Excellence
At around $6 for 4, these vegetarian sausages are not cheap - however, they're the best sausages ever! E.V.E.R.
I took the early bus just to have enough time to grab some
Field Roast sausages from the Union Square Whole Foods before work. Right now they're on sale for $5 a package so i loaded up on 4: 3 Smoked Apple Sage and 1 Mexican Chipotle. The smoked apple sage are delicious, not too sweet and very flavorful while the Mexican chipotle ones are quite hot & spicy (as the package claims) and what i expect real chorizo to be like. The third flavor is Italian, which i find have too many whole fennel seeds.
Unfortunately, i can't find any Field Roast sausages in Philadelphia. Our local Whole Foods sells the Field Roast Deli Slices (the mushroom ones are quite tasty!) but my request to stock the sausages remains still unanswered. So for now, i have to pick up sausages in New York but believe me, it's worth it. My
sister - who i've dubbed "Snasages" - would be fine just eating these for the rest of her life.
We've only pan fried them but i'm positive they'd be excellent on the grill. From their
site:
GRAIN MEAT SAUSAGES
From our family to yours! Field Roast sausages are made using traditional, old-country, sausage making practices. We begin, where all sausage lovers begin; with a grind; ours of grain meat. We chop our own fresh vegetables; eggplant, Yukon Gold potatoes, onions and garlic. Add some liquids; zesty lemon juice, rich red wine from a local winery, organic apple cider vinegar and finally the seasonings; fennel seed, sweet red pepper, rubbed sage, ginger, Chipotle and Chili de Arbol peppers and voila!; an artisan vegan sausage with sizzle, texture and personality! 3 flavors:
Italian: traditionally seasoned with fresh eggplant, zesty red wine, pungent fresh garlic and plenty of fennel
Mexican Chipotle: a spicy-hot blend of smoked Chipotle peppers, Chili de Arbol peppers, fresh chopped garlic, sweet onions seasoned with cumin seed and oregano
Smoked Apple Sage: unique combination of sweet granny smith apples, savory Yukon Gold potatoes and pungent rubbed sage and ginger.
Yay to Field Roast Grain Meat Co for making such a great product!
June in January
Under normal circumstances, firing up the grill in January should not enter the mind. One should be preoccupied with snowstorms, below-freezing temperatures, scary wind chill estimates and being outside for the least amount of time possible - not standing outside in a tshirt preparing a summer meal after a beautifully sunny, 70+ degree day. Sure, we took advantage of the warm weather but it's simply wrong we weren't huddling under blankets drinking hot chocolate instead. I miss winter, and seasons, and am very concerned about
where we're heading. I can't say the meal wasn't delicious, but it would've felt better in June!
Perhaps we went overboard but our grill is so new, shiny and novel. On the top is a grilled baguette with butter from
Miel Patisserie. Left to right: fennel chunks, white eggplant with honey & vinegar marinade, firm tofu chunks with my special soy/tahini marinade, cherry tomatoes, button mushrooms with special marinade, zucchini slices, corn, strawberries, pineapple.
Out of season corn is not very tasty, but that was no surprise. Grilled strawberries taste alright but develop a sickly soft texture. Everything else was super delicious. We had planned to grill some fake hot dogs and burgers as well, but there really was no more room in the digestive system. I even passed on the yummy potato salad i made earlier in the week! Yay for our 3rd BBQ! Hopefully next time this winter, we'll have to wear our big jackets and fight about who has to go outside to turn the mushrooms over.
** I have to stress the amazing ability of the
charcoal starter. In about 10 minutes you can have hot coals ready to grill on, without the use of lighter fluid or starter cubes. You just need 2 measly sheets of newspaper! It's so simple, i don't know why anyone would use a gas grill.
Bestnuts
On December 23rd we headed into Manhattan with be's mom, sister, cousins and crew to see the Rockefeller Center tree. A strangely warm night with mobs of tourists reaped a small bag of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor, a warm, tasty sweet treat that be kindly shared with everyone.
The street vendor chestnuts awakended the deep inner cravings within the majority of us. The following night, be and his mom roasted about 1.5 lbs of chestnuts purchased from 2 supermarkets - i was in charge of the cleaning and the cutting - but the experience left us in utter disappointment. Not only were the chestnuts overcooked to the point of hard rockness, some of the chestnuts seemed powdery and moldy under the shells! I cried a little, inside of course.
As you know, be and i are quite stubborn people. I did a lot of research and attempt #2 rewarded us with 25 steaming hot, soft and easy-to-peel roasted bestnuts of goodness! They were so amazingly delicious but i could only eat 10 before giving up!
Now, about that mold issue (from
Empire Chestnut):
At harvest time, chestnuts have a bland, starchy flavor and a crisp, carrot-like texture (they are about 50% water). As they dry, in a process called "curing", they become softer and some of the starch converts to sugar. At about 30% moisture, they are sweet, soft, and at the best stage to eat. Unfortunately, such cured chestnuts are very susceptible to mold, and should be promptly consumed. Fresh chestnuts should always be refrigerated in order to delay molding. Chestnuts will keep longer in the crispy, high-moisture condition than if they are stored in a cured condition.
Considering that most supermarkets offer chestnuts out in the open, no wonder mold develops! When we asked for chestnuts at our local Whole Foods, they retrieved them from the back and the nuts were kept very cold; good thing they know what's up. The chestnuts they had were also very large and blemish-free, deep brown and fresh looking.
I cleaned each chestnut with a damp towel and cut a long slash into the flat side with my small serrated knife. Many people suggest cutting an X into the rounded side, but having done both methods, the long slash on the flat side made it easier to peel. Next, i put them on a baking sheet into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, checking after 15 minutes by sticking a few chestnuts with a fork. At this point i also stirred them around a bit. At 20 minutes they were soft enough so i took them out to cool slightly. It's so rewarding when the shell peels off in 2 nice pieces to reveal a whole nut. Some of ours peeled perfectly but a few sticklers appeared in the bunch. They were all creamy sweet delicious, thankfully.
Check out this beautiful picture of
Marrons! Chauds, chauds les mar-r-rons! With our second pound, we're going to roast them using our charcoal grill!
Relief
There are 5 pure* vegetarian Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia, 4 are in Chinatown and 1 is near Rittenhouse Square. Over the past few months be and i have eaten at 4 of them:
Cherry Street Vegetarian Restaurant,
Singapore Vegetarian,
Kingdom of Vegetarians and
Su Xing House; the last one is
New Harmony Restaurant which we'll try soon enough.
Generally speaking, all the ones we've tried are in the range of "terrible" to "okay" except for Su Xing House. Whew! We were so happy to find actual delicious vegetarian Chinese food in Philly that we've eaten there twice and plan to make it part of our regular restaurant rotation!
1) Cherry Street was the first one we tried and it was pretty terrible. be's dumplings were tough and doughy. I asked for a recommendation and received super deep fried nuggets with a dipping sauce ... i'm not sure what Chinese dish that was supposed to be!
2) Singapore was decent the first time we ate there. The second time, our eggplant was dish was merely alright while our tofu dish was tasty - however it only contained only 4 chunks of tofu! I had asked our waiter if they could make us something with choy sum or Chinese broccoli and they didn't have either! I'd go again but it seems like the type of place where you have to know what's good; just randomly choosing from their extensive menu might turn up duds, or you might hit the jackpot.
3) We ate at Kingdom of Vegetarians twice, once for lunch and once for dim sum. The lunch specials were good, nothing to rave about but they made a few authentic attempts that Cherry and Singapore didn't. The dim sum special was a neverending parade of numerous dishes at $10 per person. You definitely get your money's worth and the dim sum was not bad, although my main criticism was the overabundance of fried items. The dim sum also lacked some of our favorites - no rice flour rolls, no taro balls, no sticky rice - but if you like fried dumplings and good hot & sour soup, check them out.
4) Su Xing House is definitely the star of the 4 we've tried. The first time we ordered tofu and black moss soup, which came out too cornstarchy and with peas & carrot bits - alright but not delicious. We also ordered a tofu and peanuts dish that was quite tasty, with smoked pressed tofu chunks; and sauteed snow pea shoots with an "As You Wish" roll (fried bean curd skin filled with shredded golden mushroom, black mushroom, dried bean curd and Chinese celery) that was awesomely delicious. I love snow pea shoots and the fact they even served them was so key! The second time, my sister
Hummersloth was in town so we took her there for her opinion. The 3 of us ordered: winter melon soup with black mushrooms, dried bean curd with spiral seaweed and the aforementioned snow pea shoots and an As You Wish roll.
a) the winter melon with black mushrooms soup was absolutely delicious, perfect for a cold day. The broth was so flavorful, containing a few shreds of ginger, white pepper and little red berries that i don't know the English name for. Most importantly, it wasn't cornstarched-up but made thin and clear like it should be! The black mushrooms were the expensive thick kind, perfectly rehydrated and tender. The winter melon was sliced thin and translucent, so yummy and delicious. We're totally getting this soup all the time!
b) the tofu and seaweed dish contained the same smoked, pressed tofu diced into cubes, served in a very tasty sauce. I loved the tofu and sauce! However, the spiral seaweed was a little too chewy for me although be and Hummersloth Bonesli enjoyed it immensely. be would definitely get the dish again.
c) and again, the snow pea shoots with an As You Wish roll was delicious. I love the contrast of the tender green snow pea shoots with the crispy, mushroomy roll. The roll is sliced into 10 pieces and slightly resembles "mock duck" that some places serve.
I'm totally getting hungry writing about Su Xing House! The waitstaff are really helpful and are good about refilling your jasmine tea. I think the tall woman might be the owner and she's really nice. The cooks are obviously knowledgable and the food is much more authentic if you look for it. My only complaints are minimal: you get a cup of tea instead of a pot, and everyone gets a glass of water and a set of silverware so you have to request chopsticks - but these are not big deals. Let me call them now and see if they're open today!
* In addition to the pure vegetarian places, there are a few that also offer extensive vegetarian menus complete with fake meat:
Golden Empress Garden and
Hong Kong Cafe are two. We plan to check them out as well!
