A's Favorite Food Memories of 2016

This was an interesting year for me with regards to eating and drinking. M and I did a decent amount of travel this year, and that's reflected in my list. This list, as always, isn't necessarily the best things I ate or drank all year, but it's a list of the most memorable events. It just happens that most of these are the best things I ate :)

1) Chesapeake and Maine - Warm Maryland Crab Dip
This is a dish of pure comfort and decadence. It's cheesy, sweet from the succulent crab meat, and simply amazing as a dish. We went to Chesapeake and Maine twice on our visit down to Rehoboth Beach, and we got this each time. In fact, it was so good that it was the only thing we duplicated.

2) Convivial - Scallop Boudin Blanc
I included this because it was so different from anything I had ever eaten before. It was scallop that was ground up and formed into a sausage of sorts. They topped it with sliced snow peas, sea beans, and roe. We couldn't place all of the flavors on this, but it tasted like a smooth, silky chowder.

3) Craft Beer
One thing that seemed pretty constant with most of our trips this year was amazing craft beer. With trips to Delaware, Portland, and San Diego we hit some of the biggest names in craft brewing, and these also happen to be some of my favorites. The highlights for the year are definitely Dogfish Head, Cascade, Stone, and Ballast Point. I had initially debated between adding in small batch coffee instead, but I opted for craft beer because it's something that M and I can enjoy together.

4) Dominique Ansel Bakery - Cronut
The original Dominique Ansel hype food! We finally took advantage of the pre-order option for cronuts this year and were able to taste one of their monthly flavor offerings. We got the June flavor: Blueberry Elderflower with Lime Sugar. Having had the real thing, I understand the hype. I've tried a couple imitation versions, and they never seemed like anything special, but after eating an actual cronut, I see that the imitators have yet to figure anything out. The combination of light and airy croissant turned into a denser donut is a magical mystery, and the fruit flavors and custard made for an amazing flavor. We're looking forward to getting more of these in the future.

5) Fork and Flask at Nage - Smoked Half Chicken
This is a dish that I know I wouldn't be able to eat every day even though I included it on this list. The reason for that is because it's just too rich and heavy for that to happen. The chicken was good and had a nice smokey flavor to it, but it was the accouterments that really made this dish shine. First and foremost was the black garlic infused mashed potatoes. They had such a rich and umami-filled flavor from the black garlic and butter, and I can still taste it today in my head. The roasted root vegetables offered a subtle sweetness to the combination, and it was also nice to have a bit of vegetable matter on the plate. While I couldn't eat this every day, I would certainly love to try my hand at making that black garlic mash at some point.

6) Mofongo with Pork - Vendy Plaza Harlem (La Marqueta)
I love mofongo, and I've always been intrigued by it since I first read about it over a decade ago. It wasn't until back in 2014 that I finally got to try some, and I instantly fell in love with it. Funny how it took me another year and a half before I got it again, but that wait was totally worth it. I don't remember the name of the stand this came from, but they had a wait because they made all of the mofongo fresh. The additional wait time made this even better because the anticipation built it up in my mind, and it lived up to its billing. The fried pieces of pork had just the right amount of fat on them to keep everything moist and flavorful, and the freshly made mofongo was so rich and hearty. The bowl came with a small cup of garlic water/sauce, and the heavy garlic flavor really tied everything together.

7) Seabra's Marisqueira - Acorda de Marisco (Dry Soup)
This year M and I finally made the trip out to Newark, NJ to get some authentic Portuguese food. For me the highlight of this meal was the Acorda de Marisco which is a soup that is then filled with cubes of bread that soak up the broth and make it a thicker, stewier concoction. I'd never heard of a "dry soup" before, but I could totally go for some right now in this cold winter weather. It has the right amount of saltiness to go with the sweetness of the seafood in the soup, and it's a hearty, comforting dish.

8) Thip Khao - Naem Khao (Crispy Rice Salad)
M and I have had really good luck with Southeast Asian rice salads in our lifetime, and this was no exception. The perfect combination of spice, heat, herbs, and crunch meld to form a near perfect dish. It's clean and light while still bursting with so much flavor. This is definitely something I could eat every day and not get tired of it.

9) Uncle Boons - Banana Blossom Salad
This wasn't my favorite dish of the night for this meal, but it was up there. The reason I chose this dish, though, is because it reminded me so much of a dish M and I had back in Chicago at a different Thai restaurant. It's creamy and fresh tasting, and the fried shallots offer that salty, crunchy goodness that we know and love. This dish brought M and me back to delicious and simpler times in our lives before all of these "adult responsibilities" came into being.

10) Zenebech Injera - Vegetable Combo with Doro Wat
This isn't the first Ethiopian food we've had in our lives, but it was a completely transcendent experience. Zenebech was known as being the bakery that provided injera to almost every other Ehtiopian restaurant in the area. They also had their own restaurant where they served, easily, the best Ethiopian food we'd ever tasted. The injera was light and fluffy, and it didn't leave a sticky residue like all of the versions here in NYC. The stews were so full of flavor and were like nothing we had ever tried before. The doro wat was so rich, and the chicken pulled off the bone so easily.

BrewDog Shepherd's Bush

M and I knew that if there was one bar we were going to visit on our London vacation, it would be one of the bars opened by BrewDog. We love their TV show as we find it both amusing and also very informative. They love beer and also love the science behind the beer. To me, it's like Alton Brown's old show Good Eats if it were 100% beer centric. When we found out there was one right down the street from our hotel, we knew we had to go.

I started out with one of their flagship Punk IPAs. It wasn't as hoppy as I had expected based on how much they talk about loving big, bold hoppy IPAs on the show, but it was very crisp and refreshing. I definitely see why this is their standard, and it got me excited to try more of their beers.

M started out with their Lizard Bride. This purple colored concoction was a marriage between their IPA and one of their red berry sours. The result was what might be M's favorite beer of all time. It had a nice tartness in which you could clearly taste the mix of different red berries, both sour and sweet.

For our second round I opted to go with their Hardcore IPA while M got another Lizard Bride. The Hardcore IPA is one of their Imperial IPAs, and it was everything I imagined it would be. This beer was chock full of big, bold hop notes, big, bright citrus notes, and a really nice back end sweet finish.

When we got our second beers, we figured that we might need some food to help soak them up, despite having just stuffed our faces at Sunday roast. We opted for their Tots with The Works since... why not?

The Works topped the tater tots with cheese, chili con carne, pickled jalapenos, and white onion. These were the perfect bar snack and were also really tasty. They were laid out basically like totchos with the tots on the bottom and smothered by the toppings. The only difference is that their tots were like mashed potatoes that were formed into cylinders and then fried. It was an interesting texture since the interiors were so soft and smooth compared to the crisp exterior. We thought the dish could have used more cheese, but it was nice to see shredded cheese instead of the cheese sauce that often comes with totchos. While these weren't earth-shattering or amazing, they were definitely tasty and perfect for pairing with our beers.

La Rose Blanche

After a bit of a frustrating afternoon traveling around Brussels and not being able to see most of the places we wanted to, we spent the rest of our afternoon/evening in Grote Markt (The Grand Place) in the center of the city. It was a beautiful square surrounded by grand architecture and was an amazing setting to walk around. We happened upon La Rose Blanche right near the edge of the square, and the menu seemed like it was full of traditional Belgian dishes so we thought it would be a good place to eat for the evening.

We chose to sit outside as the weather was gorgeous, and the scenery was so majestic to behold. There was also some sort of festival or concert going on, and there was a full orchestra playing music, as well as marching bands and lots of other entertainment. It felt so surreal to be there as if we were back in some city celebration back in the day.

As we often did during this trip, M and I each got a beer for dinner. M chose a kriek by Mort Subite, and I got a Chimay Blue. This was the first time we had really encountered kriek, a sour cherry beer mostly found in the Brussels area, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, it was also about this time that things started to turn a bit. The waiter came to pour our beers, and he inexplicably spilled some of my beer on to the table. Instead of apologizing, all he said before leaving was, "Dangerous!" Yes, this is a touristy spot, and yes, we don't speak his precious French language, but it's rare that I see such terrible service. (M's note: We have nothing against French people or the French language, but this waiter was just the embodiment of every stereotype out there about French people and their attitudes towards tourists. And we weren't even in France!)

Because we were hungry, we decided not to send the bread basket back. I don't remember if we were charged for it like in other European countries, but I'm not sure we cared at the time. It was a few pieces of a nice, crusty French loaf. Other than that, though, it was fairly standard.

I liked the Carbonades a la Flamande (Flemish style beef stew) that I had back in Brugge so much that I wanted more of it so that's what I ordered. From what I remember this wasn't nearly as rich or flavorful as the previous night's offering. It was fine, but there was a noticeable difference. Coupled with the rude and inattentive service (more on that later), this was a severe step down.

M got the Boulettes a la Marolienne (meatballs with tomato sauce, onions, Faro beer and pommes frites). Except the fries didn't come with the meatballs, even though the menu specifically said pommes frites. We had photos of the menu and we knew there were supposed to be fries, so where were they? We don't remember all the details this many years later but we think there was an extended period of trying to flag the waiter down for fries, and we don't recall whether they actually arrived since we never took a picture of them if they did. Maybe we were too frustrated about the whole situation and just dug into the fries, or maybe the waiter never brought them even after we asked and we just gave up. No recollection other than that there was some frustration and aggravation about the whole situation (more on the service later).

We also opted to get an order of Fondus aux Fromages (parmesan cheese croquettes). M and I are huge fans of croquettes, and we also really like cheese. At first we thought they might just be something like mozzarella sticks, but instead these were blocks of parmesan, fried and oozing with deliciousness.

In the end, this meal was just okay. The food was nothing special, and the waiter we had was incompetent and also completely inattentive. It took several times for us to actually flag him down whenever we needed anything, and we actually did need things because of all the things that were missing or wrong in the first place. At first we thought it was because we were clearly Americans, but the Spanish tourists sitting a couple tables down from us also were given the silent/ignoring treatment to the point that all of us were joking that we clearly all didn't speak the right language.

Overall, while the food didn't make a lasting impression and the service was terrible, the enjoyable scenery and the beautiful music salvaged some of the night.

De Vlaamsche Pot

After our wafel, we wandered around Brugge some more, looking for dinner. Nothing really caught our eye on the streets we were on, so we made our way back to Cambrinus, the place we had gone for dinner the night before. They had such a large menu, and we had tried so little of it, so we were sure we could find some new and delicious food there. Unfortunately, they told us they were reserved for the rest of the night, so we had to go somewhere new. We looked through our Rick Steves guidebook, and he suggested a Flemish spot called De Vlaamsche Pot so we headed over there. Luckily, they were still open and not booked for the night, but we did have a short wait for a table. We had no idea Brugge would be so packed at dinnertime!

The restaurant was located in a narrow townhouse with lots of cute decor. It was dimly lit, with lots of red tablecloths and checkered napkins. When we sat down, they gave us large leatherbound menus, and we couldn't wait to figure out what we were going to order.

To start the meal, we both got beers. A got a Chimay tripel, and M went for the Westmalle tripel. Even though both of these beers are fairly easily found in the US, this was, as mentioned, back in the years prior to the major craft beer explosion in the US. Because of that, we both opted for a "locally" brewed beer. Both beers were very crisp and refreshing, and they were good to pair with the meals that we each chose.

We both chose to go with one of the set menus. (We can't remember whether the menus had lots of a la carte options, but the 3 course set menus seemed like a fair deal for the price and covered exactly the dishes we wanted to eat, so we went with them.) M chose the Noordzee menu (literally "North Sea"), €31 at the time, which was focused on seafood. The appetizer course on that menu was the tomato with shrimps. In addition to a lightly dressed lettuce-based salad on the side, the appetizer came with a large pile of tiny shrimp, topped with dressing and some chunks of tomato. This was really good and tasted really fresh, and it was fun eating so many small shrimp. We don't really want to think about all the work that went into preparing such tiny shrimp, but that probably made it worth the price.

A got the Vlaamsche menu (literally "Flemish"), €28 at the time, which started off with farmer's pate. The pate came with a side of lingonberry jam/sauce and salad, as well as a bag of pumpernickel bread. The pate was wonderfully rich and creamy. When spread over the slightly sweet pumpernickel and layered with a little bit of the sweet and tart lingonberry jam, it was very delicious. The salad was refreshing and definitely necessary to help balance the heavy, rich flavors of the pate.

The main course for the Noordzee menu was waterzooi met zeevis (with sea fish). Waterzooi is a classic Flemish dish, and it's basically a creamy stew traditionally filled with potatoes and seafood (although these days it's available with chicken too). According to Wikipedia, waterzooi originated in Ghent, a Belgian town we passed through on the train on our way to Brugge, so we definitely wanted to try this local specialty. 

Inside the creamy stew, M found a giant boiled potato along with a piece of fish and what looked like a large langoustine. Although it didn't look like there was a ton of stuff in the stew at first glance, the waterzooi was incredibly filling. M regretted a little bit getting the wafel earlier when she was hungry, but only because the waterzooi was that filling. From what we remember, the flavors of the waterzooi were really good. It was very rich and creamy and filling and heavy though, and we hadn't really prepared for that.

The main course for A's menu was carbonades a la Flamande (apparently stoofvlees op z'n Vlaams, in Flemish), or Flemish beef stew. Similar to waterzooi, carbonades was a Flemish dish we had heard a lot about. The beef stew came with a side of applesauce. A's big reason for picking this was because it is such a well-known Flemish delicacy. It was an extremely rich and meaty stew, but it was also so full of flavor. He doesn't remember much about the applesauce unfortunately, so he can't really comment on that aspect.

For anyone getting carbonades, they came around with a giant metal bowl of fries to fill up your plate, and would gladly refill them if you asked. The fries didn't seem like the double-fried fries like what you get in Amsterdam with the sauces, but they were still good. They were thicker cut so they were more potatoey. The outsides were stiff but not fully crisp. They soaked up the carbonade gravy very well.

The third course for both of our menus was dessert. For M, it was supposed to be homemade vanilla ice cream, and for A, an unspecified "Brugs Room dessert." We were both so full though after our appetizers, entrees, and all that bread and fries that we couldn't imagine eating dessert too. Lucky for us, they let us substitute tea for dessert. They probably made out better on that deal, but our stomachs were thankful.

Every table got some Dumon chocolates to end the meal, which seemed fitting as they were the main chocolatier that we found in Brugge with multiple outlets, and we were really happy to round out our very Flemish meal with them.

De Vlaamsche Pot was a very solid restaurant that specialized in classic, Belgian cuisine. The food was incredibly filling but also very flavorful. In fact, the carbonades were so good that it inspired M to make her own version, and A thinks that the stoemp she made with them was better as a side than the fries served here. We would recommend De Vlaamsche Pot to anyone who wants to try some traditional Flemish food. We're glad we had the chance to try these very classic dishes.

Brugge Food and Drink Touring

6 years ago today we did some food tourism while on our travels in Brugge, Belgium. The two places we ended up seeing were Brouwerij De Halve Maan, the local brewery, and Chocolatier Dumon. Both places were very interesting to see and taste, and we were very happy to have done some local business sightseeing.

Having already gone to a local brewery in Amsterdam (twice), we wanted to get a tour of a local brewery in Brugge as well. De Halve Maan does brewery tours for a fee, currently €8.50. They're run in either Dutch, English, or French and run approximately 45 minutes. They also now offer an "XL tour" that includes a private beer tasting and tips on how to properly taste beer. This option wasn't available when we went, though, so we didn't get a chance to do it. Be warned that the brewery has a lot of stairs, some of which are steep and narrow, and the ceilings aren't always extremely high. I had to duck a lot to get in and out of places since I'm tall, but if you're like M and more vertically challenged, you probably won't notice.

The tour itself was interesting for me. I always enjoy hearing about the history of breweries, and this one is especially old (established in 1856). It was also very interesting to see how the brewery adapted to fit into the building they were housed in to maximize space usage while also providing adequate facilities to brew the beer.

At the end of the tour they give you a glass of their Brugse Zot Blond in their restaurant/tasting room. They describe it as: "Brugse Zot Blond is a golden blond beer with a rich foam collar and a fruity yet spicy bouquet. The beer is brewed with four different kinds of malt and two aromatic varieties of hop which give the beer its inimitable taste."

I don't remember much about the beer, but I do recall that I had ordered one recently at a restaurant since it was local. What I do remember is that it was crisp and refreshing but without much of the hoppiness that I've come to love in recent years. It was refreshing and a perfect end to the tour.

After the brewery tour we went to Chocolatier Dumon, a chocolate store that I believe is famous as I had heard of it prior to doing any research into Brugge. That could be an entirely false memory, but I definitely remember hearing of it long before we went. Regardless, whether or not my potentially false memory had anything to do with it, I'm glad we made the visit. The smell of chocolate hits you as soon as you step in the door, and the lady working behind the counter was very patient to answer all of our questions and also offer samples. They had a special Ecuadorian dark chocolate that they had just gotten in of late, and the sample we had was amazing. In the end we opted to purchase a sample box full of a lot of their chocolates (white, dark, and milk) including a piece of the special Ecuadorian. It was supposed to come with a marzipan piece as well, but M mentioned that she wasn't (at that time) a fan of marzipan. The lady was very nice and offered to substitute another piece of the Ecuadorian in its place, and we were more than happy to accept.

We really enjoyed our time in Brugge a lot, and this day of local food tourism was incredibly enjoyable. It's so great to sample locally made specialties when we travel, and we definitely recommend visiting both if you have the time.

Week 31 - Drink Pairings

The Week 31 challenge was drink pairings. I wanted to do beer since we had brought home quite a bit of beer from our visit to Dogfish Head, but since I didn't know much about beer pairings, I went to A for help. We decided that the best plan was to pair some spicy food with an IPA, so to go along with the kimchi potato salad from the fermentation challenge, I made a kimchi grilled cheese sandwich.

This wasn't the first time I made a kimchi grilled cheese sandwich. The last time I made it, I used one of the pouches of kimchi that Trader Joe's used to sell before everyone realized that they were prone to blowing up and potentially exploding. I don't think I've written about this sandwich before, other than mentioning it in passing, but it was such a good combination. I didn't really follow a recipe for it, but just used the same method as making the Kappacasein-style toasties and other grilled cheeses I've made in the past.

The ingredients for the grilled cheese sandwiches were:

- 4 slices sourdough bread ($1)
- 2 tbsp butter, melted ($0.40)
- about 1.75 cups grated monterey jack cheese (about 2/3 of that block) ($1.93)
- 1 cup kimchi, chopped ($1)

The total for the sandwiches was about $4.33, less than the potato salad that was the other half of dinner. Adding the cost of the beer and the potato salad, the total for the whole dinner was about $12.59. Not too bad considering how full we were by the end of it.

I assembled the sandwiches the same way I did for the toasties challenge. I buttered the bread and then put the cheese and kimchi on the non-buttered sides, and then made the grilled cheese in a nonstick pan.

Happily, at this point I seem to have internalized the lessons from last fall's Kappacasein toastie since I didn't even have to look at the post to refresh my memory. I just did what seemed right by instinct, and then when writing this post, I looked it up and found that they were all the same technique tweaks I had already incorporated (using sourdough bread with holes, grated instead of sliced cheese, and putting a pan on top to flatten the sandwich). Nice.

We paired our kimchi meal with Dogfish Head's summer IPA called flesh and blood. We were at the brewery in Delaware on the day that they officially released the beer so this was a trip souvenir for us. While the beer was good out of the bottle, the citrus notes didn't come out as well as they did from the freshly tapped keg at the brewery. That said, combined with the kimchi grilled cheese and the kimchi potato salad, the flavors were greatly enhanced and it was so much better. You could really taste the bright orange and lemon flavors that weren't quite there when we first drank the beer before eating the spicy food. Seems like it was a successful drink pairing!

We've always liked kimchi grilled cheese. It's a fairly easy and very tasty dinner, so I'm sure we will just keep making it, especially if we always have kimchi on hand (which I'm hoping we will, in the form of many more large tubs of kimchi).

Heineken Experience

We missed the "5 years to the month" self-imposed deadline on our 2010 Europe trip recaps, but maybe we'll be able to finish them before the end of the year? (Unlikely, but we can dream.) Time to reminisce a little bit about being back in Amsterdam...

When we recapped the entire Amsterdam portion of our 2010 trip (way back when), we skipped over the Heineken Experience. Apparently at the time, we thought it was "not really about food," but thinking about it now, we're not sure why it wasn't worthy of a post. Not only did the exhibition go through the history of the company and how to make beer, but we also got to drink beer. That's not really very different from a visit to an active brewery, which we would definitely include, so we're jumping back a little bit to briefly show you what we saw on our visit to Heineken.

The Heineken Experience was high on our list of places to visit back then. We liked Heineken beer, so it only seemed logical that we would stop by. It also seemed like a fun way to spend an afternoon learning more about one of the Netherlands' most famous exports, so we headed over after having our delicious burgers at Burgermeester.

The Heineken Experience was in a huge space and there was a lot to see. One of the things we liked the most was the display of old Heineken posters and advertisements. This one was probably one of our favorites, but there were a lot there to see.

There was also a section of the exhibition where they took you through the process of making beer. They told us about all the ingredients and why they're important. A already knew about the process and ingredients that go into making beer, but he still learned quite a bit.

You were also able to go out on to a sample production floor to see all the different steps involved in making the beer and even try doing some of them on your own. For example, you could stir up this giant vat.

They let you try some of the ingredients, like at this station, you could try some wort. Wort is the boiled water and barley which provide the sugars for the alcohol to ferment. The wort itself has a pleasant, subtle sweetness and tastes nothing like the beer it becomes.

You could also learn a lot about the history of Heineken. One of the more interesting parts of the history to me was seeing the evolution of the Heineken bottle and its design. They also showed all the special edition bottles which was pretty cool. (Probably goes hand in hand with my interest in the advertising posters.)

It wasn't all educational. They also had lots of fun stuff. The sections with games were the most crowded, as they had foosball tables and video games and more. On top of all that, there was something they called Brew You, one of those motion rides where you pretended you were the beer ingredients getting turned into beer. There was a lot to do at the Heineken Experience so it's no surprise that we were there for hours.

The end of the exhibition was basically a giant bar where you could drink your Heineken with virtual coasters if you liked. Our general thought about the beer was that it was Heineken just like we had always had, but better. That probably had to do with the freshness of the beer since it didn't have to travel across the ocean.

Once you finished going through all of the "experience," the last stop was of course the gift shop. We picked up a few things and generally just enjoyed browsing around. Some of the stuff was definitely an "only in the Netherlands" type of thing, like these blue Delft mugs. (Never made it to Delft on this trip, but certainly saw the products everywhere!)

Overall, we had a really good time at the Heineken Experience. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon, learning about and tasting some beer. If you have any interest in beer generally or Heineken more specifically, we'd definitely recommend a visit.