THe Best Of The Best

This is the time of year for lists. Everyone has them. what was their favorite restaurants? Or meals? Or even desserts. There have been countless compilations of what's tasty and good. Here's a fun guide to them.

Yesterday's New York Times Food section has compiled a pretty extensive coast to coast. list. This is perfect for people who are visiting the area or just discovering what's just around the corner. There are some newcomer's mentioned in Manhattan, the mecca of good food and gourmet dining. What stood out this year?The Vietnamese newcomer Banh Anh Em. diners love its' signature crackly golden loaves to make such sandwiches filled with barbecued pork and rib eye steak.Another Vietnamese eatery  that fused with French  flavor is HR's Snack bar , owned by husband and wife team, Anthony Ha and his wife Saf=die Mae Burns -Ha. Hr's gives Pho onion soup and chanterelle toast., take on avocado toast. There's also a tangy carrot salad and to finish an espresso granita.Chinatown gives Sunn's.a Korean drop in place where diners can get small plates of rice and a variety of spicy eggplant and marinated mushrooms.The four star Smithereens may sound intimidating and even scary but the restaurant is a comforting drop in with New England seafood dishes. They offer a taste of summer in winter. Seaweed is as prevalent as lobster. .It's in it's butter and in its'delicate crudos.

Another standout list is the coast to coast one of great desserts.They come from such diverse areas as Maine and the Pacific Northwest. Yes, the restaurants have good food  but its' their endings that make people happy. Mcloon's Lobster Shack may have grilled clams and classic lobster roll but there is also their standout blueberry bread pudding.It's dotted with white chocolate chips and served with a vanilla custard sauce. Houston Gives the exotic konofa, , gooey cheese under a sticky sweet layer of semolina.Michigan is known for it's cherries.Beulah Michigan 's Cherry Hut has a standout cherry pie.It's a full quarter(!!!!) served in a old fashioned flaky lard crust.Diners looking for a good Southern icebox cake should visit Bayonet's in North Birmingham, Alabama.This seafood based restaurant has the summery flavor of watermelon infused semifreddo.Diced fruit and watermelon granita crown it while a quenelle of frozen creme fraiche is added. New Yorkers can enjoy fiery Caribbean cuisine at Kabawa but it;'s the giant coconut turnover that's the star. It's Cinnabon with an island twist, and even has a rich coconut infused  cream cheese frosting on top.

These are some of the best of the best. Go to these restaurants. Try them out. ENjoy and see if theymake any lists.

 

Cooking Holidays

 Foodie sand gourmands have one thing on their mindc- creating the perfect dish. Even their vacations revolve around the perfect dish.Luckily there are vacations for those who love food > They 're everywhere from Tuscany to Cambodia.

How do you find  cooking holidays? The obvious answer is online. There are many to choose from so pick one that sings to you.The top countries foodies want to go to is France and Italy. THere are packages that feature four days in Normandy for $4000. This is i a crash course where you learn everything. from balancing to more elaborate cooking methods.All three meals are included as well.Some cooking schools are located in farmhouses so there students can pick their ingredients along with retrieving fresh eggs for dishes and desserts. There is also a Normandy pastry vacation where students can learn all the intricacies of French pastry making , form mille feulles to croissants.Of course Italy is another desired location  and there foodies and gourmands can be shown the intricacies of making a good homemade pasta along with the various sauces.Th Italian trip also features talking with local artesans , from wine makers to cheese makers and discerning how to buy the best.

More exotic locales can also be found too. Cambodia offered culinary trips. There foodies and home chefs learn about Khmer cuisine. These also include trips to local markets to become familiar with and shop for important ingredients. A Cambodian cooking vacation is actually cheaper than a European one. A few days is $2700 , as opposed to an Italian one of $5000. There is also a twelve day culinary tour of Vietnam which features seeing Hanoi with a well known food blogger and trying everything from pho to egg coffee.It['s mot just Southeast Asia that features culinary vacations. India offers a few interesting trips throughout the country. There is a three day culinary tour at Agra which also highlights a trip to the Taj Mahal. Four dishes will be featured along with breakfast, lunch and dinner included.Another Indian culinary trip features food walks in such famed cities as Dehli, Jaipur and Agra. A plus on this tour is an introduction to Indian spices which is important when the students return home and recreate the dishes.

A vacation is fun. A cooking vacation is just special. Think about taking one sometime this summer for a fun and tasty trip.

Recipe Queen Or Trouble Maker

 Tiegan Gerard is a dichotomy. Some see her as the queen of cozy recipes. other see her as a racist trouble maker of sorts . One thign is for certain. She is one of the growing culinary stars of Instagram. Celebrity and ordinary home chefs value her word and how she puts together dishes.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about this latest social media phenom in today's New York Times Wednesday  Food section. Her Half Baked harvest site draws in scores of recipe hungry admirers and followers , all looking for an easy recipe. Thanks to  star fans such as Emma Roberts,Gigi and Bella Hadid and Blake Lively who all extolled her recipes. Ms Gerard has becoming something of a celebrity herself.Her recipes are both approachable and aspirational. It started as a chronicle of the big family dinners Ms. Gerard cooked for her large slew of brothers and sisters. Her lifelong anxieties have kept her near to them in the Colorado Rockies, with her rarely leaving the area. (save for when her brother Red Gerard won gold at the Pywoingchang South Korea Olympics) To be honst think of her as a culinary Emily Dickinson where both, small almost fragile women who  became famous because of their work along with  never leaving home. Like Dickinson she has a loyal cadre of followers , mostly women betweeh the ages of twenty-five and forty-four.

However Ms. Gerard is not without controversies and pretty serious ones too.Her recipes can be racially and ethnically insensitive. Her blunders were calling tacos with pineapple Hawaiian and noodles with honey and peanut butter Chinese. Her biggest error to date regards pho, the classic Vietnamese soup. Her recipe was wildly unrelated to the original and received flack. it happened again with a banh mi rice bowl,last March so much that NBC News covered it. Another mistake was creating a Thai beef stew and adding pomegranate juice, a typically MIddle Eastern ingredient.Many have called her out on this, such as Hannah Selinger who writes a bout food and restaurants. Bloggers  like Gaby Salkin of What's Gaby Cooking and Adrianna Guevara Adarme , creator ot A Cozy Kitchen have accused her of stealing their recipes. At the very least give credit to where the recipes originated - a standard practice amongst food bloggers. Other critics say her unearned privledge comes from her whiteness and wealth. She now has a small team to deal with all the negative criticism. How are her recipes anyway?Ms. Moskin includes her coq au vin meatballs and a pumpkin spice cake with coffee frosting. They look tasty enough and good for any fall dinner party.

Is Tieghan Gerard the new face of Americna cooking. Surprpsingly yes. It's the followers that m,ake the chef  - which is her story.Only time can tell whether she will be a long lasting influence.

Leftover Fun

Most Americans are probably staring at all the leftovers in their fridges right now. What to do with all that turkey, stuffing and sides? Create some tasty sides and fun new dishes with the old ones.

Most have what's left of a small to midsize turkey right now. Of course you've been through all the sandwiches right now , from hot with gravy and bread to cold with tomatoes and mayo. You could take a tip from The New York Times Food section and make turkey tamales. A variety of chiles are used to make the meat more flavorful (although turkey doesn't need this) along with tomatillos and cilantro. The tamales have the classic corn and husk coverings, softened with either chicken or turkey broth. You could also make tacos with the meat using cold shredded turkey and the usual taco fillings such as sliced tomatoes and shredded lettuce. Add a dab of mayo to moisten the meat too, eliminating some of its' dryness. A hot soup is great for right now and again leftover turkey fills that bill. Think a rich cream of turkey soup, made heartier and creamier with the addition of half and half. Rice or orzo can be added too along with carrots and peas. Turkey pho is a different spin. The meat's earthiness will work well with the five spices, brown sugar and fish sauce.

What about the stuffing and sides? Again the New York Times suggests turning the stuffing into dumplings. It's mixing your leftover stuffing with eggs, flour and baking powder and then dropping them into a turkey soup, complete with repurposed sweet potatoes. Yet , what about just cooking the dumplings in turkey stock and have them swim in left over gravy as a delicious side. They can also be turned into cups, filled with turkey, peas and sliced carrots along with gravy for an instant version of turkey pot pie.  You could also flatten the stuffing , frying it into two circles and make a stuffing panini with it. Fill with turkey and gravy. As for those leftover sweet potatoes,, turn them into puffs. It's mashing them with eggs , flour and salt and then frying or air frying them. These make for a tasty lunch or fun dinner. Sweet potato mash can also be used for waffles too.They'd be a great side with fried chicken or even turkey. Greens such broccoli and green beans can be repurposed into tasty salads , dressed with a simple vinaigrette.

Thanksgiving leftovers provide such a wide variety of tasty new dishes. Get creative with that bird and sweet potatoes. Make something exciting with that stuffing and broccoli. It's a whole new table of delicious dishes.

A Slice Of Wine Country Wine Country Table

Amidst all the holiday stress it's nice to escape, especially to a region where wine rules. For those of us who can't take a quick trip there's Wine Country Table With Recipes That Celebrate  California's Sustainable Harvest that salutes all wines and produce Californian,. It is a gorgeous combination of a coffee table book and cookbook. The pictures are amazing . The recipes even more so.

Janet Fletcher wrote this interesting book (Rizzoli Publishing 2019) on the various sections of the California vineyard regions. It is a beautiful collection of pictures worthy of just looking at but also worthy trying out the recipes. Ms. Fletcher has written a variety of other cookbooks, from Yogurt : Sweet and Savory Recipes For Breakfast Lunch and Dinner to Fresh From The Farmer's Market.  She has won  a James Beard award for food journalism as well as teaching cooking and cheese appreciation classes across the country.(She also writes a  column on cheese for Specialty Food magazine and has created her own weekly blog Cheese Planet). Her descriptions of the various regions from the Napa Valley to SoCal are lush and inviting. The accompanying photos are too. I loved just looking at the pictures of the wineries and fields along with the beautifully photographed dishes. Another reason to like the book is that it's not just grapes. Ms. Fletcher also includes sections on pears,plums, asparagus , and even olive oil along with other California crops. These are incorporated in the many recipes too. Flowers are included too,  as mentioned in the Resendiz Brothers Protea Growers. The protea is a spiky pink flower that grows exclusively in the California desert.The book is also good for those planning Spring wine tasting trips because wineries are highlighted in great detail. I would love to visit the Francis Ford Coppola Winery which also has movie memorabilia to view along with good  on site restaurants and a relaxing pool.

The recipes reflect each area and the crops harvested there. The section on pears has an interesting mixed chicory salad with pears and blue cheese. I want to make a variation of this for my Christmas Eve dinner.Since California is home to the Gilroy Garlic Festival, Ms. Fletcher includes a  Gilroy garlic and potato soup, another must make , that has Spanish smoked paprika and saffron perfuming and flavoring it. Of course avocados figure in this as well. There are three recipes, each perfect. One is Dungeness Crab and Avocado Toastados, a nod to California's Mexican past along with Grass Fed Burger with Avocado and Chipotle Mayonnaise and Scallop Crudo with Avocado and Pink Peppercorns. The states multi-ethnic groups are also represented in these recipes. There is pho, the Vietnamese soup, brought by the many Vietnamese immigrants who settled in 1980's California and pizza, a nod to the many Italian vintners who brought the industry to the state. Desserts are here as well. A refreshing dish would be the strawberry sherbet with sparkling wine recipe. It's a frozen slush of strawberries and kirsch splashed with sparkling wine. I would love to try the apple galette with honey ice cream and the Zinfandel poached pears with marscapone cheese. A plus to all the recipes is the suggestion of what wine would go best with them.

Wine Country Table: With Recipes That Celebrate California's Sustainable Harvest is the perfect escape when winter and the holidays become too much. Relish the lush pictures of fields of California's best crops, read about the different recipes and wineries. Enjoy this book - this literary vacation from 
all that stress.

Food Treks

Foodies love to try all sorts of different food. They travel the globe enjoying the flavors of a country. It may be pasta in Tuscany or sushi in Osaka. Travel companies and guides have  up picked up on this and now offering food based trips. It goes far and wide, from walrus meat in Siberia to blackeyed pea stew in Ghana.

New York Times restaurant critic ,Ligaya Mishan, took a break from writing reviews to explore the new trend in foodie traveling. We have Anthony Bourdain to thank for this adventurous spirit. He gave Americans the courage and curiosity to go off the beaten path while on vacation and sample street fare and trying tasting menus in private homes. Attempts to follow Chef Bourdain's itinerary are typically orchestrated by by small, indy tour operators. They also have roots in the place so they know to bring visitors to home chefs selling pho from their kitchens or small business owners that also make sandwiches or kabobs on  a small stove at the back of their shops.Now international tour  companies are taking notice and planning their own culinary treks. One of the highest profile  contenders, the Monacan based Silversea, who has just partnered with cruise giant Royal Caribbean has planned a new 596 (!) passenger ship built expressly for culinary voyages.It will have a test kitchen that doubles as a clubhouse. However that launches a year from now in 2020.

Gastro-pilgrims, as they're sometimes called, won't wait. There are so many different tours right now, catering to the whopping ninety-three percent (!)food travelers.These are people who are not satisfied with local buffets. They want cooking  classes in Oaxaca, and even trips to floating markets like the one in Kashmir. More and more tour operators are  also trying to give these travelers a sense of substance of the lives of their chefs and servers.Mexico City food tour coordinator, Rocio Vazquez Landeta of Eat Like A Local is conscious of the class discrepancy between her tourists and the food vendors they visit. She makes a point of paying vendors full price for their goods and time spent making the foods instead of demanding discounts like other tour guides do. She has also hired an English tutor for the vendors' kids who at eight and eleven, are already working with their parents.She tips them for weekend tours they conduct.Then there is Mona Boyd, the Arkansas born founder of Landtours in Accra, Ghana. She arranged for small tour groups to not only dine with local home chefs but also to cook with them. An informal setting like this can foster a more candid cultural exchange. However , all homes and situations have to be vetted. Tourists can't get sick drinking unpurified water or freak out when they see the home chef accidentally drop the main course on a dirty floor.

It's now possible for foodies to travel the world looking for their wildest culinary adventures.The world is their oyster. Literally.

The Vegan Chicken Franchese

Julia Moskin's chicken franchese recipe in last week's New York Time's Food section intrigued me. I wanted to try the vegan version not hers - which could be vegan patties or cauliflower - but mine.

Since I couldn't use chicken stock,I subbed in veggie instead. I used three of HerbOx's vegetable bouillon cubes.

I microwaved it with two cups of water as directed. Then it was onto the base of the franchese sauce. , dry white wine, the juice of one whole lemon and six tablespoons of butter.

Of course I used Miyoko's vegan butter that I ordered from Vegan Essentials. The wine was Piot Grigio from DaVinci. These are cooked together in a medium saucepan  until the liquid becomes syrupy.

It didn't. It just became bubbly and soupy even though I cooked it for the required four minutes over a medium flame. I added the broth which was guaranteed to also thicken it. Nope.

Then it was time to cook the chicken. I used Morningstar's chicken strips I couldn;t get Gardein's chicken cutlets).

They have to be steamed in two tablespoons of water.I used half a cup.

They would up being burned and sticking to the frying pan ( the burned bits were more delicious, especially with a sprinkling of sea salt.) I served it with angel hair pasta,  a variation of Ms. Moskin's recommendation of pasta. I used Stop and Shop's angel hair.

I also added green beans  however the finished product looked like something vaguely Asian.

It either looks like a hearty Rmen soup or a vegan version of pho, the Vietnamese eefsoup.

What I learned was after research, the vegan chicken franchese is a lot different than the original recipe.

One, I should have used tofu filets,

Two. I should have used cornstarch as a sauce thickener.

Oh well, next time I'll know better.

However the greater lesson is  never be afraid to try.The recipe may turn out a disaster but you can learn from it as I did. Maybe that's the best thing about cooking this meal.

Simply Vietnamese Cooking SImply Delicious

Vietnamese cooking is a delightful mix of meat and vegetables , Asian and French flavors and sweet and savory. It is a cuisine not to be missed.Luckily there is a new cookbook that brings the best of this interesting country'srecipes right to your kitchen.

Food writer and chef Nancie McDermott wrote a phenomenal cookbook that will appeal to both experienced and novice home chefs alike, Her Simply Vietnamese Cooking (Robert Rose Press) is an excellent guide for those wanting to cook Vietnamese cuisine. Chef McDermott became an expert on cooking it when she lived there for three years during a Peace Corps stint. She also has travelled extensively throughout Asia and has written several cookbooks with four focusing on Asian cooking. What is so great about the book is that she takes the mystery out of Vietnamese cooking. along with providing helpful tips and interesting stories on both dishes and drinks.  She includes a whole page  centering menus  on meat or vegan dishes , northern Vietnamese or southern, a fun beach party one  centered on seafood along with a menu for cooking cool and light on hot , steamy days - like now.There's also suggestions for a  Vietnamese tailgate party and even a campfire cookbook. Chef McDermott includes a glossary of ingredients with emphasis on Vietnamese herbs use. These are vital in creating the exact flavors for several dishes.The photos showing the dishes are amazing, and mouth watering.

Vietnamese cooking is an interesting mix of different flavors and various ingredients.Fish sauce, made from anchovies, is a vital ingredient in many dishes. It gives meat and veggies dishes an earthy saltiness and rich caramel brown color. Viet Nam is a tropical country so coconut figures heavily in many savory and sweet dishes.One of my must make  recipes is Chef McDermott's coconut ribbons , a  crunchy sweet usually made for the holidays,,There are tasty recipes for the Vietnamese classic pho, noodle soup as well on another favorite  salads. The  people are big on beautiful  lush bowls of mixed greens, full of vibrant herbs and there are recipes  featuring these. They could be used as palate cleansers when  serving other dishes such as sizzling savory pancakes or pho noodles with chicken. Both dishes are redolent with a mélange of sweet and salty flavors that dizzy the palate. Since Vietnam was also a French colony at one time, there are Gallic influences  in pate chaud a meat filled puff pastry, crème caramel and Vietnamese coffee, a take on café au lait.

Simply Vietnamese Cooking is a great cookbook for those who love Vietnamese cuisine  or those who want to experiment with Asian cooking. Chef McDermott gives a varied cookbook , full of delicious savory and sweet dishes. Buy it today and experience the deliciousness of South Asian foods.

Cooking In Times Of Drought

The California drought has affected everything in the state.It's no surprise that it's also had an impact on both home and restaurant cooking.How are Cali kitchens faring? Pretty well thanks to both innovation and conservation.

Kim Severson wrote about this devastating problem in today's New York Times Food section. The Golden State has been experience little to no rainfall for the past four years. It has colored every facet of life.Cooks both at home and at the many restaurants are feeling it the most.. Pasta water has a double use nowadays ;at first cooking up spaghetti and penne and then being used to water plants .Fruits and veggies do not have long baths to rinse off dirt and pesticides .It's a quick dip and that's the end.Another big change is how food is being prepared. Steaming is the preferred way as opposed to boiling and cooks opt for less pots and pans. and trying whole meals made on sheet pans. Recipes are also made with less than the required amount of water.Ms. Severson interviewed chef Andrea Nguyen  who had to alter her signature dish, the aromatic Vietnamese soup pho.This is a recipe that calls for a lot of fresh water, first for blanching meat and bones and then more fresh water is added for cooking them. The truncated recipe now called for different measurements of the required spices such as star anise, ginger and cinnamon.She has added fish sauce for more liquid and flavor.The taste is still the same, perhaps more intense in taste.

What about the ingredients themselves? California cheese and milk have a different taste thanks to the drought.The reason lies with cows who once ate lush grass and now are eating whatever grasses can grow on their farms. The produces is the most affected. It's not just the rainless period that's contributing but also a mild winter followed by  bad Spring that was exceptionally cold. This resulted in smaller fruit and vegetables however this does have an up side.  Less water means a more delicious  yet smaller produce. Lovers of the Early Girl dry farmed tomatoes know something about this. waterless  farming method, which  started before the drought,It relies on cutting off irrigation once a plant is established, making it depending on whatever water sources it can find. Doing this cuts off water to the cells, thus creating a more flavorful peach or tomato. This is fine, save for the cost. Any drought or natural hardship means less of a harvest and higher prices. This affects how both professional and home chefs cooking ad baking., Staple crops like rice are also affected, meaning smaller harvests and double the price at the wholesalers and grocery stores.This does mean more creativity in the kitchens as the hard times persist .

California is filled with tough , hardy people who can weather anything including this persistent drought. It reflects in their food , how they grow it and prepare it during these difficult times. West coast cuisine may a bit different now but it will carry on.