Tomato Salads

Tomato, Cucumber, and Feta

Earlier in the week, I wrote about all the great things I picked up over the weekend at my local farmers' markets.  I sincerely hope you guys go out and explore the markets in your area as well.  The quality of produce available at these markets will blow your mind.  Of particular note, in my opnion, are the fresh tomatoes.

Along with peaches, tomatoes have been a victim of giant agri-business.  The fact is you simply cannot sell a vine-ripened tomato in a chain grocery store.  They are far too perishable and don't travel well.  As a result, giant farms pick millions of tomatoes while they are still hard, green balls and gas them with ethylene to ripen them off the vine.  Here is a handy guide.  Artificial ripening, coupled with genetic selection for roundness, bruise tolerance, shelf life and perfectly uniform color, has resulted in nearly inedible fruit.

On the other side of the spectrum from the mass produced, hunk of crap tomato, we have beauties like the ones in the salad at the top of this post.  They're sweet, juicy, and sublime.  To my palate, a superbly constructed tomato salad, prepared with respect for the ingredients, is transcendent.  

Read on for a couple of really simple salads that, I hope, can bring you closer to nirvana.

Recipe - Quick Salmon Stir Fry with Baby Choy

Today's entry is a quick and easy stir fry, ideal for a mid-week dinner.  Stir-frying is a great technique for producing a healthy, tasty meal in a hurry.  This entire dish can be done in the time it takes to make the rice.

I was inspired this time by a sale on sockeye salmon at my local market.  There must have been a massive salmon season this year because they're practically giving it away.  I can't pass up a good deal and have been cooking salmon at least once a week all summer.  We do cedar plank salmon with a maple-brown sugar glaze, salmon tacos, etc.  In this dish, we are going to dust the salmon in tapioca starch and quickly fry it to keep it crisp and moist, without being greasy.  Read on for the details.

Kid Friendly Recipe - Mmmmmm, Marinara

The Secret of San Marzano

The other day a reader asked me to help her out with some recipes that are "kid friendly."  In fact, a lot of people ask me about what I feed my 3 year old son when my wife and I are eating Portobello Pasta with Mushrooms and Caramelized Leeks.  Well, the answer is that he eats the same things we eat - for the most part (he REALLY loves that dish, btw).  I mean, he's not into oysters or anything, but more often than not he dines as we do.  Having said that, I realize that my kid is a bit odd and most curtain climbers are more interested in chicken nuggets and such.  Well, kids love "spaghetti", no?

Click below to check out the recipe for a simple, and kid-friendly, pasta with marinara sauce that you can have on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Farmer's Markets - Eating Like a Locavore

Nature's Bounty

What if I told you that you could buy delicious, fresh, natural, sustainable, healthy food, right in your own neighborhood, at competitive prices, and help your local economy all at the same time?  Too good to be true?  It's not, and it's easier than you think.

Look people, if you're not shopping at your local farmer's markets, you are seriously missing the boat.  I know I've mentioned a few great things that I've picked up in my neighborhood, like this bread and these peaches, but I think it's time to dedicate a whole post to the fabulous foods lurking around the corner.  If you live in any city of any size in this great land, I guarantee that there is a farmer's market near you.  For a start, check out Local Harvest, which has a search-able database of markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) resources for the entire US.

When you buy from your local farms, ranches, and dairies you're not only supporting your local economy, but you're getting (generally) higher quality products that are grown in more sustainable ways.  You also get a chance to speak with the producers themselves and learn more about how your food is grown.  Click the read link to find out what I picked up this weekend, and what I'll be cooking with this week.

The Greatness of Tortas, Barbacoa, and Cachete

Barbacoa Torta at El Paisa

Tortas are awesome.  At it's most basic, a torta is a Mexican sandwich, prepared using a large, soft bun that's been toasted a bit.  To me, however, tortas are like everything wonderful in a hamburger basket and a great taco, all together in a delicious, hand sized package.  They come with several fillings including Al Pastor (marinated pork), Carne Asada (grilled beef steak), Jamon (ham), Milanesa (breaded, fried beef cutlet), etc.  My two favorites are Barbacoa (pictured) and Lengua (beef tongue).  Hold on a sec!  Stay with me.  Beef tongue is REALLY good.  If you've never had it, please reserve your judgement.  Tongue is like very very tender pot roast.  The flavor is beefy and rich and wonderful.  Please try it.  Now on to the barbacoa.

Barbacoa, for the un-initiated, is a beef dish popular in northern Mexico.  I say beef because the barbacoa in my area is pretty much all beef due to the massive numbers of people from northern Mexico.  In other parts of Mexico they use lamb or pork or goat.  Either way, barbacoa is a method of slow cooking meat that is usually wrapped in something, like a banana leaf.  This cooking method results in an extremely tender finished product...it literally melts in your mouth.  The best barbacoa, in my humble opinion, comes from the cabeza (the head) of the cow, and I'm specifically referring to cachete (the cheek).

Cachete is wonderful for several reasons:  it has a dense, rich flavor; it's cheap as hell; it gets better if it sits for a while.  All of those qualities together make cachete barbacoa the end all taqueria food as far as I'm concerned.  For about $7, I procured the torta and fries pictured above from El Paisa in Carrollton.  If you live in Dallas, give El Paisa a try for lunch.  Their food is very good, and incredibly cheap.  The Carrollton location is new, and has a drive through.  The Walnut Hill location is older, and has a different menu featuring a little more variety of Mexican dishes.  This place is MEXICAN, not Tex-Mex.  If you've never done authentic Mexican, you should.  Tex-Mex is fantastic, but Mex-Mex has its place in my rotation as well.

Let me know if you find a great torta in your neck of the woods!

Recipe - Portobello Pasta with Mushrooms and Caramelized Leeks

Mushrooms are one of life's great pleasures. Earthy, woodsy, mushrooms. Every time I taste one, I'm transported back to my youth. Back to a cool, crisp autumn morning spent slowly strolling through the thick forest that surrounded our family cabin. A gentle mist blankets the brown patchwork of fallen leaves at our feet. My father and I scan the earth, searching for our treasure. Crinkly morels, velvety oysters, pungent porcinis. We fill our baskets with the terrestrial bounty of fall, and return home to prepare supper.


Okay, that story is completely fabricated. My point is this: mushrooms are delicious...and possibly hallucinogenic. If you like fungi like I like fungi, then this dish is really going to grow on you. We start with some fresh, locally made portobello mushroom pasta and prepare it simply with fresh shitakes and criminis, some caramelized leeks, and parsley. Click the read link for more details.

Restaurant Review - Omi Korean Grill and Bar

Omi God, it's Korean BBQ!

I'm a big fan of Asian cuisine.  I grew up eating things that, to the traditional "American palette," would seem a little out there - goat, raw oysters, rabbit, bone marrow - so I guess authentic Asian food presents a rare opportunity to get me out of my comfort zone.  I also love the traditions and process of eating an Asian meal: the order of the food, the little dishes of this and that, the condiments...the ritual of the whole thing.

I'm also a big fan of dragging co-workers to bizarre restaurants where the menus are written with English subtitles.  So it was on a recent trip to Omi, located in a shopping center anchored by Super H Mart at Old Dention and Highway 190 here in Dallas.  (As an aside, Super H Mart is one of my favorite grocery stores.  I will cover it in a later post.)  Read on for the full scoop.

A Great Peach??!??!?!?!!??

I grew up in a little house in Oak Cliff that my dad and my grandfather built. We had a peach tree in our back yard. Actually we had a few peach trees, and every summer I would go out back with my grandfather or grandmother - who lived next door - and pick warm, ripe peaches. I'll never forget the way those peaches tasted. Mostly because those peaches had a lot in common with pretty much every peach sold in every grocery store in America: they were dry, hard, and almost flavorless...

...not at all like the treasures I found this past weekend at the farmer's market down the street:

The Holy Grail

These peaches are fragrant and colorful on the outside, juicy and perfectly soft on the inside.  The flavor explodes in your mouth.  Eating fruit like this makes you realize how God-awful mass-market produce really is.  I mean, I have literally examined hundreds of supermarket peaches and you could drive nails with them, they're so hard.  They're like little fuzzy baseballs.

I know I'm going to regret saying this because, selfishly, I want to be the only one "in the know" on these guys, but go to the corner of Beltline and the Tollway on Saturday or Sunday if you live anywhere near Big D.  Look for the Italian guy drooling on himself.  That will be me...I will be near the peaches.

Recipe - Roasted Eggplant on Garlic Toast

The aubergine is one of my all time favorite foods.  Eggplants, as we call them here in the States, are members of the nightshade family and are indigenous to India and southeast Asia.  They arrived in the West no earlier than about 1500.  The particular eggplant pictured above arrived at my house no earlier than Saturday, and was quickly dispatched.

Eggplants have such a velvety flavor: rich and smooth on the tongue.  They are excellent grilled, fried (particularly in Eggplant Parmesan, which I will share at a later date), and also roasted.  Inspired by a superb loaf of crusty bread procured at our local farmer's market, I decided to roast this fine specimen.  Read on for the details.

Recipe - Belgian Waffles with Strawberry Compote

Hungry yet?

Compote?  I hate the word "compote."  Too close to "compost," and who wants to eat that?  I prefer "goo," which more accurately describes a "compote" in my opinion.  Nomenclature notwithstanding, compotes do make delicious toppings for Belgian waffles.  My dear wife particularly likes strawberry goo on her waffles.  Strawberry goo is crazy simple to make, and it really dresses up Sunday brunch.  Read on for the quick and dirty details.

Recipe - Saturday Morning Frittata

Frittata with Steak, Hatch Chilis, Potato, and Scallions

Growing up, my dad had a rule about breakfast.  He would come to my room, open the door, and announce "Tony, time to get up!".  That was my only alarm.  If I decided to keep sleeping, I would miss breakfast entirely and be left to my own devices until lunch.  Often, that missed breakfast would consist of a frittata (a kind of Italian omelet), and some black coffee ("black" referring to coffee made in a "moka pot" on the stove - I had mine with cream and sugar).  If you've never had a frittata, you should really try making one.  You will understand why I rarely slept through breakfast. 

The word "frittata" must be Italian for "delicious leftovers", because that's exactly what it is.  Take anything left over from Friday night's dinner, cut it into pieces, fry it in a skillet, dump scrambled eggs on it and bon appetito!  You have yourself Saturday morning breakfast...or lunch...or a snack.

Click the read link for the recipe.

About this blog

The web certainly doesn't need another blog.  However, I am starting this one for several dumb reasons:

1. Friends tell me they like what I cook, they like to know where I buy food, and they like going out to eat with me because I take them to weird places and I know how to "order well"- whatever that means.
2. I love food and I love eating in Dallas.  I think we have a unique food culture here.  It has been said that the only things Dallasites are good at are eating and shopping.  Truer words have never been spoken.
3. I like to take pictures of my meals.  This blog will give me an excuse to continue annoying my wife with said picture taking.

This blog will center around, quite literally, what I eat.  Whether that's dining out, shopping for food items, cooking, etc. it's all about the stuff I consume and the stuff I love.  It will be focused on Dallas/Fort Worth, but I reserve the right to meander - and I think that readers elsewhere will get a lot out of my posts as well.

And occasionally I'll cover what I drink, too.

Happy eating,

Tony