The Bounty of Ireland

So it has been too long since I’ve had a post, not like anyone is reading this anyway. I recently came back from a week long vacation in Ireland where I visited Dublin, Waterford, Cork/Blarney, Doolin, and Ashford (Cong). Everyone is always so fascinated with Ireland, and I can see why.

Dublin is quite the international city. It still has an old feel why being very updated and new. Coming from a small town where the ethnic diversity is almost non-existent, it was wonderful to see so many cultures in one place. Not only that, but it was clear that this melting pot was not simply due to tourists, many of these differing ethnicities take up residence here. Of course, with the diversity of culture comes the diversity of food. While the Irish pub and its famous fish and chips, Irish beef stew, bacon and cabbage, most likely have the most representation, there are tons of Chinese, Indian, middle eastern (mostly kebab), even Japanese and Greek restaurants. Ireland is not known for its food, but with farmers markets and boutique stores offering a variety of cheeses, an assortment of cured meats and charcuterie, along with plenty of whiskey and beer, you would never guess that Ireland has such a poor food reputation.

Going outside of Dublin however, it becomes a slightly different story. While the quality of the full Irish breakfast (fried egg, tomato, baked beans in a tomato sauce, sautéed mushrooms, rashers, black and white pudding, sausage, toast, juice, coffee, tea, and cereal) stays wherever you go, the diversity dissipates. Sausages are still wonderful, the cheese is local, and the produce is fresh, but you begin to see the same offerings again and again.

Truth be told, my best meals in Ireland were the breakfasts. I stayed mostly at bed and breakfasts, many of which were quaint and had kind owners, but most of Ireland does not seem to make its wonderful resources (fresh beef, lamb, and tons of seafood) into the gourmet food that it could. Of course there are steaks, lamb chops, and the occasional oyster festival, but there are wild blackberries growing everywhere in the country, and no one seems to be picking them!

Ireland is known for Guinness and whiskey. Its beautiful countryside and kind people are not renowned for being epicurean. While the gourmet can certainly be found, I would go to Ireland in search of a great time, a filling breakfast, and tasty pint instead.

Cortese

Last Saturday night, my girlfriends father took us and her sister to Cortese in Binghampton. I was told we were going to “cor-tees,” which I thought was spelled “cortiz” thinking it was Spanish. But no, we found ourselves, after a beautiful drive through the countryside, at an unsuspecting restaurant with a white stucco finish and neon signs. Upon entry, the dimly lit restaurant was abustle with customers, always a good sign, and we were promptly shown to our seats.

Looking over the menu, I found your stand Italian favorites, including veal and a surprisingly large selection of fish. However, I was informed by my dining companions that this restaurant is known for its steak because it comes with specialty sauces. These include:

http://www.corteserestaurant.com/Menu/Beef_Pork.htm

After inquiry from both our waitress and consent from my girlfriend, I ordered the Milanese Style, packed with garlic. All sauces come either on the side, or poured over your steak table-side on a sizzling platter and covered for a few moments before it is served.

I suppose I should back up a moment. We ordered a small pizza to share, which was greasy (in a good way), the cheese was fresh, and the sauce of a sweeter variety. All entrees come with either soup or salad, and I ordered an “Italian chicken,” the soup of the day. What came was Italian Wedding. Not because our waitress got our order wrong, but because they use chicken broth, egg drops (similar to a straciatella) and spinach with Italian sausage. The soup was hearty and filling without being filling, just not what I expected.

Ok, back to my steak. I ordered the New York Strip medium rare. I was worried that with the sizzling platter, my steak might continue to cook on my plate, but the chefs deftly took that into consideration, because my steak was nice a red in the middle, with great grill marks and had developed a nice char. The garlic was finely chopped and was the predominant flavor of the sauce, but even though the garlic did not seem roasted (it was al dente as far as texture is concerned) it did not have a raw, pungent flavor. The oil and oregano mellowed the sauce and it accented the steak nicely.

Dessert was chocolate mousse ordered by the women. It was light and fluffy, yet decadent, everything a mousse should be. I only had a small taste of some other dishes, so I fear I cannot comment on them and do it justice.

Overall the restaurant and the company was wonderful. I can see why my girlfriend’s sister requested it for the small time she was in town.

Clark’s Summit 100th Anniversary

On Friday, Nicolas Village in Clark’s summit played host to a wine and dinner event celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the city. Entitled, “Ragtime Roundup,” the theme of the even was to dress from the 1910’s decade. As many people do not have that kind of garb in their dressers and closets, many wore a standard cocktail evening outfit. Many restaurants in the local area were represented, as well as Maiolatesi Winery. Tickets were $20, which included 1 drink ticket.

The pool and the connected ball rooms were filled with guests and food. The local Weis grocery supplied the crab for the crab cakes as you entered. The cakes were deep fried and crispy on the outside without being greasy. The lump of the meat was not as big as you might find in Maryland, but there was not too much filler and the sweetness of the crab came through nicely. Next on the seafood lineup was seared tuna from Formosa. Encrusted wit white sesame seeds and cooked to order, the fish was fresh and clean. Served on a bed of mixed greens with an orange aioli, it was my favorite dish of the night. I preferred mine seared rare with only a dot of the aioli (my personal preference against mayonnaise and its derivative products).

Continuing down the line was sushi from Akita. Also featuring Edamame and seaweed salad, the sushi was one of the first items to go. I much preferred the diced tuna and the crab/avocado to the tempura vegetable. Tempura should be eaten hot from the fryer and crispy. Putting it in a sushi roll only makes the fried batter soft.

Cagiano’s had a fresh fruit tray and crudités platter, standard fare and nothing to speak of. Raganochi’s featured a meatball that was rich and succulent, clearly made with higher fat content beef, served with a tomato sauce and parmesan cheese. There were two pasta dishes, the first being a penne with vodka, heavy with cream and garlic, second was a tortellini in a cream sauce. Another Italian restaurant (I even get mixed up with how many there are) brought a seafood risotto with peas. The seafood was fresh and went well with the cheese (despite the common misconception that seafood and cheese should never go together) but there was not enough seafood for me to taste it.

The final table I tried as a skewer of grill-charred chicken with a balsamic glaze, bruchetta that was heavy with garlic and had chopped kalamata olives. Canolli that was filled and dusted at the table. There was also a beef wellington that came in a puff pastry, though the juices of the beef did not soak through. A chevre, peach and mango salsa was served in a mini martini cup (I say cup because they were plastic). The salsa,(which is what they called it) was good, but there was too much creaminess in it to identify the sweet yet tangy goat cheese. The same table also featured roasted pheasant gnocchi. I love pheasant, but my favorite preparation is smoked because the gaminess of the bird comes through. In with the gnocchi, it tasted more like chicken.

Overall the food was wonderful, but the one free drink ticket was a bit of a letdown. Then again, I’m mostly there for the food rather than the wine. My date and I did make friends and heard about the taste of the Abingtons, so more to come on that in late Sep.

Trattoria Bella - Montage Mountain

The quality team came by last week and graciously offered to take us to dinner at Trattoria Bella just down the street from the office. Having been to Italy, I am a bit of a snob when it comes to Italian food. If anything, Italian should be simple. The fewer and fresher the ingredients the better. Olive Garden is the bane and opposite of what I am describing. Bella had the standard array of both appetizers and entrees, with enough choices that made it hard for me to make up my mind. The night started with a round of appetizers.

Our side of the table ordered stuffed mushrooms, which were filled with crab meat and topped with cheese before being put under a salamander. They were slightly oily, but the cheese and seafood did not clash. Of course we had calamari, and of course it was deep fried. The rings were well coated but not greasy, but the rings themselves were not plump, so all you really tasted was the fried batter. My order was melon wrapped in prosciutto, a favorite of mine. The prosciutto was thicker than usual and had more meatyness to it than I am used to. The melon was honey, but was crunchy, hard, and not yet ripe. The entire dish was drizzled with a balsamic glaze, adding a sweetness to the finish. Finally there was the bruchetta. The bread was well toasted, and the tomato compote was heavily with garlic and onions. Again, the whole dish was drizzled with balsamic glaze, but the bread quickly became soggy as the tomato compote was saucy.

I ordered the special of the evening for my entrée. The shrimp and scallops came with sautéed zucchini, squash, and carrots and a tomato infused rice on the side. For how much I’m sure it cost, I did not receive much seafood. The scallops were slightly gritty, and tasted a little, well, old. The shrimp was tender and soft. Neither of them was heavy in butter or oil. The lasagna was ordered by the person to my left, and was a huge portion. It smelled savory and heavy with pomodoro sauce, the cheese completely melted in between each layer. Rice and pasta dishes were served to others, all of which were large in quantity and looked inundated with cream, butter, and cheese in their sauces. I was tempted by one of the house specials, veal with scallops, but that was ordered by another and regretfully, I was unable to taste it.

Overall, the ambiance and convenience of Bella was nice, especially if you were going to watch a Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees game over a nice dinner. The food was good, but not fantastic, and as I am not yet paid to eat and write about it, something that is not worth it on my budget.

I should comment, as a post script, that the waitresses seemed peeved when we had 23 in our party instead of 28, and the service was certainly not quicker because of it. They were often questioning who ordered what, and some dishes took much longer to come out than others. It seemed like we were bothering them whenever we needed something. Good for them I was not in charge of the tip.

Akita Sushi – Clarks Summit

I will admit that more often than not, I get to sample to food of fine dining via food and wine events rather than at the restaurant itself. Last weekend, after being thoroughly liquored up at the diminutive wine and art show in Clarks Summit, my date and I walked to Akita Sushi.

As to be expected with every sushi restaurant in the area (except Katana), the chefs were not Japanese. This is not an indicator of quality. The lunch special allowed for two rolls of my choosing with soup or salad. The ginger that came with the sushi was crisp, the wasabi pungent and powerful.

I chose the Tokyo roll and the Atlanta roll. The Tokyo came with tuna and salmon together, with a bit of masago (flying fish roe) on the outside. The fish was fresh and did not smell fishy nor taste slimy. The flavors were clean and genuine. The Atlanta roll was avocado, cucumber, and yellowtail. I know that it was poor form, but I actually ate part of insides out before consuming in one bite, I wanted to savor it longer (and sober up before I had to head out)

The entire lunch combo was only a little over $10, and for sit-down sushi, that’s pretty good. Nothing out of this world, but a nice stop.

Face Full of Pig

Last Saturday was beautiful. I drove from Scranton up 81 to Cortland New York, a quaint town and a beautiful drive. My destination was a roadside bbq restaurant called Smokin’ Joes. I was here to participate in their first annual Pulled Pork Eating Contest.

Contestants paid $25 up front to participate. The kitchen closed as friends and family gather around two tables set up in the middle of the dining room. Trays of pulled pork sandwiches, 11 on each were set down in front of the 15 competitors. All men, the $500 first place prize was a great incentive to stuff our faces. Even if we failed, we could take home the leftovers, so it was a great deal one way or the other. The rules were simple, 10 minutes, as much as you can eat, drink anything you want (non-alcoholic), and you can’t vomit for 15 minutes after the competition ended. Eat!

I sat at the end of the table. Another gentleman who humbly said that he had participated in a “couple bbq eating competitions” was clearly the ringer, as he had traveled four hours to compete. Aside from him and myself, everyone else was a local, just here to have a good time. Some competitors knew from the beginning that they had no chance of winning, but stepped up to the plate just for the fun of it. The sandwiches were simply pulled pork with bbq sauce on a bun not dissimilar from a happy meal. The meat had a wonderful smoky flavor, black, crunchy bark (which I usually adore, but the dry and flavorful ends were slower eating), and was soft and tender.

I immediately went for the meat, skipping the buns for later. Intermingling water and pork, I wolfed down sandwich after sandwich, carefully keeping my eye on the ringer to my left, and a local champ to my right. The local had friends cheering him on, while I had only my grit to continue. As the meat went down, it was difficult to tell who was leading, I had 11 buns to consume, and my opponents had about 2.5 sandwiches, this was dangerous.

With three water cups in front of me, I poured the water over the buns, and dunked them in between shoving them down my gullet. I was catching up, everything was looking good, ten minutes creeping up on all of us. Then, disaster struck. A balloon of air was stuck in my ribs, making another bite seem vomitous. I stood, shook, pounded my chest, try to free the air, unable to continue eating until it was freed. The crowd called for a bucket, thinking I would make a mess of myself, but all they got was a loud belch, and I threw myself back into the fray.

However, with the 15 seconds of pause, the New Yorker to my left was able to call for a second tray, and as the final seconds ticked down, he was able to chipmunk another half sandwich into his maw while I was left with a solemn empty (and wet) tray.

The $500 went to him, but I soon found out he was a former member of Major League Eating, a pro. My performance did not go unrewarded however, I left with a big tray of leftovers, a polo shirt, beer paraphernalia, and a 3.5 foot tall smoker. Though beaten, it was good to know I was bested by a professional, and only by a small degree. My eating adventure continues, with restaurants and challenges waiting to be bested.

Watermelon Cheesecake

My friend Jack recently sold his house, and once again, is hosting a dinner party Saturday night. Despite my enjoyment of regular cooking, I seen to be the only one who enjoys and is (I think) good at desserts. With the weather as ridiculously hot as it is, I was going to go with a cool, fruit dessert. I wasn’t in the mood to go shopping, despite the air conditioned grocery store. I looked in my fridge and found watermelon and cream cheese. Looking in my pantry revealed graham cracker crumbs and chocolate. I had an idea, watermelon cheesecake.

Disclaimer: I made up this recipe as I went along, so I have no measurements. I will try my best to estimate.

Start with the standard graham cracker crumb crust. Melt butter and mix it with the crumb, press into the bottom of a greased pie pan.

Cut up a fourth of a large watermelon. Take out the seeds, put into a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Put through sifter, cheese cloth, etc. Put the juice in a pan, add a couple pinches of salt, and ¼ cup sugar, put on high heat and reduce until it becomes a syrup. Don’t worry if the liquid looks like its separating.

In a food processor or a mixer, put in 8oz of cream cheese, 2 eggs, pinch of salt. I added tequila rose (a strawberry cream liquor) and some melted strawberry jam, but some strawberry milk, or an extract would work as well. Add the watermelon syrup, but reserve about ¼ cup. Mix all ingredients and put in the pie crust.

Bake the pie at 350 for 1 hour or until center is solid. I put a bowl of water in the bottom to prevent cracking. After the cake has cooled, coat the top with the remaining syrup for a bright red finish. I added chocolate chips as ‘seeds’ for a fun look.

As of this writing, I have not presented it at the party, but it looks great and the ‘batter’ tasted wonderful. I will let you know how it goes.

Plumpy’s Pierogies @ Quinn’s

Last Saturday, Quinn’s market in Archibald had a weekend long event entitled “Come Sale Away.” This event included free samples from various vendors, performances by local children’s dance studios, local bands, and most pertinent to me, a pierogie eating contest.

            Worried that there would be a limit to the number of entrants, I arrived early on the warm, sunny, Saturday morning. The first one there, I was dismayed when I learned there had been a wing eating competition the night before sponsored by Quaker Steak and Lube. The challenge had consisted of eight wings and two minutes. The wings must be cleaned to the bone, including gristle. The owner a Plumpy’s pierogies was the winner, taking home a $25 Quinn’s gift card and another gift card for Quaker Steak and Lube.

            Saturday’s festivities were attended by 11 competitors. About three times as many spectators gathered around to watch us stuff our faces. For any of you who don’t know, a pierogie is a “boiled, baked or fried dumpling of unleavened dough traditionally stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, ground meat, cheese, or fruit. Of central and eastern European provenance, they are usually semicircular, but are rectangular or triangular in some cuisines” (Wikipedia). These happened to be filled with potato, as is most common in the Northeast PA area, and were deep fried. This presented a different challenge than the sautéed with butter and onion variety.

The crispy, deep fried kind requires a different strategy. They are dry, soaking up the saliva in your mouth, making you unable to swallow them. I address this issue two ways. The first was dumping water over them (they were served in a tray) just as I received them. This only partially worked, as I was eating them so fast, the pierogies did not have time to soak up the water. To combat this, I had to mash the dumplings with my hand before stuffing my face. This also reduced the amount I had to chew before I could swallow. As with all speed eating, I had extra water standing by, as my natural liquid was insufficient to choke (literally) down the potato and dough.

We had three minutes to consume as many as we could. Plates of eight were set in front of us, with additional plates of five were standing by. For a grueling three minutes, I soaked, mashed, chewed, choked, and swallowed 20.5 of the potato-filled dumplings, beating out the other 10 gluttons. With my gift card in hand, pictures were taken and are apparently up on the Toyota Scranton Facebook page, though I was unable to locate it.

Weekend in Long Island

A friend of mine, Dan, will be moving to Florida soon. We were watching a movie Thursday night when he, offhandedly, asked if I wanted to go to Long Island with him and his friend, Kim, for the weekend. Having little else planned, and knowing that a weekend away is always a good time, I took him up on the offer. Saturday was spent at the beach, but the feast that we cooked that night was glorious,

Dan and I are carnivores to the core, so the on sale t-bone steaks were our choices. Kim however, elected for the shrimp. However, since the steaks came in a 3 pack, it was surf and turf for us. A bunch of veggies and some drinks meant kabobs for all.

Now I realize that kabobs are by no means a culinary exploration, but the marinade and grilling expertise was what separated this from the usual. The veggies, prior to being skewered were put in a pot along with balsamic vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic power, red pepper flakes, paprika, and sun dried tomato flakes. Mixing these by hand, Dan and I soon had a tray full of veggie kabobs. The shrimp was done simply being mixed with old bay prior to being impaled.

As for the steaks, it would have been a sin had we stripped away the meat from the flavorful bone prior to grilling. Both sides of the steak were seasoned with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powders, and sat, waiting for the grill.

First thing was first, veggies have to go on. Here is a little tip with any kabob making endeavor: mix and match any veggies on a skewer, and keep all the meet skewers separate. Chicken takes far longer to cook than steak or shrimp. Don’t turn your veggies into charcoal with just done chicken, or have pink-in-the-center chicken with perfect veggies.

With the veggie kabobs complete, chicken and shrimp went on. With nice and crispy ends, just slightly charred, they were removed and the lid went back down, re-heating for the steak. Another tip with grilling steak: Get your grill as hot as it will go BEFORE putting the steak on. We are talking 500 degrees here. Sufficiently hot, the steak went on. Five minutes for one side. Resist temptation to peak, flip, move, or touch the steaks. Keep the lid on and let them be. Fail to do this, and the steak will not develop those signature grill marks. Flipped once, and another four minutes on the grill. Steaks come off, and I let them rest for 5 min underneath tin foil. Why? When steaks come right off the grill, the protein molecules are still to jumbled and moving. Cutting into a steak now would make all of the juices run out, and the steak’s flavor with it. Let it rest for five minutes under foil, and you will be rewarded with juicy steak.

The next day, we headed to a party at Dan’s sister’s house. Wouldn’t you know it, they had kabobs! This time, we had no steak but instead had chicken and swordfish. Me being the foodie I am, I couldn’t wait to get into the kitchen and help. Showing my deftness, I soon was delegated head chef. As before, veggies went on medium heat first. After two whole grills full of vegetation, I turned to the chicken, again giving it a nice char on the end. This required flipping both top to bottom and side to side. The beauty though, was in the swordfish. As with any steak (or steak fish), cooking any further than medium is an insult to the ingredient. After removing all other items, I again let the grill re-heat. The cubes of skewered swordfish sat on one side for four minutes before their single flip. Another three minutes and seared medium swordfish were on the table.

I wonderful meal was enjoyed by all and for the three hour car ride home (most of which I slept through) I am sure I stand up the car with my masculine scent of the grill.

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

Office Cupcake Wars

One of the managers at work was unfortunately in a car accident. To assist with the family’s financials, we hosted cupcake wars in the office. The cupcakes were baked and donated and sold at $.50 a piece. There were prizes for the Best Decoration, Most Creative, and Best Tasting cupcakes, as voted by someone in another portion of the business who knew no one participating.

I know that there are a few people in the office who decorate cakes as a hobby/side job. For this reason, I did not think it wise to take them on in the best decoration category. Aside from that, I know that taste is completely subjective, and I didn’t care about adding more butter to a recipe to win. Further, I’m all about creating innovating recipes and I already won most original recipe for my red wine cupcake with chocolate balsamic frosting last year.

After some deliberation and kitchen experimentation, I determined to go with a French Toast cupcake with a Maple Glaze and a candied bacon topping. Breakfast in a cupcake. The recipe is as follows.

Cake

Take a standard box of yellow cake mix cake mix

Make as directed except:

The total liquid portion should be half oil and half water (ex. if the recipe calls for 1 cup water and 1/2 cup oil, instead use 3/4 water and 3/4 oil)

Add an egg, spiced rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla

Taste and add more of the above as needed.

Glaze

Maple syrup, butter, and powder sugar, melt all over small flame until desired consistency

Bacon

Cook bacon in pan until about 75% finished (should still be flimsy, but most of the fat is off)

Mix in bowl with brown sugar, bake in lined baking sheet at 350 until crispy

And the winners are…..

Most Creative – Chrissy (whose cupcakes were topped with fondant in the shape of an ice cream cone)

Best Decoration – Chrissy (who submitted two kinds of cupcakes. These were topped with fondant in the shape of flowers)

Best Tasting – Mine

Go figure! I had a ton of fun doing it and have still solidified my baking dominance within the office. Woo Hoo.

AWS Electric City Summer Picnic

Foodies and winoes are often one in the same kind of person. For those who were in attendance at the American Wine Society Picnic on Saturday afternoon, this was no exception. The park next to the cemetery, across from Dunkin Donuts just off the

Davis street

exit from 81 was the local for the 25ish person party that started at 2:00 and ran late into the afternoon.

The $10 attendance charge covered everything. Most people brought additional food and wine, so there were plenty of summer BBQ and picnic items available. Standard fare of burgers and hot dogs, chips and cookies (these were shaped and frosted to look like wine glasses) were of course present. However, the best foods were brought by individual members.

There was a salsa that was composed of cilantro, red, orange, yellow, peppers, onions, and tomatoes. It was crunchy and fresh and I ate it like a salad. A sweet, dill flavored pickle and red onion salad sat next to an Thai/Asian flavored, peanut topped slaw. As expected with any wine engagement, cheese, crackers, and olives were aplenty. My favorite was a pungent horseradish cheese that went well with the spicy sausage.

Of course, the main attraction of the afternoon was the wine. Every variety from sweet to dry, white to red, served in chilled bottles and recycled paint buckets. Yes, you read that right. Two of the wines, rather than being in the standard Franzia box, were being decanted in plastic paint buckets, which was a gimmick that was enjoyed by all.

 As with all potlucks, picnics, and parties, the afternoon was a slew of eating, drinking, talking, drinking, repeat. The festivities left me both full and socially satiated (a rare combination) I can’t wait for the regional picnic in a month!

Arts On Fire First Friday

First Friday is always a great time. You will always find me in attendance for this food, wine, and art walk. Fortunately, with the warm weather, attendance has gone up, and with it, the number of venues who host.

I always start my First Friday jaunts at Backyard Alehouse, a Scranton staple. In the summer, on Friday nights, they break out the grill and offer free burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and sausage and peppers. Needless to say, this brings in the crowd and even though I may start there on my own, I always meet up with people I know. A great spot to start any weekend.

From there, with the First Friday map torn from the newspaper in my back pocket, I started the gauntlet of downtown locales. As usual, most venues featured hors d’ourves, small snacks, fruits, cheeses, crackers, and crudités platters. However, the cigar shop offers more succulent foods like hoagies, fried chicken, meatballs, and mack and cheese.

Art works and Afa gallery closed early due to the Arts of Fire festival at the historic iron furnaces. NEPA Power was painting white clothing outside the galleries while DJs were spinning beats, jugglers tossed fire-filled batons, and teenage girls twirled batons.

At the furnaces, $15 gave you entrance to another array of cheeses and fruit, along with catered food from Chicanos. They brought all of their meats, a shredded chicken that was heavily spiced, the carnitas was in larger chunks rather than shredded like you might find in Pancheros or other burrito restaurants. The steak, to my personal distaste, was more like steak’ums rather than strips or chunks. The salsas that accompanied the meats were all spicy speaking to the authenticity of the cooks. In all honesty, this is most authentic, though Americanized, Hispanic food that one can find in the area.

The wine and beer was all lowest shelf, and after all of the drinks I had had prior, I stuck with soda. To end the evening, the first 150 customers got free ice cream from Ms. Moo’s ice cream truck that was on site. The scoops were generous and the flavors plentiful, a wonderful and cool ending to the evening.

A dinner party and strawberry cake

A friend of mine, Jack, hosted a wonderful dinner party Saturday night. With summer here, my birthday last Thursday, and Jack being newly hired, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate.

The evening began with three different cocktails and cheese. A mango mojito, blueberry vodka lemonade, and a dark violet, a drink made from a violet liquor, vodka, bitters, and has mint and lime. It was wonderful. One of the cheeses, a blue, was creamy, heavy, and luxurious. While most spread it on crackers, I favored a carrot, whose natural sweetness lended well to the salty unctuousness.

This was followed by more drinks (wine, beer, etc) and a variety of dips. Our other host, Tom, is “fond of dippy things. It lets people dip, eat, drink, talk, dip, talk, eat, drink……in that order.” He had an artichoke, black bean, split pea and sun dried tomato, eggplant, and hummus. An impressive spread, each of which leading to the other.

Dinner was kebabs. In my experience, kabobs should usually consist of one ingredient, say onions, or chicken. Putting the vegetables and meat on one kabob leads to either undercooked meat, or burned veggies. However, this was not the case. The steak was still juicy and delicious, while the shrimp was crispy, and the chicken still moist. An excellent job done by the grillman Jack.

Dessert was my department. I made my mother’s strawberry cake, a wonderful summer favorite. It starts with a box of yellow cake mix. Step 1, throw away the instructions from the box.

Combine the cake mix with 4 eggs, 1 cup vegetable oil, some vanilla extract.

Get a 12 oz container of frozen strawberries (can get with or without sugar, but if without sweeten them slightly) Defrost, mash, and divide in half. Put half into the cake mix.

Take a .3 oz package of jello (the small one, regular or sugar-free) and dissolve in ½ cup water boiling water. Let set for about 3 min to come off the boil, and add to cake mix.

Place batter in a well oiled 9x13 baking pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Take the other half of the strawberries and add ½ stick of butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, and a little vanilla. Simmer.

When cake is finished but still warm, poke holes in the top with a fork and add topping. Immediately cover with aluminum foil. Let set overnight. When serving, warm in 300 oven for 10 min. Result is a moist and delicious cake that will be sure to impress. It sure did Saturday night!

Weekend In Baltimore

With over 60 interviews performed over the past 1.5 weeks, and the final hiring decisions made, I left work at 4:00 on Thursday, determined to make it to Tio Pepe in downtown Baltimore in reasonable time for dinner.

I met my parents and my aunt and uncle at this classic taberna just of

St. Paul Street

. The restaurant was segmented into what seemed to be arms of a cave, completely white-washed on the sides. Wait staff were clad in bow ties as our portly and jolly waiter brought in our pitcher of sangria. I started my meal slightly later with a bowl of garlic soup. The heady, red broth was inundated with a unctuous shavings of garlic. Spanish spices and onion melded together to create a mélange of flavor. My seafood dinner was topped with a thick orange seafood sauce that coated my plate with buttery flavor accented with cumin and curry-like spices. My mother got the duck which was crispy to the point of me wanted to eat its bones. Crab covered rockfish was one of the specialties of the evening which came in a huge portion and was, like my seafood platter, covered in the rich sauce. Dessert was a rolled cake with French silk pie-like filling. One of the cakes came topped with toasted pine nuts, their smokiness and sweetness truly coming to front.

The next day, after a vigorous, self-guided walking tour of the city, my mother and I went to Lumbini, a Nepalese and Indian restaurant. As I have mentioned before, I prefer the lunch buffets because of the variety and deal they offer. Both goat and fish curries were available, the former primarily consisting of fatty and connective tissue filled cuts of goat. The tandoori chicken and pallak paneer were always a welcome addition, as was the complimentary milk tea at the end of the buffet line.

Museums, more walking, sunshine, and a trip to a four stall farmers market built up our appetite for Cazbar. Open table allowed me to make a 1000 point reservation at 5:45. My mother and I split the grilled meats platter, and I also had the bean soup. Comparable to any spicy, home made black bean soup, the cup was not out of this world. However, the lamb, kofka, chicken, and beef were superb. Each was charred to medium perfection and was served with rice, salad, and cucumber yogurt sauce, still with string of cucumber rather than being completely integrated.

Having only split an entrée, Tir na Nog was our next stop. An array of appetizers brought forth scallops, still slightly gritty, yet perfectly yielding to the knife, set in a broth that was reminiscent of French onion soup reduced. Grilled oysters were covered in a creamy crab dip and broiled. However, the star of the show was the crab cake. There was just enough egg to hold the lump meat together, while it was drizzled with capers, pine nuts, and a sauce that tasted of old bay and butter, but thicker.

The following morning brought the National Aquarium and the well-known Phillips crab cakes. They were, like the ones at Tir Na Nog, just barely held together with egg, but the spices and/or sauces were absent, leaving me to add my own old bay at the table.

Dinner was a simple concoction of potatoes, grilled chicken, green beans, tossed in a balsamic yogurt sauce. Next to some Caesar salad, red wine, and pineapple for dessert, made for a great night.

Showing us a good time, my parents and other aunt and uncle (both live in the Baltimore area) set out for Paladar Latin Kitchen and Rum Bar. The Caribbean rum sampling had a smooth, a rich, and a paint thinner of a rum. The triplet of cirviches was good and tasted fresh, but was not knock your socks off. What was interesting was that the tortilla chips basket also had plantain chips and taro root chips, a welcome departure from the norm.

After again, walking and shopping to build the appetite, we all took off for Level. This small plates restaurant is wonderful. Seasonal and local ingredients mean a changing menu. The only drawback is that often the plates are so small that sharing can be difficult. The rockfish above a bean coulee was filling and satisfying, the green garlic risotto was thick, creamy, rich, and cheesy. The bison satays were succulent and tender, despite the lack of fat in the meat. The tuna tartar was plated in a pool of soy sauce which was slightly spicy and had both black and white sesame seeds. My only regret is that I couldn’t taste the sweetbreads. My uncle ordered it and was unwilling to share. I cant blame him, as you don’t get in between a man and his thymus gland.

Its Been Too Long - Cocktails and Cuisine

I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth, I just feel off of blogger. My hunger for a good time has not decreased as I am still as gastronomically active as ever…I just wasn’t writing about it. I want to make it a habit of one post per week. Lets start from there, shall we?

Last Friday was a Cocktails and Cuisine night at the Scranton Chamber of Commerce. Various sponsors hosted tables with both food and drink from various countries around the world. The event was attended by about 50 people. The food itself was mostly Americanized versions of a stereotype food from a country. Case in point, Mexico was represented by cheese queslidillas with salsa from a bottle and margheritas from a mix. Japan was covered by sushi, Edamame, and seaweed salad from Atami and sake. Poland had holishki and a beef and cabbage stew. The stew was the definition of easy comfort food. Sautéed ground beef and onions with salt and pepper mixed in with tomato soup and cabbage pieces and simmered. Ireland has ham and cabbage and of course, Guiness. Thai Rak Thai gave their pad thai and it was paired with a mai tai and the person serving was wearing a tye-dye tie (okay to that last part isn’t true). Germany has mini wieners with sauerkraut and pretzels dipped in cheese. Italy with pasta and meatballs, America with buffalo bites and hot dogs. Finally Russia took dessert with a variety of Russian cookies and an orange vodka tonic.

The next day, a friend of mine and I drove to Tunkhannuk for the Wings and Wine festival, conveniently located in the back of a Weis grocery. Your $15 entrance fee did not, as one might assume, get you access to any wings at all. Those had to be paid for at $.75 a wing. We stuck with the wine. As with many wines from this area, many were sweet. Juice with a spike of alcohol was the theme of the day. However, Antler Ridge was able to create fruit based wines that still maintained the integrity of the wine itself. The fruit was clear and present, the wine was on the sweeter side, but it didn’t taste like grown-up Kool Aid. The highlight of the day was the roast pig. When speaking with the pit master and discovering, to my dismay, that he had already sold the head for $20, I was given samples of knuckles, skin, and shoulder. All were slow roasted and very flavorful.

Leaving that festival at around 4, we drove across the city to the Vineyards by the Viaduct wine festival, equally conveniently located in a baseball diamond behind a couple houses. The sign might as well have been a piece of notebook paper stapled to a tree with “Wine Festival” written in pencil. Not willing to pay for one hour of a festival, we let ourselves in and claimed our glasses were lost or broken. As the end of the festival was at hand, wineries had no desire to lug home half empty bottles, so the pours were generous. Again, sweet wines dominated and again, the highlight was speaking with the crab cake vendor who was more than happy to let me take a crab cake (done on the grill and not fried or greasy at all) a mound of balsamic marinated mushrooms, and a plate of seafood and vegetable for $2, as it was all getting thrown away anyway.

The City of Brotherly Love...of Food - Part 3

My last day is Phillie and I know where I have to go. I return to the Reading Terminal Market. I say return because as a foodie, the first place I always go is the market, but with the choices as endless as they were delicious looking, I decided to wait for additional opinions before I dove in.

Not surprisingly, locals all pointed me to Denic’s and their roast port sandwich. Served on a baguette with provolone cheese, broccoli rahb or spinach, sweet and hot banana peppers and horseradish to taste, this gives the iconic cheese steak a run for its money. The pork was warm and leaner that I had imagined which is fine by me. The bread soaked in the juices while the sharp provolone acted as a poignant counterpoint to the pork. I love horseradish, which is most likely why I had some eye-watering nasal flares along the way.

My culinary journey ended in old city at Zahav, an Israeli restaurant I found highly suggested on open table (see previous post). As I walk in, I see the dining room was packed and the smell of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern spices filled the air. I sat down and was treated to a variety of olives, pickles, and pickled eggplant. In addition, there was a spice dish of harissa, hers, and a spicy pepper sauce, all of which were to be used throughout the meal as I found necessary.My waiter suggested that about two dishes from the mezze (appetizer) and one from the Al Ha’esh (grill) would be about enough, so I went for the Tayim tasting menu which allowed me to pick some of my favorites from the menu. What arrived first was my hummus hummus-foul  (pronounced ‘fool’) which was chickpea hummus with lemon and fava beans added. The laffa, the crispy flatbread not unlike naan was fresh from the oven, and had I wanted more, my waiter was happy to accommodate.

My salatim came, which is a tower of the daily eight selections of salads. That day’s consisted of beets, grated, whose sweetness was countered by the bitter saltiness of tahini (sesame seed paste), a Japanese kabotcha mash, soft and light, picked radishes that were still firm and sour, a wilted spinach salad that was topped with pomegranate, some more picked seedless cucumber which was tinted with thyme and was slightly more acidic, and a baby eggplant mash that was bright red due to I don’t know what but was delicious anyway. I think I’m still missing a couple, but I ate them all, and every one of them was excellent.

My first selected mezze came next. The kibbe naya, which is a lamb tartar mixed with bulgar wheat, was served atop golden beets and was accompanied with black harissa. The lamb wasn’t gamey at all and melted in your mouth while the beets added a touch of sweetness that was countered pleasantly by the smoky black harissa.

Next came my bastilla, a crisp and crusty phillo dough that surrounded braised lamb neck, pistachio and apricot. The neck fell apart on my fork and dissolved into meaty sweetness in my mouth due to the fruit and nut that was seamlessly integrated into it.

To my surprise and delight, two additional mezze arrive. Sable (black cod) that has been smoked in house topped a challah (Jewish egg bread ) toast whose center was hollowed out and replaced with a fried egg and green garlic. The smoke truly came through on the firm fish. The crunchy toast was softened by the runny egg yolk. I want this for breakfast everyday.

A grilled lamb tongue came that sat above a bed of black eyed peas and eggplant. The peas still had a remnant of firmness to them that went well with the crisp tongue. “Crispy tongue?” I asked. Usually, tongue has to be cooked low and slow to prevent it from becoming meat leather, but Zahav brines it for three days before giving it the grill treatment to blacken the edges just enough to give it a slight bite of char.

At this point, I thought the night couldn’t get any better, until my duck kebab came. Many might be thinking of a skewer of duck, but no, this was more like a patty that sat on an almond and freekah (grain) square. The duck was mixed with foie gras and seared as to be slightly rare in the center leaving it tender and juicy. The result was a puck of duck that was delicious as f…well, you get the idea.

Dessert consisted of flakey cinnamon and anise rolls paired with a glass of pear reduction puree topped with foamed milk.

City of Brotherly Love...of Food - Part 2

With my training ahead of me, I had precious little time to roam the city streets in search of Philadelphia’s best eats. Thus, I had to do my gastronomic research beforehand. My weapon of choice was OpenTable.com. This website allows you to book restaurant reservations all across the country and accrue points every time you do. Build of enough points and you can get gift cards to any participating restaurant. Check it out.

So, back to the food. Breakfast was at the hotel and was your standard eggs, fruit yogurt, etc. Nothing to write home (or blog) about. Lunch was spent at Cuba Libre in Old City. This Cuban restaurant features a bento-box style lunch for $15. The offerings change from week to week, but this time it started with a shrimp cocktail. Rather than your usual horseradish and ketchup sauce, it came in a onion-spiced tomato broth and was served with popcorn. The shrimp were tender and the tomato did not overpower their natural taste. A Cuban spin on a Caesar salad accompanied this. Rather than parmesan, queso fresco was used. The dressing was heavy on the anchovies and the salad itself came with a pulled pork spring roll. A burger was the main portion of the meal. The patty was a combination of both beef and spicy chorizo. The bun was a baguette and the sandwich was stuffed with mini French fries. The burger was great as the small portion, but I would not have wanted to make a meal out of it. Dessert was flourless chocolate cake with a blueberry fudge base, a decadent end to the meal.

Dinner was a jaunt through China Town. Having been to China and Japan, I immediately threw myself into the establishments that had the least amount of English on the menu and the most amount of Chinese customers. My first stop was Solo, a hole-in-the-wall skewer restaurant. My selection was squid, fish ball, chicken heart, and chicken gizzard. The last was a little crunchy and tough for my tastes, but everything came with a little sauce that had been caramelized by the grill. Four skewers, four dollars.

 

Next was Thai Lake. As you may notice walking around both Philadelphia and New York City, it seems like every restaurant had been Zagat Rated. This being the case, having the red and white, bold lettered sign in your window is no longer a differentiating factor. Thai Lake, on the other hand, won one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in the country in 2009. Good enough for me. I walked through the front door to encounter numerous tanks of live seafood. Always a good sign. As I took my seat, waiters would frequently run back and forth from the kitchen to the front, retreating with their live capture and a promise of a tasty seafood dinner. Looking at the menu, I channeled Andrew Zimmern and ordered a variety of the most off the beaten taste bud path foods I could find.

First was cold jellyfish head. I assume whatever part of the jellyfish your not supposed to touch is unrelated to the eatability of the head. The noodle-like strips had a crunch to them while the picked daikon, carrot, and cucumber salad acted as a welcomed acidic counterpoint.

Next were snails. I have had escargots before, but lets face it, anything swimming in drawn garlic butter is going to taste good. These were still in the shell and required toothpicks to consume. The snails came in a broth flavored with lemon rind and what appeared to be jalapeño pepper. Like most shelled creatures, half the fun of eating them is the work you have to do to get to them.

Last was a snake and mushroom soup. If you think the picture looks a lot like hot and sour soup that you might find at your local “Chinese” buffet, that because that is exactly how it tasted. The broth was thickened by what seemed to be gelatin, and the snake, which I have had grilled before, did not have any distinctive flavor. No wonder many places use tofu instead. The mushrooms and bamboo shoots were not overcooked as to become limp, but were al dente.

Despite my full stomach, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grocery shop for a few Asian ingredients and goodies. Matcha flavored pumpkin seeds, dried squid, and the infamously rancid smelling durian all came back with me. For anyone who doesn’t know, durian is a Southeast Asian fruit that is famous for its foul stench. In fact, many public places don’t allow them. I had a smoothie made from it before and even blended it reeked up dirty gym socks. I cant wait to cut it open (outside of course) and try the real fruit. I’ll defiantly let you know how it goes.

City of Brotherly Love…of Food – Day 1

I know I haven’t updated in a while, but it’s because I have been traveling. On Valentine’s Day, I made my way down to the Keswick Theater just outside of Philadelphia to see Anthony Bourdain. The evening was wonderful as no culinary entertainer or television program escaped his commentary. After mentioning numerous anecdotal musings from his newest book, Medium Raw, he opened the floor to questions. Many of them circled around his travels and restaurant recommendations. To these he referred them to his travel log in the Travel Channel website. My question was essentially “How do I get your job?” Bourdain responded that he took advantage of the lucky break that his original book, Kitchen Confidential gave him. As far as the work ethic involved, he cited his days as a dishwasher that gave him his sense of accomplishment.

Tuesday was checking into the hotel, acquainting myself with the Philadelphia office, and exploring the city stomach first. Having had a small breakfast and craving the ethnic foods that are difficult to find in Scranton, I made my way to Sambosa, an Indian restaurant with an $8.99 lunch buffet. As expected, there were a variety of curries to go with freshly made naan and rice along with a salad bar complete with the myriad of sauces and chutneys. There was also a vegetarian vegetable soup that maintained its “meaty-ness” by the curry in the broth. The dhal (lentil soup) was made with yellow lentils and had poppy seeds in it. The soup was pureed such that you could still detect the texture of the lentils. The palak paneer (spinach and cheese) was smooth and creamy without being bitter. Tandoori chicken was bright red and spicy, while the gajar halwa (grated carrots and butter) was dessert-like in its natural sweetness, complete wish pistachios and ghee (clarified butter). Of course there was still mango pudding that went well with the kheer (sweetened, milky rice) and the gulab jamun (milkdough balls and syrup) was, as always, sugary sweet with the syrup being runny enough to add on top of the other two desserts.

My stomach full, I wandered the city, saw the liberty bell, a variety of museums, and after hours and miles, built up my appetite to visit Amada, one of Iron Chef Jose Garces’ restaurants. The place was fairly full at 6:00 on a Tuesday night. The only way I was able to get a seat was because I sat in front of the kitchen (where I would have wanted anyway) and I was a party of one. Instead of bread and butter, you receive crispy garlic chips to dip into a tuna and caper aoli.

Being a Spanish tapas restaurant, the waiter suggested about three dishes. My selections focused on the traditional tapas, especially things I know I couldn’t/wouldn’t make at home. First came oysters. They were served on spoons with a strawberry escabeche and cava granita. The strawberry was a great counterpoint to the salty Atlantic oysters, while the cava granita added that fresh, icy texture. I tried to sample each part, but really, you just need to down the whole spoon.

Next, I selected the grilled Spanish octopus. Served sizzling on a wooden plate, it almost tasted like bacon and was red with the smoked paprika. It was crispy and crunchy without being burnt or rubbery.

Last, I had the clams and chorizo. The chorizo was solidly packed and spiced the oceanic broth that was served boiling. The clams were clean and not gritty at all, but the true selling point was the broth, and I asked for a spoon rather than the toasted and buttered bread slices that came with it. Full, I asked for the bill which came with a large, almond cookie in the shape of an arch.

 

Day one of three complete, and I already had some great meals. I am feelin’ the love

Winter in the City – Part II

Last Friday, the Trolley Museum in downtown Scranton hosted the second of two fundraisers. The event benefits Scranton Tomorrow and features donated food from numerous local vendors, live music, drinks, and a basket auction. All of this is yours for the small sum of $15 at the door, which is probably why both last month and this, the museum was packed with people beyond its usual capacity.

Not all of the restaurants listed in the newspaper had a food offering. In fact, this time had fewer dishes than last. While, as I mentioned, the museum was quite full, there were fewer people this time and one was gratefully able to move around and actually get to the food, unlike last time were it was shoulder to shoulder. Being fashionably late might leave you fashionably hungry as many of the best dishes went fast. As all the food was donated, crowd pleasers like Blue Wasabi/Kyoto’s avocado and roe topped tuna rolls and krab stuffed California rolls were gone in under 30 minutes.

As before, Kildare’s, along with Kelly’s Pub, both brought their chicken wings. The former were larger and featured a whisky-based coating, while the later were smaller, crispier, and had both traditional BBQ and hot wing sauces. There were two varieties of pierogi, traditional with buttered onions, and a cheddar and bacon version brought by the Casey’s at the Hilton. Both of them were soft with butter whipped potatoes in the middle and gut-bustingly filling. A litany of pastas was also available to sample, ranging from a melted cheese-topped gemelli pasta from Pizza Hut, penne and vodka from La Trattoria, shells covered in a Bolognese sauce, and bow tie and cream sauce that also had broccoli, chicken, green beans, yellow carrots, and cauliflower.

Italian food was everywhere with a basic risotto, a chicken and mushroom marsala which went fast yet was heavier than expected with its buttery sauce, eggplant parmesan which was baked such that the eggplant was yielding but the crust started to flake off as the sauce was baked into the vegetable rather than the whole dish being basted in it. A chicken piccatta was covered in olive oil drenched lemons, a chicken parmesan which was pounded flat and lightly breaded then smothered in a glistening red sauce, were accompanied by an antipasto plate complete with peppers, mushrooms, cured meats, and grilled tomatoes, zucchini and squash. Both thin and hand-tossed crust pizza was passed around; both were topped only with cheese, the later have a very doughy crust.

Even chain restaurants had their place. I already mentioned Pizza Hut, but Applebee’s brought hot spinach and artichoke dip, which was velvety and soft, along with visibly salted tortilla chips and a salsa which looked more like a pico de gallo, not having the soupy quality of many blended salsas. Coldstone was also dishing out the desserts with a thick vanilla, crunchy oreo, and chocolate covered strawberry ice creams along with a variety of ice cream cakes.

Thai Rak Thai brought spring rolls that were doughy in the center and came with two dipping sauces, a sweet and sour along with an umeboshi (Japanese picked plum) based sauce. Savory Maza had stuffed samosas, meat pies (both of which were gone in 15 minutes and not replenished), a very lemony hummus, and pita bread. A myriad of cookies, bars, and brownies from Pilosi Catering was matched by Intelligentsia roast coffee from Northern Lights.

Overall, it was a successful and fun night out. As any Scrantonian knows, when going to these events, even without bringing someone, you are sure to either meet people you know, or make new friends. Fortunately for me, both of those happened Friday night.