Huitlacoche, Essene, and Free Stuff from Philadelphia
1) At
Headhouse Farmers' Market i've eaten at the
Los Taquitos de Puebla stand a few times. Usually we order a plate of three tacos filled with either squash blossom, mushroom or corn smut, generously top them with hot sauce and devour. I didn't think anything of this "corn smut" except that it was a "corn fungus," similar to mushrooms. It looked like finely chopped up black bits and tasted like mushrooms. No big deal. Squash blossom was better, anyways. Okay, but now thanks to O and his
internet forays, i cannot bear to think of corn smut aka Huitlacoche without feeling ill.
The Steve Don't Eat It series, although hilarious, does not even show the worst of Huitlacoche. Don't believe me? Google "Huitlacoche" and check out the images of this disgusting-looking bizarre alien mold podness. Apparently people are trying to rename "corn smut" to "Mexican Truffle" but i'm not sure it's going to take off unless no one ever sees what it really looks like. But yes, it does taste like mushrooms. Would i choose to eat it again? NO! But if it was chopped up fine and called "mushrooms?" I guess?
2) The Madame X fudge from
Betty's Tasty Buttons was the bomb! L and i wanted to purchase some but they were already sold out!
3) I'm going to make the "Rutabaga and Leek Chowder with Crisp Smoky Croutons" from Deborah Madison's
Vegetable Soups book. I've never used rutabagas before but our
CSA was offering them last week, so i thought we'd try something new. I bought 2 leeks from Headhouse and kept smelling delicious onionness wafting from my bag as i walked around the rest of the day. I *may* try to make the stock from scratch, as L strongly suggests, but i may take the lazy route and use bouillon cubes.
4) YAAAY to
Essene for stocking
Sweet & Sara vegan marshmallows! I bought a box of the coconut ones and we're rationing ourselves to two per day.
5) A little booness to Essene for not stocking the Mexican Chipotle flavor of
Field Roast vegan sausages. (But Essene does deserve props for stocking Field Roast at all!) I'm going to send them an email right now. I love the Smoked Apple Sage ones the best, but i need the Mexican Chipotle ones for my vegetarian chorizo soup!
6) I am in love with Smokehouse Almond
Nut Thins.
7) be harvested over 20 gallons of compost from our
Earth Machine composter! It's amazing how all of our vegetable scraps, peelings, coffee grounds and dead tomato plants + leaves have turned into black compost for our garden. To get your own backyard composter in Philadelphia, check
here for upcoming workshops. Sadly, there are no more workshops for a
free rain barrel this year, but we're so there in 2009!
8) Sometime this week i'm planning on making: apple butter (from our recent apple picking trip), biscotti, Earl Grey tea cookies and meringues.
Treats Truck
Yesterday i was walking up to Cafe Zaiya for onigiri when i came across the
Treats Truck. This sugar mobile was such a find! The line was very long on my first pass, but on my second it was much shorter. I asked the owner Kim Ina what she recommended and finally walked away with a peanut butter sandwich cookie, a homemade "Oreo" and a chocolate chip cookie with walnuts. The truck that day also carried cupcakes, ice cream cone cupcakes, Rice Krispies treats, little pies, bars and brownies. It was quite hard to decide but in the end it didn't matter -- each of the three cookies were EXCELLENT. Excellent to the point of restraining myself from polishing them off in a second. I wanted be to try them so i saved half of each one. I kept thinking about the half cookies the rest of the day. I even felt bad not mentioning the Treats Truck to my office in case they wanted to try the remains of my cookies!
That evening, be had a bite of each cookie half and thought they were good. I couldn't understand why he wasn't crying from deliciousness but when i finished them off, i realized that the cookies had lost some of their wonderful texture from sitting around for many hours. The homemade Oreo was crisp when i first ate it, but last night it was soft. The melting crumble of the peanut butter cookies was changed to a soft bite. The chocolate chip cookie held up the best but lesson learned: EAT THE COOKIES FAST. Another lesson: SHARING IS FOR LOSERS.
The Treats Truck makes various stops throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn during the week. You know where i'll be each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon!
3 Quick Reviews
1)
Almaz Cafe on 20th at Sansom. We must've walked past this place a billion times on our way to the 20th St Capogiro location and always thought it was just a cafe/sandwich shop! If you read the menu closely you'll see that they have meat and vegetarian Ethiopian dishes. We shared the vegetarian sampler which was more than enough food for the two of us. All five dishes were very tasty (and the servings were super generous), the injera was delicious and the service was ultra friendly. My only complaint was that the spicy dishes could've been much hotter, but according to be it's because i'm insane. Definitely going back to have more vegetarian dishes here. I would love to compare it to the much-loved Dahlak in West Philly but we've only been there once with a group with picky eaters, so our choices were limited.
2)
Mustard Greens on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. We've been meaning to try this place for the longest time! The menu isn't huge at this neighborhood-institution Chinese restaurant, nor are there many vegetarian options, but the service is knowledgeable and friendly. Our waiter asked us to clarify if eggs were okay when we inquired about a noodle dish being vegetarian -- so this isn't a place where the answer is automatically "yes" and i like that! We had the sauteed Chinese broccoli and the noodles with vegetables. Both dishes were amazingly simple and delicious; we finished both quickly and contemplated ordering a tofu dish just to try something else. The noodle dish was one of the best i'd had in a years! Definitely going back to check out more!
3)
Cedars on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. Again, we'd been meaning to check this place out for the longest time. Too bad we were the only ones there that night because the food was great. We shared the vegetarian plate (hommus, falafel, baba gannouj and grape leaves), spanakopita, tabouli salad and two desserts. Everything we had was delicious but the tabouli salad was out of this world -- crazy fragrant abundant parsley in a perfect lemony tomatoey juicy dressing with barely any bulghur (cracked wheat) at all. We both agreed that the tabouli was the best dish of the evening. Next time, we might try the $25 sampler of everything they serve, depending on whether that's worth it for vegetarians or not. Otherwise, we'd probably order the same but each get our own order of tabouli salad.
And for the record, our two blueberry bushes (Saul Tigh on the right and Lucy Lawless on the left) [don't ask us to explain the names] made approximately 112 and 30 more berries since the first major pickings from early summer.
