Cravings

Two months later and I still haven't posted about my trip to NYC. I've even been again (just last week). In my defense, there's a lot to write. Some other time.

In the meantime, here's my little project from last week. It was based on this amazing post from Love & Olive Oil, but I lazed out and used box mix (Orange Supreme) and canned frosting (not a good idea at all). Oh, if only.... Though in a couple of years, I can blame my decorating failures on the kid. I've been warned that doesn't last long, though; once they get about four or so, they can rat you out.
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I'm now 26 weeks pregnant and have an obvious orb in my torso. I've gone from just looking fat to looking obviously pregnant. So I get a lot of questions from people who know I'm vegetarian. The most common? "Have you craved meat?" The answer? No.

My husband was really hoping I'd crave meat. I told him that even if I did, I wouldn't eat it. Some people do and that's fine for them, but not me. I am disappointed that I've had to take a prenatal vitamin that's in a gelatin capsule. But the vegan alternatives for vitamins and DHA in particular were making me sick. It really only takes one time of having DHA come up through your nose to turn you off it completely. I find it interesting that I can get algae-based DHA in a gelatin capsule. I suppose it's for people who may have fish allergies. Anyhoo.

So what have I craved?

During the first trimester, I had the very common craving for lemons. I've read that it may be due to an increased need for vitamin C and also because it helps with nausea. However, past week 11 or so, I could take or leave anything lemon flavored. And I have quite a stash now. Lemon-lime soda, frozen lemonade, lemon candy, lemon cookies...

During my second trimester, it was french fries. See the previous post on Red Robin and their bottomless fries. A co-worker fed my addiction with more servings of Arby's curly fries than I care to admit as well. My theory on this craving is my body's need to bulk up. I gained just six pounds in the first four months, but gained another six pounds in the fifth month. The fry craving was supplemented with mashed potatoes during my bout with the flu. Both helped me pack on the weight. Which I really didn't want. For a brief time in there (about a week), I wanted my fries dipped in pickle juice, too. But hey, I love those dill flavored chips anyway, so it's not like that's some odd stretch.

Now that I'm entering my third trimester, all I crave is Xanax. No, really. Of course, I won't take any (don't even have any), but I just want to relax. I've had an eye twitch for weeks that's likely a result of fatigue and stress. Just one good night's sleep.... I also had a craving for a cigarette recently. This is even more odd than any food craving since I've never been a smoker and I actually hate cigarettes and their taste and smell. I was that kid who bowed to peer pressure and tried one and then immediately exclaimed, "that tastes like crap!" My tastebuds were always more important to me than looking cool (as evidenced by my chubby phase in late elementary/junior high school).

But as far as food goes, I don't have an interest in much. Nor do I have the energy to cook much. So we've been using the excuse of the pending baby to go out to eat a lot.
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While at a party this weekend, I talked to Chef Andy Hunter of The Acorn. He's working on his fall/winter menu and I'm eager to see what he does with some of the winter squashes. I love them, but rarely cook them because they can be kind of a pain in the ass. I love having chopped acorn squash in a dish, but I'm not a huge fan of skinning and chopping it myself. Andy also showed us some of the pumpkins he carved for Halloween. Holy cow. He said it takes him about an hour to do most (everything from celebrity faces to Muppets of all sorts), but it took him about three hours to carve The Brady Bunch. The detail...wow.

At the same party, I introduced myself to John Cochran, who's opening The Wild Cow soon. There's been a lot of buzz about this place among local vegetarians and we're really hoping it takes off. He said they've had to delay opening, not least because of all the paperwork required to get a restaurant open, but are aiming for December 1 with a grand opening that will benefit a local animal charity. I can't remember which one right now, but I'm going to keep my eye on these guys. We chatted a little about food and he said they're still trying to decide on the purchase of a deep fryer. I hope they make that plunge because "chicken-fried" tofu nuggets would convert a lot of otherwise tofu-averse people over to the soy side. I think their location is good, too; they're at 1896 Eastland, right across from a popular restaurant, Rosepepper, which is often very crowded. It's in a part of East Nashville that's a tad bit more residential and less restaurant-y than parts west of there. I bet they could do a heckuva a takeaway business. I'm hoping that not being quite so far into the neighborhood (as The Veggie Cafe was) will help it, too.

Restaurant Round-Up: Birthday Week

I still need to write some wonderful things about New York, don't I? I will probably visit New York yet again before I get around to finishing up that project. Anyhoo.

My birthday (and the birthdays of many of my friends) is at the end of September, so the husband and I spent a whole lotta time dining out between September 26th and October 3rd. We went to a couple of old favorites and tried some new places, too.

First up, we went to ChaChah. We'd intended to go to PM instead, but it was crowded and ChaChah offered up the opportunity for immediate seating on the patio. Win.

I love the food at ChaChah. Arnold Myint, the chef is very creative and seems to combine some of my favorite things with new flavors to create wonderful dishes. The delicious tagine was gone from the menu, but replaced by a "menestra" of seasonal vegetables flavored with a hint of Meyer lemon preserve. Though, because the chef strives to keep the menu "fresh," the menestra is now gone, too--replaced by another vegetarian dish that I'm sure I'd love. Though I could survive on pinchos and salad and dips (which I don't see on the menu right now--Arnold, you rascal). And dessert...that night, we had a coconut milk-based flan flavored with cardamom. Spectacular. In addition to the food, ChaChah (and PM) have fantastic cocktails. I can't wait to go back postpartum when I can actually enjoy one with liquor.

Incidentally, the tagine wasn't the only thing I noticed missing from the menu since our only previous visit back in March for Husband's birthday...gone also were the high prices on the large plates. Replaced by very, very reasonable prices. How refreshing.

Next up was brunch at Allium. We'd never been before and hadn't thought much about it (we don't make it to East Nashville often) but that's where a friend was having a birthday brunch. There are several vegetarian options, but I'm not a fan of eggs so I had Raspberry brioche French toast. What I really wanted were popovers (!), but the popover o' the day had bacon in it.

The food was very good (Husband thoroughly enjoyed his Shrimp Benedict or something like that), the place is really remarkable for two other things: the view and the service. The view (see photo) speaks for itself. When it's patio time again, be sure to visit. The service...wow. When one friend couldn't decide between two side dishes, the server offered to bring a half serving of each. I've never heard a server offer that. I was impressed (and so was my friend). And when I asked about the popovers, I gave a back up choice of the French toast, but neglected to mention that I'd want hash browns on the side instead of bacon. No worries, he picked up on that on his own and even said that if he'd gotten that wrong, he'd bring out another side. I think I fell in love right then.

Our next stop, mid-week, was for my actual birthday. I chose Zola because it'd been quite some time since I'd eaten there and because I'd heard of a special vegetarian menu. The chef, Deb Paquette, has always had a vegetarian option and been able to accommodate special requests (I have never forgotten that phyllo burrito stuffed with roasted vegetables and Israeli couscous), so I was very curious about the menu.

The verdict? Eh. No phyllo burrito, sadly. I did have a very tasty empanadilla, but the other options were a bit disappointing to me, but that's because (at the time), they were heavy on eggplant. I don't care for eggplant. I won't bother to tell you why, but I don't. No fault of the chef's, of course. Ya can't please everyone and she's not a psychic. What vegetarian doesn't like eggplant? Anyhoo. I'd actually filled up on a really delicious brie bruschetta with these wonderful little candied hazelnuts.

But the thing that Husband and I discussed the most was the service (seeing a theme?). The service there is really great...the servers know the menu inside and out and make great recommendations. But something on this night just wasn't right. We just didn't see this guy very much. We waited for a long time to order, to get drinks, to get bread, to get our food. We were there for over two hours and we didn't even have dessert. Halfway through, we figured out the reason, though--the table next to us. Every time the server came by, he had to spend at least ten minutes with these people. I think he just eventually started avoiding them--and us, since we were so close. We were just unlucky. It was annoying, but I can't blame him too much. Whoever wrote this must've been in the dining room that night. On the upside, we weren't tempted with dessert and that's a good thing because there was an Italian wedding cake from The Fresh Market waiting for me at home. My favorite.

We finished up the week with a Saturday night dinner at City House. Many of my friends and online foodie friends have raved about City House, so a big group of us met up for dinner.

What I hadn't thought about before was that all the fans of City House are omnivores. The real draws at this restaurant are cured meats and the specials. We, however dined from the menu and I chose from the few vegetarian options.

I started out sharing a "margherita" pizza with the husband. I use quotes because there was no sign of the (what I feel is) the required fresh basil. The pizza did have a good flavor and though I love thin crust, this crust didn't hold up well to the watery sauce. It tasted great, but was a thin, soggy mess. A little thicker crust and a lot less runny sauce (plus a few leaves of basil) and this pizza would be perfect.

Next, I had "Conchiglie, Shittake, Potatoes, Garlic, Oregano, Grana Padano." An adult's version of shells and cheese, right? It's hard to go wrong with a pasta dish, but this one just didn't come together right. I've heard that City House gets their pasta fresh from a local pasta maker, but the shells didn't seem fresh. And I thought it was maybe the heavy hand with the cheese, but others have said that the pasta dishes there were too salty. It was too something. This could have easily been a good, simple and light dish that's satisfying, but it was just not great. Just okay (but too salty). Roasted mushrooms over a really good egg fettucine with olive oil and a bit of cheese would be great. I think this thing got overthought. Try saying that three times fast.

While the food was okay, the service was not. There was a steady decline in the quality of service we received over the week and this guy really punctuated that. First, he took drink orders for just half the table and then disappeared (we had a party of seven). Then, he seemed annoyed at having to explain many of the words on the menu (if a sugo is a sauce, just say so, mmkay?). But the worst was that he didn't really seem to understand the food very well and wasn't able to explain the menu at all. When my friend asked if the butter beans could be substituted on the catfish plate, he started with a very blunt "no." It was startling, actually. And he never did explain that the reason was that it was not a side dish, but part of a sauce that was made for the fish. There was not a big ol' pile of butter beans on her plate, which is what one tends to imagine when ordering catfish.

There were highlights, though. The drink menu there is great--the menfolk really enjoyed their artisan beers and manly cocktails (my husband's new favorite drink is a Dark and Stormy). But my favorite part of the night was dessert. I'm told Rebekah Turshen does the desserts and I'd met her at a Slow Food Nashville event and had some of her linzer cookies--yum). The husband had a chocolate terrina (so chocolatey, so smooooooth) and I had one scoop each of salted caramel gelato (not quiiiiiite salted caramelly enough, but very good) and chocolate orange gelato (superb). An apple dessert was topped with a mascarpone gelato that was also amazingly delicious.

So I don't know that we'll ever go back to City House, but I will say that it's got a fun atmosphere and a great bar area. Just limit your group size and come ready to dine on some swine.

Shew. I'm still kind of de-toxing from all that restaurant food. Though we only have about four more months of freedom until we're tethered with a newborn, so I expect we'll be dining out a lot this winter!

Ginger Peach Ice Cream

Really, I should be writing about all the great food I ate in New York. Not just because I want to re-live it or brag but mostly because I don't want to forget. And as we all know, once something's on the internet, it's there forever.

But before summer ends (oops!), I wanted to share this recipe. Because it's mine, all mine! As in, I tried to search for a good ginger peach ice cream and came up with nothing. So here ya go.

Ginger Peach Ice Cream
Makes 1 quart or about 8 servings

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 large or 3 medium eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
4 or 5 fresh or frozen peaches (skinless), pureed
Peach preserves (optional)

Beat milk and eggs together in a large saucepan. Add sugar, ginger and
vanilla extract, and cook over medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until slightly thickened and registering 170F on a thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, just cook it long enough so that it thickens like a custard but does not boil.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in cream and pureed peaches. Mix with a stick blender (this is what I do--I don't pour it through a sieve and have never had an issue with my custards). Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours and then pour the mix into your ice cream maker according to the directions. Afterward, the ice cream will still be soft, so stir in some peach preserves for a ribbon of peach and store in the freezer.

I really like ginger, so I added more. Eh, I don't really recommend this. The colder the ice cream got, the more gingery it tasted. And some other add-ins might have been nice. Maybe some cookies or something to resemble a pie crust? Mmm...

So why ginger peach? Well, back during peach season, my eyes were bigger than my body's ability to eat peaches in a timely manner. Peaches are wily little fruits. One day, they're too firm, the next day--poof!--mushy and moldy. The fact that I keep my house at 80 degrees (even hotter on the kitchen side of the house) doesn't help. Anyhoo. Once any peach started looking questionable, I just tossed it in the freezer. Even after two months, they were fine even without being wrapped up. I let them thaw, skinned them and they were ready to go. Also? I love peaches, but I'm not a huge fan of peach flavor. But one day, I just thought, hey, ginger would be a great compliment to peaches in ice cream! And I was right. I really like this recipe a lot.

No skins and no garlic? What?

I'm sorry to spoil the drama of such a well-written post, but no skins and no garlic? I just don't know. I have long known that leaving my skins on was bad form, but no garlic? At times, I've forgotten to add it and have felt something lacking. So, I just don't know. But cook eat FRET speaketh the truth...

It's really time for me to get out my pasta rollers again. I spend my weekends cleaning my house instead of engaging in more satisfying domestic activities. I must remedy that.

A preview of NYC and Asian noodles

Husband and I spent the week before Labor Day in New York City. There is so much to see and eat (oops! I mean "do") there, that I actually created a spreadsheet in order to get as much of it done as possible. So when I get the energy, I'll tell you all about the wonderful food we had. I think I will divide the posts into these categories:
1. Sweet stuff & bagels
2. Pizza
3. Fine dining
4. All the rest

But in the meantime, I'm recovering from the flu and from taking Tamiflu. The Tamiflu was worse--dry mouth does not even begin to describe this feeling. I feel like I swallowed a hive of Africanized bees. Also, awful headaches, hallucinations/nightmares and awful stomach pains. Really, the flu was much more pleasant.

I don't think I picked it up in NYC; it's much more widespread here in the south and my symptoms didn't show up until about 36 hours after getting off the plane. I think it happened somewhere en route. Anyway, so after a week of indulgence, we come back here and eat takeout for nearly another week.

But I finally found the energy to make it to work on Friday. I'm still tired and can barely speak, but I needed to catch up. I did leave a few minutes early to beat traffic. No dice. Five mile back-up on the way home (I am hating the "stimulus package" and the ensuing construction that now f's up my commute), so I made a detour and drove past a local market, The Produce Place in hopes of being inspired to actually make something for dinner.

Oh, worth mentioning here is that a couple of weeks ago, I watched an episode of "Hoarders" and completely cleaned out the refrigerator and pantry, so not only do I know everything I have, it ain't much.

I did recall finding Lo Mein noodles I'd forgotten about (still good!) and some teriyaki flavored baked tofu (good, too!).* So I wandered the aisles with those in mind and picked up some fresh shiitake mushrooms and some carrots and headed home.

Then, I just started cooking. Husband got home and I put him to work on the carrots. Sliced up and sauteed the mushrooms in sesame oil. Boiled and cooled the noodles. Then had him grate some ginger from the freezer (still good!) and cut up the tofu. Then, in the saute pan, I poured in more sesame oil (after removing the mushrooms), a little garlic, about a tablespoon of grated ginger, some sugar, a little sriracha, soy sauce and rice vinegar. When the sugar and ginger were dissolved, Husband dumped in the noodles, mushrooms and tofu into the pan. After everything was nice and warm, it all went into a bowl with the shredded carrots and some gomasio (still good! and because I have yet to make it to the international grocery for more sesame seeds).

And it was good. But I can't really tell you how to replicate it exactly, but it's not hard. The most important thing to remember is to heat the oil/sugar/ginger/garlic/soy sauce/vinegar mixture on LOW heat so that the ginger and garlic infuse the mixture and do not burn. Very, very important.

I was really proud of myself for throwing this together. And proud of the husband for helping out so much.

*If you've seen the show "Hoarders," you'll understand all these "it's still good!" references.