Chiu on This

Stuff on top of stuff

I failed to post something last week because a miserable ailment had just started taking over my head and neck while I was visiting friends in Pittsburgh. After a six-hour visit to the fantastic Fallingwater, I realized that what felt like an irritation in the back of my throat that morning while taking the plane ride to Pittsburgh had blown up into an awful stabbing feeling when I swallowed. Aw, crap. How was I going to have a pierogi on kielbasa sandwich for dinner if my throat wasn't functioning? Never mind that an oncoming fever was making my earlobes feel like hot coals.

I've been harboring an interest in Pittsburgh's food-on-top-of-food sandwiches since, oh, 2007. My friends Claire and Seth were good enough not only to host my weekend visit and drive me all the way out to Fallingwater but also, knowing my food interests, to take me to Primanti Brothers for their famous cole-slaw-and-fries-on-top-of-various-meats-sandwiches. We went to their original location in the Strip District, where I got to see impressive amounts of paraphernalia and tchotchkes devoted to Pittsburgh's sports franchises being sold nearby, as well as the awesome murals inside Primanti's devoted to local heroes, including Mr. Rogers, whom I admire deeply (in a totally non-ironic way).

I ordered the hot sausage and cheese sandwich, Seth got the kolbassi and cheese, and Claire got the bacon and cheese (and egg?). The sandwiches are pretty enormous and come out wrapped in wax paper, no bothering with plates here. The bread is thick cut white bread which has zero flavor and seems there mostly as a means for holding the sandwiches' innards intact; Seth's recommendation to hold the sandwich so that the bread slices are perpendicular to the table surface works, because the bread has no strength to support the weight of all the ingredients.

Overall, I found the sandwich sadly disappointing. The bread had no flavor, the cheese had no flavor or simply didn't exist, and the fries - what I thought would make this sandwich divine - had no flavor either. Of the steak fries variety of cut, they weren't crispy on the outside, which would have provided textural contrast, and added nothing but heft and driness. The cole slaw, on the other hand, was surprisingly good - crisp, of the vinegary (not mayo) variety, which worked for this sandwich, and speckled with lots of black pepper. I would have been happy eating the hot Italian sausage with just a side of the cole slaw, which means that this sandwich, while conceptually brilliant, failed for me in its execution. But, maybe I'll give it one more try (I'll be back in Pittsburgh for work) and go for the kolbassi version.

Back to a chronological order of events: Primanti's for lunch, a 2 hour drive to Fallingwater in the Bear Run Nature Reserve, a 2 hour tour, a 2 hour drive back, then dinner at the Penn Brewery, where my failing health makes it hard for me to enjoy my kielbasa and sauerkraut, but does not prevent me from judging that their pierogies, while nice, are not the best the city has to offer. I'm in bed by 9 with what feels like a raging fever, and get out of bed at 11 the next morning feeling, huh, not too bad.

If I have not mentioned what lovely hosts Claire and Seth are, here are two other examples: 1) they make waffles for brunch (after waiting for me to haul my ass out of bed) and let me drink all their OJ, and 2) knowing my food interests, they suggest that we can pick up a late lunch at Station Street Hot Dogs. I am intrigued by the Devil Dog, which I don't think I can get back home, where I'm pretty sure I can get a kim chee dog.

The Devil Dog has egg salad, Tabasco, scallions, and potato chips on top of an all-beef dog. I love a good devilled egg, and this sounds like a great picnic basket of ingredients that got smashed up in an accident. So Claire takes me to Station Street after we run errands at the nearby Target; she tells me about the changes in the neighborhood and points out Google's nearby office* as we wait for our orders of dogs and duck fat fries. We're the only ones there at 2pm-ish, but Claire tells me this place can get pretty overrun.

Verdict on the Devil Dog: thumbs up. I should have realized, though, that the potato chips, like the duck fat fries, would have lost a bit of their crisp on the ride back, sealed up and steaming in the take out sack. Lacking the potato chip crunch, though, hasn't really harmed the dog. The egg salad's good, although I would have added more hot sauce, and the hot dog itself is very flavorful. Excellent combo - next time I would just add that extra hot sauce and maybe, just maybe, a little sprinkling of celery seed. As for duck fat fries, am I right in thinking that they're overrated? Maybe I just prefer lard.

Maybe I should have put those fries on top of the hot dog.

* I find out later that a friend from my urban planning days was at that very same moment in the Google building hearing about Pittsburgh's revitalization. I had posted to Twitter via Foursquare that I was at Station Street; he saw that and responded that he was in Pittsburgh, too. Interesting.

I'm full just thinking about this

Almost exactly one month ago, I had the Cajun bubble and squeak for brunch at Elizabeth's in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans. It was tough deciding what to pick from their menu - how about duck waffles? smothered steak with Creole gravy and grits? fried boudin balls?? - but the combo of country bacon, cabbage, and shrimp topped with poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce ultimately won out. So good, and soooo filling. I suppose that downing two spicy bloody Marys - one as an appetizer, another for dessert - contributed to that gut busting, palate pleasing feeling.

Rye and oysters, take 2

Last week it was $1 oysters in NYC. This week, it's 50¢ oysters in NOLA. Thank you, happy hour specials.

Check out these monsters from Lüke. Before:

After:

Oof! I had a couple of Sazeracs to supply the rye. (I'd been drinking ryes pretty much all week, as I'm starting to prefer them to bourbon.) After a rough work week, these hit the spot. I also found out inadvertently that heaping amounts of horseradish can help you can stave off a sore throat for maybe half a day.

Bonus photo: a fried oyster salad with bacon and avocado, from my first visit to Lüke in July 2011.

Burger barrage

It's been a while since my last post, so in this installment I'll keep it simple and recap two burger places I've been to earlier this year, both of which I recommend.

First up, Bareburger. In August, I went to the location near NYU as part of a going away party for my former colleague and FOCOT, Professor Mike L. Bareburger's deal is its organic focus and grass-fed meats, but folks who know me know that I don't really care about that stuff. On the other hand, I got excited because I saw elk on the menu. On a recent visit to Seattle, I had hoped to get an elk burger at Uneeda Burger, as it had been favorably reviewed by my college classmate Chris, but I didn't get a chance and was wondering where I'd get my hands on elk back on the east coast. Problem solved.

Elk was the recommended meat (among the other fleshy options: turkey, beef, ostrich, lamb, and bison; veggie options also available) for the Jalapeno Express burger, which I ordered for what sounded like a blast of spiciness: pepperjack, red onion, jalapeno relish, horseradish mayo, and chipotle ketchup. The burger as a whole was very tasty, although the spiciness didn't really materialize. I deeply enjoyed the medium rare elk meat, which was rich, juicy, and tasty without any gaminess. I'm not sure if others would agree, but it tasted somewhat bacony-y, as if someone had ground up and added a couple of strips of bacon into mix. That alone should make you want to get some. I will have to try another elk burger soon, one that's very simple, so that I can get a better fix on the meat's flavor. Oh, the hardships of research.

Cantonese Western food

My colleagues and I were in Hong Kong in early May, attending an international conference on comparative perspectives on criminal justice in China, organized by the Centre for Rights and Justice at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Our stay in HK was short - just two days and three nights - as this was a pit stop of sorts before our longer trip to Beijing for a number of meetings.

I had done zero research on places to eat in HK, figuring I'd just rely on my colleagues who'd been there before; on recommendations from people at the conference or at the hotel; and on my college friend Alex, who I hadn't seen in roughly 20 years, the last time I'd been in the city. At some point, though, I got a number of recommendations from friends on Facebook, including some from college friend Andy, who'd worked several years in China, and from Thom, an acquaintance from Columbia, who almost daily posts pictures on Facebook of wonderful meals that he's cooked.

Vegetarians, avert your eyes (international edition)

Check out what's in the window of Oink, a small storefront in Edinburgh's Grassmarket.

The place seats about two people at a table in the front and three people at a counter in the back. Sitting at the counter and savoring a hog roast roll, I noticed plenty of passers-by stopping at the window and gawking, some with a look of disgust (vegetarians? carnivores who don't like to see what their food looks like before it gets to their plate?), others with the heavy-lidded eyes of a Homer Simpson thinking, "mmmm...pig...". And mmmmmm, pig, is the right response.

An appetizer

This man knew what he was doing.

More on my meal at Beijing Da Dong Roast Duck, coming soon.

The verdict

Of course I was going to try haggis. How could I be in Scotland and not have some? There it was, right in the hotel breakfast buffet, sitting next to some blood sausage. At least, I thought that was haggis. There was no label, so I was guessing that the fried textured patty was it (the blood sausage was a lot darker).

Haggis, according to Wikipedia, consists of sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal's stomach. (Why did I think that it was cooked in the sheep's bladder? Much too small, now that I think of it...). I've had chicken hearts before and had no problem with them, other than with their chewy, almost jerky like texture and the odd association of eating, well, a heart. Lungs - I had no idea what that would taste like. Liver, though, I've had a bad history with. Foie gras is great, and some formulations of chopped chicken liver can be rather tasty, but for the most part, I can't stand the stuff. I can sense it from a mile away. My parents and grandma have tried to fool me on occasion into eating liver, but I can't abide it - the aroma, the texture, that specific peculiar flavor no matter what animal it's from - ech!

Going to the dogs

I got into Edinburgh proper last Monday around 8am. I only had four days in town, with an entire day devoted to a training by David Gurteen on implementing knowledge cafes, so I had to make the most of my brief vacation time. I hadn't done a whole lot of planning, however, apart from buying a ticket to a performance of John Cleese's Alimony Tour in Glasgow for that same evening, and a ticket to a National Theatre of Scotland production of Knives in Hens, a play I'd never seen or heard of before.

My room at the George Hotel wasn't going to be ready until 2:30pm, so I whiled away my time having breakfast at the hotel restaurant (I'll post something about my first encounter with haggis in a later blog), then puttered bleary-eyed around George Street and other parts of the New Town until noon.

Starting to feel a desperate need for caffeine, I was very grateful when David Griffiths from K3Cubed, which was hosting the training, suggested that we go to the nearby Wellington Coffee. Hearing that I was coming in from NYC for the training and never having been to Edinburgh before, David kindly offered to meet me before the training to give me some pointers on the city. We headed up to the Old Town after getting sufficiently fueled (tasty coffee, by the way), with me laboring to get up the steps and slopes - sure, I walk a lot in NYC, but for the most part it's flatland; Edinburgh's terrain, I'd soon find, was going to be a bit of a challenge. After providing me with a quick look about the Royal Mile, a tip on a good place to eat (to be covered in an upcoming post), much needed directions to the University of Edinburgh building for the next day's training, and answers to a random assortment of questions from me that hoped didn't come off as too touristy, David headed off and I started thinking about lunch.

 

Five [full] years of Chiu on This

This post officially marks the start of the sixth year of Chiu on This. Unbelievable. I can't do the most minor things consistently for five days, so the fact that I've kept this blog going for a full five years - albeit with sporadic postings - leaves me a bit dumbfounded.

The guy who helped start it all is the original Friend of Chiu on This, Rick, whose emailed review was the source of my very first post. I thought it would therefore be fitting to have a recent email exchange with Rick kick off year six of what I still consider my silly endeavor.

Heck, I am a "seasoned" Zagat critic (289 reviews to date) but have no experience with Yelp but, at the kind invitation of the owner of Stuzzi, agreed to submit a review.

Tremendous authentic Neapolitan pizza and clearly the best pizza in the Richmond area. I have tried six pies so far and favorites are the basic margherita, the roasted wild mushrooms and the sopressata salami. Only disappointment, and I qualify that by setting the bar really high, has been the little neck clam and mussel pie. Hint - leave off the cheese and mussels and add more clams ala Pepe's in New Haven and you will then have a real gem offered no where else in the area.

The dining area music is much too loud and the musical choices are inappropriate for one to fully experience the pleasure of dining on such wonderful Italian pies. Why not think about popping some Italian tunes in that CD player and crank the volume down so that I can have a conversation with my date over how great the food is?

[I queried Rick as to whether he ate six pies in one sitting, which would be impressive but probably painful.] Six pies over the course of multiple visits - hey, it is only 6 blocks from our house and their house red wine is only $20 a bottle.

[I mentioned a restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that I used to go to which stated clearly in the menu that they wouldn't serve parmesan cheese to diners who ordered seafood dishes.] Yeah, cheese on seafood? Our favorite Richmond Italian eats are at a place called Mamma Zu and they are known for their brash rudeness in refusing a rube's attempt at asking for grated cheese on their seafood entrees. Always very entertaining to watch their interaction with the brusque waitresses.

Thanks again, Rick! Here's to many more years of great eating experiences!