Goodies First

Caught Between the Mooncake and New York City

These unnaturally colored mooncakes exemplify why I love places like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong. They’re not afraid to experiment with food, and I don’t mean in a molecular gastronomy way. Both of my visits to the region happened to fall during mooncake season and I was amazed each time by the number of modern varieties. New York’s Chinatowns are still firmly entrenched in the traditional baked red bean cakes not these rainbow hued “snow skin” types.

Of course tradition has its place. But I don’t think that quality ingredients and crazy presentations need be mutually exclusive. I think much of the reason why I can’t get excited about local, sustainable, organic or whatever, is because while possibly tasty, it’s not very fun. Or maybe pristine produce and small producers just doesn’t rev me up. Novelty impresses me, I’m afraid.

I have no idea how this particular Chinese chef created his gummi bear and lavender flavored mooncakes or achieved those shades of pink and blue. Probably not naturally--is that a problem? It doesn’t bother me, but I’m also fine with fake green pistachio gelato, red velvet cake…and even Velveeta.

Big Boys Kitchen via The Kitchn

Blue's Clues

Maybe I’ve been watching too much too much HGTV because this weekend I decided to get into the open house game. Just what sort of stuff is selling in my neighborhood, anyway?

Apparently, scary stuff. I now know that $1.6 mil will get you a stuccoed townhouse with security cameras, next to a junk yard on a dead end warehouse-centric street that dead-ends at the Gowanus canal. There might also be a scary pit bull in the paved-over backyard, a one-armed realtor, carpeted floor-to-ceiling columns, Jacuzzi tub, metallic flower vase sculpted to look like two guns and lots of vitamins and protein powder on the counters of the most overwhelmingly glossy blue kitchen you could ever imagine.

I’ve lamented for years about the lack of color in American kitchens (and the abuse of travertine and granite). Even though you wouldn’t know if from my current mishmash apartment décor, I’m obsessed with everything green (despite having little interest in the Upper East Side or Italian food, I’m smitten with the color scheme at new restaurant, Alloro, and might have to pay a visit just to see the unbelievable greenness in person) and fantasize about the day I can apply the emerald hue in a serious way.

So, I have to admire the homeowners’ dedication to a single color (and I know the brand must’ve cost a pretty penny) but this abomination makes me question my own taste a bit. However, this blue kitchen renews my faith some.

And the pseudo-serious house hunt continues.

Who Knew Cake Was Seasonal?

Yes, I was confused by the “Nothing Says Summer Like Icing” headline in today’s dining section, but then the Times always makes declarative statements that mean nothing to me.

I guess cakes can be summer food if you want them to be, but the paper is going to have an awfully hard time convincing me that twentysomethings making $60,000 a year are struggling.

I do love a layer cake, though. And the more garish, the better.

Someone Just Fell Off the Turnip Truck

Purple carrots and blue potatoes are hardly a new story (rainbow produce was new to me six years ago and I’m sure it wasn’t new then) and mildly strange for the Wall Street Journal treatment, but unnaturally colored food is one of my passions, so I’ll admit that their slideshow is fun to watch.

Recently, I noticed that they even have bright orange cauliflower at crazy cheap Rossman Farms, my go to conventionally grown produce (and Sabra hummus) source. They also have rainbow chard at Fairway. Vibrantly hued vegetables are now totally mainstream it seems.

Gatorade+Snapple+Alize=Awesome

You know enough is enough when even Evite gets into the food blogging business. Um, but that doesn’t mean I won’t click on photos of bright red, white and blue cocktails. And sweet jesus, imagine my surprise when I found out the classy beverages didn’t just include Snapple, Gatorade and Alize, but Roland wildberry cherries, too.

 

Every time I’m at the Shop Rite in Linden, NJ (which is more often than I’d care to admit) I ogle all the neon hued jarred cherries above the ice cream freezer. Finally, I broke down a few months ago and bought the damn blue ones because I’m soft-minded when it comes to edibles in abnormal colors. It’s not like I’ve eaten any—they’re just sitting on a makeshift bar waiting for the opportunity.

I’ve been dying to try Rothman & Winter’s sort of recently released Crème de Violette, primarily so I can make an aviation and then sully the lavender beauty with a turquoise cherry. In the mean time I might have to settle for the Big Blue Buzz. Aw, who needs homemade sarsaparilla and artisanal tonic water, anyway? The whole neo-pre-prohibition era cocktail trend is so 2007. Evite knows 2008 is about food coloring and artificial flavors.

Deep Purple

I went on a mini Filipino baked goods binge this weekend. I think my fascination with blue rice nasi kerabu (I encountered another enticing photo the other day) spawned a more accessible in NYC ube craze.

These purple yam products have frustrated me into actually reading my camera manual and online tutorials to no avail. The purple I see with my eyes is much warmer and more magenta than the bluish deep color that shows up digitally. Unfortunately, you’re not getting finely tuned photos because around 2pm I had to abandon my mission. The urge to check out the Cat Show struck and I was forced to get out of my pajamas and hightail it in order to justify the $15 entry fee with 5pm closing time.

 

My first find was a slice of ube layer cake after a meal at Engeline’s (which I’m not detailing at this moment). As you can see from the photo, the guts got a little mangled, not from getting knocked around in the car but from crazy slicing. I expected it to be dense from afar, but it's actually a chiffon cake that's very light and not overly sweet.

 

After a stop at the Phil-Am market down the street, I came away with an ensaymada from a New Jersey bakery. These sweet rolls have always weirded me out a bit because of the mildly strange butter, granulated sugar and grated cheese topping. That’s not really a bad flavor combination but I’m more accustomed to cream cheese as pastry cheese. I used to have the same mixed feelings about cheddar cheese with apple pie. The ube filling is randomly and sparsely striated throughout the bun. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more swirling.

 

Ok, puto (which if I'm correct, isn't always a word used to describe an edible treat) are fairly bland and not ube affiliated at all (and somehow instead of fixing the color, I managed on narrowing the frame) but I couldn’t resist the purple muffin-ish blobs and then found a combo pack with all three colors available. These are simple steamed treats made from rice flour and the colors have no bearing on their flavor. I do love the springiness of sweets made with non-wheat meals, mochi being the most extreme. These bright fluff balls will be good for breakfast during the week. I was getting kind of sick of granola bars.

Am I Blue

When life gives you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade, which is kind of stupid if you ask me. If I'm feeling blue, I look at blue food. It's kind of the same concept, right? Instead of dwelling on life's little annoyances, I culled nasi kerabu's greatest visual hits.

I’ve never seen nasi kerabu (Malaysian herbed rice) in person, but I’m in love with the idea of dyeing rice colors even though I’m not sure that I understand the logic behind it. I just don’t think blue rice would fly with the typical American consumer, which is one more reason why I have to give props to Malay Peninsula cuisine. These are not people who are afraid of rainbow hues--just look at the pans of agar-agar that masak-masak (yes, double words are another regional trademark) photographed at a Ramadan bazaar. The blue rice above, came from another such bazaar.  All we get at street fairs in NYC are grilled Italian sausages and mozzarepas.

Actually, I think a lot of modern cooks use food coloring rather than the traditional bunga telang/pea flower to achieve this look. (I know a lot of the intense purples in Filipino ube-based snacks aren’t naturally derived. Wow, this Pillsbury ube hotcake mix is one of the craziest things I've ever seen.) And not all nasi kerabu is even blue; most recipes I see don’t call for tinting at all.

When researching a trip to Malaysia in 2005, I relied a bit on Lonely Planet World Food Malaysia and Singapore (which I now know was photographed by the always on trend Chubby Hubby) and kept coming back to a photo of Kelantanese woman placing bean sprouts on top of a plate of blue rice. It reminded me of a childhood impulse to keep returning to engrossing illustrations in picture encyclopedias. Unfortunately, my ‘80s Childcraft set is in storage across country (or at least I hope it still is—it freaks me out to think that I still have at least ten boxes somewhere in Portland with records, books, kitchenware and possibly a few clothing items which are probably so ‘90s that I could now re-wear them and be in fashion. Er, I might’ve gotten rid of the Childcraft books now that I think about it) so I can’t look up the exact photo I’m thinking of.

I’m fairly certain it was the “Look and Learn” volume on science that contained an image of a tableau of food that was supposed to be unappetizing because the colors were all wrong. I think there was a green orange, black cookies, white butter, a pitcher of milk that wasn’t white, and a few more items. There had to have been something atypically blue but I can’t say for sure. I thought the food looked cool rather than disgusting. Childcraft is the reason I know about anything I know today and why my knowledge level is that of a nine year old.

I have a few recipes for nasi kerabu in cookbooks, though in print and on the internet there are many more for nasi ulam, which is kind of the same thing; they’re both herbed rice salads but nasi kerabu is the one that’s usually blue. So many of the dishes in my cookbooks that sound unusual and worth tackling are next to impossible because we just don’t have access to the same ingredients. For this dish you need bunga kantan, daun kesom, cekur leaves, kaduk leaves, turmeric leaves and more depending on the version. I have basil, mint and frozen pandan and kaffir lime leaves covered but that’s it.

When and if I get back to Malaysia (I had originally planned on Langkawi and elsewhere for vacation 2008, and am still trying to figure out how China became the destination instead, not that I'm complaining about going to China) I’ll have to seek this dish out.

More on nasi kerabu from Cyber Kuali

Photos from:
masak-masak
Cheat Eat
kleinmatt66 via Flickr
Felix KL via Flickr
hazlini5555 via Flickr

My Kind of Health Food

Yay, blue food, and now it’s healthy. Well, at least blue corn tortillas are, according to a study from the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. For what it's worth, it seems that they’re higher protein and lower glycemic than white varieties. I’ve never been a voracious tortilla eater, but I’ll at least keep blue ones in mind since they're so handsome. I wonder if there’s any extra benefit to eating blue cornbread?

Eat Your Greens (and Blues)

It’s not as if backwards phrases like freedom fries would ever cross my lips but I’m definitely not gaga over everything Gallic. I fail to understand the foodie obsession with French culture. Blind romantic notions about the European country seem about as clichéd as our gun toting, fatso, junk food gorging image. It’s all misguided—just ask the Japanese.

However, Sunday’s New York Times profile of Frédérick E. Grasser-Hermé had an appeal I normally don’t find in subjects of “The Way We Eat” column. Who else but an eccentrically stylish (I do admire the way older European women tend to resist surgerizing their faces into supposed youthfulness—of course, their age appropriate visages sit atop a frighteningly svelte figure) middle aged French woman could go crazy with unnatural colors and combos and make it chic instead of kitsch?

I’d like to see her set of books, Serial Colors, each devoted to recipes using a single color. As she describes in the Times “the rainbow of my dreams: a white polar-bear cocktail, a black truffle pizza, a blue lobster roll, violet mashed potatoes with cassis. . . .” Blue lobster? Naturally blue crustaceans are incredibly rare (about one in a million) so she must mean that the flesh has been rendered azure somehow. This is something I need to know more about.

Freakishly colored food has always brought joy into my life, and the more shades of blue employed the better. Of course, my dabbling leans more towards tasty monstrosities like blue velvet cake not “cobalt blue flying-fish roe mounded on top of a marrow bone and peas and grated carrots suspended in a square of agar-agar.” Preservative laden or certified organic, it doesn’t matter to me—I’ll take green Hostess Sno-Balls and rainbow chard.

Now That's a Green Grocer

How come no one told me there were green Peeps this year? Non-vegetable green food is my passion. I liked Target’s red Peeps out of sheer novelty but red is not Easter. Sea foam green totally is.

I’m not one to get all wound up over supersizing but I’m pretty sure that single boxes were the norm when I was a kid. Now, you’re forced to buy three-packs that are tantalizingly cheap. Despite the $1.29 price on these, they were only 99-cents at CVS and probably elsewhere too. Fifteen Peeps for a buck seems like a bargain, though I discovered that a serving is five marshmallow chicks.

  Really, 140 calories of sugar and fluff is kind of benign in the scheme of things, especially considering I’m about to head out for a decadent Easter barrage at East Buffet. What’s more festive than all you can eat peking duck, crab legs and shrimp dumplings?

I Say Macaroon

Maybe I’m just dumb (and kind of disinterested in Francophilia and Judaism) but I just now realized that macaroons and macarons two very different things and that the golden, haystacky blobs I’m familiar with are a Passover treat. I just thought they were plain ol' coconut cookies. Even Kraft knew, and they make freaking Teddy Graham banana splits.

In the past year or so I’d noticed food blog saturation with the French meringue cookies (the single item equivalent to Shake Shack and Ssam bar mania—two other icons I’ve avoided). There’s an entire Flickr group devoted to them and in a super cursory search, I immediately turned up 1, 2, 3, 4 posts all by Asian females, which confuses me even further. But I never noticed until this week that the coconut-less circles are spelled macaron, no double O. How did these two cookies both become so closely named? I guess edibles like Spanish and Mexican tortillas are even more wildly disparate with the exact name, and the two don’t give me problems.

I’m fascinated by their unnatural colors (I’m sure I’ve mentioned how my mom used to food color mini A&W mugs of milk green so I would drink it) though I’m not understanding how all the rainbow brightness is reconciled with supposed Parisian élan. It seems rather gauche to me and I know from gauche. Regardless, Laudree looks like they know what they’re doing.

The taste? I have no idea but now I’m hell bent on getting my mitts on an emerald green macaron. Where can I get these downtown or in Brooklyn? It’s not likely I’ll make it up to Bouchon Bakery or Fauchon anytime soon.

Macaron photo by gnuf 

Veg or Veggies Will Never Cross My Lips

I’ve never been one who gets all crazy over greenmarkets. Produce is ok, but I don’t soil myself over Fairy Tale eggplants or donut peaches. But last week on one of my many free days (after my Spanish lesson, which I’m going to have to quit because I can’t afford them anymore. I’m feeling guilty and haven’t told my tutor yet even though I’m supposed to get back to him today about scheduling the next class. I don’t know why I feel bad about depriving him of income when it’s not like anyone extends such courtesies my direction) I decided to hit Union Square for end of summer corn and heirloom tomatoes.

Last week I made a rule that I’d try to eat more fruit and vegetables and fewer fatty and sugary items and exercise more and stay away from cigarettes. I’ve done decently, though not perfectly with the eating and activity aspect but my smoking (which I technically quit in 2003) is completely out of control. If I don’t watch it I’m going to get one of those raspy middle-aged voices (or lose my voice box altogether, which would be a shame because I have so many wonderful things yet to say). I put aside health concerns while in Barcelona early last month with the idea that I’d clean up my act when the vacation ended. That has yet to happen. I think today the carton of Export As that James bought in Montreal will run out and I won’t be able to sneak them anymore. And that’s good because I'm too cheap to buy my own.

So, over the past few days I’ve gone nuts with vegetables. And yes, I don’t deny that heirloom tomatoes taste a million times better than grocery store balls of red mush but they’re not the types of edibles that I have the wherewithal to track down on a regular basis. The dilemma is that when I have the weekday freedom to leisurely shop for food in non-nearby neighborhoods it’s likely because I’m not at work (there are a hell of a lot of people who don’t seem to have a care in the world. Today while walking to the subway around 1:45pm for my Monday 2:30-11:30 shift the sidewalks were clogged with couples walking dogs and sitting at cafes. Who the hell are these layabouts? And don’t tell me they’re all students or work nights) which means I don’t feel good about spending extra money on organic produce.

Taste aside, I just like food (natural or not) that comes in bright colors because it’s pretty (I’ve also been fascinated by the white chocolate pirate M&Ms in pearly shades). Last night I made succotash, which I’ve never had freshly made and it was amazing, no doubt because it contained heavy cream, bacon and butter, duh. I also fixed an heirloom tomato and blue cheese salad (left) and stacked tomato salad with black olive tapenade and sweet basil dressing (despite being a Bobby Flay recipe. I know I’m not the only one disturbed by his attempt at “throwing down” the cooks at the Red Hook ball fields). I don’t know how long this fresh food bender will last. Probably until I get home late tonight and delve into the bag of junk food we bought at Target last week (I can’t resist the Halloween aisle). Mini Take 5s (my favorite vaguely new mainstream candy) Archer Farms Monster Bites and cinnamon apple caramel corn (I do love how non-NYC newspapers have blogs with subjects like snack food from Target) are going to be the death of me (if that irresistible nicotine doesn’t get me first).

I Heart Swad

I used to think Patak's was the shit, but then I got wise to Swad. Perhaps this brand is the Kraft of India, I don't know, but they do seem to manufacture every food product you could ever want--from chickpea flour to ready to eat meals (better than the ubiquitous Tasty Bite boxes that are probably getting more popular in the city thanks to Trader Joe's). And it's all packaged so sensibly with both Hindi and English terms and a large color photo.

One of my most favorite products, and not just in the Swad canon, is something called Far Far Coloured (more generically, I think they're called farfar or wafers). At least on a visual level. I'm not sure about taste as I haven't attempted cooking mine yet. It looks like rainbow colored pasta, but if I'm correct you deep fry it. There aren't any directions on the bag. The only place I've seen a before and after preparation pic is an egullet post.

I go nuts buying Swad whenever I hit Patel Brothers (do note the Swad logo watermark on this site) in Jackson Heights. Canned, boxed, bagged, jarred, frozen, I covet all of it. You can use as little or as much Swad as you'd like. I don't usually feel like making cheese from scratch, and sometimes I'm not up for toasting and grinding spices. Mincing garlic and ginger isn't a problem for me, but if that's too much you can buy the essential combo in a jar. I keep it on hand just in case. Same goes for frozen items like bird chiles that aren't easy to find in Carroll Gardens, or more obscure vegetables like drumsticks. Fresh spinach is fine, but I love Swad's tidy ziplocked palak that comes pureed in little blocks ready to cook with.

Last night I made a lazy palak paneer, which I'm sure would make purists cry, but I'm not anal about Indian cooking they way I am with S.E. Asian dishes. Essentially, I cooked down onion, garlic and ginger then added garam masala, a few hot pepper flakes, then tossed in a bag of spinach with cheese cubes following soon after. I splashed in a little half and half, as it was the only creamy thing in the house. Really, you should make your spice blend and brown the cheese separately. And the whole thing ends up as a rich ghee-filled amalgam. Instead, I used canola oil and raw cheese, as I'm trying to watch the rampant fat. It wasn't half-bad, but more vegetable forward and less like creamed spinach.

I used Swad brand paneer, garam masala, palak and mango pickle. Unfortunately, I was all out of Swad radish-stuffed naan. A nice Swad gulab jamun would've been the perfect nightcap, but I had to settle on a quarter tub (I actually managed to only eat one serving) of Ben & Jerry's Turtle Soup, which was kind of boring for that genre of ice cream. I like more crap in my frozen desserts.

Blue Velvet

I like to believe that I’m decent cook, maybe even a little above average. But I’ve come to a tough realization: I’m a really bad baker. Maybe it’s all the weights, measures, precision, kitchen science. I don’t know, but everything I attempt (which isn’t that often) ends up flat and hard rather than light and fluffy.

When we were teens, my sister would occasionally make chocolate chip cookies, and they’d always come out crispy and thin. (Then she got into vegan baking and I would’ve killed for one of those hard as  rock, but at least dairy laden cookies.) That was displeasing because I want a chocolate chip cookie to be fat and chewy. I never said anything at the time, so I don’t know why it’s popping into my head now.

My country ham accompanying biscuits from January fell victim to the hard and flat curse. The last birthday cake I made, which was at least three years ago, also turned out hard and flat. With that disaster, I recall whipping egg whites in a not completely clean bowl and the peaks never properly formed. It was my own mistake.

This year I decided to tackle the birthday cake again. I looked at a zillion recipes, and kept getting swayed by complicated, multi-step, exquisite ingredient confections. This seemed like an accident waiting to happen, so I switched to the good and simple camp. Red velvet cake is tasty, pretty, easy and economical, and everyone seems to like it. Me, I’m just drawn to the artificial scarlet hue. I found a recipe for Cakeman Raven’s version, which I’ve had before so I knew I’d like it. It had to have a cream cheese frosting, not buttercream.

But I didn’t want to do red. Of course, green immediately consumed my thoughts, but it’s too close to St. Patrick’s Day to not be corny (ha, like there'd ever be a time of year where it would be classy). It had to be a blue velvet cake (having nothing to do with the recent 20th anniversary of said film) and it’d have to be the most intense crazy blue ever or why bother.

I wanted gel dye because it’s more intense than the watery grocery store pigments, and I just happened to be near Sur la Table (I don’t get the big deal with that place—it made me very anxious) while picking up lots of Spanish goodies at the new-ish Despaña Foods on Broome Street. I think you’re only supposed to use a few drops of the gel because it’s insanely intense (the dishwasher, sink and counter looked like a raspberry Slurpee had melted all over them by the time I was done). But the recipe called for one ounce, not specifying what kind of dye. The tiny gel bottle was ¾ ounce, so I figured using it all would be good. Would that have fucked up the ingredients somehow?

Anyway, the cake turned out acceptably. And I was beyond pleased with the shade of blue. Can you believe it? But when I put the batter into the three pans, it seemed that there wasn’t enough. Does cake rise? This one didn’t, and the layers ended up maybe one inch each. I guess times three that’s substantial, but I wanted big blue puffy strata. The crumb was a little coarse, it tasted perfectly good, but was the texture of cornbread. And the frosting wasn’t proportional. I swear, layer cakes always end up with not enough at the end, so I was sparing with the in between stripes only to be left with an excess. Plus, I couldn’t get into the bottom crevices because I was retarded and set the cake into a recessed carrier before not after icing the damn thing.

But it was really really blue and really sweet and rich, and that’s what's important.

What a Sham

I've always been overly enamored with unnaturally colored food, particularly green things, simply because I think the shades are pretty. Spinach is tasty enough but its hue is hardly swoon-inducing. Chocolate chip mint ice cream? Now that's a nice eye-pleasing item. Don't even get me started on the beauty of grasshopper pie.

When I was wee, I'd make an annual fuss about wanting a Shamrock Shake (they also had Shamrock Sundaes, if you recall), which was indulged at least a couple of times. It's funny because I'm just now getting around to reading Fast Food Nation (that's me, ahead of the curve) and just read a bit about marketing fast food to toddlers in an effort to snare customers for life. I was trying to recall if I ever felt little kid urges for fast food, but the only advertising that definitely worked on me was the Shamrock Shake promotion. I've always been a sucker for limited editions.

But really, that had more to do with my passion for the color green (it's been my favorite color since birth, my family knows that, and I've always planned on having a green wedding dress when and if that day comes, and then this past weekend my mom mentioned that my younger sister who's getting married for the second time this summer was having a green wedding dress made. We totally have a friendly relationship despite living in different countries and rarely seeing each other, but that seriously pissed me off. In fact, it's making my blood boil this very second as I recount it in type) than necessarily wanting to eat at McDonald's.

The tragedy is that I hate mint (I've grown to love fresh mint in savory dishes--but as a sweet flavor component it just doesn't work for me) so my parents would actually order me a coveted shake and then I would get grossed out after first couple sips. I know this happened on more than one occasion, and I'm surprised now looking back, that it was even tolerated. That's why I don't have kids, finicky tots would make me lose my shit.

I?m sure it's been at least 25 years since last trying a Shamrock Shake. It's doubtful that I'd truly enjoy one as an adult, but I would like to be able to at least see one. NYC is about crushing dreams, so their big city McDonald's franchises don't sell them. I bet if you asked a Brooklyn counter person what a shamrock was, they wouldn't even know. Not that I would try that sort of buffoonery--I'm just saying.

I'm not alone in my quest:
Bring Back the Shamrock Shake
X-Entertainment

Festival of Bites

Mithai make my teeth hurt and my tongue happy. I’ve always been a sucker for hyper pigmented foods, sweets in particular. But I’m more familiar with tiny S.E. Asian style snacks than these Indian counterparts. Where Malaysian/Singaporean kueh, Thai kanom and Vietnamese banh tend to be variations on glutinous rice, rice flour, coconut milk, agar-agar and mung beans (it’s amazing the mileage you can get out of small repertoire), mithai revolve around evaporated milk, ghee, chickpea flour, nuts and spices (often cardamom and saffron). Dairy definitely looms larger and creates a richness that coconut milk can’t.

I’ve come to know and love the fudgey-textured burfi (sometimes called barfi, but I prefer the more appetizing spelling) and syrup soaked galub jamun. The high sugar content isn’t what causes the tooth ache—my sweet tooth knows no bounds—it’s the sometimes used edible silver leaf that’s the culprit. I have the feeling that if these goodies were all whites and neutrals I would be less enamored of them than in their magenta and chartreuse glory. That is their beauty. Americans (of a certain type) tend to be down on the unnatural and artificial, but how do you argue with tradition? But then, I also like the fake green pistachio gelato better than the dull toned purist version.

There are quite a few places around the city to pick up some mithai. Sukhadia’s and Rajbhog are both chains, but there are also smaller shops and branches of these two biggies in neighborhoods like Jackson Heights and Richmond Hill, Queens (not to mention my new favorite New Jersey locale, Edison). Buying these gems is almost an old fashioned candy counter experience, they are tucked on trays in glass cases, come by the pound and are placed in a little box tied with string.

Having a limited knowledge of mithai, I only a vague idea what any particular item is since they’re not labeled or described in any fashion. And being NYC, there’s always a crowd around the counter so I feel pressured to move it along and pick and point quickly and without questions. But then, I’m overly sensitive to this sort of thing, holding up lines, looking dumb, when I see inquisitive, indecisive folks all the time.

I recently stopped by a storefront whose name I can’t recall on 74th St. in Jackson Heights. My interest had been rekindled while reading a recent New York Times article on mithai, but I waited until the weekend after Diwali to beat the holiday hordes. I indulged in the sweets pictured below, and I’m not sure how long six pieces are meant to last, but I purchased them Saturday afternoon and had eaten them all by Sunday evening. That’s exactly why I can’t have candy sitting around the house.

Pista (pistachio) burfi and something Rajbhog calls sweet cutlet, though I suspect that’s not its proper name.

Blue Mood

I swear I’m not obsessed with this crunchy new Trader Joe’s offering, but Monteblue & Populet fits one of my fixations. I hadn’t really thought of this blueberry infested caramel corn as blue food when I purchased it. The overall tone is golden, the dried berries a deep indigo that hardly registers as blue. I spent a Sunday intermittently picking at the sweet popped kernels, but forgot about my grazing by the time Monday kicked in. While performing some late night toothbrushing, rinsing and spitting, I became mildly alarmed by the baby blue froth sitting in the sink. Ah, the monteblue had left its fruity mark. It was a pretty shade really, like Roux Fanci-full rinse in Blue Mood (I used to use this on my bleached hair in high school, but it doesn’t seem to exist any more). Maybe the thought of hair products for the silver set isn’t appetizing to all, but I like the connection.

Pepsi Re-Generation

  I was wowed enough to find 7-Elevens in S.E. Asia (and boy, are the combo meals a doozy) but I almost lost it when I saw a display of limited edition Pepsi Blue in one of the Hong Kong stores. As I’ve boringly reiterated countless times, I don’t even drink soda (I like chewing sugar, but gulping it in liquid form seems pointless) but I love me some blue food. I’m kind of sad that the early ‘00s crazy color food fad has died down, at least in America. Maybe Hong Kong will pick up the slack.

Nights in Purple Satin

This past weekend at Target I was almost able to recapture the original joy I felt when first discovered purple spooky cat Peeps. Always a sucker for new merchandising gimmicks, I couldn’t resist the Peeps cat purple satin pillow. I don’t know if this is a new product or not, but I’d never seen it before. Never mind how disturbing it is to be faced with aisles of Halloween candy when it’s still mid-80s and humid, I still bought the cat (and somehow refrained from the sweets).

As I’ve said probably a million times before, I’m not much of a soda person (I wish I could say the same for other sweet junk food). I don’t feel the urge to drink many brands, but Jones Sodas always look so appealing that I couldn’t resist also picking up a mini four-pack of Halloween caramel apple flavor at Target. I had no trouble leaving the candy corn flavor on the shelf, however.

Wonka & Whoppers

I killed two sassy limited edition birds with one stone, and served both Chocolicious Wonka Cakes and Vanilla Milkshake Whoppers (they also had strawberry, but I had to draw the line) at my birthday. I think guests were more scared than enticed. Not everyone is a slave to short lived snack items like I am. That’s fine.

I thought they did a nice job with the purple icing and filling. It’s hard to get the purple dye right for some reason, the same goes with paint and eye shadow. Instead of brilliant and pretty it tends to end up dull and grayed-out. When Peeps put out purple marshmallow cats a few years ago, the results were unintentionally spooky.

Joy to Behold

I thought those pina colada Almond Joys I found awhile back were as wild as it got, but at a friend’s birthday party I was treated to miniature key lime versions. Classy. Well, no one seemed to be eating them except me, as the consensus was that they were gross. The yellowish, off-white chocolate was slightly off-putting. So, of course I stuffed handfuls into my purse like the desperate bag lady that I am. I only regret not taking more.

According to their less than exciting website, passion fruit has also been given the limited edition treatment. Who knew?

Red & Pink

Red Peeps. This year has seen the advent of the Peep making machine and Peep in a chocolate egg. But it’s new color, not contraptions that catch my attention and red Peeps scream “look at me, eat me.” These new un-Easter shaded treats are being called Target red, and I guess they’re only being sold at Target (duh). A lot of clout, that Target.

Not exclusive to any particular store, and probably not even all that new, but in the same color family is Strawberry Cool Whip. (Ah, it’s seasonal for Spring and Summer. The cooler months get french vanilla flavored whip.) Cool Whip is hard for me to abide in any state—I’ve become a whip cream purist with age—but pink is an endearing color for the fluff (speaking of, I picked up a jar of strawberry marshmallow fluff at Jack’s the great, but perpetually crowded 99-cent store near work). And look what can be made with Strawberry Cool Whip and three additional Kraft products: scary tiramisu.

Shrek & Spice

Yeah, Shrek’s made his ugly way into everything. But these fluffy green filled Twinkies caught my attention anyway. It’s probably due to my love of any unnaturally green food (lettuce? Not so much love). I used to go nuts every St. Patrick’s Day when McDonald’s would do shamrock shakes and sundaes. After begging for one, I’d invariably be disappointed by the mint flavor (mint’s never done much for me, which is troublesome for someone with green as a favorite color). I’m not sure how many years this begging then rejecting scenario ensued before my parents stopped giving in to my demands. Luckily, Shrek Twinkies don’t taste minty green, they just are.

Once again, I’ve become fascinated by soda even though I don’t really have a taste for it. No, I’m not even going to discuss those limited edition Thanksgiving-themed Jones sodas. Pepsi Spice is for the masses. More interesting than the beverage are the scary little recipes for things liked baked yams using…you guessed it, Pepsi Spice. Perhaps even scarier is this person’s quest to only drink Pepsi Spice for a month and a half.

Star-Spangled Doodles

I’m not generally a chip eater, though I do have a fondness for Cheetos-esqe snacks (though if you asked my mom she wouldn’t agree that Cheetos even are chips. I practically got beaten as a child when she gave me money to run into Albertson’s and buy chips for dinner and I came out with Cheetos) if they’re presented to me. But I couldn’t resist the zaniness of Wise’s Star-Spangled Doodles. I’d never seen red, white and blue cheese puffs before. It wasn’t until I got them home that I realized that it had almost been a month since 4th of July, and that the expiration date on the bag read 7/13/04. This didn’t stop me from enjoying my festive booty, but it did make me even more suspicious of the horrible neighborhood Key Foods than I already was.

Love See No Color

M&M’s have done it again. It wasn’t enough to create shades for every season and holiday (when did they start that anyway? It seems like a given now, but it was probably the ’80s), and to allow custom colors via their website. Now they’ve gone extreme (or simple, depending upon how you view it) with the introduction of the new black & white, i.e. colorless M&M’s. Since this seems to be some promotional/contest thing, I’m curious how long these hues will last. Even more curious is their recipe for baklava (they took the damn link down).

All Dressed Up

After hearing how Heinz’s sky blue and chocolate flavored Funky Fries were being discontinued, I was upset to say the least. For one, I was never able to even find them here in NYC, and two, I feared the public had had enough with the abnormally colored food. Not true, thankfully. Naturally Fresh renewed my faith in the grotesque by creating ranch dressing (which is kind of just freaky on its own) in bright orange and purple. I don’t know what “natural” has to do with garish colored dressing, but I’ll allow them a little misrepresentation.

Year of New Editions

I don’t know why its taken me half the year to get down to business here. Keeping up with new foods is highly important work, but sometimes work, school and socializing get in the way. Anyhoo, I’ve been pretty happy with all the new, unusual flavors and colors being concocted lately. But now everyone’s declaring these new items to be “limited edition,” as if to ensure prompt purchases. Living in NYC stresses me out enough already, I don’t need the added pressure of catching goodies before they’re gone.

The white and dark chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats fall under this umbrella. I do like that white chocolate, perhaps a little out of novelty and a little out of an upbringing filled with bad taste. I don’t know why white chocolate carries a bourgeois, trashy stigma. Neon orange, glowing Mountain Dew Live Wire is also purported to only be on shelves temporarily. I don’t drink soda, so good riddance. Uh Oh Oreos are inside out and for a limited time only! It’s got nothing to do with Oreos, but has anyone seen the Sealab 2021 episode that makes crazy use of “uh-oh?” If not, there’ s no explaining.

White Kat, Big Kat

So, I hear there are White Kit Kats floating around NYC. Supposedly, they’re at Duane Reade, but I haven’t seen them. Duane Reade does have the limited edition dark chocolate Kit Kat, but who cares — that’s too classy. White chocolate is all cheap and gauche, just like me. And why is there no American Kit Kat site? I see British and Japanese (damn them, they have strawberry, banana and Hello Kitty varieties No white, though). I think it’s because Hershey’s sucks, and Kit Kats are made by Nestle elsewhere. Oh shit, but look at this. A Hershey’s mega store opening in Times Square holiday season 2002. Isn’t that right now?

Maybe I should just hold on to my horses. England had the Big Kat first, then we got it, so maybe we’ll eventually get the white chocolate and orange varieties too (they can keep their mint version). It’s just like the dulce de leche M&Ms. New York’s always the last to know when it comes to mainstream confections.

Also heard, but not seen is the rainbow Pepperidge Farm’s Goldfish. I’m starting to think I imagined seeing an ad somewhere.

Soda Pops

Soda has officially gone out of control. And for someone who doesn’t drink the stuff (if I only had a similar aversion to candy and fried food I’d be pretty healthy), I’ve certainly taken an interest in all the new flavors and colors. I knew there was a lemon diet Pepsi from that icky commercial with that little curly-haired girl, but Pepsi Twist also comes in a full sugar version. Not to be outdone, Diet Coke with Lemon is also on the market (is this new? I wasn’t familiar with it). Competing with Mountain Dew’s Code Red is Dr. Pepper Red Fusion with its enticing “bold flava.” I didn’t even know they still made Jolt, they do, and now it comes in vivid colors (with corresponding flavors) like green, blue and purple. Mr. Green is a new Dr. Pepper rip off from SoBe that entices with a neon green color. What is it with those prune flavored colas demanding titles–who could forget Mr. Pibb? I predict Rev. Red with the phattest, phreshest flava you’ve eva seen, in the near future. Word up? Speaking of the near future, next year 7up will introduce dnL, 7up backwards. The soda, bright green and caffeinated, will be the opposite of 7up’s clear and non-caffeinated formula. Apparently, in 2003 the earth turns into Bizzaro World.

I Am Curious Blue

I have a minor obsession with blue food, it just occurs so rarely in nature and it’s so pretty (same with deep blue-black flowers). Lumping purple and blue together, you have purple potatoes, blue corn, ube a.k.a. purple yam, blueberries, concord grapes and that’s about it. Fortunately, there are food scientists out there tinkering away for my novelty-craving benefit. 2002 is all about color, and for once I’m not complaining.

UNREAL
Parkay Fun Squeeze I would not eat this stuff, not so much because of the unnatural colors but because of the unnatural ingredients. Unless you’re vegan (and even that lifestyle is questionable) or have coronary issues (95% of my family) there’s no good reason to not eat butter. My thing is I don’t like eating butter when I can see it, it needs to be melted and oozy. The butter must be liquid and pooled in the crannies of my waffle, not sitting all stiff on the surface. And my question is, how will this Electric Blue and Shocking Pink stuff look once it melts. And secondly, does it melt?

Ocean Spray White Cranberry Juice Yeah, I know white is the lack of color, but it’s just plain abnormal so it counts.

Cheetos Mystery Colorz Snacks I have not actually seen these first hand yet, but the idea of neon orange fake cheese turning blue or green upon contact with saliva is an idea whose time has come. I don’t even like chips, but Cheetos are a horse of a different color. As a kid, I learned that the hard way when my mom made me run into Albertson’s for chips and I came back with Cheetos. She was not a happy woman. I halfheartedly offered to go back in and get real chips, knowing she wouldn’t bother and I’d get my snack way.

Ore-Ida Funky Fries I don’t know why their new products aren’t mentioned on their website yet. I haven’t actually seen them in the stores either, but Brooklyn’s retarded that way. Wow, this one gets my juices flowing more than any other. I love fries and potato products, and this pale Kool Blue color is downright pretty. Coupled with that green ketchup (Heinz does own Ore-Ida), this could be the start of something beautiful. Cinnamon? Chocolate? I could get used to it. Why not, everything goes with starch.

Dannon Sprinkl'ins Color Creations Yogurts  I guess these are out, though I’ve never seen them. I thought the world had gone wild in the early ’90s when the muti-colored Trix yogurt was introduced. But I’ll be damned if the ’00s aren’t downright x-treme! These babies come with blue crystals that’ll change vanilla yogurt into colors like Jelly Purple and Alligator Green. And I thought those granola toppers were the living end.

NATURAL
Move over white asparagus and boring ol’ indian corn, there’s some new produce in town. Maroon carrots aren’t so new I hear, but they’re certainly new to me. Also exciting are “Graffiti,” a purple cauliflower, “Halloween in Paris,” a bright yellow pumpkin, “Falstaff,” purple-red Brussels sprouts and various black tomatoes. I even have a yard (a near anomaly for NYC), but I’ll be damned if I know the first thing about gardening.

Times Are A Changing

Milk Changer Oreos  I’m not a big fan of store-bought cookies, but I always skim the shelves for interesting new additions. There’s always TV and movie tie-ins, like some “Atlantis” cookies from Nabisco or who knows what company. Cookies are right up there with breakfast cereal for advertising co-branding (hideous word, I know) potential. I like to note which Keebler Rainbow Chips Deluxe cookies are on the shelf, as the colors of the M&M-like candies are seasonal. They do pastels in spring, red white and blue around Fourth of July, darker jewel tones in the winter, etc. If you see the pastels in Nov., you have an idea how well a particular store monitors its stock.

But the new Oreos are the point here. I guess the stuffing contains some sort of dye that colors your milk pink when dunked into it. Creepy if you ask me, but then I was the kind of fussy youngster who wouldn’t drink milk unless my mom made it green with food coloring. All that coddling stopped by kindergarten, but I can’t deny the existence of the bad habit. Obviously I was born about 25 years too early, the food world would be my oyster right about now.

Halloween Madness

There seems to be an inordinate amount of new products out this year. Sheer craziness. I was out at my favorite grocery store, Western Beef in Ridgewood, Queens (they have the largest walk-in meat locker I’ve ever seen. Great when it’s a blistering 98° out, not so good in October) when I saw these out of control orange and black s’mores pastry treats. Remember, these are not Pop Tarts, this is the Nabisco version, and as the site says, “Even when they’re hot they’re KOOL!”

I also noticed that the Just Born company has made black cats and white ghosts in the style of marshmallow peeps. I think there must be something tricky about achieving a dark purple color with food dyes because the end result always turns out looking creepy and gray. (The same is true with cheaper brands of purple eye shadow. The color is always murky and less bright on than in the container.) This works fine for Spooky Cats since it’s Halloween and it’s o.k. to be scary and ominous, but this year Hostess tried making purple Snoballs for Easter and they were neither cheery nor festive (though they tasted mighty good).

I’ve never cared much for mint (and it always seems like when I mess up and accidentally push the wrong buttons on a vending machine, I end up with Junior Mints), but I was amused by the York’s “Peppermint Batties” I saw the other day.

I was happy when I noticed a new Rice Krispies Treat at a distance. But when I got closer and realized it was the Christmas version, I became a little dismayed. Enough already. People are still wearing shorts outside. I felt a little better about the Ghostly Rice Krispies cereal. Pumpkins and ghosts=good. Santas and snowmen=we’ll talk in a month or two.