Nov 30

North of the Border

We’re spending a few days in Vancouver. The main reason is to catch up with a couple I knew during my postdoc days in Dallas. They live in Nova Scotia and don’t get west of Ontario very often. However, we don’t  need much of an excuse to visit Vancouver. It’s less than three hours away (Customs permitting), and is the most beautiful city on the West Coast–after Seattle. As a bonus, these days the US dollar has a very favorable exchange rate versus the Canadian currency. (The Seattle Times touted this fact in a travel article yesterday.)

Seattle and Vancouver share many characteristics. Both are surrounded by water, and have bustling ports. Water is a key constituent of their climates, in the form of rain. Both cities have large Asian populations, and a diverse dining scene. Seafood is featured prominently on many restaurant menus. Vancouver has Seattle beaten by the sheer number of high-rise apartments in the center city. Seattle is heading in that direction, thanks to the Amazon headquarters downtown and ugly traffic. And both cities, alas, are heading toward non-affordability. [Coincidentally, Paul Krugman wrote about this dilemma in today’s New York Times. As gentrification proceeds, people of more modest circumstances who are least able to afford long commutes are being pushed to the periphery of metropolitan areas.]

Vancouver's present, Seattle's future?

Vancouver’s present, Seattle’s future?

 

We are staying at our usual hotel, the Robson Suites. This used to be a condominium before it converted into an extended-stay/boutique hotel. The rates are very reasonable, especially with the aforementioned exchange rate. Each unit comes with a real kitchen that’s well-stocked with dishes, pans, and utensils. The units vary in size from a studio to a reasonably large one-bedroom, which is what we have on this stay. The building is located between the Robson and Georgia shopping strips, two blocks from the Denman Street restaurant strip, and three blocks from Stanley Park. There is no onsite restaurant, unless you count the McDonald’s that’s open 24 hours (and I don’t). There’s a Safeway across the street to stock the kitchen as needed.

We arrived here just in time to watch the end of the Grey Cup, Canada’s equivalent of the Super Bowl. The Edmonton Eskimos came from behind to beat the Ottawa Red Blacks, 24-18. I believe the CFL could teach the NFL a few things to move games forward a bit faster. After the game, we wandered Denman Street in search of dinner. Two of our favorite spots are no more, the Rain City Grill and Maria’s Taverna. Other places, such as De Dutch and the Ukrainian restaurant near the corner of Denman and Robson, are still going strong. We settled on dinner at the bar of a Spanish restaurant, España. We had tapas of salad and white anchovy toasts, followed by a paella. The salad was good. I had one bite of the anchovy toast and gave the rest to Julian. The sight of 6-8 anchovy fillets mounded on a hunk of bread was a big turnoff. (Anchovies work best for me in small, covert doses, as in Julian’s puttanesca sauce and in Vietnamese fish sauce.) The paella came with a side of aioli, aka mayonnaise. Neither of us paid much attention to it. The paella was quite good, heavy on the smoked paprika. After a quick stop at Safeway, we went back to the hotel and watched the end of the New England-Denver game.

More adventures from Vancouver to come–once Julian gets moving.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/30/north-of-the-border/

Nov 28

The Montlake Mess, Apple Cup Edition

I went into the office yesterday, since I don’t do Black Fridays if I can help it. While I was being a busy worker bee, the annual Apple Cup was being played at Husky Stadium. This is the game between the University of Washington (UW) and Washington State University (WSU). I thought the game started at 1:30 and I could get through the Montlake Mess relatively quickly. Wrong on both counts. The game started at 12:30, it was a blowout (UW 45, WSU 10), and it took me two hours to get home. Die(sel) Frau spewed plenty of nitrogen oxides into the Seattle air last night.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/28/the-montlake-mess-apple-cup-edition/

Nov 26

Thanksgiving Rituals

After many years at this, we’ve got this Thanksgiving thing figured out. Since we usually go to friends’ houses for the holiday, we don’t need to worry about the turkey. Julian makes the key lime pie in the wee hours of Thanksgiving morning. When I get up, I make the cranberry relish(es) and any other contribution. This keeps us out of each other’s way. By the time Julian gets out of bed, the kitchen is more or less cleaned up after my escapades and he can practice quality control.

This year I made the tried and true raw cranberry relish, and an experimental cooked one. The raw one is from The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American, and consists of just cranberries, oranges, and sugar. This year I used maple syrup and sugar in smaller quantities than usual. The maple flavor got lost in the cranberries, but no matter. The cooked one is from the October-November issue of Fine Cooking magazine. This one combines cranberries, sugar, mint, bourbon, and a little water. You cook it until the cranberries all pop and the mixture thickens. After it cools, you add chopped toasted nuts. The original recipe called for hazelnuts, but I substituted pecans to continue with the southern vibe.

Cooked cranberry-mint relish with pecans.

Cooked cranberry-mint relish with pecans.

Then I made applesauce. I managed to find some Rome Beauty apples at, of all places, Uwajimaya. There’s a reason they’re called Rome Beauty–look at them! The red pigment is in the pulp as well as the peel.

How do I like them apples? In sauce!

How do I like them apples? In sauce!

This is what I wound up with after they were cooked and I put them through the food mill. If you want to know how I did this, check out my earlier post, “Oh, Applesauce!” No red dye #2 here.

No red dye #2 here.

Now this is applesauce worth making for Thanksgiving.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/26/thanksgiving-rituals/

Nov 25

The Food Safety Cop

When I was teaching introductory nutrition, Thanksgiving week was always food safety week. I wasn’t obsessive that the students know the specific microbes and the incubation periods for food-borne illnesses, I just wanted them to understand how to reduce their risk of getting sick.

These days every new outbreak gets a banner headline in the news. As a result, you may get bent out of shape about contaminated Costco chicken salad or hepatitis A outbreaks at local eateries. Truth be known, probably more cases of food poisoning occur at home from improper handling than from tainted restaurant or grocery items. And Thanksgiving is one of the worst holidays for food poisoning. Think about it: Dinner is over and you begin to slide into turkey torpor, when you and the family fall asleep in front of the TV. (The Dallas Cowboys ain’t what they used to be.) Meanwhile, the turkey and other foods are sitting out at room temperature. Any self-respecting bacterium contained in that food is heeding the first commandment from Genesis: “Be fruitful and multiply.” Three or four hours later, you wake up and get the urge for a turkey sandwich with gravy. You barely warm the gravy and turkey in the microwave. The next morning, you’re running to the bathroom with upper and/or lower gastrointestinal distress.

Fortunately, this need not be your fate. Consider the following:

Wash your hands. Frequently. With soap and water.

Avoid cross contaminating raw and cooked foods. Use separate cutting boards for raw vegetables and meats. If you only have one cutting board, cut up the vegetables and fruit before you use it for meat.

Wash your knives and cutting boards between uses. Some people use a dilute bleach solution to do so, but soap and hot water work wonders.

The danger zone for bacterial growth is between 40° and 140° Fahrenheit for more than 2 hours. This means cook food completely, and store it in the fridge soon after eating. It also means don’t thaw your turkey at room temperature. Allow 1 day in the fridge for every 4 pounds of turkey. Therefore, a 16-pound behemoth should have been put in the fridge on Saturday or Sunday morning to be thawed for cooking on Thanksgiving.

Invest in a food thermometer. Poultry is done when the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh reads at least 165°F. The interior of your pan of dressing should also register 165°.

Stuffing a turkey is problematic precisely because of the temperature issue. By the time the turkey thigh registers 165°, the center of the stuffing may still be in the danger zone temperature-wise. The turkey carcass is a great heat insulator as well. If you must stuff your turkey (“Grandma always did it and we’re not dead yet”), do so just before it goes in the oven. Pack the cavity loosely so there’s more of a chance to heat things through.

Put leftovers away right after the meal. Use shallow dishes to allow the food to chill faster. If you’re sending food home with guests, make sure they have ways to get the goodies home safely. Let them borrow some blue ice blocks if they’ve got a distance to travel. Luckily, in the northern US it should be cold enough tomorrow night not to worry if the food is in the trunk of the car–if it’s been properly handled beforehand.

It doesn’t take a microbiologist to avoid getting food poisoning. A healthy respect for hygiene and temperatures will go a long way toward keeping you and your guests safe. Enjoy the holiday!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/25/the-food-safety-cop/

Nov 22

Raclette

One of our cold weather dinners consists of raclette. Consider this fondue without the pot and long forks. Raclette is a gruyere-type cheese that is softer and melts better. It’s a common cheese in the French and Swiss Alps. It can be found in well-stocked cheese departments. We prefer the Swiss to the French version. Usually raclette is made from cows’ milk, but I tried some goats’ milk raclette tonight. There was a subtle goaty taste, but not overwhelming.

The traditional way to melt raclette is to expose a wheel of cheese to an open fire and scrape off the melted portion onto your plate. We prefer a less messy approach, which was endorsed by one of Julian’s Swiss colleagues: Put a hunk of cheese and a few parboiled potatoes (we used Yukon Golds) in an ovenproof plate and bake at 450° until the cheese is melted. You can also broil the cheese. Julian will sprinkle a little sweet paprika and black pepper on the cheese before it goes into the oven. When the cheese is melted, serve with crusty bread, pickled onions and cornichons. You can drink a beer, cider, or dry white wine alongside. Our vin du soir was a Beringer chenin blanc, but a dry riesling or gewürztraminer would work as well. While your friendly neighborhood cardiologist might not approve of this as a regular meal, an occasional bit of cheesy goodness can fit into your regime.

Raclette with accoutrements: Boiled potatoes, cornichons, pickled onions, and French bread.

Raclette with accoutrements: Boiled potatoes, cornichons, pickled onions, and French bread.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/22/raclette/

Nov 22

The Throw-Everything-Together Dressing

While turkey is okay, I am a fanatic about dressing (or stuffing, if you wish). My stepfather taught me how to make bread dressing, You do it mostly by feel and taste. There are no set proportions, you just stretch based on the size of your guest list, how many days of leftovers you want, and/or what’s in the fridge. (Yes, this is what we call a gemisch.) Here’s the method:

A loaf of stale bread. Use a bread with some texture for this, such as whole wheat or a baguette. Spongy white bread will take 3 weeks to go stale, and you’ll have a gluey mess on your hands when you add liquid. You can rip the slices apart and leave it to dry out overnight, preferably away from the dog.

On Thanksgiving, dice up some onion and celery. Sauté these in butter or olive oil on medium low heat until the onion is translucent. Add the vegetables to the stale bread crumbs. You can also add bell pepper to the onion and celery. I’d add about half as much bell pepper as celery. You can also add your choice of mushrooms to get more umami action.

Season LIBERALLY (life is too short to eat bland dressing) with salt, pepper, and assorted herbs. My favorite is the Simon & Garfunkel combination. I’ll use fresh parsley, rosemary, and thyme. The sage is dried. I used fresh sage once and wasn’t happy with the results.

Now you have to glue the stuffing together. I use a combination of broth and eggs. If you have vegetarians coming to dinner, use vegetable or mushroom broth.

Here’s the most important part, according to my stepfather. Take off your rings, roll up your sleeves, wash your hands, and mix everything manually. No spoon. Make sure you get the liquid, herbs, egg, and veggies evenly distributed.

Have a baking pan large enough to accommodate the dressing ready before you get your hands dirty. Once the dressing is mixed, press it gently and evenly into the baking dish. It will take about 40 minutes at 350° to cook it through. Take the meat thermometer you should use to test if the turkey’s done and stick it in the center of the dish. The temperature should be about 160° to assure that it’s done.

So why don’t I stuff the turkey with this mixture? Check my upcoming post.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/22/the-throw-everything-together-dressing/

Nov 21

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday. It’s not just because my ancestors came over to North America on the Mayflower. It’s a day that gives me the opportunity to play in the kitchen. Now that we live on the West Coast, traveling to see my family isn’t in the cards. Luckily, we have dinner with some of our Friday night friends. It’s a potluck on steroids. Our host makes the turkey, and the rest of us contribute the trimmings. Julian usually makes key lime pie, using the recipe from Mangrove Mama’s restaurant in the Florida Keys. This year my contribution will be two cranberry sauces, raw and cooked. In previous years I’ve done roasted vegetables, other side dishes, or bread.

Our dinners differ a bit from what my family does. For one thing, we eat around 6 pm. Mom is insistent on having the meal at 1 pm. This does not work well with a night owl like Julian. Eating later allows me to work at a more leisurely pace. In previous years I’ve been able to go on a bike ride after preparing the cranberry relishes. We can also watch the football games before we eat dinner, courtesy of being in the Pacific Time Zone. Our dinner offerings are a bit different from what we’d get at Mom’s as well. There are no sweet potatoes with marshmallows, although my friend Shira will make a gelatin salad she affectionately refers to as “green slime”. Wine is always on the table.

One Thanksgiving years ago sticks out in my memory. We were living in Dallas, and invited one of my postdoc officemates to dinner. Manisha was from Mumbai (Bombay), India and didn’t know from Thanksgiving. She was also vegetarian. I made my throw-everything-together dressing without meat and had some other protein alongside the turkey for her. Dallas had an ice storm that day. Since Manisha had never driven on ice or snow before, I was afraid she wouldn’t make it up the hills in our neighborhood. (Oak Cliff is one of the few neighborhoods in Dallas with anything resembling hills.) Luckily, she didn’t wrap her car around a tree. We made a pumpkin pie out of Bon Appétit magazine for dessert. Phoebe, our first Russian Blue, was just a kitten and decided that pumpkin pie would be a fine thing to eat. Fortunately, we made two pies and she only tasted one. Manisha enjoyed the unscathed pie and the concept of Thanksgiving.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/21/thanksgiving/

Nov 19

Gray is the New Black

I seem to be wearing a lot of gray lately. It’s not as if I’m a diluted Goth. Maybe it’s the weather. Then again, it may serve to hide the fur that our bums shed.

"Who us, shed? MOMMMM!"

“Who us, shed? MOMMMM!”

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/19/gray-is-the-new-black/

Nov 18

More Rainy-Day Haikus

What’s the deal with haikus, you ask? I think they’re a perfect poetry practice for scientific writers. One has to stuff maximum meaning in only seventeen syllables. Anyone who’s had to fit the results of a research project into a little box for a meeting abstract knows exactly what I mean. Monday was another rainy, traffic-clogged day on the bus, so it was time to write a few more haikus.

Welcome to Winter

Dark at 6 am.

Dark again at 4 pm.

The Sun? What is that?

Dead Giveaway

You can always tell

Folks just back from Hawaii:

Serious sunburns.

Too Much Time on My Hands

Killing time again.

Counting the cannabis shops

On Lake City Way.

And a more sober haiku:

There are many paths

To walk humbly with thy god.

Mass murder’s not one.

 

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/18/more-rainy-day-haikus-2/

Nov 14

The Joyride

[This is an adaptation of a story I told at my brother’s graveside service in 2006. November 15, 2015 would have been Lyle’s 55th birthday.]

Lyle was born with spina bifida. He got around in a wheelchair throughout his life; however, he was obsessed with motorized four-wheeled transportation. American muscle cars were his favorites. He took it upon himself to pass judgment on any car family members bought over the years. At least when it came to my cars, he was not complimentary.

In 1999, when we were living in Greensboro, NC, my partner Julian bought a Volkswagen GTI VR6. This was a limited-edition Golf with a 6-cylinder engine. Lyle was dismissive of this purchase. Never one to have someone disrespect his wheels, Julian plotted a way to show Lyle what his car’s capabilities were. He decided that we’d take the GTI home to New York for Thanksgiving and take Lyle on a joyride.

The day after Thanksgiving was marked for the ride. The weather was dry and sunny. We helped Lyle from the wheelchair to the car, I climbed in back, and Julian revved the engine. The early part of the drive was on back roads. Julian was relatively cautious on the curves. Then we got onto route 104, and Julian’s foot turned from feathery to leaden. The speedometer needle headed toward and above 90 mph. My eyes alternated between the speedometer and Lyle. The acceleration pushed him hard against the back of the seat, and his complexion was going from pale to red. Luckily, local law enforcement had not set up speed traps on the road that day. Once Julian decided that Lyle had had enough thrills, he slowed down and we turned back home.

The GTI rolled into Mom’s driveway. I pulled his wheelchair up to the passenger side of the car so Lyle could get out. Julian asked, “So what did you think?” Lyle’s characteristic response: “It runs.” This was the highest praise he could give.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/11/14/the-joyride/

Load more