Daisy May’s BBQ USA

If you remember from my previous Daisy May’s post back in 2007, I was less than enthusiastic about their barbeque (you can read all about it here). However, David and I were in the neighborhood because we wanted to buy lumber at the store around the corner and I decided to give the place another try (in their defense, I ate the food truck that is parked in midtown, not at the actual restaurant). You find what you want from their large menu and place your order with the guy behind the counter:

Everything was really clean, but the food didn’t look that fresh and had definitely sitting there since the lunch rush earlier in the afternoon:

Since we went around 4 or 5, David and I decided to share an order instead of each getting our own. We ordered the Memphis dry ribs, macaroni and cheese, and creamed corn:

The ribs reminded me of the ribs I really love from North Carolina (available at The Fresh Market), but there was too much dry rub on the ribs and made them slightly oversalted and kind of sandy. The macaroni and cheese was cheesy, but the noodles were overcooked and all mushed together like creamed corn. The creamed corn had good flavor, but was just too rich for me to eat (especially after the mac and cheese).

I took a picture of their wall because I saw an Illini flag (they’re difficult to find in NYC!):

Daisy May’s is definitely not a gross place like I said in my post from 2007, but for the price and the taste, I think you can find a lot better (specifically at Hill Country and Rub BBQ).

Boston Pictures!

To continue with the Boston posts, I have a couple more pictures that I wanted to share from my recent trip to Bean Town. On Saturday, after our brunch at Masa, Lou and I walked around the city and made our way back to Newbury Street. Some shots from the city:

A beautiful weeping willow in Boston Commons:

More Boston Commons:

I can’t seem to go anywhere without taking at least one jumping shot:

Some high end shopping on Newbury:

A view of the John Hancock:

The public library:

Quick and Easy Weeknight Dinner: Hot and Sour Soup

My mom recently taught me how to make hot and sour soup and it’s so delicious and easy to make at home that you can quickly prepare this for a weeknight dinner (with plenty of leftovers for lunch if you don’t end up going in for seconds or thirds). Hot and sour soup at Chinese restaurants can be filled with MSG and other preservatives (why I typically avoid it when I go out for Chinese food), but this version is healthy and filled with lots of nutrients and delicious vegetables.

Hot and Sour Soup Ingredients:

1/3 6 ounce bag of dried lily flower, soaked in water
3 ounces (or around 30 leaves) of wood ear mushrooms, soaked in water
1/2 cabbage
1 bunch of cilantro (optional)
1 large container of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of corn starch
White pepper (black pepper is also fine)
1 container of soft tofu

First, soak the dried lily flowers in water:

Next, remove the stems from the wood ear mushrooms and slice them vertically:

Once the lily flowers have soaked for about 5 minutes, remove them so their stems are all facing one way (their stems are more fibrous and tough):

Remove the fibrous stems:

Pour the chicken broth into a pot and let it come to a boil:

My mom actually made a broth so I didn’t have to use the chicken broth, but chicken broth is a quick and easy substitute (she made the broth from pork bones, picked out the meat, and threw away the bones…that’s the meat you might have noticed in the broth pictures). If you use broth, I recommend using the entire container of broth and then refilling the empty container with water to dilute the chicken broth.

After the broth comes to a boil, add in the wood ear mushrooms because they will take the longest to cook:

Next, add in the dried lily flowers:

Let the wood ear mushrooms and dried lily flowers cook for a little with the broth. While those are cooking, start chopping up cabbage:

Place the cabbage into the soup:

Let the cabbage cook while you mix the soy sauce, corn starch, and vinegar together:

And add a healthy portion of white pepper:

Here’s what the soup should look like:

Next, remove the soft tofu from its container and slice it:

Add the tofu to the soup:

Then add the soy sauce, white pepper, apple cider vinegar, and corn starch combination:

And finally, add in cilantro:

Ladle up some hot and sour soup:

And enjoy all of the nutrients from the veggies (lily flowers have lots of fiber, vitamin A, calcium, and iron). We had the soup for a party the other weekend and it was a real crowd pleaser; the soup is a lot better than any hot and sour soup I’ve EVER had, and I’m not just saying that because I made it! 🙂 Hope you enjoy recreating this recipe.

Cost Breakdown

1/3 6 ounce bag of dried lily flower, soaked in water – $0.75 (purchased at Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown)
3 ounces (or around 30 leaves) of wood ear mushrooms, soaked in water – $0.75 (purchased at Hong Kong Supermarket in Chinatown)
1/2 cabbage – $0.40
1 bunch of cilantro (optional) – $0.50
1 large container of chicken broth – $1.99
2 tablespoons of soy sauce – $0.05
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar – $0.05
1 tablespoon of corn starch – $0.05
White pepper (black pepper is also fine) – $0.05
1 container of soft tofu – $1.25

Total: $5.84 – enough for a party of 8

Holiday Gift Idea – Oceana’s Adopt a Creature

Oceana is an amazing organization that was created in 2001 to identify the problems with our oceans and then coming up with practical solutions to implement. For the holidays, they’ve created an adopt a creature set that I think is a great gift idea for anyone on your shopping list. Oceana’s Adopt a Creature set offers online shoppers up to 6 sea creature cookie cutters and 4 sea creature plush toys they can virtually adopt in someone else’s name. Gift recipients receive an adoption certificate, creature facts and a sugar cookie recipe with the cookie cutters. You can view all creature options at ocean.org/adopt.

This year as part of our 2009 Adopt a Creature program we are teaming up with one of their youngest supporters to help promote our holiday program. 12-year old sea turtle advocate Casey Sokolovic was a finalist for our Ocean Heroes contest this year and has an inspiring story volunteering for a local sea turtle rescue center in her home state of North Carolina. As part of her efforts, she baked thousands of sea turtle cookies and held bake sales that raised over $3,000 for the protection of these beloved creatures. In her honor Oceana.org created a special sea turtle adoption package valued at $200. For more information on Casey you can visit our Ocean hero page: www.oceana.org/heroes.

Full disclosure: Oceana.org sent me a press kit with an awesome stuffed hammerhead shark became best friends with my Murakami stuffed creature.

Wallse

For 2010, I set an eating goal for myself: eat at every Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. It’s quite a lofty goal for the year, but I’ve made it a little easier for myself; if I’ve eaten at the restaurant in the past (and blogged about it), I won’t return. To see the list of places I still have to visit, you can go to this page. I’m not sure if I can make it to Masa (it’s QUITE an expensive meal) but I still have more than 365 days to find out. To start my adventures a little early, my mom came to visit and we went to Wallse for brunch:

Wallse has two dining areas, both with really cool artwork:

While we were looking through their menu, the waiter brought along some bread and butter:

Since I was testing out the Olympus E-P1 camera (it’s pretty cool), I decided to take some test shots:

One thing I wanted to order was spätzle; my friend, Remy, said that he liked Wallse for brunch more than dinner and this was the dish he usually ordered. Since I trust Remy’s recommendations, we knew that was one dish we were going to order. The spätzle comes with braised rabbit, wild mushrooms, and tarragon:

The dish was very plain and I didn’t a taste of any rabbit at all; the dish wasn’t very large and was actually our least favorite of the day. I made the noodles at a cooking class once and they’re super fun to make (you put dough into a hopper and grate the dough over a pot of boiling water). They get their funky shapes from the dough being pushed through the hopper (or falling at different times). I wish the noodles had more taste, but I thought they were lackluster.

We also ordered Viennese Weisswurst, sweet mustard, potato-cucumber salad:

The weisswurst was a little on the plain side, but I liked the potato-cucumber salad; it reminded me of the salad they prepare at Lederhosen. The Austrian eating next to us by himself and he cut the skin of the weisswurst first and only ate the innards, but I don’t think there was any harm in eating the entire thing.

Our third dish was the Hungarian beef goulash with fresh herbed spätzle:

We were a little hesitant to order the beef goulash because we didn’t want a stew, but the waiter assured us that it was more dry than watery. The beef was very well seasoned but a little on the dry side; I would’ve preferred more sauce with the dish. The spätzle tasted exactly like the other one we ordered, even though this side dish didn’t have any meat with it.

Our favorite dish from brunch was the Wiener Schnitzel with potato-cucumber salad and lingonberries:

Wiener schnitzel, even though it sounds like it should be sausage, is a thinly sliced cutlet of veal that is lightly breaded and fried. Wallse does it particularly well because the breading is very crisp all around (not soggy on one side and crispy on the other) and the veal was particularly tender.

The two better dishes of the day (wiener schnitzel and beef goulash) were also the two more pricey dishes ($26/each). My mom and I after our brunch:

And my mom, brother, and I:

I liked Wallse and the service was steady throughout our meal, but I didn’t find the food particularly interesting or delicious. The prices, however, were pretty expensive for brunch (and I browsed the dinner menu and they’re even higher than $26 per entree). One Michelin restaurant down, many more to go.