Posts for category ‘Good’

Now that Baltimore’s ESPN Zone is closing—the original location, no less, which has served Buds to backwards baseball-capped brahs for more than a decade—where is a sports-and-beer fan to go for a filling meal before an Orioles game?

Here’s a thought. Forego the big-screen TVs and take a stroll up the hill away from the tourist-laden Inner Harbor, through the historic neighborhood of Mount Vernon—maybe stopping to admire the Colonial architecture and massive monument to George Washington, or just hightailing it past the historic Belvedere Hotel to The Brewer’s Art.

Upon the enthusiastic recommendation from Good. Food. Stories. Guy Correspondent Max Rudy, Dan and I snuck in a quick but satisfying trip to this Baltimore gastropub before Friday’s baseball game.

Under the original cornice mouldings and imposing mantelpiece making up the bar back in the front parlor room, we chose wisely from the multiple offerings on the bar menu: the country ham flatbread, a heavenly pillow topped with 18-month Benton Smoky Mountain ham and herb-flecked mascarpone cheese, liberally studded with bourbon-soaked cherries and flecked with black pepper honey and pickled mustard seeds.
>> And we didn’t even get to the beers that The Brewer’s Art is known for yet. Read on. >>

How many of you have been out at a Mexican restaurant and ordered the guacamole made tableside? That rock bowl in which the guac is pulverized is known as a molcajete y tejalote, Spanish for “mortar and pestle.” This carved-basalt tool is traditionally used in Mexico, passed down through generations in many families (kind of like how I inherited my cast iron skillet!), and develops a gorgeous patina and texture over time.

Even though I’ve got a small ceramic mortar and pestle, I just couldn’t resist getting my hands on one when I was down in Mexico for Food Blogger Camp, and am pretty pleased with my impulsive decision. It’s a load, but Dan says my salsa tastes “just like in a restaurant!” and I’m psyched to have a bigger bowl for crushing roasted spices. If you decide to spring for this heavy piece of equipment, here’s how to break it in.
>> Read on for Cinco de Mayo-ready instructions on seasoning a molcajete PLUS a smoky salsa recipe. >>

Do you have any tips on effective straining? I’m trying to make my own baby food, which requires straining pureed peas to get out the skins. The recipe calls for cheesecloth, but I’ve been rubbing the peas into a fine-mesh strainer with a spatula, and it gets the job done. However, I’d love to hear any tips on straining food better, faster, and with less mess and drama (if that’s even possible), advice on using cheesecloth without going insane, and when you’d pick cheesecloth over a fine-mesh strainer.

Oh god, straining. It is awful, and also a good question to answer. (Tip: never read the Thomas Keller cookbooks if you have a fear of this kitchen technique.) There are a number of tools that you can use with varying degrees of splatter potential, but let’s tackle your cheesecloth query first.

Which is to say, don’t bother with it for your baby food recipes! Cheesecloth is a big pain for anything except making cheese or other related endeavors where you’re separating something extremely liquidy from something extremely solid. For thicker, more homogenous purees like the vegetable mixture you’re working with, the fine-mesh strainer method you’ve been using is a far better option. Through a lot of squeezing and squishing, you’ll eventually push the strained food sans skins through the cheesecloth, but with a lot of unnecessary effort.

The first alternative option to the strainer, which can potentially get just as messy but allows you to do more in quantity, is a food mill. With three discs for fine, medium, and coarse puree, the mill fits over a large bowl and uses a hand crank instead of a spatula to push the puree through while keeping seeds, skins, and other unsavory bits out. Though I curse the food mill every time I bring it down from its not-very-convenient corner cupboard location, I do appreciate the way I can tear through eight cups of tomato sauce or a huge pot of applesauce in no time flat.
>> If you want to strain like the pros, a few more options after the jump. >>

Next up in the Good. Food. Stories. Neighborhood Guide series is one of many unbelievably jam-packed culinary communities in San Francisco: the Mission District. We’ve enlisted the incomparable food writer Stephanie Stiavetti of Wasabimon! and The Good Taste Review to share her most beloved hangouts.

There’s no arguing that San Francisco is a city of food. With a nine-month-long growing season, some of world’s freshest seafood and an international community rivaling that of almost any other American city, SF is a veritable gourmet paradise. There’s a reason that San Franciscans are notorious for never leaving the 7×7 borders of their town. They don’t need to.

My favorite San Francisco neighborhood is the Mission District. With its dizzying array of restaurants, you could easily spend a month in this part of town and never eat in the same place twice. Hell, you might be able to stay for an entire year and still find a great new dining establishment every day. Another big plus of the Mission is that BART—the Bay Area’s lightrail system—runs right through the middle of it, so you can easily get there from suburban lands as far away as Fremont, Richmond or San Jose.

It was exceptionally difficult to whittle down my favorite restaurants to a manageable number for this post, but I’ve managed to come up with a list that should treat you right, whether you’re a local or just visiting. While these places are great to sit down and eat, most will let you take your dish to go so that you can enjoy it on the palatial lawns of Dolores Park, something I highly recommend on a sunny day.

>> Tres leches cake, burritos, and food carts: all found in SF’s Mission District and after the jump. >>

As no baseball fan needs to be reminded, today is Opening Day 2010, and I’m ready to get on the 7 train with the orange-and-blue masses to make the hunger-inducing trip out to Citi Field.

Although I’ve never memorized ERAs or correctly identified a player on the Texas Rangers beyond A-Rod, I’ve always been drawn to the tradition and pace of baseball. All the cities I’ve lived in have been baseball towns to an extent with endearing underdog teams, so it’s a good thing I married a Mets fan.

Due to Dan’s patient and all-consuming obsession, over the past decade, the Mets have come to feel like my team, and Shea Stadium (and slowly but surely, the new park that Danielle calls Debits Field) have come to feel like home in New York. The wholesome goofiness of having a man whose head is an oversized baseball helps a lot too.

But you know me. I’d be lying if I said the food at Citi Field had nothing to do with my affection for the new stadium. Shake Shack, Blue Smoke, the Belgian fries stand Box Frites, El Verano Taqueria (cheffed by Tabla’s Floyd Cardoz), Dave Pasternack’s fish shack Catch of the Day, Daruma sushi and Mama’s of Corona sandwiches at World’s Fare Market…. If you were at all familiar with the prison-cafeteria options at Shea, you would know that even beyond my minor hero worship of Union Square Hospitality Group, Citi Field is a step up.

I ate my fill of all of the above a few weeks ago at the Mets All-Star preview lunch at Citi Field’s Caesars Club, one of the many eating areas that were formerly available only to high-paying ticket holders but are now opening up to fans with cheaper seats—a recession-appropriate concession on the part of the management for the disappointing ticket sales in the latter part of last season, no doubt.
>> It’s going to be a good season for Mets fans, as long as they’re hungry fans. Read on. >>