Eating Out in Marrakesh Part I: The Good, the So-So, and the Sheep’s Head

After much jetlag, dilly-dally, and time spent getting my head back on straight and my body back into the habit of working, cooking and such and such, I'm pleased to share with you my extraordinary culinary adventures in Morocco. Many thanks to all those who offered great suggestions on my previous posts about the trip. I would never have guessed on my own that the cinnamon and powdered sugar-dusted pastries bastilla actually had meat inside them (but would have been delighted anyhow -- they're delicious!).

Beef with Leeks and Shiitake Mushrooms

You can probably guess where I gathered the ingredients for this savory winter stir-fry from the post preceding this one. Think of it as a twist on beef stew -- but one that takes a fraction of the cooking time. Served with rice and perhaps a simple, stir-fried green on the side, it's the perfect cold weather meal to really fill up on, and look forward to having again the next day. What? It hasn't actually been cold in New York City, you say, with temperatures in the sixties last week for days in a row? Well, fine then. But one look at a Farmers' Market, with its sober rows of squashes and cabbages, will remind you that it is most assuredly winter. Luckily, both leeks and Shiitake mushrooms naturally flourish in the winter, and they taste best when cooked just the slightest.

Watching the Markets: Dynasty Supermarket

Just a few blocks south of where the hip boutiques of Nolita give way to the small produce stands and herbal medicine shops of Chinatown lies the comparatively mammoth Elizabeth Street supermarket, Dynasty. Here's where the bulk of one's Asian food shopping can be done in one stop. It's such a popular destination for this -- and its prices so reasonable -- that on weekends you'll often see shuttle vans waiting outside, transporting zealous shoppers from surrounding areas as they load up for the week. Because Chinese, Thai and Japanese foods can be found in its aisles, Dynasty has also long been a trusty resource for any New Yorker looking for ingredients to impress their friends with.

Green Apple and Brie Risotto

I know what you’re thinking. Your mouth is slightly agape. You read Brie and apples and your brain is skipping along at a jovial clip, then comes "risotto" and everything comes to a crashing halt against a tangled mental wire fence. Does that go? Apples in risotto? Remember, this is coming from a person who recently tried to put beets in pudding.

Bellyache Blues

I've been eating a lot of strange post-holiday snacks this week. After the festivities were over, I found myself in an apartment full of ribboned and confettied food products, like cookies, chocolate, and this giant tub of stuff from the Popcorn Factory. At first I was excited about the prospect of finding inside different varieties of gourmet kernels, but no such luck; instead it was filled with bags of neon-colored prepopped corn and other odds and ends. Disgusted as I was, I still have to give them credit for the surprise factor -- who'd have thought of bright red cinnamon-flavored popcorn? Or ranch? And "spicy" flavored peanuts instead of just roasted peanuts? Good for them.

Batali Bakers

Luckily for those who eat in like me, the cult of the celebrity chef is never far from reach. With an ebullience similar to when the first Michael Jordan sneakers were released, manufacturers are creating line after line of chef-approved kitchenwares. There's Joan Chen brand woks and bamboo steamers, Gordon Ramsay fine china and crystal, Emerilware, Martha Stewart everything, and recent years have seen the Batali and Ray empires expand into cookware as well (and "EVOO"). For Christmas I was given these two Mario Batali mini cast iron Dutch ovens(?) or covered casseroles(?). Something of that nature. Its manufacturer, Copco, didn't have a very specific name for it -- a "2 cup Italian Essentials Pot," they called it, in line with their larger capacity "Italian Essentials" pots. But aren't they cute?

Beet Budino No-No

First things first, happy New Year. I trust that everyone's risen from bed and had their hair of the dog by now. For those who've been up longer, I hope that your New Year's Day dessert experience went better than mine. Or perhaps the word would be more "fruitful" than mine. Because my first culinary lesson of 2008 is that beets and sweets are not exactly interchangeable.