Blogiversary. Yet, Again.

As I enter my fifth year of food blogging, it's time to take the annual look back at the previous year's posts. A heartfelt thank you to all who stop by to read my gibberish, and an even bigger thank you to those who leave comments. Well...not the spammers.

Favorite PostsA labor of (didn't quite) love (it), I put a lot of time into researching Cincinati Chili. I spread the word of my BoBerry love. And, did you know that I love peanut butter and pickle sandwiches?

Best Restaurant DishesThe simple combo of salty Halloumi and sweet date jam at Zahav is so good,I hope they never take it off the menu. This deviled egg junkie would like to give props to Supper for their deviled egg happy hour. Not from a restaurant, but from a couple of ladies who dish up raw food at monthly meet-ups, this raw apple crisp was the best dessert I ate out the entire year.

Best RestaurantWhat I really meant to talk about under Best Restaurant Dishes was Bebe's...but I had to spread some love around. Bebe's is killin' it when it comes to Southern cooking. I'm talking about their all-vegetarian sides of course, and their mac and cheese in particular. And don't forget dessert. Meat eaters say they're killin' it in the barbecue department, too.

Favorite Dessert RecipesThe whole bbq fever in Philly last year had me disappointed with the banana pudding offerings (Bebe's got it right), so I posted a banana pudding recipe to show 'em how it's done. Gingerbread pudding cake became my bestest snuggle buddy. Chick-O-Stick ice cream? O-yeah!

Favorite Recipe...Ever!Mac and cheese, of course! And, it's made by my cute lil' ol' Mom. She sends her love.

Most Popular PostsBut who cares what I think. The most viewed posts from 2009 were recipes for donut muffins, charoset truffles, and tomato pie.

Judge and Be JudgedLoads of fun was had being a judge at A Full Plate's Annual Rib Cook Off, as well as at an Iron Cupcake Challenge in New Jersey. Nervous at my first public speaking as a food blogger during 215 Festival's Food Blogger Brunch, I quickly got over it and couldn't shut my mouth.

BurgersHave y'all been to a Burger Club Philly meating put on by the Burgerbaroness? You should. It got me thinking about how I was unfamiliar with the Philly veggie burger scene. Many meatings have veg burgers, so I love to go and skew the ratings (usually down). Veggie burgers I've eaten this year (not all with BCP) include those at: National Mechanics, SquareBurger, Sketch, PYT, The P.O.P.E., and two more that I haven't posted yet. Oops.

VacationA free trip to St. Martin was lovely, even if Lyme disease fudged the end of the trip. (Eat more deer, all y'all meat-eaters!) This time last year I was in Belize having the time of my life. Now I'm just perma-stay-cationing in Philly.

Growing Shiitakes

We were part of a White Elephant gift exchange with friends over Christmas, and were thrilled when we unwrapped a Shiitake mushroom growing kit. Immediately, we vocally gushed and then gave the stink eye around the room to anyone who might consider stealing our present. It worked.

Having lived for two years in Kennett Square, PA, "the mushroom capital of the world," and toured a few mushroom growing houses in the area, I've always wanted to get a batch of mushrooms going, but it's been one of those simple and easy indulgences I've just never acted on.

If you're an apartment dweller or a city dweller and don't have a patch of soil to grow vegetables or herbs, this may be the thing to placate the primal urge we all have to grow something edible. It's so simple. Here we go...
Take your mushroom kit (basically a block of spore inoculated substrate) out of the box, and read the directions. The kit you get may have different direction, but below is what happened when we followed the direction with our kit. The block may already be sprouting, but in our case it was not, so the block still wrapped in the incubation bag went into the fridge for 3-5 days.
Then the bag was cut open at the top and the block was soaked in water (spring, well, rain, or boiled tap water) for 24 hours.
The block goes down to the basement (or any room with indirect sunlight and temps in the range of 60-80 degrees). The bag is turned upside down to form a humidity tent over the block. Skewers are poked in the block to hold the bag up. The surface of the block gets misted 3-4 times a day with water (spring, well, rain, or boiled tap water). This is what the surface of our kit looked like at the beginning or the misting — white, popcorn-like bumps.
Misting multiple times daily and with the humidity tent still on, after about 10 days, the surface started to blacken and blister, which are young mushrooms beginning to form.About two weeks into the daily misting program, a protuberance appeared (kind of nubby like the one on the top middle of the block), and over a few days developed into a full grown mushroom (like the one on the top right corner of the block).

Supposedly, we'll continue to get flushes of mushrooms for the next 6 months. Yay! I'll try to update about how many and for how long we got mushrooms.

Shank's At Pier 40

Need a plumber? How about an electrician? Stand in line at the new Pier 40 location of Shank's, and you can easily find a repairman to fix your sink. Or your lights. Or probably anything that's broken.

The South Philly location of Shanks Original (original location near the Italian Market closed and reopened on 15th St. in Center City last summer, and they added a second location at Pier 40 along Columbus Blvd. at the end of 2009) appears to be a great location for working men and their trucks to easily pull in for a traditional Philly hoagie lunch break.Not quite as mod and glam as the architect's rendering, this small box on the side of the road has little indoor space for placing orders, but smartly has a window that opens up to take orders from the long lunch lines that form outside. When warm weather arrives, perhaps the patio area will be filled with tables and seats, as the architect envisioned.There are two veggie hoagies on the Shank's menu (not counting the breakfast hoagies, which I'll have to return for — egg, cheese, potato, and spinach sounds like a good combo to me), and I tackled them both.
The Eggplant sandwich can be ordered Shank's Style (pan-fried, lightly breaded eggplant with greens and homemade gravy) or Parmagiana Style (pan-fried, lightly breaded eggplant with homemade gravy and Provolone).

I went Shank's Style with spinach instead of broccoli rabe. Every thing — eggplant, spinach, and a mound of tomato gravy — goes on the grill to get heated before being tucked into the long Italian roll. What I liked about this sandwich were the ultra thin slices of eggplant with crispy fried edges. No thick-cut spongy eggplant here.
The Veggie with pan-fried, lightly breaded eggplant, broccoli rabe, roasted peppers and Sharp Provolone was not different enough from the Eggplant to really warrant another listing in the sandwich column, in my opinion; it's all just a fried eggplant hoagie. Slap some gravy on The Veggie and you've essentially got the Eggplant.

Always a fan of sauce, though, I preferred the Eggplant. And bitter broccoli rabe is not a favorite of mine, but I braved it just in case they laid their hands on a mild bunch. They didn't.

While these are great hoagies (the thin-sliced eggplant is a revelation) from an iconic Philly hoagie maker, this non-native Philadelphian will never be head over heals for the Philly-style veggie hoagie with fried eggplant, broccoli rabe, and Sharp Provolone that can be found at Chickie's and other Philly hoagie institutions. It's just not in my blood.

Shank's Original at Pier 40
901 S. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-218-4000
Mon-Sat, 7:30am-4pm

Apple and Squash Risotto

A local chef ranted on their blog about not liking to accommodate special requests, but will do so...with some bitching. Oh, boy, did this chef bitch. About vegans, in particular.

What really got me was the example the chef used as an absurd vegan request — risotto.Sure, risotto tastes great made with butter, cream, and Parmesan cheese (probably tastes great with sausage, too), but when did risotto become a dish about dairy products? Not all risottos are made with cheese and cream; most seafood risottos aren't. And, not all risottos are made with butter; olive oil is often used.

Risotto is a dish with arborio rice, an Italian short grain rice, as it's star, not dairy. Creaminess comes, first and foremost, from slowly cooking the rice in small amounts of water or broth so as to coax out the rice's own starch.

Not sure why the chef got all frothy at the mouth about vegan risotto. It's quite simple to make, and make tasty.Apple and Squash Risotto
serves 4-6

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion
2 cups arborio rice
apples, peeled, cored and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
butternut squash, peeled and diced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup white wine (vegan wine if this matters to you, or skip if you don't do wine and just add more broth)
4 cups vegetable broth, warmed
salt and pepper, to taste

• Add olive oil to a large pot over medium heat. Add onions, and cook for 4 minutes until translucent.
  
• Add the rice, stirring well, and cook for 2 minutes.
• Add apples, butternut squash, and curry powder to rice. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring often.
• Add wine to the rice, stirring often, and cook until the wine has been completely absorbed by the rice.
• Add 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth, stirring often, until almost all of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Repeat this process, adding 1/2 cup of the broth at a time until all of the broth has been used. Add salt and pepper to taste during the cooking process. This process will last for about 20-30 minutes, or until the rice is tender, but al dente. The important thing here is to stay with the rice stirring the entire time.
  
• Risotto is best served immediately after cooking.
  

Chai Pani

Chai Pani, a new Indian restaurant specializing in Indian street food opened up in downtown Asheville, NC, since my visit to the small mountain town a year ago. A lover of all Indian food, and now on a quest to sample the recently popular-in-America cuisine, Indian street food, we hit up Chai Pani.

Unlike Philadelphia's recently opened Tiffin Etc., which specializes in Indian street foods of the pizza, kati roll, and stuffed paratha sorts, Chai Pani serves up Indian sandwiches, chaats, parathas, uttapams, tandoori specials, and thalis — sort of a mix of street foods and items found at most Indian restaurants.

Service is casual: order at the counter and food is brought to your table in no particular order with large gaps between one dish and the other.
We started with the crispy, julienned Matchstick Okra Fries sprinkled with salt, chipotle seasoning and lime. With little flavor other than salt, these could have used a dipping sauce or a handful more of lime wedges. Quite good, though. Unlike most, I'd take fried okra over fried potatoes any day. Touted on the menu as a Mumbai favorite, Pav Bhaji is a hash of spicy potatoes and mixed vegetables cooked down into a mush on the grill and served on, at Chai Pani at least, two small Hawaiian bread buns. I would have been in favor of a neutral bun instead of the sweet Hawaiian bread, but overall not a bad way to eat a curry — especially if you were standing on the street. The Masala fries seasoned with fresh cilantro, salt, and lime were perfect and more than plentiful. The mango (?) sweetened ketchup went well with the Indian flavors of the fries. If I had known about the mango ketchup, I would have asked for some with the okra fries.
If Dahi Puri is on a menu, I will order it, so I've eaten my share of this chaat. The potato, chickpea, yogurt, sweet tamarind chutney, spicy cilantro-mint chutney, and crushed sev toppings that make up Dahi Puri matched most Dahi Puris I've had, but the fried puris at Chai Pani were not the usual thin, light, crispy puffed domes. These were thick, flat, hard and overly fried. The usual sprinkling of fiery chili powder was also missing. The Paneer Upattam, an Indian rice and lentil flour crepe topped with Indian cheese, cilantro, and fried onions was amazingly greasy from the ghee on the griddle, so I only partook in a few bites. A liberal dunking in the Sambar and coconut chutney is recommended to give flavor and spice to the mild toppings.

Chai Pani
22 Battery Park Ave., Asheville, NC, 28801

Sweet Freedom Bakery

Allison Lubert and Heather Esposito’s Sweet Freedom Bakery (1424 South St.) opens tomorrow, Jan. 15. This unique bakery whips up cakes, pies, cupcakes, muffins, cookies, and other treats which are vegan and gluten-, soy-, egg-, dairy-, corn-, peanut-, casein-, and refined sugar-free.

So, if you have a food allergy or other dietary restriction that keeps you from going Cookie Monster crazy at traditional bakeries, Sweet Freedom will be just that — sweet freedom.

Sweet Freedom Bakery sent me a box of goodies to sample, so I could get the word out and share my thoughts with y'all. (Yep, that means I ate for free.)

I'll start by saying all of the baked treats are good, and, with the exception of the cupcakes (it's so hard to make perfect cake even with dairy, eggs and wheat flour, let alone without all the traditional cake ingredients), I would have had no idea that these baked goods were gluten-, soy-, egg-, dairy- and refined sugar-free unless someone told me.
Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting - A dense and healthy-tasting banana bread studded with chocolate chips and frosted with a not-too-sweet and not-too-chocolaty frosting missing the silkiness of traditional dairy-based frostings. Vanilla Cupcake with Creamy Vanilla Frosting - The neutral vanilla cake base is not quite as dense as the Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake, and would be a great way to highlight more exciting frosting flavors than the barely-sweet non-silky vanilla I sampled. I'm thinking lemon or strawberry frosting.Magic Bar - A bar cookie with hints of toffee in the the cookie bottom, topped with a rich chocolate ganache and sprinkled with shredded coconut. Magic!

Blueberry Oat Crumble - A bar cookie with generous blueberry filling topped with a crisp oat crumble. This was my favorite goodie in the box. So good I included two pictures so you could see the glorious blueberry goo. I wish I had a whole box of these.Macaroon - These small silver dollar-sized macaroons are light and airy in the middle with toasted edges, and only slightly less sweet than most macaroons you encounter...which is not a bad thing at all. Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich with Chocolate Frosting - Two large crispy chocolate chip cookies sandwich the same not-too-chocolaty frosting used on the Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcake. Gluten-, soy-, egg-, dairy-, corn-, peanut-, casein-, and refined sugar-free? You'd never know.

Sweet Freedom Bakery
1424 South St., Philadelphia, PA 19146
215-545-1899
Tues-Sat, 10am-7 pm
Sun, 10am-4pm

Making Paula Deen Proud

If you're ever in Asheville, NC, you have to (this is a command) hit up one of my favorite bars in the city, The Admiral, which is a casual, dark and dingy-looking bar that serves food more than a few notches above your regular grub pub fare. Reservations are recommended. Really.
With my last visit there was actually a vegetarian entree on their daily-changing menu, but this go round there was nothing besides salads and soups that were veg. Knowing that care, love, and yum goes into all of their food, I went with a plate of all the side for that evening perched atop one another — sprightly pickled fennel atop roasted baby carrots, smoked fingerling potatoes, lentils, and bathed-in-butter barley. Butter really does make everything better.
And there is no way I was not ordering the bread pudding made with, not day-old bread, but day-old Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Dessert is already a calorie and fat bomb, might as well do it up right and with no reservations.

The Admiral
400 Haywood Rd., Asheville, NC 28806

Shrimp Sauce?

In reading The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, an entertaining quick read by Jennifer 8. Lee that humorously sheds light on the Americanization of Chinese food, I gained a new-found respect (and craving) for Chinese-American food, a cuisine I didn't particularly love in the past.

What I found most interesting is how Chinese food gets adapted to the preferences of each country, and even the regions within a country. Some of these adaptations are so far from the original Chinese dishes that they are wholly unrecognizable. And some dishes just flat-out aren't Chinese.

The plate above is from a Japanese restaurant (not Chinese, but the Americanization and regionalization of ethnic food still applies here) in a tee-tiny town in the far southwestern corner of North Carolina. What is on the plate blew me away in the department of weirdness and things I've never eaten (together) before.

On the plate is rice and stir fried vegetables. Nothing strange, yet.

Then there are glazed carrots. Like the kind boiled in sugar water. This has never happened to me an any Japanese restaurant. Or Chinese. Or any other Asian restaurant.

But the thing that really blew my mind is the shrimp sauce. We figured shrimp sauce would mean some sort of sauce made with shrimp paste (note: this wasn't my dish), but what came out was essentially a spiced mayo and ketchup sauce sort of like Thousand Island dressing, but with different spices. And...you're supposed to pour this over the rice and stir fried vegetables!

Never before in my life.

In doing a little internet research, I found that, yes, there are recipes for shrimp sauce, and the sauce seems to be a specialty of Japanese steakhouses. The sauce also goes by these names: white sauce, yum yum sauce, yummy sauce, and sakura sauce.

Most people on the nets yammering about their love of shrimp sauce were from North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio. (Funny, I lived in South Carolina for 27 years and never ran into Shrimp Sauce, but in thinking back, I've only eaten at Japanese restaurants that weren't steakhouses.)

What an interesting Americanization of Japanese food. This is an Americanization, right? Surely, the Japanese don't pour this stuff on rice?

But I'm dying to know if Shrimp Sauce is common across the entire United States (and possibly other countries), so here's the question:

Have you ever eaten Shrimp Sauce, and where did you eat it?

Cracker Barrel

This is quite possibly the worst restaurant dinner in my recent and distant memories. There is one high point, though.

It may come as a complete surprise, but this Southern girl has never before eaten at Cracker Barrel, the ubiquitous (they're every where, not just in the South) Southern-themed country cooking chain.

Why? There was that whole anti-gay policy of theirs in the early 90's (I never forget), and, hey, lookie, I missed this, but it seems they discriminated based on race in the 2000's (don't worry, I'll never be back).

So, why dinner now? Caught driving in that East Coast snow storm of December 2009, we decided to call it quits in Virginia (good thing, because the highway was littered with stranded cars when we woke up) for a hotel and the nearby Cracker Barrel. Lame excuse, but it is what it is.

The plate you see above is their veggie plate incorporating most of the veggies that are meat-free (nothing out of the ordinary there with country cooking). The corn is straight out of the can. The sweet carrots are mechanically whittled "baby" carrots. The macaroni and cheese is Velveeta-esque. The biscuits taste like those from a fast food chain (I do like fast food biscuits for guilty pleasure reasons, but much prefer homemade biscuits). Cornbread was skipped because it's not vegetarian (nothing out of the ordinary here, either — boxed cornbread mixes often contain lard).

Really, I was expecting a little more effort on Cracker Barrel's part. I've had better at cafeterias. Here is the high point: perfectly crisp and non-greasy fried okra. The okra was outstanding. But not outstanding enough to forgive them for their sins (culinary and otherwise) and make a return visit.

Hi, Philly

I know you! And I'm about to get to know you better now that I'm here full-time. Here's what I see in my food blogging future:

More Eats - Really hoping to get out more for lunch in Philly. This will be only applicable in the winter when I'm not working and brown bagging it, but still...more eats!

More Recipes - Now that I live with someone and have someone to cook for, I can't wrap a tortilla around leftovers every night and call it dinner. Maybe I'll finally start cooking through my cookbooks and on-line bookmarked recipes. When I hit a good one, I'll share.

More Playtime - Taking a 30-minute drive back home after going out sort of takes the fun out of an evening, so in the past, I didn't go out that much during the week. Not no more! Yes, I will come to happy hour. And that mid-week special dinner. And that opening event. And...

More Bad Photos - Not looking forward to this, but...the natural light kinda blows in the new house (had a great bay window at the last place), so it may be a while before I figure out the best place and time for photo taking at home.

Bye-Bye, Wilmington

I actually haven't left. But I have. I will continue to work in Wilmington, beautifying and making y'all look awesome, but I no longer live in Wilmington. Yeah, I'm actually kind of sad about this.

This means I probably won't be eating out very often in Wilmington or Delaware. Future Wilmington restaurant reviews are now on the endangered list.

I know I've got one more Wilmington review up in here somewhere (it involves dessert). And I have friends in Wilmington that I'd race back to the state for in the event of a party or outing, so our relationship may not be completely over.

Guiltily, I feel as though I slighted Wilmington in favor of Philly in the restaurant review department, but in looking over at the side bar listing all the places I've been, I'm actually surprised at how many places in Wilmington I got to, especially considering that I rarely go out in Wilmington. Out of the 151 reviews currently listed, 37 of the restaurants are in Wilmington or right outside of Wilmington. Not bad. And, I still have about 25 Wilmington places on my to-do list.

Well, au revoir, Wilmington. I will leave you with a list of only good things...and skip the bitch-fest.

A few of my favorite things in Wilmington:Domain Hudon - A cozy wine bar that serves great food (they recently got a new chef, so I'll definitely have to make a return trip) that was right around the corner from me.

Alcohol - While not as great as states that let you buy wine and beer in every grocery store, at least DE doesn't have the asinine liquor laws that PA has.

Tax-Free Shopping - It is veeerry nice! Since I'll still be visiting almost daily, I'll be sure to stock my car before returning home.
Capriotti's - Hand's down, best veggie turkey sub in the area. I cannot believe how many times I've eaten their sub (it's a sub, not a hoagie at Capriotti's), and, mmmm, oh my god, it tastes so good. I do not intend to live without Cap's. Take-out!

Delaware Center For Horticulture - They plan, plant, and maintain some of the most thoughtful and beautiful median strips (and other public spaces) I've ever seen. Anywhere. Driving along the busy roads in Wilmington is gorgeous...if you take time to notice the small things.

Clean Streets - Litter is minimal in Wilmington. It is a wondrous thing.
Brandywine Park - The best part about this downtown park with a scenic river and canal, tall trees, picnic tables, rose garden, and wide paths is the surrealism of walking right past the llamas and birds of prey at the neighboring Brandywine Zoo. That and it was, literally, right in my backyard! It is every American family's cliche dream to live next to such a park smack in the middle of downtown with gorgeous surrounding neighborhoods. No family here, but I'm shedding mondo tears for the loss of this one.

People - There are some brave mo'f'er's in Wilmington that have de-lurked and befriended me. As in, out of the blue with no relationship to me or anyone I know, asked me to dinner or to a party. I, of course, accepted (as long as they pass the creep test and don't want me to drive more than 20 minutes to meet them), and have met some really great friends.