To Loukoumi - Astoria, NYC

New York City abounds with different cultural heritages. It's a city comprised of some hundreds of neighborhoods where immigrants from all of the world have built their homes in the New World. I found out that Astoria in Queens has it's own Greek area, so we took the Metro to where it ends on Astoria Boulevard, and walked east on Ditmars Boulevard to see what we could find. There was a definite Greek presence, but it was hard to decide on which restaurant would be authentic without overcharging us tourists. We walked east past a few overcrowded eateries until we came upon To Loukoumi.

The restaurant gets its name from sweet, chewy candies like Turkish delight, but the word has also come to mean "tasty," which is a good descriptor for all of their food. The menu avoids common dishes such as gyros in favor of authentic dishes that you don't find at your local Pita Pit. Everything you can imagine is on the menu, including saganaki (flambeed cheese) and chargrilled octopus. I was sad I could only fit so much food in my stomach because there were a number of dishes I wanted to try.


I could not decide on just one item from the extensive menu, so I ordered a selection of dips, served with fresh, warm pita bread points. On the left is skordalia, a thick garlic dip that just sings and begs to be spread on almost every piece of food that goes into your mouth. In the back is melitzanosalata, made from eggplant. Some unexpected sweetness came out of the earthy, smokey taste of this delicious dip. On the right is one of my favorites and what is seen as the most popular dip in Greek-American food - tzatziki. A combination of yogurt, shredded cucumber, garlic, lemon, and some other spices make a cool, refreshing, and astonishingly flavorful dip that is good on all sorts of pita sandwiches and meats. Lastly, in the foreground of the picture, is a spread made out of orange fish roe. This final dip tasted more like a smoked fish spread than I expected and was a delectable, salty counter to the other flavors.


The entree we ordered was ground chicken formed into these patties, then grilled. It reminded me of a flat meatball or a slice of meatloaf in some ways. The patties contained feta and some other unknown spices that really made it stand out. I'll admit that chicken patty does not sound that outstanding, but these were flavorful and moist, so what more could you ask for? On the side are sauteed dandelion greens which are like a hearty sauteed spinach.


It was a quiet evening in the restaurant and after we paid the check we were just about ready to head back to Manhattan when one of the owners approached our table and struck up a conversation. She, like her staff, was very pleasant and even convinced us to try some Greek coffee, free of charge. Like many Mediterranean cultures, this coffee is small, strong and sweet. The coffee is poured over sugar at a temperature that caramelizes the sugar and adds an interesting flavor to the coffee. Just don't drink too deep or you might hit some of the bitter grounds at the bottom.

While we were enjoying our coffee, the proprietor brought us a plate of Greek yogurt with blueberries, peaches and honey. We ate it so fast I did not have time to take a picture, but it was very delicious and a light end to a wonderful meal.

After talking with the owner for a while longer about the area, her family and some of the history of the restaurant, we left with stomachs full of good food and hearts content from good conversation. If you plan on visiting the Greek area of Astoria, go past the overcrowded standard restaurants for a couple more blocks to find this out-of-the-way, but worth-the-trip tavern.

Homemade Iced Tea

When you live in the South like I do, tea is more prevalent at dinner tables than water or soft drinks combined (unpublished data). For those not familiar with the lingo, tea = iced tea = sweet tea in the common vernacular of this region of the US. You have to specify if you prefer a cup of hot tea or a glass of unsweetened tea. Otherwise, whatever you order will usually be sweet enough to hurt your teeth. Don't worry, that's how it's supposed to taste.

Personally, I don't like to waste a ton of calories on what I drink, so I usually stick to iced tea with lemon or water without lemon (if I wanted lemon in water I'd order lemonade). What is amazing is when you come across an unsweetened ice tea that has really nice flavor. About 5-10% of decent Asian restaurants (my own estimate, nothing official) make their iced tea with jasmine tea. It turns out there are two ways to add flavor to tea: make it sweet or make it with good tea. I decided to use up some of my growing stockpiles of loose tea and try my hand at some tea-craft.


If you have tea in bags that you really like, then feel free to use them. I like to use loose teas which you can get in all sorts of ridiculous flavors. I have only tried this with black teas so far, but I'm sure it would work for green, white or any other color tea that you want to try. I prefer a tea with a great aroma. I thought of this method on a whim and it turned out pretty darn good. You will need water (not pictured), a container for the tea, tea, a coffee filter (preferably unbleached), and a stapler. Please, bear with me.


To assemble your ad hoc tea bag, fill the coffee filter about half full with loose tea. Here, I've used a combination of black teas with orange-spice flavors. Make small, sequential folds along the top (possibly termed crimping) until you reach the end. Staple the last fold so that the tea does not float out into the water. Place the tea bag in a pitcher of water. Don't worry about the ratio of tea to water too much because you'll probably have the amount of tea in far excess of what you need. Lastly, put the pitcher with tea bag in the fridge for 8-16 hours. Some people leave the tea to steep in the sun (my family calls it "sun tea"), but I've heard warnings that this grows bacteria, so just to be extra safe, stick with the icebox.


Here's the finished product. Be sure to remove the tea bag and to not let it steep too long for fear of making the tea taste a little off. This was probably the most flavorful unsweetened tea I ever had. I find that some teas smell good but lack on taste. This one, on the other hand, delivered in full an orangey cinnamon punch. I felt like I was indulging in a glass of sweet tea. Speaking of which, if you are hell bent on making this tea sweet, the easiest way would probably be to make a simple syrup (1 part sugar & 1 part water cooked in a saucepan until the sugar dissolves) then add some into the tea a little at time until you are satisfied with the sweetness. Alternatively, you could just steep the tea in the simple syrup after the sugar has dissolved and as the syrup cools back to room temperature. It would be faster and none of that excess water would get in your way. Anyways, if you have 5 minutes before bed, throw together a batch of iced tea and in the morning, it will be ready as soon as you are.

On the Road Eats - Our Daily Bread & Espresso News

Before leaving Boone, NC, we had two further stops for lunch and an afternoon pick-me-up. For such a small town, Boone has a goodly number of local eateries that are worth the trip. Many of them are closer to the side of town with Appalachian State. One great thing about North Carolina that I've found in after moving here over a year ago is that there are enough good local restaurants to compete with the big chains. I think getting off the beaten path is healthy for the body and soul. Studies have shown that eating a variety of foods helps you get all the nutrient your body requires. So going to Outback and ordering the same meal every week could have an effect worse than just the calories you're taking in. Plus, if you become bored with what you eat, you're more likely to seek out snacks and treats. Now I'll get off my soapbox and sit down at the table at these two Boone establishments.


Our Daily Bread has, over time, slowly transformed into a casual yet modern bistro. Their menu comes in two flavors - meatatarian and vegetarian (my words, not theirs). They have an extensive selection within each category, so if you can't find something to eat, then you probably just plain don't like sandwiches.


This is the brie BLT (brie-LT?), that is a normal BLT plus sliced, melted brie and slices of green apple. What a marvel this sandwich turned out to be! Some cheeses, like brie, are an order of magnitude better when warm. Add in some salty bacon plus the sweet and crisp apple slices and you've got a winner. A side of Southern potato salad finished off this lunch well.


From the vegetarian side of the menu comes the tempeh ruben. A normal ruben has pastrami, saurkraut, Swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing on rye bread. A tempeh ruben substitutes tempeh for the pastrami and, oddly enough, Dijon mustard for the dressing. Name-wise, it is more in line with a pastrami sandwich (I'm not sure if thousand island dressing has meat or animal-derived products in it), but flavorwise it is unparalleled. If meat substitutes were always cooked like this, I think more Americans would be open to incorporating them into the diet (which could, in turn, decrease the carbon footprint from livestock). I'm not advocating a completely vegetarian, let alone vegan, lifestyle since meat is so tasty and chock-full-o-protein, but trying something new could go a long way.


Tucked away behind some buildings is Espresso News, one of the local coffee shops for all the java jockeys. Not only are the coffees pretty good, but they also have smoothies in great flavor combinations that only a coffee house could do well. For instance, I ordered the chai-nana (chai + banana) smoothie. I love chai tea for all of the warm spice flavors it has. Add a banana and you've got a winning combination that almost tasted like caramel. Sweet.

Restaurant Round-up - 5/8/2009

No need to worry. Just because I have not posted in a couple weeks does not mean I'm not eating. In fact, I cooked so much last weekend that I ran out of time and energy to post it all. So I will be marathon posting my eating experiences tonight. Firstly, I want to talk about the food I didn't make.


While tooling around in Charlotte looking for a late dinner, Jessica and I happened across this place called Punchy's Diner. The main draw of the restaurant was that it looked like an old timey diner. It seems the owners may also own the auto parts store nearby (also named Punchy's), which makes them credible to prepare my food in my book. Inside the diner, they had a couple of old cars on display along with all of the usual diner paraphernalia. I could not resist getting this chili dog. For most places, chili dogs are a simple equation: hot dog + chili + bun. This restaurant chose to give the chili dog a North Carolinian flavor by topping it with cole slaw. The creamy deliciousness of the cole slaw helped to cool the chili, but also let the meaty chili pair with the hot dog. And steak fries are always a welcome side item.


New to Charlotte is an Ikea store. If you are in need of reasonably priced furniture or accessories or just want to get inspired, you should definitely stop by your local Ikea. Take as long as you want in the store, because they have a small cafeteria for all of your dietary needs. Now, Sweden may not be top of your list for your next international foodie adventure (we all have them, right?), but the food at Ikea is pretty good. My first choice was an obvious one: Swedish meatballs. The meatballs are served with some mashed potatoes and slathered with a light gravy, all of which forms a plate of tasty wonder on its own, but they added some lingonberry (I think) jam on the side. Like cranberry sauce with turkey, this jelly added a bit of sweetness to the savory meat.


To wash down our plate of pre-dinner, we drank from these juice boxes. I preferred the chrysanthemum drink to the lingonberry one (the latter tasted a little like grape juice). A nicely nostalgic way to rehydrate for more shopping.


Now to revisit a previously posted restaurant: No. 1 Panda. The first time we ate at this restaurant, we had a good time and I took ok pictures with my phone. This time was even better and I remembered my camera. I will admit, the service is still not optimum, but the food and the friendliness of the family working there more than make up for this. Two friends and I split three entrees that ended up coming out successively instead of all at once. This may have actually been better for us as communal eaters. First to be served was a beef brisket "casserole." Casserole in this context means a Chinese hot-pot beef stew. The beef and mixed veggies came out simmering in one of the most flavorful beef sauces I've ever had. This is my new favorite way to eat brisket. There's no way to describe all of the levels of flavor packed into this dish, so you'll just have to try it yourself.


The middle dish was a seafood medley. Clams, calamari, fish, and probably some other parts were combined in a light but delectable sauce that was perfect for table-wide picking. You can't lose with fresh seafood cooked just right.


Last but not least is crispy duck. I was expecting more Peking-style duck, but this one had a sturdy breading on the outside (sturdy enough for the duck to be fried whole and then cleanly chopped into pieces). Warning: this is the dish that took the longest to prepare, so buyer beware. At first, I thought the breading was salty, but then I came to realize that the duck meat itself may have been brined beforehand. The salty crispiness made me covet each piece a bit more, almost like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. I don't get to eat duck that often, but when I do I make sure to get it somewhere that knows what they're doing.

Grape Chicken, Shrimp Stir Fry and Juice - 1/19/2009

I decided to try some of my new kitchen toys with my cooking this week to very pleasing results.


My mom gave me a juicer that she doesn't use, so I thought I would give it a shot. I juiced 4 carrots, 3 pears, 3 Pink Lady apples (the juice actually had a pink tinge to it), and some cubed pineapple. I can't stand carrot juice by itself, but mixed with these other juices, it made a nice cocktail that lasted me the entire week, about 4 cups worth. My main hesitation with juice, though, is that you consume many of the calories you would normally get from fruit without any of the fiber, which not only has nice digestive properties but also helps to give you a feeling of satiety. Nonetheless, this ruthless little machine will serve me very well in the future.


This apparatus is a handy little set-up. The bottom portion is the main pan and the top portion has holes in the bottom to act as a steamer compartment. Using this, I cooked some wild rice in the bottom compartment and, about halfway through its cooking, I placed some broccolini with sliced lemons in the steamer compartment to let them cook until a crisp tender while the rice finished.


In a separate pan, I cooked up some thinly sliced chicken breasts. After they were done and out of the pan, I added a combination of grape juice, chicken broth and cornstarch to the pan, cooking it until it thickened. Then I added white grapes to the pan until they were heated through. This dish came out very nicely balanced on the sweetness and the flavor of the grapes really sang after they were warm.


This last dish does not have any Christmas gift element, but it was good nonetheless. After heating up some oil in a skillet-wok with some salt and a little sugar, I cooked some ginger until it was fragrant. Then I added a pound of shrimp, a little bit of rice wine, and a bunch of uncut chives. After the shrimp just turned pink, I added some cornstarch mixed into some seafood broth to thicken up the sauce. Serving this atop some baked spaghetti squash helped to cut down on the carbohydrates while still providing a neutral and hearty base to the dish. The pungent flavors of chive and ginger came through well. Not only that but this all cooked up in about 10 minutes.

Happy Mothers' Day! - 05/11/08

I know this is a little late, but happy Mothers' Day! I've been traveling and graduating a bit lately, so the blog pretty much fell by the wayside. But here is a smörgåsbord for your eyes and mouths.


Mom wanted the meal to be simple since I had put so much effort into the graduation day festivities. I decided to stop by Fresh Market and pick up some of their pinwheels. The one in the center is Italian with some cheese, spinach and ham. The other two have portabellas and cheese rolled into them. They take about 30 minutes in a 375 degree oven, but cut into them to be sure as it is very easy to undercook them.


As the starchy (i.e. carbohydrate-filled) side dish, I made some roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Earlier in the day, I put two heads of garlic (tops cut off, bottoms wrapped in foil and tops lightly covered with olive oil) into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes until they were golden brown. After boiling the potatoes until they were tender and draining them, I returned them to the pan and got out the good old hand masher. The masher is quite easy to use and recommended if you want more rustic potatoes with some lumps or just very chunky. After a light mashing, I squeezed out what garlic I could onto the potatoes and added a little salt, pepper, spray butter, and warm milk. I kept adding a little bit of milk at a time until the potatoes were the consistency I wanted.


To jazz up the potatoes, though they were quite good already, I served optional sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, scallions, and mild goat cheese. I had mine with goat cheese and thought it made a good combination.


As a "healthier" side, I served broccoli rabe. This leafy green has small broccoli florets attached and is a nice vegetable to serve. First, you should blanch the broccoli rabe for about 2 minutes. This means to place it in boiling water for 2 minutes, then shock it in some ice water to stop the cooking process. You can do this with other vegetables that you do not want to steam until they are too soft and disgusting to eat. The main key to flavoring the broccoli rabe for this meal was pancetta. Pancetta is pretty much Italian bacon, except it is salt-cured instead of smoked. You can have it cut into nice, thick slices. I cut one slice into small cubes and cooked them until they were golden on the outside. I removed the meat from the pan and used their grease to start cooking the broccoli rabe. Once it was heated through, I added the pancetta back to the pan to finish it off very briefly. This dish is pretty much the same idea behind some Southern dishes such as collard greens cooked with bacon or some other pork fat.


With dinner, we served my new champagne discovery: Petalo, Il Vino dell'Amore (Moscato Spumante). This is the champagne I had for New Year's Eve and my family has now adopted it as one of their favorites. It is smooth and sweet, but still not expensive. It makes wonderful mimosas. I would recommend it to anyone who says they do not like champagne because it is not as dry as the other stuff that is out there.


For dessert, the main feature was a flourless chocolate cake that I served at graduation. It is made with many eggs, some sugar and a little Kahlua. My guess is the Kahlua adds the coffee taste to accent the chocolate instead of actually adding coffee. On the side are some flourless dark chocolate cookies that also turned out to be one of my best chocolate cookies to date. You can find them in June issue of Bon Appetit magazine.


Last, but not least (and not food), are the flowers I arranged for my mom this year. Usually, I pick out some tulips, but I felt this year was time for a change. I went to (you guessed it) Fresh Market and found some lovely lilies (two types), some purple bell-looking flowers and pink peonies. They also had some nice vases there in which I could place the flowers. Though I had no idea what I was doing, this arrangement turned out pretty good. You never know what you can do until you give something a shot.

Flanders Cocoa - 11/8/2007

If anyone saw The Simpson's Movie, then they probably saw Ned Flanders prepare a cup of cocoa for Bart that was quite over the top. Here is a poor quality picture:


I decided to recreate this to the best of my ability. A couple of roommates lent a helping hand, so I must thank them for that.


Obviously, most of the mug contains cocoa (warm milk plus hot cocoa powder). Then there is a foundation of whipped cream. Into this layer is stuck a vanilla wafer cookie on the end of which resides a marshmallow toasted with my kitchen torch. Cover the entire thing with chocolate shavings et voila! This real-life version is not as pretty looking as the cartoon (especially since physics does not allow the wafer to stand on end in real life), but I think it looks good.