for a garden, but largely neglected and unused. And in a district where each of the schools has ample outdoor space for gardening.

    I was very ired by this before the advent of Food Revolution, and I remain very ired. 

    If Michelle Obama's excellent initiatives, Jamie Oliver's passionate TV-driven advocacy, and the abundance of parent time and resources unique to my district can't make things better here yet, how long do we have to wait for schools both rich and poor in resources to provide a tasty and nutritious lunch?

    Some additional "why?"s that just occurred to me:
    • Why can't the schools and local farms team up to have after-school farming partnerships? So many extracurricular activities have been cut due to funding, this one would require nothing more from the school than some alternate bus drop-off spots (assuming the parents can pick up their children after work, as they would from any aftercare program). The kids could weed and pick, clean, bunch, etc. vegetables in exchange for a percentage of the harvest going to the school. If the farms wanted to augment the program with cooking tips and experiences, etc., all the better.

      At a high school level, the kids who had been in the program could be the managers of the program, providing supervision, cooking classes, adding heirloom gardens with research and Farmer's Market sales opportunities, etc.

      In an era where college admission and scholarships are so competitive, wouldn't this really give these kids a meaningful edge alongside the lifelong connection to quality, natural food, where it comes from, and how to prepare it?
    Photo from Sound Food's
    wonderful local map


    Iron Chef Butter Chicken

    Ah, family dinner. When you all sit around the table and talk about high-minded cultural phenomena. Like Iron Chef. What?!

    It has become something of a practice that when I cook — I am not the primary cook at home for a host of reasons including my propensity for shortcuts and lack of follow-through  (LOFT)— somehow Iron Chef ratings break out.

    Last night I made a somewhat tame version of Butter Chicken. I take that back: Indian Butter Chicken is in itself somewhat tame. I made Butter Chicken.

    It was fun to learn how many tomatoes go into the dish, and that the secret behind its richness is cashew butter (the butter butter is obvious, and it's there, too).

    Thanks to the LOFT I mentioned, Richard made the rice and zucchini. They were heavenly!

    Before we break down the scoring, here's a new rule that we implemented: No-one gets to rate his/her own dish. So, the total possible points for each of the three elements was 20 points (there being 3 of us at the table last night). I think in the future we will refine this game to be more authentic — 5 points each for presentation, taste, and creativity, rather than a flat 10 possible points for the dish.

    My chicken got a respectable 17/20. Had there been a tangier element somewhere it might have soared even higher in the ratings.

    Richard's rice drew in 19/20 points: it WAS really nice rice with shallot and saffron, nice separate grains.
    But, oh, the zucchini. What happened there? 8?

    The zucchini itself was young, fresh, summer zucchini and was cooked perfectly, a quick seasoned sautée in the pan, with a nice chiffonade of scallion and a quick rasp of parmesan on top. So what happened?

    A 10-year-old was at the table. Zucchini is still a hard sell. He gave it a 2, even though he is known to be naturally veg-leaning. I am complicit in the low score as well, giving it a 6/10. Why? I am not sure! Maybe it's because, though I "love" zucchini and yellow summer squash cooked this way, it is still a squash and — forgive me — I have not yet fully cozied up to the category.

    I live in a dream world where a 10 for zucchini makes it truly memorable and transporting...

    Saturday, July 9, 2011

    And speaking of lunch / dinner / whatever in Houston...

    There are a lot of Vietnamese sandwich shops and I do not fool myself that I found The Best One when I happened to be in Houston for 2 weeks, eating plenty of banh mi. I was just glad fresh and happy banh mi were plentiful, and I indulged.

    I learned two new things at Givral's Sandwich Shop.

    1. You can really, truly make a banh mi with any protein: In the bayou, that can mean a southern-fried catfish banh mi — especially "for the Lenten season." I'm a little regretful that I didn't try this when I had the chance.



    2. Putting a fried egg on your banh mi is said, at least by some, to make it even better. As if. But again, I look forward to trying this because it is just barely possible that an excellent Vietnamese sandwich becomes excellenter (sic) when you add a fried egg.

    OMG, I just thought of this: Make the banh mi at home so the egg can be from my sisters-in-law's henhouse.

    I have put this on the To Do list for someday. I hope it comes soon!

    How to eat cereal


    Thanks, Hugo, for showing how it's done.

    A lunch well remembered

    Houston. April 9, 2011. I found D'Amico's and was delighted by my very first muffaletta sandwich.



    The olive relish had a crunch to it which was unexpected and incredibly welcome. Also, not too much bread.

    The restaurant was full, but I liked the side room with retail walls better than the main area, maybe because there were windows and I am a daylight hog. It was so serene in there, away from the crowd.



    I also liked, while I was waiting, considering the lunches that I didn't order that day:



    And who doesn't love an Italian treat without having to buy the box/tin? Genius!


    If you go:

    Also visit the nearby Menil Collection.

    Post one

    Aloha and bon appetit.