Beers of the Weekend (and the week, so far)

By: Greg B As you all might have guessed by now, I am a lover of many things, beer being one of them.  Since I’ve basically devoted the past 5 days to food and beer, I figured I should share with you the many bears beers of the world I’ve recently consumed, and something about them.

Starting on last Wednesday, My roommate and I went to Riptide, a new bar in Fells for a few beers.  I had a taste of some god-awful martini that was brightly colored (I was trying to talk with the girl who ordered the martini, but, after tasting it, I dont think I’d want to be associated with someone who drinks that junk.  It tasted like cotton candy).  My roommate and I ordered Dos Equis lager from the tap, which is always better than the bottle in this case.  The lager is not quite as good as the amber, but it’s a nice refreshing beer, with real mild hops. Afterwards, we wandered over to the 2nd floor of Slainte (pronounced slan-cha)                                        http://www.slainteirishpub.com/.

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My first Vietnamese food.

By: Greg B.

After helping Asa move his things to a place in Brooklyn (which, by the way, smells like Peru), we went out in search of lunch. Jessica and Asa knew of a top secret, second China town nearby, so we set out in search of a Vietnamese place called “Nha Trang Palace”. This econd china town was somewhere along 8th avenue, near 60th or 59th st for the restaurant. Having wanted desperately to go to Pho, in Baltimore the week prior, I found it fitting that I would be trying Vietnamese food elsewhere.

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NINJA! of New York

By: Greg B.

The Ninja. The name conjures up images of a remote island nation, people living in feudal society with warring samurai lords, engaged in constant battle for both supremacy and honor, but all the while, being assassinated in the dark by mysterious martial arts masters, cloaked in black. The Ninja. Master of Ninja physics, can do the Ninja double jump, a jump in the air, then, at the apex of height, perform another jump and propel himself forward. Running on water, scaling vertical walls seemingly with just their hands. The Ninja.

Now, in our time, Ninja are relegated to such things as Halloween costumes, bad movies involving pirates (I swear to you, in college we watched a movie that was Ninjas vs pirates.) and characters in video games. However, there is a restaurant in Tokyo called Ninja, a recreation of a feudal Japanese ninja castle, with excellent food and ninjas appearing from no where. The idea was to build a replica in NY city. The idea anyway. I expected Ninjas to fall from the ceiling, tumble through the hallways, surprise people from cracks in the wall, assassinate you while using the urinoirs, throw ninjas stars just past you head when you didn’t pay enough tip. Unfortunately, these were the crushed hopes and dreams of a man.

Ninja of New York (http://www.ninjanewyork.com/) was an attempt to both entertain people and bring them some high class, Japanese food. I have to say now, that despite Ninja having no Japanese Ninjas (unless maybe the cook who lit me lamb on fire was one?) the food was pretty good. There were six of us, Jessica, Asa, myself and three of Asa’s friends, Matt, Mike and Maria. We were seated in the dungeon area, no doubt to keep us away from the children and other, more civilized individuals. Upon sitting, we ordered a round of beer (Which I think was Asahi) and three large bottles of Sake (believe it was a Junmai, Hanzo, something apparently produced by NINJA). The beer was good and refreshing, as per usual for Japanese beers and the sake was plentiful.

For appetizers, we ordered for the table. Jessica ordered the Batto Jutsu, a very delicious sweet pepper, orangy duck combo, which came served on top of a yellow pepper with a short Katana through it. Upon removing the Katana, dry ice fell into the water on the bottom of the pepper, giving off vapor. Lots of dry ice was used on the dishes, no doubt to give everything a mysterious Ninja feeling. We also ordered the Floating Sashimi, sashimi suspended over a mixture of, dry ice and water. The presentation was very beautiful of all of these dishes and the taste was pretty good too. I ordered a Jalapeno star, sushi presented like a Ninja star. It was not as spicy as I had hoped….. or, perhaps all the sake was numbing me by this point, but it definitely tasted delicious and the fish was very fresh. There was one more appetizer, but I don’tsee it on the online menu. It was a very delicious beef, wrapped in rice just like a sushi roll. Very large too, each section should probably be split with another individual. Just as we were finishing up our appetizers, the main courses arrived.

I had ordered the Ninja Bonfire, which was a herb encrusted lamb. It was excellent, and when they served it, they put the ribs together, lit them on fire after chanting a Ninja saying and informing us that these were in fact, the bones of the Ninja server’s enemies. Little known fact is that Ninja hate Lamb. Matt and Mike split the Smokin Fluke, two large rolls of cabbage, fluke and other assorted goodies, which came under a thin glass cover, into which they had pumped smoke, so as to litterally smoke the food. Jessica and Asa ordered a series of sushi, which came beautifully arranged and once again, was very delicious (though, honestly, I still think Yamato sushi was the best. you were right, Mike!).

After dinner, I ordered the lone dessert to share with the table. Most people were pretty full by this point. I ordered the Ninja star, which the menu reads “the NINJA ultimate weapon”. It was indeed, pretty ultimate. a chocolate, almost tiramisu style cake with thin black chocolate ninja star shaped wafers on top. It was very delicious.

Before receiving the check, a ‘Ninja’ came downstairs to perform card and magic tricks, involving the “pick a card, any card” and handed people at the table and had them pick out page numbers and he would tell us what was on the page and page next to it. He performed a longer trick with me, continuously calling me “Craig”, where I cut a deck, picked up 9 cards (he said between 5 and 15) and he would tell me which cards I had. It was rather ‘impressive’. The check arrived next, and I have to take this point to thank Asa again, as he paid for myself and Jessica, both knowing that we make little income, and also knowing that the following day we were helping him move his lead weight collection down 5 flights of NYC loft stairs. Ninja, it turns out, also has take out. Whether actual Ninjas scale your building and surprise you in your home with your food, is unknown to me, I like to imagine they do. But it was a good deal, and I would recommend Ninja of New York to anyone who has a bunch of cool friends and is looking for a good time one night in NYC. However, you probably should be embarrassed if you’re a regular.

Foreign beer and Smoked meat: Part 1

As usual, the weekend affords me plenty of time to not do my research or other work associated with the research and to cook.  Seeing as how it is summer time, it seems only fitting that one should make proper use of the grill whenever possible.  So two nights ago as I was putting a glass into the freezer to get a nice chill before I poured a beer into it (it was a miller lite… I know what you’re gonna, but someone has to drink the leftover beer!) and I noticed a bag of ribs I had bought from the butcher.  Unsure how I had forgotten about a large quantity of spare ribs, I defrosted them in the fridge over night.

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Korean food: Jong Kak and Wong Gal Bi

by Greg B.

If anyone is ever in the mood to go stuff themselves silly on good food with a bunch of friends, Korean restaurants are the place to go. I had never had Korean food until this past winter, but since then it has become at least a monthly event. And, if you have never eaten it, it certainly is an event. I listed two restaurants because these are the only two I have been to, and both are excellent. Read more

Sushi Sono: Best Sushi in the Baltimore area - by Greg B.

Author: Greg B

Everyone is picky about their sushi restaurants and we all have our favorites. And why not? We are, after all, eating raw seafood. It’s only natural for an organism to return to the same feeding places where they have successfully eaten and not gotten sick… or worse. After dating a girl in college who took me out to sushi one Friday afternoon (lunch special at Sushi Hana in Towson = excellent), my life changed. Fridays became known as “sushi Fridays”, and it drew a crowd of people from across campus. Once it started, it kept going. Sushi Friday continued even after friends of ours and even we, graduated. Sushi Hana was an excellent place to learn about sushi, and while it is still one of my favorite sushi places to eat at in Baltimore, it has been surpassed.

The first time I ate at Sushi Sono was when my boss took the entire lab out in celebration for getting a very large grant. I cant be sure exactly how much sushi was there, but saying over 200 pieces would certainly not be an overstatement. However since then I just don’t drive very often, and it is extremely rare to see my down in the Columbia, MD area. But this Saturday my roommate and I just so happened to be down there, and with 3 hours to kill around lunchtime. The scene was set for some delicious sushi.

We walked into the restaurant and were immediately greeted by a very polite older woman. Asking if we wanted to sit at a table or the bar, we chose the bar. I like to sit there and watch the sushi be assembled and the fish get sliced and arranged, it’s very interesting work. Once we sat down, a very pleasant young woman dressed in traditional Japanese kimono asked for our drink orders. My roommate got the usual (Asahi) beer, and I decided to get cold sake instead of warm (perhaps the 90 degree temp had something to do with it?). I ordered a bottle of OzekiYam Nishi for $22, thinking I would have plenty of time to drink the bottle before it would be time to go. However, this lunch was governed by extreme efficiency, and just after I drank my first glass, we ordered.

I ordered the vegetarian box A from the lunch special ($10.95) which came with vegetable tempura, rice, a spinach roll and a shittake mushroom with asparagus sushi roll. I also ordered two pieces of Massago (smelt roe, for $4) and two pieces of White Tune ($4.50) since I had never had either of these. My roommates ordered a lunch special Chicken Tempura box ($9.95) with chicken tempura, tempura veggies and rice, along with a Spicy Tuna roll ($5.50). Within minutes, the Miso arrived.

In all honesty, Miso soup is miso soup. It is very rare I get Miso soup I don’t like, and most places taste almost exactly the same. Except again, the waitress was extremely polite and friendly. Halfway through the Miso, one of the men behind the bar placed a wooden tray with my Massago and Tuna over the fridge compartment and onto the bar. It was then that I knew I probably had to drink up with the sake! I finished my Miso and a few more drinks of the sake when our pleasant waitress returned with my meal and my roommate’s spicy tuna roll.

Sake goes great with Japanese food. There is no other way to say it. Drinking sake for it’s own sake (I couldn’t resist) is not something I do unless it is wintertime and the sake is warm. This particular sake brand was not one I had consumed before, and it was very mellow, which went well for a summer afternoon. The vegetable tempura was excellent, along with the little bit of spiced radish we got to place into our digging sauce. I had never had the spinach roll or shittake mushroom roll before, and the spinach roll was pretty good. It was served cold, with a slight touch of rice vinegar. The shittake roll was very good also, as the texture of the mushrooms and the asparagus nicely opposed each other for an interesting bite. The smelt roe was good, but not too surprising, however the white Tuna was not something I had eaten before and was excited to try. It was like butter, soft, cool and delicious. You did not even have to bite to eat it, it was so soft. Definitely a new favorite sushi dish of mine.

As my roommate got a call from the Sears guy saying he didn’t have the 4 tires in stock he thought he had, and we could get the car back anytime, I hurried up my sake consumption. The waitress returned, and took the rest of our plates (they had been floating around during the meal, and as soon as any piece of plateware or lid or anything was finished, they would remove them from the table almost instantly. Definitely made me feel like I was at a fancier establishment than my tee shirt and shorts I was wearing indicated). We paid our bill and received our Japanese fruit flavored gum in a box, you all know the kind. We walked out and I made a mental note to return more often. Hopefully, this is one restaurant I will keep good on my promise.

Belgian Ale Night

It was a day like any other day. Trying to graduate school and squeeze in time to do experiments between all kinda of administrative nonsense and mountains of useless paperwork, but at least the evening held the promise of something delicious. Dr. Didier Depireux, a Belgian, had his parents bring a few bottles of beer over when they visited recently and it just so happened one of the bottles is Jim’s french-canadian roommate’s favorite beer: Forbidden fruit. This beer was the reason for the occasion.  Brewed by Hoegaarden and known as ‘verboden vrucht’, the bottle had a crown top metal cap (unusual for Belgian beers, I think).

Jim acquired a rather large bottle of Chimay red to use as a baseline comparison. The bottle of Forbidden fruit was smaller, and the bottle had a substantial quantity of sediment in it, something I dont mind too much (also, it’s high in vitamins!) especially since all my homebrew also has it.  We opened both, pouring each a sample of the Chimary red and the Forbidden fruit, cheersed to Didier and his family, and took a drink of the Forbidden fruit.

I have to say, despite the fact that I am not the world’s largest fan of Belgian style beers, this one was not too shabby.  What it lacked in body it made up for in flavor AND, very importantly, it did not have an overwhelmingly strong alcohol taste/smell to it.  For me, this is a big issue, as I usually tend to drink a substantial quantity of beer when I do drink, and I could see myself downing a few of these beers in a night, rather than just a few and waking up the following day unable to look at sun light.  The beer gave off a rather small quantity of head, something made up for by the Chimary.  The size of the head is important for a beer, as it traps in some of the aroma and maintains some of the carbonation.  However, Forbidden fruit had a very nice carbontaion style.  The bubbles were very very small, almost champagne style, which made the Chimary’s bubbles seem very large by comparisson.  You could actually feel the difference between the two while drinking.  I do feel that Forbidden fruit would have lost a good deal of its carbonation within a few minutes, so you’d be doing yourself a favor by drinking up.

I was a bit surprised by tasting this beer, since I head some quick reviews online and the tastings were all over the place.  A lot of people tasted a bitter beer with alcohol finish, others had a sweet beer with no alcohol, or sweet with alcohol, etc.  In the end, I’d have to say the beer had sweet malty taste, without a big alcohol taste, and had a dry finish.  You could smell some overtones of fruit… but not citrus, though I’d need another beer to be able to better detect the fruit.  Not a bad beer, and in the lineup, I’d put it above Chimary Red as far as categorizing beers based on goodness goes.  Maybe next time we can compare it to Chimary Blue!

Recommended pairings: A strong cheese… I’m thinking bleu and a real sharp cheddar (NY aged, of course).  You might be able to get away with the classic mussels dish, but it should be a very strongly seasoned and flavorful dish to match the flavors in the beer.

July 4th Pig Roast

This past friday was July 4th, and I felt it was time to celebrate our independence from the British empire the way Americans should celebrate: by getting drunk with friends.  However, I felt that, given all the recent issues and troubles our nation has been experiencing, from erosion of constitutional civil liberties to economics woes and war, we needed something a little extra.  Thus, the first annual July 4th Pig roast celebration was born.  Complete with homebrew!

This party had been on my mind for month, since February after we held our much-delayed 2nd annual Gregtoberfest.  In anticipation, I searched online for recipes of beers from some of our great founding fathers and came across three:  George Washington’s Porter, Ben Franklin’s Spruce Ale, and Thomas Jefferson’s Wheat beer.  Given that I dont enjoy porters, I ruled out George Washington’s beer for now.  The spruce ale sounded very intriguing, and the Maryland homebrew store does have spruce extract for such such an occasion, but I decided to leave this beer for an experimental batch for myself, rather than give to people.  Thus, Thomas Jefferson’s recipe was chosen.  Preparation began in April and the beer was racked in early May, about when i started searching for the pig.

My usual butcher (J.W. Treuth) did not have whole hogs for sale, and being that I dont like small undertakings, I continued to search for a good one.  Luckily, my boss informed me of Wagner’s our in New Market, MD.  I called them up and very quickly they informed me I could have any size hog I wanted, and the different prices associated with the poundage.  I settled on a 37.5 lb pig and we agreed on a pickup date and that was that.  I was the proud potential owner of a pig.  The next issue was clear…. How to cook it?

If there’s one thing any good American knows, it’s that BBQ is awesome, and that roasted meats are awesome (sorry pescatarians and such, I dont mean to offend, I’m just stating my opinions on the matter).  After weeks of searching through recipes and consulting cooks, I decided to follow a rough estimate of what the internet Italians call ‘porchetta”.  When I finally got my pig, I salted the meat for 24hrs, squeezed lemon juice on the skin (it helps break down the fats under the skin) and added cracked black pepper to the animal and let it sit in my fridge.  The following 12 hrs I added a bit more salt, stuffed the pig with many (and I do mean many) garlic cloves, fresh sage leaves, rosemary and some fennel, along with 4 lbs of loose sage sausage.  I then proceeded to sew up the animal, and inserted garlic cloves in various places under the skin and let the animal sit in the fridge overnight, for the roasting day.  I also prepared a basting solution of water, salt, olive oil, black pepper corns, garlic, fennel, rosemary, oregano, sugar and a medium sweetness blush wine.  Keep in mind this was basting for a large animal for several hours, so the total solution volume must have been well over a gallon… for your own preparation records!

Come July 4th, I awoke and ran downstairs, possibly more excited than a kid at christmas.  I assembled a spit that one of my Greek friend’s mother’s was gracious enough to lend to me, skewered the pig, tied him up and started the coals.  By 9am, I had the pig roasting on the fire, trying to be careful to keep the coals near the hams and shoulders, since these are thicker parts and require more heat than the gut.  Almost exactly 6 hours of roasting later, the pig was done and left to cool on a table, prepared for butchering when guests arrived.  And arrive they did!  Over the course of 9 hours, we must have put down easily 200 beers, a small pony keg of heineken, several bottles of wine, and a couple shots of tequila.  oh, and some pig brains too.  Approx. 50 people made their way through my house, consuming almost all the food and almost all the beer.  The perfect party!  The pig was a little salty, which I felt went well with the beer available.  The TJ wheat beer was a hit as well (though I felt it lacked a little something extra… maybe next time!).  All in all, things worked out well.

In the end, I realized that when you roast an animal, people come from all sorts of places to eat it.  However, I am looking forward to my next excuse to roast an animal.  Anyone have any good reasons excuses??

 

The Best Homemade Beer I Have Ever Made

Well, I just finished the last of a beer i brewed two septembers ago.  It was one of my first and more adventurous beers…. an Oak Whiskey Russian Imperial Stout.  And I have to say, aged over 18 months that thing tasted REAL good.  It actually was a fairly simple recipe, since I used an imperial stout kit for my base.  Added extra maltose to the wort to give the beer a nice creamy texture (which really didnt come out until it aged atleast 6 months in the bottle).  While the beer was in the primary fermenter, i soaked oak chips in a mixture of Irish whiskeys: Bushmill’s black and a touch of Jameson.  I also added a few drops of Jack Daniels… i have a bottle I bought at the distillery on my motorcycle trip and I never drink it straight, as I dont like Jack.  anyway, I let those soak for about 6 days and when i transfered the beer to the secondary, my goal was to add about half the whiskey… but when I got there, I made a last minute decision to add but a tiny bit of the whiskey (I wanted to drink a shot or so) and to add all of the oak chips.  I let this sit for about 2 months before bottling.  I recommend other people muck about with this general idea.  I never did check my specific gravity before bottling, so I cant give you an approximation of alcohol content, but I can tell you this:  sometimes girls would ask for a stout at my house during a party, her first beer, and i would give her one of those.  and in about 30 minutes they’d be complaining about being drunk.