An Italian Tasting Menu

Why I thought it would be gross: Three words: lack of control. When you select a tasting menu, you give yourself up to a set of dishes selected by the chef, which may or may not be what you would’ve selected from a menu yourself. While the contents of the menu are generally disclosed before you order it, there is always a dish or two that causes me to enter into this endeavor with trepidation (Salmon? Ugh.) I like to joke that I want a safety word when I order a tasting menu – yelling “chicken finger!” as a sign to get me out of here and bring me something normal.


Ingredients: Could be all sorts of different things, but generally the dishes flow from one to another. In this case, I’ll be discussing a tasting menu I had at a fabulous nontraditional Italian restaurant in Boston. A quick note, nothing at this restaurant has ever failed me and I deeply trust the Chef to make things I would never eat absolutely delicious. Dishes on this menu included a duck egg soufflé with a poached duck egg in the center and white truffle slices on top (extremely expensive, rare mushroom they use pigs in Italy to find), smoked salmon on endive (a kind of lettuce) with a citrus sauce, scallops on the half shell (like the actual shell the scallops make a living opening and closing), gnocchi (in this case a half-moon shaped pasta pocket) stuffed with dried cherries and chocolate and atop a pork blood reduction sauce that ended up tasting like chocolate, two wild boar (pork) chops, and for dessert a pine nut panna cotta (an Italian cooked cream). I also ordered a homemade cola, which was a blend of coffee, caramel, sassafras, and other cola flavors.

Character: Taking these one at a time… The duck egg soufflé is the consistency of whipped cream (lacking any better comparison) and is warmed with a slightly cooked egg in the middle. It tastes very much like a normal chicken egg to me. The truffles are very delicate and have a very earthy flavor – these are like $40 for a shaving of a mushroom (like a penny size), so enjoy! The smoked salmon tasted to me like smoked salmon (which I’m still not convinced I’ll ever like) – roughly the consistency of soft ham; the citrus sauce on this helped to give it some pep. The scallops are the consistency of a moist chicken breast and had a bit of a briny/salty flavor from in the shell they live in, as well as a bit of a smoky flavor they picked up from the preparation. The gnocchi is a pillow soft pocket of pasta, similar to a ravioli but the pasta itself is a bit fluffier and doughier, and the stuffing was very rich – like a cherry cordial. The sauce for the gnocchi, despite it having no chocolate in it, tastes like chocolate with a bit of rich saltiness from the pork blood (complementing the pasta well) and has the consistency of a chocolate syrup. The wild boar pork chops are a blend between a lamp chop and a pork chop in both consistency and flavor. And the panna cotta is the consistency of a very squishy cheesecake or a custard and tastes heavily of cream, and had pine nut flavors within it. By the way, each of these dishes came with a unique wine pairing that was really fun to try in conjunction with the food. Of everything, I absolutely adored a white Nebiolo wine that I would never have thought existed. Lest I digress into a wine post, it was amazing! I came home and Googled where to get that… and of course, it’s practically impossible. Still fun to try!

What I thought: So, I had a million reasons to think the majority of this menu would be gross – duck eggs, pork blood, scallops in a shell, really? But, surprisingly, and thanks to the Chef, the majority of this menu was not only not gross, but actually enjoyable. I enjoyed trying the homemade soda, which was pretty different from a normal coke – it had much more coffee flavor and the richness from the sassafras. I don’t think I’ll ever be a huge fan of soufflés, but I can appreciate what went into this one. Something about the texture and the flavor throws me off. Similarly, panna cotta and I don’t really get along – again it’s a texture and flavor issue. But, I really enjoyed the scallops. They were so flavorful and had a chewy texture, but not so chewy that I couldn’t savor them and enjoy. I also enjoyed the wild boar chops. I like lamb chops anyway (similar in a few ways) and these had a good smoky and salty flavor and strong meaty texture – really good. And the gnocchi, which I normally don’t really care for, was delicious. Luckily I forgot about the ingredients for the sauce long enough to finish half the dish before I was reminded I was eating a pork blood reduction… I kinda wanted to die right then, but thought better of it because I’d actually eaten and enjoyed half of it unknowingly and it hit me that maybe that was okay. The texture of the sauce was like a runny chocolate sauce, and the flavor was really complex but included chocolate overtures and hints of deep red wine and saltiness – all of the flavors blended really well to be multi-dimensional and give even more depth and a bit of zing to the flavors in the pasta. Eating this dish was kind of a breakthrough. I would’ve been sure blood would be in my top 5 of must be gross foods, but I stand corrected. Just goes to show that sometimes going out on a limb can offer great payoffs.

Overall, I’m happy I could put my trust in a very capable chef that I knew sought to delight me with his menu. I don’t do this all the time, but it’s a great example of trying scary things in the best possible places (one of my tips/rules to live by). I had a great time and expanded my horizons, too.

Umm, what is this?

So, in addition to this being the most frequently asked of my questions at most tables I’m at, I thought it would also be a good way to start explaining why I’ve started this Tumblr.

A little background. I really enjoy eating. And most people who enjoy eating, would say they enjoy food. And most people who would say they enjoy food, would say they enjoy good food. This construct has been an evolution for me. I was brought up eating only bland food items that could be found in boxes or cans. My idea of ethnic food was Italian… as in spaghetti noodles with butter, and maybe some Kraft grated parmesan to add a little dimension. The only spice I ate was salt. I don’t believe my parents were xenophobic; I do believe they had a lot of kids to feed, and not much money or time to do it with, and so they picked things that made sense to them. We also didn’t go out for dinner very often. And I grew up in a place with very little diversity, so going out for dinner usually involved a pizza place or an Americanized Chinese restaurant - the grocery store didn’t offer many more options. I grew up really liking these foods. And eating a lot of them.

As an adult, I started to encounter more food. I moved to bigger cities and traveled more and encountered things I had never heard of. I grocery shopped for myself and encountered more options than I knew existed. I went out to more dinners in different places and in some cases had to choose things I wasn’t familiar with. I didn’t plunge into trying new things in these settings. I managed to find a way to ask “what is this” before eating anything, and using tight criteria to keep me from eating just about everything. It was often pointed out that I had managed to find chicken fingers at every restaurant I’d ever been to. So, I started letting more things get through the criteria (there are still a lot of things I won’t touch).

This blog is to capture the things that I’ve let slip through, and in a lot of cases actually really ended up liking. There’ll be stories about why I thought a food would be gross, why I decided to try it, where, and why I decided it actually isn’t gross, after all.

I hope I’ll be able to inspire some other bland-aholics to step outside their boundaries and experience, and learn to enjoy, new kinds of food. I should also say that I (at this point) will not be covering things like bugs, intestines, etc. The foods I explore are probably pretty normal to some people (e.g., guacamole, hummus, chicken curry), but to me, they were exotic and untouchable, and now they’re part of my journey toward accepting trying most anything once and actually liking good food.

Lobster

Five Islands Lobster Co. (Woolwich, Maine)

Where the Lobsters Come From

Lobster at the Beginning

Lobster in Progress

Why I thought it would be gross: I’ve told myself I don’t like seafood, because water seems dirty and these things live in it, and one time when I was young I bit into a bone in a fish stick and decided there would be no more fish after that. And specifically to lobster, the thing looks like an alien.

Ingredients: Outer shell, which you crack to get to tender meat on the inside.

Character: Lobster meat tastes a bit salty and chewy. It has the texture of a chicken tender/breast, in simple food terms.

What I thought: Eating a lobster is kind of an ordeal, but I took it on because I was in the right place to give it a try. I went to Maine for the weekend and found a lobster shack right on a bay, based on a recommendation from a local friend. Additionally, this same friend took my husband and I to the restaurant and served as our guide for what to eat and how to eat it. And the lobsters came directly out of the water we were sitting along, so I felt pretty safe about the source of the food.

So, upon a recommendation, I ordered a small lobster (about a pound, and alive when I ordered it), coleslaw, and steamed red potatoes. This is a pretty typical combination. I got some good instruction on how to crack and eat the main parts of the lobster (I didn’t involve myself with the bowels of the lobster, which some people do – there’s a thing called “tomalley” which I won’t get in to, but I wasn’t going to eat it).

First, I snapped the claws apart (like a chicken wing) and then cracked the claws with a cracker and pulled the meat out in one big piece. It was pretty easy to eat, and when I dipped it in the melted butter that we had, it ended up being savory and salty. The texture was springy and tender, thanks to on-the-spot steaming that had happened. (I’ve since had lobster again that was much firmer and pretty unappealing, so it matters how it’s prepared and where you get it).

After the claws, I moved on to the tail, which involves separating the tail from the body, then crunching the shell between your hands and peeling the shell back away from itself while looking at the “underbelly” portion. On the inside of this mess is very clean, solid meat which you can get out pretty easily. The texture of this part was more like a giant shrimp or a chicken breast - chewier for sure. As I said, I only ate these three parts (two claws, one tail), and didn’t bother with the rest. But, I’ve talked with people who consider different parts of the lobster delicacies, so they’d probably be good to try, too.

Overall, I’m glad I tried it. I’m not wild about it, but it certainly was a good dinner. It’s expensive, so I’m not sure if I’d pay a lot of money to get something I’m so-so about. But I can see why people do.

Resources:

http://www.lobsterfrommaine.com/ The official website of the Maine Lobster Council - Find Lobsters, recipes, cooking tips and more.

http://www.gma.org/lobsters/eatingetc.html Great instructions on how to eat a Lobster and what’s what.

Turkish Cuisine

Where is Turkey?

Ali Baba’s Terrace in NYC (www.alibabasterrace.com)

Why I thought it would be gross: I thought it was dessert/mountain food, and I’ve never lived by either of those, so I have no idea what they eat there. Also, I don’t really like goat meat (I’ve had it, I lived, but I’m not a fan), and I figured goats were big in Turkey, because of the mountain thing. And Middle Eastern spices are hit or miss with me. As I’ve said before, my reasons are frequently far from logical or based on actual facts.

Ingredients: Vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, and eggplant. Spices like parsley, dill, cumin, paprika, and tarragon. Dairy like thick plain yogurt with spices. And meat like gyro (thinly sliced lamb and beef marinated with pretty simple spices like salt, curry powder, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, oregano, thyme, rosemary).

Character: The Turkish food I ate was from the mountainous Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey and has a lot of yogurt to it, features spicy flavors like cumin, and tends to be stew-based. The meats are similar to goulash flavors, the vegetables are often stewed, and the salads taste a lot like dill. The cuisine is a hybrid of mountain and Mediterranean styles.
What I thought: I tried Turkish food at Ali Baba’s Terrace in New York City. My travel mate got a recommendation for this place from the Turkish Embassy, and served as our guide based on his experiences living in Turkey for the vast majority of his life. So, this was a safe place to try something new.

We started out with a few cold appetizers, which included a salad called Gavurdagi Salatasi. This salad consisted of diced tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, parsley, walnuts, and coated with pomegranate sauce (which is much more concentrated than Pom at the grocery store). I loved this salad! It was a great combination of fresh flavors and sweet, and a little bite to it from the citrusy pomegranate. I wrote down the name just so I could make it at home.


As part of this course, we also were served cacik, which is a yummy homemade yogurt mixed with chopped cucumber, mint and dill. This was particularly good when I dipped my bread in it. The bread was called simit, which is an egg-based bread loaded with sesame seeds and baked until it’s crusty on the outside but really soft on the inside. It reminded me of Italian bread you get in a loaf in the grocery store (or challah, if you’re familiar with that). This combination was great.

Next we tasted some hot appetizers, but I’d prefer to leave judgment of these up to others – they wouldn’t fall into the category of things I liked.

Finally, we moved into the main courses. My favorite was called Iskender Kebab, which is gyro meat (thinly sliced lamb and beef marinated with pretty simple spices like salt, curry powder, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, oregano, thyme, rosemary) served over bread topped with a fresh tomato sauce and a healthy portion of fresh yogurt. It was similar to a burrito or enchilada with gyro meat in it. It was rich in flavor from the spices and the tomatoes and yogurt.


Also, I tried a little bit of my husband’s Raki, which is an unsweetened, anise-flavored spirit that is very popular in Turkey. It’s similar to Ouzo and Sambuca. I really enjoyed the presentation of it. They added a bit of water at the table, which clouded up the drink, and then kept everything cold in a ice bath on the table. No matter how many times I bump into anise (aka: black licorice flavor), it’s always gross to me. This was no different, but I liked the pageantry of it.


Overall, I liked several of the components of our meal. Others I tried and didn’t like as much based on textures or spices. But I continue to feel strongly that I should take every opportunity to try new foods in supportive environments, and am really glad I did. And I have a new salad to show for it!

Resources:

www.turkishfoodandrecipes.com Turkish food from simple recipes in both English and Turkish with pictures.

Dim Sum Brunch

Outside the Restaurant

Ping Seafood Restaurant in NYC:

Why I thought it would be gross: Asian food has a way of sneaking in random animals, bizarre vegetables, and fish when I least expect it, and so I’m pretty scared of having a dozen little pouches full of surprises on my table. On the other hand, I like Chinese food, so maybe it’ll be okay.

Ingredients: Vegetables like cucumber, carrots, snow peas, celery, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Spices like oyster sauce, soy sauce, peanut oil, sugar, and salt. Limited dairy other than pudding at dessert. Meat like sweet pork, beef, chicken, and various forms of fish and assorted body parts (chicken feet, tripe – cleaned intestine, which I’ve eaten twice now!). Also, doughs are used like dumpling wrappers, rice paper, and phyllo-style wrappers. Various teas also are served.

Character: According to Wikipedia, dim sum is Cantonese for “snack”. However, dim sum more typically refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food, traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. So, you’ll see lots of little pouches and portions of food – either steamed or fried or baked. Similar foods include egg rolls, hot pockets, meatballs, and filled pastries.
What I thought: I tried Dim Sum at Ping Seafood Restaurant in New York City. My guide was a travel mate with a wealth of experience in global cuisine who has yet to fail me on bringing me to great food. And I was very clear from the get-go what would and wouldn’t fly with me. I’m still evolving in my tastes, and I’m a ways off from chicken feet or bird embryos. So, with the ground rules set, I was ready to explore.

At this restaurant, cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are pushed around on steam carts by servers who go around the restaurant offering the dishes to customers and marking orders on a card on each customer’s table. So, there’s a lot to choose from. There also is a menu so that you can choose specific things if you’re so inclined.


My favorite thing I ate (and have eaten before with great hesitancy at first) is called a bau or bao (pronounced “bow”). These are baked or steamed buns made from wheat flour and filled with food items ranging from meat to vegetables to sweet bean pastes. My favorite kind of bao is a steamed bun (kind of the consistency of raw bread dough, but it’s cooked) filled with sweet pork, which is shredded pork covered in a sweet barbeque sauce. These are like heaven and are not to be missed. Similarly, I tried a baked version with the same sweet pork inside, and it was also delicious. (They’re the white pouches pictured below.)


I also ate a few different kinds of dumplings, some with mushrooms, or vegetables, or pork. Dumplings have an interesting texture, as the wrapper is steamed, which gives it a kind of sticky, boiled lasagna noodle kind of texture. I dip them in soy sauce to add a little salt to the flavor, and they can be really good.


Another steamed item I like is the steamed meatball. They look and taste just like a normal meatball, but it is steamed instead of baked or fried, so it has a slightly springier texture. These are also good with different sauces (like duck sauce or soy sauce).

After several rounds of hot dishes, we ordered several dessert dishes. My two favorites were the mango pudding (pudding that was flavored with mango, as you might expect) and a baked dumpling filled with pineapple filling. This was sweet and baked like a donut and was fantastic.


I also had a lemon custard tart, and a taro root dumpling. We also enjoyed tasty tea throughout the meal, which helps with digestion so you can keep trying everything! (Lots of desserts pictured below.)


Overall, I enjoyed 90% of everything that came to the table. I would love to learn how to make baos at home, because they’re so delicious. I would definitely go to a Dim Sum brunch again now that I know what some of the things are and what I really like.


Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum This might be kind of obvious, but there is a really good list of the kinds of foods you may find. I pulled from this site for a few of the explanations in this post.

http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/dining/dim-sum-guide.html A site for learning more about Dim Sum, with a printable guide so you can make informed decisions before you head to brunch.

Tip: Try Scary Things at the Best Places You Can Get Them

I find that I’ve tried a lot of new things at nicer/fine dining restaurants (usually stealing off of the plate of someone else at the table). There’s no reason you should write something off just because you experienced a poor preparation or a rotten product. Guacamole at Taco Bell is very different from hand-crushed guacamole prepared tableside at Carnivale in Chicago (oh, I wanted to live in that guacamole!). It’s especially worth it if you can convince someone else to get what you’re curious about and borrow, or if you can try an appetizer version of something.

One source I use for information on this, in addition to personal recommendations, is the site www.TVfoodmaps.com. This site compiles recommendations from the Food Network shows by location, so you can see some of the best places to eat in your area. There’s an App, too, which is great when I’m traveling. I trust professional chefs to give me some good ideas, and it’s great to have these ideas all in one place. Another great idea I heard recently was to call a local ethnic association or embassy to find out their favorite restaurant for their style of food (e.g., call the local Polish American Association to find out where to get the best Polish food in town). I love this idea!

Tip: Experience New Cuisine With a Guide

Ethnic cuisine can be especially daunting to someone who wants to know what’s in everything (lest a potentially evil ingredient find its way in to my meal). Descriptions on menus rarely do food justice, nor make me feel any safer about what I’m about to eat. I’ve found Indian restaurants to be especially good at using the ol’ “meet with SPECIAL sauce” routine on a menu, but never letting me know if I’m going to bump into black licorice flavors (which are still gross, no matter how many times I try them), etc.

For this reason, I’ve found it especially helpful to explore ethnic food with people who know what they’re doing. Either they grew up eating a certain cuisine, or really enjoy it enough to know what’s what and can interpret the menu against my interests. They’re also good at knowing the ingredients and flavor profiles, so they can warn you ahead of time if you’re about to veer way off track and spend good money on something you’re going to really dislike.

I’ve been able to enlist the help of friends as food guides, but this really depends on having ethnically diverse friends, which is easier to do in a bigger city than the middle of nowhere (so is eating ethnic food, for that matter). If you can’t find anyone, a couple of other options are to do some internet research before a dinner out to find things that others recommend, and/or to look up recipes from menus to see what kinds of ingredients go into things (I did this once with Indian desserts before I went to dinner). Another option is to try a buffet, which will allow you to test small portions of things before deciding what you like and want to eat – sometimes this flies in the face of my tip about trying new things at the best places (buffets aren’t always great), but it is possible to look around for a reputable buffet that will have well-prepared options.

Tip: Visit Farmers Markets

I’ve learned that farmers markets are a great place to go to try lots of different foods without huge investments of money (free samples!) and to make sure I’m getting to try really great versions of food I’m afraid of. And because the designer of the food is often on-site, it’s easy to get to ask questions about what they’re offering, what I’m eating, how foods compare to one another, and get recommendations. I’ve found this particularly helpful with cheeses, sauces, and rare-to-me fruits and vegetables. This saves me from buying things I don’t like, or never trying things I’m curious about, and making sure I come home with things I’ll love to eat.

Bread at the Stowe, VT Farmers Market


White peaches at a New York City farmers market

Hummus

Why I thought it would be gross: Hummus has a couple of bad things going for it – color and texture. There aren’t too many foods that are off brown/gray and the consistency of a gritty paste that make you stand up and get excited. Also, the name hummus actually doesn’t contain the English name of what its ingredients are, so I’m left to wonder, and that can’t ever be good. And, the main ingredient (chickpeas) isn’t actually that appetizing on its own either – kinda’ gritty and mushy and bland.

Ingredients: Mashed chickpeas (little pasty cream-colored, soft-shelled beans), blended with tahini (sort of a sesame seed paste, gives it a nice sesame bagel/nutty flavor), olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. It is popular throughout the Middle East and in Middle Eastern cuisine around the globe.

Character: According to Wikipedia, hummus is a Levantine Arab food dip or spread and is popular through the Middle East and in Middle Eastern cuisine. It has kind of a natural peanut butter texture to it. Generally, hummus is served with pita bread, vegetables (like carrots or celery), or other dip-able items. It’s also often served with a little pool of olive oil in the middle that you can stir in as you dip. Other toppings/accoutrement include pine nuts (little sunflower-seed-sized nuts that have kind of a bitter flavor), paprika (a sprinkled red sweet/peppery delicate spice), parsley (an herb with a slightly grassy taste), and minced garlic. While I’m far from a hummus expert, I would like to suggest buying Sabra brand hummus in the Classic flavor with some pita chips or carrots to get a taste for this, since it’s probably unlikely you’re hanging out in Mediterranean restaurants if you haven’t had this, and those are good places to get hummus. You can eat it right out of the container straight from the fridge, warm it up with a little oil, or serve it at room temperature, whatever might be your fancy.



What I thought: I’ve really come to love hummus, so much so that I have to avoid buying it every time I go to the store because I have a tendency to eat an entire container of it in a matter of two days, and while it isn’t inherently unhealthy, it is a little calorie heavy. What I like about it is that it’s easy to eat, it’s creamy, and it’s savory thanks to the garlic and olive oil in it (and who doesn’t love garlic and olive oil?). It’s also pretty cheap and easy to make at home if you have a food processor or blender – there are tons of recipes online. While it looks a little strange, and features somewhat nontraditional ingredients , it really is worth a try!

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummus
http://humus101.com/EN/ Of course there is a blog for everything. This one has lots of trivia about hummus, including a post on the smallest hummus plate ever that won a Guinness World Record (it’s 39mm); it also features recipes and reviews of hummus in restaurants around the world.