17 posts tagged “food”
"...you grill it until the [mortadella] is nice and crispy, and when you put the bundle in your mouth... well, I believe Martha Stewart nearly had an orgasm the other day when I was on her show, and that is a blessed thing."
"There's a trend in Italy toward fast food, because teenagers don't want to have to eat perfect tortellini every day for dinner. What the fuck are they thinking?"
re: Iron Chef America: "You don't have to beat someone all the time, but it's certainly better than losing to them."
He was personable, though clearly in a rush. Appreciated his healthy disdain for Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade -- he didn't even bother to get the name of her show correct (making fun of Food Network's desire to get you to buy Cool Whip & strawberries: "I don't get that show. Almost Homemade? But she's very popular.").
Those orange Crocs did not work at all for me in person. At. All.
He's still my favorite, though.
French fries with smoked tea finishing salt. Mrowr.
Did I mention how much I hate taxes? Finally, thrillingly done, but at a cost -- apparently the window of time spent doing them coincided exactly with a window of unseasonably beautiful weather. This is the usual story of my life.
Had a brief conversation with a lovely barista at Aberdeen Centre's Starbucks, where the following vital information was gleaned:
- Mango tea frappuccino will never arrive because apparently it already did, and due to an abject failure in north American test markets was a no-go. Test markets which went unnamed for their own safety, because they are so finished once I uncover their taste-defective identities.
- Tangerine and pomegranate have been off the menu some time, leaving only the heavy stuff, but you can still get a strawberry-lemon tea frappuccino if you ask nicely. A touch over-sweet, but it'll work in a pinch.
- Iced green tea with a couple squeezes of melon syrup: maybe the best idea of all.
Believe me, as a non-coffee-drinker who spends a lot of time with addicts, this is all going to save my life someday.
Our last KitKat report was almost two years ago & the flavors underwhelming, so it's high time for another, and have I got some lovely new boxes to show off. I heart Japanese candy packaging -- not exactly zen, but definitely elegant!*
First off, matcha choco is yet another green tea flavored variety, although in contrast to our previous friends, green tea and green tea with azuki bean, these aren't coated in nummy tea-infused white chocolate. Instead, we get familiar standard milk chocolate coating with green tea filling between wafer & shell. Normally, I adore all matcha-based desserts, but I think chocolate overwhelms here ~ v. sad. Couldn't taste green beyond a vague sense of "creamier-ness" -- much, much prefer its white choco-based cousins.
Ringo choco, clearly from the same "release," comes in an identical form factor: two solo-wrapped, chubby bars inside a tall, thin box. These are wearing the same milk chocolate cocktail dress, but sport apple-flavored intimates this time. The apple? Totally fake & supercharged with sweetness but in a classic, candy way, and as such can't be overpowered by the cocoa, which makes it automatically more successful than the matcha. Was reminded of Miranda's bizarre choco / apple gummy panda cookie, and these are similarly simultaneously appealing & disturbing. My reshuffled pantheon of fruit-flavored KitKats is now ranked thusly: Wine (yes, please!), Strawberry, Ringo choco, Orange, Banana (yuck!).
Finally, chestnut brings us back to lovely white chocolate-based goodness. Again, we're bordering on too sweet, but there's a pleasant nutty, woody, almost smoky flavor present that recalls, if not specifically roast chestnuts, something in their general neighborhood. The flavor's definitely the most complex of the three, and bears further "study." However! Am feeling guilty now after three KitKat bars, so... will have to wait a bit on that.
*it remains impossible to reconcile this elegance with Japanese candy commericals. w. t. f.
**though I do like this one -- I mean, Ayumi Hamasaki!
Here in Vancouver, there's a chain of eateries called New York Fries. "Authentically New York," goes their motto, on a poster featuring yellow cabs emblazoned with the NYF logo navigating the streets of The City, and I believe it, because certainly when I think of New York, I think of ... poutine.
[...apologies for the horrible cameraphone photo.]
While these people have obviously never set foot in the two-one-two, poutine does seem to be ascendant in the States these days. We're not likely to see Carrie Bradshaw handling messy gobs of gooey goodness on the silver screen anytime soon, but there are no less than three hip eateries in Seattle serving it at the moment, a number that will no doubt rise in the coming months. Combining comfort food with upscale dining's a road fraught with peril, but it can be done (cf. the late and lamented Fork's lobster corn dogs) but, still, given a choice between Feenie's or this food court fare, I'd probably choose this. Besides, you're allowed to get your hands messy at the mall!
To bring some closure to Monday's entry, I present dai bao:
Sadly, such a mélange is not often photogenic, but I'm sure there are those among you who can appreciate the imagery! Note forgotten ingredients like Chinese sausage, spring onions, and then imagine the wonderful, aromatic steam air which pours out as you bite into the pocket of filling, and you can complete the picture for yourself. There's absolutely no sense of scale in these photos, but I stick with my softball comparison.
As quickly as it came, it went; Good-bye, GNE, sleep well, and Thank You for the best April 1 on record. Sniffle.
Took out Alan Moore's Promethea: Book 1 from the library, even before I'd read a single page of Preacher. Feel like I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but it only seemed appropriate after a night spent dreaming I was the superpowered reincarnation of Cleopatra, fighting terrorists with the ability to see their actions as words on a printed page and affect their fates through copyeditor's marks. Seriously. And! You should have seen it, loves -- my costume was amazing, a thing of bronze and silk and leather, full of reptilian ferocity.
That's right, I even get to cosplay in my sleep. If that's not a superpower, I don't know what is.
A note: I'm crossposting entries to my LiveJournal, friendslocked, so if it's more convenient for you to follow along there, let me know and I'll add you to my friends list.
Had comfort food for breakfast, dai bao -- an enormous Chinese steamed bun, nearly as big as a softball, filled with ground pork, water chestnut, a whole boiled egg, and other goodness. It's like an entire meal in one handheld lump, warm, wild, wonderful. Koreans have a similar concoction, wang mandu, with glass noodles and spring onions and, well, you get the picture. Have heard rumors of a Vietnamese analogue as well. Someday I'd love to open a restaurant where every dish you order comes to you in the form of a giant, doughy steamed bun bursting at the seams with ... lamb shwarma? gyros? italian sausage and bolognese? Honestly, the mind fills with endless possiblity.
Grabbed Preacher: Gone To Texas from the library, which I'm told is long overdue for a read. Am in a contradictory mood for dark/unredemptive and fluffy/romantic entertainment, though the graphic novel form feels right either way. Any recommendations?
I realize the last entry was crying out for a photo, and I was tempted to steal this one from the P-I article I'd linked, but thought better of it. Sadly, my photography has been as absent as my writing, so I've none of my own to share. From Samurai, that is. Here's a little something from another pretty good ramen restaurant in Bellevue, Mamasan:
Their tonkotsu is decidedly less rich, and a little more complex. Definitely ginger, probably sake as well. I've also heard, from multiple friends, that the Nagasaki champon is where it's at, but I haven't tried it myself. A warning: there's a bit of a sketchy vibe if you go there after dinnertime -- they're open late, and the place is filled with Japanese businessmen and eager-to-please waitresses hanging off their sides as they sing karaoke. Eww! And if you decide to brave it anyways (and you're a woman dining alone), prepare to get a good dose of stinkeye.*
On the other hand, lunchtime has always felt pretty safe.
* I've no idea if this colorful illustration is still the way things are there -- this was several years ago, and I decided once was enough!
I have over eight thousand unread posts in bloglines right now -- kidding you not, love. I hesitate to overuse the word wagon, but... have you seen it anywhere?
I'd meant to write about this at the beginning of 2007, when my period of being incommunicado qualified as Claire-Danes-goes-to-college instead of the J. D. Salinger it's become, and when it might have actually done some good, but somehow Seattle finally got a decent ramen place: Samurai Noodle, in Uwajimaya Village (though last week's Weekly claims that two more quality ramen joints have opened up in the city since). I love ramen -- real ramen, not the stuff you buy at the supermarket -- and this is the good stuff: soft but substantial noodles, maitake mushrooms, spring onions, bamboo shoots and a soy sauce-steeped hard-boiled egg. Thick slices of fall-apart-in-your-mouth tender roast pork. The tonkotsu broth is -- oh god -- so umami that it might make you nauseous if you're not up for the experience. Pure liquid pig. If you're faint of heart, the shoyu-tonkotsu broth is a measure lighter and may give you some breathing room.
Anyway, I digress. The reason I wanted to write, and the sadly time-limited aspect of it, was that somewhere in the wintry months early in 2007 there was a yuzu-shoyu ramen on the menu, and it was glorious. Citrus in soup is a good thing (cf. avgolemono or pho, and I always like to squeeze a lime or two into the pot when I make posole), and this hit all the right notes -- the tartness of juice, sweet-bitterness of zest and salt-umami of the base broth. Perfect for a winter morning and sorely missed. I'd hoped that with a year having passed it would slip onto the menu again and I'd have a reason to share this with you, but alas, all you get is a sad tale of lost love. Sorry!
p.s. -- tips for dining at Samurai:
- You don't get some of the extra goodies unless you order the "Samurai Armor Bowl" version of a particular ramen flavor. Especially egg: egg is key.
- Tonkotsu broth comes with thin noodles. This may be because the soup stands up pretty strongly for itself (and probably would literally do so if allowed to chill). If you like doughy noodles in your ramen, you can ask for these al dente, and they'll feel a little more substantial. On the other hand, all other flavors come with a significantly thicker noodle, one that's a bit much at full firmness, so you might stick with the default doneness there.
- The tsukemen fish broth, along with its spicier variants, the evocatively named "Tetsu Hell Fire" and "Tetsu Hell Fire Max," are dipping broths. You get your noodles to the side, "dry," and dip them into a small bowl of sauce. Not my thing, really. If I want something like ten zaru soba, I'll order ten zaru soba, thank you very much.
- Apparently they have takoyaki, but I keep forgetting this when I'm there.
- YMMV, despite my best intentions!
in tastier news, cranberry & hazelnet raincoast crisps are heaven, espcially paired with a good triple cream cheese (we used delice de bourgogne). if only they were cheaper! when your crackers cost more than your cheese you know you're shopping at whole foods...
