Chris Amirault

How about saying, "I really appreciate the fact that y'all want to help me out, but I feel quite comfortable asking for assistance if I need it. Don't worry about coming over; I'll get you if I need you, ok?"

Thanks, Nancy! And Chufi, you are, of course, right: Of course, this entire foodblog is a love letter to Providence. Even though I bitch a little about Whole Foods, I know I've got it good, you know? Speaking of corporate food entities we love to hate, I've been a bit busy today, but a teacher brought me back this from her break: Is that a little better, Arne? Or worse?!?

This is worrisome... I made a curried squash and lamb soup for staff meeting tonight....

Oooooh! That seems like a great idea! Gets around my irrational fear of Ball jars!

Sounds like canning might make a good cook-off, eh?

Yeah, I found a great piece of sunburst Descoware at a yard sale a few months ago, but it had really crazy damage to the enamel on the bottom, a couple of deep gouges. After a couple of hours trying to figure out what to do, I had to toss it. Haven't tried dolma yet with the leaves, but... preserves? With the grapes? That would require canning, right? Isn't that a really scary thing?

Just got back from a quick trip to Whole Foods: I don't know what it is exactly, but I have a very ambivalent relation to this place. They have a great produce section, in which I can usually find anything I want (no arugula today, though ). But they rarely have extensive seasonal local offerings (though today I got a bag of crisp empire apples from VT). They have a very good seafood selection, often perfectly fresh, and have even begun carrying whole fish (snapper, today). But it is unbelievably expensive at times (tonight, $15.99 per lb for the scallops I'm making for dinner). Their meat section is pretty remarkable year-round, and they've even started selling some dry-aged beef; in addition, the butchers have been very helpful to me, selling me sausage casings and pork butt from the back. But certain things just are never available (pork fat, chicken feet). Their dairy and cheese section is fantastic -- I just got a chunk of mezzo secco artisanal cheddar on sale. But why do they wrap all of it in plastic? You get the idea. I feel like a bratty adolescent, with Whole Foods playing the role of a really great parent. I'm begrudgingly grateful for how great the store is, sure, but I resent the power they have and wish that they'd do everything exactly the way I want. As a result, every little thing that's off drives me to tantrum. My mishegas....

Vote for love here -- but I also know people who find the taste very much not to their liking. US breeders have tried to make lamb less lamb-y, apparently. I think that the flavor people don't like is that slightly gamey tang -- which of course I find very wonderful indeed.

Good morning -- two in a row, actually! At a preschool, the first sunny day after two weeks of rain and clouds is quite wonderful, let me tell you! Didn't have a chance to do too much this morning, but I did get out back to snap a couple of photographs of our yard, which is an interesting example of a Providence back yard. First, here's the grape arbor that covers a huge section of the yard: Many houses in several neighborhoods (Fox Point, Washington Park [where we live], Silver Lake, Mount Pleasant) have grape arbors that are decades old. Most of them were planted by Portuguese and Italian folks who wanted to have a source for wine grapes. I don't know the varietal, but they smell and taste like concord grapes to my untutored palate. Every late summer, a very old Portuguese couple comes by to check out the progress of our grapes, and then later in the early fall, they come by with big PVC buckets and a wagon to collect grapes. About three weeks later, a Gallo burgundy jug filled with fermenting wine appears at our back door. If this were a perfect world, that would be a magical elixir; sadly, it's pretty much undrinkable for us. Still, pretty great to have the locals using up some of those grapes! Second, here's our little herb garden. Most of the basics are here: sage, thyme, tarragon, parsley, mint. We also have two very healthy and productive Thai basil plants, which we've been harvesting for months. So what makes this herb garden worth noting in a foodblog about Providence? Well, the garden and all of the grass in the back yard and on the side of the house were installed soon after we bought the house -- after we removed the eight inches of concrete that a previous owner had poured all over the lot. I got pretty good at demo saws and jackhammers, let me tell you! Coming soon: a meditation on Whole Foods, with illustrations.

Man, I'm pooped! I just finished making a curried squash and lamb soup for our staff meeting tomorrow night, and it's time for bed. Quick recipe for that, which I made up this evening: large onion, diced, sauteed in ghee until nearly brown; garlic and ginger minced and tossed in for a bit; toast some curry powder (I used Penzey's vindaloo for this), cumin, and three cinnamon sticks; few cups of that chicken stock; two medium butternut squashes, roughly chopped, cooked until tender; remove the cinnamon and puree the stuff; salt, pepper, and the cubed (leftover!) roast lamb. So, now, it's time for bed. G'night!

Thanks again to everyone who wrote about today's events. I wanted to reply to a few specific questions: No, I didn't check -- but I remember a thread on this subject recently (though I'm too shagged to find it now). I will for sure in the future. Thanks for the tip! Lucky Garden doesn't have carts -- it's too small a place. Instead, there are slips listing all the dim sum offerings, and you write down what you want. Then it comes out of the kitchen just out of the wok, steamer, or whatever. I've come to prefer this method. Thanks, Anna -- I appreciate it. Gourmet also did a spread several years ago on Lucky's, the first sister restaurant to Al Forno in the building you saw above. Lucky's was more of a bistro, and they had some great things, including dirty steak (cooked directly on the wood grill coals), a swell cassoulet, and some brined pork chops that were out of this world. That pork chop recipe appeared in that article, but now I can't find it.... Thanks for asking about this, Priscilla. Andrea and I share a real interest in a very particular period (mid-century modern) and related other elements that happen to share design styles with some very functional dinnerware, kitchen equipment, and so on. Our everyday dishware is, as you mention, Blue Heaven; our drinkware is also from that period. A lot of the other items in the kitchen -- ice crusher, juicer, bread box, ice buckets, etc. -- are also from that period. In addition, basically all of our furtniture is the real deal: Heywood Wakefield, some Eames chairs, a George Nelson bubble lamp, that sort of thing. Some people see our stuff and think it's leftover from college, but most folks realize what we've got. As for incorporating it into my cooking, I'm not sure how to answer that. The stuff we have we use, but most of the stuff I use to cook -- my knives, pans, that sort of thing -- isn't really vintage. Thanks for the offer! Yes, I like them steamed, but with a broken top. As for LA Chinese, I had a great dim sum meal at Mission 261, which I wrote about here. That's also where my comments about Mayflower are. We have a friend in LA, so we do get out there every year or so; I'll keep your kind offer in mind!

A bit late getting this up. We had a surprise guest, a dog-walking friend who happened by this afternoon. So I made a bit more of dinner than I had planned. First, the evening's drink, a nod to Marlene and Dave the Cook: G&T with a limoncino grappa slug added: Tonight I wanted to make more Chinese food, some simple stuff that's typical for an evening meal here. I used the yard long beans I got yesterday, fine specimens indeed: Cut them into 2" lengths and blanched them: Soaked some mushrooms (lousy photo): Washed that fine baby bok choy: Then I got some Thai pork sausage out of the freezer that I made last week: The meez for the bok choy and mushroom was basically just minced garlic, some schmaltz (chicken fat), and some stock with salt and corn starch. The meez for the beans and sausage meat was a bit more involved: ginger, shaoxing, dark soy, little stock, and chili bean sauce. I really love that fermented bean! Here's my wok. The seasoning doesn't show very well, but I am proud of this wok's hei: I didn't need to use my propane Patio Wok -- that thing is seriously hot! -- since these dishes don't really require high heat. First the bok choy. I had made some fine chicken stock that had a good dose of fat atop it: Here's the schmaltz in the wok: Brown gently a whole lot of garlic: In with the bok choy: After they pick up a little hei, in with the mushrooms, then finish with the stock: Quickly, to the beans! Ginger: Cook the sausage meat through: Remove the meat and add the yard long beans: Then add the meat and the sauce mixture: Dinner! Andrea had a Magic Hat that our guest brought; he and I had a reisling that Andrea got at the NH state line liquor store. Bebe enjoyed the jasmine rice and some carrots.

Welcome to Lucky Garden, an unassuming store front restaurant in a strip mall in generally food-barren North Providence RI. About ten years ago, while I was writing my dissertation for graduate school, I used to work for Stanley Kaplan teaching people how to take standardized tests (GRE, LSAT, SAT, MCAT, GMAT). One night, I was working late, and a student of mine from Hong Kong asked me if I wanted to have some food. I hadn't eaten, so I said sure; he asked if I liked Chinese food, and I said I did. He then got on his cell phone and ordered a series of things in Chinese. "I'll be back in 45 minutes," he said. Um, ok. About an hour later, he reappeared with a bag of food. I think he had ordered three things: the chow fun with vegetables and pea pod leaves were both excellent, but the chicken steamed with ginger and scallion was transformative. The skin, which I thought I only liked crispy, was redolent with flavor; the meat was dripping with moisture that I couldn't fathom. "Where in the world did you get this stuff?" I blurted. Fast forward two weeks. I drag some friends out to North Providence to have the greatest Chinese food of their lives. They were extremely skeptical. (It's hard to compare this to anything, but imagine that your foodie friend tells you that you've got to go to Applebee's to try their new and amazing regional French dishes and you'll have an idea.) As soon as we sit down, we receive two menus filled with Chinese-American classics and a plastic "basket" with white bread and pats of butter. The meal was unmemorable, and I am shamed and confused. The next time I see my Hong Kong student, I tell him my tale. "Oh, you got the American menu!" he said. They thought you were one of those North Providence people wanting egg rolls and fried rice. Just ask for the other menu!" Remembering that chicken, I sigh and decide that I need to try again. So, that weekend, I drive on out to North Providence again, and just as I'm about to make the case that I don't want the Americanized menus, I hear someone shout, "Chris!" It's my student friend, who wraps his arm around me, tells the waitstaff that I'm wonderful, and orders my entire meal in Chinese while I stand there grinning awkwardly. From that day on, I have eaten the best Hong Kong food I've ever had pretty much every week or two at Lucky Garden. We're now regulars: Andrea and I had our post-wedding thank you meal there; Bebe's first visit into the world was for dim sum (three days old!) -- and when the servers told us that we really shouldn't have her out until she was a month old, we brought her back to celebrate her first month. This isn't just hometown pride; Lucky Garden is better than any dim sum I've had in Boston or New York, and as good as that I've had in SoCal and London. It's certainly our favorite restaurant; it's probably one of our most favorite places, in fact, in the world, period. Lucky Garden is run by the Chiu Brothers, both of whom came to RI with a great deal of experience in Hong Kong hotel kitchens: They have seasonal specials and always have a rotating set of vegetable options: Everything is made by hand by the extended families of the chef/owners. They were kind enough to allow me back into the kitchen today to show the dim sum prep: wrapping dumplings, rolling dough, and so on: Here's the place whence magical food comes: So, with our friends, we put away the following. Char siu bao (the ethereal dough was Bebe's lunch): Lotus leaf rice: We always order extra to have at home; the leaves make them a snap to heat up in the microwave: Har gow (shrimp dumplings) with chili sauce -- sorry for the lousy photograph: Shanghai (soup) dumplings, with ginger and red vinegar: Gow choi fa (garlic chives): Fried sesame balls with yellow bean paste: Rice noodles with pork (another lousy photo): Fried taro with pork and shrimp dumpling: Pork ton bor (braised pork belly) -- I'm the only one who eats this ambrosia! For dessert, egg custard tarts -- still warm. They were perfect today: Dad feeding Bebe lunch:

Ok, so, this morning, I had two slices of toast from the multigrain bread we got at Mitch's baking demonstration -- absolutely fantastic: Couldn't pass up that shot, could I? So, after our nice dog walk with Zeke at Chase Farms in Lincoln RI, we headed down 246 toward North Providence, home of Lucky Garden. Just before we got to Mineral Spring Ave to turn west, we saw this sign: We had never seen or heard of Hellen Bakery before, and any food sign not in English makes me stop my car instantly. Turns out that this little gem was bursting with fantastic Lebanese and Middle Eastern stuff. I saw things there (Saudi dates, for example) that I've never seen in RI. There were all sorts of sweets: An excellent fruit and nut selection: They even had some fresh Persian cucumbers, which I have never seen in RI before (third box): After a few minutes, the owner asked me if I wanted to see the back. After pondering this for a quarter of a second, I ran behind the counter into the back of the shop. There, he showed me his titanic automatic baking system, which filled a huge room. He told me his was the only one in New England and that he supplied throughout the region. This thing was huge. Here's one side: Here's a shot from the back -- and these two shots show about 40% of the whole thing! By now I was starving. Time for dim sum!

Before we get to today, I want to share a few snaps from yesterday afternoon's shopping. I was in the Rolfe Square area of Cranston (near the museum) and decided to stop at the Chinese American Market on Park Ave at Rolfe to pick up a few things. (See an outdoor photo earlier in the foodblog.) In the last months they have expanded, and this is now a supermarket, easily the best place for Chinese ingredients in the area. They have a pretty good selection of fresh produce: I bought some yard long beans and baby bok choy. Busy Saturday crowd: One of several snack wall displays: A lot of fresh noodles, different kinds of eggs, sausages, you name it: Along with some rice vinegar, dried mushrooms, and the above mentioned produce, these were the snacks I brought home: While I was looking for the preserved plums (one of my favorite treats), someone handed me the blue bag in the lower left corner and told me that I should try those because they were good for recovering from "too much drinking." I'm not sure why he thought I needed that! Anyone know what those are? The Pinasugbo appear to be Phillipino candied bananas. Is that right, Stash? Finally, I stopped here on the way home: Just kidding!

Thanks, folks! Dim sum (and then some) on the way!

After two excellent years in a Providence district elementary school in Fox Point, Lulu goes to the International Charter School, a two-way bilingual school that teache children in English one week and Spanish (or Portuguese) the other week. The idea is that research indicates that children learn how to read and write more effectively when they are learning in their home language, and learning two languages at once actually helps them with many of the key concepts in early literacy. There's also an obvious cultural component; RI is increasingly Latino/a (in particular, Dominican, Guatemalan, and Puerto Rican), and so these schools promote a wide range of cultural interchange. Charter schools are schools that are designed to serve a student population that reflects the state or segments of it. (ICS serves Providence, Central Falls, and Pawtucket.) They are given greater autonomy than district schools concerning budgetary discretion, administrative leeway (particularly in re hiring), and a few other things. In exchange, they have a higher level of accountability, with additional state oversight. They are controversial in that they "take money away" from districts; depending on how you feel, that's either a red herring set up to foment dissent or a horrible thing. As you can imagine, I have many thoughts and feelings about this, all of which are OT. So if you want to know more, please PM me.

Thanks for all the feedback, folks! I really appreciate it. Doing a foodblog takes a good deal of work, and your support makes it a bit easier to download those pix! Meanwhile, today: it's sunny! We're going to grab some food quickly and head out for a good long walk. I'll bring the camera along, natch, and will also report on lunch at our favorite restaurant in the area. So: more soon!

I've just lost my energy for cooking, so tonight we'll be having leftovers from the previous days' food. I'm also a bit photographed-out. That all ought to do you for the evening, eh? I'd be really interested to read your responses to the baking demonstration and the museum!

Welcome to a virtual tour of the Johnson and Wales Culinary Archives and Museum! Your guides will be Mr. Potato Head (thanks to Hasbro, located in Pawtucket RI, he's all over town): And Emeril, scion of Fall River and New Bedford MA: Here's Chicago Chef Louis Szathmary, who is the benefactor of the museum (for more on that click here): Luminaries include Charlie Trotter, Sara Moulton, and an acid trip version of Paul Bocuse! Recognize this? There is a massive display of dinerana at the museum, most of which is quite impressive: Some local products -- see if you can find the felon! More local charm: the original sign to Camille's Roman Garden, a legendary Federal Hill Italian restaurant that was recently featured prominently in Saveur: An early refrigerator: Several of the exhibits that I found most interesting featured old cooking equipment: Finally, there was a great collection of posters in a conference/screening room:

I'm so glad to hear it! Now you ought to use some of that meal for cornbread!

Just got back from the open house at Johnson & Wales. We spent our time visiting Chefs Mitch Stamm and Christina Harvey, along with their students, in HAL 6. They all were terrifically gracious hosts in this magical world of bread and baking. I'll try to give you a quick overview of what you'll see here, but I'm largely ignorant, so Mitch (a.k.a. boulak) has agreed to pop on the foodblog later to amend. One quick comment before the pix. I've been a teacher for over two decades and a teacher of teachers for one. I'm here to testify that Mitch Stamm is a fantastic teacher. His students spoke not only about his love for bread ("Do you know what his favorite color is?" one asked me. "Bread.") but about his devotion to his teaching. Several told me about the extra time and effort he puts into his teaching, both group and one-on-one. You could tell by their interactions with him that he is a wonderful, thoughtful, excellent teacher. The offerings for guests, which included several amazing artisanal breads, perfect chocolate chip cookies, and a great Italian cornmeal cookie with apricots. That's Mitch off to the right of the frame: A decorative bread with wine bottle for baking: A finished version: One of the work surfaces: Boules awating the oven: The P&B student kit (sans the sifter -- "the handle broke!"): Waiting for final scoring: That multigrain bread was to die for: Chef Christina Harvey: Chef Harvey's pastries awaiting apples and whipped cream: A friendly and deservingly proud student: Here's the main, triple-deck oven that the students were using: This canvas mechanism, part of that oven, was probably the coolest thing in the classroom. It serves as a base onto which you can finish the doughs, scoring and positioning them as you want. Here's what it looks like before any bread is laid: Mitch laying out and scoring the bread dough: Then, all at once, the canvas panel is raised to the desired oven opening and -- whoosh -- the bread is placed onto the oven floor with a blast of steam (I think...): Mitch was then kind enough to take us to the experimental baking lab, which has a wall of ovens, Hobart stations, and a whole lot more, enabling the students to experiment with different ratios and determine the effects such changes have on finished products: Each student gets a complete set of equipment for use in the lab (drool...): Bebe gives her boule end the seal of approval:

Good bacon tips! Hold on to your hats....

Thanks for the compliment, Verjuice! And great anecdote about Al Forno. Do you remember where you got it? I'd be very interested to know. Several of the great old stores on Federal Hill are gone, including Providence Cheese Company, every last one of the vegetable and fruit sellers (the guys who used to snap at you if you touched their stuff; they wanted to place it into the bag themselves) and the House of Veal, source of many good things not limited to veal, like great sausages, venison, and huge bags of porcini mushrooms for a fraction of the cost elsewhere.

Breakfast! Pancakes and bacon for the whole family. Also made two cappucinos, a french press coffee for my dad, and decaf tea for my mom. I use Mark Bittman's pancake base for my own (from How to Cook Everything), and make one of the substitutions he suggests, using 1/2 c corn meal with 1/2 AP flour. Thankfully, because I live in the Biggest Little State in the Union, I have the best stone ground corn meal available on earth, Kenyon's. Click here for their interesting web site. We also use (though less devotedly) Rumford baking powder, the first calcium phosphate baking powder, which is the namesake for the neighborhood in East Providence that used to house the manufacturing plant. Bittman separates the eggs to make the pancakes more airy. Here are the four egg whites beaten until stiff but not dry: So, the simple batter: 1 c milk and the 4 yolks beaten, then mixed with the dry ingredients (1/2 c corn meal, 1/2 AP flour, salt and sugar, 1 1/2 t baking powder) until combined. The batter with the egg whites folded in: The finished products. These pancakes are truly wonderful, I must say, with the corn meal giving them a slightly toothy, substantial body. Of course, to get that fantastic mottled crust, you need plenty of butter. The bacon is Whole Foods 365 brand (thanks, mom!). How do people cook their bacon? I really haven't found a better way to do it, although I'm open to other ideas. A pretty damned good start, I must say!