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2002.march.31 ------------- went up to evanston for a mellow sunday dinner with the fam. i was expecting pot roast but was pleasantly surprised to find steaks for supper: porterhouse and ny strip; i guess my mom felt like splurging. she said she got the steaks from e & m meat market in skokie, a butcher she's occasionally gone to for years. they were great cuts, nice and rare on the grill. the steaks got me thinking (again) about the fact that i don't really buy meat, at least, not in its raw form (i did buy some beef and veggie gyoza yesterday). i know there are several good butchers around logan square, i just haven't had the motivation to find them. anyway, among other side dishes, i ate asparagus, steamed, with butter: the only way i've ever prepared it. my mom makes it that way. i have to laugh when i think of how much of my culinary habits, or lack thereof, i've inherited from her. thankfully, ellen's got a new subscription to cooking light magazine; i saw several asparagus recipes that looked pretty simple while flipping through it last week. tis the season for asparagus. 2002.march.28 ------------- yesterday was an evening unleavened bread. after a pretty stressful day yesterday, ellen and i came home to make tofu and black bean burritos on flour tortilla, the leftovers of which i will be enjoying for lunch. later in the evening, doris and josh arrived in town with josh bearing matzo bread, which we ate with peanut butter. as a kid, i ate a lot of matzo, but hadn't eaten it in years. an email from jason made me realize that the mexican coke i've been drinking is actually kosher coke, since it's not made with corn syrup. i'm not jewish but grew up in close proximity with the culture, so that was pretty cool to hear. in addition, the parve label was extremely helpful when i was vegan, so i still look for the "k" symbol out of habit when buying certain foods. 2002.march.26 ------------- last night mandy and i didn't feel like cooking, so we walked down the block to pete's to pick up a frozen pizza. (i've actually never bought a frozen pizza before, ever; i don't usually buy frozen meals. but it was a good night for a first.) what was interesting about the excursion is that pete's, which stocks predominantly latin food, only had sausage. there were several different brands of frozen pizza to choose from, but they were all of the sausage variety. fine with me, it's what i probably would have bought anyway, but it got me thinking about the heavy use of meat, particularly ground meat, in traditional latin cooking. perhaps some cultures' diets are more easily adapted to a vegetarian lifestyle than others. i certainly ate a lot of chinese, thai, and japanese when i was vegan, and very little mexican. just a thought. --- also worth noting is that carniceria and fruteria roman has restocked their mexican coke selection. we cleaned them out a few weeks ago with our increased consumption (once atomly found out that sugar cane soda was available so close to my house it was over). however, the lamentation can end, at least for now. bring on the baccarid! 2002.march.25 ------------- on saturday chris, ellen, jen and i were in the south loop for classes at the center for book and paper arts (i took bookbinding - made three books, here's a picture of one). the columbia facilities are wonderful; i look forward to taking more classes there. anyway, it was an all-day class and we had a short break for lunch. i'm not very familiar with the south loop, and a brand new jewel had just opened on wabash a block away from where our classes were. so i figured what the hell, we can stop in for lunch. (as i wrote in a poem once: it's best to bend, so as not to break. i was speaking of something else, but it's applicable in this situation.) it was the first time i've been in a big grocery store in about six months, and felt a little strange. strange not because it was corporate, but because of where it was and how nice it was. years ago i partied in abandoned old lofts and warehouses in the south loop; now it's going condo, as evidenced by the ubiquity of construction and the presence of this new super-upscale jewel. as we walked in a big sign announced personal shopper and delivery services, something i've never seen at any other jewel. of course, i always was a dominick's girl, so who knows, maybe these are traditional offerings at jewel. the only part of the store i really got to check out was the perishable food aisle. it seemed generously expanded from other store models with a deli, fried food section, sushi section, salad bar, and more that i didn't really explore since lack of time was the factor that got me in there in the first place. another interesting thing about this jewel was its layout: instead of the normal sprawling architecture, this one had two floors. necessitating less space is one way the chain is trying to urbanize their stores; other changes included skylights, an expanded latin food section, and a cafe-esque eating area. we sat in the cafe place to eat lunch: i got half a steak wrap, which wasn't bad, and the worst stuffed grape leaf i've ever had. washed it all down with dasani - i was a bit peeved that i couldn't find refrigerated evian. yes, i'm aware that being a bottled water snob (a direct result of my month in europe last summer) is a bit incongruent with the whole anti-corporate grocery stance but whatever. i'm a picky person and don't apologize for my tastes. besides, life contains a certain amount of hypocrisy; acknowledge it and move on. so i dealt with eating lunch in a corporate grocery store and it wasn't the end of the world. not something i'd choose to do again, but circumstances pretty much dictated it as the place for lunch. it was definitely the nicest jewel that i've ever been in, and the floorplan was interesting; it just felt odd that such a yuppie place was in a part of the city that's still pretty run-down, at least in my mind. i guess it's time to shift perceptions again. 2002.march.22 ------------- on the way home from the train last night, ellen stopped and bought a couple avocados and a nice lemon from the guys who sell produce from their van. they were gone for most of the winter, but they're back now, which is really great; they always have the best today avocados, and are super friendly. i should go take their picture this weekend. anyway, ellen said they have mangoes now, a sure sign that warm weather is soon to arrive. bout time! the main truck guy said that next week they'll "have everything," which i hope means good tomatoes. mango salsa and salad caprese: next week should bring some good eating. only thing is, when stopping at the producemobile it's important to have small bills. they rarely have change, though when they don't they usually give you the veggies and tell you to bring money tomorrow. such nice guys, so ubiquitous. --- bread, coffee, chocolate, yoga: i haven't read much of the archives, but so far i love this blog (substitute "sushi" for "bread" and you've got a list of my fave legal buzzes). her chocowritings range from the exquisite practice of tasting chocolate to child slave labor on cocoa farms in africa, and that's just this week. of course, it is american chocolate week. 2002.march.21 ------------- no more good sunday food, we finally ate it all. the last couple spoonfuls of the best potato salad i've ever had were consumed last night, still creamy enough to be accompanied by the backwards eye roll. that's when you know it's good stuff. we brought the potato salad (and other miscellaneous snacky treats) back from ellen's parents' st. patricks day party, where i got to eat homemade corned beef for the first time. they get their potato salad from a place near them called swanson's; it's down on 103rd, requiring an excursion, but i'd like to go check out the rest of their deli. plus i saw a place right down the street called boo's soul food cafe that i'm dying to try. the other great sunday food that is no more is the infamous chocolate bread from red hen bakery. they only make it on sundays, and it's usually gone by 10am; under those conditions i thought i'd never get to try it. but last sunday we left the house at nine for the south side irish parade; figured since we were up and out at that hour we might as well make a stop. wow. what amazing bread. eaten plain or toasted with a little butter, it's like nothing else i've ever had. the bread itself is chocolaty without being overbearing or too sweet, while the chunks of bittersweet chocolate round out the flavour and texture. i can see why they sell out of it so quickly. while at red hen mandy bought an odwalla berry drink. it's worth mentioning that the beverage was something like $1.29; usually i see them retail for between two fifty and three bucks. after she bought the smoothie aidan mentioned that coke bought odwalla, at which point i began to sing another one bites the dust. --- a minor victory arises from bureaucracy and crappy building management: starbucks is no longer moving into our building. yay, keep the franchises out of greektown! turns out the alley isn't zoned for restaurant garbage collection or something and the owners don't want to deal with the conversion. works for me. 2002.march.20 ------------- last night i came home from yoga to make a low-key late dinner: kimchi, wasabi peas, and steamed broccoli. i didn't have any butter for the broccoli, so instead of settling for vegetable spread (i ate enough of that when i was vegan, no thanks), i remembered ryan's simple dressing recipe, and decided to mix up something similar. i looked through the shelves and fridge, choosing balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar, soy sauce and red miso. found myself lacking lemon and sake, which i think would have given it a nice kick. anyway, i mixed the ingredients in a small bowl and used it for broccoli dunkage; nice change of pace from salt and butter. having good miso again has made me happy. i bought this huge tub of jang miso several months ago and ended up not liking it very much; it's too beany in texture and the flavour is just...a bit off for my preferences. anyway, my new red haccho miso has reminded me that there are many things you can do with miso besides make soup. after my belly was full i pulled out my copy of the book of miso, and within the first few pages of sauce and dressing recipes found several that sound intriguing: peanut sesame miso, lemon miso, mustard miso, and simmered miso, which is miso, honey, water, and sake simmered for several minutes till thick. maybe i'll make some tomorrow. ellen tried my improvised sauce and liked it, so she sent me a recipe from the frustrated chef for baked tofu with miso; i get the feeling our house will be consuming much fermented soy in the next few weeks. 2002.march.19 ------------- ...and the sushi kick continues. i know i'm several years late on this, but we just got the food network, and now i'm enthralled by iron chef. in an episode saturday, the ingredient was unisex salmon; watching them gut the fish got me a little verklempt. it would be so awesome to be able to take a whole fish, clean and prepare it for sashimi, and then cook up the other parts into soup and such. yes, i have a new goal. now to find a market that sells quality seafood...mitsuwa seemed to have some nice sashimi steaks as well as fresh whole fish, but it's in a difficult location for me. that and it's pretty corporate; still worth an occasional visit though. (side note: the nytimes has a good article on how to quarter a duck, something i'm much less likely to do, but still interesting.) funny, i can trace my sushi obsession back to watching discovery channel's amazing documentary on the ocean. seeing all those fish and eggs got me so hungry; ever since then i've been hitting japanese restaurants at least once or twice a week. yeah, i know, that's kinda sad; i don't watch much tv, but i guess what i do see affects me pretty strongly. maybe if i watch an expose on mercury contamination levels in fish it'll taper my sashimi cravings...but for now, i'm off to tokyo lunch box. 2002.march.18 ------------- saturday afternoon chrise and i went to mitsuwa, a japanese mall in arlington heights that i've been wanting to explore for months. it was all i had hoped for and more! after plugging through too much traffic we were both really hungry when we got there, so we headed straight for the food court. i considered a big bowl of noodles or tempura or something but (big shock) i went for the chirashi sushi (picture). it wasn't the best sushi ever, but it wasn't bad for fast food. mitsuwa is an indoor mall of all japanese vendors, so before groceries we hit some other little stores. outside of the toy shop (where they have japanese playstation2 games) some kid was kicking ass at dance dance revolution, doing better than anyone i've ever seen. of course, the only time i've watched it played was in milwaukee, post-bowling and mid-inebriation. in the miscellaneous shop i was tempted to get a sushi-rolling kit but settled on three pair of chopsticks, one for me and each of my roommates. next up was the bookstore, which was huge but only had a few shelves of books in english. some murakami novels caught my eye, as did a book on shiatsu (i used to take lessons). i almost bought a sushi book, but i decided to wait and see if i could find anything better on amazon. chrise bought a book on learning japanese, which he studied in high school. finally it was time for groceries! i didn't really bother much with their produce section, though they seemed to stock a variety of asian fruits and vegetables. the first thing i went for was miso; i got sick of the beany korean jang miso in my fridge a month ago. i've been really wanting to try hatcho miso, so i looked for it. the closest thing i found was a bag of haccho miso, which i settled on. such a selection they had! one of the really nice things about mitsuwa is that everything is well labeled; most of the products have little to no english on them, so it was quite helpful to have such organized, informative shelf labeling. and oh the sashimi steaks. they had so much beautiful fresh fish out in refrigerated cases! i wanted to buy some tuna but decided that i'd probably be spending enough money there, i didn't need to spend ten bucks on a tuna steak. i also called skips on the hello kitty rice cooker, though they had a really nice cookware section. what i did buy: + haccho miso + a jar of gari (pickeled ginger) + kimchi (made in chicago and labeled two days ago) + a huge bag of dried shitake + big bowl of ramen + teriyaki nori + dried wakame + can of wasabi peas + a tube of wasabi + hapi snack crackers party mix + soba noodles + 2 boxes botan rice candy (for roommates) + a box of chocolate caramel candy + a bar of meiji black chocolate (not just dark, *black*) total: $35.16 i felt pretty western, buying so much chocolate candy, but i couldn't help it. i considered getting some red bean paste cakes, the texture of them is amazing, but in the end gave into the chocolate. they had super sided pocky sticks, like a foot long each, which i declined. the snacky aisles were at the end of the grocery layout, near the bakery, an aisle for salty and an aisle for sweet. singing and drumming emenated from behind the frozen food section, so i think there was a practice space back there. either that or their employes really like their jobs. i couldn't decide what kind of wasabi to get, powdered or in a tube, so i went with the one with the nicest design. i love japanese packaging, for so many reasons it's just great. i was squealing over cute stuff every two feet at mitsuwa; by the time i left i wasn't just happy, i was "super happy fun luck joy". in fact, it was the packaging from my mitsuwa excursion that finally got me to set up a fuckcorporategroceries photo gallery; check it out to see what i'm rambling on about. on our way out i walked by the makeup shop right on into the liquor store, where they carried sapporo ponies! tiny 4oz. cans. so cute, chrise had to get a 6 pack. they had an expensive sake collection, which i told myself to look past, some minimally packaged rice liquer that i'd love to try someday, and sake in cartons and glass squid bottles. overall, mitsuwa was a wonderful shopping experience: the layout made sense, the staff was ubiquitous but not intrusive, and there were enough checkout lanes to minimize any kind of wait. they even sub-bagged my groceries by kind, candy in one small bag, cans in another. the only downside was the price; similar items in an average asian store cost less (i compared several products while we were there). but whatever, i needed to stock up on some japanese staples. 2002.march.16 ------------- last night we made taco.burrito things as an excuse to use up the rest of the chorizo. i walked down to pete's with a short list: tortillas, sour cream, salsa, and a 2 liter of coke (for the baccarid). the optional item was avocado, which i didn't get because they were all three days away from ripe and the one that wasn't was several days past good, and bruised. i chose herdez salsa casera in a can, which when eaten only reinforced my growing preference for canned mexican salsa over the stuff that comes in glass jars. i also picked up a can of tamarind juice to mix with 3, an excellent vodka made with soy right here in chicago. total for pete's: $6.47. atomly had come with me on the walk down the block, and got a bag of el ranchero (best chips ever), a can of salsa, a jar of hot sauce, and some plastic (read: american) bottles of coke. on the way out i told him he should've gone to the other, smaller store three doors down from our house; they have all kinds of mexican soda, including coke and pepsi made from sugar cane. when we got back to my house, mandy had realized we were out of black olives, which i used as an excuse to go three doors down to carniceria y fruteria roman. not only did they have the olives and mexican pepsi, but they had plenty of today avocados ready to eat, priced at fifty cents instead of the dollar they were at pete's. i know i've hated on carniceria y fruteria roman before; when i need a specific something i stop there first and usually end up walking to pete's. but i am hereby revising my assessment of the place, and not solely based on the events of last night. admittedly, i have always loved changing my mind about things, or rather, having to revisit an existing opinion based upon current positive occurrences. which is what has gradually happened over the course of a year regarding carniceria y fruteria roman. the girls that work there are really nice, there are usually fresh churros by the door, and everything is ridiculously cheap. sure, they don't have the hugest inventory and i have yet to brave their meat counter, but they're great for edible today vegetables and basic food staples. --- after everyone had their fill of taco.burrito things there was still some avocado leftover, already beginning to oxidize and thus, unsaveable. so we made guacamole salsa with it, cementing the recipe ellen made up last time there was avocado to be used. 2002.march.15 ------------- everyone who has ever lived with me knows i'm a bit obsessive about the temperature of my food: i like it really. fucking. hot. i regularly get up in the middle of a meal and reheat a plate that has cooled, and have been known to send lukewarm food back at restaurants. but wednesday night i got more heat than was good for me. a bunch of us went to dinner at new tokyo; i was going to order gomae as an appetizer, it's my favourite, but alicia suggested the tofu gomae. not realizing it was fresh from the fryer, i massively scorched my mouth and tongue when i bit into a tofu pocket full of hot oil. so for the last two days i have been unable to enjoy eating, one of my regular sources of happiness. plus i had a several shots of novocaine for fillings thursday morning, as if my mouth wasn't sore enough. worse of all, i've had to consume food long after it has cooled. --- ok, enough with the complaining. here, have some friday links: - when good food goes bad - i want to try tea soup. - the grocery network, all the corporate grocery news you could ever want. - being the chocofreak that i am, i will be checking out the chocolate exhibit. - this guy thinks whole foods sucks too. - inconspicuous consumption deconstructs the details of consumer culture. rock on. (via kiplog) - i've been reading the veg blog lately, and liking it. plus it's got a simple recipe i've been meaning to try. 2002.march.13 ------------- so it's (almost) official: there's a starbucks moving in to the first floor of my office building. the rumour has circulated for several months now, but this morning there was a company truck unloading stuff out back. i'm pissed off. not because yet another starbucks has opened, that's inevitable at this point; but because it has opened in greektown, which has been impervious to corporate food businesses until recently. from my understanding, the greektown chamber of commerce must approve all new businesses within the special service area. it has been policy to only allow non-chain, family restaurants into the neighbourhood, but that seems to have changed. starbucks. in my building. what can i do besides sigh? making stickers would be fun but trite; obviously i'll boycott, but that doesn't feel like enough either. smashing windows is too violent, not to mention cliche. so i'm quietly fuming, i hate not knowing what to do. why do i even care so much? i've only worked in this neighbourhood for a year and a half, but after being in the loop it was so refreshing: good cheap food, easy parking (for people with cars), family-feeling by day, lively at night. and best of all, non-corporate. to be fair, the bottom floor of my building has sat empty and unrented for nearly two years, so i'm sure urban innovations didn't give a shit to whom they rented it. business is business, but i don't have to patronize the new tenants. --- while i'm ranting, check this site out; the url says it all. and on the subject of java, spot beyond 2001: a coffee odyssey, which proves that you can never blog about coffee too much. enough words. i think i'll go make an espresso. 2002.march.12 ------------- i was a little disturbed when bekah brought over a cucumber sunday, though not just because i think cucumbers are gross. (to be honest, i do eat cucumber salad with thai and japanese food, but that's where i draw the line.) anyway. this was the waxiest vegetable i've ever encountered. you could scrape it off with fingernails; after washing it in hot water, my hands felt coated. gross. so what exactly is this wax stuff? the wax can be dairy- or animal protein-based, but those waxes are not supposed to be used in mexico, canada, or the united states. this page states that american waxes are either vegetable-, petroleum-, or bug-based. bug wax is made from the secretion of the lac bug, from which shellac is derived. cucumbers, apples, cantaloupes, eggplants, oranges, peaches, persimmons, squash, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes are among the most commonly waxed produce. many fruits and vegetables make their own natural wax coatings to seal in moisture, but these natural waxes are washed away when produce is harvested. a coating of vegetable (or petroleum or bug) wax is applied to retain the moisture, as well as to stave off mold, prevent bruising, and of course, to make it look pretty. but is the wax bad for you? the fda doesn't seem to think so, but the long-term effects are still unclear. federal law requires that waxed products are labeled for the consumer, but few merchants actually follow the guidelines. that's too bad; because some of the waxes are animal-based, vegetarians, vegans, orthodox jews, muslims, and other people who are careful to not intake animal elements may be unknowingly ingesting them. so what can be done as a consumer? if you ask your grocer about produce waxing, what kind of wax is used, they're required to answer. i'd love to be able to shop organic all the time, but that's unrealistically expensive. for now i'll try and avoid gratuitously waxed products, and maybe this summer or next, grow my own tomatoes. 2002.march.11 ------------- this was the weekend for checking out bakeries. friday evening while visiting my family i walked out the back door of my mom's house, across the alley, and into the bakery that's always been there. i remember getting smiley face cookies in grade school for thirty-five cents; when i went back for one on friday it was $1.50. granted, the cookie had about an inch of chocolate piled on for eyes and smile, but still. lately i conceive of baked goods in mexican bakery prices. anyway, this bakery has probably changed hands a half dozen times since i was in grade school, and is now known as judy's. a search on the current owner reminded me of something: it was the bakery that supplied starbucks with their lemon knot and carmelita cookies for several years. a columnist for the tribune told the story of what happened when starbucks dumped them as a supplier with no warning. (though a cnn article says it had something to do with ups strike). damn, those lemon knots are really good; maybe i should've gotten one instead of a smiley face. --- sunday afternoon i walked up to the crotch to take some pictures of el station construction. since i was there, i stopped in at red hen bakery to see what all the fuss over that place is about. i couldn't believe how many different kinds of wonderful-sounding bread they had: sweet potato pecan, caramelized onion, jalepeno firecracker, pumpkin sweetcorn and grain, and olive rosemary boule, just to name a few. seriously, an amazing bread selection. it's not the place to go for sweet stuff; they only had three kinds of cookies. but wow. the bread. apparently i was there too late (two in the afternoon); on sundays they make chocolate bread, about which the other customer in there inquired. the girl behind the counter said they usually sell out of it by 10am. guess i'll have to set my alarm next time. as it was, i bought some challah, which was as warm and sweet as the atmosphere of red hen. it was a great discovery, and now i know that a great bread place is only a decent walk away. 2002.march.10 ------------- tonight when bekah came over to make baked macaroni i learned something new: cottage cheese is really good mixed in with a little marinara sauce! i used to eat cottage cheese all the time as a kid; it was a regular side dish with meals by my dad. however, i've only ever eaten it plain, never thought to use it as an ingredient. now to make use of some other recipes that use it... 2002.march.08 ------------- 175 w. jackson: that's the address of the soon-to-be downtown krispy kreme! now the waiting begins... on the topic of donuts, jen just told me about the tour de donut, a 30 mile bike race in the suburbs where contestants get five minutes off their time for each donut they eat. wow. --- i guess i'm writing about sweet gooey things today; several people have come up with variations on the peanut butter chocolate dipped cookie-things. last sunday lacey made them with nilla wafers instead of crackers, and included a banana slice in each; i could have eaten the whole bag. then i got email from michelle, who made them with ritz bits peanut butter sandwiches: "same concept, less work and smaller, but still great!" --- shopping at pete's reminded me of the existence of dulce de leche. i was first introduced to this sweet, thick caramel by an argentinean coworker, and ate it as a topping on almost every dessert for a week. subsequently i got sick of it and forgot about it entirely, since i don't make it to many argentinean grocery stores. however, pete's carries dulce de leche in a can, i might buy some next time. i still have some sander's butterscotch caramel sauce, but it's in the back of the fridge where i never see it, thus it doesn't get eaten. anyway, to tie it back in with the gooey cookie-things, i found a recipe for dulce de leche sandwich cookies. heh. 2002.march.07 ------------- after dinner at itto last night, mandy and i stopped in at the newly remodeled binny's on clark. i hadn't been there since the construction; they did a nice job. i still prefer sam's wine and spirits (it's such a warehouse), but we were closer to binny's. anyway, when binny's remodeled they added a mini-gourmet section in back: cheese bar, deli, imported chocolates, fancy crackers. the deli had tons of different kinds of pate and mousses (the crab and red pepper mousse particularly caught my eye), and they carried many of the same designer chocolates as fox and obel. come to think of it, the back of the new binny's is pretty much a mini fox and obel, though i compared some prices and binny's was cheaper on most items. we managed to get out of there with only a minor amount of chocolate: three fran's fixations, cafe au lait truffle sticks. they were really good, so now i have to seek out more fran's chocolates. oh, there was another kind of chocolate bar there that i wanted to try but didn't (such restraint!): dagoba. it's organic chocolate made with essential oils, and they even have a chai flavour! plus the font is pretty neat, and we all know that the original dagobah ruled. next time i'm buying one. 2002.march.06 ------------- "fungus nuggets": a new kind of veggie burger is now on the market, grown from mycoprotein fungus mixed with egg (vegans are s.o.l.) and flavourings to imitate chicken or beef. quorn, which is derived from mushrooms, has been available in britain for a while, but i have yet to see it here. --- in other exciting news, krispy kreme is set to open a new location in the loop this summer. how much does that rock? --- an opening that doesn't rock as much: subway has a new location in greektown, right next to zeus tasty food. thus far, greektown has done a great job of keeping chains out: no burger king, no mcdonalds (i LOATHE mcdonalds, though not for obvious reasons). the only chain here is jimmy john's, and even that is more of a uic thing. subway...would be a nice lunch alternative, but i can't help but be concerned about it being a "gateway" of sorts. especially when there's been a rumour circulating for a while about a *gasp* starbucks opening in the first floor of our building. say it ain't so! --- keep it local: last night at leo's lunchroom i got to try a new kind of cream soda: filbert's. it's made here in chicago, and had a great balance of sweetness and flavour. i can't find much information on the company, but i guess they also sell root beer by the keg. 2002.march.05 ------------- yep, it's girl scout cookie time again. i can't believe i used to sell these things. it's been years since i bought a box (since ordering a dirty girl scout from the bar next to my office doesn't count), but ellen brought home some thin mints to keep in the freezer. is it just me, or has the quality and quantity of the cookies depreciated over the last decade? criminey, it's been fifteen years since i've really thought about them. the peanut butter and chocolate cookies were always my favourite; they used to be called trefoils, but have undergone like five name changes. makeovers? anyway. last night when mandy was making chocopretzels she added peanut butter, the taste of which reminded me of them. there's a picture of one of mandy's mixed berry creations in-the-making on my photolog. that's right, i'm putting my new camera to use. maybe someday i'll have enough pictures of stuff we cook to put up a food photo gallery. --- my sashimi craving has gone on long enough to warrant me putting up a sushi and sashimi links section. 2002.march.04 ------------- this weekend was all about the homemade hot chocolate. my mom's recipe is so easy and so good that i used up the last of my rice dream; i really need to find some place that will sell me cases of the stuff, and soon. i don't do much cooking with chocolate, but amanda does. between her crazy desserts and this weekend's hot cocoa, i've begun to notice that most things involving chocolate must be done in very precise steps, with a fair amount of timing and patience involved. the bottle of chambord ellen and i bought to drink with the cocoa had a little booklet of recipes with it. one that caught my eye was adding a splash of the raspberry liqueur to a sliced grapefruit. there was also a recipe for chambord mousse, which i don't have much interest in, but it got me thinking about making chocolate mousse. odd, i'm a chocolate freak, always have been, but never really liked mousse until a few years ago; now i can't get enough of the stuff. the bakery at artopolis has several great varieties, but it's only a block from my office, so i have to restrict myself to a couple visits per month. mousse is not an everyday thing. so now i'm hunting for a good mousse recipe to eventually adapt and adopt. i say "eventually" because mousse seems to be the kind of thing that would take lots of practice before i can make it well. --- coinciding with this weekend's mexican bakery feast: a post on chicago's chowhound board today mentions a great mexican bakery with multiple refrigerated cases and high butter usage. pierre's, the bakery, is nowhere near me, but there's a location on milwaukee between diversey and belmont (2747 n. milwaukee). i'm adding it to my wishlist of shops to explore. 2002.march.02 ------------- this afternoon, ellen and i walked down the block (covered in snow by the time we got there) to pete's for avocado quesadilla ingredients. we still had some chihuahua and cotija left over from when bekah made lasagna wednesday, just needed tortillas, salsa and avocado. amidst a pile of tomorrow avocados i found one ripe enough to eat right away, and a nice surprise: they had broccoli! pete's tends to stock mostly seasonal veggies, and doesn't always have a grand assortment; i haven't seen broccoli there since last summer. but what they had today was pretty fresh, and the big stalks were cut off; i bought two full heads, i think it was 99 cents a pound, no stems. they had several different kinds of tortillas, all made in chicago and all still warm. it took us a minute to find the salsa, because none of it came in jars: instead, little cans with pull tabs. ellen decided on embasa salsa, and it was really good! not super chunky, but a balanced full flavour. so: + 2 heads of broccoli + 1 avocado + 1 can salsa + 20 flour tortillas total: $3.71 --- it was still snowing pretty hard by the time we finished digesting the quesadillas, which made me think of how nice it is to drink hot chocolate and chambord while watching snow fall. so ellen and i suited back up and went over to vas foremost for a bottle. since we were over by the california stop, we stopped in panadaria la central, where we totally stocked up. everything we saw looked really good, but that place is so cheap, and i figured anything we didn't eat tonight might be nice as a tomorrow morning pastry. we got: + a huge loaf of french bread + 2 cookies (chocolate chip and sugar) + sandwichy jelly sugar pastry thing + strudel-esque berry pastry + pineapple filled turnover + apple crisp + some kind of muffin + slice of chocolate cake total: $3.73 i'd like to note that the chocolate cake was a major score. the main thing i've felt that bakery lack was anything hardcore chocolate, which is kind of a requirement for me. but today we looked in the refrigerated case, where they had big slices of four layer double chocolate cake for eighty cents each. whoa. and it was so good, not too heavy, super moist. a good thing to remember. 2002.march.01 ------------- so i must ask: anyone know of any good sushi or sashimi classes? i've been going out for the stuff so much lately that i feel it would be worthwhile to make my own. there are plenty of recipes available, but this seems the kind of thing that's best learned hands-on. i've found several classes, but i'm not sure if the listings are current. to keep up with my cravings, alicia and robin took me to new tokyo last night. got to discover a new kind of sashimi, i think it was aji (mackerel), but i'm not positive. whatever it was, i want more. i've decided chicago needs a a site devoted to sushi restaurant reviews: who has the best dragon rolls, excellent but inexpensive sashimi, and so on. i found this page, which seems pretty thorough, but the comments have been removed. oooh, it mentions the oriental cooking school and market on howard, i'll have to check that place out. looks like the guy who runs it teaches classes at kendall college. more japanese food links: - q & a japanese food is a cute little message board with a lot of broken english. - this how to roll your own sushi page has a lot of good tips. i like their advice: "if your first roll does not turn out quite right, eat it to hide the evidence and roll another, which will be much better." - some variations on miso soup - translations of japanese menus for your palm. - how to eat specific kinds of sushi (link via gohan taberu) - sake, baby! |
