i'll have the chocolate with a side of bacon

one of my greatest friends came for a visit from the west coast and invited me for dinner at her sister's and soon to be brother in law's.


after dinner, my friend's sister said she had a surprise- something that her fiance didn't even know about, something for us to have before desert. i think she used some french word begining with the letter a, but i can't remember the word, and failed to find it when i tried to google search it. i think the definition of the word was some sort of food/meal before desert. if anyone knows what that word is- let me know because it's KILLING me.


anyway, she goes on to say that this is one of the many items that quickly sells out at whole foods. the suspense was killer, given this little factoid, and the build up from before.


it turns out that the surprise is mo's bacon bar, a chocolate bar with little bacon pieces. the back of the bar has the "inspiration" for creating this aggressive candy bar, and when you read it, it kinda makes sense:

"I began experimenting with bacon + chocolate at the tender age of 6, while eating chocolate chip pancakes drenched in Aunt Jemima® syrup, as children often do. Beside my chocolate-laden cakes laid three strips of sizzlin' bacon, just barely touching a sweet pool of maple syrup. And then, the magic—just a bite of the bacon was too salty and I yearned for the sweet kiss of chocolate and syrup, so I combined the two. In retrospect, perhaps this was a turning point; for on that plate something magical happened, the beginnings of a combination so ethereal and delicious that it would haunt my thoughts until I found the medium to express it—chocolate."


so having read that before taking a bite, i was like "oh, that makes sense", especially that i love both chocolate and bacon. actually, the irony is that before i came for dinner, the following email "conversation" took place between myself and my friend:
__________________________________
From: XXXX
To: raechel
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 3:24:05 PM
Subject: RE: friday din din


XXXX asked me to ask you if there is anything you can't eat. her words, "ask her if she is morally opposed to pork"
_________________________________
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:52:12 -0800
From: raechel
Subject: Re: friday din din
To: XXXX

does eating bacon on a regular basis answer her question? i am not morally opposed to anything...even when i was a jew as a semester long project in college...ha!
___________________________________

From: XXXX
To: raechel
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 4:55:00 PM
Subject: RE: friday din din

hahaha i remember that. not that she is gonna serve pork but she just wanted to be sure.

well it turns out, she DID serve pork (not as the main course), but in the form of a chocolate bar. while i am not sure that i would replace my favorite chocolate bars (twix, cookies and cream hershey bar, reese's peanut butter cup, milky ways) with mo's bacon bar, it's not as bad as it sounds. i think the problem was that i coudn't get the idea of bacon grease plus chocolate in my head, so it was a bit overwhelming. but like my dinner host said, it is one of the fasting selling items at whole foods- so maybe this mixing chocolate with random foods is the new trend!

pancakes anyone?

for all you foodies and do-gooders, mark next tuesday and head out to ihop for some free pancakes, and support a good cause while you are at it!

http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/

holla at my cousin carmela who sent the info!

while we are at it, let's look at the different aliases that pancakes hold, by foodies and short order cooks alike (compliments of the website wordie)

silver dollars
flapjacks
hubcaps
platters
saturday morning specials
griddlebacks
panky-doos
berry patches
2-ds
chuck norris crêpes (if anyone has an explanation for this- do share)
flipjills
circles of life
butter gutters
phaistos disks (i don't even know what a phiastos is)
analogs (how very engineering friendly)
charlie browns (thought that was a type of line dance?)
saucer sections
anime eyes
row-your-boats
pratchetts
florida mountain range
uncle sam seen from above
portraits of the virgin mary
mickey mouses with ear reduction surgery
french toast (oooor someone mistakes the two as the same when the are NOT)

E to the M to the Panada

it's not your typical valentine's dinner, although james and i are one of the many people in america to recognize that the valentine's day is just another hallmark holiday. nevertheless, you've got to eat, right?

you might recall our fascination of empanadas from the post about ricardo steak house. i think i went as far as to quote james in saying, "wish i could sit in front of the tv eating these empanadas all day."

we were spending the day in the city and while walking cross town, we came across a place called empanada joe's on 6th avenue between 20th and 21st. at first, it looked like it was a chain place, including the decor and the menu style. i still wasn't sure until i checked out the website and saw that this was the only location in manhattan (i like it even more for this reason).

earlier that day, i was reading portions of this book, "eat this not that" and it was all about fast food joints and what you should be eating on their menu instead of another item. i contemplated buying it for 5 seconds, but then realized that spending $19.99 on the book is probably not worth it, being that i don't go to those places often enough for me to worry about it.

however, i bring the book up because empanada joe's, or m-joe's as they call it, made it a point to have posters (and on their website), comparing their empanadas to fast foods ("150 calories!" as compared to the 350 calories+ items that they compared it to).

that's all well and good, but when you get 3 empanada plus two sides meal that james and i each got (oh yeah, did i mention that we got 2 sweet dessert type empanadas?)- those calories sure do add up! i am not knocking their marketing scheme, being that people have the choice to eat one, or in our case, james and i chose to go the gluton route and eat 3 plus the dessert empanadas.

so the both of use got the same empanadas:

grande cheesesteak

rojo pulled pork

argentine beef

and shared the sweet empanadas:

cha cha chocolate and banana

big cinnamon apple

the sides aren't really worth mentioning, but they had pretty good sauces (bbq, chipotle mayo).

the other really clever part that i appreciated was that the empanadas were "labeled" on the corners, by having little initials baked into the dough part so you knew which one was which. i thought that was pretty cool. it was a pretty good bang for your buck (the 3 empanada + 2 sides + drink was $9.95, which made me a really cheap valentine's day date). however, next time around, i would probably skip the sides and the soda, and just get a truckload of empandas by the dozen or something.

while not as good as the angus empanadas at ricardo's, empanada joe's is definitely a repeat restaurant, and a good place if you just want a quick bite. a pleasant surprise in that part of manhattan (i have no idea what neighborhood that is considered) and i'm sure it'll do well for all those E to the M to the Panada lovers...

THE WORD ON THE STREET

i’ve decided to start a new feature on the blog…THE WORD ON THE STREET. pretty self explanatory, ask random questions to people related to food and post the responses. my inspiration for the questions will most likely be tied to an experience that i had myself.

this week’s question goes back to last friday when i was out celebrating a construction milestone for a job that i wasn’t even on. and drinking on that jobsite’s dime. nice. being that i can’t roll like i used to, the times that i do go out, i’m in it to win it. 4 martinis, 3 beers, and a jagerbomb later…okay wait, disclaimer. if you are a college student (or having some sort of quarterlife/midlife crisis), this doesn’t seem like this would equate for some impressive night of drinking, but for me nowadays, this was the real deal.

there is a whole other story of how i got home etc etc- but this is a food blog people! so it turns out that i stop at my old apartment and no body is home (including bandit). i tell you this to emphasize that i wasn’t in my own space (although i do call it my second home) and so i was eating food that wasn’t mine. so this week’s question:

What is the weirdest/most un common post-drinking food you have ever eaten?

for me, last friday it was left over pad thai with orville reddenbocker buttery garlic popcorn. all in one sitting. the evidence was on the floor the next day.

and the re-occurring theme for the people i polled was hot dogs:

“charred coneys (white hot-dogs, a central new york specialty) dipped in crab meat dip”

“open face cheese quesadilla made with a microwave hot dog and wrapped it together”

“caesar salad with hot dog meat”

"mac and cheese with cheese slices salt pepper hot sauce katsup hot dog pieces and ham mixed together in a pot and served with a side of wonder bread slices with butter"

some people apparently go to 5 star restaurants after they drink:

“talapia with citrus beur blanc sauce on a bed of jasmine scented cous cous. It was a crazy night!!”

"Breton Sound oysters & little neck clams on the half shell, along w/ steamed crawfish...the joys of Southern cooking"

runs in the family: a family member felt the need to give the whole background behind the selection (sound familiar???????):

“someone was boiling eggs after out drinking...and we all woke up the next day apparently the eggs exploded on the wall hahaha...so yeah boiled eggs”

como se dice “heart attack”?:

“the Fat Chicken Sub, which is footlong filled with chicken parm, french fries and mozzarella sticks. Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, oh”

"primanti bros sandwich in pittburgh: bologna, cheese, french fries, coleslaw and tomatoes between two slices of Italian bread"

"I am not the drinker I used to be but from 1995-2000 I did alot of drinking. Most nights we finished at the dinner with a burger, chicken fingers, wings, cheese fries with gravy, or in the Sage dinner on queens blvd they had a thing called the big Texan and the godfather.Dunkin donuts was also a big thing. The roastbeef on crossant (spelled wrong) or the coffee role with butter."

heh?:

“betty crocker noodle bowls and chex mix”“plain bagel with wisp pride cheese spread”

“pita bread with chocolate milk syrup”

“grits with cheese, sugar, and fried liver”

the last hurrah

in two weeks and two days i will officially embark on my once a year, short term life as a vegetarian. while there are certain fasting, specifically meat-eating fasting, rules for catholics during lent, for the past 4 years, i have been giving up meat for the full 40 days. believe me, it is a challenge. while being very conscious that the time is approaching, i especially enjoyed a meal that james and i went to last week at ricardo steak house . it was a recommendation by a friend of james (and actually a follower of this blog- holla!!)

the restaurant location can be quite deceiving, as you wouldn't think that there are any particularly great steakhouses in spanish harlem, or SPAHA if you will (it's on 1st avenue between 110th and 111th). but this gem was certainly a place to celebrate an occasion (if you happen to be celebrating, like we were).

my friend allie (who is also a follower of this blog and definitely my foodie in crime) once told me that her father said that you could tell if i restaurant is good by their bread. makes sense, right? it starts the meal off. this bread was LIFE CHANGING- it was like a pizza hut breads tick times 100. i kind of feel guilty comparing the bread to an item at pizza hut, but i am sure you get the visual on it by this example.

we started with angus empanadas. fyi 1) i am salivating just thinking about them 2) in reaction to his first bite of the empanadas stated, "i wish i could sit in front of the tv eating these empanadas all day.

needless to say, we will be returning to the restaurant, if only to eat those empanadas. and the bread.

james and i decided not to 1/2 and 1/2 it, being that we both wanted the same thing. we got what was called the "Ricardo Mixed Grill", which came with grilled PGA Skirt steak (whatever that golf reference means), chicken breast, pork and chorizo served with roasted potatoes and garlic spinach. i dont want to say that i ate all of the steak and chorizo, but i did. it was such a meat fest, but an excellent one at that. the portions were actually not 5 star size (anorexic model status), but not cheesecake factory or vinny testa's (holla at boston) size either. i did end up taking some of the meat home because i didn't want to subject myself to any meat sweats (which i knew about but never really thought about it out loud until my friend troy told me about it).

similar to the bread comment above, deserts are just as important as any other part of the meal, because that is what leaves the lasting impression of the place (a la tom colicchio in a recent episode of top chef). all i have to say is HOLY DESERT! damn son! usually james and i 1/2 and 1/2 that ish, but since i didn't over do it with the meat, i was feeling exceptionally adventurous and decided that i could do my own desert that night. little did i know that it was going to be a 3 course meal in itself! james got this chocolate ganache cake and i got fried plantains. the fried plantain actually looked like a potato croquet when it first came out, but it was actually pretty freaking awesome. it wasn't too sweet (and some plantains, like maduros, tend to be too sweet for me sometimes) and had this caramel sauce on the bottom. both of our deserts had a big cup of ice cream placed on the dinner sized plate, and a little cup of whipped cream also on the side. i actually took a picture of both of our deserts on my blackberry, but someone stole my USB cable at work so i can't download them, and everytime i try to email it, it times out. well, that will be a reason for you all to check it out yourselves since i didn't post any pictures for this one!

what made ricardo's especially stand out from other places is that the waitstaff was super nice, and the restaurant manager came by twice to see how we were doing and how the meal was (even plugged her business card for private events).

aaaaaaaand it was VERY recession friendly given that it was a steak house (and that we got drinks, appetizers, and desert for both of us). we definitely got the bang for our buck, and then some! i really loved this place that much, that i might need to go back there before my two weeks and two days are up!

now it's your turn. we went to this place on a recommendation- tell me if you loved it the same way we did! well i guess that goes for any other restaurant i write about, huh?????