Here’s an opportunity to put your money where your mouth is – literally!
Go to this continually updated spreadsheet of Black owned restaurants, bars, bakeries, wine stores, coffee shops and pop-ups in the five boroughs of NYC.
And then support them – not just on this day, but from this day on.
🖤
Props to Hannah Goldfield, food critic for The New Yorker, and Rachel Karten, social media manager at Bon Appetit, for creating this incredible document.
👨🍳 NOT Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
You know what? I think I’ve had it with all this cooking. Like, if I were to opt for prepared food, I’d have so much more free time. I mean, I could kick back, munch a hashtag brownie, and binge watch every episode of Bob Ross rendering a happy little cloud, right?
So although I do make Chinese dumplings, I didn’t make these. Bought ’em frozen, steamed and fried ’em up, sauced ’em, and garnished ’em. Does that even count as cooking?
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
This is it! The last post of the purge-the-pantry-flush-the-freezer-of-elderly-edibles exorcism! Aside from items that are mandated to reside there on a long term basis, all that remained in the freezer was some puff pastry; the pantry had been home to a can of Russian caramel fudge cream (sort of like dulce de leche) that was well past its expiration date; and apropos of expiry, those bananas on the counter were hurtling to their demise as well, so I let the weird experiments commence. <Cue ominous pipe organ music.>
For the sweet batch, I combined the mushy bananas with the dense caramel fudge cream and made some, um, what you see here…
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
…and tried a different shape as well. I don’t have a clue as to what I made but they were crispy and sweet straight out of the oven.
On the savory side, this is a melty, creamy, Greek feta, er, thing…
…and I added slices of a remaining Polish sausage (remember those from a previous freezer rant?) to the mix in a final fling.
All were yummy and frankly, if I knew they were going to taste this good, I might have taken more time shaping the dough – not my strong suit though. But it’ll be a long time before I buy more frozen puff pastry unless I have a goal in mind beforehand. 😉
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
And thank you for clicking the link in my IG profile.
This page works in three ways:
1. If you’re here to sign up for an ethnojunket, check out:
• Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa
• Ethnic Eats in Elmhurst
• Snacking in Flushing – The Best of the Best
• The Flavors of Little Levant in Bay Ridge
• Not Your Ordinary Chinatown Tour
…or learn about all of them here.
2. If you’re here to check out ethnojunkie.com, a single click on the logo at the top of this (or any) page will whisk you off to my homepage.
3. If you’re here to read the Complete and Uncut version of a post that there just wasn’t enough room for on Instagram, this page will serve as an index:
They’re organized in chronological order starting with the most recent. For each post, there are thumbnails of the photos you saw on IG along with some of the opening text. Just click the link to read the full (and much better 😉) version here on ethnojunkie.com. If you’d like to prowl around a bit more, click on the logo at the top of any page to navigate to my homepage.
Instagram Post 12/21/2024
Behold the Rumpumpumpom, my custom Christmas cocktail. You might be curious about how this bespoke cocktail came by its name – and thereby hangs a tale of a different stripe. It involves a poignant story and a recipe of sorts, but it doesn’t quite fit on Instagram. Sort of like me, as I reflect on it….
Click here to read Rumpumpumpom – A Christmas Cocktail
Instagram Post 12/20/2024
I was chatting with my charming Instagram friend Olya who lives in Ukraine….
Click here to read Christmas Comes Twice in Ukraine.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That time when folks dust off words like ’tis and ’twas as Bing Crosby inscrutably croons, “Christmas is a-comin’ and the egg is in the nog!” Click here to read An Eggnog Excursus!
My passionate paean to panettone. Click here to read Panettone! Pannetone! Pannettone!
Instagram Post 7/12/2024
July is National Ice Cream Month, and I annually update my epic post about ethnic pops (with a little storytelling thrown in for good measure). It’s everything you always wanted to know about international ice cream all in one place.
The story began here….
Click here to read July is National Ice Cream Month: Celebrate Globally!
Instagram Post 6/21/2024
Today’s post from ethnojunkie.com: Durian Pizza – It’s Ba-aack!!
A few years ago, I wrote an article for Edible Queens Magazine about durian pizza at Flushing’s C Fruit Life on Roosevelt Ave; you can read it here.
Instagram Post 4/19/2024
It’s springtime and ethnojunkets are back!….
Click here to read ProTip – How to Book the Funnest Ethnojunket.
For many folks, Christmas season officially begins the moment Santa Claus floats down Sixth Avenue (sort of a horizontal chimney, I guess) at the finale of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade….
I update my Panettone story annually. Click here to read Panettone! Pannetone! Pannettone!
Dear Friends:
I can no longer keep this to myself. I am an addict, hooked on mithai. What’s that? You don’t know about mithai? Mithai are Indian sweets and since Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is upon us, I can think of no better time than now to tell you my tale. So gather round your diyas and click here to read Indian Sweets 101: Meeting Mithai.
Instagram Post 4/12/2023
Passover is still upon us and folks are enjoying a special traditional holiday treat, the macaroon. Or is it a macaron? There seems to be some confusion regarding these two very dissimilar cookies with very similar names, but oh, what a difference an O makes.
Let’s get the pronunciations out of the way first: macaroon rhymes with “black balloon” and if you honk the final syllable of macaron through your nez, you’ll nail the proper French pronunciation of that one. But is this just some culinary coincidence?
Read about these sweet confections and learn why there’s a conflation conflagration….
Click here to read Macaroons and Macarons: So Close and Yet So Far.
Instagram Post 3/21/2023
Yesterday, I published a post about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and fesenjan. But the vernal equinox is heralded as the first day of the new year by more than 300 million people worldwide, particularly in countries along the Silk Routes including Iraq, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia, and others. As a matter of fact, in 2010, the United Nations officially proclaimed March 21 to be the International Day of Nowruz. And of course, every culture has its own unique dishes to celebrate the occasion….
Instagram Post 3/14/2023
Pi Day is upon us! The official day that celebrates the astonishing discovery in 1988 that the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi (π≅3.14) correspond to the calendar date using the month/day format (3/14)….
Click here to read Pi Day 2023.
Instagram Post 1/21/2023
The two-week long Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year begins Sunday – it’s 4721, the Year of the Rabbit….
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And speaking of being lucky, there was a time a few zodiac signs ago that it looked like my Lunar New Year luck had run out in terms of another one of its traditional foods. It was a mystery involving a particular nian gao (the traditional sweet rice cake and a homophone for high year) that resonates to this day.
Want to know what happened? Please read my tradition-packed short story: Click here to read The Case of the Uncrackable Case.
Christmas is right around the corner. Eastern Orthodox Christmas, that is.
I was introduced to kutya (кутя) over 10 years ago in a Russian food market in Brooklyn’s Little Odessa where I now offer food tours; it’s a sweet story and you can read it here.
Instagram Post 8/10/2022
I’ve created a new section on my website that highlights the cuisine of Ukraine. It begins like this:
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.
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Odessa is a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It is a popular tourist destination known for its beautiful beaches and charming 19th-century architecture.
In the latter half of the last century, many Odessites who emigrated to the US came to Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, now known as “Little Odessa”. I took this photograph on that beach – and tweaked the colors, just a bit….
Click here to read Ukraine. (You can always visit as it grows by selecting Stories -> Ukraine in the top navigation bar.) Дякую!
Instagram Post 6/10/2022
…in which I reveal what I do with a whole Chinese roasted duck….
Click here to read Faking Peking Duck.
Instagram Post 4/22/2022
Passover is still upon us and folks are enjoying a special traditional holiday treat, the macaroon. Or is it a macaron? There seems to be some confusion regarding these two very dissimilar cookies with very similar names, but oh, what a difference an O makes.
Let’s get the pronunciations out of the way first: macaroon rhymes with “black balloon” and if you honk the final syllable of macaron through your nez, you’ll nail the proper French pronunciation of that one. But is this just some culinary coincidence?
Read about these sweet confections and learn why there’s a conflation conflagration….
Click here to read Macaroons and Macarons: So Close and Yet So Far.
Instagram Post 3/21/2022
Yesterday, I published a post about Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and fesenjan. But the vernal equinox is heralded as the first day of the new year by more than 300 million people worldwide, particularly in countries along the Silk Routes including Iraq, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Central Asia, and others. As a matter of fact, in 2010, the United Nations officially proclaimed March 21 to be the International Day of Nowruz. And of course, every culture has its own unique dishes to celebrate the occasion….
Instagram Post 2/1/2022
The two-week long Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year begins today – it’s 4720, the Year of the Tiger. The Tiger is known for his strength, bravery, and particularly his ability to purge evil – and if ever we needed that specific set of superpowers, it’s now….
Click here to read The Case of the Uncrackable Case.
Instagram Post 1/14/2022
Pongal, the holiday, is a four day long harvest festival occurring around mid-January (on the 14th this year) that is observed primarily in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu but like most spiritual anniversaries can’t really be confined to a specific geographical area, diasporas being what they are….
Instagram Post 1/07/2022
I was having a conversation with a friend just the other day. “The holidays are over,” she sighed. “No more excuses to procrastinate.”
“Don’t be so sure,” I countered. “Remember, you’re talking to the Equal Opportunity Celebrant.” So I pointed her to a story that I had written long ago. Precisely the story I’m pointing you to right now….
Click here to read From Russia, with Plov.
Instagram Post 12/16/2021
I update my Panettone story annually; here’s a part of this year’s supplement:
As I write this, we’re still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic accompanied by its subsequent supply-chain issues, extended shipping times, inventory shortages, and inflation. Amazon is offering my two favorite imported 2.2 pound panettoni for $48 and $71 each. Nope, not this year….
Click here to read Panettone! Pannetone! Pannettone!
Instagram Post 11/20/2021
Maybe it was because on that day I had eaten less than I should have and walked farther than I should have carrying more than I should have on less sleep than I should have gotten the night before.
But it was a little surreal – like a scene in a French New Wave film from the late 50s, underscored with that quaint, quirky, quintessentially European music that telegraphs an atmosphere of utter happiness and convivial hyperfamiliarity, music that gets louder just before everything starts to get strange….
Click here to read Leticia’s Ecuadorian Restaurant.
Dear Friends:
I can no longer keep this to myself. I am an addict, hooked on mithai. What’s that? You don’t know about mithai? Mithai are Indian sweets and since Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is upon us, I can think of no better time than now to tell you my tale. So gather round your diyas and click here to read Indian Sweets 101: Meeting Mithai.
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
At this point I think it’s pretty clear that Cooking 🍳 in the Time of COVID must have something to do with being stir 🥄 crazy.
In keeping with that characterization, I raided the freezer again and discovered leftover puréed roasted sugar pumpkin from last Thanksgiving’s pies, a container of spicy soup I had concocted many months ago using the remnants of Thai takeout stewed pork spine, and Panang curry paste.
Adhering to my current excursion avoidant practice of using up whatever I have on hand, I grabbed a can of coconut milk from the pantry plus a few other ingredients and proceeded to whip up a pot of completely inauthentic Thai Pumpkin Soup. Tasted pretty good, especially on a snowy day in May here in New York City.
If you’re curious about the garnishes (aside from the cilantro and spibbles of coconut milk), the little spherical bits are crispy dried peas (technically Chinese) for some crunch, and the gossamer threads are dried shredded red pepper (technically Korean) for some pretty.
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
A Mediterranean mélange in the service of using up the last bits of saladworthy candidates from the pantry and fridge. Of primary significance, I’ve finally finished off the last of the dried chickpeas! 🙌
The slightly smaller spheres are Lebanese moghrabieh which are similar to their more diminutive Israeli couscous cousins. These wonderful starchy pearls deserve far better than the short shrift I’ve given them here – I almost wish I had left them in the pantry to star in some future culinary legerdemain. There’ll be a next time. In this case, I toasted them first to bring out their latent nuttiness; toasted almonds and currants made a considerable contribution as well.
From the refrigerator, I exhumed some jarred red pepper strips, Italian fried green peppers and agrodolce sun dried red peppers along with Moroccan pickled eggplant, Greek black olives and creamy feta cheese. Plated the medley over baby arugula and dressed it with olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, za’atar and sumac.
Tasted so much better than it looked!
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
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It’s National Hamburger Day and you know what that means: if I don’t post a photo of a home cooked burger, I can’t be one of the cool kids. So, succumbing to peer pressure and not wanting to disappoint, here ya go.
Of course, I kicked it up with herbs and spices native to the cuisine of the country whose flag bedecks the bun; obviously, that says it all so I won’t bore you with ingredient details.
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
My fondness for West African food remains unabated even though I’m relegated to my own humble kitchen, so accessing a couple of chicken thighs I had frozen, I summoned whatever I could press into service from the pantry and conjured up some inauthentic groundnut soup.
Also known as peanut stew, maafe, sauce d’arachide, and other handles depending upon its country of origin, this version started with a base of onions, canned tomatoes, and chilies, garlic and fresh ginger, then some chicken stock and spices including sumbala (ground néré seeds), with the addition of creamy natural peanut butter and ground peanuts, sweet potatoes and leafy greens. Dried stockfish often finds its way into this dish but since I didn’t have any on hand, I used some dried crayfish powder purchased from a local African market some time ago which worked out pretty well.
The dish is sometimes served with rice as in Senegal, or with couscous further to the north, or with fufu as in Ghana or in my kitchen; the one you see here is pounded cocoyam (aka malanga). Tasty, but now I’m craving the real deal!
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
Partially homemade, so I guess it counts: the hummus is my own recipe that starts with dried then reconstituted chickpeas rather than their canned kin because I think I get a creamier result. (Anyone out there either concur or disagree?) Keeping the hummus humming are a rainbow of teeny tomatoes and some particularly rich Greek feta cheese.
The layered, griddled flatbread to the left is a signature North African work of culinary art found throughout Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Called msmen (you might see m’semen), it’s square in shape and commonly served for breakfast with butter, honey, jam or cheese but can also be found as a snack stuffed with ground meat or vegetables. If you see it anywhere, you should definitely check it out.
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
👨🍳 Cooking in the Time of COVID 👨🍳
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)
I often insist that rice pudding is the ultimate comfort food, and we can all use a little – no, make that a lot – of comfort right now. But since I’m invariably compelled to put some kind of ethnic spin on something that was perfectly fine to begin with, here’s my pandan rice pudding.
The bright green color comes from the leaves of the pandan plant, aka screwpine, a popular flavoring and coloring agent in Southeast Asian cuisine. It has exceptional compatibility with coconut much the same way that chocolate has with nuts, baked goods, or depression, so this version uses coconut milk along with rice as its foundation.
The cherry on top is the cherry on top.
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes. ❤️
