Let the Holiday Begin!
March 10th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
23E may be the very center of the Boeing 777. That’s where I’m sitting, and it might as well be first class. I wouldn’t know the difference right now with how excited I’m am, about to depart Miami on my first leg to Rome, via London, for a two week holiday touring mostly the northern regions of my favorite country in the world. I’ll be logging what I can via iPad here, as I make my way through Rome, Florence, Valle d’Aosta, Milan, Stresa and the lakes region of Lombardy, Bergamo, Orvieto and more. Buon viaggio!
Hand Drawn Noodles
June 21st, 2011 § Leave a Comment
It ain't a pretty scene, but it was damn good eating. Thank you Israel for Michael Solomonov.
Last week was all about Philadelphia, and its last impressions — a new taste of Israel and Chinatown’s hand drawn noodles. I was there with Chef for two events, and true to form, we followed our noses to eat good food off the clock. In early May, we had booked dinner at Zahav (‘gold’ in Hebrew) immediately after Michael Solomonov won Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. After meeting him on his home turf, he insisted we change our reservation for later Thursday evening so he could be there. So at 9:30 we arrived to Society Hill in a light drizzle to drink Israeli sauvignon blanc and feast on salatim (a rainbow of small salads and pickled vegetables,) mina (beef brisket with crisp matzoh and coffee,) and the chef’s fall-off-the-bone lamb shoulder. The meat was tender and juicy, lacquered with pomegranate glaze and slow roasted whole for three days until it was rested atop crispy Lebanese rice dotted with nutty chick peas for us to devour. And then Solomonov really did it. I’m not speaking of the other dishes paraded out of the kitchen nor of the genuine hospitality that had Arak (an anise flavored aperitif not unlike ouzo) flowing over ice-filled glasses in front of us. Though these gestures were beyond generous and appreciated, it was his recommendation for lunch before leaving the following day that really did us in, in the best of possible ways. With hot chili oil, pig ears, and hand drawn noodles! We were to head to 9th and Race to find it, although he couldn’t remember the name of the noodle shop. So the next morning, luggage safely in hotel storage, we set out due northeast following Solomonov’s trail of crumbs. They led to Zan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House and this awesome, humble lunch.
Daikon Soup Meets Pho Ga
May 26th, 2011 § 1 Comment
My ‘Daikon Pho Ga’; Daikon Soup at Stir Moon (Coral Gables, FL) the only restaurant where I’ve encountered it in Miami.
SUNDAY MORNING I AWOKE TO A FAMILIAR SCENE. A narrow alleyway, wafting with columns of steam, where small women in matching top and bottom house clothes command fragrant vats of rich broth from mini plastic pastel perches.
It was playing out on TV this time, on Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, a show on Cooking Channel where this Sydney chef/restaurateur returns to the country of his heritage to take a culinary journey through the northern regions of Vietnam.
Mornings beginning with Pho Bo were something to which I came to look forward last summer on a week-long visit to cousin Jonathan Hixon’s home in Ha Noi. The light, fragrant beef and pork bone broth becomes rich and layered with flavor from four to eight hours of cooking — eight meaning it hit the burner before bedtime.
Charred ginger and shallot, and toasted spices like anise, fennel seed, black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg build layers of flavor.
I learned how to make Pho Bo (Bo means beef,) down to the skimming of impurities after making the broth and then assembling the payday in a large white bowl of rice noodles, shaved-paper-thin white onion and beef, and a mess of chopped herbs such as cilantro and mint. And, typical to where I enjoyed it, a generous sprinkle of ground black pepper and a squeeze of kalamansi juice.
I recently reconnected with daikon soup, another favorite of mine from my days in New York City and traditional to the north in Japan, and decided to see what would become of the long ivory tuber with the amazing depth of a Pho-style broth as poaching liquid and eventual soup base made hearty with pulled leftover roast chicken (‘ga’ in Vietnamese.)
‘Daikon Pho Ga’ did not disappoint, but I’ll be sticking with dinner on this one until I have a glass of chilled Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk sitting beside it!
