RaffyJohn.com Rocks In My Head

One of the things I hate most about ordering chinese food is the plethora of plastic utensils, napkins and soy sauce and mustard packs they give you. What do I need with eight knives, five forks and one spoon? It is as if I’ve ordered for a family of ten.

It is not so much that the waste bothers me, but plastic knives and forks are worthless and ineffective. I’m at home, I have plenty of utensils.

Well, I made my first online order through GubHub.com today and to my surprise there was an option to request that no plasticware be added to my order.

Thank you.

Ok. I just had one of the worst sandwiches in my entire life.

How hard is it to fuck up a chicken sandwich?

Who uses a quarter of a giant loaf of King’s Hawaiian Bread as sandwich bread?

$10!

Why do I buy sandwiches so often? They are the easiest thing in the world to make.

No. It is not just about plopping down some meat and condiments! Lettuce is more important than you think.

San Francisco sour is such the perfect everyday bread. It is almost too easy.

Cold-cuts should not be wet and slimy. Chicken meat should not be spongy.

Lettuce should compliment and add to the sandwich. With romaine, for example, cut the rib out. It’s just to watery. Shredding is ok, but it still dilutes the sandwich.

Pretty much all lettuce is fair game. Rocket is flavorful, thin and light so pile it on, maybe with some butter lettuce and romaine.

I’m simple. I like a little mayo and either some Dijon or English mustard. Mayo on top, mustard down below.

Cheese. Dublin cheddar.

I also make up a bottle of lemon vinaigrette to splash over the meat. (Olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning)

A Simple Turkey Sandwich

I am a muesli junkie and by far my two favorite “boxed” mueslis are Jordans Special Muesli and Alpen original.

So many mueslis I have tried are not toasted correctly, or not at all. They lack that right balance of oats, barley, wheat, almonds and fruits. Both Jordans and Alpen, while different, get it just right for their own blend.

I can’t find Jordans here in the States, but Alpen is available at a few grocers here.

Food is precious. Life is precious. So I applaud Jamie Oliver’s recent televised “gala dinner” where he slaughtered a chicken in front of his guests “to awaken British consumers to the high costs of cheap chicken” (nytimes article). Food should be respected and we need to be more connected to it.

The standards for food, living animals that we consume, is appalling. How cheap do we need our food to be? Really!?! There is a point where food no longer is food. I often come across foods I can’t even identify.

I’d love to walk into Dominicks (grocery chain here in Chicago) one day and see the enormous 20ft x 4ft freezers, overflowing with frozen chickens, pre-seasoned pork, unidentifiable meats, removed. Who is eating all this stuff anyway? The food industry is set up to burn through an animals life cycle as fast as possible.

Forget for the animals sake, be selfish, think of the health factors. How many processes do we want our food to go through before it gets to our table? If we do not respect our food, we will continue our endless battles against preventable diseases.

Don’t get me started on Trader Joes…

The one thing I could always count on growing up was rice pilaf. Holidays. Thanksgiving. Family parties. There was always huge patches of this family staple ready to be devoured. I’d pile this dish onto my plate and throw a few cheese boeregs on top and I would be set.

My friends got through college living on Ramen. Me? Rice Pilaf.

Hope you like butter… here we go.

The Ingredients
1 1/4 Cup Long Grain White Basmati Rice
1/2 Cup Vermicelli Noodle, Chopped (No yolk Kluski European Noodles)
2 1/2 Cup Chicken Stock
2 Tablespoon Clarified Butter
4 Tablespoon Cubed Butter
1 Teaspoon Salt
Pepper

The How-To
Add 2 Tbsp. clarified butter and the 1/2 cup Vermacelli Noodle to a medium saucepan and put on medium heat.

Continually mix with a wooden spoon until the noodles are a nice brown - about 5 minutes.

Add the 1 1/4 cup rice and cook and mix for 6 minutes.

Add the 2 1/2 cup chicken broth, 4 Tbsp. butter and 1 tspn. salt.

Mix for about a minute.

Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until broth has been absorbed/evaporated.

Taste.

Not done? Add more broth, 1/4 cup at a time until done.

Taste. Done. Good. Eat.

Chef’s Notes
If you can, buy No Yolks Kluski European Noodles. My grandmother would curse another choice so I do the same.

Try it with some lemon juice or a lemon-olive oil vinaigrette and some chopped parsley. Don’t be shy.

Seriously. Give it a shot. It’s fantastic.

If I had a food blog award to give away, it would go to SushiDay.com… hands down.

photo stolen from: http://sushiday.com/archives/2006/11/09/firecracker-roll/

Chef Allison makes some of the most beautiful rolls I have ever seen. I too am just amazed at her creative feat… Such clever rolls, combos that make my mouth water.

I mean come on, Halo 3 Sushi! That’s just awesome!

Apart from the rolls the blog is a pleasure to navigate through. Directions are easy to follow and there is a ton of learning that can be had on the site. All around a great site.