Banana buttermilk breakfast

I was hoping to finally go to the Radnor Hotel for brunch, but my sister decided to take my mother to Olive Garden instead...not interested. We last visited OG in June when my daughter moved up from 5th grade. I still remember everyone complaining about the food, I said - it's not Maggianos (not that that's the gold standard for Italian but it's certainly 1,000 times better than OG). Prepacks.

Perhaps I perpetuate gender roles. Since my daughter could walk and talk, I've purchased her cooking related products - miniature baking sets, I stood in line to get an autograph copy of Emeril's There's a Chef in My Soup...she does like cooking. Now that she's gone to the Restaurant School's camp, I even let her do some independent things.

What's for breakfast?

My daughter asked what we were having for breakfast...my plans for the Radnor Hotel were diminished, so I said - biryani...we have buckets of biryani - which has put my cooking spree on hold - guess I'll make pepper pot tomorrow and actually get some academic related work completed today.

I told her to make pancakes - my husband purchased some TJs mix 2 weeks ago - she got down the griddle (of course I have a griddle - I am a kitchen gadget junkie), and made the pancakes...we have no syrup (we use maple syrup, not that corn syrup, water, and carmel coloring concoction that they pass off in the supermarket), and we're out of honey as well. I will admit that we do buy clover honey, but wildflower is my favorite. Not to mention the locally produced Honey from the Hood at Greensgrow Farms. So, I made the substitute topping we use when there is no syrup or honey in the house.

Inspired by bananas foster.

I remember the first time I had bananas foster - at New Orleans Cafe in Media...it was oh so decadent...everything at that restaurant was delicious - the pecan crusted catfish, the tuna imperial, the mashed potatoes, even the whipped butter - but New Orleans is no more, I assume they over expanded - had 3 locations...we tracked the chef down at the Big Easy in Paoli - not even remotely close to what New Orleans Cafe had been. This is probably the reason I will never pursue training or a career on culinary arts - it's hit or miss and labor intensive. Ever read Kitchen Confidential?

I started the topping and let her finish it. The topping was tasty and the pancakes were beautiful and delicious. We had no protein, but my daughter said "bananas have potassium so that's good enough."

Copious crustaceans

The soccer field has become a location for impromptu family gatherings. This season my son is playing in a different league so that he could spend more time with one of his camp buddies. We will not repeat that mistake (there is no skill- building whatsoever and things are a bit unorganized)...but my nephew and second cousin are also playing in the league so this brings the folks out.

In 2006 National Geographic had an issue totally about soccer and it's place in the world. Recently we discussed soccer's lack of prominence in the US in my Cultural Geography course - the game of soccer is not conducive to ad-based television programming and it is not intertwined with a national identity - the World Cup epitomizes international athletics in a way that the Olympics just can't. Soccer (Football) is very accessible to youth around the world; my son is very passionate about soccer but has not extended his passion beyond himself as a player (he truly epitomizes his name - one who moves with swiftness) - perhaps because as a family we do not get caught up in major league sports or players (what would Bourdieu have to say about that?) - he is interested somewhat in the Kixx because of their summer camps and we'll see what happens when the Unions start playing.

Perhaps I can figure out a soccer related cooking theme.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love to go out for lunch...I don't have as much time as I used to, but I still manage. Our post soccer activity is apparently going out to lunch. The gang likes Red Lobster. When I was growing up my aunt said that Red Lobster was "the KMart of seafood" preferring at that time Seafood Shanty. This is likely an accurate assessment. The majority of chain restaurant food is prepacks - food that simply needs to be heated and plated. No, I am not a chef, but I've always want to pursue formal training in culinary arts.

I can prepare quality seafood at home, but there's Melange - oh so tasty, Devon Grill, we don't mind Legal Seafood, Georgine's used to be good, the kids like Bonefish, and the best ever is Turner Fisheries in Boston. But for crowds, Red Lobster is definitely a winner.

I usually get an ultimate feast and substitute for sea scallops...clearly the sea scallops at RL can not remotely compare to those that I purchase and sear from Whole Foods...and don't even ask me about sustainability. My cousin and I decided to forgo the ultimate feast because we had already planned to get 2 dozen crabs for dinner. My daughter chose not to get a side of crab legs because she thought it would be more cost effective to buy the legs from the supermarket.

I am not a fan of shrimp, this is likely because in high school I ate them almost everyday as an after school snack. But I do like other shellfish (clearly I do not keep kosher). Half of our table ordered endless shrimp, I ordered steak and skewered shrimp (substituted scallops for my daughter), my mom ordered wood-grilled shrimp. As I was placing my order, I knew I was making a mistake - who orders steak from a "seafood restaurant" and then I thought about the quality of the beef and pushed that out of my mind, knowing full well that it was from a cow raised on a densely populated concrete slab on a diet of corn and soy; everybody knows cows should be running about, eating grass and chewing the cud but food production has been totally transformed.

Well, we were in Red Lobster for 3 hours, and the shrimp were literally endless to the point that we had Styrofoam takeout containers filled with pasta, fried shrimp, and skewered shrimp. Someone at our table had amassed a mound of food. It was ridiculous - I had to tell the server to stop bringing refills and just bring the check. Now, let's be clear about these "shrimp" - they were in fact shrimpy shrimps (probably 50/100 count) so they were not giving away the farm. But we had a good time. Getting together with friends and family is always fun.

Somehow we were stuffed. I think it was from the high-fructose corn syrup contained in the raspberry lemonades that we were drinking.

We delayed our 'crab feast' until 7pm. I made the last pack of TJs corn and we sat there eating crabs and talking trash, then looked at the table and burst out laughing thinking about Red Lobster.

The second coming

Lazeez Goodeez was born in November 1999. The idea came about as a friend and I were planning to vend at a Temple University event. She made tart sized cheesecakes and I made carrot cake loaves (inspired by the Carrot Cake Man treats I used to get in the 80s). I wanted a professional appearance so I decided to make labels and needed a "company" name. I was enrolled in my first Arabic course and had just learned the word for delicious - liziz - and decided to incorporate that into the name.

My carrot cake sales sky-rocketed - I was a baking fool - I expanded to whole cakes and then to a variety of baked goods- eventually I was selling food as well (I was ServSafe certified of course), this went on for several years and then I burnt out - juggling school, family, and cakes. Cakes had taken over my life and then there was no more.

What's up with the carrot cakes?

The business plan was shelved many years ago. Every so often someone asks about the cakes, can they place an order - that was a hilarious question - exactly when would I have time to bake cakes? My husband has been pestering me for several years about the cakes...

Not quite.

The cake has been icing'd, sliced, and tasted - it's not bad, but it's not quite ready to bear a Lazeez Goodeez label...I explained to a friend today - it's better to go out with a bang than to attempt a comeback and be known as a has been- I had zero confidence that I could reproduce those delicious treats...perhaps there will be a second coming.

Pepper Pot

I am exhausted and my head is killing me. This is likely the result of going to bed at 2am and waking up at 6am to make raita and get the kids off to school.

My plan was to resurrect Lazeez Goodeez and make the carrot cake that my daughter requested for her birthday last year. Things didn't go quite as planned. After a series of unfortunate events, I got started with the cake around 10am and realized I didn't have any eggs...then it occurred to me that I had no idea how to make the cake - I scoured my files and cookbooks for my carrot cake recipe -my formula that I began to tweak 10 years ago - I couldn't find it...so I did the best I could - the finished product was ok, I think I could've used slightly more flour and something seems to be missing from the taste. TJs actually makes a pretty tasty Karat Cake. I haven't gotten around to icing yet (I had to dash out to pick the kids up 30 minutes late), but will get to that before the night is out. My daughter is quite excited and wainting impatiently for the icing. I made 8 loaves and 1 whole cake - the worst part is my cake stuck to the pan like a rookie but it is definitely salvageable.

I met an Antiguan tonight. We were chitchatting and it came up...of course I asked about the food - "what is the national dish?" She described something quite interesting - Ducana (a yellow sweet potato dumpling) and Foongee (something that sounds like the Trinidadian coo-coo) - she also mentioned Pepper Pot - the description sounds like something I'd like to make - I think I'll take a stab at it next week and revisit the Trinidadian salt-fish and pumpkin (taught to me by my other Trinidadian friend a few years ago).

Our conversation quickly became a inquisition about the cultural landscape - I learned that the Blacks originated from Ghana and Nigeria and that the country was under British rule until November 1981. She also told me that parts of the landscape are dominated by sugar plantations and there are some cotton plantation remnants as well. There is a distinction between town and country people but she was not able to tell me anything about the indigenous population (if they even still exist). This was a timely discussion, considering that Columbus Day is upon us. Exploration and colonialism has left quite an imprint on both the cultural and physical landscapes of the Caribbean with genocide, slavery, migration, and exploitation of natural resources.

How are the cooking techniques of the Caribbean a product of spatial interaction? What features are indigenous and what is influenced by those brought in the hulls of ships? Is Caribbean cuisine a fusion of Amerindian (for lack of a better term), West African (involuntary and voluntary migrants), and Indian (indentured servants) cooking?

Devil's brew.

Many people consider McDonald's to be the devil - for a variety of reasons - imprint on the landscape, the hijacking of food production, the promotion of fast food, the taking over of the world...the devil has roped me in with sweet tea.

I love sweet tea. Always have.

When I went to New Bern, NC in 2005 I was so excited to get sweet tea in restaurants. When Mickey D's launched their sweet tea, I was ecstatic...and it's only $1. So I drive-thru several times a week and drink the brew (yes, I do know better). The catch is, sweet tea is $1.49 in da hood (aka the color tax). Everywhere I've been, except the inner city of Philadelphia, 32 ounces of sweet tea is $1...and it should be - tea bags, water, refined white sugar - no soda syrup purchased from Coca-cola, no need for carbonation - as a result it's often inconsistent - sometimes brewed strong, other times watered down, and at times sweet enough to send someone into a diabetic coma. Nonetheless, I keep drinking it, but not in da hood...I refuse to be blatantly exploited. So headache and all, I drove out of my way tonight for the devil's brew.

Birthday Biryani

What kind of lunatic starts preparing biryani at 9pm? Me, that's who.

Earlier this week I decided that I would surprise my daughter with biryani for her birthday...I haven't made biryani in a few years so I was a little apprehensive. I make biryani using the Indian technique...I went to a friend's house so that I could learn the steps - and there are quite a few steps.

I cut a few corners with this batch of biryani, instead of the mortar and pestle, I used a cuisinart gadget - and probably made way too much - 8 lbs of chicken thighs - why?

The last time I ordered biryani it was terrible and tasteless at Tiffin.

Recently my friend made Pakistani style biryani and it came out decent...totally different taste and technique...it's really quite amazing when I think about the many varieties of biryani I've tasted - Indian, Pakistani, Punjabi...I'm sure there are lots of local variations, just as there is with garam marsala. I have identified biryani as the flagship Indo-Pakistani dish - whether this is true or not beats me.

Biryani became a bit of an addiction back in 2004 or 2005 at International Day...International Day is an event at my children's old school that allows people to showcase their culture - material, culinary, oratory, etc. For some of us that is quite difficult, considering our most distant known relative might've been a sharecropper that traveled north for the Great Migration.

Since that International Day, all we know is biryani - we have likely done ourselves a disservice by limiting our repetoire to biryani when I'm certain that these women can cook many other traditional dishes. Actually one person's biryani has become the gold standard to which all others are compared, masha'Allah.

Ummh, mendi lamb...a lamb and rice dish similar to biryani that I had in Oman. The lamb is cooked using the pressure underground for several days and is very tender and bursting with flavor.

Some cultures are meat and potatoes while others are cultivated with rice.

My chicken biryani turned out decent. I think it may be way too spicy for my son to enjoy (the spice is not on the tongue, but definitely hits you in the chest - the chilis were so hot that I was coughing just from chopping them) and I clearly used too much garlic-ginger paste. Something is lacking, rendering the flavor not quite authentic - it might be because some of my garam marsala ingredients were past their prime - but it's a good start.

My coach has turned into a pumpkin, so I will make the raita tomorrow.

Out with the old

I'm sitting in the Teaching Resource Room in Blackwood grading Discussion Topic postings. Prior to leaving home I cleaned out my spice cabinet. It's a corner cabinet but I hadn't realized how deep this cabinet is until I removed everything and wiped down the shelves.

I had seasoning galore - all kinds of rubs, blends, and concoctions that haven't seen the light of day in 5-7 years. Apparently I had been on a quest to enhance food and the many packaged run-of-the-mill spices just never seemed to do the trick. That's old hat now...the cabinet now contains my everyday essentials (trocomare & 21 seasoning salute), the pillaged blends, and some baking necessities.

The spice route

When I went downstairs this morning to prepare the kids' lunches, I was confronted with a sink full of dishes. I took out all of the dishes except the utensils, rinsed the sink, and prepared the water. As I was thinking about how I function as a 'housemaid', I recalled that during Ramadan I made a commitment to myself that I would just suck it up and wash the dishes...at that very moment, my finger came in contact with my daughter's chef knife and I ran upstairs to the bathroom as not to pollute the dishwater with the blood that was gushing from the wound.

When I returned to the kitchen, I realized that I am not that different from the imperial powers...akin to Christopher Columbus searching for an alternative route to the spice world. However, instead of traveling in the wrong direction and subsequently stumbling across a group of people rich in geologic resources, I meet people and exploit them for the culinary secrets of their culture and demand booty of spices from travelers - garam marsala, berbere, bizaara, ras el hanout - each region producing a distinctive spice blend (similar to a curry) based largely I imagine on what is naturally occurring...but instead of extinguishing these cultures, I keep them alive in the kitchen and actually wouldn't mind dabbling in the accompanying language.

It just occurred to me that my spice fetish is clustered in (or some might say dispersed throughout) one geographic area - from North Africa, to the Horn of Africa, across the Arabian Pennisula, and into the Indian Subcontinent (I have recently expanded west into Senegal) - a pseudo Ibn Battuta I suppose.

While these spice blends vary by geographic location, the cooking techniques and ingredients are quite similar- I imagine that is likely due to spatial interaction - the coming together of cultures along this trade route - why do these dishes often begin with sauteing onions until translucent then adding tomatoes? What is the hearth and pattern of diffusion of the onion and the tomato?

I dare not investigate these questions - because not only does that have nothing to do with the price of tea in China, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the correlation between socioeconomic status and position along the watershed.