Hugh from Top Chef Drops some Knowledge
t says: I’m still not a fan of this season of Top Chef Masters. None of the characters have that combo of chef and tv personality that I can really get excited about.
That said, one of the cheftestants (ugh – hate that word), Hugh (the dude with the fierce uni-brow) did have an interaction with new host, Curtis Stone (this guy seems like he’s everywhere!!) that I appreciated. Let me set the stage: Hugh wound up in the bottom three and claimed that he tailored his dish to suit [what he considered to be] an unsophisticated crowd, essentially blaming the target audience for the reason why his food wasn’t that novel.
Curtis Stone: “So, Hugh, do you cook down to people?”
Hugh-the-Unibrow: “You gonna pay the bill? … Yeah I’ll cook down to you – anytime!”
This reminds me a lot of what I was saying in one of my older posts: when tough times strike, you gotta do what you gotta do (i.e. give the customers what they want). In any case, Curtis was very up-in-arms about this retort (or, at least, that’s what the show’s producers will have you believe). Perhaps Chef Stone has forgotten what it’s like to not be a good-looking, foreign-accented, famous celebri-chef – someone who’s just trying to get by? In any case, Hugh did avoid getting sent home, so maybe he’ll be my new fave on the show … but someone get that guy a pair of tweezers, or some wax, or some threading, or something (hell – even a pair of clippers would work for his unibrow right now!).
Greek Yogurt Explosion
t says: I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been seeing a lot of Greek yogurt. And not the plain, traditional Greek yogurt, rather, their fancy, fruit/honey-endowed cousins by Fage, Chobani, Oikos (Stonyfield), and whoever else is trying to get in on the action. At the grocery store, the selection of Greek yogurts is slowly overtaking the normal yogurts (at Wegman’s, anyways). And then there’s the chit-chat at the grocery store between strangers staring at the shelves: “yea – did you try the honey? it’s the best.” “no – I like the fruity Chobani.” “no, you got to try the Fage.” Figuring that this was just a Wegman’s thing, I ignored it and picked up the boring strawberry Stonyfield yogurts with the fruit on the bottom and went along my way. And then, at work, in the same week, my medical colleagues and bosses all whipped out their Chobanis and started discussing not only the health virtues of Greek yogurt (apparently there’s more protein in Greek yogurts) but also which one’s yummier. Then when I brought it up to g, she was like, “yea – I told you about these like two years ago … you gotta try the honey one!”.
I had had enough.
It was time for a taste-off. “We got a taste-off here!”
I picked up a variety of Greek yogurts, and throughout the course of a few weeks, I’ve formulated my opinions about them. I’ve come to appreciate the yogurt “twang” – you know that yogurty taste that makes Yogorino so different than plain ‘ol custard? And now I pass along my impressions to you …
From worst to best:
5) Dannon Greek yogurt: Sorry Dannon – you’re on the bottom … much like your fruit (damn I’m funny). The taste and texture were both “off”. The yogurt flavor was muted, the fruit flavor was muted. It was kind of soupy. All in all, this cup tasted the most like … ?the Yoplait yogurts I grew up on?
4) Fage Total Classic Full Fat Greek yogurt: It has a weird name (apparently pronounced “Fa-yeh”), and I’m pretty sure that Fage doesn’t call it “Full Fat”, but I do as a way to compare it to the 2% and 0% versions. This is a man’s man yogurt. It’s thick. Real thick. It can’t even really be considered “creamy” because it’s so thick. And after eating it, I was full – like a omg-I-just-ate-5-Bisquick-pancakes full. I guess I’m just not manly enough …
3) Chobani 2%: Ok – so I think this is going to be the most controversial statement of this post. I tried out the Chobani and to be honest – it didn’t blow my mind. This is the one I see around most often – probably because there are exciting flavors like mango or pineapple. While it certainly was better than Dannon in terms of taste, it still lacked the Greek yogurt “twang” that I figured was one of the main reasons why one would want a Greek yogurt instead of one of the boring American yogurts. That said, I think that these are a great transitional yogurt before moving on to to the number 1 slot (we’ll get there soon!).
2) Oikos: Oikos, owned by Stonyfield, does an “good” job. To be honest, the fruit ones are definitely not any better than Chobani – there’s more of a twang to it, so I like it more, but the fruit is not as vivid. So what gives? I’ll tell you what gives:
Chocolate!
You know when you go to Yogorino and there’s something so delicious about their yogurt when you top it with chocolate (or pistachio *drools*)? Well, this is that same deliciousness. There’s something so seductive about a little dose of chocolate that plays with that yogurt twang that I’ve eaten this not only for breakfast, but also dessert. I wish they’d sell it in larger sized cups!! I’m sure that my praise for chocolate Greek yogurt (and for the record, it’s plain Greek yogurt with a layer of chocolate on the bottom) is one of the reasons g may say “you’re like a child”, but I don’t care … children are happy … and so am I! As a sidenote, Oikos does have a caramel one, too, but the texture of the caramel is all off and the caramel is too sweet – the chocolate is superior in every way.
1) Fage 2% Greek yogurt: And it all comes back to Fage. It has a strong twang and pretty good fruit should you choose one of those (I prefer the cherry to the strawberry, which was a bit mellow) … but the honey is where it’s at. Seriously. I don’t even like the taste of honey all that much, but soon after flipping up that honey cup and dragging the honey on top of the yogurt using my spoon, I’m a happy camper. The texture is thicker than all of the others except the full-fat version, so it’s pleasant, not overwhelming. What’s interesting is that the directions specifically say to not “mix” the honey and the yogurt – and I’m not sure why, but one time, when I mixed it, it didn’t taste as good as a gentle folding in of the honey. g doesn’t mix at all and just digs deep with her spoon from a top layer of honey all the way down to the bottom of the cup. Well, however you’re supposed to eat this thing, what I can say is that this was the cup that made me understand what the craze was all about …
In conclusion, the only two that I now buy are the chocolate Oikos and the Fage honey – they’re both so delicious.
Kanella Steps it Up; Amis Steps Down
t says: g and I went to Kanella some time ago and found that although the food was good, the service was weird and it just wasn’t blow-us-away enough to pop into our heads every time we went looking for a BYO. k, having to work in the area this past week, suggested that we re-try it. So we set out for a weekday dinner …
5/2010, Thursday 7:30pm, Party of 4. The four of us sat down, broke out a bottle of a particularly smooth Australian shiraz, and buckled in for an exciting ride. One of the things that Kanella has in its favor is the element of surprise – well, at least for us it did. As we scoured the menu, we realized that the descriptions really didn’t help us envision what the final product would be. There were ingredients we clearly didn’t recognize, and surely how they were put together would be a mystery up until the very end when they hit the table. Of course, had we had a Greek (or maybe “Cypriot” to be more exact), perhaps they would have been able to give us a hint of what was to come. Nevertheless, we each made our selections and patiently waited for whatever the waiter was going to bring us. We amused ourselves by playing such games as, “how much money would it take for you to change your name?” and “look at the chef’s crazy eyes!”. (FYI, the chef has these piercing blue eyes that are super-intense – he make a marble statue cower in fear.)
I went for the goat with “wheat berries”, eggplant, and yogurt. It was fantastic! I can’t remember the last time I had goat, however, this was a stunning example of a well-braised meat served on top of a homy bed of “wheat berries” (it’s like the lentils of grains … hmmm … that makes no sense and will probably cause some people to laugh – but that’s what it was like in my head!). It was the kind of food you want to have a family-style plate of to share with … family (duh). That said, it was rivaled by k and cm’s “brick chicken”. The flaw of the brick chicken? As vague as my description of the goat was, my description of the brick chicken is even vaguer. I have no idea what the spices were, I have no idea what the sauce was – all I know is that it was so good that I might actually order the chicken the next time I go there.
I’ll let cm, master of cutting straight to the point, chime in:
cm says: chicken in a brick was very good also, interesting cooking method for the potatoes they were like little crunchy nuggets of potato. chicken very juicy. i remember scooping up as much of the sauce as i could. and the flat bread was very good and an interesting mix of flavors, especially the dried apricot, good balance of salty and sweet.
back to t: oh yea! the flatbread was indeed delicious! oh, and g went for the the “stuffed vegetable of the day”, which was bell pepper which she liked it very much – it played a major role in de-funking her evening. And then … there was dessert. We went for the date-and-chocolate cake (with vanilla ice cream) and the pistachio-olive-oil cake (with ouzo ice cream). And I must say that Kanella finished the meal quite well with these. Actually, the table was fairly evenly split on which aspects of which desserts we liked better (some liked one cake with the other’s ice cream, and vice versa). Personally, I would have been happy with a gigantic date-and-chocolate cake, as the “cake” was almost like a bread pudding in texture with a little punch of date and the mouth-coating rich chocolate – beautiful. So in the end, we really have no complaints. Kanella did a great job with food, our server was excellent, and the prices were reasonable.
NOW … for the bad news … as you can see from the title of this post, we also went to Amis this past weekend, and they did not fare so well. When we went to Amis for dinner some time ago, it was fantastic. They did such a great job of taking dishes that we already knew and loved and making them even better. Unfortunately, its price and lack of BYO-ness made it hard to go back … until we heard they did brunch. Surely they could work their magic on some eggs and breads, right? Wrong.
5/2010, Sunday 12:30, Party of 5. I won’t dwell on the negatives of this meal because nobody wants to read too much of a Debbie-downer post. So the positives: service was attentive, the decor is top-notch (would be a great date-place in the evening – lots of rich, dark-colored woods). The negatives: the food. w’s boyfriend and I went for a polenta scrapple with eggs and “peperonata” (i.e. stewed peppers). Darn – what a letdown! The eggs were fluffy (yay!) but lacked seasoning (boo!). I liked the texture that the polenta added to the scrapple (yay!), but the scrapple was a bit anemic in terms of flavor (boo!), and the stewed peppers didn’t have much to bring to the table aside from … peppers … and tomato (more boos!). The dish wasn’t inedible or anything – quite the contrary, as I cleaned up the plate – but it wasn’t something I’d ever order again. The bread basket was “ok”, but nowhere near Parc’s bread basket, as the muffins were a bit dry and the zuchini bread was a bit crumbly. g had the braised tomatoes and eggs, and, while she liked it “ok”, it’s not like they rocked her socks. This leads us to the final nail in the coffin: the price. I think w’s boyfriend summed it up nicely when he said, “we paid $12 for a $8-9 dish”. And if you’re thinking “oh, that’s not too bad”, I feel like a 30-50% markup is a bit much. In the grand scheme, I’d say that Amis out-performs Farmicia and Meme but is a notch below Supper for brunch. Darn. We were hoping that Amis would have been the place to take g’s parents because they strike us as the kind of people who’d be up for a savory brunch. Alas, if you crave a savory brunch, forget Amis – go straight to Kanella (their brunches are awesome – and not just the Cyprus breakfast).
Kimchi Jigae (for Real)
t says: A while ago, we posted a kimchi jigae recipe, but it was kind of a cop-out – it used a pork shoulder that was cooked for another dish and then added the leftovers to kimchi … That needed to be fixed – kimchi jigae deserves its own recipe. ha has her own way of cooking it, but even she admits that it’s something she thought up – not a formal recipe. Plus, sometimes the meat just ended up very tough to chew. So I set out to re-do kimchi jigae, but this time in the method of a braise … but it had to be done outside because cooking kimchi indoors for hours on end produces an ugly smell. I did some experimenting and this is what I’ve come up with. It’s a piece of pork, a piece of brisket, and some tofu, braised over a long period of time. While using just one or the other is permissible, I kind of like having a mix of meats so this way I can eat the same dish over a few days and not get bored of it.
Ingredients:
__ 1 package of kimchi (from Hmart … the older/stinkier the better)
__ 1 slab of pork shoulder (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 slab of brisket (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 slab of extra-firm tofu (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 box of beef stock (~26 oz)
__ salt, pepper
__ oil (to sear the meats)
Methods:
-2) Find a Dutch oven that will fit on your grill – ideally with the cover closed (therefore emulating a real oven) – or find an outdoor burner capable of low heat (a lot of outdoor burners may heat the Dutch oven to way too high a temperature for an effective braise – you’re aiming for ~300 degrees F.
-1) Season meats with salt and pepper and allow to stand at room temperature for at least a half-hour. At the end of this time, preheat the Dutch oven on the grill/burner with high heat.
0) Add oil to Dutch oven and sear meats and set aside.
1) Lower the heat of the grill/burner and add just enough kimchi to cover the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir around the kimchi to soak up those brown bits.
2) Return the meats to the Dutch oven. Pour the remaining kimchi on top. Add enough beef stock to just get half-way up the side of the meat. Place lid. If you have a Dutch oven with a domed lid (like the Le Creuset we used), you may be well-served by adding a sheet of parchment paper between the lid and the vessel so the moisture will fall back down the center of the vessel and not just down the sides – it also tightens the seal of the lid, too.
3) Cook at the lowest heat needed to just keep a light simmer in the vessel going – peek under the lid every fifteen minutes or so in the beginning to ensure that you’re not boiling too vigorously (the meat will be tough if you do).
4) Wait several hours. Flip every hour or so.
5) For me, the pork shoulder gets done first, well before the brisket, so I remove the pork shoulder and the kimchi when the pork shoulder gets to that ridiculously tender stage and falls apart as you try to flip it. I leave the brisket and liquid in to go longer (for me, the brisket needs to go about an hour longer for a comparably sized piece of meat).
6) When done, remove the meats, and eat! … OR, allow to cool to room temp and stick back into fridge to allow the flavors to meld together and eat the next day. Both are acceptable!
Kimchi … coming to a TV near you!
t says: So I was at H-mart today and came across this poster.
Kimchi ... on TV
Isn’t this weird? I totally want to see it, though – kimchi is near and dear to our hearts. We love it on pizza, sandwiches, and tacos. So I wonder what the main plot of the show is going to be?
It’s Strawberry Time!
t says: Sparacio farms in Rosenhayn, NJ, our favorite place to get strawberries (although perhaps the only strawberry farm we know of), started selling strawberries this past weekend. And even though it’s early in the season, they’re pretty damn good already (red the whole way through!). Definitely worth the trip to the town next to the town I grew up in – especially when they start offering pick-your-own (which, by the way, one should do as early as possible on a Saturday, because there aren’t as many “good” ones left after that!).
after dinner sneeze 