Eat BBC's 50 Things To Eat

This one I just need to be better about for entries and for tracking down a few of the items.

It stays!

Shark steak is one of those things I’ve had the misfortune of having either okay or horrible experiences eating. I get the appeal – it’s a really solid fish that you can grill like actual steaks. Grill marks and all. And it’s a hearty meal without all the fat of red meat, yada yada yada.

It also requires expert care when it is caught – if it isn’t bled properly, you’re in for quite the not-so-pleasant surprise when you buy it. Sharks already have a unique way of eliminating their urine – they don’t pee like humans. They store blood in their bloodstreams and secrete it through their skin. So when a shark is caught and killed, if it isn’t bled properly, you end up with a lot of uric acid in the meat.

This might seem like a no-brainer, but most shark meat will have a light ammonia smell – some stores and restaurants have a really bad idea of “light.” And when there’s a ton of shark, it’s more difficult to judge whether you’re smelling the whole batch at once or some really badly butchered steaks. At a restaurant, you can send it back. If you buy it and cook it, it becomes a pain to return it to the grocery.

So, with all of this…is the shark worth it? Well, I suppose if it’s the good one. But this is a lot of effort and avoidance of ammonia smells and tastes. Perhaps the makers of this list were fortunate enough never to have had bad shark or to have bought bad shark and ended up tossing it rather than deal with the trouble of the customer service counter at the grocery over less than ten bucks.

Of course, I hardly ever notice it for sale anymore in the grocery – maybe a lot of folks did go in and complain over less than ten bucks…

Venison is Bambi. Of course, one no longer has to actually hunt Bambi or burn down an entire forest to enjoy venison. It’s available at the butcher and comes with the advantage of being rather tasty – but expensive. I’d gotten some and husband freaked out at the over $20/lb cost. Until, of course, we compared this to his hunting gear costs that covered all manner of shotgun, handgun (with scope) and compound-bow costs for deer hunting that had resulted in years of hunting that had netted exactly 0lbs of deer over the years. That’s right – not a typo – ZERO pounds of deer. He didn’t go hunting that many days, nor did he have the resources to go to the better parts of our state to hunt…but at a cost per pound…I was still way under. Not to mention…a lot less cleanup and warm entrails.

On that note, venison is much lower in calories and a lot leaner than beef. If you buy farm-raised, you eliminate much of the worry of gaminess and you aren’t forced to eat concoctions of milk, wine and lord knows what other 24-hour + marinades and 3 day cooking methods folks insist on using. Frankly, the gamines really only comes from poor eating conditions and/or poor butchering conditions. So if you have some really good hunters that are skillful field dressers and the conditions in the area have been good (no drought, plenty of food to eat), and they took care of the meat – it won’t taste gamey.

So my favorite dish? Venison tenderloin. Because it’s crazy easy. You basically can crust or season the tenderloin with whatever spices you like, even salt and pepper. Heat up a cast-iron skillet and sear the tenderloin for 45-60 seconds on each side (you’ll rotate it even on the ends). While you let the tenderloin rest, you deglaze the pan with wine and butter for a simple sauce. You’ll cut the tenderloin and it will be medium-rare/rare (you don’t want to go any more than medium-rare because the meat will become shoe leather). Serve. MMMMM-good.

Salmon really is my favorite fish. It’s also my heartbreak fish. There are a number of things that can go very, very wrong with salmon when you eat out – failure to take out pinbones, failure to scale properly, overcooking, an awful sauce, blackened…you know the drill.

But done right, salmon is practically a superfood. Between the omega-3s and the relatively low calories, this is a protein that packs a punch. Plus, it tastes fantastic. You can grill it, broil it, bake it, poach it or make tasty croquettes from it.

Or you can begin your first step into home curing and make your own lox at home. That’s right, your own fancy cream cheese and lox on bagels. And it’s crazy easy. And about 1/4 the price of buying your own at the deli. All you need is access to fresh salmon (get to know your fish guy – he’ll at least have the flash-frozen that he will have thawed and can call fresh) and then you need to have these super-fancy ingredients I like to call sugar, salt and pepper.

I’m not making this up.

Okay, brown sugar, kosher salt and pepper. Seriously. You make a rub out of this (1/4 cup salt, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 TBS pepper – per pound of salmon), rub over prepared salmon, wrap in plastic wrap, keep in container you can drain liquid from daily, refrigerate for 5 days. Rinse – you have LOX!

Honestly, the full instructions can be found at Food Mayhem, but it is that simple. Delicious!

I suppose we have an obsession with breakfast in America – after all, when a place like Denny’s has people standing in line for a free breakfast, there’s something there.

There are a gabillion chains serving breakfast – between Denny’s, Bob Evans, First Watch, Waffle House, House of Pancakes and a few others I’m not remembering right now, you can always get a passable breakfast. But what is this love of the American Diner?

I think it’s because it’s like going to a place like Jack & Benny’s where you know the owners are local, the restaurant is likely all staffed by family and the while the food really is something you could just as easily whip up at home – the place makes all the difference in the world.

This place just decided to add extra seating two years ago – before then, it was maybe 30 people. And they wouldn’t ever be pushing you out the door on a weekend, even if they had a line of folks waiting to get in. Your omelets were huge, pancakes as big as the plate. Coffee constantly refilled. You always get hashbrowns and toast – because these people don’t know about the anti-carb people.

I think this is on the list not so much for the food part, but for the feeling. A real diner is about the friendliness and the people that serve you. The food is good and honest, but not fancy. It will fill you up and keep you satisfied. Best of all, you’re usually supporting a local business owner that did this because they wanted to run a nice neighborhood joint – not someone that had visions of celebrity cookbooks in their heads. Better yet, if you’re there in the off-hours, you’ll find some great conversation to be had.

Squid! I have some frozen in the freezer at this moment. It is a much-maligned creature. First Jules Verne gives the Giant Squid a bad rap in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and then it turns out that they exist!

And then every two-bit restaurant on earth makes horrible calamari. That’s right, I said it. Horrible calamari. You know the kind – breaded within an inch of it’s life, deep fried and served with two or three different sauces in hopes that you won’t notice that you’re being served rubbery bands of ick.

This is no way to eat squid.

First, let’s discuss good calamari. Good calamari does not go to a chain restaurant pre-breaded where it’s dumped still-frozen into a deep-fat fryer by a guy who had 10 minutes of training on how to listen for the “beep” sound earlier in the day.

Good calamari has two schools of thought. There’s the marinated school – those that will swear by an overnight buttermilk marinade method. This will tenderize the squid via enzymes in the buttermilk, which means you really have to try to make them rubber. The next day, it’s batter and fry without crowding them. The second school is the flash fry – generally, this is a lighter batter (panko bread crumbs get popular) and a mere 15 or 20 seconds in hot oil. This gives the squid no time to get tough at all, but requires a fresh product.

If your server can’t answer which method is used or if they go, “it just comes breaded and frozen,” just skip the calamari. You’ll be disappointed. I will say that there was a time Buca di Bepo (of all places!) used to be the overnight-buttermilk place, but I don’t know if their expansion has moved them towards the frozen-bag or not. So don’t be shocked to asked.

This is not to say that all squid is fried. There is the beauty of the stuffed squid. This is usually a braised or pressure-cooked dish and something that you’ll find at authentic Mediterranean-type places. If you get a chance, branch out and try it – you’ll thank yourself later. Squid isn’t a super-bold tasting vessel, but there’s an underlying sweetness to it that begs to be paired with really bold, acidic flavors. This means you get rich olive oils, tomato sauces, loads of herbs and all sorts of bold flavors. It’s harder to come by, but worth it.

Squid – worth it!

I am guessing by the title here, that BBC knows we all have these restaurants. They have an authentic-sounding name, an astoundingly long menu with enough choices to choke a horse, offer a dizzying array of beers and free chips and salsa as soon as you sit down. The Margaritas aren’t so bad either. Your food arrives hot and fast on colorful plates and there are usually leftovers.

I think we all know that this is somewhat watered-down Mexican cuisine, but we love it all the same. There’s something comforting in the melted cheese, the generous sides of refried beans and the tremendous mounds of rice. Have I mentioned the chips? The beauty of these is that they’re generally made on site from leftover tortillas – if you’re lucky, you get a fresh batch.

By the by, I’m not talking about the chain-chain version – I mean the outfits that are clearly staffed by individuals that have moved here and cook adapted cuisine to make a living. I’m sure that they look at their Fajitas and wonder, “why am I serving something I’d never serve at home?” much as their cousin in immigration will look at General Tso’s Chicken and chuckle to themselves – but it’s all good.

I have a carry out menu by my side, although I barely know why – it’s almost always the same order for us:

No. 82
No. 149
No. 37

Another fine sign – you order by number. It does make things easier. Oh – you need translation?

No. 82 Queso Fundido (which is a Chorizo and Cheese dip)
No. 149 – Fajita Quesadilla (it’s like two meals!)
No. 37 – Pollo a la Diabla (Chicken in a Spicy Sauce)

Every once in a while we branch out – and then, it tends to be things like Enchiladas. You can’t go wrong with those. Too bad I already have chicken marinating…today would have been a good day for carry-out!

Oh, and our place? El Vaquero – which has quite a few places here in town. It’s a sort of local chain, but not a chain-chain.

Ah, the quintessential American takeout food. Hamburgers! Or Hamburg, if you were my husband’s grandmother (I never did find out what happened to the -er, but that was her thing and it was really sweet). These can be done up super-fancy with any number of toppings, gotten for carry-out from a number of restaurants in a million shapes and sizes and are the stuff of backyard barbecues everywhere.

What’s not to love? Well, a bad burger for one. Bad burgers you’ll know instantly – they’re overcooked, they taste like dry clumps of vague protein and you’ll find yourself dousing the stuff in condiments and cheese just hoping that today’s not the day lactose-intolerance sets in to roost.

That’s no way to live.

When we go out for burgers, we keep things pretty simple. Locally, we’re all about the crack burger, erm Culver’s – the Butterburgers are just simple, fresh chuck burgers that are seared on a hot grill and put on a butter-grilled bun. Honestly, this is pretty much what you’d do at home. This is why it’s good. If I had to pick a more conventional fast-food, I’d go with Wendy’s since they use fresh ground beef as well. If we want to go crazy and try the ultimate in burgers with sit down and beers, there’s always Thurmans which was featured on an episode of Man vs. Food.

But what about at home? Ah, this is where I must agree with my husband’s main guy, Alton Brown. His burger is simplicity defined. The recipe on the food network site leaves out a few things like having the meat still slightly frozen when you pulse it in the food processor, but outside of that, this is all you need for a great burger.

Sure, you can dress it up with all sorts of spices and that’s fine. But the cooking instructions should remain the same – 4 minutes per side, no other flipping and no SMOOSHING! Juices stay in the burger! Lightly toast your buns. Enjoy – have good beer or a Pinot Noir if you’re so inclined.

Ahhh…Greek Food.

Greece is on my list of places I must visit, but I’m very fortunate to live in a city with a fantastic Greek population. I’m also fortunate to have good Greek friends. As much as you want to say, “oh, the movies exaggerate,” My Big Fat Greek Wedding isn’t that far off the mark when you’re invited over for a major celebration. We’ve been fortunate enough to get invitations to Greek Easter a few times – and yes, you’ll come up and see the men cooking a whole lamb in the front yard having a loud time, ready to treat you like family.

They do take it easy on the ouzo with the non-Greeks, though – they’re not mean! :)

But it’s not all lamb. The Dolma and Spanakopita – oh my! The Lemon Chicken! The Octopus Salad! The Bread and all the wine. And most of all, the warmth of large and loud family. I don’t think there’s really any such thing as a quiet Greek meal – not even in a Greek restaurant. Heck, even the Greek grocer has a good loud and hearty greeting when it comes to your questions about the various forms of feta to choose from.

Greek Festival becomes the hunt for the best Baklava. This is even more fun with the advantage of tour guides in the form of your Greek friends. Greek friends will help you through the maze of lines and get you to the best grandmothers who have been making desserts all day.

In the end, though, your friends will also have this – a mother that remembers you just want an extra to-go container of Dolma. Dolma are my favorite…which remind me, I’ve always wanted to learn to make them!

Duh! I have a goal devoted to eating a deli’s worth of these – of course, with trying to save some extra cash for the last few months, deli sandwiches have been on hold for a bit. (Yes, I’m part of the Paradox of Thrift problem, but I’m okay with that for now.)

Let’s talk about the beauty of the sandwich. There’s no clear history on the sandwich, just a lot of legends. There’s the Earl, a supposed food for servants and Passover origins. If anything, this should speak to the universality of a food that’s an all-in-one meal that can be easily adapted to any culture. Where else can one find a food that has no hard and fast rules other than bread + fillings and still be called a sandwich?

Sandwiches for me must have the following criteria to be good:

- Quality Bread. Without this, it’s all downhill. For me, I generally will like anything that’s got flavor, has an underlying tenderness to it and doesn’t have too much extra to it. It also must enhance and not overpower the sandwich; if the sandwich is mostly flavored bread and nothing in between, I’m eating a roll. Yes, I’ll eat white bread, but it’s got to be good. It can’t be the sawdusty kind that just sticks to the roof of your mouth and tastes like air. It’s got to go with your PB&J!

- Filling that makes sense. Really, I can roll with meat fillings, vegetarian fillings or any combination in between. It just has to make sense. Don’t try to overwhelm me with something for the sake of being “creative.” Yes, I like roast beef. Yes, I like hummus. Yes, I like peaches. No, I do not want a Roast Beef, Peach and Hummus sandwich.

- Toppings should be good and not an afterthought. Do not hand me a hothouse tomato that is some sad thing that will taste like nothing, have the texture of sand and slice it too thick for words. I won’t like it, I’ll pick it off and I’ll be sad you tried to put it on my sandwich. If the lettuce is the size of a twin-sized sheet, please consider trimming it. Don’t let this stuff wilt or get brown.

- Condiments should be used sparingly and be flavorful. I like condiments, I do, but I really only like them sparingly on the sandwich. If they’re going to pour out of the sandwich, it’s too much. Any place that feels the need to use a ton of condiments makes me feel like they’re covering up problems with the bread, filling or toppings by saying, “here, have some more mayo!”

The rest is all gravy on a sandwich.

Outside of that, my other rule? Try barbecue chips on (yes, on the sandwich!) your Peanut Butter & Jelly. It’s awesome.