I wouldn't mind being a HERB

herb garden, originally uploaded by kzeromancer.

We've moved. Woowoo.

I mostly hate the new apartment right now. There is less counter and cabinet space in the kitchen. Tonight I made a measly salad for dinner and everything was too spread out - I have to find a better way to arrange things. There's no light in the kitchen - if I want to cook at night I am basically screwed. The drawers stick, they're tiny.......

BUT. There is a ton of natural light in the front of the apartment, perfect for growing herbs. Finally finally. I killed my thyme and basil plants in our first floor apartment because they only got about an hour of sunlight each day. I'm really excited that they will be able to thrive in our new place. Even if I won't!

Definitely basil and rosemary - they grow like crazy in the right conditions.

I've been buying my herbs at the store and to make them last, it's been a constant trial-and-error process. I've finally figured out how to stretch the shelf life of some fresh herbs:

Basil: Rinse all the dirt off and wick off any excess water in a salad spinner (thank you, Alex!). Let the leaves completely dry. In an airtight container, store them in single layers, alternating with sheets of paper towels. They will last in the fridge for up to a week at least.

Rosemary: Rosemary is a hardy herb. Just throw it in the fridge and it will be good for a couple of weeks.

Cilantro: Whack the bottoms off the stems and place them in a glass of water. DO NOT refrigerate them or they will wilt. Should be good for at least 5 days, give or take.

Parsley: Parsley's fine if you just leave it in the produce bag you put it in when you buy it. Just stick a paper towel in there to soak up any excess moisture. Should be good for at least 5 days.

Those are the main herbs I use on a regular basis. If anyone has any advice for dill or thyme, send it my way!

More praise for Choice Greene

No pics because I gobbled it up so fast but the sushi at Choice Greene is actually really good!

Months of no seafood had my body screaming for fish. Then talking about it with a friend made me crave it even more! So I ran over as soon as I got off the train. There is a fish station in the back and the fishmonger makes the sushi right there. I got a combo box with salmon, maguro and hamachi nigiri, 3 salmon avocado rolls and 3 California rolls. Normally I hate California rolls but these were delicious, even with the imitation crab. It was pulled apart and actually looked legit, instead of a solid block of haddock colored orange. The wasabi they use is actually spicy and the soy sauce is thicker than normal so you don't need a lot of it. Pickled ginger wrapped separately in the plastic grass. White, not pink.

Repeat as necessary.

Also, in the meat and cheese cases, you have to try the fresh ricotta from Calabro Cheese in Connecticut. It totally trumps Salvatore Brooklyn's. It's light and fluffy and almost buttery. There is also a smoked ham made locally in Ridgewood, which comes from one of their regular customers. It looks like a cut of prosciutto where it is drier on one side and striped with fat on the other but it isn't cured so it is still a little like sandwich meat. I was skeptical at first but am now a big convert. The staff is knowledgeable and can suggest different things for you if you give them some guidelines to work with.

Dutch dutch baby

I've been wanting to make this brunch for Alex. It's called a Dutch Baby but it's basically a German pancake. With berries, which are some of his favorite fruits. I got the recipe from Food & Wine and with the warm weather the time was perfect.

Bascially:
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees (this is the only thing that's not summer-friendly)
Whisk 3 large eggs, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp lemon zest and a pinch of salt.
Add 2/3 cup flour and 2/3 cup whole milk. Whisk til smooth, then add a cup each of the berries.
In a 10" cast iron skillet, melt about a tablespoon of butter. Pour the batter in and smooth into an even layer. Bake the skillet in the center of your oven for about 20 minutes, until the sides are brown and there are some brown spots in the center. Cool on a trivet/rack and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

I served it with a side salad of romaine, parsley and white mushrooms dressed with lemon, dill and extra virgin olive oil. Also some spicy sage sausage, which we buy in a big log and slice up as thick as we want. The best kind! Sorry for the blurry photo but Alex was in a big hurry to eat :-P

Definitely easy and delicious though I would add more lemon zest next time. It also holds up til the next day - right now I'm eating some with a cup of Darjeeling tea. I just put it in the toaster oven at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Alex: I had to wait 2 weeks for my surprise brunch because it got bumped. The wait was well worth it. I love fruit, i mean looooooooooove. This was right up my alley. I was surprised to see the thing puffed up so much in the oven. It looked absolutely delicious and I couldn't wait to dig in. At first bite I didn't know what to think. Almost like a pancake but not really. It isn't as dense as a pancake and there wasn't any need to soak it in syrup, although it did need a touch more powdered sugar to satisfy my sweet tooth. Baked berry goodness. After my second helping I confirmed this was a big hit. Can't wait to wake have this one again.

Ramen weather?

Tsushima Wednesday Ramen Special
47th St between Lex & 3rd Ave

I met Ricky here on Wednesday for the Japanese KitKat handoff. First time for both of us. They opened the doors right at noon and by 12:20 the place was packed.

Most people ordered the ramen special. But a lot of others were also ordering sushi rolls. Why??

For $13.50 you get a salad and big bowl of shio ramen with lots of julienned scallions, bamboo shoots, a giant scallop, thick soft pieces of pork.

The noodles were slightly chewy, very delicious. The broth, though clear, had a lot of depth to it. I hate saying crap like that as it sounds pretentious, but it's true. It was meaty-seafoody-tasty-delicious but not so pronounced in any one of those, except the tasty & delicious part. I could not finish the entire bowl, shamefully. I drank as much of the broth as possible, and though it wasn't that salty I got very thirsty.

They served quite a big bowl of ikura (salmon roe) don (over rice) on the side. Obviously I couldn't finish this either but it was very fresh and, as Ricky speculated, probably cleaned in-house. When they have sat around for a bit (if you've ever bought them at Sunrise Mart you'll know what I'm talking about) they are a little sticky.

On Fridays they have a shoyu ramen special, which is my favorite kind of ramen. Will definitely have to come back and try it out. And I'll be using Chikubu as my standard! Cry cry cry...

We're not in Brooklyn anymore, Toto

Zenkichi

N. 6th and Wythe, Williamsburg

Ryan and I got to the Asobi Seksu show 2 hours before they even went on so we decided to grab a bite at Zenkichi. If you don't know what to look for it can be a little confusing, as the entire corner is covered in wood. Once inside, you're no longer in db-filled Williamsburg. We were seated in a private booth with a curtain, and to summon your server there was a small buzzer on the table. Bam!

Tako Wasabi. This is basically raw octopus brined in wasabi sauce. Firm and squishy at the same time - one of my favorite things in the world.

This is Berkshire Pork cut shabu shabu style and served with a sesame sauce. It was good but needed a little kick - more salt? Throw it on the grill? You get the idea. It was too delicate. If that's what they were going for though, congratulations.

Anago (fresh water eel) and cream cheese tempura. We saw this on the menu and had to get it because it sounded so disgusting. But it was actually pretty good. I preferred it with the wasabi salt over the tempura sauce. The bigger pieces were a bit soggy though which was disappointing.

Summer rice balls with peas and corn. From left to right - topped with miso, grilled with shiso, umeboshi flakes. Delicious! And tiny. I'm used to eating a whole hand full of onigiri, not this finger food.

For dessert, a no-bake cheesecake topped with Nigori sake jelly and strawberries. Smooth and creamy though the top reminded me of Jello shots.

Good food and service. It was pretty much spot on for Tokyo but I'm gonna go ahead and blame the prices on location. I'd go back, If I was in the area.

Inspirations

Watching Food TV this weekend I got inspired by a Barefoot Contessa rerun. In it, Ina Garten makes fettunta and a grilled Tuscan chicken, as well as a grilled panzanella salad. I used the episode to inspire our snack and dinner:

Fettunta. Traditionally, it's just grilled bread rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. On the show, Ina used smoked mozzarella, prosciutto and parsley but on ours, I spread a delicious ricotta cheese from Connecticut (the name escapes me but will update once I get home and check the package - I got it at Choice Greene), prosciutto di Parma and baby arugula. The bread was also from Choice Greene, a long sourdough loaf that resembled ciabatta but was much airier and chewier. I think this will be my go-to bread for the summer, so delicious.

For dinner I made this grilled Tuscan chicken. It's ridiculously easy and leaves your hands free to prepare other things like side dishes. In our case, more of that cilantro-habanero-garlic corn and a salad of greens, tomatoes, feta, mushrooms and cucumber.

First, cut the backbone out of the chicken. Then cut a slit in the front and flatten it out, taking the breastbone out as well. Liberally salt both sides and place it in a heavy dish just big enough for the chicken. In a bowl, mix the marinade: lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, garlic and a little red wine vinegar (I tweaked her recipe a bit). Pour it into the dish with the chicken, making sure to flip it around and make sure everything gets covered. Refrigerate for a few hours - I let it sit for about 5-6. When ready to grill, place the chicken skin side down first. Weigh it down with the marinade dish so it can cook evenly, about 12-15 minutes on each side.

When the chicken is done, let it rest before cutting. Meanwhile you can grill some lemons, which act as a sauce with great smoky-sweet flavor.

Delicious, especially as leftovers!

Dressed

Just a quick post - I've been making this lemon-dill salad dressing this week, inspired by a salad that Alex's stepmother made while we were in El Paso. She used a Knorr seasoning packet and though the ingredients were listed in German, I could taste the dill & garlic. So here goes:

Fresh lemon juice
Dash of white wine or champagne vinegar
A little Dijon mustard
Dill (fresh or dried - I used dried)
Extra virgin olive oil (I've been using Fairway's Mexican Mission)
Garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Add ingredients together and whisk to taste. It's really light and refreshing and the mustard helps to bind everything together. It's great on cucumbers and white mushrooms sliced thinly!

Tuloy po kayo!

Kuma Inn
113 Ludlow, LES

Alexis: After Alex's basketball game at Anna Silver we decided to stop in at Kuma Inn for dinner. The other choice was Black Iron Burger but having just come from TX, he decided we'd had enough burgers for a while. So Kuma Inn it was - mostly Filipino dishes served tapas style.

It's a tiny restaurant, seating only about 30 at the most, with bamboo and rice paper sculptures all over the walls and covering the sconces. A Tribe Called Quest quietly playing on the soundsystem. Sadly they do not have a liquor license but you can bring your own beer, wine or sake, with a corkage fee (!) ranging from $1 per bottle of beer to $5 per 750ml bottle of sake or wine. No booze, but bring your own. And pay us for the privilege! Sounded like pure nonsense to me so we didn't bother. No matter, as they had a small list of in-house non-alcoholic drinks. Alex got a Thai iced tea and I got a glass of kalamansi juice. They came in glasses too small to justify their $3 price tag but hey - maybe it's im-por-ted.

Alexis: We ordered 4 dishes and an order of garlic rice (sinangag). The first was sauteed Chinese sausage served with a spicy green sauce and Thai sticky rice. Can't say much about this dish - I guess it is Thai in inspiration. I've never eaten just plain Chinese sausage like this; even at Srirapthai it was tossed with tomatoes. A "meh" dish to start us off. The green sauce was a good addition but I wouldn't say it "elevated" it in any way.

Alexis: Pancit bihon with wood ear mushrooms, more Chinese sausage and vegetables. To me this is a more acceptable use of the sausage. It's also good in fried rice. This was very good, and a larger-than-tapas sized portion. However it was very salty and I needed some kalamansi or at least lime to squeeze over the top.

Alexis: Lechon kawali with atchara and spicy chile-soy-vinegar sauce. I think this was my favorite. Deep fried pork belly with the skin on and sweet pickled papaya! There are few things better in the world. Each piece was crispy, salty and juicy. My only gripe is that they brought this and then no other food came for about 15 minutes, not even our garlic rice. The chef was too busy trying to impress the loud table next to us with free food, I suppose. They were already eating when we were seated but by my count, they received about 5-6 free dishes while we were there, including pork two ways (it looked like kawali and lechon), some sort of corn on the cob dish, and a dessert trio, proving that in NYC, it IS all about who you know.

Alexis: They were out of the PEI mussels in coconut curry broth but I wanted something with a sauce to eat with the rice. So we decided on one of the specials, spicy green beans in a coconut-curry broth. It might've had a little bagoong in it as well. Delicious and spicy!

Alexis: Overall, the food was very very good. My only gripes are the timing of the food, as mentioned earlier. Also the corkage fees for alcohol are not too appealing, and the a/c was a-crankin! I had to pull out a shawl halfway through dinner and was afraid the food would get cold too fast. I'd definitely go back. The food is delicious and not so far removed from the traditional preparation that it will satisfy my homecooking cravings in a delicious way. One caveat, if you'd call it that - CASH ONLY.

Alexis: *** - work on your timing and I'll throw another star in there. Otherwise food and service are enough to carry you for now.

Southwest Grubbin

A smattering of food from our southwest trip - El Paso, Santa Fe, and Williams, AZ. Click on the photos for more descriptions.


Smoked chicken by Papa Grammer. Also grilled brats, garlic mashed and a tomato-cucumber-mushroom salad with dill dressing.


Chicken fajita torta in downtown El Paso


Alex's T-Bone at Cattleman's


The remains of my sirloin


Combo platter at Little Diner - tamale, gordita, taco


Whataburger


Bread basket at our B&B in Santa Fe, Dunshee's


Breakfast at Dunshee's


Green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite


Enormous plates at Fire Rock Casino in NM


Canyon Burrito at Grand Canyon Coffee & Cafe in Williams, AZ


Single order at Chico's Tacos

Up up & away

Send your photos of airplane food to airplanefoodtumblr@gmail.com and look out for them here!