Smoothies are a Bust

I've been pretty positive-minded about food, at least in the context of this here blog. But I do have unpleasant or disappointing experiences with meals and dishes -- and often, I repeat these experiences. Maybe it's a belief in redemption or just a failure to learn, who knows.

From a vegan food blog at kitteekake.blogspot.com. On another note, Google "smoothie fail" and check out the images results. Hilarious.

One food that I have consistently found underwhelming and yet have given NUMEROUS chances is smoothies, particularly non-homemade smoothies. Smoothies are cold, sometimes icy, theoretically "smooth" blends of fruit and juice or yogurt, often with supplements mixed in. At their best, they're largely comprised of just these elements; at their worst they include syrups, added sugar, or space-age concoctions the likes of which I shudder to consider.

After the gym this morning, being slightly too lazy to cross the street for another awesome egg sandwich from Potbelly, I hit up Robek's (a far-more-widespread-than-I-thought corporate smoothie joint) for my protein/calorie fix. Why, I can't imagine -- as I say, I haven't had many positive smoothie experiences. After receiving suggestions from the very pleasant young man and woman behind the counter, I settled on a Banana-Mango smoothie with added protein powder. I figured this would be tasty, reasonably proteinaceous, and with only a moderate amount of sugar.

In a word? Underwhelming. First off, it was inevitably overpriced ($5), as purchased smoothies ALWAYS are. Second, it was so damn sweet that I could feel my tooth enamel begging for help, the sort of saccharine sweet that makes you want to hit up the dentist for a cleaning afterward. Thirdly, you know how much protein was in that supplement? Six grams. SIX?!?! That's like the protein in a very small glass of milk, or one ounce of chicken. Bah!

I went out an hour later and bought another Potbelly breakfast sandwich.

I promise Thanksgiving montage madness is forthcoming -- ComCast just needs to fix the series of tubes that bring Internets to my house.

BREAKING NEWS: Breakfast Sandwich

Post-gym, pre-work, I habitually go to Caribou Coffee, where I buy a $4 version of the exact same banana and walnut oatmeal I make at home (except mine's better) and a coffee. Well, this morning, the line at Caribou was absurd (I HATE waiting in lines. Any other shape is fine; lines frustrate me.) -- so I crossed the street and hit up Potbelly, which was emptier than my tummy on Yom Kippur. I'd seen that they make breakfast sandwiches, but since I consider Potbelly a treat, I'd yet to try one.

MMMMMM. See? It's got some ham, and a little omelet, mushrooms, swiss, some lettuce, a tomato, and on that decent Potbelly bread (which doesn't, after all, have the same pungent aroma as the Subway bread). AND only $3. Downside? According to Potbelly.com, it pretty much negated my workout, calorically. Good thing I'm in it for the protein. =)

I'm gonna remember this.

Sweet Tooth Revenant

Yesterday afternoon, coming back from the Hill, I stopped at the Godiva in Union Station. You see, I'd been slightly inspired by an article in Consumer Reports which rated Godiva Dark Hot Chocolate the best they'd reviewed, and so I was seriously considering picking up a little. Also, my sweet tooth has come back with a vengeance -- maybe it's the season.

Good thing prices weren't posted; sometimes I think Godiva operates on one of those "if you have to ask..." pricing models.

Here is a play-by play of my experience. Or at least as much as I care to type.

1) "I'd like to order a dark hot chocolate" This is gonna be good.

2) "$5.50? Really?" This is absurd. Who would pay this much for hot chocolate? Oh well, I learned my lesson.

3) "Thanks. *sip*" Dear God. Dear, sweet merciful one, who has made the cocoa bean.

[I proceed to stand there, sipping, for about 60 seconds. Nothing cogent forms in my mind. Then --]

It's...velvety. It's dark; it's rich. It's intense, yet soft and sweet. Not so sweet that I'm not transported (because after all, sweetness for sweetness' sake is pretty much the problem in America). It's complex -- I wonder if I could do a tasting? Maybe Godiva would bankroll me. Or Consumer Reports!!!

And so goes the mind of Hungry Sam. I hope you've enjoyed this bizarre, stream-of-consciousness look into my psyche -- but this is a great deal of what passes through my mind when I'm REALLY enjoying food.

Forays Into Thai

I am an equal opportunity eater; in my cook book, open immigration is a plus. I have never met a cuisine I have not liked and as my cooking has developed, there has been no one vein to my adventures. I have, at different times, experimented with Moroccan, Lebanese, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Latin American, most European styles, and Southern food (which feels foreign to me).

I have never, until now, tried making Thai. Though I love Thai food dearly, it felt, somehow, as though there were some invisible barrier to cooking it. I thought there were perhaps too many exotic spices (false) or sauces (not really) or ingredients (maybe for SOME dishes). In short, I felt about making Thai food the way many people feel about making any food at all.

I decided to reject that notion. I believe in brotherhood through brunch, sisterhood through supper. Without experimenting with Thai food, how could I welcome Thailand into the family of nations the fusion of which informs my cooking?

Now, I would LOVE to make phat kee mao (drunken noodles) or phat see ew (or however you transliterate those sweet, stir fried noodles) but I can't find the wide rice noodles (help, D.C. friends!). I did discover thin rice noodles -- perfect for phat thai.

Phat thai is an extremely simple dish in terms of ingredients. Other than the noodles, which apparently are found in many grocery stores, the only exotic is the fish sauce (if you've made certain Japanese or any Thai you probably already have some on hand). I had some boneless chicken breasts already, and in an effort to make the whole thing more colorful and more wholesome, I decided I would throw in some broccoli and a red bell pepper. I wanted to use chopped peanuts, but Giant was out (I know!!!) and I forgot I had some. Whoops.

Vamping off the noodle package directions, this is how I went about fashioning my first attempt at Thai:

Pad Thai

3/4 of a package of thin rice noodles (about 8 oz.)
4 T. fish sauce
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. paprika
3 eggs
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (VEGGIES -- use tofu instead)
2 scallions, sliced finely
2 heads of broccoli cut into small pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thinly

Small handful of chopped peanuts

half a can of bean sprouts (just throw away the other half, unless you make a lot of asian dishes. Blech)
garlic
salt and pepper

1) Place the noodles in warm water, spreading them out as much as possible, and allow them to soak for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, and paprika.

2) Meanwhile, split the breasts lengthwise into cutlets using a sharp knife (a process called "butterflying") and slice thinly. Saute on medium in oil (I always just use olive oil; I'm sure it would be more authentic with something else) and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook through until no pink remains, but no further, then remove from pan.

3) Scramble the eggs in the bottom of the pan until done. Then, add pepper, broccoli, chicken and the (well-drained) noodles and stir fry over medium. After a minute or two add the fish sauce mixture and about a half cup of water. Continue stir frying, adding more water if need be. This is the tricky part, because underdone, rice noodles are inedible and overdone they're a sticky mass of noodles -- there's a window of perfection that I hit, but totally on accident.

4) When noodles are cooked through (lots of taste-testing required) but before they get too sticky, remove everything from the heat to a serving bowl and toss well. Top with chopped peanuts, scallions, and bean sprouts (which, despite their tinged look, actually have some health benefits -- Vitamin C most notably).

Enjoy!

Wherein I Eat Awesome Stuff in Atlanta

I was in Atlanta recently, visiting JHK and taking the LSAT -- it's a long story. WHILE I was there, I indulged in three particularly sumptuous meals, photographic proof of which I now will present.

1) Dinner on Friday night at Murphy's

I've now visited Atlanta thrice, and each time I have found myself at Murphy's -- but before this visit, only for brunch. (GET THE SHRIMP AND GRITS, DAMNIT. SO GOOD). This dinner menu, like Napoleon Bonaparte, is short -- but fully prepared to conquer my appetite and unify my taste buds into a single regime under its rule.

Awkward simile? Maybe.

Anyways, I resisted the urge to get shrimp and grits AGAIN (it's on the dinner menu too) and instead opted for classic dry-rubbed ribs. I don't get ribs often, but I think ribs such as these are my death-row-last-meal meal. They were so fall-off-the-bone, finger-lickin', bone-suckin', tender and flaky delicious that it was struggle to set a few aside for later. When you can't even keep the meat on the bone if you tried, that's when you know you've found a good ribs joint -- and Murphy's is, at that.

Here too I tried the mussels, which were good but nothing to blog about (oops). However, nestled next to the dish of mussels marinara were thick-cut handmade fries, which were pretty much worth it right there. Moist without being greasy, salty without overpowering the flavor of the potato, they were pretty much just how I like 'em. Another win for Murphy's. I'll be back.

2) Breakfast before the LSAT (at the ungodly and inhuman hour of about 6:30)

I'm not sure I need much commentary for this photo, except to say that if I did well on the LSAT (I find out Nov. 1), it's thanks to this breakfast of champs -- cheerios, leftover ribs, and macaroni and cheese.

3) Dinner Saturday night at Bistro Niko

My experiences with French restaurants are more than limited -- I think I've been to ONE in my life, on Key Biscayne in Miami, where I tried escargo. I know almost nothing about the cuisine, except that they eat frog legs.

SO I DID.

That's right; I tried frog legs. And you know what? Duh duh duh...

They tasted like chicken.

Except they tasted like the best, most tender, flavorful, and wonderful chicken you've EVER HAD. These were lightly breaded and pan fried with lemon juice and a little tomato with spices, and once I got past the fact I was eating something that looked VERY much like a frog leg, I could focus on how tasty it was. If you, my dear readers, think you have it in you, I highly recommend trying frog legs sometime.

For my main course, I had skate wing. For those unaware, skate is a cartilaginous fish, like sharks or manta ray, in fact, very much like a manta ray. Skate is a very tender white fish, markedly un-fishy tasting/smelling, and when cooked, flakes cleanly into large chunks. The skate I ate (hahaha) was pan-fried with lemon juice, white wine, and capers -- EXACTLY the same way MB an I cooked it during my only other experience with skate. It's an easy fish to cook, as the meat is thin and of uniform depth, but the tricky part (MB and I struggled with this) is separating the flesh from the cartilage structure under the wing without making a mess of the fish. Apparently, the trick is to be careful.

In my mind, as much as I love staples and favorites, there's nothing quite as exciting as trying the new and/or exotic; I give Bistro Niko two or three thumbs way up for presenting both in an excellent and perfectly executed fashion.

Next time on Hungry Sam: What I made for dinner tonight.

Things I've Thought About Today

1) I sometimes eat apple cores.

It's not that I like them; frankly, I don't really like or dislike the core. But there's nothing worse than finishing a sweet, crunchy, juicy, delicious apple and not only being covered in sticky apple juice but having trash on your hands. My solution, then, has really been to just eat the trash. I eat it before finishing the rest of the apple though; I don't want my last apple bites to be the stupid core.

2) I'm wicked good at the puzzles on the back of cereal boxes.

It's almost like they're made for children.

3) How do you make frozen yogurt?

I would like to make some frozen yogurt. I know I could just google it, and I will, but I'm sharing the food-oriented thoughts I've had today. And today, while eating frozen yogurt (Sweetflow: Gross name; decent frozen yogurt) I thought to myself, "how does this work?"

4) The Waffle House makes a DAMN fine waffle.

I did a 24 mile ride with the Bad Movie Club this morning. After the ride, we decided to ensure that no weight would be lost through our exercise by eating at the Waffle House, a sketchier, Southern-er IHOP. However, for about $3, I had a pretty damn fine pecan buttermilk waffle. SCORE. I would have a picture, but I was too hungry to think pre-waffle.

That is all.

New Job, New Neighborhood, New Lunches!

Creating and accepting change is tough, but infinitely more so if one's net movement is ultimately backwards. I am extremely fortunate to have recently taken a step forward: I have just found, applied for, been offered, accepted, and started at the American Association of University Women as Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator.

I am incredibly happy with this move -- I get to continue advocating and working on women's issues and gender equality, which is awesome; I get to work with an energetic, committed, and passionate grassroots -- the AAUW members -- all over the country; I get to work with my coworkers, whom I would tend to describe as "bad-ass"; and, in the context of Hungry Sam, I now work in a new neighborhood where new lunch options abound.

Over the next several months, I will explore these many and varied options, ranging from fast food and buffet Indian to sandwich shops, sit down grills, and seafood. While not quite the epicurean paradise that is Dupont, site of my former employ, the Farragut area nonetheless has a great deal going for it.

In a quick teaser, both for me and for you, I ate lunch out for the first time at the new job on Friday, hitting up Naan and Beyond, a takeout Indian food joint with an ever-changing menu and an excellent array of options. I tried the Lamb Tikka sandwich, which is basically a gyro-style roll-up with naan instead of pita. AWESOME. The chunks of lamb were tender and plentiful; the veggies were fresh and tasty, and the mint yogurt sauce (not actually raita) was superb. Most of all, naan is SO MUCH BETTER THAN PITA. It just is; don't ask me why. Here's a quick pic:

Will I be back? You bet your tuchus I will. Delicious, fast Indian food, one block away from work, and CHEAP (we snagged two big sandwiches and three samosas plus fixins for less than $20).