Food Fantasy: Is This Normal?
g says: It’s been more than a week since we visited Sampan (search our blog for “sampan”) and I am still thinking about their pork banh mi. That expertly-crafted bundle of unpretentious perfection was wrapped in kraft paper with LOVE… and my belly wants more! It is rare for me to have this kind of experience at a fine dining establishment (i.e. to find something crave-able), but here I am.
t has a surprise dinner planned for my birthday the week after next, but we could change plans if I have a special request that night. So the question is, do I hold out for the surprise and eat someplace new (which I love to do), or do I celebrate my big 2-6 satisfying my new sandwich obsession?
Let’s take a vote – I am torn and need your input!
EDIT: The poll ended in a tie!! I guess we’ll just have to flip a coin!
Devil’s Alley: Why So Many Fans?
t says: When we originally heard that Garces’s new Village Whiskey was “the” place to get a burger in Philadelphia (supposedly trumping Grace Tavern, which is well-known for their burgers), we were excited to try it. Unfortunately, on one of our earlier attempts, we were dissuaded by the hour wait. So we put our name on their list and started looking around for ‘other’ burgers and ended up at Devil’s Alley. Neither of us could remember who it was that told us that they had great food despite being a bar, but if “we heard good things”, then surely it’d be a safe place to order some burgers. We were mistaken.
11/2009, Friday Dinner, Party of 2. We were seated without a wait, so we figured that it wasn’t that busy. However, in retrospect, maybe it was a ridiculously busy (is there ever a Friday night that’s not busy?), because the service was nearly non-existant and abysmal when present (e.g. messed up order, a long wait to get her attention to correct the problem, a longer wait for the correction to occur, and another party of 2 was brought over to our table even before we had finished standing up to put on our coats to leave).
The food was either mediocre (g’s burger was “fine, but a little dry”; it reminded me of the standard overcooked burgers I ate at home bbq’s in my youth) or bad (turkey burger was dry and insipid – I’ve honestly had better in a hospital cafeteria – seriously – no hyperbole). At least the fries were crispy.
After I told others of my experience at Devil’s Alley, they informed me that I didn’t order any of the “creative dishes” (?something about a PB&J?). Well, now here’s the quandry – do we risk going back for a second try? Maybe we should try out non-Friday, non-dinner time? But at these times, it’d also be easier to get into all of those “other” restaurants we want to try (or at least the ones we’ve had good experiences at). I guess maybe if some of our friends wanted to go, we’d give it a whirl – good company makes up for bad food/service any time …
Sadly, after we had already returned to our apartment, some 2+ hours after we had originally tried our luck at Village Whiskey, they called to tell us that they had a table ready. Unfortunately, we were full on not delicious food …
Tofu Brownie-Cakes
t says: Why on earth would I make these? I have no dietary restrictions. Tofu shouldn’t be in desserts. So why? I’m a prankster.
g’s older sister lc frowns upon tofu. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard her swear that she will not eat it. Because of this (or because I imagined this – she may have actually eaten tofu before – I have no idea), I made it my mission to make her eat tofu. But how? Surely she has eyes, so it’d have to be concealed. Surely she has a tongue, so it’d have to be texturally masked. I then read online that someone said you could add tofu to boxed cake mix. That person was a genius.
Now, really, there’s no reason to add tofu to boxed cake mix – you still have to add eggs (well, I still do – some people say you don’t – I think they’re lying). Also, it doesn’t “do” anything for the cake – it just comes out a little thicker than normal (which is why I made them in a cupcake pan and called them “brownie-cakes” – sinister, right?), but otherwise imparts no flavor to the brownie (especially if you use dark chocolate chips – their flavor’s fairly strong). So I want to restate: there really is absolutely no reason one should add tofu to cake mix … unless you want someone to eat tofu … without him/her knowing until it’s too late …
Ingredients:
__ 1 package of silken tofu, excess liquid removed
__ 1 boxed cake mix
__ some chocolate chips (optional)
__ all the ingredients the box calls for (# of eggs cut in half)
Methods:
0) Preheat the oven as per the box’s directions for cupcakes. I greased the cupcake pan because I did NOT use cupcake wrappers – brownies don’t have wrappers.
1) Mix together all ingredients and beat VERY well. If there are chunks of tofu, your eater will be suspicious. Add chocolate chips to give the cupcakes some textural contrasts (and to hide the texture of any tofu chunks you might have missed – still pretty sinister, right?)
2) Bake as per the box’s directions.
3) Serve to unsuspecting eaters. Why? Because you’re a sinister mastermind …
PS I don’t know if there is such a thing as a soy allergy, but if someone avoids tofu for some sort of medical reason, don’t serve them these – that’s not sinister – that’s stupid (and likely criminal).
PPS Yes, it worked. She ate them.
Talula’s Table: Totally Worth Waking Up at 4am
t says: There’s a pseudo-restaurant called Talula’s Table. It’s located in Kennett Square, PA, just outside of Philadelphia (so I still consider it “in Philadelphia”). It is our most favorite place to eat dinner … ever. Over the past few years, it’s been recognized as the “Toughest Reservation in America”, ahead of The French Laundry, Per Se, Daniel, etc (although I think Momofuku Ko is nearly as difficult – but I have at least come across open reservations for Ko, so it’s not quite as elusive). Why is it so difficult?
Back in the early 2000’s, there was a BYOB named Django. It had the highest food rating of all Philadelphia restaurants according to the Zagat guide. Laban gave it four (out of four) bells, a mark that no BYOB had earned. Better yet, diners did not need to don tuxes or suit jackets or even button-down shirts to go! It was the envy of the Philadelphia restaurant scene. And then … owners Bryan Sikora and Aimee Olexy sold it, signing a non-compete clause in which they could not open up a restaurant within a certain number of miles (?40?) from Philadelphia. They moved to Kennett Square and opened Talula’s Table, a cafe and market during the day, but a venue for a “catered dinner” in the evening. The catch? Only a single reservation per night is available for the single table of 8-12 people (it’s not even a fancy-looking table). You can guess what happens when supply is so limited, but demand is so high: they are booked solid to a year in advance. And every morning when they open up shop, the phone rings off the hook for people looking to get that single reservation 365 days into the future. Meanwhile, Django in the city closed – clearly, something about Sikora and Olexy is magical.
Well, I got one of these reservations. How’d I do it? Those who know me realize that I’m not one leave a thing like this up to the meager “chance” that I’d be the first person to call Talula’s in the morning. No, that’s not my style. You see, there is a more guaranteed way to get a reservation at Talula’s. One must simply be waiting outside their door when they open – if so, then the phones are disregarded in favor of a visiting patron. Of course, showing up at 7 wasn’t guaranteed enough for me – I was shooting for the Saturday of Labor Day weekend 2009. Clearly I should get there extra early so that I’m actually the first one there. 6:30? No. 6? No. 5:30? No. 5. Yep. I woke up at 4am, drove out to Kennett Square, parked right in front of the tiny little shop, and passed the time with some reading and my iPod shuffle. g had contemplated making a shirt for me that said, “Yes, I’m in line for Talula’s – so back off!”. As you might have guessed, that reservation was mine. (In a twist of fate, some months later, when k got engaged to cm, they decided to get married on Labor Day weekend … 2009 … we “returned” our reservation to Talula’s – they post cancellations on their website or in their shop – so that we could attend their wedding – but of course, that was also totally worth it – what a great time!).
So then how do I know it’s worth waking up at 4am for? Well, you see, Talula’s also has what I like to call “a back door”. They have a “Chef’s Table” for 2-4 right in the kitchen. You call up, put your name on the “list”, and whenever they have an opening, they call you – and you have to decide right then and there (or in a reasonable amount of time – I imagine they give you ’til the end of the day) if you can make it. I put my name on the list, and a few months later … We got the call. The reservation was 1.5 weeks in advance for the middle of the week. I hesitated – did I want to trek out to Kennett Square on a weeknight in December and have to drive back to Philly afterwards? I called up one of our favorite food-friends for a consultation – were we crazy? He replied that for Talula’s, he’d take off from work – it didn’t matter what day, what time, or how he got there. Apparently, we were crazy. And it ended up being so good that g and I returned again in June 2009 (for our anniversary) as well. And it was so good the second time that the weekend we drove up to k and cm’s wedding on Labor Day weekend, I showed up at Talula’s early in the morning again (although only 6am this time), and got the big-table reservation for … Labor Day weekend 2010 (I wonder if anyone’s going to get married this time?)
So, our two visits to Talula’s were over 6 and 12 months ago (12/2008 and 6/2009). It’s far too difficult to remember the nuances of the dishes (each meal is 8 courses – 6 savory, 1 cheese, 1 dessert). But I can say that each meal was phenomenal. My personaol top 5 savory courses from our visits include the following:
Sausage fried scallops, creamy polenta, toasted almonds, and chile emulsion
Confit of Meadowset lamb, rosemary dumplings, and parmesan crusted Vollmecke hubbard
Crayfish bisque “a la Sazerac”, Anson Mills polenta pudding, and fava beans
“All things asparagus” (asparagus prepared 3 ways: roasted, tempura, and FLAN accompanied by bacon dust and mustard foam)
Crispy fried hudson valley moulard, baked beans, and molasses
Also, both of the cheese plates offered such an incredible variety of textures and tastes (Aimee knows her cheese). And the desserts were also not mere afterthoughts – they were Zahav-good. Actually, technically Talula’s was first, so perhaps Zahav’s desserts are Talula’s-good. One was a napoleon of strawberry gelee, strawberry-rhubarb mousse, and wine roasted berries, and the other was a ricotta charlotte with a hazelnut-sea salt crust and blood orange sorbet.
But what makes Talula’s great is NOT just the food – it’s the whole experience. Having dined twice in the kitchen, we were able to see Brian (and Aimee) in action – they are the greatest people ever. Brian’s control of the kitchen is calm and cool. He’ll be the first to admit that he has absolute faith that the kitchen could cook the entire meal without him; he’s super-humble. And then, when we got him philosophizing about the importance of focusing on “food” in restaurants (and not things like atmosphere or props – perhaps a subtle jab at Stephen Starr?), we could see that he’s not in the biz for ego or money – he actually likes food (either that, or he’s a great actor)! Meanwhile, every single member of the staff was pleasant and very courteous and professional (despite not donning bow ties and jackets) – friendly top notch service! Add in the fact that we were able to bring our own wine (and visit great local wineries beforehand – Va La is awesome) and walk to a nearby bed-and-breakfast afterwards (shout out to Gilja of Kennett House!) and what you have is not just a dinner, rather, an unbelievable gastronomic experience. I’m actually a little worried about eating at the big-table – we’d lose out on the connection with the staff and being able to see how everything was made.
By the way, if you do get a chance to go – get some scones to go. They were day-old’s … and they were still awesome. My fave was banana-chocolate, while g’s went ga-ga for the lemon-ginger! I’ve also tasted them at 7am when they are fresh from the oven – I actually considered moving to Kennett Square and commuting to Philadelphia …
Meritage: Solid Food for the Price
t says: My dad and I took a “Sushi Basics” class at the Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College. It was a ton of fun! What was particularly interesting was that our instructor, Chef Anne Coll, was obviously not Japanese – not Asian at all (from what I could tell). That said, she wowed us with her extensive knowledge of and experience with preparing Asian foods – she used to be at Susanna Foo in its hay-day). She was very pleasant and an excellent teacher, explaining to us the finer points of making sushi rice (super-important), slicing fish, and cutting cucumbers. We thanked her for a great time and bid her farewell.
Fast forward several months. g and I found out that Meritage (a restaurant which co-workers of mine bashed as “the worst restaurant in Rittenhouse”) was getting a new chef: Chef Coll! g and I were super-enthused, so we added it to our list of restaurants to visit (we wanted to wait until after it had been open for a bit to work out its “opening pains”). But of course, by the time we wanted to go, LaBan had given them 3 bells. For those unfamiliar with LaBan, 3 bells is quite a good score, especially given the price point of this restaurant – no entree was over $21 (at the time – I spotted a $23 entree on their website recently)! So, while every restaurant in the city that gets 3 bells (or more) becomes instantly booked for the ensuing 2 months, Meritage was super-booked! Fortunately, we managed to go twice, once in November (on a weekday) and once in December (during the first snowstorm that gave us >20″ of snow).
12/2009, Tuesday Dinner, Party of 3. Service was top-notch throughout the entire meal – our waiter was both friendly and informative about the dishes that were offered and his “favorites”. We opted for the dumpling appetizer and found that while they tasted good, they were not revolutionary – g and I have made better dumplings, ourselves.
Our friend went for the tuna tartare and the pork cheek. Having spent some time in Japan, I half-expected him to be very critical of the tartare, but he actually seemed very happy with the dish. The pork cheek blew him away – it was tasty and so tender that exclaimed, “well, guess I don’t need this!” as he put down his knife and used just his fork. I went for the “duo of pork” which featured a tea-smoked tenderloin and pork belly. The tea flavor was very subtle in the tenderloin, which was well-cooked. Having had Cochon’s tenderloin, with its rich, deep flavor, I felt a little let down – but don’t get me wrong – it was still a very nice slab of meat. Fortunately, I felt that the pork belly was on another world, a definite high note in the meal – it was flavorful, cooked superbly, and made me want to go home and cook it myself (I have, and it wasn’t very good – I’ll get it eventually).
g had a good-but-not-mind-blowing hanger steak with chickpea “fries”. Personally, I loved the chickpea fries – I felt they were novel (although perhaps borderline gimicky) and tasted great with my pork. g liked them, but only ever admitted they were “good”.
The desserts were solid dishes, too, as I remember eating them all, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember exactly what we had. I want to say that we had the chocolate bombe, some sort of pot-de-creme, and some sort of apple fruit tart. It was a pleasant finish to a very solid meal.
12/2009, Saturday Dinner, Party of 3. Meritage was so good (and reasonably priced) the first time that we planned a second visit with our other friend. To start, we sampled the BBQ pork sliders as our appetizer – the meat, bread, and sauce made for a delightful sandwich which was NOT too sweet (I dislike super-sweet BBQ sauce). That said, our friend, who’s from Alabama, reminded us that it wasn’t the most “authentic” BBQ ever (nevertheless, he said he’d eat it again).
g went for the chicken and I had the Jersey monkfish. Both were superbly cooked. g’s chicken was great (and we’ve tasted a lot of bland chicken in our time). g felt that my dish was a little too salty, so perhaps the sauce contained too much ?soy sauce? – but I liked it a lot (I preferred mine to hers, and she preferred hers to mine). Our friend, at our recommendation, went for the pork cheeks, which were once again dynamite (I think he’s started searching for pork cheeks in markets to try and cook them at home). However, his lamb chops, judging by his reaction were satisfactory but unremarkable (at least there were no complaints). Sadly, we were all too stuffed for dessert.
All in all Meritage provided for us two solid meals. The portions were a nice size for the price, especially because within walking distance from our apartment, there really aren’t a whole lot of New American restaurants that fit this bill (e.g. Audrey Claire, which has yet to impress us and Matyson, which, while tasty, gives far too little food for the dollar). No dish we had was “bad”, and the few pork highlights were absolutely inspiring. I especially appreciate some of the creativity in Chef Coll’s dishes and I feel that, over time, Meritage could be huge!
What keeps us from going back? Well, Meritage is NOT a BYOB. That said, their wine list is less expensive than it used to be, with wines by the glass coming in at $8 each. Nevertheless, for $16, g and I could have had a whole bottle of wine at a BYOB, not just two glasses.
Chocolate Chip Cookies (with pix)
t says: Chocolate chip cookies hold a special place in nearly everyone’s heart (I guess maybe not if you’re allergic). I’ve always been on the lookout for great recipes, but never found one that 1) was easy and 2) gave me a cookie that I liked more than break-and-bake cookies (the new caramel-stuffed Nestle ones are a force to be reckoned with).
Enter Ad Hoc at Home. When I saw that there was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies in a book by Thomas Keller, I figured that it must be some sort of ridiculous 70-step monster. You see, TK has a knack for recipes that aren’t friendly for the home cook. For instance, his chicken soup recipe requires individually cooking each of the components (e.g. carrots, celery, chicken, dumplings) before adding them to a separately prepared broth in the very last step. I was happy to find that his chocolate chip cookie recipe was quite reasonable in terms of methods. And, when a friend (who shall remain unnamed to protect his/her identity so his/her mother won’t be offended by the following quote) claimed “they might be the best cookies he/she has ever had”, I just had to post the recipe for him/her, which was halved and modified for the ingredients we had on hand (TK normally calls for dark brown sugar and mix of milk and dark chocolates – as well as sifting the chocolate before adding it in so you can eliminate really tiny pieces of chocolate so your cookies “look clean” … yea … if he just started with a bag of chips like us, he wouldn’t have that problem).
Ingredients:
__ 1 cup + 3 Tbs + 0.5 tsp all-purpose flour (don’t complain – I could have written 56.5 tsp)
__ 0.5 tsp baking soda, minus a smidgen
__ 0.5 tsp kosher salt
__ 0.25 lb (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (I don’t know why cold, but what TK wants, TK gets)
__ 0.5 c packed light brown sugar
__ 0.375 c granulated sugar
__ 1 extra large egg (although we have used jumbo from time to time – I think the cookies are taller – but I haven’t measured it)
__ 50% of an 11.5-0z bag of Ghirardelli 60% cacao “bittersweet” chocolate chips
__ x tsp baking powder (I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m contemplating adding just a smidge to get slightly cakier cookies)
Methods:
1) Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl.
2) Cut butter into small pieces. In a stand-mixer (with paddle), beat half of the butter at medium-low speed until smooth. Add the remaining butter, the granulated sugar, and the brown sugar, beating for a few minutes until the mixture gets fluffy and dry-looking. Slowly add the egg while mixing, until incorporated evenly.
2) Turn the mixer to slowest setting. Add the dry ingredients from step 1. Mix until even, but mix as little as humanly possible.
Pre-Chipped Dough
3) Remove bowl from stand and add the chocolate chips, folding them in until evenly distributed.
Post-chipped dough
4) Shape dough into 2 Tbs sized balls. Should make ~15 cookies. Put into freezer to chill for at least 30 mins.
Ok … so I’m missing one – only 29.
5) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place cookies onto sheet with ample space between (2 inches or more). We have a thick cookie sheet and thin one (which I bought for $1 at Ikea), and we have a silpat and patchment paper. I like the parchment paper and the thin sheet better.
Run! We’re being attacked by cookie dough balls!
6) Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate pans. Bake until the tops of the cookies lose their sheen (~12 mins, total). The edges touching the pan will take on a brown color – that’s ok – but if they’re burning … you’ve gone too far. Carefully remove the tray from the oven – if you bump it, the cookies will deflate. Boo!
Note how shiny the dough on the left 2 cookies look … they’re not done!
7) Slide parchment paper with cookies onto cooling rack – without bumping them, of course. Although the dough no longer looks “wet” like it did when only 6 minutes had past, you might note that the cookie is still very flimsy – as if it was undercooked. Don’t fret – let it cool. In a few minutes, the poofy, flimsy dough will have solidified into a deliciously cakey cookie. I feel that five minutes later is a perfectly acceptable time to wait before eating them – but I like ’em soft.
A mouth’s eye view … and these are only HALF the height of the cookies made straight from the freezer.
Getting fancy with some additives: dried cherries, candied ginger.
Still delicious.
Extra tips:
1) TK suggests that if you want softer cookies, mist lightly with water before baking. I don’t even bother with this step anymore, as they are plenty soft.
2) You can keep the dough balls in the freezer or refrigerator – I’d put them in a sealable container so they don’t lose too much moisture. If you choose the fridge, then I probably wouldn’t go for any more than a few days, as it does have raw egg in it. But, what I recently found is that, despite what TK says (and what I used to espouse), I see nothing wrong with taking these dough balls straight from the freezer to the oven – I’ve done the head-to-head test between frozen and defrosted dough balls (i.e. ones that were in the fridge overnight) and they come out no different at all! One may also try to NOT refrigerate the dough at all and go straight to baking after you assemble the ingredients, but these cookies definitely turn out flatter – so I don’t like that option …
2.5) I noticed that the longer you let the cookies sit in the freezer (e.g. two weeks vs. 1 day), the taller they stay after baking – I’m not sure why this is the case. I’ve achieved approximately 67% taller cookies by waiting one week.
3) Re: salt. You can sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the dough balls to give it that nice salt-chocolate taste. I also tried rolling the dough balls in salt – yea – bad idea – it didn’t look like a lot of salt, but it was … Once, I ran out of unsalted butter, so I used salted butter and cut the kosher salt in half – worked fine!
5) Re: chocolate. I tried to use this recipe with a mix of milk and dark chocolates (from Naked Chocolate) – it just isn’t the same. I think because I used light brown sugar, I depend on the dark Ghirardelli chips bring more flavor to the party. I once substituted the dark Ghirardelli chips with Nestle dark chocolate – also note the same (the Nestle chocolate was kinda wussy). Also – if you do remove the dark chocolate (or use not-as-dark dark chocolate, like Nestle), cut back on the salt some – I found the cookies to be on the verge of “salty” when I used milk chocolate.
6) I did try the recipe including dark brown sugar (3:1 dark:light), but found that the cookie, itself, just didn’t taste “right” anymore – it didn’t bring the right contrast to the dark chocolate chips. Maybe if I used milk choocolate it would have been better? I don’t know. But because I will always use dark chocolate chips, I’m now never going to use dark brown sugar … although I have to suffer through the remaining dark brown sugar so I have an excuse to buy some light brown sugar …
Kimchi Pizza (with pix)
t says: You read the title, and now you’re wondering: “why?”. Trust me, it tastes good.
For those that don’t know what kimchi is, here’s a picture:
Meet my friend Kimchi.
It’s cabbage that’s been pickled in a fiery red chile liquid. Korean grandmothers are said to have buried jars of it in the ground as it “ripens” in flavor (that’s my term for it). It’s not much to look at (it’s red cabbage) and it’s offensive to the nose (I thought that they buried it due to lack of modern refrigeration, however, I now believe they buried it to keep it out of the house). Nowadays, most people will either have a separate fridge for it or keep it for no longer than a couple days. But the taste is unique; it’s sour and spicy and (depending on how far along it was) crisp and fresh. It’s also readily available in Korean supermarkets (e.g. Hmart), and the quality’s pretty good.
So now, back to pizza … Surely you’ve had your fair share of frozen pizzas, be it Ellios pizza as a kid, Bagel Bites in college, or DiGiorno as a sucker for believing those dumb commercials (been there, done that). Well, g had some friends in college who claimed that that putting kimchi on frozen pizza was the best way to make it, period. I’ll admit, I was doubtful at first, as cheese and kimchi is not a traditional combination (I blame the higher prevalance of lactose intolerance among Koreans). That said, in our household, kimchi has elevated the frozen pizza from a we-should-keep-one-in-the-freezer-just-in-case option to a we-should-definitely-eat-frozen-pizza-for-dinner option. We’ve tried many varieties of pizza and they all work reasonably well (with one exception being the self-rising crust pizzas – I guess there was too much liquid in the kimchi). The following is the best combo we’ve come across thus far:
Ingredients:
__ 1 California Pizza Kitchen “White” frozen pizza (it’s the one with cheese and spinach – they didn’t have it for the one I used for the pix – so I had to use some weird non-CPK “Organic” one that boasts “Tastes Organic” – what does that mean?).
__ Kimchi, to taste (I use ~0.5 c; the longer you keep it in your fridge, the more “funk” it gets)
__ Parmigiano Reggiano, to taste
Methods:
0) Preheat the oven as per the frozen pizza’s directions.
1) Pat dry the kimchi you intend to use. Slice kimchi (this is perhaps the only time I’d advise against cutting on a wood cutting board – kimchi will stain it red and give it a funk for along time) into thin strips about 1″ long.
2) Distribute kimchi on top of unwrapped pizza. I tend to avoid the middle of the pizza because the middle is often the least-cooked part of the pizza, and I want the entire crust to be crispy, so I don’t want to add additional water to the middle. Finely grate parm-reg on top of pizza.
Kimchi, say cheese!
3) Bake as per the directions (I bake directly on the oven rack with a sheet of aluminum foil on a rack below to catch drips) plus an extra minute or two. The more kimchi you added, the longer you may have to bake. To ‘test’ doneness, I use a fork/spoon to gently lift the edge of the pizza and see if the pizza is as stiff as I like.
Bake until the crust is golden and the cheese is brown ...
... like this!
4) Remove from oven. Cut and enjoy. Cutting this kind of pizza with a knife might be difficult – go for a rotary pizza cutter.
after dinner sneeze 