Archive for the ‘Food, Glorious Food’ Category
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
In it’s pure dark form, chocolate has indeed been shown to be “heart smart,” with more antioxidants than black tea or red wine, as well as lots of magnesium, iron, and potassium (all vital to women’s health). It can also ease anxiety and depression, as it contains serotonin and theobromine, which act on brain receptors and have a beneficial influence on mood. –French Women Don’t Get Fat
Well, thank god for that. Because shortly before I received the PR copy of French Women Don’t Get Fat (revised with recipes), I received a bunch of chocolate from the PR folks for Green and Black’s Chocolate. The goodies from Green and Black’s came with a little educational pitch on how to hold a chocolate tasting, who knew?
Before I go any further, just so it’s perfectly clear: the chocolate and the copy of French Women Don’t Get Fat came from PR companies. Disclaimer enough? Okay.
Some people around my house are addicted to sweets, I ain’t saying who. And some people, in combination with their addiction, are terribly snobby about their sweets, making for a rather expensive habit. Others are not quite so discerning, they’re satisfied with a Snickers Bar or a Cadbury Fruit and Nut Bar. To them, I say, “Can I have a bite?” even while saying “Don’t you have anything better?”
In French Women Don’t Get Fat, there’s a whole lot of talk about quality, quality, quality. The French, it seems, have cornered the market on epicureanism and it’s their indulgence in the best stuff that keeps them from overindulging in anything - one ounce of quality chocolate is equal to snarfing down an entire jumbo sized Hershey bar. That’s the trick, apparently, to staying svelte.
I don’t happen to think that bit about the French being the pinnacle of epicureans is true though admittedly, I’m a total dilettante, my travels and living abroad have ruined me for a lot of things. I do prefer dark chocolate to milk, and I think white chocolate is beside the point and I don’t like it very much. In spite of the clear quality of the Green and Black’s I didn’t like their white chocolate any better than Milka white chocolate, which I’ve eaten too much of on accident because I “forgot” to give it away. I do like the Milka with whole hazelnuts, though once we got some Italian knock off brand at the Hofer (a sort of food clearance store in Austria) that was superior in all ways. I’ve intentionally stayed away from the chocolates at my local French bakery, more out of fear of addiction than fear of lousy quality - once when they were out of twice baked almond croissants I had the twice baked chocolate instead and oh, let’s just say that it was an immensely satisfying experience.
The Green and Black’s chocolate was awfully nice, even the milk chocolate preferring husband had to admit that it was damn fine snacking while I had to concede that the milk chocolate they make is better than anything from the choco-industrial complex. The Maya Gold, their “signature” was damn fine, you taste it with your whole mouth, instead of just this waxy sweetness, there’s so much more… it took everything out of me not to snarf the whole thing down in a frenzy, a very anti-French way of enjoying food, excellent quality be damned.
There are three bags of chocolate chips in our pantry, they’re waiting to be made into cookies, of course. Chocolate chip cookies are also anti-French, I think, but there’s few things that are so delightful - or American - as a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven, cool enough to eat but warm enough so that the chocolate is still kind of gooey. If we are to apply the French style moderation, we’d make them in very small batches out of the best possible chocolate chips. That’s probably not going to happen.
I tend to stay away from diet philosophy because I believe (perhaps wrongly) that we all know how to be thinner: Eat less nonsense and get more exercise. I also stay away because I really enjoy food so very much and I think that a life of deprivation is a waste. I think French Women Don’t Get Fat talks about food in very reasonable ways, but I also think it’s nothing new.
More attractively to me, the book includes a recipe for croissants. It takes three days to make them - with a lot of resting time for the dough - and I think I’m going to try it out. Then, I can eat them with the last of my Green and Black’s chocolate and a really good cup of coffee. THAT sounds French in the best possible way.
Sort of related on NEV:
Posted in Food, Glorious Food | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Pineapple curry with shrimp, before and after
My fondness for far away places means that my comfort foods are a bizarre smörgåsbord of Indian and Asian style curries, European baked goods, taco truck carbohydrates, and mundane supermarket standards like Crackin’ Oat Bran (the crack cocaine of cereals), mac and cheese, and Snyder’s pretzels. Mr NEV, bless him, has come to embrace the oddity that is my appetite (mostly) and has been known to say, unprovoked, “Get your coat, we’re going for pho” or, using his best Homer Simpson imitation, “Mmmmmmm. Spinach naan!”
Today, nothing would reassure me quite like the spicy sweet combination of a pineapple curry, preferably served up on that fluffy reddish brown rice that fancier Thai places offer you. I picked up a five pound bag of Tom Mali (unhulled jasmine) rice along with a ripe pineapple from Costa Rica, a pound of white shrimp from Ecuador, a bottle of fish sauce from Vietnam, some Thai basil from Hawaii, a few greenhouse grown red peppers from Canada, and miscellaneous other items from all over the planet. My dinner had the same carbon footprint I’d have made if I’d hopped a flight to Bangkok, eaten curry, and flown back again.
I would be delighted to do nothing but eat locally were I to live in a tropical wonderland where mangoes fall from the heavens and seafood jumps out of the ocean and on to your plate, perfectly filleted and coated in a little something - let’s say ground macadamia nuts drizzled with sweet chili sauce. We have fairly abundant produce in the Pacific Northwest but I miss California avocados, I love love love the spicy sweet food of the tropics or the complicated aroma of Indian cooking. Kale is great, but how can it compete with the wonders of, say, dragon fruit or rambutan?! Al Gore, I am sorry, but if I can not travel myself, from time to time, I like a plate that reminds of the bright variety of the outside world.
My pineapple curry was imperfect, but it was my first one. I can’t repeat the recipe since it was just a hack between a bunch of recipes I read online during the day. I did learn that the trick to a good pineapple curry is to let the coconut milk based sauce stew for a while. Our seconds - with an added half a teaspoon of red curry paste - were so much better for simmering on the stove for an extra 20 minutes. Next time, I’ll sautée the onions (probably from Walla Walla, Washington), toss in the curry paste, the coconut milk and the pineapple, and let it simmer on low for a good hour. Then, right at dinner time, I’ll add the veggies and the shrimp. That will make for a thicker, more seasoned sauce and the pineapple will be well stewed in the chili paste. There’s nothing like the amazing sweet bite of pineapple offset by the sharp fire of red chili. There’s something about the combination of contrary flavors that reassures a complicated person like me that everything is all right in the world.
Posted in Fish Wednesday | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 21st, 2008
With family in Portland and Eugene, we spend an unlikely amount of time buzzing up and down the I-5 corridor. If I’m flying solo, I take the train and pack a picnic, but with just one extra person it’s cheaper to drive, though a bit of a bore after the 37th time. Coffee isn’t just a luxury, it’s a requirement. We try to stop somewhere different every time, unless we find a real score, and then, we go back.
I spent a long weekend in Kalama once for the Discovery Days Festival, a gathering that celebrates the relationship between the Kalama tribe and, you guessed it, Hawaii. The festival is a combination luau/powwow with lots of music. While wandering the main strip with a fellow uke star, we discovered the Antique Deli and Mall. The coffee is nothing special, but the baked goods are home style all the way and the place is full of locals on the weekends. The ginger cake? Yum.
413 N 1st St Kalama, WA 98625
We’ve struck out in Salem on all previous stops, but this time, aided with a little technology, we scoped out the Governor’s Cup in the center of Salem’s old downtown. I had a nice fluffy sweet chai and the house coffee was a good strong brew. The treats were picked over on a Sunday morning so I can’t speak for the offerings there, and it looks like they don’t bake in house. A fine stop for caffeination, not so great if your expectations run on the snacky side. There’s free wifi, so if you absolutely must check your email, you’re set.
471 Court Street NE Salem, Oregon 97301
The best we’ve discovered so far - and there are lots of stops we’ve overlooked - is Boccherini’s in Albany. They’ve got a full lunch menu, a pastry case full of towering cakes, a wide selection of teas, and make a perfectly fine cup of coffee. The chocolate cake is moist and covered in yummy butter cream frosting and ganache. It’s a little more than halfway between Eugene and Portland, but for the right combination of good treats and coffee, this is the place. We’ve made a point of stopping here more than once, it’s worth it.
208 First Avenue Albany, Oregon 97321
Posted in Food, Glorious Food, Passport Travels | No Comments »
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
My pal S - she lives in Tuscany - is a fine cook. One year, I was at her place in Maremma for a birthday feast and wow, did we eat some seafood. She lives not far from Porto Ercole so we all squeezed into someone’s car and headed down to have Italian style cocoa in the January weather. Before we went home, we stopped at the fish market. Later that evening we ate and ate and ate some more.
It’s from S. that I learned you can rarely go wrong in the kitchen if you use plenty of high quality olive oil. Here in Seattle we buy olive oil in large containers at PFI - Pacific Food Importers. The folks at the counter will tell you the difference between the varieties. In the past, they’ve recommended what the tonier Seattle restaurants are using - and it’s not always the most expensive. When left to our own devices, we look for the greenest oil we can find.
This week’s Fish Wednesday Thursday recipe came from Flavors of Tuscany: Recipes from the Heart of Italy
. I won’t repeat the recipe but in short, it’s braised tuna in a roasted red pepper sauce. It’s time consuming in that you have to roast and peel the peppers and then make the sauce, but it’s not difficult. We picked up some very high quality tuna from our favorite source, Seattle Fish Company, at the West Seattle Junction. The sauce was nice and the fish, if I may gloat a little, was a perfect and tender medium rare, but I wanted a little something more, a little bite. I’ve scribbled “green olives? capers?” in the margins of the book for next time.
When I’m feeling especially pleased with my Fish Wednesday accomplishments, I like to present the tab to Mr. NEV. Tonight, after I said “That will be 32.50, please,” he replied, “No way I’m paying Fish Wednesday prices on Fish Thursday!”
Eat your fish. It makes you smart.
Posted in Fish Wednesday | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
On the short three block downtown radius in White Center, you can find a Halal shop that seems to serve mostly Ethiopian or Somalian clientèle, a handful of Vietnamese pho places, a Cambodian cafe and a Cambodian supermarket - as well as a few other markets that have a staggering variety of Asian and Mexican groceries, a few shops where you can buy quinceanera dresses, several taco vans and a couple of Mexican restaurants (a new one is opening in the old Indian restaurant), a pawn shop, a classic grill that clearly used to be a drive-in, a biker bar … and oh, I’m sure there are several things I’ve forgotten. There’s also an awesome hardware store where the cashiers are those lovely older ladies that wear bright lipstick and call you “Dear.” All this is a mere two miles from my rather white bread neighborhood.
Yesterday at the Cambodian New Year’s Street Festival, a bunch of strapping white firemen stood in front of the taco van with a handful of very pretty brown skinned teenage girls to listen to the Buddhist monks chant blessings over the crowd. The announcements were in Khmer and English and were followed by traditional Cambodian dancing and Prach Ly, a Cambodian American rapper. We poked our noses in a handful of markets where you could buy little gold Buddhas and candles with the Virgin of Guadalupe on them. It was cold and windy, so we bought lattes in a cafe decorated with a huge dayglo painting of a decaying Cambodian temple scene.
Sure, White Center has too many empty store fronts and there’s an obvious community in need of support. But I love going down there to slurp big bowls of pho, to watch the amazing variety of people go about there business, and to believe in the old myth of a melting pot America.
Side note: I can’t speak for the beef pho, but the chicken pho at Pho Tai is delish.
White Center, 98106
Posted in Seattle, White Center Eats | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Even though we live in the seafood paradise of the Pacific Northwest we are not snobs ’round here, no sir. Plus, with bad news coming from the salmon streams, we may find ourselves seeking cheap, sustainable alternatives long before we thought we’d have to.
It was just yesterday that I found myself paying a little too much for a grilled cheese sandwich at lunchtime. In spite of the expense, I remembered just how damn yummy a pan fried sandwich is. And when Mr. NEV decided we needed to make chocolate chip cookies too, the die was cast, we were going grade school weekend lunch all the way. In addition to the stuff we needed for cookies, we picked up a jar of kosher mini dill pickles, a little piece of Danish cheese, and some bread. Tuna we had at home.
I’m not going to tell you how to make a grilled tuna and cheese sandwich, plus, everyone has a method. I hear there are those who slather both sides of their bread with mayo before putting it in the pan. If that’s how you like it, more power to you.
I still love to have my grilled sammich with tomato soup, but Soup Swap has spoiled me for quality and I just can’t do the Campbell’s from the can anymore. I guess I’m not a total non-snob and yeah, that was Dijon mustard I mixed in with the tuna.
Still, if you can’t enjoy a plain old grilled sandwich from the skillet, a crispy, salty dill, and a chocolate chip cookie still warm from the oven, well, maybe it’s time to consider antidepressants.
Posted in Fish Wednesday | 3 Comments »
