Throwback

Me on the 10! show on 1/18/2010. Hahaha I was such a little nugget..

Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free, Fried Rice and Why I hate Strip Clubs

A few weeks ago a fraternity at Penn took me and some other friends to the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City. I put $20 in one slot machine and won $350. Afraid to waste away my gains, I quit while I was ahead and didn't gamble any more money in my time there.

In the following days, I tried to think of the best ways to blow that money to maximize the value gleaned from it. This meant spending it on experiences rather than material goods. I decided to go to the strip club cause I thought it would be a good time. It's supposed to be fun right? Isn't this what guys do to have fun?

Previously the only strip club I had been to was Show and Tell. I went there once with a few friends and once with a fraternity. My buddies told me that Delilah's was the nicest one in Philly so I decided to go there. It was about 5 on I think a Wednesday and it was the first week of classes so I had no homework and nothing to do until later that night so I said "what the hell" and took a cab there.

I sat myself down at the bar next to a middle-aged Mexican man. I started to make small talk. Is Delilah's the nicest strip club in Philly? Do you come here often? What's your favorite type of cigar?

After about 10 minutes I saw an attractive girl come down from upstairs. She was blonde with glasses--sporting the sexy nerd look that has become a Halloween costume staple. After a few minutes she got onstage. I said to the Mexican man, "that one's cute right?" "Yea she's cute, but she never lets me touch her senos. But you are young maybe she lets you touch them." I liked that. She wasn't willing to let dudes touch her boobs for a quick buck. In attempt to set myself apart from the horny males who frequent these clubs, I went up to her and said "I'm going to pay you for a lap dance but I just want to talk."

I told her that strip clubs bothered me. They're all about tricking guys that you like them, that you're into them, that you feel something for them. They just perpetuate the stereotype of the male who can't control his sexual urges. Believe me, I have nothing against lap dances, but I only want one from someone who genuinely wants to give one to me, not from someone who only cares about the bills in my wallet.

We talked for a while. I have no idea how long. She told me about how she went to Richmond and then to Temple, worked for a law firm, and now works for a tech company. She wasn't living on the streets in North Philly with stripping as her only source of income. She was clearly smart and a bit nerdy, but she was secure in her nerdiness. She was not the least bit ashamed to be a stripper, definitely a self-confident girl. For health reasons she maintains a dairy-free, gluten-free diet. At the end she told me to pay her what I wanted. I gave her $60. Looking back, I probably owed her around $400.

I went back to talk to her a few times--never a lap dance--maintaining the theme of my disgust with strip clubs. Then it hit me. I'm just as bad as these losers who come here for lap dances. They pay someone who has no interest in them to give them a lap dance or motorboat their titties. I pay someone who has no interest in me to talk to me and pretend they're interested in me. That's even worse. While there aren't many girls at Penn who dish out lap dances, there are plenty of attractive girls at Penn to talk to who wouldn't feign interest and who don't charge speaking fees. It's just unfortunate that my wallet had to take a beating before I really analyzed my actions.

Food always on my mind, I naturally thought about her dairy-free, gluten-free diet. That's gotta be rough. But least she can eat fried rice.

Here's a simple fried rice thrown together with some leftover take-out white rice and ingredients in my pantry. I often find that fried rice is all salt and grease. I aim to balance the flavors in mine by adding a touch of hoisin for sweetness, some sriracha for heat, and a dash or rice wine vinegar for acidity. Also I'm pretty liberal with the sesame oil because I love the flavor, but it is powerful so add it to your own taste.


Ingredients:

• About two cups of day-old cooked rice (I always make this with leftover Chinese food rice). 
• 4 Cloves of Garlic, crushed and peeled
• 2-3 medium-sized onions, diced. 
• 2 eggs
• About 2 tsp Hoisin Sauce (or to taste)
• About 2 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar (or to taste)
• Soy Sauce (or taste)
• Sesame Oil (to taste)
• Sriracha (to taste)
• Salt 
• pepper

1. Coat the bottom of a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven with peanut oil and turn to medium heat.
2. Cook garlic cloves until golden brown and then remove from skillet.
3. Add diced onions and cook until dark golden brown. Add a pinch of salt. (I cook these until they are almost black because I really like them crispy). 
4. Add rice to skillet and cook for about five minutes until it has heated through and has begun to take on a touch of color. Add a pinch of salt. (Make sure the rice hasn't completely soaked up all the oil in the pan, the fried rice should not be overly greasy,  but it should be coated with oil. The overall grease level however is up to the cook)
5. At this point add the sriracha, rice wine vinegar, hoisin sauce and salt to taste, and mix thoroughly.
6. Remove rice from heat, and divide into two bowls. 
7. Drizzle in soy sauce and sesame oil. 
8. Fry eggs sunny-side up in a non-stick pan or well-seasoned cast iron skillet, seasoning them with salt and pepper as they cook.  
9. Top each bowl of fried rice with a sunny-side up egg and serve. 

Finance vs. Entrepreneurship and Eats 1/28/2012

Thinking on paper. First semester done. What now? I don't know what I'm doing. I miss the kitchen. Though I was able to do some cooking over break.

Every now and then I feel like being Thomas Keller again. But I just don't know if the chef lifestyle is for me. Long shifts, low pay, physically exhausting work. I think it would be more fun to be a straight restauranteur, designing each aspect of a restaurant for success.

Anthony Bourdain honestly has the best job in the world (here he is pictured with Eric Ripert from when I saw him a few months ago in Philly) but close behind him is the restauranteur Stephen Starr. It must be so fun to create a restaurant like Dandelion (2 photos down), or Morimoto, or Buddakan. Starr's restaurant empire is essentially Disney World for diners. The decor in each of his restaurants is a frikin foodie's wet dream. How cool would it be creating those concepts?

This brings me to my next point. As I've mentioned before, I'm an undergrad at The Wharton School at Upenn. Wharton is as close as it gets to a Wall Street Farm Team. Something like 65% of Wharton's graduating class goes into finance making 70k a year with a 30k year-end bonus.

That's a hard opportunity to pass up. But obviously creating something of my own, (opening up my own restaurant would be one way to achieve this) would be a lot more fun. Getting Compare Food Pics up and running was a great time (although I recently let the server payments run out because I wasn't making any money and it would've cost me a lot of money to make the improvements necessary to monetize the site) and I'm currently working with a programmer on a UPenn Smartphone Application.   I'm also  taking the Code Year Challenge with Michael Bloomberg so I can learn JavaScript and not be completely dependent on someone else to implement my ideas.

At the same time I don't know if I'd be able to pass up the opportunity to work in finance. Time will tell. This isn't a very in-depth analysis of the implications of an entrepreneurial life versus that of the alternative, but this is all I got for now.

That said, here are some snapshots from the past month or so of my life.

Bourdain and Ripert in Philly

My friends took me out to Dandelion for my birthday on December 9th. We spent much more than we had planned, but it was a great time.

(Seared foie gras, over-easy egg, bacon)

(Cured Salmon, cucumber salad)

(steak and chips)

(Pumpkin-Pecan Pie)

This is from a trip to Morimoto with my grandparents. This is a sashimi platter.

(noodle soup from Morimoto)

(New Delhi Indian Buffet with my roommate)

(Sashimi Bento Box from Harusame in Ardmore)

(Pork Belly cured, rolled up and vacuum sealed)

(Pork Belly after being cooked sous vide at 155 for 36 hours and then deep fried)

(White chocolate graham cracker toffee)

(A young Paula Deen with her plate of Christmas hors' d oeuvres) 

 (View from NYC apartment)

In NYC I met up with my buddy Max Kramer of Master Chef Fame and we went to the sushi restaurant Kanoyama. We told the chef to give us the works. Omakase. Everything.

(house made tofu)

(eel in gelee)

Then we had a lot more sushi that I didn't take a picture of. For two of us the bill was $800. We crapped our frikin pants. We split the check.  Here's my individual bill without tip. Could've eaten at Per Se almost 1.5 times for that amount.

Afterwards we had some fun going out to clubs in NYC. Here we are at a doughnut shop trying to figure out how they make crullers. 

Went to the famous artichoke pizza in NYC with the fam. The artichoke pie is essentially pizza topped with a heaping helping of rich-creamy artichoke dip. Artery cloggingly delicious. 

(Beef tartare at La Gazetta in NYC)

(Sublime octopus from La Gazetta)

Bento Box from Gin Za in Ardmore.

(Beef in Spicy Korean Sauce from Pei Wei on City Line right outside of Bala Cynwyd)

Felt compelled to add this. My friend was one of the first people to ever order wine from the popular bar Blarney's at Upenn. 

(Baby Back Ribs from Sangkee in Wynnewood)

(Bacon Candy. Christmas Present from Mom. Absolutely disgusting. Haha. Played a few pranks on people by asking them if they wanted a mint).

Thanksgiving and More Eats 12/8/2011

 Thanksgiving is a great holiday. No shit. I got to cook and relax and see my girl (pictured above) Kylie.

 For Thanksgiving I made a leek-cornbread stuffing with hot italian sausage and granny smith apples.

 Here's the finished product. Tasted incredible. Cornbread added a nice sweetness. I don't know why stuffing isn't a year round food.

 Here's my uncle's turkey, we go to his house every year for thanksgiving.

 Cousin's biscuits.

 Cousin's tofurkey. Looks scary. Tastes scary.

 Aunt brought a chocolate cake. Incredible.

 Pie on pie. Nothin like it.

 Next day brunch with my friend. We shared a burger with bacon and a fried oyster sandwich with a fried egg on english muffin.

 Here's my confited turkey legs getting brown in a pan. I confited the turkey in the sous vide supreme for 8 hours at 176  in butter after curing it in thyme and garlic and sage.

 Here's the sous vide breast. Cooked at 146 for two hours then broiled.

 Ma baked an apple pie.

 Grilled leftover turkey sandwich with cheddar cheese.

 Turkey-sweet potato hash. Grated then browned sweet potatoes with leftover leeks, garlic, onion and sage, added in turkey scraps, cooked till crispy.

 Then threw in some sunny side up eggs.

 Some sweet grilled beef with tumeric rice from a middle-eastern food truck. Great lunch.

 Raspberry pastry from au bon pain.

 3 AM sandwich from Wawa. Honey smoked turkey, spicy mustard, roasted red peppers, onions, whole wheat shorti.

 BBQ chicken from the pizza place allegro's. Wow, this is really not that good sober.

 Grilled chicken kabob from one of my favorite food trucks. It's got onion and pepper on it and I usually get it with a chipotle mayo.

 Makin creme anglaise for ice cream.

 Chipotle burrito bowl. So frikin good. I get double meat--barbacoa and steak--and then medium and mild salsa and pinto beans. So satisfying.

 Racks of lamb to be sous vide.

 Fridge stuffed with pizza dough.

 Sous vide machine crankin away those lamb chops mid rare.

 Dinner is served. Was able to prep at home over the past weekend then yesterday I cooked this dinner party for a friend of my mom. Sous vide lamb chops with romesco. Pulled chicken. Seared Scallops with asparagus, grilled veggies. I do the same din party every year. Nice that I live so close to school so that I can still do it.

And here's the raspberry crumble with homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert.