Category Archives: snacks

Smorgasburg

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in American, Asian, Brooklyn, bucket list, Japanese, New York, seafood, snacks, urban

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This brothless ramen bowl (mazemen) was topped with crab and miso at Yuji Ramen at Smorgasburg this weekend.

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The best thing I ate were the “Jersey style” (head on) fried anchovies with smoked paprika mayonnaise at Bon Chovie.

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There was a special combo that included an order of anchovies and any side for $10. I got the Caesar salad on a stick.

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When I realized that Caesar salad on a stick was a whole head of romaine lettuce with their own Caesar dressing, croutons, and Parmesan cheese shoved into all the nooks an crannies of the lettuce, my jaw dropped to the floor. Isn’t it amazing?!?! The “stick” was a skewer that held the paper in place around the salad. I liked eating it even more than the original salad on-the-go, the McDonald’s Salad Shaker!

Wild Edible Plants of Alaska

23 Thursday Aug 2012

Posted by in American, autochthonous, foraging, snacks

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A Tlingit woman I met in Sitka told me that she likes to eat this stalk (yaana.eit) with sugar. She said her favorite food is watermelon berries with seal oil. One more thing to add to my bucket list! Seal oil!

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These watermelon berries are also know as twisted stalk berries. They were delicious and I wish I could find them somewhere near New York. I was warned though that eating too many would have a laxative effect!

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Bull kelp could be found on every Alaskan beach I visited. There was a gift shop in Sitka that sold pickled bull kelp and bull kelp marmalade. I haven’t tried them yet but I will post about it when I do!

Boston’s Dumpling Cafe

05 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Boston, meat, snacks, Taiwanese

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The minced pork over rice was about $5 and came with a delicious tea egg.

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The oyster pancake was full of juicy oysters. The batter was crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. I loved it.

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I’m not gonna lie — I make better duck tongues. When I get back to New York I’m going to defrost the ones I have in the freezer and dazzle myself.

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The beef noodle soup was “ok”. The broth was “fine” but the beef was too “chewy”, according to someone in the know.

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My favorite part was the pork and chive soup dumplings. I learned that these xiǎolóngbāo (小笼包) require cubes of broth jelly. The cubes are wrapped up with the filling and, when steamed, fill the pouches with a delicious soup. I had these dumpling for the first time at Din Tai Fung in Tokyo. I could eat them every day for the rest of my life.

Dumpling Cafe
695 Washington Street
Boston MA 02111
(617) 338-8858

UPDATE: There is a Din Tai Fung in Seattle! I’m going on Thursday!

Orange Blossom Azahar Marshmallows

25 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by in American, bucket list, French, snacks, sweets

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I just finished a batch of orange blossom marshmallows. They were so easy to make. I just used a smitten kitten recipe.

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The worst part was waiting for the sugar mixture to get to 240 degrees.

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I am going to make another batch this afternoon of plain vanilla ones, just have to get some vanilla beans first.

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I am so excited about all the cookie cutter shapes I’m going to use to make cute marshmallows cut outs!

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I used to think Ladurée’s guimauve macaron filling was gross but now that I know what goes into making a marshmallow, I kind of love the idea of the incroyable macarons!

Wineberries

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in American, foraging, fruit, New York, snacks, vegan

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While hiking in the Hudson River Valley, just an hour outside of New York City, we came across few wild wineberry bushes. Wineberries are a species of raspberry with origins in eastern Asia. They have very large, hairy calices, as you can see in the photo. A man we met on the trail told us that these berries were once used to make wine, since grapes do not grow well in this region.

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They were a little bit bitter — I wonder if they weren’t quite ripe yet.

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Here is a view of the Hudson River looking south from one of the white Breakneck Ridge trails.

Tortillería Nixtamal

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in autochthonous, Mexican, New York, Queens, seafood, snacks, spicy, sweets

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Shrimp tacos with mango and cucumber at Nixtamal in Corona, Queens ($3/taco)

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Chongos zamoranos is a sweet curd dessert from Zamora in Michoacán, Mexico.

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Nixtamal provides tortillas to many restaurants in New York such as La Esquina, Choza Taquería, and even Nobu. The owners, Shauna Page and Fernando Ruiz, make their own corn masa using a method called nixtamalization. The corn is soaked in mineral lime, which increases its nutritional value, allows it to be more easily ground, kills fungus, and improves flavor. In front of Nixtamal there are a few stalks of corn growing in a planter.

Mint, Green Chili, and Lime Potato Chips

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by in bucket list, Indian, New York, Queens, snacks, spicy, vegan

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The man at Patel Bros. grocery in Jackson Heights, Queens told me they didn’t have any green chili powder or lime powder, but they did have this powdered mint chutney mix. The first ingredient was salt, perfect for a batch of potato chips!

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I don’t have a mandolin so I used my Kyocera ceramic knife to slice the potatoes as thinly as possible.

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I microwaved them for 3 minutes and then checked them to see if any were burning. I think it took about another minute before they were crispy. No oil, just non-ionizing microwave radiation!

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They weren’t bad but I had to dump a lot more chutney mix and some raw green chili to make it flavorful enough for my taste. It looks like I might have to go to India after all!