trick: watermelon trees

Ahh, summer - Mr. Mari's favorite season. Being able to wear shorts and eat endless amounts of amazing tomatoes are two of his most favorite things. Me, I love the bounty of the farmers market - especially all the amazing stone fruits and melons - I just don't gravitate towards the giant watermelon bins. It's not that I don't enjoy watermelon's watery sweetness and sucking its juices from the crushed cellulose bites as fast as I can, I just don't like an "Interruption of Texture" and getting that same watery sweetness all over my face as I get to the bottom of each wedge.

Watermelon to me is all about its crisp flesh, biting through wafer thin walls, releasing the captive summer nectar. When I hit a seed with my teeth, my voraciousness, my hunger to free the juice as quickly as possible, is frustrated by slimy thin speed bumps. Not being able to complete a bite by a 16th of an inch is highly unsatisfying. I even find the white seeds a little annoying but I've given in to accepting those because I enjoy the flavor of watermelon so much.

The second problem listed was made irrelevant by my dad who showed me this face saving trick. Instead of leaving the entire rind on each piece, trim away most of it, keeping only a tiny tree stump in the middle. The handle's plenty big and sturdy enough to wield, so there's no sticky juice face to clean up, leaving plenty of time to have some good ol' summertime fun. 

fenglisu - taiwanese pineapple cake

I have an eating relationship with many of my friends. This is true for my friend Nelly, who currently lives in Taiwan, as well. We bonded over the fact, that while we were working together at Kmart, she took the French Culinary Institute's 100-hour pastry course, Pastry Techniques. Every time she comes back to NYC, we eat. A lot. And talk a lot about food. On her most recent trip back to the States, she brought me a traditional Taiwanese dessert called fenglisu (pronounced fènglísū) from Cha Cha Thé. 

Like many Asian desserts, fenglisu isn't sweet - the cake part is as sweet as shortbread and almost as crumbly. As for the pineapple filling, imagine a dark, sticky, fibrous jam that has been slow-cooked and naturally sweet, there's nothing Dole about it. She told me that fenglisu is traditionally made with pineapple but some bakeries substitute winter melon for the filling, since it's cheaper and nets the same result. Without having tried those impostors, they probably lack the fiberousness of the pineapple, which seems to me a key texture component. She confirmed that winter melon makes a poor substitute. 

The assortment that she brought me had two of each (from left to right): traditional, duck egg yolk (!!!), cranberry, and walnut. After having tried all four flavors (in one sitting - oink oink) I'd say my order of most to least favorite was: cranberry, egg yolk, walnut and then traditional. Once you've had the fun flavors, it's hard to go back to plain. 

From their (very slow to load) beautiful website, everything at Cha Cha Thé looks very precious and delicious. Cha Cha Thé's fenglisu is probably the equivalent of Ladurée's macarons, precious and worth a visit. The box is exquisite (nicer quality than Ladurée, actually). The box is pale blue, like Tiffany blue at ten percent, just a whisper of color. The dark two-tone ribbon ties back to the teashop's interior: very calm and Zen. Lucky and maybe not so lucky for Nelly, Cha Cha Thé is located around the corner from her home. 

I'm hoping to visit Nelly in Taiwan one of these years but I have to prepare. I know it's going to be an eating frenzy. 

parm

My ex-kitchen landlord, Mike, has become a good friend. Cosmically, our birthdays are separated by one day and a year, and our marriages are one week apart. When you spend countless hours with someone in freezing winters, humid summers, experience flooded basements, junkies walking in wanting free samples, Department of Agriculture inspections and walk-in box failure, chances are you'll be friends for a long time. 

We met up for lunch at Parm, the American-Italiano, food you wish your nonna cooked this well, unstuffy sister restaurant to Torrisi Italian Specialties. Between gently puckering bites of giardiniera pickles, Buffalo chicken-style Asian-pickled cucumbers and marinated red peppers, we chatted about what we've been up to. Once our sandwiches came out - mine: a chicken cutlet with the perfect ratio of tomato sauce to fresh mozzarella on a pillowy Italian hero, with a crust so thin that it shattered under my teeth; Mike's: a firm yet yielding square of layered eggplant parmesan on a sweet Semolina roll - conversation halted for about 30 seconds. It started up again with enthusiastic ooos, mmms and exchanges of bites and smiles. Everything was right with the universe.

(Top image: eggplant parmesan on a roll; Slideshow: bar facing street, menu, Buffalo cucumbers, bar facing kitchen, kitchen - love the cookie sheet separating the fryer from stove, chicken parmesan on a hero, giardiniera pickles, coffee)

an OCD chef's tool

I wouldn't say I'm obsessive but I am particular. I try and dice things so they are square and slice things so they are uniform in size. Okay, maybe I am a bit obsessive. But! Practically, food cooks more uniformly; aesthetically, dishes look cleaner. I never throw away food if it isn't the exact same size though - that's just CRAZY talk! 

A couple weeks ago, I referenced the Anal Retentive Chef from Saturday Night Live in regards to cutting butter into flour when making pie dough. (How uniform? How small should the pieces be?) Phil Hartman plays a hilarious cooking show host that basically can't finish making a dish because all of his chopped food isn't square and/or a little too big. I suppose if he had this cutting board from Fred, the awesome character wouldn't exist and I wouldn't have someone to compare my anal retentiveness against. Thanks for being there for me, AR Chef. 

(Image from Think Geek)

Chicago go GO!

Some people travel to visit museums, historical sites, and shop. Me, I travel to visit restaurants, gourmet food stores and shop - at local supermarkets.

For years now, I've wanted to go to Charlie Trotter's. It's been open for almost 25 years and on August 31st, it's closing for good. When I heard about this six months ago, I knew I needed to go. I wasn't going to miss eating at this iconic restaurant (I never got to go to el Bulli - whaaa).

Unlike most restaurants, Charlie Trotter's accepts reservations three months in advance. So, I set my alarm for 7:00AM on May 18th to pounce on OpenTable. Mr. Mari woke me up, like he normally does at 6:50AM. And after a few minutes of grogginess, my alarm went off, my brain defogged and with a hand extended, I sat bolt upright exclaiming, "Phone!". Unlock phone. Open OpenTable app. Type in Charlie Trotter's. Date: Aug 17th. And? And??? Score!!! I got a reservation. With that accomplished, I relaxed. Obviously there are other notable restaurants in Chicago (Alinea, Schwa, Avec, etc.) but I wanted Charlie Trotter's to be the highlight of my trip, my main (expensive) meal.

I'm leaving this morning, and I'm very excited. Chicago's a great food town and based on all the recommendations for breakfasts, snacks, lunches, dinners, and cocktails I've received, I could easily be eating my way across town for a solid month. Unfortunately, I'm only going for one weekend. A couple friends laughed at my itinerary. They said, "What are you doing in-between meals?" I said with a completely straight face, "Walking to the next place." Here's my map of food stops I'll be trying to hit, organized by day and order of attack. Wish me, my feet and my stomach good luck and bon appétit.

If you can figure out the images, you must either live in Chicago or be just as obsessed with food as me. Wanna be friends? Bonus points if you can guess the only two non-food stops before reading the answers.
(Images from top left to right: The Aviary, Portillo's, Glazed and Infused, The Violet Hour, Do-Rite Donuts and Coffee, Millennium Park Cloud Gate sculpture, Chicago City Cruises, XOCO, The Purple Pig, Mindy's Hot Chocolate, Charlie Trotter's, Girl & the Goat, Jam Restaurant)

bacon-wrapped, olive, spinach and feta stuffed pork tenderloin

I've been in a protein rut. More to the point, I've been getting a little tired of the foods I make. It's been sort of like eating at the same restaurant every night: roast chicken with (blank), oven-baked fish with (blank), grilled flank steak with (blank) - ho hum, that again? So I went online searching for a pork tenderloin recipe that offered a different technique to what I normally make. Lo and behold, there was a recipe for stuffed pork tenderloin on Cook's Illustrated. You can stuff a pork tenderloin? Apparently so, you just need to butterfly it. Their recipe called for tying and grilling. Since it was raining out and I had some bacon on hand, I oven roasted the sucker and "tied" mine with bacon.

What I like about the concept of stuffing is that there are endless options you can use as stuffing: cornbread with sautéed mushrooms and onions, leftover spaghetti (why not??), ricotta cheese and herbs, puréed oysters and breadcrumbs (don't knock it 'til you try it), and so on. Having the variety of fillings will keep this new recipe/technique fresh, which I imagine, will keep me excited about dining at this restaurant of mine. 

Bacon-Wrapped, Olive, Spinach and Feta Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
serves 6 as entrée

1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped fine
10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
4 ounces crumbled feta
2 tablespoon mint (or parsley), chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 - 1-1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin (mine had two skinny tenderloins in the package)
6 slices bacon
sea salt & fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine olives, garlic, spinach, feta and mint in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. 

Butterfly tenderloin so you have a thin piece of pork. Using the flat side of a tenderizer, pound until it's about 1/4-inch thick. Repeat with second piece. Place pork pieces in front of you, slightly overlapping. Season with salt and pepper. Your pork should be longer than wide, moving away from you. Spread filling evenly on pork, leaving a half-inch border on the left, right and far edges. Starting with the edge closest to you, tightly roll the pork into a tube. 

Lifting one end of the tenderloin, place a piece of bacon directly under one end. Fold the bacon, gently pulling, in a crisscross pattern. This will help hold one end of your roll together. Lift the unwrapped end of your pork roll and evenly place the other five slices of bacon underneath. Continue crisscrossing your bacon slices across your roll, gently pulling to help close the roll. Once completed, take toothpicks and poke through the end of each bacon strip, securing it in place. 

Bake in oven for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 145°. Remove from oven, tent with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 minutes. Remove toothpicks, slice and enjoy! 

Note: Next time I do this, I'll probably brown the outside first, to help crisp up the bacon. The bacon was thoroughly cooked but it didn't have as much plate appeal, as I would have liked. 

tip: egg carton (cooling) rack

When I'm baking, I often have at least three wire racks going at the same time:
• Wire Rack #1 is near the oven. Conveniently positioned to receive hot cookie sheets coming out of the oven. 
• Hot Cookie Sheet #1 is placed on Wire Rack #1.
• Cookie Sheet #2 goes in oven. (Timer on...)
• Timer's almost done - move Cookie Sheet #1 to Wire Rack #2. Ding! Time to take out Cookie Sheet #2.
• Cookie Sheet #2 is placed on Wire Rack #1.
• Cookie Sheet #3 goes in oven. (Timer on...)
• Timer's almost done - transfer cookies from Cookie Sheet #1 to Wire Rack #3; move Cookie Sheet #2 to Wire Rack #2. Prepare Cookie Sheet #1 to go back to oven. Ding! Time to take out Cookie Sheet #3.
• Cookie Sheet #3 is placed on Wire Rack #1. Cookie Sheet #1 goes in oven.
• Repeat.

Juggle, juggle, juggle. As you can see, when I'm baking, I can run out of wire racks since the cookies are cooling on Wire Rack #3 and spilling onto Wire Rack #2. This is when keeping empty egg cartons come in handy. They are sturdy enough to hold a heavy tray of brownies as well as provide enough airflow for brownies/cookies to cool. If your kitchen looks anything like mine during the holidays, just keep a couple of those egg cartons you were going to throw away around for your bake-a-thon.

Bonus Tip: If your cookies are low, diagonally place a pair of egg cartons - on top of your cookie sheet on opposite corners. This way, you can stack a few trays, keeping precious counter space free. Now get baking! 

sigmund pretzel shop

Sometimes Mr. Mari and I wonder if we were Austrian or German in a previous life. We both love schnitzel, beer, wurst and don't forget about all those tasty Viennese pastries - um, hello: Sachertorte, apple streudel, and Linzer torte. 

Sigmund Pretzel Shop makes really delicious chewy, tender, yeasty German-style pretzels with a few modern flavor variations (she did work at Jean-Georges and Bouley). We sampled the truffle cheddar, hot dog on a pretzel bun and a couple of Spaten beers. Happy belly? Ja, sehr zufrieden. 

(Top pretzel and menu board photos from Sigmund Pretzel Shop)