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brief hiatus

I’m gonna have to take a brief hiatus.  I’m nearing the end of the semester, when papers, exams, and projects push students to the brink of insanity.  I’ll be back in the middle of December.

Evolving food likes/dislikes

Foods i used to hate but now love:

tomatoes
hot dogs
pizza
pancakes
eggs (but only hard-boiled or poached or integrated into a dish)
chives
grapefruit
oranges
asparagus
butter 
mint
peanut butter 

 

Foods i still don’t like:

sweet potatoes
green bell peppers
 

How could you have hated pizza and hot dogs, you ask?  Well, i did grow up in South Korea, but then again, all my friends liked pizza and hot dogs and other American junk foods.  Tangent:  one variety of pizza in my elementary school in Seoul consisted of a hot dog bun with mozzarella cheese, olives, corn, and other vegetables inside.  I’m not sure if it even had tomato sauce.  If it did, it definitely had a heavily unbalanced ratio of cheese to sauce.  And it all came tightly wrapped in plastic.  WEIRDEST THING EVER.  We did have actual pizza, though.  

And the pancakes—i know, “Everyone loves pancakes!”  The pancakes in diners and breakfast chains always made me feel nauseous afterwards.  All that butter and/or buttermilk…yuck.  I’m not a fan of most American breakfast food items, such as omelettes, waffles, sausages, etc.  (I avoid IHOP like the plague.)  But once i perfected my own pancake recipe, i grew to like them and even crave them from time to time.  I’m still an untraditional pancake eater, though.  But i’ll save that for another post.

Share your own evolving likes and dislikes in the comments.

Moroccan food, i love you

Today, in my Moroccan food seminar, we gathered in the Food Studies department kitchen to cook the dishes we chose to research.  It was a day of many firsts for me:  my first pigeon, my first pudding layered with pastry leaves, my first time sampling such a wide array of Moroccan dishes…

My group made a traditional bisteeya with squabs, eggs, and sugared almonds.  We didn’t have much time, so we had to take some shortcuts.  The cooking went smoothly, but i’m gonna be honest;  i don’t think our bisteeya came out so well.  The squab was nice and tender and the almonds were okay, but the egg was disappointing, and the pie as a whole could have had more flavor.  It also needed more salt.  I’m not a huge fan of phyllo either because of its flouriness and dry texture, but we didn’t have time to make warka, the traditional Moroccan pastry leaves.  I’m sure we could have made an excellent bisteeya had we had the time required to put in the love it deserves.  

How to eat a grapefruit

In celebration of grapefruit season, i offer you a step-by-step instruction on how to eat a grapefruit half clean.  Surprisingly clean.  And best of all, it’s possible without a grapefruit spoon or knife.  All you need is an ordinary teaspoon.

This is what you will get once you learn my method:

 

Frothy drinks/drinks with foam

What is the obsession with foam/froth in drinks?  Everybody loves it, but i can’t stand it.  I hate cappuccinos, frothy milkshakes, frothy bubble teas…basically foamy or frothy anything.  I think it contributes nothing flavor-wise.  Perhaps some people like it for the texture, but it’s just not my thing.  I think of it as just another obstacle between my taste buds and the flavor in the cup that is waiting to be savored.  Admittedly, if it’s a hot drink, the foam would help trap the heat, but what does it really add to the overall taste?  It can’t add flavor to the drink, because it does not integrate itself easily into a liquid (it’s really hard to mix it in; i’m sure you’ve tried, too).  

If you’re one of those people who always ask for extra foam, care to explain why you love it so much?  I’d really like to know.

recipe: A different take on the egg sandwich

Egg pita sandwich

• one egg
• one whole wheat pita pocket
• crumbled feta
• hummus or babaghanoush
• Greek yogurt or tzatziki
• toasted pine nuts
• spring greens
• tahini

Boil an egg [here's how to make the perfect hard-boiled egg:  fill a small saucepan with cold water until the egg is covered by an inch or so, and put on a lid.  Once the water comes to a boil, turn the heat off and let the egg sit for 6 min.]  

Split a whole wheat pita pocket, put some crumbled feta on one half, wrap the whole thing in a damp paper towel (trust me, this is to prevent it from getting rock hard) and put it in the toaster oven (or not, this is only necessary if you prefer your feta warm and slightly melted).  On the other half, spread some hummus or babaghanoush, and Greek yogurt or tzatziki.  (Don’t limit yourself to these options; experiment with your favorite spreads.)  Roughly chop the hard-boiled egg and sprinkle it on to the feta pita half.  Add some toasted pine nuts.  Layer some spring greens over that, alternating with a couple squeezes (or teaspoonfuls) of tahini, and top with the other pita half.  If you’re afraid of the insides spilling out, you could form the sandwich by cutting the pita pocket in half so that you end up with two half-circles, and stuffing each half with the spreads and fillings.

 

nutrition:
egg = protein
whole wheat pita = complex carbs
spring greens = vitamins
 

dish count:
a teaspoon (for spreading)

Follow-up: Essential cooking tools

It’s been a month since i’ve written on my 10 essential cooking tools, and since i promised that i will use those and only those tools for at least a month, i’m here to report back on the results.  I guess i can’t prove it to you, but i did use only those tools.  In fact, i even got around using a mortar and pestle (still haven’t bought a set) by using a textured cutting board and the bottom of a La Fermière ceramic yogurt pot:

I held the ceramic pot at a 45-degree angle and rolled it back and forth to crush the whole spices (cardamom, coriander, and cumin, if you’re curious).  Albeit time-consuming, it got the job done.  I’d still like to buy a mortar and pestle, though, just because it’d be invaluable in making pastes and grinding harder material, like rice.

Bread accoutrements: Dipping oil

I lived on bread when i was in Paris.  Other than the fact that French bread is addictive (i actually used to hate bread before i lived there), it was the quickest thing to prepare and eat when i was up all night with no time to spare for anything other than schoolwork.  Well-crafted bread is good eaten plain, but all other bread is better with accoutrements, which could be any kind of spread or dip.  Just for the hell of it, i’m gonna to list all the spreads and dips i can think of:

spreads:

butter
nut butter 
clotted cream
jam
jelly
nutella
cream cheese
any soft cheese
hummus
babaghanoush
pâté
tapenade 

dips: 

oil
gravy
marinara
melted cheese

I use different spreads/dips for different breads.  For example, i’d never have butter or cheese on a pita.  Those i reserve for non-flat breads.  My favorite kind of bread is the baguette tradition (a fatter, shorter, and more rustic baguette), but since that’s not available in Central Jersey, i’ve been getting round loaves of 7-grain bread.  

Weird egg

What is up with this egg?

My mom thought it was a rock when i came running with it in my hand to wake her up and show it to her.  Unfortunately, i never got to see what was inside, because i saved it to show my dad, and when i went to look for it a few days later, it was gone.  My mom used it, apparently, and she says that the inside was completely normal.  So it was just a quirky little egg, i suppose.