Ta da!
Just your basic yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It’s a bit crooked, but that just screams HOMEMADE, right?
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 139 Comments
This post is in: Food, Open Threads
Ta da!
Just your basic yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It’s a bit crooked, but that just screams HOMEMADE, right?
Open thread!
This post is in: Food, Open Threads
Here’s this year’s edition of my locally famous butter lamb:
As usual, I see only the flaws. For one thing, this one looks a bit haughty, perhaps owing to the camera angle. (Our kid has a saying: The higher the camera angle, the lower the self-esteem…)
Here’s a Wikipedia explainer for anyone who’s wondering what a butter lamb is. And here’s an illustrated tutorial I did in a blog post several years back.
I’ve been making butter lambs ever since one long-ago year my snowbird in-laws found themselves without southbound relatives visiting for Easter who could bring a store-bought version from a Buffalo supermarket and were unable to locate one for sale in Florida. So, probably for 15 or 20 years now. The lambs are simple to make if you’re determined and patient, and I look forward to doing it every year.
Since Easter 2020, we’ve dropped off the lamb for a feast we did not attend, but tomorrow we are dining with family again. We’ll get to enjoy the buttery sculpture on Easter rolls firsthand!
That’s all I got. Open thread!
This post is in: Excellent Links, Food, Open Threads
The Post took a team to Oregon to find out exactly how Tofurky, a kneaded paste of wheat gluten, silken tofu and flavorings, becomes an enduring holiday favorite. https://t.co/0GlEG3lbPr
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 23, 2023
Fifty years ago, I remember our Midwestern college dining hall introducing its first official vegetarian option — chunks of slightly rubbery ham-flavored TVP, added to mac’n’cheese. (Very good mac’n’cheese, actually, since we had an excellent dairy science department.) Now, we’re told, Tofurky has become a nostalgic holiday favorite…
From the Washington Post, “See inside the Tofurky factory, where a Thanksgiving icon is made” [unpaywalled gift link]:
… Tofurky’s holiday roast, which is now more than a quarter of a century old, is a nostalgia food, hearkening for vegetarians and vegans an era when holiday main dishes were often expected to be meat-based. The roast is their rebuttal to Norman Rockwell’s iconic Thanksgiving turkey, with its own cachet and fame.
Tofurky was the trailblazer, setting the standard for a plant-based offering that still captured the festivity of the holiday season. These roasts, with their bouncy exterior and squidgy wild rice stuffing, some accompanied by a packet of gravy and even a vegan brownie for dessert, haven’t changed much over time, and that’s just the way devotees want it. Like the green bean casserole with canned mushroom soup — could you make it more “gourmet” and contemporary? Yes, but holiday diners want it just the way they remember it.
The finished roast is not jiggly and bland like tofu. It’s savory, with good chew and something Thanksgiving-ish and autumnal imparted by the stuffing…
This time of year, at a factory in Hood River, Ore., workers hustle to produce 6,000 roasts in 10-hour shifts, doing this four days running, before turning to produce the company’s other meat substitutes. We took a team to Oregon to find out exactly how this kneaded paste of wheat gluten, silken tofu and flavorings becomes an enduring holiday favorite. In essence, finding out how the un-sausage is made.
A “masa” of 130 pounds of wheat gluten, 56 pounds of silken tofu puree, 23 pounds of canola oil, water and spices and are loaded into an industrial-sized bowl chopper and kneaded for 15 minutes. Workers swing by to test the gluten activation of the mixture: How stretchy are the proteins? Are they forming longer and longer chains and giving the mixture cohesion and elasticity like bread dough being proofed? The churning mass smells yeasty and a lot like bread dough. When the temperature of the mixture reaches 90 degrees Fahrenheit and it has a smooth, elastic texture, it’s ready for the next stage. The mixture is dumped into a hopper and whisked away on a wheeled dolly.
Tofurky has a production staff of about 175 workers, 50 of them in this Hood River facility. Four people mix the masa, one person makes the wild rice stuffing, another is responsible for assembling the dry seasoning mix. In the packing room, it’s all hands on deck to build the boxes and assemble the finished holiday roast packages. The roast with gravy runs about $13.50 and serves about five people…
After that, frozen roasts are rolled over to the packing room, where a group of workers tuck a roast and gravy pack into festively decorated cardboard boxes that proclaim, “yum for all.” For 20 years, the packages described the food inside as “vegan”; now it’s “plant-based” to appeal to a wider and younger audience. When the packing team finishes boxing all the roasts for the day, a group cheer goes up. It’s getting close to the end of season for manufacturing holiday roasts…
Okay, *I* found it fascinating… (After all, the production of *actual* Thanksgiving turkey carcasses is hardly less mechanical.) More history & business detail at the link.
Interesting Read: Where the Tofurkys Come FromPost + Comments (29)
This post is in: Food, Open Threads, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You
Last 24 hours. 🇺🇸 #HappyThanksgiving 🦃 pic.twitter.com/eW0lNWeSFz
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) November 22, 2023
So we’ll have more energy to argue about the *really* important issues of the day…
Turkey rules the table. But an AP-NORC poll finds disagreement over other Thanksgiving classics https://t.co/0Di0oE4d4s
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 21, 2023
Thanksgiving may be a time for Americans to come together, but opinion is divided over what’s on the crowded dinner table. We mostly agree on the deliciousness of pumpkin pie, say, but are split over the eternal turkey question of dark meat versus white meat.
And don’t even ask if marshmallows belong on sweet potatoes — it could cause a ruckus.
THE BIRD
About 3 in 10 U.S. adults (32%) who will celebrate Thanksgiving this year say turkey is their favorite dish in the holiday feast, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.Stuffing or dressing (19%) and mashed potatoes (6%) come in second and third.
“Thanksgiving — it’s about turkey,” said Ralph Caya, 71, from Pensacola, Florida, who participated in the survey…
Although turkey is tops across U.S. regions and ages, there’s a slight generational divide. Americans 45 or older are especially likely to call turkey the best thing on the Thanksgiving table (39%), while younger adults who agree come in at 24%…
My minority opinion: The poultry lump is overrated, except as a centerpiece on the table. I’ll fill up on the delicious sides, thank you, or order a nice ham as an alternative.
And then, of course, there’s this…
Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Give Thanks Where DuePost + Comments (205)
by Betty Cracker| 200 Comments
This post is in: Food, Open Threads
As a cook with more ambition than skill, I have my share of kitchen regrets, like that time I ruined a jambalaya by taking Bill’s advice to add uncooked rice to the simmering pot rather than cooking it separately. (Some people can pull that off, but it didn’t work for me.*)
I spend considerable time reviewing and saving recipes, ultimately trying maybe 20% of what I’ve flagged. I’ve noticed that like any other topic on the internet, when you’re researching various types of cuisine or looking up specific dishes, you can go down lots of rabbit holes.
Over the years, I’ve seen appalling things, sights that will haunt me for the rest of my days, like the unholy turkey desecrations on the Chefclub** YouTube channel. Yesterday, I ran across this image of sad bologna taco thingies, which I showed to Bill with exclamations of disgust:
He was unperturbed. His Polish American grandma used to fry bologna and add leftover mashed potatoes to the pan, and he says it was tasty. I can believe that. I’m not a food snob. I ate lots of bologna sandwiches with American cheese and mayo on white bread while growing up in Florida trailer parks. I still get a hankering for that and other gross childhood foods, like Underwood Deviled Ham on saltines.
But my people never innovated by frying the bologna. I only discovered that delicacy as an adult, when I married a man from Buffalo. In that city, fried bologna is on restaurant menus and featured as a specialty at some joints. I was astounded by that at first, but now I respect it.
***
One internet food rabbit hole I never regret falling into is the Pasta Grannies channel.*** It was created by a Brit, Vicky Bennison, who scours the Italian countryside for nonne who handmake pasta. It’s the greatest YouTube channel ever — that one channel justifies the entire enterprise, and by that I mean the YouTube platform with all its horrors and the internet more broadly. For real. Here’s a sample from Sicily:
Inspired by the grannies, I recently acquired a pasta board to try to make my own pasta using the nonna methods. I had to order 00 flour since it’s unavailable in our little town, and it’s arriving today, so I’m sorting through recipes again.
My Italian American mother-in-law is coming over for lunch on Sunday, and I briefly considered making pasta from scratch for her. But I quickly realized how ill-advised that would be since I’m a novice. So, we’re having club sandwiches and chips, which is well within my wheelhouse. We’ll try pasta another day.
Open thread!
*Before somebody cooksplains where I went wrong with the rice, I assure you I researched it and will never again know the heartache of spoiling a quantity of lovingly fried andouille, expertly sauteed holy trinity, perfectly cooked and shredded chicken and admirably pink and not overcooked shrimp. I won’t be undone by $0.38’s worth of rice ever again. So advice or admonition here would be gratuitous — and cruel. Read a room, FFS!
**The Chefclub channel should change its name to “Food Crimes” or “WTF, White People?!?” I’ve staggered away from their videos nauseated and bewildered more times than I can count. For some reason, it reminds me of that time Cole had a question about a character on “The Sopranos” and googled “Big Pussy.” You’re just innocently seeking information and BAM, YIKES and OMFG!
***A kind soul here or maybe on Twitter directed me to the Pasta Grannies channel, and though I’ve forgotten who it was, they have my eternal gratitude!
by Betty Cracker| 131 Comments
This post is in: Food, Open Threads
In a weekend open thread, a couple of valued commenters who plan to visit the Tampa Bay area soon asked for some restaurant recommendations. The site’s mobile interface made a meal of my lengthy, carefully considered reply. So here’s a response composed on a more stable format.
This post is also an open thread and invitation to provide your own restaurant and food recs for whatever cities or towns are your foodie favorites. Below the fold, Tampa!
Most iconic restaurant: If you only eat out once in Tampa, make sure you dine at the Columbia Restaurant in the Ybor City neighborhood. The food is good and the white sangria is exceptional, but the experience is the main attraction. The building is an architectural oddity with multiple dining rooms that are filled with marble surfaces, colorful tiles, fountains, statues, palm trees, paintings, etc. Bow-tied servers make sure guests never run out of fresh, warm Cuban bread from the nearby La Segunda Bakery. Consider the 1905 Salad, which is assembled tableside — a half of one is a meal all by itself. There’s also a dinner show in one part of the restaurant featuring flamenco dancers. It’s a lot of fun to watch, and you may suddenly find yourself in a conga line! And for all the that, the Columbia is surprisingly affordable!
Best boozy brunch: Gaspar’s Grotto in Ybor City has all-you-can-drink mimosas and bloodies Mary, plus a respectable brunch spread that includes a carving station, bespoke omelets, etc. It’s on 7th Ave., Ybor City’s main drag (as is the Columbia), and has indoor and outdoor seating. For the best experience, try to reserve the “Bullshit Corner” table at 11 AM sharp on Sunday so you’ll be seated by the windows overlooking 7th. From there, you and your dining companions can watch the walks of shame as Ybor revelers wake up and make their way home from Saturday night debaucheries. (Take an Uber there and back, obviously.)
Must-try local foods: Try a deviled crab if shellfish and fried foods are items you enjoy! You can’t really find authentic deviled crabs outside of Tampa, though there are items marketed as “deviled crab” elsewhere. True deviled crabs are football-shaped croquettes containing blue crab meat, tomato sauce and spices, often eaten with a sprinkling of hot sauce. You can find them at pretty much any restaurants that serve Cuban food, including Carmine’s in Ybor City, Liborio’s and La Segunda Bakery. You might even see them in local convenience stores hanging out with the drab rotating hotdogs and other classic convenience store food.
A tip: when you visit the Columbia, as you must, order whatever you want for lunch or dinner and also get some deviled crabs to go. They reheat well!
Cuban sandwiches are also a must-try. You can get them anywhere, including all the places listed above that serve deviled crabs. They’re not fancy. The standard version is ham, roast pork, Genoa salami and Swiss cheese on Cuban bread, with mustard, mayo and pickles, heated and flattened in a press. Doesn’t sound very Cuban, does it? The story is the sandwich evolved with worker demographics in the Ybor City cigar factories, where waves of immigrants came to make cigars — and signature contributions to the local sandwich’s ingredients.
Great seafood: Oystercatchers is pricey, but the great seafood and stunning views of Tampa Bay are worth a splurge. There’s indoor and outdoor seating, and the views are great from anywhere. They also have a terrific Sunday brunch. As far as I know, they pioneered adding a shot of pineapple juice to a standard margarita, and there should be a prestigious prize for such innovation, IMO.
But for my money, the best damn seafood in Hillsborough County (which includes the City of Tampa) is in the south shore town of Ruskin at a place near the end of Shell Point Rd. called the Fish House. The food is dispensed in plastic containers from a screened-in plywood shack surrounded by splintered picnic tables. The side dishes are simple: grits, slaw, fries or beans — pick two and add an extra for less than $3. We’re talking really basic stuff, but the shrimp, scallops, oysters, fish fillets, etc., are incredibly fresh, lightly breaded and fried to sheer perfection.
Fancy steakhouses: One of the best places for steaks anywhere is the legendary Bern’s Steak House in Tampa, but be warned: it is spendy, and it’s one of the few places in Florida where a casually dressed person might be banished to the lounge rather than seated in the main dining room. (Shorts, tees and flip-flops are acceptable pretty much anywhere else, including the opera.) Also, the interior looks like a high-end French house of ill repute that was decorated by Liberace, but the service is absolutely impeccable, and Bern’s has one of the best wine collections on the planet.
Malio’s is another good place for steaks. It’s almost as expensive as Bern’s, but the experience is completely different because it’s an understated, intimate setting whereas Bern’s is more of a plutocratic bacchanalia. Malio’s also has a respectable seafood selection. The restaurant has been around forever and used to be notorious as a mob boss hangout. It moved to a new location on the river a while back; I don’t know if the dons followed. But you’ll be safe there. If there’s a mob hit, you may be traumatized by what you see, but you’ll be physically unharmed.
Diners: Goody Goody in Hyde Park is a resurrected version of a decades-old Tampa landmark that serves uniquely sauced burgers as well as standard diner fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They make a fabulous butterscotch pie.
You also can’t go wrong with Trip’s Diner — three locations in the Tampa Bay area serve all the diner classics at an affordable price.
BBQ: Big John’s Alabama BBQ is off the beaten path but well worth the trip. The family-run joint has been serving up barbequed sausage, ribs, pork, brisket, chicken, etc., since the 1960s, and their mac and cheese side is locally famous. The people who run it are extra-churchy, so prepare to be blessed!
One of my favorite things about traveling is trying new food. I avoid national chains if I can, and if someone recommends a place that looks sketchy, I’ll probably still try it if it sounds interesting, which is why I’ve had several bouts of food poisoning.
I’ve been a road-tripper all my life, and one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that as chains push into towns, there are fewer local places and more homogeneity, which makes me sad. But you can always find the local stuff if you ask around.
To that end, does anyone know of great places to eat between Atlanta and Chattanooga?
Open thread.
by Betty Cracker| 182 Comments
This post is in: Food, Open Threads, TV & Movies
Everyone who knows me in real life is aware that I worship Ina Garten as a goddess. And yet somehow, no one thought to inform me that she launched a new TV series called “Be My Guest With Ina Garten.” A couple of years ago! I had to stumble across it while scrolling through options on HBO Max when I woke up at stupid o’clock today and couldn’t get back to sleep!
The premise is Ina Garten invites people she admires (some folks she knows, some she’s never met) to her house in the Hamptons to cook, mix cocktails and shoot the shit about life. In the first episode, the lucky guest was actor Julianna Margulies. They made margaritas and a haddock recipe Margulies often cooks at home, with Ina Garten serving as sous-chef. Margulies was fan-girling out as hard as I would have!
That’s the only episode I’ve seen so far since I just discovered this treasure trove today in the wee hours, but there’s three seasons, and other guests include Stanley Tucci, Nathan Lane, Nora Jones, Faith Hill and Misty Copeland.
Anyway, now you know.
Open thread!