C. sapidus

We ate dinner with friends at Tajitu, a fairly new Ethiopian restaurant downtown Frederick. I used to make regular forays to the Adams-Morgan neighborhood in DC for outstanding Ethiopian food. Meskerem and Red Sea were my favorites back in the day. Street scene outside Tajitu (photo taken earlier): The building formerly housed the Snow White Grill, which operated from 1938 until around 2003 (picture also taken earlier). Dinner starts with hot steamy towels, brought by our charming server. She remembered our last visit, probably a year ago, because our boys devoured so many sambusas. The boys made short work of the sambusas again. The food is served on injera and shared among the diners. Picking up the food with injera. The happy crew (wearing a white shirt was obviously a mistake on my part): The aftermath. Mrs. C assigned 10 WW points for the meal. She was 2 points over for the day - not bad, all things considered. Edited to add WW points.

Wow, thanks for all the kind comments and excellent questions. Let me tell about our afternoon and evening, and then I’ll answer questions and close things up. This afternoon, we drove north of Frederick to fruit and orchard country, passing horse pastures on the way: We had amazing apples and blueberries from Pryor’s Orchard last summer . . . But they are closed for the year. We took some pictures anyway . . . . . . of the blueberry patch . . . . . . and one of the orchards: Next, we drove east of town to wine country. Although we did not have steamed crabs this blog, I took pictures at two of our favorite crab joints. Avalon: Most crab joints cook crabs in a separate building out back: Apparently, the building that houses Avalon started out as Mount Pleasant Public School No. 3 more than a century ago: The former school, now serving delicious crabs. Liberty Road Seafood also has very good crabs: Hmm, I might need a new avatar Elk Run Vineyards (click) was our destination, but several other vineyards are located nearby. They have several vineyards: Oak barrels outside: Elk Run sells Maryland cheeses in the tasting room. Mrs. Crab examining the wares. We brought home an ice wine and a port. The proprietor, I think (jeez, I am such a lousy reporter)

For lunch, I tried mapo dofu for the first time. This dish always reminds me of Rachel’s comment: I started with Fuchsia Dunlop’s recipe in Land of Plenty, but had to substitute for some ingredients (yes, that is chorizo again). Cut up tofu and place in hot water: Line up ingredients next to the wok: Heat oil to smoking and fry the meat: Add chile bean paste, stir-fry briefly, and then add soy bean paste (substitute for fermented black beans) and roasted chile powder (substitute for Sichuan chile powder). Add chicken stock and tofu, simmer for a bit: Add Chinese leeks, stir to combine, and simmer until the leeks are cooked: Done! This had a ton of flavor - I liked it a lot, and so did Mrs. Crab. She doesn't care for the texture of soft tofu, so we used firm tofu. I’ll definitely try this again with the proper ingredients. Chinese food experts - any suggestions for doing better next time? We are off to an Ethiopian restaurant tonight. When I return, I will share some pictures from this afternoon's travels. See you this evening! Edited to add: as several of you noticed, I forgot to sprinkle ground roasted Sichuan peppercorn on the mapo tofu before serving. D'OH! I sprinkled some on leftovers the following morning - a definite improvement, adding another dimension of flavor.

This is what the kitchen looked like before the renovation: Late breakfast: buttered whole-wheat English muffin and a blood orange.

A few other kitchen odds and ends: An incredibly useful pull-out drawer sits to the right of the rangetop. The top drawers house kitchen and grilling implements . . . . . . and the pull-out drawer below holds oils and Asian sauces. Glass-fronted cabinets to the right of the rangetop. We made stair-step shelves to hold spice jars, and the baskets in the upper shelves hold dried chilies and bulk spices. Mostly Asian sauce bottles on the middle shelves. Farther right above the prep sink, the upper cabinet holds more bulk spices, Asian ingredients, and miscellaneous stuff. The drying rack also serves a cookbook holder. To the left of the cooktop, cabinets hold measuring cups, salt, cornstarch, etc. We keep plastic containers and the stock pot above the microwave. The glass-fronted cabinets in the dining room hold cookbooks and stemware. As the cookbook collection grows, some of the stemware will need to be relocated. We have some art glass in a slot below the cookbooks. Eventually, Mrs. Crab will make stained glass pieces to fill this spot. I just kinda like this picture – this is “my” prep area.

We have three compost bins. With several mature trees, we could use more bins, but for now we toss the extra leaves in the woods. Any compostable vegetable matter, egg shells, coffee filters, etc. winds up here: We had a compost bin at the old house. To hide it from the neighbors, I planted a small garden with a Darwin’s Enigma rose, Fru Dagmar Hastrup rugosa rose, Ville de Lyon clematis, May Night salvia, and Japanese anemones. The clematis loved the nutrient-rich runoff from the compost bin, growing madly and flowering profusely all summer. Eventually, we will dig out some vegetable gardens and use the compost there. For now, we compost the lazy way – dump everything in and let the microorganisms break it down in good time. Edited: I forgot about Fru Dagmar - one of my favorite roses.

After renovating the kitchen, we have been slowly upgrading some of our kitchen gear. Pots and pans: We have an old set of disk-bottom Revereware pots. They did the job for 20 years, but the new stove’s burners are wider than the disk bottoms. This causes a burned ring around the bottom of the skillet and smaller saucepans. To remedy this problem, we bought the 1.4-quart (7-inch) “Try Me” copper sauciere from Falk Culinaire (1.4-liters, 18 centimeters for metric folks). We love this pot. It heats evenly enough to melt chocolate without a double boiler, caramelizes sugar smoothly, responds rapidly to changes in heat, reduces sauces quickly, and cleans up easily. We were so happy with this pot that we ordered two more Falk copper saucieres through eBay – one 4.6 quarts (11 inches) and the other 3.1 quarts (9.5 inches). We cook most meals in the wok or the large copper sauciere, and the extra pots are essential when we entertain. We bought two more pots during a post-holiday sales at a nearby at outlet mall. The first, a 12-inch pre-seasoned cast iron skillet, will be used for pan-frying and searing. The second, a 12-inch Calphalon Commercial non-stick saute pan, will replace a similar non-stick pan that is no longer non-stick. Mrs. Crab prefers non-stick cookware, and I use the non-stick occasionally for pan-frying delicate fish. We have a few more pots and pans on our wish list. Our beloved wok has a dangerously loose handle, so it needs to be repaired or replaced before I anoint myself with smoking oil. We could use a couple of small, straight-gauge aluminum saucepans. We store the most-used pots in a drawer under the rangetop. It’s a pretty tight squeeze, but very convenient. The lower drawer below the rangetop holds most of our other pots and pans.

Kitchen knives: A while ago I bought an Edge-Pro and sharpened our 20-year old Chicago Cutlery set. Two conclusions: 1) a sharp knife is a wonderful thing; 2) soft steel doesn’t stay sharp very long. After considerable research, I purchased three Japanese knives as an experiment: Hattori HD-8 gyuto (240 mm/9.4 inch). I love this knife. It is light, cuts cleanly, stays sharp, and has a nicely-rounded handle. I use it mostly for chopping veggies, which is probably 80% of my knife work. It also slices meat very nicely, but I prefer to avoid cross-contamination between meat and veggies. Ittosai Kotetsu GY-180 gyuto (180 mm/7.1 inch). This is Mrs. C’s main knife, and she loves it. Occasionally I use it to slice meat if she isn’t cooking or prepping. The steel is incredibly hard – 63 to 64 Rockwell units. I haven’t tried sharpening it yet. Tojiro DP F-803 honesuki (150 mm/5.9 inch). This is a chicken boning knife (insert chicken boning joke here ). We usually cook with chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless depending on the intended purpose and what is on sale. Deboning chicken thighs is time-consuming, especially on a weeknight, but this knife does a nice job. The blade is flat on one side, making it easy to cut along the bone. Tojiro knives provide incredible value, so they are an excellent way to find out if you like Japanese knives. Odd fact: I ordered knives from Korin and Japanese Chef’s Knife around the same time. Japanese Chef’s Knife delivered faster and charged less for shipping, even though Korin is only a four-hour drive from here. Confounding. Knife block: I love this – it was the only one that I found with several wide slots for gyutos/chef’s knives and cleavers. Most-used knives: heavy cleaver; 240 mm gyuto; 180 mm gyuto; slicer; honesuki; paring knife. To completely replace the old knife set, I would like to get a sujihiki for slicing meat and a small utility knife or two (petty, in Japanese knife lingo). I would also like to try a thin-bladed Chinese cleaver. I hear that Chan Chi Kee cleavers are a remarkable value, and I like the idea of a wide blade to use as a scooper.

Mmmm, I have to say that your pictures are the BEST in food porn! If I could crawl through my computer and have some of that fried rice for breakfast, I would in a minute. What a nice thing to say! Good luck with the fried rice - HSSS is one of our favorite cookbooks.

Saturday mornings are usually crazy. The boys play on two different basketball teams, so their games are usually held at different locations scattered around the county. Elder son stayed at a teammate’s house last night, so they will take him to his game. This morning, the weather feels much more like winter: Morning coffee mix: The Technivorm coffee maker is great fun. As the water boils, bubbles travel up a clear tube inside the water compartment. Morning coffee. Next: a few more kitchen pictures.

Rona: We chose Akurum Adel medium brown cabinets. We also considered Adel light birch because we were concerned that the medium brown would make the north-facing kitchen too dark. We really liked the medium brown, so we mixed in some glass-fronted cabinets and used open shelves around the window to keep the kitchen from feeling closed-in. By the way, we found Ikea's free kitchen planning software (click) invaluable in planning the kitchen. The program is a bit buggy, but one can work around most of its quirks.

Elder son is staying at a friend’s house, so Mrs. Crab made decaf tea for three. Tomorrow is the last day of the foodblog, so I will try to squeeze in as much as possible. We will probably not have crabs, but I would like to show you some of the local food-related sights and finish with an Ethiopian restaurant. As always, your questions and comments are welcomed. Goodnight!

What a missed opportunity! How did your Dad happen to cook Chinese and Indian food? We always set out cucumbers or carrots before dinner, so yeah, sometimes they fill up when I am particularly slow getting food on the table. There are worse things than boys filling up on vegetables, though. The boys are pretty tolerant of my experiments. They love some things – sate, five-spice chicken, mildly-spiced stir-fries, Sichuan dry-fried dishes, Sichuan fish with chile bean sauce, coconut rice, fried rice, etc. Unfortunately, they are not crazy about Thai curries or Indian food, two of my favorites (although they like Thai beef kaprow). Consequently, we have not made much Thai or Indian food lately unless we have dinner guests. Elder son is developing a taste for spicy food, but younger son has a lower chile tolerance. I try to convince younger son to mix spicy foods with rice, but he is a member of the “my food is touching” club. If he really doesn’t like something, he pours honey on it to render it palatable. The boys tolerate vegetable stir-fries, but prefer raw veggies, even some unusual things like raw chayote, limes, radishes, daikon radish, scallions, and white turnips.

I have found the Asian approach to vegetables particularly rewarding. Often, vegetables are prepared simply to contrast with a more highly-seasoned main course. Quickly seared with garlic, ginger, and/or chilies, and doused in umami-laden seasonings such as fish sauce and/or fermented bean paste, veggies have a satisfying meaty/smoky flavor. Hmm, I'm not sure that I addressed your question. Can you clarify? ← No need. What I meant was that I'd like to see demonstrations of your cooking process and an inventory of the (for me, often) unfamiliar ingredients you're using--in other words, more than the lovely finished dish you document in the Dinner thread. Your shrimp demonstration is exactly the kind of thing I meant!!! Well, since I am a creature of habit, on to oatmeal! Marion Nestle (Nutrition prof at Colombia) says we make too big a deal out of breakfast. If all you want in the morning is coffee, that's fine. ← Oh, good – I get it now. Sorry, I was replying when I should have been sleeping. Good to know that academia approves of a coffee breakfast. I still prefer to eat something solid, even if just a small portion. In the winter, I also like oatmeal for breakfast. Now that the weather is getting cold, I'll probably make a big batch of steel-cut oatmeal, seasoned with some combination of cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg, and served with brown sugar or palm sugar.

An outdoor wok burner is very tempting – let’s see if we have any money left after paying for the addition. And you would be right! We love that recipe. David Thompson’s cucumber salad in Thai Food is more gently seasoned, and also very good.

Your "non-purist" omelette sure looks good to me! ← Thanks, Lorna – I figured you for a rebel.

I would be completely remiss if I did not acknowledge the incredible Chinese cooking pictorials that Ah Leung (hrzt8w) has made. Clearly, these inspired my humble efforts in this foodblog. We see farther when we stand on the shoulders of giants, as they say. Chinese Food Pictorials, by hrzt8w (clickety)

Eje has Taco Tuesday, we have Fried Rice Friday. Very loosely based on the Thai fried rice recipe in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, fried rice is a great way to use up odds and ends in the refrigerator. Besides, the boys love it. Mrs. C assigned 7 WW points for the fried rice, plus one for a smoothie. Ingredients – fish sauce not pictured. Yes, that is Mexican chorizo. No, Mexican chorizo is not authentic in Thailand (but it gives the fried rice a special something). I sliced up the fixings – cukes, red bell peppers, cilantro, tomatoes, lime wedges. Cilantro tastes like soap to the boys, so we serve it on the side. A “whisper” of garlic and a “hint” of Thai chile bean paste. You can also use red curry paste. There were a few frozen shrimp left in the bag from last night, so I thawed the shrimp under running water before peeling and drying on paper towels. Seasonings: garlic, cayenne pepper, salt, sugar, scallions (not pictured). Stir-fry the shrimp and seasonings quickly in a very hot wok. Set aside when done, and wipe the wok clean. Stir-fry garlic, chile bean paste, and chorizo for a bit. Add cold leftover rice and stir-fry, separating each grain of rice. Make a well in the middle of the rice and add an egg. When the egg begins to set, mix with the rice. Repeat with a second egg. Add scallions . . . . . . and shrimp, and then turn off the heat. Done! Once everything is prepped, cooking the rice takes maybe five minutes - much longer to describe than to do.

Good evening, and apologies for the long delay in posting. It was one of those days. Breakfast was coffee and the last banana. For lunch, we ate at the cafeteria while discussing house addition plans with our architect. Mrs. Crab had white chicken chili and bottled water – 7 WW points. I had a tuna sandwich on rye with Swiss cheese, potato gratin, and a salad containing spinach, mixed greens, mock crab, green olives, and Ken’s blue cheese dressing. Next: fried rice Friday.

SheenaGeena: Sure, we know Hagerstown. We have been there many times, especially since the outlet malls opened up. I have been to Fort Meade (interesting place), but not Odenton (although I've heard the name). Who or what dragged you off to Boston?

Priscilla's comment - a proper noun, even (added underline).

Thanks - I'm feeling better already. I have found the Asian approach to vegetables particularly rewarding. Often, vegetables are prepared simply to contrast with a more highly-seasoned main course. Quickly seared with garlic, ginger, and/or chilies, and doused in umami-laden seasonings such as fish sauce and/or fermented bean paste, veggies have a satisfying meaty/smoky flavor. Hmm, I'm not sure that I addressed your question. Can you clarify? I usually learn a new cuisine by finding a good cookbook or two and trying some recipes. With time and experience, cooking becomes less rote and more natural. I hope to achieve that exalted state some day, but I also want to keep trying new things. I took some evening classes at Hood College – interesting experience being a male minority. Pick-your-own and direct-market fruit and vegetable farms are a huge benefit of living in Frederick. In the summer and fall, a short drive yields strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and apples of life-altering quality. A brief sojourn in the fields can provide more sweet strawberries or tart blueberries than even our fruit-loving boys can finish. Typically, you get a basket, pick the fruit, and pay by the weight of your basket. A standard joke is that children should be weighed before and after picking. More information: Maryland Direct Farm Market Association We also have a few berry-producing brambles that grow wild in the woods behind our house. Mrs. Crab braves poison ivy to reap the harvest. Orchard, fruit, corn, dairy, and vegetable farming predominate in Frederick County. We frequent two farmer’s markets in the summer. A small market is held on Tuesdays at lunchtime, and a much larger farmer’s market is held on Saturday mornings. The latter features wonderful sweet corn, peaches, apples, pears, tomatoes, vegetables, dairy products, meats, baked goods (Stone Hearth Bakery), and freshly-squeezed lemonade (the lemons are not local, I’m sure). Several plant vendors sell interesting varieties of potted vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals. I bought several types of basil there last summer. Fall activities at local farms include corn mazes, hay rides, and picking pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Last year, we each carved a pumpkin – I’ll try to dig up the picture if anyone is interested. Maryland has a fledgling wine industry, and several vineyards are located nearby. The vineyards frequently hold festivals with music, food, and wine tastings. A wine-loving friend volunteers at one of the vineyards, and once invited me to help with the harvest. The owners fed us a simple but delicious lunch (with wine, of course), and then we braved yellowjackets to harvest the grapes. I even helped punch down the skins on a tub of fermenting wine. Yup, omnivore. I’ve never understood not eating certain foods just because it’s morning. Weekday mornings are too rushed for cooking, so I usually have some ready-made protein - nuts or leftovers – to avoid the mid-morning munchies at work. I breakfast late on weekends, frequently doing terrible things to innocent omelets. Coffee with cream and sugar serves as breakfast more mornings than I care to admit.

When I larb, the larb topic will be the first place I'll go. Twenty-one pages of posts about larb - who woulda thunk it.

Dejah: Excellent! Credit to Andrea Nguyen for the recipe, of course. Yes, I would love to have Majra's outdoor wok setup (click) from your Chinese eats at home, what did we cook? (click) thread. Might be a little rough in your climate, though. No problem - as long as you keep enlightening me about Chinese food.

Hmm, I don't really have one go-to cookbook. The boys would be delighted if we cooked from All About Braising and The Barbecue Bible every day. Cradle of Flavor by James Oseland has incredibly clear directions, and I love Land of Plenty by Fuchsia Dunlop. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet has a ton of family favorites, as does Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table. I have high hopes for several recent acquisitions that are sitting on my nightstand. The Art of Mexican Cooking by Diane Kennedy and Classic Indian Cooking by Julie Sahni are sentimental favorites – those were two of my first cookbooks.