Skyr (skEEr) is Here, Plus a Couple Short Order Posts of Last Week
August 30th, 2009 § 1 Comment
Happy Sunday everyone! Gobble up this brunch buffet while it’s hot:
Skyred Straight: Skyr isn’t going to be for everyone, but if you’re a lover of thick Greek yogurt like Fage, chances are you’ll appreciate it. Last weekend when shopping at Whole Foods Market in Coral Gables, I spotted skyr for the first time in the U.S., flagged with a yellow and green ‘New Product’ label. Skyr is apparently going national now, the next yogurt fad to come to a grocery near you and it ain’t cheap relative to other options in the dairy section. It rang a bell, as I had recently caught Andrew Zimmern sampling the real deal on the Iceland episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel – not from the Icelandic supermarket, but from a family’s home where they whip up fresh, dairy cow milk batches daily. It’s traditional to add honey and top off with a ladle of cream, to liven up plain skyr from the dense, smooth paste to something slighty sweet and decadent. Skyr doesn’t melt on your tongue because its fat content is zero, so it takes some getting used to if you don’t have Nordic blood cursing through your veins. But while this brand, New York-based Siggi’s, hasn’t quite figured out the best flavor profiles to offer (Orange & Ginger sounded good but had an aftertaste like licking a bar of soap,) blueberry and plain (jazzed up with some toasted walnuts, raisins and honey) are worth a try. Props on the pretty packaging, too.
The Great Bagel Debate: Last week on Short Order, I tackled the bagel water wars on occasion of The Brooklyn Water Bagel Co. opening up shop in Delray. How important is the water in the bagel-making process? It’s just one of the questions I posed to food science writer Harold McGee. See how he responds here.
Chocolate Soup and Other Treasures: Chef Elida Villaroel spins a delicate yet powerful web at Charlotte’s Bistro. Go to the Gables to get caught, and read the story here.
Meet Miami’s Newest Food Blogger: French Fry Fairy, Beth Swanson
August 21st, 2009 § 1 Comment
You're welcome!
You may have seen my item today on Short Order about the French Fry Fairy. As it would happen, I was sifting through the morning’s emails and Twitter feed from bed when I overheard this new blogger mentioned on Today in South Florida, and curiosity was piqued. So I quickly emailed our new nymph of the greasy delights some questions. (It’s been a while since I actually had a “kitchen interview” on this monster, right?) The Fairy promptly got back to me with the thoughtful responses below, for your reading enjoyment!
Have you always had a passion for fries?
My French fry obsession began in my early 20s when I started traveling for work. Being a very picky eater, there were often very limited menu options available to vegetarians in some of the smaller towns that I had to visit. There was always the pasta option with watered down sauce or a side salad with wilted lettuce and fake cheese. The one thing I could always find that pleased my palate was French fries. By default I ended up consuming more potatoes than most would think humanly possible.
What made you decide to take the leap to blogging?
Eddie the neighbor – who is my faithful cohort in my adventures – and I were at the Clevelander about a month ago and I was eating fries. I eat fries so often that I thought it would be fun to track my adventures. Eddie agreed and that was all I needed. I had a website up in three days and the quest for the perfect fries began!
Are you worried you’ll run out of fries to try?
I am worried I don’t have enough time to try all the fries! I plan on trying fries all over Florida and anywhere else that I travel.
What makes a good fry?
A good fry is crispy, salty and cooked thoroughly – so it doesn’t have a baked potato taste. They also have to be firm, so I can dip them in mayo, ketchup or any other dipping sauce the restaurant provides. I always think it is fun when restaurants do something out of the ordinary to their fries. Last week I tried yucca fries at Versailles and a couple weeks ago I tried artichoke fries at Canyon Ranch.
What fries are the best in town?
I only started doing this a month ago, but Five Guys fries are amazing!
Best alone or with a burger?
I don’t eat meat, so I happen to like French fries as a solo entree. 
What advice do you have for the Burger Beast (burger blogger in Miami)?
Try all the veggie burgers and let me know where to go!
Got Goop? Barbara Tropp’s China Moon Hot Chili Oil
August 13th, 2009 § 1 Comment
The finished product in all its glory. I chose peanut oil. Good call, although I'm sure corn would have yielded a different yet equally as stunning result.
On Saturday, I’m attending a Wok Star cooking class taught by the Wok Star herself, Eleanor Hoh, for an upcoming story on Short Order. Her approach doesn’t revolve around cookbooks or recipes. It’s instead about learning a few techniques that can help you improvise your way to simple, healthy Asian meals at home using only a few ingredients. Sounds right up my alley.
I’ve always been fascinated with the far east, both cuisines and cultures. You name it, I love to eat it and learn about it. Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese… another helping, please? But in my own kitchen? Leave it to the experts, I would say. “I’d sooner attempt brain surgery!”
I mean, where does one begin to create something close to what a bonafide restaurant of any of the above persuasions can plate? Asia summarized in a pre-made sauce like Soy Vey was the, shall we say, lazy extent of my foray.
A couple months back, I had read about Barbara Tropp’s cookbooks in the New York Times Bitten Blog, usually the realm of recipe brahman Mark Bittman, but that spring day offered up to his friend Edward Schneider for a tribute to the late author and San Francisco restaurateur. It was one of those online reading excursions of infinite tangents when you read a story and then get lost in the comments, only to link elsewhere to better understand what people are referring to in the thread. It was as exhausting and enlightening a surf as any, and three Chinese cookbooks from Amazon later (two of which were Barbara’s,) I was on my way to attempting the “goop” her fans swore by in the thread.
The kitchen fridge: Boar's Head BBQ chicken, manchego cheese and eggs. Lightly scramble two, whites if you prefer, and grate some manchego right before you pull them out of the pan. Plate in a bowl on top of the sliced chicken. Top with a drizzle of chili oil, goop included. Scrapped together, crazy good.
Online search led to offline hunt, as I piled my weekend-bum-self into the rental (thanks to previously tweeted car crash) on a Sunday afternoon. Destination: North Miami Beach, the P.K. Oriental Market. Mission: China Moon Hot Chili Oil ingredients. The China Moon Cookbook (first printing 1992) calls for:
2/3 cup shockingly pungent dried red chili flakes
1/3 cup Chinese fermented black beans (do not rinse them), coarsely chopped
4 large cloves garlic, lightly smashed and peeled
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 1/2 cups corn or peanut oil
1/3 cup Japanese sesame oil
The “goop” Barbara refers to is the yummy stuff that settles to the bottom of the just-as-yummy oil. My first try was a success, and it actually reminds me of the hot oil at one place in Miami, Stir Moon in Coral Gables. But so much better, of course. It’s very easy. Add all the ingredients into a sauce pan on the stove and cook at a soft simmer on low heat for about 12-15 minutes. Let it cool and then pour into a clean, air-tight container or glass jar for storage and use whenever you want to “light a spark” in sauces, noodles, salads, marinades… you get the idea. There’s a whole section of divine condiments like this one to drool over, not to mention the other 250 recipes I’m rarin’ to tackle. China Moon Cookbook. Get it, use it, love it. End of story.
Here are some other things I found while at P.K.’s. It can be an intimidating experience, being unfamiliar with most of the products and foods, especially with such an absence of English packaging and like-speaking staff. But oh what fun, especially when you run into something you recognize from a special meal you once had in Chinatown, or something completely foreign that turns out to be a taste treat of infinite possibilities once you bring it home. Thanks to helpful tweets, I will be trying Lucky’s closer to my neck of the woods next time. Not that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy P.K.’s, with Sang’s next door and King Palace with its shrimp stuffed bean curd down the street, but it’s kind of a haul.
Shrimp chips, all time favorite. The rice noodles were 69 cents per pack on sale. Need I say more? The iced tea with lemon was quenching, but the "mandarin salt" flavor iced tea with honey, a whole new level.
