Flavor Combinations - Obsession Du Jour

Fig and tamarind.

Moroccan Feastival

The other night I made a Moroccan feast.  

A friend was leaving for a trip to Morocco so I wanted to send her off right.  

We were eating traditionally, communally, off platters with our hands.  

I started off with hot towels served table side, and then broke off six courses of glory - three salads - a garlicky cucumber tomato salad, a warm sauteed eggplant in a thick red tomato sauce, and a chilled marinated carrot and parsley salad- all were served with a big basket of torn warm bread for scooping.  Then came lemon chicken served whole.  Next couscous and currants, then the motherload - sweet and savory bastilla, then a bakliva cake with a burned butter mint sauce, next came mint tea, and finally an overflowing bowl of whole fruits. 

If there was a cooks equivalent to spiking a football I would have done it at the end of the meal... and then I would have done some kind of asshole dance too.  It was good... by God it was good.

California

Oh, Hai.  How have you been?  Sorry I haven't written you in awhile but I have been busy learning how to become a proper gypsy.  I've taken up some new hobbies including beard growing, showering with only a Nalgene bottle and a stick of gum, and bird watching. Things are really going great.

So right, where have I been... ?  There was Manhatten, Philly, the Smokey Mountains, Asheville, Nashville, Memphis, Hot Springs NP, Austin, Carlsbad Caverns, Madrid, Santa Fe, Taos, Flagstaff, Vegas, Red Rocks, Death Valley, Mohave Desert, Joshua Tree, San Diego, Los Angeles, back to Joshua Tree, back to Flagstaff - this time for two weeks, Sequoia NP, Berkeley, San Fran and now Sonoma... Oh, glorious, glorious Sonoma.  

I've been in Cali for quite some time and have little concept of time anymore but I think I have been here for (boop, boop, beep, bop... calculating)... almost three weeks.  Holy shit!  That seems like a long time.  Wow.  

It's just so glorious that I can't leave... a perfect storm of ocean cliffs, green green mountains, mossy redwoods, and rolling hillsides covered with vineyards... brilliant yellow mustard flowers blowing in the breeze. Mwa!  

And the food, the wine, the oranges, lemons, Dungenous crab, avocados... Sigh.  Cali cuisine, so distinct, so healthy and so fresh.

Plus, I have found so many new obsessions... Nutritional yeast, canned fish, agave syrup, kombucha...

Oh, and my favorite - Ak Mak

It's SO good.  Flat bread crackery type things that are wonderfully healthy yet really flavorful. They are so light and airy with this really distinct and desirable texture... one that I've never seen before.  And the taste is really complex and all sesame-like.  Mmm!  Plus if you're a God-fearing person they are somehow holy... I don't know how, you will have to read the packaging to know how or why they will get you closer to divinity or whatever but, suffices to say, they are some tasty-ass Jesus crackers...

Boold Peanuts

So, right.  There was Asheville.  It was cold in Asheville... very very cold, but we had a great little salad at a place named Todd's Tasties (unfortunately so) and we were fed hippy food mostly with weed in it.  

... Then it was time to hit the road.

Up over the Great Smoky Mountains we went (the Great Smoky Mountain National Park by the way is - and always will be - free... it's written into the initial land transfer. Just an interesting little factoid for you).  On our way to Nashville we hit Dollywood (eek!), Gatlinburg (double eek!), and the Grand Ole Opry... all of which were closed for the season.  OK... Gatlinburg obviously doesn't "close" but I either blocked it out from the trauma or I was still stoned from the hippy food.  Your guess is as good as mine. 

Anyway... my most interesting food related observation from this leg of the trip was the reminder about boiled peanuts... 

There are roadside stands hawking them all over the place.  

If you haven't had boiled peanuts you are missing out... and what you are missing out on is a great story to tell your friends about how there is a food in the south that is less appealing then eating cardboard that was wrapped in bark and then boiled in unflavored toilet water.

They taste exactly like you would imagine...  like a hot, soggy bean.

Those southerners never cease to amaze me.  First that war thingy... and then this. Cray-zee.

Jimmy's Taking Off - Day One

I had ignored my gypsy roots for far too long.  My pants were itchen' and my hands were a cold that only January-in-Philadelphia can bring.  I'd had enough.  It was time to leave my apartment, the city, the east coast... I split.  Ciao, Buon Viaggio, Hasta Luego, Arriverderci, Au Revoir, Auf Weidersehen, G'bye.  Gone are the days of Uncle Jimmy Eating Philadelphia as we know it and on are the days of Uncle Jimmy Eating America... and I'm hungry.  

I hit the open road yesterday and by "open road" I mean a road covered with three nasty inches of snow with a thick icy crust.  

I could barely drag my big ass bags to the car without falling on my ass and I was only "helped" by the crazy woman I passed who threatened to "shit on my f*&$ing face" and by the ogles of the creepy dudes who stand across the street smoking cigarettes and making you feel like you need to go back inside for a hot rape shower. Ahh, Philthy.  How I'll miss you.

Anywho.  So I was on the road.  I picked up my co-piolot, Mang, who will be joining me for the first two weeks of the trip.  Don't worry.  I'm safe.  Mang's with me.

The first leg of the trip was a little hairy, with the freezing rain and all, but all turned right in the world mid-way through Virginia with only cloudy skies and spotty rain showers as a reminder.

We passed through Tennessee after night fall and drove through the dramatic Smoky Mountains... I was sad that we hit them after dark as the silhouettes were awe-inspiring. 

Ahh... The road was flying by under my ass and it felt grrrreat.

Our first stop was Asheville to stay with my hippy friend Stephanie.

She just bought a house there and she welcomed us with open arms and glasses of wine.

The house was all warm and cozy and there were plants everywhere and just the right amount of handmade pottery to make you feel like at least one person in the house reads about Buddhism on the regular.  And people... there are many.  It's kind of like a commune (one guy is an Emile Hirsch circa Into the Wild lookalike).  Oh, and there is also no shower which is... how shall I say.  Not shocking.  

They also have one of those life sized card board cut outs of Obama with the white dude hands!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I had just heard a story on the radio the day before!!!! They didn't even know what kind of gem they were sitting on!

We went and got a salad and a delicious local Microbrew at Todd's Tasties.  I had a Wedge IPA and it was delicious.

When we got back Steph's roommates were making veggie tempura and goo balls for dessert.  Ha.  Fitting.  

So, anyway... some food, some wine and then to bed.  There is no heat here (again... not shocked) so it is icy cold.  

Don't worry, I have apologized profusely to Mang for bringing her to a hippy commune with no heat or showers and I don't think she is going to retaliate on my as... or Mang me out as we say.

Day two... Woke up early.  I'm off to go explore the town.

Happy New Year

Today marks the year of the Ox.

May I recommend the parade next Sunday followed by Dim Sum at Ocean City?  Mmm... so good.  

The pork buns and shark fin are delicious but try everything.  

That's the fun of Dim Sum... The dishes are all brought to you for your inspection so just take a peek and point to what looks good.  Portions are small and inexpensive so if you don't enjoy one of the things that you chose it's no problemo... you're a better person for trying.

Here's to a new year.  I'm feeling really good about this one.

Ocean City Restaurant - 234 N. 9yh St. Philadelphia, PA 19107

215.829.0688

www.oceancityrestaurant.com

Ode to WaWa

I love Wawa.

Maybe it's wrong but it feels so right.  

There are just so many fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere, and you can make your own salads or sandwiches, and there is plenty of club soda, and there are lots granola bars, and the stores are always big so I don't get claustrophobic, and no one who works there is ever good looking so I don't feel intimidated, and the bathrooms usually aren't covered in fecal matter, and if you wanted to kill yourself there are plenty of donuts and cheese filled soft pretzels on which to do so.  That's what I call one stop shopping.

Maybe instead of holding on to my dream of opening a food cart I will open a traveling Wawa. How amazing would that be?... not for you, for me.  I would get to be surrounded by the cushy womb of Wawa everywhere I went.  It would be a glorious existence. Sigh.

Heartbreakingly, I just learned from Wawa's website that they don't franchise. DAMN! 

It was a crushing blow, although I did discover a few interesting Wawa factoids: 

Factoid #1. The company was originally a home delivery dairy service until the first Wawa market opened in 1960.  (Oww... Milk men!  What an old-timey job. I may have to add that to my list of jobs-to-have-before-I-die, right along side of

Drawbridge Tender, Phone Psychic, and Jelly Donut Filler).

Factoid #2. All dairy products available at Wawa are artificial growth hormone free (Strange that we need to be congratulating anyone for that but, Yay).

Factoid #3. As for the name... apparently the company's original dairy was built in Wawa, PA., which itself was named after the local Lenni Lenape Indian tribe's word for the Canadian geese found in the Delaware Valley.

Factoid #4. In 1995 Wawa begins offering ATMs with no service fee (One of the many reasons I could kiss them on the mouth).

Factoid #5. Wondering how many calories are in your Classic Italian Shortie with extra mayo, pickles, and provolone cheese?  Visit the Wawa NetNutrition calculator online and all the caloric information you desire will be yours.

Oh and elsewhere I discovered that Johnny Knoxville has a Wawa tattoo:

Huh.  Who'd a thunk it?

So, anyway... To summerize my ode to Wawa: Oh Wawa, I hath seen such beauty only in thee heart of spring.  If only I could wrap your tender bosom into the shape of a food cart and carry thee gently about... only then would thine heart be at peace.

So romantic. If I had a Valentine I might get them a Wawa gift card.