New Acquisitions and Adventures

Older Brother and I went to New York City and Philadelphia the last couple of days and did a lot of walking and sightseeing and visiting of friends. It was exhausting, but I had a great time, and I'm glad that Older Brother wanted to go, because I probably wouldn't have gone by myself. Here are our food adventures, in chronological order.

Before taking off early Wednesday morning, we bought some maps at Barnes and Noble, and I found this book in the bargain bin. I'm excited to try some recipes, and I love the pictures even if the recipes don't turn out.

In New York (between visiting some friends, browsing through fabric in the garment district, and taking the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty) we had some pizza which had a nice crust and lots of vegetables, but it wasn't a revelation, I had high hopes for New York pizza, and maybe it was just the stuff that we got, but it was still just pizza. We also had dumplings from a place in Chinatown, which were good, nice crunchy vegetables inside and not super salty. Older Brother bought these preserved salted kumquats that are really good. Oh, we also had breakfast at Community Food and Juice with a friend, and it was a really nice place, good food and nice atmosphere, I definitely recommend it.

stuffing my face with New York pizza

Preserved and salted kumquats

In Philly we saw some more friends and ate lunch with one of them at a place called the National Mechanics in the old city which was pretty awesome. They surprised me with a good selection of vegetarian foods, and I think they deserve their own review (next post). Ws also visited Reading Terminal Market which was pretty awesome, but I didn't buy anything and didn't get any pictures, but it was a very impressive area and I would like to go back.We didn't do a lot of eating in Philidelphia, which is a shame because my friend knows all the good places, but we weren't super hungry after the awesome lunch.

Food from National Mechanics

This morning, back home in DC, we went to the Eastern Market, on the hunt for some good produce. We found a good selection of cute eggplants for really cheap, in such interesting colors, I had no idea there was such a thing as an orange eggplant. Aren't they cute? And there were some delicious white peaches, I bought a bunch for some cardamom experiments, hopefully they will be fruitful (haha!) and I'll have plenty to write about here. There were some awesome looking ravioli with different colors, and can you see the sign for chocolate and cream ravioli! We also tried some pastries from a vendor there, and they still didn't stack up to Pavel's, so the hunt continues for the awesomest bakery in the D.C. Metro Area.

More on Charred Peppers

This is how the roasted/charred peppers look when you peel off the blackened skins. The charred skins have a papery texture and pretty much slip right off the flesh. When you roast the pepper like this, the flavor becomes super intense, really sweet and peppery at the same time. I don't even like peppers, but I love them like this. You could also do this to spicier peppers, not just sweet bell peppers. Put charred and peeled peppers on hamburgers (or veggie burgers) or other sandwiches (see below).

You can also use this technique with tomatoes, but unlike peppers, tomatoes start disintigrating after 5 minutes of intense heat, and I haven't yet learned how to keep them contained when they are falling apart like that. But they would make a fabulous sauce for pizza or spaghetti.

This is my amazing sandwich that I made with roasted red peppers, eggplant, cheese and pesto. Someday I will maybe make it for you. I am salivating over it all over again.....