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random encounter with Coup de Taco (Philly food truck)

So there I was, walking home after having stayed at work until the place closed at midnight, when I encountered Coup de Taco, one of the city’s reknowned traveling food trucks.

Well, I hadn’t eaten in nine hours or so, and it was a bit late to start cooking (plus the depression from having two close midterm elections not turn out the way I’d hoped), so tacos sounded like a grand plan.

I parted with $6 for two tacos, and a told the guy to pick whatever was exciting or they still had a lot left over from the day.

While I was waitinng for my order, I saw a regular come by to order, and I overheard them warning him that with his peanut allergy he shouldn’t order the thai taco. I was impressed by that.

My order did include the thai taco and a cuban one.

I ate the cuban taco first, and I liked it so much that I stopped halfway through lest the thai one not be as good. The cuban one was similar to dinners I’ve made in the past – soft rice, several kinds of beans (at least small black beans and garbanzos, but there might have been another kind what with it being dark at midnight and all), a little bit of tomatoey goodness to cook in – but crunchy with small pieces of chips. Very tasty.

But the thai taco was even better. Fragrant fluffy rice was beside chicken cooked, not in the easy bought thai curry paste I expected, but in fresh seasonings with a mild hint of sweet and chili. And fresh herbs! There was at least a full sprig of crisp cilantro (still very fresh for it being midnight) and I suspect that if I’d dissected my taco there’d have been another herb there as well (a mild basil?).

So what were they doing there at midnight? I asked. Apparently, the colder weather had led to slow lunch sales, so they are going to try late night sales for a bit near bars closing for the night.

Setting the bar low

So I’ve been thinking about how I’ve been having trouble finding time to post lately. And by lately, I mean an embarrassingly long time.

Then I read this open letter to food bloggers.

And I thought, you know – this not posting probably has an upside. I could offer things, and everyone could win.

So comment on this post letting me know what you can’t/won’t eat or colors you like and hate or something quirky about yourself (and then I’ll drop you an email for a mailing address – don’t put that on the publicly viewable side unless you really do that regularly), and I shall send you something I’ve made. It might be food. It might be paper arts. It might be a rock. It might be some random tea from my cupboard. Who knows? But everybody wins.

That’s the plan at least. I’m guessing that even if I spread this around a bit, there still won’t be more that 20 things to make and send. I’ll definitely do the first 20. If there’s more response, I’ll do my best.

ETA (15 Dec 2010): All packages have been sent out, but feel free to still stop by and leave a comment.

Chickpeas with Browned Butter and Thai Basil

Even though it’s still a time of bountiful farmers’ markets, I’ve been shopping shopping from my pantry in an effort to save money.

Now I’ve always claimed that I could hold of a siege army for 2 months with careful use of my pantry, but even I am impressed with my food budget for this month:

personal food: $146.26
social food: $210.13

I’m defining personal food as groceries and dining out alone and personal food as dining with other people and groceries bought explicitly for food I share with other people.

That’s just extraordinary. We’ll see how well that holds out.

So, I cobbled together something delicious today – a co-worker had brought in massive quantities of thai basil from her garden and all the rest was from my pantry.

Chickpeas with browned butter and thai basil

So I’ve never made a browned butter sauce before, so I looked in my fridge and decided that the ghee was going to waste and was just like butter. So I scooped out some of that, melted it on medium heat, and waited for it to brown. Which it didn’t because the whole reason it’s clarified is so it’ll have a higher cooking temperature.

Right, so I tipped some of it out (I didn’t measure the ghee going in or coming out – it had been slightly more than the minimum to complete cover the bottom of a twelve inch skillet) and replaced that with 3 Tablespoons of butter. It started browning almost immediately and was a lovely sauce base in a minute or so.

I sprinkled in some asafoetida to fry, and then I also sprinkled in some galangal.

To this tasty brown butter I added 1 yellow onion, sliced radially to a medium thickness.

Once the onions had fried enough to be soft, I added chickpeas (drained from a can). I stirred them about and let them cook for about 5 minutes while I stripped the leaves from the basil plant, stacked them, and then sliced roughly through the stack about 4 times. I also grated the zest of one lemon with the leaves.

Once I figured the chickpeas were as soft and cooked as I wanted them, poured in 1 teaspoon of fish sauce (I happened to be using Phu Quoc fish sauce) to give it some saltiness. Just a few stirs, and then I tossed in the leaves and zest.

I’d been planning to also squeeze the lemon’s juice into the dish, but the zest made it lemony enough. So once the leaves had become bright and wilted, I splashed in about an eighth of a cup of apple cider vinegar. I let it cook just until it quit smelling so strongly of vinegar, and then I dished it up.

Knives

Confession time: I use terrible knives, and I love them.

I have one proper chef’s knife, which was a gift from a friend. And I will confess that there are some things where that knife will work and nothing else will – peeling winter squash. And… No, that’s the only thing I’ve found so far.

In moderate knives, I also have three different lengths of the standard CutCo serrated knife. I use these on big things. And occasionally to cut fresh meat.

For all other purposes, I use crappy steak knives from K-Mart. They’re awesome. They stay sharp enough for about three years, they don’t lose quality when chucked in a drawer, and it’s like $5 for four of them (note: my memory is not good enough to confirm that the brand linked was the same brand I bought).

And I’ve been putting off this post because it requires talking smack about Target, but since they’ve pissed me off this week, you’re in luck. After I had several years’ worth of joy out of the first set, I tried going to replace them at Target. But their crappy steak knives rust.

So how well do they work?

Great. You know what they’re really good at? Smooth, thin slices of tomato. I know. But the micro-serrations are just the thing for biting into the skin without putting any pressure on the flesh. My mother even raised me to peel tomatoes with a knife, instead of by blanching, and that works just fine with these crappy knives. They fit in the hand well and made quick work of pitting cherries, halving peaches, quartering apples, dicing onions, mincing garlic or ginger, removing the pith from the zest of an orange, and they’re even pretty good at cutting steak. Yes, I’ve used them to cut through slightly frozen meat for slivered stir fry meat and it cuts a great hollow for embedding garlic in a roast.

What it doesn’t do well is speed – it’s going to take more passes and it doesn’t have any weight behind it. It’s also not showy at all.

So aren’t you more likely to cut yourself badly with a crappy knife?

Well, I’ve certainly cut myself, but it’s most often like a nasty papercut – see the part where there’s no weight behind it and your pace is slower. Also, there’s less temptation to do stupid, showy cutting-esque moves when you’re holding a simple knife.

So there.

But feel free to try to convince me otherwise.