The Bitten Word

Grilled Broccoli and The Peace of Wild Things

Cook's Country (June/July 2016)

Clay went for a run this morning in Rock Creek Park, a large national park here in Our Nation's Capital. It's a truly beautiful place to be in the mornings, a quiet swath of green in the heart of the city. 

There's a point on the trail where a bridge crosses a bubbling creek. It's always a lovely spot. But this morning, there was a large, beautiful bird standing in the water. (Sorry, we're not up on our ornithology: Let's call it a heron.) While the water swirled and tumbled around it, the heron stood perfectly still, untroubled by the brook.

It reminded us of a comment left by one of our readers, Julie, last week, after we'd written about Orlando. Julie suggested a poem, by the great Kentuckian Wendell Berry, that she turns to when she needs support and inspiration. Julie must be a mind-reader, because it happens to be our favorite poem.

Our sadness (and this morning, despair) about Orlando remains. But we don't plan to wallow in despair. To paraphrase Mr. Berry, we choose not to "tax our lives with forethought of grief." 

We'll leave you with Mr. Berry's poem, along with an excellent recipe for Grilled Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan. (We still know you're here for the food.)

Spread the words and the message of "The Peace of Wild Things." It has brought us comfort in difficult times. We hope it does the same for you, whenever your difficult time may be. 

 

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS 
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

Grilled Onions and Gun Control

Like many others, we have been so torn up since the Orlando shooting this weekend. We just keep getting hit by waves of sadness and anger and defeatism and confusion. Wash, rinse, repeat.

If there's one thing we learned from reading Dave Cullen's tremendous book Columbine, it's that whatever you think is true about a mass shooter during the first few days following a massacre probably isn't what's actually the case. (No, there was no Trench Coat Mafia at Columbine. No, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold weren't bullied social outcasts.) So we know it's still early days to speculate about the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen. Was he an ISIS sympathizer who wanted the U.S. out of Syria? Was he a closeted gay man whose own internalized homophobia finally manifested itself in the most grotesque way imaginable? Was he neither? Was he both?

Nonetheless, it makes it hard for us, as gay men, not to see this atrocity through a personal lens. There have already been a number of essays over the past couple days about how gay bars and nightclubs are something of a sacred space, a sanctuary of sorts, where gays can come together in safety. We feel that way, too -- even though we live in Washington, D.C., one of the most gay-friendly jurisdictions in the world. Even if we don't feel threatened or harassed (and in 13 years in D.C., we rarely have), it's still important to have these spaces where we can gather and celebrate with like-minded people. 

That's the sadness part of the equation.

Here comes the anger.

We just cannot fathom why semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 used in Orlando are still street-legal. We both grew up in extended families and communities of proud, responsible hunters and gun owners (though one of us did grow up in a community with a pre-Columbine school shooting that killed three students and injured five others). We don't think the government should be able to prohibit gun ownership. But it boggles our minds that Americans can't at least agree that assault weapons like this should be illegal. Do we have a right to own guns? Yes, absolutely. Do we have a right to own grenades? Bazookas? Tanks? No, because those are weapons of war. And so are assault rifles.

If you agree that it's abhorrent to have military-style assault weapons for sale to anybody who wants them, please -- please -- contact your representative in Congress and let him or her know you support an assault weapons ban. As this Washington Post editorial says, it's the only Constitutional measure that would make mass shootings less lethal.

We know: You didn't come to a food blog to read about mass shootings and gun control. But, well, those men and women in Orlando didn't go out dancing with their friends expecting to face gunfire. 

We're no doubt going to continue to grieve and rage over this tragedy in the coming weeks.

But food is part of our language of grief, and it is what we came here for. So we're leaving you with an excellent recipe for Grilled Onions with Balsamic Vinaigrette.

So here are our three things we hope you'll do today, Bittens:

1. Channel your anger and frustration over a heartless attack into a positive step forward.
   
   
2. Hug your friends and family and tell them you love them.
   
   
3. Make these onions and share a meal with your loved ones.

3 Must-Have Tools for Summer (All $20 or less)

  

We're just now getting into the groove of summer cooking. At our house, that means we're cooking everything we can on the grill, and whenever possible, we're not cooking much at all, making salads and eating as many raw vegetables as we can.

Over Memorial Day it occurred to us that there are three kitchen tools we reach for really often in the summer. We've recommended them to dozens of friends, so we figured it was time we shared them with you, too. 

None of these are fancy gadgets -- just all really useful items to have on hand this summer. Here's our top 3, but we want to hear about your must-have tools for summer, too. 

 

The Tool That Helps You Eat Healthier

We've all seen the recipes online that recommend swapping julienned vegetables like zucchini for pasta, making dishes lighter and less carb-heavy. We always loved that idea, but never had a tool that allowed us to easily julienne (our big, heavy duty mandoline can do it, but is a chore to haul out and use). Last summer we ordered a simple julienne peeler, and we've used it dozens of times since. It's lightweight, cleans easily and quickly turns vegetables into thin strips. Amazon sells the one we own and recommend for $14. 

 

 

The Handy Scissors That Are Fun to Use 

We first learned about Fiskars -- the celebrated scissors brand, much loved by crafters -- when Clay read Brains on Fire, an excellent book about word-of-mouth marketing. Years later, we learned that Fiskars released a kitchen line, and the company sent us a few of their scissors. The scissors are excellent, but it's these kitchen shears that we fell in love with. They're compact, incredibly sharp, and we find ourselves reaching for them all the time to cut herbs, or to run through salads to make everything bite sized. Fiskars kitchen shears are available for $17 on Amazon. 

 

The Pretty Mandoline

Our Japanese mandoline has been in our kitchen for a few years now, and it definitely gets the most use in summer. We reach for it all the time when we're making salads, or when we want to serve beets or turnips raw (we're getting a lot of turnips these days in our CSA, so it's especially handy). Plus, it's pretty and available on Amazon for $20. 

 

So here's our question for you: 

What kitchen tools do you find yourself constantly reaching for in the summer?

 

Coconut-Marinated Short Rib Kebabs with Peanut-Chile Oil

Bon Appétit (June 2016)

Short ribs mean winter. 

We've said this many times before: If there's any meat we most associate with winter cooking, it's beef short ribs. A pot of short ribs braising in the oven is, for us, as much a sign of cold weather as the first snowfall or those horrible car ads in which a husband surprises his wife with a new car in the driveway with a huge bow on it. (First of all, how misogynistic can you get? Second, you made a huge household financial decision as a surprise? That's just poor marital communication. Also: a huge bow? Seriously??)

But we digress.

The point is: Short ribs = winter. 

So we were more than a little intrigued when we saw these short rib kebabs in the new Bon Appétit. They're part of a really great spread on kebabs and skewers, which also includes Barbecue Pork With Blistered Chile–Pumpkin Seed Salsa, Cumin-Chile Lamb Kebabs with Garlic Yogurt, and Soy-Basted Chicken Kebabs with Sesame-Citrus Sprinkle. 

Those all sound really tasty. But it was these short ribs that caught our eye.

Short ribs in summer? We're on it. 

Kohlrabi Slaw with Harissa Dressing

Food & Wine (June 2016) 

We promise not to be one of those couples who, you know, goes to Japan and then everything we say is about Japan. ("This sushi's fine, I guess, but it's nothing like what we had at Tsukiji in Tokyo...") 

HOWEVER. We need to talk about Kewpie mayonnaise.

Kewpie mayonnaise is the most popular mayo in Japan. While we were there, we saw it on lots of stuff, most notably -- and most deliciously -- atop those amazing okonomiyaki pancakes. According to the Kewpie website, it was the first mayonnaise to be introduced in Japan, in 1925. And it's been a fixture on Japanese tables ever since.

Three things you need to know about Kewpie mayonnaise:

1. The bottle is crazy adorable, thanks to the Kewpie doll on the label. (Which, fun fact: Kewpie dolls are actually from Germany, based on a comic strip from the American Midwest.) Seriously, have you ever seen cuter mayo??

2. Kewpie is thicker, richer and creamier than other mayonnaise. It's also got more of that crave-worthy umami flavor. (Thanks, MSG!) 

3. It is a secret-weapon ingredient in this amazingly delicious Kohlrabi Slaw with Harissa Dressing. 

Pork Tonkatsu

Food & Wine (May 2016) 

One of the best things about traveling is discovering new foods and then trying to recreate them in your kitchen back home. (Like when we came back from Argentina and started barreling our own Malbec. Just kidding.)

On our recent trip to Japan, one of the meals we didn't tell you about was tonkatsu, Japanese breaded pork cutlets. We had these a couple times in Tokyo, most memorably at a restaurant that's famous for its tonkatsu, Maisen.  

The tonkatsu at Maisen was really tasty: Crispy-fried golden-brown strips of sweet, juicy pork, served with hot mustard and a lip-smacking Japanese barbecue sauce.

When we got home and saw this Andrew Zimmern recipe for tonkatsu in the May issue of Food & Wine, we knew we wanted to try it for ourselves.

Photos and Recommendations from Japan: Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima

We're ending our coverage of our recent trip to Tokyo with a few more photos and stories, along with a more comprehensive listing of where we ate, where we stayed, and what we saw during our time there.  Later this week: a recipe. (We promise!) 

 

 

First up, Shibuya Crossing. You've probably seen shots of this in movies before -- it's the insanely crowded pedestrian crossing in the middle of Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood. We stayed right next to here, and we could have watched this scene for hours a day -- it was mesmerizing.

10 Best Japanese Snacks (and 1 We Couldn’t Eat): Noshing Our Way Through Japan

Japan, it turns out, is the most amazing place to snack.

We didn't know that about the country when we planned our trip. (Otherwise, hello, we would have gone years ago.)

Sure, we had great meals while we were there, with Yakitori, Oysters, and Pastries, and the Ramen, Sushi, and unexpected pancakes. But Japan is just the best for between-meal grazing -- whether it's elevenses, tea time or fourthmeal.       

Snacks are everywhere in Japan. In larger cities, department store basements are almost universally full of amazing food halls with all sorts of delicious items. In train stations, the grab-and-go cuisine is legitimately great. Even at convenience stores -- actually, especially at convenience stores. Japanese convenience chains, including Lawson, Family Mart and 7-Eleven (which is so much nicer than in the U.S. -- trust us), all offer surprisingly delicious treats and fresh foods. 

Here are 10 snacks we either especially enjoyed, or thought were crazy interesting -- along with a bonus one that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to eat.

 

1. Omelet on a stick

Japan doesn't have a street-food culture the same way that, say, Singapore or Thailand does. But one exception to that is the Outer Market at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market, where you'll find small stalls selling all sorts of edible takeaways. We saw a lot of Japanese tourists lined up to by these omelets on sticks. We’re not honestly sure what’s on top – it tasted like some kind of sweet-onion sauce. But it was a delicious little bite with savory egg and a hint of sweetness.

The Best Things We Ate in Japan, Part 2: Yakitori, Oysters, Wagyu and More Pastries Than You Can Possibly Count

Ohayo Gozaimasu, everyone!

We're back to talk more about some of our favorite foods we encountered on our recent two-week trip to Japan.

For more, check out Part 1: Sushi, Ramen and Adventures in Pancakes.

 

Yakitori

Yakitori, as you may already know, simply refers to grilled chicken on skewers. We had two yakitori experiences in Tokyo -- about as different from each other as could be -- and we loved both of them. 

Grilled meat on a stick -- what's not to love?

The first was in Omoide Yokocho, which, as we mentioned in our previous post, is this very cool Tokyo alleyway filled -- filled! -- with all these yakitori grill restaurants. These restaurants are tiny: Each one seats maybe 6 to 8 people.

The Best Things We Ate in Japan, Part 1: Sushi, Ramen and Adventures in Pancakes

Konnichiwa, Bittens!

If we've been a little quiet on the blog recently, it's because we just returned from two weeks in Japan! It was an amazing trip: weird and beautiful and wonderful. From the futuristic cityscape and insane bustle of Tokyo, to the serenity of a 1,400-year-old mountaintop Shinto shrine in Kyoto, we loved exploring this endlessly interesting country.

If we had to sum up the two weeks in one word, though, it would be "delicious."

The food we ate throughout Japan was almost universally excellent, like the whole country is just cooking on a higher level, with better ingredients. (And actually it kinda is.) If your stereotype of Japanese cuisine is that it's exacting and made with precision and care, you're right. And it's evident everywhere you go, from hole-in-the-wall ramen shops to finer sushi bars.

We wanted to share with you some of our favorite food experiences from our trip.

So grab your chopsticks and dig in!

 

Sushi

7 a.m. sushi at the Tsukiji market

Yeah, yeah. This one's a no-brainer.

We love sushi, and we were so excited to try it in Japan! And Japan did not disappoint. We had sushi and sashimi a number of times, and every time it surpassed what we're used to in the U.S. (Also, contrary to our expectations, it was generally cheaper than sushi here at home. In fact, we found eating in Japan in general to be far more affordable than we'd been led to believe.)