low-brow food at its best
Now you can get crunked on chocolate! I found this oddly named Japanese candy bar at Pearl River, a Chinese American department store in New York City. I’m a sucker for unique packaged food finds. Expect more like this to come.
The fine print on the box says: A fine combination of crunchy malt puffs and chocolate. It was delicious!
Pearl River
477 Broadway
New York, NY 10013
212-431-4770
posted by Melissa Sands
If there’s one variety of food I really love, it’s hot soup. Science has yet to back me up on this, but I am convinced that there is a specific section of the mouth designed to respond to heat in a positive way. I can’t speak for the human race, but in my mouth this area is located towards the back of my palate on both sides and on the back of my tongue. My theory is that when I take a big mouthful of hot soup, (as I am wont to do,) the liquid hits all of these heat receptors at once in such a way that they are stimulated to feel pleasure. Of course, if the soup is too hot I experience different results. Ouch.
What about cold soup? Does it stimulate the mouth in a different way? Is it really soup if it’s not hot? I say, yes…sort of. Chilled soups lack the ability to create that satisfying, full-mouth feel of savory hot liquids. Instead, they must rely on stimulating our other taste senses with distinctive flavors.
Classic cold soups like gazpacho or vichyssoise – a cold potato and leek soup – are perfect when you don’t want to heat up your kitchen with a hot stove. Gazpacho has the added bonus that it can be made with all raw ingredients – my mother and uncle are both eating mostly raw foods for health reasons. I made this soup for all of us when I was home for a visit last weekend. It was hot and humid so this refreshing gazpacho hit the spot. I didn’t miss the heat at all.
Gazpacho
The jalapeno gives this soup some zip. Adjust the spice level to your taste by removing or including the seeds and ribs – that’s where most of the heat is stored.
For blending:
2 cups chopped tomato
1 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 – 1 jalapeno,
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Finely chop by hand or in a food processor:
2 cups tomato
1 cup cucumber
1/2 cup red bell pepper
1/4 cup white onion
1/4 cup parsley
1/2 cup cilantro
Add the chopped ingredients to the blended ingredients. Chill for at least an hour, then taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
The first thing I ever grew was started in a Styrofoam cup on the windowsill of my elementary school classroom. We filled our cups with dirt, then pushed our allotted seeds with plump kid fingers down into the rich soil. We added water. We waited. When the first shoots started to poke their heads up through the mud, it was a revelation. Like a complete sentence growing out of a period, our little sprouts unfurled themselves into space. Green things that we had nurtured now lined the windows.
I don’t remember what that first plant was, but I know it was eventually transplanted to my suburban backyard where it met its death in a more hostile environment of sandy soil and the family dog.
I am enjoying the progress of my patio tomatoes with as much awe and excitement as I felt with those first plants back in the third grade. The sheer volume of tiny green tomatoes that appeared on each plant was impressive. Now as they swell and turn red, the fact that I made food from just soil, sunshine and water seems like magic. Despite the fact that I’m going to eat them, I feel a maternal impulse to tend and nurture them.
Pictured above is the first one I picked. Small, bright red and firm, I set it aside until two others ripened fully. These three were sliced, drizzled with olive oil, a few drops of balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. The verdict? Lovely flavor, good texture and thick skins. Success!
posted by Melissa Sands
Sort-of like painting by numbers, no? No? Okay, well, let’s add some numbers, then.
Next time someone says to you, “I can’t cook,” or “I don’t have time to cook,” please direct that person to this picture. If you need to explain this picture, you can use these numbers:
posted by Emily Farris
I want to pretend that I made this refreshing pasta salad myself on Sunday, but the truth is that I was hung over and sunburned from the previous day’s festivities at The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off. The thought of another hot dog, or for that matter anything actually hot, set my stomach churning. My roommate came to my rescue with this delicious Greek inspired pasta salad.
By the way, don’t confuse orzo’s fun shape for rice. It’s really pasta. The word orzo means barley in Italian. In the United States, though, it’s pasta. Are we clear, here? It’s shaped like rice and means barley, but it’s pasta. Ok. Moving on: this is a quick and easy salad that is infinitely variable. Use good kalamata olives and feta and throw in some veggies along with a basic vinaigrette. My roommate used roasted red peppers, red onions and spinach, but tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, fresh bell peppers or scallions would have been great, too.
Orzo, Feta & Kalamata Olive Salad
recipe by Kristine Goldy
1/2 lb orzo
1 cup kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup chopped spinach
1/2 red onion, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
juice of one lemon
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Cook the orzo in salted boiling water until just tender, drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Add olives, spinach, onion, red pepper, garlic and feta. Combine olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar separately, then toss all ingredients together. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Chill for an hour to blend the flavors.
posted by Melissa Sands
Sorry, perhaps that should have read "JUY-ro vs. YEE-ro." Image: NYT
A self-proclaimed low-brow foodie (even though I sort-of despise the word “foodie”), I’ve had my share of embarrassing moments ordering things I can’t pronounce off of menus in restaurants I can’t really afford. I was 23 before I realized that a crudité is just a veggie plate and chèvre is goat cheese. But nothing—nothing!—is more panic inducing than ordering a gyro, a traditional Greek sandwich, on the streets of New York City.
Growing up in Missouri, one of the few Greek people I knew schooled me on the pronunciation until I got it just right: “he-yeer-oh.” When I moved to the city nine years ago and excitedly ordered my first “authentic he-yeer-oh,” the street vendor laughed at me (rather maniacally, I might add) and barked back, “You mean a juy-roh?” Frankly, I was a little crushed. I spent the next year or so trying to find at least one vendor who would validate my pronunciation before finally resigning to order “a heyeerohorajuyrohorwhateveryoucallit” from then on.
“Juy-roh” makes sense considering that a gyroscope, like the sandwich meat, rotates on its axis, but Merriam Webster and just about everyone I’ve spoken to who isn’t from New York calls the sandwich a “hero” or “he-yeer-oh.”
Yesterday, The New York Times set the record straight:
A dapper man with a rich baritone voice and a gray mustache, Mr. Tomaras, 73, was narrating a tour of Kronos Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of gyros (pronounced YEE-ros, Greek for “spin”), the don’t-ask mystery meat that has been a Greek restaurant staple in the United States since the mid 1970s. Cones of gyro meat rotate on an estimated 50,000 vertical broilers across the country, to be carved a few slices at a time and folded in pita bread along with a dollop of yogurt sauce.
But just as quickly as I thought my years of embarrassed HE-YEE-ro ordering had been for naught, The Pitch’s Owen Morris pointed out, “As one commenter noted, the Times doesn’t even follow its own advice, pronouncing it JI-ro in the video.”
Well, shit.
posted by Emily Farris
I have a produce problem. I know I’m not alone. I go overboard at the farmer’s market or grocery store, buying more than I can eat before some of it goes bad. It looks so good, sitting there being all healthy and fresh. I want to take it home with me. There’s always have a plan for each handful of snap peas or pint of berries, but inevitably some lovely recipe doesn’t get made and the innocent veggie ends up in the trash.
In an attempt to control my produce habit, I steeled myself before entering Trader Joe’s on my last trip and swore to leave with only my TJ standards – (frozen berries for morning smoothies, flax seeds/oil, unsweetened cranberry juice, stevia) and meat. I wasn’t sure what was at home in the vegetable drawer, but I knew that to satisfy my urge to buy, I needed to point myself towards proteins. 
Taking a cue from my friends over at Fifty Bucks a Week, I skipped the relatively expensive steaks and tenderloins and found a package of organic chicken legs. I know it’s not the prettiest thing to look at, but the proof is on the label: 1.7 pounds of legs for $3.36! Plus, TJ’s claims that these are free-range and raised without antibiotics.
Back at home, I decided to cook the chicken on my gas grill. I also have a charcoal grill, but for legs, the gas grill works really well because of the longer cooking time. I made up a easy spice paste and slathered it all over the legs and under the skin. 
While the chicken cooked, I went to the vegetable drawer on a rescue mission. I found bibb lettuce, red pepper and scallions and put together a big side salad. Once the legs were charred to perfection, I sat down to a simple but satisfying weekday supper. The two legs I ate cost about $1.50 and the salad was money already spent that wasn’t going to waste. (Maybe about another $2.50 worth of food.) Overall, a lot of flavor without breaking the bank and the satisfaction of actually using up my produce.
Recipe: Grilled Chicken Legs with Spice Paste
For the spice paste:
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne (add more if you like it spicy)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 1/2 – 2 pounds chicken legs with skin
Lemon wedges for serving
Preheat grill with all burners on.
Mix up all ingredients for spice paste and rub over chicken legs and under skin. Refrigerate until grill is ready.
Turn one side of grill off completely. Arrange legs on cooler side of grill and close the lid. Leave for 10-15 minutes, then turn each leg over. Close and cook for another 5 minutes. Move chicken to hot side and grill until nicely browned on all sides, about 4-5 more minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on the chicken while browning – move it out of flare-ups and keep turning frequently. Serve with lemon wedges and something green and fresh.
posted by Melissa Sands
There are few things I hate more than wasting food so before I left town Thursday I made sure to use up at least the majority of the perishables I had in the house. I had an abundance of CSA tomatoes and cucumbers so I decided to make one of my favorite simple salads. It took less than five minutes to prepare and I had enough for a free airplane dinner and even gave a Gladware full to the friend who drove me to the airport. Plus I got to use some of the basil I have growing on the balcony.
Recipe after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
I rode my bike to the Fort Greene, Brooklyn farmer’s market on Saturday to get berries for this Magic Cobbler. I found lots of other great stuff there, as usual, including lovely pale red sour cherries. I picked up a quart and then stopped by a grocery store to get lemons & limes and some club soda. The best part of this recipe is that you don’t have to pit the cherries – you can just throw them whole into a blender and then strain out the pits and skins. It’s an extremely refreshing drink, with a great balance of tart flavors and a touch of fizz.
Sour Cherry Vodka Lemonade
adapted from a recipe by Gourmet
If you have them, save a few cherries still connected by their stems for garnish on the finished drinks. Makes about 4 tall servings.
1 lb sour cherries, washed and stems removed
1/2 cup fresh lemon and/or lime juice (I used 1/4 cup of each)
1/2 cup sugar (or more to taste)
3/4 cup vodka
1 1/2 cups club soda
Blend cherries in a blender until broken down. The pits will remain mostly intact. Strain through a sieve into a pitcher or jar, pressing on the solids to get as much juice as possible. Add lemon/lime juice and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Fill tall glasses with ice, add vodka (about 1 1/2 oz per glass,) 1/2 cup of juice mixture, top with club soda. Garnish with double cherries. Pucker up and enjoy!
posted by Melissa Sands
In the past, I have been known to drive my friends and/or lovers crazy by dragging them to an amazing market or bookstore only to abandon them while I scour every aisle, examine every exotic import or scan every title on the shelves. I’ve learned that it’s best if I go by myself. Not only does flying solo allow me to stay as long as I like, but it eliminates that pesky feeling that I’m boring the crap out of someone.
Or maybe I just need new friends.
One place where I love to kill a few hours is Kalustyan’s. Although they are known primarily as an Indian market with a vas
t collection of spices, you will find plenty of other exotic fare to keep you occupied. In the bulk food section you will find chunky dried papaya, bins of red and green lentils, dried chickpeas and many types of rice. There are all sorts of curious canned and bottled goods – check out their collections of chutneys, curries and imported ghee. Wander towards the back of the store to discover a refrigerated section with items like fresh lime leaf and yogurt. I always make sure to hit the Indian snack food section – my favorite are crunchy, spicy spirals called Chakli.
Head up the narrow staircase to find household items like tea kettles, tagines, and coconut scrapers, as well as a tiny deli where you can get a quick snack or pick up some paneer for a recipe.
Did I mention dessert? They have that, too, right up by the register and alongside fresh plums and mangoes. They have incense and soap and a mini apothecary along an aisle so cramped it is basically a one way street. The whole store is packed into a pretty small space so don’t bring any excess baggage – or your friends!
Kalustyan’s
www.kalustyans.com (many products available online)
123 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10016
212-685-3451
