CSA Season Starts Again – My 10th Year With the Hellgate CSA

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Our first share of the 2015 Hellgate CSA season, in a rad new space.

This week marks my tenth season with the Hellgate CSA, a community supported agriculture organization that I helped establish up in northwestern Queens. A little history: it was originally called the Ravenswood CSA, based in the Ravenswood Houses senior center, and as CSAs work in NYC it was passed on the following year from the Americorps member who staffed it, to an all-volunteer team. The members interested in forming the core group all lived above the GCP, so we brought it north.

I was a core member for eight seasons (2006-2013) and am happy to see the CSA still going, well-managed by the current core group. I left the core group for a variety of reasons, one being my desire to move on and make room for new experiences. But I wanted to remain a member, so here I am.

(The other day I realized I’ve been a member of a CSA on and off for about 24 years; my first CSA experience was with Full Belly Farm in CA, which started my love of CSAs and eating seasonally.)

We’re also in a nice new space, away from the elements, and with a lot more room than we’ve had in the past.

Continue reading “CSA Season Starts Again – My 10th Year With the Hellgate CSA”

Cooking Demonstration at Socrates Greenmarket, August 10

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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)

Tlacoyos and More at Tacos Morelos in Jackson Heights

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This past weekend, I met up with a group of friends and headed out to Tacos Morelos, a Mexican restaurant on the east end of Jackson Heights that makes traditional antojitos and platters of food. Morelos is a Mexican State south of Mexico City. When I sat down, I was given a menu almost immediately. I was looking forward to digging into it and seeing what they had to offer.

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I was happy to see a lot of familiar fare—tacos, huaraches, quesadillas, cemitas, tortas. Also, there were the less common tlacoyos, which excited me. And then the even less familiar tacos placeros, which, according to Sara Markel-Gonzalez of Serious Eats, the term tacos placeros “means different things to different people, but generally are tacos that you can buy in an outdoor plaza in Mexico, usually inexpensive, made with a variety of fillings, but simply prepared.” I expect I could have bought them from the street vendors in downtown Cancun when I was there years ago.

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Parque las Palapas in Cancun, Mexico.

You can see the food vendor area in the distance. At that point in time I was not open to eating street food much, so I abstained. You better believe I’d be all over that now!

Anyway, about those tacos placeros—I remember seeing one on the menu that included potatoes, and there was also a chile relleno taco. I think next time I’m there I’m going to try them.

The first thing that came out to the table was chips and salsa. The chips were good—nice and light, and came with an excellent salsa that had visible bits of onion and cilantro in it. I also loved the color; the black specks are likely bits of charred chiles. It wasn’t very spicy but had great flavor, and we finished it off pretty quickly.

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For drinks, people at our table ordered beer (Modelo, Pacifico) or micheladas. This Mexican beer cocktail has become easier to find in NYC recently, but for a while there were only a few places (that I knew of) that served them. A basic michelada is essentially beer, lime, and salt. But more commonly they contain hot sauce in addition to the lime and salt.

You can also add chamoy syrup, which contributes an additional tang. A few years back, a friend who lived in Mexico City for a few years showed me how to make a michelada. She got chamoy flavored candy at a local bodega and melted it so that we could taste it; that’s what’s on the rim of the glass. I have had a devil of a time finding chamoy syrup proper in NYC. Here are the micheladas from that evening in 2010:

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And here are the micheladas from Tacos Morelos.

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You can see that they were pretty popular! And rightly so—they were extremely tasty. I loved the sourness of the lime, the spice of the hot sauce, and the salt rim was also good.

I, on the other hand, got something non-alcoholic; I was going to a whiskey and bourbon tasting later that evening, so I thought it would be best to pace myself (I have a terribly low tolerance for alcohol). I chose a mora batida—a blackberry shake—with milk. Usually when you order them, they’ll ask you if you want your batida made with water or milk, and I always go with milk, since I like a richer shake.

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It was gorgeous and delicious, with plenty of flavor. I loved the bubbly top of the batida.

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One of our eating companions got a piña colada, which was refreshing and sweet, and quite strong.

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There were a few more piña coladas served to our table later in the meal, too!

Across the table, Jen ordered sopes, another masa-based dish, related to the tlacoyo and huarache. They were three grilled discs of masa topped with beans and chorizo, as well as lettuce and crema. I didn’t get to taste them but she said they were delicious.

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Sopes are one of my favorite things to order in Mexican restaurants here in NYC.

As I mentioned, there were tlacoyos on the menu. I love the word, which has origins in the Nahuatl language, an indigenous language to Mexico and greater Mesoamerica. In this language, the word tlacoyos comes from the Nahuatl word tlatlaolli, which essentially means “ground corn dough.” They are made from masa and shaped into a long torpedo shape. It’s easy to liken them to huaraches, but in my experience huaraches are much larger.

The tlacoyos, about three inches wide and six inches long, came three to a plate ($7.50). I got mine with al pastor (recommended by the wait staff over the carnitas, when it came to pork) with a green sauce, and another person got it topped with goat and a red sauce. Both were excellent! I loved how they were stuffed with mashed black beans, too.

The salsas were spicy and flavorful, but not killer in the heat department (though the red was hotter than the green). I also liked the addition of crema, too, and felt like it tied everything together with its slight tang and creaminess.

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Tlacoyos with al pastor and green sauce.

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Tlacoyos with goat and red sauce.

Tacos Morelos also offers platters of food, and my friend Mark ordered chicken in salsa mora, a specialty at Tacos Morelos. The chile mora is a dried and smoked chile, similar to a chipotle. Lesley Téllez of The Mija Chronicles, talks about the chile mora:

It’s a smoked, dried jalapeño, and therefore classified as a chipotle. But it’s a bit sweeter and more raisin-like than the brown chipotles you see in the markets. It’s also not as hot. (The chile morita, a cousin, is much spicier.)

Mark said the burn was easy at first and increased as he ate it, finishing with something quite hot. I tasted it and really enjoyed the flavor, but only caught the early, baby burn.

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Note the avocado on his plate, some of which ended up on my tlacoyos, because I like avocado on pretty much anything. They were nice, ripe, creamy slices, too.

Another platter of food was ordered, which looks like mole poblano. Whatever it was, it looks fantastic! I’ll have to find out what it was.

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Platters also came with a beautiful plate of black beans and rice. I didn’t try it, but according to Serious Eats, the beans are flavored with epazote, an herb used in traditional Mexican cooking.

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I loved the food here, and look forward to my next trip back. The service was also good and I got to use some of my high school Spanish, always a good thing. It was pretty warm in there, though, with no A/C or visible fans, but despite that I would return in a heartbeat. It’s always good to find well-prepared Mexican food in NYC.

Tacos Morelos, 94-13 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, NY 11372, (347) 832-0193, Yelp, VV, SE 

My Newest Project

So, I’m writing a book. And here’s the cover!

A month or so ago, I was approached by a mid-sized publisher to write a book about the food of Queens, where I live. It’s in guidebook format, so it will be a great way for locals and visitors alike to get to know the restaurant scene, specialty shops, artisanal food production, and more in the borough of Queens. There aren’t too many print publications like this when it comes to Queens, so I’m happy and honored to be working on this project.

I’ve been enjoying the writing immensely, and tasting all sorts of dishes from various cultures has been just fantastic. Queens has a lot of immigrants who bring their traditional food practices with them, which is a total bonus for someone like me that is interested in traditional foods from cultures other than my own.

Some of my favorite recent dishes came from Nepali restaurants – at the last one I was at there was a spicy potato dish called achar, which was flavored with fenugreek greens, sesame seeds, and lemon juice, and spices. It is simply amazing and I want to learn how to make it myself. I also recently discovered braso, a Filipino dessert consisting of  a sweet egg custard sandwiched between two thick layers of soft yet sturdy meringue. Just so good.

I’ve also enjoyed gathering with friends and sharing meals with them. It feels great to be able to share this experience with them, and I am so grateful for the time they are giving me.

I am sure I will write more about and certainly mention this project over the next few months. I look forward to sharing more news about the project as it progresses, too!

Sights and Sound: 2 Videos and 1 Podcast of Note

I’ve recently come across a couple of videos and a podcast that I’ve really enjoyed, and wanted to share them with you here.

For months, I’ve heard about Unique Eats, a show on the Cooking Channel, from my friend Tamara Reynolds. Tamara is the force behind The Sunday Night Dinner, a supper club in NYC – that’s where these bacon lollipops came from. She also works with Unique Eats as an “eating and talking head” – and rightly so, because she knows her stuff.

One of the UE episodes is all about Queens, which is my home borough right now. They highlight three of my favorite spots in the borough: Mombar (lamb cheeks!), an Egyptian restaurant, Tortilleria Nixtamal (carnitas!), a taqueria in Corona, and The Queens Kickshaw (Gouda sandwich!). I was unfamiliar with the Korean restaurant, Sik Gaek, but I must say – after watching a little bit about it, I want to check it out. Here’s the video:

Continue reading “Sights and Sound: 2 Videos and 1 Podcast of Note”

Final Hellgate CSA Share of 2011

Final Week of 2011

So, last Tuesday was our final Hellgate CSA distribution of 2011. I won’t deny that it will be strange not picking up later tonight. What we got last week was:

1 bunch lacinato kale
1 celeriac
1 pound carrots
1 pound rutabagas
1 head cauliflower
1 bag sunchokes

I’ve eaten half the kale and carrots. The sunchokes were used for carrot-sunchoke fritters. Celeriac for remoulade. Rutabagas will be for roasting, as will the cauliflower.

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Garden Update – Waiting for Red-o

Well, my garden is still pretty green – foliage is thriving, though no red tomatoes are to be seen.  I did spy my neighbor’s garden from the back deck Sunday afternoon, and saw only one red tomato amongst the urban-vast stretches of green, so perhaps our little microclimate is just sluggish in getting our tomatoes to turn red.

The tomatoes that are on the vine are green, firm and healthy… except for another small tomato found with blossom end rot (BER).  This tomato was on the same plant, in the same part of the plant as the other tomato with BER.  Both tomatoes were sharing a branch that created “big bertha”, as I endearingly call her – a gigantic tomato, probably 5 inches across.  I wonder if that tomato is just sucking up all the nutrients, denying the other two tomatoes any chance of thriving.   This question will be answered perhaps if this gigantomato turns red without any rot.

I also picked this beast of a  lemon cucumber last weekend:

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It’s about 3 inches across, by far the largest lemon cucumber I’ve ever seen.  It was hiding under the leaves in the corner, so I’m glad I found it when I did.

Remember this?

mystery plants

This is a mystery plant that appeared under my ground cherries and in the middle of my tomato plants.  I thought it was summer squash but now believe it to be more cucumber plants; the flowers are quite similar to the cucumber flower on my lemon cucumber plants.  I’ll know for sure once it starts fruiting.

I’ve also started harvesting ground cherries.

lemon cucumbers and ground cherries

These ones beat the pants off of the ones I grew last year – they are sweeter, tastier, and bigger.  I believe the quality of soil I’m using is just much better than the soil I had access to at the community garden.  The weather – hot, hot, hot – probably has something to do with that, too.

I really can’t wait until the tomatoes ripen!