Directly following my trip to Peru, I left on a research trip to the West Coast for two weeks.  What was I researching?  Glad you asked: a book on Stadium Eats!  Um, yeah, without a deal in sight currently (hint, hint, anyone reading this who is interested!), I went to preemptively scout out the 6 West Coast stadiums and eat my way up and down the West Coast at the same time, starting in San Francisco, working my way down to Los Angeles, then San Diego, back up to San Francisco and then to Seattle!  Phew!  Tune in at 4:15 EST (or 1:15 PST, lunchtime on the West Coast) for the next 6 weeks to see what I ate and where I ate it… and how I gained 10 lbs in two weeks!

I made my way back up to San Francisco to return the rental car and catch my flight to Seattle.  On my last night there, I really wanted Dungeness crab, which I felt had been in short supply on my trip.  Okay, it really hadn’t been, but I wanted to hit up Crab House at Pier 39 since it’s been 3 years since my last time, and I really enjoy eating a whole Dungeness crab… all by myself… but this time around, I decided that I should try another place, and make it one that everyone has mentioned in the past.  Plus it seemed like my trip had a definite Vietnamese slant on it, so why not?  I went with PPQ Dungeness Island because it was open late when I needed it to be – I just arrived in San Francisco, dropped my stuff off at the hotel and headed out - and because I’d heard the name many times in the past. 

I had to start off with the summer rolls as usual - notice the dish of sauce has a streak of red in it.  Sriracha sauce not fully blended in, so I knew to avoid that area and dip lightly.  Another interestingly way-too-long roll cut into 3 pieces, so the middle pieces had stuff exploding out of the roll.  I liked the roll, though, and found it tasty. 

But the main event! that’s what’s important here.  A whole Dungeness crab. 

The body was already broken into pieces and I got to work quickly, taking the meat out deftly without using the hammers (shudder! hate those hammers; they ruin the crab) and dipping it into the butter that had accumulated on the bottom of the dish.  NOM.  Really fresh and very, very tasty.

I also ordered garlic noodles because, um, hello?  These were garlicky, delicious, though more like lo mein or egg noodles than I’d anticipated.  Not a bad thing, per se, but I am partial to broad white rice noodles or ho fun, though that’s Cantonese style and perhaps not Vietnamese.  These were already really good, and then I made the brilliant decision to dump the noodles into the buttery sauce on the bottom of the crab dish and let it sit there and soak in the butter for a few minutes.  The taste?  Awesome.  The after-effects of all that butter on my system?  Yeah, not so much.  I just can’t eat THAT much butter in one go (I’ve tried many times).  Ah well, a bit of intestinal discomfort for the glory… par for the course! 

Just to balance things out, a beef dish.  This actually was pretty similar to the ’shaking beef’ dish at Slanted Door.  It was tasty, but I don’t think I need to order this again – I’ll be back, and I will know to just go straight to Dungeness crab, do not stop at appetizers, do not stop at beef, just crab and noodles, an order each all for my own.  Mmm, boy, yummy. 

Yvo says: I didn’t need the beef dish or the summer roll dish, really, but it was nice to help get a feel for the restaurant itself and its other offerings.  I definitely would go back for the Dungeness crab alone… and now I’d also like to try some of the other Vietnamese places around town that do the whole Dungeness crab this way.  Mmm, nommy.  Check this place out!
recommended

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Post tags: dungeness crab, summer rolls

UPDATE: I am becoming a blogging machine, so I will also be reporting on Thursday afternoons for you.
CT has been traveling a lot lately for work. During one of her visits back to the city, we were able to go out for dinner. I suggested we use one of my BlackBoard Eats coupons, since we were so happy with previous experiences with them. Veloce Pizzeria’s 30% off coupon was expiring the next day, so we decided to check it out. I heard mixed reviews about the pizza, so I was keen to try it out myself.

The first thing I noticed when we sat down was a picture of Alan Greenspan, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve on the ledge above the table. I found this quite odd in a funny way.

CT chose the wine. The Nero D’Avola 2008. She chose it from the description of full, rose petals, blackberries and earth. It was a good choice and complemented the food nicely.

We weren’t sure if we should order 1 or 2 pizzas since they are 12 inch Sicilian, so we decided to get a couple appetizers and share 1 pizza.

The first choice was no choice at all, Fried Porchetta Meatballs. How could we not order those? They were deep fried and had a ton of flavor. It was topped with parsley and onion which cut the richness of the porchetta nicely. The restaurant was pretty dark, so it was hard to get a good pic of this.

innards

We also got the Ricotta di Palo- fresh cows’ milk, cracked black pepper, toasted bread. There was a ton of ricotta piled up on the crostini. It was so creamy and refreshing. A great dish.

As if that wasn’t enough to start with, I decided we should get a salad. I gotta get my vitamins somehow. We went with the arugula with parmigiano-reggiano, olive oil, and lemon. We received a huge pile of arugula. It was very lightly dressed. The best part was that we got some ruffage out of the meal, so that’s not saying much about this salad.

For pizza, we went with white clam. It had garlic, oregano, and parmigiano-reggiano along with the clams. I wanted to see how it compared to the clam pizza we got at ABC Kitchen a couple months ago. Veloce’s pizzas are not typical NY pizza. They are square and very thin crust with hardly any outer crust. It was a very tasty pizza, but I barely noticed the clams. I couldn’t tell if they chopped up canned or fresh clams. If I am paying $22 for a pizza(before discount), I want to see whole clams.

Some upskirt action for you.

It was a good dinner and nice to see CT in between her travels. Would I return without a discount? Probably not.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blackboard Eats, TT

After a couple of hours at the batting cages, BF and I had sufficiently worked up an appetite – despite my brunch – and met up with BlindBaker plus BF’s former coworker, JP (I don’t know why I referred to him as this in a previous post - one of the downsides to using initialed nicknames constantly) and his wife, VSa, to grab some food.  JP and VSa wanted to hit up Congee Village in Chinatown, which caused both BlindBaker and I to cringe internally, but I decided to put my gameface on and put aside my prejudices.  (With a name like Congee Village, I really want to ask them WTF they were thinking.  Plus, I’ve been twice in the past, and their congee sucks – how are you going to put “congee” in your name and then not make it properly?!) 

***I should note here that I actually co-hosted a baby shower here – for ANM and T of TCC – three years ago – and I enjoyed some of the food, as noted below. 

Because I speak Cantonese semi-fluently (especially in food), I ordered everything everyone wanted, in Cantonese.  The fun part was when he tried to clarify things with me, and I had no idea what he was asking me!  Shameful that I can ask for things but I can’t answer when they ask me things…. sigh. 

JP and Vsa ordered veggie dumplings, steamed.  I didn’t want one, but they said these were pretty sad – very soft and floppy, and not very tasty.  FAIL. 

BF wanted fried dumplings, but these were the thick-skinned kind he doesn’t like.  I tried one, and while I don’t mind thick skin (sometimes; I have to be in the mood), these were not cooked through (the skin, if that makes sense) and the meat was not that flavorful, even with the use of black vinegar.  FAIL. 

I remembered this dish from the baby shower – garlic paper fried chicken, which I ordered as such, but the waiter tried to tell me the name is something else.  Ok, you know what I’m talking about, so why do you have to keep telling me I have the name wrong?  I said “Ok, but it’s paper fried chicken with garlic added, right?” and he kept telling me about some sauce that’s added.  I don’t know what he was talking about.  So I got the name wrong, but the dish was right: juicy fried chicken with paper-thin crispy skin, tender meat, and amazing bursts of garlic flavor.  I don’t like chicken at restaurants, but this is one of the dishes I like to eat a few pieces and be done with.  I think an entire meal could be eaten of this and rice… Yum!  Everyone else seemed to like it, too. 

“Wet” fried noodles with beef, beef ho fun, sup chow ngau ho.  Yes I’ve tried to make this before, to great fail (don’t look for it! please!).  They did it pretty well here – this was another of JP’s choices – lots of beef, veggies, and the noodles were good. 

Honey walnut shrimp, VSa’s favorite dish.  She said she really likes this here, and it was perfectly tasty – large shrimp, each coated with the sauce.  I’m completely biased and still prefer my favorite Cantonese place, especially since they keep the sauce separate for me to dip as liberally or as conservatively as I like (and to scoop some into my white rice to eat like that… o yes I did and do!).  I also would have liked extra sauce to dip the broccoli in, but as it stands, this is an acceptable version.  (I also prefer the beef noodles – the last dish – from my favorite place more, but that’s straight bias, since these were good, too.) 

Seafood chow mein – I love noodles.  These were really good, lots of seafood, though a bit skimpy on the more expensive seafood bits.  JP said he liked this dish a lot too, which made me glad I’d ordered it – I didn’t want to be seen as the pig just ordering stuff that no one else wanted to eat (we shared everything family-style).  When I asked for “jeet cho” (red wine vinegar), the guy brought it but then pointed out the black vinegar on the table.  Hon, if I wanted to put black vinegar on my noodles, I’d be crazy first of all, and second, I’d have used it already then.  I just kind of blankly stared at him because I didn’t know the name for black vinegar in Chinese until he pointed at it.  This was very confusing.  Did he not know I wanted to put this on my noodles?  Was he just having fun mocking the girl who clearly did not know any Chinese but FOOD???

BlindBaker stepped in here and added a tofu dish whose name escapes me (or perhaps I never knew it).  This was tasty with rice!  Can you tell me what the name is?  Thanks! 

My first plate, I took a little bit of everything to show you.  Then I stuck to mostly noodles since those are the carbs I crave.  Seafood chow mein with red wine vinegar???  Yes please!!!  NOM!!! 

Yvo says: Both BlindBaker and I admitted to each other that we had unfairly judged Congee Village without giving it a fair chance till then.  The food was tasty enough.  However, it’s in an awkward part of Chinatown for those of us using mass transit (on Allen Street) (we drove this time and found parking very close by, luckily), and to me, this isn’t real Chinatown – not just because it’s on the edge, but because it’s a large, very clean restaurant – good for those who are going to Chinatown for the first time.  The food is definitely tasty – but I don’t think I’d seek this place out often.  Maybe if I were showing people new to Chinatown, or wary of “hole in the wall” dining, I could see going back.  The full bar doesn’t hurt either (though we didn’t utilize it).  I can’t speak to prices because BF and JP paid without letting us look at the bill – thanks again, BF & JP!!! – but I know that neither of them said it was expensive, and we had some leftovers to take as well.  Oh, and the waiters totally spoke enough English for those who are new to Chinatown and don’t speak Chinese. 
recommended for Chinatown n00bz and/or those afraid of grime

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cantonese

Directly following my trip to Peru, I left on a research trip to the West Coast for two weeks.  What was I researching?  Glad you asked: a book on Stadium Eats!  Um, yeah, without a deal in sight currently (hint, hint, anyone reading this who is interested!), I went to preemptively scout out the 6 West Coast stadiums and eat my way up and down the West Coast at the same time, starting in San Francisco, working my way down to Los Angeles, then San Diego, back up to San Francisco and then to Seattle!  Phew!  Tune in at 4:15 EST (or 1:15 PST, lunchtime on the West Coast) for the next 6 weeks to see what I ate and where I ate it… and how I gained 10 lbs in two weeks!

On my last day staying outside LA (near Disneyland), I decided to bite the bullet and eat at Fuddruckers.  I’d actually never set foot inside a Fuddruckers before, though I’ve driven past them in New Jersey and a few times, people have mentioned their mile-high-mud-pie to me… 

This one was also apparently a Korean BBQ place.  Just kidding.  I just thought the sign was funny. 

When I walked in, I was greeted by the deals menu.  I was incredibly surprised that it was more fast food than I thought – I actually originally thought it was more like a Friday’s or Applebee’s, but apparently, it’s a walk-up counter and you order your burger, then it gets cooked, and blah blah. 

But apparently, the real draw is the amazing ‘buffet’ of goodies that awaits you.  What I mean is… it’s pretty much this amazing “build your own” toppins bar.  Holy crap!  Hot sauce, malt vinegar, tobasco, A1, etc… but also

Fairly normal ketchup, mustards, mayo, bbq sauce and two kinds of liquid cheese for your fries!  ALL FRIES can be cheese fries for no extra charge!  *happy tear

but also, look! 

Lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles,

pico de gallo (which was actually pretty damn good, perfectly mixed), pickle relish, banana peppers, pickled jalapeno peppers,

NOMMY. 

Okay, I got excited and took tons of pictures of that section.  I was very happy, even though I don’t really put much on my burgers. 

While waiting for my food, I also snapped a quick pic of someone’s nachos waiting to be picked up.  The heat lamps screw up the lighting, but doesn’t that look good???  Mmm! 

I’d wanted a salad to offset everything else I was eating – not necessarily to help me lose weight or anything silly, but rather, just something green to get in my belly.  I was a little disappointed that it was all iceberg lettuce, but at least it was a real salad… but there was no meatless option so I had to get fried chicken on top of it.  Hahaha.  The chicken was crispy and properly cooked, and of course went nicely dipped into the dressing.  Funny, though: at one point it occurred to me I could “refresh” my salad by going to the toppings bar… I did not, but I bet many people do.  Or get a burger and then make a ’salad’ of sorts on the side. 

My salad also came with a piece of garlic? bread, but as I approached my table carrying too much stuff, it threw itself off my plate and landed on the floor.  I took a picture just so everyone can see what kind of bread comes with the salad, but I didn’t eat it. 

My plain burger – I got one of the smaller sizes, so 1/3 lb, I think.  The fries were good dipped in the cheese sauce (I tried both; jalapeno wasn’t spicy).  I want one of those cheese dispensers for my home…  heh heh heh…  But on their own, the fries are slightly bigger than I prefer, though they did fry them pretty crisp around the edges. 

I went up to get my toppings – tomatoes, mayo, pickles, pico de gallo (just to try, not to top my burger with).  I generally put just a bit of mayo and tomato slices on my burger; the juices of the burger run out into the mayo and mix with the tomatoes to make its own ‘ketchup’ and I love that.  The pico de gallo I tried was really good – done just right, juicy tomatoes with a lot of onion. 

Requisite cross section of my burger.  Since I’d never been to a Fuddruckers in the past, I ordered it medium, and they did a really good job of hitting medium just right.  I’d hope so, since this is a burger place, but I’ve been to other places that all they do is xx and they don’t get it right when I go.  The burger was pretty big, and tasty by all accounts.  Sure, it’s more about the toppings at this place than it is about the burger, but it’s nice that they let you basically super-customize your burger, and that they cooked it properly.  It wasn’t expensive either.  Nom!  Tasty!

Yvo says: So I have to say, I like the place.  I like that I can customize my burger any which way I want and it doesn’t cost extra money (with what’s out, that is), and that liquid cheese is always available (yum!!!) for my fries, and the overall place, I just dug.  Cute.  And the prices didn’t hurt either. 
recommended (it is what it is and doesn’t try to be anything more)

Click here for a location near you – the one I went to was Buena Park

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Burgers, salad

… Oh, who am I fooling?  I dumped cocoa in there like it was going out of style!  And if cocoa is really going out of fashion in your part of the world, please tell me so I don’t ever have to visit such a godless place!  Also, please tell me why we use phrases like that?  Why would someone want to do more of something that’s about to go out of style?

Ahem.

As I was saying, I was aiming for a deep red, fine-crumbed vanilla cake with just a “hint” of chocolate, and cream cheese frosting that was creamy, tangy, and rich.

Main ingredients for red velvet cupcakes.  The bottle of red food coloring got cut off on the left, but rest assured, it’s there!

For this recipe, I broke out the fancy cocoa I buy specifically for red velvet cakes (I pay about $8 for this 8-oz container).  I love its deep chocolate flavor AND it’s by E. Guittard, whose products I just love.  It is a can full of WIN!

And just so you can see the difference between the Guittard Cocoa Rouge and Hershey’s Natural Unsweetened Cocoa:

E. Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge on the left; Hershey’s Cocoa on the right.

See how the Guittard is darker in color?  That’s the result of the Dutch processing where alkaline is added to the cocoa, creating that super-deep chocolate flavor I so adore.  I have to be honest: I don’t reach for the Hershey’s often.  It’s not a bad product at all, but I don’t use it unless I happen to be out of Valrhona or Guittard.   I’m not too much of a snob to not buy Hershey’s Dutch-processed cocoa, which I’ll get the next time I see it, but yeah, I’m a cocoa snob. 

One of my peeves about cake baking is when the recipe calls for softened butter.  In the winter, which is when I do a lot of my baking, butter never softens as quickly as I want (because I’m a self-entitled instant gratification brat) and usually takes a couple of hours.  I baked these cupcakes on a steamy day and the butter softened before I could gather all my ingredients together.   I actually had to put it back into the fridge so it wouldn’t melt into a pool!

Is there a sight more beautiful to behold than that of butter and sugar being beaten into a fluffy cloud of … er, sugar and butter?

Just as I did with my Devil’s Food Cupcakes and other cocoa-y goods, I bloomed the cocoa in a tablespoon of boiling water before mixing in the red food coloring to make a paste, then added the paste to the butter and sugar mixture:

Red velvet cake batter all ready to go!

The original recipe called for adding shredded coconut and chopped pecans into the frosting, but it means you can’t pipe the frosting out of a decorating bag, so I opted to leave it out and garnished the cupcakes with them instead.  You don’t have to pipe if you don’t want to, but just be aware that the lumpiness of frosting with coconut and pecans in it will be more likely to tear the cake up.

Yes, I know, one of the cupcakes is missing a pecan.

Inside the cupcake

This was a pretty darn good cupcake, if I do say so myself.  I brought half the batch in to the office where I intern, and one of the professors said it was sinful.  He really seemed to like the frosting and joked, “You could put this frosting on galoshes and I’d eat it!”  (I hope I got that quote right!)  Totally made my day!

Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring (I used a brand called Spectrum because it doesn’t have that strange bitter aftertaste other food colorings impart)
2 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

Icing:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup marshmallow fluff
1 (1-pound) box confectioners’ sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup whole pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with baking liners.

In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Mix cocoa and food coloring together and then add to sugar mixture; mix well. Sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Portion batter evenly into muffin tin. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting.

Icing:

Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add marshmallows and sugar and blend.  Put into piping bag fitted with plain or star tip, and pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.  Top with coconut and nuts if desired.

EDIT:  This recipe can be converted to make a three-layer cake.  Grease and flour three 8″ round cake pans, pour in equal amounts of batter in each, and bake, staggered so that the pans are not directly over each other or touching.  Bake for 20-25 minutes (switching the pans around halfway through baking time) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes in the pan before inverting it onto a cooling rack.  Let it cool completely before frosting.

© The Blind Baker NYC for The Feisty Foodie, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cupcakes, red velvet