Weekend Dim Sum

Go out and get some Dim Sum this weekend.

Although I still lean more toward Little Panda as my favorite dim sum place, Golden Wok has many bragging points... not the least of which is that on the weekend, when they have the carts, they can go wild with new varieties.

A couple of things we had recently:


Water Chestnut Cake looks kinda odd and foreign to Western eyes, but it's not really that exotic. I suspect most would like it. It's a very thick gelatin, lightly sweet and faintly vanilla, with crunchy chestnuts inside. It's also been pan fried, which might seem odd, but it's GOOD that way. The cart lady said it was very refreshing for summer, and she was right. (Those cart ladies usually are.)


Custard Filled Fried Dumplings. These lovely delights are a lot like our favorite sesame balls. The wrapper is made of sweet sticky rice flour -- so it's very chewy, crisp on the outside from being deepfried. Inside it has a nice light custard, not too rich or too sweet. It's thick so that it doesn't all goosh out when you bite into the chewy wrapper. I don't know if the black sesame seeds on top are always a sign of a custard filling, but you can always ask.


Barbeque Pork Pastry. These are just a different shape than the ones I mentioned in the Dim Sum Primer. (They often play with different shapes at Golden Wok.) I like this shape best, because the ratio of meat to pastry is good in every bite.

Mango Chicken. Sorry no picture -- I didn't have my camera with me the day they had these. They brought it out JUST as we were completely stuffed and getting ready to leave, but they looked too good to pass up. It was made of strips of chicken and mango, wrapped and breaded in coconut, then deep fried. They were creamy, and rich, but not too sweet. I want to try them again when I'm not too stuffed.

Here is Maude Cat doing an impression of what we looked like after coming home from Dim Sum that day:



The down side of eating dim sum from the traditional "roving cart" method, is that it encourages a Competitive Eating mentality. You don't want to miss anything, and it all looks so good.... you end up buying and eating more than you intended. This can be okay if you are going straight home afterward with leftovers, but if you are, say, going to a movie, you must exercise a lot of self-discipline. That or leave time to run home and put the leftovers in the fridge before curtain time.

(BTW: Sesame balls or the custard-filled dumplings mentioned above are primo snacks to smuggle into a movie. Just remember that they are deep fried so they'll get some grease on your fingers -- though no more than popcorn will -- and they're a little sticky. My recommendation is to bring a ziploc bag for the smuggling part, and make sure you have a napkin. Oh and, uh... Mango Chicken ISN'T a good snack to sneak into a theater.)

Golden Wok is in East Lansing, at 2755 E Grand River Ave. (517) 333-8322. (At the corner of Northwind Drive, across from Oriental Mart, and near the E.L. Food co-op.)

(Little Panda is on the west side of Lansing, at 5439 W Saginaw Hwy, across from Lansing Mall in the Target shopping area. (517) 323-2450.)

BWL Chili Cookoff Tonight

For afficianados of chili (which I am not, so I can't critique anything for you) the Board of Water and Light has it's annual Chili Cook-off at the Lansing Center tonight (Friday 13th) from 5-9pm. They're raising money for the Impression 5 Science Museum and HOPE schalarships.

Five bucks will get you a wrist band that lets you sample lots of chili. (I don't know if there is any other entrance or cover charge, but I don't think so.) There are also beverages and ice cream, live music and a mechanical bull.

Call Board of Water & Light at (517) 702-6735 for more info.

Amici's New York Deli -- Real Pastrami!

It says "Hot Corned Beef" in the window, and with a deli, that's always a good sign. Pastrami and Corned Beef are NOT processed meat products with a little extra pepper. They're delicious, rich, piquant meats that deserve the right treatment -- moist heat.

You don't need mustard when you have a hot pastrami.

And both the Pastrami and Corned Beef at Amici's are kept steaming in a chafing dish until the moment they make your sandwich. You can also get the usual turkey, ham, roast beef and bacon. Lots of interesting combos and toppings. They have good deli pickles and they carry premium chips from that Michigan company whose name escapes me. (You know, the yellow bag. They serve them at Roma's too.)

The only thing lacking is bread that can stand up to the hot steam, or the slurpy toppings of a good sandwich. I don't know, maybe Zingerman's has spoiled me for regular bread. I have to admit that I haven't found a place with good bread in Lansing, except for Roma's, where they use a crusty sub bun, but don't have deli bread. (I.e., no sliced rye.) I can only warn you that if you get a hot pastrami on rye for take out, pull open the plastic wrap before you leave, or your bread will wimp out on you.

They are a "premium" deli, and their sandwiches are in the 7-8 dollar range, which is too expensive for a cheap sandwich, but not that expensive for a great sandwich. In my opinion, they would do better to buy better bread (like maybe ...Zingermans?) and up the price a little. Or even offer a better bread as an "extra" for a buck more. (Just don't get Great Harvest, it's really too heavy and moist to be sandwich bread.)

Amici's New York Deli is at 521 N Clippert, in Lansing, across from Frandor.

Bangkok House, good and spicy

If you don't count Lamai (who is a cuisine unto herself anyway) Bangkok House is the main, authentic Thai restaurant in town. The others tend to have a different, lighter, flavor of Thai. Bangkok House is hot, intense and salty.

Their location at Saginaw and North Cedar makes them especially popular for take out. They are close to down town Lansing, and on the way to or from pretty much anywhere. I love to grab an aromatic, garlicky Pad Woon Sen for lunch, usually with an order of spring rolls.



Pad Woon Sen is one of my standards to test out any Thai place. If it's boring, I'm suspicious. (Banyan Tree was an exception to this rule, but alas, they are gone.) It's a cross between a stir-fried noodle dish and a salad. Cooked up fast and hot, but with hunks of tomato and cucumber. The noodles are the clear, glassy bean threads, which are light and jiggly. This dish is usually served with rice on the side (as a Thai salad might be), and the flavor at Bangkok House is intense enough to require that rice. The Pad Thai is also good here (though I like the sweet and sour flavors of Lamai's better). Just remember that they don't really understand the concept of "mild" here -- it's closer to "medium". They do get "not hot at all" though.

Take out isn't all they've got, though, and this is a fine place for a full meal, which is what we had recently:



For appetizer, this is a great place for Satay. For those who don't know, Satay is a Malaysian dish that is commonly served in Thai restaurants in the U.S. It's meat -- usually pork, chicken or beef -- marinated and grilled on a stick. Here they serve it with a little table top grill, where you finish off the cooking yourself. (The meat is cooked, but you need a nice sear for it to taste right.)

It's served with two sauces, a rich peanut sauce made with coconut milk, and a refreshing cucumber sauce, made with a dressing of vinegar, lime and sugar. These sauces go together! You can pour them both over your meat, or eat some of one and then the other -- just make sure you taste them close together, because each really opens up the flavor of the other.



For soup we have the ever present Tom Ka Gai, or coconut chicken soup. It's good here, and we usually ask for some rice to be served with it, because the flavors of the coconut, lemongrass, ginger and lime are so intense.



Finally the Pla Jian. This used to be served as a whole fish, but since Americans don't really like to deal with bones they now serve it as a large fillet, which has been scored, seasoned and deep-fried. It is then smothered in a sauce of ginger, mushrooms, shrimp and veggies, and topped with herbs. This dish is not very spicy -- the main heat comes from the ginger -- but it is very flavorful. It's also a big dish, and with the appetizers and soup, it's enough for two people of reasonable appetite, but if you want something else, you could go for a Yum salad: grilled beef on cucumber and herbs, with a sweet lime dressing -- no pun intended when I say it's yummy. For the adventurous, they have a lot of interesting seafood dishes, and frogs legs too. And for the less adventurous, they have a good selection of the usual curries and noodle dishes.

Bangkok House is located on Saginaw (just across North Cedar from the main Quality Dairy) at 420 E Saginaw St, Lansing, MI 48906. 517-487-6900.

Their menu is listed at Restaurant Database.

Drive-bys, May 10, 2008

Two drive-bys and an update:

*There's a new deli that has moved into the old Mr. Taco building on Clippert, just west of Frandor. (This is a building which is back to back with the Wendy's on Homer.) They have "Corned Beef" written in large letters on the windows. Hmmm. It's also convenient to swing by before work. I'll likely give it a try next week.

*On Michigan Avenue, just east of the ball park -- in the block next to Claras, that has both the city shelter and several nightblubs, there's a little corner restaurant that has a lot of turnover -- there was a Caribbean place, Turkeyman, and Ballpark Franks. Now it has a sign that says "Authentic Mexican Food."

As for an update: I have pictures. Watch for reviews of Bangkok House and Hobies.

Drive-bys, March 29, 2008

Sorry I've been away for so long. This will continue until May, most likely. In the meantime here are a couple of notes:

*A reader emailed me to say that Banyan Tree has closed. I am very sorry to hear this. It can be very hard to establish a small and unique restaurant any place where it is affordable to do so. (If anybody heard further news -- good or bad -- please leave a comment.)

*Midori is under new management. They have changed their sushi menu, and though they will make the old rolls if you ask, watch out for anything with cream cheese in it. They use a whipped and sweetened cream cheese that totally overwhelms everything else. (The Futomaki, which did not have cream cheese in it at all before, was like sushi with frosting in it.) However, they have added some great new rolls of their own. We had the B.S.C.R -- baked scallops on top of a bed of California Roll with a little sauce dribbled on top. Very nice. And it looks like the "Lady Roll" has the same fillings as the old Futomaki, but with a bean skin wrapper rather than nori. We will go back, but we seriously miss the old Spicy Shrimp Tempura with good old sour -- and solid -- cream cheese.

RECIPE: Chinese BBQ Pork

Barbecue pork (or Cha Siu -- which means "fork roast") is a basic ingredient for a lot of Chinese cooking. In a big city, you would be able to buy this lovely red-roasted pork, already cooked, by the pound. You know that taste in fried rice and lo mein and soups, and so many other dishes that you can't quite accomplish at home? It's probably from char siu.

This weekend I finally got the taste right on homemade roast pork. And now I have a freezer full for making char sui bao, or fried rice or soups or twice cooked pork....

The key here is the cut of pork. It can't be a lean cut. I used a Boston Butt Roast, cut into strips. "Country Style" spare ribs, or pork shoulder steaks are also good. The country style ribs are about the right shape and size to get the best surface area to meatiness ratio. (This is also important.)

The second key is the preparation method. You need to marinate the pork in the sauce for a couple hours. (I did about two.) Then when you roast it, you have to be sure that as much surface of the pork is exposed to the hot air as possible. I can tell you from experience that if the meat sits in its accumulated juices, it just isn't the same. In China, they hang the meat in the oven on hooks. Many cookbooks recommend putting them in a pan that has a roasting rack.

I didn't have a roasting rack, or hooks, but I had a pork roast and I wanted Char Sui! So I used a little tender loving care. I separated the pieces of meat so that they were not touching. (In this case, I put them in three small pyrex dishes -- but they probably could have been put in one really big on.)

Since the marinade has sugar and soy in it, the pan drippings are likely to burn. If you have a roasting rack this is easy to deal wiht by simply filling the pan below with water or broth. I simply made sure I watched the oven -- which was at a hot 425 degrees -- and every time I could smell that "pre-burning" smell, I poured in a very small amount of sherry into the pan -- about 1/8 of an inch. I started basting it with a souped up version of the marinade after the first fifteen minutes, and after another five or ten, I flipped the meat over, so the bottom side could get some love.

It probably took 45-60 minutes of roasting, and I turned the oven down later in the process. You could stretch the second half out a long time in a slow oven.

The Marinade (enough for approximately two pounds of meat):

• 1/4 c sherry (broth or water will do)
• 1/4 c. soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbl. honey (or brown sugar)
• 2 tbl. hoisin sauce
• 1 tbl oyster sauce

Put the meat in a ziploc bag or a container where it fits closely, and pour over it about half the marinade. Reserve the rest of the marinade for the basting sauce. (Do NOT use the marinade that has touched the meat! Throw it away! It is full of bacteria and such, and the basting sauce will not be thoroughly cooked enough to be safe.)

Basting sauce:

• The remaining marinade
• 1 tbl oyster sauce
• 2-3 tbl brown sugar
• garlic, ginger or whatever other spices sound good to you.

The sugar and garlic are prone to burn, so you don't want so much of it in the marinade, but it is fine for basting later on in the process.

This marinade, btw, would also be good for chicken thighs and wings. You need something with enough fat if you are going to cook it as dry as the instructions here. But a lean meat would be okay if you cook it slower, and with more basting (and maybe more crowded in the pan to keep the moisture in).

Drive-bys, February 3, 2008

*SanSu sushi house in Hannah Plaza has moved. They're in the same building, but they have moved from the back to the front of the building. This is a better place for them, imho. They are a popular sushi joint, and this gives them more room and visibility, since they face Hagadorn Road now.

*Gung Hay Fat Choy! It's Chinese New Year on Thursday! Have a feast this week or weekend, as we end the year of the Boar and begin the year of the Rat.

Banyan Tree Thai Cuisine

(We're sorry to note that Banyan Tree closed a while ago.)

I've been to Banyan Tree several times now, and I was sorry to see that the menu keeps getting smaller and smaller. However, I think they've settled on a nice, minimalist menu that suits a neighborhood restaurant. You won't find anything unusual or exotic on the menu, but what's there is reliable, well-prepared Thai food.


For appetizer they have good spring rolls, although the sauce is a little marmeladey. (The sweet chili sauce is better.) Then there are the Rangoons (pictured above) which are very nice, especially if you like a high filling-to-wrapper ratio. I myself prefer more crunch because the filling is so rich, but these were awfully good. They are, as at Lamai's, meatless. The filling is cream cheese, carrot and green onion, and yet even my carrot-hating friend really finds this Thai version the yummiest of rangoons.


Tom Kha Gai is a soup I find irresistable everywhere I go, and it is great here. It's a very sharply flavored soup of chicken, ginger and coconut -- with a lot of citrus from lime juice, lime leaves and lemon grass. Lamai recommends having it at her restaurant with a scoop of rice, and she is right. The soup is so rich and strongly flavored that even though it is a medium spicy, my tongue sometimes starts to get that numb novocaine tingle. The rice ameliorates that without taking anything away from the wonderful excessive experience of flavor. (So I advise asking for a side of rice in any Thai restaurant when you order this.)


The entrees are limited and pretty standard for a Thai restaurant, but every thing we've had has been good. We went for the Banyan Tree Fried Rice, which, though plain, turned out to be exceptional -- fried rice with chicken and shrimp, seasoned strongly with yellow curry. It's got a good kick at medium.


In the past we were really happy with the Green Curry, which is no longer on the menu. We are told that if they are not busy and have all the ingredients on hand, the cook will make some special dishes by request. My only wish is that they had a little more in the way of vegetables, and maybe offered a Yum or salad. The Pad Woon Sen (pictured above with spring rolls) comes close, but is still pretty plain. (I bet you could ask for a lime wedge, though. That's exactly what it needs....)

They are now open for lunch from 11-2 Tuesday through Friday, which I am glad of, because their simple menu is ideal for a quick carry out. Their dinner hours are 4-8 on Tuesday through Thursday, and until 9 on Friday and Saturday.

Banyan Tree Thai Cuisine, 1001 East Mount Hope Avenue, Lansing. (At the corner of Mt. Hope and Pennsylvania -- in the same building as Korner Kitchen.) 517- 482-0939.

Drive-by, January 21, 2008

It's much too cold to go anywhere (and certainly too cold to take my camera). So I'm just going to pass on a tip and mention the leftovers I'm eating....

*Got an email tip on a new restaurant in south Lansing which opened this weekend: "Alicia's Authentiic Mexican Deli (Dine in or Carry Out) 6424 W. St Joseph Hwy., Lansing, MI 48917. 517-323-6430. Opening Day!! Friday January 18, 2008." I know nothing about them, but if anybody gives them a try, drop us a comment.

*A friend made an excellent corned beef and cabbage. I'm going to make pirogies from the leftovers. Corned beef with potato and a little cabbage for the filling. I'm going for the easy version of the wrapper: goyoza wrappers from Oriental Mart. Moisten them and slap two together, and they really make a great thicker wrapper. I will steam them then pan fry in butter. You can also boil them. Serve with apple sauce, sour cream, or as I am doing, Labana.

Korea House - Count on it

Korea House is a little mom and pop restaurant on Trowbridge, at the far end of the building containing Goodrich Shoprite and Woody's Oasis. It's hidden around the corner, but that doesn't hurt business much. This is the place to go for real authentic Korean food.

They've been there for a very long time, and a few years ago they expanded to have a sushi bar too. They also have a lot of expensive, wonderful-looking hibachi specials on the walls, and on the tables of Korean customers. (Those are the kinds of dishes where they put a little gas grill on you table and a big heap of food -- sometimes to be grilled, sometimes to be stewed.) Unfortuately I can't tell you how good they really are, because this is our "Count On It" place. You know, the place you go when you are tired, or your stomach is upset, and you just want great food you can count on. When you're in that mood, you stick to old standbys. (You also need a larger group for some of those special dishes.)

Bulgogi is probably the main old standy here. I've mentioned this thin sliced grilled beef dish in my Midori review. It's a little like a Korean teriyaki -- but less sweet, and more beefy. Unfortunately, since it is cooked in the kitchen (as it is everywhere in town) it releases juices on the way to the table, so it's a little stewed. You can also get the Kalbi, which is a version made from rib meat (with or without bones). Then there is the Boneless Spicy Chicken stirfry, which has some vegetables with, and is one of my stand-bys.


You can always get good noodles and soups in a Korean restaurant too. Japchae, or Chapchae (above),is made with a transparent, jiggly noodle made wth yam starch. It's a little like a cellophane noodle, and cooked with garlic, soy sauce and oil, rather like a really strong lo mein.


Recently a friend ordered Rice Dumpling Soup -- which is a hearty but mild soup (which you can spice up if you like). The rice dumplings are chewy slices of a thick rice flour cake, kind of like a fat rice noodle. They are simmered in a thickened egg-drop style broth, and served in a BIG bowl with, I think, chicken or pork in it. Perfect for a cold night.

Most of the time dinner is served with the usual selection of side dishes. (Sometimes noodles or soup won't come with them, but you can ask.) There are dumplings and many kinds of soups. If you like seafood, you should really try Korean seafood soups, although they are often very spicy. I've heard fans of squid talk about their calimari. And then there are things like Goat Roast. On the more familiar line, you can get Bibimbap (as described in the Midori review) either with or without the hot stone bowl.

Be sure to browse the menu so you don't settle too early on what you decide is YOUR "count on it" dish.

Korea House, 978 Trowbridge Rd, East Lansing. (517) 332-0608.

Hong Kong Restaurant

(Hong Kong is now a very authentic Sichuan restaurant, and the review below no longer applies. Check out the new review called "Heavenly Sichuan Food."

Hong Kong is a restaurant hidden down on South Homer, south of Frandor, just north of Kalamazoo. It's been around a long time and has has many owners. It was once a tiny Dog n Suds, and the first Chinese owners operated the first buffet in town there -- with four tables and a small heated buffet stand in the corner. Subsequent owners have expanded the place, and changed the menu around.

The current owners are Korean Chinese, and have had the place for a while. Their standards are slipping a bit, but it's still my favorite place for a Chinese buffet lunch. (They only have buffet at lunch.) They have some good Hunan flavors, and just about the best lo mein in town. They used to have the best General Tso's Chicken -- a dish I normally avoid, but here it isn't just spicey ketchup on fried chicken. They have an excellent, well balanced sauce. Sometimes they drench it in too much sauce these days, but it's still good. Their fried four-season beans (i.e. stir fried green beans) were the first and best in town, and I've always been partial to their Hunan Pork.


The greatest thing about Hong Kong, though, is the fried stuff -- particulary their fried won tons. They season the meat just right, and it actually goes well with the red gunk sweet and sour sauce. (Don't expect a lot of meat in a fried won ton -- they have to be fried quickly, and the meat doesn't cook through if there's too much.) The other really great thing is Curry Beef Kok (or "curry triangles" if you find it embarrassing to say that aloud). This is not on the menu, but you can ask for it, and it's always on the buffet along with the won tons. Curry Kok is a Chinese version of a samosa -- ground beef fried up with onions and Chinese curry, and wrapped in a triangle of won ton wrapper, then deep fried. This recipe was handed down from a previous owner, and I'm really glad they still make them.

(One dish that was NOT handed down was a really great red-cooked chicken wings. They were delectable -- wings stewed in soy sauce, honey and chili. Oh, man. I make them myself sometimes, but it sure would be nice if I could still get them here.)

Hong Kong Restaurant, 315 S Homer St, Lansing. 517-332-5333.

Drive-bys: January 7, 2008

*AI-Fusion is a new fusian (i.e. Japanese food merged with western upscale casual dining styles) restaurant up and running in the old Pistachio's location over by Golden Wok (across from Coral Gables, behind the IHOP on Grand River in East Lansing). They are associated with Ukai (or at least their website is). All they have up is the lunch menu, which is mainly a lot of sushi. Since they don't list what's in it, I can't guess if the sushi is exciting. (The rest of the lunch menu looks pretty plain -- although I'm always happy when I see a lunch place that does bento boxes.)
*Speaking of bento boxes, here's a fun and instructive website on the subject for interested foodies: Just Bento.
*Also speaking of bento lunches, don't forget to try Q Sushi's bento lunches. They're in East Lansing along the strip.
*Check out the Eat Lansing blog. While this person posts even less frequently than I do, there are posts for restaurants I haven't reviewed (and different info on some that I have).
*Addendum to the Yorkshire Pudding post (which I have added to the post): At this year's Xmas dinner, I experimented a little, and the sizzling hot pans do make a difference. I just stuck them back in the oven a minute before pouring the batter.

RECIPE: Celery Peanut Salad

Some Chinese places will give you a little bowl of some kind of salad as an appetizer, if they think you will appreciate it. Usually something like the Korean side dishes -- sometimes sweet or sour or spicey, or all three.

This summer I made a whirlwind strategic-strike eating tour out in LA, and one great place we went was Luscious Dumpling in San Gabriel, California. This was a very specialized little noodle and dumpling house. Just a tiny place filled with old Chinese guys eating big bowls of noodles and plates of, well, luscious dumplings. They are famous for their Xiao Long Bao, which means "little dragon dumplings", known popularly as "Soup Dumplings." This is a dumpling filled with hot soup, which will squirt out when you bite into it.


When you sit down at Luscious Dumpling, they give you tea and a little bowl of Celery Peanut and Pressed Tofu pickle (pictured at top). The great sweet, sour and nutty taste reminded me that I used to make a celery and dried shrimp salad like it. Dried shrimps are fine, but ever since our visit to LA, I've been making this peanut version, and it has beena major hit.

And very simple to make. It's basically sesame oil, sugar and vinegar. I like to use a combo of distilled vinegar and sherry, but you can replace both of them with another vinegar. (Rice wine vinegar is traditional. I think apple cider vinegar would probably make a nifty experiment.)

• 1 tbl sugar
• 1 tbl distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp rice wine or sherry
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1 handful of roasted cocktail peanuts

You can add garlic, ginger and or hot pepper slivers or flakes. The flavor of the garlic is really strongly enhanced in this dish, so while raw garlic is great (and traditional) you can use garlic powder or no seasoning at all if you sensitive to the taste. (Just don't use garlic salt, as the peanuts already add salt to the dish.)

You can eat it right away, but it is best to let it marinate at least a half hour. It will be great all day, but not as good the next day, so I tend to whip this up as I need it.

Recipe: Yorkshire Pudding

It's Christmas. If you have roast beef at the holidays, you really should have Yorkshire Pudding with it.

Yorkshire pudding isn't really pudding by modern American standards. It's more of an eggy quick bread, but it is so tasty, and actually pretty easy to make. Just eggs, flour, milk and a hot oven.

The problem most people have is the timing. The original recipes were developed for the massive heat and lack of control you get with a wood fired oven. It requires a practiced touch to get the depth of batter and the temperature right, and if you don't know what you're doing, it won't puff up -- it'll just dry out and get hard. Plus the traditional way has you hold the roast AFTER roasting for about forty minute while the pudding cooks. Puh-lease.

I'm here to tell you how to make it good and right and easy. (And this works best if you either make it ahead of the roast, or you do like I do, and don't make a roast at all, but pan grill a couple of nice delmonico or rib-eye steaks. It also tastes good with just plain fried mushrooms.)

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt.
• fat -- either fat from the beef or butter

This amount cooks great in two bread pans, or an 8x8 cake pan. (You can up the quantities to 1.5 cups each of flour and milk and 3 eggs, and cook it in a 9x9 pan.)

Use a whisk or a mixer to blend the flour, salt and milk. Get rid of most of the lumps. Then add the eggs. Beat or whisk it up good. There should be no lumps, and a little bit frothy on the top, but not a lot. Set the batter aside in the fridge. It can sit there overnight if you want to do it ahead, but 15 minutes is fine.

Next preheat the oven to about 350. (No hotter -- this is where the traditional recipes make it hard.) It doesn't hurt to warm the pans, but you don't have to have them sizzling (which is the traditional way). You just want them to be warm enough for the fat to melt. (ADDENDUM: having the pans sizzling hot when you pour the batter in does indeed make them rise a little higher. You can just stick the pans in the oven for a moment after coating them with fat, and THEN pull them out and pour in the batter.)

For flavor, beef fat is best. Traditionally you get this from the roasting pan, after the roast is done. However, I usually fry up some suet or trimmings to get some fat. You can also do it the easy way and just use butter. Butter is always good.

Coat the inside of the pans with the melted fat. The pudding will rise up, so cover the sides as well as the bottom. Don't be stingy with it. There should be a bit of a pool of fat in the bottom of the pan. (If it starts to thicken, stick it back in the oven for a minute or so.) Stir up the batter and pour it into the pans. It should be about a half inch deep, maybe a little less.

Stick the pans in a 350 degree oven. After 12 - 15 minutes, turn the oven up to 400, then after another 12- 15 mintues to 450. It should be done after about 10 more minutes. It should be nice and golden. If it seems to be burning, you can take it out.

(Traditional recipes will tell you to put it in a 450 oven and turn it down, but if you get the amount of batter or timing or temperature wrong, it won't puff up, and will end up overcooked and dry. By cooking it in a slower oven, you give the whole thickness of the pudding a chance to puff a little and firm up, and then the hotter temperatures at the end crisp the outer layers. NOTE: if you decide to try to make popovers -- the muffin sized version of this -- do follow traditional recipes, as you will not be working with the same bulk of batter, and the traditional way is the only way to make them pop.)

The pudding will fall by about half as it cools. Don't worry about that. Let it cool and firm up. The hardest part will be to get it out of the pan. The bottom will stick a little, especially if you use the deep sided breadpans like I do. One easy way to get it out is to cut it in half, and use a metal spatula to loosen the bottom from the middle. Just beware, these things remain full of hot steam for a long time. Don't burn yourself.

If you are making a roast, make the pudding first and cover it until the roast is ready. You can pop it into the oven for a few minutes to heat it back up again. (It makes great leftovers.) If you're making it with steak, just cook the steak while the pudding is in the oven.

And that's a great holiday tradition.

Posting Schedule

I will be cutting back on the amount I'm posting in future, but I will at least try to keep to a regular scheule -- new posts on Sunday Nights. I probably won't get the chance to post again until January 6, 2008, when I'll get back to posting reviews.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open for a holiday recipe.

Snowball Slushie -- make one now!

The snow is fresh, pure and deep right now. Go scoop up a big bowl of it, and make yourself a snowball slushie! (It's best if the liquid you are using to flavor it is very very cold. I put ice in my Coke before adding the snow. You could use juice or Coolaid or wine or whatever.

I used my medium cookie scoop to make hard packed little snowballs. They absorb the liquid fast, so admire it quickly!

(More restaurant reviews coming soon...)

Podcast: Feed Me Bubbe

In honor of Hannukah, I should put you on to my very favorite video podcast: Feed Me Bubbe. It's a home made cooking show, where a Jewish grandmother shows you how to make all sorts of great food.

Feed Me Bubbe podcast (click here)

Spartan Gyros: real gyros, real fries!

Editor's Note: Alas! Alack! Spartan Gyro is no more. Olympic Broil, on Seymour on the North Side, is your best bet for good old fashioned fried food now.

Oh, my god, they have Real French Fries! I haven't had french fries like that since... well at least since MacDonald's stopped using beef tallow. Ahem. Anyway....

I stopped by at Spartan Gyros today, in East Lansing in the old Taco Bell building. It's hard to park down there yet, but I think the new parking ramp they are building right across the street will help. Right off, I was impressed by the big grill menu. Burgers, bbq, corn dogs, fried perch or shrimp. And of course, Greek salads, gyros and baklava. I went with the gyro, because it seemed like a good place to start. And I went with the combo because, well, they asked, and I figured I'd try it.

The gyro gives Lou and Harry's a run for their money. (Gyro afficianados will prefer Spartan -- it is authentic as well as good.) Lou and Harry get points for the spicing and searing on their meat (which comes from cooking it on a griddle rather than the traditional rotisserie). Both have good tsatsiki (yogurt sauce with herbs and stuff) though Spartan's chunky with fresh herbs and maybe some cucumber. And Spartan's wins hands down on the toppings -- with good onions and REAL TOMATOES! Tomatoes with flavor!

They also fill the gyro really full with a lot of meat -- which is either good or bad depending on how much meat you like in your gyro.

As for the Fries.... They are the thin kind. Plain, well fried from good potatoes. Crispy and yet with a creamy, steaming inside. I had a problem getting home, driving in the dark , trying to tear open the stapled shut bag so I could sneak more fries. (These are especially good take-out fries. Like the chips I had in London, they steam themselves just enough in the bag to enhance the flavor but not destroy the crunch. This, however, could be part of why I liked them so much. Very few fries these days stand up to the bag test. Most take on the mealy texture of stale potato chips.)

I am a french fry snob. I can't abide those crappy coated fries which are basically just fry-shaped tater tots. And don't talk to me about yuppie "seasoned fries", or the tasteless yet macho potato-skin fry. All of those are basically just a way to cover the fact that they are made with bad potatoes and "healthy" grease that can't handle the right temperatures.

A good fry is a wonder to behold. Nothing but potato, grease and salt. Sigh. Next time I go there, though, I want to try the corn dogs.

Spartan Gyros. 565 E. Grand River in East Lansing. 332-1833. (The menu says that they now deliver!)

Goodrich Shoprite - grocery, gourmet, boutique, convenience mart.

Goodrich Shoprite, at the corner of Trowbridge and Harrison near the train station, is one of the oldest grocery stores in the area, and probably the best. You could call it a "boutique." They're a regular grocery store, but they also have fine wines (they are the best place in town to get wine or beer), an excellent cheese and meats counter, unusual brands of nearly everything, plus toys, dishes, gifts. They carry their own baked goods (great donuts!) plus a variety of premium baked goods, like Zingerman's breads....

Not that they are a big store. Far from it. They're just a litte neighborhood store.

What they have is a buyer with taste and a sense of the cosmopolitan neighborhood. They are located right next to campus, and north of them is the "Flower Pot" (an old neighborhood of professors and the like with streets named after flowers) and Spartan Village to the south (student housing that serves a lot of foreign students and graduate students). Plus it's right at the on ramp to the freeways, so that alumni and others coming to MSU find it convenient.

I am a great fan of Meijers (hate Walmart, love Meijers, which is still family owned and has a great company mission of being both thrifty and "your everything place") but Goodrich is an amazing mini-Meijers with personality. The only downside of Goodrich is that you can't get near the Trowbridge area on a football saturday. So be aware of the schedule of major sporting events when you go there. (If you must go there on a football saturday, the best time can be during the game, actually.)

Goodrich Shoprite, 940 Trowbridge Road, East Lansing, (517) 351-5760