Memorial Day Weekend Grilling.

Memorial Day Grilling.

I went down to Atlanta this past weekend with my girlfriend to visit my sister and her boyfriend. You cannot spend a Memorial Day weekend without a BBQ. After two days of Mexican and Fox Bros BBQ (highly recommended) I needed ANY vegetables. Probably the healthiest meal eaten whilst there.

Grilled Bone-In Ribeye Steaks rubbed with Salt, Pepper and Cumin
Grilled Asparagus with Garlic Oil
Grilled Corn and Red Pepper Tomato Succotash
Grilled Vidalia Onions
Grilled Jumbo Shrimp with Jalapeno Lime Ginger Soy Cilantro Vinaigrette.

Yum.

Sunday Night Carnitas

Chipotle Cinnamon Carnitas Tostada
Saffron Parsnip Puree
Yellow Rice and Pigeon Peas with Fresh Avocado

I had been craving some really stellar slowly braised pork carnitas. So why not make it myself?

I de-boned a small pork shoulder and roughly cut up the pieces. In a heavy cast iron pot I braised it with bay leaf, onion, garlic, cinnamon sticks, fresh chipotle in adobo, and the bone from the shoulder. After about 2 hours I was left with tender delicious meet and a thick sauce. I separated the meat and reduced the porky chipotle sauce while skimming away the fat layer. I added more onion and a heaping amount of chopped scallions.

I fried up the meat to make it crispy and the poured the reduced sauce over it.

For my sides I boiled parsnips with vegetable stock and saffron, then pureed them.
The rice was a box mix of spanish rice and pigeon peas. I added more fresh green peas into the mix.

To plate, I took a small tortilla and toasted it in a pan with some oil and added jalapeno queso on top. I layered the carnitas and sprinkled freshly chopped cilantro.

You can see the final result. The carnitas were amazing, spicy and sweet from the cinnamon. The fresh avocado was actually a really nice combination with the saffron parsnip puree.

pantry raid bowl noodle

So Caroline gave me an assignment for her Cook and Tell article on Serious Eats. The idea was to make something spectacular using only the ingredients in your house, no cheating, no shopping allowed.

You might think a food blogging ex line cook would have an amazing kitchen stocked to the gills with food, but really it's just a totally random mess of strange things I bought at the asian market 6 months ago , a few sketchy vegetables and whatever is left over from saturday morning breakfast.

I threw on an "asian-y" broth with a hunk of salt pork and some chicken innards I found in the back of my freezer, along with a few of the sketchy carrots & onions, soy sauce and coriander, and some green onion & cilantro remnants.

Cooked the broth for an hour, strained out the stuff, dropped in a few dumplings I found in the freezer along with a block of rice noodles for 5 minutes. Cooked off some sausage (italian turkey sausage to be exact- this is where the fusion comes in folks) with onions & red peppers. poached an egg, battered it with flour / egg wash / panko and fried it up. threw everything in a bowl with some chili sauce and cilantro and some pickled leeks that I bought a year ago because the can looked cool.

It was actually pretty damn good.. panko crusting the egg was sort of unnecessary and a little bit weird texturally with the noodles and broth.. if I wasn't taking pictures i would have just fried it normally.

I was also contemplating dusting banana slices in vanilla pudding mix and almonds and deep-frying them, mixing some ancient frosting with molasses or something and plating it up real obnoxious-like.. but I just ate the banana instead.

If you want to join in the fun you can follow Caroline's articles over at Seriouseats.com

tacos at savoy flower shop

I've been noticing for at least 6 months the Savoy Deli & Produce Market on 18th st. below Rittenhouse square has had a board out advertising "mexican tacos, tortas, burritos, hoagies".

Now I stopped there once and uh.. it was sort of scary. The produce was in pretty bad shape and the place is always sort of dark and empty. Their main business seems to be selling flowers which look better than the brown rotting lettuce. And there's really no reason to go there as Sue's produce (one of the best in the city, love it) is 5 minutes away.

But I just couldn't ignore that sign. And good thing I didn't. My fear was at first reaffirmed as I walked in around lunchtime and it was empty again. The meats in the deli case looked kind of sketchy. I was presented with a crumpled menu and ordered 1 carnitas and 1 chorizo taco. The mexican gentleman who had been trimming flowers and unpacking carrots smiled and hurried to the back to whip up my tacos.

And wow, the food was much better than I expected.. all of the ingredients were fresh, the tacos were packed with meat, nice fresh tomatillo salsa- why aren't people lined up around the corner? I mean they weren't mind blowing, but as good as your average south philly taqueria, and it seems to be just the one guy that makes the food so it's probably consistent.

Don't be scared. Take out is the way to go.. rittenhouse square is right there so there's your dining room.

Savoy
262 S 18th st
Philadelphia

Alert: Southern California Style Tacos Found in Brooklyn!

Since I've moved from back from San Diego to New York I have been trying to find a place that serves the kind of Mexican food that I have become accustomed to on the West Coast.  After a little over a year  of searching I was ready to throw in the towel and call it a day.    

I live in a neighborhood that is brimming with Mexican restaurants.  Tortas, cemitas, and huaraches are everywhere but somehow they just aren't the same.  I really wanted the perfect, simple tacos that I had gotten so used to living ten minutes from the Tijuana border.  These tacos are nothing more than fantastically grilled meat on tiny (4-5-inch) tortillas, chopped cilantro and onions accompanied by some really great salsas.  

I'm overjoyed to say that today I found the tacos of my dreams.  

Tacos Ricos at 51st Street and 5th Avenue in Sunset Park serves the best tacos that I've eaten outside of Southern California. I had a feeling that it was going to be good and I ordered six tacos - al pastor, bisctec, pollo, enchilada, arabes and orientales.

All of the tacos were amazing. The al pastor, pollo and bistec are pretty standard, enchilada is just another term for spicy meat but the arabes and orientales are not that common. They are the Mexican version of shawarma, spit-roasted and spectacular, just the right ratio of meat to fat with the best smokey-sweet-spicy chile sauce. Everything was served with big wedges of lime, sliced radishes and the best Mexican Cokes.

Tacos Ricos
505 51st St.
Brooklyn, NY 11220

Hot Dog!

On Sunday I went to a pretty amazing food event, the Hot Dog Hootenanny at Astor Center in New York.  There were four types of hot dogs available for tasting, all you can drink beer and prosecco and a hot dog lecture given by Bruce Kraig, author of Hot Dog: A Global History.

The hot dogs were all delicious examples of regional and haute hot dog styles.  The classic New York style dog from Papaya King was topped off with sauerkraut, mustard and a sweet, ketchupy onion sauce.  The Chicago dog was had all of the traditional accompaniments - mustard, onion, tomato, celery salt, neon green relish,  a pickle spear and sport peppers all on top of a Vienna frank in a poppy seed bun.  

The two nouveau dogs were really fantastic. The Korean Bulgogi dog from New York Hot Dogs and Coffee was topped with spicy, sesame accented bulgogi, some lettuce and pickles and served on a bun that was a little chewier and more substantial than a regular hot dog bun.  The last dog was from the hot dog joint / secret cocktail bar Crif Dogs- the Chihuahua Dog is a deep fried, bacon wrapped dog served with slices of avocado and sour cream, insanely delicious.

The beer was from Kelso Brewery in Brooklyn, they provided a nutty brown ale that complimented the hot dogs perfectly.

The Hot Dog Hootenanny was  a great tribute to the humble hot dog and there are rumors of a similar hamburger event taking place in the near future!

Eggs and R. Kelly

I recently moved into a new apartment with my lady and we decided to throw a little brunch get together. Little became big and Big Man made an appearance in the form of R Kelly's Trapped In The Closet - Chapters 1-22.

Eggs and R. Kelly was born.

Menu:

Fried Chicken and Jalapeno Scallion Cornbread

Raspberry or Pumpkin Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast crusted in Pecans and Coconut

Eggs Benedict Florentine with Chipotle Hollandaise

Swine Tray (minus the flu) Sausage, Bacon, Canadian Bacon

Strawberries, Mimosa's, and Bloodies.

Fette Sau

Auto - body shop turned BBQ joint and bar with outdoor picnic table seating. You can smell the smoke from a block away. We got 1/2 pound of everything on the menu - which changes almost daily. Their meats come from local-ish small farms, smoked on the premises. Pork Belly, Sausage, Short Ribs, Spare Ribs, Pulled Pork, Brisket. Big squeeze bottles of house-made sauces. Awesome pickles and sauerkraut.. best baked beans I've ever had, chock full of bacon and bay leaves.

House brewed beer by the gallon jug and the biggest selection of american whiskey you've ever seen. We tried to go saturday night and it was insanely packed, had to go back sunday afternoon, so be warned.

If the Jamaican Jerk Hut ever goes up for sale somebody make this happen in Philadelphia. Seriously.

Fette Sau
354 Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Beer Table

Whenever I go to New York I feel like I should eat somewhere legendary like Gotham or Babbo or La Bernadin.. maybe making up for the time I spent living here as a vegetarian (yup). But with a seemingly endless supply of affordable, comfortable places to eat in Brooklyn without wearing a suit, it's tough. Almost everywhere I ate this weekend made me think.. why isn't there something like this in Philly?

Beer Table was a perfect example.. a tiny brunch menu- waffles or baked eggs and a few cold small plates around 3-5 bucks a pop. Everything simple, fresh and good - super thick bacon, haricot vert salad, beer cheese, radishes with salt & butter for 2 dollars!... which sort of makes up for the awesome beer list which ranges from 5$ to 30$... wooden butcher block style tables with bench seating - the whole place only seats maybe 20 - 25 people.

The beer was right on too... I like beer, both cheap and not so cheap, but don't like to think about it too much. The recommended house draft & german Grut Bier (blonde/coriander/citrus/etc) were both great and perfect for a 90 degree day but not so exotic that you couldn't chug it like a high life. Beer Table also wins the prize of being the only place we found the whole weekend that wasn't packed to the gills all day and all night. They also do a tuesday night tasting menu for $25.

Beer Table
427 B 7th Ave
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Yonah Schimmel

I lived in New York for 5 years and somehow never ate one of these, don't know what the hell was wrong with me, eating those sketchy $1 knishes from the hot dog carts and thinking that was it.

Thank got this place is still here, they were out of celery soda but black cherry is almost as good.

Yonah Schimmel
137 East Houston Street
Nyc

Philly is pretty in the Spring

I am never sure if it's because all year long it's a little "unpretty" and the first sign of flowers reminds me of what a great city Philly can be.

Fresh sunny side up eggs from the fair food Reading Terminal Stand for breakfast and Herbs from the Garden.

Oh and to make summer better, a long legged birdie told me that Capagiro is opening up where Roselena's used to be on Passyunk. Woot Woot South Philly!

Cambodian New Years

The first hot weekend in Phildelphia and I wake up to the smell of sweet marinated meats. Tim followed that smell to the park on Morris and 15th, and found Buddhist monks praying and skewered meats grilling.

The highlight for me was this awesome cambodian grandma frying the most amazing coconut battered taro. ( for all those places that try to make coconut fried shrimp take note ) It wasn't too sweet, but just slightly sweet from the coconut milk carmalizing and really crunchy with warm taro on the inside. As you can see from the photo, she battered it up and fried it while we waited. After that I was done I didn't need to eat anything else. They were 2 for a dollar. I got a fresh coconut juice which was 3 bucks and a green mango covered in fish sauce, lime juice and salt and hot chili paste. Okay that was awesome too.

I'm pretty positive that they do this every year, since we have a huge cambodian south philly population.

Philip's Steaks

Cheesesteaks are a crazy topic here in Philadelphia. People will fight to the death over the best cheesesteak, the most authentic, the least racist, provolone or whiz, sarcone's or amoroso. Some fight for no cheesesteaks at all, and prefer the city to be recognized for its "higher-brow" culinary achievements, or argue the superiority of hoagies or roast pork.

For some reason a lot of writers and experts fail to mention Phil's . I didn't even know it was there until a friend proudly announced he knew of a "secret" spot at 22nd & passyunk that has no line and better food than Pat's or Geno's. A recent re-visit confirms that this is all true. It's not nearly as busy as the well known "cheesesteak vegas" of 9th & Passyunk. But it's open 24 hours and the cheesesteaks are fantastic.

More meat than Pat's but not so overfilled that everything falls apart. And they put so much whiz on my fries that I had to use a fork. AND they have fish cakes which for me is the mark of the real deal. I think the main reason Phil's gets passed over is that it's in a neighborhood that's not considered to be the best, but it's really not that bad and totally worth the trip.

Philip's Steaks
2234 W Passyunk Ave
Philadelphia

Easter Pot Pie

My parents' house is a great place to shoot photos of food, it's filled with all kinds of old signs and pennsylvania dutch cooking tools, handmade placemats, random stuff everywhere. It's a challenge to cook with one tiny cutting board and no counter space but I'm lucky enough that my parents aren't picky eaters and will pretty much let me make whatever. Also there's a garden out back with every herb you could want, and the hottest cookbooks of the 60's and 70's so no complaints here.

I've been dreaming about pot pie for a while, figured lamb would work for easter. Braised some lamb shanks in white wine, mint, parsley, onions, celery, etc. for 4 hours. Pulled off the meat, saved the braising liquid for the veloute sauce, threw in some fava beans, cauliflower, mushrooms, more mint, puff pasty on top, and bingo, lamb pot pie. Also asparagus with shallots and black truffle sausage, and a quasi nicoise salad.

Came out really good - sort of better than I expected. Believe me I can mess up some food too, I just don't post it on the blog. My friends smile and keep eating but in the back of my mind there's a phantom head chef with bloodshot eyes yelling at me for all the things I did wrong.