Random Stuff from the Past Few Weeks

Hi Bahar!!!  :)

Just a collection of random things.

BAKESALE BETTY

Most everyone loves Bakesale Betty but not me.  Its claim to fame is a fried chicken sandwich--breaded, fried chicken breast with a vinegar and oil slaw on a fluffy torpedo roll.  In theory, it sounds fine.  In execution, it fails because it is DRY.  D-R-Y.  The breast is overcooked and dry.  Combine it with bread and you've got a starchy mess.  I also find the chicken somewhat flavorless.  The kitchen needs a heavier hand with the seasoning.  Even the excellent slaw isn't enough to bring this sandwich back from the dead. Maybe slather some mayo or slaw juice on the bread?  I've had it four times over the past few months always wondering about the raving masses and whether or not my tastebuds are off but I've come to the conclusion that the sandwich is not all that.  Besides, at $8.50, that sandwich better scale some spectacular heights.  Sorry Betty, but I'm over your sandwich.

However, I feel like an ungrateful ass bad writing this because the staff at Bakesale Betty is AWESOMELY GENEROUS.  They are some of the nicest people I've ever met.  They hand out free cookies and brownies like Santa hands out presents.  And the baked goods aren't just free, they're delicious!  Pumpkin pie with a perfect flaky crust?  Yes please, no matter what season it is!

In short, this is a joint I really, really WANT to love but just can't.  I'll return for the baked goods but not for the (overhyped) sandwich. 

Bakesale Betty
5098 Telegraph Ave
(between 49th St & 51st St)
Oakland, CA 94609
(510) 985-1213

How to Supreme an Orange (or any other citrus fruit)

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1.  Find where the stem used to be.  Cut through the orange to level it.  Level the other side.  You should have two smooth sides.

2. Cut the peel off.  Just follow the flesh.

3. You will have an orange with mostly pulp.  Trim off any leftover bits of pith.

4. Find where the orange naturally segments itself.  Cut in between these segment lines.

5.  Done!

KIM HUONG

I've eaten here a few times over the past week because I love Vietnamese food and I love noodle soup.  The first time I went, I was lured in by the sign for Bun Bo Hue. Bun Bo Hue is a lemongrass scented Viet noodle soup from the city of Hue.  If done well, it is spectacularly delicious.  What brought me back for subsequent visits is 1. the quality of the food and 2. the owner.  The food is pretty good here, not mind blowingly good but pretty good.  The owner is the most loquacious noodle shop owner I have ever met.  He has a real passion for Vietnamese food and he loves what he does.  He wants to make everyone who walks into his restaurant happy.  He is also very specific about certain things.  For Bun Bo Hue, he puts rau ram (a Vietnamese herb), shredded cabbage and bean sprouts on the side plate.  For Pho, he puts Thai basil and bean sprouts only.  When I asked him why, he simply said that it's for matters of taste.  Gotta admire that.

His wife, the restaurant's cook, makes a delicious crab dish which isn't featured on the menu.  You have to order it a day ahead of time but it's well worth it.  It's a bit pricey ($25) but makes a fine meal for two people with a bit of rice.  Fresh crab, butter, garlic, salt and pepper...how can you go wrong?

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If you are in Oakland Chinatown and find yourself craving noodle soup, I encourage you to give this place a try.  

Kim Huong
304 10th Street
(between Harrison St & Webster St)
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 836-3139

I walked 3 freaking miles in the pouring rain for this pork chop:

Sure is a beaut, isn't she?  Look at that layer of external fat.  Look at that intramuscular fat.  Look at that deep rich color.  Man oh man oh man.  And this isn't just ANY pork.  This is Becker Lane Pork.  Becker Lane is an organic farm which supplies many of the better restaurants in the area with their swine.   Just check out the marbling: 

I have delicious, delicious plans for this little piggy.  :) The pork was purchased at Cafe Rouge in Berkeley.


One last thing.  I purchased two slices of bacon at my local butcher today and this is what they wrapped it in:

It just strikes me as egregiously wasteful.  Anyone have any ideas on how I can solve this problem?  Ask them to use less paper?  Incidentally, the bacon was wonderful.  It is from Vande Rose Farms and is made from heirloom Duroc pigs.  This was my first experience with their product but I was very impressed.  Nice fat to meat ratio, a pronounced smokiness and delicious swine flavor.  I sliced it, crisped it up and threw it into a wilted green salad with chicken livers and sherry vinaigrette.  I will absolutely buy more of this stuff.

Garlicky Noodles with Maggi and Butter

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I really, really, REALLY want you to make this recipe.  Despite it's ease and simplicity, it's wondrously delicious.  The recipe is from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen.  I've blogged a recipe from this book in the past and have made several others which haven't made it onto the blog.  All of the recipes have been great.  I highly recommend this book.  If you want to learn more about Ms. Nguyen, check out her blog!  She even has a second recipe for this noodle dish and goes into the dish's history. 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 pound fettuccine, preferably fresh (Chinese egg noodles would be great here)
Salt
2.5 tablespoons Maggi (When I went shopping for it, I found Maggi and European Maggi...the cookbook recommends the non-European Maggi...the Asian one has a red and yellow label and the European one has a blue (I think) label)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced (or, if you're a garlic fiend, use more!)

1. Lightly salt a pot of water and bring it to a boil.  Add the noodles and cook until al dent.  (If you haven't ever cooked fresh noodles, they cook much more quickly than dry noodles...3-4 minutes and they're done.)  While the noodles are cooking, add the Maggi into a bowl large enough to hold the cooked noodles.

2. Drain the pasta but do not rinse with water.  Drop the hot noodles into the prepared bowl with the Maggi.  Toss the noodles until they've absorbed all of the seasoning.

3. In a large wok or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.  When it is foamy, add the minced garlic and saute until the garlic is slightly golden.  Add the cooked, Maggi'ed noodles and toss in the butter and garlic.  They'll want to clump up so use some tongs and break them up.

4.  Turn up the heat.  Leave the noodles alone for a bit until the bottom layer browns.  Toss the noodles around and allow the new bottom layer to again brown.  Repeat the process a few more times.  The noodles aren't supposed to be crisp so don't go too far!

DONE!

Time-- Very little.  15 minutes.

Food Cost: Noodles--$1.00
Incidentals--$0.75
Total--$1.75...recipe says serves 4 as a side dish...or one hungry Budget College Cook for lunch.

Lemongrass Marinated Pork

This is going to be a quickie post where I give you a pretty standard marinade I use for grilled pork. I usually make lettuce wraps with the pork but sometimes, like tonight, I just want a plate of fresh rice and pork.

Pork. I'm unsure what cut this is...All I know is that I was at the Asian market and I saw an unmarked cut of pork. I checked it out and noticed that it had a terrific looking mix of fat to lean so I asked the butcher where on the pig it was from. He didn't speak English so he grabbed another butcher. This butcher just pointed to his face. I assume cutlets of pig face? Who knows. Anyhow, it looked terrific and was thin so I decided to grill it. This is a little under a pound of meat. You could also use thin loin cutlets or thin pork chops. Given that I was at the Asian market, I grabbed stuff for a Vietnamese marinade.

The marinade: Half of a grated onion, 2 cloves of grated garlic, 3-4 tablespoons of finely chopped lemongrass, a tablespoon of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoons of brown sugar, a powerful shake of white pepper, a teaspoon of curry powder and 3 tablespoons of oil. Mix well, combine with the pork. I usually marinate this overnight.

I am using a grill pan. I let the thing heat up for 15 minutes over high heat. I want it good and hot...just set a timer and walk away. Remove the pork from the marinade and try to wipe off the excess marinade. The sugar will burn so you need to be careful. Dry the meat off and slap onto the heated grill. Let it sit for 3 minutes, undisturbed. Don't peak, don't touch it. Nothing. After three minutes, rotate the meat. This will give you those cool hatch marks. After the second 3 minute set, flip the meat over and...voila!
Cook the second side in a similar fashion to the first side.

Let the meat rest for 5 minutes. This is enough time to quickly saute some bean sprouts.
Cut the meat...it'll still be slightly pink:
Here's a fun garnish...take a lime wedge and stick the wedge part, not the rind, in salt...get it nicely coated. When you squeeze the lime over the meat, it'll take some salt with it. Delicious, trust me.

Since I'm trying to be more veggie-centric, here was my dinner:
Three small slices of meat, rice, bean sprouts with an Indonesian sambal (homemade!) and lemongrass braised long beans. Mmmmmm. And no, the picture isn't supposed to be artfully presented. It is what it is.

Pork Riblets Simmered in Caramel Sauce

This dish is another exploration into Vietnamese cooking and, out of all the recipes in Into The Vietnamese Kitchen, I chose to cook it because, hey, I am a sucker for ribs. And the technique seemed interesting and educational. So, a winner on all fronts. That the end result is delicious (and affordable!) is an additional bonus.

Pork ribs! One slab, St. Louis style spareribs...about 3.5 pounds. I had them cut in half. Imagine a slab of ribs with the bones aligned vertically. Bisect ACROSS the bones (left to right)...have the butcher do this for you. I am trimming off some of the more obvious bits of fat. Cut the ribs between the bones into individual pieces.
Marinate the ribs overnight using 3/4 of a grated onion, 1.5 tablespoons of sugar and 4 tablespoons of fish sauce.
Cook's treat: Grilled pork trimmings with a meyer lemon, sugar, fish sauce, chili paste dipping sauce...sooooooo good.The next day, build a grill or preheat the broiler. I used the broiler. Scrape off the excess marinade (but don't throw it away!) and line the ribs on a tray and broil until slightly charred. Before:
After:
Flip the ribs over to char the other side.

Time to make the caramel sauce. Let me warn you: MAKING CARAMEL CAN BE DANGEROUS! BOILING SUGAR IS MUCH, MUCH HOTTER THAN BOILING WATER SO PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!! Add 1/4 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a pan. Turn heat to low. It's going to take a while but the caramel goes from this:
to this:to this:
When it's coffee colored, drop it into a sink which is full of water. It'll help cool the pan down so the caramel stops cooking and doesn't burn. When the pot is in the sink, add 3/4 cup of water. The sugar will furiously bubble when you throw in the water but this will also help with the cooling process.
At this point, some of caramel will have solidified so put it back on the stove over medium heat to help dissolve the sugar:
Voila!
Chuck the charred ribs into a pot along with the reserved marinade. Add 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 7 tablespoons of the caramel sauce and plenty of cracked black pepper. Add enough water to just cover.Bring the pot to a boil. See how that weird scum forms? Skim it off.
Drop the heat to a bare simmer and cover. I use a sheet of foil to create an even tighter seal between the lid and the pot.
Simmer for 45 minutes. Then open the lid and cook for 20 more. Take out a rib and eat it. Is it tender? If not, simmer for 20 minutes more.

Done!
Time- Not much. Prep will take around 10 minutes. Grilling takes no time at all, just leave them in the broiler and check on the ribs every now and then. Making the caramel sauce can take some time but it's easy...just let the sugar melt and caramelize. Simmering is simmering. Maybe 2 hours total, 30 of which is active work.

Food Cost-
Ribs- $7.10
Incidentals- $0.30
Total- $$7.40...will make many, many ribs. 3.5 pounds worth!

Bahn Mi

There are some things that I absolutely can not refrain from purchasing. Err, there are many things that I can't resist buying but I'm only here to talk about bahn mi. Bahn mi is a Vietnamese sandwich. There are usually a few common denominators in these sandwiches such as pickled carrots/daikon, fresh cilantro, green chiles and cucumbers. Usually, mayo and pate are standard. Your pick of proteins include chicken, pork, meatballs etc. They're usually no more than $3.00 and are often quite delicious. Because they are so inexpensive, I ALWAYS buy one just so I know whether that sandwich shop is any good.

I ordered a bbq pork sandwich from the shop at the corner of 7th (I think) and Clement St. BBQ pork usually means one of two things: charbroiled pork or Chinese roast bbq pork. In this case, it was the charbroiled version. This brings with it a few problems. The first is that the char flavor usually isn't strong enough. The second is that the pork can sometimes be a bit dry. This pork suffered from both. As you can see from the pic, the sandwich is stuffed with all of the usually items. More importantly, the bread was great. My one requirement for bahn mi is that the bread must shatter when you bite into it. This bread did. So, given that the bread is good and the chiles, pickled veggies and all that are present, I'll give the shop another go. However, I'll go with something other than the bbq pork.

BTW, my gold standard for bahn mi is this restaurant here. If you are in San Francisco and haven't been, go. Absolutely go. The meatball and the BBQ pork sandwiches are to die for. Sooooo good. My favorite sandwiches of all time. And only 2 dollars.