That’s what you’ll be imploring when you try “A Spicy Bowl of Peas.”
This simple dish is from “Quick-Fix Indian” (Andrews McMeel) by Bay Area cookbook author, Ruta Kahate.
It’s just a brothy bowl of peas, steeped in mustard seeds, turmeric and cayenne for a kicky hit of exoticism and heat.
Imagine the rolling carts and trays of Chinese dim sum. But instead of small dishes of chicken feet and traditional steamed dumplings, you have have the likes of smoked duck fingerling potato salad, ricotta pancakes with sauerkraut, and green garlic bread with burrata.
That’s the concept of the very inventive State Bird Provisions, steps away from San Francisco’s Japantown.
Husband-and-wife chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski got the idea for this after catering private events upon their departure from their posts as head chef and pastry chef, respectively, at San Francisco’s Rubicon, after that landmark restaurant shuttered. They realized that diners these days like to graze, rather than always commit to the usual appetizer, entree and dessert. And they noticed that when a new dish is paraded in front of folks, they just have to have at it once they see it.
With summer just around the corner, it’s time to kick back with a refreshing pitcher of iced tea.
Tazo makes that even easier now with its new line of Iced Tea Filterbags.
These aren’t mere bags, but large sachets of tea leaves, to better brew a large pitcher without diluting its flavor.
Recently, I had a chance to try samples of the three new flavors: Iced Black Tea (a strong pick-me-up), Iced Green Tea (with the lilt of spearmint, lemongrass and lemon verbena), and Iced Passion Tea (with notes of hibiscus, mango and passion fruit).
The generously sized sachet is easy to use. Just drop one in hot water and let steep for about five minutes. I sipped the iced black tea on a weekday afternoon when I needed that extra hit of caffeine. Even over ice, the flavor wasn’t watered down whatsoever.
A box of six tea sachets is $4.95. Find them at Starbucks stores or other grocery stores. The Portland, Ore. company is a division of Starbucks.
Contest: One lucky Food Gal reader will win a sample box of each of the three new Tazo Iced Tea Filterbags. You’ll also get a pretty glass pitcher (pictured above) to serve it in once your tea has cooled down enough to transfer it to that vessel.
Entries, limited to those in the continental United States, will be accepted through midnight PST June 2. Winner will be announced June 4.
How to win?
If you missed the Food Gal’s most recent appearance at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco last Saturday with Brazilian food entrepreneur Monika Batista, you missed a delightful, delectable time.
But don’t despair.
Thanks to to Macy’s regulars, Barry and Evan Jan, here are photos they took that captured the afternoon’s cooking demo, as Batista showed how to make the Brazilian cheesy snack bread known as pao de quejo.
Gluten-free, they are made from yuca root flour.
I remember the times of peeking into the refrigerator at home to find a big jellyroll pan laid out from one end to the other with marinating chicken.
And feeling the excitement of the dinner to come that night.
I remember how those plump drumsticks were arranged in two neat rows down the length of the pan.
I remember their terracotta color.
And the aroma of savoriness and something a little mysterious in the mix.
I remember waiting for my Mom to roast them in a hot oven until their color deepened and their skin crisped.
I’d pick up a drumstick with my fingers, the reddish sauce staining them deliciously as I took a big bite of joy.
As a kid, I never really knew what made this chicken so distinctive. All I knew was that it was something that came from a screw-top jar from Chinatown. And that my Mom referred to this dish as “fu-yee chicken.”
Thanks to my friend and most talented cookbook writer, Andrea Nguyen, I now know exactly what goes into the marinade that gives it such color and taste.
It’s tofu. Yes, cubes of soybean curd, but ones that have been allowed to age and ferment in a brine of red yeast rice or red wine, rice wine and water. It turns the tofu red and creamy with a flavor that’s salty, a little sweet, really savory, sort of musky and a tad funky.
Not that funky is a bad thing. After all, it’s what makes anchovies and runny cheeses so wonderful.
Like them, red fermented tofu may be a taste sensation that has to grow on you. It might seem strong and strange the first time, but the more you eat of it, the more you want.