Okay so I am no expert in coffee, but I like to think I am. I drink it and having been born and raised in the country that feels it has essentially invented the art of good and proper coffee – Italia – I do believe it is part of my DNA.

Contrary to popular belief, the consumption of coffee did not originate from Ethiopia. The Arabs were making beverages out of coffee beans as far back as the 15th century, well before the legend of the local goat herder in Ethiopia discovering how his goats became more energetic when they ate those bright red berries. It is a cute story though and you read it here.

From the Middle East, coffee then made its way to Italy in the late 1500′s as it reached the port of Venice. The first European coffee house opened in Italy in 1645 and Italy proceeded to bring coffee to the rest of Europe and beyond. Interesting fact: coffee became more widely accepted after it was deemed a Christian beverage by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the “Muslim drink” which had come from the Middle East.

What I find fascinating is how this relatively simple beverage has become so engrained in the fabric of so many cultures over the centuries and how it is such a popular every day commodity worldwide with so many variations of serving it. A frequent international traveller, I often just ask for regular “coffee” when I arrive in a new country to see what I will get. For the purposes of this article, I’m sticking to black coffee as going into all the varieties once you add things like milk and chocolate will only complicate matters here.

In Italy when you ask for a “caffe” you get an espresso shot, this is whether you are at a bar or someone’s house. Difference being that at the bar you will get it from a sizable machine and at someone’s home you will often get it from a stove top Moka machine.

Fellow Latin countries like Spain, Portugal, and even France would tend to have similar minimalist servings to Italy when you ask for coffee although shots are slightly larger than in Italy.

Although I have never been to South America, I hear from friends that coffee will often vary from one country to the other, but again you will see similarities with southern European countries. One other common version will be coffee being filtered through the sock (no, not a regular sock, sock) percolated coffee which originates from the region.

In Arab countries you will generally be served what is often refered to as Turkish coffee, where finely ground coffee beans are boiled in a pot and served in a cup where the grounds are allowed to settle. Turkish coffee servings are also rather small and even stronger than an espresso.

In the UK and Ireland, it can vary. In someone’s house that can often mean a simple spoonful of Nescafe instant granules in a mug of hot water, or a mug of French press cafetiere. If you pick up a coffee outside, you will find that people generally just ask for an Americano if they want a regular coffee.

In North America, when you get a cup of coffee, it has generally been percolated coffee though a paper filter. That seems to be whether you are in Starbucks or in someone’s house. Like the UK though, many folks also ask for Americanos.

So, if I had to give you my top 3 black coffee favorites, they would be as follows:

1. Caffe/espresso in an italian bar
2. Moka espresso made at home
3. French press coffee

What’s your favorite?

Coffee Beauty Tips

As a side note, on my last trip to Italy (err, last week) I learned quite a lot about the beauty benefits of coffee. All I can say is don’t throw away those used coffee grounds, rather rinse them away once you have used them as a body scrub or on your hair. I don’t know how I missed this, but there are tonnes of recipes out there for natural body scrubs with coffee. Coffee is a great exfoliant and helps treat cellulite. When used on wet hair before you wash it, it will remove product build-up and leaves your hair smoothy and shiny (disclaimer: may darken your hair though). Coffee grounds are also supposed to help with bags and circles under the eyes. I am on a mission to explore and experiment further so will come back with a more in depth piece on my findings soon!

The post I’ll have a coffee please appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

 

 

Rittenhouse’s Cesar Salad with Arctic CHar

The post Philly Does Brunch: PFF appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

Whether or not you are religious, this abnormally long stretch of very hot and very dry weather might make you wonder whether the apocalypse is gearing itself up for a day of reckoning.

Or, perhaps more likely, you might wonder how you’re going to afford the predicted increase cost of food in 2013 and 2014.

As a result of all the excessively hot and dry weather, our nation’s corn and feed stocks (for livestock and poultry) are severely reduced.  According to Feedstuffs, the USDA reduced its corn yield for 2012 by 25.7%, which equals to almost 4 billion bushels of corn.  With the significant reduction in corn supply (and good corn, for that matter), the cost to feed our livestock/poultry will also increase.  While some of this price increase might be offset by the grocery stores/retailers, the increased cost of corn is anticipated to increase the overall cost of beef, poultry and dairy products (beef could increase as much as 8% in 2013).

What is the price elasticity of meat (how responsive is demand to price changes)?  According to the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board of the UK, an increase in the overall beef market leads to a ‘greater than proportionate reduction in consumer demand’ – meaning, people will eat less meat if the price of meat increases, perhaps begrudgingly so.

As we saw in the Mark Bittman case, people, in general, do not like to be told what to do, what to eat, how to eat and when to eat.  However, with the extreme changes in weather impacting our food prices, our futures may not allow us too many choices when it comes to determining what we eat (unless we change the way we farm and harvest and/or control the weather).  In the case of increased meat, dairy and poultry prices, many of us (the 99%, maybe??) might be forced towards a period or lifetime of vegetarian/vegan dishes.  Can you imagine?  In the United States of America?  Sounds like the Twilight Zone.

This may sound daunting, but in reality, this hypothetical ‘restriction’ could be the best thing that ever happened to this nation’s waistline, given that the leading cause of death (heart disease) is strongly correlated with a diet knee-deep in saturated fats and animal products.

Food for thought.

There is very little chance of this ‘frightening’ version of diet control in the United States ever coming into fruition; however, the scenario is a good reminder that a diverse, plant-based diet can be beneficial to both the wallet and our health.   Thanks to my friend, Kate, for reminding me of a delicious vegetarian dish – my version of the ‘California Rolls’.  It is not only scrumptious, but also nutritious and practical for picnics, lunch boxes and as a light meal.

California Rolls

Serves 6 bite-sized rolls

Ingredients:

1/4 of a thinly sliced avocado

1/4 of a thinly sliced red bell pepper

1/4 cup of sauteed spinach

2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

1/2 of sushi rice, cooked (follow instructions on package

1 sheet of nori (seaweed paper)

Directions:

Lay the sheet of nori out flat and layer it with some sticky sushi rice.  Close to one edge, add the avocado, bell pepper and spinach.  Sprinkle the entire sheet with the sesame seed.  Roll up the nori, starting with the side with the avocado, pepper and spinach.  Roll up tightly.  Then cut into 6th’s.  Dip in some soy sauce and enjoy!

The post Increased Prices = Universal Veganism?: Vegetarian California Rolls appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

Sometimes, what makes a dish so delicious, so decadent, and so amazing is its simplicity. Just a few ingredients, thrown together, creating the perfect melody of flavors and textures that just explode in your mouth. My grandmother’s quesillo, that is always thick, creamy and smooth with the perfect deep caramel flavor, my mother’s arepas that are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, or my father’s classic filhosas, pillows of yellow squash dough fried to a golden perfection and rolled in fine granulated sugar. Then, there are my great-grandmother’s bolitas de carne picantes. Could meatballs get any better? I am here to say yes, yes they can.

Bolitas de carne picantes are exactly that: spicy meatballs. Then again, they are so much more that that. First off, these bolitas are small. Usually served as an appetizer, they are 1 tablespoon of gold on the outside, juicy perfection on the inside. A combination of sautéed onion and garlic, minced into almost a paste, with 90/10 ground beef, hot sauce and rippling hot oil is the winning combination for these beauties. They are dredged in a light coating of flour for a crisp, dry finish. This is my great-grandmother’s winning recipe, yet… could it get any better than that?

Why yes, yes it can. (Our little secret!)

Once I decided to make these on my own and put my own spin on them, I let my imagination wander. My take upped the spice in more ways than one. While sautéing the onions and garlic, I added a teaspoon of red chili flakes, allowing the heat from the flakes to permeate the oil. I also minced half of a Serrano pepper, with the seeds, and added that to the ground beef. I added the usual amount of adobo, but kicked it up with fresh cracked black pepper and paprika for a smoky finish. Hot sauce is standard, but I used green chile hot sauce for a tang with some heat. Once I made my 1 tablespoon balls I lightly dredged them in a combination 4:1 flour and corn starch, frying them to a golden crunch.

What resulted was a spicy meatball, full of flavor with a crisp outside and steamy, juicy inside that made it hard to stop at just 1…2….5…. Let’s just say it is really hard to stop eating them. When you make these bolitas make enough to feed a crowd, because if you don’t have a crowd at home when you start you will most definitely have one by the time you are finished.

¡Buen provecho!

Bolitas de Carne Picantes
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 lb of 90/10 ground beef
1/2 Serrano pepper
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 tablespoon of green chile hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons of adobo
1/2 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 1/2 inches of vegetable oil for frying
salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of corn starch

Directions
1. Heat vegetable oil for frying.
2. In a sauté pan heat olive oil until it ripples. Add onion, garlic and chili flakes, and cook until onion is caramelized, stirring occasionally.
3. Add Serrano, cracked black pepper, adobo, hot sauce and the mixture from the sauté pan to the ground beef. Mix thoroughly to combine and distribute additional ingredients evenly.
4. Using a 1 tablespoon measure, make 1 tablespoon meat balls and lightly toss in the flour/corn starch mixture.
5. Fry bolitas in batches, making sure not to crowd them. Fry for 2 minutes, until a golden crust begins to develop.
6. Drain bolitas on paper towels, skewer with tooth picks and serve hot.

The post Spicy Is Better: Bolitas de Carne Picantes appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

Yes, you hear it right. Harlem is thriving in the bustling streets of Belfast’s city centre.  Harlem Cafe is without a doubt, my favourite lunchtime hangout when I am in Belfast for meetings. They also happen to make a pretty mean cappuccino with the proper creamy froth consistency so important to me. I cannot stand dry froth or cappuccinos that are really lattes, but I digress…

It’s beautiful eclectic decor of antiques of different shapes and sizes provide an inviting and fresh atmosphere.  High ceilings and good lighting also help set the lovely dining experience. It is run by Faye Rogers whose educational background in window-dressing and fashion design makes all the antiques that her husband has collected over decades gel into a perfect collage.

And the food? oh well, they do a very good job on that front too. They provide a rich and diverse menu to please all palettes and make it a point of sourcing local produce as much as possible.  Last time I went, I had this delicious and authentic Irish stew with a slice of wheaten loaf and butter. Funnily enough, it was just what I needed on a cold July day in Ireland.

Kudos to Faye for really coming through on her vision for  ”the customer to experience — great coffee, delicious home-made food, a fantastic venue to dine and meet up with friends, and all wrapped up with excellent customer service.”

The post Harlem Cafe in, err… Belfast, Northern Ireland?: Tidbit of the Day appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

Of course!

Get to Winston-Salem, NC early and need a good breakfast spot? Head over to Mary’s Of Course Cafe, this charming place with the perfect general store-kitsch feel. The environment is super cool and makes you feel like you walked into a neighbor’s place.

Great owner, great food. Everything is fresh and made to order. Fresh, much of it organic and local – carnivores and vegans can find something delicious.

There is every reason for why this place needed a larger location!

The post Breakfast (Mary’s) Of Course Cafe: TidBit of the Day appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

From Chicken & Thai Basil to Peking Duck to Chicken Saag, Rickshaw tells you the source of their food, i.e. duck from the local Hudson Valley. They also have delicious baos in that soft, white bun that you fold over and drool over…..

Found in brick & mortar locations as well as a food truck. It is rickshaw, after all.

The post Rickshaw Dumplings: TidBit of the Day appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

As second-generation American, I longed for a tangible connection to “home.”  Despite my physical and socio-cultural distance from Liberia, where my mother is from, it was a place that captivated my imagination.  For several years, I yearned to visit Liberia and Sierra Leone to experience the attitudes, dialect, smells, and unique flavors there firsthand.

As a child, I watched my mother prepare homemade meals, breads, and desserts from scratch using only the freshest ingredients.  The savory foods were so fresh that the cooking process started in the backyard garden, where my siblings and I would harvest and clean the green pluto, cassava, and bitter leaf greens among others that she would then cook for supper.  In her own special way, my mother shared her love of Liberian foods and culture with her daughters. I realized how much I benefited from this inheritance during my first visit to Liberia as I discovered an instant, perhaps innate appreciation for the amazing culinary influences in the country.

Liberia has long been a mixing bowl of many indigenous and international food cultures influenced by the Caribbean, African American, and local indigenous food cultures.  Liberian joloff rice exemplifies this clash of cultures so very well.  As with many Liberian females, my mother learned to cook this special dish (a crowd pleaser at any party) from her mother, and less than a year ago, I decided that the time had come for me to do the same.

In her recipe, the rice is cooked in the oven, and this time saving modification has lent this traditional dish a distinctly modern twist.  Over the course of two days, she was the head chef, and I was her apprentice, transcribing eye measurements into a written recipe.  The resulting recipe feeds about 10 or more people and I hope to pass this down to my daughter (should I be lucky enough to have one), the same way it was so kindly handed down to me.

Joloff Rice Recipe

Ingredients

14c water

6-8 pieces smoked turkey

3 cans tomato paste

1 16oz can chopped tomato w/ garlic, oregano and basil

3-4 t salt

2t garlic

3t thyme

1 large onion

fresh basil 25-30 large leaves

8oz olive oil

hot pepper

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven 425F (400F convection oven)
2. Chop onions and basil.  Sprinkle along bottom of aluminum pan
3. Boil water with 3 cans of tomato paste and hot pepper for 1 hour

a. Approximately 13 c liquid remains after boil

1. Add 8 pieces of smoked turkey
2. Bring tomato paste mixture with smoked turkey to a boil for 30 minutes
3. Add spices: 3t salt, 3t garlic, bayleaves
4. Add canned tomatoes
5. Boil mixture for 12 minutes
6. Add 8oz olive oil, 3t thyme, 1t salt
7. Stir in 9c rice. Cover and bring to a boil
8. After boil, turn off heat.  Pour mixture into aluminum pan and cover with foil
9. Place rice mixture in oven and bake for 30 minutes
10. After 30 minutes, flip rice with a spatula moving rice from bottom of pan to top.  Add water if rice is too dry
11. Cook covered for additional 20 minutes
12. Turn off oven.  Remove aluminum foil.  Leave in oven to crisp

The post A Gastronomical Clash: Liberian Joloff Rice Recipe appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

Source: GOOD

Well, Chicago seems to also be picking up on the idea. Truck Farm Chicago has put a farm on the back of a pick-up and travels around the city helping to raise awareness of the connection between farms and healthy food. It certainly seems like the children of Chicago are happy!

Sounds like Truck Farm Chicago and Sol Food Mobile Farm need to meet up!

The post Truck Farm Chicago: Class Act appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.

There are a number of Indian recipes which never find their way to the restaurant menu. Omelette curry is one of them. This is a very easy dish and it can be cooked in a jiffy. When the omelette boils in the gravy, it swells up a little, absorbs the flavors of the gravy and becomes soft and juicy. This curry is made in different ways in different parts of India. I am sharing an omelette curry recipe from West Bengal (Kolkata), where it is called dimer jhol, and is cooked in a simple way. The gravy is always less in this dish, for a more concentrated and culminated taste arising from carefully chosen spices mixed with the eggs’s own flavor and aroma.  In addition, this dish is handy when you don’t have a sufficient number of eggs to feed a large(r) group of people.  For instance, if you only have 3 eggs and you need to make egg curry for six people, you could easily add some besan (gram flour) to the 3 beaten eggs to add more substance. In this way, the omelettes would be denser and bigger and one omelette would easily feed two.

 Bengali omlette curry

[Mustard oil is pungent and Bengalis love to cook with this oil. Once the oil is heated and begins to smoke, the raw smell goes away, leaving an appetizing aroma behind. However, you can substitute with canola or sunflower oil if mustard oil is not available. ]

 Ingredients:

Eggs: 6

Onion paste: 2 tbsp

Green chilli paste: 1 tsp (divided)

Milk: 2 tbsp

Salt: ½ tsp for the omlette and 1 tsp for the gravy

Finely chopped onion: ½ cup

Finely chopped garlic: 1 tbsp

Ginger paste: 1 tsp

Bay leaf: 1

Cinnamon sticks (one-inch each): 2

Cloves: 6

Green cardamoms: 4

Peppercorns: 10–12

Dried red chillies: 2

Coriander powder: 1.5 tsp

Cumin powder: 1 tsp

Turmeric powder: ½ tsp

Yogurt: 2 tbsp

Spring onion greens’ paste: 1.5 tbsp

Mustard oil (or white oil)

Water

Method:

Break the eggs together in a bowl. Add ½ tsp salt and beat well. Add the milk, onion paste and half the green chilli paste and beat once more. Divide into six (or eight) equal parts and shallow-fry each part to make six (or eight) vertically folded omlettes. Keep aside.

Heat oil to the smoking point. Add the bay leaf and dried red chillies. When the chillies darken a bit, add the cinnamon sticks, cloves, green cardamoms and peppercorns. When these start sputtering, add the finely chopped garlic and sauté for 1 min. Add the chopped onions and sauté till the onions are browned and soft.

Add the ginger and sauté for 3 min. Now make a paste by mixing the salt, turmeric, cumin and coriander powders with a little water (roughly 3 tbsp). Add this paste to the pan and keep the flame at medium. Sauté constantly, till the mixture starts leaving oil. Sprinkle some more water and sauté till oil starts leaving from the mixture one more time.

Mix the yogurt, spring onion greens’ paste and the rest of the green chilli paste together in a bowl with around 2 tbsp water. Add this yogurt mixture to the pan now. Sauté for 5 min and then add 3 cups of warm water.

 When the gravy starts boiling, slowly insert the omlettes, one at a time.

 Cover and simmer for 5 min. Serve with rice or chapattis.

The post Bengali Omelette Curry appeared first on Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good.