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.