09.11.07
Posted in Nuts, Grains & Legumes, Reviews, Veggies at 10:06 am by julie
I wasn’t expecting anything in the mail until this evening, but there it was on the porch last night when I came home from work: a copy of Super Natural Cooking
by Heidi Swanson (plus a few non-food related books I’d ordered). I’ve been a reader of Heidi’s blog, 101 Cookbooks, for several years, so I was in no way surprised to see a gorgeously designed book with mouthwatering photographs. I also knew that, like the blog, it would emphasize organic, minimally processed vegetarian cuisine in a very thoughtful way, and it doesn’t disappoint. I haven’t had time yet to read my way through the entire book, but I can already see how empowering it will be in terms of getting to know some of those less familiar (but incredibly nutritious) ingredients and how they can be worked into your everyday menu without too much fanfare.
Last year I bought The Splendid Grain, an award-winning cookbook by Rebecca Wood that focuses on the use of grains: familiar and esoteric, whole, cracked, rolled or milled. The grains are grouped by continent of origin, and each grain is discussed historically and practically with an offering of recipes. Every time I get that book out, I can’t wait to try the recipes. I even bought a bunch of fun flours and whole grains from the Bob’s Red Mill store in Milwaukie: millet, teff, buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa. I’ve tried them out here and there, and some have become fast favorites, like quinoa pilaf, which I vastly prefer to rice; or buckwheat, for fabulous cookies and banana waffles and pizzoccheri, or just a bit of seasoning in a cinnamon flop. But somehow I rarely seem to get beyond sighing over the recipes in The Splendid Grain to actually making them.
I don’t think Super Natural Cooking will have the same fate. It focuses on a narrower range of grains, and also spends time on minimally-processed fats, oils, and natural sweeteners, and also has a fantastic section on cooking by color, which is great for fussy people like me who gravitate toward brown and beige foods. Heidi also gives practical, and rather empowering, advice about making substitutions, which is really what I needed to feel comfortable buying unusual ingredients for one specific recipe and then being able to use up the remainder in other ways. Actually, I think that once this book gets me rolling, I’ll feel much more at ease going back to The Splendid Grain as well.
In the meantime, I wanted to note that if you haven’t already been playing with white whole wheat flour, by all means go out and get some! It’s in all the ordinary grocery stores around here these days, from Bob’s Red Mill or King Arthur, and I’ve been substituting it for all or at least half of the AP flour in most of my baking recipes lately, not to mention fresh pasta. We can’t taste the difference at all, and it gives me a warm, peaceful feeling to know I’m eating something slightly less bad for me. 
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07.02.07
Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized at 11:45 am by julie
…so little hard-drive space. I’ve got a bunch of posts in limbo right now because our laptop has no free space left. It seems I’ve been taking too many pictures of food and puppies. Relief should be forthcoming in another day or two, though in the form of a brand new laptop for Jeremy, so once we get everything transferred and cleaned up, the floodgates will open, so to speak. Here’s a quick taste: Migas. Pad thai. Gemelli with shrimp and tomato-cream sauce. Chicken stirfry with spicy garlic sauce. “Simple but Perfect” pancakes. Figgy frozen yogurt. Cherry sorbet.
In the meantime, I thought I’d post a quick movie review. For the most part, I’m not really the reviewing type, but I’ve been looking forward to Ratatouille for probably a year, eagerly reading all the glowing reviews. Not only are we huge fans of most of Pixar’s films (Cars being a notable exception—bleh), this is a movie about a foodie rat in Paris. What’s not to like?
Turns out the only thing not to like about this movie was the crowd we saw it with. We went to the newly overhauled theater at Lancaster Mall, in a room complete with digital projector, stadium seating, and reclinable chairs. I liked the chairs until the kid in the seat in front of me kept pushing his backwards and whacking my feet. And asking his parents a constant stream of obvious questions in a loud voice. I put up with it until the end of the short film, Lifted, that preceded the actual movie. (It was about an alien-abduction license test and was cute, but that For the Birds one that preceded Monsters Inc. is still my favorite Pixar short. Sampler of comments by the inquisitive child: “Is this scary?” (Not at all.) “Is he (ie: the alien) a turtle?” (No, he’s an alien.) “Is the house gone?” (Why, yes. Yes, it is.) “Is the movie starting now?” (Yeah, no kidding.)
Since his parents showed no inclination to let their child know that he was being disruptive, I took the opportunity during the credits of the short and the Pixar logo to quietly say in the most friendly way I could that it was time to be quiet and watch the movie now. The kid immediately stopped talking, and did pretty well for most of the movie. His mother, or babysitter or whoever she was, immediately started making excuses and acting confrontational, though, so we couldn’t hear the very start of the film. She finally shut up when Jeremy asked for some quiet. Then we just had to deal with the kids whining a few rows behind us, and the baby crying a few seats over, and the people coming and going continually, presumably to the bathroom. It’s so not worth going to the theater anymore.
Obnoxious movie-goers aside, Ratatouille was fantastic. I’ll skip all the obvious food metaphors about how the movie was a feast for the eyes, and just say the graphics were amazing. They have really mastered hair effects now: wet, dry and steam-cleaned. And so much texture and detail! If it weren’t for all the theater-side distractions, I’d have to go again just to really try and SEE more of the film. Everything in the kitchen was just spot-on. I appreciated the fact that they didn’t use much product placement: I did notice the microplane zesters, but those are pretty ubiquitous. They could have gone crazy with the KitchenAids and Cuisinarts and LeCreuset or Staub, and if they were there, I didn’t catch it. Also, although much of the world of the movie was incredibly realistic, I think it was a good choice to make the rats and people stylized enough that there was no need to worry about “dead-eye” syndrome.
I have no experience working or being around a professional kitchen, so I can’t speak to that, but I have no doubt that Thomas Keller’s consultation helped make all the technique, plating and advice as realistic as possible. But I really appreciated the trouble they took to represent flavors visually, a la Fantasia. It was a really good introduction to the ideas of flavor pairing and subjective taste experiences, especially for non-foodie types. I could totally relate to Remy’s enthusiasms about food, and his family’s confusion and lack of understanding about his passion.
Beyond the foodie goodness of the movie, it was just a really charming story. No crude jokes about flatulence, just some good-spirited slapsticky “puppeteering” worthy of Blake Edwards. The main characters are all very likeable and relatable. And like The Incredibles before it, Ratatouille has a lot to say about overcoming prejudice, uncompromising morals, and following your heart… not to mention good hygiene and kitchen etiquette. It lived up to my expectations in every possible way, and I set the bar high for this one.
In many ways, though, this is definitely a more adult movie than Pixar’s previous movies, and I don’t know if everyone will appreciate it as much as I do. The level of noise and movement in the theater indicated that Salem’s families, at least, may not entirely be up to this film. But if any movie could share the passion and excitement of the current foodie trend with the general population, it will be Ratatouille. It certainly charmed the socks off of me, and judging by the critical reviews and IMDB rating, I wasn’t the only one.
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06.23.06
Posted in Reviews at 4:24 pm by julie
Even though we only hit a fraction of the places on my list this time around, the ones we did get to were all very good. Just to name a few:
-Fried egg sandwiches (twice!) and graham cracker ice cream sandwiches at ‘Wichcraft
-Pesto pasta at Ruby’s Café
-Roast chicken at Ouest
-Devil’s food cheesecake at Junior’s
-Ricotta and roasted pepper pizza at Lombardi’s
-Everything at Good Enough to Eat (with all the restaurants in New York City, Jeremy still contrived to get us there twice more before leaving!)
-Roast chicken at Pio Pio (but sorry, honey, I still think the yucca frites tasted like fried blocks of starch. And by the way, don’t walk there after spending an entire day wandering around the Met and the Cloisters—my feet were dead).
A special mention goes to the chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate at City Bakery, which, in combination, nearly sent us into a sugar coma. It was the homemade marshmallow (put in our hot chocolate unrequested, so no charge) that pushed us over the edge.
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11.03.05
Posted in Reviews at 4:05 pm by julie
Acqua
We went to this restaurant on the way home from our 8-hr visit to the Met. We got off the subway without a particular dining destination in mind, and realized as we did that it was pouring down rain. Running past a number of restaurants, we settled on Acqua because it seemed reasonably-priced and welcoming.
It turned out to be a good choice. The service was friendly and the food was very good. I had the chicken marsala with mashed potatoes and sauteed spinach (I ate lots of spinach in NYC for some reason), and Jeremy had some sort of penne pasta dish (feel free to add to this meager description, sweetie). We also had chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert, which was very tasty, but apparently unmemorable, because I nearly forgot to add it to the review.
It was kind of noisy inside, but that is seemingly the case for pretty much any NYC restaurant, and the source of the noise that night was mostly the flamboyant birthday group seated next to us. I think we would both recommend this restaurant, and I’d happily eat there again if there weren’t so many other places to try out during a visit.
Good Enough to Eat
We ate brunch at this little restaurant on our way to visiting The Frick, thanks to a recommendation in “Gerry Frank’s Where to Find It, Buy It, Eat It in New York.” I think we must have arrived at a good time, because there were only a few other diners when we arrived, and the place was full when we left.
It has a cozy country atmosphere, complete with a little picket fence out front and country music playing in the background. We were a little put off by the latter, and also by the dozens of smallish objects hanging from the ceiling that resembled nothing so much as giant papier-mache fleas, but the food was very good. Jeremy had some waffles that were both studded and topped with nuts, and I had the Peter Paul Pancakes, which are studded with chocolate chips and topped with toasted coconut. The toppings were a tasty addition, but made it difficult to spread on the accompanying orange butter. If I were to make the pancakes at home (and I could, since the restaurant has put out a breakfast cookbook), I would be more liberal with the toasted coconut, and sprinkle it directly onto one side of the pancakes as they cook, to eliminate that problem.
At any rate, a very tasty brunch if a bit spendy. When Jeremy comes home for Christmas, I may well check out that cookbook from the library, and try out a few of their recipes myself.
City Grill
Another restaurant we found while running aimlessly in the pouring rain looking for a reasonably-priced meal, this time after our visit to The Frick. We discovered after the fact that this restaurant is on the “Don’t Bother” list in Gerry Frank’s book, but we thought it was good, comforting American food and thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Jeremy had a roast turkey dinner (sort of a Thanksgiving preview), and I had the Tuscan roast chicken. The bread was wonderful, and I could actually bring myself to eat the cooked carrots there because they were more crisp than mushy.
We ate a rather early dinner there (I think we arrived at 4:30pm), having skipped lunch after our big brunch at Good Enough to Eat, so it was very quiet there, and our food came quickly. Jeremy informs me that the furnishings—all lovely mahogany—were originally in a bar in Germany and later shipped over here. There were nice harvest decorations around the walls and in the chandeliers, and it was just an overall good dining experience.
Cucina Stagionale
After visiting The Cloisters, we made our way down toward Jeremy’s school because he had a critique to attend. He suggested we go have an early dinner at Camaje, a little bistro in the Village where he arranged a Labor Day introductory luncheon for NYAA students last fall. After wandering around for a bit and not finding the place, we ended up passing by Cucina Stagionale, a name we recalled from looking through Gerry Frank’s book earlier in the day. We couldn’t remember what he said about it, but they have a very reasonable early dinner special from 4:00-7:00pm, so we decided to give it a shot.
For a total of $25 for the both of us, we got a choice of soup or salad (we got Caesar salads), wine or soda (the latter, of course), a choice of entrees (we both chose fettuccine primavera), and coffee or hot tea with tiramisu. You could hardly find a deal that good here in Salem, and the food was all wonderful, authentic Italian. Not being coffee-drinkers, neither of us are particularly fans of tiramisu, but even that was very good. The service was relaxed, but it didn’t bother us, and because we were again eating on the early side, the restaurant was practically empty, which made us even happier.
Amy’s Bread
While wandering about looking for Camaje, we walked by a bakery called Amy’s Bread whose name I recognized from—yes—the Gerry Frank book. After dinner at Cucina Stagionale, we stopped in and bought a pair of Sourdough Chocolate Bread Twists and a Double Chocolate Pecan cookie for dessert. They were both very tasty, and apparently Jeremy has already gone back to get another cookie there since I left for Salem.
While looking up this bakery on Google to see if they had a website, I also discovered that Amy’s Bread put out a cookbook by the same name. One more book to get from the library this winter…
Golden Unicorn Dim Sum
Jeremy wanted me to experience dim sum for the first time while I was in NYC, so we picked one out in Chinatown (by an odd coincidence we chose one on the same page of the book as Good Enough to Eat), and went there for lunch on Friday. It was indeed an experience worth having, though steamed dumplings do not exactly have the ideal texture, in my opinion. Jeremy liked it, and said that the food there tasted slightly better than the dim sum place he usually goes to, but it was also a bit more expensive and hard to anticipate the final tab.
Camaje
Jeremy still wanted to take me to Camaje after we failed to find it on Thursday, so we looked at the map again and headed over there after our second trip to the Met last Saturday. No problems finding it this time, and we were seemingly lucky to get a table without making reservations, even though the place was at least half-empty for our entire meal. It is a cozy little bistro with very leisurely service: we never felt neglected, but the meal did take us a good two hours to finish.
After much agonizing over the menu, we decided to be a bit extravagant and order prie fixe meals: Jeremy got the autumn pumpkin soup, while I had the French onion soup gratinee; we both ordered the roasted hanger steak with crispy shallots and mashed potatoes; and then for dessert, Jeremy had the banoffi pie and I had creme brulee with lavender craqueline. It was all wonderful, and made a perfect conclusion to my visit to New York—Jeremy has good taste!
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