Category: food

Good Morning America

· Leave a comment ·

With global trade accessible at our fingertips, quick and nationally available shipping, and affordable and lightweight tools, there is just about nothing in the culinary world that we cannot produce in our own homes or in community of restaurants.   Now with Amazon now and Google Express you can probably get that any ingredient or tool delivered right into your hands in less than an hour.  Talk about modern convenience, remember when the only delivery was pizza?  Talk about being spoiled.  On top of this access to endless ingredients and a million handy tools to aid in the processing of said ingredients, there is a modern and easy to use instruction book also at your fingertips, the all-knowing oracle.  You can find any recipe and there is a good chance that there is a YouTube instructional video.

Out of like a zillion possibilities, how come Americans are so determined to eat the blandest food with the longest possible shelf life?  I am talking about mac and cheese, dried pasta and jar marinara sauce, white bread with bologna and mustard, canned spaghetti O’s, canned soup, frozen TV dinners, vacuumed sealed meats.  Not only is this diet monotone in taste and excitement, it is completely devoid of nutrition, life sustaining energy, not resembling anything that was ever alive, all the vitamins artificially forced back in.  Eating good makes you feel good, and feeling good is pretty much the goal for everyone’s life.

We are spoiled people living in a spoiled society.  We have been given the world and this is what we do with it: eat cold wraps from 7/11, buy previously frozen food that the grocery store has reheated for you, satisfy that deep and eternal hunger with a blank white starch while we mindlessly watch TV.

It is time that we wake up and smell the fresh fruit.  We are missing out on one of the biggest joys in this circus we call life with these poorly made dinner decisions.

Advertisement

Dinner, easy and semi quick.

· Leave a comment ·

Butter Chicken Comfort Dinner!

This is the way-about for making a delicious Indian comfort food in an electric pressure cooker.  This machine is amazing.  You plug it in, set a time, push a button, and walk away.  That is it. In an hour you have a delicious dinner that was so easy it leaves you guessing at why so many people eat out all the time.

A Marigold style recipe, which is basically a list of ingredients and steps.  How much of everything to add?  Use your intuition, your brain, and most importantly your tongue.  Don’t follow a list of items blinding, taste everything as you go along, and fit the recipe to your desire.

1.5 pounds of chicken thighs, marinated in 1 cup/ two large spoonful of tangy yogurt, a couple squirts of lemon juice, a dash of garam Masala, cumin, turmeric salt, and pepper. Like 2 teaspoons of each. Two cloves of grated garlic and a knob of ginger.

Mix together and marinate at room temperature or overnight.  How long you ask, up to a couple of days, or as quickly as two drinks can allow.  Cooking is about looking forward to the end product, so marinate yourself and get distracted by something inspirational while the chicken does its resting.

We are going to cook the chicken in an electric pressure cooker, which diminishes cooking time so dramatically, that you can take the time for your chicken thighs to tenderize.  You can always opt to braise on the stove, but you are going to added two hours to the process.  If you marinate ahead, or have the whole evening at your leisure, this is definitely an equally viable option.  But if you are like me, and it is already 8 by the time you get back from the store, modern pressure cooking is the way to go for the day.

Two drinks later, or an hour:  Put the chicken and the marinate into the magical machine.  Add a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of coconut milk or cream, 1-2 sweet potatoes, an onion, a large spoonful of nut butter (I prefer cashew, use what you will), and a stick of butter.  Set that timer button for 10 minutes and let the machine do its thing.

Finish with cilantro, and a slash of lime, enjoy thoroughly.

Wait For It…

· 1 Comment ·

I have perhaps the best idea ever for a dessert.  I am going to say a word that I never thought I would ever say pertaining to a dessert, especially when the word “great” or “best” or “anticipation-worthy” is involved.

So here it is: s’more.

There, I said it.  If you immediately lose interest, I understand.  I certainly would not listen past this word when someone is trying to describe an innovative product, a salivary-induced dessert, and new idea that will spark imagination and delight.

Also, I will not say “deconstructed” because the dish is not deconstructed, it is reconstructed.  But that word will not appear in the name or even in the description based on principal- the principal that deconstructed is an overdone and a cliché concept.  Anything resembling that terribly passé word will be lumped into that same, shameful category.

I am thinking about calling it “Fireside” or perhaps “The Rebirth of S’more.”

I don’t want dull childhood memories of this store-bought mélange of ingredients to come across as misleadingly simple or contrived.  This ‘new best idea ever dish’ amplifies the best part of the s’more while also improving upon the aspects that are underwhelming.

I can’t say too many details about this idea without giving away too much.  You have to wait for it.  The intended restaurant where this is to début is not open for business yet.  The doors are not open, the fires are not lit, the tables are not yet set.  Until then menus are printed, until the water glasses filled, until your cocktail shaken, until the music spinning, full disclosure on “Fireside” is clandestine.

The best part of this over used childhood treat is in the applying of heart to transform the ordinary into the somewhat extravagant.  The parts themselves are simple, but together they transform into a classic.  Since the best part about the s’more concept is the interactive involvement of everyone, a active role will play a part in the enjoyment of this dessert.

The underwhelming part of the this treat is the reason why I don’t even think that the s’more is good.  It is this gooey glob with a single note sweetness.  Let’s be honest, it’s boring.  Outside of the bonfire, it’s bland.  The novelty trumps taste, the overall impression being lack luster.  There are only two flavor profiles, being chocolate and graham.  I think I can do better.

Unfortunately this is call I can tell you until El Che opens its doors, until there is wood for the hearth, until someone can slide your credit card.  Until then, keep your tongues anxious and your minds curious.

Chameleon

· 1 Comment ·

Art is about having a vision, expressing your stylistic mind, and being flexible with your grandiose designs.  A concept can be amazing, but sometimes in practicality the idea does not pan out.  Creativity is about being fluid, not getting too caught up in the one direction that you thought would drive your boat, steer your car, build your model empire.

I want to be successful, I want to make things so delicious that it is magazine worthy, that gives a lasting impression on your taste buds and also on your imagination.  I had an idea, I thought about it a lot and hard and in many ways.  I try not to get married to an idea without the proper courtship, but when an idea is born you get attached.  The concept was solid, the individual components were stellar, but together the harmony was wrong.

I have great taste, but if the final play does not match the concept, it is time to tweak.  Not start over, or consider the idea a failure, you have to be flexible and confident enough to come up with a new strategy.

Do not consider yourself a failure because it didn’t work out the first, second, or hundredth time.  I want to be perfect the first time so bad, that I have to remind myself that art is an evolution, and being successful takes a lot of patience.  Creativity is knowing when something is wrong, and coming up with new ideas to lead your project in a different direction.  You might surprise yourself with the new, unintended outcome.

Art is growth, simplicity is complicated, and rules are fluid.

Today was a learning and humbling day, but through this process you gather strength in your artistic eye and salivating mind.

Whimiscal Beer, I Am In

· Leave a comment ·

If hops are of the cannabis family, then we have to assume that beer used to be brewed with THC on a consistent basis for thousands of years.  That is not a shocking assumption to be made.  Like hops, pot is easy to grow, its kinda like a weed.

Contemporarily, home brewers experiment with this idea, but this is too small.  Dry hopping THC into beer does not need to be relegated to your closet fermentation.  It needs to storm the market, be a thing.  A trend packaged and all dolled up, pushed about the young and adventurous, to be popular and the largest party hit.  The people will love it.

Colorado, where are you on this project?  You better hurray up and dominate the market, else America’s high five is going to steal it from you.

Hop Ya Later

· Leave a comment ·

Americans do not have the best taste, but they certainly have the best influence on worldly culture.

I am not sure how the west coast hop craze has overtaken the palate of the so called sophisticated beer aficionados, but the why does not matter.  What matters here is how this dominant influence of dry and dominating, one dimensional flavor has quickly and subtly changed the beers that I know and love.  Sounds like a terrible date, why would you want to put that description on your tongue.  You would never even give that guy a first chance.  <shivers>

They have gotten more hoppy.  All of them.  Craft beers, old standbys, well-know favorites, new creations. All of them.  All beer has changed in style like the latest fashion trend.  All of the good, well rounded, malty with a touch of hoppy, benevolent ESBs from the English country side, the hefty bastard from Scotland, has drifted towards the side of the west coast.  It’s not that my tongue has been burned by consumption of hops over the years, that is not how it works.  My tongue is not burned, honestly beer has become more bitter. It is leaning away from the malty goodness, out of partiality, and into the kingdom of the west.

Give me the balance.  Give me the complex.  Give me something that continues to grow as you sip beer after beer.  Like a lays potato chip, nobody has just one.  Let the flavors linger and get to know one another, let’s explore a whole palate of what the beerscape has to offer.

You have watered down the beer taste you assholes.  Stop ruining my life, you American hipsters.

Why Eating in America Sucks #5

· Leave a comment ·

Recycling is a concept.  It does not actually exist. Yes there are those blue bins dotting down the alleys, but is the trash even sorted in this great large city?  I have my doubts.  Remember when you were supposed to put your recycling in a blue bag, tie it up, and throw it in with the rest of your trash?  Yeah, that happened.  That was the city’s solution to the recycling problem for years.  Yeah right like somebody actually sorted the trash and picked out those gross blue bags.  This is why I have my doubts that the new recycling program with those fancy blue bins are actually getting the job done.

Unfortunately the full and disturbing extent of the issue does not stop here.  With the alleys full of blue dots, at least we are pretending to care.  Not in food service.  Here, we don’t even pretend to try to recycle.  There is only one bin, and let me tell you it is black.

Not even cardboard boxes are recycled.  It is truly sick.

Even the places that say they do, it’s about a 50/50 shot.   Don’t be fooled, recycling is not happening.

Yes, this is part where you are supposed to get angry.

The Poor Man’s Slow Hustle #2

· Leave a comment ·

The red line speeds its way through the tunnel, creating a machine roar that echoes through the bustling city.  The train’s loud cries are a part of daily life, it is the sound of progress, of facilitating hard work, getting it done as that saying once went (years ago when the red neck movement was hip)

The train is affordable, reliable, and sometimes very speedy.  Except of course, once the red line passes the Addison stop, all of this modern progress and hype is simply thrown out the window. Once it passes that last stop of dignity, the train simply gives up on life.  It moves slower then a grandma towards a sale at target.  The hustle in the step is so quickly forgotten, and the monetary unfortunate are left to the fumes that the train has left to unjet us home.  It moves so slow that it is just a little bit faster than walking.

The wealthy people who live further north of the select downtown and midtown stops, they take the purple line.  That train was invented for rich people.  The purple lines runs right next to all the stops north of addition, but will never ever stop at any of them.

In this slow desert of transport, I sit impatiently waiting for the most unambitious train to heave me home.

New Wave of Food

· Leave a comment ·

Deconstructing a known food dish has been very popular in restaurants for years.  You take something, say a carrot cake, and you put apart the components to recreate a new eating experience.  With the carrot cake example, the raisins in the cake would become a purée, the carrot a sorbet, the cake a fluffy microwave cake, the rum a caramel sauce, the brown sugar would be crystallized for a crunch.  The spices would be an aroma.

Why don’t we call it a reconstruction? You are not simply tearing down, you are recreating.  A reconstruction has endless possibilities. In order to create you first must destroy.  This we know.  But after that epic destruction of mayhem and feelings of regret, overwhelmed by everything that must still happen, you must rebuild.  This is twilight hour, let’s reinvent, don’t stop early now.