This is a transcription of “The Best of FOOD how Part I,” dated March 25, 2008.

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds from Spices of Life, and this week I have a special treat for my Spices of Life viewers. I just came back from San Diego’s Fancy Food Show. What I’ve done, is I went and took my favorite finds and I’m presenting them here to you.

Nina: Naomi Novotny is Vice President of SaltWorks, and there slogan is “Every great dish deserves the perfect salt.” You were just saying that your fiancée is a salt fanatic.

Naomi: He is. He is crazy about salt.

Nina: And what’s his name?

Naomi: This is Mark.

Nina: Hi Mark, you’re on Spices of Life! And we understand that you’re a salt fanatic.

Mark Zoske (Founder of SaltWorks): Yes, that’s true.

Nina: You’ve been coming the Fancy Food Show for how many years?

Naomi: This is our third year.

Nina: You have a pretty extraordinary booth. I just want to give everybody a view. And you’re in a pretty amazing location. So talk about some of your new exciting things.

Naomi: We have just launched our fusion line of sea salts, which are infused with natural flavors.

Nina: How many different fusion salts?

Naomi: There are seventeen different varieties, and they’re all infused with natural flavors. There are three proprietary processes. Some of them, like our green chili salt – they actually liquefy the entire chili, so you get the entire flavor of the chili, not just the oil. We have merlot red wine salt, that’s concentrated merlot that is re-crystallized into the salt crystal. It’s amazing. We have matcha green tea, which is a great salt on tempura or any kind of light dish. Our lemon and lime salts have the full flavor of the lemon and lime, not just the oily flavor. They’re just all wonderful. They’re true, bold flavors that are paired with the perfect salt.

Nina: Now how did you get the idea to do this? You said you’d been working on it for a year and a half.

Naomi: Right. We’ve done smoked salts in the past and other specialty salts. We had this idea for the red wine salt, which is really what brought this all to be. And it was really hard to get a stabilized product using the actual wine, so once we came up with that, we thought, you know, this is a great way to get natural flavors. We had tons of requests for lemon salt. People were using powdered lemon, or lemon oil and they just didn’t taste right. So we just set out to get the best flavoring, that was all natural, using no preservatives, no additives.

Nina: That’s fabulous. So you’re based where? Washington?

Naomi: Washington.

Nina: So people can go on your website, (saltworks.us) they can go into Kroger, Whole Foods, and really get your salt anywhere. Well thank you so much. These salts have to be some of the neatest things I’ve seen at the Fancy Food Show. And really, congratulations. You’re doing something really cool.

This is a transcription of “Made in China,” dated July 15th, 2008.

Nina: Chef Nik-Tu, say hello to Spices of Life

Nina: Hi this is Nina Simonds with Spices of Life. I’m in Beijing, China at one of my favorite restaurants. It’s called “Made in China” and I wanted to give you a firsthand tour. So let’s go and see what they have. This happens to be one of the most beautiful restaurants that I’ve been to. Let’s pretend you’re here for dinner. And we’ll go in and I’ll show you the beautiful bar where you can enjoy cocktails and wine. Notice the beautiful pots that they have – bamboo steamers and tea kettles. What’s so exciting about this restaurant is that you are actually seated at some of the stations at the restaurant. So here they usually have a wonderful fountain of chocolate bubbling away. You can see various ice creams, fruits, and a tray of desserts. Look at this beautiful refrigerator. One of the things Made in China tries to do is to focus on local ingredients, so they have farmers who are growing vegetables for them. I know the Chef, particularly, and the general manager, like to feature local specialties. One of their superb specialties is Peking Duck. For two hours they are going to roast it, so at the end there will be beautiful, crisp skin and succulent meat. And then from here we are going to go over to the dumpling table, where they make the most wonderful pot-stickers. So you can stand here. It’s theater and dining in the same place. You can watch the chef prepare some of their delicious dumplings. They say the more skilled the chef is, the more pleats he has in the dumplings. Over here we come to the stir-fry section. You can see all the beautiful stir-frying of fresh vegetables; it goes very quickly in this hot, hot fire. Oh, it’s making me hungry. If you’re in the mood for some delicious food in China, or Beijing. You definitely want to check out Made in China. Thanks Chef, Nik-Tu.

This is a transcript for “Pyramid on a Plate #1: Healthy Chinese Food Exposed,” dated April 29, 2008.

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds for Spices of Life. Today I’m in a Chinese restaurant and I’m thrilled to have Dr. Eric Rimm, who is an associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. So what we’re going to do today is to dispel some myths about Chinese restaurant food. I think it’s relevant to say that CSPI – the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog agency based in Washington that focuses on nutritional issues – has come out with a study pointing out that restaurant Chinese food is very high in fat and sodium, which is true. Correct, Eric?

Eric: Yes, it is. It was a really interesting study, because there is a wide range of food that you can get from a Chinese restaurant. There is a fair bit of hidden sodium and also some of the dishes have a high amount of fat.

Nina: It’s also true that we do need some fat. Correct?

Eric: Yes, of course we need some fat. In fact, some of the fat they use in Chinese restaurants is good because it’s liquid vegetable oil. So some of the things they use for stir-frying are beneficial. We do want to have some fat in our meal.

Nina: The one thing that I felt – I had problems with this study. It was a little bit sensational and misleading. I think it’s easy, if you know the right way to order, to have a very healthy, according-to-the-pyramid, meal in a Chinese restaurant.

Eric: And that’s the great thing about a Chinese restaurant. You open the menu and you have 50 or 100 or 150 choices. Of course they picked out the ones that are commonly consumed, but also those that are really high in sodium or those that may be high in saturated fat. You just have to pick out the right foods and be smart about it. There’s a lot of options.

Nina: And that’s what I thought. I thought that we would really bring everyone full circle, and challenge you, Dr. Eric Rimm, to eat healthily, but also pleasurably. We want this to be a delicious meal, so everyone feels they won’t be hungry an hour later. They’re going to come out and really be satisfied, and also eat according to the USDA pyramid. This restaurant offers brown rice as well as white rice.

Eric: Sometimes it’s not on the menu, you just have to ask for it. But I think that’s one of the things that will actually help you stay full, an hour or two hours after a Chinese meal. A lot of people order white rice and that gets digested very quickly. It actually does make you feel a little more hungry two or three hours after the meal. Stick with the brown rice and I think that will help a lot.

Nina: Okay, let’s look at the menu and order some delicious, USDA approved, Dr. Eric Rimm approved, dishes. Let’s order a meal and have a great time.

Eric: Sounds great to me.

CK Sao (CK Shanghai): Too much oil, too much grease, isn’t good for people’s health.

Eric: What kind of oil do you use when you stir-fry?

CK: Peanut.

Eric: Wow! Excellent.

Nina: That’s expensive, so a lot of restaurants don’t want to use it.

Eric: Alright, let’s try this. I guess if you were trying to take the pyramid and condense it down to a plate at a Chinese restaurant – it’s a circle, so you’re kind of stuck with that shape, but you could draw some pyramids within your circle. You would set aside this much for the brown rice. Any great Chinese meal is going to have some vegetables either mixed in, or as the main course, and that should be a pretty big portion of what you have. That can include a whole range of things that you can get at a restaurant, but the greens should be at least a third, or maybe even a half of what you’re going to eat there. And again, I think it’s important to have a few different kinds. That’s the shrimp! That’s over here in the protein. We’ll have the vegetable protein and the animal protein.

Nina: So the shrimp goes in the animal protein.

Eric: And if you want to have some bean curd or some other kind of protein, that would go over here in the vegetable protein.

Nina: Here’s some Ma-Po Tofu. It’s a little saucy but good.

Eric: For someone my size, this might not be quite enough. But the idea of the pyramid, and the way the USDA has it set up, is that everybody compares what they eat to how much they exercise. Because if you exercise, you burn more calories and you need more calories. But this might be perfect for the average-sized female, who needs 1600 calories a day.

Nina: How many calories do you need if you don’t exercize?

Eric: Between 1600 and 1800. Look at that. That’s the perfect Chinese meal. No fried foods here, because there is a lot of hidden fat in that. You want to have some fat, and we have some in the shrimp and stir-fried vegetables, so that’s good. We have the brown rice instead of the white rice, and we have a lot of different vegetable sources.

Nina: And you could have a glass of wine. Red?

Eric: Red or white. In fact, if you’re at a Chinese restaurant you could get a great beer. One or two drinks a day is great.

Nina: Thank you Eric!

Eric: Cheers!

Nina: Great. Thank you Eric, and this is Nina Simonds at Spices of Life and we’re trying to make a difference.

This is a transcript of “Pyramid on a Plate #3: Healthy Italian Food Exposed,” dated May 20, 2008.

Boy it’s hot back here.

Chef: You know what they say. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

I’m out of here. I can’t stand it!

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds for Spices of Life. I’m thrilled to say we’re here for Gail and Walter Willett. We’re eating the pyramid, Italian style. We’ve ordered what are usually no-nos.

Walter Willett: Right. Ordinarily people are told to stay away from fried foods. But, frying isn’t really good or bad per se, it’s really what type of oil is used. We’ve checked this out with the kitchen, and the calamari is fried in non-hydrogenated canola oil. So this will be fun for us. I’m sure this will reduce your cholesterol and reduce your risk of heart disease.

Nina: Very often, what we do with this is give tips. So I think one of the first tips is ‘Ask Questions,’ right?

Walter: Absolutely. And one of the first things that you want to know if you’re going to eat something that is prepared with any kind of oil, is what kind of oil they use. I’m pretty aggressive about it. If they don’t know, I go to the back of the kitchen and ask to see the labels.

Nina: You? Aggressive?

Gail: Walter will actually ask if he can go in the kitchen and look at their labels. And they will sometimes look at him like “I’m not sure.’ But he’ll stand up and go.

Walter: This is an educational opportunity for the restaurant staff too. Everybody learns, and I make sure I’m going to have a healthy meal that way.

Nina: Second tip, is that we’re going to eat according to your wonderful pyramid. So we’ve ordered lots of vegetables, a fish and some chicken. We ordered some grilled vegetables with balsalmic vinegar and fresh herbs, which will be delicious. One of the things we try to do at Spices of Life is to show people how eating healthy can be delicious.

Walter: You can’t go wrong here.

Nina: I think that’s the message we need to give people that “healthy” is not a four-letter or five-letter or six-letter word. It really can be as enjoyable an experience as eating the other way.

Walter: In fact, it’s usually better. The less healthy foods – fast-food, that kind of stuff – are usually monotonous in flavor, bland, quite salty. Here we’re going to have tremendous variety. Whole grains have more texture, more flavor. This is going to be a better meal, than you would get eating unhealthily.

Nina: Another tip that Eleanor, the manager, said, is to ask about the source of the food, which is a really great idea. At many good restaurants the chef will develop relationships with local growers, or with very good beef and chicken places. I think that is the sign of a really great restaurant, if they know where the food comes from.

Walter: And it’s almost sure to be fresher and more flavorful if that is the situation.

Nina: Look at that! Isn’t that gorgeous? It’s beautiful!

Walter: Do you know where your vegetables are from?

Eleanor (Vice President of Operations): Yes. Most of them come from Sid Waner, who is a provider here in Massachusetts, that has all natural, organic farmers that are co-oped into helping them out. Then we also have Eva, who is a wonderful woman, down in Darmouth, MA, that does all organic herbs and all sorts of fabulous things. So a lot of those are coming from there. And Equinox Farms, which is also does organic farming in Massachusetts.

Nina: Fabulous. It’s gorgeous.

Walter: We want to hear about the source of the chicken.

Steve Brown (Co-head Chef): We bring this up through Cambridge Meatpacking, they call it FreeBird now, it’s in Amish country. A lot of the farms down there are organically raising their chickens. We found this was the most flavorful. We’re going for – it’s prime, it’s flavor, it’s tenderness. There is so much going on. And people are happy. We’re happy. We did all of the blind taste-testing, you know.

Nina: Oh you did? Wow. Blind taste-testing. So you guys are serious!

Steve: Oh we’re serious. So now we’ve reached where we want to be and other people are coming – try this, try that.

Nina: Here we have our next extraordinarily beautiful dish. This is the grilled scallops with whole wheat pasta and garlic chives. It’s an amazingly plentiful portion. How many scallops would you say, Walter? Would you take half of this?

Walter: That’s a whole big meal in itself. Oftentimes we might order two appetizers and one entrée and share the entrée.

Nina: Another tip!

Gail: Another thing you could do is take half of this home and have it for lunch the next day.

Nina: Exactly! So you don’t have to cook. Gail and I think in the same direction! This is Nina Simonds from Spices of Life. Thank you to the Willetts for eating the pyramid Italian-style. I think we did it in grand style, wouldn’t you say?

Walter: I was going to say this was a huge sacrifice.

Nina: And how do you say bon a petit in Italian?

Walter: Ciao! Bon a petito!

This is a transcription of “Quick Bites” Stir-Fried Broccolini,” dated May 28, 2008.

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds for Spices of Life and we have another veggie quick bite. Today we’re going to stir-fry some broccolini with garlic. Here’s some broccolini. Did you know that broccolini is actually a hybrid? It’s a cross between broccoli and kai-lan, which is Chinese broccoli, and it’s slightly sweeter. So what we’re going to do is take this lovely broccolini and cut it into sections, and then we’re going to blanch it in boiling water for about a minute and a half, and refresh it in cold water. Once you refresh it in cold water, the broccolini will stay nice and bright. So, it’s already been refreshed and we have some minced garlic right here. I like a lot of garlic, so I’m going to use about two tablespoons of garlic. We’re going to go over to the stove. The wok is quite hot. We’re going to add a teaspoon or a little bit more, maybe a teaspoon and a half, of olive oil. Now don’t be afraid to get your wok really hot, because you want to get that delicious seared flavor on the vegetables. Then we’re going to add our broccolini, the blanched broccolini. We’re adding the garlic, don’t be afraid to sprinkle it right in. Don’t be shy with the garlic! We’re adding a little bit of salt, about a teaspoon. Once again you can go to the website recipe section for all of the recipes. Now I’m adding about two tablespoons of rice wine (sake) or you could add a dry white wine. You’re just going to toss this over very high heat, to give it that flavor of garlic. You want it to be tender. That’s it! There you have it. That’s stir-fried broccolini. Now you can do this with broccoli, with spinach, watercress, cabbage. Really, any type of green vegetable. It’s delicious and very simple. What I like to do is make a bunch of this at the beginning of the week, and then I have it all during the week. I throw it in soups and stews. I reheat it in my microwave and it’s delicious. So, from Nina Simonds and Spices of Life, stir-fried broccolini!

This is a transcription of “Quick Bites: Toasted Sesame Green Beans,” dated May 13, 2008.

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds from Spices of Life. Today we have some toasted sesame green beans, they’re string beans. And I have about 1.5 lbs. of green beans here. What you want to do, with either your fingers or a knife, is top and tail the beans. Rinse them lightly. Drain them. What we’re going to do is to actually microwave them, or steam them. We’re going to flavor them with a little bit of toasted sesame oil. You do want it toasted so that it’s dark and fragrant. We’re just going to toss the green beans in the sesame oil and water so that it gives it a little bit of flavor. Then, we’re going to them in either a pie plate or some other type of heat-proof dish. We’ll cover them with a little bit of plastic wrap so that they steam in their own juices. These are going to steam in the microwave for 7-8 minutes, and we’re going to sprinkle them with toasted sesame seeds. So there you have it, toasted sesame seed green beans from Spices of Life.

This is a transcription of “GOOD Chinese Food Revealed!“, dated April 9, 2008.

Nina: I didn’t bring you fortune cookies, but I did bring you the next best thing. They’re all butter haman-taschen. There you are! Happy Purim!

Nina: Hi, this is Nina Simonds, with Spices of Life, and today we’re in Chinatown to talk to a fascinating young woman, Jennifer Lee. We’re at one of my favorite restaurants. Jennifer is on tour, she’s written a terrific book called ‘The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.’ We want to ask Jennifer some questions. First of all, Jennifer, why are you obsessed with Chinese restaurants?

Jennifer: When I first started, I didn’t know. I just knew that I was obsessed with Chinese restaurants. To the point that I was willing to fly from Taiwan to Hong Kong for an afternoon to try General Tsao’s chicken, then fly back. And ultimately at the end, I think I was obsessed with Chinese restaurants – after visiting six continents and forty-two states – because it’s an allegory of who I am in America. It makes people think twice about what it means to be American, and the assumptions of what it means to be American. If our benchmark for ‘American’ is apple pie…

Nina: Apple pie! You talked to Stephen Colbert about apple pie!

(Clip from The Colbert Report)
Jennifer: Think of it this way, if our benchmark for American is apple pie, how often do you eat an apple pie?

Colbert: Every day, ma’am. I eat an entire apple pie before I come on this show.

Nina: Why do Jews eat Chinese food?

Jennifer: I love the Jews, because they love Chinese food, they read books, and they gather regularly at synagogues and JCC’s so you can go talk to them. So one of my chapters is called “Why is Chow Mein the Chosen Food of the Chosen People?” And I actually make the argument – sort of tongue-in-cheek – that Chinese food is the ethnic cuisine of the American Jew, that in a way, they identify with it more than the ethnic cuisine of their Eastern-European ancestors, like gefilte fish.

Nina: Are you willing to bet that?

Jennifer: Yeah. Oh yeah. I would actually even argue, that Christmas – which equals movies and Chinese food – is as much or more of a Jewish tradition than Seder on Passover.

Nina: Very good point. Being a Jew, I can totally identify with that.

Nina: You look for certain things in a good Chinese restaurant. Can you talk about that?

Jennifer: Here are a couple things. One, there’s Chinese actually on the menu. If the menu is all in English, that’s a bad sign. Two, chopsticks. If you have to ask for chopsticks, also a bad sign. And here are the chopsticks!

Nina: So it passed that!

Jennifer: But there’s no Chinese on the menu.

Nina: I know, I know we’re gonna flunk that one.

Jennifer: Lastly, charging for tea and rice – kind of wrong.

Nina: But I think you also say, you look for…

Jennifer: Chinese people! The book is dedicated to my parents, as I like to say it. If you read it, it says “To Mom and Dad who crossed an ocean so their kids could follow their dreams, and for all the other moms and dads who have done the same.” So the story of Chinese restaurant owners – it’s a lousy business generally, and they cook because they often have no choice. But as many of them told me, “we cook so that our children don’t have to.” So the idea is that the Chinese restaurant is their foothold into the American dream, and then someday their children can speak English.

Nina: Thank you Jennifer Lee! Everybody buy her book, ‘The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.”

2007 Montes Cherub Rosè of Syrah
(Chilé) Label by Ralph Steadman.

Sitting only eleven miles from the Pacific Ocean, in the Colchagua Valley of Chilé, the Montes vineyards are nested in the perfect climate for producing rosé. The cool breezes from the western facing slopes, together with the loamy soils, result in a slow maturation of the grapes which allow for the perfect balance of citrusy acidity and bursting, ripe fruit. The Syrah grapes are hand-picked and sorted to ensure that only the finest grapes are used to make Cherub.

Montes’ Cherub is a seductive, elegant, dry wine, and one night in contact with the skins infuses the wine with an intense cherry-pink color. On the nose and the palate, it demonstrates a distinctive Syrah character with spiciness and hints of strawberries, rose and orange peel. It shows richness in texture across the palate that leads to a delightfully long finish. A strong backbone of acidity and a slight amount of tannin give the wine a defined structure. The freshness and acidity of this wine pairs perfectly with ethnic cuisines.

http://www.monteswines.com/english/nuestros_vinos/cherub.htm

2007 Mulderbosch Cabernet Sauvignon Rosè Stellenbosch
(South Africa, 1989) 96% Cab Sav/4% Franc

Mulderbosch, situated in the prime Koelenhof area of Stellenbosch in South Africa, is widely accepted as being one of the best white wine producers in the country. Specific to the Koelenhof area of Stellenbosch, is the wind tunnel effect, which benefits the vineyards, as this cools them during the long, hot summer months.

The grapes were harvested in the early morning to ensure coolness, and then lightly crushed. During cold maceration the desired colour was achieved by keeping the free run juice in contact with the skins for six hours. The wine has hints of wild strawberry with graceful notes of lavender, herbs de Provence, rose petal, and pomegranate. It pairs beautifully with ginger dipping sauces and spring rolls.

http://www.wine.co.za/Directory/Wine.aspx?WINEID=6133
http://www.mulderbosch.co.za/

read more »

A Great Chicken Dish

This dish is equally good for family or guests. I serve it with steamed rice, but my father loves it over mashed potatoes. A simple salad or vegetable on the side is nice, but not essential.

Six Servings

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts *

4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped coarsely

6 shallots, peeled and chopped coarsely

1 ½ pounds cherry or grape tomatoes, or 2 pints, rinsed and drained

1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano

¾ cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat a 12-inch skillet, a Dutch oven, or a casserole with a lid, pour in the oil, and heat until quite hot, about 400 degrees. Line the pan with a batch of chicken breasts and fry over high heat until golden brown on one side, about 2 ½ to 3 minutes. Turn over and brown on the other side. Remove with tongs and continue browning the remaining pieces.
2. Reduce the heat to medium, add the garlic and shallots and sauté until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the cherry tomatoes, oregano, white wine, salt and pepper to the pan and sauté, uncovered about 4 to 4 ½ minutes, shaking the pan, from time to time. Arrange the chicken in the pan, cover, and cook about 10 to 12 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.
3. Scoop the chicken out onto a platter and serve with rice or over mashed potatoes.

*You can substitute boned chicken thighs for the boned breasts. Cook as directed in steps 1 and 2, then add the seared thighs and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until cooked. Serve as directed.

© Copyright Nina Simonds 2008