Food meme, continued by Fyn

Now for Fyn to do this meme!

Courtesy of: http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB &J Sandwhich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips - does eating a raw carob count?
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads - dude, I bought this and had to throw it out when we moved
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe - just last month, and it totally tastes like licorice
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

This list makes me move a lot of things to the top of my to-eat list: black truffle, pistachio ice cream (which I can make w/ my fabulous ice cream maker), snake, mole poblano, rose harissa, lapsang souchong, and of course, those forsaken sweetbreads!

Now, onto making stir-fried chicken livers with Chinese garlic chives! Now why isn't that on the list? Recipe to follow...hopefully.

Food Meme!

Courtesy of: http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The Cerulean Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB &J Sandwhich - NA: allergy
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar - Cognac yum, cigars icky.
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects - Does eating these items unintentionally count?
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - yes, yes, yes, and yes
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - not unless I killed it.
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Actually I did better than I thought I would. And I'm really really glad that cheese with maggots in it is not on the list.

Chat Files: Restaurant Week Edition

10:12 AM Fyn: Hi Miss [Cerulean]

10:13 AM me: Hey Miss [Fyn]!

I finally had a Restaurant Week meal that was awesome!

Fyn: which steak place was it?

10:14 AM me: Ruth's Chris at the Pier V.

10:15 AM It was kind of loud, but the food was good, and it was a great deal.

The whole meal cost as much as only my steak would have if it hadn't been restaurant week.

10:16 AM And they have very good floor managers. When my steak first arrived it was overdone, and I was fretting about whether to send it back and a floor manager just...appeared and asked me straight up if it was cooked right, and when I said it was overdone, he took it away and got me a new - perfect med-rare steak in a matter of minutes.

10:17 AM I started with the lobster bisque and liked that, too! I am always proud of myself when I eat seafood.

10:18 AM Fyn: nice!

10:19 AM the whole idea of really good floor managers is amazing to me

really great steak, i presume?

10:20 AM me: oh my GAWD. It was so good.

I was glad I'd gotten the petit filet, so that I didn't totally stuff myself. And that the plate was so hot, lest I lick it.

And I got bread pudding with whiskey sauce - yum!

10:21 AM J got gumbo for his app, but I gotta say....it was good, mine is better.

10:22 AM Still, it was great to have a restaurant week meal that I really felt reflected what a normal meal there would be like.

For Your Consideration: Corn Dogs are Awesome

Morningstar Farms Veggie Corn Dogs: I did a (totally scientific) taste test last night, and I'm a believer. All the mustard vector of a corn dog without having to eat mechanically-separated meat byproducts. They are scrumdidilliumtious!


(Just please god, don't make them in the microwave.)

Totally unnecessary update: Chat Files!

Cerulean: I have a * a plan* for tonight's dinner.

Fyn: yes, yes?

i have one and half peking duck carcass

what kinda soup can i make w/ it?

Cerulean: duck soup!

I really have no idea, just wanted to yell "duck soup"!

my dinner is not exactly gourmet, I warn you.

Here's the thing: I love corn dogs.

But I think hot dogs are gross.

It's a dichotomy that has burdened me my whole life! Sorta.

So, the vegetarians at the beeeeeach were telling me that Morningstar makes vegetarian corn dogs - and P., the frigging lumberjack, who loves meat like I love breathing - couldn't tell it was a veggie corn dog until he was told.

(at which point he spat it out, 'cause that's how serious he is in his distain for non-meat products.)

So I'm making vegetarian corn dogs and corn on the cob.

I'm going to pretend I'm at a state fair.

Fyn: i didn't know you disliked hot dogs

did you try the morningstar corn dogs? i am intrigued.

also, alton brown totally has a corn dog recipe

Cerulean: I'll let you know how the corn dogs come out tonight.

I imagine that as long as the batter is good, I will like them. Corn dogs are basically an excuse to eat deep fried corn bread dipped in mustard. Yumz.

Sweet Mystery of Food, At Last I've Found You!

Seriously, how did I live so long without this?

Two of My Favorite Things

Roast chicken and farmer's markets. No correlation to each other, I know, unless you count that one is a food and the other contains food. Or that I discovered wonderful renditions of each this weekend. I have no pictures to speak of, which is perhaps in poor food blogging taste, but I feel I must document this so you can all run to each of these locations as soon as you can.

First, roast chicken. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love roast chicken. I'll even eat medicore roast chicken (dark meat only please) just so I can get some well-rendered chicken skin and tender meat. I've gone through the gamit of roast chicken: college dining hall roast chicken, bland but reasonably juicy if gotten during a modest lunch hour; Boston Market, tender but boring with no complexity to speak of other than some sweetness and saltiness on the skin; takeout chicken from the Greek place by work, with absolutely no browning of the skin to be found, but a steal at $2.50 for a dark meat quarter. Lately though, my obessession has been Peruvian roast chicken. This chicken is roasted whole over a fire after running through a complex spice mixture that my taste buds just can't define. With some fried yucca to fill out the starch quotient, this can be one satisfying, finger-licking meal.

After an afternoon of wine tasting, two bottles, and some Wii bowling on Saturday, food was on the agenda. At our friend T's house in Highlandtown, there really was no question of where we should seek out our dinner. T lives a block away from Chicken Rico (translated as Chicken Tasty), a Peruvian roast chicken chain that finally made its appearance in Baltimore last year. Situated in the heart of Highlandtown, an area poised as the newest Hispanic community in Baltimore, the smell of cumin and fire-roasted chicken wafting a block away to T's can not be denied. I have been scheming of ways to head over to T's since that fateful day a month ago when I walked from my car to his house with the smells lapping at my nostrils.

At 8:30 p.m., it's a good sign when practically all the customers are Hispanic. A specials menu on a little white board lists the especial del dia, in Spanish, of course. The line moves quickly and we quickly nab ourselves the "Family Special 1", a whole roasted chicken, cut into quarters with a pair of scissors, two sides (fried yucca and mashed potatoes for us), and three cans of soda for the budget-friendly price of $14.95. By the time we walk back to the house, the juices from the chicken have run out of its styrofoam box into the bag...and there are a lot of juices. The skin is crisp and dry, fully rendered of all its fat. The meat is unbelievably juicy and I, a hater of breast meat, cannot help but notice that the white meat is exuding juice (devouring the breast meat leftovers for lunch confirmed this). To top it off, little containers of a green sauce and a very yellow-y mayo are provided for the dipping. I can do without the mayo but the green sauce is jalepeno incarnate. Hot and incendiary with perhaps a little water to thin it into a sauce. So good.

Onto my second topic of the day, I present you with the Baltimore Farmer's Market. This Sunday farmer's market is held during the warmer months under the Jones Falls Expressway (JFX or 83 to you Baltimore folks). In all my years in Baltimore, I have never once frequented this farmers market. I guess part of it was snobbery. After all, for many years, I lived within rolling distance of the Waverly Farmers Market, where I could walk down to the market with crusts in my eyes and stinky breath and find coffee and a delicious pastry to wake myself up. Why would I need the biggest farmer's market in the area when I had a great one by me? I am now a woman reformed. Yesterday, I was greeted with more breakfast options than I could imagine. Crepes, Creole-inspired breakfast sandwiches and gumbo, grilled sausages, pit beef, pit turkey, falafel sandwiches, grilled mushroom sandwiches...the list goes on. It took me a full twenty minutes and two times around the farmers market before I could even make a decision and I still hadn't bought any groceries for the week. In the end, Pat got an egg and andouille sandwich and I got a crepe with prosciutto, onions, olives, oregano and feta. Oh, and we also managed to pick up some broccoli raab, spinach, strawberries and a hunk of young garlic and chive cheddar.

Did I mention that you should visit these two Baltimore gems as soon as you can?

The Chat Files #2: or: Because I know we have a post about Tacos coming up, OR: Readability, schmeadability.

Fyn: can we also bitch about wraps
:: shudder ::

cerulean: You know, I really don't understand the wrap craze.

Fyn: i think they're gross

cerulean: There are very few that actually taste good.

Fyn: they're cold and kinda slimy

wraps are only good if they're fresh and freshly warmed

cerulean: And people think that the tortilla makes it healthier than bread? Have they ever looked at the back of the frigging package?

Fyn: and by "wraps" i'm speaking of "tortillas"

300 calories per wrap

cerulean: Tortillas are made of flour and oil!

Fyn: one reason i eat the burrito bowls

no need to try and eat something i dislike and ingest 300 calories while i'm at it

cerulean: I will say, that rolly polly is managing to do some nice things with them....because they undersand you can't just roll up sandwhich ingredients in a tortilla and call it a new dish. Blech.

Fyn: roly poly is pretty good

cerulean: Wait, so it's tortillas in general you don't like?

Fyn: i hardly ever go there for lunch but i have enjoyed myself when i have

i only like tortillas sometimes

i've started to make chicken tacos w/ flour tortillas at home

and i'm really digging them

but i do that liz thing where i heat the tortillas over an open stove first

i hate wraps b/c they're disgusting

cerulean: See, tortillas can be excellent...when regarded as it's own thing, not a bread substitute.

Fyn: tortillas i don't like so much just b/c

cerulean: The sandwich wrap thing drives me nuts.

Fyn: but i don't think tortillas are an anathema like i do wraps

cerulean: YOU CANNOT MAKE A HAM SANDWICH WITH A TORTILLA, PEOPLE.

Fyn: is that why people like wraps so much? they think it's a substitute sandwich??

ewww!

cerulean: Tortillas + Mayo = GROSS.

Yeah. People think because it's thinner it has less calories.

You know, honestly? If we did have a food blog, I think sometimes I'd just copy in our food chats.

Fyn: actually, that's not a bad idea

i mean, we should edit it out for readibility's sake

Recipe Testing: Shaker Lemon Pie

Fun fact about Shakers: They didn't believe in marriage.

This is way less fun than it sounds - they didn't believe in marriage because if you were married you might have Teh Sex!!1!, and that was bad. For everybody, all the time. (Can't imagine why this religion never caught on in a big way.)

The good news is, you gotta direct that energy somewhere. And it may as well be pieward. (No, not like that, pervs!) I mean getting all into that delicious smoothsweetcool lemonbitesexysexy of a good lemon pie, without all that second-date-car-makeouts fooling around with the double broiler. Like the Shakers did.

The big thing with Shaker Lemon Pie is using the whole lemon to avoid waste (sans seeds - they were serious about abhorring reproduction, eh?), and not making a stovetop custard (which is just a pain). This is quite the trick because while the juice is lemony deliciousness, and the zest is delicious as well as onomatopeic, the white stuff? The, well, the rind? Is bitter and tough. One way to get around that is by macerating the lemons overnight in sugar, but the latest issue of Cook's Country has a faster way, which I decided to try for Easter dinner. (Which is, come to think of it, ripped off of a fertility holiday. Huh. So I guess this was a pretty inappropriate choice. What can I say, I was high on jelly beans at the time.)

The trick Cook's uses is to squeeze out the juice and reserve it, and then boil the lemon slices. Doesn't really sound like it should work, huh? At least, I didn't think so. I called my mom to make sure she had some other dessert in the wings in case this was a total disaster.

Oh me of little faith!

Oh, man.

YUM.

MY GOD IT'S FULL OF YUM.

Does it work?! This is going immediately into the pie-rotation. It's gonna play first base. I'm gonna starting pointing to the outfield before I make this pie.

Look at it! (This is totally tangential, but look how nice this crust is! So pretty and browned and flaky! (You don't want to know how many crust oriented pictures I took.) Custardy and smooth and with a nice little added texture from the totally not bitter lemon peel. Strong, just sweet enough lemon flavor, and And AND? This is gonna forever solve the summertime Lemonade or Iced Tea war (that wages mostly in my mind). Sweet Tea to sip, Shaker Lemon Pie to snack upon. Coolocity achieved.

Shaker Lemon Pie
inspired by Cook's Country

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Ingredients

3 lemons (get ones with good looking rind, you're gonna eat that later)
1.75 cups sugar
pinch salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
4 eggs
(Optional: 1 tbsp cream)
Pie dough for a two crust pie. (If you don't make your own, this kind works ok. The folded kind will break on you.)

Ok, step one. Slice the lemons paper thin, and remove the seeds as you go. (Uh, you also removed any produce stickers, right?) This is gonna be the hardest part by FAR if you're doing it by hand. I got eeeeever so slightly frustrated. Mostly because the lemon juice found a hangnail I didn't know I had. Squeeze the slices to get out the juice out and save that. Also, since you want the slices to look pretty when they're in the pie, try not to mangle them when you squeeze 'em. I picked up a few at a time and folded them in half so they wouldn't break. Cooks illustrated says to use a strainer over your bowl, but since you're putting everything right back in later, I don't see the point of it.

Put your squeezed slices into a a medium saucepan with about two cups of water. Bring them to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer them for five minutes. Drain the water. (I'm thinking there must be something fun to do with this lemony water, though I don't have an idea right now.)

Combine the lemon slices with 1/4 cup of the lemon juice from before, and all the sugar and salt. Stir gently until the sugar is melted.

In a separate bowl, whip the remaining lemon juice with the eggs and cornstarch. I deviated from the recipe here in that I let everything sit at this point for maybe fifteen minutes so the lemons could cool down a bit (so as not to cook the eggs on contact). So, go check your email.

Add the lemon mix slowly to the egg mix, and stir until combined. Then pop it into a pie shell, and put your second crust on. Cut some vents in the top. [Now, here's something Cook's said to do which I'd never tried before - if you want to get a nice browned crust (yay) without using an egg wash (boo), brush the top of the crust with cream. This worked really well for me, as you can see above. ]

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then drop the heat to 375 and let it go another 20 to 25 minutes.

[During this time, you may, as I did, start to freak out a little because you can only smell the eggs baking and no lemony goodness. Don't worry. I'm not sure what the deal is, but it didn't even smell like lemons when I took it out. We only got down to the citrus when I cut into it the next day. But then, it was plenty strong-tasting. Don't freak, is what I'm saying. ]

Let this one cool all the way before you serve it so it sets up correctly. The magazine says to store it in the refrigerator, but I found that eating it cold made it not quite sweet enough, so I'd recommend room temp. I've been storing it on my countertop and eating it for three days, and I'm not dead yet. Or possibly I am, and the pie is just so tasty it RAISES THE UNDEAD.

Huh. Maybe the Shakers just didn't need procreation.

What time is dinner?

Culled from the far-too-chatty chat logs of Cerulean and Fyn, which I often threaten to post here if only because ZOMGWTFBBQGUYSWENEEDTOPOSTANDNOTJUSTTALKABOUTPOSTING:

Me: ps: http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/

I'm making those damn mountain dew apple dumplings. oh, yes.

Fyn: oh hey, i was just thinking, we'd have to cook at eka's if we cook for them

that's cool w/ you, right?

me: Oh, you mean next Sunday?

Fyn: yup

i remembered that ben sleeps at 6 and we'd have to do it at their place if we were to make dinner

me: oh, we were going to do this at actual dinnertime?

("dinner" is a word whose meaning changes depending on what day it is. On Sunday, dinner is the meal you eat at 2 or 3.)

Fyn: really?

wow!

but then don't you get hungry at 7?

me: I just grew up that way. You eat dinner every night, but on Sundays you have Sunday Dinner, and that's in the afternoon.

Then you watch football or do homework and have leftover rolls or something in the evening.

I'm gonna go with this being an upbringing thing. And I will bet you dollars to donuts if you ask Wino what TIME her grandma's sunday dinners are, it'll be in the afternoon.

me: then you have a light supper.

So, what does dinner mean, then?