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.