What do you get when you add a touch of capitalism,  a proper market analysis, human smarts, clandestine cooking and salsa verde... You get the best flipping tamales in New York City.

Just as we start getting into the rhythm of pumping food out of the kitchen the intercoms awaken and the store herald broadcasts Tortas, Tamales! A most welcomed announcement.

I don't know about you but I'm not that hungry when I wake up at around a quarter to five in the morning.
My breakfast cravings do not kick in until eight or nine o'clock. By then I don't have the luxury of running out to get a bite nor  can I prepare eggs on the hot real estate market; that which is called the stove top. With soups, sauces, beans, pasta and other foodstuffs cooking I cannot justify giving up a burner to prepare a meal (what a martyr). To note,  I really don't feel like having eggs or anything breakfasty like that.

With that said, so enters this story's heroine

Let us call her Señora (to maintain her secret identity). Señora is the Mexican Tortas and Tamales lady, she arrives three to four times a week to sell her delicious homemade creations.  The standard meals are tortas and tamales, hence the name.

Señora's days begin very early Monday through Friday. She is off on Saturdays and Sundays. Her kitchen becomes alive at 4 AM when she starts to steam her tamales. There is final cooking and packaging to be done. In addition to visiting my place of employ she also stops at several other locations within the West Village area.  Her day is usually done around 2 or 3PM.  After that Señora restocks at her supermarket and goes home to prepare her comfort food delights for the next days run.

Through out the week she does throw in a few specials,  sometimes you will find sopes, tacos and quesadillas.  Everything that she sells is lovingly packaged.

 

Tamales are found in many Latin American countries. The basic set up is as follows

1-Dough

2-Filling (vegetables, protein, cheese) basically anything you want it to be

3-Wrapper (plantain leaves, or corn husks)

4-Cooking method can be steamed or boiled in water

The dough or masa in Mexican Tamales is corn based.  The corn used to make masa is first treated in lime water (slaked lime) which makes the outer shell or hull fall off and leaves you with the softened kernel.  The kernel gets washed and what is left is ground and then dried.  That is your masa harina or dough flour

You cannot substitute cornmeal for masa harina as it comes from a different type of corn! 

Señoras tamales come in red or green.  The green has salsa verde and chicken, the red has beef and is spicier. 

Tortas are Mexican sandwiches that can be served hot or cold.  Señora's tortas always have the following:

Shredded lettuce, avocado, pickled jalapeño and a protein.  The protein sometimes is a braised beef or a fried chicken cutlet. I always like to add a little lime juice or hot sauce to mine.

If you are wondering if she has proper documentation to sell these things I will have to answer with I don't ask.  Then why Erio would you eat this food? Does she have the proper facilities to prepare food and then sell it?  What about food handling, sanitation and food safety?

Well let me give you this one for thought.  I was in the city waiting online to go to the taping of a show with some family members.  I was really craving a hotdog.  I walked over to the Street Meet Vendor and ordered a hotdog.  He then opened up his supposedly hot water bath where you would find said hot dogs.  Mr. vendor told me that it would take about 10 minutes for the next batch to be ready.  He then reached in with his bare and very very filthy blackened hands grabbed a bunch of unheated wieners and put them (along with his hands) into the lukewarm water bath.  Mmmm just what I want to eat.

Señora I hope to see you tomorrow.

Gracias!

-Erio 

Hello everyone, sorry for the long break. I've recently been hired at Murray's Cheese as one of the new chefs.  I've been a free agent for several years and now I am part of a large collective; A collective of serious food, drink and of course cheese intellectuals (scholars of the culinary arts and culinary pleasures, if you will).  I am on my third week at the store and have been enjoying my employ by collaborating on the new menu for the prepared foods section, recipe testing and developing new products and ideas for the store.  What really amazes me is the hard core, loyal, knows what he or she wants customer that visit Murray's.

The personalities of the employees, the products and of the store are all very unique and I am looking forward to working with everyone and to keep on learning! I am also very proud to be able to say that the products that we work with in the kitchen are of high caliber.  Our proteins come from Ottomanelli's Meat Market, and our eggs and dairy comes from Lancaster Farms in Pennsylvania.

So stop by and visit the store.  I am most certain that something or someone will pique your interest.

-Erio 

 

Here at Hungrychef.com we are always looking for ways to improve one's self, writing skills, and the blog. I signed up for a class at the Institute of Culinary Education called An Insider's Guide To Blogging.  The class was taught by Andrea Strong of the Strong Buzz and her internet and website consultant Harvey Kreiswirth. 

The group that was present was a mix of food professionals, media, marketing, food noobs and designers. The topics discussed were about blog concept and identity, the importance of fact checking and writing the "truth". Mr. Kreiswirth talked about blog marketing, the different blogger software available and their pros and cons.

Ms. Strong  mentioned that there were about 70,000 food related blogs online. She said that to really charge through all the other blogs you really need to be consistent, post regularly (at least once a day) and to make sure that you convey your own voice. Additionally you should be meticulous and thoughtful with your words and be rich in detail.

Expanding on the last suggestion of, being rich in detail.  Andrea mentioned "when writing, do not to use the word delicious.  "It's over used, it is not really descriptive and does not do much for me".

This comment transported me back to when I worked as a Fromager at the Artisanal Bistro, Wine Bar and Fromagerie in NYC. I got stuck using the word good as power adjective.  Someone would ask  "Can you tell me about that cheese? or How does it taste?" And sure enough the response would be "Oh, it's really good".  Even when I first started selling wines  I would do that too.  In both situations I quickly put an end to that annoying and very unhelpful response.  It just took some focus.  I would think about how I would like someone to describe a food product to me (the good and the bad because there are really some weird ones out there) and that really helped out a lot. 

Like the cheeses and wines that I have sold, blogs are alive and constantanly evolving (virtually speaking of course).  They bring different stories, personalities and experiences to the reader. Some are easier to sell and some you are just not going to understand right away. I hope you enjoy hungrychef.com as much as you do your favorite bottle of wine and hunk of cheese.

Thank you Andrea and Harvey it was an awesome class!!! 

-Erio

I was recently in Florida visiting some family when my brother in law surprised me with a foodie tour of the Florida City Redlands. On the itinerary was Knaus Berry Farm, Schnebly Winery and my return visit to Robert is here (I love this place and I also got to meet the real Robert).

Knaus Berry Farms

Florida Sun + Redlands + German Baptists = The Best flipping strawberries you will ever taste! It was about 85 degrees and  the sun was beating down on our lovely air conditioned van. We were headed towards Knaus Berry Farms. A pick your own strawberry and tomato farm located at 15980 SW 248th Street, Miami, FL.

Knaus Farms has been around for over 50 years and was started by Ray and Barbara Knaus.  The farm is run by a sect of German Baptist (sometimes mistaken for Amish) called dunkers.

In addition to the pick your own strawberries and tomatoes there is a produce section, a milkshake stand and a bakery that is buzzing all day with activity, .

The bakery sells dilly, raisin, mountaineer, honey wheat, white and 9 grain breads. You will also find bread sticks and dinner rolls. The sweet section is what I was really interested in.  Black bottom, pineapple upside down, angel food and cheese cakes are all available at this delightfully smelling bakery. But the winner of my sweet tooth and what most people were waiting on line for were the cinnamon rolls.  Oh what I would do to get that recipe.  There is such a fast turnover that everyone was getting warm rolls. 

After picking up the cinnamon rolls we headed to the milkshake stand. Get there early because the line can get very long. With a little patience and a couple of dollars you too can enjoy the most ethereal strawberry shake you will ever have.  Folks, this is how I started my morning.  What a power breakfast. We also bought some delicious strawberry jam.

There is nothing like eating a warm sun kissed strawberry right off the field in the morning. Growing up in Flushing, Queens didn't really give me the opportunity to find a lot of strawberry fields.  Well, being on a real farm and surrounded by these intensely flavored Floridian false fruit quickly made up for my farmless childhood.  The seeds of the strawberry are technically the fruit and are related to the rose. You can read more about the strawberry here. These little red guys beat any over watered, over grown commercial strawberry that I have ever had before. The smaller berries tend to taste a lot better and have more of a berry punch.

Schnebly Redland's Winery

Hmmm, fruit wine? I was not sure what to expect when I walked into the winery's tasting room.  The Schnebly Winery (owned by Peter and Denisse Schnebly) produce tropical fine wines. They make single fruit varietal wines using fruits like Carambola (star fruit), Mango, Lychee, Guava and Passion fruit. Also on their list is a Carambola wine aged in French Oak and a wine made from a blend of exotic tropical fruits called the Category 3 Hurricane. Their selection keeps changing as they are always experimenting with different types of fruit.

The tasting sheet has a list of food pairings to go with each wine.  I am most interested in pairing them with cheeses (the really good stuff).  They all have a very nice balance of acidity and sweetness. My top two favorites were the Guava and Passion Fruit wines.

The guest area is huge, there is the Tiki area, a courtyard, a tasting room and a waterfall.  Check out the pictures on their website www.schneblywinery.com

Below is a report that a local Miami news station did on the Schnebly winery. 

 

 

Robert is Here

I became an official Robert is Here fan in the summer of 2006 when I  went down to Florida for my first Mahi-Mahi fishing trip in the Florida Keys You can read that article here..  Every time that I talk to someone that is heading down to that area I always send them to stop in and pay a visit to my favorite mega fruit stand.  Last time I was there I had the Key Lime Milkshake.  I really couldn't wait until I got there to have another one.  I mean come on, two years have gone by and I needed my fix.

Just as we were parking, two huge tour buses pulled in and unloaded a wave of tourist.  The first thing on their minds was not to go to the bathroom, instead they all ran to get on line for a milkshake. AAhhh!

It all worked out in the end, after walking around a bit I became intrigued by all these different tropical fruits.  Sapote, Mamey and Canestel.

Canestel is also called Egg Fruit or Yellow Sapote.  It has the mouth feel of a banana and the pulp has the color of an egg yolk. It has a rich and slightly sweet taste.  It does have a musky odor at first.  I had a Canestel milkshake.  The color it produced was beautiful and it makes an amazing milkshake as well.  I definitely like it more that the key lime milkshake.  Shhh don't tell Robert.

What I learned about the Sapote family is that these types of fruits really have to get ripe for you to enjoy them.  The flesh has to give way when you lightly squeeze it.

The Black Sapote starts off very green and according to Robert "you put the fruit on your counter and wait a few days.  When it turns completely black, you check the bottom of it and look to see if it has left any residue.  If nothing is present let it sit another day or two and you keep checking the bottom and look at the counter to see if it leaves anything.  Once it does, it's ready to eat".  We waited for four days. Unfortunately, we did not have an extra two days to spare. The Sapote was black and sort of soft but it did not leave behind the residue that Robert said to look out for. Still we championed on and sliced it open. It has a seed like an avocado. It tasted mildly like and had the mouth feel of a cooked sweet potato.

In the back of his fruit stand he has trees upon trees of Carambola fruits.  They were over ripe but they did have this brilliant orange, gold color.  You can see those pictures below.  

You can read more information regarding the Florida Redland Region by clicking here

I was catching up on one of my favorite blogs Laughing Squid and I found a super cool stop motion animated movie  about the different wars fought in the world. It starts with World War II and goes to the present time.  The genius behind it is that food is used to represent the different countries.