Indian Food Feast

     I went to my grandparents' house to have some Indian food and see pictures of the trip that my papa and Uncle Tommy had in India.  My grandma made some Indian food.  

                                      Bombay mixture     
     For a snack grandma served Bombay mixture.  It's crunchy and yummy.  

Dinner

     Next it is dinner.  I had Samosas which is a potato, peas, and a spice called Tumeric.  I think it's hot.  

                                 
     Chicken Burra has lots of butter.  It was delish.  It is brownish red.  Lamb passanda tastes great and there is chunks of lamb.  Chicken tikka massala tastes good.  But is a little too buttery. 

                                         naan bread 
    Naan is like a flat bread.  It is impossible to make at home.  Unless you have a tandor oven that can go up to like a 1,000 degrees F.  

     Rice pulaob has peas, onions, Basmati rice , and sticks of cinnamon and last but not the least we have Dhal which is made with red lentills called Masoor.  

     I had to drink is Mango lassi which is like a mango smoothy.

                                          

                                          My plate

Tin Marin

    

    Today I went to Tin Marin.  It's at 3708 Riverdale Ave. Bronx 
N.Y.  It is a Spanish restaurant that serves tapas, which is like snacks or finger food.  There is a lot and I mean a lot of wine bottles on the wall, and I am not talking about the song 99 bottles of what ever you say on the wall.  The ceiling looks like squares of wood.  There is a bar, over the bar there are logs, and hanging from the logs are candle holder.  The bar is topped with stone squares.  There are three mirrors and a beautiful painting.  My mom liked the orange curtains.  There is one waiter named Ramon.  He is really busy.

     

     We had really good food ( well one I didn't like). Here are the foods:

1. Pulpo Ala Gallega: which is octopus with Spanish paprika and potatoes.  I didn't like it because it's thick and very chewy, and I only like the skinny crunchy tentacles parts.  It also has very buttery potatoes.

2. Croquetas De Jamon Ahumado:  it is shaped like a fish stick, but with mashed potatoes and ham.  It's good.

3. Coca Catalonia: which is flat bread with manchego cheese, and onions.  Its cheesy, chewy, and crunchy.

4. Pastelitos: which are empanadas,  one with cheese, and one with beef.  The cheese one was delish.  It was cheesy and chewy.  The beef one was great. It was meaty in a good way.

5. Chorizo: which is Spanish sausage with shallots.  It's yummy, it's not fatty.  Its has a nice spicy kick to it, and it's very crispy.

6. Gambas Al Ajillo: which is shrimp.  The shrimp still has its tail.  It's very garlicky.  It burns my tongue.

     

     Now we have what I had for dessert. Yum, where do I start?

These are the desserts:

1. Crema Catalana which is custard with a hard caramelized top.  The custard is creamy and looks and feels pudding.

2. Chocolate Torte which is dark chocolate & almond cake.

It's a really, really, really, really (oh, you get my point) good chocolate cake.  

       This is what I saw and ate at Tin Marin.  It's a great place and you should eat there.

Food Fest

     Today me and my family went to Kids Food Fest.  It's by Citi pond at Bryant Park, NYC 6th ave. and 42nd st.  Citi pond is a ice rink.  People were playing hockey. We had a good time.

     There was a fun scavenger hunt.  You need to find 5 stamps.  Each for the 5 food groups (not including oil).  You get a stamp by finding a stall with a stamp.  You ask if you can have a stamp.  One person said I had to do 10 jumping jacks to get a stamp.  Another reason is you ate a food in this food group.  When you find each stamp you go where you started you hunt and you get a goody bag.  

Goody bag 

     

     There were free samples.  They were some Kerrygold cheese, grape juice, grilled cheese, candy skewers, and chocolate milk.  There is also frozen kefir which I did not like, but mommy and daddy loved it.  I also made my own trail mix with goldfish, coconut slices, cereal squares, and  chocolate chips. 

 Yum, trail mix

     We bought a baby shirt for my cousin.  His name is Charley.   It was perfect because Charley is cute and the shirt is cute, it will make Charley twice as cute.  The shirt said "I heart NY" but instead of a heart there is a pretzel and the I is a hot dog. 

Hotdog Pretzel NY

   So if you want to go there, you better hurry it ends on March 3rd!

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