name : wesage : 24
location : hoboken, nj
occupation : food
explain yourself:
i love to eat food.
i love the thought of eating food.
i love reading about people who are eating food.
this blog is to document every chew, gulp, sautee, and taste i encounter. there's plenty of food out there, and i want to experience all of it.
[featured photos and video were captured on my iphone 3gs. others will be fairly and rightfully credited to their proper owners.]
who do you like:
midtown lunch
amateur gourmet
serious eats
VendrTV
Robyn Lee
Wine Library TV
what are you up to?:
Theme by nostrich.
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2010 new year’s resolution
+ more posts!
I am trying to get some solid, detailed posts here, in addition to my usual quickfire “What’s In Wes’ Kitchen” and lunchtime posts. This will include food 101 and hopefully (using my new kodak zi8!) videos!
+ more cooking!
I picked up quite a collection of kitchen gadgets this holiday season, and I intend on using each one, documenting each success and failure along the way!
+ more local!
I live a couple blocks from an actual butcher shop, several small produce stores, and a multitude of NYC’s farmer’s markets. I need to start taking advantage of these places at a minimum of once a month, trying something new each time.
+ more healthy!
Read up more about nutrition, what the body needs (and more importantly what it doesn’t!), and strive for a healthier new year!
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My Take on Nan Young’s Famous Potato Puffs
Holidays are good for two things: gifts and leftovers. Yeah, I said it. Materialistic? Maybe. I’m not completely downplaying the whole “family and friends” angle, or that small “good will toward your fellow man” bit. I’m just saying presents and food are the two factors that get us kid-on-Christmas-morning giddy around this time of year. One dish that Sam has ranted and raved about since we started dating is her famous grandmother’s potato puffs, made from very specific mashed potato leftovers. When she was little, her family ate Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners early, and her Nan would make these puffs as a late evening snack with the leftowards. The trick here, according to this love of mine, is to pressure cook the potatoes, using powdered milk instead of regular, and allowing the starchy goodness to sit overnight.
All of that did help when forming the potato patties. The spuds stuck together with minimal crumble, and held both the egg wash and panko bread crumbs extremely well. I heated a small pot of vegetable oil, and dropped them in the hot bath. The oil swallowed the puffs with just a small section of the top popping out. Giving it about 6 minutes each side, flipping over once, take them out and let them dry on a paper towel.
I have to say, Sam was on point! The puffs had a delicious crust, both added from the panko and natural from the inside layer of potato. The insides were smooth and creamy, almost more than from where they started the day before. I made a ham and mozzarella sandwich to accompany. Try CPR-thrusting the bread before toasting to get a really nice thin crisp in each bite!
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Stone Street Stuffed Tavern Burger Stuffed With Imaginery Cheese
Like a deceptive winter coat from Old Navy, this burger looked stylishly good on display, but when worn lacked the proper interior and left me unsatisfyingly cold. No, I didn’t actually wear the Stone Street Tavern’s Stuffed bleu cheese burger. And, I certainly did not enjoy it as much as my eyes told me I would. Served on a toasted english muffin and generous amounts of thick crispy bacon, I thought I was walking into a sure thing. But, when you go as far as specifying your burger as “stuffed”, you’d better deliver on that promise!
First bite: no cheese. Second bite: no cheese. Third bite: an EYE DROPPER amount of warmth finally hits my palate. What remained was an empty, cavernous hole where the old bleu should have resided in all its gooey glory! The beef wasn’t a complete miss, being decently tasty albeit not cooked to my medium request. But the fact is this doesn’t live up to the name.
The one positive note were the steak fries, which gave a nice crisp crunch on bite, and nice smooth finish. I did like the mixed green accoutrement as well. Sure, the Financial District isn’t the culinary mecca for all thing outstanding. But they should at least know that outside of the lunch-rush Wall Street business patron, too busy to his/her own shoe let alone take the time to enjoy what they’re cramming into their face, there are normal customers who expect better.
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Fried Porkchop Over Ramen Noodle Soup
Thin pork chops, breaded with (you guessed it) panko bread crumbs, oven fried to a delicious crisp. Sauteed onions, mushrooms, and romaine lettuce with garlic, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. I poured already boiling water into the pan to ghetto deglaze, letting it cook on high for a minute, then pouring back into the pot and bringing to a boil. I tossed in the noodles and cracked an egg over the top. Once done, the soup went into a bowl, and slices of the chop across the top.
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Chicken Lasagna Roll Up
After making way too much noodles for a cheese lasagna I made days ago, I decided to put it to good use with the remainder of leftover breaded chicken I had. This incarnation (which will be revisited for a future italian/japanese hybrid in the upcoming days) will be dubbed chicken lasagna roll up. No, it’s not manicotti. Manicotti tubes are too small, and would pale in comparison to this generously stuffed chicken, mozzarella cheese, and homemade tomato sauce dish.
OK - slight own horn tooting above, but it still was really good.
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Challenge: How Many Hot Dogs Can You Eat in 12 Minutes?
A couple of months ago, I put together an idea that would get a bunch of our old friends together for some fun that didn’t involve dank bars, noisy clubs, or blackout evenings. What resulted was the “Challenge” series, with each event featuring some competitive eating feat that one of us would try and conquer. The first one (and most appropriate in my opinion) was modeled after the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. There were a few laughs, a few dozen hot dogs, and some great footage. Take a look!
Our next one will feature an enormous pizza challenge. Stay tuned…
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Chicken Fried Rice
Not so much a ghetto gourmet entry, as fried rice made at home should be a potluck affair. I think I can safely speak for my chinese people: there’s almost nothing that can’t go into this. Day old leftovers work perfect in this dish, giving them new life and different flavors when mixing them together. I used breaded chicken, french cut string beans, chopped onions and baby portobello mushrooms, and sauteed these in stages in a hot oiled pan with garlic. Before tossing in my basmati rice, I poured in some soy, oyster, and some white pepper.
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Tuna Cakes over Vermicelli with Oil and Garlic
Even though I have a crab cake taste, but live on a tuna fish budget, it doesn’t mean that Bumblebee can’t taste good. I mixed up some standard tuna salad, using a little less mayo than normal, and added some spicy brown mustard to taste. In a separate bowl, I mixed panko bread crumbs, white pepper, and sea salt, and coated golf ball sized tuna liberally. When properly layered, I gently smushed them into small cakes, using additional dry mix to fill in the cracks. I’d say keep your tuna cakes on the small side, as the larger ones seem to fall apart easy.
I dropped them into a hot pan of oil, in which the liquid came up just below the top of the cake, leaving it exposed to the air. Cook until your side reaches it’s desired brown, and flip, shaving off a few minutes on the second side. In a separate pan, I sauteed some french cut string beans in some olive oil, garlic, and butter, and tossed in vermicelli. Salt and pepper to taste.
For an additional kick of heat, I mixed up some spicy sriracha mayo sauce, and lightly drizzled a bit over the cakes.
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Sam’s Journal - This Onmivore’s Dilemma
[This is a guest post from Sam, our resident culinary challenger, who set out to try vegetarianism for an entire month. Read about the experience here!]
Hello Food Community,
My name is Samantha and I am here to blog about my most recent food bet. As Wes’ girlfriend and partner in food crime, I have been given this special platform and hope not to disappoint.
To give you a little insight into my personality, I never back down from a challenge. You can know nothing else about me and that statement still sums it up pretty nicely. In 2006, I was challenged not to put mustard - my favorite condiment - on anything. It was difficult, but I was victorious. In 2007, I was challenged to abstain from gum for a week. While not exactly a food, I have considered it a food group for some time and thus I have included it here. Again, a win for yours truly.
However, this food bet - the one that brings me to you today - is by far the hardest I have encountered. Prompted by a food documentary, I was told by my friend Brian I could not NOT eat meat. That’s the last time you’ll challenge me Mr. Hardy!
What you need to know: I love bacon, steak, burgers, chili, chicken nuggets, chicken breast,pepperni, sausage, and pretty much anything else along these lines. For all intents and purposes, I am an omnivore…I will eat ANYTHING, as long as it’s served with mustard.
Getting back to the task at hand, I am to be a vegatarian for 1 month (30 days). This was the ORIGINAL bet. But, I felt it was lacking. So I decided to alter it. In addition to adhering to a meat-free diet, I will also try every vegetable I can get my mitts on.
The bet started on December 13,2009. I am now four days in and going strong. But there is definitely room for improvement.
The Good:
- I don’t miss meat as much as I thought I would.
- My salad intake has increased. My favorite dish of the past 4 days? My romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, black olive, raw onion, italian dressing salad.
- I bought tofu to eat as a supplement to beef/chicken/pork
- I have been able to stave off mid-day hunger with two of my go-to snacks: apple slices and peanut butter (creamy) and carrot sticks and ranch dressing.
The Bad:
- I have not eaten the tofu yet
- I have noticed my intake of carbs to be increasing. Instead of having a turkey sandwich, I’ll eat toast with cream cheese. Not good…
- I have not yet expanded my mouthal cavity with a wide array of veggies. Quite the opposite actually.
- I have ritualized my eating to include the same salad every day for dinner.
The Ugly:
- Weight gain…yikes!
In the coming days, I will be keeping a chart of all veggie recipes I try, as well as a running tally of all the vegetables eaten. Stay tuned. I WILL NOT LOSE!
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Ghetto Gourmet - The Saddest Pot Luck Leftover Lunch of All Time
Taking a small step down from the bachelor’s fridge means an incredibly limited base meal, with unlimited amount of random condiments. In this case, I was pushing the boundaries on Thanksgiving leftovers and other one-off dishes, on top of having nothing of real substance as the main feature. What’s pictured above will hopefully be the last saddest lunch ever witnessed. Leftover mac-n-cheese that you’ve seen, green peas, and stuffing.
Coolio, I’ll be taking the crown back now.
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