Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 118 | Post-meal (1 hour): 130 | Insulin: 5 Units

My parents were coming in to visit me because they had a show to see later on in the evening. They have not been to my apartment in a while so they decided to come in a little early. My parents like to be on time and that morning it just was not going to happen for them. I wanted to have some brunch with them when they arrived because I know they would be starved. I told them to meet me at Penelope’s, a cozy brunch place near my apartment.

They took the train in because parking in the city could cost a small fortune. That is where the delays started. There was an incitement on the train so they were delayed about fifteen minutes arriving in Penn Station. I can feel the tension over the phone when I talked to them that morning after they found out. Finally they arrive and walk out of Penn Station to get a cab. They get in a cab and the first left the cabby takes he cuts off a cop car. He immediately gets pulled over. My dad laughed at the cabby for being such an idiot and got out of the cab. Now they were on the hunt for another cab. Long story short, they finally made it to Penelope’s and we had a delicious brunch filled with waffles, pancakes, two egg sandwiches, and a raspberry cake.

Here is a closer look at my 10pm burrito from San Francisco last week. Eating a super burrito and then going to bed is not the smartest thing in the world but I am a real SUCKER for NorCal taquerias. I’d do it again in a heart beat.

Not surprisingly I was in San Francisco a week ago. If there is a place on earth that is my home away from home it is SF. Shhh, but I secretly hope to make it my “real” home again one day. My short, two year stint definitely left me with a bug to move back. This trip was a fast paced barrage of work, research, catching up with friends and eating that started with a 7am Saturday flt and ended with a Thurs redeye. I thought I swore those off last year?

Rather than dive deep into the stories, friends, reasons and circumstances which placed the food shown below in front of me, I thought I would “food porn” out by simply sharing the day and time these tasty morsels were consumed. Let’s jump right in with a solo mission to The Richmond 33 minutes after I landed.

Saturday afternoon: Various dim sum at Clement Restaurant

Saturday night: Spice Supper Club (full post coming soon)

Sunday morning: Blueberry pancakes at Bean Bag

Sunday afternoon: Turkey club and mac and cheese with shitake mushrooms at La Boulange

Sunday night: Sushi at Amberjack

Monday night: Carnitas buritto at El Toro

Tuesday morning: Corn Flakes and fruit in the Yahoo! cafeteria

Tuesday night: Goat Hill Pizza and wings

Wednesday morning: Spinach, tomato and cheese omelet at Custom Burger

Wednesday afternoon: Tripe and pork Pho at New Pho #1

Wednesday night: Veggie and Meat Indian pizza at Zante’s

Thursday night: Farina in the mission (description below)

•Prosciutto and mozzarella
•Yellow fin tuna tartara tossed with capers, lemon, salt, served with black truffle sauce
•Pan roasted seabass with fresh peas and a white wine sauce, garlic and parsley sauce
•Hand made basil fettuccine with an Italian sausage sauce and pecorino cheese
•Hand made raviolini filled with braised beef and borage served in a braised beef sauce
•Grilled lamb chops served with sauteed chanterelle mushrooms
•Filet mignon served in a gorgonzola beef sauce with sunchoke puree

If you are going to be in SF any time soon and want to retrace my steps, just grab the map at the top and work it into your own itinerary.

Lizard’s Thicket from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 114 | Post-meal (1 hour): 146 | Insulin: 5 Units

This is going to be my last blog about my visit down in South Carolina until the next time I head down to visit. I asked Kelsey to take me to a southern style lunch and she knew just the place. Lizard’s Thicket is as southern as you can get. Southern cooking has a lot of fried food and hot desserts. I like the food in the south but I could not eat like this all the time. It’s is not the healthiest diet, especially for me.

This book was send to me by my friend Allen. I met Allen in LA for the first time. I was behind the wheel of a rented black, Chevy Yukon and he was standing in front of the Roosevelt Hotel on his way to the Yahoo! Grammy party. Our short drive up the Sunset Strip solidified a few quick lessons. We were both creative guys and we both expressed it through cooking. Arguably, the single most important thing he taught me came years later as we both stood in my Brooklyn kitchen after yet another one of our Yahoo! projects wrapped.  Now that might seem shallow but it’s not. The trick he showed me was how to heat up a tortilla. Put the stove top flame on med heat. Throw the tortilla directly on the flame. Flip in 5 seconds. Pull it. Stuff it. Eat it.

I had always heated my tortillas in a large hot pan. Not only did this dirty another pan in the cooking process but it took longer to heat the tortillas. So, why was this lesson so important? It is not about the tortillas as much it is about understanding a new or different way to do something. So often we look to solve problems from the perspective of what we have learned or how we were taught. Sometimes this is not the best or most logical way to do something. In this case, remove the middle man (the pan) and go directly to the source is more efficient in every way, not to mention it looks really cool. Apply this to creative thinking (in my case advertising) and watch out.

A few months back Allen took a trip to Mexico and happened upon a cooking class from famed Mexican chef Rick Bayless (Mexcian via Oklahoma). With our tortilla bond in mind, he picked up a copy of Rick’s latest book and sent it over to my BK kitchen. Inside are some fantastic sounding, delicious looking recipes. Picking one to cook was difficult. The night finally arrived last week, as the book was screaming at me from my kitchen counter, to pick a recipe and cook. I decided to go simple but with massive flavor punch. The Chipotle Beef Tacos with Carmelized Onions on page 169 fit the bill. Of course we had to throw some accoutrements in with the tacos.

We started with some chorizo and queso fresco.

And some homemade yucca fries for good measure.

To add some veggie to this meat mayham I modified a recipe out of the front of Rick’s book. Romaine, watercress, Fennel salad with lime cilantro vinaigrette. In Rick’s recipe he used jicama instead of fennel. The market didn’t have it :( I love jicama.

Chips and salsa with taco toppings staged the next course

Finally the Taco’s were built and devoured. Damn tasty.

Entenmenn’s chocolate cake made an appearance for dessert

As did Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby

This recipe was fantastic. I don’t cook much Mexican nor do I frequent many Mexican restaurants in NYC because I find they are not very authentic. I don’t think this has changed my mind on Mexican restaurants but I am certainly going to try a few more Bayless recipes and hopefully develop a few Mexican favorites to put in teh arsenal. Thanks Allen for the book and thanks Rick for the inspiration.

Page 169’s Chipotle Beef Tacos with Carmelized Onions
One 7 ounce can chipotle chiles en adobo
1 lbs skirt steak
3 tbs olive oil
2 medium white onions slices 1/4″ thick
Salt
12 warm corm tortillas
about 3/4 cup smokey chipotle salasa (page 149) or bottled salsa

Turn oven onto its lowest setting. Open the chipotle and blend in a food processor until smooth. marinade steak with chipotle. In a large skillet cook the onions in the oil until crunchy. Remove onions from pan and ass the steak. Brown on both sides (3 minutes per side). Let is rest in the oven for 5 minutes then slice into 3 inch lengths. Toss with the onions and season with salt. Build tacos with tortillas, salsa, hot sauce and steak/onion combo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 115 | Post-meal (1 hour): 117 | Insulin: 5 Units

When I was down in South Carolina Kelsey and her parents wanted to take me to eat some southern barbeque. That was definitely on my agenda while I was down for my visit. They decided to bring me to Carolina Wings & Ale. We ordered slightly family style. I made sure we all ordered something different because I wanted to try everything. We ordered fried mushroom, chicken wings, pulled pork, ribs with a carolina dry rub, baby back ribs and five different sauces to dip in. It was a lot of fun and it was really good. Love a place with a lot of sauces.

Kelsey has told me all about the barbeque in South Carolina. There is something about barbeque that I didn’t know. Did you know that there are three types of barbeque, ketchup based, mustard based and vinegar based? At Carolina Wings & Ale we only had Ketchup based which is the only BBQ I have ever had. Kelsey’s favorite BBQ is vinegar based. One of these days I’m going to try the other two types.

Here is how it all went down:

Fried Mushrooms

Chicken wings

Pulled Pork

Carolina Dry Rub

Five Sauces

I have known John as long as I have been alive. Over the last 35 years he has been many things to me. In precise order here is the list.

1. The first barrier of defense when my other cousin Joe would use me as a barbell
2. The person with the most number of comic books I have ever seen
3. A rock star DJ who apparently knows every single person on campus
4. Technical wizard on all things video
5. Super fun, caring father

Over that time we have ate hundreds of meals together. Many of them large. Like, Thanksgiving large. During the earlier meals I usually was wearing his retired clothing. Quick side note, for a long time i thought they were called Ham-y-downs. I never can get food off the brain. This meal was no exception in size. Although, I was NOT wearing any of his clothes.

What we ate:
beef ribs, pork ribs, pork chop, hot link, cole slaw, deviled eggs, corn bread mash

Home Cookin at the Johnson’s from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 136 | Post-meal (1 hour): 154 | Insulin: 5 Units

I had a great week down south with my girlfriend Kelsey. On our last night before heading home to New York, Kelsey’s parents, Mark and Karen, wanted to cook us dinner, Southern Style. Mark and Karen are such great and kind people. They really made me feel welcome in their home. As much as I wanted to help out in the kitchen there was no need to. Karen had taken care of everything the night before and the only thing left was to heat it up. As for Mark, he already had the Pork Loin on the grill on a low temp already cooking by the time Kelsey and I got to the house. Dinner and dessert was delicious. Thanks so much for everything Mark and Karen.

Pecan Cheese Spread

1# Cheese, shredded
½ sm Red onion, small diced
1 tsp Parsley
2 cloves Garlic
1c. (to taste) Mayonnaise
¾ c. Pecan pieces
½ tsp. Pepper
1/4c (as topping-optional) Strawberry Jam

Mix all together, Chill for 8 hours or overnight. (except strawberry jam)
Serve with crackers. Can be molded.

All other receipts are a family secret.

Biltmore Estate from Anthony Anello on Vimeo.

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count

Pre-meal: 96 | Post-meal (1 hour): 136 | Insulin: 5 Units

Kelsey and I went on a little road trip to Asheville North Carolina. The main attraction we went to go see was the Biltmore Estate, which is the biggest house in the U.S. There are almost 300 rooms in the house including a bowling ally and indoor swimming pool. However, that is not all to see on the estate. Here is what went down…

Diabetic Blood Sugar Count
Pre-meal: 94 | Post-meal (1 hour): 107 | Insulin: 4 Units

I am down in South Carolina to visit my girlfriend Kelsey. I have never been down in the Carolina’s before. I like it down here. It’s quiet, about 15 – 20 degrees warmer than New York, and there is a lot of great southern foods for me to try. Kelsey’s family are big fans of Forking Tasty and know I am going to be looking for some typical southern food that I am not used to up north.

On the first day I got to South Carolina it was Kelsey and my anniversary so I am going to have to keep those meals private. The second day I got a tour of the neighboring towns and city where Kelsey and her family live. Some towns are small and some towns are really REALLY small. If you close your eyes for about 10 seconds while driving through you may miss the town. Columbia is the near by city where the University of South Carolina is. It’s a big school and there are lots of restaurants and bars all over the place. After checking out the city for a while we got thirsty and a little hungry. We stopped off at The Flying Saucer.

This place has a ridiculous beer menu. They had a wall about 50 feet long with beer taps. There were plaques all over the walls of people who have tried over 200 different beers that they offer. We all got a beer and sat outside to enjoy the weather. Yes, outside for all you northerners reading this. Kelsey’s brother came and met us at the bar for a drink and suggested we get an appetizer, a Saucer Bratzel. This is a big pretzel with Swiss cheese and sliced beer brat with spicy mustard. It was really good with the cold beers we were drinking. I’ve never had a pretzel like that before and I don’t think the pretzel guy on the streets of NY will be cooking up something like this

I had a really good time hanging out with the family and finally meeting Kelsey’s brother. They are all fun to be around and definitely know where to go for a beer. They have all taken me in and will be having many meals together while I am in South Carolina for the week. Look for the next few posts to have a lot of southern hospitality in them.

Ya’ll come back now…