Category: Food and Drink

Buy a stock of Sichuan chili peppers [peppercorns] from a local Asian market; say the word "numbing" if they don’t know what you mean.  Hoard them as if they were Treasury securities.  Fry batches of them in peanut oil when needed, with a few black peppercorns and a few small red chilies.  A blender, and a bit of water, turns them into a paste.  When cooking whatever-the-other-stuff is (catfish and asparagus would be my first choice), apply the paste to your stir fry.  Also toss in small amounts of rice vinegar and Chinese wine and possibly soy sauce.  Sizzle the white parts of scallions into the early makings of the stir-fry.

Here is my article from today’s Washington Post, on the history and development of ethnic dining in the DC area.  Excerpt:

This new mobility is weakening the whole notion of the ethnic
neighborhood. Forget the old Chinatown paradigm: Diffusion is the new
model.  As a result, ethnic restaurants are more like scattered
outposts, drawing from a wide radius.  As [Victor] Serrano points out, "Our
competition is not right next door. We compete with . . . restaurants
five or 10 miles away."

…Korean food…remains largely the province of Korean patrons.  Most Westerners don’t go beyond bul gogi (broiled beef) or perhaps bibim bap
(rice bowl with egg and vegetables).  The cuisine tastes harsh to the
uninitiated, with its abundant garlic and unusual seafood delicacies.
This also explains why Korean restaurants remain so tightly clustered
near Korean communities (most of the best are in Annandale) and why
just about every Korean restaurant is good.  Unlike Chinese restaurants,
there is little danger of Koreans taking the Americanized
beef-with-broccoli route.

Herndon, western Fairfax, and Chantilly have never been better for food.  Adams-Morgan, Dupont Circle, and Georgetown are not quite deserts, but I can’t imagine having to eat there all the time. 

The regulators
have been satisfied and high-quality Spanish ham can now be bought in
the United States.  "Bought" is the operative word, you still have to
wait for the aging:

Saltzman and several hundred other people felt strongly enough about
getting some really good ham to willingly plunk down their money months
or even years before they would actually get to eat it, La Tienda could
demonstrate to the producer that complying with U.S.D.A. rules would
have a financial payoff. The store began selling the chorizo in July;
the hams from bellota-fed pigs have another year or so hanging in
mountain air.

It can hang in your living room.  Why shell out the thousand bucks? 

…food lovers like him understand…And in the end, the elaborate
narrative of the ham (the way it is produced, his advance payment, the
visit to the picturesque town in western Spain where it’s made) is a
thing to be savored almost as much as the meat itself. “I must say,”
Saltzman adds, “I’ve gotten incredible mileage out of the whole ham
story.”

And don’t forget the pro-globalization angle to the story:

…the nexus of an ever-shrinking world and gourmet culture’s eternal
quest for authentic, regional products have often had the effect of
saving artisanal food products that might have died out

Here is the full story, and thanks to Don Boudreaux for the pointer.  Buy it here, and yes that is from acorn-fed black pigs…

Robin Cook announced chicken tikka masala as the new national dish of Great Britain.  Food critics immediately responded by condemning it as a British invention.  Chicken tikka masala, they sneered, was not a shining example of British multiculturalism but a demonstration of the British facility for reducing all foreign foods to their most unappetizing and inedible forms.  Rathar than the inspired invention of an enterprising Indian chef, this offensive dish was dismissed as the result of an ignorant customer’s complaint that his chicken tikka was too dry.  When the chef whipped together a can of Campbell’s tomato soup, some cream, and a few spices to provide a gravy for the offending chicken, he produced a mongrel dish of which, to their shame, Britons now eat at least 18 tons a week.

That is from Lizzie Collingham’s Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors, an excellent look at the history of Indian food, and especially the Persian origins of many Indian dishes.

Surinamese.  As far as I can tell, it is a mix of Indonesian, Chinese, Creole, and Indian ideas.  Tasty and cheap, but don’t expect to be startled.  Although I could have been fooled, my "Nasi Goreng met Saty" would have tasted worse, had I thought it was Indonesian.  In Amsterdam, by the outdoor bazaar, there is a street with at least fifteen Surinamese restaurants…

Cityzen: a meal so good it practically brought tears to my eyes.  Moreover, I do not need a gastro-economic pricing equation to tell you that it was a bargain. I was also thrilled to have the best seat in the house where I watched culinary genius Eric Ziebold and his chefs work their magic with hardly a word spoken – call it Heaven’s Kitchen.

Here is my latest New York Times column, on the economics of fine dining and The Society for Quantitative Gastronomy.  It is fitting that I am now in Lyon.  Excerpt:

Receiving a Michelin star increases prices in a Parisian restaurant
by 20 percent, controlling for measures of quality, décor and location.
Michelin-starred restaurants in fancy hotels, or in areas with other
Michelin-starred restaurants, also have higher prices, again adjusting
for quality. Diners are paying more to eat in fine or prestigious
surroundings, whether or not the food is better. One gastronomy expert,
speaking in Le Nouvel Observateur, noted, “Gaining a Michelin star
ensures that your banker will be kind to you.”

For those who hold
the food as their main concern, the researchers offer a way forward.
Dr. Verardi and Dr. Gergaud have built an index for overpriced and
underpriced restaurants, relative to their food. They use the Zagat
Survey to Parisian restaurants – whose popularity rankings are
generated by diners’ reports, not critics – to provide an independent
measure of customer satisfaction, which is then compared with price.

There is also a new Journal of Wine Economics, see the column for more information.  Here is Dubner, on the same.

Chug has completed the first version of my Ethnic Dining Guide in blog form.  He has added many fine touches, including photographs, and I am in awe.  I am just now starting to learn how to use and revise it…

The Chinese government has banned restaurants from serving food on the bodies of naked women.  The practice was condemned as a violation of common decency by the commerce department.  …The practice of eating sushi off naked or nearly-naked women has long been popular with a certain clientele in Japan.

Here is the full story, and thanks to Yan Li for the pointer.  And if you wish to read about a truly unusual Chinese market, try this one.

Guess who wins the rematch?  You’ll find other relevant articles here.

Next week I am headed to Bordeaux for the inaugural meeting of the Society for Quantitative Gastronomy.  How will they react to hearing I am not (yet?) much of a wine drinker?  They will be talking of Michelin stars and the econometrics of wine prices; I will be harping on Texas barbecue, Sichuan peppercorns, and why Hyderabad has the best Biryani. 

Your suggestions for Bordeaux, wine or otherwise, would be most welcome.  I might have a free day or two for a side trip as well.

Can of coconut milk at Whole Foods: $1.59

Can of coconut milk at my local Asian grocery: 59 cents

Fish is also less than half the price, albeit with bones and sometimes a face.  But the lines are shorter and the crowds are more fun.  What are you waiting for?