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Right Bite Dinners At Shedd Aquarium (Chicago)

Hungry Blogger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:18:52 +0000

Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium is offering an incredible program called Right Bite Dinners, a dining series held throughout the year at renowned Chicago-area restaurants and culinary training facilities and featuring full-course upscale dining experiences. But, they are far more than just dinner events. Attendees are served sustainable seafood choices and educated through the course of the evening on how our seafood choices can help protect our oceans and environments. Each participating host restaurantprepares a unique environmentally-friendly menu created especially for the Right Bite events, with special focus placed uponsustainable food choices from our very own Great Lakes region.

As another awareness-building step in the Right Bite program, anyone may download the brand-new Right Bite wallet card (PDF format) featuring answers, information, and an easy-to-reference guide so sustainable choices can be made easily when dining out anywhere, and the guide features many choices often available here in the midwest such as whitefish and yellow perch.

Inspired by a similar program at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium called the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watc, Shedd worked closely with the team in Monterrey to develop a similar sustainability program ehre in Chicago, too. The Shedd Aquarium website has a list of resources, as well, of Chicago-area caterers, grocers, fishmongers, culinary schools and restaurants who support and comply with Shedd and Monterrey Bay’s sustainability seafood standards.

Upcoming Right Bite Dinner:

Robert Morris College – Tuesday, Nov. 18
$75 per person, per dinner
To register, call 312-692-3123

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A Night Out in Pasadena (Los Angeles)

Hungry Blogger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:16:10 +0000

Headed out to Pasadena with the girls to celebrate a 23rd birthday with style. After careful Yelping, Cafe Santorini was selected. Mediterranean food? Check. Cocktails? Check. Located in Old Town, right by the local Forever 21 for pre-dinner shopping? Check.

The historic brick building/neon sign is hard to miss, as are the wooden stairs leading up to the restaurant.

Once you finish climbing into the restaurant, you get a choice of dining indoors or out.

We opted for out. (You can do that in November when you live in Southern California.)

Thanksgivin’, Texas Style (Seattle)

Hungry Blogger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:14:36 +0000

Much to the surprise of many I meet, my formative years were spent in a suburb just outside of Dallas. I am often greeted with “But you don’t have an accent” and “Did you ride a horse to school?”. I will assure you that, while Texas is indeed a very foreign-feeling place to yuppie-fied hipster city folk like myself, it’s not as backwater as you’d think. Plano is actually a very flat, boring suburb with a bizarre 50-50 mix of shiny over-the-top malls and crumbling shopping centers.

As such, good food is kinda hard to find in Plano. Most restaurants are soulless chains, and those that are independent look like soulless chains. Lots of neon, insane decorating schemes, giant vinyl-covered menus, you get the idea. When I come to visit my folks, who a few years ago moved back to Plano after a stint in Washington state, I pretty much bank on never going out, unless it’s for Korean at one of the local Asian markets, or my own mother’s reliably effing-delicious Korean dishes.

And while my mom’s a fantastic Korean cook (I’ve not yet met a dish hailing from that tiny country that matched the quality of her variations), her take on classical and American food is decidedly less homespun. Growing up, there was a lot of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Shake ‘N Bake, and more Tuna Helper than a picky seafood-resistant child (such as myself) could handle. Thanksgiving, in my home, always meant a parched turkey, gummy mashed potatoes, Stouffer’s stuffing, and that awful jellied purple stuff claiming to be “cranberry sauce”. No disrespect to my mother, who labored alone for days to provide us with a giant spread befitting the great American tradition. But I think it’s pretty typical in a lot households to regard Thanksgiving as that holiday where you make the same stuff every year, lots of it, and in the interest of stress-reduction and time, you head to prepared box mixes and button-popping turkeys and shrug your shoulders when the turkey turns out dry–after all, that’s how turkey just is, isn’t it?

Never one to succumb to such illogical culinary rules of the American culture, I endeavored to make the entire meal–from scratch–and prove that Thanksgiving isn’t a meal you feel obligated to say you enjoy, but one that you actually do. It was me now, alone in the kitchen, cooking for eight (no one but my mom really understood why I cared so much). It was hard. I got really sweaty. But my goals, though lofty–a somewhat-juicy turkey with a burnished-gold skin, creamy mashed potatoes, a cranberry sauce that required at least some jaw movement to digest, and a three-in-one dessert that screamed “Thanksgiving! Wooo!” but wasn’t cloying–were satisfyingly, deliciously, triumphantly attained.

If I do say so myself.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Praline Topping

Katherine Beto, Braeburn (Originally appeared in Food & Wine, November 2008)

CHEESECAKE

One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
8 whole graham crackers, broken
1/2 cup pecans (2 ounces)
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
1 1/2 cups cream cheese (14 ounces), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pecan Praline Topping (below) and whipped cream, for serving

Set a rack over a baking sheet and line the rack with 2 layers of paper towels. Spread the pumpkin puree over the paper towels and let drain for 2 hours, until the puree is fairly dry.
Preheat the oven to 500°. Butter the bottom and side of a 9-inch springform pan. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers until finely ground. Add the pecans and brown sugar and pulse until finely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse just until incorporated. Press the crumbs onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for about 8 minutes, just until it is fragrant and lightly browned. Let the crust cool completely. (Note: I found that in my oven the crust nearly burned at 7 minutes–I recommend checking at 4 to see how it’s coming along).
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the cream cheese until it is very smooth. In a small bowl, whisk the sugar with the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice. With the machine on, add the spiced sugar to the cream cheese and beat until creamy, scraping the bottom and side of the bowl. Carefully add the drained pumpkin puree and beat until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in the heavy cream, lemon juice and vanilla until the cheesecake mixture is smooth.
Pour the cheesecake mixture over the cooled crust and bake for 12 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 225° and bake the cheesecake for about 3 hours, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 150°; the center will be very jiggly but not liquidy. Let the cheesecake cool on a rack, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Run a hot knife around the cheesecake and loosen the springform ring. Carefully remove the ring and transfer the cake to a plate. Using a warm knife, cut the cake into wedges and serve with the Pecan Praline Topping and whipped cream.

PECAN PRALINE TOPPING

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups pecans (8 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream and salt and bring to a boil. Simmer just until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Let the caramel cool.
Spread the pecans on a rimmed baking sheet and toast for about 8 minutes, until they are lightly browned and fragrant. Transfer the pecans to a work surface and let them cool. Coarsely chop the nuts, stir them into the cooled caramel and serve.

Best New Restaurant Name of 2008: Fightin’ Cock Roaster (Seattle)

Hungry Blogger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:08:59 +0000

I can only imagine the questions and snickers that the servers at Jon Davis’s new “equatorial” restaurant in Magnolia will be getting for years to come.

Seattle Weekly’s Voracious got the scoop–Davis managed the very popular Jai Thai chain for years, but he decided to turn in the hectic life of a Thai restaurant operator for a simpler, smaller joint specializing in to-go orders. The salacious name was inspired by Davis’s travels around the equator, where cock-fighting is sadly quite popular (he claims he randomly picked the name because, well, he had to pick something). Thus far, no cock will be finding its way into the food, which include a wide range of cuisines and their dishes, like pulled-pork sandwiches and various iterations of rice and beans.

Sounds like this place might have a fighting chance. Although I have to wonder how much more successful a place called Fightin’ Cock Roaster could be if it were located, say, on the Ave?

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Christmastime, Rocky Cola Cafe Style (Los Angeles)

Hungry Blogger — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:04:21 +0000

I love diners. The cheesy Americana-ness of it all, the milkshakes, the counters, the comfortably subpar food, the dorky music, the fact that they don’t even pretend to serve anything remotely healthy… How could one resist? The only thing better than diners are diners during the holidays. Allow me to take you on a tour of such an establishment, Whittier’s Rocky Cola Cafe:

These are the lovely red doors, complete with festive wreaths and a Christmas tree. I’m pretty sure all of the holiday decorations in the establishment were confined to this area, but I, for one, was plenty pleased with the effort.

Conveniently, the whole place has an inherent Christmasy feel to it. Remember that, future restaurant owners. If you use a lot of red, you’ll have to put in a much lesser effort to decorate for the holidays.

One of the hallmarks of every good diner: Jukeboxes. The Rocky Cola Cafe has a large one, as well as small ones on each table. The latter, however, will take your coins and not play your song. Its job is just to sit there and look pretty while you eat.

And, on to the food after the jump…

Christmastime, Rocky Cola Cafe Style (Los Angeles)

Hungry Blogger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:45:52 +0000

And, on to the food after the jump…

Walzwerk (San Francisco)

Hungry Blogger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:42:43 +0000

East Germany isn’t the part of the world most San Franciscans think about when they want to go out to eat. Yet, if the surging crowds at Walzwerk‘s recent 5-year anniversary party were any indication, the cuisine has fans among ex-pat Germans and local dabblers alike. A few weeks after the bash (a brat-and-beer-soaked affair that left more than a few attendees reeling from over-indulgence in alcohol and blistered meat), I enjoyed a proper meal there with a few friends. The sous-chef, a pal of ours, hooked up a platter of appetizers including house-cured salmon with horseradish cream and marinated beets, herirng with sour cream and apples, and some devastatingly tasty fried potato pancakes paired with fresh applesauce and — yes — more sour cream. We tossed back massive jar-like goblets of Radeberger Pilsner.

Our stomachs already stretched to a degree Anthony Bourdain, even in his delightful, health-blind hedonism, might find extreme, we ordered more drinks and chewed on dense black bread with a curiously comfortable combination of dread and delight in anticipation of the next course. Small plates, these were not. When the platters arrived and clattered across the table, we groaned, nearly in unison; leftovers were, without question, in our future. I enjoyed the sea bass special: a moist and flaky fish fillet, drenched in lemon and butter, curled up on a gigantic plate garnished with a chartreuse crown of beautifully steamed romenesco. The pork loin was pretty fantastic as well, draped over an expanse of spatzle sprouting up like alien plants from a sea of rich mushroom gravy. The table’s favorite, however, had to be the chicken. A breast stuffed to the hilt with apples and chewy bacon, the rolled-up roast benefited from its sun-dried cherry sauce, the fruit’s deep sweetness providing, along with the slightly tart apples, welcome balance to what otherwise would have been a nearly insurmountable assault of salt and heft. Simply put, it was out of this world. Try this tiny neighborhood gem whenever you’re able.

You can visit Walzwerk at 381 So. Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco, CA.

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Cookies We Can Believe In (Seattle)

Hungry Blogger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:41:59 +0000

From Voracious:

These cookies from Little Rae’s Bakery in South Park are quite impressive cookie-likenesses of the family-elect, wouldn’t you say? They especially nailed Michelle’s smile, I do declare. And you gotta love the rendition of the future First Pup, which no one can seem to stop talking about.

Pick up a pack for $9.95, or have some shipped for $15.95 (order online here–love that).

Attempting Bread Magic (Seattle)

Hungry Blogger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:41:22 +0000

If you are anyone that reads food journalism, you know about the No-Knead Bread Recipe. Back in 2006, the New York Times published an article by one of my food idols, Mark Bittman, that rattled the food world. It claimed that it was not only possible, but easy, to produce a bakery-quality loaf at home.

Now, if you’ve ever attempted any sort of bread-baking yourself, you know the ridiculousness of such an assertion. No matter what, a home oven never gets hot enough–your crusts turn out sad and pallid, the texture is tough, and where-oh-where is that lovely, moist, airy crumb? Us amateur bread bakers/professional carbophytes accepted the fact that at home you could very certainly beat the pants off any conventional store loaf, but a bakery loaf could only be approximated. But I was relatively undeterred, as homemade bread of even poor quality trumps foamy-spongy white junk in every case that I’ve experienced.

And so, after absentmindedly polishing off the last crust of a squat and homely loaf, I’d head off to the bakery (Bakery Nouveau being Seattle’s best) for the real stuff. That shatteringly-crisp burnished crust concealing pockets of velvety, chewy innards that, upon the intrusion of a bite, exhale an intoxicatingly yeasty and almost audible sigh. That is bread, and anything else, I’m afraid, is not. It can come close; it can come very close; it is not bread.

The point is that there seemed to be very finite limit to what could be achieved at home in terms of bread, and you just had to deal with it. The Bittman/Jim Lahey recipe claimed to obliterate this fact by simply throwing together a wet dough and sticking it in a pot. That’s. It.

Ever since coming upon this Holy Grail of home-baked bread, I ached to try it. However, crucial to the recipe is a Dutch oven, which I did not own. I did not go out and buy the requisite Dutch oven because I had my heart set on the Holy Grail of Dutch ovens, a Le Creuset. Les Creusets are danged expensive. But I could not settle for less–I had wanted one for too long. So my desire for beautiful kitchen gadgetry won out over my love for bread. It was a tough battle. Bread was sad. Le Creuset, bitterly triumphant.

Then Christmas 2009 came along, and my man fulfilled my enameled cast-iron fantasy. A beautiful 7 1/2-qt specimen in a fantastic gradated gray shade. Now, it was time.

Time. That’s the first thing you need for No-Knead. It’s not a lot of work to get the dough together–couldn’t be simpler, really–but it does take time. I’ll add here that I didn’t try Bittman’s original recipe; I actually went with a newer riff on the technique that was published in Cook’s Illustrated, which claimed to improve upon the original’s flavor and texture. Since nearly every CI recipe that I’ve used has knocked my socks off, that’s the one I went with. The major difference in this recipe is that it advocates for some kneading to create a better crumb, which makes sense. Kneading is what creates that great structure in most breads and pizza doughs. But the recipe is still basically no-knead–seriously, it’s just about 10 pushes of the palm, that’s it. It’s an extra step, but

The Pantry Downtown (Los Angeles)

Hungry Blogger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:38:11 +0000

Right down the street from Hungry HQ is a diner called The Original Pantry Cafe. As far as I can tell, the best things about the The Pantry are that it’s never closed, it’s owned by former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, and the huge serving of cole slaw that comes with every meal:

Other than that, it’s a good place to get your fill of artery-clogging fries, bbq sandwiches, and cheesesteaks. A meal like this every now and then is good for the soul, is what I hear.

The Original Pantry Cafe
877 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017
213.972.9279
www.pantrycafe.com