Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Jerk-Chef on BravoTV
While I enjoyed my "Bananas Brule" I still felt there was something not quite right with them. They were good, but I wanted great. Then it occurred to me: with fish, you don't cook fillets on the grill, since the exposed side grain sticks and the fish breaks easily. You cook steaks because the end grain doesn't stick very well and removal is easy. Suddenly, I had it: Banana Steak Brule! Hurry! Back to the kitchen!    Imagine my surprise when I turn on Bravo TV to Top Chef and see some jerk cooking MY Banana Steaks! He calls them Banana Scallops. He also paired them with some bacon flavored ice cream. Dude, I did the bacon and banana thing already! He's CLEARLY been stealing ideas from my blog. That jerk! (Chris emailed to tell me the chef, Richard from Atlanta, apparently does the bacon thing often and had actually done the seared scallops in prior episodes here and here) I sat on the couch, seething with rage. I wanted to kick that guys potASSium! I threw yucky banana peels at the tv, screeching at the top of my lungs. I beat my chest and waved my arms over my head. I jumped up and down on the sofa. I then fell off the sofa and bumped my head. Sadly, my mom wasn't here to call the doctor. I know his "cure" would simply be to tell me to stop jumping on the furniture. Then he'd charge my insurance $3,856. Perhaps I need to cut back on my banana intake? Seriously, I have had a bunch of bananas over the past couple of weeks. Get it? A BUNCH of bananas? Actually I have had 3 bunches of bananas. I am beginning to feel like Koko Kobayashi. Earlier this month, Alton brown did a banana episode of Good Eats. I thought perhaps that may have been where I got the idea for torching some sugar coated bananas. Sadly, he doesn't torch them but he does make Bananas Foster, which does involve bananas and flames (and rum!). You can catch that episode again this Friday at 11pm repeated at 2am on Food Network. I then discovered that in his episode on sugar he does "Banana Splitsville" which has more or less the same thing as my first shot at Bananas Brule. Alton, of course, goes way overboard in his version. What have I learned from all of this banana infused, TV chef turmoil? I have learned that I probably need to have my own cooking show. I've been told this many times and even kicked the idea around with a few people. In fact I had a discussion with Courtney about having a cooking show when I was down in Jacksonville. Tune in tomorrow to learn more about our potential TV show. And if you think that's just a cheap gimmick to insure maximum readership tomorrow, you are right! (You see? I already know how previews, cliffhangers, and "sweeps" work on TV.)  |
Labels: Recipe
Monday, June 16, 2008
The hottest thing in my kitchen
While cooking up a batch of Bacon Bac-o-bake I started to think about all the times I'd seen people cooking with bananas. It always seemed an exciting magical experience. This was not it. "What am I missing?" I asked myself. The answer came to me in a flash:   When using a blowtorch, you need to remember your chemistry class. First of all you need safety glasses. Second, all cooking should be done on a fire proof surface. (I placed them on baking racks on a foil lined pan, placed on top of my stove.) Third, you'll be using flames, so you should assume all metal and glass is hot since you cannot SEE temperature. (This same rule applies at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.) My torch does not have a built in igniter. This does prove to be a bit inconvenient, however it is also a BIG safety feature. There's nothing worse than walking around with a butane blow torch in your pocket that accidentally ignites when you sit down. I turn on the butane, light the flame with a lighter, and adjust the air intake until I get a sharp blue flame. The tip of that flame is the hottest part and that's what you cook with. Wave back and forth over the sugar until it melts and begins to darken. It starts slow, but you have to be careful. It goes from solid to liquid to burnt in mere seconds. It is 2400 degrees you know! With a little practice you can get the hang of it.  This is not one of those "make ahead" kind of desserts. It's probably best to do table side. If you cut the bananas early they go brown or get yucky. Adding the sugar to the bananas makes a neat science project, but an unappetizing dessert. Bananas are actually quite juicy. Sugar is amazingly hygroscopic. That means it absorbs water. This is why sugary cookies get soft when they get stale. They suck water out of the surrounding air. Here is a good science fair project that you can do at home to learn about the hygroscopic effects of sugar. (It's also a tasty experiment, which is good too!)   |
Labels: Recipe
Thursday, June 12, 2008
It's not the forbidden fruit (but it should be!)
| After my adventures into Bacon and Bananas. It slowly dawned on me: I had been lured to the dark side by the deliciousness that is Bacon. It really is an irresistible food. Salty, meaty, crunchy, porky. YUM! I decided to retrace my steps to figure out what had lead me down the path of pork destruction. It all started back with a simple idea: fruit and peanut butter. Over the years when I think back on my childhood, one of my favorite snacks was fruit and peanut butter. Heck one of my favorite snacks was simply peanut butter. Open the jar, scoop out a big spoonful (on a serving spoon, not some wimpy table spoon) and then you have a peanut butter pop to last you an hour or so. But when other people were home, I couldn't go for the simple peanut butter on a spoon snack. People frown on your shoving a spoon in the peanut butter jar and then into your face. My mother had the greatest snack item ever. However, it's not the kind of snack a kid can make themselves. Lucky for me, my driver's license says I am not a kid anymore. So I can finally make this myself.   I know one person who said they used to put chocolate chips in the middle with the peanut butter. That sounds good, but it might be overkill, and it certainly makes this snack more complicated than it needs to be. If the apple is especially juicy, then the juice will mix with the peanut butter and start to make it runny. A cold apple and/or cold peanut butter solves that problem.   I know it may sound like a lot of work and even more trouble, but trust me. It's worth it. I bet you could probably make some, wrap them in plastic wrap, and store them in the fridge while the kids are at school and then they're ready to go when the kids come in the door. Or you can just eat them all yourself while the kids are at school. There's wont be any incriminating evidence. The best part of all is that when you are done eating it, there is nothing left. No core, no seeds, no stem. Just messy hands that you (or the dog) can lick clean. As I sat on my sofa eating my apple, I was reading my jar of peanut butter. In particular I was reading the nutrition information and ingredients list. I already knew that since I was using Peter Pan there would be all sorts of bad additives. Sure enough I was right: Roasted Peanuts, Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (Cottonseed and Rapeseed), Salt.At first I laughed at the apparent typo. They MUST have left off the letter G on Grapeseed. Actually, there is something called rapeseed oil. The rest of the universe calls it "Canola Oil." One would think a company obviously selling peanut butter to kids (Peter Pan?) would try and avoid putting Rapeseed on the label if given another choice. Then I saw something that shocked me. It terrified me. Right below the ingredients list in big bold print: I suppose ConAgra Foods thinks that people with peanut allergies are idiots. Sadly, I know it's really the government's fault. They force idiotic warnings for even the most obvious things. This is a large part of why our society is going in the crapper. Government is anti-evolution. Instead of survival of the fittest, government is all about protecting the idiots. With the government protection, idiots grow to maturity and then breed bigger idiots. The kind of idiots who ask you how you core an apple. |
Labels: Recipe
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Banana Bac-O-Bake
After Courtney's offer to put bacon on my PB&B I made a mental note: Step 1 is to remove the banana sticker and place it on the end of your nose until you are done cooking. Remove about 10 slices of the bacon from the package. Cut the slices in half. In my recipe I used an old trick I have known for many years: bacon stretching.   Next we need to cut our bananas. First peel the banana, then you cut them with three "steak cuts" producing four banana cylinders. It is best to cut one banana and finish the recipe for that one before cutting another banana to prevent browning. With one slice of bacon cylinder and one slice of banana, carefully wrap the bacon around the banana, securing it with a tooth pick. Place the wrapped banana on a baking sheet. Continue cutting and wrapping all of the bananas with bacon.   The difficulty in this recipe has to do with the bacon wrapping. You don't want too much bacon around the banana or the heat won't cook the bacon all the way through. While rolling the bacon out does thin the bacon, it also results in many more layers of bacon on each banana. I think if you can cut the bacon so it results in only one layer of bacon that would work best. This will require a bit more investigation into the cutting and rolling out of the bacon. The moist banana keeps the bacon from getting really crispy, so if you are a crunchy bacon fan, this may not be your thing. And if you don't eat them soon after they come out of the oven they get brown (not the good kind of brown) and mushy, and then the bananas start to lose moisture and the bacon gets yucky. So eat it while it's hot! Probably the most important thing I learned from this is: just because you HAVE five bananas and a whole package of bacon doesn't mean you have to USE all five bananas. Once I ripped into the package of Bacon I couldn't help myself. I was rolling and cutting bacon and having a grand of time. It was only when I had 20 bacon wrapped banana slices on the tray that I realized the problem: that's a lot of bananas! In the future, perhaps maybe one banana will do. If you are wondering what happened to the leftover bacon I have one simple question: Unless you keep that bacon in your pocket until lunch, the roaming bacon grazers will get to your stash of bacon and it won't make it to your sandwich. That happens all the time around my family. If you placed a plate of home made cookies and home made bacon side by side on the counter, the bacon will disappear before the cookies. After all Bacon is Meat Candy. |
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Elvis has left the kitchen
| You may recall the entire reason for this week of going ape over bananas was due to my visit with Courtney and my recent discovery that some people find peanut butter and banana sandwiches "icky." Those people are nuts. (Get it? They're nuts?) I do have one question though. When you make your banana sandwich, how do you slice your bananas? From my prior post on banana slicing, there are two basic cuts:  and Steaks  With fillet cuts you have a maximum thickness to your slices. Basically, you can't make slices thicker than half the diameter of the banana. Without either huge slices of bread, a very small banana, or crazy cutting, you can only use 3 quarters of the banana. The remaining quarter has one long exposed cut side and that will be brown in 10 minutes. That really seems wasteful. With steak cuts, your thickness is determined by the LENGTH of the banana, not the width. Though I can't imagine making a sandwich with slices as thick as half the length of a banana, who am I to judge? I chose to arrange my "banana steaks" in the typical 3x3 pattern. It was quick and easy. For those who desire to further optimize their bread coverage, I suggest you investigate the history of the Baker's Dozen. Instead of a basic grid placement, you'll need to go with triangles or hexagonal patterns. Or you'll have to start dividing the banana steaks into wedges. When I want a PB&B, I am usually not up for plane geometry. I keep is simple. In the second picture I am sure you are wondering about those stray mini nilla wafers on the edge of the plate. Well, the other benefit of "steak cut" banana slices is that it allows better placement of "additions." Chocolate chips slide nicely in between the slices, making chocolaty pockets of goodness among the banana. Especially if you briefly microwave the sandwich. I chose to add some crispy crunch with nilla wafers.  As I was putting the lid on my PB&B Courtney wandered into the kitchen to pick up hers and seeing my almost completed sandwich, she opened the fridge and grabbed the Hormel Bacon Bits and asked if I wanted to put some on my sandwich. (You see? She really does understand me!) I opted not to add pork to a PB&B, because I didn't think it needed an additional P (pork) or B (bacon) in the name. While I was making my sandwiches, we also discussed the fabled Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich. We had no honey on hand so we couldn't go there, but we discussed theory. I personally put peanut butter on BOTH halves of the bread, thus forming a "honey pocket" in the bread. Tasty, but messy when you take that first big bit. Courtney goes with peanut butter on only one half, allowing the honey to soak in and "krystallize" (yeah I used a K, so what?) in the other half of the sandwich. It's good but the honey often seeps through the bread to make a rather sticky sandwich. When I returned home to research this post, I discovered the history of the peanut butter and banana sandwich and Elvis. Most people know of his love for peanut butter and banana sandwiches that were then fried in butter. The problem is, for some reason there are now 2 or 3 variations of the "official" recipe, some adding bacon, some adding Honey, some adding both. I have also found one that instead of simply pan frying in butter, they dip it in a french toast batter to fry. Maybe the reason Elvis left the building was because they kept screwing up his sandwich.  |
Monday, June 09, 2008
Peanut Butter and Bananilla Sandwiches!
| Yesterday we wrapped things up with some deliciously carved Banana Steaks. Of course we are en route to a peanut butter and banana sandwich. But since we'd only recently returned from a trip to the grocery store for cheesecake fixin's, my eyes kept wandering. You may have seen them lurking in the shadows of my previous pictures. When I make my own cheesecakes, I had make the crust from Nilla Wafer crumbs. My first few years of cheesecake baking I used graham cracker crumbs. It's good and quite tasty, but I find the crust get a bit tough at times, but Nilla Wafers are always wonderful. Once, a long time ago, I saw a package of ready made crumbs at the store, but have never seen them since. So I have to make my own crumbs as well. I would never EVER resort to using the ready made Nilla Wafer crust. Its tough enough convincing people that I make my own cheesecake. If there's a clearly store bought crust involved, then I lose all credibility. Because I have basically zero counter space, I have no room for a real food processor. I use a food processor attachment to my stick blender. Due to the confined space, I buy the Mini Wafers. It takes a while to grind them down to the proper size. But I eat a few as snacks along the way so it's all good. As I am standing in Courtney's kitchen, surrounded by banana steaks and peanut butter, it dawns on me: banana steaks are roughly the same size as mini nilla wafers. And what's the second most important part of a real banana pudding? The Vanilla Wafer Crust! Ready? Here we go! Place two mini nilla wafers down on a plate. Apply peanut butter to them both: on the curved (top) side of one and on the flat side (bottom) of the other.    These may be a bit time consuming to make for a big party. If your peanut butter is not too tick you could put it in a piping bag and really speed up the process. Have one person carving bananas and another with the peanut butter bag in one hand, piping in peanut butter with one hand and layer with the other. I can certainly imagine lots of great extras you could do to spruce them up. The problem will be in the banana's tendency to brown very quickly once you peel and slice them. Since the peanut butter makes it all stick together, you could certainly put a toothpick into the banana and then dip them in melted chocolate. Then no one can see if the banana slice is browned. Or simply place some chocolate on the banana sort of like a s'more. Perhaps marshmallow creme on one side to balance out the peanut butter? Maybe a Hershey's Kiss for the top instead of the second Nilla Wafer. Even better, a Junior Mint! It's chocolate, it's peppermint -- it's delicious!" - Kramer, in "The Junior Mints" |
Labels: Recipe
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Knock Knock? Who's There? Banana!!!
| While out doing some shopping, Courtney and I stopped off the get the stuff needed to bake a cheesecake. (It's sort of a given that I'm baking a cheesecake when I go visit.) While picking up the required materials, Courtney also picked up some bananas for Sean. Sean loves bananas. Courtney loves bananas. I love bananas. No post related to bananas should ever begin without the classic cover of The Banana Splits Theme by my all time favorite punk band, The Dickies. (Yes, I was in to punk from about 1986-89.) Click here if the video won't play above. Anyway, Courtney picked up four bananas. There are no bananas called for in my cheesecake recipe. At least not the one I was making. I do have a yummy banana and chocolate cheesecake recipe though. Sean is only allowed one banana a day, so I knew someone would have to "dispose" of some bananas before the weekend was up and the bananas went bad. In hind sight, I think Courtney knew I would count the bananas and hatch a plan, so she intentionally bought extras. While Fleagle, Bingo, Drooper and Snork didn't show up to help, we still made up a mess of fun and it was lots of fun for everyone! (Tra-la -la!) When I came up with my idea of mixing the two latest MilkQuakes, Banana Pudding and Peanut Butter, nine out of ten people would wrinkle their noses and say "Ewww!" when I mentioned it. OK, so we all know I come up with plenty of "ewww" ideas, but this one was so absolutely normal. When I would dig deeper, I discovered that there are LOTS of people who have never had a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Poor, poor, sheltered childhoods! The first time I made my chocolate and banana cheesecake I also discovered there are a lot of people who simply don't like bananas. (I also discovered I had a friend with a nut allergy. EEK!) I freely admit I don't eat "banana flavored" stuff like candy, or drinks. But I'm up for anything made with real bananas. So with that in mind, so for the next few days: Two Banana, four banana, one banana, threeFirst of all lets discuss the proper purchase of the bananas. When you choose your bananas, keep in mind they won't last more than a few days before they reach "yucky stage." While "yucky stage" is good for making banana bread and chocolate banana cheesecakes (I mash the bananas by hand) most of the time it's not very good for regular ripe banana eating. So go for slightly firm under ripe bananas unless you intend to eat them that day. You'll get more mileage out of them. I think the Chiquita Banana lady says it best: Click here if the video above won't play Why do you need the sticker, you ask? Well obviously it's to stick on the end of your nose while you eat your bananas!  Now that you have your bananas home, how do you peel them? Well most people will say "From the top." They are right, but the funny thing is, the only reason they are "right" is because they are "wrong" twice. Have you ever seen bananas growing? Most people haven't. They've only seen them after they have been harvested. So most people don't know which end is REALLY the top:  So now that you have your top up and your bottom down, I bet you're confused, right? How do you peel THAT end? It's simple. Hand a banana to a monkey and watch. Or just take my word for it. Pinch the end of the banana slightly. It takes practice to pinch without overly bruising the banana. You may have to pinch twice, once in each direction.  If you intend to eat the banana "Monkey Style" then you're all set. But if you're going to be making something with your banana, then you may need to slice it. your first decision is to slice it in "steaks" or "fillets." (Yes these are seafood terms, but work with me here.) A "Fillet Cut" goes from top to bottom. A "Steak cut" goes across. In fish mongering we say a fillet goes from head to tail, parallel to the spine, and a steak cut is perpendicular to the spine. Bananas don't have a spine, so that really wouldn't have made much sense would it? For today, lets cut banana steaks. A trick someone once showed me for cutting a banana was to peel it completely except on strip. That strip shouldn't be on the inside or outside of the curve of the banana.   She then picked up the banana in one hand, the knife in the other. She turned the knife so the blade faced up toward her thumb, and using a "scissor" motion, sliced the banana steaks right into her cereal. Hmm. So maybe my good trick wasn't really such a good trick. Hers was faster and a whole lot easier. Tra la la, la la la la, tra la la, la la la la |
Labels: Recipe
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I'm not a one trick pony (or piglet).
| Most of my past few posts have had a running "back story" to them. The problem is, it's a secret back story you don't know yet. I haven't yet figured out how to say what needs to be said, so I dance around it instead. Just like today. Tomorrow is secretary's day. Our department secretary, Ulene, is crafty, so we have no hope of surprising her on Secretary's day. So we got sneaky and did it today! I'd be willing to bet that trick won't work next year. Anyway, starting about a week ago the top secret "who's bringing what?" list started going around in Email. I could feel the unspoken peer pressure:  The picture above is from Chris' Christmas in Conyers. (And yes for those utterly confused by my multiple Chris references in my previous post, I did just say "Chris" Christmas Party.) Sadly, I never got to make one in Macon, but I managed a save by baking a red velvet cheesecake with my mother just after Christmas.  So to please the masses I added my name and "Cheesecake" to the list, and was greeted with great sighs of joy and relief. But in the spirit of being sneaky and crafty, I had a plan. I'd been telling them ever since I brought my first cheesecake that I can make others. I keep telling them "I'm not a one trick pony!" No one seems to care. No one has ever asked for anything else. It's assumed I'll bring in the turtle cheesecake. You know what they say about assuming right? I decided that since they'll always ask for the same thing, it was up to me to force the issue. I decided to go with my original "Reese's Cheesecake" made with Reese's Peanut Butter and Hershey's Chocolate.  Of course there were plenty of confused looks when I opened the cake caddy and there sat a very un-turtlish cheesecake. I then had to explain it was chocolate and peanut butter (no caramel). This was greeted with nods and smiles. Then they attacked my cheesecake, forks, spoons, and knives flying everywhere. I do hope I have shown them I am not a one trick pony. Sadly, it occurred to me later this afternoon that I have probably just convinced them MORE than I am "the cheesecake guy." So next time I think I need to go the complete opposite of cheesecake. And that is where I got stuck for most of today. What is the opposite of cheesecake? The best I could come up with was fish. But I don't eat or cook fish. I was stumped. Then Colby came to the rescue. You may remember Colby, the finder of all things Pork. He introduced me to Chocolate covered bacon. He sent me the link to the Wake-n-Bacon Alarm Clock. The latest example of Porkfection from Colby: Chicken Fried Bacon With Cream Gravy! For your own safety, do NOT read the "Nutrition Facts" on the right hand side! But wait! There's also a video! Oh I can feel my arteries clog up just thinking about it! And maybe we can have cheesecake for desert? What? You don't really feel like cheesecake anymore? GOOD! |
Labels: Bacon, Conyers, Macon, Recipe
Monday, March 31, 2008
We'll leave the light on for ya.
| One of the first things I looked into when I moved back to North Carolina was the location of the lighthouses. I am not sure if there is a "lighthouse gene" or not, or if it is just that there have always been pictures of lighthouses around the house as long as I can remember. Either way I find that fascinating despite never really ever going near any of them. Event 4 or 5 years ago I was contemplating taking a long vacation to visit the Outer Banks of North Carolina and see the light houses. Now that I live here, there's nothing holding me back! Imagine my delight when I found that there are actually a couple of them within a short drive (or ferry ride) of me! For the record we will all agree that there are 7 lighthouses in North Carolina. Depending on how you define "Lighthouse" that number can be 8, 9, 10, 13 or even close to 20. Some of those "lighthouses" though would be extremely boring and almost impossible to visit since they're basically steel platforms a few miles offshore. Some of the lighthouses are barely standing and a few are simply the remaining foundations of long ago destroyed lighthouses. For now lets just go with the basic 7 light houses, from South to North:
I am quite fortunate in the case of Oak Island, as it has only recently been opened to the public. Up until roughly a year ago you could walk up to it but no go inside. in 2007 the US Coast Guard turned the lighthouse over to Oak Island and they now open it a couple of days a week for tours to the first level. Even better, with advance notice, you can get a tour guide to lead you to the top of the lighthouse. This past weekend a tour group fro Wilmington was going to drive to Oak Island to climb the lighthouse and then over to Southport, a neighboring touristy town. Since my mother shares my lighthouse fascination (or perhaps I inherited it from her?) she and I both went along on the trip. We rode over on the short bus (stop laughing!) and the trip took maybe an hour or so. When we unloaded from the bus you realize that you are parked right beside the lighthouse and it's absolutely huge. I guess I assumed we'd be parking a ways away and hiking to it, but it's mere feet off the road and easily accessible.   The following is the list of requirements and warnings from an email for our climb:
   You may be wondering about the white circle over my shoulder. That's not my hat blowing away in the distance. That's "Old Baldy" which will be the next lighthouse I visit. I know it doesn't look like a lighthouse. Here's a better picture, but the overcast skies just make it tough to see. If you click on the picture it may be easier to see.  |
Labels: Recipe, Wilmington
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Freaky Peeps!
| Date: 3/15/2008 Time: 1:44pm Email from: Chris Subject: peeps
Date: 3/17/2008 Time: 11:06am (roughly 45 1/3 hours later) Email from: My mother Subject: "Peeps"
What to do.... what to do.... Peeps on a Krystal? Eww, no way! Peeps on a Chick? No, sounds like a porn movie. Chili Cheese Peeps? Well I'd try em but I doubt they'd make em. Aha!!! I got it! Tune in this weekend, you'll get it to! |
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Beggin' for a piece of that bubble?
Mix-a-Lot's in troubleFor I too have recently been craving a taste of Bubble. And I have Heidi to thank for helping cure my craving. Now before I get Heidi in trouble, or she punches me in the mouth, I need to explain. About a month ago, while prowling the Internet for recipes, I stumbled upon something called "Bubble Tea." Basically to make bubble tea, also called "boba," you need to get your hands on some monster tapioca pearls. It is at this point that most folks will stop reading. I had no idea how many people on Earth don't like tapioca. I happen to love tapioca pudding, cold or warm, but especially warm. It's yummy and fun. So rather than the tapioca pearls scaring me off, they lured me in. Since I don't drink coffee or tea of any kind, including the various Asian teas, I sort of lost interest after the part about the tapioca pearls. When we had finished eating our Korean barbecue, Heidi then wanted to go visit a local Korean Bakery called Shilla Bakery. Since I really had no idea there was such a thing I figured it would be interesting to see. On the way over she mentioned they made bubble tea, and I got excited. I figured if the Korean barbecue didn't kill me, then a little bubble tea wouldn't either. Shilla bakery was amazing. Just inside the front door are shelves upon shelves of Korean baked good. Personally the thought of a green bean pastry doesn't do much for me, but they seemed to be selling well. After a few minutes looking over the pastry selection it was time to get down to boba business. While scanning the menu I noticed that, in addition to coffee and tea types of drinks they also made very fruity drinks. The first one to catch my eye was "Sour Green Apple." I am a sucker for sour green apple flavored stuff. Green Jolly Ranchers and Midori sours are tops on the list. Oh I was hooked. We placed our order and went to grab a table that had luckily opened just as we started to look. The placed was packed even at 10 at night. After a few minutes our number was called and we went to retrieve our beverages. Heidi got a mocha type of drink. Mine was a neon green frozen Slurpee looking concoction with black tapioca pearls in the bottom. The pearls are about the size of a small grape. You also quickly notice the straw. It's huge. You could easily get your little finger stuck in the end of the straw. It has to be that big so you can slurp the tapioca up the straw along with your drink. Once I got back to Wilmington, I decided I simply HAD to find a place near here to get Bubble Tea. While we don't have nearly the Asian population of DC, I figured if bubble tea was as popular as I had been reading there simply had to be a place. Lucky for me, there is one place: "Pop Taste Bubble Tea Hut" in the Independence mall, just around the corner. I have already been once so I could get a few pictures (and of course get another sour green apple bubble tea!)    I also saw that in addition to the boba they also have "jelly cubes" instead. I can only assume the jelly cubes would hold up better in the frozen drinks. I guess I'll just have to experiment. I suspect there's a few more trips to Pop Taste in my future. I would ask the lady behind the counter, but it is clear she doesn't really speak any English. So the bottom line, here, is for you to go out, find some Bubble Tea, and give it a try! It's way yummy! I mean even Sir Mix-A-Lot has been begging for some. You will, too! |
Labels: Recipe, Wilmington
