Events – Harmonious Belly

October 2, 2015October 2, 2015

Learning About Natural Cheesemaking With David Asher in Brooklyn

Yogurt cheese, perfect for a beginner like me.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a day of cheesemaking workshops with David Asher, a cheesemaker who runs the Black Sheep School of Cheesemaking, a “traveling cheese school” with origins in the Gulf Islands region of British Columbia. The folks from Slow Food organized these workshops and a reception the Friday evening before. After having had a look at Asher’s remarkable book, The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, they were so impressed with the knowledge within, they felt compelled to invite David Asher to come to NYC and teach classes on his unique style of cheesemaking.

A big part of this book asserts that you do not need to buy freeze dried cultures to make cheese, and that it can all be done with kefir, which contains most bacteria needed to culture milk for cheese; using raw milk is encouraged for the most part, too. Rennet is also employed in making many of the cheeses, while a simple acid—lemon juice, vinegar, or kefir—is used in a small number of cheeses to separate out curds and whey. Bottom line—industrial practices and ingredients are unnecessary to make delicious, flavorful cheeses.

The building that houses Crown Finish Caves. The light was beautiful that evening.

I chose to attend the reception and take the first day of workshops. The reception was quite nice, and took place in one of the tunnels at Crown Finish Caves, a cheese aging facility located three stories below street level; originally the space was a brewery. Because it is so far below ground and the walls are so thick, it keeps a relatively constant temperature, perfect for affinage, or, aging cheese. A number of farms create their cheeses and age them here.

The tunnel in which we attended the reception and heard David Asher talk about kefir and cheese.

At the reception, which took place in one of the tunnels, David talked a lot about kefir, his love for it, and its usefulness in making cheese. Before the talk there was traditional music played by a small band, a little local food and drink, and lots of cheese afterwards. David even passed out kefir grains to anyone who wanted one (they were quite large). I put mine in dead (UHT) milk and it fermented it! The magic of kefir.

The next morning I returned to Brooklyn for a day of making simple cheeses—yogurt cheese (and yogurt), paneer, and chevre. Each of these is created differently—to make yogurt cheese, you hang full fat yogurt in butter muslin (or a du-rag) until the whey drips away; for paneer, you boil milk and add acid, which creates curds and whey; and with chevre, you add kefir and rennet, and hang the cheese like yogurt cheese, or you can ladle it into forms. Continue reading “Learning About Natural Cheesemaking With David Asher in Brooklyn”

August 10, 2014

Intrigued by the 2014 Thaithentic Food and Culture Festival

thaitentic-food-culture-festival-nyc

A Google alert brought me to the site for Thaitentic, a Thai food and culture festival, apparently the first of its kind in NYC. I love the flavors of Thai food, especially kaffir lime leaf, and have eaten a lot of American-style Thai food, but I’m curious to learn more about the cuisine, especially flavor profiles.

The culture is also something I’d welcome getting to know better, especially music and dance. For a year at CalArts I studied the music and dance of another southeast Asian culture, that of Bali, and just loved it. I’d be curious to see what similarities/dissimilarities there are between the cultures in their music and dance. Thai art and sport are also part of this event.

As for the food, it is nice to see some familiar Queens Thai restaurants participating—Sripraphai, Ayada, and Zabb Elee. I’m less familiar with Spice, which has a location in LIC. The featured chefs are Pichet Ong, Pastry Chef and Executive Chef at Chi (I have not been but would like to) and Andy Ricker of Pok Pok fame.

Tickets are $45 but if you want to go an hour early for the VIP hour, it’s $70. The event is on Saturday, August 23 from 7 to 10 p.m. at espaceny (635 W 42nd Street, almost to the Hudson River). 21+ older only (Singha is one of the sponsors). If I go I will definitely write up my experience. Sounds like it could be an interesting and delicious time!

September 20, 2013September 20, 2013

Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around

Friday night I had the pleasure of attending Viva La Comida, a food and cultural festival that takes place on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens. It’s in its second year now, and going strong. They had more space this year compared to last, and more food vendors, too. My friend Jeff Orlick is the organizer of the food side of things, and has done an excellent job getting great food vendors to participate. I ate some extremely delicious things—two dishes that stood out were from a new vendor and a returning vendor.

It was great to see food that represents so many different parts of the world—El Salvador, Ireland, The Phillipines, India, Tibet, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. I also understand there was Ecuadorian, Dominican, and Italian food represented too. Additionally, I picked up a pandebono (Colombian) from Las Delicias En Pandebono (they make THE BEST pandebono in Queens) a cup of fresh strawberry-tangerine-carrot juice from 82 Market, and a glass of horchata from Taqueria Coatzingo, all local businesses on 82nd Street.

I was also happy to hang out and share food with my friend Dayna, talented animator and food fan (so good to see friends and fellow food writers Sue, Bradley, Anne, and Joe during the evening, too!). We got there early, which was great for getting food relatively quickly. First dish we tried was two pupusas from El Oolmega, a truck based at the Red Hook Ballfields, home to amazing, authentic global food. They’ve been in business for 23 years, and their pupusas were one of the highlights for me.

We got two pupusas, one stuffed with pork and cheese and one stuffed with loroco and cheese. Loroco is a flower from Central America and used commonly in pupusas. It was delicious! They were topped with curtido (a traditional tangy cabbage condiment) and we got the optional pickled jalapeños on it, then sprinkled a bit of hot sauce and crema over everything. I couldn’t get over how fresh and delicious it all was—the masa yielded easily to the fork, with flavorful fillings. Definitely a high point of the evening.

My other favorite food of the night was the arepa con queso from Jackson Height’s own Arepa Lady crew. These arepas are excellent and have quite the glowing reputation. I especially love these smaller, thick, soft, and cheesy arepas, that are topped with more cheese. They are a little sweet, too, so it ends up being this wonderful mix of sweet and savory, one of my favorite meta flavor combos. Gorgeous looking thing, too. Continue reading “Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around”

August 22, 2013August 20, 2013

Summer Corn and Peach Salad

A couple weekends ago, I had the pleasure to do a cooking demonstration at the Socrates Greenmarket. I did a demo last year and loved the experience, so it was nice to be back doing it again. I love Socrates Sculpture Park, and arrived about a half hour early so that I could get a tasty XXX Coffee iced coffee and sit and relax at the park before show time.

Since it was in the middle of summer, I chose to do a raw salad featuring corn, since it is at the height of its season. Fresh summer corn is so sweet, even uncooked. I chose to add peaches, also in season, for extra sweetness, with the bright flavors of lime and green pepper, the aromatic element from the fresh basil, and saltiness of the feta cheese. Everything went well together and people loved it! I was pretty happy about that. I also think it’s delicious.

Here I am in the middle of my cooking demo. Image source: Queens Greenmarkets on Instagram.

I also learned that this demo had one of the highest number of attendees, so that also made me pretty happy. People asked a lot of questions and it was fun to answer and interact with everyone. I plan to return to the Greenmarket in the fall and make something appropriate to the season, so keep an eye out for that news later this year.

Summer Corn and Peach Salad

This salad is a beautiful combination of sweet, tangy, and salty flavors. A smoked element would also go well with this, either in the form of smoked paprika or some kind of smoked meat product, like bacon or speck. Another variant would be to roast all the vegetables—and the peaches— which would up the sweetness quotient.

4 ears of sweet corn, kernels removed
juice of 2 medium limes, about 4 tbs
1 small onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced, or 1 hot pepper, diced
1/2 cup basil leaves, finely sliced (chiffonade)
2 peaches, peeled and diced
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
ground black pepper

Juice two limes into a large bowl. Remove the husks and silk from the corn and cut off the kernels with a knife. Let corn and lime juice sit together while you prepare the rest of the vegetables.

Dice the onion and add to the corn and lime juice.

De-seed and remove the white ribs from a bell pepper, then dice the remaining pepper. If you would like to make this dish a little bit spicy, use a hot pepper and remove the seeds and ribs (keep any amount of the ribs and seeds in if you want more heat). Add that to the corn and lime juice.

Slice/chiffonade the basil and add that to the mixture. Lightly stir.

Peel and dice the peaches, and add them to the rest of the vegetables.

Stir everything together and add the feta, mixing it in until it’s incorporated. Add ground pepper to taste.

Yield: 4-6 servings

August 8, 2013August 9, 2013

Cooking Demonstration at Socrates Greenmarket, August 10

This weekend, Saturday, August 10, I’ll be doing a cooking demonstration at the Socrates Greenmarket, located in the Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria. I did one last year, which was really fun, where I prepared a Mexican Panzaella. This year I’ll be making a corn and peach salad. Yum, summer.

The cooking demo will be from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It should be fun and delicious! Yes, there will be samples. Plus you can check out the rest of the market, which sells everything from produce to cheese, juice to coffee. The bread is also awesome. I’m definitely going to stick around and enjoy the day. The park has some works on display, too.

Socrates Greenmarket, Socrates Sculpture Park, Broadway and Vernon Blvd., Astoria, Queens, 11106 (map)

August 6, 2013August 9, 2013

Food Lovers’ Guide to Queens at the Broadway Library

On Monday, August 12, from 6-7 p.m. I’ll be speaking at at the Broadway branch of the Queens Library (40-20 Broadway, Astoria—map) about my book, Food Lovers’ Guide to Queens. I’ll be talking a little bit about how I put the book together, how I chose what to include, a little bit about the process of actually writing a book, and answering questions that come up from audience members. I’ll also have some books for sale!

The event is free and will be held in community room downstairs. It should be a really nice time! One of my favorites, The Queens Kickshaw—which is also in the book—is right across the street from the Queens Library. Their beer ice cream affogato is outstanding!

See you on Monday the 12th!

July 19, 2013July 21, 2013

Carne-Val at The Meatwave – Delicious Pork Barbecue in Astoria

Last Sunday I attended a wonderful Astoria event series, The Meatwave. It’s run by local Astorian Josh Bousel, who really knows his meat and how to cook it. He (and probably his wife, Kristin) comes up with clever titles, and the one for this particular day was “Carne-val.”

There was pulled pork, pepper vinegar barbecue sauce, ribs, chicken—all grilled and/or barbecued. Plus there was a delicious mustard slaw, plenty of beer, and one of the guests offered me one of her s’mores bars. It was all so good and I’m glad I went.

Here are some of the things I ate. First, the pork in two states—whole and pulled. Here’s the before:

And the after:

Josh used big black rubber gloves to shred it by hand. He then poured some sort of liquid on it—probably braising liquid, which helped to keep it moist. This batch of meat was cooked in foil. There was another chunk of pork he had cooked without foil, which promised great bark. All I know is that they was truly delicious and made for a great pulled pork sandwich. Here it is—on a appropriately squishy Martin’s Potato Roll—with the aforementioned slaw.

The ribs were great, too! I believe they were in the smoker and then grilled with a sweeter barbecue sauce. I loved the texture and taste.

I did not get a chance to try any of the chicken, though.

As for the weather, it was damn hot, the beginning of a seven-day heatwave. I sweated buckets and was happy to find myself in the air conditioning afterwards; we headed to MOMI to catch a movie, then over to a nearby pub for more A/C, conversation, and project planning—more on that later. And since we were there on the early side, it was nice to have a chance to chat with our hosts.

Thanks to Josh and Kristin for a delicious afternoon!