Runnin’ On The Treadmill

Runnin’ On The Treadmill
(sung to the tune of Van Halen’s, “Runnin’ With The Devil”)

I’ve stuffed myself like there’s no tomorrow
Had my fill of “all you can eat”

My labs are bad, and my doctor’s mad
And now I can barely see my feet

Chorus:
(Oo-ooooh) Runnin’ on the treadmill
(Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!) Runnin’ on the treadmill

I found the secret, it’s so simple,
To losin’ weight: just eat less food

I got no magic, no magic drug
Just quit eatin’, stop when you should

Chorus:
(Ha – yeah) Runnin’ on the treadmill
(Woo woo) Runnin’ on the treadmill

Could Brian Boitano Be Any More Gay?

OH MY GOSH! I have just watched the “bacon” episode of Food Network’s new show, “What would Brian Boitano Make?”, and this is the gayest thing I have ever seen on TV short of “Ru Paul’s Drag Race”.

Except that it’s not Gay. Or straight, either. Allegedly, at least. No mention of boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, significant others, or kissing. Yep, a show about an apparently single guy, living in San Francisco, who throws great parties for his friends, but is seeing no one. Riiight.

Don’t get me wrong, however. Brian is hugely entertaining (though the Admiral doesn’t agree on this point). It’s just that the show is very over-the-top. From his dream sequence about skating with the roller girls while wearing a sequined ice skating outfit, to the description of a food item as, “puffy deliciousness”, to the stereotypical, “Hell-OOOO-oooo!” speechisms, Brian sure, ummm, SEEMS Gay.

And that’s okay. Really. You go, girl!

It’s just that, despite the obvious, Food Network won’t let anyone from the Gay press near him. They don’t want the show to be about his “personal life”. This is somewhat at odds with the actual show, however, given that it’s filmed in his house and about his friends. I find this inconsistency bothersome. I mean, like, if Brian is not Gay then I will burn my Evil Biker Lesbian membership card.

So what’s to hide? Is FN that scared of having one show that has an openly Gay character? He could be their version of Ellen: Sexless Gay Guy. Admitting but not showing. It hasn’t hurt her, so what does FN have to lose?

Heck, having Brian come out might actually boost Food Network’s sagging credibility. Just a thought.

Three Thumbs Up

Do you shop with a list? We do. Lately the Admiral and I have been making grocery lists and trying to stick with them at the store. It helps me stay with my new “food lifestyle” (I’m NOT on a diet, I’ve changed my food lifestyle!) and keeps us from filling the pantry with things we’ll never use.

So Saturday was shopping day, and we arrived at Wegman’s, list at the ready. And were promptly completely derailed.

Turns out it was the Hatch Chile Festival. Not chili, that oh-so-sumtpuous bowl of red stuff, but chile peppers from Hatch, New Mexico. Did I mention that I crave anything food-wise that smacks of Tex-Mex, Mexican, and Southwest? Ooooohhhh!

So we wander up to the big display tent out front, and I am gobsmacked by the tantalizing odor of roasting chiles. It is not a burnt smell, not spicy, but sweet and deep and rich. I am transfixed and need a moment to refocus.

A Hatch chile, according experts, is simply a New Mexico varietal grown in or around the town of Hatch, New Mexico. New Mexico chilis are known for being mild and flavorful, and are prized by lovers of chiles who don’t want too much heat.

Don’t get me wrong, however: I like the burn. The Admiral, on the other hand, does not. She likes southwestern cuisine with flavor but not the heat. These peppers, then, were ideal.

The nice woman out front was selling already roasted chilis for a pretty penny, but I was told the fresh ones were inside, so it was that direction that we headed.

The inside of Wegmans is arranged with the produce right up front, with hot bars, meats, and seafood to the right, and grocery items and the pharmacy to the left. Front and center was a large Hatch chili display with bushel baskets of peppers aplenty. On the way in I had started talking salsa and rellenos, so we began picking out the freshest large straight peppers we could find.

As we are doing so, one of the Hatch crew comes up and starts asking us what we’re going to fix. I mumbled relleno, and before I could resist he handed me a recipe card purported to be directly from his mother’s kitchen and a DVD to boot. Bonus!

The Admiral and I began discussing stuffing for the rellenos. I mentioned crab and her eyes lit up! Crab it was to be. The rest of the trip was a blur, but some key purchases included some premade crab dips, lemon cake mix, and a block of cream cheese.

Later that evening a conversation with our good friend, “The Lynnster”, brought us another surprise – about 18 leftover cooked blue crabs! We brought them home with glee and spent about 40 minutes pickin’ crab. We got about two pounds of meat for our efforts – these were going to be some damn fine rellenos!

Sunday morning rolls around and the menu is shaping up: the aforementioned crab stuffed rellenos, my homemade salsa with roasted Hatch chilis, hot crab dip, and lemon cake with fresh whipped cream and a homemade blueberry sauce. Yummy!

The Admiral starts with sugar, some water, and about a cup of fresh blueberries left from the previous week. These soon become deliciously gooey, and the immersion blender finishes the trick. We strain the skin and other bits and put the sauce into a squeezy bottle and place it the fridge.

Meanwhile, we start roasting some peppers over a low flame on the stovetop. This is slow and tedious, but we get a couple done. I chop them fine for the salsa, along with about 9 roma tomatoes. Also into the salsa goes red onion, cumin, garlic, salt, lime juice, red wine vinegar, the strained liquid from some rehydrated and pureed Anaheim and Ancho chilis, fresh chopped cilantro, Tiger Sauce, a bit of sugar, and then parboiled and chopped tomatillas. Into the refrigerator to sit and let the flavors develop.

I decide that the stovetop roasting method is not going so well, so a quick Google search reveals that roasting can be done with ease in a 450 degree oven. We only have seven peppers left, and as it happens, they all fit on a toaster-oven sized baking pan, so into the convection toaster oven they go.

Regardless of the convection effect, they finish at somewhat different times, so I open the oven, pop a couple out and into a plastic bag to finish steaming, rearrange the remainders, and given them some more time to roast. After about fifteen minutes they all seem done, and I place the last few into the plastic bag for another ten minutes. The house now smells amazing – roasted chiles! I am in heaven!

Now for the peeling, and it’s surprisingly simple. The steaming in their own heat in the plastic bag has done the trick, and the skins peel off with ease. All we need now is the stuffing.

I’ve softened a brick of cream cheese along with the contents of a store bought roasted red pepper crab dip. To it all, I add cumin, salt, pepper, Tiger Sauce, and some of the strained pureed dried Anaheim and Poblano peppers, and then the prize – about 8 ounces of the blue crab meat from last night. I mix it thoroughly and spoon it into a zip lock bag to use in piping.

The Admiral and I pipe the mixture into the now-skinless peppers. Our technique is not perfect, but we manage. As it turns out, the classic relleno recipe uses cut sticks of hard cheese inserted through a slit into the pepper body – no gooey mess required. Regardless, we refrigerate our now-stuffed chiles so they’ll set up.

We also have a problem – leftover mixture. Not only that, but we made two different versions of the stuffing, the other using a fine herbs version of the store bought crab dip and more cream cheese and crab meat. We decide to do two things: Borrow a couple of tomatoes from a good friend and neighbor with a garden (shout out to Todd!), and use the herb-spiced mixture as a hot crab dip by placing it into a small glass dish topped with panko and grated parmesan. Meanwhile, we hollow out the two tomatoes and stuff them with the last of the crab and red pepper mixture and set them into the toaster oven at 350.

Our guest on the way, we start the actual final cooking process. The Hatch guy’s recipe calls for separating four eggs and whipping the whites to stiff peaks. The Admiral is a whiz with a mixer and starts that going. Meanwhile, I misread the recipe and try to combine the four yolks with a half cup of flour. This does not work. Really. I dump the yuckey mess in the trash. After re-reading the recipe four times, I figure out that the half cup of flour is for rolling the rellenos, and I should mix one tablespoon of flour into the yolks. I finally get it right, and then fold the whites into the yolks. Before fiddling about with the eggs I have poured about a half inch of oil into a skillet over medium high heat on the stove.

We take our rellenos out of the refrigerator and roll a nice big one in the flour and then dip it into the egg mixture. It comes out about three times its original size! I suddenly see the light – these will fry up VERY fluffy and light. I place it into the oil and let it cook on one side. As the smell of the frying relleno fills the kitchen, I am likewise filled with confidence.

Time to plate. Each of us get two rellenos and part of the stuffed tomato. Blue corn chips go with both the salsa and the crab dip, and we each fix our drink.

I start with the chips and salsa: good flavor and depth, chunky but with some sauce – nice! The hot crab dip is utterly delicious – a hint of crab spice, creamy with lumps of backfin, nice crab flavor. Now for the stuffed tomatoes – I was a bit worried because they weren’t overly ripe, but they were amazing! The flavor in the tomato itself was full and rich, and the reb pepper spiced crab mixture really came through.

Now for the star, the relleno itself. I cut a bite from the end of one of the rellenos. It’s tender and the batter nicely fluffy, with the crab mixture oozing nicely. The taste? Out of this world good! The roasted pepper has developed a rich smokiness, the filling has great crab and southwestern flavor, and the light batter provides the perfect balance. P-p-perfect!

Dessert time: The Admiral has done her baking magic yet again: lemon cakes in mini-bundt molds, and they’ve been cooling on a rack. A couple of years ago one of my brother gave me a Liszt CO2-powered whipped cream dispenser which is now full of heavy cream. Bundt on plate, a shot of whipped cream, and remember that blueberry sauce we made earlier? A drizzle over the cake and around the plate. Voila! Dessert – simple and light, but with great flavor: the sweet berry sauce is the perfect foil to the tartness of the lemon cake!

So what did our guest think? Why, three thumbs up, of course!

1500

Fifteen hundred. One thousand five hundred. One point five K.

This is the number of Calories I have decided to limit myself to consuming in a single day. Yep, I’m going on a diet.

Anyone who knows me personally can attest to the need for same. Especially my doctors. Extra-especially the Admiral. As I am fond of telling my friends, somewhere in here is a slinky blonde trying to eat her way out. This is your big chance, Barbie – start gnawing!

So what does a 1500 Calorie per day diet look like? Well, it’s not as bad as you might think. And bear in mind, I am a foodie, so I shall not sacrfice too much in the way of actual flavor. Here was my intake today:

Breakfast was a single Activia drinkable yogurt at 120 Calories. I had black coffee (I’ve been drinking it black for years) so that was a freebie.

Lunch consisted of a homemade chicken salad sandwich which was made of half a chicken breast, boiled and shredded (90 Cals), one slice of pumpernickel rye swirl (80 Cals), a couple of tablespoons of light mayo (70 Cals), a medium banana (105 Cals), and a light yogurt (80 Cals), for a total of 425 Calories.

Dinner was baked rigatoni with sausage meatballs, a green salad, and a couple of pieces of bruschetta. Here’s the breakdown:

150 – pasta
180 – meatballs (total 2 ounces)
10 – parmesan cheese (just a light sprinkle)
90 – shredded mozarella and provolone
50 – sauce
========
480 Calories

50 – salad greens
10 – four sliced cherry tomatoes
60 – dressing
90 – croutons
===========
210 Calories for the salad

150 – 2 slices bread
50 – topping
===============
200 bruschetta

890 – total dinner Calories
425 – lunch
120 – breakfast yogurt
60 – Dessert (a Reese’s snack size thingy)
================
1495 Calories!! Hooray!

Melissa D’Arabian’s Food Network Premiere – I Want More!

It’s Sunday at 12:15 PM. I’m watching Sandra Lee make a spinach fritatta. It looks so-so, but the previous recipe, a sausage and mushroom bread pudding muffin, was something I might try.

I’ve already eaten my brunch – a Cajun-style omelet with crawfish, onions, sausage, bacon, and spicy red potato chunky hash browns, all topped with cheddar jack, salsa, and a dash of two different hot sauces. The Admiral has just tried another FN recipe: pumpernickel toast, lightly buttered and topped with bacon and orange marmelade. My omelet was wonderful as usual, and I tried a bite of her sandwich – it was better than I’d imagined.

I’ve just learned that the premiere of Melissa D’Arabian’s new show, Ten Dollar Dinners, is next – I’m going to watch. Of all the contestants, I liked her best, though I admit to also liking the somewhat unpopular Debbie because of her Korean background. I’ve decided to blog the show more or less live.

Meanwhile, Sandra is doing something with poached eggs, which has given me an idea: Take the mushroom and sausage bread pudding muffin she made a few minutes ago, slice it in half, and top it with a poached egg and Hollandaise. Now you’re talking! I’m getting hungry all over again just thinking about it.

Now some British guy is hawking a gadget called the Titan Peeler, a supposedly improved version of the old peeler tool. I always marvel at how these gizmos are geared towards people who can’t cook. These devices save neither time nor money and are no substitute for basic knife skills. For those with limited storage space, such useless toys take up valuable room and contribute to clutter. Just give me a good, sharp set of knives any day!

My wait is over: the intro is now on for Ten Dollar Meals. It has great photos and good dialog about her days spent in France. The featured item is a potato bacon tort. My interest is piqued on two points: the tort photographed well, and it has bacon.

The show opens with dessert prep. She’s making an applesauce granita and she seems both nervous and rushed. She does, however, make the point that the dessert is extremely simple and quick to make. She pops it into the freezer to solidify and moves on to the next thing.

The first step of the potato and bacon tort is to render the bacon. She is more smooth here and mentions that she keeps her bacon in the freezer, cutting off strips against the slice as needed. This is useful if you only add bacon as a flavoring in another recipe, but not so good if you want to fry it in strip form – it would have to defrost first. Good to know, though.

Next, she tells a story about how she got the recipe for her pie crust. It seems it was presented to her by her French mother-in-law with some amount of ceremony just prior to her wedding. The story is interesting but there seems to be no real punch line, so the ending falls flat.

The technical demonstration of making the pie crust mixture goes well, however. Melissa talks about the importance of very cold butter and a quick trip throught the food processor, a point upon which she differs from her mother-in-law. It seems simple enough, even to me.

Back from break, and she actually rolls out the crust. I don’t bake much and have never made a pie crust, but I am suddenly filled with confidence to try this. Her presentation could be just a bit more polished, but she’s making it seem doable by mere mortals such as myself.

She finishes the tort prep with the potatoes, bacon, sauce, and shredded cheese, and pops it into the oven. I find myself wishing she’d have spent just another moment on pinching the pie crust. I would have enjoyed seeing a bit of detail on that.

The tickler at the end of the segment is about a secret vinagrette recipe from a Parisian cafe owner. At the show opener she also referred to a secret pie crust recipe, so I think she has overused the “secret recipe” reference, however, and it comes off a bit forced.

Back from the break, and she’s making the vinagrette. But I am now pleasantly surprised! The vinagrette looks amazing and the secret ingredient is unexpected: soy sauce. It’s not just some shaken up oil and vinegar, but seems more rich and complex than what I had thought. I would try this, too.

We’re back for the plating and tasting. The tort looks great! The salad itself could be from a bag, though there’s nothing wrong with that – I do it all the time. Melissa definitely “sells” her meal with appropriately ecstatic looks of joy during the tasting.

She fluffs the granita, spoons some into a small dish and adds the maple syrup yogurt sauce. It looks delicious. She tells a story of testing a number of desserts with her family and how they liked this best, and she is amazed because it takes literally two minutes to prepare – perfect for a busy cook.

So how did she do? Well, there were clearly some jitters in evidence. Who wouldn’t be nervous shooting the premiere episode of their own show? Regardless, she delivered. The food looked good, there were plently of useful tips, and I was inspired to try something out of my comfort zone, which is exactly what I expect from a FN cooking show.

FWIW, while I’ve been translating my notes, I’ve also been watching a bit of Big Daddy’s House, hosted by last years NFNS winner, Aaron McCargo, Jr. What a contrast! Aaron mumbles his way through his show while making such pedestrian fare as fried porkchops and chicken chili. He has no star power whatsoever.

Melissa D’Arabian is definitely worthy of the title Next Food Network Star, and I look forward to watching her develop her niche at FN. You go, girl!

Man Chocolate

I recently tasted man chocolate. All right, get your minds out of the gutter (or worse!). It was in the form of a Yorkie Bar.

A Yorkie Bar, for those not familiar, is a chocolate bar originally produced in York, England and now made by Nestle’. It attracted my attention because it’s branded with the slogan, “It’s Not For Girls!” This meant, of course, that I had to try one.

Wikipedia tells me that the bar began production in the mid-1970’s, and that some of the early television ads for the bar featured truck drivers. Soon, toy trucks were sold sporting the logo, and then the slogan was added to the bar.

So what made this bar so special? Why is it man chocolate? Does it have nuts? [insert guffaw here]

Unwrapped, the bar conists of five sizeable segments, and is composed entirely of milk chocolate. The bite is firm, the chocolate smooth, and the flavors are typical Nestle – not sickeningly sweet. I chose to share my Yorkie with a few coworkers and all agreed they liked it. I prefer the taste over that of Hershey’s, which I find to be a bit grainy.

Given that it’s a UK original, the Yorkie is also included in British military ration packs with the alternative slogan, “It’s not for civvies!”

Cute. I wonder if the female soldiers like it as much as I did?

Food Network – Who I Like, And Who I Don’t

As I’ve confessed before, I’m a huge Food Network Fan. Well, go figure, since I’m a huge food fan. And I don’t mean huge in just the metaphorical sense, either. It’s taken years of effort to get a body like mine. Really.

And I’ve learned so much by watching, too: How to properly season a dish. Tasting your food as you cook. The importance of high heat, when needed. Knife skills. The ease and satisfaction of cooking with fresh ingredients.

So who taught me?

• Alton Brown. My all-time Food Network favorite. Alton is a food genius, hugely entertaining to watch, and appeals to me personally with his scientific approach to food. I owe my almost-but-not-really-award-winning ribs recipe to Alton. Iron Chef America would be completely boring without him, too.
  

• Giada De Laurentis. Her innovative take on Italian cuisine never fails to inspire me. I cannot count the number of times I’ve watched her shows and then gone shopping to make the same dish for dinner that night!
  

• Ina Garten. Ina’s simple yet elegant style resonates with me. Not every dish rings my bell, but her shows always get me thinking in new ways, and she gets extra points for knowing every Gay man in the Hamptons.
  

• Anne Burrell. Though Anne has been on Food Network for a couple of years as part of the Mario Batali team for Iron Chef America, her new show fills a notable gap in the FN lineup for me: More insight into the professional chef world. Her techniques and shortcuts are always useful, and her commentary is fresh without being too cutesy.
  

• Guy Fieri. I like Guy a lot. Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives is a fun show featuring some interesting and quirky places, and with Guy’s Big Bite, he makes food that appeals to my dark side (bad for you, but oh so tasty). And he drives a cool ’68 Camaro, too!

Honorable Mentions – These folks are fun to watch, too!

• Bobby Flay. I used to think Bobby was a pompous jerk, but after watching a few dozen Throwdown episodes I’ve decided he’s a nice guy after all. Why? He’s a good loser.
  

• Duff. I’m not much of a baker and his show doesn’t really “teach”, but he and his friends are fun to watch.
  

• The Neely’s. Nice folks who seem to genuinely love each other and their food. I haven’t picked up much, but I still watch.
  

• Robert Irvine. Dinner Impossible gives me another look into professional kitchens, for which I have a fascination. He can be a bit over the top, but still fun.
  

• Sunny Anderson. I’ve watched Cooking For Real a couple if times and found it informative and enjoyable. She is warm, pleasant, and engaging.

And here are my votes for the worst:

• Aaron McCargo, Jr.. He’s just not interesting and doesn’t inspire confidence. Boooring.
  

• Aida Mollenkamp. The Ask Aida format has no appeal for me. If I wanted to watch people stare at computer screens, I’d go back to the office. Besides, I too have the world’s greatest research tool at my fingertips: The Internet. Who is she talking to, Luddites? Get a browser, people!
  

• Rachel Ray. She just seems to have jumped the shark from over-exposure. Thirty Minute Meals haven’t done all that much for me (Yes – I tried one), and I think she’s done.
  

• Marc Summers. Unwrapped can be fun to watch, but Marc Summers does not make a good host. He seems over-rehearsed and has cliche dialog. I just wanted to scream when he hosted the finale of Next Food Network Star a season or two ago – it was just bloody awful!
  

• Tyler Florence. The clear winner for Worst Food Network star. He comes off simultaneously as both pompous and disengaged, and seemed downright rude during the most recent Next Food Network Star episode, wherein he “helped” the constestants do a 30 second meal tip. Also, did you catch that none of the contestants seemed overly happy to see him, unlike with other FN personalities? This guy should go.
  

The Best Of Dale City/Woodbridge/Dumfries

Stop laughing, dammit! Really! Stop! I mean it!

Seriously, I love where I live and I love what’s here, while fully acknowledging that Del Ray, it ain’t. Regardless, eastern Prince William County has a lot to offer, but many of its gems are tucked away in neighborhood shopping centers. Herewith are my “best of” choices:

• Best Grocery Store This is a no brainer: Wegmans. The place rocks! You can find anything here. Their cheese selection alone merits five stars, and to top it off, the prices on the non-gourmet items generally beat Shoppers, Giant and Safeway. The staff is amazingly wonderful, and the hot food bars alone are worth the trip. What are you waiting for?
• Best Ethnic Grocery Store And the winner is Super Q Mart! Located on River Ridge Boulevard off US 1 at the south end of Woodbridge, it’s nice, clean, well organized, and has a great selection of ethnic foods and fresh vegetables of all kinds. Their seafood area smells good and looks clean, which, frankly, sets it far apart from Global Foods. They routinely have head-on fresh shrimp (a must if you’re making a shrimp stock!) and sushi-grade tuna, hamachi, and saba. In Woodbridge. Who knew?
• Best Pizza Without a doubt, the best “real” pizza is at the original Padrinos location in Center Plaza in Dale City. Owned and operated by the Padrino family since the early 80’s, they are still turning out the real deal, direct from Italy. I had a chance to talk to the Padrinos recently, who told me that they arrived here unable to speak a word of English, and learned everything they know by running their restaurant. Best pie: Meatball, mushroom, black olive and extra cheese, well done. Try it!
• Best Sushi Tokyo Japanese Steak House. See my Sushi In Northern Virginia page for more. The very best spicy tuna handrolls on the planet! I promise!
• Best Salsa I love a good salsa. Not the thin runny kind that you dip a chip into. Noooo. The kind that you scoop and scoop and scoop, preferably with fresh made, warm tortilla chips. My choice? On The Border, located on the Parkway about a mile from I-95. Oh, and the rest of the food is good, too, even for a chain.
• Best Carryout Chinese Food China Gourmet in Center Plaza, Dale City. This place has been just under my nose for years, and I missed it. I’ve tried all the Dale City carryouts, with varying success, but this place never disappoints: The creamy butter shrimp is utterly amazing: perfectly fried shrimp in a lightly sweetened buttery creamy sauce – yowza! The best chow mein I’ve had in recent memory, and the perfect deep-fried rangoon! Never too greasy, always perfectly prepared, this place puts all the competition to shame.
• Best Seafood Tim’s Rivershore. If you haven’t been to Tim’s, you are really missing out. Located on the shore of the Potomac River just north of Dumfries, Tim’s is a local hangout with quite possibly the most varied clientele I have ever experienced: Boat folks, local watermen, Marines, FBI types, old Woodbridge, and a smattering of other colorful characters. Tim’s has crabs, fish, scallops, burgers, and cold drinks, an outdoor tiki bar, boat docks, and inside air conditioned seating. Home of the Not On The Fourth Of July Fireworks, Roar At The ‘Shore, and some jetski poker runs, Tim’s is fun incarnate. See their website for details and directions.
• Best Barbecue Famous Daves. I have to offer a caveat here: I have had better barbecue, and it might even be a Dixie Bones, a local favorite. But Dave’s is definitely worth trying. I am currently also searching for MUCH better barbecue, but haven’t been able to find it quite so nearby. More on this later.
• Best Soft Serve Ice Cream is not in eastern Prince William. Sorry. It’s Klines Freeze in Manassas Park. Okay, it’s fifteen miles away, but really, really, really worth the trip! Address: 8200 Centreville Road.
• Best Bargain Breakfast Harold and Cathy’s Dumfries Cafe, located at the north split of US-1 in Dumfries, is a local favorite. It smacks of a bygone era of dinettes, and is a no-nonsense old-school cafe with good, inexpensive food. Beware, they are only open for breakfast and lunch and they fill up fast on weekends.
• Best Candy Store The Admiral is a known chocoholic. Really. Her picture appears on the Wikipedia article for chocolate addiction. Every Christmas I find exotic chocolates (preferably Belgian and Swiss) to stuff her Christmas stocking, and I go to the candy store in the food court area of Potomac Mills Mall to do it. They have it all: Lindt truffles, Guylian fine Belgian chocolates, and other delectables from across Europe.

And what about non-food related “best of” places? Here are a few:

• Best Dog Groomer Groomingdales, located in the Market at Opitz Crossing shooping center a couple of doors down from Radio Shack. We had a special needs elderly dog, and after hassling with PetSmart, who eventually refused to groom him, found these wonderful, caring folks. They are the best!
• Best Car Dealership Cowles Ford, located on Minnieville Road near Prince William Parkway, has been the sole service provider for Adventure Truck and it’s predecessor for eight years now. If you have a Ford Diesel truck and are having it serviced elsewhere, you are missing out. Matt, my service writer, is amazing, trustworthy, helpful, and has never, ever, ever, steered me wrong.
• Best Pharmacy Safeway Pharmacy at Cheshire Station. I’ve been on a shoebox full of drugs for years now, and been jerked around at more pharmacies than you can count. These people are wonderful, prompt, courteous, and, best of all, there is rarely a line. Woo hoo!
• Best Hardware Store For Obscure Weird Parts is also not in eastern Prince William. Instead, it’s J E Rice True Value in Manassas. They have a nuts, bolts, and hardware section that would impress even a Detroit line manager. Need a hardened chrome allen head cap screw? They’ve got ’em!
• Best Endodontist Need a root canal and hate dentists? Call Dr. Margaret Mossler. She is gentle, kind, and soothing, and a genuine Woodbridge local – born and raised.
  

Tuesday’s Foodie Update

Two things to report today: First, I have perfected my salsa recipe; and second, the sushi at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse is as amazing as ever!

We ate tonite at TJSH for the first time in a couple of months. A variety of personal reasons had kept us away, and we had the jones some kinda bad for their signature spicy handroll. My fave is the tuna, and the Admiral likes the hamachi. Well, they were every bit as amazing as ever! Also, they now had abalone, so we tried a nigiri of same. Sweet and crunchy, the abalone could be my new “must have”.

Now onto salsa: Mexican and southwestern food is my second love, and a good salsa is food of the Gods. I’ve been making some salsas by hand for a couple of years now, and I think I’ve finally got one version down.

Mind you now, a salsa, to me, isn’t something you dip a chip into. Oh, no! Salsa is something you pile on! A good salsa is chunky and flavorful without having too much heat. Herewith is my salsa recipe:

18 roma tomatoes
4 medium tomatillos
1.5 medium red onions
fresh cilantro
2 limes
1 12 oz. can black beans
1 10 oz. can sweet corn
1.5 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
fresh ground black pepper
Tiger Sauce (or other hot sauce) to taste

First, prepare the tomatoes by removing the cores and seeds, and then dice. The idea is to get the tomato flesh, not all the extra liquid. Place into large bowl.

Remove the leaf covering from the tomatillos and place into a saucepan with enough water to cover, and boil lightly until they change color from bright green to pale green. Remove from pan and let cool, then chop and remove stem. Add to bowl.

Use about 1/2 bunch cilantro, rinse well, and chop the leaves finely, leaving out the thicker stems. Add to bowl.

Dice the red onions and add to bowl. Add salt, pepper, cumin, red wine vinegar, sugar, and juice from the limes, then fold together. Using an immersion blender, finely process about half of the bowl contents.

Drain and add corn. Drain and rinse black beans, then add to bowl.

Fold ingredients together and taste. At this point, adjust for saltiness, acidity, and heat.

Refrigerate for about an hour to let the flavors develop, then consume with vigor! I recommend either white or blue corn tortilla chips.

Food Network’s “Chopped” Could Be More Smooth

One of the more interesting new breed of cooking show is the reality food contest, of which Chopped is the latest. 

It’s an interesting concept:  Four contestants engage in three rounds of competition for appetizer, entree, and dessert.   The weakest contestant is “chopped” after judging for each round, and the winner gets ten thousand dollars.  The twist, however, is the basket of mystery ingredients supplied at the beginning of each round.  Every mystery ingredient must be used in the dish offered for judging.

I like the concept.  Ted Allen of Queer Eye fame is the engaging and knowledgable host,  the panel of judges offer constructive and informed criticism, and the contestants themselves represent a wide variety of culinary backgrounds and cooking styles.  It’s kind of an Iron Chef for mere mortals.

But here’s what I don’t like:  In addition to the basket of mystery ingredients, the contestants are given access to a suppsoedly “fully stocked pantry”.  Except that it’s not. 

Tonight’s episode, for instance, had what appeared to be about eight dozen eggs in the refrigerator for the first two rounds of competition.  During the dessert round, however, the two finalists, one making fritters and the other making a type of pancake batter, discovered exactly two eggs, which they chose to share with each taking one.  As a result, neither one’s dessert turned out exactly as intended.

I would have much rather seen the judges evaluate two well-prepared dishes with the needed ingredients present rather than judge the compromises taken to compensate for a missing item.  It’s quite one thing to have the required mystery ingredients, but another to remove staples from the pantry.  Honestly, the show seems more gimicky and less genuine as a result.

Maybe Food Network should take its own advice:  It should be about the food.