Markets and Pies

I live near an exceedingly lovely farmer's market. It's large, has beautiful produce (especially one cute farmer boy who sells really great salad mix, but that's a different story), and lots of free cheese samples. I was really excited to visit it for the first time in a long while a few weekends ago because I've had strawberry-rhubarb pies on my mind for a while and was really hankering for one. But after half an hour of walking around and trying to catch sight of some gorgeous ruby-colored stalks (and a very embarrassing incidence where in my eagerness I mistook some swiss chard for rhubarb...) I only found some sad, de-leafed and pale rhubarb sitting in a tub. I was out of luck.

Or so I thought! It turned out that my parents had bought a strawberry-rhubarb pie independently. Perfect.

It turned out to be the worst strawberry-rhubarb pie I've ever tasted.

Maybe I'm spoiled. Maybe I've only had them lovingly homemade by Helen Chmura and Emily Hager for sunday teas fresh out of the oven, but man, this "farmstand" pie didn't even taste like strawberry or rhubarb. It tasted like... chemicals. A closer look at the filling ingredients list proved my suspicions correct: potassium sorbate AND red #40. What on earth are those things doing in my pie?? The image of an Amish mother slowly pulling pies out of the oven was completely shattered (wait, can they even have ovens in the first place?) and replaced by an evil cackling machine dumping a whole vat of red #40 into each pie. The worst part was that I could feel the pie sitting in my stomach for the next three hours, which was a problem since I ate it at 11pm at night.

Okay, I'm exaggerating its bad qualities, but only a little.

The fact remains that this pie does not belong in a farmer's market. Sure, I may have an idealistic image of farmers markets. But I also understand that the farmers are not cottage industries making everything in small batches. They are not all like Polyface farm where everything produced there is beyond organic, has minimal carbon footprint, and absolutely delicious. Still, seeing ingredients that I would never put in my own food makes me feel cheated. Isn't the point of selling prepared foods from a market (aside from financial ones) to share a little bit of your home, of your unique recipes with other people? Maybe I'm still romanticizing here but I maintain that a huge part of the beauty of farmers markets is lost when I have to start scrutinizing ingredients lists for those long-winded ingredients that are found in my chem textbook. I do enough of that in grocery stores.

Beets!

Ever since this past winter break, I've been obsessed with putting roasted beets in salad. It only helps that the ruby-red root gets touted as a super food like, all the time. While I'm absolutely fascinated by the wild possibilities of doing things other than roasting them, the simplicity of tossing them into foil, baking and leaving them until they're done and ready to be tossed into a salad can't be... beet. Plus, they make a salad look so good! What's not to love?

Seattle - Pike Place Market

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Seattle and Portland to visit Jimmy. The trip only confirmed my desire to leave the east coast and live in Pacific Northwest. I just loved the feel of the area with its abundance of amazing foods and coffee, the breathtaking scenery, and the laid back, friendly, and often quirky people. On the trip, most of our time was spent eating or in transit between places to eat, with visiting non-food related sites almost as an afterthought. Our excellent guide, Jimmy, herded us to so many restaurants, coffeeshops, and food karts that by the last meal of the trip I could only handle a small bowl of salad. Everywhere we went, whether it was a small Schnitzel kart run by a Czech couple or a crowded Lebanese restaurant that takes the effort to make fresh pita for every table, I got the sense that people were incredibly passionate about the food they prepared and/or served in a very deep way. As a result, the foods we ate were often quite simple, but because of the thought and care that went into them they turned out to be some of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.

Del Posto

After a phenomenally busy and eventful final semester at Swarthmore, I now finally have the time and the mental capacity to write a very overdue post about a fantastic restaurant I visited over winter break.

I first became intrigued at this place after a Serious Eats Post about it before break even started. Since I was going to NYC anyway, it only made perfect sense to splurge a little and have an excellent dining experience. And at 35 dollars for a three-course and then some prix fixe lunch, Del Posto was practically inviting us commoners to come and eat off their delicious menu.

Pasta with roasted vegetables

From Winter 2009

This is a great recipe for using up leftover pasta and lonely vegetables in your fridge. I threw this together for lunch yesterday and it took 30 minutes, 20 of which was me sitting by the cozy oven reading a book (for pleasure! Can you believe it?).

Chocolate-covered strawberries

Mark Bittman (aka the Minimalist) made a video a few weeks ago about how eeeeasy tempering chocolate for dipping is. But it still involved more steps and more gadgets than what's really necessary. Oh yeah, I know that "all I have to do is to measure 3 or 4 temperatures with my new-fangled candy thermometer, use a double boiler, AND a stove," but really Mark, there is a fantastically easy way of doing this (maybe it's not called tempering but I can't taste the difference), so easy that Chris and I made a batch of chocolate-dipped strawberries in our dorm lounge in under an hour with delicious results, without having to maintain an optimal dipping temperature of 88-91 degrees (Dear NYT, please speak to my agent about putting a feature up on your homepage. I might be able to take time out of my busy winter break to put something together).

From Late Fall 2009

This is not a real post but...

I just got a reservation for Chris and I at Del Posto for winter break!! I am super excited.

Real posts to come after finals are over.