JungMann's Profile
I *LOVE* Pickles!
Salt creates the right conditions for lacto-fermentation. Within a certain window, the bad bacteria are killed off and the favorable bacteria ferment your pickles.
Lebanese Street Festival
This weekend Our Lady of Mt. Lebanon will be hosting their annual street fair on Remsen St. between Henry and Clinton Sts. Past years have featured manakeesh cooked to order on a traditional saj whose evocative char can hardly be recreated in a commercial kitchen. The requisite kebabs are of course available along with kibbeh, grape leaves and the sweetly stuffed ma'amoul whose sugary coating fuels the frenetic dabke dance party which typically breaks out in the late afternoon. This year's ad features more sponsors, so I am expecting food options to be even better.
http://www.ololc.org/doc/2012FestivalPoster.pdf
Grocery tomatoes
The campari tomatoes are indeed tasty, but even they are a bit flat-tasting out of season. Far better than the mealy and flavorless orbs you get here in May, but my meals typically don't feature tomatoes until they come into season.
What's for Dinner #147
Soyrizo is a soy-based version of Mexican chorizo that I surprisingly prefer over pork as it is less greasy and infinitely healthier. Other pork chorizos across the Latin world, although often less fatty, do not have the same addictive heat and sour flavor that I find so beguiling in the Mexican style.
El barrio restaurant week
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/801966
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/810708
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/642172
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/809136
What's for Dinner #147
What is the fennel sausage you use? I love soyrizo already; I would love to add an Italian flavor to the repertoire for healthier preps.
El barrio restaurant week
Without seeing what is included in the prix fixe, I venture to say $20.12 might be more than I'd spend on a normal meal at some of these places, but it might be a deal for Camaradas or Amor Cubano.Of all the restaurants listed, ABV stands well ahead of the pack for its creativity and very pleasant wine and amari selection and would be the first place I recommend.
Most of the other places I'm not certain are destinations. Milk Burger is fantastic if you like Shake Shack style burgers, but $20.12 is not a deal. I already have difficulty meeting the $10 delivery minimum when I'm on my own. Yo in Yo Out is fine as a local French bistro, but it's not a cuisine that excites me. Then of course there the restaurants who are not offering a prix fixe menu that are often discussed on these boards and who are certainly worth the visit for exquisite tacos al pastor or tortitas de camaron.
My Yogurt Dilemma
I thought perhaps you didn't like non-fat yogurt which may have a bitter taste with which I'm not familiar. I have a friend who also claims to hate yogurt, but he seems to love it whenever its enriching and thickening properties are used to boost a dressing, sauce, dip or soup. Maybe you'd enjoy having it used that way also.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
I thought sambal badjak has a little belachan in it, but if it is that mild, it must be rather versatile. Do you have any other uses you'd recommend?
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
Be careful not to strain yourself by taking on too much at once. I put on bit of weight after my recent surgery and some winter colds and started running as soon as I could. And promptly tore something in my knee leaving me basically immobile for another month. (Cue: 5 more lbs. added on). So many here are watching their weight with an even keel that allows them to enjoy life and food while slowly shedding the pounds; we ought to take comfort in their inspiration and follow them down their merry road. Though I will still rumble and grumble when it is pointed out to me that I don't look like I did when I was 23.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
I hope that's not just serendipity, because I want to recreate those results! I haven't made onion rings in years because they always seem a waste of money and effort once I tuck into them, but next time I have buttermilk...
I haven't undercooked chicken skin as far as I can recall. I fry at 350 until dark (I like extra crispy skin), so maybe the longer time at a higher temp is working in my favor?
My Yogurt Dilemma
I'm not sure I get the bitter flavor, but I use whole milk yogurt nearly daily and usually in savory preparations. Strained yogurt (which usually goes by the rather ethnocentric name "Greek" yogurt) is often the spread I use on bread, either in place of mayo, or topped with za'atar or other herbs. It's my basic binder for macaroni salads (with a touch of vinegar and sugar). With crushed garlic and herbs (usually mint or dill) it's a sauce for pasta or eggs or I can otherwise simply add some pecorino and a touch of cinnamon or nutmeg for a delicious "alfredo" sauce that works well with vegetables. Mixed with water (sparkling or still) and mint or salt, I drink it. Mixed with milk and sugar (and rose syrup if I'm lucky), I make it into lassi. If you can eat roast chicken, shredding it and tossing it with chickpeas, pita chips, yogurt, garlic, paprika, lemon juice and tahini will give you a very popular supper.
There are many varieties of yogurt soups popular throughout the Middle East that are not spicy such as Yayla Çorbası or Ash e Mast. Rice cooked with yogurt and a few spices is comfort food in South India. Hummus-like dips also abound with yogurt. I make one with swiss chard stems and another with beets.
Depending on what's in you cupboard, I think CH can figure out quite a few ways to hack a delicious Fage-based dish.
a place with the most intersting "not traditional" cupcakes ?
Robicellis was also my first choice. They update their tumblr with distributors in Manhattan so you can always check to see if the flavors you want are nearby.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
I lost 80 lbs. watching my carbs religiously. For the past 3 years I have watched my carbs from afar, often with binoculars on the weekends, and have held at a steady weight. The dramatic 30 lbs. loss my "frenemy" brags of due to his rigorous calorie counting makes me think I ought to pay more attention to nutrition on the micro-level if I want to lose these last 10 lbs. though I think this surge of male competition may peter out the moment I feel deprived... particularly during peak gin season.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
If that's all it takes, I'm definitely making this. Do you think I can add a bit of funk by adding fish sauce to sambal oelek or should I really invest in getting a bottle of sambal badjak? My roommates are no longer buying the excuse that as an Asian cook I really do need to have a fridge full of spice pastes and condiments to properly eat so I'm trying to limit myself to sauces that I would use frequently.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
Fermentation also unnerved me for years, but now that I'm getting into the swing of things, exploding peppers notwithstanding, I'm quite surprised how easy it is. The wet brined peppers required nothing more than a couple weeks in a salt bath in a sterile jar before they were deliciously tart.
snacks or other foods you eat, that others find " gross"
I must have a very high threshold, because I also have no problem with stinky tofu. Durians, however, fail to entice me with their flavor of spoiled custard mixed with onions.
Best "Ethnic" Neighborhoods and International Markets in the US
In NYC
Jackson Heights/Curry Hill/1st Avenue near East 6th Street for Indo-Pak
Woodside for Filipino
Spanish Harlem for Mexican/Puerto Rican
Washington Heights for Dominican
Chinatown (Manhattan, Sunset Park and Flushing) for Chinese and general Asian goods
Brooklyn Heights/Bay Ridge for Levantine/Yemeni
KTown for Korean
West Village for British
Woodlawn/Woodside for Irish
Astoria for Greek/North African/Egyptian/Brazilian
Stuyvestant Street for Japanese
Greenpoint/1st Avenue near East 7th for Polish
Brighton Beach for Russian
Yorkville/West Village for German
Mouhamara
It's a pretty common starter on Levantine menus, though I more often see it spelled muhammara. You can also get it for take away from Kalustyan's. I can't attest to quality either as I don't like the sweet and sour flavor and usually avoid it.
Changing face of East 6th Street
I don't think it's "de rigeur" to trash these places; it's just that now we know what Indian food is supposed to taste like and it's not that! I used to eat hot dogs with pinto beans when I was in college and while I get your mildly nostalgic feeling for those bygone days, I'm not going to pretend that "Cowboy Surprise" was better as food than it was as the inspiration for a Brokeback-themed skin flick.
That said, other than Sigiri, I haven't had anything worth trundling down Sixth Street for. Zerza has been on my "to try" list for quite some time, but their neighbor, Cherin, is a disappointment.
$ 1.00 oyster happy hour in NYC.....Any such thing??
I went to Maison Premiere at 4 on several occasions last summer and there was already a line forming outside the locked door each time. I prefer to go to Mermaid Inn (EV). You don't necessarily have the broad selection of Maison Premiere, but there is a rotating selection and the staff are very friendly and helpful making recommendations.
Bobo also has an oyster happy hour, but I think they're just Malpeques. The fried oysters, however, are a thing of beauty.
snacks or other foods you eat, that others find " gross"
Worse than stinky tofu? You can barely see the buggers most of the time with Filipino balut (not so with the more mature eggs preferred on the Continent). But there is no way you're going to be able to ignore stinky tofu!
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
Do you have proportions for your gado-gado sauce? I've had it homemade before and was put off by the amount of sugar and belachan that went into it, but I think if I had a good outline to work with, I could mould it to my preferences -- and that does sound like quite the perfect balance of vegetables and light proteins for a hot summer lunch.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
"You can eat whatever you want as long as it's not horribly carb-riffic"
My motto. Maybe we should co-author the dieters' guide to this summer!
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
If you're already pickling your own peppers, why not pickle your own kimchi? The brand of gochugaru I buy is plenty hot, although I could always throw a ghost chili in there if I wanted to.
How do you pickle your peppers, by the way? I just lacto-fermented a couple batches using a wet brine method and the dry brine I use for kimchi. Both tasted pretty straightforward given the paucity of additives, though the wet brine was a lot simpler -- mainly because the other pickled peppers exploded from a build up of gas pressure. Let me tell you, habanero explosions are the last thing you want to come home to on a Sunday afternoon.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
Your brine and buttermilk technique is the same one I use. The Thomas Keller chicken is indeed moist, but I can't help but feel that maybe it's missing a bit of barely perceptible somethin'or'other without the buttermilk. Plus I'm a double dipper, so the buttermilk is definitely a necessity there.
Please deduce what you did for those onion rings! They may be my favorite side dish, but I can never achieve anything better than slop and mush.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
Well I *was* channeling you at the store! All those fresh veggies made kheema seem boring in comparison.
What's for Dinner? #146 - Memorial Day Edition [old]
So many terrific meals this weekend! Like so many of you I had the hankering for creamy cole slaw and spareribs, but I wish I had gotten the memo for the deviled eggs! Today, however, it's way too hot for that leftover cole slaw and what's barbecue without the appropriate sides, so instead I'm using the first peas of the season to embellish turkey picadillo that I'm serving with a Thai-inspired slaw with lime juice and habaneros. For dessert homemade turron de Jijona ice cream.
snacks or other foods you eat, that others find " gross"
I've never heard of it as a party food. They are a common street snack.
