Week 28 - Soul Food

I never would have predicted that the Week 28 challenge, soul food, would have been one of my hardest to complete. The challenge was announced during the height of the protests for Black Lives Matter, and since it was important to me that the source of my soul food recipes for the challenge be from Black chefs, I chose to take a few volumes out of the library to look for something to make. I started with the wonderful book by Dora Charles, but I didn't think I could finish reading the book in its entirety to choose something by the time the challenge rolled around, so I put it aside for another time (probably whenever we choose to do the Georgia part of the AtWCC).

We haven't made it very far in our Savannah road trip posts, but this was a side of stewed tomatoes and okra we got on our trip

Next, I picked up Sweet Home Cafe Cookbook: A Celebration of African American Cooking, the book put out by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I learned so much from that book that reading it almost felt like a visit to a museum with curated exhibits about food. It was so hard to choose recipes from the book to make since so many things sounded good, but in the end, I decided to make some hot water corn bread with stewed tomatoes and okra, and maybe also some stewed black eyed peas.

Who knew frozen okra was so hard to obtain? I had it in our carts on both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh, and over the course of a week, they went from available (but other stuff we needed wasn't at the time, so we waited) to completely gone. They didn't return by the time we ordered the groceries (and are still out of stock as of the time of this writing), and Trader Joe's has never carried okra (that I know of), so I had to change plans.

I had heard people rave about the mac and cheese at the museum's cafe (what the book was based on), so I decided to make that instead. To balance out the meal, I wanted to make some vegetables too, but considering there was no okra (or black eyed peas) to order online, I had to search elsewhere. If we couldn't make okra, green beans were my next vegetable of choice, and a search for "soul food green beans" led me to a recipe for exactly that from Divas Can Cook. Perfect plan B.

The night before I was going to make our soul food meal, I was writing out my cooking plan, and realized that the mac and cheese required not only 1 cup of whole milk but 3 cups of half-and-half. I had been planning to make a substitute for half-and-half using milk and butter, but that would have required nearly 4 cups of milk total, and that milk should really be for B, not dinner. (I also wasn't sure we even had 4 cups of milk left in the carton.) Not only that, but it required mustard, and the only mustard we had was one that we're not sure if B can tolerate, so there went plan B.

I looked through Sweet Home Cafe some more to find something else I could make with what I had at home, and I found myself right back where I started among the corn bread and johnnycakes. Finally, our meal was set - johnnycakes (aka hoecakes) plus green beans, with some easy BBQ chicken on the side (just chicken with store-bought BBQ sauce like from the black and white challenge, really not worth mentioning again other than to figure out the total cost of dinner). It may have taken a long road to get there, but I was happy with our end result.

Johnnycakes

I actually made the johnnycakes second, but since I've spent most of this post talking about Sweet Home Cafe, I'm going to start there. I pretty much followed the recipe from the book except that they used white cornmeal and all we had (and all the stores had) was yellow cornmeal. I also skipped the butter and syrup for serving, since we were eating them with chicken and green beans.

The ingredients for our johnnycakes were:

- 2 cups cornmeal ($2)

- 1 tsp salt ($0.02)

- about 1/4 tsp baking powder (didn't have a 1/4 tsp to measure exactly) ($0.05)

- 1/2 tsp sugar ($0.06)

- about 1.25 cups water ($0)

- 1 cup whole milk ($0.38)

- butter for greasing the skillet ($0.18)

Coming in at approximately $2.69 (or possibly less, since I can't remember where the cornmeal came from or how much it was exactly), the johnnycakes were filling and affordable. Definitely a good budget meal.

The steps for making the johnnycakes were:

1. Combine the cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a medium bowl, and mix well.

2. Heat 1 cup of water and 1 cup of milk over medium heat until simmering.

3. Remove from heat, and add the cornmeal mixture, stirring until the batter is smooth. [This is where I ran into a problem. I added the cornmeal mixture. I stirred it around. There wasn't enough liquid, and all I had were clumps. There was no smooth batter, and there was no more liquid to make it smoother. I added hot water, a little bit at a time, probably somewhere between 1/4-1/3 cup in the end, until I had a somewhat smooth batter. I expected it to be thinner like pancake batter, but having never made this before, I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be that thick.]

4. Melt a little butter in a skillet over medium heat. Spoon the batter onto the hot skillet without crowding the pan, and cook for a few minutes per side (turn once). [I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop out the hot batter, but no idea if that was right since they said to form cakes about 3 inches.]

5. Move the cooked cakes to a plate and keep warm. Add some more butter to the pan to grease, make the cakes again, and repeat as much as needed.

Not being an experienced pancake maker (that's more of an A thing, and I think the only ones I've posted about here are zucchini pancakes and carrot pancakes, which are completely different), I didn't realize that their instruction to form cakes probably involved a little bit of flattening them down as well. As a result, all of our cakes, except the last one that A made since I couldn't see the bottom of the pot with the batter to scrape it clean, were thick and dense. They tasted good, but could have used some work on the texture. I'm not sure if the batter was supposed to be so dense either or if there was something I did wrong, so I'll have to look into that some more too.

Green Beans

We love green beans in this household, but I usually use canned because they're faster to cook and easier to eat for B. For these stewed green beans, I decided to go with frozen whole green beans instead, since they were more economical and would last longer than fresh (and we didn't know how long until we were making this meal since it was pretty much a pantry meal). I mostly used the original recipe as a guide, because we made quite a few modifications to fit the groceries we could get. Among other things, I omitted the red pepper flakes, added a red bell pepper (for color, a little accent, and because we had one), and substituted bacon for the smoked turkey leg, because I'm not even sure where I would get one of those here.

The ingredients for our green beans were:

- 1 bag of frozen whole green beans ($2.29)

- 1 strip of bacon, chopped ($0.45)

- 1 tbsp of butter ($0.09)

- 1 onion, chopped ($0.79)

- about 1/4 cup of garlic, finely chopped ($0.33)

- 1 red pepper, sliced ($0.99)

- 1 cup of chicken broth ($0.50)

The green beans cost approximately $5.44, and when combined with the johnnycakes and the chicken, the total for dinner was about $9.33. I love when we can do dinner for 3 under $10.

The cooking time for this recipe is long, but there isn't too much active time. The steps for making the green beans were:

1. Prep - chop bacon, chop onion, chop garlic, slice red pepper, take green beans out of freezer to thaw a little while prepping.

2. In a large, deep skillet, add the bacon to a cold pan over medium heat and let the fat render. Once the bacon is mostly cooked, add the butter and melt the butter.

3. Add the onion, and cook until softened.

4. Add the garlic, and cook for another minute or so, and then add the red peppers.

5. Cook for a few minutes, and then add the chicken broth.

6. Add the green beans, and mix everything well.

7. Cover and simmer (low and slow) for about an hour, stirring once or twice.

The last step is supposed to be to taste, and to add salt and pepper if needed, but it was late and I forgot about that. In hindsight, I would have added a little black pepper at the end.

We loved these green beans, and would absolutely make them again. Although I'm sure the smoked turkey leg would have given it more depth of flavor, I liked how it turned out with the bacon, and bacon is far easier to get here than some of the other meats I often see in soul food recipes, like turkey legs and ham hocks. The red pepper was a good addition (and actually B's favorite part). Really glad to have found this recipe so we can add another delicious vegetable recipe to our rotation.

In the end, our soul food exploration was fun and delicious. We didn't end up making this until weeks after the scheduled challenge (good thing I'm not officially participating), and the actual dinner ended up being a last-minute change of plans, but it worked out well!

Week 14 - Southern

Unlike some of the other recent challenge themes, one that I was really looking forward to was Southern. We love Southern cooking, in part because it always brings back good memories of our road trip to Savannah. We had brought back some grits from South Carolina from that road trip that we wanted to use for this, so A suggested that maybe we should make some salmon over grits. That sounded good to me, especially after I decided to tack on some collard greens to the combo. This was one of the easiest meals to plan out and we didn't even really have to look at any recipes to know what we wanted to do. Since we both had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do, we were also able to work on it together. Team dinner-making is fun.

The first part was the salmon which we bought frozen from Trader Joe's, thawed out, patted dry, cut into smaller slices, and then rubbed with olive oil and homemade seasoning based on Emeril's essence recipe that we still had leftover from the last time we made shrimp and grits. That stuff is so good, and it kept the flavor much better in this smaller quantity than the old Costco-sized container that we used to have.

We baked the salmon at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, and it was perfect. We should make salmon like this more often. It's really easy and packs in a lot of flavor.

To go with the salmon, we made some collard greens. In the past, we've made collards mostly with bacon but this time we opted for meat-free ones. (I can't really call them vegetarian because they were made with chicken bouillon.) I threw in a lot of seasonings with the collard greens - salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili flakes, paprika, and freshly ground South African smoke seasoning from TJ's. There may have been more stuff that we threw in with those, but it's been a couple of weeks since we made this so I don't remember exactly. That list is, if not exactly what we used, pretty close.

After sautéing some onion and garlic in olive oil, we tore the collard greens into smaller pieces and added them to the pot along with all the seasonings, a few cups of water (enough to barely cover the collards), and a spoonful or two of chicken bouillon.

Once it was all mixed together and boiling, we simmered them for about 45 minutes until they were nice and soft. They came out really well, both in texture and flavor. While we like collards with meat, they were totally fine without them, nice and peppery.

For the final portion of dinner, we made some grits. The main ingredients for this were grits from Palmetto Farms (such good stuff), milk, water, butter, sharp cheddar cheese, and salt. There was also supposed to be black pepper, but A forgot to add it at the end, and we decided to forgo it since the essence seasoning on the salmon would have more than enough flavor for both of them.

A pretty much followed the Alton Brown recipe for cheese grits, which cooks the grits in milk, water, and salt until they are creamy, and then adds the butter followed by shredded cheese. The end result is really rich and creamy and cheesy and delicious.

We were really pleased with how this meal turned out. Everything had so much flavor, and it was actually pretty easy to make, especially with the two of us in the kitchen working on different things. We had plenty of collards and grits left over which made for a nice lunch for me the next day. We would definitely make this again.

Root and Bone

We've wanted to go to Root & Bone in the East Village for the longest time since we knew they were supposed to have good fried chicken, but every time we had passed by, they were pretty crowded (and we're not big line waiters if there are other good options around). When A saw something on Blackboard Eats recently offering a discount, we jumped at the chance to go and made a reservation for the end of January. It was Restaurant Week and their Restaurant Week menu sounded good (including a free drink), but we decided to order a la carte instead. (Couldn't use the discount on RW anyway, but we really wanted the bucket of fried chicken which wasn't a RW option.)

To start off, we got an order of Grandma Daisy's Angel Biscuits with honey roasted chicken jus, benne seeds, thyme, and sea salt. We had pictured Southern biscuits sort of like the ones you would get at Bojangles, but what arrived looked more like dinner rolls. The insides were soft and the outsides a little bit crumbly with a little sweetness, and they were pretty dense. They weren't exceptionally large but they were really, really filling. We thought that the chicken jus on the side would have a little bit more chicken flavor than it did, but it was still a good dipping sauce.

There were 8 pieces of fried chicken (2 pieces each of breast meat, wings, thighs, and drumsticks) in the main event, the Crispy Fried Bucket of Bird, which was described on the menu as "free range organic chicken, sweet tea brined, lemon dusted, with spiked tabasco honey" for hot sauce on the side. Our perceptions of the chicken were a little bit different since M only ate white meat and A had both.

From M: The flavor of the fried chicken seemed good, but the breast pieces were pretty dry. It was good that we had the honey tabasco hot sauce on the side, because I definitely needed to use it. Overall, I felt like the chicken was fine, but not great, just because the white meat was so dry. That said, I did have the majority of the second breast piece as cold fried chicken the next day (with more hot sauce, which they were nice enough to pack up with the chicken without even asking for it). It was a little less dry as cold fried chicken, and I actually think I liked it better as cold fried chicken than freshly fried. I didn't really get any of the citrus flavor from the lemon dusting until eating it as cold fried chicken, and it really came out there in a good way.

From A: This was a little disappointing for how much hype there was from the reviews. The skin and breading had a salty and sweet flavor to it, but the chicken itself seemed a little bland. The white meat was also on the drier side, and that's always a disappointment. The dark meat was nice and juicy, but suffered from the same overall mild lack of flavor. I don't know how it happened, but after the descriptions of their chicken preparation, I was expecting so much more and ended up disappointed. I ended up using a lot of the honey tabasco, and that was really tasty.

We got two sides with our bucket of bird, the first being the macaroni and cheese, "big pasta" with crunchy cheese and a biscuit thyme crust. Compared to some other tables nearby, we definitely lucked out in getting tons of the crust, and we love the crust on mac and cheese. This was really, really good. The pasta had a nice chewiness to it, the cheese was rich, it was nicely seasoned all around, and the crispy crust on top livened up the texture. At first, we thought the side order looked a little on the small side, but after eating it, it was just right. We were big fans of the mac and cheese here.

The other side dish was the brussels sprouts which were crispy fried sprouts with pickled serrano, bacon croutons, and bourbon sorghum. We didn't expect it from the description, but putting aside the serrano, eating these brussels sprouts instantly transported us back to Kin Shop. Crazy that they reminded us most of Thai-inspired brussels sprouts, but there was something about the seasoning and the sauce that was just so similar, and the texture of the crispy fried sprouts was pretty much exactly the same. Since we loved those brussels sprouts, we obviously liked these too, and it was nice getting that flavor again. A found (unfortunately by accidentally biting into one) star anise, and that helped shed a little light on why the flavoring of the sprouts was so similar as that's more of an Asian seasoning.

We had a good dinner at Root and Bone. The vibe was fun, we had a good time with our neighbors, and the food was good. Although we liked the fried chicken, we wouldn't call it the best in NYC and there are definitely other places we prefer for fried chicken, even in the same neighborhood. But we enjoyed our experience there, which is really all we could ask for. If we ever do make it back, we'd look to try some of their other menu items, and definitely more of their sides.

Week 9 - From a Can

A bit behind on the 52 week cooking challenge recaps (even if I'm up to date on the challenge), but time to get back into it. The Week 9 challenge was from a can, which didn't mean every single ingredient had to come from a can, but the majority or at least the main ingredients should. Back when the theme was first announced, I had just made and posted about a dinner that was made almost entirely with canned and pantry items (the chorizo rice casserole here), so I couldn't make that again for the challenge but would have to come up with something else. We had 2 cans of crab meat in the pantry so I decided to make some crab cakes, and for vegetables, pair it with a cajun corn maque choux that I was originally going to make to celebrate Mardi Gras but didn't because we had too many Chinese New Year leftovers.

Ingredients

I based the crab cakes on this Allrecipes recipe and mostly followed this Southern Living recipe for the cajun corn maque choux, making adaptations along the way. The ingredients that we used were:

For the crab cakes:
- 5 scallions ($0.65)
- 2 small cans of crab meat ($3.98)
- 1 beaten egg ($0.17)
- 1 tbsp mayo ($0.10)
- 1 large spoonful of whole grain mustard ($0.10)
- buttery round crackers, crushed (about a column of crackers) ($0.67)
- about 1/2 tsp cayenne ($0.03)
- about 1 tsp garlic powder ($0.03)
- a few dashes of Old Bay seasoning (free - had some old sample packets from an Orioles game)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- panko bread crumbs to coat the cakes ($1)

For the cajun corn maque choux:
- 1 onion ($0.60)
- 1 green bell pepper ($0.99)
- olive oil for sauteing ($0.15)
- 5 scallions ($0.65)
- about 1 lb of chicken andouille with cheddar cheese ($4.50)
- 2 cans corn ($1.78)
- 2 cans Rotel (or 1 can Rotel, 1 can diced tomatoes) ($1.60)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)

The overall cost for everything was about $17.10 ($6.78 for the crab cakes and $10.32 for the maque choux). Not a cheap dinner compared to our usual costs. The andouille was a big part of the cost (and even more when I made it a second time recently), but the quality is excellent and it's worth it. But the cost also explains why in the future I didn't pair the maque choux with something like crab cakes and we just ate it on its own with some grains.

Baked Crab Cakes

The crab cakes were relatively easy to put together. The steps were basically:

1. Prep - chop green onions, beat egg.

2. Saute green onions very briefly (maybe a minute) in a small saute pan.

3. Combine in a bowl: sauteed green onions, drained crab meat, beaten egg, mayo, mustard, cayenne, garlic powder, Old Bay, salt and pepper. Adjust seasonings to taste if needed.

4. Crush the crackers and add to the mixture. (I did this in parts to make sure there wouldn't be too many cracker crumbs compared to everything else.)

5. Form the mixture into patties about 1/2 inch thick. (As you can see, there was a little leftover at the end, but because of step number 6, it wasn't very easy to just combine it with the existing patties to make them bigger.)

6. Coat the patties in panko and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet. (I combined what was left of the crab mixture at the end with what was left of the panko and basically just made a crab panko ball.)

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes per side.

Overall, we didn't love the crab cakes. Part of that could be the crab meat itself. We've bought these cans before (see the crab toast here) and thought the crab was okay, but in these crab cakes, the first couple of bites were kind of fishy before our tongues got desensitized to the flavor. There's probably a reason these cans of crab are so much cheaper than the refrigerated canned crab, and we probably won't get them again since we don't like it that much. The crab cakes were just okay, edible but not incredibly flavorful (other than the fishiness) and a little dry (maybe baked them a little too long). Probably won't make these again.

Cajun Corn Maque Choux

We were pretty excited for the maque choux in part because we had been thinking about it for a couple of weeks since the time we were originally going to make it, and in part because I picked up this chicken andouille with cheddar cheese that we had never tried before from our local meat market. The recipe had called for 1/4 pound, I requested 1/3 pound from the guy at the counter, and he ended up giving me almost a pound. It turned out to be for the best since even with almost a pound of sausage, it didn't seem like that much next to all of the vegetables.

The steps for making the maque choux (adapted a bit from the original recipe) were:

1. Prep - chop onion, chop bell pepper, chop scallions, chop andouille.

2. Heat oil in large skillet (the one I used for the challenge was not big enough to make it easy to stir but the second time I made it (yes, I made it again before finishing this post) I used a deeper skillet which was perfect) and saute onion and green pepper until tender.

3. Add the corn and Rotel and mix together.

4. While the vegetables are cooking, saute the andouille in a small skillet until cooked through and a little browned.

5. Add andouille when cooked to everything else, and cook together for about 10-15 minutes. (Depends how much liquid is in the pan. The first time, it cooked for a while, but the second time, there was barely any liquid at this point so it didn't need as much time.)

6. Add green onions, salt and pepper, and cook for another 5-10 minutes or so (again, dependent on how much liquid is in the pan).

We were big fans of the maque choux (not surprising since I've already mentioned we made this again). The andouille sausage had such good flavor - full of spices and creamy melted cheddar cheese - so the dish packed a punch. Outside of the andouille, it was a pretty healthy dish too, full of vegetables. One of the recipes I saw referred to it as a Cajun succotash, which is so true. On top of all the good flavors, it definitely passes the color test.

Overall, dinner was pretty good. The crab cakes tasted a lot better once I started eating bites combined with a little bit of the maque choux, which was the clear winner between the 2 dishes. The crab cakes may not be making it into the regular rotation, but the maque choux definitely will.

A's Favorite Food Memories of 2015

So it's that time again! Another year is coming to a close, and I'm coming up with my favorite food memories for 2015. In years past I've focused more on just my favorite dishes of the year, but this year I embraced more of the actual feel of this post and chose my favorite food experiences. This list is going to be alphabetical by restaurant (except for the last entry) as I'm not in the mood to try and rank all of these as it was hard enough to pick them all.

1.   Shrimp and Grits - B. Matthew's Eatery (Savannah, GA)

I've had shrimp and grits in my day, but the one from B Matthews? My god, what a dish. Perfect balance of saltiness from the andouille sausage and spice rub, richness and creaminess from the cheese and butter, and texture from the grits. The peppers and scallions added an element of freshness to an otherwise heavier dish.

2.   Celebration Meal - Danji (NYC)

This meal, while very good, was not chosen for any one particular dish. As a whole it was a very good meal, but it probably wouldn't have made the list in any of the previous years. This meal as a whole made the list because of what it represented. This was the meal that M and I had to celebrate me leaving my previous job near the beginning of the year. I was glad to have finally made that move, and it has thus far been the best move of my life professionally. The food also happened to be really good.

3.   Tamal de Elote con Camarones - Dove's Luncheonette (Chicago)

This year I had something of a theme to a lot of my food choices, grits and grit-like consistency dishes. This is the second of those on my list. I had a rough morning that day. A migraine kept me laid up for hours, and I was still in a fog when we got to Dove's. That all changed when they brought out the food, though. This dish is a collard green filled tamale with chili garlic shrimp, and banana peppers on top of soft scrambled eggs and garnished with fried garlic and cilantro. The eggs were soft and creamy, and the entire dish was an explosion of flavors. It was a blend of heat, acid, and salt rolled up into one delicious dish. M and I both agreed that we would totally get this dish again, but unfortunately a scan of their menu shows that it is no longer there.

4.   New England Clam Shack Feast - Fred's Shanty (New London, CT)

Ever since M and I moved to NYC, she'd always regaled me with tales of summer New England clam shack meals. Essentially they're clam strips or bellies fried to perfection and often served with fries and cole slaw as well. It's not the healthiest thing in the world, but it's a damn delicious one. Fred's Shanty was our first such stop on our trip this past summer. It wasn't the best fried clams we had on the trip, but they were the first I had ever had in New England during the summer. I'd had fried clam strips before in my life, but this was my first time having them while sitting out near the open water on a nice, hot day.

5.   Berry Picking - Johnson's Farm Produce (Hobart, IN)

One of my fondest memories while growing up were going to the grocery store with my mom and learning how to pick out produce. On our departure day from Chicago this year, my family decided to go out to a berry farm in Indiana that my brother and his family had been to earlier. Aside from being the juiciest and sweetest raspberries and blackberries I had ever eaten, it was so much fun being out in the fields with my mom. M remarked later how happy we both looked while working together to find and pluck the best berries on all of the bushes. My only regret for the day was not taking more of the boxes of berries. M and I inhaled our two boxes within an hour of being on the road.

6.   Toasted Cheese Sandwich - Kappacasein (Borough Market, London)

I like grilled cheese sandwiches a lot, but what we got at London's Borough Market was other worldly. Kappacasein is a local dairy farm that produces some amazing cheeses, and their stall pumps out the most amazing toasted cheese sandwiches (aka three cheese toasties) in the world and also raclette, a small pile of potatoes smothered in melted/seared cheese. We didn't get the raclette, but that cheese toastie haunted our dreams for weeks to come. So much so that M made her own version later on (more on that later...). The sandwich itself is rather simple. It has three types of cheese shredded to allow for better and more uniform melting and leeks and onions, both red and white, pressed between bread in a sandwich press. The melting cheese crisps up on the sandwich press, and the whole experience of eating these is heavenly.

7.   Lithuanian Festival (Catonsville, MD)

This was our first ever experience eating Lithuanian food, but that's not what made this so special. Sure the food was pretty good. Both dishes we got, Cepelinai, the national dish of LIthuania, and Kugelis, both seemed like potato and bacon dishes at their cores, but they were really delicious because... well... potato and bacon. While the food was tasty, the whole experience of being at the festival was so amazing. There were stalls selling traditional jewelry and clothing and also traditional Lithuanian folk dancing which was such fun to watch. It was a great entrance into both the food and culture of Lithuania.

8.   Sunday Roast - The Pig and Butcher (Islington, London)

One of the things we knew we wanted to try to do in London was have a proper Sunday Roast. Thankfully we were able to get into Pig and Butcher. My prime rib (which was only allowed to be ordered rare) was sublime. The meat was super tender, and it had just the right amount of seasoning. I got the horseradish with it, and the pairing was perfect. It also came with a massive Yorkshire pudding, carrots and cabbage, fried potatoes, and some jus. All of the flavors were so fresh. On their wall they also had a map of Great Britain which also showed where they got all of their ingredients from. It was amazing to see that everything was local, and we loved the down-home, rustic vibe of the entire restaurant. We also ordered a board to share, and they brought out creamed leeks as an additional side to our roasts.

9.   Fried Chicken Livers - Planters Tavern @ The Olde Pink House (Savannah, GA)

I've always been a fan of offal, and M is starting to come around. These fried chicken livers sounded so good. They were fried and put on top of Geechee Boy grits (there goes those grits again...), bordelaise, and fried spinach. The rich and slightly sweet bordelaise topped the mineral-y chicken livers to form a creamy, decadent dish. The grits were amazing. They had just the right amount of texture to give some bite to the ensemble, and the fried spinach gave things such a nice crunch. This was easily one of the best dishes we had all year.

10. Home cooking

Similar to last year, M has been doing a lot of cooking at home. There were a lot of amazing dishes that were made, and I know I'm missing a ton, but I've selected 4 to highlight.


Cheese Toastie: Shocking right? After loving the cheese toastie we had in London M wanted to try her hand at making her own. The results were beyond anything either of us could have imagined. While it didn't taste quite as good as the ones we had in London, these sandwiches were incredible. Shredding the cheese for the sandwiches makes a massive difference.

Bacon, Leeks, and Mushrooms: What do you get when you cook bacon in butter and then use all of that to cook leeks and mushrooms? Something ungodly unhealthy, but soooooooo delicious. M even made it again for Thanksgiving.

Larb Gai: A traditional Thai salad with ground chicken, mint, cilantro, lime, and a bunch of spices. It's one of our favorite dishes, and M had always wanted to make it. Well, she finally did. It turned out great, and she's made it again at least once since.

Hawaiian Pancakes: This was one I actually did. We bought some Trader Joe's Toasted Coconut Pancake Mix, and I wanted to make it one day. Instead of stopping there, though, I decided to turn it into a full-on Hawaiian memory for us. I took one of our remaining bananas and made a banana syrup for the pancakes and then topped it all with chopped Macadamia nuts. I would love to make this again, but pancakes are too heavy for just the two of us.

Overall we had a really good eating year in 2015. M and I are really excited to continue our eating adventures even if we're really slow at writing about them. Maybe in 2016 we'll actually get better about that, too!

M's Favorite Food Memories of 2015

2015 was a pretty great eating year for us. We went on road trips to both the South and the Midwest, and went across the pond for a week in London. We also had some great food right here at home in New York City. The year went by pretty quickly, but it was nice taking some time out this week to think about what my 10 favorite food memories were. In no particular order, here are this year's favorites.

1. Fried chicken sandwich from Bobwhite Lunch and Supper Counter (New York, NY)

2015 seemed to be the year of the fried chicken sandwich. As that is one of my favorite foods, that got no complaints from me. I ate a bunch of them this year - the Southern style sandwich from Delaney Chicken, the very hyped (and in our opinion, overhyped) sandwich from Fuku+, the old standby chicken sandwich at Manhattan's first real Chick-fil-A, a fried chicken biscuit from Southern chain Bojangles, a bunch of sandwiches from Do-Rite in Chicago, a bunch more sandwiches from Hill Country Chicken down in Flatiron, and probably more that I can't even recall off the top of my head. But my favorite of all is the fried chicken sandwich from Bobwhite down in the East Village. The chicken is fried perfectly, is so juicy, and is just the right size for that soft buttery roll. This year wasn't the first time I had it, but previously I had it with pimento cheese instead of the bread and butter pickles, and I like the simple pickles version so much more. It's my perfect chicken sandwich.

2. Freshly picked raspberries and blackberries from Johnson's Farm Produce (Hobart, IN)

As we started our return journey east from Chicago on our Great Lakes road trip, we went with A's family to a farm in Hobart, Indiana to pick some berries. Raspberries and blackberries were in season, and they were so good. It was great to get out of the city, be surrounded by open fields, and indulge in some really tasty berries. I'm not really one for picking them (takes too much patience, lots of bees, etc), but I loved watching the care that A (and his mom) put into selecting the perfect berries for us. We started snacking on the berries in the car after lunch and they didn't even make it halfway to Cleveland (our stop for the night). The blackberries especially were this perfect balance of sweetness and tartness unlike any blackberries I had ever had before. I'm not sure I'll ever get blackberries as fresh and ripe as these.

3. Cheese toastie from Kappacasein at Borough Market (London, UK)

I already wrote an ode to the cheese toastie from Kappacasein back during the Week 45 cooking challenge when I made my own version of the toastie at home. Not as good as the original in London, but I didn't have the exact same cheeses or the griddle that they used with cheese remnants of the hundreds of sandwiches that came before it. The toastie was delicious. The 3 cheese blend they used was extremely high quality, and the little bits of cheese on the side of the crusty bread were fantastic. The sandwich had a nice crunch to it. On top of all that, the onions and leeks that they mixed into the cheese made it so different from most cheese toasties and incredibly addictive. We wanted another one so badly after that, but forced ourselves to go try other things. 

4. Smoked bluefish fried rice from Kin Shop (New York, NY)

This fall, we sadly bid farewell to Kin Shop with a goodbye dinner where we got some old favorites (like the duck larb and brussels sprouts) and tried some new things, like this smoked bluefish fried rice. This hadn't been on the menu on any of our previous visits, and it was incredible. Garlic, shallots, smoked fish, hot sauce, perfectly cooked fried rice, so much good stuff here. We're so sad that we'll never be able to get this again.

5. Nandocas Choice sandwich from Nando's Peri-Peri (Woodbridge, VA)

We had been looking forward to our Southern road trip for many reasons, and one of those was our plan to stop at Nando's Peri-Peri on the way down to Savannah. The Baltimore/DC area has quite a few Nando's, but they haven't made it up to NYC yet. We had been obsessed with them for ages and couldn't wait to try the chicken. For my first taste of Nando's, I opted for a sandwich called Nandocas choice - chicken breast topped with cole slaw on their buttery garlic bread. It sounded amazing, and it really was. The flavor of the chicken itself might have been a little bit better on A's regular flame grilled chicken, but all together, this combination was great (and after trying many different things, those are still my 2 favorite sides for the chicken). We completely understood why people from England were so obsessed with Nando's. It's pretty amusing how 2015 has been, in some ways, the year of Nando's for us. We got our first taste in Virginia on the way down to Savannah, then again on the drive back in Maryland, and then we went to one of the new Nando's stores in Chicago. On top of that, we also went to Nando's in London and got to try some of the stuff there that is different from what we can get at home. Now all we need is a Nando's in NYC.

6. Scallops from Nopi (London, UK)

When I saw the scallops on the menu at Nopi, one of the Ottolenghi spots in London, I thought they sounded interesting. We were trying to narrow down our choices from a gigantic menu that sounded good, and it was tough to decide what to get. Then a few dishes arrived at the table next to us, and one of them was this scallop dish. The aroma of the scallops overpowered anything else in our area, and we both knew we had to get it. The scallops came with an apple yuzu puree, some soft roasted endives, and little bits of pork, and they were cooked perfectly. We expected nothing less from an Ottolenghi spot, but this dish was amazing. I can still taste it today, the rich scallops, the bright purees, the hearty pork, and the comforting endives. So good.

7. Mentaiko spaghetti from Noreetuh (New York, NY)

We went to Noreetuh to celebrate our anniversary this year, which made complete sense since we got married in Hawaii and Noreetuh serves elevated and inventive Hawaiian cuisine. One of our favorite dishes was this mentaiko spaghetti with smoked butterfish (clearly, I love smoked fish), aonori, and chili. The pasta was just right and al dente, the fish was soft and silky, and the entire dish was really smoky and so rich and buttery. The balance of the seasonings was spot-on, and we cleaned every bit of sauce off that plate.

8. Sunday roast pulled pork from The Pig and Butcher (London, UK)

The Sunday roast at The Pig and Butcher was one of our favorite London experiences. You got to choose your meat - I went with pork - and then it came with standard sides of leeks, roasted vegetables, fried potatoes, and Yorkshire pudding.  The pork was a roasted pork shoulder that came with a side of applesauce and also a side sauce of your choosing (at their suggestion, I went with dijon mustard). This was the best roasted pork I have ever had in my life. It had the texture of a good pulled pork, but it wasn't barbecue like most of the pulled pork here in the States. It felt like comfort food, and was such a great way to experience classic London.

9. Fried chicken livers and grits from Planters Tavern at the Olde Pink House (Savannah, GA)

We had a lot of good Southern cooking in Savannah and I had quite a few dishes as possibilities for this top 10 list. In the end, the one that won a place was this dish of fried chicken livers, Geechie Boy grits, bordelaise, and fried spinach from Planters Tavern, the downstairs old school tavern under one of the most famous Savannah restaurants, the Olde Pink House. We loved the vibe of the tavern as we sat at the bar having a few appetizers. While the chicken livers were really tasty, the best part of this dish was the grits. I love grits and these were possibly the best grits ever. I liked them so much that while I sat at the bar eating them, I was researching on my phone where Geechie Boy grits came from (Edisto Island, SC) and how far it would be from our planned driving route in South Carolina (almost an hour detour each way). They were so good that we were really tempted to change plans to get some of these grits, but in the end, just didn't think we could fit it into the trip. The fact that we even considered it I think says everything about how highly we thought of them.

10. Home cooking and the 52 week cooking challenge

As has been the case for the past few years, I'm devoting one slot on the top 10 list to home cooking, and just like last year, it's to dishes from the 52 week cooking challenge. I have become a much better cook than I was 2 years ago, and I think part of that is due to pushing boundaries and making myself try new things instead of making the same old, comfortable dishes week after week. Some of my favorite things from this year were the loaded baked potato salad, cocoa jerk tofu, Chilean butternut squash casserole, the cheese and leek toastie, leeks with bacon and mushrooms, and of course, one of my favorite dishes in the entire world, larb gai. The fact that because of the challenge I can now make larb at home is alone one of the highlights of my year. I'm incredibly grateful that something like this challenge even exists to get me out of my comfort zone and give some structure to my cooking journey (which has in many ways taken place on this blog; reading some of the early cooking posts, I've really seen how far I've come).

There it is - my top 10 food memories of 2015. Hoping 2016 brings some excellent food adventures!