"Paris Holds the Key to Her Heart"... Paris Part 1

I seem to be getting some cosmic messages here. For the past 2 or 3 days, I have been constantly reminded that I haven't yet written about my trip to Paris. First I watched on TV Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations in Paris, followed by An American in Paris the next day. I've heard about Paris on the radio, in conversation, a good friend just left for a European study trip of her own, and of course, my dad keeps reminding me that I haven't written of my trip yet.

So here goes.

At the end of May I took my first trip overseas, to Paris to be exact, for a study abroad trip with the Classics department at my university. Studying the classics, mythology, history, and art, we visited a lot of museums and churches, and all that good stuff. But the real meat of the trip (pun intended!) was the food, experiencing the culture and the cuisine.

First and foremost, I can't go any further without talking about how good the city smelled. Disregarding the bathroom-like stench of some of the metro stations, the city as a whole smelled wonderful, like clean air, fresh flowers, butter, sugar, and fresh baked bread. It is that scent that I will always associate with Paris, and one that I wish I could have bottled up and taken with me. There's no other smell like it, and no matter how many cookies or loaves of bread come out of my oven, I cannot duplicate that fresh baked smell of Paris.

During the first whole day, I experienced one of the greatest culinary aspects of Paris. Crepes. Even better, crepes prepared to order on the streets. There really was nothing better than watching the crepe batter spread across the hot skillet, with the topping spread overtop; the scent of melting cheese, or of warmed nutella wafting through the streets. Yes, this street food was so much more fulfilling, and classy than what we often have back at home.

Belated 4th of July

It's pretty clear that my blogging habits are in a sad state. I am literally months behind! There is no way that I can catch up in chronological order, so prepare yourself for some very random posts.

Today's comes from 4th of July, almost a month ago!
The 4th is all about patriotism, and when it comes to food, there is some pretty standard American fare. But in Maryland, on the 4th of July, national patriotism turned to state pride, and a desperate desire to have the first crab feast of the summer.

If I remember correctly, the day was kind of disappointing in terms of weather. It was very hot, humid, and rain clouds were threatening the sunshine all day long.

My sister and her boyfriend ( whose family's house we would be celebrating at later that night) spent all morning searching for good crab supply. With crabs in high demand and low supply (check the state of the Chesapeake if you have any doubts), and jacked up holiday prices, the search was not easy. They finally arrived at seafood market in DC (I don't know the details), where they bought 2 bushels of live blue crabs. AWESOME! They brought them back home, and put them on ice for a few hours to kind of put them asleep before their imminent deaths.

Meanwhile, I went grocery shopping for ingredients for a Gooey Butter Cake. What is a Gooey Butter Cake, you may ask? Why, the answer would be ... heavenly divine. Its a St. Louis specialty, born of a cake-baking mistake. There are now a large variety of recipes, some featuring cream cheese as the gooey top filling. But in many opinions, there is none better than the true gooey butter filling. (The St. Louis Bread Co., now referred to as Panera outside of the city, has a gooey butter cake danish, which is actually the only gooey butter cake I remember for my early childhood in St. Louis.)

We made two versions, by combining 3 different recipes, which might not have been a good idea. Cake A was made with a pound cake bottom layer and a cream cheese filling on top. Cake B was made with bottom layer from yellow cake mix, and a very very very gooey butter filling on top. Any guesses which took the cake? (HA! pun intended)
Cake B, no questions asked. There is no way to beat that much butter.

The heavy storms arrived just in time for our holiday crab feast. Of course. But nothing can stand between Marylanders and their blue crabs. So we pushed on, and steamed them in both our family's turkey fryers. It was awesome. But since the weather was so crappy, we had to feast inside. Not really that much of a problem. But if you have ever been to a crab feast, you will know that the indoors is not ideal for this type of eating.

The day as a whole was great, full of delicious food and memorable moments.

Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Slowly, but surely, I am trying to get back into the habit of blogging. If for no other reason, than to keep myself from complete boredom when at home during the day.

So I have lots to talk about, especially Paris! But before I go into that, and dredge up bitterness about not being able to stay abroad for longer, here are just a few quick entries about some recent cooking that I have done.

Last week I made some amazing chicken. The original plan was to break down and fry a whole chicken. But with my mom out of town for the week, its just me and my dad here at home. And I wanted to wait for that big meal. Instead, we grilled some chicken breasts. My job was to prep the chicken, to come up with some marinade. Having absolutely no idea what to do, I combined (this is all guesstimation, keep in mind) 2 tbsp sugar, 1tbsp paprika, 1tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp onion powder, 1/2 tbsp chili powder, salt, and a few dashes of cumin. I let the chicken chill in the fridge with the rub for about 2 hours. Then my dad put it on the grill with some left over polenta. And the result... divinely delicious chicken. It was so good, and I am really so proud of how it turned out. I only wish I had gotten a picture before we ate it all.

Last night, I had brussels sprouts for the first time. The dining hall at school started offering the funny green things near the end of the year. By that time, I was sick of eating tasteless and mushy broccoli and cauliflower, that I was so tempted to get the brussels sprouts. But then I realized the school dinning hall might not be the best place to experiment with a new food.

So, I have been waiting for months to try these things. Last night, after doing much Foodnetwork and google searches, I came up with a pretty standard recipe.

Wash sprouts, cut in half lengthwise, tossing and coating in olive oil.

Place flat-side down in a medium-heated skillet, sprinkle with salt, cover for 5 minutes, or until almost tender.

Once tender, turn heat to high, toss to brown sprouts all over, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and fresh grated cheese.

And the verdict? They were good. Not nearly as terrifying as some people make them out to be. But I definitely need to keep experimenting. Sprouts are kind of bitter, and I think maybe sugar would cut the flavor, and help to caramelize. Or maybe some lemon, also to cut the bitterness. In my research, I also found a lot of recipes for brussels sprouts sauteed or roasted with bacon or ham or pancetta. Yum. That sounds like a good option. Because really... how can you go wrong by adding bacon? Not possible.

And We Have A WINNER!!!

It has been a long long while since I have last updated, due to a short trip across the Atlantic... to PARIS! followed by some plain old unproductive summer boredom. Sorry! Anyways, here is an old post that followed the Top Chef, season 4 finale, finally finished and posted for your reading pleasure.

For those of you who might have missed last night's Top Chef Finale, we have a winner. And that winner is a woman! The first female top chef ever! Stephanie clinched the win. And I do believe I predicted that during the first five minutes of the season.

Now for a recap of the actual competition. Back in Puerto Rico, the competition was down to only Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa, who unfortunately beat out Antonia for a seat in the finals. The challenge was to create a four course meal for the judges and guests, consisting of fish, poultry, red meat and dessert. It has become obvious this season that dessert making skills are a must for Top Chefs. Even in the first episode we saw that a Top Chef must know how to bake a souffle just as well as they know how to perfectly cook a Tomahawk steak. Each cheftestant was also paired with a big name chef who was to serve as the sous chef: Stephanie with Eric Ripert, Richard with Dan Barber, and Lisa with April Bloomfield.

Time spent cooking in the kitchen, very little drama involved, until the second day when, alas, all three sous chefs are absent. The cheftestants had to swim on their own this time. Some more cooking followed. And then it was time.... time for a throwdown! Just kidding. Wrong show.

So as the judges and guests waited anxiously for their meal, the beginning of the end... began. The first course was fish, followed by poultry, red meat, and dessert. Richard, who also stood a strong chance at winning, did not do as well as anticipated, even admitting at the end that he had 'choked'. He might not have done his best, but I don't think he did that badly.

Anyways, both Stephanie and Lisa put out some good dishes. And Lisa would go on to point this out in her typical awkward and insulting attitude later in the episode. But that's a different story...

After much deliberation and a shocking lack of real drama, it was time for a decision. In the end, Stephanie's dishes took the cake (pun intended). Seriously, all of her dishes, except for the ricotta pound cake, which Eric Ripert called 'unrefined', were apparently delicious, and at the very least, looked amazing. They were particularly impressed by her lamb medallions with mushroom, olives, and braised pistachios.
Um.... yum. enough said.

So, with all this and the entire season under her belt, Stephanie Izard became the fourth season's Top Chef, and the first female Top Chef! That's it, no more Top Chef, for a few more months. Farewell to a great season, and sorry for the way over-due update!

And by the way, I totally called that Stephanie would win in the first 5 minutes of the season. Just saying...

She's Back!

I missed the beginning of Top Chef! All because the American Idol finale was so shocking that it ran over its usual time slot. By the way, I am sending a huge congratulations to David Cook, the winner, and to all those who voted for him, allowing him to beat baby-faced David Archuleta.

The Quickfire Challenge tonight was working the short order egg station at one of Chicago's favorite breakfast joints, Lou Mitchell's. Antonia won, with an advantage going into the Elimination Challenge, which if you hadn't figured it our from last week's teasers, was Restaurant Wars! Antonia got to pick her team, and surprise surprise, she picked the best, Richard and Stephanie. Which left the other team with Lisa, Dale, and Spike, all three of whom really struggle on a basic human level to interact with others, and to produce good food. So really, I guess this wasn't a fair challenge, with the teams so obviously loaded. But, what can we do? Nothing!
So as you might have predicted: Stephanie, Richard, and Antonia were the WINNERS!!!
Under the guidance of executive chef Antonia, and the extra help from past cheftestant Nikki, this team came out on top. The dishes included linguine with shrimp and sausage, beet salad, trout, braised lamb/lamb loin, and a gorgonzola cheesecake with banana scallop (despite poor plating style). Stephanie came out the ULTIMATE WINNER! with a trip to Barcelona, Spain! She's back in the game with another Elimination Challenge win!
Now that leaves Dale, Lisa, and Spike, the LOSERS!!! And as shocking as this may come out to be, Never have a actually preferred Spike to others chefs and actually rooted for him in comparison.
From the atmosphere and design of the front of the house, to the composition and construction of each dish, this team just didn't have what it takes. I particularly liked how the judges (Padma, Ted Allen, Anthony Bourdain, and Jose Andres) compared some of the decor to the back of Prince's dressing room, or something insane like that. As for the food, two disasters stick out in my mind: butterscotch scallops and whatever the sticky rice dish was intended to be. The scallops just sound weird, and Bourdain thought his plate looked like a melted candy bar. Over shrimp and scallops. Tasty. Not. The sticky rice was disastrous, as one customer called it "baby food garnished with potpourri". The shot I saw of it looked like the bananas I smash before mixing them into my banana bread mixture. That is NOT how rice should look.
As far as team atmosphere goes, it was bitter, and ugly, consisting of lots of yelling, blaming, eye rolling and shaking of the head. Spike was complimented by the judges for his decision to get the hell out of the kitchen and the line of fire between Lisa and Dale. A highlight of this battle was when they both tried to outdo each other by blaming each other with cliches.
Dale: You are only as strong as your weakest link.
Lisa: Yeah? Well You are also only as good as your leader.
In the long run, neither won. Dale was told to pack his knives and go, but Lisa only managed to salvage her place in the top 5, leaving behind any favorable impressions and dignity.
It is just a shame that we didn't see any true humanity from Dale until he got kicked off. Apparently he hates saying goodbyes, and i really going to miss the people and the experience, he admitted while tearing up. Had I known he had it in him to be a human being, he might not have sunk so far down my list.

For more recap, analysis, blogs, and multimedia, check out Bravo's report.