Butter, Berries, and Botched Burmese Bowl

It's been a while since I posted here. May?! I thought it was more recent, but then realized there was a lot of stuff in drafts. So, what's been going on since May? Summer came and went in the blink of an eye. We went on our first plane trip since COVID arrived in 2020. We've explored more destinations in the AtWCC, and I've been keeping up with the 52 week cooking challenge, but you'd never know that since there aren't any posts here.

To remedy that, unless there is a reason for a separate post (like if it's also counting for the AtWCC), or unless it's one of the ones already languishing in drafts, I think I'm going to group together some of the 52 week challenge posts. For some of them, there just isn't that much to say. I made them, they fit the challenge, and that's that. So, in an attempt to catch up and so that I'm not finishing writing about the challenge next March like I did for last year's, here are weeks 31 through 35.

Week 31: Butter

For Week 31, I made a mixed berry cake with butter sauce. It wasn't the most photogenic cake, but it definitely spotlighted the theme ingredient - butter. The original recipe from Taste of Home used cranberries, but it was the middle of the summer with no cranberries to be found in the grocery store outside of canned cranberry sauce, so I used strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries (frozen, actually, since fresh berries are expensive and we prefer eating those fresh). It was the rest of the bag of frozen berries from last year's failed akutaq plus some extra frozen raspberries, and I just kept hoping that this would be a better use of those berries than the last time.

Following the instructions, I actually got a little bit stressed out that this was going to be an akutaq repeat, because after I added the milk to the creamed butter-sugar mixture, everything started to look clumpy and curdled. It was still lumpy after the flour, so I had very low expectations. When it came time to make the butter sauce for the top, I ran into another complication because I hadn't noticed the half-and-half on the ingredient list. Oops. From some internet research, I found out that someone mixed olive oil with soy milk, and it had the same effect. I was skeptical since it looked like a pool of oil when it started on the stove, but it really came together as a nice, thick glaze. I have no idea why it worked, but it did. Overall, the cake turned out delicious. Super sweet and super buttery, but successful! If we can get some fresh cranberries in the fall, this may turn up on our meal plan again.

Week 32: Chamorro

This one is going to get its own post, because it's going to count for Guam!

Week 33: Allergies

For allergies week, I tried to get as many of the top 9 allergens (wheat, milk, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, peanut, tree nuts, sesame) in one dish as possible. So this pasta dish had tricolor spaghetti (wheat) with peppers and onions in a peanut ginger sauce (peanuts, soy, sesame), topped with crispy tofu (more soy), salmon (fish), and slivered almonds (tree nuts). I've made this dish a number of times before (with just tofu), but it had been a while, so I didn't realize we were out of unexpired almond butter. The slivered almonds look like a last minute add-on, and they were, since I wanted to do tree nuts but didn't have almond butter.

The ones I left out were shellfish (inspired by a recent back of the cupboard challenge, I tried to only use proteins we already had at home), eggs (because of B's allergy), and milk (lactose intolerance over here). 6 out of 9 was pretty good! The dish didn't come out as well as I would have liked because I think it needed more sauce and had more sauce in the past, but at least it still tasted fine.

Week 34: Oats

Oat-crusted chicken and oat risotto were on the menu for the oats challenge. The chicken was brined in vegan buttermilk that had an oat milk base and then crusted with oats. A did most of the work for the chicken, since these are chicken tenders he makes often and they're always so good. For the oat risotto (which A really wanted me to call ris-oat-to), I used a recipe from Allrecipes, added mushrooms, and it was fantastic. I would make the risotto again.

Week 35: Burmese

Burmese week sounds like a shoo-in for an AtWCC post, but this one was an absolute failure. I was hoping to make tohu thoke, a yellow tofu salad and one of my favorite Burmese dishes ever. (If it looks familiar here, this salad made our top 10 food memories list back in 2010, and we also posted about Rangoon in Philadelphia, which sadly no longer exists). Unfortunately, it didn't set at all. The tofu had the consistency of pudding and was not solid at all. I'm not sure what went wrong. Did I chill it for too long? Did I mess up something from the recipe (which I followed from YouTube because I couldn't find the related website)?

The yellow tofu itself was made of chickpea flour (besan), water, salt, and turmeric, and it really thickened up on the stove, so I thought it would just need some time to solidify. I used different toppings from the video, trying to mimic the ones we've had at the food fairs, using cilantro, fried onions (didn't have fried shallots or an easy way to get them), lime juice, fish sauce, tamarind, and garlic. The taste, especially in certain bites, was really reminiscent of what we'd gotten in the past, but the texture was not. I do intend to try this again (have a giant container of besan right now), and hopefully it will turn out better next time and be worthy of an AtWCC post.

More challenge catch-ups coming (hopefully very) soon!

Queens International Night Market

One year ago today was the opening night of the Queens International Night Market. We were really excited about this - cuisines from all over the world, affordable dishes around $5 each, lots of stuff we had never tried before, and a beautiful spring day - and apparently so were hundreds of our fellow New Yorkers. We got there before they opened and the line circled around and around on each side. It was absolutely packed, so crowded that later in the night the nearby train platform got seriously treacherous as there were so many people on the platform that nobody could move or get off the trains when they pulled in. We were glad we went early, but early was still bad.

Once the market actually opened for business, people streamed in from both sides. We were some of the first people in, as we had found the shorter line on the park side, and immediately started trying to figure out where to go. Lots of places already had lines, and decisions had to be made quickly. We ended up choosing a couple of spots on our side of the lot (never made it to the other side the entire night), splitting up, and waiting in line to get stuff, as we watched the aisles fill up, the lines get so long that they were crossing over each other, and the lot get so congested that there were many places where you literally could not move or got carried slowly by the moving crowd around you.

A waited on line for Burmese Bites, which didn't have a terrible line (yet) because we had gotten there so early, and which we really wanted to try after following them on Facebook for a bit. Burmese food isn't that easy to find in NYC outside of the occasional food fairs, so we were really happy to see them here. They had two options on their menu signs: keema palata and chicken curry palata (the one we got). Palata is a flaky flatbread that is similar to paratha or roti, and this one was topped with a really flavorful chicken curry and accompanied by a little cup of slaw on the side that packed some heat if we remember correctly. The portion size wasn't big enough for a meal, but that was good since the whole point of night markets like this is to roam and try lots of things. We were really happy with this and would have considered getting more if not for the lines.

From the Burmese food line, we could see a stall for Eve and Johnny's Caribbean style shark sandwiches, so M went over there. The line didn't look too bad at the time, and M was probably about 10th in line, so we thought the wait wouldn't be too, too bad. As she waited, she saw the lines around her getting longer and longer by the second, so she was glad that she had gotten in line early. However, since it was the first night of the market, it seemed like they hadn't gotten their prep done in time to open, and while M waited in line, A showed up with the palata, and we finished it, and then we waited some more. Under normal circumstances, A would have left M in line and gotten something else to share while waiting, but these lines were not normal.

The Caribbean style shark sandwich was basically Trinidadian bake and shark, fried flatbread with seasoned fried pieces of shark and toppings. We'd had bake and shark on our WorldEats to-try list for some time, but had just never made it out to spots in Brooklyn, so this was convenient. These sandwiches were topped with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cole slaw mix (cabbage and carrots), cilantro and onions, pineapple, and three sauces: tamarind, chaden beni (a green culantro sauce), and a creamy garlic sauce. All together, it was so good. From the first bite, the mingling of all the flavors was good.

The sandwich was stuffed full of shark which was a really nice surprise. Often we've found "special" sandwiches to skimp on the protein portion, but this was definitely not the case. The shark itself was tougher than we were expecting, but it had a nice fish taste to it that didn't seem very foreign. It was more fishy than a typical white fish but far less fishy than an oilier fish like mackerel. The combination of all of the slaws and toppings combined to make a sweet and savory that was completely balanced and perfectly complemented the shark. We would have definitely gotten two of these if we had known they were so good and thought ahead about how bad the lines were around us.

After eating the shark sandwich, we thought about trying something else, but after getting stuck in the crowd for a few yards, it was unbearable and quite claustrophobic and we decided to leave. We couldn't make sense of what line was ending where, and it was nearly impossible to walk. On our way out though, we did see a stall without much of a line. It was for Haitian food from Belmere, which worked for us, since when we were doing WorldEats in geographical order, Haitian was where our journey stalled.

We ordered something small there (considering that the prices of most things were the same there, this was probably the least food for the price), and then took our to-go box into the park to eat. It felt so good to get out of the mess that was the night market, and we kept watching more and more people streaming in. As far as the food, we got a piece of stewed chicken which was pretty tasty and topped with some giant onion slices. There was also a little slaw on the side that was spicy, primarily pickled cabbage with a few carrot and cucumber pieces mixed in.

The Queens International Night Market is a great idea, but we were so uncomfortable during our visit there that we couldn't wait to leave. (We ended up finishing our dinner at a taqueria which was delicious but not the plan for the night.) There were serious crowd control issues, which to their credit, they have been trying to remedy this year by selling admission tickets for the first two weekends. We do want to go back, as having that many vendors representing cuisines around the world is totally our thing, but we'll probably wait a little longer into the summer to go.

Rangoon

We love Burmese food, but it's really difficult to get in NYC. There's only a handful of places and the few summer food fairs/fundraisers, which are definitely not enough for a regular fix of our favorite yellow tofu salad. So when we saw that Philadelphia had a Burmese restaurant with great reviews located in Chinatown, not far from where we were going to be all weekend, we knew we had to try it.

After we finally arrived in Philadelphia and checked in to our hotel, we went all the way over to the ballpark for the baseball game, only to find out a short time later that it had been rained out and rescheduled for the following day, so we had to find other plans for the night. It was a pretty simple decision. We were off to Rangoon for dinner.

One of the hardest things to do at Rangoon was narrow down the menu to a manageable number of dishes since we couldn't have leftovers and didn't want to roll ourselves in the rain back to our hotel room. We ended up deciding on 5 dishes, which may sound like a lot for 2 people, but when it comes to stuff we like that we can't easily get at home, I guess our stomachs expand.

We got:

Burmese tofu salad ($7, all prices from 2013, not sure what they are now): homemade tofu with garlic, sesame, coriander, fried onion, lime leaf in a tamarind sauce.

This salad was a slightly different variation from what we usually get at the food fairs. The slices of yellow tofu were soft and smooth like always. The toppings and sauces were a little different from the versions we've had before, but they were good. It wasn't our favorite dish of the night, but we were so happy to eat this again. Since we can never guarantee that we can make it to the food fairs and the only other restaurant where we've ever eaten this is in Los Angeles (recap to come eventually), we were happy to find somewhere closer than the West Coast where this dish is affordable. (The only place in NYC that we know has it all the time is really pricey.)

String bean and peanut salad ($7): string beans, peanuts, onions, sesame, tomatoes, dried shrimp, lime juice, seasonings.

We saw this dish advertised in the window as winning an award, so we knew we had to try it. Although it was tasty (everything at dinner was), it was probably our least favorite of the appetizer selections. It reminded me a little bit of a salad version of string bean belacan. It was light and fresh.

Firecracker lentil fritters (3 for $6): ground lentils with blend of onions, mint and chili spices.

These balls of lentils and spices were deep fried deliciousness. The lentils and spices together were so tasty, and very complementary with the sour pungent garlic sauce on the side. Although it wasn't listed in the menu description, we tasted lots of cumin, and we really love cumin. The fritters were crispy on the outside and the mashed up interior was so spiced and flavorful. These fritters were so, so good. This made A's favorites list last year.

Rangoon house noodle ($9.50): flat rice noodles served with diced chicken, onions, tomatoes and red bean sauce.

The chicken seemed a little more like minced or ground chicken than diced chicken, but it was great that way because it soaked up all the flavors. The dish was like a wet version of stir-fried noodles with thick rice noodles. The sauce and toppings were great. It reminded us of something that we couldn't quite place in our memories, but overall, we really enjoyed it.

Burmese vatana bean fried rice ($8): fried rice with vatana beans and fried onions.

This fried rice was the biggest surprise of the night. We had no idea what vatana beans were but they showed up a few times on the menu, so we thought we'd try them here. Google said they were something like white or yellow peas, and they tasted a bit like baby chickpeas. They came in the fried rice with fried onions on top. It was incredibly delicious and there was this smokiness pervading the rice that was so appealing. This was on my favorites list from last year, as there were plenty of days at home when I just wanted to eat this again.

We had a Burmese feast that night and we left incredibly happy, despite the fact that the temperature had dropped and the wind was whipping the rain around outside, rendering our umbrellas completely useless. It was so cold walking through Chinatown that my teeth started chattering. In mid-July! Probably better that we spent the night indulging in Burmese comfort food instead of at a baseball game...

Rangoon is located at 112 North 9th Street, Philadelphia.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2013

Unlike previous years, we didn't go on a European adventure that dominates my favorite food memories. In the end I chose all domestic locations and also chose to forego listing home cooked meals as we've done so much cooking this year as compared to years past. So, here's my list, in no particular order, of my favorite food memories of 2013!

1. Ceviche Tostada - La Isla Bonita (Los Angeles, CA)

The ceviche tostada from La Isla Bonita is something that I still think about, and I ate this back in April. No really, it's that good. The ceviche itself is incredibly fresh tasting and flavorful. The sweetness of the shrimp and fish mix has so much natural sweetness that counterbalances the tartness from the lime. The crunchiness of the tostada offers an additional texture while also serving as the delivery method for the amazing ceviche.

2. Pescado Zarandeado - Coni'Seafood (Los Angeles, CA)

Coni'Seafood is famous for this dish native to the Sinaloa region of Mexico. The head chef here, Sergio, is apparently the only person in this whole restaurant (and possibly the US) who can cook this dish properly. It's a split snook shaken over lit coals to control cooking. Sergio is a genius at this style of cooking. The fish is so tender and flavored so well with whatever marinade he has the fish soaking in. It also comes with sliced cucumber, red onion, and a sauce that I think might actually be made from the marinade. It has hints of soy sauce and onions and tasted almost Asian. M and I devoured this whole fish to the point that the waitress was impressed by how clean the bones were picked. If you're in LA, don't be afraid to take the trip into Inglewood for Coni, but just make sure to call and confirm that Sergio is there first.

3. Fish Taco - Ricky's (Los Angeles, CA)

When M and I made our visit to Ricky's, the stand was still located in the parking lot of a strip mall. Ricky has since procured a food truck so his operation is mobile now. It's a little disappointing since part of the fun of the experience is that you could watch the guys frying up your tacos. Regardless, wherever Ricky is parked, you need to try these tacos. We tried both their shrimp and their fish tacos, but the fish were the stars here. The batter is seasoned really well and isn't heavy at all. The fish is tender, flaky, and has just the right amount of crunch from the batter. The pico de gallo and lettuce offer freshness to balance the fried fish, and the crema offers, if nothing else, a nice creaminess to the entire taco.

4. Roasted Bone Marrow with Charred Spring Onions, Pickled Fresno Chiles, and Tortillas - Empellon Cocina (New York, NY)

At Empellon, M and I had a lot of really good dishes. So much so that we chose this meal as our favorite of 2013. The brightest star of that meal was this roasted bone marrow dish topped with charred spring onions, pickled fresno chiles, and served with fresh tortillas. Sadly this was just a seasonal special so it's quite possible that we may never see this dish again. The roasted marrow is nicely salted and decadently rich. The charred spring onions tasted like spring, and the peppers added a subtle heat and tartness. They serve this with freshly made tortillas, and we turned it all into tacos. Delicious, delicious tacos.

5. Firecracker Lentil Fritters - Rangoon (Philadelphia, PA)

M and I really love Burmese food, and I think a lot of that comes from the fact that it's so hard for us to find. One thing we love the most about it is how fresh everything tastes. You might think that, because of this reasoning, I'd never pick a fried dish, and I never did either until I tried these lentil fritters. They're mashed up lentils with mint, onions, cumin, chili peppers, and some other spices that we couldn't identify. It's also served with a sour, garlicky sauce that had a fish sauce smell to it as well. The crunch of the crust was balanced by the mashed lentil interior that was piping hot and perfectly mushed. You didn't actually need the sauce because of the bevy of spices, but it did add additional layers of flavor when dipped.

6. Chicken Pot Pie Fritters - Family Meal (Frederick, MD)

We've been big fans of the Voltaggio brothers ever since seeing them both on Top Chef. It was with great anticipation that we were able to go try one of Bryan Voltaggio's restaurants while on our PA/MD road trip. We actually went about an hour out of our way just to get there, but it was well worth the drive. The appetizer we kept reading about was the chicken pot pie fritters. We had no clue what to expect, but we both really like pot pie so it made sense to try them. I call these things magic pot pie. They are literally balls of chicken pot pie filling encased in a lightly breaded shell. The only thing I can think of that they do is that they freeze the pot pie filling and then bread and deep fry them to make sure they're warm after cooking. Regardless of how they do it, they're amazing.

7. Tsukumen - Tsujita LA (Los Angeles, CA)

One of the things that M and I really wanted to try while we were out in LA was tsukumen from Tsujita LA. It's their specialty, and this is the US outpost of a highly revered tsukumen shop in Japan. Here's my review of our meal there. This was easily one of the best things I ate all year, and the fact that we were able to sit outside and enjoy the sun and warmth while doing so made it a great experience.

8. Asparagus - ABC Cocina (New York, NY)

This year M and I went through a huge Spring Vegetable kick. We were able to finally try spring onions, ramps, and garlic scapes. However, one of my favorite dishes of the year came from a trusty old friend of a spring vegetable, asparagus. It was prepared in the wood-fire grill and topped with pickled spring onions, marcona almonds, and a clear vinaigrette of some sort. The dish tasted like I would expect Spring to taste. The asparagus tasted so fresh, and the pickled spring onions and vinaigrette added tartness. The almonds added texture, but I'm not sure they were fully necessary. It was still a wonderful dish, though.

9. White Rose and Saffron Pistachio Ice Cream - Saffron and Rose Ice Cream (Los Angeles, CA)

I love ice cream. A lot. We ate a lot of good ice cream this year from places like Dave and Andy's in Pittsburgh and The Igloo in Everett, PA, but my favorite ice cream experience was from Saffron and Rose Ice Cream in LA. It's a Persian ice cream shop specializing in the flavors from their culture. We tried two of their traditionally flavored ice creams: white rose and saffron pistachio. The white rose ice cream was so floral and tasted just like a rose smells. I can't really describe it any other way. It's so simple and so tasty. The saffron pistachio was a revelation. It uses the white rose ice cream as a base, but then they add a touch of saffron which gives it color and a hint of flavor, and they then mix in pistachios for crunch. They also add these frozen white blobs of frozen cream which are apparently a delicacy in Persian culture. It's hard to describe the flavor of this because saffron is such a distinct flavor, but it's also paired with white rose. The frozen cream is also a fun surprise you get here and there. If you ever find yourself in the Westwood area definitely check out this little ice cream shop.

10. Brussels Sprout Pie - Motorino (New York, NY)

It's hard to imagine listing a pizza on a "best of" list since I'm from Chicago, and if it's not Lou Malnati's I'm probably going to think it's inferior. However, while I'm not ready to say this is better than my beloved Chicago-style pizza, it is certainly a very very good pizza. The Brussels Sprout pie is topped with Brussels sprout leaves, fior de latte, garlic, pecorino, smoked pancetta, and extra virgin olive oil. We love Brussels sprouts and never thought to break the leaves up and put them on a pizza. Also, they pair perfectly with smoked pancetta since the saltiness of pancetta lends itself well to the slightly bitter Brussels sprouts. This is a white pie as well so the flavors of the sprouts and pancetta do not get muddied by a tomato sauce. The crust is also perfectly chewy with just the right amount of crunch and "burnt" flavoring from the wood-fire oven.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2013

2013 was an interesting year, full of ups and downs. I'm grateful that, even in a tougher year, we can still say that we've had some great adventures. So here are my 10 favorite food memories from the year (in no particular order).

1. Pescado zarandeado from Coni'Seafood (Los Angeles, CA).

While sitting at Coni'Seafood in the Inglewood area of Los Angeles, I posted this photo to Instagram with the caption that this might be one of the best things I've ever eaten. It was one of the obvious choices for this year's favorites list. Pescado zarandeado is a butterflied snook which is grilled perfectly, so fresh and tender and full of amazing flavor. It's topped with raw onions and cucumbers, and also has a side of cooked onions that it frankly doesn't even need. Whatever Sergio (and you have to call in advance to make sure Sergio is there or it's not worth going and getting it) does to this fish is magic. We don't (to my knowledge) have Sinaloan food in the NYC area, but even if we did, I'm not sure it would match the magic of Sergio. I could eat this every week and not get sick of it.

2. Birthday cake ice cream cone from Dave and Andy's (Pittsburgh, PA).

I'm not as much of an ice cream lover as A is, but I do love cookies and cream and birthday cake ice cream. Both made the short list (the cookies and cream was from Brooklyn's Ample Hills during our Game of Cones adventure), but only Dave and Andy's made the top 10. Their birthday cake ice cream mixed in actual yellow cake and sprinkles. I loved it and raved about it for some time after eating it, which for me is rare with ice cream. I also am not a huge cone fan but I loved their crispy but sturdy waffle cone which of course had their traditional m&m on the bottom. And I guessed the color right for my first cone!

3. Bone marrow special from Empellón Cocina (New York, NY).

We had a lot of bone marrow this year (bone marrow with uni from The Marrow, a massive plate of bone marrow at Meat and Potatoes in Pittsburgh, etc) but the one that really made an impression on me was the bone marrow special when we visited Empellón Cocina. We had a lot of good stuff at Empellón (which explains why it was our meal of the year), but the bone marrow was our favorite dish of the night. It was roasted bone marrow with charred spring onions and pickled Fresno chiles with tortillas on the side, so we could make our own bone marrow tacos. I love when I eat things that make me feel in sync with the season, and this was perfect for June.

4. Jerk chicken from Freda's (New York, NY).

We made it through Jamaica in our WorldEats challenge (even if we're still writing about Cuba). But this jerk chicken from Freda's made me want to skip over everything inbetween and just write about Freda's (but I didn't, sadly). I got the jerk chicken with sides of collard greens and curry potatoes with chickpeas. Both sides were delicious but the jerk chicken was one of the best chicken dishes I've ever had, and certainly the best Jamaican food I've ever eaten. It was spicy but it wasn't the type of spicy that was hot without flavor. The spices were so complex and nuanced that I don't even know how to describe the flavors, but it was incredible. Perhaps we need to go again before we write our WorldEats post.

5. Ceviche tostada from La Isla Bonita (Venice, CA).

I wrote our post on La Isla Bonita back in May, but it hasn't been posted yet since we're still back at the beginning of our trip in the recaps. I still dream about this ceviche tostada. It was that good. The tostada was thin and crispy and topped with a layer of ceviche and some fresh avocado slices. The ceviche had mashed up fish and seafood with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and lime. It was a perfect refreshing snack.

6. Pretzel from Miller's Twist (Philadelphia, PA).

I love pretzels. Warm, fresh out of the oven, so buttery, soft and chewy, lightly salted. The pretzel we got from Miller's Twist at the Reading Terminal Market was so good that we immediately wanted to go back to get another one. We also had tasty buttery soft pretzels this fall at Immergut in Intercourse, PA but we only made it there at the end of the day each time, so the pretzels were not as fresh (although still good). For that reason, Miller's Twist makes it to the top 10 but Immergut gets an honorable mention.

7. Vatana bean fried rice from Rangoon (Philadelphia, PA).

I love Burmese food. I wish we had restaurants here like the ones in LA or Rangoon in Philadelphia. We had amazing food at Rangoon and what was really a revelation was this vatana bean fried rice. We had no idea what vatana beans were before that dinner, but they tasted a lot like baby chickpeas. The rice also had this smokiness (in a good way) which made it really unique. I've never had anything like this and want to return to Rangoon sooner rather than later.

8. Fish taco from Ricky's Fish Tacos (Los Angeles, CA).

Ricky's is a legend. We got both shrimp and fish tacos but the fish was really special. Although fried, it was so flaky and juicy. We didn't even add any extra salsas to the tacos, and just ate them with the lettuce and pico de gallo that it came with. Whatever was in the batter was a perfect match for the fish, and the taco was easily the best fish taco I've ever had. We raced back from the desert to get to Ricky's before he closed up for the day and it was so worth it.

9. Lamb burger from Xi'an Famous Foods (New York, NY).

The midtown branch of Xi'an Famous Foods opened this spring with free lamb burgers (which I wrote about here). I've had quite a few since then. They're inexpensive and packed full of spices, especially my beloved cumin, and lots of onions. It may be the best burger I've had all year. 

10. Homecooked favorites.

This is cheating a little bit, since it's not one dish but four. But I wanted to save one spot on this list for home cooking because of how much it was a part of my life this year. I went from trying a new recipe once every other month or so to trying new recipes multiple days a week and loving it. These were four of my favorites.

• Black bean chicken - The first cookbook I spent a lot of time with was Every Grain of Rice, and for the first time, I was making Chinese food that went beyond simple stir-fries and hot plates. I love this black bean chicken recipe with my modifications.
• Kimchi grilled cheese - I love grilled cheese but I don't think I had made a grilled cheese sandwich since I was 10. And certainly not one with kimchi. This rekindled my love for grilled cheese and began a phase of many grilled cheese sandwiches.
• Baked langostino tails with tomatoes and feta - Blogged about here, but it's on this list because it's one of the few things I've made that I really feel like I could have ordered at a restaurant. It felt really authentic.
• Cigrons - I craved these Catalan style chickpeas for over a year after our visit to Pinotxo (still haven't written about Pinotxo but it's on last year's top 10 list) before I started looking all over the internet for tips on making cigrons. This wasn't exactly like Pinotxo but it was close. It was satisfying as a fix for one of my favorite dishes ever.

So that's 2013. I don't know what 2014 will bring, but I hope it's full of great food, good health and happy adventures!

A's Top 10 Food Memories of 2010

So, M has posted her 10 favorite food memories of 2010. I'm a tad late, but oh well. We were both hoping to finish this before or on New Year's day, but I kind of messed that up. Oops.

Anyway, it's really hard to narrow down my top 10 food memories since M and I went to so many great restaurants, and we ate so much good food. To give you an idea of what I was up against, it took me about 2 or 3 days to go through all of our food adventures. From there I was left with a list of 29 items from which to pick. A lot of great options were left off, and M even offered to expand our lists to 15, but that would have been the cheap way out.

Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my top 10 (and yes, there is overlap with M):

1. Monte Alban (LA) - Mole Negro

This wasn't my first foray into mole sauce, but this was my first taste of real Oaxacan black mole. Monte Alban is a restaurant in West LA, and this also happened to be one of the first things I ate all year. Smokey, sweet, and amazingly tasty. After finishing the chicken and the rice, I ended up mopping up the excess sauce with the provided tortillas.

2. Jitlada - Khao Yam

Ah, the first overlap with M's list. Yet another early year delicacy to make the list. Not sure how much more I need to describe the Khao Yam as M has done a good job of it in her own list. Suffice it to say, if you're ever in LA, and you have a chance at visiting Jitlada, it is highly suggested that you take advantage of the opportunity.

3. Burmese Food Fair - Tofu Salad

2 in a row! M and I definitely have some similarities in our tastes. This is, quite possibly, our favorite dish here in NYC. Sadly, we can only find it at one of the few Burmese food festivals done yearly. Even then, there's no guarantee that they have it available since all of the dishes are home-cooked/prepared. I really do want to learn how to make this so we don't have to wait and get lucky at one of the festivals.

4. Olieng - Pla Pattaya

Olieng is a Thai restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. They serve up traditional Thai fare done up really really well. One dish in particular, the Pla Pattaya, is a true delicacy. It's so special, that often times it runs out before the end of the night. Pla Pattaya is a whole fried red snapper topped with some special sauce, calamari, shrimp, scallops, basil, bell peppers, onions, and scallions. The pairing of the slightly sweet, slightly salty sauce with the crunch of the fried fish and fresh vegetables is sublime.

5. Marea - Ricci


M took me to Marea for my birthday this year. For once, we got to a restaurant before the major hype write up and subsequent month wait to get in. The meal itself was superb. Most people talk about their signature Fusili with Bone Marrow and Octopus (which I had), but the Ricci appetizer we had was the highlight of this meal for me. The Ricci is sea urchin on top of a crostini wrapped in lardo and seasoned with sea salt. It's a very simple sounding dish, but the flavors are unbelievable. The briny sea urchin paired with the richness of the lardo is exquisite. Marea certainly deserves the high praise and recognition it has received so far, and I would really love to go back and get more Ricci.

6. I Love Py - Chipa Guazu



Another overlap with M. We visited the Paraguayan bakery of I Love Py during our quest to eat the entire World Cup. Chipa Guazu is a corn pie filled with onions, eggs, and milk. It's mildly sweet from the corn, but it's also fluffy while still being dense. I really don't know how they manage that, but they do.

7. Patacon Pisao - Patacon



We first experienced Patacon Pisao at the 2010 Vendy Awards. A patacon is a Venezuelan sandwich filled with meat, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and a special mayo-based sauce with flattened, fried plantains used as the bun. Wow, simply awesome. It was so good that when we later heard that Patacon Pisao would be down at the Hester St market, we made a special trip down to visit even if it was a tad cold to be eating outside. These sandwiches are that good. Sadly they are located only up in Washington Heights and Elmhurst. There's a rumor that they'll be opening a store in the LES, and if that happens I'll have to put aside my hatred of hipsters and head down there often.

8. WD-50 - Cold Fried Chicken



I took M to WD-50 for her birthday this year. WD-50 is Chef Wylie Dufrense's avant garde restaurant. It's amazing how he and his staff can turn traditional dishes into adventures on every plate. There were so many dishes from this meal that I really liked, and it was really down to two dishes for this list. The Cold Fried Chicken ended up winning out after much deliberation, and it makes it to my top 10 list. I'm not sure how they "fried" this chicken, but it's served cold and full of flavor. It's accompanied by buttermilk ricotta whipped up to taste and feel just like mashed potatoes, caviar, and a honey tobasco sauce. I love fried chicken, but this was a revelation.

9. Cambrinus - Flemish Onion Soup



Cambrinus was the first restaurant we ate in when we arrived at Brugge. One of the biggest draws that I found was their extensive list of beer. When we sat down and looked over the menu and some reviews, we knew we were in for a treat. The menu was full of traditional Flemish, Dutch, and French recipes, and pretty much all of the reviews were favorable. Oh, and did I mention the laundry list of beers? I was in heaven. Now, I love French Onion Soup. I used to get it all the time when it was available. This Flemish version served at Cambrinus was just something else. From their menu: "Flemish Onion Soup with 'Oud Brugge' cheese and the beer 'Brugse Zot'". The aroma wafting from the mini-pot after removing the top was divine. The taste was even more heavenly. It's hard to describe just how good this soup was. Basically, take the best French Onion Soup you've ever had and multiply that by about 100, and you're getting to about how good this was. Cambrinus was one of the best restaurant experiences we had while in Europe so definitely go try it if you're ever in Brugge, and try one of their soups.

10. Shake Shack - Jelly's Last Donut Concrete



M and I love Shake Shack... a lot. It's bad enough that some of the cashiers there recognize me. But, we love their burgers and fries, and we love their custard. But out of all of the custards we've tried, all of the different concretes we've tasted, one stands out above all of the rest. Jelly's Last Donut is a Theater District location special concrete. It's made up of Doughnut Plant donuts, strawberry preserves, and cinnamon sugar spun into vanilla custard. I'm a donut-a-holic. No, not on the same level as Homer Simpson, but I loves me some donuts.

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2010

Here we are, at the end of 2010. This year has been such a blur and the year in food has been no exception. It was so hard to pick out 10 top food memories from the year because there has been so much good food! A lot of things got left off the list that were good, including Shake Shack in its entirety. I think overall that has been one of the more significant food events of our year, since it opened in our neighborhood, making it easier for us to enjoy all the monthly custards, special concretes and special events like the entire Shacktoberfest menu. With something like that missing the list, what made it for me (A's list to come)? Here are my favorite 10 food memories of the year, in random order:

1. Waste em All burger from Grill Em All truck


The Food Network's Great Food Truck Race filmed its finale in NYC over Memorial Day weekend. We went down to the Union Square area to check it out, trying the two finalists - Grill Em All truck and Nom Nom truck - both from LA (we had been to Nom Nom in LA earlier in the year). We tried 2 different burgers from Grill Em All but my favorite (and one of the better burgers of the year) was the Waste Em All - topped with cheddar cheese, beer soaked onions and jalapeno peppers. The burger was definitely memorable (along with the yummy fries in truffle salt), and this also makes the list because we got to watch the filming and the end of the show before it aired, which was lots of fun.

2. Haribo smurfs


In the train station in Antwerp, Belgium, I found this bag of Haribo smurfs (smurfen, schtroumpfs). I haven't been able to find it anywhere else since then - not in Brussels, not in Brugge, not in the States. As soon as I tried the berry flavored smurfs, they shot up to the top of my favorite candy list. Unfortunately they're so hard to find. If you have any idea where I can find them, please help!

3. Patacon Pisao


When the Vendy Awards came around in September, one of the contenders we were really looking forward to trying was Patacon Pisao. They're usually far uptown (although they also have a place in Queens) so we had never tried them before. We tried the patacon sandwich (two flat green plaintains instead of bread, with chicken, ketchup, queso frito, lettuce, tomato and special sauce). It was delicious. We couldn't wait to get another one so we tried at the sh*tshow that was the Grub Street Food Festival where the line went in both directions, didn't move and there was no room to walk because of the mob scene (not their fault). After that failure, we ventured down to the Hester Street Fair on a different weekend they were there and had a patacon sandwich each. I got chicken again and it was quite delicious. They're opening a new location soon. I can't wait.

4. Veggie pancake from Pancakes! Amsterdam


We really wanted to try Dutch pancakes while in Amsterdam and Pancakes! Amsterdam seemed like a good choice. Dutch pancakes may look big but they're quite thin and filled with toppings so they're not that heavy. Our first pancakes there were so good that we decided while there that we would try to come back again the next day before leaving Amsterdam. I loved my veggie pancake the best - it had mushrooms, spinach, onions, tomatoes and pine nuts. Healthy and delicious!

5. Hazelnut dacquoise at the Bar Room at the Modern


Back in 2005 or 2006, I went to the Modern for an interview lunch. For dessert, I had the dacquoise. It was so good that it stuck in my head years later as one of my favorite desserts ever (along with Lahaina Grill's Iao Valley lime tart, Brasserie's frozen chocolate souffle from 2003, Perilla's cranberry apple cobbler, maybe a couple of others - since I'm more of a savory person, I can actually make a short list of favorite desserts but absolutely cannot do that with savory food). I remembered it being like a crispy upscale candy bar. When we saw the dacquoise on the bar room menu, the choice for our 6 month wedding anniversary was simple. I had the dacquoise for dessert and it actually lived up to the memory and my expectations.

6. Khao yam at Jitlada


Jitlada was a definite on our LA places to go list. We heard that their Thai food was excellent and being lovers of Thai food, we had to try it. We were not disappointed. If you love spicy food, you will also not be disappointed because they do not tone down the spicy dishes and just serve them as they should be.

We had so many good things there but my favorite was definitely the khao yam (rice salad). Khao yam, a Southern Thai specialty, consists of jasmine rice, mango, green beans, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, Thai chiles, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, bean sprouts, coconut and dried shrimp. This was one of those dishes where after you eat it, the only thing left to say is, wow, when can I have it again? Unfortunately for us, we cannot find it anywhere other than Jitlada and we live across the country from Jitlada! While there, I was googling khao yam looking for places in NYC ... and google sent me links to posts about Jitlada. Oh well. A must for our next trip to LA.

7. Fish Soup at Cambrinus


We got into Brugge, Belgium late in the evening after spending the entire afternoon in Antwerpen, so we ventured somewhere close to our hotel for dinner. Cambrinus was a great find, and confirmed our feeling that we were really going to like Brugge (and we did). It was a bierbrasserie, with a huge beer menu and so many food options. The portions of the entrees were huge. This was also where I learned that in Brugge apparently people love spaghetti bolognese. My plate of it was so gigantic that neither of us could finish it.

But even better than the spaghetti bolognese was my appetizer - the best fish soup I think I have ever had. The menu said it was fish soup with "rouille" (spicy garlic sauce). I don't know how to explain how good it was, but it was so tasty and comforting. It came with two pieces of garlic "bread" which were also delicious.

8. Tofu salad from Burmese Fun Fair


There aren't many options for Burmese food here in New York so we get our "fix" during the various food fairs they hold during the year (usually in the summer). The tofu salad is one of our favorite things. We get there early to make sure we can get some before they run out, but the problem is that I want more in the days after the food fair and it's impossible to get. It's really that good and the flavors are so unique. This tofu salad was for a fundraiser in Woodside earlier this year.

9. Beef and bernaise from wd-50


If you know me, it might be shocking to have a dish in the top 10 with beef in the title considering how little red meat I eat (and also to have a burger on the list with it). But it's wd-50, so nothing is really what it seems. It was such a dilemma for me deciding between this and the cold-fried chicken, but in the end this was the one that surprised me most with its flavors, its creativity and its complete difference from what I thought it would be. And it was so tasty. Instead of beef with a bernaise sauce, it was bernaise gnocchi topped with caramelized shallot paste in a beef broth and accompanied by snow peas. Amazingly good.

10. Chipa guazu from I Love Py


We previously talked about I Love Paraguay, the Sunnyside bakery with some of the only Paraguayan food we could find in NYC. Chipa guazu gets a spot on this list because it was delicious from the first bite and it also represents everything we wanted out of our World Cup challenge. We got to try something new for us while learning more about the country and its cuisine. To me, the World Cup is not just about soccer/football, but about coming together, understanding one another and learning about the rest of the world in one of the few true moments of togetherness. Our Paraguayan lunch trip did this in so many ways. Not only did it have great new food, but I got to put my shaky Spanish to use, tried the chipa guazu on a recommendation from someone actually in Paraguay, and got to spend lunchtime surrounded by Paraguayan folks watching deportes on TV. The World Cup was also one of the main motivators to us finally putting this blog together so it holds a special spot on this list. (After all, at least one spot had to go to something we ate from the World Cup challenge!)

I can't wait to see what delicious food 2011 will bring. What were your favorite (or top or best) food memories of 2010?