A Cook and A Book

So, here's the skinny. I Love to cook, like a Lot. It gives me a lot of internal pleasure to make good food for friends, family, and the like. I am not, however a "foodie". I find this label actually kind of silly. What IS a foodie? According to dictionary.com a "Foodie" is someone who " is a person having an enthusiastic interest in the consumption of good food (alt. preperation). Well No Shit. There's a special label Just for people who like good food? Really? I am not, nor will I be a "foodie" what I am, is a "Food Head", akin to a "Cheese Head". Cheese Heads are folks from Wisconsin who are not only freezing their asses off and loving great quality cheeses, they're damned proud of it. I am a "Food Head". I Live for food, I Love food. I take a great deal of pride in everything I cook. Anyone who I've cooked for could and should be able to relate to the great amount of myself that I put into the meal. From the ingredients, the preperation, the serving, the presentation. I referred to a book in this post, and this book is "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake".
What's so special about this book is (spoilers), a character in the book can actually taste the feelings/thoughts/emotions of the person who made the food. I feel if people could get inside my food like that character in that book, they'd actually understand where I'm coming from when I cook and what I get out of cooking and eating. Food to me is a gateway to my soul. I recently picked up some food from a spot that serves Cambodian cuisine. This was my 2nd time getting food from them. I remarked to the owner/cook  that I felt like I should cook for her. Her response, was oddly enough, "Why"?. I say odd, as this woman clearly puts a lot of her self in every dish that she makes. Perhaps someday, I can convince her to to allow me to prepare a dish for her, and then she'll understand, that some people just "Get it".

A friend who I've cooked for at my house a few times and doesn't cook a lick has remarked frequently how he just enjoys watching me cook. I literally nearly dance throughout the kitchen, grabbing, chopping, slicing and sauteing. Coming from someone who eats strictly for subsistence, and poorly at that, to have my love of food noticed is that much more flattering.

So, if you feel motivated to get a look in my head, pick up "lemon cake" as I call it, but read it from the perspective of the preparer, not the diner, and you'll see where I live, and why I'm a food head.

Tokyo Diner. Darned Good Sushi.

I love sushi. Go figure, a guy who’s all about food, in just about every waking hour, loves something that is a “boutique food”. I had my first “sushi” in 1992 flying to Korea for the Army. What I was Actually served was “kimbap” a Korean variant of a sushi roll but not containing any fish at all.
Kimbap(Gimbap) is a Korean variant that includes pickled daikon radish, carrot, cooked egg (like an omlette) and sometimes marinated and cooked beef. This is then wrapped in seasoned rice and rolled in seasoned seaweed sheets (Nori). As I’d said, this was my first exposure to “sushi” and also my first exposure to Korean food and I hated them both.
The texture was soft and mushy, it was very fishy tasting (actually it was the seaweed) and I was Not happy (14 hour flights will do that to you).

Fast forward to 1996, I’m now living in Hendersonville, TN a suburb of sorts to Nashville, and I’m working as a dietary manager at a retirement home. The owner/manager took me with him on a conference to Knoxville and the closest restaurant nearby was a sushi joint. Being like most white kids with no exposure, I ordered the California Roll (the whitest sushi known to man) and it was actually pretty good. I loaded it up with wasabi paste and pickled ginger and went to town.

So, there’s the background, now, on with the review.
Tokyo Diner is not the only sushi spot in Lancaster or York, but in my opinion, it’s one of the best. I can often be heard complaining that they don’t use “sushi rice” (yes, there IS a difference), however, I feel that they happen to have some of the freshest fish in both Lancaster and York.
You will note that this is an opinion, and not a statement of fact. I am not a food safety inspector, just a guy who loves food, so take it with a shot of soy sauce as you will. Anyway, this most recent visit to Tokyo Diner sees us at the location on 462 in York, behind the way too large sign for Fuddruckers. It’s thursday, right at about 6:30 pm and there is 1 waitress, 1 sushi chef and about 40 people in the restaurant. To say that the waitress was breaking her back is to do her disservice. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single waiter/waitress really push as hard as she did.
Sorry, back to the food. The party tonight was Eric, Kelby and me. Kelby, being our vegetarian friend, often gets the short end of the stick when going for sushi. He likes Inari rolls (sushi skin roll) but there’s so much beyond that. This time, he ordered the “Green Roll” in addition to his standard and what a fantastic choice that was. The green roll is one of the specialty rolls so it’s a bit more expensive at 6$ for the roll, but according to Kelby it was worth it. The presentation and content were really well done. This roll featured approximately 6 oz of seasoned spinach, wrapped in rice and then covered in what appeared to be about half of an avocado, and then slathered in a sweet and savory sauce. Kelby explained that this was a Very good roll for him.

My dinner was the semi-standardized “Sushi Deluxe”. At about 19 dollars, this was 10 pieces of sushi and a tuna roll. In my experience, this sushi combo plate features both eel and mackerel, neither of which I like, so I always ask them to leave those out, which generally gets me better fish. I was presented with 2x each of Tuna, Salmon, Red Snapper, “White Tuna” and Yellowtail. This presentation has become pretty standard when ever I ask to omit the fish that I hate. You’ll notice that white tuna is in quotes up above. The reasoning is, what American sushi places label and serve as white tuna is actually not tuna at all, but Escolar, mislabeled under several different names, but regardless of naming, is actually banned in Japan as a “toxic fish” since 1977. I honestly only learned of this misnaming practice today, and I’m disappointed, as this was one of my favorites. Here goes the breakdown of the nigiri sushi bites. Yellowtail: somewhat thickly cut, but happily so for me, and topped with scallions. Semi-strong in flavor, I’d give it a 7. Standard Tuna nigiri: Very firm flesh, smooth texture, not that strong in fish taste, a solid 8. Red Snapper nigiri: Very solid almost dense flesh feel, slightly stronger in taste than the tuna. Overall enjoyable, another 7. Fresh Salmon (instead of smoked): One of my favorites. Not as thickly sliced as the yellowtail or snapper, but still good. Great flavor, great texture, a solid 8.5. Finally we get to the “white tuna”: Up until this morning, after I did a web search for just what type of fish this came from, this was my #1 favorite, ranking a solid 9 on the love sushi scale. The texture was soft and smooth, the flavor literally tasted like it was dipped in butter, and it had a semi-sweet finish that I’ve really grown fond of. Now, I as well as many others have gotten “intestinal distress” after consuming a large sushi deluxe type combo, and almost always blamed it on “bad sushi” or “unclean hands”, etc. Well, it’s Actually the Escolar. This fish is considered toxic in Japan, banned in several other countries, but we serve it up here and I loved it. Well, never again. Please note: I do Not hold ill will to Tokyo Diner. They’re great, the food that I get there is always top notch. However, they Do serve this fish, whether or not they know of it’s problems, I simply won’t be ordering it again.

Rachel' Creperie. Now with service.

Another local loving, that I have only Recently allowed myself to like is Rachel’s Creperie.
I will admit, I hold grudges. I especially hold food grudges. When I go out to eat, I don’t expect anything that I feel is out of the ordinary. I expect fair quality food, decent service, and reasonable prices. I have, and will again, pay as much as 40+$ for a meal for Just myself, if I feel the value is there. What I Won’t do, is sit for 40 minutes at a table without so much as a menu and a glass of water.
So begins my revue of Rachel’s Creperie.

Since up to now, on the personal side, has been laying groundwork for who I am, as a person as it relates to just about everything, here I will lay the groundwork for this review. September 25th is my birthday. Two years ago, my partner Eric invited 5 or 6 internet friends up from the DC metroplex who we knew via online to share and celebrate with us. Rachel’s has been around for some time, and when you’d like to “impress the out of towners”, you want to take them somewhere nice. Rachel’s certainly appeared to meet that need.
The three cars full of us (4 bigger guys, 2 little guys, what a party) find parking, roll over to Rachel’s, request a table, are sat outside (it was Really nice out too) and that is honestly about as far as it went. We sat there, and continued to sit there. Eric started to feel a sugar crash coming on. I started to feel a case of the ass coming on, so we got up and left. That was strike 1.

Down the line, over the next two years, Eric and I tried again and again to get me fed at Rachel’s. He works nearby, so he and his boss go semi-often, and they love the food, and Eric assures me, that if I just give them a try, so will I. So, after 4 unsuccessful attempts to get fed there, I start modifying the name in conversations to more derogatory versions. Like I said, I hold a grudge.

Anyway, on to the food. The night that Eric and I had such a fantastic meal at Mucho Mexico, I passed up on the ultimate-flan, in favor of attempting dessert at Rachel’s. I reluctantly hiked my butt up there, we couldn’t tell if they were open or not as it was sort of dark, but we saw folks eating, checked our phone’s clocks vs the time to close on the door, and headed in.
I was happy to have been seated: inside, with menus, and water+drink order in under 5 minutes.
Now, to say that Rachel’s is kind of hipster, is to say that Kanye can be kind of rude at the Grammy Awards. If it’s chocolate up in this place, it’s probably Nutella, and this is Not a bad thing. I Love Nutella, and have ever since the darling hubby exposed me to it’s goodness. Now, being me, I have to go weird. I will usually or at least seemingly go out of my way to order the weirdest shit on the menu, just to see if I like it.Tonight, I ordered the “Spicy Chili Nutella Cocoa”.
i was not disappointed. This was Good, like Really good, hug a hipster good. It was smooth, rich, just a hint of hazelnut, chilli, and cinnamon. Then, looking over the menu, I settled on what I thought would be the ultimate dessert for me. Cinnamon Apple Dulche De Leche Crepe. Alas, this was not only the perfect crepe for me, but it was also my downfall.

Please, don’t misunderstand, this crepe was everything there is to love about the combination of flavors between cinnamon, caramel, and apple. The crepe itself was fused with good quality cinnamon, it was filled with both the dulche de leche, and 3 if not 4 variations of thinly sliced, raw, fresh apple, and then dusted with powdered sugar, and drizzled with yet more caramel.
My mistake, and it is exclusively mine, was, that I’d ordered two items that featured hot, spicy flavors. Too much of a good thing can be fantastic, this time it was not. As I ate my crepe, I looked up with a big ol’ grin at Eric and said, “man, I could honestly eat this, Every  Day, and not tire of it”. This was the honest truth too. I Just looked at the menu, but unfortunately, their prices are not online (Hipster!) but the descriptions are, and they are SO good. If you can get them.
So anyway, the problem: I had warm, creamy spicy crepe, I also had warm, creamy, spicy cocoa and therefor, I had too much Warm! The spices in the cocoa started to directly conflict with the spices in the crepe and the only loser in this battle were my taste buds. I ended up abandoning the cocoa in favor of the crepe, as I can get spicy cocoa just about anywhere, but I'm not going to get a crepe this good anywhere else. I still believe I made the right choice.

Vietnamese Pork Chop: Take 1.

So, I've been kicking around, trying to find new food ideas and I decided I was going to cook with lemongrass because fuck it, why not? So, I bought some at the store, and jumped on to Google for some inspiration. Well, as inspiration would have it, lemongrass is often used in Vietnamese foods, including grilled pork chops, and I just happened to have 2+ pounds of pork in the freezer, shoulder chops at that (good shit!). So, I get to scouring for recipes. Man, you can tell the white people recipes from the real thing. If half the page isn't at least in a language and alphabet that you can't make shit out of? Keep on moving.

So, here's the site that I found, and luckily for me (and maybe Not for poor Eric) she has a YouTube channel too.
Below is a finished plate from my own kitchen. To Me, the shit was ON. to Eric, it was "kind of mild, if not unseasoned" or perhaps "too subtle". Admittedly, I didn't scale up the marinade recipe for the amount of pork that I'd had, as again, new ingredients and shit. I won't make that mistake a second time. Also to note, this stuff gets So thrown up three notches on the "I love you" scale when you put a big ol' pile of Sriracha hot chili paste on it. Gotta love the cock sauce.

Breakdown of the plate: Big Ass Pork Chop (BAPC) probably 1/2 if not 3/4 of a pound. Our package had 3 of these bitches. 2 sunny side up eggs. If you won't do SSU, I suggest at least over easy, the runniness (or liquid chicken to one friend) of the yolk really adds to the over all flavor of the rice/pork/egg, especially with cock sauce (yes, I like saying cock sauce). And a nicely shaped And portioned 3/4 cup of cooked rice. Just your average, run of the mill 25 lb bag from the Asian grocery rice.

All in all, I'd rate this first run probably a 7.5 out of 10. The pork was Super juicy and tender, the eggs were really good and I just love rice. However, the stand out flavors were too mild. I'll take it up a notch or three next time.

Mucho Mexico: Mi Amore

Te Amo: Mucho Mexico.

There are a Ton of Latin and or Mexican food options in Lancaster and the surrounding area.
That being said, no one place, deserves more traffic, and accolades than Mucho Mexico. This awesome little spot is literally 2-3 doors past Spyro Gyro as you head up Prince Street towards Walnut St. This little spot has been several things over the past few years, but none, as good as it’s current incarnation.  We’ve eaten there probably about 10 times. I personally am Not a fan of Mexican food, as it’s sometimes not happy to be in my belly. I can eat here every day, and even if I’m eating the same dish, (I don’t) I could truly be happy. They carry a large assortment of sugar sweetened (as in no HFCS) sodas from Mexico in flavors ranging from the standard orange, to guava and other “exotics”. I don’t know who honestly works the kitchen, as I haven’t been given an audience, though, the young lady who works the front of the house is so nice, that she’d probably give me a full tour and a few recipes if I asked nicely. To say that the food here is good, is sort of like saying that Michael Jordan played basketball, sort of. This is, without a doubt, the best Mexican food I’ve ever had. On our most recent visit, I ordered the enchilada platter. Now, this is a 10 dollar dinner, it normally includes 5 (yes, 5) enchiladas made of a corn tortilla (the correct type if you ask me) filled with either shredded beef or chicken, topped with either red or green sauce, sour cream and then fresh sliced avocado. It’s accompanied by spanish style rice and refried beans. Now, I personally loathe refried beans. To me, they’re sort of like well, it’s too graphic to list here. Anyway, they let me drop the beans for double rice all the time, at no extra cost, and no hassle at all.  I decided I’d wanted the chicken, but wasn’t sure if I should go green or red sauce, so I asked. The young lady in the front of the house suggested green, and Man, she was Spot On. This is the way Mexican food needs to be. They also feature a daily special, that can be anything from a sandwich to menudo. I haven’t had menudo since I left New Mexico all so many years ago, but I’d certainly be open to trying it here.

Price wise, this little gem ranges for entrees from about 6 dollars to about 12-15 dollars.
I did a quick scan of Yelp.com for Mexican food. I’m ashamed to say that Lancaster lists places like Qdoba (mall style burritos in line with Chipotle) in the same page as Mucho Mexico. This my friends is a travesty. If you want a 6 dollar burrito, go to a burrito joint. If you want high quality Mexican food at a Very affordable price, by all means, mosey on down to Mucho Mexico.

Local Loving: Spyro Gyro

Local lovings:
Spyro Gyro:

Friday, We (Eric, Kelby and myself) went out for a bite to eat and we ended up at Spyro Gyro downtown Lancaster. This little gem has been in place for at least 3 years and change. The food is very old fashioned and in all the right ways. For me, it’s as if my own (non-existent) greek grandmother came over and fixed me all my favorite dishes each time we drop by.
Here is a blurb from the restaurant's website: “Every time Jacqueline Makris drives past Home Depot, she feels a little sick. The mere sight of the home-improvement megastore reminds Makris of the 2 1/2 years she spent turning a former city store unit into her dream restaurant, Spyro Gyros and Salads. Three years ago, Makris walked past 241 N Queen St and fell in love with its architecture. "I didn't see what was there because it was completely run down," she says. "I saw what it could be." Makris figured she'd renovate the place in a few months...”

The food here is nothing short of fantastic, the service ever friendly, and the portions, well. I sure hope that either A: You’re very very hungry, or B: a professional eater in training. I might even suggest ordering at least 1 fewer dishes than you have diners, if you’re ordering any of the “Platters”.
This time in, I’d ordered the beef shawarma platter as opposed to my usual falafel platter, as I’d wanted to try something new, if I was going to write about them. As usual, my serving plate alone took up about 2/3rds of our table, and I was all that much happier for it. I had seasoned, marinated beef pieces, a great scoop of what can only be homemade hummus, drizzled in olive oil, a Large serving of greens as a salad, pita triangles all over the place and some parts that I’m sure that I’m forgetting.
Here is a 2nd hand/hosted link to their menu from Carryout Courier. I’d link the official menu, but the site has a few “programmatic errors”

If you find yourself in downtown Lancaster, and you don’t have dinner plans, by all means, drop in on the folks at Spyro, grab any booth or bar seat and eat one of the best Greek meals in the area.

Obscurity? Bipolar? or just kick ass ice cream?

So, the three of us, Eric, Kelby and myself, went to Maggie Moo's ice creamery. Please note: I do NOT like chain style food, of any type, however, both Eric and Kelby wanted ice cream, and this is the place that's nearest to Gamestop. So, they had a flavor "Blueberry-Cardamom". Before you go "Spew" or "Blargh" either approach this with an open mind, or god help you, my mind. I Love exotic flavors. So, this location features "mix-ins" one of which is Fruity Pebbles. I haven't had this specific cereal in i don't know how long.
So, upon walking in, I comment to the fellas "What can I Possibly get to mix Fruity Pebbles in to?".
Turns out, this is it. This is SO good. The unique flavor of cardamom and the "what the hell am I tasting?" flavor of Fruity Pebbles just dance so well together. You get a beautiful miasma of both flavor and color. Really, this ice cream and mix-in combo is So unique that it's definitely "Me".

So, that still begs the question. What to call this specific flavor? Bipolar? Obscurity? Other?
Bipolar = Is it sweet? Is it spicy? Is it both at the same time?
Obscurity = Something So unique that only I will order it, it'll be gone within 3 weeks never to be seen again, but complained about it's absence for some time.

A little slice of "Obscurity".

Battle of the bowl

For my first feature, I'm going to visit and rate each Vietnamese  noodle shop in the area. The layout is, judge on availability (parking/seating) feel (cleanliness/atmosphere) and most importantly quality (noodle, broth, presentation and overall satisfaction).
The dish chosen is both basic and a wonderful staple... Pho Thai. Beef broth, rice vermicelli, sliced raw or rare eye of the round steak. We have at least 4 spots serving this delight, if not more and I will sample then all.

An opening dedication, to what was, what is, and what may be.

First, this blog may or may not take off. I'm random enough to never know.

That said, there are folks who need mention.

First: I'd like to extend my everlasting thanks and appreciation to the Doutt family of Columbia, PA. I'm sure that they're no longer in that area of town, but growing up, they showed me both kindness and compassion, when they could have simply sent me on my way. My best friend Jason, died when I was around 14, making him around 13-15. He died of complications from AIDS in the early 80's and to this day, I still regret not attending his funerary services. I simply couldn't make myself go. I felt to the very depth of my soul that it was My fault that he'd gotten the illness (via blood transfusion), simply because I was gay.
I as an adult, realize that this is neither real, nor fair, but explaining that to a moody, bipolar, gay teen is not going to happen.
The other thing about Mrs Doutt (Sally was her name) is that she introduced me to ramen noodles. She would often make her kids "Oodles of Noodles" made by Nissan Foods (they're now called Top Ramen). If not for her, I'd have never been exposed to noodles and my undying love of them.

Additionally, I'd like to actually thank Nissan Foods Inc. for taking a very Japanese food, and bastardizing it to American tastes, so my love affair had a target.

And finally, but certainly importantly, I'd like to thank my wonderful partner, Eric Patton. Without him, I simply wouldn't be sitting here today. He took what was, at best a rocky friendship, and built it up. Took me when I was at my absolute lowest, and carried me along, until I could once again stand on my own two feet.
I love you sweetie.