Coming to terms with my budding Tonkotsu addiction

You see this picture on the right? This abso-fuckin-lutely beautiful, awe-inspiring, foodie boner-inducing photograph of a bowl of tonkotsu ramen? I have amazingly vivid dreams about this bowl; with its pork-based broth, bejeweled with tiny droplets of pork fat, its thin slices of pork, its hanjuku tamago, (egg soft-boiled in rice vinegar and soy sauce,) and of course, the ramen noodles. Not the nineteen cent dried bricks of noodles you get at the supermarket, but real, fresh made ramen noodles cooked ever so slightly beyond al dente. Cover it with some chopped scallions and call it done. No need for special toppings nor special sauces. Even sriracha is completely unnecessary, (normally I would find such thought blasphemous.)  Like a fiery, passionate lover, it will seduce you, intoxicate you, and leave you starving for more. Eat this and you will spend an inordinate amount of time not wanting anything else.

I get mine from Umami Ramen and Dumpling Bar here in Madison. It's pretty damned good. I wouldn't say it's great, though. It occasionally suffers from consistency issues and it is really the only trick in town for real ramen. This is most unfortunate in that I see a movement in the U.S. to educate people about real ramen. Most major cities have a bustling ramen scene these days and Americans are starting to see ramen for what it can truly be...

...delicious!

Make it local: the best thing I've put in my mouth in quite awhile

The picture on your right is Poutine with Foie Gras. If you don't know what poutine or foie gras is, I suggest you look it up. I love these two things separately. Put them together, and it becomes one of the best things I've ever eaten, period.

Here in Madison, you can find this lovely dish at A Pig in a Fur Coat. It's a newer restaurant on Willy St. that occupies the space that used to be the now defunct La Rocca's Pizza. It's one of those new gastronomic ventures that somewhat defies the conventional restaurant format. It doesn't confine itself to any specific ethnicity. Nor does it present itself as any type of "fusion", whether referring to ethnicity or cooking style. They simply use local ingredients whenever possible and cook great food without overthinking their menu and without any pretense. It embodies everything I want in a restaurant: immaculately prepared food, local ingredients, but in a casual setting. It's a place where I can eat foie gras without having to worry about which fork to use and whether or not I'm dressed appropriately. It's an indulgence without it being a special occasion.  It's haute cuisine in blue jeans.

And I love it.

The basics

So, I am a Facebook junkie. I spend WAY too much time perusing its confines, reading people's mundane daily life adventures, stalking their photos, and giggling at the funny memes they post that I saw on Reddit two months previous. Occasionally, someone of my acquaintance posts something that gets me thinking. Today, for instance, my cousin on my mom's side, Kory, posted a question: 

"What are 5-10 of the most common food items that you have in your fridge/ kitchen at any given time?"

That got me thinking...what do I ALWAYS have in my cupboards and fridge? What do I consider "basics" for my daily culinary needs? I spouted off five of six items in the comments without much thought to it and I wish I hadn't. I wish I had pondered the thought further. I know she was looking for answers partly because she has some immediate ideas mulling about inside her head concerning food. For me, the idea has turned into an academic exercise with broader implications. I wonder what kinds of regional differences one would see if you asked this question of people from around the country, around the world! How has my own idea of what constitutes "basics" changed over the past 10 years? 20 years?

Here's a list of the top ten items I always have in my cupboards/refrigerator:

1. Rice
2. Noodles
3. Butter
4. Flour
5. Sriracha
6. Sugar
7. Potatoes
8. Spices
9. Salt
10. Oil

What's in your cupboards that you cannot do without?

New year, new experiences

If there's one thing I absolutely love doing, it's trying new restaurants. I liken it to the "thrill of the chase", finding a new place that I deem worthy of my hard-earned food dollars, or a new dish that I will rave about ad nauseum and try multiple times unsuccessfully to recreate at home. Some of these restaurants are brand new, recently opened. Some are established kitchens that I haven't gotten around to trying for one reason or another, (mostly because they're pricey, but I do miss restaurants from time to time.) I just knocked one off of my list recently: Forequarter, the Underground Food Collective's current restaurant. I took a date there last week with high expectations and they didn't disappoint. I have a list of Madison restaurants I want to try in 2013:

L'Etoile - a Madison institution that is also it's most expensive
Nostrano - a relative newcomer, but has established itself well out of the gate
Merchant - I'm not sure how I've missed coming to this place. I've known about it for awhile
Quivey's Grove - an old standby of many people I know
Greenbush Bar - I'm a sucker for Italian food
Red Sushi - my foodie friends have been raving about this one
Sushi Muramoto - anything involving Shinji Muramoto is going to be good, period
Swagat - new Indian restaurant on the west side



So, what restaurants do YOU want to try in 2013? Go on! Be adventurous!

Make it local. Episode 2: Food carts for the masses.

Despite Madison being the 82nd largest city in the United States, it does have a pretty vibrant food cart scene. Between Library Mall and the Capital square, there are quite a few choices in terms of ethnic cuisines and styles. My current favorite on Library Mall is Surco, a Peruvian cart that serves the best Chicken Adobo over cilantro rice and green lentils. I buy a half-order and a soda for lunch and it sets me back $6. So damned tasty!

Speaking of food carts, Madison is celebrating it's food cart scene with Isthmus ala Carts. It's at Olin Park on Friday, May 11, 2012. 4-8pm $15 in advance or $20 at the gate gets you all the food you can eat. All of the participating carts will be serving sampler-sized portions of their best dishes. Try out any and all of the carts you like for one low price. I will most likely be there! Come say hi to me!

Monsanto: the company you love to hate.

Those of us in the food 'blogosphere' have spent countless hours hating Monsanto and everything they stand for. They are the largest crop seed company in the world. They make bio-engineered seeds with their patented pesticides. They were one of the major players in the production of the defoliant Agent Orange, (along with Dow Chemical) We've read the stories of farmer's, who themselves never bought Monsanto seed, being sued by the company because their non-Monsanto seed had cross-pollinated with Monsanto seed, giving their crops the 'advantages' those seeds claimed and were patented. Farmer's who have run into this dilemma have been given a choice, switch to Monsanto seed or allow your fields to go fallow and replant the following season. Most farmer's have capitulated and signed contracts to buy Monsanto seed long term. Those who stood up and fought have been crushed under the weight of a massive multinational corporation and a legal system that protects the interests of large businesses over small ones.

I bring this up for two reasons: 1.) This article about another class-action lawsuit won by Monsanto. And 2.) The term that is always brought up when discussing Monsanto, 'GM crops'.

Genetically modified crops have gotten a bad rap lately and I wish they would find another technical term that could be applied to what Monsanto creates. We have been genetically altering crops for thousands of years. What Monsanto does is make seeds by creating an artificial DNA sequence and embedding it into the plant's genome. This embeds the company's patented pesticides right into the genome. This HAS proved effective at increasing crop yields and made them drought resistant, but it has also created superbugs, who are resistant to the pesticides, and legal headaches for farmers and anyone associated with them.

I could probably write a 20+ page paper on this topic, but I'll save it for a future class. Have a great weekend!

Inspiration can be so random sometimes.

Case in point: I had mentioned yesterday the idea of Slow Food UW starting their own food cart. I had read a post on Facebook from the Vendy Awards that had a link to this story about food truck lobbying in Philadelphia and it mentions this guy, Andrew Gerson, who's spearheading this movement. What struck me about the guy wasn't his activism, but where he went to school and the title of his master's thesis.He went to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Turin, Italy. Not a gastronomic sciences department at some university, an entire fucking university!!!! God, I love the Italians! And the title of his thesis? "Food Trucks Can be Utilized to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Environments." I so wish I could find this thesis and read it! Maybe I should write this guy. Anyway, the title makes so much sense to me. What better way is there, (besides farmer's markets) to promote local, sustainable foodstuffs at the ground level than a food cart? I haven't had a chance to talk much with the Slow Food UW kids yet. Perhaps I should pass this idea on to them when I do.

I do wonder, though, is this an idea worth trying? Besides the obvious learning curve, start up costs, licensing, etc., what could keep this from working?