savortooth

My Footprint

Did any of you see 30 Days on FX? By the Morgan Spurlock of "Supersize Me". He and his girlfriend lived on minimum wage for 30 days in the first episode and I am a big fan of Alex, the vegan-chef fiancee. Her site: http://www.healthychefalex.com/ On the episode I just saw, two "typical Americans" from the Bronx had their "ecological footprint" reviewed and if everyone lived like them, it would take 12.5 planets to sustain everyone!

They had to go live on an expeirmental, sustainable community in Missouri for 30 days. http://dancingrabbit.org/ They used old frying oil for fuel, installed solar panels ($3000), used "hu-manure", grew food, etc. It was a very inspiring episode.

The big thing is, I had to find out what MY footprint was. So, while not totally accurate, any of us can take a twelve-question quiz at http://www.myfootprint.org./ I don't own a car, hardly ever fly, and rarely eat meat. Result?  "IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 3.7 PLANETS."
An eye-opener. A lot of it had to do with where you live, and you have to take a share of your area's infrastructure into your score. Please send me your results, everybody!  I'd love to compare notes.

Even though I don't eat meat, I should try cutting back on processed, packaged food. But you know B is going to get solar panels as soon as we buy a place. It even makes me think of moving to New England, where Meka lives. Are your jaws dropping out there?

BTW, I called Meka today. She has always been vegetarian and for animal rights, but ate a lot organic milk and cheese. In the past three weeks since I last spoke to her, she has gone raw food and non-dairy. We are going to try a raw food restaurant this week during her stay for the Gift Show.

In all my reading, I did find this amusing poster you can download at http://www.pcrm.org/ or http://www.milkmakesmesick.org/   Finally! I don't know much about the lawsuit, but will find out more...

Catch of the Week

Tuesday, B and I paid a visit to the new location of Hudson Street Papers, on Orchard Street. It looks great(hi, Scott). Then we had to go for the best fries and lobster sandwich at The Mermaid Inn, the fave stop on our lobster roll tour.B also had the chilled cucumber soup with honeydew and peeky toe crab. (FYI-they had changed the hand soap to floral, instead of what I thought was "sea" scent, but still totally tolerable.)

http://www.themermaidnyc.com/mermaid.html
While walking, I saw this beautiful baklava that I always admire, but never go in to buy...

On another note, those who were at my house in the spring may remember the Ice-O-Mat that PINCHED everyone's fingers! Well, I finally found a replacement. I was reluctant to buy it at 25% off, but luckily this German ice crusher from Alfi was 50% off when I got to the register at Williams-Sonoma. Still expensive, but no pinching! I do not think you can one in the US anymore, unless there are more lingering in the sale bins. Let's hope it's a keeper- I still haven't found one that works as well as Cory's grandma's. It's bolted to the house in West Pittson, PA!

Sorbet is all I can eat

Well, it's all over. They left Saturday morning. We had fun but it ended, unfortunately, with my brother and I getting sick. We'd caught the stomach flu from our nephew! During recovery, B helped me use the ice cream machine to whip us up a batch of Almond Sorbet. Yep, using the same Rieme syrup as in the sodas, I mixed syrup, water, and a dash of salt.

All in all, a fun time was had. B picked up a few words of Cantonese and got some more mah jong lessons from my mom!

Family Affair

Onward. Wednesday was mellow, with only four of us for sushi dinner preceded by Italian pastries, then after dinner my mother wanted to try the place we saw on tv, Pommes Frites, on 2nd Avenue. They have about twenty different types of mayo, and my brother picked eggplant. I could only eat one frie out of the large cone(it was a small order). But when we got home, I ate them cold. B, whose fave food is fries, doesn't like them cold and mushy. Of course, we also ate olives, Halva, and sweet cherries- this is all after we got home.

Thursday. Ate with Sam at Joe's Shanghai, all ten of us. My brother and mom think the Shanghai buns are better than in Shanghai or H.K., so they wanted to go again. Dumplings, pot stickers(for the kids and Sam, mostly), mock duck, the flaky turnip cakes of course, some cold beef slices(B said it was cat meat), scallion pancakes, and a dish everyone liked(I thought was ok) of shredded chicken noodles.

On our walk on Mott Street, we found momogrammed red envelopes, with our last name on them! also at the same shop: really fancy ones with sparkly paper and embossing, and tiny ones with good wishes on them, three for four dollars. Here is my mom picking out guava and dragonfruits.

We went to Coney Island- my brother wanted to go, but I generally cannot handle such hot places. After that, we had dinner in Long Island City, on Vernon Blvd, which is so cute! By this point, I was not feeling well(more on that later), but I have to say the restaurant was great.

Bella Via was a comfortable place to dine- the food was really good, and reasonably priced.
Of course, my brother hoped it wasn't new school when we saw the pizzas coming out, but called it "middle-school"- that is, not old-school toppings, but old-school crust. Maybe it's just more Italian than New York. There was no pepperoni or the usual pizza place choices.

We shared three pizzas:
Margherita- tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil
Quattro Formaggi- four cheese, we chose with sauce
Rughetta E Prosciutto Di Parma- fresh arugula on top, my brother added anchovies(I know, that's how he is. He loves salt and eats those salted dried plums by the bagful)

The four-cheese was the hit. I, of course, mainly had Stracciatella- egg drop soup with spinach and cheese, and a beet salad that was a huge mound(no greens) with a tower of goat cheese on top. B had Caesar, and everyone liked our stuff so much they ate most of it. As for the hand soap, it was clear sanitizing gel- kind of gross.

Thanks to Adam and Seltzerboy from http://www.sliceny.com/ for the recommendation of Bella Via.

Eating Ranch?

On the way home from Flushing, we drove by two places I have to check out- one is the Eating Ranch. I do not know if it's still open, but it is way cool. Also, Stella D'Argento looks amazing, an old-school Italian place in a building that looks like a movie theater. There's a review in the Queens Gazette. http://www.qgazette.com/news/2004/1007/Dining_review/

   

If anyone knows about the Eating Ranch, let me know...

Finding Food in Flushing

Ok, my family just left and I can catch up. But I have to apologize in advance for the bad photos. I am so distracted when eating with large groups of people that I forget to take pictures! They arrived monday night and were pleased to know that I could order excellent Chinese takeout at 11:30 pm. Ah, New York Living... My mother answered the delivery and was told we wouldn't have been charged tax if we ordered in  Chinese. Good tip.

On to Tuesday. A group of us drove to Flushing, and when we parked, my family wanted to eat at the first place we saw. I wanted to ask around. My mom got no help from an old woman, but then I asked a hip-looking young woman. She only spoke Mandarin, so she told me mother we had to walk through the Sheraton Hotel and turn right to find the restaurant she recommended. It would have been impossible to stumble upon. Of course, I can't tell you the name of the place except in translation "Gu Huerng" (meaning ancestral village) located at 135-40 39th Ave, Flushing. (718) 888-8798. They only speak Mandarin, but the menu has English.

What we had:
Hot and Sour Wontons- regular meaty wontons in a hot red soup
Dan Dan Noodles- spicy meat sauce
Fried Pork Roll- delicious, came with pickled daikon and carrot- I thought it was fish but they called it a chicken roll in Chinese, so it may be a mix of meats with water chestnuts, then fried.
Spicy Squid Taiwanese style- Good! a light sweet and sour with spicy red pepper.
Deluxe Noodle Soup- we chose rice noodle.
Fried Chicken w/ salt and pepper- good but not so particularly Chinese.
Stomach and Sour Cabbage Soup- ok, mostly broth.
There was a menu that you could pick two small plates and get the large soup for $12.95.
We added on top of that, and our bill for six people was about $30.

It was a good first experience of a Taiwanese restaurant.

Oh, for dinner. A feast at Taverna Kyclades. The faves were a plate of lightly battered spearings, little whole fish. My sister saw it on another table and had to have it, and the fish. My brother ordered fried baby shark- it was great, even though it is on the extra-high mercury list on the Green Guide's Fish Picks. The whole red snapper, too, was liked, although I stand by the old grilled octopus, fried calamari, lemon potatoes... they don't love the lemon juice like I do. And just when we were stuffed, the free dessert came out. It's a sort of bread pudding with cinammon and wrapped in phyllo- I have grown to really like it. (oh, and they have normal hand soap!)

Cuban Vacation

We went to Fatty's Cafe today with B's family. http://www.fattyscafenyc.com/  It was a perfect day to sit in the patio area, with its azure blue fence and Cuban radio playing, especially since it wasn't that humid. Fatty's was not crowded, either, since I think everyone has gone out of town. I shared La Pistola- eggs over black beans and rice(I got a side of avocado, eggs over easy, and the rice was perfect), and the Big Fat Pancake Omelette with berries.  Brunch comes with free mimosas or juice, and you get a choice of mango, papaya, or orange. Sam ordered the cubano sandwich, which had ham, pork, pickle and chipotle mayo- looked really good. We shared his plaintains- crispy and not greasy.

It was great service and atmosphere. Only drawback: the anti-bacterial soap in the bathroom. But I loved the giant can opener hanging on the coat rack!  Everyone knows I love all things miniature or jumbo(it's one of our Wishbone slogans).

On another note: for dinner we had delivery from JJ's Fusion. http://www.myjjs.com/ We got some of the usuals: Scallop California roll(seared scallops, fake crab, seasoned mayo, and tobiko) and the excellent soft shell crab, along with a mango-cucumber roll & avocado roll(keeping with today's theme) and king crab dumplings. The food was just as good delivered as eaten there, which makes me love JJ's all the more.

I Didn't Know

I was eating some Coach Farm goat curd the other day. It is a creamy spread, great on crackers. The label read, "made without even a trace of animal rennet."  So I was wondering what rennet is, and found this(at http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cheese.html)

"The usual source of rennet is the stomach of slaughtered newly-born calves.

Vegetarian cheeses are manufactured using rennet from either fungal or bacterial sources. Advances in genetic engineering processes means they may now also be made using chymosin produced by genetically altered micro-organisms."       

Now, I have been eating more dairy lately than I used to, since I cut out meat. Hmmm.....

Too Darn Hot

Yes, we all know it's too hot in New York- Astoria to be precise.
But here is something to alleviate the swelter.

This summer, my new drink is French Almond Soda!
I discovered the most amazing almond syrup at Williams-Sonoma a few months ago, when seeking new ideas for Brian's famous dairy-free gelato. Of couse, the store no longer carries the syrup, but thankfully, I found it online at http://www.connoisseurshop.com/. My syrup shipped quickly and shipping was only $5.95 for six bottles.(I hear the peach is also a great flavor). 

I attribute the almond syrup's excellence to its artisinal production and beet sugar- that must be it. Because this stuff is amazing! 
How to make it:

French Almond Soda
Add Rieme almond syrup to a tall glass- approx 2 tsp.
Add a small amount of milk or soymilk(in my case)
Add seltzer- but not to the top. It will foam like an old-fashioned egg cream. (For those interested, read about Egg Cream Racketeering at http://www.gastronomica.org/pages/sample4.3.html)
Add two or three large icecubes.

So refreshing.