"A Taste For Hotter, Mintier, Fruitier"

I just read a really good article on Yahoo by Miriam Gottfried about how Americans palates are changing and what food companies are doing to satisfy the need. You can link to the article HERE, but I will give some highlights:

• "The buttery taste found in packaged foods isn't just butter flavor anymore. Increasingly, it is browned-butter flavor, formulated to taste deeper and more savory than plain butter"

• "American cuisine is adrenaline cuisine"

• "Food companies describe some of their efforts as adding "umami," a Japanese word that, roughly translated, means good flavor"

• "As people crave intensity in flavor, some traditionalists are wondering if diners will become desensitized to natural flavors. Regular mangoes may taste bland when eaten next to mango-flavored gum or a mango energy drink, they say"

• "New flavors used to originate in fine dining kitchens and work their way down, but now they come just as often from the Food Network or from ethnic or international sources"

Certainly worth the read. There's a lot of interesting material there. Check it out.

China Fun

On Sunday, Paul and I went to the Museum Of Natural History in New York. Neither of us had been there in years, so we were pretty excited about going. We had a great time, and had some great conversations. After the museum, we took a short walk in Central Park, then looked for some place to have lunch. We (actually just Paul) decided on a little place on Columbus Ave that looked and smelled good, China Fun. We both ordered bubble tea. I got the coconut, Paul got honeydew. For our meal, we ordered Beef Pad Thai and Crispy Duck. The Pad Thai was good, but not as good as getting from an actual Thai place. The duck was fantastic. The skin was nice and crispy, and the five spice powder they used on it was delicious. Paul had a tough time removing the meat from the bones, so I had to help him with that. My babe can be so silly at times. In all, it was a great day and I'm looking forward to more.

Giant F'ing Marshmallows

Two weeks ago Kim and Kathleen came over with a bag of over sized marshmallows and really long skewers. The marshmallows were HUGE - probably the size of a baseball and contained 90 calories each. Massive. We traveled around my backyard and gathered downed branches and built a fire in the outdoor fireplace. After it was nice and hot, we started roasting our marshmallows. They were pretty good, but the only problem was their size. It wasn't exactly possible to cook them all the way through because the outside started to burn too badly. Still, we all had a good time and Kim and I were definitely tempted to build our very own Staypuft Marshmallow Man :)

Monday Night Dinner

I decided to make Paul something nice for dinner, so after watching Secrets Of A Restaurant Chef I had some idea. I ended up making Chicken Milanese with Safron Risotto and Mushrooms sauteed in Red Wine. Everything was pretty good. The chicken was wonderfully tender and very crunchy thanks to using Panko (as opposed to regular bread crumbs). For dessert, I made Panna Cotta. Also very delicious. Once again, I failed to take pictures of it all.

Wheelies

Recently my good friend Kim and I went to a new fast food place on Rt. 516 in Old Bridge called Wheelies. This place claims to have the best roast beef sandwich in New Jersey, and being a lover of roast beef I put it to the test. So, Kim and I both ordered the roast beef sandwich. I got a strawberry shake, Kim got chocolate. The shakes were great. Not too thin, not too thick, and most likely homemade. The sandwich was incredible. It was very simply served on a nice squishy white bun with a little bit of melted cheddar. The meat was incredibly tender. What makes this place stand out from other fast food places is that everything is seemingly made fresh each day. Nothing is frozen. Not bad, and certainly worth the trip.