The Maltese Bacon

The Two Potato Meal Involves Oven Roasted French Fries

Apparently, the potato was looked at with suspicion in England until the government encouraged its cultivation after the Revolutionary War food shortages. In Northern Europe, it used to be grown in gardens as an exotic plant.

Once cultivation became widespread in Europe, the threat of famine decreased, and there was a population boom:

The most dramatic example of the potato's potential to alter population patterns occurred in Ireland, where the potato had become a staple by 1800. The Irish population doubled to eight million between 1780 and 1841 — this, without any significant expansion of industry or reform of agricultural techniques beyond the widespread cultivation of the potato.

Though Irish landholding practices were primitive in comparison with those of England, the potato's high yields allowed even the poorest farmers to produce more healthy food than they needed with scarcely any investment or hard labor. Even children could easily plant, harvest and cook potatoes, which of course required no threshing, curing or grinding. The abundance provided by potatoes greatly decreased infant mortality and encouraged early marriage. Accounts of Irish society recorded by contemporary visitors paint the picture of a people as remarkable for their health as for their lack of sophistication at the dinner table, where potatoes typically supplied appetizer, dinner and dessert. - from History Magazine

Oven Roasted French Fries
adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

Preheat oven to 450. Peel 2 russet potatoes (or don't peel if they have a nice skin). Slice lengthwise, roughly  into 1/2 inch width cuts. Toss with olive oil and salt. Place on a lightly greased pan. Roast for about 20 minutes, flipping the pieces over once or twice during cooking so that they brown evenly. Take out and add more salt and pepper. Eat. Try and be productive after this.

Spiced Cranberry Pear Sauce

We had a work Thanksgiving potluck. On this plate you will see:

bacon & asparagus quiche
mac n cheese
waldorf salad
sweet potato & marshmallow
baklava
mashed potato
chicken biryani
kisir (Turkish tabbouleh)
liverpool stuffing
cranberry chutney
turkey
cranberry pear sauce
crab dip
tortilla chip

There was much more food that isn't shown, but was consumed nevertheless.

Here is my 'recipe' for the cranberry pear sauce. I have adjusted the recipe to serve 10-20 as opposed to 60, which was far more than I needed. It was very good, but I feel extremely unpurist by throwing in cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and cardamom. Next time I will try to isolate the cardamom to see what happens.

Spiced Cranberry Pear Sauce

1 bag cranberries
2 bosc pears firm but ripe, sliced or chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon clove
1 cup mango/orange juice
1 inch nub of ginger, ground in mortar and pestle
4 cardamom pods, ground in mortar and pestle
1 cup sugar
pinch of Korean sliced pepper or any other hot pepper flakes

Bring mango/orange juice to boil. Lower heat to simmer. Stir in sugar. Then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes. Chill in fridge.

Zurich is dead, but steak ain't.

What happens when family comes to visit? Lombardi’s is planned for Thursday. Saturday dim sum is planned by Tuesday. Reservations for a steakhouse are made for the night before, without your knowledge (thank you Tina). Basically, the food blogger, who is usually asked “Where should we eat?” to exhaustion is no longer asked this question. She is taken on a tour of food and force fed, to her delight. By Sunday, with my cousin Chi Thu and her husband Steve safely in the air, I was just hoping for a serving of cantaloupe and some cottage cheese.

The steakhouse in question was Del Frisco’s Double Eagle, a reputable chain that started in Dallas. I’ve never been to a steak house in New York so I was super excited. The place is dramatic - soaring ceilings and windows overlooking 6th Avenue in Rockefeller Center. It was not as packed as I would have thought. (Was subprime tamping down the Amex action?) On the menu, it says they are not responsible for steaks ordered well done. Good for them. I ordered the bone in rib eye steak, medium. The rib-eye is the fattiest and most delicious cut. Vroom vroom vroom, it was good. It had a nice salt and pepper crust to it, and it was very tender. We ordered the gnocchi (too big and creamy), the creamed corn (v. good) and the asparagus side (whatevs). The steak was the star and that was okay. I took the 2 bites that I had left home and gnawed on the bone in the morning before I left for dim sum.

On Saturday, the cousins wanted Italian food. I decided to meddle this time. Try making reservations at an Italian restaurant downtown on a Saturday night, hours beforehand. I called a handful of places in the West and East Village. Every place was booked to the gills, unless I wanted to eat at 6:30pm or 10:30pm. And then I dug up a name from long ago, Via Emilia, a quaint place that I hadn’t revisited since I worked in Gramercy. They didn’t take reservations. Perfect! They had gotten a nice makeover since I last went. Specializing in the food of Modena, they offer tigelle, a flat bread shaped into discs that you eat with prosciutto, coppa, salami and cheese. Most of the pastas there are lovingly handmade. There was a beautiful corn and tuna soup. A non-boring bruschetta.They keep the prices modest, so they don’t take credit card.

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steak House
1221 Sixth Ave., New York, NY 10020
at 49th St.
212-575-5129

Via Emilia
47 E 21st St. New York 10010
Btwn Bway & Park Ave.
212-505-3072

BLT Burger

I am not going to bash BLT burger, like many have done. It is a thin West Coast style $9 burger without fries. The picture makes the burger look bigger than it actually is. But I don't have bad things to say. Why? Because it was not crowded. There was no 45 minute wait like at Corner Bistro. There are booths even for 2 people. Great service. I was able to have an easy dinner, in a well lit space in the West Village on a Friday night. It’s like an upscale TGIF’s, with almost tasteful portraits of cattle on the walls (Did I mention I have the requirements of an 80 year old sometimes?)

Yes, BLT burger was a joy. The burger was fine. It did not do give me the transcendental carnage-quenching experience that a tall burger from Corner Bistro can provide, but it was good. I have always enjoyed the bigger burger more. When I was in LA, it was Fatburger that made me really drool, not the slim In-N-Out burgers.

Dan, who was in town from SF, loved his lamb merguez burger. We both abhorred the too young bright green cucumber as pickle that seems to be taking over Manhattan. Does anyone enjoy this kind of pickle?

Over dinner, he was telling me that his great grandfather was had a butcher shop on the Upper East Side. There are no family photos of the store so he will try to find one in the city archives. So cool! This piece of family history explains a lot about Dan. When he is not talking about the Red Sox, he is talking about how to make beef cheeks or the pork store in Park Slope, which he lives 3000 miles from now. I think he will probably get married in the pork store.

BLT Burger
470 6th Ave.
New York, NY 10011
(b/w 11th and 12th St.)
212.243.8226

The Ballad of Lentil Soup

Totally back in New York now. No more sunshine, just soup and meat and scurvy. Have been back for awhile, with no good excuses for not writing more, except that my two dear friends, Marie Pierre and Maryanne, were in town from Paris. I took them to my haunts, including Pho Bang for American sized Vietnamese food, which they loved. We also got to eat hot dogs on the street and paninis at 4am at ‘inoteca. So there wasn’t much homemade food, save for a delicious dinner that Lizzie and Jen hosted of Irish stew and pecan pie.

Hang on...I did make the Frenchies one little breakfast of eggs and fingerling potatoes. It was a Top Chef challenge: to cook without using any garlic because Marie Pierre can’t deal with the stuff. I used olive oil, coriander, paprika and a touch of garam masala to season the potatoes.

Before les filles arrived I used tons of garlic in a lentil/sweet potato soup for Thanksgiving. The soup recipe, culled from epicurious.com, is based on vegetable stock. It gets its depth and lovely flavor from leeks and a gang of roasted garlic. You roast the garlic on the stove at the lowest heat possible for an hour and a half. So easy, when you know you will be around the house chopping up vegetables for other dishes. I have added some chili powder to the soup recipe and a wee bit of sugar. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I made it again last weekend with butternut squash.

It was an NYC thanksgiving. Pooja, the vegetarian, was in attendance so I didn’t do the steak topping that the recipe calls for (really there’s no need anyway). I served it with a beet and green bean salad. For the meat eaters, I roasted some potatoes and Cornish hens, using Marcus Samuelsson's African-inspired rub with less chili powder. Afterward, meat eaters and vegetarians alike watched a terrible Bollywood movie.

Lentil and Roasted Garlic Soup (adapted from epicurious)

1/4 cup olive oil and 3 tablespoons olive oil
10 garlic cloves, peeled, halved (I used only 5 because they were giant farmer’s market ones)
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves or 1 tablespoon dry

2-3 cups water
3/4 cup lentils

1 medium leek (white and green parts only), thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
About 6 cups vegetable broth (I like the boxed kind.)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/4 pounds yams or butternut squash cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2-3 cups kale, ribs discarded, leaves thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chili pepper ( I used a combo of Aleppo, chili powder and red pepper flakes)
½ tablespoon sugar (none if you use butternut squash)

Place oil, garlic, and rosemary in heavy small saucepan. Cook over lowest possible heat until garlic begins to brown, about 1 1/2 hours. Cool. Discard rosemary (this is not a necessary step). Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add leek and sage. Add a little salt. Cook until leek is soft, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes.

Add 6 cups vegetable broth, water, soy sauce, chili pepper, sugar, garlic, garlic oil, lentils and yams or butternut squash to pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer until lentils are almost tender, about 15 minutes. Add kale to soup. Simmer until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Cooking Rocks! Rachel Ray Goes to Taipei

I love the idea of kids food, meals that are fun and edible. Until not that long ago, I would buy the odd Chef Boyardee to see if I could make dinner more zippy with one round of the can opener. But alas, the reality is most prepared kids food is pretty yucky. (Or have I gone a bit soft?) Nowadays, to achieve the same effect, it gets homemade, like the one pictured here. Diana introduced me to it, by way of her Taiwanese mother. Some salty somen noodles to untangle, green peas for sweetness, and sautéed slices of hot dog for deliciousness. I get really weird cravings for this dish. The somen noodles cook in a few minutes. The peas come out of the freezer and get zapped in the microwave. I changed it up this time with already cooked Niman Ranch andouille sausage which keeps great in the freezer for emergencies. (I prefer hot dog though.) A quick defrost in the microwave and it gets thrown on the pan to brown. It's a quick and tasty weeknight meal. And quite a hoot too, what with grabbing each pea with chopsticks.

Genetic Foraging

Recently, I took an early train to Boston for my cousin Hien’s wedding. Remembering the last time I had made eggs before my trip to Mexico and missed my flight, I rushed to make the train without bringing any proper foodstuffs. I would be arriving into Boston at noon and would have get to the hotel quickly to gussy up. But I was absolutely famished, so I would have to cram lunch in. I called my friend Dan up.

“I need to eat something very quickly in Harvard Square. What do ya got?”
“Go to Mr. Bartley’s. They’ve got burgers. I’m jealous.”
“How do I get there? The bus for the wedding leaves at 3pm.”
“It’s right on Mass. Ave. Ask anyone.”

I ask three people when I get out of the 'T' where Mr. Bartley’s is. No one knows. Fortunately, there is an info kiosk smack in the middle of Harvard Square. The silver haired man, wearing an ivory sweater and a crazy tie, gives me directions. It’s just down the street. No sweat. Only when I get there, there is a line about 20 people deep waiting to get in. I ask the gentleman who is taking orders outside how long the wait would be. “5 minutes.” I raise my eyebrows. He is back to his notepad. He looks like he has been sitting there for the past 20 years, and knows what he is talking about. I stay in line. He takes my order. (I learned later that that was in fact Mr. Bartley himself.)

Shortly, afterward, Mrs. Bartley whisks me in. I order one burger deluxe for myself and one to go for my parents who are at the hotel and insist they have eaten lunch. (They ate it in about two minutes flat.)

The burger arrives and I take a bite. With the utmost deference to Dan, to Hien and her new hubbie Dylan, to Boston, to Mr. and Mrs. Bartley, to the Red Sox, to John Kerry, to Noam Chomsky, to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, I must say… the outside of the burger was a bit dry. The inside was nicely pink though. And it was tasty. But yes, the outside was a little dry…like crumbly dry. I think it may be partly due to the fact that is so thick and cooked on the grill using one of those irons to flatten it and cook it faster.

But the atmosphere is fantastic. Crammed, hectic, full of bric-a-brac on the wall. The mouthy grill master who has all rights to ride the staff because he is making a zillion burgers at a time. Even the menu is cheeky. The Bush Jr. burger says “(lame duck) a double cheddar texas BBQ burger with sweet potato fries”. The John Kerry burger reads “(he voted this the best burger before he voted against it) a swiss cheese burger with mushrooms, tomato, lettuce, and fries”.

I later told my cousins Luan and Duc that I ate at Mr. Bartley’s. I knew they would appreciate it, because they are always on the hunt for good food, as Luan has documented in a post he wrote on his blog:

“I grew up with 26 first cousins. At an early age, we were all conditioned to attack the food when it becomes available because if you don't, you might end up not getting anything at all.”

So, it didn’t surprise me when they told me they had been to Mr. Bartley’s that day too.

“Oh really? What time?”
“12:30p – 1pm.”
“Oh yeah, we were there around then too!”
“Huh.”

So the morning after the wedding, I reviewed the photos I had taken of Mr. Bartley’s. Lo and behold, I had taken a picture of the gang sitting in the middle of the restaurant!

I had no idea and neither did they. You can see Duc looking straight at me! I had taken the picture so fast so as not to be so conspicuous, that I wasn’t even conspicuous to my family. Well, we shared a meal together in the strangest way, and that’s what counts.

Mr. Bartley's Burger Cottage
1246 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138-3820
(617) 354-6559

Fake Empire

I find the trick to bringing food to picnics is either making absolutely no effort (i.e. the sopressata and French bread variety of contributing) or to go full on Betty Crocker. But go halfway, like say, by presenting some lukewarm hanger steak to a picnic and you will be upstaged by a bucket of KFC. This is a fear that I fret over quite a bit. So, on the last picnic of the summer, I opted to bring some good ol’ fashioned fried chicken. I also wanted to do something very American for my visting English friend Daniel who adores American food and pop culture. (During our year abroad in England, Paul and I took Dan to an American-like chain-like restaurant for his birthday and then to see a movie (not a film) at the only multiplex movie theater in Leeds.) On his first night here, I took him to eat the biggest burger I could find, given the circumstances.

Regarding the chicken, I wasn’t just being considerate. I love any opportunity to deep fry. Once I get started deep-frying, I find it difficult to stop. I start eyeing the pen cups and loose change to see if I can submerge them in oil. I managed to find some almonds to dip in batter and fry. Delicious. Eminently snackable. Deep fried lime slices added some color to the brown palette.

We sat in the middle of Sheepshead Meadow in Central Park and it started to rain. Fortunately, by then people had eaten most of the chicken, as well as two competing tortilla espanolas, a black bean and couscous dish, and a fennel and watermelon salad. Eventually, we were the only ones in Central Park silly enough to continue sitting in the rain. We played nerf baseball and Frisbee but mostly we just sat and tried to pretend it wasn’t raining. After a couple hours, someone got the idea to move the group under a tree. We packed up not long after we found shelter. Some of us got a glass of wine to warm up in the West Village. And then Daniel and I went to get a burger at Corner Bistro, a requirement during his visits.

Here is the chaotic version of what I did to the chicken: For the marinating, I marinated one batch in yogurt, paprika, salt and chili pepper. I threw the other batch in yogurt, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, garam masala, pepper and salt. Another batch I marinated in milk, salt, cumin, pepper and cayenne. For the batter, I dipped some of the chicken in a flour/cornmeal/paprika mixture, some in plain flour, and some in a flour/paprika mixture. I fried the chicken, nuts and lime in a corn oil/peanut oil mixture. I didn’t use a thermometer to heat the oil – things went in when the oil seemed dangerous. The drumsticks are done after 10 minutes or so. The chicken breast strips are done after a few minutes.

A Breadier Kind of Life

So my office has moved 8 blocks. Gastronomically speaking, the new location is a nice change but the gains are bittersweet. Now, I am just out of reach of eating everyday in Chinatown, my psychic center if there ever was one. But a new door has opened, albeit an Occidental one - I am now able to eat and shop at the culinary strip of Bleecker and 6th Avenue. Hello, Murray’s Cheese Shop, Wild Edibles, Amy’s Bread, Faicco’s Pork Store and Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meat. I just wish Shopsin’s was still on Carmine so I could watch the family play ping pong during their strange off hours. And then there are the Western reaches of Soho - Once Upon a Tart’s tuna and dill sandwich and the rosemary flecked Pizza Bianca at Grand Daisy Bakery.

The sandwich pictured above is the Iberian sandwich from Murray’s. For $7.95, you get a long roll filled with Iberian-like ham, made from white pigs fed on acorns and forced to do yoga twice a week. (I’m only kidding about the yoga.) There’s portabello mushrooms, piquillo peppers and gooey La Serena cheese from Spain in there too. Murray’s also has the best chicken and avocado sandwich I’ve eaten in a long time. The chicken tastes like it’s been fed fresh nuts too and it hasn’t been grilled to the standard deathly dryness.

To get my Asian fix, I will have to rely on Noodle Bar on Carmine. When I first went there a couple years ago I went home and googled "Hunan pork bolognese" to find the recipe. Of course, I was being silly - they created it there. The dish itself is not very complicated. It's just shredded pork cooked down in a simple tomato sauce, topped with lotus root chips and lying on a bed of udon, but the simple tweak was just enough to freshen up the tired bolognese. On subsequent visits, the dish doesn't always turn out great, but there are plenty of other things on the menu. Beef brisket salad with mango and papaya. Cold duck soba.

So, there are a lot of good lunch options in my new location. But I do miss Chinatown so. I mean where else can you get a double meat lunch, full of juicy tea-colored barbecued chicken and pork topped with minced ginger for $4.25? At OK 218, you can.

Murray’s Cheese
254 Bleecker St
West Village
New York, NY 10014
(212) 243-3289

Noodle Bar
26 Carmine St
West Village
New York, NY 10014
(212) 524-6800

OK 218
218-220 Grand St
New York, NY 10013
Chinatown
Phone: (212) 226-8039

Put the Bagel Down

Waah. I just went to the Dr.'s to get the TMJ that causes the clicking in my jaw checked out. She said that 30% of the population has clicking from TMJ. Okay, that makes me feel better. Then, she told me to lay off the bagels and anything crunchy or chewy. Waaaaah. She says I have hypertrophied mouth muscles. Waaah. She made me pinch my muscles to see how big they were. What am I supposed to do? I'm Asian. We love crunchy and chewy things, even if they don't taste like much. Texture is king! For now, I will eat softer food, and wear a night mouth guard until I cure myself. Then hopefully I can eat anything to my heart's delight again.

The week hasn't been all doom and gloom. There was July 4 on Paul and Jesse's roof, a wet, lovely mess. Jesse was manning the grill calmly like a pro, rain and all. There were lobsters, steaks, kabobs and coriander chicken to be eaten! And an eye blinking- steak chewing contest to administer (see TMJ disorder above). And a rival party on a friend's friend's roof to heckle.

And then cousin Tammy was in town and I joined her midway on her "urban hike" from 216th St. to Battery Park City. It took us 3 1/2 hours to walk from the Central Park Boathouse to Battery Park, with one stop at the 53rd St. halal cart for a chicken sandwich for me, one stop at Joe:The Art of Coffee. Look how tired the hikers look.

The next day, Brian and I ate sea bass for lunch and then sat outside at Habana Outpost for hours, through their song cycle of all my favorite mid 80's and early 90s R& B hits and through their screening of "The Goonies". We chair danced while others rocked it in the aisles:

I declared Data, the Chinese gadget kid in the movie, as suffering from a case of "Classic Asian Rage" when he flips out on his buddies when they find the loot in the pirate ship. Brian declared us "The Champions of Summer". And that's the report for this week.

Sea Bass with Saffron/Butter Sauce (for a 1/2" filet): Cook sea bass on pan on high heat for 2 minutes on each side. Finish in preheated 400 degree oven for 6 minutes. For the sauce, melt a bunch of unsalted butter with bit of honey, more sherry vinegar, lemon, pine nuts, salt, and a tiny pinch of saffron. When the fish is done, spoon butter over and add some chopped parsley and lemon wedge on the side.