nickdemaster

So,  with the arrival of summer, I decided that it was time to shed some off the insulation I picked up during the cold New England winter and get into beach body condition!  But that kind of put the kibosh on the whole eating whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.  What a drag, right?   This sort of cycle happens every year after I emerge from the winter – pale and fat (and happy).  After throwing up in my mouth a little bit when I look in the mirror, I decide that it is time to get back into peak performance shape.  And the way I go about projects is not halfway – I’m either all the way in or all out.  So I jumped in with a pretty extreme (to me) diet change.

I will detail my diet now… ready?

• egg white omelette
• bananas
• chicken breast
• bananas
• salad
• bananas
• coconut water
• bananas

I have a slight obsession with food trucks.  I think the reason is that I really like and can appreciate the specialized food fare that a truck brings.  Food trucks sell (generally I suppose) one kind of item, or one idea as their primary food.  Roxy’s Grilled Cheese truck sells what – sub sandwhiches?  No, of course not.  They sell grilled cheese.  And that’s what they do.  And that is pretty much ALL they do for their main entrées (except for their side orders).  What does the Cupcakory  sell? Cupcakes.  Grill em all truck? burgers.  And on and on.  Food trucks do one thing and do that thing well.

Even in restaurant eating, I am a fan of going to restaurants that have a “thing” that they excel at.  If I go to Smokin Joe’s for ribs, I am not going to get a burger – no matter how much I want a burger.  If I wanted a burger, I’d go to Bartley’s Burger Cottage because, well, they serve burgers.  Likewise, I am not going to get a chicken sandwich at Bartley’s because, duh, they serve good old fashioned, hand packed cow meat – not chicken.  If I wanted a chicken sandwich, I’d go to chick-fil-a.   I don’t get a steak anywhere but a steakhouse, I don’t normally order seafood from a non-seafood restaurant, and I don’t get ice cream from a shoe shop.   Long list of examples aside, when you go somewhere, you order what they are known for.  This is why I like food trucks.

I like food trucks so much that I took a trip to LA to basically eat around the food truck scene.  Seriously.  That was the only reason I went.  And I think I would call it a success. Over the course of the weekend, I only ate three sit down restaurants – a tapas restaurant for which my friend had purchased a groupon, a trendy breakfast spot that was recommended highly by another friend, and an oceanside breakfast spot on our last morning on the way to the airport.  Many food trucks were frequented.  There was even a food truck meetup at a go kart track – with the food trucks on the track selling (not racing, though that might have been awesome too).

My first food truck in LA was on the way to somewhere awesome (I had already been to LA, so I wasn’t really into the whole sightseeing thing, so I just drove but can’t really remember where I was driving to).  This was just after eating breakfast at the Alcove (i think) and we were fairly happy about the food we had just eaten.  So we weren’t necessarily hungry but I felt we had to stop.  It was a little Mexican food truck, serving breakfast/lunch to the construction workers near a site.  The truck was no where near any other shops, just stopped by the side of the road to serve.  So, I stopped and we got two tacos from the truck.  No joke, it was exactly what I wanted and what I thought it would be.  Probably the best taco I had ever had.  Honestly, the presentation was nothing special, it was just a taco.  But the ingredients were fresh, the meat freshly cooked right in the truck by what I am sure was someone’s grandmother/mother with her own recipe.  It had nice form – wasn’t spilling over the small tortilla , had a salsa to die for, and a ridiculously good guacamole.   Each bite was the perfect balance of savory, sweet, tangy, soft, and crunchy – without being soggy, too overpowering, or a hassle to eat.  It was a perfect bite.  Every time.  This really got me excited about food trucks.  It validated my trip to LA in a single small taco.  And it showed that fresh ingredients, paired with a skilled cook, in a great location  was the best recipe for mobile truck success.

A second food truck comes to mind when thinking about fresh ingredients and location:  The Gastrobus.  I found them on twitter while looking for a breakfast food truck.  It said they were going to be at a farmer’s market in the area, so we went to check it out.  The farmers market was also super cool – all locally grown ingredients, the whole market was organically certified, and the people were friendly.  The strawberries tasted more strawberrily than any other strawberries I had had.  So the ingredients were fresh for sure.  The Gastrobus sources their ingredients from the market they setup shop at.  So whatever was there, they cooked with.  I found that quite amazing – not only was their food organic, it was as fresh as it comes.  They totally took advantage of the fresh ingredients and I, for one, was a fan.  That morning, we got this amazing leek, fennel tartine and a mushroom omelette.  Again, some of the freshest food I had ever eaten.  You can tell when ingredients are fresh, and these certainly were.

We frequented many more food trucks that weekend – nomnom truck (bahn mi), grill em all truck (burgers), mandoline grill (vietnamese) come back to mind… all were excellent in their own right, in their own cuisine.   I would probably go back to do a second tour.  Actually, not just probably, I will.

I think I would like to open up a food truck one day – but I am not sure what it would be.  I think I make pretty good hearty proteins (steak, pork tenderloin, chicken) but those don’t readily lend themselves to a mobile environment.  You not only need a food, you need a concept.  Roxy’s makes sense because they don’t just do a traditional grilled cheese, they also are creative in their selections.  Rotating menus weekly, adjusting to feedback and fan favorites.  So you need, not only a beginning idea, but one that allows for future expansion and creativity.  I think I would do sous-vide sandwiches.  That sounds fun.  Right?

Everyone has that food dish – whether fast food, restaurant, homemade, or self made – that if eaten with an objective palette would be would be considered nothing special at best.  However, if eaten with YOUR palette, it brings you back to a time or a place like nothing else can… in a good way.  Brain food.

For me, it has got to be pizza.  My favorite pizza places are Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, and Santarpios.

My first memory of Little Caesars pizza is actually was during elementary school for what was called “Hot Lunch”.   Hot lunch happened one day each week; pizza happened once a month.  The details are fuzzy, but what I do remember was taking my hot lunch money to the gym, lining up and getting a slice sausage pizza on a paper plate, walking back to the classroom trying not to eat it right away, and waiting for my chocolate milk to arrive from my classmates who were on milk duty (that milk cooler always smelled funny by the way). It was a simple meal, but it was special.  It wasn’t my daily packed lunch of PB and J or ham and cheese with an apple.  It was pizza.  And nothing was cooler than pizza when you’re a 7 year old kid who just wants to eat pizza for lunch.

At any rate, the thing that really strikes me is that Little Caesars pizza isn’t what you call “quality” pizza.  I am sure there are many other pizza chains that do much better in the taste, texture, and temperature category than LC.  None though really bring back memories quite like Little Caesars.

Recently, I joined a group of like-minded people who are looking for the holy grail in bar pizza – meaning, a bar that serves really good pizza, where the pizza is main item on the menu, maybe even making up the only item on the menu, the divier the bar, the better.  Our measuring stick is a place in East Boston called Santarpios Pizza.  This place is just great.  You walk in, and there is a bar to your immediate right, table seating is available. But more importantly is what is to you immediate immediate right – a charcoal grill.  On this grill are sausages and lamb kabobs.  And that’s it.  Pizza, kabobs, and sausages.  What makes this even more awesome is the house wines that are served out of the WUNDER BAR SODA DISPENSER GUN.  Classy.  Santarpios has been around since 1903 and there is a reason for that – the pizza and the atmosphere.

My first experience set the bar for me for what bar pizza should be.  There are few meals that are more satisfying to me than sitting down in a bar with a beer, good company, and good food.  This first time hit all the right notes.  It was after helping a friend move, after I was pretty much just exhausted and needed some rest, and I was HUNGRY.  We went to Santarpios because my friend was a Santarpios faithful and we sat down, grabbed a beer, ordered a pizza and a combo and that was it. No over complicated menu, no deciding on the chicken or the veal. Just pizza and kabobs.   The first thing that we got were the combos and they were everything I expected – chargrilled kabobs and sausage never fails to make me happy… ever.  As if that couldn’t be better, the pizza came out on a big silver platter, right when I was finishing the kabob and looking for my next bite.  The pizza, as I recall, was crispy, sweet, and creamy.  It wasn’t heavy, it wasn’t labored, it was simply a pizza.  Thin crust, tomato sauce, and cheese.  It was simple.  And that was the best part of it.   Sometimes, simplicity is the key to a good meal, and in this case I thought it was.  To me, santarpios isn’t the best pizza I’ve had (that distinction goes to a place I went to in Racine, WI once as a kid).  It isn’t even the most sentimental  (that is Little Caesars).  But what it was was exactly what I needed at that specific point in time.  I have made an association that Santarpios equals satisfaction and fulfillment.  Few meals can really get that distinction because it’s not all about the food – it’s also about the situation.  Every time I go back to Santarpios, it’s still the simple bar with pizza but it’s so much more.

It’s brain food.

Please comment – I’d love to hear stories about what your brain made food is and the story behind it.  What satisfies your belly?

I like to eat steak.

Being from the midwest and growing up on a dairy farm, every meal was centered around a piece of meat and probably potatoes.  Family dinner was a time we gathered around the table at 5:00PM every night, before the cows were to be milked and after daily chores were finished, to eat whatever meat-centered meal that was put out.  The thing that I loved most though was the steak.

About once every year, we would come across a young cow that could no longer be milked or bred back for whatever cow reasons.  It was at this time we would load young Bessie into a trailer, drive to the butcher, and drop off the cow.  A couple days later, we would pick her up wrapped in white butcher paper, packed neatly in a number of cardboard boxes.  Fresh steaks, hamburger, stew meats, and the like would all get unloaded into the basement chest freezer where, whenever we needed a cut of beef, one of the kids was sent  to retrieve the cut requested.  As such, my exposure to good, fresh steak started from a very young age.

I won’t lie;  I’m a natural on the grill with a steak.  I have been ever since I got sick of overdone steak and realized I could control my own meal by grilling the meat myself.  It wasn’t a rare occurrence to, after a long day of athletic activities, farming chores, and chasing cows, find me with two t-bone steaks on the grill  - both for me.  I developed a voracious appetite for red meat that is rarely satiated.

With that in mind, this year I set out to perfect my steak technique.  There are a couple well known ways to cook a steak – open grill (0ver gas or charcoal), on a grill top or skillet, or in the oven or broiler; and one not so well known way – sous vide.  With the exception of sous vide, the concept for cooking a steak is the same – hot surface temperature, sear the outside, let cook on either side for a period of time, flip, rinse and repeat as necessary to appropriate doneness.  I actually moved this past year from preferring the outdoor grill to the indoor skillet pan (on Power Burner, coated with butter, cooked to rare or maybe even under-rare).  That may surprise people, but I feel like I get less fat loss, more consistent results, and the most important thing – better flavor.  Over a grill, you generally get a nice crust but I feel like I lose a lot of moisture during the sear, though I do love the smokey flavor every once in a while.  With the skillet, you get what I think is a richer steak flavor, with equally good sear.  I generally don’t broil my steak unless I get in trouble from the person I’m cooking when I cook it to my non-doneness; although before I discovered the grill pan, it was a reliable way to get steaks in the middle of winter without sacrificing feeling in my extremities while grilling.

And then I discovered sous vide.

I watch a lot of food network and top chef, so I often dream about having my own little culinary laboratory, well stocked pantry, fun ingredients, and canister of liquid nitrogen.  The sous vide technique is not new, is not necessarily advanced, and is not the most accessible for those who want to execute to the precision they see on tv without dropping a couple bills to get a rig.

Sous vide is a method of cooking that, according to wikipedia, is: “a method of cooking food sealed in airtight plastic bags in a water bath for a long time—72 hours is not unusual—at an accurately determined temperature much lower than normally used for cooking, typically around 60 °C or 140 °F. The intention is to maintain the integrity of ingredients.”  The things you need are:

• Water bath
• Vacuum sealed food product
• Constant temperature of said water bath
• Time

After doing a couple minutes of research for temperature needed to properly cook a steak sous-vide style, I commenced with my first setup.  That setup consisted of a large pot of water over half a burner on my stove with a food thermometer submerged into the pot of water.  Needless to say, it was not the most elegant solution, however it did do the job.  The butcher shop I go to has a chamber vacuum sealer, so I am able to get my steaks individually vacuum packed (necessary for sous vide as the word sous vide literally translates to “under pressure” in French).  I kept the water within 1 degree either way of 130 degrees (which was what I read for medium rare steak) and after 2.5 hours, I had a steak which was what I hoped was medium rare brought up to temperature all the way through.  I spread some soft butter on it and after a quick sear on both sides (just enough to get the crust – about 1 minute each side), I had a medium rare steak that was juicy, tender, and close to perfect.  What I usually had to deal with while enjoying my steak, that overcooked outer edge of gray meat that just happens while you try to get the center up to desired doneness was completely gone.  What I had was a very thin edge of crust with medium rare steak almost from edge to edge.  This was the way to make steaks I decided.

The next step was to perfect my rig.  Obviously, the pot on the stove half over the burner was not the way to consistently get the results I wanted so I went to design my own system.  I decided to MacGyver my sous vide rig because a “semi-pro” setup like the Sous Vide Supreme can run a couple hundred dollars.  With the idea of not spending a lot of money with a lot of food value return, I went to Target.  I needed three things – something to heat the water on a hopefully constant temperature without much fiddling, a way to circulate the water to eliminate hot spots, and a way to measure the water temperature.  I picked up a $15 digital thermometer with an extension wire so I could submerge in the center of the water without actually putting the whole device under water.  Next, I found a good 18qt turkey roaster/slow cooker ($40) with a dial that went all the way from 0-400 degrees.  Two out of three.  Next, I needed a way to circulate water.  The first thing that came to mind a fish aquarium pump.  Stopping by Petco, I picked up a small tank circulator that advertised up to 120Gal/Hr.  That would do the trick.  How much you say?  $18 dollars.  Score.  All said and done, the rig cost $73.  I called it a success and went to the butcher to pick up my ribeyes.  Why ribeyes?  Well, I do prefer the richness and flavor of the ribeye over most other cuts.  But that is another post for another time.

After picking up my ribeyes in their neat vacuum sealed packages, I headed home, unpacked my gear, and went to work.  I filled the roaster up with water, controlling the initial temp of just under 125 degrees.  Once full, I dropped the pump into the roaster on one edge of the tank and watched as my water went into the pump and out the water exit, thus achieving circulation.

The only thing left was to bring the water up to actual temp and then drop in my steaks.  I got some advice from an actual chef about temp and so I kept it right at 126/127 degrees.  This method is not completely accurate to points of degrees, but it is really good at keeping within 1 degree of desired.  The thermometer also had a little alarm to tell me if I went above a certain degree.  I kept that alert at 127 degrees, put my steaks in the water, and walked away.  Two and a half hours later, I had my steak, seared it on hot hot skillet, and went to town.  Again, perfectly medium rare from edge to edge with a good crust and great flavor.  I paired it with a roasted garlic basil butter, some salt and pepper, and nothing else.  I prefer my steak without sauce and with some sort of butter.

I’ve done this a couple times now and each time is a pretty repeatable process yielding consistent results.  I have also used the same method to prepare short ribs as well, though I think I prefer a good braised short rib over the sous vide short rib.  The best part about this method of cooking is the simplicity, the consistency, and quality of the end product.  I think that everyone should at least try a sous vide steak.  It will change your world.  And now that I am hungry,  Steak anyone?

When I think of grilled cheese, my mind always wanders back to my childhood. Eating grilled cheese and tomato soup, fresh off the griddle and onto my plate. My mother always made it with Valveeta cheese and it always was the best thing ever.

My love for grilled cheeses has not waned with the years, but I have learned that grilled cheeses can incorporate not only the melty goodness of processed American, but also all sorts of other types – Swiss, pepper jack, Gouda, (obviously cheddar), mozzarella, and so on. Add to the basic cheese configuration things like basil, tomato, bacon and the sandwich’s game is elevated from just an after sledding snack to quite possibly a full meal of cheesy goodness.

It was with this love of cheese sammies that I tackled the newest grilled cheese food truck on the circuit – Roxy’s Grilled Cheese Truck. Now, I love food trucks. Everything about them gets my food juices going. The combination of both a simple meal with the mobility and speciality that a food truck conveys, and I was sold. The problem was, I wasn’t the only one and on the first night they opened, they had sold out by the time I got there.  I don’t know how complicated it is to keep a stock of bread and cheese but apparently it is harder than I think. I promised to return the next night to try the truck, only this time earlier.

The next night, I got there as they were opening and they had not sold out yet, which was a good sign. I looked at the menu and they had a selection of 4 grilled cheese varieties ranging from the basic to the homey to the exotic. I ordered all 4 and split them with my co-eater; what other way to really get the feel of what this truck was all about than to try all their wares.

One interesting thing to note was that they actually use mayo instead of butter to grill up their sandwiches – this was in itself a revelation and I thought only good things could come from a crew that didn’t skimp on the fat in order to bring the best flavor and texture as possible. This technique was amazing in actual practice and made for great grilled bread. As for the sandwiches…

The first sandwich up was the “rookie”. This was a standard grilled cheese with cheddar, tomato, and stone ground mustard. The first bite I had, I would love to say blew me away and I couldn’t stop eating but it was completely underwhelming. The bite was bland, with only a hint of the cheddar, a mushy tomato, and an overpowering mustard. I would say I have made better cheeses at home. Oh, it needed salt (this was an unfortunate theme of the night).

The second sandwich was the one I was most excited about. The “Mac n cheese” grilled cheese. What I thought when I saw this was, “a grilled cheese with what? More cheese? That’s like double cheesy goodness.” I took the first bite and was immediately let down – maybe I just have these high expectations and fantasies for these sandwiches because I was very quickly being disappointed. The things that plagued this sandwich were the blandness, mushiness, and to be honest (if you can believe it) the lack of cheesiness. They had grilled onions which were not fully grilled, which completely ruined whatever they were trying to do with that. It was, at times, not unlike biting into a raw onion. I was let down again by the lack of salt, lack of texture, and lack of flavor. This night was not turning out well. Oh I forgot, there was apparently supposed to be chorizo on this sandwich. I forgot because I think they forgot as well. I did not get any chorizo in the whole sandwich.

The third sandwich was the “green muenster”, clever being from Boston and all. This one had muenster (obviously), guacamole (the green), and bacon. Now this one had what I was looking for – a good cheesy sandwich with contrasting texture (the bacon), though it almost got to the too mushy with the guacamole. It was actually a very satisfying bite, though I don’t know if that was because the previous two were just that bad or because – let’s be honest, bacon makes everything better. The salt was there but not too much, the cheese worked well with the guacamole, and it was just solid sandwich. Things were looking up.

The fourth and final sandwich was the “kona”. It involved smoked gouda, ham, and pineapple. This one I had little expectations for since I don’t actually like pineapple all that much. But taking that bite, I got a really great smoky flavor. And that was about it. I didn’t get much ham flavor, or even pineapple. Sad right? Maybe, but at this point I was so unsurprised by the lackluster showing I just ate it. Right at end of the sandwich I got some pineapple and I actually welcomed the sweet profile it brought to the table. I don’t know what that says for the sandwich, but I’m sure it’s not good.

As a side, I got beer battered onion rings with peppered ketchup, which were quite good. Though it was no consolation for what they said they were bringing on their twitter – pepper jack tater bombs (what?! Yah.).  And with every sandwich, you got a “shot” of tomato soup.  This was again in theory exciting, but in practice a dud.  The soup came out luke warm, was lacking salt (surprise), and I actually found a part of a plastic tie as I was downing the cold soup.  Even chives on top could not save the soup at that point.

For the non-food related portion of the food truck review, the location was great (by a couple bars – I can see them just killing it on a weekend after bars close and in the summer), the service great for only the second night open, and the only thing detracting from this piece was the lack of seating and napkins. I suggest getting 5 gallon buckets for people to sit on. That worked well when I ate at a food truck in Vegas. Also, being dark, I could not take very good pictures of the food, though I don’t blame them for that as much as I blame winter and street lamps.

I will close this review with the text I sent immediately after to a fellow eater – “Not bad… Not completely crazy good though… There were bright spots and bland spots.. I thought a lot of things could have actually used salt.”

Their menu will be constantly changing and I look forward to trying everything they create, but I will go in next time with tempered expectations.