Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Food.

I have been using the expression “bee in my bonnet” a lot lately. It is really a description of how I have been finding and pursuing foods. I blame the internet.
Whenever I get a particular ‘trigger’ I have a brief flurry of intense research (actually just a simple google search), obsessively pursue a new or forgotten food until I have scratched the itch. Then I move on to the next thing. I am constantly a dabbler:

Jay Caragay’s blog triggered a quest for cane sugar cola. I am counting down to Passover when I can try the yellow cap (Kosher) coke. His quest to replicate the Charlie Trotter 65C egg he ate rekindled my interest in precise temperature egg-cooking. I just use a big pot of water,a thermometer and the lowest simmer flame to maintain the water at 65C for 30 minutes. Served over fried corned beef hash- excellent!

Danielle Glasky’s blog and pictures of her trip to Japan triggered me to go back and watch Tampopo again, which caused me to go out and find a good bowl of ramen. There are several Japanese places within walking distance from my office, but most of the menus didn’t feature ramen. A quick web search found rameniac.com, which brought me to the food court in Macy’s. Noodles by Takeshi featured a shoyu ramen with a tasty broth, really good noodles, shinachiku root and a nice piece of fatty pork.
See you soon


Doug Zell’s blog triggered a quest for pastrami. Actually that was a trifecta: Doug blogged about Langers in LA, Tonx posted an incredible picture , and the show “Modern Marvels” had some footage of pastrami production for the Carnegie Deli. I didn’t have to research to find where to get a good pastrami sandwich. Steve Dahl(on the radio mornings on 104.3 WJMK) has been the source of many excellent food recommendations over the 25+ years I have been a listener. He rated the pastrami at Eleven City Diner as the best he’s ever had. That place is just a couple blocks from my office so I went there last Friday and had the best pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had. I have been meaning to try making my own since I saw the Good Eats episode about corned beef. I decided my first attempt will start with a packaged corned beef brisket (Sam’s club). I soaked it in 2 changes of cold water to try and draw out some salt, coated with a pepper, coriander and garlic rub and cooked it in a low oven. When the weather gets a bit better I will try with actual smoking, but I just couldn’t bear to do anything outside last night.
semi-homemade pastrami
I warmed some up for lunch today- it was quite good. Most pastrami you can buy at supermarkets is pretty lean, I enjoy having more fat for the flavor!

So at the moment I am pretty satisfied. If anyone wants to try and trigger another craving, I'm open to suggestions!

3 comments:

Steve said...

Tony's pastrami picture makes me want to get one..

lee said...

Hey Mike,

Jay triggered the crave. We might be able to satisfy it...

We just started carrying a new cane sugar cola that when Miguel first tried it, he said it tastes like the coke in Mexico he remembers from when he was little.

Stop by. It's on me!

- lee
The Coffee Studio

mikep said...

Lee- That's excellent! I will check that out next time I am up there. Did I read you guys are going to be doing crepes? That sounds crave-worthy as well!