As per the annual New York tradition, this year's American Thanksgiving was marked by yet another Macy's parade. This year, however the tradition changed. Above the parade's 2,000 cheerleaders, 800 clowns, the Rockettes and 11 marching bands, its collection of 11 giant helium balloons included three new ones: Shrek, Sesame Street's Abby Adabby, and "Hello Kitty Supercute." That's right folks, the cutesy feline from far away, though not far far away, has landed. She comes complete with cape and tiara, embodying the marketing superhero she is.

Speaking of Hello Kitty's seemingly super-human (well, super-feline) ability to find her way onto just about any product, it seems that she started subverting Americana a year ago (2006-ish) with Kellog's Pop Tarts. Apparently, Kellog's believed that they could sell more wild-berry pop-tarts by adding pink frosting and sprinkles and shipping them with Hello Kitty's likeness. Kellog's re-christened the Hello Kitty pop-tarts "Meow-Berry."

I'm not entirely sure meow-berry pop tarts ever made it North of the border. TheImpulseBuy.com and Slashfood got a hold a pair of boxes, however. Slashfood even proposed adding to your Kitty breakfast experience by toasting the meow-berry poptarts in a Hello Kitty Toaster and then washing them down with water from a Hello Kitty Water cooler.

I should note that the foodieprints' kitchen is no more immune to Hello Kitty. Jenn and I have a Hello Kitty Water cooler on our counter.

I'm always amazed at the sheer number of non-big name brand products available. At times, the generic brands actually produce superior products. For instance, I am an avid fan of kettle potato chips for their distinctive texture and flavour. President's Choice recently released a kettle chip product that I find superior to Ms. Vickie's. Reason: It's not as salty, so same great texture, but a serving doesn't leave you parched for thirst.

This post, however, is dedicated to generic brand breakfast cereal.

Firstly, let's start with puffed corn. The generic can be purchased at virtually any store carrying President's Choice products.

Corn Pops

Generic "Corn Pops"

Onto frosted flakes. The generic brand (SolSource) comes from the Dollar Store. Interestingly, the cartoon character on the generic brand's box closely resembles another famous tropical bird.

Frosted Flakes

Generic "Frosted Flakes"

The "other" famous tropical bird is advertised to children during Saturday morning cartoons as loving fruit loops. Here are actually two generics: one from SolSource (again from the Dollar Store) and another from President's Choice.

Fruit Loops

Generic "Fruit Loops"

Yet another generic "Fruit Loops"

Finally, we'll end a crisped rice. I could not find a large box of generic crisped rice cereal from SolSource, but a small one is present in the combo pack. I wonder if the SolSource spokes-bunny is related to the Trix rabbit?

Rice Crispies

Generic "Rice Crispies"

Generally, I find that the generic cereals are approximately $2 cheaper than the name brand varieties.

In other news, the "genericizing" of food products doesn't end at cereal or potato chips. It has extended into food-related entertainment.

Wonderful Disney Movie called Ratatouille

Poor Man's facsimile from Walmart

The image of the poster from the Disney movie, Ratatouille, comes from the hollywoodjesus.com website.

A while back, I made the following roast pork dinner as a thank-you to my sweetheart for throwing me a surprise birthday party (my 29th birthday).


Seasoned

Tied

Roasted Potatoes

Resting Roast

Done

Served with braised leaks and homemade apple sauce

There isn't anything really convoluted about roasting a pork loin or making good crackling. Just purchase a nice large cut with a well developed layer of fat on top. Score the fat and rub in salt and some herbs. Rosemary is the classic, but dried thyme, parsely, or savory also work in a pinch. Just make sure the fat layer is dry. Then, tie the roast. I find that tying a roast ensures that it comes out moist. From my experience, tying prevents the proteins and natural weight of the meat from mal-forming the roast as it cooks. This prevents juices from being pushed out. Another classical thing to do is to roast potatoes in the pan juices mid-way as the roast roasts.

I usually roast a pork loin at two temperatures, very high (450-500°F) for 20 minutes and somewhat lower (375-350°F) for the rest of the time needed for the internal temperature to reach approximately 160°F.

Once you remove the roast from the oven, please remember to let the roast rest before you begin fiddling with it. The juices need to redistribute.

During the summer, Loblaws and Superstore launched a campaign to sell President's Choice's new line of ethnic bread: naan. The campaign's tag line was "Have you tried it with naan?" The idea was presumably to extol on customers the myriad uses of the flat bread.

Here are pics from around the Superstore, located at the corner of Richmond and Kirkwood.

How about topping naan with cheese?

naan with Cheese

President's Choice also has a line of prepared spreads and dips, including hummus and bruschetta. How about using naan to make bruschetta?

naan with Dips

Now, here's one that threw me. Eat pizza with naan? Never since high school have I ever seen anyone sandwich (unintended pun) a slice of pizza with bread. I then realized the intent was to encourage buying frozen pizza that employs naan as its crust.

naan with Pizza?

Just in case you are unfamiliar with naan, we at foodiePrints have written about it before. Nevertheless, here is a summary: Naan is a traditional Indian flat bread that is round and heavily blistered. Authentic naan is made in wood fired clay ovens, called tandoors, that can reach temperatures of 480°C (900°F).

At the Shafali Bazaar in the Byward Market, cooks make authentic naan in the traditional way.

Here is a cook from Shafali, shaping dough to place into the tandoor oven. Uncooked naan are literally stuck to the sides of the oven to bake.

Shaping naan

Here is the same cook, pulling cooked naan from the oven.

Retrieving naan

Particulars:
Real Canadian Superstore
190 Richmond Road
(613) 722-5890

Shafali Bazaar
55 ByWard Market
Tel.: (613) 241 4412
Fax: (613) 789 2274
Email: salim@shafali.com

As a foodie, in order to better appreciate the art-form that is pizza, I am looking into how to make it. During my time spent researching and developing a recipe, I came across some interesting online pizza-related content.

Before we go onto the interesting online content, here is what I have determined so far, regarding pizza-making. Pizza requires every little specialized equipment. Firstly, a flat or unglazed clay tile is required to cook the pizza on. This serves as a pizza stone for those who do not want to purchase one. I already happen to have a pizza stone in my oven. It sits on the bottom most tray of the oven at all times. I use it a thermal capacitor. It comes in handy when I am baking cakes, keeping the oven temperature even. Secondly, a pizza peel makes pizza handling easier, especially when retrieving a freshly baked pie from the oven. Thirdly, to cut a pizza, use a pizza cutter. Though a large knife also works, pizza cutters come in handy in other cooking endeavors. One that comes to mind immediately, is making quick work of puff pastry.

Every recipe I have come across for making pizza involves the following generalized steps:

1. Make a sauce and prepare the toppings.
2. Make and work a dough. (Proper proofing develops texture and flavour.)
3. Shape the dough and lay it out on a dry surface. (This involves handling the dough. Expert dough handling, involves tossing)
4. Assembly the pizza and bake.
5. Slice and serve.

Regarding the dough handling step, here is an example of some very expert dough handling:

Source: Youtube.com

Regarding slicing and serving, one group of enterprising students decided to forgo the pizza cutter and employed an industrial cutting laser. I'm assuming this was for increased precision? Of course, the pizza in question was purchased and not made from scratch. This, however, in no way takes away from the wow-factor!

Source: Techeblog.com

Small aside:
Regarding pizzeria-bought pizza, the Papa John's chain in the United States has implemented a system to order pizza via SMS on your mobile phones. Here' s a link to how to set it up: Papa John's SMS ordering system. According to yahoo.com, the new ordering system is available at all of Papa John's approximately 2700 U.S. restaurants. The Domino's chain implemented a similar solution for web-enabled mobile devices last month (Sept 2007).

Sometime during the week of November 7, 2007, a Japanese women's underwear maker, called Triumph, released a bra designed to conceal re-usable chopsticks. The bra, with a left cup resembling a bowl of miso soup and a right cup resembling a bowl of rice, sports pouches that can hold 2 pairs of collapsible chopsticks. The pouches, called "holsters", are located on each side of the cups.

Though the bra itself is not made from any recycled material, its goal is to promote reducing the use of disposable chopsticks in Japan. According to a Triumph spokesperson, Japanese eaters dispose of approximately 90 000 tonnes (25 million pairs) of disposable chopsticks a year. This translates to approximately 200 parts of chopsticks per person.

Images come from the trendhunter.com and smh.com.au websites.

While I applaud the environmental sentiment, the hashi bra is somewhat impractical. Just as the following video states, how many women are going to expose themselves to retrieve cutlery? I found the video on trendhunter.com. A similar video can be found on the reuters.com website.



Now, how about we turn our attention to SpudWare or Vegware, much more practical solutions. SpudWare and Vegware are cutlery made completely from natural starches like corn or potato. Each is equally as durable as plastic and just abouts as heat resistant. The difference is that starch-based cutlery bio-degrades completely in 180 days. Moreover, they can be cleaned and re-used.

I wonder if either company makes starch-based chopsticks...or bra's for that matter :P

The image comes from the inhabitat.com website.

Alright, I know a lot of you are most likely repulsed by the idea of eating offal: tongue, heart, liver, kidneys, and tripe. I, however, like to practice nose to tail eating as much as I can. Besides, providing alternative sources of nutrition, off-cuts and offal can provide new textures and flavors to experience.

Typically, I use an oriental method to cook tripe. Today, however, I decided to try a more latin-inspired method for my portion of honey-comb beef tripe.

After washing and slicing the tripe into strips, I placed the tripe into a pot with some hot oil (approx. 2 tbsp) and placed the pot on high heat. The goal: cook out some of the liquid from the tripe before braising it to tenderness. After repeatedly heating and discarding emergent liquid for 5 minutes, I added 3 heaping tablespoons of a prepared salsa. Mine was a mildly spicy salsa that consisted mainly of tomatoes and a handful of herbs. I then added enough chicken stock to cover the tripe and brought the mixture to a boil at medium heat. Afterwards, I added two dried red chillies, covered the pot with a lid, reduced the heat to medium-low, and braised the tripe for an hour.

What emerged was a wonderfully spicy tripe with a soft and chewy texture. Because of the spice from the salsa and the added chillies, every bite provided a warm, but rounded, mouth feel. The heat traveled the length of my mouth and I could feel a warmth at the back of my throat. T'was good eats indeed!

BTW, for some odd reason, the Brits aren't nearly as squeamish as North Americans regarding offal. For instance, take the following screen capture from an episode of Chef Heston Blumenthal's BBC television show, "In Search of Perfection." In this scene, a gentleman is being interviewed for his thoughts on Chicken Tikka Massalla. He seems to have been filmed against the backdrop of a large outdoor market. In case you're wondering, Brawn, otherwise known as head cheese in other cuisines, is jellied pig's head.

Few dishes define a good tea house better than the dumplings it serves. Dumplings are an integral element of a tea house's menu. Oriental tea houses straddle the line between café and bistro, providing a relaxed atmosphere to socialize, chat, eat, and, most importantly, enjoy tea. As such, the food tea houses should not take away from the primary activity, drinking tea. Typical dishes consist of small bite-sized morsels; nothing larger than a Chinese bun. Hence, when I visit a tea house, my first order tends toward dumplings: bite-size morels of meat and/or vegetable, neatly wrapped in a flour wrapper, that can be easily picked up with a pair of chopsticks.

Regarding tea house cuisine, there are some wildly successful food blogs that are devoted to teahouse eating. Here's one that I visit often: ChaXiuBao. The blogger was recently (episode aired in September 2007) featured on an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bordain.

Regarding NiHao, ever since it opened, I have been wanting to try its dumplings. Since the tea house only serves dumplings weekdays during lunch as a special, I never found the opportunity to try them. I make my living quite a ways away from either NiHao establishment. Happily, during a day off, I rectified the issue and sat at a table for lunch in the Wellington Village's NiHao tea house.

For $4.99, I received a plate of 10 steaming hot dumplings. My chosen condiments included red chili oil and soy sauce.

10 dumplings for $4.99
The dumplings were simply wrapped and home made. This is evident from the pronounced wrinkling of the dumplings' skins. Mass produced frozen dumplings wrinkle somewhat less.

Dumpling Filling
The filling consisted of pork and nappa. The dumplings themselves were flavorful and moist.

All-in-all, I was more impressed by the iced green-tea that I ordered with my dumplings. The tea came chilled and lightly sweetened. Moreover, the tea was made from quality tea leaves that were gently brewed. My iced tea was flavorful and refreshing. It had none of the bitter notes that come from tea leaf dust in tea bags.

Total for lunch: $7.84 after taxes, before tip.

For dumplings at home, I direct you to Ottawa's Yen Fung Ding dumpling shop or frozen dumplings that can be purchased at any of the larger Asian markets in Chinatown.

Frozen Dumplings

Particulars:
Nihao Tea House
81 Holland Avenue
(613)722-0088

In my humble opinion, there are four kinds of fries: fries from the fast food restaurants, fries from diners, fries from Allium, and fries from fry trucks. The fries from fast food restaurants are shoe-string cut at a factory and flash frozen for delivery. They are fried from frozen when ordered. Fries from diners tend to be fresh cut, but they share the same fryer oil as chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, onion rings, and other such traditional diner Fare. Fries from Allium, my favourite local restaurant, are fresh cut and double fried. This results in a glassy crisp exterior and fluffy soft interior. Fries from fry trucks are equally special. Since fry trucks specialize in fries, you will almost never get fries that are speckled with breading from other foods. For the same reason, fry truck fries will always taste of potatoes. Fry truck operators are normally adept in producing consistent batches of non-greasy, flavorful, golden brown, and crisp fries to order every time.

If the fry truck you visit is painted yellow and blue and is called Glen's, you're in good hands. Glen's chip wagon is located at the side of the Richmond Road, west of Island Park. Just look for the long line of parked cars. At the end of the line will be Glen's.

Apparently, Glen's has been serving fries to faithful Wellington Village residents for over 15 years. Regulars tend to order small fries with nothing more than salt and vinegar. I gleaned this information and more from an older customer who stood in line with me during my first visit to Glen's. In fact, she was so confident of Glen's quality fries that she had me and my better half sample her fries before we ordered our own. She was right. They were great: fresh, crispy, flavorful, hot and satisfying.

Jenn ordered a small fry. I ordered a poutine.

Fries and Poutine
While she topped her fries with ketchup, I dug into my poutine. It was topped with cheese curds, not grated cheese. Its gravy was rich and savory. Its fries were fresh (fried to order) and then topped with curds and gravy. This produced several different textures, which work in concert to balance crisp fries with melting curds and thick gravy. I was in heaven.

The best fries I have ever had come from Allium, but my favourite fries come from fry trucks. Glen's is fast becoming one of my favourite fry trucks.

Particulars:
Glen's Chip Wagon
The side of the Richmond Road, west of Island Park, across from the Canadian Tire.

Halloween passed yet again, seeing a large number of pumpkins going under the knife. This year, amongst the many artistic creations was the pumpkin burger. Forget eyes, nose, and mouth. Think lettuce, tomato, American cheese, and ground beef on a pumpkin seed bun.


Pumpkin Burger
Source: ourstereo.com

Actually, I had another near-burger experience at the local Bulk Barn of all places. Allow me to introduce the "gummi" burger, most likely from the same fine artisans who produced the Simpsons' Gummi Venus de Milo.

Gummi Burger

The burger itself comes apart.

Gummi secret sauce, pickles, tomato, and beef paddy

Movin to the country Im gonna eat a lot of bananas
Movin to the country Im gonna eat a lot of bananas
Im movin to the country gonna eat a lot of bananas
Movin to the country gonna eat a lot of bananas

Oh wait...That's peaches...

Nevertheless, thousands of bananas washed to shore on two Dutch North Sea Islands on Wednesday, November 7, 2007. According to yahoo.com, six cargo containers fell off a ship during a storm and several burst open. More than one contained bananas.

I just popped by ctv.ca during my morning sojourn for new during breakfast and I found an article on Japanese pop culture. The article mentioned roll-on butter in a glue-stick format: uncap, roll up the stick, and roll on the butter.

Given the fact that I utterly refuse to use any hydrogenated fat like margarine in my kitchen, I am very familiar with how difficult it is to handle a stick of butter. Like many people, I am looking for an innovative solution to easily dispense butter.

Besides, the "butter stick", I found two more solutions:

Firstly, dubbed a mildly useless invention by ctv, here is the butter stick:

Butter Stick
Source: weirdthings.org.uk

Secondly, there is "roll-on butter", which oddly reminds me of roll-on deodorant and a Seinfeld episode where Kramer decides to shave with butter instead of shaving cream or soap.

Roll On Butter
Source: kitchencontraptions.com

Thirdly, there is a "pat-o-butter dispenser." It comes in blue too.

Butter Cutter
Source: neatorama.com

For now, I think I'll just stick with the tried and true butter dish and use a butter knife.

A friend of mind sent me an e-mail, containing over 200 links to Christmas Cookie recipes. With the holiday season fast approaching, I heartily welcome new cookie recipes to try. Christmas cookies make great gifts.

Just in case you're not familiar with Christmas cookies, here is Wikipedia's entry on the subject.
Christmas cookies

Christmas cookies are traditionally sugar cookies (though other flavors may be used based on family traditions and individual preferences) cut into various shapes related to Christmas. In the United States, since the 1930s, children have left cookies and milk on a table for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, though many people simply consume the cookies themselves. The cookies are often cut into such shapes as those of candy canes, reindeer, and holly leaves. Oreos are also popular.

The recipes came from the northpole.com website.

Northpole.com
Northpole.com is very content-rich website, providing many Christmas-related resources for parents, children, and teachers. The site is also activity-rich, offering games, puzzles, and even online post cards. Come Christmas Eve, children can even point and click to track Santa's progress across the skyline.

Here are the first 16 recipes:

1. 1-2-3 Cookies
2. 7 Layer Cookies
3. Allie Nelson's Famous Snickerdoodle Cookies
4. Almond Crescent Shortbread
5. Amish Sugar Cookies
6. Andies Candies Cookies
7. Angel Crisps
8. Angenets
9. Applesauce Cookies
10. Apricot Fold-Overs
11. Aunt Edy's Molasses Crinkles
12. Auntie Linda's Ginger Gems
13. Bakeless Dream Cookies
14. Banana Drop Cookies
15. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World
16. Biscotti

The other 262 recipes follow:

More after the jump...

When Autumn arrives, the temperature falls and cooks need to re-evaluate their dishes. Lower temperatures mean that kitchens are cool enough to prepare longer cooked dishes. Fresh ingredients disappear. They are replaced by more seasonal fruits and vegetables like squash: acorn squash, butternut squash, and pumpkins. Root vegetables become prevalent: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celeriac, and beets. Of course, heartier greens also appear: cabbage, brussel sprouts, and watercress. Nestled amongst it all are courgettes, or as I was taught to identify them: zucchini.

Zucchini figures somewhat prominently in my childhood. When I was a grade schooler, Autumn meant a return to the classroom, which then precipitated annual bake sales to raise money for school trips and other extra-curricular activities. Each year, my family's contribution were health conscious muffins. The batter included shredded carrots, raisins, and shredded zucchini.

As I got older, I eventually omitted the carrots and raisins and discovered the wonders of zucchini bread. The following recipe is my recent attempt at a cheesy zucchini bread.

Recipe follows:

More after the jump...