As you may or may not know, Bobby Flay won last night against the Pop Shop. Bobby Flay's award-winning creation? White bread, goat cheese, brie, sliced green tomatoes, and watercress. [The Pop Shop owners, after tasting it, asided to the camera that it was going to be on their menu next week.]

The Calvert - the Pop Shop's sandwich - was rosemary focaccia, monteray jack cheese, smoked turkey, smoked bacon, avocado, and balsamic mayo.

The judges made a big deal that both sandwiches were really good, but I think we all know that this is a case like Delilah's, where the Food Network obviously did some under the table deals to make sure Bobby Flay came out on top. The crowd definitely seemed to prefer the hometown favorite.

Of course the primary function of the show has been fulfilled: now I am really craving the Pop Shop. Anyone in for this weekend?

Posted by Victoria at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Throwdown with Bobby Flay where Flay takes on our beloved Pop Shop with his goat cheese and blue corn chips will air on Sunday, April 13 at 10 pm.

Posted by Victoria at 10:35 AM | Permalink

The answer to the excellent question, "Why did you watch Reign of Fire?" is that it came on after Fellowship of the Rings on TNT (usually the Law and Order network), and we were too lazy to change the channel. Since we were watching in real time (not Tivo), it was also a rare opportunity to see commercials. The following exchange happened after a toaster pastry commercial which said their product was better than PopTarts.

Mike: No they aren't. PopTarts are good. Too bad they're bad for you.
Me: Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's no food item worse for you than a PopTart.
Mike: They're dangerous, too.
Me: What?
Mike: Have you ever microwaved a PopTart?
Me: Noooooo. I've put them in the toaster.
Mike: Not the same. I'm telling you, if you put them in the microwave, the gooey stuff inside? It becomes burning hot, and it sticks to you. It's like napalm.

So that's our public service announcement for today: PopTarts. Not only unhealthy and not nutritious, but also a handy household weapon.

Posted by Victoria at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[Since I have not yet restored Buddy's login, I will take the opportunity to steal some news he sent us and post it as if it were my own.]

So apparently Bobby Flay, best known as Rob's arch-nemesis, was in Collingswood on Monday night to "throwdown" with the Pop Shop on an issue near and dear to my own heart: grilled cheese.

The Pop Shop offered up the Calvert: "a grilled cheese special featuring Monterey jack cheese, roasted turkey, apple-wood smoked bacon, avocado and balsamic mayonnaise on rosemary focaccia bread." I don't know if anyone from Pop5 has tried this one, since our ranks of meat-eaters have been depleting rapidly.

Bobby Flay's "featured goat cheese, brie, bacon, watercress and green tomatoes piled onto a Pullman loaf." No word on whether he served it with a side of blue corn chips, and covered it with cilantro.

The article doesn't reveal the winner, but all of the quotes favor the Pop Shop. On a personal note, GRILLED CHEESE SHOULD NEVER BE MADE WITH GOAT CHEESE. It had to be said. I love almost all types of cheese. Almost.

Posted by Victoria at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

so, vicki and i went out to eat last night. we decided to go to the berlin diner because we had not been there in awhile. when we got there, we were surprised to find they were closed. i walked up to the door to see if there was an explanation, but there was not. we thought it odd and drove around to the white horse pike side. we then saw a sign stating it was for sale as a diner/restaurant. it is sad to see this because they had a good menu selection. vicki and i can only hope that whoever purchases it has as good a menu offering.

Posted by Mike at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The New York Times had an article yesterday about the demand for calorie counts to be given on menus at restaurants. New York City apparently passed a law requiring calorie counts in "some restaurants," that will start to be enforced this coming October.

Do you think this is a good idea? If you knew the calorie counts in food at restaurants, would it affect what you ordered?

Posted by Victoria at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Because, seriously? It seems like all I ever post about is food, between bread, diners, and assorted weird things. Oh, also movies. And cats.

This post is really for Rob, who has been following this saga.

So, I may have mentioned somewhere before on this site that I have some kind of inherited kitchen skills memory from my mother, even though I really didn't cook much as a kid. Well, the opposite of that holds true as well; if my mother never made it, then I have no idea what to do with it. And one thing my mother never used was avocados.

Avocados were not especially popular in upstate New York when I was growing up - I don't know if my mom didn't like them or didn't know what to do with them. I was not really anxious to try avocados myself, until I learned that I like guacamole. I wasn't sure because the first guacamole I had was full of cilantro, which I don't really like. But a nice, basic guacamole - some garlic, onions, tomatoes, and the all-important avocado - every now and then I get a craving for that.

But some of you may not know that the avocado is a finicky ingredient, and guacamole is a finicky dish. Avocados need to be bought unripe, and ripened at home in order to guarantee good flavor, and it is hard to tell when they are ripe, if you are completely inexperienced, such as myself. And guacamole doesn't keep - you have to make it right before you eat it, and I am pretty sure it will not be good the next day. Well, it is supposed to turn brown, but still not kill you, but I'm not sure how appetizing brown guacamole would be.

So a week or two ago, I bought myself a small avocado to test on. I think I bought it too ripe, since it was soft at the store. Then when I ripened it according to Rob's instructions, and waited too long to use it, by the time I opened it up, it was brown and nasty inside. Attempt Number One: Not a success.

So this weekend, I tried for Number Two. I got an avocado that was still pretty firm. I put it in a paper bag. And tonight, even though I was not in the mood to eat much at all since I had a big lunch, I took it out and cut it open. There were no brown spots - so far, so good. There was a little more green around the skin than in the photo above, and I thought that was the unripe part, but the yellowish part near the pit was actually harder to mash. But I think the ripening this week was a success.

So I mashed it up, and only added three things for this first experiment: lime juice (which Rob says will keep it fresh longer), some roasted garlic cloves (that was last week's experiment, and my new favorite thing in the world), and a little tomato. And it looked like this:

and it tasted pretty good, too, so I think this version can be called a success. Mike didn't have any, because he claims he doesn't like it, but he did helpfully say, "Try the guacamole" in Zapf Brannigan's voice several times.

Posted by Victoria at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This weekend, I went to my first Latin dance class, attended Mike's photo exhibition with most of his family and most of Pop5, played the Wii, and got sick. I also made bread with my newest kitchen toy, a bread machine.

My mom got me one for Christmas, but it was late arriving, so I didn't get it until this weekend. And yesterday, I tried it out for the first time.

I ended up having to make two batches, because I seriously messed up the first batch. After reading all about the delicate ratio of ingredients needed to make the bread perfect, I figured I would increase my chances of success by weighing my ingredients with my little kitchen scale. So I weighed out three cups of flour - since one cup is the equivalent of eight ounces, I measured out 24 ounces. When I went to check the dough, it was much too dry, and I ended up adding a lot of water. I started to suspect I had done something wrong, so I looked on the internet at the King Arthur flour site, where I found that the flour ratios are of course in volume not weight - a cup should only be approximately four ounces. So not only had I put not enough yeast to match my flour and water parts, but I had put in almost double the dough my bread machine could handle. So I stopped the cycle and tossed the dough.

Dough, dead and wrapped in plastic. I threw it into the garbage, where it proceeded to rise and take over my kitchen, until I was able to beat it back with a wooden spoon.

So for the next batch, I didn't try any new innovations, but used the classic spoon and level method of measuring out my flour. And I checked it at the specified point, to make sure.

Now, I have never made bread before, but, as has been the case many times in culinary efforts, I benefited from having seen my mother do it many times. So when I saw this in my bread pan -

- I knew that was not the sticky ball of dough I was supposed to see. The problem this time - too little flour. So I added and adjusted until I saw what I wanted to see. This:

My instincts proved good, and before long, I had this:

That's Mike presenting, by the way.

This is a simple white bread recipe, on the Basic setting, with a medium crust. The crust was really yummy and crunchy on the ends, but not too hard, kind of like the perfect dinner roll texture. The middle of the bread was softer, and it was perfectly baked all the way through. I couldn't wait very long to cut into it, and it was hard to cut because it was so soft. If I waited longer for it to cool, it might be easier. But it smelled wonderful while baking, and it tasted that way, too.

I've already started looking for recipes to try out, and I am looking for a good one for cheese bread. I am stating now for the record that if I find a really good recipe for cheese bread, I may never again leave the house. Except to buy more ingredients for cheese bread.

Posted by Victoria at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/16130978.htm

By the way, if you can name the song I'm quoting, you get a bin of Kraft's 'avacado flavored' guacamole.

Posted by vegetable at 11:24 PM | Permalink

The Food Network is looking for its next STAR!

From their website -

"This is what we are looking for:

• Cooking know-how: You can be self-taught or professionally trained or somewhere in between, but you should know the basics.

• Personality that pops: Let yourself shine and show us who you really are. Don't be shy. We are all about personality-show us yours!

• Teaching skills: Bring the world of food and cooking to life in your very own passionate and unique way.

The search for The Next Food Network Star will be documented on a series of specials slated to air this June. From a pool of eight finalists, one winner will receive their own six-episode show."

Click here to apply

Posted by Victoria at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This, unsuspecting South Jerseyites, is a Wegmans.

What is a Wegmans, you are asking? It is only the best supermarket in the WHOLE WORLD. I grew up with Wegmans. My mom shopped nowhere else. Wegman's was my first job, and I worked there until I left for college. Since I have moved to South Jersey, only one thing was missing to make my life complete: Wegmans.

You may be laughing at me right now, but that is because you have not felt the magic of Wegmans. I went with my roommate, who also comes from my hometown, and she was just as excited as I was. We have been tracking the progress of the one in Mount Laurel since it was announced. There is another one coming to Cherry Hill, too, where the racetrack used to be. It opens in June.

So I arrived at the Wegmans with my camera, ready to document the whole experience.

Wegmans has always been topping itself with each new store it opened. We remembered when the first one to have a Chinese restaurant inside opened a few blocks from Roommate's house. And then when they refurbished the one a couple miles away with a complete Market Cafe. Well, this one in Mount Laurel outdoes all of them: it has pizza, sandwiches, hot deli, a sushi bar, an olive bar, and Chinese takeout. It has a full-service bakery with yummy baked goods, fresh produce, and an elevated toy train running through the dairy section. It has an upstairs seating area to eat in. But I can't show these to you, because they denied me my Constitutional right to take photos, and I didn't push the issue.

I got this one picture inside the door, of the fruit bar, before a manager-type hurried over to me and told me I was not allowed to take pictures. I guess Wegmans is more concerned about its "corporate secrets" - which are open to anyone who cares to enter - and less about my own personal sense of nostalgia. These no photo bans are absurd, if you ask me.

After that, I started to see the two girls that the manager was with everywhere I turned in the store, and I told my Roommate that I suspected they were following me. "They're tailing me! This is just like the Bourne Identity!" I told her in an undertone. "You wish," she replied. She was already kind of embarrassed to be seen with me while I was taking the pictures.

So, Wegmans, I still love you even though we have squabbled. This isn't the first time your corporate structure has screwed me over - after all, I did used to work for you. I remember that time that you complained when I called out sick with laryngitis.

Although you won't be able to take pictures there, I still recommend that you drop by to do some grocery shopping. The organic foods section! The produce! The bulk foods! Wegmans!

Posted by Victoria at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday, Mike, Buddy, Newlywed Steve and his new wife Morgan and I went to the Philadelphia Auto Show. We will post pictures soon, especially since I got my new camera! It's a Canon EOS 20d, and it rocks!

Anyway, afterwards we were going to meet Rob and Evan and Laura (these last two soon to be newlyweds as well) at a place called Monk's Brewery at Spruce and 16th Streets. We got there, and the place was very small and very crowded. They told us that they couldn't accommodate a party of our size, and they would have to seat us in two separate tables, at different times. And it would be an hour wait. They suggested we try their "sister restaurant," Nodding Head on Sansom, up a few blocks. So we called everyone and rearranged, and then walked up to that place.

[Here is where the hate part comes in.]

So the hostess asked us how many, etc., and then asked us for ID. Now, I (stupidly) had forgotten my ID, since I wasn't driving, and I didn't have my purse - I just put my money in my camera backpack. So the waitress said that since I didn't have my ID, no one at the table could drink. Then she went back and talked to the manager, and told us that they couldn't even seat us. All because I didn't have my ID. People, I am 31 years old (almost 32), and there is no way I look under 21. We had to rearrange everyone AGAIN, and luckily Evan and Laura hadn't parked yet, so we all went back to Jersey and ate at a very nice and non-crowded restaurant in Collingswood, where we had really good fried ravioli.

Pennsylvania has some draconian liquor laws, but even so, no one had heard of anything that bad before. So the moral of the story is: we hate the Nodding Head Restaurant, Collingswood is great, and Philly sucks (sorry, Rob).

DON'T EAT HERE!

Posted by Victoria at 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

i went to visit my parents in ohio three weeks ago. while there, they took me to the expressway diner. while it has been open a little over a year, it is definitely old school in heart and style. the food, service, and decor were all excellent. the prices were, too. skip and barb (friends of the family), frequent the diner and highly recommend it. i had the banana walnut pancakes and can honestly say i enjoyed them a great deal. they were very tasty and not heavy like regular pancakes. i was able to eat them all and not feel stuffed. my parents and zac (my brother) enjoyed their entrees as well.

i want to thank skip and barb for the photo of the diner and taking me there. i am definitely going back again, when i visit my parents. hopefully, the weather will be nicer so i can take more photos for the site.
the expressway diner gets five coffee cups.

Posted by Mike at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I have been a vegetarian for 18 years, or, in the words of the rest of the pop5 crew, I "need to join the food chain." I have slowly been getting into eating many of the new soy products made to resemble meat; I have been trying new ones every few weeks. They are all Morningstar Farms products, because my first good experience with veggie burgers was one of theirs:

These are really good, and they totally changed my expectations of what a "fake meat" product could be like. Before this, my experience wth veggie burgers was limited to the kind of Gardenburger/mushroom and breadcrumb type affairs, which in my opinion are nasty and disgusting. Anyway, these are good both with typical burger accoutrements, and in a southwest style, with salsa. To me, they taste a little more of Indian spices than standard southwest, but it works.

The next thing I tried was the Veggie Bacon strips, which I had heard were pretty good from several people. In my opinion, the Veggie strips are more of a bacon-flavored cracker than an actual bacon imitation. They do taste like bacon (like the similarly all-soy Bac'o Bits), but the texture is flat and crispy, with none of the chewiness the fat provides real bacon. This is ok with me; I always liked crispy bacon better than chewy. They are also a little temperamental to cook. I have discovered that the best way to cook them is to microwave them on a paper plate, or a plate with a paper towel beneath the strips, for slightly less time than the package recommends. They tend to stick to the paper, but if you wait for them to cool, you can peel them off. The Bacon strips also get high marks from me. I usually eat them as a quick and tasty snack to get more protein.

I just recently tried the Honey Mustard flavored Chik'n tenders, which I unfortunately cannot recommend. I think the main problem with them was the honey mustard flavoring, which didn't provide any real flavor, but did smell kind of nasty. The actual strips didn't taste like much of anything but breading. The fake "chik'n" was chewy, but almost totally tasteless. Although I didn't like them in this context, I could imagine getting some not-honey-mustard-flavored ones and maybe trying to make a "chik'n" parmegiana. I think using them in a recipe that provided a lot of flavor for them might be the best way to go.

Posted by Victoria at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)