Old (Food) Stomping Ground

From The Washington Post Food and Dining Section, an article on the ethnic foods to be found in Wheaton, Md—When in Wheaton.

This Maryland girl is glad to see Wheaton has gotten its due on the food front. Growing-up in the area, I can personally attest to the many wonderful ethnic restaurants within its borders. While some places from my youth are no longer and new ones have opened up since I've moved to the West Coast, the article's accompanying map mentions a few sentimental favorites: Full Kee, Suporn's, and Asian Foods.

In my humble opinion, Full Kee makes some of the best wonton noodle soup east of the Mississippi—theirs is the one I compare all others too. They were also my go-to late night food place when I lived in Maryland. Suporn's remains one of my favorite Thai restaurants, and the article is spot on when it says they make "killer curries". Until this day, I still have great fondness for their Thai Green curry with chicken, and as with other wonton noodle soups and Full Kee's, I compare other Thai restuarants' curries to Suporn's. My experience with Asian Foods was more as a grocery store than a take-out place. Not a month would go by when my parents wouldn't drive over to there to stock up on Asian produce and products; trips there were as regular as trips to Safeway and Giant.

Chicken Soup for a Cold

When I'm sick, my body seems to have a mind of its own as to what it will let me eat. Solid food becomes completely out of the questions unless it's drowning in clear soup that invariably has to be chicken; and even then, most of the meat and vegetables gets pushed aside as I try to keep up with the copious amounts of liquids my sore throat demands.

I caught my first cold last weekend and consequentially I made my first pot of chicken soup for this year's cold & flu season. My chicken soup is a 2-step process that begins with boiling a whole (skinless) chicken in a pot of water with many slices of ginger, a few thick peels of lemon, a couple stalks of celery, and one bay leaf. Once the chicken is cooked, it's removed from what is now chicken stock. The chicken is cooled on a plate and the stock keeps boiling. You could strain the stock at this point before continuing, but I didn't—couldn't be bothered in my tired, somewhat miserable state.

Chopped vegetables are added to the stock. I use the classics for chicken soup: carrots, celery, and onions. I also throw in a ton of freshly grated ginger. If you're looking for a measurement, I would say, at least, a good heaping tablespoon—I'm a believer in the restorative powers of ginger, plus I think it tastes good, too. For a little starch, I added diced potatoes, but egg noodles are also a good choice, too, thus becoming chicken noodle soup.

Keep boiling until the vegetables are tender. Also salt and pepper to taste. Finally, add the chicken that has been pulled from the bone and shredded. The amount is up to you, but I don't use much and always have leftover poached chicken that I use for other things later. Also add finely chopped fresh herbs at this time—I like Italian flat leaf parsley.

Bring the soup to a boil again and serve steaming hot. The amount feeds more than one, so I had leftovers for the next day.

But chicken soup is good anytime, whether or not you're nursing a cold.


Addendum
And speaking of flu and food, here's an article from the Food and Dining section of The Washington Post for your reading pleasure—Fight Flu with Tradition.

Stress Reducing Brownies

Sometimes when I’m stressed and restless, I bake to try to relieve my nervous energy. I like this brownie recipe because it uses a few simple ingredients, yet the divine combination of butter, chocolate, and sugar creates a dense brownie with enough fudgy goodness to soothe any bad mood.

I work from a recipe from Rosie’s Bakery Chocolate-Packed, Jam Filled, Butter-Rich, No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book with a couple caveats. It’s a nuts optional recipe, but I’m firmly anti-nuts when it comes to brownies. Nothing should interfere with the fudge-like texture of a brownie—I feel strongly about this, a nut-studded brownie won’t pass through my lips. And I fold a cup of mini-chocolate chips into the mix after the flour is incorporated to increase the chocolate richness that defines a classic fudge brownie.



My New Brownie

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350º degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter or oil. I also flour my pan.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.

Place sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl, add the chocolate mixture, and mix with an electric mixer until blended. Scrape bowl with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, blending until incorporated after each addition. Then scrape the bowl and blend mixture until velvety.

Add flour on low speed. I like to fold in the flour with a spatula and I add a pinch of salt to the flour before I mix it. Stir in nuts, if desired.

Pour batter in pan and spread evenly. Bake brownies in the middle rack until the center rises and cracks, and tester inserted in the middle comes out with moist crumbs, about 35 minutes.

Remove the pan from oven and place on a rack to cool before cutting into even squares. I prefer to invert the brownie out of the pan and cut on a flat surface.

Pre-show Pasta

I have a theater subscription; and while I enjoy seeing a good play, it's also an excuse—as if I need one—to try out different restaurants before a show. My most recent pre-theater meal was at the Pitfire Pizza Co. where I had a satisfying plate of pasta, chicken and wild mushroom linguini.

The pasta gets kudos from me for being well-made and well priced. I'm usually wary of any pasta prepared with cream for fear the sauce is like oily glue that sticks to the noodles—I've been scared by bad cream sauces and there's such a thing as too much cream in my book. But, I had no cause for concern with this dish. The cream was applied with a light hand and merely finished the dish, rounding off the fresh flavors of the chicken, mushrooms, and green onions, as opposed the drowning everything in fat. And $ 9 dollars is a good deal for a plate of pasta in LA, especially when fancier Italian restaurants start their pasta prices in the mid-teens.

Like its name says, Pitfire Pizza Co. also has pizzas, so a repeat performance might be in order for me to try one—another pre-show meal before my next play. In this critic's opinioon, the place is worthy of encore.

P.S. I can also recommend the play I saw that night—Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, starring Cherry Jones.


Pitfire Pizza Co.
108 W. 2nd St. at Main
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213)808-1200
www.pitfirepizza.com
Also a location in Hollywood

Ramen to the Rescue

The other day I ran out of foodstuff in my fridge, and not wanting to grocery shop on an empty stomach, I gather 2 co-workers for an impromptu dinner before my habitual late night run on the supermarket. Deciding what and where to eat was a bit of negotiation, but fortunately there was a reasonable ramen place we could all get behind—who doesn't like noodle soup in a bowl big enough to drown in for under $ 8 dollars?

Ramenya has a type of ramen for all tastes, ranging from the traditional ramen with roast pork to their take on Thai tom yum soup—both of which I've tried on different occasions. But this night I wanted soup with substance, so I order #37 on menu, i.e. spicy egg drop soup with ramen.

The thick soup hovered above the ramen like a pool of soft custard—minus the milk and sugar, of course. I filled up on soup—a meal unto itself—before I got down to the noodles, which had a springy texture that held up well against the heavy broth. It was a most hearty meal. I ended up taking more than half of it home where it fed me 2 more times.


Ramenya
11555 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90015
(310) 575-9337

Note: It's cash only.

Cookie Itch

I got the itch to bake last Friday night after other plans to go out didn't materialize. And I always keep a bag of chocolate chips in the house for such situations. I didn't have any pecans—my preferred nut when baking—so tossed in a bag of dried cherries instead. I like the combination of chocolate and fruit, but missed having nuts, too.

It was also a new recipe for me from Afternoon Delights, and I doubled it to use all my chips. If I were to do it again, I would cut back on the flour a scant. I prefer a moister, chewier cookie and these were more crumbly than I like.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup pecans or walnuts, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix and set aside. In another bowl, combine butter and sugars. Beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and blend well. Add flour mixture at low speed, mixing until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop heaping teaspoon of batter onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for approx. 15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown. Repeat until all the dough is used.

Cool cookies on a rack. Store in an airtight container.

Eat as you wish—anytime, day or night.