Get in my belly

yes, i’m still behind on everything. this is just a quick post to say: 1) i went to salts (in cambridge) a couple of months ago and was quite disappointed. very ordinary and, perhaps surprisingly, undersalted. i know winnie used to speak very highly of salts, but i believe the management has changed since her time in boston. i remember carl was likewise quite disappointed in his trip there. 2) one of the guys from my fraternity has this cool website called instructables.com where people post nice, pictorial how-to’s on loads of topics, including recipes (and a whole slew of ipod projects). haven’t really looked at the recipes much, but i thought people might be interested in this guide to better lighting for your food porn photography.

A fascinating look at high-end food distribution in the local paper today. And by my favorite brother-brother food writing team.

High praise from all over lured us to laid-back Chiyono in the East Village when Korean fried chicken fell through. Could this be my new favorite eatery in the ‘hood?

could (pork belly, braised in soy sauce with a hard-boiled egg and green beans)

be (deep-fried daikon latke (that’s what i’m calling it, anyway) with soba).

Got a Taiwanese food fix today at Nan Bei He in Flushing (Prince and 40th Rd):

The standout was the pork intestine with Chinese celery. I unknowingly (one of the 2 untranslated items on the menu, so we had to order, natch) picked a pork intestine soup that looked identical, but they turned out to be very different. Where the tangy broth brought out the funkiness of the intestine, the stir-fried version had an unguent fattiness and sweet porkiness with a beguiling floral/vegetal hit from the celery. I would go back just for this. The you tiao were serviceable, but I noticed that everyone was ordering cong you bing. And they had those omelet/pancakes wrapped around beef too! We unfortunately missed breakfast service by 5 minutes, but that just means I get to go back. Taiwanese breakfast is the bestest.

I went to the Glitter and Doom exhibit at the Met this morning (urged, as I was, by my drawing teacher, who said that I, specifically, would like this very much (and I did)). Beyond some really wonderful paintings and drawings by the likes of Max Beckmann and the hilarious Otto Dix (who would have been a pretty cool guy to hang out with, one gets the feeling), we noticed that some of these artists came up with great names for their works which would fit quite nicely as band or album names. The title of this post, for example — wouldn’t it be an excellent name for a twee Scottish indie pop band? The best, however, was “I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master” (an album title, obviously), courtesy of the diabolical genius George Grosz.

So I’m staying in and cooking up a storm. I’m finally making good on my resolution to cook as much as possible at home (difficult when the temptation to get Peruvian and Burmese is great). Second time around with this recipe, and now that I’ve got easy access to a million kinds of cake pans and flours and my oven actually has temperature settings, I really don’t have any excuse, do I?

Apple cake with caramel glaze, from Scott Peacock and Edna Lewis’s The Gift of Southern Cooking. Also really good with a generous dollop of crème fraîche.

Went out to the Peruvian joint El Anselmo Fino in Woodhaven on Superbowl Sunday and ate:

a very limey, oniony (both good things) ceviche (octopus, squid, corvina, mussels, shrimp), served with very pre-Columbian looking Andean corn on the cob and half a boiled sweet potato. I couldn’t get enough of this.

Chicken in a this oddly addicting creamy sauce. I guess it’s kind of like your Aunt Sally’s tuna noodle casserole. Only with chicken, without noodles or your Aunt Sally.

Cabrito. Look at the shank on this thing! Goaty, fatty and super flavory (as my mom would say), inside and out.

Afterwards, we got ice cream sundaes at Eddie’s, in Forest Hills.

My latest discoveries from the blogosphere:

hodgepodge farm: my awesome patternmaking teacher.

gus: my favorite ice cream man.

little birds: crafting genius.

inhabitat: green is the new black.