Breakfast of Champions!

I know what you're probably thinking. Leftover spaghetti is NOT breakfast food. But it is for me! I get bored eating only traditional American fare like eggs, cereal, pancakes and waffles.

According to my research, leftover spaghetti is not a traditional breakfast food anywhere. But reading the breakfast article over at Wikipedia I found out about amazing breakfasts from all around the world (photos too!). Some of the most memorable breakfasts I've had in other countries include a traditional Turkish breakfast that featured tomatoes, cucumber, cheese and olives and an enormous smoked seafood buffet in Finland, although that may be more indicative of hotel breakfast food than what the average Finn eats.

I also find comfort in the simple French breakfast of a baguette, butter, jam or croissant, and hot chocolate. Lee's favorite is a British breakfast and he likes Asian breakfasts too. In general I am not crazy about most traditional Chinese and Japanese breakfasts, but Indian breakfasts with breads and chutney sound very appealing to me...

How about you? Do you eat anything unconventional for your first meal of the day? Do you have a favorite traditional breakfast from a foreign country?

FOOD

Favorite Things:Blisscotti

You'll never forget your birthday or your social security number. As long as I live, I will never forget that Tuesday's were hot dog day in elementary school. While not a huge fan of hot dogs, the real appeal of the day was the choice of chips and ice cream.

For years I stuck with Fritos corn chips and an orange creamsicle. At some point I moved on to ice cream sandwiches, before ultimately settling in with fudgesicles. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the last time I had a fudgesicle. But I do remember my last few ice cream sandwiches.

One of my favorites is a local specialty the It's-It. As you would expect from the Bay Area it's a non-conformist treat, made from oatmeal cookies and filled with vanilla, chocolate, cappucino or mint ice cream. But another ice cream sandwich has impressed me as of late, Blisscotti. Sadly, neither did particularly well recently with the tasting panel at the San Francisco Chronice.

"The fifth-ranked Blisscotti ($3.99 for three, Mollie Stone's) was the only non-traditionalist in the top five. Instead of a thin wafer, they feature thick biscotti-style cookies coated in chocolate, sandwiching vanilla ice cream. The panelists all liked the cookies' taste and crunchy texture, but found them so hard to bite through that the filling all gushed out. The ice cream had a strong vanilla flavor. Three panelists might buy these; two wouldn't."

Oh my. Must I now teach the panel how to eat ice cream? I guess I must. Allow the darn thing to soften just a tiny bit before munching into it and you will have no difficulty. And forget about the vanilla one. The chocolate on chocolate and the coffee flavored ones are divine!

You wouldn't think biscotti would pair so well with ice cream, but lo and behold, it does. Blisscotti are the creation of a couple who helped launch the Dove bar, so you know they understand the ice cream and chocolate connection. In fact, the dark chocolate versions of Blisscotti use 65% cacao chocolate. This is a very adult treat but quite delicious and waaaay better than the conventional ice cream sandwich. That's what MY panel* says.

*me and my husband Lee, who by the way, liked the raspberry version best of all

READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites are some insider tips for Eating Asia

FOOD

Waitress: Movie

Waitress is the perfect Summer flick. Set in a diner in the South, it revolves around the emotional lives of three waitresses. It has equal parts humor, romance, with plenty of pie and some "spontaneous poetry" thrown in for good measure.

Kerri Russell stars as the main character, a waitress, who creates pies for the diner and often dreams up pies that reflect her emotional state such as Falling-in-love Chocolate Mousse Pie, Mermaid Marshmallow Pie, Kick In The Pants Pie, Peachy Keen Tart and I Hate My Husband Pie. Especially noteworthy is Andy Griffith as a soft-hearted curmudgeon customer and owner of the diner. But really, with the exception of the creepy and controlling husband, all the characters are a pleasure to watch. The movie is so charming you'll likely overlook the predictable plot turns and the stereotypical nature of some of the characters.

Waitress is thoroughly entertaining, sweet and as enjoyable as a slice of you-know-what! Sadly it's not so easy to find a good pie in my neighborhood. I may just have to try making one soon...

Staying in for Chinese food

When a number of Chinese cookbooks aimed at home cooks crossed my desk recently I knew I wanted to write something about them. I tried several recipes and pondered questions like "what makes Chinese food authentic?" and "does authenticity matter to the home cook anyway?"

My first extended book review for Culinate is up today, I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. It contains reprints of several wonderful recipes for you to try at home.

Thanks!

Amy

FOOD

Early Girl Eatery: Restaurant

Early Girl Eatery is the perfect reflection of Asheville. It's artsy, casual, classic, modern, and delicious all at once. The menu, a combination of North Carolina and vegetarian food works surprisingly well. But then again, Asheville is surrounded by farm country and what was once farm country.


The hip interior features tables covered in brown paper and walls covered with the work of local artists, some of whom take to using the brown paper as canvas. I wish I could tell you what lunch or dinner are like, but I was only there for multiple breakfasts. I even snuck in a last time the day I left Asheville to get some pumpkin bread to take on the plane.

Proprietor John Stehling grew up in the mountains and parts of Central and Eastern North Carolina, a state that has lost more than 6,000 farms and 300,000 acres of farmland since 2002. He is committed to buying as much local produce and meat as he can. Using what's local and in-season makes sense to him, serving plenty of vegetarian fare is what makes sense to his wife and co-proprietor, Julie. The restaurant participates in a CSA program and has a "keep it simple" philosophy.


I fell in love with the place after dipping in to a bowl of grits topped with andouille sausage gravy, and plump, juicy shrimp. Little flavorful bits of peppers, tomatoes and chopped scallions added brightness to this Southern dish.


The next day a simple biscuit with egg and sausage also put a smile on my face.

Prices are affordable to make sure locals keep coming. John told me some folks eat here everyday of the week. Many order the same thing daily. The customers on any given day also include vegetarians, college kids, artists, vegans, and more cosmopolitan tourists too. Their web site has a few recipes posted and while I would have snapped up a cookbook in a minute, they are happy to share their recipes. If you make it to Asheville be sure and stop by.

Early Girl Eatery
8 Wall St
Asheville, North Carolina
(828) 259-9292
(call or visit web site for hours)

FOOD

Mostarda: Recipe

I spent a year living in Europe, and six months of that was in Italy. Having eaten a lot of Italian food, I like to think I understand it, perhaps just a little. In fact, whenever I try to recreate an Italian dish I think back to earlier versions that I've eaten. What was it that I liked about it? What was the essence of the dish?

In all my time in Italy, I don't remember trying mostarda. It's not surprising really because the most well-known versions come from Veneto, Lombardia and Piemonte. Most of my time was spent in Tuscany. But I still think I understand mostarda, just a bit. It's like an Italian chutney I suppose. Don't make the mistake of translating it as "mustard". Mostarda does have a little bit of mustard in it, but it's really a combination of preserved fruit in syrup with a bit of a kick. The kick comes from mustard oil, mustard essence, dry mustard, mustard seeds or some combination thereof. Other ingredients include sugar or honey, wine, vinegar and sometimes citrus juice.

When I am developing a recipe, I often look for several variations then strike off on my own. The recipes I found for mostarda varied greatly--some used dry fruit, others fresh fruit. Some cooked slowly others cooked quickly. Some had lots of mustard, others barely a pinch. My own experiment lead me to this conclusion: Mostarda is very forgiving and can easily be made to your own taste. You can taste as you go and make changes. Here's how I made my first version. Please note all amounts are approximations. I'm including the links to the recipes that influenced my own recipe. Mario Batali's version at the Food Network, one from About.com's Italian Food section, Food and Wine's recipe and a particularly tedious thread on eGullet on the subject.

My Mostarda
makes about 3 cups

1 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup dried figs, chopped
6 small apricots cut into quarters
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup sugar
1 cup white wine
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons light mustard seeds
1 Tablespoons dry mustard powder

Place the dried fruit in a non-reactive saucepan and barely cover with water. Add the sugar, wine and vinegar. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Add the fresh fruit, mustard seeds and mustard powder and continue just barely simmering for another 10 minutes. The fruit should hold it's shape but be supple and moist. Taste for seasonings. Add more water or wine or mustard as you wish. The finished product should be somewhat thick and syrupy. Serve with pate, charcuterie, cheese, or a boiled dinner like bollito misto. Store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

READ MORE Over at Bay Area Bites is my take on the Ultimate Food & Wine Pairing

FOOD

Posts for Your Pleasure

I'm sorry. I'm just too darned obsessed with my new iPhone to post anything original right now. I have been surfing the web however, on my new iPhone, and came across some posts you really should read.

Pocket Farm has announced One Local Summer. This is very cool and I'm sorry I didn't hear about it earlier. The idea is to prepare one local meal each week of the Summer. I know I've been critical of the whole eating local thing in the past, but to me, this is totally doable and a really interesting experiment/habit. You can check out what meals look like regionally on the One Local Summer blog.

Are you sick of posts about dining at the French Laundry? Of course not! Kristen of Give Me Some Food includes plenty of photos to make you feel like you are there. If you want to skip ahead to know how much she enjoyed the meal, the smile on her face in the last picture says it all.

Derrick of Obsession with Food points out the irony of a "real food" contest being sponsored by Hellman's mayonnaise and Yahoo! Food. I know people love this product, but Hellman's or Best Foods mayo tastes like chemicals and sugar to me. It's very satisfying to make your own homemade version so do give it a try sometime.

p.s. Please don't hate me for having an iPhone, it was a birthday/anniversary present and my old phone was really, really old and dying...

FOOD