Eating on Jitneys

First off, I am the proud owner of eatingonjitneys.com. I took the $15 plunge last week and haven’t looked back once. Not once! You don’t need to update any bookmarks, though. Because of magic.

Now, down to business. While in Pittsburgh with FVD over New Years I went to a restaurant that was library themed. It was called…The Library. I wasn’t expecting too much but it was great! They did a good job with not overkilling the theme. The tables had book pages under a layer of envirotex. Their menus were made of old books, but they didn’t tear out the pages. The books were still there! We got a Golden Book Encyclopedia for the drink menu and felt lucky.

The menu also utilized the Dewey Decimal System. Holla!

Each meal is inspired by a book, such as Wings of Icarus, One Fish, Tofish, Where the Wild Things Are, Peter Pan Fried Provolone, and the Hunter S. Thompson.

Dark Green, Bright Red. A scallop dish that was really good, but not as good as the scallop dish that Ellen and I made. I’m just sayin’.  

Animal Farm (Turkey, Bacon, Cheese, Fried Egg. Pickle.)

Salmon Salad Sandwich (really tasty but actually not certain how this pertains to a book. Nevertheless, Salmon, Dill, Cucumbers, Almonds, Dates, Yogurt.)

They call their sweet potato fries “Edgar Allen Sweet Potatoes.” Aww. We were really excited about our food before, during, and after the meal. I would call that success.

Anyways, this Stone Soup business crossed with going to The Library crossed with some conversations with my brother crossed with reading a lot more lately have gotten me seriously thinking about the possibilities, rather than impossibilities, of Imaginary Food Menus. I don’t want to give too much away, but for now, think about it. Streganona style.

Yesterday I was having a really bad day so I decided to ride my bike to the House of Sushi & Noodles to get some sushi. I had never been there before and didn’t realize that it was an actual sit-down restaurant. Already feeling sad and angsty I wasn’t about to sit by myself amongst all of the stoned teenagers and hip Lakeview middle-aged women. So I took the Mexico Maki roll to-go and sat in a park on Irving Park.

The tin package was super adorable.

This particular roll was actually really tasty. I was skeptical about the quality of the sushi since they are known for their sushi buffet (all you can eat sushi for about $14…too good to be true?). However the rice was cooked perfectly and there was just the right amount so that it didn’t drown out the taste of the other ingredients - tuna, cilantro, jalapeno and cucumber.

Plus, I got two fortune cookies, which is where this sad story quickly becomes hilarious, and I finally get over myself and go home. After finishing off the 6 pieces, I sat on the park bench and seriously, honestly, I’m not kidding you, thought that the fortune in the fortune cookie was going to tell me something real. That it was going guide me in some direction and help me find reason in this cruel cruel world.

Here is my fortune, just seconds after cracking open the cookie:

I really hope that’s true.

pan seared celery root and spaghetti squash with cipollini onions,
smoked shiitakes, shaved pear, and rosemary-sherry gastrique, 16 hard earned dollars.

I knew I should have stuck with the spicy peanut butter sandwich.

This past weekend I went to St Louis to visit my friend Emily who just moved there. Any time I visit her we have fun doing just about anything, including doing absolutely nothing. On this visit, though, we got a lot accomplished. We went to a semi-shady flea market where I picked up a knock-off Gucci wallet (AWESOME) and came this close to buying a “diamond studded” pair of Hello Kitty earrings. We drove to the Clayton Art Fair where I happened to meet up with my friends Ali & Dolan who had a booth. We saw the worst movie ever, The Ten. We went to a bar that makes it’s own juices and names their cocktails after St. Louis wards. We went to one of the most diverse international food stores that I have ever been to. Unlike most that I have been to, this store had everything from Japanese to Polish to Jewish foods (side note: Happy New Year to all my favorite Jews). Best of all, we went to the best museum I have ever gone to in my life: the City Museum. It’s basically worth going to St Louis just for that.

An amazing discovery that I made while there was that it is very possible that St Louis is not only the gateway to the West, but also the gateway to fast food.  Most towns have a certain group of fast food chains to call their own, but St Louis collected them all. “Ponderosa still exists?? Jack in the Box is this far East?? A Taco Bell that isn’t a Taco Bell but looks like one?? Steak ‘n Shakes??” Much of what I ate while there consisted of these types of foods, which was awesome for the weekend. We ate breakfast at Uncle Bill’s. The sign was awesome, as was the inside and the food and Emily’s gigantic bacon strips. You can’t tell from the picture, possibly due to some sort of optical illusion, but they had to have been like two feet long. We also ate fried ravioli which is a St Louis thang. I was skeptical at first, but I’m not sure why. They were great. I can’t quite see how they are much different from Mozzerella sticks, besides the shape, but I like the idea of frying italian food and eating it with a cup of red sauce. YUM.

In Oakland we ate at Le Cheval, a Vietnamese restaurant. Frank’s uncle recommended it which gave it lots of street cred. Trust me. It was the 4th of July at around 8:30pm and there were actually a fair amount of people inside.

Frank and I both ordered Bahn Hoi. The server came up to our table and looked at Frank, asking if he knew what to do with the plate in front of him (rice papers, beef, steamed vermicelli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and mint leaves). He totally didn’t. So she cut them up for him in a very motherly way. Slowly, delicately, with a little added sass. Then she dipped the rice paper in a bowl of hot water, placed it on his plate and told him to ROLL.

So the recipe is as follows. Keep in mind there was an amazing sauce/spicey creation on top of the vermicelli that included but was definitely not limited to cilantro:

-a meat (shrimp, chicken, beef, etc)
-vermicelli (steamed)
-small diced or cut vegetables such as carrots
-cucumbers
-mint leaves
-lettuce leaves
-dipping sauce

Dip the rice paper in hot water (you may need two sheets depending on how big they are). Add what you think can fit into the rice paper. Roll. Eat. SO GOOD!

I think it is very appropriate that my first blog entry, for this blog that aims at saving pennies and being thrifty, be about my recent trip to Chez Panisse - one of the top restaurants in the world. Ah yes, you know…the usual. I think it is not that cool that the pictures kind of suck, but I was much more interested in the eating and the chatting that were about to ensue than the picture taking. In fact, this isn’t even what I ordered (wild salmon with beans, beats, and other tasty treats). This was the morel ravioli with parsley sauce.

The meal started off with with the carbonated tap water that has become the restaurant’s answer to (unsustainable and kind of stupid) bottled water. They also provide a little bowl of mixed olives which was very exciting for me. Pretty awesome.

My friend Asi works there (thus our ability to get reservations) and was able to secure two bottles of wine ahead of time. She helps write the wine list so they worked perfectly with the meal. The kitchen sent us up a plate of octopus which is something I may never be able to say ever again in my life. They also sent us up two desserts (boms) as the pastry chefs are also friends with Asi. Thanks, Asi.

There isn’t too much that I want to say about the food other than it is so delicious and fresh. There aren’t many added sauces. It seems as though they let the ingredients flavor each other in plates that you absolutely have to scrap clean (which is easily done with the delicious bread).

After the meal (and before the dessert wine), the server brought us this glass teapot full of lemon verbena with mint leaves. Me and Asi totally chugged it! So great and fresh. A friend of mine who had recently been to Morocco said it was also very Moroccan, so cheers to that!

It is easy to understand why this place is rated so highly on their food alone. I mean, Tom Waits eats there! And Bill Clinton ate there! But the restaurant, and its founder, Alice Walker, were very huge players in the organic movement and the slow food movement and basically every other sustainable living food related movement that is spreading fairly widely right now. Read more about it here.