Archive for April, 2009

In this economy, it would appear to be a bad time to open a business – particularly one that hinges on the sale of luxury items or non-essentials.  Yet, in an interesting reflection of human nature, many bakeries are thriving – particularly bakeries that offer nostalgic sweets. 

In tough times, people don’t gravitate towards upscale gourmet desserts.  Instead of fancy pastries, people crave  comfort foods and childhood favorites – like cupcakes.  At a few dollars (or less) you can bring yourself back (gastronomically, at least) to a simpler time.

Cupcakes have been becoming increasingly trendy over the past few years, however, enterpresing bakeries are catching on to a new trend.  Across the country, bakeries are capitalizing on nostalgia by offering homemade versions of our old Hostess favorites – homemade imitations of Twinkies and Ding Dongs.  Read the rest of this entry »

Gourmet’s website has an eggscellent slide show right now on several varieties of eggs, including the ostrich egg, which brought back fond memories of my honeymoon in Aruba.

Before visiting Aruba, I did a lot of online sleuthing in preparation – I  especially wanted to discover the best spots to grab a bite to eat.  I was really excited when I discovered that there is an ostrich farm on Aruba!  For one thing, my husband and I had never seen an ostrich in person, and they’re pretty fascinating on their own.  Even better, the ostrich farm has a gift shop and a restaurant where they serve dishes made with ostrich meat and ostrich eggs.

If you’re not familiar with ostriches, they’re giant!  They look like giant, ambling, prehistoric birds that came straight off the set of Jurassic Park.  We opted not to go on the open-Jeep tour when I found out that they might be attracted to my glasses and would peck at them, me, and anything else shiny including jewelry.  However, we didn’t need to go on the tour, as the ostriches were perfectly happy to strut and pose for us from the other side of a chain-link fence.  And we were perfectly happy to have the fence there.

In the Savanna Lodge Bar and Restaurant at the ostrich farm, they serve a unique African-Caribbean fusion food.  We were able to sample an ostrich shoarma which is a pita sandwich filled with ostrich meat and an African spice mix.  It was delicious and the meat tasted very much like steak.

We were also lucky enough to try an ostrich omelette.  Since the ostrich is a very large bird, they lay very large eggs – so our ostrich omelette probably only used about an 1/8th or a 1/10th of an egg.  It tasted basically the same as a standard omelette made from a chicken egg, but the novelty factor was fun.

I also sampled African milk tart for dessert, which was sweet and very good.  I remember it being a bit like flan.

The gift shop even sold ostrich egg shells; unfortunately, stock was low and most had been broken by previous tourists.  It’s unlikely that we would have managed to get one home unscathed anyways, but they really are interesting conversation starters!  If you get the chance, ostrich meat and ostrich eggs are worth sampling.

My husband is a soft pretzel aficianado…perhaps because he lived outside of NYC when he was a child, where he had access to the real deal.  Most pretzels just don’t stack up, though - too sweet or too salty – they just don’t taste like the classic NY ones that my husband loves.

In an attempt to recreate a piece of my husband’s childhood, I ordered Dutch Country Soft Pretzel Mix for him awhile back.  The other day he eagerly opened the mix, prepared it, let it rise, and baked them to perfection.  Aside from the expected stickiness that occurred when he attempted to roll and shape them, they were easy to prepare and tasted great.  The highest praise I can think of is to say that I loved them, and I am not much of a pretzel lover at all…perhaps because I never had the good ones!  They are equal parts chewy and soft but they maintain their inherent pretzel-ness and won’t be mistaken for bread.  They’re great dipped in mustard or other condiments, but are equally great on their own.  And, despite having to mail order them, they are still a reasonably priced snack mix – knot to worry!

When I was younger, I wasn’t really much of a barbecue fan.  Then I tried Bison County in Waltham, MA several years ago and I became a convert.

After a long absence, my husband and I made a return visit to Bison County this weekend with eager appetites.  The menu appeared to have changed (and prices increased) a bit since our last visit, but I was glad to see that they still provide a mini-loaf of sweet corn bread served up with a side of honey butter before the meal.  In addition, they still offer a fairly extensive list of draft beers, including several local offerings.  I ordered a Black and Blue (Guinness and Blue Moon Belgian White Ale) – it was more black than blue, but very good.

The atmosphere in Bison County is average.  The restaurant is loud at peak times and the decor is simple but comfortable.  The walls are embellished with large vintage-style tin signs except for the back area which contains an open grill.  The restaurant is about equally split between a bar area with several TVs, and a dining area.

For dinner, I ordered the gluttonous Wagon Train which includes turkey tips, bison tips, steak tips, and two sides.  I opted for sides of garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries.  For someone who finds meat filling, like myself, this meal was an incredibly generous serving size – enough for two or three servings. 

The meats were inconsistently cooked.  The turkey tips were perfectly cooked and quite tender with a nice, if subtle, bbq flavor.  The bison was somewhat tender with no bbq flavor.  It was not as flavorful or as tender as on previous visits.  The steak tips were incredibly disappointing.  The inside was cooked to medium-rare as requested, but the outsides were charred and the meat was incredibly chewy.  I asked my husband to try the steak tips to compare – he likes his meat cooked medium to medium well – and he also found the meat to be dry and chewy, and, overall, disappointing.  The garlic mashed potatoes were very garlicky but had a nice consistency.  The sweet potato fries were perfect – crisp on the outside and full of soft sweet potato inside.

My husband ordered BBQ Smoked Brisket which the menu described as being lean meat, however we both found it to be very fatty, if flavorful.  My husband had sides of cucumber salad and cole slaw.  The cole slaw was very good - crunchy cabbage in creamy mayonnaise with nice seasoning.

The value of the meal was average – about $38 before tip.  All in all, Bison County offers decent bbq, but quality appears to have declined somewhat since previous visits, while the prices have increased.  I’m on the hunt for a more perfect bbq meal in Massachusetts!

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I love foodie memoirs.  When I first heard of Adrienne Kane’s book, Cooking and Screaming: Finding My Own Recipe for Recovery, I was especially intrigued. 

As a healthcare worker, I’ve worked with countless stroke survivors.  In my personal life, I love food and writing.  I also see the impact good food or lack thereof has on my patients.  Family members bring food to nurture and comfort recovering patients, and it’s devastating when people can’t or won’t eat or drink. 

Kane’s memoir recalls her persoanal triumph of surviving an AVM (an arterio-venous malformation – symptoms are similar to that of a stroke) at the young age of 21.  Eating, cooking, and writing were all crucial parts of her rehab and recovery.  This book ties together so many of my interests – I couldn’t wait to read her inspring story.

Adrienne Kane is best known as a food blogger and has been featured in magazines and websites prior to the release of her book this past February.  Her book first pulled me in through its structure.  Each chapter begins with a mouth-watering recipe that has personal significance to Kane.  She uses the recipes as natural transitions to tell her life story.  Many foodie memoirs lack structure and this is a real pet peeve when I read them, but that is never an issue with Cooking and Screaming.

Kane’s story is honest without feeling like a gory tell-all.  Her writing style is fluid and natural, and you quickly feel like a friend is sharing a personal story.  She tells of her failures and triumphs and, in the process, elicits empathy and an understanding of the real healing power that food can have.  As a new graduate, Kane was a dancer and an aspiring teacher.  Yet, before she had the opportunity to begin her career, she endured an AVM and was in a coma for three weeks.  She awoke to significant physical impairments as well as milder speech and cognitive defecits. 

Kane’s first foray back into the kitchen was where she began to rediscover herself – despite having the full use of only one hand.  Her perseverance leads her from the therapy kitchen to her home kitchen to a catering job, and on to a blog and a book.  I was incredibly interested by the direction her life took, and incredibly inspired and awed.  Her book is a great read and I can’t wait to try her recipes.  I’m hoping a cookbook is released soon!