Ramen is going through something of a renaissance, a resurgence. Whether on the kitschy side with ramen burgers or the explosion of ramen joints in NYC, most notably Ivan Ramen on the Lower East Side, the food world is paying attention again to those squiggly noodles in broth. And for the first time in years, we’re seeing new entrants to the ramen market on grocery store shelves, like Lotus Foods’ Rice Ramen.
Cracking open an 85-pound wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano is no simple task. On Saturday, Whole Foods hosted events across the US, Canada and UK, with stores cracking open more than 400 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano. This year's event at Whole Foods Market Bellevue saw three competitors taking on the task and there was a clear cut winner. A look at the festivities, including the crackin' in action, after the jump.
The thing about pizza it's easy to fall into a toppings rut. You can never go wrong with a good, basic slice of pepperoni with red sauce, but what about when you don't have any tomatoes or jarred marinara on hand? No sauce? No problem. Open the fridge. You got some jam or fruit butter in there? Now hold on, I'm not suggesting we go all peanut butter and jelly on this pizza, though I did have it once in the '80s at a place in Pacific Grove, CA. No, this week's Friday Night Slice is uncured Columbus Genoa salame, mozzarella and fig butter. You get a bit of the sweet from the fruit butter and a little salty from the salame.
Top it after baking with some grated parmesan and a sprinkle of chopped Italian parsley.
The other night Wolf and I were watching House of Cards and talking about Kevin Spacey. We’re doling out the episodes, one per evening rather than gorging on the whole season. When was it that Kevin Spacey broke out? We reckoned it was the trifecta of The Ref, Usual Suspects and Swimming with Sharks that really put him on the map. Two years later, in 1997, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out. Now I admit, I haven’t seen this film in years, and really all I could remember about it was that it was set in New Orleans. So I looked it up on IMDB and I haven’t stopped laughing since. Look at that ‘stache!
Once the library was where I went for story hour, sitting in a semi-circle around the librarian, listening enthralled as books were read to us in sing-songy, “everything-is-aaaaahhhhmazing” tones, every sentence curled like a springy ringlet. When I could read on my own, it became a weekly stop for the summer reading program, all the books I’d finished logged in careful large print, each awaiting a star sticker at the end of its row. Later, as a “Volun-teen,” I spent part of the summer in the air conditioned glory of the basement children’s department, shelving books, learning the Dewey decimal system and handing out gold star stickers.
Then, like an old toy left behind, I lost touch with the library as a place of reading pleasure. College will do that to you. The library became a place to study, look up information in the Congressional Record, search articles on microfiche, Xerox stuff and steal kisses in the stacks. You go there when you have to, and for several years, I bought books here and there, without giving the library, college or otherwise, another thought.
Toying with chocolate chip cookie recipes has started something dangerous. It’s not the just having cookies around…it’s the dough. The current wisdom calls for aging the dough in the fridge for 24-36 hours. But unless you hide it in the back of the fridge, it’s impossible not to nibble. And this is only the first go – a chocolate chip cookie with red miso buttercream.
The About page and the front page of a blog only tell you so much. Really, it's just the last four or five things the author was thinking about -- a snapshot of a few moments in time. With nominations for the Kitchn's Homie Awards under way, this may be the first time you're reading the DailyWaffle, so hi, and thanks for stopping by.
So what's the story here? The DailyWaffle is a not-so daily (more like twice a week) blog focused on modern home cooking, sharing seasonal discoveries and food you’d really make and eat.
And that's important. I'm a home cook and I work a full-time job so I'm aiming for are dishes and recipes that are accessible and appealing to the home cook. As a consumer of food and food writing, I’m not interested in retreads of basic recipes you’ve seen on Pinterest a thousand times already -- been there, done that, right? Let's update some of those old favorites. Let’s use ingredients in a way you might not expect. That caramel at the top? Made with soy sauce and sugar. I wouldn't call this an Asian food blog by any stretch, but you'll see a lot of what I share is influenced by my half-Japanese heritage -- it's a mix of American standards with Asian flavors thrown in.
You don't have to buy canned cream of chicken soup. I'm embarrassed to say this notion only just occurred to me. Instead, I've generally avoided any and all casseroles that call for either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup. Chalk it up to the childhood trauma that is tuna casserole (and the extreme amounts of sodium). Continuing that lightning bolt, you can make what is basically cream of chicken soup – a béchamel with part chicken broth, part milk. That’s exactly what went down with this King Ranch Casserole.
