Selfish, Selfless, and a Recipe

The food service industry is perhaps the most personal of all artistic outlets. Yes, one can feel connected to actors at a theater performance, go crazy at a rock concert, or even simply be moved by an incredible painting. Yet food is the only medium necessary for survival from a biological view. The "art" a chef creates nourishes on many different levels.
Before a dish is ever ordered, hours of prep work go into it. From sauce making, butchering, chopping, blanching, and even purchasing, good food requires dedication.
Sure, this is all great and the food service industry now sounds like a collective bunch of altruistic artists. But here's the catch, a reasonable cook can make good food, but a successful one can make food others enjoy and come back for. You might be the one in front of the stove, but you're not the one about to eat. You could create the best dish you've ever experienced, but if you're the only one who thinks so, you just made the equivalent of blob of Play Doh in a sculpture gallery. Who cares what you think if it doesn't resonate with anyone else?
There is also the flip side to this. How can you create a dish with integrity if you wouldn't even order it?
The answer is simple: seek out people who would order it and have them taste it. I recently faced this issue with banana sorbet. There are many foods I choose not to eat for personal reasons, but bananas are one of the few foods I flat out refuse to taste. I have never liked them and I am sure I never will, so having me taste a dish with them won't give me an accurate evaluation of the finished dish. So the following is my recipe for banana sorbet. I've been told it's good.

3 C granulated sugar
3.5 C hot water
2 Tbsp creme de banane liqueur
3 C banana puree (about 5 bananas)

Make a simple syrup by heating the water and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat. All of the sugar should dissolve. Allow this to cool to room temperature. Measure 3 cups of simple syrup and combine with the liqueur and puree. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to manufacturer's instructions. Place sorbet in a plastic container and cover the surface of the sorbet with plastic wrap. Allow sorbet to chill in the freezer for at least one hour.

Edo My Sushi!

Restaurant Review: Edo Sushi, New Brunswick, NJ

New Brunswick is a living oxymoron. It's a restaurant city, a college town, and yet driving and parking for the myriad of services offered by these two labels never ceases to be a nightmare. I think that's because road construction never ceases, but that's a whole other post.

A dear friend and I were able to make last minute lunch plans when, lo and behold, our work schedules meshed. The joys of maintaining a social life in this industry... After the holidays, both of us needed a little indulgence, but nothing extravagant. Edo Sushi was the perfect fit.

Edo is a quaint restaurant with enough options to please both sushi lovers and land lubbers. Like all good sushi places, Edo was spotlessly clean. If you ever enter a restaurant, especially one that focuses on serving highly perishable raw product that even hints at being unsanitary, leave immediately.

The menu at Edo is extensive and my friend and I needed some time to decide. Our green tea arrived moments after we ordered it, yet our friendly waitress gladly gave us extra time make our sushi choices. Sadly, the day for our lunch was a cold, rainy day, hardly raw fish weather. Luckily for us, Edo offers traditional udon and ramen noodle bowls. Hot broth and slurp-worthy noodles were made for rainy days!

In fitting with Edo's business lunch crowd focus, diners can choose from a variety of combo specials. A huge bowl of ramen in homemade broth with a spicy tuna roll for $12.95? I'm there!

Unlike other spicy tuna rolls I've had in the past, Edo keeps the tuna in solid pieces rather than mincing it fine before mixing it into the spicy sauce. Not only does this make for a nicer presentation, but the integrity of the fish is maintained. Mincing the fish means that the sushi chef can use scraps from cleaning the tuna, including the less savory bloodline, before mixing into chili mayo. Edo's way demonstrated their commitment to quality sushi.

Both of our soups were served piping hot. The broths were incredibly savory, rich with soy, scallions, and vegetable flavors, yet light.

Glancing around the dining room, my friend and I noticed we were the only people there. Yet Edo does a brisk take out and delivery lunch business. Considering the weather, I can't blame people for not wanting to leave their offices or dorms!

Our meal ended with green tea and red bean ice creams. Yes, it was cold outside. Yes, we started our lunch clutching the cups of green tea, but ice cream is always appropriate. Green tea ice cream is one of my favorite flavors, but the smooth, creamy red bean might be my new flavor of choice. Reminiscent of watermelon freshness and vanilla complexness, the ice cream was a perfect way to end a warming lunch.

After paying our ridiculously economical check, we realized that lunch for two had cost less than half of dinner for one at the nearby The Frog and the Peach. Amazingly, our experience at Edo was just as refreshing as an extravagant dinner.

Happy 2009!

Congrats to anyone else in the restaurant industry - you have survived the first two of the "Big Three" as I refer to them. Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Valentine's Day are all high profit/ high pressure days for anyone who cooks or serves as a way to put bread, beer, or organic quinoa on their own table. If you know someone in this business, please be extra kind to them during this time of the year. Tempers may be short, time is not on our side, but you can return to your regularly scheduled cook or server on February 15th.

As January gets off to a hopeful albeit cold start, it's hard not to reflect on the past year. I've never been a fan of regrets and second guesses usually only lead to mistakes. The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that January is the worst time to start anything. Let's face the facts. If you're living in a place with highly defined seasons in the Northern Hemisphere, most likely, you haven't seen sunlight past 5PM and enjoy rocking the layered look. Do you seriously want to go for a walk after work to burn off that eggnog you drank a month ago? If you have a gym membership, how likely are you to drag yourself out of your cocoon of a bed early to go?

But it's the food this time of the year that really provides downfall. Braised short ribs, thick cut French toast on Christmas morning, cream-based cocktails, hearty soups, the list goes on. And yes, Christmas cookie calories do count even after the new year. There's snow on the ground; I really don't want a salad. Do you have some nice risotto with a side of larger pants, please?

Food this time of the year is hearty, comforting, and most likely traditional. The only problem is, these traditions come from a long ago era. A majority of us are not farmers who go out into their fields 7 days a week and physically need the calories a large meal provides. A majority of us sit at desks in climate controlled offices, yet the primal craving for stew lives on.

So this is where we are. Socially expected to make drastic personality changes overnight, to atone for holiday overeating sins, and to find the time to balance the checkbook, volunteer as an EMT, and write The Great American Novel. I'm not saying it can't be done. Quite the contrary. I just need to start my New Year in May.