Live It Up
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Posts posted by Live It Up
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I'm just discovering the blogs , and this is the first one I've caught from the beginning. Lucky me, it's taking place in my own city. I'm really enjoying seeing what life is like waaay up in yorkville
But OH MY GOD, that meal at Daniel and Alicia's last night. How does anybody do that in a new york apartment? Speaking of which, I don't know if you did this in your previous blog (I'm going back and reading the old ones in reverse chronological order, so I haven't gotten to it), but I'd love to see some pictures of your kitchen. Thanks for blogging! -
Who does the cooking in your home?
Me, almost always. Until a few months ago my husband had never cooked anything for me, ever. Not even toast. Maybe microwave popcorn. I like it this way, however, as I'm a control freak in the kitchen.
Do you eat foods from take-out or restaurants or buy ready-made foods often?
I hate ordering in. I feel like it's a waste of money, unless it's pizza(from someplace good). We're really broke these days so we almost never order in or go out to eat. Used to eat out about once a week, though.
Do you cook absolutely "from-scratch" using unprocessed ingredients often? Not absolutely from scratch, but I don't buy convenience foods often.
Are you single, married or living with other(s)?
married (1.5 years)
Do you have children?
not yet
What sort of work do you do?
My husband and I own a home accessories/house wares store. We work together and we have basically no income 'cause our store is still new and struggling.
Do you feel you have enough time to cook the sorts of foods you like to eat?
I don't have enough time for anything. 3-6 nights a week I get home after 9pm, so I've taken to making dinner for the next night the night before. If I can't manage that, then we eat at 11pm
I'm interested in the questions of time, culture, society, money and class. As they relate to food and how it fits into our lives, of course.
I'm not really sure how to answer this question beyond what is obvious from my other answers.
As a question for "extra credit"
, is the form of your daily cooking/eating/dining different than it was in your family when you were growing up, and if so, how is it different?My mom is a good cook, and when my dad was alive we ate dinner together almost every night. My dad had his few specialties that he made like steak and home made potato chips and burgers. After my dad died we ate a lot of packaged frozen stuff and things my mom could make ahead and leave for us. She's a flight attendant, so raising 3 kids alone was really hard, I'm sure and she had to be gone 3-4 nights a week. I hope when I have a child we'll be able to eat together. I have lots of great memories of cooking and eating with both my parents, and I'd like to pass that on to my kid.
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Soo...I notice no one has written about this place in a few years. I just went there for the first time last month despite the fact that I walk by it 3 times a week. My husband Josh and I wanted to take my youngest sister to have peking duck for a "thank you for working for us for free" dinner, but we didn't have time to call ahead. So I was poking around on menupages and noticed that not only does fuleen have peking duck on their regular menu and they're open til 4 am. That was the main thing, actually, 'cause we always get to restaurants in china town and find them closed. Anyway, we ordered a whole peking duck, chive blossoms w/ soy sauce and noodles with enoki mushrooms and dried scallops. I know, I know we didn't get any seafood, but truth be told, I don't really like many cantonese seafood preparations. Also, it was all about the duck, and as it was we had too much food. The duck itself was really good, but then I don't think I've ever had bad peking duck. They serve the skin with the squishy buns here, which I was worried I wouldn't like. I've only ever had the pancake one before, but the buns were really good. The skin also comes on a bed of pringles, which cracked my sister and me up to no end.
I don't think you supposed to eat them, but Josh sampled a few. Hmmm, do I sense a new potato chip flavor?
Actually, the pringles are the only reason we have any pictures of the food, because my sister thought it was so funny. Anyway, everything we had was really good, and our waitress was very nice (such a nice change of pace from XO and New Green Bo). She insisted on serving all our food for us since she was already preparing our duck skin sandwiches. The whole meal with a generous tip was about $65 IIRC (no beverages). Overall, I really enjoyed myself.
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Like Nishla and markk, I haven't posted here in a while, but I've been keeping up with the thread and using it for inspiration. Last night I made Shaya's sesame chicken cakes, except I used pork and served them with nuoc cham because the rest of the meal was vietnamese. I also made scallops in a caramel type sauce from Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, except the recipe called for shrimp, not scallops. I guess I did a lot of protein substituting last night. Also, Shaya, did you post the recipe for the sambousak somewhere? They look amazing! I think I must also add my accolades for Lumas' fried chicken--it looks good enough to actually satisfy a craving for the real thing. Tonight we had osso buco that I made last night knowing I wouldn't have time to cook tonight. It was OK. Anyway, keep up the good work all.
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I am not Guyanese, but one of my babysitters when I was a child was/is. She never really cooked for me, except for roti, but it was soo good. iharrison, do you have a recipe/method for roti? I watched her make it many times, but that was a long time ago and I don't really remember. Also, there were two kinds that she would make, one that was cooked on a griddle and one that was deepfried. Do you know if they are the same dough? Thanks!
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Korean food is one of my all time favorites, but I'm just discovering this thread. I attempt to cook Korean at home often, but my results are never quite what I want. I have 2 Korean cookbooks, but neither of them is great. It seems like most of you who post to this thread find your recipes on line--what are your favorite/most reliable sources?
Last night I made seafood pa jeon and kimchi jeon for dinner. The recipe for the kimchi jeon that I made only called for flour and water for the batter and it came out really, really thick and pasty. The recipe I use for the seafood pancake calls for rice flour and eggs, and I much prefer the texture. Should I just sub kimchi for the seafood next time and use the same batter?
Next thing I want to try is dol sot bibimbap...just need to get some stone bowls. Yum.
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I don't really eat a lot of snack foods, but I can't resist terra chips. My absolute favorite are the spiced taro chips, which I would eat constantly if I could ever find them. This topic prompted me to check out their ingredient list on their website, and turns out they have no MSG. Actually, none of the flavors of chips that I looked at did. Man, I really want some now
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I bought a set of Laguiole steak knives from Forge de Laguiole, which is the company that got Philippe Starck on board and (if you believe their publicity) started the reniaissance of Laguiole knives. They are fixed knives (ie not a pocket knife) with horn handles and they are not only absolutely beautiful but also practical - they cut through steak like it was butter. I also bought a sommelier's knife, which is a thing of beauty - basically a waiter's friend in the Laguiole style.
Now for the unfortunate part - I bought them at the main Forge shop at Laguiole itself (NB, I wouldn't call it a city - more of a small town up in the Auvergne mountains). They also have a shop in Toulouse and a couple in Paris, but that's all as far as I know, and the stock at those shops are a bit limited. You may be able to buy through their website: http://www.forge-de-laguiole.com/
Your best bet is to go to Laguiole itself (not great for those of you in the US, but if you are holidaying/vacationing in that part of France it's worth a look - there are some great restaurants in the town) and the Forge de Laguiole shop is superb - a huge range of knife-related products, including a Laguiole carving knife (slkinsey take note!), which was basically a giant pocket knife. It looked great, but it certainly wasn't cheap.
That's the only brand of Laguiole knives I'm really familiar with - there may be other decent manufacturers, and no doubt some that offer much better value for money, but the FdL knives look and work great.
Forge de Laguiole brand knives are distributed in the united states, so no need to go to France for them, though I'm sure they're cheaper there. I know there are a lot of poor quality knives using the Laguiole name, but FdL is very good. As for determining whether it's a fake FdL, I'm not really sure how you would do that other than taking certificates of authenticity at face value. I bought a tiny pocket knife from an on-line knife store (though I can't remember which store now) for my husband last christmas. Shortly after that we were at the NY gift fair and we happened by the FdL booth. They verified that the knife I bought was one of theirs, but I don't know what they were looking for.
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I've never used a recipe for minestrone, but I think it's a natural for a vegetarian option. Start with dried beans and then use the cooking liquid for broth (supplement with veg. broth if necessary). I also like to use canned tomatoes with their juice to add richness to vegetarian soups. If dairy is not ruled out, drop a piece of parmesan rind in as well.
For other options, I do a really simple vegetarian black bean and tomatillo soup. No recipe, but it's really easy: cook some dried black beans, maybe with some epazote or oregano. Meanwhile, broil a sliced onion, some husked tomatillos, a few cloves of garlic and some serrano or jalepeno chiles. I think it's more traditional to griddle roast these ingredients, but it's far faster to do it all together in the oven. Put all those in the blender with some cilantro and puree. When the beans are cooked, puree about half of them. Mix both pureed items with the remaining beans and season to taste. I usually add the juice of a lime at this point. It's excellent with avocado and sour cream on top.
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I have to disagree with his dissing of frozen spinach, I use it a lot. The great advantage is it is pre cooked. Fresh spinach cooks down to next to nothing, so if you're going to cook it, you need a LOT. A pound of frozen is a usable pound and I find it tastes pretty good.
Definitely! Frozen spinach is so much cheaper than buying fresh and much less work. Actually, besides the savings, I prefer the frozen because it doesn't bother my teeth as much (am I the only one who gets "fuzzy" teeth from spinach?). I have a friend who is a bit fanatical about buying everything at the farmer's market, but she loves my spanikopita. I'm embarrassed to tell her that I always use frozen spinach in it.
Other than that, peas, corn, and artichoke hearts are the frozen vegetables I keep on hand. I agree that frozen strawberries and raspberries are often superior to fresh, but for some reason I rarely buy frozen fruit. Also, I have recently discovered the joy of frozen baby limas to make this spread. Yummy, and it can be made in 15 minutes or so.
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If your main reason for going up to arthur avenue is to go food shopping, keep in mind that the retail market and most of the little food stores close by 6pm. If you want to make it from philly, have brunch at Balthazar, shop and hit arthur avenue, you're going to have to be focused. Not that it's not possible, but you just have to have a plan. Allow at least an hour for driving up to the bronx, more if it's getting to be near rush hour. Unless you're planning to have dinner in the bronx, you should probably have brunch, then arthur avenue, then drive back to manhattan for whatever else you want to do. Most stores in manhattan are open until 8 or 9.
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If you're not wedded to staying in Time Square (and really, you should be wedded to avoiding it) you should check out some of the new bars/clubs in LES/Chinatown. I don't club much, but I was just reading this article in the village voice today which seems like it has some stuff that might fit your bill. I'm not sure if these places are technically clubs (they may not have cabaret licenses) but it seems like they encourage dancing.
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I never view texbooks as religious texts --not even Kellers' -- and so have no problem disregarding advice I disagree with. I always thought that was the great thing about being the chef in the family -- everything tastes the way you think it should.
This is exactly what I love about cooking, and what can often be frustrating about eating food you haven't cooked. I have a really hard time relinquishing control in the kitchen because I want everything done MY way. Good thing my husband doesn't cook. But, I suspect this would make me a bad cooking instructor. It's great to have strong opinions about how food should be prepared and taste, but they're just opinions. Sometimes trying something someone else's way can be very enlightening.
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Thanks for the advice, Shaya. Your gnocchi look amazing, of course. I re-read the recipe and it actually called for reheating the cooked gnocchi in boiling water. I was planning to make the dish for some friends for dinner on saturday night, and because I was planning on serving it as a main course I decided to make a double batch. So I set 3 lbs of ricotta to drain in the fridge. But then I got sick and had to cancel the dinner on sat., so then I had to make a ridiculous number of gnocchi for just me and my husband on sunday. There has to be a typo in that recipe, because Batali calls for using 2 tablespoons of "dough" for each gnoccho. I only used 2 teaspoons each, and they were still huge because they expand when they cook. Here's a pic
I didn't have any parsley, so that's why they're so white, and I didn't have any fennel bulb, so the sauce is an improvised sausage ragu, not the recipe that's in the book. I thought they were good, but really filling and rich. I probably wouldn't make them again, as I prefer the spinach ricotta gnocchi recipe from Marcella Hazan that I usually use. Oh yeah, and we're still eating them because a double batch makes A LOT of them.
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So I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but for some reason as soon as I saw those koggetjes upthread I knew I had to have them, and soon. I made them today, which record time for me (I plan many a cooking project that I never get around to). I didn't have any vanilla sugar in the house, so I just used a little vanilla extract, and I left out the milk because the dough looked a little loose before I would have added it. I would have taken a picture, but of course I tried to bake too many at once and they all spread together. Also, I think they need to cool a bit on the baking sheet before trying to remove them, because I also destroyed a few that way. Anyway, they're delicious even if they aren't pretty. My husband says they're his new favorite. Chufi, have you tried adding any additional flavorings to them? I was thinking a little orange zest would be really nice, or maybe even rosemary or anise. Thanks so much for the recipe!
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The mushroom pic that Chufi linked to are what I have seen called king oyster mushrooms. Probably just regional variations in the name. Also, I noticed you moved the cocktail to the beginning of the meal, but I just wanted to mention that I find the idea of drinking out of an eggshell very unappealing. Otherwise your menu sounds great. I'm jealous of your guests.
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I see that a few of you have made the ricotta gnocchi from Molto Italiano , so I was hoping I could get some advice. I've made gnocchi several times before, but never this recipe. I want to make them for dinner tomorrow night, but I will not be home to make them right before dinner. If I made them in the afternoon, could I simply refrigerate them until dinner time (5 hours or so), or should I cook them and reheat? Or should I freeze them? Thanks!
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Yeah, I think yesterday really was a cursed day for baking. I spent all day trying to make some greek feta cheese filled turnovers for a party. I made the dough and the filling (3 batches) on saturday. On sunday I was trying to fill them, only to find that the turnovers would not seal. I tried egg wash, I tried crimping with a fork, but they wouldn't stay closed. Eventually I made them in mini tart pans, and that worked out ok, but to top it all off, I didn't even think they tasted that good. It was a recipe from The Greek Cook by Rena Salaman, which is one of my favorite cook books. I won't be making them again.
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I actually have this problem with my starbucks travel mug. I left some coffee w/cream in there for a little too long and the stuff STINKS. I have actually simmered the lid in water for a few minutes and soaked the cup and lid in hot soapy water overnight for a few times, but it still smells.
sorry to take over the thread, but is there anyone out there that can help me out?
When I was in college someone told me that tang (yes, the powdered orange drink) gets the smell out of travel mugs. My roommate happened to have a huge jar of the stuff, so I used it, and it really did seem to work. However, I don't know that it would work so much better than a vinegar solution.
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I received Peterson's splendid soups for channukah several years ago, and I refer to it often. I'm not huge on following recipes, especially for soups, so I haven't actually made too many of the recipes, but the spicy chicken soup from Borneo is my must have when I'm sick. Not being familiar with the other two books you mentioned, I can only say that I think the Peterson book fits what you're looking for. It covers all the basics, but also offers creative ideas.
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I used to work in foodservice, but as a barista, not a waiter. Still, I think I've got a handle on how to behave in a restaurant, and I have to take exception to the drink rule. I think it goes along with knowing what kind of restaurant you're in. I don't really like to drink anything but water with my meals, unless it's more of a speciall occasion dining experience, and then I usually get a bottle of wine. But still, why should anybody assume I'm cheap because I don't want to get full on beer? I wouldn't drink anything but tap water with a meal at home, but at a restaurant that makes me a bad customer?
I noticed over the almost 7 years that I worked as a barista, my attitude changed frequently. Things that bothered me about customers one year didn't bother me the next, or vice versa. Also, the other people who worked there did not necessarily agree about what was an offense either (one guy hated it when people ordered lattes--not cause he didn't want to make them, just because it irked him). Now if people don't tip well, that's another story.
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I've mentioned my banana "bread" before, but I just made it again a couple of weeks ago. It's my great grandmother's recipe, and she called it "banna cake". Yes, banna (it's written like that in several places). Anyway, I always make it in muffins, because I hate slicing loaves (crumbs!). From what the rest of you have said, mine seem pretty boring in comparison, but I've never wanted to stray from the recipe. It's very simple: bananas, shortening, white sugar, sour cream, no spices (can't remember if there's vanilla--I think there is). I go back and forth on the walnut/pecan thing, though next time I might try macadamias. Also, I really like the idea of an oat/crunch topping--that's something to think about for next time.
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I make a very simple jerusalem artichoke soup that I came up with to try to recreate a soup I had on vacation in Vancouver, BC. Saute some shallots in a little bit of olive oil or butter. Add peeled diced potatoes and jerusalem artichokes, and chicken broth to cover. I don't have amounts, but I use approximately equal weights of potato to jerusalem artichoke, maybe going a little lighter on the potatoes. Simmer until tender, then puree.
Season with white pepper and salt. Finish with a few drops of white truffle oil. Oh, I also like to add a little fresh thyme. It's not roasted, but it's really all about the flavor of the jerusalem artichokes, just accented by the truffle oil.
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This year I am giving home made gifts for the first time, mostly because my husband and I are broke. So far I've started making shrubb (clementine infused rum) from Jessica Harris's Beyond Gumbo : Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim . I've never made it before, but what could be bad about rum infused with citrus, vanilla and spices? Other than that, I think we're giving pumpkin seed candies, some cookies, and home roasted coffee. But after reading this thread, I'm thinking I'd like to include some savory treats too. Most of my friends are decidedly not foodies, so I don't want to go overboard. Has anybody given home made cheese straws? Do you think they will hold up well enough? I know a lot of people who would be very appreciative of some duck bresaola, but I can't afford to shell out for magret for everyone.
The market-day binge
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I almost never make lists when I'm doing my own shopping (very detailed lists when I send hubby to the store), but I almost never shop for more than 1 or 2 days at a time. These days I've pretty much been forced to plan my meals around what I can pick up on my way home, and most days I'm coming from the gym. The problem with that is that by the time I get home I'm starving, and I'll basically eat a full meal while I'm cooking dinner. So, it's not so much that everything I've bought looks good, it's that I just can't wait another hour for dinner. However, whenever I get to make a trip to arthur avenue or chelsea market---forget it--why do I even bother planning dinner?