Bialys in Newark, NJ?
Anyone know of a place in Newark, New Jersey that makes great bialys?
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Eats in Norway and Denmark
I'm heading to Norway and Denmark in September. Any recommendations for local foods/flavors that can't be missed?
The Ten Most Recent Comments By RachelQ
2 days in SF/NYC
I would second the recommendation for Tartine Bakery in SF.
Some other recommendations:
1. U-Lee on Hyde Street.
I highly recommend this restaurant! It’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall. It’s run/owned by Chinese immigrants so the food is authentic and delicious. No real drinks here except beer and boxed wine. The food is GREAT and very cheap. Try the pot stickers.
1468 Hyde St at Jackson (right on the cable car line)
2. Suppenkuche—Great, fun place. It’s a German restaurant that is very low-key and casual. The wait staff and bartenders are all German (at least when I went). They have German beer on tap served in large steins, if you’d like. The food is great. Very authentic. Great sauerkraut. Make reservations.
601 Hayes Street near the Civic Center
Hope you have a great trip!
Eats in Norway and Denmark
I know I'm so late with this, but thanks so much for all of your comments. I'm leaving in two days and am looking forward to trying many of your suggestions.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
The 100-mile diet. It's great in theory but completely impractical for many regions of the country. Our diets wouldn't be as varied and some of us would be missing out on some very important things like wine!
Food recommendations in San Francisco... Help!
I agree with the recommendations for Pomelo and Tartine. Both are excellent.
I know German food wasn't on your list, but I love Suppenkuche on Hayes (I think 601 Hayes). Authentic German food, great sauerkraut.
Another nice place is Absinthe near the Opera House. The menu changes weekly and they always have great food. I've never been disappointed.
Responses to Comments by RachelQ
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@RedSquirrel -- Thank you! I didn't have anything to share on hole composting as I just did it and it worked, so I was going to have to go looking. Thanks for finding that. I'd say it sounds more difficult than it is. I only bothered to turn mine a few times and if it did have a smell I put a light layer of dirt on top as that negated the odor which went away quickly anyway. My hole was about 3 feet long and two feet wide and a foot or so deep. I'd fill one end then the other. One of the lovely things was getting some volunteer potato plants growing on the edges one year.
@wookie (and whoever else is interested) -- Here's a National Geographic Article on red wriggler worm composting inside in your kitchen. It can be done outside too although some precautions need to be done for the freezes but this is good for apartment dwellers too.
Here's another four page bit on various home composting systems from Oprah's Earth Day show last April which has nice visuals and a link to explore more at the end.
Just to make a couple points. I'd stay away from those barrel ones that turn. They get too heavy and are too hard to empty. Also, home composters do not get hot enough to compost those bio-degradable plastics. Those have to go to special facilities to be broken down.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@wookie--I didn't know you could compost in a hole either! I found this article about it: http://www.lewisgardens.com/compost.htm
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@sieseye--I didn't realize I could compost in a hole! Well, there's a lot about gardening that I don't know. Every compost site/instruction page seemed to want to sell me a big compost bin that could be turned, aerated, and kept moist. Could you post more detailed instructions or provide a resource for me to consult? Thanks ever so!
@moibec--I used to "lose" food in the freezer all the time, too. When I moved last year, I had so much forgotten food in the freezer it was embarrassing and of course wasteful bc some of it was too old and freezer-burned to give to others. So in my new home, I created a checklist of items in the freezer. I'm not taking a complete inventory, like I will NOT forget that I have ice cream(s), but I might forget that container of chicken enchiladas I made or the pint of bolognese waaaaay in the back. I take a look at the checklist when I'm planning meals or feeling a little peckish.
I've never understood the "dried beans get old" thing. I mean they're dried and hard and they are going to require some amount of soaking and boiling. What's it matter if they were this year's beans or last? And how are you supposed to know?
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@caviar, tossing spices after six months doesn't make sense, since most are harvested once a year, anyway. The spices you buy now and the ones you buy in six months may very well be from the same harvest.
As far as my own personal "it doesn't work" it's the idea of trying to eat a balanced diet every day. My diet is well balanced, but it's balanced over a few days or a week. Or more. One day might be veggie heavy, another might be more of a carnivore day.
If I had to stick to the formula -- x ounces of protein, x servings of veggies, etc., it would drive me mad. Some days I just want a big steak or burger. Other days it might be pasta with tomato sauce, with hunks of bread, while another might be mostly fruits and veggies.
That's just the way I eat. Might not work for everyone.
I'm also very erratic as far as breakfast and lunch. Some days I'll eat both, sometimes just one meal at whatever time I feel like, and other days I might not eat until dinner. Sometimes I just graze, particularly on fruit.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@producestories -- Thanks for that advice. That's exactly what I was hoping for. I think some people just do what they've always done because they don't know why they've always done it to begin with. The pork roast story woke me up from that. I really like to understand the why of everything.
I also meant to tell you about one of the best pieces of advice I read from some chef (who I can't even remember now). He said to gather up all your kitchen stuff and put it in a box. Then whatever you take out of the box to actually use goes back in your drawers or on your shelves. Whatever is left in the box after 30 days (or time you specify) goes away. That's how you end up with just what you really use in your kitchen.
I do like though that she showed us how to do it without a yogurt maker. I despise recipes that tell me to use whatever gadget I don't have. I'd much prefer to find out if I even like the recipe before I go for the gadget.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@Sieseye - Not to hijack the thread (too late), but I think you can skip the heating up step from this Ron Paul supporter's recipe. I just preheat my yogurt maker for a couple of minutes, then add my starter (I use 1/2 cup of my previous batch or commercial yogurt, but you can get dried yogurt starter), and mix it well into room-temperature soymilk. Then it goes into the yogurt maker overnight. So easy!
When using dairy milk, you have to heat it to 110 degrees to kill an enzyme that prevents it from thickening, but with nut and soy milks, you can just mix and culture. I'm not sure why she'd need to heat up canned coconut milk to kill bacteria, since canned anything has been heated up already to kill bacteria - same with e.g. soymillk in a tetrapak.
@beth1 - There may be a community compost organization near you who will take your food waste. The NYC one sells the compost they make, but they also use it for parks and other public areas. I had tremendous guilt about throwing away my vegetable scraps, etc., until I found out about the compost folks - I just save my compostables in plastic bags in the freezer and drop them off once a week. Obviously it's not the solution for everyone, but it's a great option if you can find a local organization.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@beth1 -- a good composting bin should avoid most issues of offensive. A worm composting system is also really good and lets one compost more than just plant foods. It's the meats, fats, dairy, breads that bring bad odors and pests. I had an open hole I put my coffee grounds, crushed egg shells, veggie and fruit scraps in and then when it was full I covered it with the dirt from the new hole. By the time it was full I could scoop out the old hole of it's wonderful deep, rich, dark compost and have another hole. The natural local worms loved it and there was no smell or pests. The neighbors never even knew and it was only a few feet from the kitchen door. However, you can even get kitchen composters these days either with worms or charcoal filters.
@producestories -- seems we found each other at the exactly correct time. :) Twenty dollars sounds very reasonable. I found a recipe for the coconut milk yogurt a couple days ago. There's a bit of political commentary at the top but just skim it down to the recipe parts to see what she did and the probiotic culture starter she used and what other people suggest in the comments. I too want to eat more but the prices are pretty high for the good stuff and I don't want HFCS (or corn thickeners...) at all nor to be too sweet (also not pucker sour but it's much easier to add a sprinkle of sugar or swirl of honey or agave...). This way I can use local (or in the case of coconut, at least organic). I also like supporting my neighbors (and the security of having local food). Growing raspberries a half world away often means displacing the food those in that country eat. There's nothing like a local strawberry. I just discovered green garlic a few weeks ago and what a delight. I bet it would be good with a homemade plain coconut milk yogurt.
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
@Sieseye - coconut milk yogurt is a GREAT idea - yum! I have just been reading about the health benefits of coconut oil (and all the fats from coconut) and it's quite amazing. I bought a Salton YM9 yogurt maker for around $20 + shipping from Amazon, but for some reason it's no longer available. I'm guessing they all work about the same, though. Homemade yogurt is so terrific - it's so hard to find non-dairy yogurt without sweeteners and thickeners added.
(I am also with you on eating local - rather than feel restricted when I eat seasonal produce from my greenmarket, I feel like I have a lot more options than when I shop at the grocery store full of fruits and vegetables from all over the world, because I know it's all going to be fresh and tasty.)
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
Composting--I really would like to, but haven't acquired a compost bin. Then, in my small yard with close neighbors, where can I put it where it won't offend?
What 'good' food advice doesn't 'work' for you...
I hate "calories in, calories out" so much. Nothing is ever that simple but so many want to boil everything down to that simple. All that does is make it worse. People react differently. That's part of why there's so many different medications. It's not "med in, illness out" by any stretch. Those who make those statements haven't had to deal as others have. I saw a 15 year-old girl who's always been skinny lecturing on how easy it is to be that way and bemoaning that everyone should be able to do it. I told her to come back in 15 years and try again. I used to be her.
The one I can't seem to do is make everything on a weekend for the rest of the week or even the entire month. I'd love to be that organized and have it be that easy, but I'm usually the one missing at least one key ingredient to every possible recipe. By the time I get it the other ingredients have gone bad. I think that's a big part of why I became a foodie, so I could figure out how to improvise. I do love finding something in the freezer from a big meal I did portion out.
Challenging myself to "Eat Local" though has opened up my diet immensely. I'd been limited by what the supermarket was willing to let me have. Now I shop farmers markets and stands. I've been amazed at the bounty I never even knew existed let alone nearly at my fingertips. However, I'm not militant about it. I do allow spices and other treats but I am much more conscientious about where they are sourced from so there is the least suffering from my choices as there can be (Fair Trade/Organic helps). And, eating seasonally has become delightful and part of the passage through life.
@producestories -- Hee, talk about not local, I think you've convinced me to get a yogurt maker. I want to make coconut milk yogurt. I've been reading about all the health benefits of pro-biotics and I'm floored. Have any suggestions?
@caviarandcodfish -- Some places, especially co-ops, allow buying spices in bulk so you can buy only what you need rather than a set sized bottle. This saves a lot of money too even though it seems expensive per unit (spices are light and used sparingly). Also, old spices can be composted or even used to control things such as keeping cats out of parts of the garden you wished they'd stay out of...
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