An Effing Foodie

What the World Eats: The Nonburger of Samtaeseong Diner (Pyongyang), Indoor Rain at Mercado San Miguel (Madrid), Spam Fries at Wild Oats (Singapore)

It's a red-letter day at Samtaeseong Diner, Pyongyang, where North Koreans have been granted the privilege to blow half a day's salary on an All-American Hamburger.

So long as you don't use the word "American".

Or "Hamburger".

Instead, patrons of the Samtaeseong diner, which opened in Pyongyang last month, have to order a suspiciously similar "minced beef with bread".

The isolated Communist state has long banned what it calls Western or US "imperialist influences" on its people. But there was only so long it could hold out against the temptations of fast food. (Telegraph)

Hold out against the evils of imperialist fast food?  We understand.  It lacks the cleansing totalitarian virtue of tree bark and grass.

Silver lining: All the unbranded fascist minced meatpucks come draped in complimentary kimchee!  Woohoo!

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Half a world and happier circumstances away sits Mercado San Miguel, the gorgeous, newly remodeled marketplace in Madrid.  Originally built in 1916, this wrought-iron palace to food boasts the spoils you'd expect of Spain: Technicolor produce, barely-dead meats and seafood, cheese aplenty, bakeries, tapas counters.

From Druidabruxux on Flickr

This gustatory sensory overload is trimmed with urban twists and comforts--a kitchy cookbook store, an oyster and champagne bar, and even 2 AM closing times on Fridays and Saturdays. 

There's even a vegetable mister for people: "In a nod to living green, instead of air-conditioning, the air is infused with water droplets; every few minutes shoppers are bathed in a blast of micro-rain." (NYT Travel)

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And last, but not least...a topic close to my Hawaiian Ex-Pat heart...Spam.

Not just Spam...but Spam FRIES.

Yup, luncheon meat chopped up into long skinny fries, fried until they’re crispy on the outside, and served with one or more dips. Disgustingly, sinfully, ridiculously good. I had these with some friends one night over drinks at Wild Oats, the bar owned and run by Willin Low, and I just about fell off my chair. (Chubby Hubby)

<Wiping the corners of my eyes, speechless.>

Hats off to Willin Low, luncheon meat visionary!

Bánh Mì with a Silent "Meh": Baoguette, Murray Hill, NYC

There's been a lotta hoopla of late over bánh mì, and I suppose its time has come; they're an economical, multi-layered double-hand of temperatures and textures, at once refreshing and hearty.

For me, it's nostalgic, too--in harder times, when cooking wasn't always feasible, Momma Foodie (a single mom) would treat the Effing BroBros and I to a bagful of bánh mì for dinner. 

So I'll admit, I get persnickety about them, and despite Viet sandwicheries blooming across the boroughs like mushrooms after food marketing rain, it's a specialty that I have to hand over to the West Coast for dominance. (Like tacos.)

Don't get me wrong! I enjoyed Baoguette's bánh mì well enough, and at $5, it's a quality buy in NY.  The bread was warm, and since I'd opted "spicy" when asked, the cool pickles foiled well with the sliced jalapenos and highly seasoned crumbles of what I am assuming was terrine (it brought to mind uncased chorizo). 

Old Dogs, New Fish, and Cocktails on the Down-Low: Crif Dogs, Jimmy's No. 43, PDT (East Village, NYC)

When it's a sunny-but-not-TOO-sunny day in New York, it's hard to imagine voluntarily drinking in a bar that's dark before sundown.  But one late afternoon, Soft-Spoken Feisty Lady and I found ourselves traversing the basement stairs to the subterranean gloom of Jimmy's No. 43 for two good reasons:

1. Happy Hour Draft Specials (Daily, Noon - 6 PM), $4 American Microbrew Pints
2. New Catch Holland Herring from Russ & Daughters

There was a ton of press about these seasonal piscine visitors from the E.U.; worthy of festivals in their native Holland, herring are a definitive cornerstone of the Dutch diet, as readily available a street food as hot dogs are in NY.  New herring--the first catch of the spring--are especially cherished, eaten spanking-fresh and unadorned.

I'd just finished off a book about regional Dutch food and quirky herring eating procedures (AKA haringhappen), so I was eager to put all those diagrams of smiling, fish-gulping Dutch folk to good use.

C'mon.  There's nothing more appealing than a couple of chicks tossing back herring and beer like so much drunken, back-talking sea lion.

We went with one order of the "traditional-style" New Holland Herring ($7):

 

...which quickly became two orders (and would have multiplied to 3 had good graces and budget not intervened).  SSFL and I had no problem polishing ours off: Tilt your trap back, lower the fish into said trap by the tail, chew, order more.

Garnished minimally with chopped onion, these lightly cured fish were fatty, tender, and redolent of the sea--like giant, high-grade anchovies. 

Dutch Delight mentions that the new herring aren't raw "in the strictest sense": On the herring ships, they are immediately gutted, salted, and frozen.  So basically you've got curing and quick-freeze to buffer you against any narsty Baltic-borne parasites.

We also got the training-wheels version of the Holland Herring, perched atop ricotta and toast ($7):

Pretty, but we both felt the delivery mode sublimated the briny goodness of the herring.  Go hard or go home.

Woman cannot (afford to) survive on herring alone, so we gave into an order of Fraegola with Sugar Snap Peas, Mint, and Pecorino ($12?):

Simple, verdant, and definitely replicable in a home kitchen--I'd add a poached egg, but I tend to think everything needs an egg on top.  I wanted to think the mint helped us from walking out reeking entirely of fish and onions.

It may have still been light out when we emerged from Jimmy's, feeling happy and suitably appetized...but not full.  So we went in pursuit of vaguely less seasonal, basement-based prey:

That's a Spicy Redneck ($4.75), with a small (???) side of tater tots ($2.50), a la Crif Dawgs.

Spicy Redneck = Deep-Fried Hot Dog (Wrapped in Bacon) + Chili + Chopped Jalapenos + Cole Slaw

No worries, I've made peace with my maker.

I Spy*: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Rosemary Flowers

*I have a lot of pictures.  I mean...A LOT.  A**loads of wasted food portraits that never get written about or otherwise posted.  So welcome to I Spy, where one can get the bits and bites that so often fall between the cracks.

 
The Man's family home has a garden just bursting with roses and herbs, and when I was last there, the bees were drunk and loopy on a plethora of rosemary flowers...seemed as good a reason as any to try them.

Eye-catching, delicate, and delicious, these 'lil violet blossoms are ideal for when you want a herbaceous hint, rather than a pine-y shiner.  They throw open the doors for subtler foods that rosemary proper tends to bully.

Summertime, Sausage and Pepper Sliders, and Nanny's Cucina!

Just as mangoes in Hawaii have ruined mangoes from anywhere else for me, the bulging beauty of East Coast tomatoes have made boxed-still-green supermarket tomatoes a bitter pill to swallow.

That said, I generally prefer to melt down fresh tomatoes for sauce, deferring to whole canned kind when the freshies are looking wan.  Occasionally I'll dip into tomato paste when I'm looking for a hit of sweetness, color, and depth in whatever I'm making.  Even though I do keep it around, I find that I hardly ever use prepared tomato sauce.

But...that may change!  An always-in-the-know food friend of mine was kind enough to point me in the direction of Nanny's Cucina Marinara. 

Handmade in small batches from roma and grape tomatoes, this deeply red sauce has a glossy patina, pleasing, slow-cooked sweetness, and a bit of a spicy bite-back that beats the pants off your run-of-the-mill jarred marinara.  It's like sticking a finger into an old-school Sunday Dinner.

Prepared food goblins can step off--The Sauce is a great example of a flavorful time-saver, made only from ingredients you can pronounce. (That, and it just plain tastes better than anything a mere mortal could pull off on a weekday.)

Regina, I think you've done your Nanny's recipe proud--witness, Sausage and Pepper Sliders made possible--nay, scrumptious!--by your lovely sauce.

 

>CHOMP<

Alas, The Sauce isn't available in stores yet, but you can order it online via Nanny Cucina's site, where there's also recipes and some great family photos, too!

What's next for Nanny's?  A yet-spicier Arrabbiata Sauce and their version of Puttanesca, pegged All About Olives...can't wait!