The Season's Last Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll

Although the leaves are changing color and there is an evident chill in the air, summer returned for one last hurrah via last Thursday’s Baltimore Avenue Dollar Stroll. The event was brought back by popular demand following the monthly strolls over the summer. Various stores and restaurants along Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia opened their doors offering one-night-only bargains on everything from ice cream to pet accessories to yoga classes.

The best part? Each item only cost $1.00!

Despite the pouring rain, I donned my coat, stuffed my pocket with dollar bills, and grabbed my umbrella — I was ready to brave nature in search of cheap and tasty eats! I had a list of participating establishments, but easily identified them by the bundles of bright orange balloons next to their doorsteps, and by the lines of customers stretching onto the sidewalk outside each one. As I hopped from one place to the next, West Philly natives and visitors from six to sixty hunted down deals along with me. My taste buds and I went on a culinary global adventure that evening. The stroll introduced me to an eclectic neighborhood with fantastic food options. When I tire of dining hall food and want a change of pace, I know there are plenty of great places to visit on Baltimore Avenue.


Samosa from Desi Village


Mango lassi from Desi Village


Injera finger foods (in mild and spicy varieties) from Dahlak


Tofu and BBQ chicken skewers from Vientiane Café


Roast turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo, spinach, and cornbread stuffing from Green Line Cafe


Bassett’s Guatemalan Swirl ice cream from Milk & Honey Market

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Rice-ier than Rice - The Ultimate Comfort Food

With the weather as cold, wet and generally miserable as it has been in Philadelphia these past few days, I’ve found myself missing the warm, tropical climate of home. It’s been a week now since I very grudgingly put my flip-flops and shorts away, the sky’s been dark and grey, we’ve all been pelted by rain on the way to class, and they haven’t turned the heating on in my apartment building. Some comfort is in order.



“Comfort food” may be a loosely defined, subjective term (I’m told some people consider pizza comfort food) but, as far as I’m concerned, nothing could be more therapeutic than a bowl of Teochew rice porridge. Teochew Muei, as it’s called, comes from the Chaoshan region and is a variant of Chinese rice porridge that is less well known than its more ubiquitous cousin, Cantonese congee. Served in Chinese restaurants across America, Cantonese congee or Chuk is usually cooked along with other ingredients like sliced pork and century egg. The porridge is boiled for hours until the grains disintegrate, and has a texture that resembles a thick soup. By contrast, Teochew Muei is cooked for a shorter period of time, in order to maintain the integrity of the rice grains. A good Teochew muei is one in which there are soft individual grains of rice and a starchy broth. While Teochew muei is often described as bland on its own, I think it far more accurate to say that the porridge actually has a rather intense flavor – that of rice. Anybody who, like me, is a hopeless rice fiend will appreciate the way that this method of cooking results in a staple that is, in fact, rice-ier than rice itself. This makes the porridge the perfect canvas with which to pair the strong flavors of a variety of Chinese dishes. A typical Teochew Muei stall in Singapore will offer over twenty different options, including stewed pork, assorted pickles, vegetables, egg-dishes and fish.

Of course, having neither the ingredients, nor the skill, nor the energy to cook up twenty dishes, I had my Teochew Muei with just three. I made myself a salted-turnip omelette with pork floss, fried Chinese cabbage with garlic, and got some pickled spicy bamboo shoots out of a jar (which, along with a whole selection of other pickles, can be found at any Asian supermarket in Chinatown). I have included a recipe for the porridge here, and highly recommend it not only as a satisfying meal but also as an uplifting antidote to this dreary weather.

Teochew Muei

Ingredients
3/4 cup rice
1.1 liters water

Directions
Pour the rice and water into a pot and bring to a boil. Continue boiling on high heat, maintaining a noisy, rolling boil and stirring occasionally to prevent rice grains from sticking to the bottom of the pot. The porridge is ready after about 15-20 minutes when the rice grains are soft, but not mushy, and the broth is slightly thickened. Serve immediately with your favorite dishes.

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Feature-A-Blog: Whisk Kid

To the average observer, 19-year-old Kaitlin Flannery probably looks like a regular college sophomore. Yet this impression would vanish as quickly as a lone cookie in a jar upon visiting her blog, Whisk Kid. Now a marketing student at Michigan State University, Kaitlin began baking when she was 15, after seeing Billy from Billy’s Bakery make cupcakes on The Martha Stewart Show.

Since then, she has concocted countless treats from tarts to ice cream, sharing her recipes in blog posts accompanied by stunning pictures she takes with her Canon Rebel XTI. Her impressive repertoire includes dandelion jam macarons, noyaux (cherry pit) ice cream and a six-layer rainbow cake she got to prepare – déjà vu alert – on The Martha Stewart Show! (click here to watch the video).

Kaitlin complements the tempting treats with beautifully written short stories about her friends, everyday life, or childhood memories. If this doesn’t sound enticing enough for you, consider that the mere sound of a backpack zipper can prompt her to develop an intelligent, compelling observation of general social trends in a classroom. Almost all of her posts bear a suggestive single-word heading literally whisking you into a story crafted as carefully as her camera creations.

“My aim is to inspire,” she says in her profile. That's easier said than done, but she's able to do both.

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Pumpple Cake

When does a cake get buzz? Real buzz, people (on the internet, at least). Folks are seriously talking about this cake.

The answer is when it is not just a cake, but a cake with pie baked into it. With the amount of buzz-worthy things you can do to the outside of a cake (Cake Wrecks anyone?) you generally don't hear about anything terribly exciting going on on the inside of a cake.

But here is something innovative. Dubbed the Turducken of cakes, this Pumpple cake is one layer of chocolate cake with pumpkin pie and one layer of vanilla with apple pie baked into it with a healthy layer of butter cream in the middle. The Pumpple is a truly beautiful cake, the sharp contrast between the chocolate cake and pumpkin pie is especially cool looking.

The Pumpple is not just a pretty cake, it is delicious too. The chocolate cake is moist and rich and the vanilla cake is almost pound cake-esque. The pies hold up well to being baked into a cake. The crust of the apple pie is still flaky and the pumpkin pie is still a little firm, not soggy. The coup de grace of the cake is when you get pie crust and cake in the same bite. The taste of pie crust and cake is not something I ever imagined tasting, but it is really great and makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

My hat off to the Flying Monkey Bakery in Reading Terminal for coming up with this cake. At $8 a slice ($4 for the cake, $4 for the hype), Pumpple is an expensive novelty, but totally worth it.

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Tea Eggs

When I was little, Kinder Eggs were a rare treat. The delicate chocolate eggshell was almost beside the point. My siblings and I quickly tore away the foil wrappers, and the chocolate crumbled easily beneath our eager fingers. Inside each Kinder Egg was a colorful plastic shell filled with the pieces of a toy to be assembled.

I haven’t had a Kinder Egg in ages, but a couple of years ago I discovered a grown-up substitute. On my trip to China in 11th grade, I saw big pots of cracked eggs simmering in brown-black water, but after several food poisoning incidents, I was not inclined to try one.

Several months later, though, back in New York City, I rediscovered tea-eggs on a shopping excursion to Williamsburg. After a tour of the local consignment stores, my family stopped for bubble tea at Saint’s Alp Teahouse. When our order of tea-eggs arrived, I immediately recognized the browned crackled shells. We peeled the eggs to reveal a surprise as good as a Kinder toy: a beautiful spider-web pattern on the surface of the eggs.

The flavor of a tea-egg is as delicate as the spider-web: soy sauce-salty with a hint of cinnamon and anise. They’re incredibly easy to make, but they did leave my entire apartment smelling like soy sauce and licorice. You can find star anise at Asian supermarkets, but (for New Yorkers) I found some at Fairway, and Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are probably worth a try.

Tea Eggs (cha ye dan):

Ingredients
6 eggs

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoon black tea leaves or 2 tea bags

3 piece star anise

1 small stick cinnamon or cassia bark

1 teaspoon cracked peppercorns (optional)

Directions
1. Place unshelled eggs in saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 minutes.
2. Remove the eggs. With a knife, tap each egg to slightly crack the shells in two or three places. Return to saucepan.

3. Add other ingredients and stir. Cover and simmer for 3 hours, adding water as necessary. Drain, serve hot or cold.

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Cheap Eats: Cupcakes

Do you ever crave the mouth-watering sensation of biting into a sweet, rich cupcake but hesitate upon seeing the price? At most popular cupcake places today, the average price of a cupcake can be up to $5.00. As college students, however, we’re already running low on money and cannot afford the luxury of a $5.00 cupcake without feeling guilty. As your source of cheap food finds in Philly, we have found the solution to this serious dilemma.

Brown Betty Petite Bakery is a spin-off of Brown Betty Dessert Boutique that specializes in cupcakes. At $3.00 a cupcake, you can choose from a wide variety of unique flavors such as Hattie Don’t Play, Aunt Eva Says, Alice’s Two Step, and Jean’s Road Trip. Our personal favorites were: Sing Little Alice, a swirl of both chocolate and vanilla cake and icing; Company’s Comin’, made of coconut pound cake with coconut frosting; and Strawberry Letter which uses real strawberry preserves in a strawberry pound cake with strawberry frosting. One thing that we felt made the cupcakes from Brown Betty Petite Bakery particularly delightful was the use of pound cake. This created a denser cupcake and enhanced the flavor and moisture of the cake.

In conclusion, delicious pound cake + creamy icing for the small price of $3.00 = cupcake heaven.

Brown Betty Petite Bakery has two locations: 1625 Market Street and 269 S. 20th Street. Brown Betty Dessert Boutique, which sells all types of treats in addition to cupcakes, is located at 1030 N. 2nd Street.

Photo credit: brownbettydesserts.com

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Night Market Philadelphia

Night Market in Philadelphia has been postponed from last week to this week, just in time to kick off Fall Break! You'll be able to find some good food and live music at the corner of E. Passyunk and Tasker St. tonight from 6-10 pm.

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Eating is sexy

I think everyone should watch Nigella Lawson. Yes, I understand that to some, she is hardly what they would fully recognize as the latter part of the term ‘celebrity chef’ but that is beside the point. In a world where Gordon Ramsey, Antony Bourdain, Jamie Oliver, Gina de Laurentiis and the like have all broadcasted their culinary geniuses for millions of viewers, few have truly introduced audiences to the true pleasure of consuming and appreciating what they are creating. Yes, there is anticipation for others’ opinions and of course we must admire the benefits of organic and fresh produce but where can one actually see the chef savouring every mouthful of food that they cook.

When I first watched her, she astounded me by the number of adjectives she pulled out in the process of mixing salad. Every ingredient was described as a gem of sorts and everything was so ridiculously indulgent it just made you fall in love with food. I understand critics and women around the globe have this issue with her being too pornographic, so to speak, when presenting her food and her show but honestly who doesn’t want to experience such incandescent pleasure when cooking and just enjoying the process of creating something so bloody delectable?

Also, please admit that whenever you visit foodporn.com you are overcome with the amazing feasts that appear on that page. But what really, really truly converted me to the Nigella fanclub, despite the occasional riff raff cooking methods she employs, is just the way she savours her food. It’s not gluttonous by any means but it’s enjoyable. She is delighted by every bite she takes and just hungry. This about it, don’t you want to just adore food? It’s the best relationship to have. I love it. Watch her. I promise you’ll love it too. No jokes. And with that, I’m going to go make myself a blackberry crisp. Till next time, ciao for now!

Photo credit: daveandthomas.net

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Something Sweet...

Banana Cupcake with Honey Cinnamon Frosting


Linzer Cookie with Raspberry Preserves


Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

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Cookies in Class

Have you ever been sitting in class, wondering what your professor is like in their everyday life? Have you ever wondered what they like to eat and what their cooking skills are? I have been lucky to take some courses where teachers would bring delicious food on the last day of class and have a relaxed discussion with us. One of those professors is Margreta de Grazia, who teaches in the Department of English.

Professor de Grazia specializes in Renaissance Literature and particularly Shakespeare, so she is probably the best instructor you could get on Renaissance poetry – the class I took with her in my sophomore year. She has written award-winning books of criticism and won several fellowships and prizes for distinguished teaching. I can see why – she genuinely cared about our performance, so every class she would assign one homework question to each of us. In this way, everyone had a chance to participate. I do not usually come up with brilliant interpretations on the spot, so having extra time to think made me much more active and engaged with the class.

On our last day before break, Prof. de Grazia brought us a basket of beautiful clementines and a tray of small brown homemade cookies. As I bit into one of those, the crumbly, walnutty goodness of the cookie swept me off my foodie feet. I instantly knew I had to have the recipe. So in the interim between the last day of class and the final exam I wrote a couple of emails to my professor almost imploring her in Renaissance verse to end my suffering and reveal the delicious cookie recipe. And she did! It turned out that it belongs to one of her grad students, still known to me only by the name of “Cathy from the cookie recipe”. I have decided that I should try to find Cathy and thank her for bringing these amazing cookies into my life.

And here is the recipe! When you bake the cookies, make sure you take them out of the oven as soon as their edges begin to turn light brown, or even earlier than that (if you have made them regular cookie size). Otherwise they get too crumbly and fall apart when you try to pick them up. Luckily, I figured this out from the very first batch. So later, when my professor wrote a study abroad recommendation for me, I was able to give her a delicious thank-you present!

Cathy’s Cookies (courtesy of professor Margreta de Grazia)

Sift together 2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix the dry ingredients with 1 cup of creamed butter, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 2 1/2 cups of ground walnuts.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
While the cookies are still quite warm (but not so hot they burn you or fall apart when you try to pick them up – I usually let them cool a couple of minutes), roll them in very fine sugar. Very fine sugar is sold either in the baking aisle or with cocktail/drink supplies, but you can also make it yourself by pulverizing regular sugar in the food processor or blender for a minute or two.
So far, I have only used powdered sugar and it has worked perfectly. Since it tends to get soggy when you roll warm cookies in it, I wait until they are completely cool.

Enjoy!

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