Massawa Restaurant

    

     Yesterday my family went to the Museum of the City of New York and then out to lunch for my dad's birthday.  The restaurant is called Massawa, the food is from Ethiopia and Eritrea   It is in New York City on Amsterdam Avenue between 120th Street and 121nd st. Just from the door way you can see about 7 paintings and the orange flowers on each table.(I can`t remember if they're real or not).  There were two big baskets that looked like hats and they were filled with candy, and you can see there's one very busy waitress named Selam.  

    We ate some delish food.  Eating at this restaurant is good practice for sharing because all the food comes on one plate.  

     One food is called Tebsi which is cubes of beef with tomatoes and berbere spice. Another food is alitcha- it is potatoes with collard greens and carrots.  Also we ate tebsi hiwas. It has in it chicken with collard greens.  Cablo is flavored white cabbage. The last food is tsebhi beghe. It is lamb in a thick berbere sauce.  To pick up your food you use a spongy pancake made of sourdough. First you take the pancake and you tear off a piece.  Then you tear off an even smaller piece and you use that to grab your food.  Finally, comes my favorite part, you eat it.

     For dessert we had mango mousse cake and coconut ice cream.  The ice cream came in a real coconut shell.  

     So I hope you people will go there.  It's a great place and its not that crowed.  They serve great food here.

Charcuterie

  

Charcuterie is a type of cooking devoted to prepared meats such as bacon, ham, sausage, and of pork products.

Q. Why Was It Invented?

 A.  It was invented to keep foods from spoiling before refrigerators were invented.

  My papa made salt cured charcuterie known as bacon (it was good).  Salt cured has four purposes.

Q. What Are The Four Purposes?

 A.  The four purposes are: 1.osmosis-movement of water in food  2. dehydration-pulls out the water in foods. 3. fermentation 4. and denaturing.                           

          

  I inerviewed my papa about the bacon.  Here are the Qs. and the As.

Question: What part of the pig is your bacon made from?
Made from the underside of the pig from the outer skin to 1 and a half to 2 inches.  It is called "Pork Belly".  I used a 2 pound piece.

Question: What did you put on it?

I put it in a zip lock one gallon size bag and added: 

1 and 1/4 table spoon of Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon of "pink salt" This a preservative to kill any harmful bacteria

1/8 cup of pure maple syrup

I then placed it in the refrigerator for 8 to 9 days.  I kneaded it and turned it daily.

This is the time the salt draws out the water and the maple flavor is pulled into the belly.

Upon removing it from the bag toss the bags contents down the drain.  Thoroughly rinse off any remaining 

salt residue. Place back into fridge for 24 hours uncovered.

Question: How long did you cook it?

180 degrees for about 6 hours or until the internal temperature is 150 degrees.

Question: Why did you want to make your own bacon?

To control the ingredients and to be able to make a sweet bacon and a savory bacon.

Question: What's your favorite way to eat bacon?

fried in the fry pan but not crispy - I like to taste the meat and the fat and I don't want all the fat to be cooked off.

Crepes

     Crepes are just really, really thin pancakes.

How The Crepe And a Normal Pancake Different

     The crepe is like I said, they are just thin pancakes and the regular pancake is a lot more fatter.  Unlike the pancake you can put anything on it and in it.  For example, on a crepe you can put vegetables on it and even though you can put vegetables on a regular pancake, it won't really make sense.  Most people put maple syrup or blueberries only on pancakes.

Where They Are From

     Crepes are from France.

Where They Are Sold

     Crepes are sold at a creperie.   Wow  try saying that 50 times fast sorry off topic.  They can be bought as fast food or at a restaurant.  

What I Had On And In My Crepes

     I had a crepe with an egg in the middle.I also had one with nutella.  My mom had one with spinach and mushrooms.
 

Times I Had Crepes

     We had crepes in Paris.  Also, my sister had crepes for her birthday instead of cake. 

Lasagna

  I love lasagna, it is my favorite food.  I only like meat lasagna which my dad makes.  I don't like veggie lasagna which my mom makes,and seafood lasagna which my Grandma makes.  I like the taste of the sauce and the meat.  To tell you the truth I barely have lasagna because my dad doesn't really make it a lot.  When I asked him why he doesn't make lasagna a lot, he said, "It's a lot of work.  Why are you asking?"  I like the "Garfield" show and we both like lasagna.  It's one of my favorite shows and one of my favorite foods.

meat lasagna

yum