Posts from the ‘Color Me Bad’ Category

Oct 15

Deep Purple

I went on a mini Filipino baked goods binge this weekend. I think my fascination with blue rice nasi kerabu (I encountered another enticing photo the other day) spawned a more accessible in NYC ube craze.

These purple yam products have frustrated me into actually reading my camera manual and online tutorials to no avail. The purple I see with my eyes is much warmer and more magenta than the bluish deep color that shows up digitally. Unfortunately, you’re not getting finely tuned photos because around 2pm I had to abandon my mission. The urge to check out the Cat Show struck and I was forced to get out of my pajamas and hightail it in order to justify the $15 entry fee with 5pm closing time.

My first find was a slice of ube layer cake after a meal at Engeline’s (which I’m not detailing at this moment). As you can see from the photo, the guts got a little mangled, not from getting knocked around in the car but from crazy slicing. I expected it to be dense from afar, but it's actually a chiffon cake that's very light and not overly sweet.

After a stop at the Phil-Am market down the street, I came away with an ensaymada from a New Jersey bakery. These sweet rolls have always weirded me out a bit because of the mildly strange butter, granulated sugar and grated cheese topping. That’s not really a bad flavor combination but I’m more accustomed to cream cheese as pastry cheese. I used to have the same mixed feelings about cheddar cheese with apple pie. The ube filling is randomly and sparsely striated throughout the bun. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more swirling.

Ok, puto (which if I'm correct, isn't always a word used to describe an edible treat) are fairly bland and not ube affiliated at all (and somehow instead of fixing the color, I managed on narrowing the frame) but I couldn’t resist the purple muffin-ish blobs and then found a combo pack with all three colors available. These are simple steamed treats made from rice flour and the colors have no bearing on their flavor. I do love the springiness of sweets made with non-wheat meals, mochi being the most extreme. These bright fluff balls will be good for breakfast during the week. I was getting kind of sick of granola bars.

Share on Tumblr

Sep 30

Am I Blue

When life gives you lemons, you’re supposed to make lemonade, which is kind of stupid if you ask me. If I’m feeling blue, I look at blue food. It’s kind of the same concept, right? Instead of dwelling on life’s little annoyances, I culled nasi kerabu’s greatest visual hits.

I’ve never seen nasi kerabu (Malaysian herbed rice) in person, but I’m in love with the idea of dyeing rice colors even though I’m not sure that I understand the logic behind it. I just don’t think blue rice would fly with the typical American consumer, which is one more reason why I have to give props to Malay Peninsula cuisine. These are not people who are afraid of rainbow hues–just look at the pans of agar-agar that masak-masak (yes, double words are another regional trademark) photographed at a Ramadan bazaar. The blue rice above, came from another such bazaar. All we get at street fairs in NYC are grilled Italian sausages and mozzarepas.

Actually, I think a lot of modern cooks use food coloring rather than the traditional bunga telang/pea flower to achieve this look. (I know a lot of the intense purples in Filipino ube-based snacks aren’t naturally derived. Wow, this Pillsbury ube hotcake mix is one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.) And not all nasi kerabu is even blue; most recipes I see don’t call for tinting at all.

When researching a trip to Malaysia in 2005, I relied a bit on Lonely Planet World Food Malaysia and Singapore (which I now know was photographed by the always on trend Chubby Hubby) and kept coming back to a photo of Kelantanese woman placing bean sprouts on top of a plate of blue rice. It reminded me of a childhood impulse to keep returning to engrossing illustrations in picture encyclopedias. Unfortunately, my ‘80s Childcraft set is in storage across country (or at least I hope it still is—it freaks me out to think that I still have at least ten boxes somewhere in Portland with records, books, kitchenware and possibly a few clothing items which are probably so ‘90s that I could now re-wear them and be in fashion. Er, I might’ve gotten rid of the Childcraft books now that I think about it) so I can’t look up the exact photo I’m thinking of.

I’m fairly certain it was the “Look and Learn” volume on science that contained an image of a tableau of food that was supposed to be unappetizing because the colors were all wrong. I think there was a green orange, black cookies, white butter, a pitcher of milk that wasn’t white, and a few more items. There had to have been something atypically blue but I can’t say for sure. I thought the food looked cool rather than disgusting. Childcraft is the reason I know about anything I know today and why my knowledge level is that of a nine year old.

I have a few recipes for nasi kerabu in cookbooks, though in print and on the internet there are many more for nasi ulam, which is kind of the same thing; they’re both herbed rice salads but nasi kerabu is the one that’s usually blue. So many of the dishes in my cookbooks that sound unusual and worth tackling are next to impossible because we just don’t have access to the same ingredients. For this dish you need bunga kantan, daun kesom, cekur leaves, kaduk leaves, turmeric leaves and more depending on the version. I have basil, mint and frozen pandan and kaffir lime leaves covered but that’s it.

When and if I get back to Malaysia (I had originally planned on Langkawi and elsewhere for vacation 2008, and am still trying to figure out how China became the destination instead, not that I’m complaining about going to China) I’ll have to seek this dish out.

My Kind of Health Food

Yay, blue food, and now it’s healthy. Well, at least blue corn tortillas are, according to a study from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. For what it's worth, it seems that they’re higher protein and lower glycemic than white varieties. I’ve never been a voracious tortilla eater, but I’ll at least keep blue ones in mind since they're so handsome. I wonder if there’s any extra benefit to eating blue cornbread?

Share on Tumblr

Jul 18

Eat Your Greens (and Blues)

It’s not as if backwards phrases like freedom fries would ever cross my lips but I’m definitely not gaga over everything Gallic. I fail to understand the foodie obsession with French culture. Blind romantic notions about the European country seem about as clichéd as our gun toting, fatso, junk food gorging image. It’s all misguided—just ask the Japanese.

However, Sunday’s New York Times profile of Frédérick E. Grasser-Hermé had an appeal I normally don’t find in subjects of “The Way We Eat” column. Who else but an eccentrically stylish (I do admire the way older European women tend to resist surgerizing their faces into supposed youthfulness—of course, their age appropriate visages sit atop a frighteningly svelte figure) middle aged French woman could go crazy with unnatural colors and combos and make it chic instead of kitsch?

Bluelobster I’d like to see her set of books, Serial Colors, each devoted to recipes using a single color. As she describes in the Times “the rainbow of my dreams: a white polar-bear cocktail, a black truffle pizza, a blue lobster roll, violet mashed potatoes with cassis. . . .” Blue lobster? Naturally blue crustaceans are incredibly rare (about one in a million) so she must mean that the flesh has been rendered azure somehow. This is something I need to know more about.

Freakishly colored food has always brought joy into my life, and the more shades of blue employed the better. Of course, my dabbling leans more towards tasty monstrosities like blue velvet cake not “cobalt blue flying-fish roe mounded on top of a marrow bone and peas and grated carrots suspended in a square of agar-agar.” Preservative laden or certified organic, it doesn’t matter to me—I’ll take green Hostess Sno-Balls and rainbow chard.

Share on Tumblr

Apr 8

Now That’s a Green Grocer

How come no one told me there were green Peeps this year? Non-vegetable green food is my passion. I liked Target’s red Peeps out of sheer novelty but red is not Easter. Sea foam green totally is.

I’m not one to get all wound up over supersizing but I’m pretty sure that single boxes were the norm when I was a kid. Now, you’re forced to buy three-packs that are tantalizingly cheap. Despite the $1.29 price on these, they were only 99-cents at CVS and probably elsewhere too. Fifteen Peeps for a buck seems like a bargain, though I discovered that a serving is five marshmallow chicks.

Really, 140 calories of sugar and fluff is kind of benign in the scheme of things, especially considering I’m about to head out for a decadent Easter barrage at East Buffet. What’s more festive than all you can eat peking duck, crab legs and shrimp dumplings?

Share on Tumblr

Mar 29

5 Comments

I Say Macaroon

Maybe I’m just dumb (and kind of disinterested in Francophilia and Judaism) but I just now realized that macaroons and macarons two very different things and that the golden, haystacky blobs I’m familiar with are a Passover treat. I just thought they were plain ol' coconut cookies. Even Kraft knew, and they make freaking Teddy Graham banana splits.

In the past year or so I’d noticed food blog saturation with the French meringue cookies (the single item equivalent to Shake Shack and Ssam bar mania—two other icons I’ve avoided). There’s an entire Flickr group devoted to them and in a super cursory search, I immediately turned up 1, 2, 3, 4 posts all by Asian females, which confuses me even further. But I never noticed until this week that the coconut-less circles are spelled macaron, no double O. How did these two cookies both become so closely named? I guess edibles like Spanish and Mexican tortillas are even more wildly disparate with the exact name, and the two don’t give me problems.

I’m fascinated by their unnatural colors (I’m sure I’ve mentioned how my mom used to food color mini A&W mugs of milk green so I would drink it) though I’m not understanding how all the rainbow brightness is reconciled with supposed Parisian élan. It seems rather gauche to me and I know from gauche. Regardless, Laudree looks like they know what they’re doing.

The taste? I have no idea but now I’m hell bent on getting my mitts on an emerald green macaron. Where can I get these downtown or in Brooklyn? It’s not likely I’ll make it up to Bouchon Bakery or Fauchon anytime soon.

Macaron photo by gnuf

Share on Tumblr

Sep 26

Veg or Veggies Will Never Cross My Lips

I’ve never been one who gets all crazy over greenmarkets. Produce is ok, but I don’t soil myself over Fairy Tale eggplants or donut peaches. But last week on one of my many free days (after my Spanish lesson, which I’m going to have to quit because I can’t afford them anymore. I’m feeling guilty and haven’t told my tutor yet even though I’m supposed to get back to him today about scheduling the next class. I don’t know why I feel bad about depriving him of income when it’s not like anyone extends such courtesies my direction) I decided to hit Union Square for end of summer corn and heirloom tomatoes.

Last week I made a rule that I’d try to eat more fruit and vegetables and fewer fatty and sugary items and exercise more and stay away from cigarettes. I’ve done decently, though not perfectly with the eating and activity aspect but my smoking (which I technically quit in 2003) is completely out of control. If I don’t watch it I’m going to get one of those raspy middle-aged voices (or lose my voice box altogether, which would be a shame because I have so many wonderful things yet to say). I put aside health concerns while in Barcelona early last month with the idea that I’d clean up my act when the vacation ended. That has yet to happen. I think today the carton of Export As that James bought in Montreal will run out and I won’t be able to sneak them anymore. And that’s good because I'm too cheap to buy my own.

So, over the past few days I’ve gone nuts with vegetables. And yes, I don’t deny that heirloom tomatoes taste a million times better than grocery store balls of red mush but they’re not the types of edibles that I have the wherewithal to track down on a regular basis. The dilemma is that when I have the weekday freedom to leisurely shop for food in non-nearby neighborhoods it’s likely because I’m not at work (there are a hell of a lot of people who don’t seem to have a care in the world. Today while walking to the subway around 1:45pm for my Monday 2:30-11:30 shift the sidewalks were clogged with couples walking dogs and sitting at cafes. Who the hell are these layabouts? And don’t tell me they’re all students or work nights) which means I don’t feel good about spending extra money on organic produce.

Taste aside, I just like food (natural or not) that comes in bright colors because it’s pretty (I’ve also been fascinated by the white chocolate pirate M&Ms in pearly shades). Last night I made succotash, which I’ve never had freshly made and it was amazing, no doubt because it contained heavy cream, bacon and butter, duh. I also fixed an heirloom tomato and blue cheese salad (left) and stacked tomato salad with black olive tapenade and sweet basil dressing (despite being a Bobby Flay recipe. I know I’m not the only one disturbed by his attempt at “throwing down” the cooks at the Red Hook ball fields). I don’t know how long this fresh food bender will last. Probably until I get home late tonight and delve into the bag of junk food we bought at Target last week (I can’t resist the Halloween aisle). Mini Take 5s (my favorite vaguely new mainstream candy) Archer Farms Monster Bites and cinnamon apple caramel corn (I do love how non-NYC newspapers have blogs with subjects like snack food from Target) are going to be the death of me (if that irresistible nicotine doesn’t get me first).

Share on Tumblr

Apr 12

I Heart Swad

I used to think Patak's was the shit, but then I got wise to Swad. Perhaps this brand is the Kraft of India, I don't know, but they do seem to manufacture every food product you could ever want–from chickpea flour to ready to eat meals (better than the ubiquitous Tasty Bite boxes that are probably getting more popular in the city thanks to Trader Joe's). And it's all packaged so sensibly with both Hindi and English terms and a large color photo.

One of my most favorite products, and not just in the Swad canon, is something called Far Far Coloured (more generically, I think they're called farfar or wafers). At least on a visual level. I'm not sure about taste as I haven't attempted cooking mine yet. It looks like rainbow colored pasta, but if I'm correct you deep fry it. There aren't any directions on the bag. The only place I've seen a before and after preparation pic is an egullet post.

I go nuts buying Swad whenever I hit Patel Brothers (do note the Swad logo watermark on this site) in Jackson Heights. Canned, boxed, bagged, jarred, frozen, I covet all of it. You can use as little or as much Swad as you'd like. I don't usually feel like making cheese from scratch, and sometimes I'm not up for toasting and grinding spices. Mincing garlic and ginger isn't a problem for me, but if that's too much you can buy the essential combo in a jar. I keep it on hand just in case. Same goes for frozen items like bird chiles that aren't easy to find in Carroll Gardens, or more obscure vegetables like drumsticks. Fresh spinach is fine, but I love Swad's tidy ziplocked palak that comes pureed in little blocks ready to cook with.

Last night I made a lazy palak paneer, which I'm sure would make purists cry, but I'm not anal about Indian cooking they way I am with S.E. Asian dishes. Essentially, I cooked down onion, garlic and ginger then added garam masala, a few hot pepper flakes, then tossed in a bag of spinach with cheese cubes following soon after. I splashed in a little half and half, as it was the only creamy thing in the house. Really, you should make your spice blend and brown the cheese separately. And the whole thing ends up as a rich ghee-filled amalgam. Instead, I used canola oil and raw cheese, as I'm trying to watch the rampant fat. It wasn't half-bad, but more vegetable forward and less like creamed spinach.

I used Swad brand paneer, garam masala, palak and mango pickle. Unfortunately, I was all out of Swad radish-stuffed naan. A nice Swad gulab jamun would've been the perfect nightcap, but I had to settle on a quarter tub (I actually managed to only eat one serving) of Ben & Jerry's Turtle Soup, which was kind of boring for that genre of ice cream. I like more crap in my frozen desserts.

Share on Tumblr

Mar 24

Blue Velvet

I like to believe that I’m decent cook, maybe even a little above average. But I’ve come to a tough realization: I’m a really bad baker. Maybe it’s all the weights, measures, precision, kitchen science. I don’t know, but everything I attempt (which isn’t that often) ends up flat and hard rather than light and fluffy.

When we were teens, my sister would occasionally make chocolate chip cookies, and they’d always come out crispy and thin. (Then she got into vegan baking and I would’ve killed for one of those hard as rock, but at least dairy laden cookies.) That was displeasing because I want a chocolate chip cookie to be fat and chewy. I never said anything at the time, so I don’t know why it’s popping into my head now.

My country ham accompanying biscuits from January fell victim to the hard and flat curse. The last birthday cake I made, which was at least three years ago, also turned out hard and flat. With that disaster, I recall whipping egg whites in a not completely clean bowl and the peaks never properly formed. It was my own mistake.

This year I decided to tackle the birthday cake again. I looked at a zillion recipes, and kept getting swayed by complicated, multi-step, exquisite ingredient confections. This seemed like an accident waiting to happen, so I switched to the good and simple camp. Red velvet cake is tasty, pretty, easy and economical, and everyone seems to like it. Me, I’m just drawn to the artificial scarlet hue. I found a recipe for Cakeman Raven’s version, which I’ve had before so I knew I’d like it. It had to have a cream cheese frosting, not buttercream.

But I didn’t want to do red. Of course, green immediately consumed my thoughts, but it’s too close to St. Patrick’s Day to not be corny (ha, like there'd ever be a time of year where it would be classy). It had to be a blue velvet cake (having nothing to do with the recent 20th anniversary of said film) and it’d have to be the most intense crazy blue ever or why bother.

I wanted gel dye because it’s more intense than the watery grocery store pigments, and I just happened to be near Sur la Table (I don’t get the big deal with that place—it made me very anxious) while picking up lots of Spanish goodies at the new-ish Despaña Foods on Broome Street. I think you’re only supposed to use a few drops of the gel because it’s insanely intense (the dishwasher, sink and counter looked like a raspberry Slurpee had melted all over them by the time I was done). But the recipe called for one ounce, not specifying what kind of dye. The tiny gel bottle was ¾ ounce, so I figured using it all would be good. Would that have fucked up the ingredients somehow?

Anyway, the cake turned out acceptably. And I was beyond pleased with the shade of blue. Can you believe it? But when I put the batter into the three pans, it seemed that there wasn’t enough. Does cake rise? This one didn’t, and the layers ended up maybe one inch each. I guess times three that’s substantial, but I wanted big blue puffy strata. The crumb was a little coarse, it tasted perfectly good, but was the texture of cornbread. And the frosting wasn’t proportional. I swear, layer cakes always end up with not enough at the end, so I was sparing with the in between stripes only to be left with an excess. Plus, I couldn’t get into the bottom crevices because I was retarded and set the cake into a recessed carrier before not after icing the damn thing.

But it was really really blue and really sweet and rich, and that’s what's important.

Share on Tumblr

Mar 17

What a Sham

Shake

I've always been overly enamored with unnaturally colored food, particularly green things, simply because I think the shades are pretty. Spinach is tasty enough but its hue is hardly swoon-inducing. Chocolate chip mint ice cream? Now that's a nice eye-pleasing item. Don't even get me started on the beauty of grasshopper pie.

When I was wee, I'd make an annual fuss about wanting a Shamrock Shake (they also had Shamrock Sundaes, if you recall), which was indulged at least a couple of times. It's funny because I'm just now getting around to reading Fast Food Nation (that's me, ahead of the curve) and just read a bit about marketing fast food to toddlers in an effort to snare customers for life. I was trying to recall if I ever felt little kid urges for fast food, but the only advertising that definitely worked on me was the Shamrock Shake promotion. I've always been a sucker for limited editions.

But really, that had more to do with my passion for the color green (it's been my favorite color since birth, my family knows that, and I've always planned on having a green wedding dress when and if that day comes, and then this past weekend my mom mentioned that my younger sister who's getting married for the second time this summer was having a green wedding dress made. We totally have a friendly relationship despite living in different countries and rarely seeing each other, but that seriously pissed me off. In fact, it's making my blood boil this very second as I recount it in type) than necessarily wanting to eat at McDonald's.

The tragedy is that I hate mint (I've grown to love fresh mint in savory dishes–but as a sweet flavor component it just doesn't work for me) so my parents would actually order me a coveted shake and then I would get grossed out after first couple sips. I know this happened on more than one occasion, and I'm surprised now looking back, that it was even tolerated. That's why I don't have kids, finicky tots would make me lose my shit.

I?m sure it's been at least 25 years since last trying a Shamrock Shake. It's doubtful that I'd truly enjoy one as an adult, but I would like to be able to at least see one. NYC is about crushing dreams, so their big city McDonald's franchises don't sell them. I bet if you asked a Brooklyn counter person what a shamrock was, they wouldn't even know. Not that I would try that sort of buffoonery–I'm just saying.

I'm not alone in my quest:
Bring Back the Shamrock Shake
X-Entertainment

Share on Tumblr

Posts from the ‘Color Me Bad’ Category

Deep Purple

Am I Blue

My Kind of Health Food

Eat Your Greens (and Blues)

Now That’s a Green Grocer

I Say Macaroon

Veg or Veggies Will Never Cross My Lips

I Heart Swad

Blue Velvet

What a Sham

Featured

Occasional Instagramming

Yes, it’s come to this

My Other Blogs

What?

The Past Will Haunt You

Pigeonholing 101