I’ll Have a Dale Earnhardt Jr. With Two Eggs on a Kaiser

A friend tipped me off on TasteTheExcitement.com:

Now, this isn't the first time NASCAR has licensed food products. I personally have tried the NASCAR grape tomatoes (they were actually pretty good!) and I've seen the potatoes on store shelves as well.

I admit to having a certain curiosity and attraction to the meat products, though. I mean, vegetables don't effectively communicate the sense of speed and good 'ole boy redneck-ism one associates with NASCAR that say, a pound of bacon or some country smoked sausage does. Grape tomatoes just don't have that nitrate-laced, pumped up triglyceride and cholesterol mojo NASCAR fans crave.

Yee Ha! I want me some of that.

Haven’t we Jews Suffered Enough?

A number of reports on the web indicate that Canada Dry is about to cease production of Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda.

I realize there is younger generation of people who think the idea of a celery seed-flavored soda sounds really disgusting. But one needs to understand the context in which you are drinking it to truly appreciate it. The soda has been in existence since 1869, so clearly its become an important fixture of the Jewish-American collective consciousness, irregardless of whether you like it or not.

Cel-Ray is the perfect, most traditional pairing to a Pastrami on Rye. Cel-Ray is somewhat like a ginger ale in flavor profile, but it has this sort of herbal note combined with heavy carbonation that is absolutely ESSENTIAL because it is used as a palate cleanser when you belch after washing down that big, fatty sandwich. And unless you are a complete schlemiel, you aren't going to pay $13 at Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side for a hand-sliced pastrami sandwich and not ask for the "juicy" cut either, so the Cel-Ray is a foregone conclusion. It's sweet without being too sweet like a cola or a fruit soda drink, and does its job well, which is to get the fatty flavor out of your mouth and to expel the gases out of your gut. The two other Dr. Brown's flavors — Black Cherry and Cream — while good, are too sweet and aren't as heavily carbonated. They are better suited to a hot dog and knish or something else.

They thought the Warsaw ghetto uprising was bad.

Wait until they have to explain this at Katz's or the Carnegie. Mass hysteria. They'll need to bring out the riot gear in Boca Raton to keep the retirement communities from burning down the entire state of Florida.

Waterfall 2006: A Developer Conference Not to be Missed

One of my friends and colleagues, Steven J Vaughn-Nichols, spotted this really intriguing IT and developer conference, Waterfall 2006.

I'm particularly interested in attending the sessions on Refuctoring and Defect-Full Code: Ensuring Future Income with Maintenance Contracts. Should be a really enlightening and educational show. I hope the evening vendor parties are good.

Jack Black, Astronaut and Adventurer With a Talking Motorcycle

I came across this 1999 Fox Pilot of a Sci-Fi comedy spoof series directed by Ben Stiller called Heat Vision and Jack starring Jack Black (as Astronaut Jack Austin fleeing the evil NASA) Owen Wilson (voicing a talking motorcycle) and Ron Silver as the evil, uh, Ron Silver. Obviously, the series was never greenlighted, but its interesting to see what could of ended up getting cancelled anyway. What a huge loss.

Gotta love the opening sequence. I mean, who can't like a TV show with "Situation" by YAZ as the theme song?

Spicing Up the Meatloaf, Latin Style

I like meatloaf. A lot. Its one of the best and most satisfying comfort foods imaginable. But even the traditional meatloaf recipe can sometimes use a bit of a sprucing up, especially if you're into bold flavors, like myself.

Tonight I made a meatloaf with Puerto Rican-style seasonings, inspired by the cooking of Daisy Martinez and her PBS show, Daisy Cooks! I like Daisy a lot, her show is really educational and she's doing a lot to promote Latin American and Puerto Rican cuisine in the US and on public television.

For the meat, I used a proportion of half ground beef to one quarter each ground pork and ground veal. The filler/vegetal component is carrot, onion, celery and garlic, blitzed in the food processor into a very fine chop. I then sauteed the veggie mixture in achiote oil along with some recaito. To this I added some Goya Adobo with Cumin and added salt and pepper to taste. I allowed the seasoned vegetable mixture to cool down, and then incorporated it into the ground meat, along with a slice of white bread sogged down with milk, a dollop each of dijon mustard and ketchup, several shots of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce and a hit of Maggi Seasoning.

Let me tell you, the result was anything but boring.

For more meatloaf, check out the Meatloaf Madness on Eating for One

NJ Dining: Mi Pueblo / Bergenfield

NOTE: Mi Pueblo has changed ownership and is now El Paso II (click for new review).

As this is a Jersey weblog, I’m going to start featuring interesting local Northern NJ eateries and restaurants, along with photographs of the dishes they serve.

Mi Pueblo Grocery
(201) 385-0266
71 S Washington Ave
Bergenfield, NJ

Mi Pueblo is a small Mexico-city style taqueria in Bergenfield on Washington Avenue that’s been around for several years, but recently remodeled their back area and added some tables and expanded their menu. They’re known primarily for Taquitos, plates of four small tacos for $5 (with your choice of meat filling) as well as Tortas, a type of Mexican Dagwood sandwich.

Taquitos de Bistec (Seasoned Steak) and Carne Enchilada (Spicy Pork)

Salsamaniacs rejoice. Not sure what type of hot sauce to put on your taquitos? Try them all: tomatillo, chipotle, chile verde, and the badass red stuff.

Torta Cubana. Despite the name, it bears no resemblence to Cuban Sandwiches (Cubanos). This monster has the entire kitchen sink on it — Fried Eggs, Ham, Sliced Grilled Hot Dogs, Cheese, Bacon, Fried Cutlet and Avocado.

Chicken Quesadilla. This version is deep fried and filled with shredded chicken meat, and topped with Queso Fresco, shredded lettuce and Mexican sour cream.

The store also features a small grocery, where you can buy Mexican canned and dried goods, fresh vegetables (including chiles and tomatillos) and tortillas, cheese and meats (chorizo, etc) and home-made mole sauce. You’ll also find unusual items like Mexican brands of ramen noodles, such as the kind pictured above. If you choose to try the Ramen, you’ll want to take home some refrescos (Mexican soda pop) because they have 1600mg of Sodium per cup. Ouch!

The store and restaurant is open 7 days a week and open until 10PM.

Podcast #1: Seder Plates in New Orleans, Part 1

To inaugurate the very first Off The Broiler Podcast, and in preparation of my upcoming New Orleans trip, I met and spoke with representatives of Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, New Jersey, who will be providing charitable assitance to Jewish families in New Orleans during the Passover holiday.

Click Here to Listen to the Off the Broiler Podcast.

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(Note, please excuse the background ruckus during the main segment… I wasn’t aware of how sensitive my new condenser mic is to ambient noise.)

Beige is Beautiful

So, sometimes it happens that through a series of events, that you end up with a meal that can be somewhat monochromatic. I mean, it happens to the best of us. White asparagus was onsale yesterday at our local vegetable market and I thought it would be cool to try, since I had never made it fresh before. We had made a whole lot of rice pilaf the other night to go with some moussaka we had brought out of cryonic suspension (it was a year old and it still was great!) so we had plenty left over, and on my trip to COSTCO today, they had these awesome thick boneless pork chops out they had just butchered. It had only occured to me later that our meal this evening would end up totally beige.

So, yeah, its a one-color meal. But you know what? It was still mighty tasty — I had marinated the pork chops in a combination of red grapefruit juice, lime juice, dark and regular soy, garlic, hot sauce, salt, pepper and honey, with a bunch of green onions that were on the verge of going off, and some spicy green Korean chile peppers I had left over. The white asparagus I blanched for 5 minutes, shocked them in cold water, and Rachel made a nice balsamic vinaigrette with dijon mustard to go with it. For the the pork chops, in addition to a bit of jus, we used a Tabasco caribbean-style steak sauce as a condiment — also brown.

Screw these people that say you need a pallete of color with your meal. Beige is beautiful. And tasty.

Felafel Night

After a junk food post like yesterday’s, I feel obligated to eat something healthy. Well, at least pseudo-healthy, anyway. So tonight, we made felafel using Rachel’s no-fry method and some freshly baked pita bread.

The cool thing about this method is that you prepare your felafel mix just the way you want, using a boxed mix or with a recipe (Elie “FoodMan” Nassar’s authentic Lebanese version on RecipeGullet is a really good one) but instead of deep frying them, you spoon the mix into mini muffin tins sprayed with olive oil (or vegetable oil) and you bake them until crispy.

Okay, its not the same as deep fried felafel, but if you want to take a break from fried food, its an interesting variation. And provided you make some nice accoutrements to go along with it, it can be just as fun. The felafel above is nested on top of an Israeli salad, made with chopped English cucumber, fresh tomato, red onion and Italian parsley, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, and salt and pepper. Top it with some hummus, with a dusting of smoky paprika, and you got yourself some good ‘eatin.

The Food Photographer

People have asked me how I take my food pictures, and what sort of cameras and techniques I use. Well, I'd like to say that I am a student of the true food photography professionals, like this guy, but I don't have anywhere near that much talent.