FoodNerd!

This was my dinner tonight at Little Richard’s BBQ in Mt. Airy NC. Both my clients and the hotel staff told me to go here, so I did. That’s chopped barbecue and barbecue slaw (finely chopped cabbage with ketchup and vinegar, I am told — delicious, especially with the meat), and some fine NC hushpuppies, and in the background some corn fritters.

These last were recommended by my client, and they were terrific, little globs of creamed corn breaded and absolutely perfectly deep fried super crunchy, even past the point where the barbecue was et and they went into their little go-box to head home to tallasiandude. THAT is some quality fry technique.

And of course there was vinegar-pepper sauce and sweet tea. They were out of banana pudding.

I was also tipped off by my client to the fact that supermarkets here sell country ham in vacuum sealed shelf-stable packets. Off to Food Lion I went, and now my luggage is full of salty pork. Here’s the loot.

There’s a few packets of different brands of country ham slices and ends and trimmings, some smoked pork jowls and chunks of side pork (both for flavoring beans and greens and such), 3 meaty country ham bones that are going to become winter melon soup when the weather gets colder, a bag of salt and vinegar pork rinds, some pork chop breading mix and the cutest damn bag of locally ground cornbread mix I have ever seen.

There is also some pimento cheese, liver pudding and blocks of local sausage that I am going to go back for tomorrow on the way to the airport. They’ve also got a huge array of Utz chips, and those good Lay’s Carolina BBQ chips, plus another flavor in that line I’ve not seen before called Cajun Spice or something along those lines, which I really want to get but probably won’t because I can’t carry it home. Ditto for the bottled vinegar barbecue sauce, Yuengling and Shiner Bock. Stupid TSA and their rules that prohibit me traveling with runny foodstuffs.

Oh, and there’s a Biscuitville next door to the hotel. Stopping there too en route to the airport.

They may vote wrong down here but they sure do eat well.

Ninegret oysters from Rhode Island are delightful. Little superbriny nuggets of shellfish flavor. We had some at The Oceanaire last night for Father’s Day.

Ripe mango from the Indian market + queso fresco from the Latin market = delicious breakfast.

I learned something useful today when I put Kosciusko mustard on bread, added some thick slices of cheddar, and stuck the whole thing dry into the toaster oven for a double toasting. And that lesson is that such a sandwich comes out even crispier, and stays crunchy longer, than a sandwich grilled in butter. WIN!

also: Kosciusko mustard is very likely the most delicious mustard on earth. yum.

I just got the cutest damn ice cream cone at Lizzy’s. $1.49 for a dollhouse-sized cone with a golf-ball’s worth of ice cream on top. Absolutely adorable, and just the right amount of ice cream! om nom nom nom, i have already eaten half of it, but ain’t it cute still?

My parents just went on a road trip through PA and NJ and VA visiting old friends, and they brought back some treasures.

Snapper soup from Ponzio’s diner, drizzled with sherry: goopy and brown and savory and delicious, just the way I remember it from childhood. Apparently the diner we used to go to has changed hands and no longer makes the soup, but there’s a vaguely affiliated alternate location elsewhere, so disaster was averted.

Scrapples: Dietz & Watson, Hatfield, Ed Hipp’s (made of turkey not pork), and Habbersett. Habbersett was the traditional one we used to get, but surprisingly we found that to be the blandest and starchiest of the 4. The turkey scrapple was remarkably good, so pork-avoiders should seek out Mr. Hipp’s product and enjoy. I liked the Hatfield and the Dietz & Watson the best, as they were most flavorful. All of these 4 were milder and less liver-rific than others I have eaten, and even the tallasiandude liked these pretty well.

Taylor Pork Roll: Presliced thick or thin and ready to go. Comes in the best retro packaging ever; I really should make the extra effort to get a picture up. Pink and porky and full of nitrates and delicious when fried golden in a pan.

Lebanon bologna & sweet bologna: hard sausages, classic with a sweet or spicy mustard and a cracker. We love a smoky in-your-face Lebanon bologna, but the sweet bologna was a surprise hit.

dill pickle Route 11 chips: DUH.

peanut butter opera fudge balls: apparently a regional favorite. Soft and velvety centers with a slight peanutty flavor, dipped in chocolate. They are downright delicate, almost like the fudge is made with confectioner’s sugar.

souse: head cheese pickled in vinegar. Not bad, soft in texture, lightly spicy, and not too many gnarly bits. Good dipped in dijon mustard, but not especially compelling.

relish from Rutt’s Hut: yellow, smushy, slightly sweet & tangy cabbage-based relish. Spectacular with the Lebanon & sweet bolognas.

At the supermarket the other day, and I mean the mega-Shaw’s where we go to buy our Miracle Whip and M&Ms, I was passing through the salty snack aisle. And lo, I beheld two new potato chip flavors that were NOT BORING — and even more importantly, were not self-importantly, yuppily “exotic.” (I’m looking at you, Kettle Chips.) Obviously they went straight into the cart.

Both were from Lay’s, which is known to have some of the best flavors going in their overseas markets, especially the UK.

One was Carolina Barbecue, with vinegar featured prominently on the illustration. This is one of my favorite all-time flavors from Utz, and though this one isn’t quite as spectacular, it is very good indeed. Tangy and savory and tastes like what it claims to be.

The other was Pepper Relish, which could have been anything, but turned out to be just what you’d hope: a sweet-tangy flavor with strong vegetal notes that taste just like a fresh pepper. I very much appreciate the simplicity of the name, instead of something overly poncy like Artisanal Garden Sweet-Tangolicious Pepper Madness.

I think the Pepper Relish is my favorite, surprisingly enough, but they are both excellent and you should run out and buy some right now, so Lay’s gets the right idea and keeps churning out more like this!

While we were in Chicago, C gave me a li’l box of treasure from Sahagun, the Portland OR chocolatier. I have been sampling it, enjoying a chocolate covered meyer lemon peel (swoon) and a salty peanut bark, but today I went for the bit I’d been saving: Ka-Pow, the not-a-chocolate made from coffee beans plus cocoa butter and sugar.

Dayum.

It’s a little gritty, with the texture of fine coffee grounds, but it’s got the melting loveliness of the cocoa fats, and just the barest hint of sweetness to temper the bitter. And the two tiny squares I ate packed enough of a wallop to get me through both an annoying conference call and the post-carb lag of a spaghetti lunch.

Completely awesome, in both the sensory experience it provides and in the sheer coolness of its concept. Huzzah, and big thanks to C!

Littlelee brought back a few bags of Old Dutch chips from Montreal and we tried them this past weekend. Ketchup, NOM. Bacon, unexpectedly meh. And All Dressed. WTF All Dressed? I still don’t know, after eating them and after googling them, but sweet holy heaven they taste GREAT!
Apparently it’s a common Canadian chip flavor. A little sweet, a little tangy, quite savory. They’re utterly yum, and everything I could want in a chip, including a nice light thin crisp texture. Definitely in the Top Ten Chips Ever list. If you head north, see if you can score some… and bring some back for me.

We have eaten a lot of really great shit here in NYC this week. However, at 1:30am on Saturday night, all I have on my mind are the two simple but mindbendingly delicious pork buns we just ate at Momofuku Noodle Bar. Two slices of melty, fatty, crisp on the edges pork belly, plus a few slices of lightly pickled cucumber, a spray of scallion slices and a wipe of hoisin, all on a soft steamed folded chinese bun. FUCK YEAH.
more to follow, of course.

We both seem to have developed a preference for lychee + liliko’i + li hing mui syrup on the ice, with vanilla ice cream underneath, or mac nut ice cream if it’s available, and azuki beans too if the mood strikes.
Aoki’s on the North Shore of O’ahu is so far the absolute pinnacle of the shave ice arts that we have tried. Holy cow. Absolutely perfect in every way. Superfine ice, really fresh, true-tasting syrups, good quality ice cream. yum yum. Someday when I have a couple of extra hours I am sure I will slog the line at Matsumoto’s next door just to try it, but there’s really no point. I can waltz right up to the counter at Aoki’s and be drowning in yum before any of those poor suckers get through the door at Matsumoto’s.
At Aoki’s we had vanilla ice cream, azuki beans, and liliko’i, lychee and li hing mui syrup. NOM NOM NOM.