Crab Cakes

I’ve been eating a lot of crab lately. And I’m not complaining. It’s to be expected. I was in Florida two weekends in a row and not to mention, I live with someone who grew up in the South. Seafood, especially fried, abounds in this household. We also groove on sushi quite a bit and especially dig tempura. But, the best thing I’ve have, I must say, were the crab cakes, made for me at our apartment.

The recipe comes from a restaurant called 82 Queen in Charleston, where the chef of my Sunday evening crab cakes worked at one point in his stint working in the restaurant industry. The quaint, historic restaurant opened in 1982 and maintains a devout following of patrons today.

These very crabby cakes are loaded with chunks of the stuff and get a little extra kick from the addition of Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Fried til they are golden, these guys are best served fresh from the pan. They aren’t difficult to make but will surely impress.

At the restaurant, they are served with a red pepper coulis that you could whip up if you have a little extra time by simmering red peppers and garlic and then processing them in a food processor.

82 Queen Crabcakes

1 Lb. Lump Crabmeat

1⁄2 Cup Mayonnaise

2 Green Onions chopped fine

2 Tsp. Tabasco

1 Tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 1⁄2 Cups Coarse Bread Crumbs, divided

1 Tbsp. Fresh Lemon Juice

1⁄2 Tsp. Ground Thyme

2 Eggs

¼ Cup Half and Half

1 Tbsp. butter or olive oil

1.Combine above ingredients thoroughly, using just ½ cup of the breadcrumbs.

2.Form into desired cake size, about 4 oz. Set Aside.

3.For the breading, make egg wash eggs and Half and Half.

4.Dip crab cakes in egg mixture, then roll in the remaining bread crumbs until they are just coated. Sauté in butter or olive oil until golden brown. Serve hot. Makes four.

Fizzy Lizzy

Gulf Coast Tangerine, Mount Fuji Apple… these are just a few delicious flavors of Fizzy Lizzy, a fairly new “grown up” soda available at Gourmet Garage, Fairway, and the likes. Of all the fancy pants bubby drinks I’ve had, nothing compares to the quality to Fizzy Lizzy. The flavors, be it pineapple, grape, or grapefruit are the stars of each bottle, which smartly states on the neck, “shake my hips before placing to your lips” as a way to request shaking up the pulp and fruit bits.

At only 100 calories per bottle, they are a great alternative to cloyingly sweet beverages.

And, since they are “adult” sodas, try making champagne floats with the different flavors and garnishing them with their featured fruit.

Googleteria

Make friends with someone who works for Google. I have a sweetheart friend who recently started working at the Eighth Avenue office and kindly invited me for lunch at their in-office cafeteria. I had heard rumors about the cafeteria but hadn’t fully considered the possibilities. In the morning of the day that I was to eat with him, he emailed me the menu for that afternoon, which included coconut vanilla shrimp, Guinea hen, corn bread pudding, cashew paella, and a whole slew of other tasty options. There was a raw bar; there was an antipasti station, and there was a dessert stand with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries that tricked me into thinking it could be the peak of summer.

I couldn’t decide on hardly anything and ended up with a shmorgas of marinated mushrooms, shrimp, roasted eggplant, poached salmon with wakame, pesto pasta, and berries and carrot cake for dessert. I’ve used google to search for recipes many times before, but this was my first full tasting.

Naka Naka

A restaurant in which chopsticks rest on paper cranes… I was overjoyed to discover that a Japanese restaurant like Naka Naka exists in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan. It is a pocket of a restaurant that seems to be a romantic’s paradise. The space allows for no more than twenty people, though it could easily be redesigned to accommodate double that. The majority of the seats allow for diners to sit side by side, giving them a chance to hold hands rather than to be separated by a sea of food across a vast table.

The music is low and sweet. I remember enjoying it but don’t remember quite what it was—something along the lines of Ella Fitzgerald-esque tunes? Anyway, it was at a level in which I could hear my company without the slightest strain.

The wait staff was equally accommodating to the mood of romance. A young man and young lady took turns waiting on us, presenting a board of specials tableside, translating, giving recommendations, and, ultimately serving us exceptionally good izekaya cuisine. They strode from the kitchen across a platform that sits square in the space, housing what looks like a Japanese version of a writer’s den: an intricate arrangement of wooden compartments and levels. The platform didn’t seem to hold a specific purpose, but I appreciate that the owners haven’t slanted their restaurant to align with Western ideas of a dining space. The plates also fall in the vein of tradition, as each one is petit and particular.

Small dishes of king crab sunomono—a vinegary dish with cucumbers—expertly fried squid tempura in which the batter was flecked with nameshi—Japanese dried greens that offer a forceful but delicious flavor—a smattering of straight vegetable tempura in which there was no trace of excessive oil use, just a pillowy light case of golden batter surrounding the likes of sweet potatoes, green beans, asparagus, and onions made up the bulk of the meal. Sushi was also fresh as could be. Orbs of Ikura popped individually in my mouth.

And, every time a dish was cleared, our endearing placemats were revealed: a psychedelic scene of a geisha girl amidst squirrels and trees with a distant city in the background. It seemed to be a mirror of where we sat, surrounded by good vibes, transported far from the hustle of the city.

Fry Sauce

I just learned about something called fry sauce, which is, at the heart of it, a sauce in which one dips fries. No, it’s not ketchup, nor is it mayonnaise; it is a combination of the two…and just about anything else that you might want on hand as a dip. You can add barbeque sauce, mustard, sweet and sour sauce, honey, garlic and lemon.

Apparently this fry sauce is widely used in Utah and, at most fast food chains in the area, it’s available there along with the straight ketchup. I have no doubt that the restaurant fry sauces are fantastic, but the best one I’ve had recently was a homemade version in which I added Worchestershire sauce. The result was a punchy flavor, resulting from the fermented nature of the sauce. Experiment at home and don’t limit its use to fries.

Ali’s P2 White Chocolate Cookies

My friend Ali is a very coveted young lady. In fact, lately, it seems that the majority of my boy friends are developing crushes on her. I don’t blame them: she’s a high-spirited, low-maintenance, smart, funny, beautiful girl. And, after googling her, I discovered that, at the tender age of fourteen, she submitted a fantastic recipe for cookies to a website where, twelve years later, the recipe is still receiving five out of five stars, with heavy traffic.

Not that she needs the extra boost, but Ali’s recipe for Pumpkin Pecan White Chocolate Cookies is tasty enough to make any man swoon.



2¼ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1½ cups dark brown sugar

1 cup solid pack pumpkin puree

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

10 ounces white chocolate

½ cup pecan halves



1.Preheat the oven to 300°. Chop the white
chocolate into chunks.


2.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla then stir in the pumpkin puree until well blended.


3.In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice. Stir the dry mixture into the wet one.


4.Fold in the white chocolate chunks and the pecans. You might want to toast the pecans for a nuttier flavor.


5.Grease a cookie sheet and drop heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets, at least two inches apart.


6.Bake for 20-22 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes on baking sheets before removing and cooling on a wire rack.

The recipe yields about 36 cookies and the cookies are still great if frozen and then thawed within a month.

Izakaya 10

I’d like to suggest the spicy cod shrimp at Izakaya Ten in Chelsea. Three butterflied shrimp come per order smothered in a thick blanket of cod roe. Though the shrimp are served in their shells, they’ve been sautéed out of them with wasabi, minced onions, and a slew of other tasty bits that get packed back into the shrimp shell.

The result is a one-bite wonder that easily peels out of its case and into a soon-to-be delighted gullet. Be sure to have a Sapporo or some sake ready; these nibbles can get spicy if you get a bite with a lot of wasabi.

The restaurant is a perfect place to pop into while gallery hopping or just to tide one over with a little snack before a proper dinner. These shrimp were my favorite, but pan-fried dumplings were a close second.