Mining The Archives - Deliciousness You Might Have Missed

I'm got some commitments that will keep me from posting as many new recipes as usual for the next couple of weeks. I've been writing Herbivoracious for nearly three years now, and we've got lots of readers that weren't around in the early days. So I thought I'd feature a couple of delicious older posts that you might have missed.

  

Sabich is an Iraqi-Jewish sandwich with grilled eggplant, hardboiled eggs and lots of interesting condiments; if you can't get it at your local Middle Eastern restaurant, you can make it at home.

  

... and if you have a sweet tooth, these atayef (Syrian pancakes, filled with ricotta, deep fried, and soaked in rose water syrup) will knock your socks off.

Portland Pod People - A Food Cart Revolution

I've written previously about how Seattle is experiencing a resurgence of food carts. They have taken our culinary scene by storm, cooking up everything from Korean-Hawaiian tacos to poutine. What I didn't understand until now is that comparing our food cart scene with Portland's is like comparing a takeover of the middle-school student council with the French revolution.

While Seattle has slowly come around to allowing street food vendors under somewhat onerous regulations, Portland has been nurturing this scene for years, with a huge and obvious benefit to civic life. I'm hoping every city in America wakes up and takes notice.

Portland has "pods" or "food courts", collections of anywhere from 2 to 10 carts gathered in parking lots or gravel-paved open spaces, in neighborhoods throughout the city. Some pods cater to downtown office lunchers while others don't open until after dark, offering up fried goodies to soak up booze. One area tempts ironic hipsters looking for grease and tiki lights while others offer fairly standard Thai, Vietnamese or Mexican offerings in a mobile setting, and another is geared to food-savvy, well traveled yupsters. Several even have tented seating areas with benches and heaters.

Any way you look at it, these cart scenes are energetic, vibrant, communal, inexpensive, and just a whole lot of fun. They dispense with all of the normal pomp and circumstance of a restaurant meal, from menu to check and just get right down to the business of serving delicious food. Although we enjoyed several fine restaurant meals in Portland, the evening we spent just bumming around from cart to cart, snacking on whatever sounded good and chatting with the proprietors was easily my favorite night of dining.

Almost every cart has serious vegetarian and vegan options. It is Portland, after all.

A few of my favorite bites: the orange-zest scented croquettes at Mono Malo Tapas, black bean and pickled cabbage arepas at Fuego de Lotus (top), and the superbly flaky empanada-like BBQ tofu savory pie at Whiffies Fried Pies (above).

For more information and a nearly definitive guide to this ever-changing scene, check out Food Carts Portland.

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Things That Go Crunch In The Night - Making Your Food Pop, Part 4

Two cans of Pringles later, my studio was in ruins

"Crunch is so universally appreciated that whenever I finish a recipe, I ask myself, 'Is there any way to add a little more crunch?' Often it makes the difference between a dish that is merely good and one that is miraculous. In short, if in doubt, crunch it." - Chef Michel Richard, Happy in the Kitchen

Read the Series

1. Salt
2. Acid
3. Fat
4. Crunch
5. A Telling Failure

I couldn't agree more with Chef Richard. Properly crispy latkes, the well-browned cheese atop lasagna, a simple but crispy corn quesadilla, or good homemade breadcrumbs on a rich gratin are great favorites of mine.

And in contrast to those dry, shattering crunchy bits, there is the refreshing crunch of fresh vegetable garnishes, like the carrot, daikon and onion in this Vietnamese bun, or the kohlrabi slaw adorning roasted potato and asparagus tacos.

Pretty much everyone loves crispiness, whether it is the timid addition of crackers to soup, the all encompassing chomp through a bowl of granola, the balanced crisp and soft of French fries, or the shockingly irreversible shatter of crème brûlée.

But why? Why do we love the crunch?

Chef Richard's answer is that our caveperson ancestors came to associate it with food that has been cooked, rendering it more nutritious (don't freak out, raw foodies, I'm just paraphrasing him), and delicious due to the Maillard reactions. That might be part of it, but I've got some other theories to offer as well.

I asked this question on the new Herbivoracious fan page on Facebook (which I hope you will join right away), and got some interesting answers. One reader (Anne) perceptively suggested that it is because crispy is so often tightly associated with the goodness of deep fried fat and salt.

Others (Amy, and my old friend Dan) pointed out the importance of contrast. Crispy is good. Crispy and soft in the same dish or same bite can be transporting.

Then there is the sound. I think we enjoy eating most when it speaks to all of our senses. The sound of crunch travels right through our jawbones to our ears, adding an electrifying dimension to the experience.

Finally, there is the simple thrill of physically breaking through. The crispy crust first resists your teeth, then yields with a satisfying snap. Your jaw muscles actually work hard to render the food ready to swallow and digest. Crunchy food requires you to actually engage with the eating experience, not passively consume.

So let's not be careful out there, people. Let's thrown caution to the wind, and run that dish under the broiler, finish it with breadcrumbs or sesame seeds. Let's add a cracker or a chip, a tuille or croquant. Let's top it with cucumbers or radishes or thin rings of green onion. Let's make a little noise!