Posts by krista

Aug 28

From Dusk Till Dawn

Ramadan has never meant much to me other than being able to ogle all the amazing market food that pops up annually on Malaysian food blogs. (Masak-Masak always has the most comprehensive Ramadan bazaar coverage for Kuala Lumpur.) This year I've learned two things.

That my old block in Ridgewood, Queens (not in a "from the block" sense but in a nostalgic, hey, my first NYC apartment was on Woodbine Street and Fresh Pond Road way) is home to many Albanian Muslims and that local teens make the fasting all day thing easier by sleeping in late, which is totally what I'd do. Street vendors also have it rough.

Also, that every chain restaurant (and Dean & Deluca) in Kuwait is offering iftar specials. I had no idea the holiday was so commercialized in the Middle East. Even Ikea has gotten into the spirit.

I pondered it; then Time wrote about it.

Photos from B&D Kuwait

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Aug 25

Put a Ring On It

“’He asked me to pick out some spices to flavor the onion. When I turned back, he was holding a ring of onion and had the goofiest grin on his face as he started placing the ring on my finger,’ Ms. Bertozzi remembered.”

Spontaneous, sure, but it would’ve been so much better with an onion ring. I’m picturing one of those towers they serve at Red Robin.

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Aug 22

Chain Links: Transylvanian Pizza

American chains have a fondness for Latin America and Asia, but you rarely hear about Eastern Europe. Domino’s will change all that when they show up in Romania. Poland, Ukraine and Bulgaria will follow. If Pizza Hut’s Romanian menu is any indication, Domino’s won’t shy away from corn or tuna toppings, quesadillas and a bright green iced cocktail called a grasshopper. [press release]

Soon you’ll be able to send melons, pineapples and berries carved and arranged to look like a floral bouquet in Mumbai. I do hope that Edible Arrangements, owned by a Pakistani immigrant in the US, uses local fruit—don’t they have like hundreds of varieties of mango in India? [QSR Magazine]

Fifty Buffalo Wild Wings will cross over into Canada in the next five years. I could be wrong about the polite Canadian stereotype, but I just don’t see a Brooklyn-style riot over 50-cent wings occurring up north. [FastCasual.com]

Fatburger is coming to Jakarta and Kuwait City. Beijing and Dubai locations already opened in 2010. [QSR Magazine]

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Aug 20

Crackberry

Why, as an Oregonian, the 1990 Marion Barry scandal was so confusing.

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Aug 19

Battered Herb Syndrome

Even though it's crowded on weekend evenings, the spice level isn't always what it could be and worthy nearby competitors aren't scarce, I still rely on Sripraphai for a regular Thai food fix. It's the crispy watercress salad. I know this dish in and out.

Yet, on this Sunday afternoon visit (my second day in a row in Woodside—first for Jollibee, then back to Queens to replace a fried cable box. I need my True Blood and Mad Men. Did you know that the Time Warner office inside the Queens Center Mall is the only location in the entire city open on Sundays?) I was served a slightly different rendition than normal.

There was an unusually tall, fluffy pile of battered watercress sitting on top. More generous than I've seen before, the translucent golden stack gave the dish a more bountiful feel. The ratio might seem off, but once you mix things up and baste the herbs, chicken and seafood with the intensely savory goop resting at the bottom of the plate, the components settle down and mellow into a nice still-crunchy sog.

And the small ceramic dish filled with both chopped cashews and a small handful of whole nuts? It blew my mind. Well, almost. Self-garnishing is new. I don't even recall a crushed nut element in salads past. I liked it.

In a reversal, the drunken noodles did not come with the typical little dish of chile-spiked fish sauce. Shenanigans. Is the Sunday chef putting their own spin on the standards?

Next time, I'm in Woodside, I will force myself to try Centerpoint Thai, one block west of Sripraphai. There's no way that tales of a battered, fried papaya salad can go uninvestigated.

Previously on Sripraphai.

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Aug 17

Validation For My Bonefish Grill Fixation

To me, the most surprising finding from Zagat’s, “2010 Fast-Food/Full-Service Chain Restaurants Survey” is that the respondents, who I imagine to represent a typical American with at least a passing interest in food, eat at chains 10.7 times per month. My love for chains, apparently, is quite restrained (I've never been one for big public displays of affection) because more than twice a week seems quite high. And coffee/ice cream/frozen yogurt/smoothie joints are not included in that figure.

I'm partial to full-service chains over fast food because I'm classy like that (and like to drink with my meals). I would generally agree with their overall top five rated on food, facilities and service.

1.    Bonefish Grill
2.    P.F. Chang's
3.    Maggiano's
4.    Cheesecake Factory
5.    BJ's Restaurant.

Bonefish Grill, P.F. Chang's and Cheesecake Factory are some of my favorites. I nearly experienced an epiphany at Bonefish Grill while New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” played in their outdoor lounge, and once again at P.F. Chang’s when Morrissey’s “Suedehead” could be heard near the giant horse statues in front of the door. Both are suburban perfection. I don't generally eat chain Italian (though I’m willing to give Maggiano’s a try even though the only location I can think of is out in Bridgwater, New Jersey across from a Crate and Barrel) and I've never been to a BJ's and don’t know that I will. I probably won’t on half-baked principle.

My dad and his wife once took me to a peanut-shell-filled restaurant in Tigard, Oregon called BJ's Roadhouse for my 22nd birthday and I forgot my ID and wasn't even able to order an O'Douls to drown my sorrows. I don't think these BJ's are related. In fact, there's no online evidence of this eatery ever existing. If you Google BJ’s Roadhouse Tigard, you just get me speculating on this same thing a few years ago because I have a short-term blogging memory.

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Aug 16

Waste Not, Want Not

Gen Y is "greedy and wasteful" as that cat upstate who got marinated in a trunk. According to NPD's "National Eating Trends" they only make 68 meals per year using a leftover (that actually sounds high) compared to my thrifty, crotchety age group who does sad things like salvaging Cheesecake Factory salads by draining the excess dressing off the lettuce in a colander the following day (not that I would know this first-hand, of course) 14 more times annually than twenty-somethings. Millennials are also the most likely to eaten frozen or prepared foods.

Harris Interactive has found that the 18-33 group, Echo Boomers in their world, prepare the fewest meals at home. Therefore, fewer opportunities to transform leftovers. 85% do so more than once per week while 34-45s, the homebodies of the universe, hunker down in their kitchens the most (91%). I imagine this is because they are the group most bogged down with small, costly children. Oddly, it's the youngest who say they enjoy cooking the most. Maybe because only a third do it more than five times a week.

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Aug 16

Meat, Spice, Fire

Every summer I complain about the barrage of grilling-themed food magazines that land in my mailbox. So useless, I don’t have a yard. I’m in the minority, however. Lawry’s “What's Your Flavor" survey found that barbecuing outdoors is Americans’ favorite cooking method and that 63% do so all year round.

Maybe I’m just unhappy because according to additional Lawry's findings, I’m a spicy food-lover, a so-called “Self-Assured Adventurer,” when the happiest cohort, “Joyous Joiners,” prefers tart flavors.

I love it when companies get all targeted with their food marketing. Lawry's has two special sections on their site: Food For the Soul and Cocina Latina. Steak with chimichurri sauce (if there's any population that grills more than the US, it's Argentines) doesn't sound half bad, though I don' t know that I'd describe it as having "Latin flare."

Also, Fisher wants you to take a quiz to see what kind of nut you are. I'm not crazy about being a walnut.

Image from Embroidery by Jean

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Aug 15

Katmandu Spice

I think this might be a record between a visit and a closing; Katmandu Spice is already closed. (9/13/10)

Queens is a melting pot, sure. And sometimes that pot bubbles right over. Whether or not you enjoy the culinary chaos might depend on how you feel about eating Brazilian, Nepali and Chinese-Indian food cooked by the same chef.

I will never say no to novelty, so Kathmandu Spice, closer to the Irish end (after dinner, I was getting into the scene at the The Cuckoo’s Nest until they turned off The Smiths, flipped on the strobes and the techno DJ took over) of Woodside, lured me in. Sadly, others weren’t so convinced. Not a single other diner showed up during our visit on a prime Saturday night.

Oddly, we only ordered from the Brazilian section—I was more in the mood for grilled meats than momos or Manchurian chicken. The mixed grill contained a few chicken and beef chunks, breakfast sausage-like franks, farofa for sprinkling, and a vinegary salsa. It was a sampler but I could’ve gone for another pão de queijo even if this one was a little heavy on the bottom.

The peixe de praia is a very similar presentation, just with the addition of rice, beans and plantain coins atop the farofa.

They weren’t able to make the ensopado de frango, a chicken okra stew, so I opted for the bobó de camarão instead. I knew intellectually that the sauce was made of yuca puree, coconut milk and dende oil, but I kept thinking it was cheese with a hint of pineapple. Something about this dish seemed Asian, similar to a Hong Kong fusion marrying American cheese with lobster. I ate it, and my leftovers too, so I wasn't put off by the mix. I'm not sure that I would order it again, if only to give the Nepalese food a chance. Hopefully, diners will give Katmandu Spice a chance, period.

Next stop: Indo Hut, the self-proclaimed "Indo Continental Bistro" covered in grand opening flags I passed this weekend on Queens Boulevard.

Kathmandu Spice * 60-15A Woodside Ave., Woodside, NY

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Aug 14

Cochon

There’s no escaping pork no matter where you travel in the US. Cochon is The Publican of New Orleans, right down to the prominent pig paintings. Or maybe The Publican is the Cochon of Chicago. Cochon Is two-and-a-half years older. I’m currently planning a Labor Day trip to San Francisco and Incanto is high on my list—are they cut from the same porcine cloth too? Bah, I’m still waiting for goat to go mainstream.

While scanning the menu and having a hard time deciding what I wanted as a main (I still think it’s odd that we were never told the specials and didn’t realize there were any until I started seeing a mysterious fish dish topped with an egg on tables appear on tables near us) since James claimed the namesake cochon, I also began wondering if the number of fedoras in the city shrinks drastically after Tales of the Cocktail is over. I also wondered if young men realize you’re not supposed to wear hats indoors—thank god the Wall Street Journal has taken up my cause.

The food is so rich and distinctly flavored that you could just order a bunch of the smaller dishes, share and be sated. My favorite might have been the paneed pork cheeks. They were so unique because if you hadn’t read the menu—or temporarily forgot like I did—you’d think you were eating al dente beans, curiously textured and pleasantly mealy. The little nubs were softened peanuts like you’d get boiled in the shell in the south. Add sharp radishes and unctous pork cheeks, and you have a combination not likely found elsewhere.

The mushroom salad also went down the unexpected pairing route by incorporating fried beef jerky, hints of cooling mint and thin wagon wheels of preserved lemons. Now that’s a way to serve vegetables.

Fried rabbit livers on toast got a lift from a savory, not terribly spicy pepper jelly.

Not feeling like embarking on one of the larger entrees, I ordered a bacon and fried oyster sandwich (not pictured) then regretted my choice after seeing the bowl of suckling pig, wintry cabbage and turnips (I actually like root cellar vegetables more than fresh warm weather ones) garnished with curled cracklings. Thankfully, it was too much meat for one person in one sitting and I was able to try a good portion of this delicacy.

Cochon * 930 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans, LA

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Posts by krista

From Dusk Till Dawn

Put a Ring On It

Chain Links: Transylvanian Pizza

Crackberry

Battered Herb Syndrome

Validation For My Bonefish Grill Fixation

Waste Not, Want Not

Meat, Spice, Fire

Katmandu Spice

Cochon

Featured

Occasional Instagramming

Yes, it’s come to this

My Other Blogs

What?

The Past Will Haunt You

Pigeonholing 101