Brandon Eats

Food, Inc. Give-Away Contest

Food, Inc. opens today in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and on July 10th here in Richmond (at Movieland).

It's a movie I think everyone should see, and as an added incentive, I'm giving away the companion book (featuring thirteen essays written by Eric Schlosser, Robert Kenner (director), Marion Nestle, Anna Lappe, Michael Pollan, Muhammad Yunus, Joel Salatin,  and Gary Hirshberg), AS WELL AS a copy of Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Just send an email to brandoneats AT comcast.net and all names will go in a hat, or maybe a bucket, but probably a mixing bowl and will definitely be drawn by a 10-year-old or possibly a 13-year-old. The lucky winner will be announced Monday, June 15th!

Broad Appetit

One of my very favorite Richmond events of all is this Sunday, June 7th, from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Join me for Broad Appétit! I'll be the one impatiently tapping my foot in line while trying to juggle three plates of food and eat from each all at once.

The Most Wonderful Time of Year.

It's time to make the Eggnog of the Gods again. I'm just saying.

Be a Good Guest, Okay?

Here's a link that should be bookmarked permanently on everyone's holiday browser: Cutting Through Holiday Jams With Etiquette as Your G.P.S.  All of you poor, poor souls* hosting this year's Thanksgiving extravaganza should read it very carefully and perhaps "accidentally" send it to all of your guests.

Here's my favorite rule: Guests should always ask to bring a dish, but respect the host when he or she declines the offer. If you are assigned a dish you don’t want to make, too bad. Negotiating with someone who just invited you to dinner is not cool.

Although this one is a close second: If your brother’s ex-wife’s oldest son’s new girlfriend is making you feel edgy, or if someone is mouthing off about politics, it is acceptable to excuse yourself politely and take a little walk or see if you can help in the kitchen. Yelling, “I hate you!” and running from the table crying is not appropriate.

You can find more helpful tips here (although you'll just have to make up your own mind about a couple of inconsistencies between the two lists): CHOW'S 10 Party Preparation Tips.

I would also add that Xanax is always an appropriate hostess gift. That tip doesn't appear on either list.

*Hurray! Not me! Not me!

Google

My favorite Google search:  what eats a baby chicken?  Why my site is, of course, the perfect place to find an answer to that particular question!

technorati tags:richmond, food, food and drink, recipes, restaurants, cooking

Viva Italia!

The sense, last night at the Richmond Italian Street Festival, was of a gauntlet thrown down, of an initiation of a new rivalry between ethnic food festivals: the Italian-Americans of Richmond seemed to be directly challenging the supremacy of the Greek Festival and its heretofore unthreatened preeminence in the cycle of outdoor Richmond events.

Of course, in terms of variety and organization, the Greek Festival wins hands down, but then, they've been putting on their event for what? Forever? They've had practice (and a drive-through too). The nascent Italian Festival is still fumbling with the inevitable missteps and vision lapses any inaugural event entails. The line for wine stretched far, far down the block, the Peroni ran out at the beer truck, and at times I despaired that my children would remain content to watch passersby as I wanly stifled my hunger pangs, and waited out all of the people ahead of me, just to snatch a hot, gooey rice ball* from the stand that at that moment had the relatively shortest line. But if you're not willing to endure long lines and crowds at a Richmond festival, you're better off just staying at home and ordering a pizza from Mary Angela's. You have no business mixing it up on the street.

Although the entertainment was on the thin side and the children's activity section virtually non-existent, I have hope that this festival will blossom and grow over the coming years. I can imagine days and evenings filled with the pungent scent of garlic and performers from the Virginia Opera wandering through the crowds in costume, singing Verdi. I can see more wine booths (separate the red from the white maybe?) and more culinary variety (where was the participation from high-end Italian cuisine, like Amici and La Grotta ?) offered in a more centralized fashion. I'd like to see street musicians (accordions, anyone?) and magicians and most of all, even more of Richmond flocking to the beautiful, restored ambiance of Church Hill to eat some of the best food this town has to offer.

*A ball of cooked aborio rice and tomatoes encircling a hunk of fresh mozzarella, lightly breaded and deep-fried, then smothered in marinara and parmesan. Delicious! And I'd never had one before either.


technorati tags:richmond, food, food and drink

Slashfood's Pizza Day

In honor of Slashfood's Pizza Day (well, it was yesterday, so I'm one day late), here's a rerun of a post from July 22, 2005.  I know, I know, it's the new fall season, but I just got back from New York and I haven't gotten it all together yet.

Is it easier to make your own pizza instead of ordering take-out? A few years ago I would have scoffed at the idea--make your own dough, sauce, chop toppings? Crazy! Then I moved to a neighborhood a mere ten minutes away from my favorite pizza joint and inexplicably, they won't deliver to my house. Nope, absolutely no delivery to the northside of Richmond from Carytown. We have our own pizza delivery service, of course, but the pizza is so bland, so unexciting that I can't even bring myself to eat it even when I'm exhausted.

For years my husband and I debated whether Piccola's pizza or Mary Angela's pizza was the best and the most authentic (in that NYC slice kind of way) in town. My husband was partial to Piccola's and I was a staunch Mary Angela's fan. Complicating the debate is the fact that the two families who own these places are related; the pizzas are very, very similiar. It becomes therefore, a debate hinging on degrees of greatness, and as you probably know, that kind of discussion can continue indefinitely.

Nevertheless, the whole issue was rendered moot when we moved. No delivery service from either Piccola's or Mary Angela's (I will repress my ranting and railing vis a vis this issue for the moment); if we wanted pizza, we had to drive ourselves and get it. One day though, as we were loading our car to leave for home, my father-in-law stashed a pizza stone and a peel in the back along with our luggage (this is how my in-laws get rid of things they don't need). At first, I began making pizza just to see how it was done and then, as the drive to Mary Angela's became more onerous, I slowly started to take it for granted that when we wanted pizza, I would make it. Once I began stocking up on the basic ingredients--yeast, flour, mozzarella, cans of crushed tomatoes--I didn't really think too much about it. We still drove to get take-out, non-delivery pizza now and then, but I also made my own more and more. Eventually I developed a comprehensive, will-please-everybody sort of pizza that comprises three distinct sections: a pepperoni section, a plain cheese section, and for adults, an artichoke-goat cheese section.

Remembering to make the dough ahead of time is the only real challenge.  Leave it to trusty Christopher Kimball, however, to streamline even this process and reduce the rising, topping, and cooking time to a mere 75 minutes. Here's a link on the web to his Quick Pizza Dough.  I also use his uncooked tomato sauce but you'll have to go to Cook's Illustrated-Recipe Resource for that one (again, I must exhort you to subscribe to this site--it's well worth it). Once the dough has risen and then rested, I roll out the entire ball, instead of dividing it in two as recommended. I have a hard time stretching the dough wide enough (although I have found Lora Brody's Dough Relaxer helpful) when it's that small, and I also prefer my crust a little thicker. Crispy is nice but crispy is also easy to burn. And as everyone knows, if it's black, children won't eat it, even if they're starving.

Goat cheese, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, and chopped scallions are my current favorite toppings, although with tomato season now in full swing, fresh tomatoes and fresh basil (the basil under the cheese to keep it moist) may replace them. I'd also like to try my hand at grilling a pizza--somehow that starts to sound like too much work though. Come to think of it however, I think--actually--it may not be so bad after all. The mandatory 500 degree oven for pizza cooking is a real killer these days and the grill would relocate the heat outside of the house. Hmmm . . . is it worth sacrificing dinner and losing a whole pizza (I have horrific visions of all of the toppings sliding ineveitably into the coals when I try to get it on the grill or try to take it off) just in the name of culinary experimentation? Maybe I should call Mary Angela's and have them hold me a table before I start. richmond

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