Slow Dinner

So recently I went to Germany and Austria, and one thing that struck me was the overall slow pace of the meal. While I realize that's generally a European thing, especially compared to the faster pace of American dining, it's something I really payed attention to since I was traveling and dining alone.

It may also be a function of eating at a lot of beer gardens and related establishments with extensive outdoor seating. Oftentimes you seat yourself and a waiter will eventually notice you and ask if you want a beer. When you're ready for the menu (or another beer), you eventually wave the waiter over and then order a while later at your convenience. After the dishes have been cleared I was never asked for the check, and I was generally let be to nurse my drink and look around. Eventually whenever I felt like leaving I'd go settle the bill and leave. I personally enjoyed this style of dining, when everything happened whenever I wanted to and the establishment didn't dictate the pace. Of course there were always Americans complaining about how slow the service is, since they wouldn't take the initiative to have their meal at their desired pace.

What I also enjoyed was that at these places there would be many large tables, so oftentimes you'd be sitting near other people and it's a great way to chat with the locals. Usually it would involve all of us laughing at me for being an idiot in some way or another, but always in good fun.

Creativity

Because it's not every day you ask fine chefs to cook with frozen ingredients in an hour and someone uses an ice smoker

Eating Through Montréal

Recently I was in Montréal for a week and spent some time eating my way through the city (at least for meals that weren't catered at the conference), and had a delicious time eating my way though various types of cuisine.

Olive et Gourmando
This restaurant in old Montréal is more of a café-type place that's open through lunch, and tends to specialize in sandwiches. This place tends to give off a hip feel and seating is generally pretty limited. I ordered a Mr Miami sandwich along with the soup of the day, and I was decently impressed with the food. The sandwich definitely was pretty substantial, and definitely a lot better than most others that you just see come out of a fridge into a sandwich press. The soup, which was some kind of chicken and feta soup, was very good and definitely unique. However it was pretty pricey at over 20 USD, which is right in line with the hip vibe (which I don't understand).

Stach Café
Stach Café is also in old Montréal and specializes in Polish food, which I very rarely encounter. The restaurant has definitely a quieter feel, and the pace of the meal seems deliberately slowed, providing a more relaxing time in the restaurant. The krokeit, a filled breaded crêpe, wasn't cooked all the way through, as the filling was warm while the outside was hot. The accompanying mushroom bechamel-like sauce, on the other hand, was most excellent. I also had a mixed plate of pierogis, which were pretty good, though the portion size was a little small. My favorite dish was the dessert, which was a peach cobbler with sweet cream (and probably the least polish thing I had).

Patati Patata
Patati Patata is a tiny restaurant, and takeout orders are pretty common. It's a place for good cheap burgers and poutine (and a beer as well), and you can have a full lunch for around 10 CAD. I had the patatine, which is poutine with some peppers, mushrooms, some other stuff, and extra sausage. Overall this was very good, and proof that good poutine doesn't have to be expensive.

Qing Hua Dumpling
This difficult to find restaurant in Chinatown basically does only dumplings and offers a wide variety of fillings. The steamed ones are very similar to soup dumplings, as there's quite a bit of soup (though it's sold as steamed dumplings). They're better than what you can find at Din Tai Fung in the states (to be fair the outlets in the US are far inferior to those in Asia). My main gripe is that the flat part of the steamer was woven bamboo, and the dumplings would start to stick to it after a while.

Au Pied de Cochon
This was the one nice sit-down place we went to during the week, and it definitely lived up to expectations. Reservations are difficult to get on short notice, and the only time I could get that week was a 9:30PM reservation. While it's a nice restaurant, it definitely can be very loud, and at times the waiter couldn't even hear us. The restaurant is highlighted by its many dishes containing foie gras, and it definitely didn't disappoint. We ordered foie gras poutine as an appetizer, and I'd have to say it was probably the richest poutine I ever had with generous portions of foie gras. I ordered the Plogue à Champlain, which is a huge piece of foie gras on top of some bacon and a pancake covered in a maple glaze. The foie gras melts in the mouth (for real, especially compared to any meat), and the maple wasn't overly sweet. Dessert was excellent as well, though they made a mistake and gave us a maple poudding chômeur instead of our pecan pie. The pudding was excellent, but the maple crème brûlée was very sweet. We ended up taking the pecan pie to go, and it still tasted good the next day despite the hardened crust.

Schwartz's Deli
The restaurant is pretty reminiscent of a cafeteria, with long shared tables in a small crowded space. The house specialty is smoked meat sandwiches, and you could get either a sandwich or a platter (with a heap of meat on one plate and bread on another) and request meat on the fattier or leaner side (or in between if you're into that kind of thing). The only other thing on the sandwich is mustard, making the meat the start of the show. The sandwich is amazing, with just enough fat on it to help it come apart as you eat it. The food there is also pretty cheap, considering how much meat you get in a helping.

Dic Ann's
Dic Ann's is a Canadian burger joint (and they also serve poutine) that serves a very thin burger. The whole thing put together might be around one inch in thickness. I found a Dic Ann's food truck, so it might be different from the dine-in establishments. The standard burger is just meat and a bun, as a burger with veggies is another menu item entirely (and I'm not sure the food truck carries those items). In addition to the option of having cheese, the burgers can also be dressed with some kind of sauce. Overall it's alright as a good fast-food burger, but definitely a unique approach to burgers.

Félix & Norton
Right next to the Dic Ann's truck at the old port of Montréal was this cookie truck, which also sold cookie ice cream sandwiches, with a square block of ice cream stuck between two cookies. I liked the cookies, and the added ice cream was nice in the warm afternoon, but overall this was good but not great.

Vua Sandwichs
I'm a huge fan of banh mi, so naturally I had to stop by. The offer two sandwich sizes and a wide variety of meats. I ordered both a grilled pork and bbq pork sandwich with extra veggies. For those of you that are familiar with Lee's Sandwiches, which kind of skimps on the filling, the portions of vegetables and meat were pretty generous and tasted pretty good. I was a little disappointed that they ran out of the coconut shake, but I ordered a mango shake and wasn't too pleased, as it tasted like (and definitely looked like) the added mango powder to a shake and just a tiny bit of actual mango.

My First Waffle House Experience

A few weeks ago I experience the southern staple for the first time. I actually had a chance last year when I was on the gulf coast and there was one right across the street from my hotel, but I couldn't quite get around to going there. This time, I was in North Carolina and there was a Waffle House around the corner, and I was not about to let this opportunity slip by.

As I was dining alone, I sat at the counter and began consulting the menu. Of course I had to get a pecan waffle, and since I eat a lot, eventually decided upon adding a side of hash browns. I also threw in a salad to pretend like I was eating healthy (especially since this was the last night of a 4-day trip in North Carolina and I hadn't been eating particularly healthy at all). After all of that I added a Texas bacon cheesesteak melt since I was still a little hungry.

Naturally with the Waffle House you're not expecting gourmet food, but instead something that's always reliable. I was generally pleased with the food-I was a big fan of the waffle, and the pecan was a great addition. Perhaps I should consider adding nuts to my breakfast items next time I'm at Portage Bay. The hash brown was typical, and wasn't too starchy. The melt was definitely interesting, as the bread itself went on the flat-top and the cheese was added at the very end (right before the cooked meat was placed on top of it). It did taste a little cheap, like something that might come out of a freezer box. Overall good, but not great, but that's what you expect when you come the Waffle House. Perhaps next time I should go late at night to see how that goes.

Popcorners

I'm a huge fan of snacking, especially during ultimate tournaments when you have to play all day and don't have the opportunity to eat a meal between breakfast and dinner. I like to take new opportunities to try new snack foods when I can (and of course within reason because compulsive snacking isn't good). Recently I was on a United flight and had the opportunity to try PopCorners, one of those newer snacks that's trying to put a healthier alternative into the marketplace (how healthy these types of snacks actually are though, is another question). Airlines do seem to be somewhat heading in that direction with their snacks as well, and I was pleasantly surprised at how good the chips/things/whatever tasted. I went through a couple of bags of the sweet chili variety pretty quickly (to be fair I'm a little bit of a sucker for spicy snacks). They aren't oily at all and after eating two bags there was very little oil or residue on my fingers-all in all a fine snack. However the snacks are made by a smaller company and can be difficult to find in stores (though of course you can order it via Amazon and other online retailers, though there's no way I'm ordering 40 bags of this at once). Alternatively, you can also find these on JetBlue flights and snack away to your heart's content.

Paseo and Un Bien

For those of you who are familiar with Seattle's food scene, Paseo closed down and reopened under new ownership, and Un Bien opened under the direction of the son of the former owner of Paseo (or something to that effect). Both have essentially identical menus (at least for the important stuff) and pricing, so naturally I had to go visit both so see if either of them were able to conjure the magic of the old Paseo.

Paseo seemed to try to replicate everything as is to ensure the continuity of the brand-the sandwiches are more or less the same size (maybe a little smaller-still around a food) and the amount of onions is still gratuitous, creating the hot mess that we all have come to know. I tend to order only the scallop or the fish of the day sandwich, and so far I've noticed few changes, if any. However, I've been told by others that the signature Caribbean roast sandwich is drier than it was previously.

Scallop Sandwich at Paseo (Click to Enlarge)

Un Bien, on the other hand, seemed to try to start anew. The sandwiches are much smaller (maybe around 8 inches), and the onions are not overflowing. Overall the sandwich is much cleaner to eat and appears to try to appear as higher-class food, despite the shop essentially being a shack on the side of the road. I was a little disappointed in the portion size and the lack of onions, though I suppose they're only trying to maintain the flavors of Paseo without the huge greasy mess. There weren't that many scallops in the sandwich, but they were cooked just as well here as they were at Paseo. I've been told that the same signature Caribbean roast sandwich has much better meat at Un Bien.

Scallop Sandwich at Un Bien (Click to Enlarge)

I'd still personally recommend Paseo if you're still looking for the old Paseo, but Un Bien does bring another option to the table if Paseo is too messy.

Panda Cheese

Back in 2010, Panda Cheese, a cheese made by an Egyptian dairy company, made commercials featuring a panda destroying stuff. I remember these commercials having great success over the internet and having quite a few good chuckles back in the way. I was reminded of these commercials recently, and while they still provide good comedic value, I was more curious about the song featured in the commercial.

Buddy Holly's True Love Ways is reminiscent of songs of generations past, where the instrumental was more than just a series of beats and the chorus didn't repeat over and over again. The lyrics were meant to be meaningful and the song overall was easy on the ears, instead of today's overstimulus in all facets of life. Kind of like...

Trying New Ingredients

Part of cooking is learning new things to expand the cookbook, which definitely helps cut down on the monotony and repetitiveness that cooking can become. So every once in a while, I'll pick up a new ingredient from the Asian grocery store and give it a shot, often with mixed results (as expected).

My latest epic failure was cooking with Thai chilies. I'm a huge fan of Thai food, and I though it would be interesting to substitute a chili paste I use with some Thai chilies. However, I greatly underestimated their spiciness the first around, and ended up dicing six of them for a single serving, seeds and all. Naturally that did not end well, and it took me almost an hour to finish my dinner. Since then I've cut down the amount of chilies I use in a single serving (one or two now supplemented with a little chili paste) to add another flavor profile to my dishes.

Lately I've been greatly expanding my mushroom library when it comes to cooking. Before I consciously began exploring new ingredients my primary mushrooms and fungi of choice were white mushroom, shiitake mushroom, and wood ear fungus. Recently I've began cooking with enoki, oyster, and chanterelle (at the right price) mushrooms. However, I'd have to say that my favorite has been the shimeji mushrooms, particularly hon shimeji (which should NOT be eaten raw). The particular variety seems to absorb flavors pretty well without wilting too much; maintaining enough crunch without being bland. I've tried it with several different preparations, and it seems to hold up as a pretty versatile to the point where it seems to have become my mushroom of preference. Shimeji mushrooms also seem to keep much better than other varieties of fresh mushrooms, which also makes it an attractive option since I only go grocery shopping once a week.

Restaurant Spending Now Outpacing Grocery Store Spending

Recently I came across some interesting data from the American Enterprise Institute on the food spending habits of Americans. For the first time since statistics were tracked, the amount of money that Americans are spending at restaurants outpaced the amount being spent in grocery stores for the first time this January.

(Click to Enlarge)

Naturally, since this comes from the American Enterprise Institute from a professor of economics, the primary issue that is addressed in the publication (and several others that note the milestone) is of the economic nature, in that the improving economy has lead to increased discretionary spending, and thus increased restaurant wages (the last part being a very recent trend). It's interesting that the social and personal aspect of this has more or less been ignored, particularly as to why this has just happened, instead of before the most recent recession (though trends from then also indicated that this would be happening).

Small Business Saturday

This past Saturday was Small Business Saturday, a promotion run by American Express to encourage cardmembers to spend money at local establishments. They do this by crediting you $10 for transactions of at least $10 at registered local merchants up to three times. So naturally, I went out to take advantage of this.

My first stop was Fran's Chocolates, which is a local Seattle-based chocolate boutique (aka really fancy). The promotion was the main reason I was there to shop, as the normal $2 per piece was considerably out of my price range. I sampled their single malt whiskey truffle and was immediately captivated by the richness of the truffle and the prominence of the whiskey. I used two of my three credits there on two separate transactions, both on truffle samplers. I did spend more than $10 for each transaction, but I will hopefully savor the truffles for some time.

My second stop was Trophy Cupcakes, another desert shop. I had been to Trophy Cupcakes a couple of times before, usually when I have had dinner in U-Village and was ambling around with dessert in mind. As this was towards the end of the day, there weren't too many cupcakes or flavors available. I selected a strawberry lemonade, vanilla vanilla, and carrot walnut cupcake. I brought them back to the office to split with some other students, and needless to say people enjoy free cupcakes (or almost free in my case).

Magic Morsels!

A while ago as part of Flyertalk's Secret Santa, I received a box of  sweets as part of a larger box of gifts. Now I tend to stay away from sweets, but not because I don't enjoy them. I can say no to others giving them to me and I tend not to keep any near me, thereby eliminating any temptation to consume (or over-consume) sweets. Of course, I indulge occasionally, and this Secret Santa gift was quite the opportunity.

The sweets in question was a 24-box sampler of Magic Morsels, which are bite-sized brownies from Phoenix, AZ-based Fairytale Brownies. When I first opened the box, I had no idea what Magic Morsels were, until I saw the brownie label on the treats. There were six flavors inside the box: original, caramel, chocolate chip, creme cheese, raspberry swirl, and walnut.

Box of Magic Morsels (Click to Enlarge)

I quickly opened one up an original-flavored and it was absolutely delicious-very smooth and not too sweet. I managed to pace myself through the box over about a week and was a hit with the few other grad students I shared them with (mostly because I was eating them...). All of the flavors were delicious, but I would have to say my favorites were creme cheese and raspberry swirl.

An original Magic Morsel (Click to Enlarge)

Skipping Intros

I attended a performance with the Seattle Symphony last night, but it originally was not a part of my concert-attending plans. I was invitedd to the concert by the symphony as a new subscriber in concert with their new donor and subscriber pre-concert reception. I think it was somewhat obvious why that concert was chosen given the program.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony

Saturday, November 8, 2014

8:00 PM

Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17 - Samuel Barber

Violin Concerto - Esa-Pekka Salonen

Mirage-

Pulse I

Pulse II

Adieu

Jennifer Koh, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 - Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Andante sostenuto

Andantino in modo de canzona

Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato

Finale: Allegro con fuoco

I personally am not a huge fan of contemporary music, though while the Barber is an acceptable piece, the violin concerto is a complete mess. Needless to say it would not have been very difficult to offer every new subscriber and donor two tickets to this concert. Incidentally, dinner before the concert ran a little long-I would highly recommend the Hibachi Supreme only if you have something similar to passport corporate (2 for $40), as the $45 price tag is very rich for one, even for the very nice chateaubriand and lobster tail.  We ended up arriving halfway through the violin concerto, which exemplified how I feel about modern music: obsessed with rules at the expense of actual music (and the soloist played with music!). Thank goodness the intermission quickly followed. Our seats were in the back of the third (and highest) balcony, and while the brass and percussion had no difficulty reaching the upper echelons of the hall, the strings sometimes struggled to fill the entire hall. The performance of the Tchaikovsky was pretty good, and there was no nervous feeling that the orchestra would fall apart, especially at the very fast sections involving a lot of back and forth eighth notes. I felt that parts of the symphony highlighted the symphony's ability to be loud and that other parts showed that the symphony isn't quite able to fill the entire venue on some of the more delicate and expressive sections.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Ludovic Morlot, the conductor, did his best Gustavo Dudamel and tried to conduct the Tchaikovsky without a score. Of course, he's not Dudamel and ended up exiting the stage between the first two movements (through for unknown reasons).

Strong & Kind

Recently I had the opportunity to try Kind's new(ish) Strong & Kind bars. It's their savory bar, a deviation from their sweet and salty fruit and nut combination, and contains more protein than their traditional bars. This was initially a plus for me, as I think the regular bars are too sweet, particularly if you're eating several of them during an ultimate tournament.

I was only able to try out one flavor (hickory smoked) and found it slightly odd. The smoke flavor was overpowering, as it seemed to contain a lot of liquid smoke (or some related ingredient). The smoke flavor aside, I was a fan of the rest of the bar, which contains almonds, pumpkin and hemp seeds, and pea crisps. Those components gave the bar a nice savory flavor without the excess sweet that sometimes accompanied the bars that contained fruit. Perhaps I should try another variety (and one that doesn't contain "smoke flavor"...

Seattle Restaurant Week

This past evening wrapped up this edition of Seattle Restaurant Week. Now, before I continue, I'm not the person who takes pictures of all their food to share on Instagram (I don't even have one).

A friend of mine and I had dinner at The Georgian at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel. This was the first restaurant that I went to that had a dress code since I ate at Lung King Heen in Hong Kong last summer. Since it was restaurant week, there was a three-course prix fixe menu.

(Click to Enlarge)

After the duck liver amuse bouche and bread offering (including four kinds of butter), I started with the Caesar salad, which was presented in a most interesting way. On the bottom was a rectangular sheet of cheese, with a long bundle of lettuce leaves on top of the cheese. The crouton (yes, singular) was also a thin rectangular slice. This was definitely the first salad I had that required a fork and knife. The salad was followed by the cod, which was flavorful and not dry, which tends to happen a lot when I order it at restaurants. Dinner was finished with the lomoncello and lemon drop (which was a piece of shortbread topped with lemon sorbet and toasted meringue). Overall, other than the presentation of the salad, there wasn't too much to write home about (though of course there wasn't anything detracting from the experience). I suppose the restaurant week selection is just a taste of what the standard (and pricier) menu offers, and helps get diners through the door.

Poke...In A Wrap?

Today my apartment complex has its big open house to try to attract students to move in next year, and in addition to balloons and cheap swag, there was a food truck they catered for the day. Of all the things I have seen on food trucks, this was the first time I say poke served on a food truck. This particular food truck, Sam Choy's Poke, operates multiple food trucks in Seattle and surrounding areas most days, and offers poke (in addition to other options) served over rice, on a salad, or in a wrap. Since it was free, I obviously had to try it.

(Click to Enlarge)

I tried the spicy salmon wrap with a spicy aioli sauce (the little container in the back). Overall the concept of the wrap wasn't bad (rice + greens + slaw + wasabi aioli + poke) and there was a good amount of poke. What I didn't particularly like was how the rice was warm while everything else was cold, sometimes creating areas of different temperature in my mouth. The poke itself was pretty good, though. Would I pay $9.50 for one of those? Probably not, but it's still decently good such that I could enjoy it for free.

"Reduced"

One thing I haven't understood is the concept of foods being prepared the exact same, except as "low sodium" or low whatever, especially with items such as "low sodium" soy sauce and other condiments. It seems like the mindset of people is that they don't want to put on any less of a condiment because it will somehow make their food "inferior" because they put less stuff on their food.

I think this links back to the predominantly American mentality of excess, where bigger is better, and there is no such thing as too much anything. It seems like portion control and any form of self-control when it comes to food tends not to exist with many individuals, and these people seem to act like it's up to these food producers to reduce the negative impacts on their diets instead of taking matters into their own hands and becoming healthier eaters.

Food Is Amazing!

For me one of the highlights of being back in China is the food and eating all sorts of unique and wonderful treats. Granted this time I haven't eaten anything too adventurous yet, but I've still got two weeks left here. Also, I'm not sure about half the things I eat, because sometimes I'd rather not know what I've eaten. But the highlights:

-I'm fairly certain I've had curdled blood. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it showed up in a soup somewhere.

-Chinese snails are different than French snails. In France, the snails are usually somewhat large and picked out with a small fork. In China, especially in rural China, the snails are really small and you actually suck the snails out of their shells.

-白酒 (white liquor). That stuff is really strong and has been described as the combination of gasoline and alcohol, which is not entirely inaccurate. It's pretty difficult to drink the first time around, but it kind of grows on you, even with it's strong finish. It seems that it doesn't go to your head quite as much as other drinks, though it might be because I've only had it with meals.

-Pig ears/tails/etc. are very common, so it's nothing really too exotic, and same for jellyfish.

-Duck head was very interesting. It's not very meaty, and it's a little hard to pick around it if you're trying to avoid any part of it in particular.

-Right now I'm in 湖南 (Hunan) province and there are peppers everywhere and it's pretty awesome.

-Frogs legs, though they taste like any other meat...

-Red dragonfruit, while it tastes like regular (white) dragonfruit, is incredibly rare (and looks bloody if you get it all over your face...)

Going to a restaurant in China is also a much different experience. In a restaurant in China, the wait staff is there to serve you, and they really do-you can ask most anything of them (especially at good restaurants and restaurants where you can get a private room). For example, when they bring out a big bowl of noodles for the table, you can ask them to portion it out for you.

Travelling outside the country is also nice because airlines serve food. It's not really a huge perk, but it's a nice plus. For a 90-minute flight, we got a hot lunch of rice, beef, and veggies that is larger than a meal you'll see on an international flight on a major American carrier.

这《biang》字我的电脑发不了

说几次就学好了，有58字画：

一点飞上天，黄河两道弯，八字大张口，言字往里走；左一扭，右一扭；左一长，右一长；中间夹个马大王。心字底，月字旁，留个钩搭掛麻糖，推个车车逛咸阳。

这《biang biang 面》是陕西特色的面条。面条又宽又长，做好加辣酱。

Beef Stock - Roasting or No Roasting?

Lately, since I've had a ridiculous amount of free time, I've been making my own stock for noodle soup. I've heard from here and there that roasting the neck bones (and meat) makes a difference in the flavor of the stock, but I haven't noticed any difference. The only different I've seen is that not roasting leads to a more clear soup that solidifies at higher temperatures. The two basically seem to taste the same in my opinion.

Perhaps I need to find some other more productive things to do outside of eating...

Sparkling Green Tea?

This past Friday at 99 Ranch Markets I tried something called "sparkling green tea". I thought it was a bad idea, so naturally I tried it to see how it would taste. It looked like regular green tea, but it really didn't taste very much like green tea. It tasted kind of like carbonated liquid green tea mochi, which doesn't sound very good and certainly doesn't taste very good.

I should probably not try these random foods/drinks from Ranch...