thingsiateingeneral
Things I Ate In General
This is a food blog that isn't always totally about food.
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The instructions accompanying the KGB Museum tickets were very clear: be on time. In fact, be early. We chose our breakfast spot accordingly: a coffee shop in a mall connected to the Hotel Viru, which houses the museum.
In America, the prospect of eating breakfast at a coffee shop in a mall would fill me with dread. I’d expect it to be utterly forgettable, if not terrible. This was not the case in Estonia. I think of this marzipan pastry often.
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We wandered in to Moon right before closing time and they graciously fed us all of the Russian food we wanted:
A zakuska plate of pickled cucumbers with honey, marinated mushrooms, Baltic sprats, quail eggs, lardo and horseradish-sour cream dip. Borsch with beef and sour cream. Hot buckwheat blinis with whitefish roe and sour cream. And finally, Chicken Kiev.
I was reading A Gentleman in Moscow at the time and may have been having some feelings about Russia.
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Did you travel to Tallinn in May thinking it would be pleasant, like maybe 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but actually it is more like 45 degrees and rainy? Did you bring the wrong outerwear for the weather and find yourself having to wear your rain jacket over your stylish-but-not-warm-enough camel coat? Go have a pancake at Kompressor. You’ll feel better.
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Taking a Tallink ferry across the Baltic Sea from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia takes two hours and costs €50 per person roundtrip. Most importantly, there is a Burger King on board that serves these perfect chili cheese bites.
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First up in the Finnish candy review, the Fami Chocolate Bar by Fazer, one of the largest Finnish food brands.
My notes on the Fami bar: “Chocolate with hazelnut filling. Good but boring. Not satisfying. One note. Slightly crispy at the edges. Would rather just eat some Nutella.”
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Despite our best intentions not to be silly, even after more than two years of marriage, Tony and I can’t help but acknowledge the day that we met. We spent the fifth anniversary of that day -- May 2nd -- eating pho at Lie Mi and feeling wondrous amazement at having spent five years doing anything. A testament to globalization, a testament to things getting better with age.
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Did I think we would eat barbeque in Finland? No. But it was good.
Lunch at B-Smokery on a cold, rainy day in Helsinki.
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One side effect of spending Vappu in Helsinki was that, being a major national holiday, most restaurants were closed. No matter! We ate falafel sandwiches from Fafa’s, a Finnish falafel chain that also has locations in Sweden, Estonia and London.
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Arriving in Helsinki on April 30th, we wondered why every person on the street was wearing a white sailor’s cap and why all of the young people were dressed in boilersuits. As luck would have it, we’d come on the eve of May Day, or Vappu, one of the four biggest holidays in Finland (along with Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, and Midsummer)
The sailor’s caps, we learned, are called ylioppilaslakki and are awarded to Finnish students upon successful completion of the matriculation exam. People of all ages wear these hats during Vappu, and having one that has yellowed with age is a sign of prestige. The boilersuits are worn by University students, and different colors and ways of styling the suit are associated with certain fields of study.
We quickly read up on other Vappu traditions in order to join in the fun. We tried sima, a fruity mead that’s drunk on the holiday, ate tippaleipä, these crunchy funnel cakes dusted with powdered sugar, and followed the crowds to Kaivopuisto, a waterside park where tens of thousands of Finns come every May First to have elaborate Vappu picnics.
Accidentally celebrating a major national holiday is the kind of travel accident I always hope for. Hyvää Vappua!
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Breakfast in Helsinki.
The Karelian pasty -- a little rye flour boat with crimped edges and a rice filling -- was among my favorite Finnish food discoveries. They are commonly served with egg butter, which is exactly what it sounds like: butter mixed with chopped hard boiled egg.
I am on the lookout for these in Minnesota. No luck yet.
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Is it possible to take a picture of a plate of food assembled at a buffet that doesn’t look disgusting? Not for me!
This was Passover 2019. Menu with a few recipe links below:
Matzo ball soup
The spinach, date, and almond salad from the Jerusalem cookbook
Leek and cheese matzah pie
Fesenjan (Persian pomegranate and walnut chicken stew)
Basmati rice with spices
Next year in Jerusalem.
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I’ve been an InstantPot owner for almost 18 months, and this Indian kheema beef is the thing I cook in it most often. The recipe requires a number of spices, but it’s simple and fast. Served over rice with some greek yogurt (or raita, if you feel like making it), this is true comfort food. Watch out for the whole cardamom pods.
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Eater’s shawarma-spiced tofu wraps have quickly become a popular lunchtime food in our house. They’re flavorful, they’re easy to make, and they would even be vegan if you subbed in something for the yogurt sauce. (The yogurt sauce is really good, though.)
I like serving them on mini pieces of naan, but they also translate to a rice bowl pretty well.
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I’ve spent the last few years on a quest to find a great butter chicken recipe. The recipe from the May & June 2019 issue of Cook’s Illustrated is the best I’ve found so far.
They have a fierce paywall in place (and it’s utter bullshit that subscribing to the magazine doesn’t come with digital access) but right now the recipe for Indian Butter Chicken for Two is accessible to anyone, so just double it. And take a screenshot or save it as PDF while you can.
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Do you remember when email was a novelty? When hearing the AOL “You’ve Got Mail!” alert was exciting? I long for those days.
Being alive in 2019 means being inundated with emails, even if you’re not someone with an email heavy job. I’m ruthless with my inboxes (I have three, unfortunately), and use a combination of Unroll.me plus frequent hand combing. I am always at inbox zero. I couldn’t live any other way.
But! I love getting and almost always read Sam Sifton’s “What to Cook” NYT Cooking emails. They are a joy. Sifton uses food as a jumping off point for conversations, memories, book recommendations. He believes, as I do, that food is culture, and that the culture of food is central to life.
This Hasselback kielbasa comes from one of Sifton’s no-recipe recipes, which he features in his Wednesday emails. It’s easy and fast to make, and it’s good. Serve with a green salad.
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Confetti meatloaf and cauliflower mash from Julia Turshen’s most recent cookbook, Now & Again. The meatloaf recipe uses ricotta cheese as a binder instead of the usual egg/breadcrumbs combo. It is very good, very moist, and also very low-carb, in case that’s something you’re looking for.
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Can you imagine eating a gas station sandwich in America without worrying about getting sick? (I don’t mean Wawa sandwiches. Those don’t count.) In Ireland, gas station sandwiches are a delight and include fillings like chicken and stuffing.
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