Single from Town Topic in KC, snowy day in my car. The bottom half of the brown paper bag was stained in grease.
I'm heartbroken about the bloody mary comment. Since it's a snack, soup, and alcoholic drink rolled into one, it works for almost any occasion.
Anyway, give these guys a break. They work in one of the few factions of the food service industry that doesn't have a menu (or has one that's ignored all the time). Restaurants have the luxury of limiting the customer's options. These guys often don't.
I do understand your frustration, but I get more irritated towards claims/complaints/statements about authenticity than something that comes from ignorance. For example: "its not chili if there's beans in it" "its not tomato sauce if it has sugar" "why would you eat this? Its not authentic Chinese."
A recent conversation that left me depressed:
Me: "Here, eat this if you're hungry"
A: "What is it?"
Me: "Its okonomiyaki. Its a specialty from the region I'm from."
B (from US) : "Yeah, its good. I won't call this real okonomiyaki. I'll make some real ones for you next time."
What a lovely spread as usual.
@Derricktung: Great idea using chinese sausage, I'm definitely trying that for my next pie. I'm thinking of going with crushed garlic cloves, green onion and thick Taiwanese soy sauce (jiang you gao).
Cold ramen noodles with sesame sauce, thin omelette, julienned cucumbers, char siu, and quartered tomatoes.
Like ag3208, I like making mine Vietnamese style, but with aeropress over ice. There's something lovely about the sound of ice cubes cracking when exposed to hot coffee.
Just in case that anybody sees this post sometime in the near future: I tried 8 o'clock coffee. Its definitely coffee (which is more than what I can say for a lot of the stuff out there) in a way that whoppers are definitely hamburgers.
I found out that a very local Fresh Coffee Roastery sells pretty decent coffee for about $7 for 12 ounces. I'm going through their beans one by one right now. I guess cheap local roasteries are a good compromise, but for a more permanent solution, I am going to finish my dissertation and get a real job.
Also, you can buy a slightly blemished one for cheap at places like TJ Maxx. I got a 12 inch one for about 15 dollars. Since its a skillet that you will end up abusing for decades, I decided not to care about imperfections in the finishes.
@brbeats Considering the fact that this is not a restaurant review but a introduction to Taiwanese wedding banquets that the writer was personally invited to, I think it might be a bit out of place for a criticism of the food being served. Its great that you brought up this important point in the comments, but I think it might be a bit harsh to expect the writer to include in her article.
The Wayward Cloud (Taiwan), Be With Me (Singapore), Chicken Rice Wars (Singapore) are my favorites. Somehow I feel Asian cinema has more emphasis on food.
Although the fancy Japanese rice cookers are really good at cooking rice, they are unitaskers that take up a lot of countertop space. I really like the tatung rice cookers from taiwan. Simple make, outlasts any other kitchen appliance, and makes for a great steamer. You can find them in places selling Asian kitchen appliances, like a large Asian grocery.
@Meister: I understand your point, especially after reading your "Hidden Costs..." article, you do start to wonder if any money goes into beans for the lower priced offerings. Its just that I'm living on a really tight budget, and I recently realized that although drinking a mug of PT's that I carefully brewed makes me feel wonderful, I don't give it the attention it deserves when I'm sucking it up through a thermos during work.
I'll go and ponder if I should go back to counting my beans before grinding, or sift my way through endless bags and cans of horrible coffee to find something drinkable. If I do, I'll start with 8 O'Clock.
I don't live anywhere near Costco, Trader Joes, or even 711. I guess I'll visit them when I go on a barbecue run to KC. Meanwhile, I'll be rationing out Peet's for myself and do a survey of every cheap ass coffee in the supermarket aisle.
I wish serious eats have done (or would do) a taste test for this, but considering that they have Will Gordon drinking cheap bourbon for our benefit, I guess I can't really complain.
@jedd63: I have considered home roasting, but I was worried about the costs required in getting into it. Do you need a good roaster, or at least one of those whirly popcorn popper things they sell at Sweet Maria's?
@saliniabee: 8 a pound isn't bad, and I agree that cheap ass coffee isn't worth it. But I'm in my dissertation writing stage and cutting down on smoking, so I'm pretty desperate here.
@Meister: The nearest Whole Foods is a 30 minute drive away, so I'll try it when I get the chance to drive there. I'm at Lawrence, KS, so usually I go with PT's from Topeka or Parisi from KC, which are moderately priced, but still a stretch on a student budget.
I agree with Mr. Nick, I believe it originally came from the word sour, since the earliest sushi (like funa-zushi, fish and rice packed in barrels and fermented) were sour fermented products designed for preservation.
Eating pho and finding out that I can eat cilantro after all.
One thing I can say is that its really hard using a cookbook intended for readers in the US in another country, since its really hard to get the right ingredients. Half of the recipes in the cookbooks that I brought to the US from Japan are impossible to make, and half of what I learned to make in the US are impossible to make when I'm in Japan (especially with the lack of ovens in Japanese kitchens). Sending him a cookbook on some simple Japanese cuisine or letting him know about healthier food options in Japan (take a look at Kenji's report on street fair food in Kyoto or Brian Oh's roundup of his favorite food in Japan) can be an easy way to go. Tell him to eat in local mom and pop places that serve teishoku (meal sets with soup, veggies, and rice).
My first thought was that might be a uterus with a fetus inside of it. I read in a book about a Korean sashimi called sekifé, which has sliced pork uterus with a fetus inside it. The cook slices the uterus and the fetus, and dumps it into a bowl, amniotic liquid and all. The eyeball slips and escapes from the downward motions of the knife, resulting in a bowl of delicious and delicate offal with a little eye glaring back at you.
Relax, just consider this article an advocate for sriracha+mayo combo than a recipe.
Also, if you're looking for a recipe for Japanese mayo, try Kenji's 2 minute mayo recipe, but make the following changes:
1. Omit the water, and use 2 egg yolks (there are 4 egg yolks in 500g of kewpie mayo).
2. Use vinegar with a milder aroma, such as rice vinegar. Kewpie seems to use a mix of vinegar, which contains apple and malt vinegar, but the final ratio of what consists that cocktail is unclear.
3. I haven't cracked the code of what kind of mustard is best for kewpie mayo. Probably something that has little discernable flavor, or you can spice up your version with some good dijon.
Use this as reference: http://www.kewpie.co.jp/customer/faq/conditions/rawmaterial.html
By the way, my favorite combination is mayo+Chinese sesame paste+gochugaru.
Coffee, aeropress.
Bacon, roasted cauliflower, and dried chili flakes.
There's a braising method called jigatsuo-ni. You basically throw in a vegetable (usually eggplants, lotus roots, or, my favorite of during this season, kabocha, acorn, or butternut squash) into a mixture of soy sauce, mirin (sake), sugar, and some water. You throw in a small handful of katsuobushi, and then set on medium heat til everything's done. I like it better than regular vegetable braises in dashi, since the katsuobushi soaks up the sauce.
Tofu tastes great if you load sliced onions and scallions on top, pour a tablespoon or so of hot sesame oil on top of the scallions, throw on some katsuobushi, and finish it off with soy sauce.
I also recently made some Okinawa style soba, which uses pork broth with some katsuo element thrown into it (I used hondashi, but using katsuobushi will definitely make it better). I know this goes into more of the dashi realm, but this dish is definitely worth making
http://3minramen.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/okinawa-style-soki-soba/
Due to financial constraints, I'm thinking about starting to buy two kinds of beans; a good one for sipping out of a mug at home, and a cheap one for sipping out of a thermos on the road.
I always relied on Cafe Bustello when money's tight, but I was wondering if there's anything better out there.
What's your favorite budget coffee?
I'm planning to go for a full-day, morning, lunch, and dinner BBQ excursion to Kansas City with my friends.
Do you have any recommendations for good KC BBQ that's on-par or better with the big names?
Or do you have any good places to refresh the palette (somewhere with good milk shakes, homemade root beer, floats, beer, etc)?
Or if you have any advice/warnings for an indulgent trip like this, please let me know!
Right now we have on the list:
Jack Stack
Arthur Bryant's
Gates
Oklahoma Joe's
Danny Edwards
LC's BBQ
and
RJ's BBQ.
Thanks!
It's hard to imagine this recipe could be anything but delicious upon reading the ingredient list. Ginger, garlic, honey, soy sauce, scallions—each one is delicious on its own, and they blend together beautifully in this recipe from Home Cooked Comforts via Leite's Culinaria. The addition of star anise, with its subtle licorice influence, gives the dish that special something to set it apart. More
Its also delicious on its own, on top of a steaming bowl of rice.