Bread Success (Pretty Much!)!

I impulsively bought a block of wet compressed yeast from Rainbow Grocery yesterday and had to do something with it.This is my first western-style bread, using Mark Bittman/Jim Lahey's no-knead dutch oven recipe (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=1).

Although the recipe calls for instant yeast, the internet tells me 0.6 oz of wet yeast is equivalent to 2.25 tsp of instant. The block I bought was 0.5 lb, roughly 8 ounces, so I said what the hell, I'll chip a small piece from the corner off and see how it goes. The recipe requires so little work and just a lot of time waiting around for stuff to grow. It was pretty successful, although my dough seemed a bit more amorphous than it should, and the bread didn't rise as much as I'd hoped (see photo). The inside is still very light and airy, the crust is crackling and beautiful, and the taste is divine- salty, and yeasty; I'd say better than most of the loaves sold in bakeries (gasp!). In the future I will play around with different amounts of the compressed yeast and different room temperatures to see if I can achieve a more normal looking dough and higher rise.

P.S. delicious with mimolette cheese at 10pm

Thousand-year old egg, anyone?

I have one mission in life: to convince everyone I know that Chinese food does NOT consist of sweet and sour pork, orange chicken, or a medley of meat and veggies immersed in a sea of corn-starch thickened goop. I guess I can sort of understand the appeal of Americanized Chinese food, sort of like how you sometimes crave MickeyD's egg mcmuffins even though you know its not so good. Of course bringing thousand year-old egg into the picture doesn't help.

We had a proper Chinese/Taiwanese meal, legitimized by three Taiwanese guests fresh off the plane plus too-legit-to-quit pork belly A-chen and my half-claim-to-Taiwanese self. That makes for 4.5 of us right? We started off with pickled radishes, thousand year old egg and tofu, and green onion pancakes. I don't think many people are aware of Chinese cold dishes but they are a norm in any Chinese household. A made her famed hong shau rou, a recipe she snatched from her pops. The pork tender, the sauce addictingly sweet and all in all "salty as fuck" (as Allison likes to put it)-- it is delicious on top of rice. The rice, should be noted, is incredibly important--short grain and a tad sticky-- as the sauce should cling to the rice (like white on rice). I say this because I messed up the rice and bad rice is not acceptable nor salvageable!

Also on the menu included a vegetarian dish of bean curd, shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and green peas; sauteed Taiwanese spinach with garlic and ginger; shrimp sauteed in a shitload of olive oil and butter; a cold noodle dressed in sesame oil, black vinegar, soy sauce and hot chili garlic sauce topped with canned tuna/salmon/sardines (really, we had a choice of all three and it was surprisingly good); and lastly, E contributed a Korean-Chinese dish, Kimchi fried rice. I'm missing some pictures but I was too eager to eat...sorry!

Pickled Radishes

Pi dan dou fu (thousand year old egg and tofu topped with scallions, soy sauce paste, rice vinegar and sesame oil)

Cong You Bing (scallion pancake)

Hong Shau Rou pork belly (the cut normally used for bacon) braised in soy sauce, shaoxing wine, and spiced with whole star anise

Sauteed Taiwanese Spinach

Kimchi Fried Rice (with tofu) Sorry for the myspace-like picture

Veggie Pot Pie 2008

Ever since our coming-to-manhood trip to Europe, porkbelly and I have shared a pre-New Years Eve tradition of recreating a great dish that our host/friend Joris made for us one hazy night. JB joined us this year for Joris' Veggie Pot Pie '08. It was yummy, even though I made the poor executive decision to sub fillo dough for puff pastry (Whole Foods only had bougie puff pastry from La Boulange for a disgusting price! Damn you, Whole Foods! -- oh yea, blog about that place coming soon).

Anyways, this is great stoner comfort food to keep you warm and full during the holidays. Anything you have on hand vis-a-vis vegetables, cheese, and spices will work. Just make sure you have cream cheese and puff pastry (note: the Pepperidge Farm version will only set you back like $3). I scribbled down the recipe the second time I stayed with our dear host Joris, but it is packed away somewhere in my unpacked moving boxes, so we do what we can...

Ingredients:

• one block cream cheese
• any other cheeses (we used cheddar, feta, parmesean)
  
• one zucchini
• one cup mushrooms, sliced or wedges
  
• 2 medium roma tomatoes, sliced
  
• 3 garlic cloves
  
• 1 bell pepper (did you know that in Holland they call it "paprika"?)
• one box frozen puff pastry
• sriracha sauc
• 1 egg
• a tablespoon of crushed nuts (cashews work well)
• dash of basil and oregano
  

Recipe:

• Defrost puff pastry and pre-heat oven to whatever time the puff pastry box demands.
  
• Stir-fry the vegetables (minus tomatoes) in oil and sriracha sauce.
• Flatten a couple sheets of puff pastry with a rolling pin or your hands
  
• Lay out the puff pastry on the bottom of a casserole dish or Dutch oven. Let the edges hang over the side, they will eventually fold over to make a top
  
• Throw an egg on it and spread it around
• Throw some of veggies on it
  
• Spread cream cheese throughout, add other cheeses to taste
• Add rest of veggies
• Add crushed nuts for crunch
  
• Slice tomatoes and add on top
• Sprinkle basil, oregano, salt and pepper
• Add grated parmesan cheese
  
• Pull the puff pastry edges over to cover
• Bake until the pastry puffs and starts to brown
• Cool a bit, then dig in!
  
  
  

Previous year's crispy puff pastry version

This year's fillo dough no-no

It's not the most photogenic dish, but a wonderful food memory to relive every year nonetheless. You know you love me. XoXo, Gossip Girl

Cheap-Ass Lunches in Taiwan

One of the best things about Asia is the abundance of restaurants and vendors serving tasty, cheap-ass food. These places are especially good to hit up for lunch because they serve the food quickly and earnestly, wasting no time on social pleasantries or the rattling-off of daily specials. Usually, each vendor specializes in dishes focusing around a main ingredient (i.e. beef noodle soup, roasted duck, etc). If only more restaurants with the same business plan existed for us here in the US.

From the wet market:

Ba wan: kind of like a savory mochi filled with ground pork, ginger, mushrooms, and topped with gravy

From a noodle soup place:
Beef noodle soup with tendon. The noodles were handmade and thus had marvelous toothfeel, the Taiwanese word for which is "kiu."


From a pork restaurant:


Top to bottom: homemade Chinese sausage (xiang chang); stewed ground pork (kou rou); pork chop and rice with pickled greens (pai gu fan)


From a duck vendor:

Top to bottom: duck soup with Chinese herbs; sauteed duck intestines with bean sprouts and scallion

MmmIndian

Allison and I decided to take on Indian food as our first weekly dinner night. After some deliberation, we settled on Bhatura (a soft, fluffy, fried type of bread), hot chana dal with potatoes, and a mixed vegetable curry. Our dear friend Derrick made some sort of basmati rice concoction that he was very embarrassed of but ain't no shame--Allison fried it, added a little (a lot) of salt, and it was good to go! The hot chana dal was packed with heat and tang, just like ol A herself, and my mixed veggie curry was super flavorful (I accidentally, I mean purposely, forgot to add water in the end but richer=better?). The recipe has a lot of little steps, but its worth it!

Bhatura and a basmati rice mix


Mixed Vegetable Curry


Hot chana dal with potatoes

Bhatura (from Madhur Jaffrey)
1 cup all purpose white flour (we used white whole wheat)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1-1.5 TB plain yogurt
Vegetable oil for brushing the dough and for frying

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.
2. Add egg and mix, slowly adding yogurt.
3. Begin kneading, adding yogurt until dough is soft. Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth.
4. Form into a ball, brush with oil, cover with damp cloth, and keep in warm place for 3 hours.
5. With moistened hands, knead dough again.
6. Put oil in skillet, wok, or karhai, heat over medium flame. Allow oil time to get smoking hot.
7. Divide dough into 8 balls and flatten them. Flour rolling surface and roll balls into 4.5 inch rounds.
8. Drop rounds into oil. As they begin to sizzle, press down on them gently with the back of a slotted spoon. It will puff up. Turn them over and let other side brown lightly. The whole process should take about a minute.

Hot chana dal with potatoes (from Madhur Jaffrey)
1/2 cup chana dal, cleaned and washed
1 tsp salt
4 TB vegetable oil
1/4 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp whole cumin seeds
10 fenugreek seeds
2 fresh green chilis (we used serrano)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 slice fresh ginger, grated
4 boiled new potatoes, diced to 1/2 in. cubes
1/8 tsp freshly round pepper
3 TB tamarind paste

1. Boil dal with 3 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt. Cover, lower heat, and simmer gently for 1 hour. Drain and set aside.
2. In a skillet, heat oil over medium high flame. When the oil is hot, add mustard cumin, and fenugreek seeds. In a few seconds, as soon as the seeds darken and pop, add green chilis. Turn over once, then add chopped onion and greated ginger. Stir and fry the onions for 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add boiled dal and boiled potatoes, salt, pepper, tamarind paste. Mix and cook over medium flame for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Mixed Vegetable Curry (http://www.sailusfood.com/)
2 cups onions
1 cup cauliflower
1 cup carrots
3/4 cup french beans
1 cup potatoes
3/4 cup green peas
1 cup tomatoes
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
3 green chillis slit length wise
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera,jeelakara)
3 cloves
4 green cardamoms
2″ cinnamon stick
1 tsp red chilli pwd
1 tsp coriander pwd
1/2 tsp cumin pwd
1/4 tsp garam masala pwd
2 tbsp brown onion paste (fry 2 sliced onions till brown and make a paste of it)
2 tbsp curd (yogurt)
3 tbsp tomato paste
salt
vegetable oil
coriander leaves for garnishing

For cashewnut paste:
2 tbsp cashewnuts
1 tbsp melon seeds
1 tsp poppy seeds

Soak the cashewnuts, melon seeds and poppy seeds in water for 20 minutes and make a smooth paste. Keep aside.

1. Chop the veggies. Parboil the vegetables except onions and tomatoes adding some salt.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a cooking vessel and add the par-boiled veggies and fry for 3-4 minutes. Keep aside.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a vessel. Add the whole garam masala (spices) and jeera. Let it splutter. Add chopped onions and slit green chillis and fry till transparent.
4. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till oil seperates.
5. Add red chilli pwd, coriander pwd, cumin pwd, and salt. Mix well.
6. Add the chopped tomatotes and fry till oil seperates. You need to stir fry the paste really well.
7. Add the parboiled veggies and mix well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, .i.e the veggies need to be well coated in this onion-tomato masala.
8. Add the tomato paste and mix well.
9. Add brown onion paste and curds and mix well.
10. Add the cashewnut paste and mix well.Cook covered for 2-3 minutes.
11. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and mix well and cover and cook for 10-12 minutes. Add garam masala pwd and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

I was on an Indian kick and wanted to use up the fresh coriander I bought, so I made some of this to go with my left overs.

Taiwanese Breakfast

We should never ignore the breakfasts of great food cultures. Breakfast usually consists of simple, starchy, easy to digest items and can be an excellent look into what a culture considers "comfort foods," things best eaten when suffering from heartbreak, rejection, fever, hangover (all part of a consistent state of being in your early 20s).

Breakfast is kind of a big deal in Taiwan. From my childhood visits to Taipei, I have wonderful memories of mornings walking down to the breakfast shop next to my grandmother's apartment to fill up a tin can with sweet, steaming hot soymilk and carrying it back with a plastic bag full of greasy delights to be enjoyed at the kitchen table. So, during my recent return to the motherland after more than 10 years, I was insistent on eating authentic Taiwanese breakfast every goddamned day.

The most popular breakfast items in Taiwan are dou jiang (soymilk), and a number of savory starchy items: you tiao (fried dough sticks: light, crispy, and savory, can be dipped into the soymilk), shao bing you tiao (you tiao wrapped in thin, flaky sesame bread), fan tuan (glutinous rice stuffed with you tiao, pork sung, and minced pickles), dan bing (egg pancake), luo buo gao (savory daikon cake, usually includes some ground pork for additional flavor), and man tou/ hua juan (steamed buns in various shapes and sizes).

Top left, clockwise: dan bing, shao bing you tiao, fan tuan

The most important item is the soymilk, which can be sweet or savory. The sweet version is smooth and creamy, and can be enjoyed hot (served in a bowl with a spoon), or cold (out of a cup with a straw). The savory version is always served hot, curdled with vinegar, and includes minced pickles and chopped you tiao.

Savory soymilk

I'm not sure if this stuff is so irresistable to me because of my partial Taiwanese roots, but I'm pretty sure it's just because it's damn good.

More Taiwan posts to come...

Nose to Tail Dinner at Eccolo

goat tongue, endive, beet salad

house cured charcuterie & cheese

I LOVE ICE CREAM SANDWICHES

Haiku for the Superior Bagel

Hard and crunchy shell
and a warm, inside yielding.
New York through and through.

(Salt bagel with scallion cream cheese from H&H)

Vegan Dinner Party?

This post is long overdue. Vegan dinner party = A's worst nightmare. The night turned out to be a series of failures minus the sauteed kale. We made the pumpkin ziti from Veganomicon (needed more salt, oil, flavor? idunno) and sauteed kale (in lots of earth balance) and an apple crisp (not pictured, not crisp).

Anchor & No Hope

Image courtesy of SF Mag

All seriouslyfood-ers were present as we celebrated our 9-5's by spending our hard earned cash on a bottle of bubbles and some fries with eyes. Our anticipations were high on the recently opened, nautical-themed restaurant Anchor & Hope (same owners as Salt House and Town Hall). The decor was cafeteria-chic (or open and lofty), and our service was equally cafeteria-like with 8 different servers waiting on us.

I met Erica and Allison there, who were already clearly sauced up for the night. The minute we received the menu, Allison exclaimed her items of choice, "Pork belly! Bacon wrapped oysters! Fries with eyes! Broccoli rabe! Garlic soup with anchovy tapenade!" After I calmed her down with some gentle taps on the head, we settled on the Angels on Horseback (bacon wrapped oysters), Fries with Eyes (deep fried smelts with remoulade), and a side of broccoli rabe to get those greens in. The seaweed and sea salt garnishings decorating the Angels on Horseback might have been more memorable than the dish itself, which was good but not GREAT. The remoulade accompanying the less than crisp "fries" tasted like a fancy (or not so fancy) version of thousand island. And the side of broccoli rabe, while nice and garlic-buttery, were maybe overcooked? I thought so at least; my problematic-untouching teeth had a difficult time chewing.

All would have been forgiven on the average appetizers (after all, they are appetizers) except that our entrees were just as unremarkable. In retrospect, the appetizers may have been the highlight of the meal. Erica's boullaibaisse was boullai-bad. Allison's lobster pot pie with brandy cream sauce, tasted like buttered brandy (not creamy!) with undercooked celery root and a shred of lobster. I ordered the petrole sole with preserved lemons and almonds after securing that 1) the dish was the server's favorite entree and 2) the preserved lemons did not have a strong presence (after Allison expressed her dislike of the pinesol-tasting slivers). Props for having fish with bones and props for filleting it for me (I knew there had to be a catch when I saw fish with bones on the menu, and we were the only group of Asians). The sliced almonds were a bit distracting as I couldn't differentiate an almond from another fish bone when all mushed up in my mouth (poor fillet job, bud). The fish could have used more flavor, or some salt. I kept eating only in anticipation that the dish would get better (which it didn't). At last our meal ended with earl grey tea on Erica's side and some over-baked gingerbread served with a, as always, less-than-enough scoop of gelato. We went dutch on the bill and signed away a half day's worth of work.

Two blocks away, Erica hurled her boullaibaisse out, and Allison and I left feeling stuffed without an ounce of happiness.

Seriously?

I know we aim to be serious here at seriouslyfood, but woah

Fergus Henderson's Roasted Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad

Fergus Henderson is known for making eating offal stylish again in the Western world. Anthony Bourdain cites Henderson's London restaurant, St. John, as his favorite, ever. Bourdain even says his death row meal would be Henderson's bone marrow and parsley salad, which has popped up on the menus of several top-notch American restaurants. Naturally, upon my acquisition of Henderson's The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, this simple starter was among the first recipes I tried while cooking dinner with my sister last weekend.

Henderson uses veal bones; my sister located some mature beef bones at a Berkeley butcher, which worked well. We scooped the marrow out with a small spoon (okay, fine, chopsticks. it's easier.), spread on toast, topped with sea salt, and parsley salad (parsley, shallot, capers, lemon vinaigrette). Buttery, savory, manly, and delicious.

My own previous experiences with bone marrow have been isolated to Chinese food, kind of an afterthought, but equally as enjoyable. Have your parents ever told you to pick up that beef bone from your soup and suck on the end of it? Have you ever been to a hot pot restaurant, where at the conclusion of the meal, they bring out plastic straws for you to puncture the leftover beef bones and enjoy your dessert with? These Chinese were all telling you to not let that tasty marrow go to waste. Luckily, the Westerners are now doing the same in their own way, and man, is it awesome.

Spain...On the Road Again and Asleep the Whole Time

KQED and KCSM started airing the first episode of "Spain... On the Road Again" in the Bay Area last week. The idea of two respected foodie personalities, Mark Bittman of the NY Times and Mario-need-I-say-more-Batali traveling the hottest food paradise in Europe right now, is, in theory, irresistable. I imagined the two men making countless visits to colorful outdoor markets and tapas bars, learning how to create vivid and mouthwatering dishes from Spanish cooks in their kitchens, and plenty of informative, witty banter about food. Alas, the first episode failed to bring its audience deep into the world of Spanish food, bringing us, instead, deep into comatose.

Where the show really mucks up is the addition of Gwyneth Paltrow and lesser known, but also pretty, Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. Although Gwynie may be somewhat of a foodie, her prissy comments about only eating birds that grew up in the wild and that were slaughtered naturally, and how she's going to gain 10 kilos on the trip were totally irrelevant. I'm not sure why the producers thought it would be a good idea to split Mark and Mario up for most of the episode, forcing each to participate in vapid chit-chat with one of the actresses while driving around the Spanish countryside in Mercedes convertibles. Neither actress had any opinions of value to contribute and watching either of them try to eat is quite painful. The two minutes Mario and Mark did get to spend alone together at a seafood market was unjustly cut short; I found myself grasping for more M&M time. All of this, topped by the constant musical interlude of Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" (an absolutely inappropriate soundtrack for a Spanish vacation), in places where it seems they just couldn't find enough interesting dialogue to keep audio busy, made watching this show an utter chore.

Korean Chinese Cuisine

These days I have been nostalgic for Korean Chinese cuisine. Whassat', you ask? The origins of Korean Chinese food trace back to the port city of Incheon, South Korea, where the country's ethnic Chinese lived. They used local Korean ingredients in the tried-and-true recipes of their motherland. This stuff is so good. Growing up near L.A., I used to eat it all the time and get belly-burstingly full. My sister and I would touch the tops of our torsos and exclaim, "I'm full up to here!" There are a few elements of Korean Chinese cuisine that bring it all together in a special and delicious way, and I find restaurants like this missing in Sucker Free City.


1. Side dishes

• (A.) Raw onions served in bite-size pieces. It's an acquired taste. Cover with vinegar and dip in:
  
• (B.) Black bean sauce
  
• (C.) Dakwong aka danmuji aka pickled daikon radish


• (D.) Kimchi. I'm not sure if it's a different type of kimchi, but it's different -- not as fermented as the variety usually served in Korean restaurants, milder and saltier

2. Tangsuyuk (a "Koreanized" version of sweet and sour pork, or beef, or chicken). This ain't like the sweet and sour pork you order at House of Hunan, buddy. The crispy, battered meat strips are really crispy, and the meat is excessively chewy. It's served with vegetables in a thick, sweet, vinegary sauce.

When I was little, servers would often bring out steamed buns at this point. We'd grab those steaming hot, sweet rolls and tear it apart to dip pieces of it into the tangsuyuk sauce, and any other sauce. Maybe it's a kid thing. Or maybe it's an adult thing, suppressing the urge to lick up every single drop of the sweet, sour, spicy tangsuyuk sauce.

3. Ggampoong seh-oo (sweet and sour shrimp, but sweeter and spicier). I can't even find a picture of this but it's good. Also served in an irresistable sauce.

4. Jjampong - ohmygod! Wheat flour noodles in a spicy, chili oil soup, swimming in a bowl with seafood. This stuff is so good. It will make you sweat and cry. It will clear out your sinus problems, swimmers ear, allergies, and cancer.




5. Jjajangmyun (aka zjja-jjiang-mIEN! in Mandarin) - noodles in a sweet black bean paste, sliced cucumber on top mandatory. I don't know why we'd order this toward the end of the meal.



6. Obligatory dessert served gratis. 'Cause free stuff (aka suh-bis-uh aka "service" aka the exchange of favors, gifts, and commodities in a fluid, communal understanding) is the Korean way. Usually it would be glazed sweet potato or glazed banana slices. And fortune cookies.





There's something very down-to-earth and even working class about this food. Can't you just imagine the Chinese and Korean workers sitting cross-legged with one leg folded upwards, hovering around steaming bowls of jjampong while the ship bells rang in the Incheon harbor?

Damn, I'm hungry.

Macaron Discipline

"What color did you make them?" We let them go naked. It's classier that way. Plus, food coloring is kind of expensive.

Jenn and I attempted making macarons a few weeks ago. Pain in the arse, but satisfying to produce such precious, adorable things. God, did I really just use those words?

The experience led me to conclude that: 1) You shouldn't try stiff-peaking egg whites by hand, even if you have man strength like i do. Get a mixer and spare yourself the embarrassment. 2) Macaron making is all about following rules, and wondering how the suckers would have turned out if you hadn't followed the rules, but being too chicken to not follow the rules. That said, I'm not going to post a recipe, there's plenty of contradicting recipes, step-by-step guides, folk-lore, fairy tales for macarons on the web already. Go confuse yourself. I'd rather just share with you some of the more irritating, rash-inducing, butt-sweat-producing rules that we felt we had to follow to make these mofos:

• Age the egg whites at room temperature overnight. If anyone else has experienced the dizzying, stifling stench of aged egg whites, especially after a hot summer night, holler.


• Sift the ground almond and confectioners sugar. I hate sifting anything.


• After piping the cookies into perfect circles, let them sit for an hour so they can develop "skins." After making macarons, you realize how disgusting they kind of are. Rotten egg whites, skins...


• Of course, measure everything, very exactly. If you're Chinese, there's something fun and novel about practicing your anality and crazy math skills when making cute French pastries, but it soon gets old and you realize the Chinese pretty much based their cuisine around eyeballing stuff, and it's worked for them for centuries; that having to measure things so exactly is masochistic and a little meaningless.

Making macarons is time consuming. Plan for it well; don't drink beer and try to have guests over at the same time. I left Jenn to tend to the macarons at midnight because I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to sleep. Poor girl was up until 1 or 2 in the morning making sure the babies went into the oven and came out at the right time. They were pretty tasty in the end. But were they worth the trouble? I dunno.

Eating Hanoi

The other day, Allison introduced me to this blog, flooded with pictures that make you want to sell your children to move to Asia to eat. The images reminded me of my recent travels to Beijing and through parts of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos). Although my trip was a brief (and first) experience in Southeast Asia, no where near EatingAsia's scope of the local food, I will attempt to recount some of the eating highlights of my visit. This might be a three part post, but I'll save you the pain and start with the country I had the most food pictures/amateur knowledge of: Hanoi. Hanoi's food supposedly pales in comparison to the food in Saigon (which I didn't visit), but...I likee.

A friend who grew up in Hanoi emailed me a list of Vietnamese dishes she insisted I HAD to try while I was there. I printed the email, held it close to my heart and prayed to it at night. Rarely did I find a foreigner eating at any of the street food shops, maybe because of the little stools? Don't be fooled! Normal sized people can sit on them too and not fall.

The streets in Hanoi are small and are specialized in such a way that an entire street of stores sell more or less the same item, which made finding the places listed fairly easy. I only wish I had googled some of the items to figure out what they were beforehand so I wouldn't regret having not tried them!

THE HANOI BIBLE:
- Pho (Pho Suong, ngo Trung Yen, Dinh Liet st; or Pho Cuong, Hang Muoi st, or Bat Dan st, or Pho Hang Giay st). Dont go to fancy restaurants for Pho!!!
- Nem chua ran (Fried fermented pork) ngo Tam Thuong, Hang Bong st. or Hang Chai, near Thanh Quan junior high school. They also have delicious corn and fish
- Cha ca La Vong (Grilled fish), Cha ca st
- Pho cuon, Pho xao - Fried Pho and Pho spring rolls (West lake, Nguyen Khac Hieu st)
- Bun cha - noodles with grilled pork (Hang Manh st)
- Bun oc - noodles with snails (Ngo Cho Dong Xuan)
- Lau ga - Chicken hot pot (18 ngo Hang Chi, Hang Hom st)
- Lau bo - Beef hot pot (Phung Hung st)
- Lau de - Goat hot pot and grilled goat - Dung Rau restaurant, Lang Ha st
- Xoi xeo (sticky rice) - Xoi Yen - Nguyen Huu Huan st
- Doner Kebap - Hang Bac st
- Fried birds - I think its right next to the street Dinh Liet - just ask people around, i cant remember the name of the street
- Banh cuon - this is the perfect breakfast for me - Bao Khanh st
- Bun thang - Hang Hanh st
- Hoa qua dam (mixed fruits) - To Tich st
- Kem Trang Tien (special ice cream of Hanoi) - Trang Tien st
- O Mai (check this out Hang Duong st - Hong Lam shop, u'll love it)
- Banh com ( Hang Than st)
- Snake meat - Le Mat village, Gia Lam

Onto some pictures...

Cha Ca La Vong

Pho cuon

Pho cuon, Pho xao

Bun Cha (photo courtesy of gastronomyblog)

Xoi Xeo (photo courtesy of gastronomyblog)

Banh Cuon (photo courtesy of unemployed-at-last)

Bun with Fried Tofu (Tam Thuong St)

Hoa qua dam (mixed fruits w/ condensed milk)

Che

Rice balls with black sesame filling in ginger syrup

Kem Trang Tien (special Hanoi ice cream)

I want to go back. Now.

mouthfeel

just a quick post to sing the praises of gregoire's crispy potato puffs (and to continue the fried spud love). the aioli that comes with the puffs is good but on my most recent visit, i realized that it has distracted me all of these years from the best part about the puffs -- the crispy, smooth mouthfeel.





taken from wiki: Mouthfeel is a product’s physical and chemical interaction in the mouth. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite, through mastication to swallowing and aftertaste. In wine-tasting, for example, mouthfeel is usually used with a modifier (big, sweet, tannic, chewy, etc.) to the general sensation of the wine in the mouth. Some people, however, still use the traditional term, "texture".
Mouthfeel is often related to a product's water activity, hard or crisp products having lower water activities and soft products having intermediate to high water activities.

'naddamean?

3 Dutch Ovens, So Much Chili

All Seriously Food bloggers were present at a camping trip to Big Sur this month, to which we brought along some beefy chili. Chili can be made while blindfolded and drunk, and equipment-wise, requires only the possession of one big ass pot:

1. Sweat onions
2. Brown ground beef and cubed sirloin
3. Stir in canned diced tomatoes & its juice, tomato paste, beer, coffee, beef broth, a tad of brown sugar, and whatever spices & herbs you like (standard is cumin, coriander, bay leaf, chili powder, cayenne, salt, and cocoa powder [gasp!]) Eyeball these ingredients; there's no point in making a science of it.
4. Add canned kidney beans and diced fresh peppers (jalapenos are fine but there's room to get creative).
5. Simmer down

Reheating on a portable stove at camp

This chili is delicious, and I didn't take it as an insult that I had a lot leftover. I brought some to work and ate it in front of my laptop, I moved it around in the fridge, I cried a little. Then, of course, I made chili cheese fries.

Spud frying

(Yeah, go ahead and use pre-cut, frozen fries)

These beauties were enjoyed with a cool beer and two cold men, who agreed that they were the best c.c. fries that any of us had ever had.

Weep, poutine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine), weep.