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Archive: January, 2009
I’m abstaining from meat for a week. Read why here.
Yesterday, I mentioned that I planned to spend my Saturday watching a bunch of gruesome PETA videos and reading a bunch of literature to give a fair shake to the personal politics side of the vegan/vegetarian question. But consuming a bunch of tasty meat substitutes in the past 24 hours has put me in a surprisingly good mood, so now I think I'm going to save all that fun for Super Bowl Sunday. Woo.
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| Photo | Drew Lazor |
For dinner yesterday, I dropped by Govinda's, which I'd never been to despite it being a short walk from my apartment. (Likely explanation for this: They do not have meat.) I explained earlier this week that my objective is not to drastically alter my normal habits for the better — as much as I probably should do that, the realistic plan these past few days has been to eat as normally as possible (sans meat) and document the ensuing mental anguish. As such, I was pleased by Gov's recognizable grilly options. After shouldering my way through a sea of really skinny UArts kids with crappy band patches sewed on their jackets, I got myself a kofta sub (fake meatballs, real mozz and marinara) and a side of deep-fried fake chicken nuggets. While I found that the one-of-a-kind texture of the kofta balls grew more and more haunting with each bite, that's more of a "me" than a "them" issue. The nuggets, though? They're killing it with the nuggets. Slight stringiness notwithstanding, they were crispy, chewy and satisfying. You could definitely trick an absentminded/slightly drunk carnivore with these things.
For lunch earlier today, I ate a few Morningstar Farms veggie sausage patties on a roll. These are also excellent!
I refuse to apologize for loading up on the phony stuff on the second-to-last day of The Week Without Meat. I know that this really isn't the truest way to experience a beneficial vegetarian diet, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the feeling of biting into something meaty. My girlfriend, the sadistic orchestrator of this entire endeavor, bought me a sack of green beans at the store earlier. I am considering eating them later.
It's been interesting, but I think I'm ready for it to be over. I've felt kinda slow this entire week, and I've witnessed the eyes of more than a few coworkers and friends glaze over as I've feebly stumbled over words while trying to explain something. Is this purely psychosomatic? Most likely. But it's still weird and frustrating. Gimme a fat burger and I will speak extemporaneously for 72 hours.
I plan on offering some insightful coherent thoughts on my temporary veg status come Day 7, but today I just can't shake my meat fixation. With this in mind, I wanted to ask y'all: Where should I make the girl take me for the steak dinner I'm about to win? Capital Grille was my initial thought, but I want to weigh all my options. Let's hear it in the comments.
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| random-good-stuff.com |
Capital Grill is always an excellent meal, but there's no prime rib, which is my personal favorite cut.
Whenever I've gone off the meat for an extended period of time, I find that first meat meal unpleasant.
If you really want to stick it to Mich, Fogo de Chao, just for the pure vomiting excess.
PETA kills 85% of all animals they "save". They claim they are forced to kill viable animals because it is impossible to do much due to their limited budget (30mil annually). Yet PETA calls the slaughter of livestock MURDER and compares it to the Holocaust. In comparison their neighbors the Norfolk SPCA saves 73% of all animals they take in with a annual budget a fraction of a fraction of PETA. PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk claims: "A rat is a dog is a boy". If a boy = a dog and animal "MURDER" is a acceptable practice by PETA standards, then is the killing of unwanted children acceptable? Apparently so according to PETA's logic. PETA is against all animal medical research. Good luck living past 40 without modern medicine. If you support this then please refuse all medical treatment for you and your child since modern medicine was founded on the sacrifices of animal testing. PETAs leadership uses insulin which was tested on animals. PETA does not consider this hypocritical by any means. How convenient of them. PETA's tax records show donations and loans made to convicted homegrown terrorist Rodney Coronado. PETA also contributed to his legal defense fund. Rodney has confessed in public lectures of firebombing private property in the name of ALF (Animal Liberation Front). PETA leadership calls this terrorist a "fine upstanding young man". Rodney has gone to college campuses to teach students to build home made firebombs. PETA is no better than Al Qaeda, just more media savvy.
I’m abstaining from meat for a week. Read why here.
Sorry for missing yesterday's update — it's been an extremely busy couple of days, but I can confidently say that I am still holding it down.
I'm still thinking about meat a lot, though.
On Wednesday night, I whipped up a recipe for tofu and black bean tacos submitted by Meal Ticket reader Christine. "Try this and I promise it won't seem like you're NOT purposely avoiding meat," she wrote. Despite having to shell out a pretty penny for cumin and ground coriander (didn't have these spices on hand), I was extremely pleased with the results — the recipe was easy to pull off and quite satisfying, with the hearty texture of the crumbled seasoned tofu and black beans filling me right up. And though the recipe didn't call for explicitly, I had a blast squeezing the excess water out of the extra-firm protein blocks with my bare hands. (I decided to do this after hearing several home cooks gripe about the inherent sogginess of the stuff.) The move definitely contributed to the overall thumbs-up texture of the meat replacement. Thank you, Christine!
For lunch on Thursday, I hit up Rouge, where talented and kind chef Matt Zagorski asked my girlfriend and I if we wanted to sample a cross-section of items from his new Petite Additions small-plates lunch menu. (Felicia D. wrote about it on Tuesday.) Any other day, I told him, I would be ripping through awesome-sounding items like his mini Rouge burger and roasted half quail with carnivorous gusto — but this week, unfortunately, was not conducive to such indulgence. I opted instead for a sick endive salad and a nice little polenta dish. I think I did a terrible job of explaining to Zagorski that I was also eschewing seafood, though, which made it all the more torturous when he blessed us with a mid-course of tuna tartare and a smoked salmon BLT (sans the bacon). The girl, a pescetarian, was happy to step in and help, making a sizeable dent in both plated proteins while I nibbled on the teeny pumpernickel top of the BLT. Life is so hard. I also drank two beers.
Dinner last night saw me dropping by El Fuego at 21st and Chestnut and scarfing down a vegetarian quesadilla while I drank some more beers. (It's coping, OK?) I also had a serving of guacamole, as several TWWM readers have been telling me that hearty fatty stuff like this will help me both stay full and maintain a shiny, lustrous coat. Wait that's border collies.
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| Erik Marcus of vegan.com |
The other day, I promised a recap of my chat with Erik Marcus of the vegan.com blog, who reached out to me to share some tips and tricks for my temporary veg conversion. Here's what I learned:
- Marcus' book, The Ultimate Vegan Guide, helps people make a smooth transition to veganism. One of the biggest concepts he discusses is what he calls "crowding, not cutting" — instead of making yourself miserable by thinking about all the stuff you can no longer eat, why not help yourself move past that by replacing them with foods you've never tried? “If you try to go vegetarian or vegan by cutting out the foods you like, you’re hosed," Marcus said. "Instead, you [should] make it a process of discovering new foods and going out of your way to try new things." The distinction here with TWWM is that I do, on occasion, hit up meat substitutes in real life, so they're not entirely foreign and exotic to me. I eat falafel regularly. I sometimes munch on tofu and seitan dishes. (The fake wings at El Camino Real, as one recent commenter pointed out, are bangin'.) I just don't eat this stuff nearly as much as meat and seafood stuff. I am going to make it a point tonight and over this weekend, however, to branch out and sample some meat substitutes I don't really mess with all that often. People keep telling me about the kofta sub (fake meatballs) at Govinda's, and many have also preached the gospel of Quorn to me. Any thoughts, commenters?
- I expressed to Marcus that one of my chief complaints about TWWM is that I often don't feel very full after eating my vegetarian meals. He felt as though it was a matter of perception. "I don't hear that as a complaint from people who have been vegan for awhile," he told me. "As a former meat eater, [I can say that] your perception of 'full' changes. Once you internalize that the objective is not to be filled up, [and] stopping short of that is actually better thing for your body, [it will help] change your default mindset." This definitely makes sense, but I feel as though achieving such an understanding/mindset will be difficult for me, as I'm only doing this for seven days. I did, however, feel pretty satisfied after Wednesday's tofu taco adventure, so perhaps I just need to eat things with more notable protein content.
- Marcus urged me to take a look beyond just the eating aspect of vegan/vegetarianism and delve into some research on the motivations behind why people eat this way in the first place — controversial issues like the global impact of raising meat, animal cruelty, etc. I admit that have not focused enough on this side of the issue, but I agree that it is worth my while to give these viewpoints a fair shake. Do I think it will change or affect my relationship with meat? Honestly? No. But I am trying my best to keep an open mind. I will be doing some thinking and reading tonight and will return with impressions tomorrow.
You should watch this video as part of your research. It gives a nice overview of why someone would want to eat less meat, without being overly crude and disgusting. http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html It's by Mark Bittman, food journalist famous for his "How to Cook Everything" cookbook series.
[...] January 30th Meal Ticket• The Week Without Meat Day 6: Bacon wishes and pork cutlet dreams• The Week Without Meat Days 4-5: All this veggie confusion is causing me to drown in space an...• Rum Bar owner Adam Kanter's recipe for Admiral's Chicken• Ramos Gin Fizz, fresh or [...]
[...] If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Drew Lazor at the Philadelphia CityPaper is a confirmed carnivore who decided to blog about his week without meat. I stumbled upon his series when it began early last week, and invited him to give me a call. We talked for more than half an hour and he ended up blogging about my advice. [...]
[...] this page was mentioned by Christine Ernest (@cernest), Philly City Paper (@citypaper) and others. [...]
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Rum Bar Owner Adam Kanter prepares Admiral's Chicken at La Cucina located in the |
| Photo Credit | Neal Santos |
We posted earlier in the week about the lunchtime cooking demos at La Cucina, located in the Reading Terminal Market, in honor of Restaurant Week. If you didn't get a chance to go, feel a part of the action by checking out this video feature.
Adam Kanter, owner of Rittenhouse's Rum Bar, concocted this recipe for Admiral's Chicken, a distant cousin of General Tso's. His recipe featured El Dorado rum. Kanter was feeding 25 hungry people that day. After the jump, check out a version I adapted to feed about about two.
Go Get This:
Rice:
1-2 cups of jasmine rice.
1-2 cups of chicken stock or water.
1 red bell pepper, diced.
1 yellow onion, diced.
1 small can of chipotle pepper in adobo sauce.
Chicken:
1lb chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
Corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste.
Admiral's Sauce:
1 red onion, sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced.
1/2 cup - 1 cup of El Dorado 5 year old rum.
1/4 worcestershire sauce
coriander and curry powder to taste.
salt and pepper.
1 oz. cilantro for garnish.
Then Do This:
Cook the rice in a covered pot in proper proportions with the chicken stock or water. Raise to a boil until rice is al dente. Add in diced red pepper, yellow onion, and chopped chipotle pepper. Stir to combine. Cook until rice is tender.
Season your chicken with salt and pepper. Coat the cut pieces of chicken in corn starch and set aside. Heat a large skillet with oil, and wait until light smoke appears from the pan. Add in chicken and cook until meat is a light yellow color. Set aside.
Coat the bottom of a second skillet with oil and heat. Add in the red onion and garlic and cook until soft. Pour your El Dorado rum away from the flame and into the pan and flambé by using a stick lighter, match, or the flame from your stove. Cook until the flame subsides and the alcohol is evaporated. Stir in worcestershire, a little adobo sauce leftover from the can, curry and coriander to taste. Once cooked, combine the sauce and the chicken until coated.
Plate your dish with a bed of rice. Top with chicken, ladle extra sauce over the top and garnish with cilantro:
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| Photo | Neal Santos |
Great clip, Neal! As you may remember, I reviewed Rum Bar last year. Kanter is an amazing guy. They're really doing special things over there. -Aaron
[...] District to sponsor chef-led cooking demos at La Cucina in the Reading Terminal Market. (Check out a recipe from last go-round, with Rum Bar owner Adam Kanter.) Two left this week — today, check out Gregory Aversa from [...]
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| Assembling the elements of a Ramos Gin Fizz, & an umbrella-adorned finished drink. |
| Photo l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
The Ramos Gin Fizz is the most refreshing cocktail you could sip on a hot day. But to get to that refreshing sip, you have to shake and shake and shake until fish-eggs of sweat pop out all over and your arms feel like noodles. Sort of defeats the purpose of that chilled cocktail, which is why we're increasing our heart rate in the depths of January to create the perfect Ramos Gin Fizz.
The concoction was invented by Henry C. Ramos in his bar at Meyer's Restaurant, New Orleans, in 1888. Raw egg whites lend the drink its creamy froth; orange-flower water and the botanicals in gin provide nuanced flavors. The drink is constructed in a standard tin and given a long "dry shake" (sans ice) to emulsify the egg whites that provide the signature foam — Ramos' original recipe calls for shaking up to 12 minutes. The drink proved so popular in pre-Prohibition New Orleans that bars employed lines of juvenile "shaker boys," all working the tins like mad to keep up with demand.
With nary an underage shaker boy in sight, you'll be feeling the burn until the mixture starts to feel "ropy," which sounds gross but is quite perceptible after you have shaken the drink for a few minutes. This drink does not allow cut corners; make one cocktail at a time and use jiggers to keep the proportions correct. Orange-flower water can be acquired at Whole Foods or Di Bruno Bros. We used organic, free-range eggs for the drink and no one died; if you are nervous about consuming raw eggs, you probably don't have the stomach for the drink anyway.
This cocktail was the contribution of the inestimable Janina Larenas, who turned the classic drink recipe into a delectable gelato at Capogiro just yesterday. What can't that woman do with eggs and a little bit of elbow-grease?
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| Ramos Gin Fizz, Up |
| Photo l Felicia D'Ambrosio |
Ramos Gin Fizz
2 oz. gin
1 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. lime juice
1 oz. heavy cream
1 large egg white
3-4 drops orange flower water
Ice
1 oz. chilled club soda
Combine all ingredients except ice and club soda in a shaker. Shake for at least 2 minutes and up to 12, until the egg whites have emulsified and the mixture feels "ropy." Don't overdo it on orange flower water — it is very potent and overuse can make the drink taste like grandma's perfume.
Add ice to shaker, and shake again for another minute until chilled.
Strain into highball glass, add club soda. Serve.
[...] Felicia, who writes for the Philadelphia City Paper food blog, Meal Ticket, did an excellent write up of the drink, along with the history and recipe which I highly recommend. Made with gin, cream [...]
Great variation of this drink! Gin Fizz is wonderful, thanks for posting.. it was a great read. My personal recipe of choice looks a little like this: 2 PARTS Beefeater Gin 1 PART Double cream 1 Egg white 1/2 PART Sugar syrup 1/2 PART Lemon juice 1/2 PART Lime juice 3 DROPS Orange flower water (optional) 1 PART Soda water METHOD Shake all ingredients, except for the soda. Strain into an ice filled highball, top with soda and garnish with a lemon wheel. To die for picture lol: http://www.beefeatergin.com/mixology/drinks/ramos-gin-fizz.jpg
It was amazing how pained Padma sounded last night as she uttered the line "As you know, the Super Bowl is just around the corner" (see video). Also amazing: Neither the Arizona Cardinals nor the Pittsburgh Steelers, the two shitbucket teams responsible for providing us with what will surely be the wackest Big Game in a decade, were featured in later portion of the show that involved the cheftestants selecting NFL franchises to model their cooking after.
Quickfire: In what might be the best example of brutally unsubtle product placement porn this season, each of the remaining cooks was required to take a random cooking element and combine it with — no, not Diet Dr. Pepper — Quaker Oats. Padma instructed them to "rethink this supergrain," but didn't seem quite as upset about this preposterous statement as the Super Bowl one. Guest judge Scott Conant, of the Meatpacking District's Scarpetta, served as resident chef who tries far too hard to be a dickhead. (We talked about this last week.)
Fabio drew "vegetables," which led to him offering the timeless quote that serves as this post's headline. (A few people told me they found it apropos that he dropped this gem during The Week Without Meat, but I feel as though it's important to offer up this distinction: It's not like I'm obsessed with meat/fish and despise vegetables. I love both. I just like them together at the same time.) Stefan pulled it out once again with an oat-laced banana mousse. He got love for his desserts during Restaurant Wars, too. For all his gruff alphamale grandstanding, that dude is kind of sweet.
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| OK, leave your best football/sex double entrendre in the comments. |
Elimination: This was one of the most schematically fucked competitions I've ever seen on Top Chef, but it was partially saved by the sheer novelty of carting a bunch of past contestants back on to ruffle the Season 5ers/sop up some more cable TV face time. The game: Each squad huddled up and assigned individual chefs to one of several NFL teams. They were then required to develop a dish inspired by that team's geographical region and cook it, head to head against a past-season opponent, in front of a live audience. If the four judges liked your dish better, your team got 7 points; then they threw it out to a bunch of randoms in the audience to either serve as a 3-point "field goal" addendum or a tiebreaker. Neat it's so much like football. Padma even wore ref stripes.
Stefan's Quickfire win granted him the privilege of picking a team and an opponent, so he went with the Dallas Cowboys and Season 1 crunchyhippielady Andrea. The rest of them were paired off according to team.
Jamie beat dead-behind-the-eyes Season 3 chick Camille with a San Franny crab cioppino. Season 4's Nikki fell in a New York Giants battle to Leah. She clearly does not want to be on the show anymore after grossly sucking gross face with Hosea, who topped Season 1 fat jolly dude Miguel in an incredibly boring Seattle Seahawks seafood battle. Challenge winner Carla zapped Season 4 ADHD sufferer Andrew with a how-did-that-work 20-minute gumbo dish.
As for the losers — Stefan was defeated by crunchyhippielady, probably because he decided to include a fussy piece of roasted pork and corn salad (?!) on a plate meant to represent the food of Texas. No one told Fabio that putting a shitload of cheddar cheese on his salad might be too literal of an interpretation of Green Bay. (Severely overcooking venison didn't help, either. Where were the brats at?) Jeff's Miami Dolphins-inspired rock shrimp ceviche with sangria ice was narrowly edged out by Season 2er Josie's dish, which was the exact same shit except warm.
Jeff got axed, which sucks because I generally enjoyed his hair-flipping deadpan assessments of things. A necessary move, though, as Stefan is far too good-TV-combative to leave and Fabio is just so goddamn foreign/charming.
Next week: Eric Ripert makes the chefs screw with live eels, then laughs in a self-satisfied manner.
[...] apologies for the delay with this recap. Last week was a bear!First things first: Jeff, who was eliminated in Episode 10, told people.com that he felt the show used him as “some kind of sex object.” I love [...]
[...] a near-win for the “Last Supper” elimination. Also, remember how she took the win in Episode 10 with a gumbo she somehow pulled off in 20 minutes? The final challenge is taking place in New [...]
The i "heart" foie t-shirt that Patrick is wearing on the reunion special is available at www.savorygusto.com. The packaging is awesome.. the shirts comes wrapped like a deli sandwich and with a bag of chips! I gave a few as gifts to Top Chef (foie) fans! There are other culinary themed shirts as well. Check it out. Cute site!
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| Union Trust chef/owner Terry White |
| Photo | Michael T. Regan |
- A.D. chats up chef Terry White, who's opening Union Trust at Seventh and Chestnut in the first week of February. This pantheon of porterhouses will feature an inspired mixture of old-school and new-school adornments in terms of décor. In terms of food, there will be gigantic steaks.
- Kelly White is not related to Terry White, at least we don't think. If they were related, it would be funny becuse Kelz Lives on the Vedge. She continues with the whole eatin'-smart theme by chatting up Mark Bittman, who writes "The Minimalist" for the New York Times. His new book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating, touches on how to maintain a low-impact, healthy diet that shrinks one's carbon footprint. (Bittman's the one who sent in words of encouragement for The Week Without Meat — Day 4 recap coming a bit later today.)
- The Center City District has extended Restaurant Week for another seven days. Nikki Volpicelli has some nice picks for you in her latest What's Cooking.
- In Feeding Frenzy, I talk to the folks behind three soon-to-come eateries: Brahaus Schmitz, Ladder 15 and Oyster House.
- Freakishly powerful chocolate chews, wine glasses that Jimmy Durante would've loved, hand soap made from fry grease and the King of Online Food Trivia — all in this week's Small Bites column.
Last year, one of the most happening events of Philly Beer Week was Meet The Brewer. Bars all over the city hosted brewers from far and wide, and many of the brewmasters toted along new or rare beers for those to came out to hang with them. As often happens at these things, a few beers turned into many shots of tequila and some of us ended up staggering home as the sun came up over the Delaware.
Barring the potential for debauchery, the events are a prime opportunity to grill these guys (and a few ladies) on what goes in their beer. Wondering why Rob Tod chose to age his Allagash Curieux in Jim Beam barrels? Dying to know if there's a Belgian yeast in Larry Bell's Two-Hearted? This is your shot. You don't have to buy ticket to many of these things, either, which makes them suitable for a quick glass and chat, or hop your way across the grid sampling everyone's offerings. Shots of tequila at dawn are optional (but bloody likely).
A full day-by-day schedule is available at PhillyBeerWeek.org; there are already 176 events listed as of Jan. 28, with more on assuredly on the way. Full details for each listed event listed below are here.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Luncheon with Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head at Teresa's Cafe & Next Door in Wayne, 12:30 p.m. Sam, the defining brewer rockstar, boasts more groupies than David Lee Roth ever did in his prime; watch them gasp and fawn over the man at this suburban beer destination.
Bill Covaleski of Victory Brewing will appear at The Four Seasons at 5 p.m., so if you crave swank surroundings with your award-winning Prima Pils or Old Horizontal, check him out here.
Young buck Casey Hughes of Flying Fish is at Johnny Brenda's all-draft haven at 5 p.m. Bet he'll take over their two beer engines with something unusual.
Southwark is better known for slow food and classic cocktails, but they maintain a bitchin' beer list, as well. Brian O'Reilly from Sly Fox Brewing will be appearing at the beautiful bar at 5 p.m.
The lovely, luminous Hildegard Van Ostaden is one of Europe's few prominent bruesters (female brewers). Her Urthel line of beers will thrill your tastebuds while Hildegard charms your socks off, at Monk's Café at 6 p.m.
Local boy Tom Kehoe of Yards Brewing gets really, really old school at the City Tavern, 6 p.m. Yards' line of beers based on historical recipes by Thomas Jefferson and George Washington should moisten your throat for some revolutionary-style debate.
Carol Stoudt, one of the originators of the craft beer movement in PA at Stoudt's Brewing, shares her stories of 20 years spent shoveling out the mash tun, at McGillin's Old Ale House, 6 p.m.
The big boys from Stone Brewing in Escondido, California are on hand for a dinner at Gullifty's on the Main Line, 7 p.m. Begin training with high IBU pale ales now if you expect to come out on the other end of this event without your tongue burned off from hops.
Adam Avery of Avery Brewing in Colorado ventures down P'unk Ave. to the P.O.P.E. at 9 p.m. He's another one that attracts hordes of female fans; no wonder he and Sam get on so well. Oh, and his beers are pretty good, too.
Rudi Ghequire of Rodenbach brews the number one oak-aged Flemish sour in the world, Rodenbach Grand Cru. He'll be on hand to talk about this refreshing heritage style at 11 p.m. at Monk's.
This is just one day of Meet The Brewer events. Click over to PhillyBeerWeek.org for sooo many more.
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| Peanut Corp. of America knowingly sold peanut butter tainted with salmonella |
| usatoday.com |
Every week, Meal Ticket pokes around the food blog world to see what's simmering.
- The MenuPages blog picks up USA Today's story that the Georgia peanut processor where the latest salmonella outbreak started knew there was a bacterial contamination in the factory, but packaged and shipped the peanut butter anyway. Another great example of business policing itself without annoying government supervision — not only was the Peanut Corp. of America aware it was packaging a tainted product, it shopped around to find a lab that would provide go-ahead testing results.
- John Mims, formerly of Les Bon Temps and Carmine's Creole Café, has been booted by a judge from his new space in Wayne, Mims Food + Drink, reports Mike Klein at The Insider. Mims' former financial partner, Howard Taylor, filed the complaint against Mims, who had signed a non-compete clause that prevents him from operating a restaurant within 10 miles of Carmine's in Bryn Mawr. No word yet from the embattled restaurateur himself.
- Jason Wilson of Table Matters chronicles absinthe's descent from mythic hallucinogen to the juice of wannabes in his article Licorice Whipped. Just like fur trapper hats, vinyl leggings and pork belly, once something becomes widely available, everyone who originally lusted after it suddenly loses interest. OK, not pork belly. Wilson does note that the taste for licorice must be cultivated early, like, in the womb, if one is to truly enjoy such anise firewaters.
- How much beer is in that glass of draft beer? Lew Bryson at Seen Through a Glass raises issue with the lack of standards in draft beer sizes. News to us: The most-common "pint" glass that bars typically serve beer in isn't a pint at all — it's a "shaker glass" meant to pair with a tin to shake cocktails, and it's only 14 ounces. I've been a bartender for almost 10 years and it never occurred to me that the standard glass everyone uses was not a full 16-ounce pint. We call shenanigans!
- The Philadining blog gets happy at Sang Kee Peking Duck House with a big ol' plate of something called Spare Rib Bits. The salty, porky, sticky, juicy and sweet bones are just one more thing to make Drew cry during The Week Without Meat. Click on the link for the drool-inducing photo. Not you, Drew.
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I bet this tastes like clouds and |
| lacroixrestaurant.com |
File under Oh Whaaaat: Every Sunday and Monday haute cuisine restaurant Lacroix at the Rittenhouse is offering a $35, three-course prix-fixe and half off the whole damn wine list. Throw in the view over the bare wintry trees in the Square, and you have yourself the guaranteed-booty date of the month.
This is fine opportunity to check out new executive chef Jason Cichonski's chops — and curried pork shoulder and roasted garlic risotto, while you're at it.
Lacroix at the Rittenhouse Hotel, 210 W. Rittenhouse Square, 215-790-2533
I'm abstaining from meat for a week. Read why here.
Last night, I checked out an advance screening of the spook flick The Uninvited. (Check the movies section online tomorrow for my review.) A little less than an hour in, there's a very inconsequential scene that features stars Elizabeth Banks and Emily Browning in a butcher shop. Banks' character chats with the butcher while he slices up giant hunks of gorgeously marbled beef with a cleaver. The portion of the scene lasts all of 20 seconds and has nothing to do with the rest of the movie, which deals in all sorts of scary apparitions and hallucinations and ghosts and betrayals and attractive sisters and murders and crawly dead moms.
I couldn't stop thinking about the steak.
"I wonder how Elizabeth Banks is going to prepare all that," I began wondering. "Is she gonna season them up and sear them in a pan, then finish them under a broiler? Maybe she's going to cook them on a charcoal grill? Oh man those steaks look so good. Their family lives on a lake, too, so I bet they could do a really nice surf and turf, with a side of ... "
You know something is wrong with you when find yourself fantasizing about red meat during a fucking horror movie.
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| Hello, you do not have meat in you. |
| Photo | Drew Lazor |
A few hours before the screening, I ate a sweet and sour vegetarian soup (tofu, egg, veggies, noodles, etc.) from Joe's down here in Old City. I found it quite tasty but ultimately unsatisfying. I wanted to put pork in it. My coworkers Neal and Holly sat across from me, scarfing down roast duck and shrimp wonton soup with great gusto. It took every fiber of my being to resist the urge to grab their heads and bang them together really hard like Moe does to Larry and Curly.
After I got home, I ate a wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing, some roasted garlic butter mushrooms and a helping of blackened green beans. All were delicious, but I couldn't help but shake the feeling that I was eating a bunch of side dishes and there was a void where the marquee star of my dinner should be. To cope, I walked to 7-Eleven and bought myself a Choco Taco. I nearly, nearly purchased a bag of pork rinds based on the logic that fried pig skin is not, in actuality, meat. I somehow managed to stop myself.
In my life as a meat eater, I typically skip breakfast. I eat lunch about 70 percent of the time, usually something small and random from a place around my office. (I sometimes skip if I'm really busy.) But for dinner, I always get down with a big, filling meal, with all sorts of accompaniments (yes, often veggies!) and a large portion of meat or seafood as the centerpiece. I realize that this is not the healthiest approach to eating, but shit, it's what I do.
This is why I'm approaching The Week Without Meat (TWWM) the same way — I'm not going to wake up and fix myself a sustainable veggie frittata every morning, because I would never wake up and make myself a bacon omelette. Most of my energy is going to be spent on either cooking or ordering one huge meal in the evening. That's why tonight, the plan is for me to attempt some of the awesome vegetarian recipes Meal Ticket readers have been sending in. If you've got anything to share, please do not hesitate to hit me up in the comments or at drew.lazor @ citypaper.net.
Other TWWM notes/thoughts:
- A little later today, I'm going to be speaking with Erik Marcus of vegan.com, who has promised to share with me some tips for making it through the rest of the week. Check back on Meal Ticket later for my recap.
- How the hell did I miss that my TWWM experiment is coinciding with NATIONAL MEAT WEEK? God is so, so, so cruel. More on this soon.
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| Valhalla, I'm coming. |
| bbqaddicts.com |
- I can't even begin to count how many people have sent me a link to the Bacon Explosion recipe on bbqaddicts.com. On behalf of myself and America, I would just like to say that I hope you all die of massive coronaries.
- "I know this is possibly the last thing you'd want to read while going meatless," writes Brendan of Sloth Street, "but I wanted to point you to my recap of the Amada whole roast suckling pig dinner." I appreciate it, man. In fact, I would like to thank you in person. Please e-mail me your home address. And your sleep schedule.
- I recently read a study that linked meat deprivation with thoughts of irrational violence perpetuated against kindly Internet folk. In this same dream, I killed a wild boar with a crude spear and was schooled by a village of rainforest people on the finer points of cooking animals on a spit. I was then married in an elaborate ceremony to the chief's daughter, whose name was Scrapple.
- ohmygodiwantmeatsobad
- I've been thinking. A pork rind — it's not meat! It's skin! So that totally doesn't count! Right? ANSWER ME NOW
Come on, friend, you need to be eating a balanced set of carbohydrates, fats, and protein of different sorts, regardless of what sources you're choosing for them (meat, dairy, egg, vegetables, grains, beans, nuts, fruits, oils...). No wonder you are feeling unsatisfied! Hopefully Erik can straighten you out.
Keep the faith, my friend. I did laugh out loud at the latest post. My 17 year old son, who is in the peak of health, became a vegetarian July 2008. I have scoured cookbooks and the internet for recipes that include tofu and beans. These, along with eggs, lentils and nuts, are excellent sources of protein. You need protein for your body and to keep you satieated- probably not a real word ! Google protein and find a few good articles tha also list the protein content. That will help you stick with it. Also, allrecipes.com posts comments on their recipes. These are VERY helpful. Oh, by the way, God only seems cruel when you are very, very hungry. Although I applaud my sons choice- the meat industries are the biggest polluters on the planet- I will never go vegetarian completely. I do enjoy many of his recipes but come on- give up flame broiled Whoppers- I don't think so ! Good Luck January 2009
Oh Man... National Meat Week?! The Fates are laughing at you so hard right now.
one of my favorite things: the indonesian tofu soup at pagoda noodle house next to the ritz east in old city. if it sounds intimidating, it's not at all. it's salty and satisfying. i ask for it with vegetarian broth (to which they nod- i'm really not going to question it). in that broth there are deep-fried morsels of some sort of carbohydrate, julienned beans, bean sprouts, tofu pieces and a fried egg. i add hot oil and white pepper and it's delicious. try it while you're still vegetarian. also if you're really craving something with bite, try the seitan wings at el camino real. it's also one of my new favorite things. or the fried bean curd salad at rangoon. i think the point i'm trying to make is, deep-fry anything and it will be delicious and fill this meatless void right up for you.
Drew, This might get you through the Superbowl: http://urbanvegan.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-hell-is-scrapple-and-where-do-you.html Buy two.
Brynn: I love the seitan wings @ ECR. They are the faux truth. And I really concur with your opinion re: deep-frying. Thank you for understanding! B: Vrapple! I've really been meaning to try it. Felicia D. sung its praises on Meal Ticket not too long ago.
[...] spare rib bits at Sang Kee• A $35 menu plus 50 percent off grape juice at Lacroix? Go on!• The Week Without Meat Day 3: My own personal horror movie Publisher's Clearinghouse• Where was the freakin' Mumm-ing?• Bill Kristol's Been [...]
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