Fossil Food

The First Meat

2010-01-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

A great story was recently published about the oldest ever walking animal footprints. I'm a big fan of trace fossils (footprints, tracks, trails, etc., that preserve the activity of ancient animals). It's an important find because these tracks are older than the earliest body fossils (actual remains) of land-living animals. They are also important because these tracks occur in marine sediments, even though for a long time paleontologists have thought that the fish-to-land animal transition took place first in freshwater settings, possibly low-lying swamps (of course, this transition could have happened multiple times).

But the reports thus far have missed out on the most

MEAT.

important part of the story: this was the first-ever MEAT. When I say meat, I exclude seafood, in the Catholic tradition (even though, technically, fish are made of the same tissues as land animals). Still, we are talking about the animals that may have eventually led to chicken, steak, and pork chops. And that begs the question, what did these things taste like?

This is a surprisingly tough question to answer, because at least in the West, we don't regularly consume any animals like these. It would have been amphibian-like in its basic biology (so we could think frog),

Saltwater Crocodile

but modern amphibians are almost exclusively freshwater, and this animal lived in the sea. In its way of life, it probably would have been more like a reptile, maybe like an alligator. And we do eat crocodilians (alligators and crocodiles). Except again, the crocodilians we consume are all freshwater (I can't find any recipes for saltwater crocodile - maybe growing to be 20' long frightens off the chefs).

So we have a large amphibian (over 6 feet long), that lived in saltwater but came out on land, and it's made of meat. I suspect, that like alligator, the texture would be fairly firm compared to most fish. I hate to compare it to chicken, but 'gator often

Blackened Alligator Steak

does get that comparison. However, unlike chicken, it would have had the distinct taste of the sea. This animal was, after all, living in, breathing (probably), and drinking saltwater almost constantly. I suspect, then, we can think of strong, muscular fish, with firm textures. Like shark or swordfish, for example; less fishy in flavor, more steak-like in texture. Like chickens, amphibians, and reptiles, it may have been composed of both light and dark meat, and probably more oily (like a fish), than these animals, and with a distinct taste of the sea.

So we don't have a great modern analog for this creature, but like all meat, I'm sure that it would have been delicious. One of the unfortunate facts of life is that extinction is inevitable, and these creatures, like more than 90% of species that have ever lived, are extinct. This means that there is probably greater than a 90% chance that an extinct animal was the best tasting meat EVER - and yet we'll never know. But I'm sure that had we been around 400 million years ago, we'd have thrown one of these on a spit, by the beach, to find out first-hand what it tasted like.

New Site Design

2010-01-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

I made some changes to the layout and header tonight. My hope was this would invigorate me to get back to posting (I won't make excuses... but I could). Suggestions are welcomed, but my HTML/CSS expertise is weak, especially with the prefabbed blogger layouts (it seems easier when I start from scratch.

Upcoming will be some restaurant reviews, including about a trip "Up North" in warmer days, a great restaurant in the Big Apple, and to eve for New Year's Eve (Ann Arbor's most hip food establishment, owned by Eve Aronoff, short-lived recent contestant on Top Chef).

As a teaser, here's what I said about eve in 2005:

eve has a great website, and you're best looking at the menu offerings and seeing if any of it appeals to you. eve is in the tradition of the trend in fusion restaurants, and can be a little non-descript for that reason. I would characterize it as world-wide ingredients and concepts prepared in a classic French tradition. The restaurant is named for the head chef, in a self-aggrandizing manner that only artisans can pull off. She deserves it for what she's done, creating a gem of an establishment in the Kerrytown market district. I like to sit at the bar and enjoy the excellent wine list. By the glass you will be hurt, so going with someone else so you can enjoy a wine from the restaurant's reasonable list of bottles is recommended. There are lot of good values in the $20-$30 range. The ambiance is wonderful and it tends to be a romantic destination spot for Arborites. As far as deals go, well, no one goes to eve for the deals. But the food is the best in town, and as with most good things in Ann Arbor, you're gonna pay for it. The Thai chicken dumplings appetizer is a crowd favorite and if you're really hungry the tenderloin chimichurri is guaranteed to please.

Cochon Restaurant, pseudo-reviewed

2009-08-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

I recently had an amazing dinner at Cochon Restaurant. Known for "Cajun Southern Cooking", my friend Bruce and I shared appetizers of grilled oysters drizzled with a spicy oil, and stuffed crab shell with thin garlic toast. For dinner I had a spectacular catfish filet court bouillion, while Bruce had the fish on a half shell - served in skin and scales, so the fish easily flakes off the "shell". But I did not take notes on the meal, or pictures, so I can't provide a full restaurant review. Instead, I will share with you my memory of the dessert, which well symbolizes the excellence and inspiration at this restaurant.

Simply labeled as chocolate and chickory custard with whipped cream and cayenne pepper, it would be easy to expect little from the dessert, especially when it arrived in an unassuming Mason jar - maybe the presentation could be altered, but it would come at the expense of the surprising intensity of what lays within the jar.

Chocolate with peppery heat is everywhere lately: spicy cinnamon or cayenne hot cocoa, high-end dark chocolate bars with chiles, etc. Cochon capitalizes on this trend by combining a simple dessert, chocolate custard, with flecks of cayenne pepper, in perfect balance. A dollop of whipped cream adds richness, while staying true to the roots of New Orleans cuisine, by the subtle influence of chickory - reminding you that this dessert won't be found anywhere else on the planet. And then, just when all seems perfect, the taste and crunch of a fleck of rock salt shocks the mouth to life. Salt chocolates and salt caramels have similarly become ubiquitous recently - it seems that everyone is experimenting with chocolate and seasonings. Cochon took these trends, and juxtaposed of all these flavors into one small jar: sweet whipped cream, rich chocolate, distinctly New Orleans chickory, spicy flecks of cayenne, and the unexpected, invisible impact of the salt. It made for one of the most simply inspired desserts I've experienced.

On top of this, Cochon suggests dessert beverage pairings, and I went with their recommendation of a ruby red Italian dessert wine, slightly frizzante (bubbly). Initially it had a taste of plum, reminiscent of tawny port. But the dark flavors of the wine disappeared once the taste of the chocolaty dessert was in my mouth, and rich, red fruit flavors of strawberry sweetness emerged from the wine.

This is the kind of dessert experience that makes a restaurant. And that's why on a Thursday night, in the slow season, every table was full.

Po' Boys for a Po' Boy - The Saga Continues

2009-08-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've posted previously about adventures with the po-boy. Today I continued my journey, by hitting up a local joint in the CBD (Central Business District).

4th Po' Boy: P&G Restaurant on Baronne (no website, as far as I can tell), on recommendation (over Mother's, which I've been told is a tourist trap, but I plan on visiting anyway before I leave since living here for only 3 months I think technically makes me a tourist). I went for my standard po-boy: roast beef with gravy, dressed. P&G is a turn and burn, cafeteria-style establishment - you get the feeling you are being served by lunch ladies while you are there, and, in a sense, you are. On the other side of a long bar with a sneeze guard is the po-boy fixin's, but also other cafeteria items like meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

The sandwich was standard fare, in my opinion. Nothing special, but better than Court Tavern's. The price was outstanding. Our total lunch consisted of two roast beef po-boys, red beans & rice, an order of mashed potatoes with gravy, and one beverage - total cost with tax, $18 flat. For lunch in the CBD, that's not a bad deal.

On a side note, the red beans & rice were bland to the point of being inedible - luckily hot sauce was on the table.

Also, to give another shout-out to Gumbo Tales, the book has a chapter on po-boys and their likely origin, told through the eyes of another Yankee. Next on my list is to find a place to get a good fried potato po-boy - supposedly the first variety ever made.

Being a kid again: On Snow Cones, Icees, Slushies, and Sno Balls

2009-08-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

This post is about Sno Balls, a great New Orleans culinary tradition. But first, a little history of what life is like in the absence of this treat.

I grew up with the snow cone - and what a horrible way to start life. Sold by ice cream trucks, you'd quickly suck out all the juice, and then were left with hard chunks of flavorless ice (or worse - ice that tasted amiss). The best part of the damn things was the rock hard gumball at the bottom of the paper cup.

Some stores served the Icee - this drink in the polar bear-adorned cup was an upgrade over the snow cone. While flavors were limited (cherry, coke, sometimes others), the softer consistency of the ice made for longer-lasting flavor. The problem was that you had to wait for the thing to melt, as they were only served with a straw which seemed to take forever. And you were eventually left with a flavorless ice hash at the bottom of your cup.

Slushees are definitely next up in the ice-syrup hierarchy, with the many flavors of Slush Puppy being a favorite sight for me as a kid. So many choices: at least 8, like a box of crayo ns! The mix of syrup with liquified ice was a big improvement over the Icee, allowing a drink you could slurp through a straw, though with a sickening sweetness that effectively prevents anyone over 13 from ordering one.

And that brings me to New Orleans, where "Sno-Ball" shops are ubiquitous. Northerners have seen sights like these before - shacks that serve shaved ice soaked in syrup - nothing new to see here, move along.

You have no idea what you are missing.

Thanks to the brilliant book "Gumbo Tales" by food writer Sara Roahen (which I'll review in a later post), I recently discovered that I live blocks away from the premier home of New Orleans Sno-Balls: Hansen's Sno-Bliz.

I can't help but provide a brief history of the shop, as I've learned it. Started by Ernest and Mary Hansen in 1939, it's still run like day one. Ernest had the inspiration for a hygienic, efficient ice-shaving machine (original pictured above) after watching street car vendors scrap ice by hand in carts on hot New Orleans days. Mary cooked the syrups - all her own recipes, kept in meticulously cleaned pouring bottles. The shop was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and around that time the Hansens passed on, leaving the shop in the hands of their granddaughter, Ashley, who Roahen describes an audience with as "like a teddy bear hug." I highly recommend the book, if for nothing more than this chapter, especially if you are a northerner whose found yourself in this city (the book is subtitled "Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table"). Ashley rebuilt the shop, and has taken the place of her grandparents, keeping the Sno-Bliz coming for more generations of kids (and big kids).

Now let me tell you what a Hansen's Sno-Bliz is not: It's not a snow cone, it's not a slushee, and it's not like anything you've ever had up north.

The genius of the set-up is the ice shaved straight from fresh blocks (bought from an icehouse) using Earnest's machine. After each scoop of ice, Ashley pours the syrup, 3 times for full-flavored effect. And the flavors! Cream of Chocolate, Bubble Gum, Coconut, Root Beer, Limeade, and many, many more, available in combos of your choosing for added effect. And then there's the toppings (more on that below). Cream of Nectar is the house specialty and most popular flavor, described by Ashley in Roahen's book like this: "When you grow up in New Orleans, that's the flavor that makes it all real. That's the flavor that you makes you remember your childhood. It's fluffy. It's pink." Roahen goes on to talk about nectar being the drink of the gods. I think it's better to see it as the drink of eager birds and bees, and there's a reason we are drawn to the brightly colored flavor. It's undefinable, amazing, but feels so life-sustaining - what it must be like to be the fluttering butterfly seeking out the most brilliant blossoms.

But the Sno-Bliz does not stop at syrup. Toppings galore await, like crushed pineapple (add it to coconut syrup for a take on pina colada), marshmallow fluff - another flavor to make you a kid again, condensed milk (found at most stands - try it, you'll love it), or you can get what Hansen's calls a "hot rod" - a scoop of ice cream in the middle of your Sno-Bliz.

So on a hot and humid, typical New Orleans summer Sunday, I strolled the few blocks to Hansen's, waited a while in the line (there's always a line), snapped a few photos, and ordered the ice & syrup concoction I've been waiting for my whole life: A Cream of Nectar Hot Rod. I've not felt more like a kid since the days I sprinted out the door at the sound of the ice cream truck.

Ignore the facial hair. I'm six again.

And as for Ashley, she told me she liked my shirt. And I felt like I had been hugged by a teddy bear.

Gulf Coast Sushi: Ninja

2009-08-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

My friend Jeff and I went to dinner on Friday, only to discover that our intended destination (Jacquimo's) was under renovation. Nearby was a sushi restaurant of which Jeff had heard, but the assassin-fearing side of me couldn't help but resist: Ninja. I was surprised to find some of the best sushi I've experienced on the Gulf Coast.

My cell phone camera did not do justice to the picture below (I need to upgrade, or learn to carry my point and shoot with me to dinner), but Jeff and I stared in awe at the beautiful presentations that passed us by (I highly recommend sitting at the sushi bar to experience this).

The website for Ninja says "Best Sushi in New Orleans," and they might be right. Entering into a lower floor that was a nearly empty bar, but doubled as waiting room, I was surprised when our seats opened up to be directed upstairs enter a bustling second floor room, alive with energy. Austere in decoration, it's only the food that's being displayed at Ninja.

Check out the menu, and don't be shocked by the prices: what Jeff and I came to realize quickly, is that the secret to Ninja is that you get more than your money's worth. I ordered vegetables tempura, two relatively inexpensive rolls (~$7-8), and one mackerel sashimi, and left overstuffed and with nearly an entire roll left over.

Our meal started with the common and complementary bowl of miso soup, followed by a house salad. Unlike the bland iceberg lettuce with oily ginger dressing that follows the soup in most sushi joints, at Ninja they serve a wonderfully creamy cucumber salad, that provides a nice transition from soup to appetizers. And as a guy that makes authentic miso, from scratch, the soup was good, too.

The tempura, how I measure the talent of the fryer, was outstandingly light and delicate. My rolls were the "Angel Roll" (with BBQ eel - it comes with your choice of fish inclusion), which was arguably the best roll I've ever eaten. What makes the rolls at Ninja unique is a thin belt of seaweed. Instead of being left with a mouthful of chewy plant matter, this balanced approach allows the rolls to shine. My second roll was BBQ yellowtail, which meant the fish was cooked. I had expected raw fish with BBQ sauce, and while the roll was good, I was disappointed to see yellowtail ruined by cooking. But I suppose that's another plus of Ninja: the cooked options provide a good entry point for the sushi averse - another sneaky tactic of the Ninja.

Jeff's choice of the night was the cucumber roll, and unlike a good photographer I did not give a good scale for the rolls pictured here: each piece was about 3" across - if Jeff had a complaint, it was that it was impossible to eat without demolishing the presentation. While I didn't try it, I judged from his contentment that the thinly sliced cucumber wrapped log was a success.

Consider this Lobster

2009-08-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

I just had to write that title!

I'm going to be post an exciting new blog each night this week, and for tonight, for the first time, I'm combining my love of fossils with food.

If you haven't read the book, David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" is a fun collection of essays. One of the essays, like this post, involves paleontology (about the search for the largest known shark, the aptly named 'megalodon' ["big tooth"], scientific name Carcharadon megalodon).

I'm not a big fan of lobster (nor am I willing to pay that price for a bottom-feeding, scavenging invertebrate!), but I love eating other crustaceans of the Order Decapoda. The decapods, which means "ten feet," include most crustaceans that you know and love (to eat): crabs, crayfish, shrimp, and lobsters.

I spent a summer studying the putative first-ever decapod, Palaeopalaemon newberryi. This creature lived ~375 million years ago - 375 million years of our favorite crustaceans crawling around the ocean depths! And if you saw the specimen (low resolution drawing below), you'd say it looks like a crayfish - except with some big differences. Unlike crayfish, it lived in the ocean, back during the Devonian Period (the Age of Fishes - when great armored fish and a wide diversity of sharks filled the seas). Also unlike crayfish, it had not yet evolved the large claws that we are forced to shackle with rubber bands in the grocer's aquarium. Palaeopalaemon only had tiny pincers, no claws to speak of.

As a kid catching crayfish I would let the small ones pinch me, curious to see how strong they were. For the small ones, not very strong at all. I wouldn't do that with a lobster. As for our friends on the scale, I cannot believe those poor suckers didn't take off the moment they were left unattended! They were there for many minutes. Unfortunately, despite their long evolutionary history, decapods are not known for brains.

Palaeopalaemon newberryi Whitfield - possibly the oldest known decapod - the next oldest fossil doesn't come until 100 million years later!

Mona's Cafe: I finally found a spyee-row (SPAM+gyro)

2009-07-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Today I visited Mona's Cafe on Magazine Street in New Orleans. Mona's is a Middle Eastern restaurant with the typical aspects of American versions of this cuisine, though with some Greek American aspects coming in (as you'll see in this review). My meal consisted of: a bowl of red lentil soup, a falafel appetizer, and a gyro sandwich.

The red lentil soup, which often leaves me underwhelmed at Ann Arbor Middle Eastern restaurants, was the best I've had. It was served with small (1/2" square) pita chips, which were to the soup what oyster crackers are to chowder (a great textural touch). Instead of the overly lemony, thin broth served elsewhere, Mona's soup presented a depth of flavors and was perfectly balanced in acidity, and with a great consistency for a legume soup. Grade: A

The falafel was OK, served as 6 small, 2" diameter domes. The dipping sauce, I assumed, would be tzatziki, but it seemed instead to be a tahini sauce. Grade: C

Now for the gyro: It was good. First, it was served with the tahini sauce, and I would have preferred a straight up tzatziki (which I love). The sandwich was loaded with gyro meat, and I'm sure this was the same factory formed concoction about which I've previously written (hence the title of this post). It was a large pita sandwich, with onions, tomatoes, and pickles. The pickles with the tahini made the sandwich much more like a shawarma than a typical gyro. Grade: B (maybe an A with tzatziki, and the grade ignores the SPAMish origin of the meat).

Finally, the value was outstanding. I had a lot of food leftover, total meal cost, with tip, and no drink: $15. Not bad.

Photo is © seattleeditor at Flick.com

Mystery Meat: The Gyro

2009-07-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

First things first: you say tomato, I say yee-row - I cannot stand hearing the other pronunciation of the word when referring to this delicious sandwich. So when you read gyro, remember the g is a y, and the y is a long e, and we can be friends.

I've been looking around New Orleans for good Greek food, and found nothing yet. Despite the kitsch, I am a big fan of Niko Niko's in Houston. Ann Arbor has no Greek food worth eating (seriously, the prominently named place on Main St will not be named in this space, but avoid it all costs - I'll explain another day in a post about worst meals ever). So I'm still looking around NOLA.

But while waiting to a find my Mediterranean fix, an interesting story has been in the news lately. It turns out that most restaurants in America serve mass produced gyro meat that comes from one factory, Kronos. Think of it as SPAM in the shape of a lamb shank. The New York Times has video and an article, about the process - worth watching for lovers of this lamb(ish) sandwich.

On a side note, I've heard that Ann Arbor doesn't do proper gyros, because health codes won't allow a piece of meat to hang out on a spit for 12 hours a day. The NYT article seems to confirm that the oversanitized, factory-formed version of meat is a way to get around those health codes. Personally, I'd rather eat a real piece of meat, and take my risk with some germs.

Now I need to find a gyro... preferably with someone who can pronounce it correctly.

Jazmine Cafe in Jazztown

2009-07-03T13:00:00.001-07:00

I have a love for Vietnamese food, thanks to a year+ spent working with the cuisine. In this regard, I have two tips: 1) if you want to cook your own, Nicole Routhier's The Foods of Vietnam is a wonderful, essential, and simple must-have for your kitchen, and 2) if you are in Cincinnati and looking for inexpensive ethnic cuisine, visit SOng Long - it's a gem in a city not known for diverse food experiences.

The Gulf Coast, meanwhile, has a thriving Vietnamese population, and last night I tried my first of the many offerings in town. We were looking for dinner in Uptown (Downtown and parts of the city further away have many other options), so our choices were limited. Without any recommendations to guide us, we decided to try Jazmine Cafe. I wasn't expecting much - the place was empty at dinnertime, surprising even for a Thursday. But I was very happy with the result.

The restaurant has a nice, understated ambiance - nothing flashy. The menu is almost strictly Vietnamese, instead of the Asian combo restaurants (Vietnamese+Chinese, Korean+Japanese, Thai+Japanese, etc.) that pop up everywhere (and that I was halfway expecting). The offerings are diverse, including the Vietnamese classics: Phở, Bánh_mì (labeled as "Vietnamese Po' Boy", which is fairly accurate), etc. There was also a long list of bubble teas, new for me at a Vietnamese restaurant.

We tried "spring" (or "summer") rolls, phở gà (chicken noodle soup), a Po' Boy, and a shrimp tamarind soup, "Canh Chua Tom", that was incredibly similar in look and flavor to the Thai soup, Tom Yum. The spring rolls were goodl fresh flavors, but light on the herbs (good for me, as for personal reasons I find strong flavors of cilantro and mint unpalatable). My phở gà came with traditional accoutrement, had a wonderful light flavor, and for only $6.95 was a great price for dinner. Emilie went with the Vietnamese Po' Boy with pork, which she liked, though she mentioned that the jalapenos made it maybe a little too spicy. Once again, at $4.95, a great dinner price. The tamarind soup was a little pricy by comparison at $14.95, and Montana described it as "very similar to [Tom Yum], but a little less spicy. I found it a little bit greasy (and the shrimp in it seemed to have picked up the greasiness), but it had that delicious, distinctive sweet/sour taste that only comes from the tamarind." I tasted it and agreed perfectly with her assessment. A nice offering, but not quite the hit or meal deal as the dishes Emily and I had.

Lastly, Jazmine Cafe doesn't seem to have put their website together yet. It has a menu, but here's a map.

Po' Boys for a Po' Boy - An Ongoing Saga

2009-06-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

I decided last week to study that quintessentially New Orleans sandwich: The Po' Boy. For three days, my lunch date was with crusty french bread and cholesterol, but I couldn't do it for day 4 and 5 as I had planned. Those will have to wait, so I'll add more to this post as time goes by. I have to pen my thoughts before my memory clouds.

1^st Po' Boy: A catered work lunch. The sandwich consisted of breaded, fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato, and hot sauce. The hot sauce tasted like Red Hot, but was probably the 'on-every-table' in this town Crystal. I loved it with hot sauce, but the bread was not crusty, and this made for a poor sandwich. The lettuce and tomato - with mayo this is known as "dressed" in Po' Boy country - was weak. But it was free lunch, so what can you expect?

2^nd Po' Boy: I was on Bourbon, so I stopped at the first shop I saw knowing full well that I was going to get bad, tourist-trap fare. I believe in calibration, which is why after two straight weeks of eating Tex-Mex in the Southwest, my next stop was Taco Bell.

My guess was right.

The place was Court Tavern Po-Boys. I had roast beef (with gravy, and dressed, obviously). They used standard lunch meat roast beef. The bread was much better than my 1^st po' boy. But the gravy was flavorless, and considering I was eating bread soaked in it and mayo, the trade-off for the heart condition did not seem worth it. On a sidenote, the red beans 'n rice were GREAT, the best I've had yet in town, even though the sausage was on the cheap end. So there's something.

3^rdPo' Boy: Now this is where things start to get good. I upgraded my standards, and visited Lil' Dizzy's Cafe at their Poydras location. I arrived before the lunch rush, but my order still took 30 minutes (not good). I went with roast beef and gravy, dressed, again, but this time with more success. The beef was from an actual roast, not the pre-sliced, nitrate-filled variety at a cheap shop. This had the texture and feel of homecooked pot roast, was topped with delicious gravy, on great bread, and was beginning to be what I expected from a good Po' Boy. And the sandwich was big enough that I had only half at lunch, and the second half was enough for dinner. Now that makes a Po' Boy feel not so Po'.

Alt spellings of Po' Boy uncovered so far: Poor Boy (the refined version?); Po-boy; PoBoy;

I'm learning toward instituting a politically correct nomenclature: "Working Class Person's Provision."

More to come when I return to NOLA - this week I'm back in my hometown, where my food love began. The home of goetta, chili with spaghetti (please?), and Graeter's: Cincinnati.

Gulf Coast Sushi: Rock-n-Sake

2009-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last year I lived in Houston for the summer, and I learned that despite stereotypes, there are few American cities with sushi that is as good, fresh, and inexpensive as what I was able to find in Texas. Granted, Houston is more "Gulf Coast," a region in and of itself, than Texas proper. And it's that coast that gives it sushi.*

But this post is about New Orleans, also Gulf Coast, so I have high hopes for the sushi here. My first venture into Louisiana raw fish was to Rock-n-Sake. If you can't tell from the name, this is a joint that's as much "drinks at the bar" as it is "sushi bar" (even the website has a soundtrack that can't be turned off). I went for lunch, so the place was toned down, but I could tell that it gets lively in the evenings.

I was with friends, and we shared rolls. The house roll, eponymously-named "Rock-n-Roll" was excellent - tempura battered shrimp, crab, avocado, and shrimp, with smelt roe around the outside. Tempura battered and crunchy rolls are commonplace here, and if that's your thing, you'll love it. Most of the rolls were sprinkled with smelt roe, and that's a nice touch that I enjoy (and it means I don't have to order smelt roe - I love the stuff). One roll, in my opinion, was simply disgusting. That was the Hawaii 5-0: Coconut-tempura shrimp and cream cheese rolled with mangos and avocados on the outside. I'm not sure what they were going for here, but the cheesiness and sweetness did not meld well at all. It was the last roll eaten off our plate out of 6, and the only one with pieces remaining at the end.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the nice drink menu. Rock-n-Sake features "infused" sakes, the manufacturing process with which I'm unfamiliar, but I imagine probably involves soaking sake in fruit in the way that is often done with vodka (or simply combining with fruit juice, making a "saketini" - a past-time of mine). In general this makes cheap sake easier to drink, and probably easier to, um, get the job done. Like I said, in the evenings, it's that kind of place.

Overall, I'd say it's worth a shot for anyone. Try it for lunch if a quieter place is your thing (prices were reasonable for downtown New Orleans), and it would be a great place to party and celebrate with friends in the evening. Be warned, sake carries a kick - infused or not.

*Since I mentioned it, a quick rundown of sushi in Houston is warranted:
Best Value (in my life): Ra Sushi (the sashimi is excellently presented)
Overpriced place to be seen: Sushi King
Worst sushi of my life where the "chef" admitted to being on drugs: Coco's Yakitori Sushi Bar (I wanted to make myself vomit the roll I had eaten - this is the kind of sushi that would make a newbie never consider eating any fish let alone raw fish ever again).

Demystifying the Mango Lassi

2009-06-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

One of the drawbacks of learning to cook ethnic cuisine is that you soon discover that inexpensive restaurants are pulling a quick one over on you, and with a little practice you can do it better, cheaper, and often faster.

Nowhere is this more true than in a city like Ann Arbor, where a cultured crowd craves cuisines of other cultures, but where the captive audience is taken advantage of by a restaurant community that recognizes options are few, and that the undergraduate population often carries parents' credit cards. And in no item is this better represented than the mango lassi. This drink, often unsweetened and salted in India, has become ubiquitous in Indian restaurants catering to American tastes, that is, in a sweetened form. Here I'm going to explain how simple it is to make your own delicious lassi, and never again pay for such a simple drink at dinner.

What you'll need:
1 ripened mango¹, cubed
1 cup yogurt²
~1/2 cup milk
1 to 4 t sugar (optional)²
ground cardamom (optional)³

¹If you cut into an unripe mango, it's garbage. To tell if it is ripe, simply squeeze the outside and see if it gives easily. Then give it another day to be sure (for lassis you want super-ripe mangos). If you want to quickly ripen it, put it in a closed paper bag (with an apple if you have it - the apple gives off chemicals that help the mango ripen). Here's some directions for cutting mango, but ignore the part about using unripe mango. Also, yellow mangos are nice because they tell you when they are ripe.

²Use plain yogurt, but you don't have to, especially if (like me), you eat the flavored stuff. Flavored yogurt is often sweetened - if so, skip the sugar in the recipe, otherwise use sparingly to taste (maybe 1 tsp). If using plain yogurt, or something like Fage, you'll need up to 4 tsp sugar.

³The cardamom is optional, but is a nice touch, especially for presentation. Personally, I never have cardamom on hand, so I've used cinnamon and nutmeg - any spice you traditionally associate with savory sweets (e.g., pumpkin pie, egg nog), can be used.

Directions: Throw everything in a blender on the smoothie setting (fastest, highest), for a few minutes. That's it. That simple. $3+tax at some restaurants.

If you want you can serve it over ice. I prefer to put my blender carafe in the refrigerator to chill, cook dinner, and enjoy my chilled lassi with it.

As for demystifying ethnic food, living two blocks from an Indian grocery store and sharing an office with an Indian for four years has done it. I'm not an expert on many dishes, but my Dal is better than what I've had anywhere.

New Orleans for the Summer

2009-06-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

For the summer, all of my posts will be about the Big Easy. I'm looking forward to this.

Today I had a business lunch at Palace Cafe, one of Brennan's restaurants. I passed on the Bananas Foster - I had it last year when I dined at Brennan's in Houston, which sadly caught fire around the time of Hurricane Ike, weeks after I was there. But I'll be back soon enough for that.

Instead of going for dessert, I had a hearty lunch entree (from their menu): Andouille Crusted Fish (mine was Drum, and it was excellent) Pan-roasted and served with Crystal buerre-blanc, chive aïoli, rissole potatoes, and vegetable du jour. There was enough cream and butter in this single dish to already have me looking forward to the rest of this summer. There was just the perfect amount of spiciness to offset the other flavors. I was impressed with the thought of having a little heat with such a traditional French preparation - truly a New Orleans taste.

I also had their famous turtle soup (the Wikipedia article specifically mentions Brennan's being famous for it). It was good, but not as good as the last time I had it, primarily because it was tepid. The server brought the soup in a metal cup in a porcelain bowl, and poured the soup from the cup into the bowl after presenting it to me. I don't know if the metal cup is just part of the presentation, or designed to keep the soup hot. It failed on both accounts, but the flavor was not bad despite the low temperature.

Memorial Day Dinner

2009-05-28T16:13:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow I leave for the summer, so I decided to make Montana a nice dinner as both her birthday and the anniversary of our first date take place in the next few weeks. The dinner menu is pasted to the right.

The first course was underwhelming, and the story of the ins and outs of why I did what I did and what I should have done instead are far too tedious to bother posting here. The dessert course is described in a previous post, and was delicious (I made the macaroons the night before - 4 courses by oneself is a lot in one day, though I have done 8 on my own...)

The third course was taken from Richard Olney's excellent Simple French Cooking. It's basically chopped fine mushrooms with any fresh herbs (tarragon and parsley for me), lemon juice, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I won't write a full description here, but the chicken turned out wonderfully. The mashed potatoes and carrots were an unbelievably great treat, so much so that I just made another batch. It's exactly what it sounds like - use half and half carrots and potatoes, and proceed as you normally would for mashed potatoes. The carrots provide a depth and sweetness that is lacking in typical bland mashed potatoes (and a greater complement of vitamins).

The second course, though, is where I shined. Here's a full recipe (my own creation, borrowed from experience), and a photo:

6-8 large deep sea scallops
1 vidalia or other sweet onion
1 red bell pepper (preferably roasted)
1 cup frozen peas
2 T yogurt
1 clove minced garlic
fresh herbs (I used parsley and tarragon)
butter
olive oil
white balsamic vinegar (I used Trader Joe's)

To make the red pepper coulis:
Roast the red pepper (please do this - it's easy, and really adds flavor). Chop the roasted pepper, and then add to a food processor with a few drops of the vinegar. Add salt and pepper and fresh herbs to taste (yes, it's that easy). You can also add good olive oil to it, though I prefer the lighter version without any oil. Can be made the night before.

Slice the onion into thick slices, ~1/2 inch thick. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides and then grill. I broiled mine (flipping once the first side began to brown), as I don't have a grill.

Puree the peas in a food processor, add garlic, yogurt, herbs if you like, and salt to taste. Very colorful, very bright flavor, and will make you rethink your thinking about frozen peas.

Now prep the scallops. Here is my tried and true routine. Rinse the scallops, salt and pepper both sides. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a metal pan, then add an equal amount of butter. The butter solids will begin to brown immediately. Place your scallops in the pan far enough away from each other that their own steam does not steam the scallop (otherwise you get soggy, not seared scallops). Do not touch the scallops, they will release from the pan on their own. After 3-4 minutes flip them over (if they stick to the pan, they are probably not ready - they should have a nice golden brown crust). Cook 3 minutes on the other side.

In order to eat the first course with Montana, at this point I placed the pan in the oven on the oven's lowest setting, which allowed the scallops to finish cooking. You can check them for doneness and eat immediately if you prefer. Simply spoon pea puree onto a plate, place the grilled sweet onion slice on top, arrange 3-4 scallops on the onion, top with the coulis, and sprinkle with herbs for presentation. Delicious.

What to do with fondue

2009-05-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

I recently made chocolate fondue, and was struck by the lack of info on what to do with the leftover fondue. A google search revealed little, except for a rather disturbing mention by a caterer that chocolate fountains in which guests have dipped food can be reused at other events (while they did mention that this is somewhat unethical, they did not mention that it's completely disgusting).

A quick look at Joy of Cooking found that their chocolate covered banana recipe can be made using fondue - so I did.

But I still had plenty of fondue left, and no idea what to do with it. So I started looking around the kitchen while dipping bananas. I had some almonds - now they are dipped. Tonight I decided to make macaroons using the recipe from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. Options to the recipe include adding bittersweet cocoa powder, or semi-sweet chocolate chips. I decided I could slightly cut back on the sugar in the recipe, and use my fondue in the recipe (the added liquid was also offset by the handful of slivered almonds I added). Here's the modified version of my recipe, and a picture of the final creation, topped with one of those chocolate-dipped almonds.

Chocolate Almond Macaroons
2 jumbo eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 t almond extract
3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup slivered almonds
3 T chocolate fondue

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and almond extract. Mix in the coconut (a cup at a time). Mix in almonds and chocolate fondue. Dollop spoonfuls of macaroon mix onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 20 minutes.

The Joy of Cooking

2009-05-23T17:24:00.001-07:00

There is one cookbook that absolutely belongs in the kitchen of everyone, no matter their culinary expertise: The Joy of Cooking. After years of using it, this book remains indispensable to me. Find a recipe that sounds good, but is unclear about technique? Joy will help. Need a good starting point to build your own meal? Joy will help. Want to know how to clean a chicken, where cognac comes from, or how to understand the differences among cuts of meat? Joy will help.

I won't give you a full description of the book - the history is easily found. But suffice it to say that even when I find a recipe from a trusted source, I always look it up in Joy - just in case. I can't describe the many errors this has saved me, or the ways I've been able to improve my own technique. Before you spring for that shiny coffee table book by celebrity chef X, buy Joy.

In the Beginning

2009-05-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Why start a food blog? I'm a busy grad student and I already have too many hobbies, and too much work that I put off. The simple answer is that I'm going to spend the time on food anyway. I always write up and save my recipes, stuff notes into cookbooks, and file away food ideas and experiences that end up lost to the recesses of my memories. It's time I put them in one place: here.

I will one day reveal more about myself, my background, why I feel qualified for this pursuit, and hopefully demonstrate that it's not only narcissism that drives me. I hope to be honest and direct here. When researching, I often census many recipes of a style for the dish I want to create. I take the good parts, what I know will work, and put together something of my own. Sometimes the recipes I find are better that I'm capable of creating, and in that situation, I won't simply post the recipe here as my own. I cannot believe the amount of this sort of plagiarism in the internet food community. Of course, all cooks borrow - that is not the point. But as a service to you, it helps if I reveal where my ideas come from, especially since like ever foodie I have a stack of books and magazines at hand whenever I plan a meal.

As for the blog title, well, I'll reveal that one day.