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Hallo! It’s October. It’s time for us to go to our first Oktoberfest, courtesy of my family. I may be Italian (with a quarter French on my mother’s side) but if we’re going to be cooking, we need to be sampling from more than our comfort-foods. Lauren, Did I ever tell you I’m part Austrian through my paternal grandfather’s side? This is the sort of stuff my great aunt would make for me when I visited and she cooked for us.

My mother and I took to the food while my father and brother took to the drinks. We won’t be going into the drinks this time. It was just root beer, cream soda, regular beer, seltzer, apple cider, and water. For now, let’s focus on the food. There were all sorts of dishes to get us into the spirit of Germany: knackwurst and bratwurst, spätzle,  pretzels, sauerkraut, German potato salad, and periogies (which are Polish – not German, and came out of a freezer bag, but who’s asking) for the main meal, with some apple strudel, cider donuts, and German chocolate cake for dessert. It was a feast. I had to make sure that I didn’t go overboard, especially on the treats – that’s where Lauren came in to help me split everything with her. 

Oktoberfest, according to Wikipedia, is a Volksfest, or a beer festival with lots of activities. It is usually held in the waning weeks of September into the first week or so of October. Ours was a little late, and wasn’t as beer-centered as the original, but it was our version of it; after all, it’s origins are rooted in celebration and observing German and Bavarian culture.

As for the food – as usual, it was all excellent. There are actually several types of sausage out there. “-wurst” means sausage in German. Usually they’re made from pork, beef, or veal, and contain white pepper, salt, and mace. Spices are determined based on the local area. In German, “Knack-” means “snap” like the natural snap from casing the meat. Think of them like hot dogs, but made from much finer meat and much less fat. Brätwurst on the other hand contains mostly finely ground pork and veal (hence the “brät” in the name). It has a distinctive white color to it due to its initial boiling. These tend to be milder than the others. My friend Sarah Koster would have an easy time translating these names. She took German in high school and sang the German version of The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” to me after sleeping over. 

What goes well with sausages – sauerkraut (which translates to “sour cabbage”). I may not be a huge fan, but apparently the stuff is really good for you in the same way as kimchi what with the pickling brine and the regular benefits of cabbage. Sauerkraut takes roughly one to six months to ferment if you want the home-made stuff, so for the party, we bought the stuff in market, boiled it in some water with a little brown sugar to adjust the flavor and served it cold. I loved it that way. There’s none of that Brussels sprout flavor and all the fun pucker of vinegar potato chips and dill pickles.

Spätzle is a southern German food – the equivalent of egg noodles that are roughly cut and served in sauces or with gravies. They are made using only flour, salt, and eggs (of course).  The flour traditionally used in the preparation of this dish is the equivalent of a semolina flour or pasta flour. The number of eggs used, according to tradition, should be the same as the number of people eating the dish. When the dough has been made, it is scraped into little, bite-sized pieces, using a spätzlebret, into a pot of boiling water. It is a relatively simple dish to make, with many, many applications. We had ours as a side dish, and let me tell you, I was going to town on them (don’t let Lauren know…) Too late. I’m editing your half, Mister! I loved it too, but I let it last longer.

Finally there was the Strudel (German for “whirlpool” or “eddy”). Let me tell you, they had to keep me away from this. It looked so good, it reminded me of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In one of the scenes, they make this dish. Since then, I’ve always wanted to taste it, but never had the chance to. Now was my chance, but alas, I am trying to be healthier. Anyways! This is a German puff pastry dish served with a fruit and nut center but can contain cheese too. It is an example of a roulade – a dish of rolled or filled pastry. It is made from stretched dough (an example of how to make it can be found at FineCooking).

With the party now over, I think it is time for me to hit the gym again to work off all that wonderful food. Especially since Thanksgiving is right around the corner and all. Just you wait and see…mon amore.

Chim-chiminey, Chim-chiminey, Chim-Chim cheree chim cheree, Let’s have some sandwiches to go with our tea. Chim-chiminey, Chim-chiminey, Chim-Chim cheree chim cheroo. It goes with a movie we just had to view.  We went into the kitchen and made a drink too!

We have ourselves a magical cookbook here called “The Wizard’s Cookbook”. It delves into the most mystifying and whimsical franchises like Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Bewitched to name a few. The sequel to the Mary Poppins movie is supposed to come out December 19, 2018. Lauren really wants to go see it. She and her mother consider it a classic with the greatest performers in the starring roles of Burt and Mary Poppins. Mom loved the story and played her record of the soundtrack often as a kid, later playing the songs for me on her flute while I danced around the living room. To this day, she still sings along with “Spoonful of Sugar” and “Feed the Birds” whenever she’s in earshot. I prefer “Jolly Holiday”, “Chim-Chim Cheree” and in first…STEP IN TIME! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I-b_GJ4ltk

She loves the message of mixing fun with practicality and connecting as a family. No, we will not see the overly cheery Broadway show that follows the books rather than the film. Needless to say, it was required viewing for me. So, we decided to give it a go. While we were enjoying a nice lunch at our favorite Sushi Nah-Rah, we broke out the magical cookbook and started flipping through when we found these smelt sandwiches. These looked simple enough and healthy too.

I loved reading the instructions for this one! It was almost interactive and playful in the steps for example; “I hear you tittering!” and “Now is not the time for jokes and funny anecdotes,” encouraging you to embrace the character, the mood and the enjoyment of cooking. I highly recommend “The Wizard’s Cookbook” to parents to help kids get into the kitchen. This was a straightforward recipe. Smelts are a small fish found in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They tend to be very salty, a big turn off it you ask me. Fortuitously, Lauren happened to have some tuna in a packet on hand. We followed the book’s advice and mixed it with some lime juice and herbs for a bit of zing and flavorful emphasis. Just what it needed, since normally the tuna is all one-note, and bland in my opinion. Whilst that sat, Lauren toasted up some bread, and chopped up some cherry tomatoes. Just like with our Toad-in-the-Hole recipe, we cookie-cut stars out of the toast to look like the picture. The book recommends using star, parrot or umbrella shapes for your sandwiches and once you finally let your laughter out, enjoying them on the ceiling.

They tasted practically perfect in every way right down to the lowest charge for ingredients we’ve ever had after a trip to the grocery store. I just wish we had used tooth picks to hold them in place. (So THAT’s what those do!) I concur, these sandwiches were just right. A perfect portion if you asked me, even though I (being one to eat quite a bit) decided to sauté some chopped mushrooms to go with the meal. We decided to use the crusts from the stars to feed the birds.

Meanwhile, I took care of the drinks. It’s an elixir said to be served during the horse races in the chalk country side. We didn’t want to buy grapefruit juice and peach juice from the store. The cheap ones tend to be full of added sugar, while the pure stuff costs more than a few tuppence. You really have to investigate before buying.

So we decided to puree a whole grapefruit and a peach. We were left with a bunch of pulp which Lauren strained. We reserved the pulp, since it could be used in Greek yogurt for breakfast – waste-not, want-not. Some of the rind of the grapefruit was still on (even when I tried to be careful) and the resulting product tasted very tart.

The vanilla extract and maraschino cherry water (couldn’t find cherry syrup anywhere!) helped cut through a lot of the bitterness, but ultimately this was a problem of proportions. The recipe originally called for a 3:1 ratio for the peach to grapefruit ratio. We kind of flipped it around, so instead it was more like a 1:3 ratio. I guess we were too dizzy from the carousel ride to think straight! I wouldn’t exactly call it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I think it needed a spoonful of sugar to help that rind flavor go down.

 

Best of all, my brother was able to hook up the VCR into the TV so we could watch it the same way I did as a little girl, only this time, with a dance partner! Our version is from the original 90’s “Masterpiece Collection”. We may not have done well at making drinks, but at least we dressed it up right and enjoyed our evening dancing along with Burt and Mary Poppins. It goes to show that as the movie portrays; it doesn’t have to always be tea and cakes to have a jolly holiday. What really matters is being wit those you love while you still can and make the very most out of everything. A little magic never hurts either!

 

We have a little secret for you. We love watching Raina Huang on YouTube. In case you don’t know, she’s a foodie who goes across the map to wherever there’s a food challenge. Occasionally, she’ll do a cooking video. This one was for a curry mountain. She goes through step-by-step every ingredient of how it’s made.

Well, we didn’t use her recipe exactly because she used some green curry cubes from yamibuy. You need to plan your meals out 2 days in advance if you’re going to buy ingredients online in order to compensate for delivery time. We don’t get anything from websites. You never know what’s in those processed things without looking at the list of ingredients. We decided to switch gears and look up a Japanese curry recipe online. TasteofHome Curried Tofu with Rice.

We went on to get the chicken ready to be baked instead of fried in oil. There are many different things you can use for breading. We used Japanese style panko. We know, it’s just golden breadcrumbs, but for this recipe, it was our best option. This was our second time working with chicken. Our first time was a success. This time was satisfactory in that regard. We brought it up to 150 degrees and let it rest so it could rise to 160 on its own. Salmonella is REAL! Never serve or eat under-cooked meat!

The curry itself started out pretty chunky. We added liquids later and it started to turn out like gravy. None of this was what we had in mind. We weren’t that crazy about how the components turned out here. We put in the stock, onion, carrot and seasonings like it specified. This pasty and floury pepper-poisoning was not what we planned. I admit I went too heavy on the black pepper. (I tend to do that because I like REALLY spicy food!) We don’t know what went wrong with the rest. 

When it came to leftovers, we found that the curry had just about festered overnight! This next picture almost deserves a warning before viewing. *BEWARE!*

 

Oh well, you can’t win them all. We did our best. Maybe we can re-visit this in our 50th post or something. I mean, we’re learning so much along the way about safety, timing, working with different ingredients and how to make flavor and spice combinations. This is just another step on the path to becoming better chefs. You’re right, Darling. I’ve got an idea for what we can do instead…TOFU!!

It’s a nice sunny autumn day in Libra. The week is over. The wind is crisp. It’s the perfect time to be outside roasting marshmallows over a fire-pit. I remember Boy Scout camp fires and camping with my dad as being some of my favorite times growing up. You get that smell of fresh firewood, hotdogs, popcorn and sweet s’mores together and can’t help but feel relaxed with the fire crackling in front of your warm face.

Well, not exactly Jeremy. In our house, we had a tinker toy “fire” in front of a 2 chair blanket tent with camping tapes on the VHS. S’mores were made at first in the toaster oven, then later the microwave. Mom was never the camping type and Dad never got the time. Not exactly camping, but we made it work.

On a trip to Lavenlair Farm in Lake George, we were able to grab 2 large bundles of fresh lavender. The ladies there were sweet as their special lavender honey and led us to their lavender cookbook. (Who knew you could cook with a flower?) It is super skinny, but full of different treats and sweets for including this calming herb in ways other than aromatherapy and tea. The marshmallow recipe really struck us as an amazing feat. We were promised that once we tasted these, we would never want another marshmallow out of a plastic puffy bag again. Let’s put it to the test.

First of all, we had a hard time picking off individual pieces of lavender off of the stem and measuring it into the spoon without making a mess. We found it easiest to put the measuring spoon over a small bowl. It would have saved time if we had simply bought the container of cooking lavender instead of having so much fun picking it ourselves and enjoying some purple flowered couple time.

I’ve been living with a type 1 diabetic since I was 8. Let me tell you, the sugar count in this recipe is sky-rocketing. Powdered sugar, corn syrup, gelatin and honey all together make one sugary concoction. Best to keep these for lows that need a quick burst back up if you don’t have raisins or apple juice on hand. The Spruce Eats offers this advice:

1 cup of granulated Splenda or sugar and 1 Tablespoon of corn starch blended together make just as sweet powdered sugar if the store is out. Powdered sugar is crucial here for coating the wax paper so that nothing will stick anywhere.

Monk Fruit and Stevia have also been debated as being sugar substitutes for diabetic and people who don’t want to restrict their sugar intake. Healthline has these debate points.

They won’t have much affect on blood glucose levels and have 0 calories. Both can be sweet at first, but then give a bitter after-taste.

Monk Fruit on the other hand is SUPER expensive because it’s INCREDIBLY rare. It hasn’t gotten much research at all. 

Stevia on the other hand has been known to cause some bloated, gassy and nauseous feelings in some people. Those who are allergic to daisies, ragweed, chrysanthemums, and sunflowers will want to be careful of allergic reactions.

In our opinion, it’s better to just surrender to the sugar and count it on your meter.

That yellow stuff in the left corner and below is lemon zest. In this case, it refers to the colored outside of the fruit. Zest adds flavor like juice, but in a pulpy way so it’s not too moist. You see this a lot in Cupcake Wars where bakers will shave off the outside until they gets to the white bitter rinds of the peel and just use the ZEST. It’s where we get the word ZESTY as an adjective for a flavorful fruitiness or spicy quality. In short it gives it an extra kick.

We weren’t too keen on the accuracy of the directions. Yeah, for example when they said it would only be 5 min. for the batter to set. It took us more like a half hour, even with our brand new hand mixer from Christmas. Did they mean a standing mixer? Would that have whipped it faster? We don’t know. Still, it was so runny after 5 minutes. Sorry!

We let the kids (Our Build-a-Bears Emma-Belle and Prince Daniel) help decorate the swirls. She’s very creative (Note her “I Dream in Rainbow” PJs) and he likes things that are messy. The directions say to swirl and fold, but we decided to do them only on the one side. Maybe that affected the texture. We have to be careful not to change anything the first time unless it’s a minor one that won’t alter too much of the composition. Once we finished swirling, we covered the whole thing in powdered sugar.

They turned out to be more of a gummy than a pillow. It wasn’t even just us. My parents and brother agreed that they tasted more like big square gummy worms than marshmallows, but the flavors were there. For that real light and airy style, I’ll grab one of my Easter Peeps. Did you know they don’t go bad until 2 years later? The lavender really came through, but the lemon zest not so much. It must’ve been just a binder. (That thing that holds it all together) Still, we were proud that we made something like this that only comes already-made. As for preservation, refrigeration works best. But watch out, the food coloring runs all over. This was fun. Maybe we should do this for Easter. There is however 1 little side effect from these marshmallows…

 

 

I’m a quarter finished with the book “Crazy Rich Asians” and have finally gotten a chance to write about how we made our baoze. We made ours a little differently from the traditional recipe. We started off with the same home-made dough, (because my Italian family grew up on home cooking and often asked, “Why do people buy pre-made frozen dough that doesn’t stretch well and has less taste?” It’s never the same as making it yourself) the one we used came from theKitchn.

They’re all pretty much the same; flour, hot water and cold water. For the filling, we used traditional pork. Pigs are members of the Chinese zodiac and are very common for Chinese cooking. We agreed, since we used chicken in our Greek post, we were due for a switch up. We agree we need to stay on land for a while and learn to cook what the butcher sells for those like my mom who don’t particularly like fish, or have allergies.

We hadn’t thought it through with how to steam them without a bamboo steamer, so we tried using a paper towel.  As we’ve posted before, this led to a small fire which we doused with water. Don’t worry; we bought ourselves a steamer right after that for our future endeavors.

They say to pleat them 18 times for prosperity. (Shi-ba and Shi-fa sound near alike) Hebrew agrees because their word for life, “chai” has a numeric value of 18. We really had a fun time tucking the little pork dumplings into place. It brought me back to my time in China. To read about everything I told her, click here.

Just like in the movie, this was one of those moments where family and friends could get together. It’s not about the number of pleats or the number of dumplings made. It was just a moment to relax, have a quiet evening, talk, joke, tell stories or ask questions. I’ve felt this moment painting Halloween cookies with my mom, and coloring Easter eggs with my cousins. In the short “Bao“, the family is seen around the table showing the new inclusion of the girlfriend into their Chinese lifestyle. Kitchens were made for people to cook, sure, but when people get together over something special, it takes on a new sense of meaning. Jeremy and I feel a sense of cooperation when we take on stations and command it as a co-captains mission. Here’s an idea for a date, why not cook together?

Good day, Everyone. It has come to our attention that we must stress the importance of working safely in the kitchen. Careful as we are, we’ve had a few accidents in the past 2 weeks. We implore that you take in these reminders and follow them every time you cook or bake. We make these mistakes ourselves. Do us a favor, don’t copy our blunders. Make your own.

Firstly, I’ve had the odd hair fall into the food because my long hair wasn’t pulled back. This is why chefs wear tall hats and hair nets. It’s disgusting to  find other people’s DNA in your meal, even more true to pull a hair out of your mouth covered in sauces or cheese. I’m thankful that my hair hasn’t gotten caught in a machine. If there aren’t any tall hats or hair nets around, tie your hair back and put it up with clips to keep it out of your face and out of the food.

It’s always in a cook/baker’s best interest to use the most qualified tool for the job. During our baozi cook, we didn’t have a bamboo steamer. The safe option for lack of steamers is to put aluminum foil balls at the bottom of the boiling pot with a heat-proof plate over the top. We made the HUGE mistake of using paper towel on a cooling rack over boiling water. The paper towel was so flimsy, it flew off the top as I took off the baozi, fell underneath the pot into the flames and caught on fire. (NO, THIS WAS NOT THE TIME TO BE TAKING PICTURES OR VIDEOS. DON’T ASK!) It was scarier than every B-rated horror movie I’ve ever seen.We were able to put it out with water without damaging anything. Most kitchen fires can be solved with water, but it’s always important to have easy access to a fire extinguisher just in case. 

This is a huge note; IF AN OBJECT IS HIGHLY FLAMMABLE, KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE FLAMES! Be ready for any and all fires that may occur. If it’s a grease fire, DO NOT USE WATER! For Specific instructions see HERE. If a fire gets out of control, or if you’re not sure how to put it out, take it from Elmo and Maria when a fire broke out a Hooper’s Store. Get low and go call the fire dept. Putting out fires is why they train and gear up. If you try and play the hero if it’s a job too big or too confusing. Make the call. Don’t take the fall.

Our most recent mistake was with our equipment. We were making poached eggs with a special pot. We’re not sure how this one occurred. Somehow, either the pot sat on too high of a heat setting for too long, or the steel had discolored from being used so many times. The pot has since been scrubbed and cleaned like new, with new restrictions as to who may use it. This is a reminder to use the lowest setting necessary when working with heat, and to always know how your tools function, especially if you’re switching between electric, manual or gas powered. Medium on an electric stove isn’t as powerful as a gas stove on medium. 

Safety is everyone’s responsibility wherever you go. Nothing is more important than everyone staying out of the emergency room. I’ve heard of people getting stitches just for cutting a bagel the wrong way. Oven mitts, stretchy gloves and flame-proof tools were made for a reason. They keep you from getting hurt. If you need help, ask for it. You won’t get hurt by asking questions, or needing someone to help you handle something. If worse comes to worst, you can order-in. For everyone’s sake, if you are in the kitchen for any reason, preparing food or not, please remember, Safety Comes First!

If any of you have seen “Crazy Rich Asians” yet, (I’m reading the book) there’s a cute little scene where everyone is essentially taking a break from being sophisticated, high-class society members to gather around the kitchen table and fold up some gyoza. Wasn’t it so adorably cute watching Nick teach Rachel his little pneumonic? “Put the baby in bed, tuck it in, and give it a kiss goodnight.” The cast talk and share some together Here!

The 2018 international gyoza eating competition was just posted today including Joey Chestnut Matt Stonie and Miki Sudo. Watch it get messy HERE!

Or maybe you saw the newest short from Pixar during “Incredibles II” about the Chinese mother and her sweet little dumpling child. We took this as perfect time to reminisce about Jeremy’s time in China and recapture the fun of systematic cooking just the 2 of us. My job was to roll out the dough. Jeremy filled the dough with pork and pinched them closed. 18 is the lucky number of pinches because 9 symbolizes longevity, so twice 9 is twice as good. This is a fantastic way to get kids in the kitchen. I was even remembering making calzones with Mom on my little chair with ricotta and ham. But we can talk about that later. For now, let’s refocus our attention as Jeremy recounts some of his favorite baozi memories from China.

Different parts of China have different grains. The north has more rice focused dishes. South-East China had more noodles. Another part was dumplings. My first time with baozi was the Chinese restaurant style. At the time I liked them and still kind of do, but mostly for novelty. My first time making them was in my sophomore year in ESL. I had a couple of Chinese friends around Chinese New Year. It’s very important, the equivalent of Christmas and our New Year. Everyone goes home. All the major cities are empty. Huge dinner with a number of traditions and things they eat. It’s a time where basically, for family to get together. While I was living up in Potstand, the Chinese New Year started in February during the school year. On a cold snowy night across Clarkson my friends and I traveled to a meeting room filled with all sorts of food for the celebration. I felt like a pelican among sea gulls. It was me and only 1 other American among a flock of Chinese people. We had music, games, not as much drinking, but tons of food including baozi. I remember 1 of the games we played was a baotzi making contest. Who can make the most? We had a bowl of pork and beef filling with boiling water on the side. It was wrapper, filling, seal, water, counting how many we made. Us 2 Americans were on a team together. We tied for first and had a lot of fun.

My second time in China, we were staying with a friend for a week. There I remember a really foggy morning like a ninja movie. We were walking down out to get breakfast for everyone in Chung Doo. (They get up at like 5am, CRAZY!) We saw some bamboo crates stacked at like 5ft 8 every one of them filled with varieties of baozi. Vegetarian, mushroom, beef, egg, pork there was a LOT, ranging from teeny tiny, to big as my face all piping hot. It may be just getting breakfast, but they were memorably good. These could be found anywhere on the street.

Gyoza are boiled, unlike our steamed baozi. They sink and rise a few times. Wontons are sort of like baozi. There are even cream filled ones and Japanese style. Once I went to China for a third time on weekdays we worked noon to 9. On weekends sans class we stayed 8-5 I would usually buy baotzi for breakfast with stewed hard-boiled eggs. The mushroom ones were my favorite. I wish I could have tasted more various baozi.

We even did a sort of Muk-Bang like in Korea with our sushi and baozi. It’s our first time on camera. He was a little stiff, but we’ll get the hang of it all eventually. See the live camera video on our Facebook page. Have you gotten the chance to try and make some of these yourself, or with family or friends? Raina Huang has a record of eating 100 baozi in this video. Tell us in the comments section. We would love to hear some of your stories. 

Hi, Jeremy here! Sushi, a mixture of textures, flavors, and smells. It seems every place I go to order sushi comes with a large variety, however it always seems as if it is a large variety of the same mixtures of fish, meat, and vegetables. I have never actually been to Japan, but it is one of my dreams to go and visit there. Obviously, one of the many things we need to try while we’re there is the sushi. I have heard of all the different types of sushi possible. The closest place I have had such a wide variety of sushi was in China – close but no cigar I suppose. Last week, me and Lauren went to Sushi Na Ra (check out their website), Lauren’s choice, and boy did she get it right. It’s like I always tell her, “when in doubt, Lauren wins” and “when in doubt, Lauren’s right.” We entered into Sushi Na Ra and I immediately thought to myself, “boy, I am horribly under-dressed.” The decor was out of this world for such a small place located in a strip mall setting. It was small, but comfy all at the same time. There was a group behind us having a good time which added to the feeling of warmth. We sat down to look over the menu and I was impressed at how affordable everything was. To think, it costs about the same to go to Market 32 / Price Chopper but with less selection. 

Speaking of selection…, they gave us a traditional menu, which had a large selection that included other dishes besides sushi, including some Korean fair (the owners were Korean, so it made sense). They also gave us the usual specials menu, as expected. On a side note, they had a spicy sushi roll. Now, I am no spice eater, per se. However, I do like to eat spice. This reminds me of when we took a day trip to Boston. The we entered the pepper palace to my delight. Little did I know just how much I would be in for. They had advertised this particular form of pain and suffering called “The End”. Pure capsaicin, the stuff that makes hot things hot. Since that dreadful choice (dreadful in my stomach’s mind), spice hasn’t bothered me so much. So I put my resistance to the test, and took a leap of faith and ordered it without even looking at the third and main act of the experience.

They presented us with a piece of standard letter size paper with a list of a great multitude of sushi. I wish I had not rushed into the self-imposed spice challenge, but I couldn’t resist. They had all sorts of sushi including both spicy and not. We ended up ordering this one tuna and avocado roll. But, in my mind, the main attraction were the extras we ordered. My roll was only eight pieces, so I figured why not, let’s order two more and make it an even 10. I got the spicy scallop and the squid roll whilst Lauren ordered the sea urchin. I had never thought to put a squid body on a roll, but according to Lauren, it was really good. The two rolls we ordered – my spicy, and her tuna were alright, nothing to brag about. My spicy roll primarily consisted of tuna and jalapeno. The extra pieces we ordered were what won the night. My spicy scallop (again, not too spicy) was interesting. The scallops were raw, but tasty and succulent. The sea urchin reminded me of the tamale of a lobster except it was orange and not green. It kind of has a buttery consistency but it hits you in the face with seafood flavor. I even made my world’s famous “prissy face.” All in all, our experience was out of this world. Good sushi, good variety, excellent atmosphere, all for an excellent price. As Lauren put, this is our new go to restaurant.

Did someone mention my name? Lauren here!

Globalization is here and now more than ever. Food is only one example. Sushi was considered taboo until after WWII when it was introduced to the US. You know that certain friend or relative that gags at the thought of raw fish and you want to yell at them, “FYI, there ARE COOKED rolls and VEGGIE ones TOO!” <Stop, Breathe and Collect yourself here.> Watch Raina Huang eat 100 of them!

Since then, America has been busy at the bar creating new and exciting tastes inspired by our side of the world. Some people prefer to stick with the traditional rolls and pieces from Tokyo, but for you more liberal sushi eaters, we have a few rolls for you to raise your chopsticks. Pictures of some of the rolls I’m discussing are on this list. https://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/1079110/unique-american-sushi-rolls

More often, traditional rolls will be only 6 small cylinder pieces of a single piece of raw fish, with vegetables in the center of sticky white rice with nori (papery seaweed) on the outside. They don’t come as complicated as the ones I’ve just mentioned or with cold brown rice like you find at Market Bistro. Cooking some of the fishier rolls was another change to eliminate the fear of contamination. Americans are trying to cut the calories since the millennium obesity epidemic and be super innovative about incorporating elements of Japanese cuisine into our wacky world, but these aren’t things you find in traditional parts of Japan.

A major cue that you’re not eating a Japanese original is in the ingredients. Hawaiian spam, buffalo chicken and waffle cones are purely ideas from the USA. Los Angeles partook largely by adding avocado into the mix 45 years ago because a chef ran out of fatty tuna. Sushi nowadays has it not only inside, but other times, on the outside. Some of my favorites like the rainbow roll, the snow crab roll and the self-explanatory cucumber and avocado roll have it in spades. Anyone who has eaten a delicious caterpillar roll can see that this ingredient is not going to go away any time soon. I’m going to try one myself next time I can.

Cream cheese is a US favorite to bring some sweetness to the sticky rice. (Even though sticky rice already has sugar in it) California rolls, Philadelphia rolls and of course the Boston roll have it. It goes to show that something like the bagel with cream cheese and lox can be appreciated by switching it up a bit and making it more relative to how someone else understands similar food. This technique of using similar flavor profiles can make it easier to try new flavors and invent different entrees. Example: We took my brother out for Vietnamese food at “Saigon Springs” once. He found a simple chicken noodle soup minus the can, dug in & gave it a thumbs-up.

We even have fruity dessert-like rolls, like the rock and roll berry roll covered in strawberries, and the pink lady filled with chocolate raspberry sauce. I personally don’t like mixing something so sweet with something fishy, but if you have a sweet tooth and want to get in some vitamin C, or curb that red velvet craving then by all means, GO for it. Your body will be much happier with fruit and rice instead of cupcakes.

So, what have we learned? It’s very tricky to convince people that something so out of left field will be delicious if there isn’t much wiggle room. Not all Americans are going to go out for raw fish wrapped in seaweed. Then again, it isn’t polite to completely miss the point of the traditional values of someone else’s culture and totally misunderstand how things are meant to be done. Sure, Americans want creativity, (I mean come on, we’ve seen Raina Huang eat MASSIVE sushi rolls like this one.) but let’s not go so out of bounds that the true art of sushi is gone for good. We can have some leeway in the ingredients, but let’s never forget what went in to the training and mastery of the sushi chef and the original balance of sweet, sticky, savory and vinegar-flavored maki. 

 

This week we did things a little differently.  I caught a glimpse of my old favorite Arthur episode “D.W. The Picky Eater” on television last week, found the book version I shared in first grade where in the Children’s Menu, the “Pirate Pita Pocket” gave me a Blair Warner brilliant idea. We love watching cooking game shows together when Big Brother has the night off. This time, we did a version of Worst Cooks in America with a criterion like Cutthroat Kitchen with points for creativity, so it’s easier to convert to a percentage. Creativity is becoming increasingly important in culinary ARTS.

Does it look great?

Does it taste great?

Is it creative?

Does it remind me of a pita pocket?

A whole, half or zero point value can be given for each category. We will grade ourselves as well as each other’s pitas and then average them out for a final score.

Ladies first, my darling.

 

Lauren’s Greek Lobster Pita

I originally wanted to do salmon with olives and arugula, but when I saw the lobster, I was reminded of the creamy lobster roll I had in Boston. I used seaweed salad as a creative stretch to avoid seasoning. I let it sit in a hot pan first so it wouldn’t be too soggy. (That didn’t exactly work, but I tried) and used a garlic-free tzatziki sauce with some sweet nutty artigiano cheese said to have been soaked in red wine. It had a nice crumble and interesting color to the outside. I’ll bear that in mind for cranberry and apple salads.

Looked inviting and colorful. Yes, it was clean as it could be. There was a sense of order in the layers. Lots of color.

Lots going on.  Overwhelmed by seaweed and slightly too much Greek Yogurt. Dill cheese, onion, yogurt lobster blended well and an experience, but muddled by seaweed. No lime. The cheese mixed with the yogurt made it taste like a foot. Try Feta instead, or pickled pepper. There was so much lime juice; it started to disintegrate the yogurt.  The onions, lobster and dill work great together with seaweed salad, or with the Greek sauce, but not all at once.

HELL YEAH! Had an idea and stuck with it. Best to stay in one culture. Liked the idea and want to try in future. Yes, this was on point in creativity without going too far out in space. This was interesting and fun.

Yes. Yes.         Jeremy Scores: 3.5  Lauren Scores: 3.5 Final score: 3.5/4= 88%

 

Jeremy’s Gold Doubloon Scallop Pita

Looked sophisticated, like a gourmet dinner inside whole wheat. Clean. Few ingredients. Didn’t like the finished product. Looked all brown note. Lettuce got wilted and off-color.

Tasted only scallops and onions. Where’s the tomato? Needs layering and a wall of lettuce to get that crunch he described. Maybe slice the scallops?  Large tomato slices instead of cherry halves. Liked the taste, but the wine needed reduce more. Tomatoes and lettuce could crunch more. Scallops were perfect.

In a sense. Not in the happy go lucky way, but in a beautiful fashion-model way. It was sultry. Going for pirate golden brown. Looked more like rum bottle spilled on it. It fell apart all over.

Yes. Loosely Yes.                       Lauren Scores 3.5  Jeremy Scores 1.5 Final Score 2.5/4=62.5%

It looks like we have a winner…Lauren Montera!

The world is getting smaller and smaller by the minute. Globalization is bringing palette-pleasing menus from all across the globe. We know that not everyone wants to have a plate of chicken, fish or beef in front of them, so we specifically looked into finding a way to work with a hated ingredient among adults, tofu. What came from our efforts was an Indian recipe called “Tofu Tikka Marsala” found on Cooking with Manali. Breaking down the name, it means “Roasted tofu in curry sauce”. I remembered having a sample of this at Karavalli with our friends, Lianna and Dan. I only have a medium tolerance to spice, so this was a great way for me to enjoy some of India’s famous flavors while not having to gobble down everyone’s share of naan bread as compensation. Let’s get to cooking!

The texture of the rice can be a major point in the overall rating of a dish. We played it smart and used a rice-cooker I bought back when I was in China. There they sell some of the best quality rice cookers for the lowest prices I’ve ever seen. Firstly, we can’t stress enough the point that the water has to be cold. When rice hits warm water, it starts to cook very quickly, if not too quickly. With just a small drizzle of olive oil, salt and some vinegar, (Not too much, we don’t want vinegar flavored rice!) We were able to let the machine do the work for us. Brown needs more water than white, but let’s not drown it, shall we? A little over the ratio of two cups rice to three cups water will be satisfactory. For this, we stuck with brown rice. Brown rice is a whole grain, containing the bran, germ, and endosperm. Rice bran, according to Wikipedia, is the hard shell surrounding the rice kernel and contains a lot of nutrients, including antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber. The germ is the “seed” of the rice, if you will. The endosperm is what both white rice and brown rice have in common and is mostly just starch. For all its nutritional worth however, brown rice may contain some arsenic, so user beware. 

The smell of the curry sauce is spiked with ginger, sweet BBQ and molded into the tomato. In fact, most of the spices were very potent in smell. It all became a symphony, one unified aroma made from what I’m calling “The 5 C’s” Curry, Coriander, Cumin, Cilantro and much to my surprise, Cinnamon. (But of course you know the greatest C food of all…sing it with me!) We’re so use to seeing it in autumn with our chai lattes and powdered our pumpkin pies. This reminds me of the way some Italians always put sugar in their tomato sauces, but others (Like my family) forbid it. More or less, a few shakes of cinnamon proved to be both aromatic and able to blend in smoothly.

The sauce really brought me back home to my mother over the stove. Onions, peppers, tomato paste (in lieu of tomato chunks) pureed with our own add-in, mushrooms. This was one of our impulse buys in the vegetable section.

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We began by marinating the tofu which had been drained of all its water. I like to think of the stuff like a big edible sponge. This is why most people say they don’t like it. It’s so soft and squishy to the touch and has a taste like cold wet macaroni dough without any flour. A little garlic, (We LOVE this stuff like it was our godmother) ginger, a melody of spices, and Greek yogurt (we didn’t have any of the yogurt demanded, but the tang added an extra dimension to the overall flavor profile). The tofu was then thrown into the refrigerator for an hour to absorb all those flavors. Next came the sauce. We forgot to buy the tomatoes, so we improvised with some tomato paste. This came through very distinctly in the final product. Next time, let’s not forget them. In addition to the mushrooms, we also added in a sweet pepper. The original recipe called for sugar. Since I’m trying to cut down on the stuff, we figured the pepper would contribute some sweetness (I still added some raw honey, just to be on the safe side). We let the onions, peppers, and tomato paste stew for 10 minutes, then into the blender to puree. At this point, it was like we were swimming in the aromas.

The sauce had a really rich deep orange-red color, accentuated when we added the heavy cream. It reminded me of going to a cafe and ordering a latte, the way how the barista would sculpt the steamed cream in an artistic way. The rich red contrasted with the creamy white, while all congealed together to form one harmonious dish. Once we let that settle down, we sauteed the tofu and mushrooms. This was where I was a little unsure of myself. The original recipe called to “roast” the tofu until browned, but no specific instructions. I have never cooked with the stuff, Me neither and as a result it came out not as firm as we would have wished. It started to break apart as we stirred it. Oh well, you live and learn. The mushrooms though came out beautifully. They really stood out with the heavy sauce. Next time, I think it should be called “Mushroom Tikka Masala”.

All-in-all, I would give this recipe a 4.5/5 stars. Next time, we definitely need tomatoes and we need to cook the tofu longer. I on the other hand was very engulfed in the Indian spice blend. Despite this however, I found myself voraciously devouring this. Definitely a must revisit in the future and who knows, maybe we can find other was to spin this dish.