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ABOVE: Miscellaneous San Francisco; clockwise from top left, a cappuccino at Four Barrel Coffee, my sister Steph and I at Tartine Bakery, a croque monsieur and Coit Tower.

12/31/2009

As many of you may know, I’m back home in California visiting my family in the Bay Area. It’s been mostly family time here in Vallejo, a solidly working-class former shipyard town.

In the decade I’ve been gone, there have been some changes, or maybe I just never noticed before. While visiting my favorite taco stand I realized it’s possible to visit a huge Filipino seafood market, eat Phở, lunch on “the best lechon” in town, grab a killer burger from a local landmark joint, and feast on $1.25 tacos, all with a quarter mile stretch of Hwy. 29.

If you kept on driving another 15 miles on the same road, you’d find yourself in Napa and from there, epicurean possibilities are endless. We made a short venture into Napa County yesterday, visiting the Boon Fly Café at the Carneros Inn, and the relatively new OxBow Public Market, which holds under one roof delicacies like Ritual Coffee Roasters, Taylor’s Automatic Refresher (get the Wisconsin burger) and Hog Island Oyster Company (their Kumamoto oysters are beyond excellent).

Conversely, I’ve already made note of the drawbacks; seeking to obtain the necessary ingredients to make orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage, the produce guy at the local market told me he could special order the vegetables for me if I was going to be around next week, but that broccoli rabe would be “a hard sell around here.”

And hot and sweet sausage? Forget about it.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: I’ll be in San Diego for a couple of days and then back up north, in-and-around the Bay Area and San Francisco. Drop me a line if you have any foodie suggestions.

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ABOVE: Chili Chicken. Watch out for the peppers, they are no joke.

12/30/2009

CHILI CHICKEN: 19 HIGH RIDGE ROAD, STAMFORD

Basically, I’m too lazy to keep maintain a schedule of frequent postings. And then there’s the self-diagnosed seasonal affective disorder. And, you know, I’m broke and haven’t been eating out much lately.

But mostly, I’m lazy.

So, while photographing Chili Chicken for an Advocate food review, one of the partners asked me why I haven’t blogged about his new restaurant yet.

He has a point.

I met him a while back another restaurant review photo shoot– at Tawa, an upscale Indian restaurant in downtown Stamford – and I had briefly blogged about Chinese Mirch, which like Chili Chicken is an Indian/Chinese fusion establishment, but isn’t even open yet.

Long story short, the Advocate did review Chili Chicken and their eight dollar buffet in last week’s Go section and based on what I tasted there, I concur with the favorable review.

We had an interesting conversation at Chili Chicken regarding the state of restaurants in Stamford, particularly the recent mini-explosion of Indian restaurants in Stamford.

Are we over-saturated?

In downtown alone Coromandel and Tawa are soon to be joined by the aforementioned Chinese Mirch and a vegetarian Indian restaurant slated to fill the vacant Mona Lisa spot on Atlantic. This echoed a similar discussion I had with an Indian-American family while working on our Kitchen Culture series.

What do you think?

–CP

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ABOVE: Amnah Kiani prepares a salad for a traditional Pakistani dinner at the Kiani’s home in Stamford last week.

12/28/2009

The latest edition of the Advocate’s Kitchen Culture series brings us to the Kinani’s a Pakistani family living in Stamford.

We found Hamid, the father and his son Fahad on the cricket pitch at Lione Park a while back and when asked, they graciously offered to share their food and cooking culture with us for this series.

Everything Mrs. Kiani prepared was delicious, the spicy chicken, tender goat and the pakora potatoes, breaded in chickpea flour and spices and fried.

The story runs later this week but here is a preview of the recipe:

Pakora potato pancakes:

WHAT YOU NEED:

Potatoes, sliced thinly about 1/8 of an inch on a mandolin or using a kinfe

1/2 cup chickpea flour

3/4 cup water (more or less as needed to obtain the correct consistency)

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1/2 tea spoon cumin seeds

fresh cilantro and parsley if desired.

WHAT YOU DO:

Mix the flour, water and spices in a bowl and let stand for 15

minutes. The mixture should not be too thin so it will stick to the

pancakes.

Dip the potato slices in the mixture and fry them in a thin layer

of vegetable oil until both sides are brown and crispy.

–CP

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ABOVE: Super spicy shrimp tacos at Casa Villa

12/25/2009

CASA VILLA: 182 WEST MAIN ST, STAMFORD

Being the junior member of what is now essentially a two-person department, I work Christmas almost every year. There is no real way to sugarcoat this; it pretty much sucks.

My family is 2,900 miles away in the San Francisco Bay Area and despite spending Christmas Eve at a friend’s house for an entirely enjoyable holiday meal, it’s a little depressing to find yourself cruising Stamford for a restaurant or grocery store that might actually be open on Christmas night.

Having failed to anticipate this problem and forgetting to shop for groceries the day before, my options were meager. Macaroni and cheese, cold cereal and other less-than-appealing options awaited me at home as I wandered the city searching for something open, warm and ideally, delicious.

But just when I thought all was lost, the light from a familiar storefront on West Main St. shone through the darkness. Like the Christmas Star leading the three wise men to that manger in Bethlehem, the neon ‘open’ sign in the window of Casa Villa beckoned. These eyes have not seen a more welcome sight and at this moment – I don’t know if it was the Spirit of Christmas or just my insatiable appetite for authentic Mexican food – I was flush with excitement for tonight, my friends, I would dine on tacos.

Behind the counter owner Alvino Villa worked frantically alongside an all-hands compliment of employees (including Alejandro, the star short-order cook). Casa Villa was busy churning out dishes even as – or perhaps because – the rest of Stamford was closed for business.

Sitting near the warm glow of the rotisserie oven, looking out onto the cold street with a flimsy paper plate of shrimp tacos in front of me, I realized that on a night like tonight, Casa Villa is more than my favorite neighborhood restaurant, it is a savior.

Mr. Villa, for rescuing my Christmas, I thank you. It truly was a Christmas miracle.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: I fly to SFO at 7 a.m. tomorrow and will still have plenty of time for family holiday time. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.

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ABOVE: My first attempt at Kourambiethes.

12/14/2009

“It’s for Christmas cookies,” I explain, slightly embarrassed to be slipping a bottle of $4 brandy into my coat pocket, forgoing the paper bag at an East Side liquor store.” Though in retrospect, maybe I’d rather be seen as a cheap drunk than a compulsive baker.

I haven’t been down to Astoria for a couple of months and this is a problem. Artopolis, a bakery in this heavily Hellenic Queens neighborhood, offers some of the most unbelievable Greek pastries this side of Athens.

I can go on and on about the galaktoboureko and the baklava, but I have a soft spot for the kourambiethes; shortbread cookies with almonds and brandy, covered decadently in confectioner’s sugar. Lots and lots of sugar (this recipe calls for a pound of the white stuff).

They are wedding cookies, Christmas cookies and Easter cookies. Essentially, they come out when people are celebrating.

I call them a mid-morning snack.

The Chicago Tribune recipe:

WHAT YOU NEED:

1/2 cup blanched almonds

1 lb unsalted butter — softened

1 lb confectioner’s sugar

2 egg yolks

3 tbsp brandy

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

WHAT YOU DO:

Pre-heat oven to 350′F.

Spread almonds in single layer on baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until lightly toasted, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool, then chop coarsely.

Beat butter in large bowl of electric mixer on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons of the confectioners’ sugar; continue beating 3 minutes. Add egg yolks, Cognac and vanilla; beat until smooth. Beat in almonds, flour and baking powder until mixed well. (If dough is too soft to handle, add additional flour.) Shape scant tablespoons full of dough between palms into round balls or crescents.

Bake on ungreased baking sheets until set and very pale golden in color; 15 minutes. Remove cookies to cooling rack.

Place remaining confectioners’ sugar into sifter. While cookies are still hot, sift confectioners’ sugar over tops. Repeat twice at 20-minutes intervals.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Any recipe that calls for both butter and sugar by the pound is alright by me.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: Do not eat these while wearing a navy blazer shortly before walking into an Ivy League cocktail party. Or wear a bib.

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ABOVE: The shrimp po’ boy from Jeff’s Cuisine

JEFF’S CUISINE: 54 NORTH MAIN ST., NORWALK

12/13/2009

Speaking of New Orleans and my new 3Gs iPhone (that replaced my earlier version that I broke last month), I wanted to test out the new camera.

What better to try it out on than a shrimp po’ boy at Jeff’s Cuisine in Norwalk. Though not anywhere near as good as the crawfish po’ boys I used to buy at Tony’s Seafood in Baton Rouge for about $5, it’s the best you can get around here.

I like mine dressed, so drag it through the garden, baby!

–CP

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(Chris Preovolos/Baton Rouge Advocate, via AP)

ABOVE: Convict poker at the Angola Prison Rodeo, the self-proclaimed “Wildest Show in the South.”

12/13/2009

I stumbled on an interesting Hidden Kitchens radio story about food at the Angola Prison Rodeo while exploring the NPR app on my new iPhone.

If you’ve never been to the popular event at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which more than lives up to its billing as the “Wildest Show in the South,” I’m not sure how to explain the bizarreness that is the prison rodeo. The prison is a working farm on the site of a former massive cotton plantation tucked into a bend in the Mississippi River. Driving into the penitentiary, you see the unsettling sight of inmates picking cotton while corrections officers on horseback keep a watchful eye on the fields.

But when you enter the 10,000-seat rodeo arena, it gets downright surreal. I can’t even adequately describe it, so just use your imagination. It’s brutal.

But the food is killer.

“You got things here that you can’t find in society,” says one inmate regarding the prison’s boudin balls (cajun fried hush puppies with sausage or crawfish inside). I don’t know what that means, but they are damn good.

And so is the etouffee.

LISTEN HERE: Broncos and Boudin.

–CP