The book I’ve been waiting for all my life

Ok, so the title of this post isn’t entirely true. But hyperbole sells. And I really am excited for this book. They could have just sold me the cover and I would have gladly handed over my money.

If the name doesn’t ring a bell, Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas is the hottest barbecue joint in the country. Top accolades include being named the best barbecue in the U.S. by Bon Appetit and #1 BBQ joint in Texas by Texas Monthly (a more noteworthy honor). What’s even more amazing is that in just a few years Aaron Franklin has risen above other pitmasters who have been working at their craft for decades.

Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto is Aaron Franklin’s barbecue guide for aspiring pitmasters, where he distills all of the knowledge he has accumulated over the years.

My version of Taco Bell’s Beefy Fritos Burrito

A few weekends ago my girlfriend and I were out barhopping, and as always happens when a drop or more of alcohol touches my lips, an insatiable hunger began to well up inside of me. In these moments of inebriation I’m completely helpless to resist my stomach’s demands so on the way home we stopped by the Taco Bell drive-thru.

Whenever I get fast food I mainly order from the dollar menu because I’m cheap and want to feel as bad as I can for the least amount of money. As I glanced over Taco Bell’s Dollar Cravings Menu, something new caught my eye. I’ve always been intrigued by their collaborations with Frito-Lay, e.g. the Doritos Locos Tacos. I don’t ever really enjoy the taste of the food but I’m a sucker for trying them. The most recent of these items is the Beefy Fritos Burrito—seasoned beef, Fritos, premium Latin rice, and warm nacho cheese sauce all wrapped in a flour tortilla.

My girlfriend and I found the burrito so-so at best. Like most of the food I eat from Taco Bell, the meager amount of filling left me biting mostly into empty folded tortilla. Even though the execution was poor, I found some inspiration from the idea. In an ode to my regrettably short-lived blog, Kitchen Cover Band, I wanted to try recreating this burrito at home.

Carb Me Up

I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed spaghetti and meatballs.

For the last few months I’ve been training for my first half-marathon. I’m not actually the running type—in fact, I despise running as a form of exercise. At this point, your logically sound mind is probably wondering why I’m participating in an event that is focused around the thing I hate most. Touché.

A Valentine’s Day retrospective: Pot-Au-Feu

This Valentine’s Day my girlfriend and I decided we were going to skip the traditional song and dance. Yes, it is a very manufactured holiday and it seems silly to go out and spend a bunch of money on a bouquet of roses and a fancy dinner. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with having an excuse for a romantic evening together. Instead of going out we decided to just make something at home. That way we could have a nice dinner together and also try a new recipe in the kitchen.

A couple weeks before the day my girlfriend made a suggestion: “What about pot-au-feu?” She knows just how to appeal to my Francophile tendencies. Translated as “pot on the fire”, pot-au-feu is a classic French stew composed of cuts of meat, bones, root vegetables, and herbs. On top of my interest in French cuisine, my girlfriend has fond memories of the dish from studying abroad in France in college.

Bacon-Bourbon Jam

I recently had some periodontal surgery, which left me unable to eat solid foods for a couple weeks. I didn’t want that to stop me from cooking something new so I brainstormed softer foods I could make. At that point I had been subsisting on applesauce and pudding and was dying for something savory. I scoured my favorite recipe sites for soups, sauces, and spreads until I discovered a recipe whose very name called out to me like flashing lights on the Vegas strip: bacon-bourbon jam.

The only kind of fusion I care about

I’ve been eating at taco trucks too often lately, and while I love funneling my hard earned cash into small businesses, I thought it would be best to mitigate the bleeding by just trying to reproduce a dish at home.

Rather than just cook up some run-of-the-mill street tacos, I wanted to try something different. What else works on a bed of corn tortillas aside from the classic carne asada, grilled chicken, carnitas, or even chorizo? I took a cue from another type of food truck. 

The path to macaron perfection

 

Macarons have a reputation for being difficult to master. An impeccably smooth, paper-thin shell yields to moist meringue and creamy filling, but subtleties like the chewiness of the meringue or the amount of filling can have a big effect on your experience.

That’s what makes perfecting macarons so enticing. A decent chocolate chip cookie is still an enjoyable chocolate chip cookie, but a macaron needs to be immaculate.

I took up baking about 6 months ago and the first thing on my mind was macarons.

New home, new dish

A month and a half. That’s how long I’d been living in my new apartment without having cooked a meal. Sure, I’d warmed up a can of soup in between bouts of going out to eat, but I hadn’t officially “used” my kitchen in any legitimate way.

Park Burger: The Scarpone

Last week I was out in Denver visiting an old college friend. It was my first time in Colorado and I would be highly remiss if I didn’t do my food research before traveling anywhere new. For me, the first food that usually comes to mind is burgers: where do I find the best one in X city?

Denver made it a little easier for me to narrow down my options. Every year the city holds the Denver Burger Battle—a charity event where 12 of the best burger joints in town compete to be crowned number one.

La Bodega: Riki-Taki

Tucked away in an 800 square foot corner of Pioneer Square—shrouded by the comings and goings of a busy bus stop—is a little Caribbean hideaway. Opened at the end of 2013, La Bodega is a Dominican food shop/eatery run by Manu Alfau, former cook at Blind Pig Bistro. At La Bodega, Alfau brings traditional Dominican street food and childhood favorites to a Seattle food scene lacking in Latin American flavors.