"I was concerned with something like the notion of 'language speaking the subject,' and with the transformation of the woman herself into a sign in a system of signs that represent a system of food production, a system of harnessed subjectivity." – Martha Rosler
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Pai Men Miyake
I don't even think I need to explain what's going on here at Pai Men Miyake, located at 188 State Street in Portland, Maine--the photos really say it all.
Featured here are two must haves while dining at Pai Men Miyake--pork buns and ramen. The pork buns come with braised pork belly with gouchujang mayo and pepper relish nestled between two perfect pillowey buns. It is like a fluffy dough cloud with pork belly inside--what could be better?
All the ramen is plentiful with pork belly as well. I believe what we're looking at here is the Tonkotsu-Shoyu Ramen (pork broth with soy egg, ginger root, mushrooms, scallion, pork belly, and nori) and the Miso Ramen (pork, chicken, and fish broth topped with pork belly, soy-marinated egg, scallion, and nori).
For some reason I associate eating Japanese ramen on rainy days. Escaping into Pai Men Miyake from a rainy Portland afternoon and slurping up noodles and pork broth sounds pretty ideal right now. If you find yourself in Portland craving authentic ramen or just need a pork bun fix, this is a great place to satisfy your desire. Enjoy!
Featured here are two must haves while dining at Pai Men Miyake--pork buns and ramen. The pork buns come with braised pork belly with gouchujang mayo and pepper relish nestled between two perfect pillowey buns. It is like a fluffy dough cloud with pork belly inside--what could be better?
All the ramen is plentiful with pork belly as well. I believe what we're looking at here is the Tonkotsu-Shoyu Ramen (pork broth with soy egg, ginger root, mushrooms, scallion, pork belly, and nori) and the Miso Ramen (pork, chicken, and fish broth topped with pork belly, soy-marinated egg, scallion, and nori).
For some reason I associate eating Japanese ramen on rainy days. Escaping into Pai Men Miyake from a rainy Portland afternoon and slurping up noodles and pork broth sounds pretty ideal right now. If you find yourself in Portland craving authentic ramen or just need a pork bun fix, this is a great place to satisfy your desire. Enjoy!
Flatbread Company
While I haven’t been to Portland, Maine, since August (insert sad emoticon here) I still have some food posts from my last trip that never went up—one of them being about the tasty pizzas at Flatbread Company, located right on the water at 72 Commercial Street.
I like Flatbread. It’s got a sweet vibe to it. The restaurant feels nice and spacious and you can watch your pizza being made and tossed into a blazing open wood stove. Inside is welcoming and warm, but when it’s nice out I recommend sitting outside by the water.
I'm biased toward a New York slice, but I've found life is much better when you just open yourself up to different variations on a good idea. My favorite pizza so far at Flatbread is the Homemade Sausage. I love the taste of the sausage—it’s nitrate free with a pleasant combination of subtle sweet maple and a bit of a bite from the fennel. The pizza also comes with organic sulfate-free sundried tomatoes, caramelized organic onions, organic mushrooms, whole milk mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese with organic bread dough and homemade organic garlic oil and herbs.
Everyday they offer a vegetable and a meat special pizza, and they will also let you order a pizza half-and-half so you can try both without having to order too much food. On one visit we ordered half Coevolution and half of the meat special for the day. Coevolution is composed of imported Kalamata olives (guaranteed to make a good pizza even better), fresh organic rosemary, organic red onions, Sunset Acres goat cheese, fire-roasted sweet red peppers, and whole milk mozzarella on organic bread dough with homemade organic garlic olive oil and herbs. The meat special came with tiny Maine shrimps and a Thai peanut sauce. It had a little bit of heat to it and was also topped with peppers and snow peas. A success all around.
A crisp Maine Root root beer is a nice accompaniment to the pizza, especially on a hot summer day. They also have nice options for beer and wine at the bar inside.
One of the interesting aspects of Flatbread is that their menus are made from children’s drawings, some of which are highly entertaining. I am a seaweed! I am a cloud! I am a strawberry! I am an orphan?
Friday, January 20, 2012
Pumpkin Ravioli Awesomeness
For dinner tonight I made pumpkin ravioli tossed with caramelized onions, minced garlic, baby spinach, olive oil and topped with goat cheese and crushed red pepper flakes.
Not too shabby. Not too shabby, indeed.
Not too shabby. Not too shabby, indeed.
Cannabis as a "Dietary Essential"?
Could we be at a point of redefining cannabis not as a drug (whether medicinal or recreational) but as a vegetable that has immense benefits for the human body when incorporated raw into a daily diet? Very interesting...
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Bibimbap!
I tried this bibimbap at Village Yokocho while out in New York City with some friends. The rice in the bottom of the sizzling bowl got nice and crispy and that beautiful egg yolk spread lusciously throughout the dish. Amping the spice level up with lots of hot chili sauce we devoured two these between five people in no time. SO GOOD.
Plus bibimbap is the most fun food name to say out loud. Trust me, it's been proven.
Plus bibimbap is the most fun food name to say out loud. Trust me, it's been proven.
Biscuits 'n Gravy
What's better than waking up to a breakfast of fresh biscuits, sausage gravy, and poached eggs? Not a lot. Especially when you wake up to good friends who are ready to assist you in cooking such a tasty meal!
While I got to work on the sausage gravy, my friend Molly prepared the biscuits using a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. With the oven preheating to 450° she mixed together:
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
Next she cut a 1/2 cup of shortening into the flour mixture by pulling two knives through the ingredients in opposite directions. Once the mixture turned into small crumbs she stirred in 3/4 cup of milk.
Then the dough was placed on a floured surface and kneaded about ten times, rolled flat until 1/2 inch thick, and cut into circles using a water glass.
To finish, they were baked in the oven on an ungreased cookie sheet for ten minutes.
I started to make the sausage gravy by browning some breakfast sausage. When it was cooked through I removed the sausage and left the grease in the pan. Next I added a couple of tablespoons of flour to the grease and mixed it together for a few minutes until it was brown. Then I poured in a cup of milk and stirred it together until thick. After that I added the cooked sausage back into the gravy and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious.
After the sausage gravy was good to go and the biscuits were almost done baking I poached some eggs. I filled a large pot with about an inch of water and a splash of white wine vinegar and set it to medium heat. When the water was just starting to bubble I would crack an egg into a dish then release the raw egg from the dish right onto the surface of the water, and used a wooden spoon to gently nudge the whites over the top of the yolk. This helps to keep the egg together as it poaches. After about four minutes I removed each egg using a slotted spoon and placed them onto the sausage-gravy covered biscuits, which we had cut in half.
The breakfast was absolutely amazing. It's a little heavy for an early-morning breakfast, but I guarantee that you will be full for hours. Enjoy!
While I got to work on the sausage gravy, my friend Molly prepared the biscuits using a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook. With the oven preheating to 450° she mixed together:
2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
Next she cut a 1/2 cup of shortening into the flour mixture by pulling two knives through the ingredients in opposite directions. Once the mixture turned into small crumbs she stirred in 3/4 cup of milk.
Then the dough was placed on a floured surface and kneaded about ten times, rolled flat until 1/2 inch thick, and cut into circles using a water glass.
To finish, they were baked in the oven on an ungreased cookie sheet for ten minutes.
I started to make the sausage gravy by browning some breakfast sausage. When it was cooked through I removed the sausage and left the grease in the pan. Next I added a couple of tablespoons of flour to the grease and mixed it together for a few minutes until it was brown. Then I poured in a cup of milk and stirred it together until thick. After that I added the cooked sausage back into the gravy and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious.
After the sausage gravy was good to go and the biscuits were almost done baking I poached some eggs. I filled a large pot with about an inch of water and a splash of white wine vinegar and set it to medium heat. When the water was just starting to bubble I would crack an egg into a dish then release the raw egg from the dish right onto the surface of the water, and used a wooden spoon to gently nudge the whites over the top of the yolk. This helps to keep the egg together as it poaches. After about four minutes I removed each egg using a slotted spoon and placed them onto the sausage-gravy covered biscuits, which we had cut in half.
The breakfast was absolutely amazing. It's a little heavy for an early-morning breakfast, but I guarantee that you will be full for hours. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)