Sizzling Stone

Posted on 08/22/2013 by Randomly Edible

This week I visited one of my regular South Bay lunch spots: Sizzling Stone in Milpitas. The name pretty much describes exactly what this place is about – hot rocks with stuff cooking on them. More specifically, your lunch is served in a heavy duty stone bowl that’s roughly the same temperature as the surface of the sun.

If you asked me to describe Sizzling Stone in five words or less, I would reply with “Chipotle meets Chili’s in Seoul.” As you walk up to the main glass-fronted counter, you are presented with a bewildering array of menu options on a large board on the back wall. Ignore it. Instead, simply tell the friendly waitstaff you want a bowl and begin pointing vaguely at the ingredients you want in it. There are noodles, three kinds of rice, a ton of veggies, a few meat options, and about a billion other toppings to choose from. When you’re done assembling your masterpiece, they take the bowl and throw it directly on a burner as-is. While you wait for your lunch to heat up, grab some sauces, a bit of extra kimchee, and find a table.

When they say “hot lunch” they aren’t kidding.

“It’s like the Running of the Bulls, only you’re fleeing from dilapidated 1990′s minivans”

Your bowl will arrive at your table a few minutes later at several thousand degrees Kelvin. Add your sauce, stir it up, and enjoy (carefully). The very best part about this place is how customizable the food is. You can go totally healthy or totally bad-for-you. You can go spicy, garlicky, saucy, or none of the above. Even the pickiest eaters are guaranteed to find something here that they will like, and adventuresome types will have a good time as well. Prices are about $11 per person including a drink, which is on the medium-to-high end of the lunchtime value scale. Mostly you’re paying for the presentation.

This next point isn’t really the fault of Sizzling Stone itself, but I’m obligated to report that navigating the Milpitas Square shopping area to get to this restaurant is freaking terrifying. It’s like the Running of the Bulls, only you’re fleeing from dilapidated 1990’s minivans festooned with Hello Kitty plush toys. The parking lot – which appears to have been designed by M. C. Escher on mescaline – is specifically constructed to lure you down dead end aisles so that you can get trapped by someone learning how to park their car for the very first time. Your best bet when this occurs is simply to leave your vehicle wherever it happens to be at the moment, just like everyone else has. When you are done with your meal, odds are you will find yourself blocked in by a half primered Del Sol with a compact disc hanging from the rear view mirror. If you escape this pit of automotive hell with fewer than three or four dozen door dings, consider yourself lucky.

In spite of the parking lot issue, I rate Sizzling Stone a respectable 87 Third Degree Forearm Burns out of a possible 115. This place is certainly worth checking out if you’re in the area, but I’d recommend getting a rental car first.

Sizzling Stone
510 Barber Lane
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 324-1107
www.mysizzlingstone.com

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I give Sizzling Stone high marks for its clean, modern interior.

Neat, clean, and noodly. This is my kind of place.

Cast iron, part 1: Getting started

Posted on 08/20/2013 by Randomly Edible

The most awesome thing in my kitchen right now, except perhaps for a leftover jar of Nutella, is my set of cast iron cookware. I absolutely love it. Cast iron cooks like a dream, it (can be) super easy to clean, and it will literally last a lifetime. I have no particular opposition to modern non-stick surfaces, but there’s something very simple and honest about cast iron – minimizing one’s daily intake of Teflon is a nice side benefit.

” You can whack people on the head with it “

Another key advantage of cast iron is its ability to make food wonderfully browned and crispy. I’m sure there’s a scientific explanation for why this is, but I’m quite happy considering it to be magic. Cast iron also does a remarkably good job of distributing heat across its surface, allowing a bit more margin of error for burner-temperature-challenged individuals.

Every kitchen needs a set of these babies.

Now that I’ve convinced you to take the plunge (I have, haven’t I?), it’s time to start shopping for your first piece of cast iron cookware. I highly recommend starting out with a Lodge 8″ or 10″ skillet, not because they’re the best you can buy, but because they’re fairly well made, cheap, and good for making mistakes in as you learn. Also, if you happen to find yourself in a 1920’s cops-and-robbers film, you can whack people on the head with it. Brand new pre-seasoned Lodge skillets are around $15 and can be found just about anywhere. At this early stage of your cast iron career, I would not recommend buying anything antique or used or weird. Just stick with the basics. You will also need a metal spatula. Metal. Not plastic or wood or silicon or narwhal tusk. METAL. Trust me on this one. If you don’t already have a metal spatula, buy this one.

Ok, now we’re ready to talk about seasoning. In this context, “seasoning” does not mean salt or pepper or anything vaguely related – it’s the glossy nonstick finish that develops on a piece of cast iron cookware the more it is used. Some people might think that this kind of seasoning is supposed to add flavor, but that is not the case. It more literally refers to being seasoned, as in experienced, and that simply means the cookware behaves more reasonably when you’re cooking with it. There is an absolutely superb cast iron seasoning guide on richsoil.com; I highly recommend you give it a read-through if you’re curious about the finer details of the process. Here’s the 30 second version: Wipe down your cast iron with a very thin layer of oil and stick it in the oven at 400 degrees for an hour. It’ll smoke a bit so make sure you have your vent fan on. In addition to that (or instead of), simply use your cast iron for every day cooking and it’ll season itself. Just remember that you always need to cook with a small amount of actual oil or fat and not a freaky imitation of dubious origin.

You now have everything you need to start cooking with cast iron. For the time being, go with easy stuff like sausages or grilled cheese sandwiches. Stay away from anything acidic (e.g., tomato sauce) or liquid-y (e.g., pancakes, eggs). When it comes time for cleanup, simply scrape the pan with your spatula and wipe thoroughly with a paper towel. It should be spotlessly clean at this point and ready to be put away, but if not go ahead and hit it with a tiny bit of soap and water.

Next: Cast iron part 2: Cooking and cleaning

Nutella French toast with strawberries

Posted on 08/17/2013 by Randomly Edible

I give my wife full credit for coming up with this one. She was browsing around for breakfast recipes and spotted the word “Nutella”, followed shortly by “strawberries”. She proclaimed that we needed to make some sort of French toast sandwich thing using those ingredients, and that sounded like a splendid idea to me. Here’s what we came up with.

Skip to the short version

Ingredients:

some kind of bread (we used King’s Hawaiian)
Nutella
fresh strawberries
sugar
eggs
milk
vanilla extract
butter (salted or unsalted)

Directions:

” You’ll know you’re close to done when the Nutella starts to get melty “

Wash and cut up the strawberries into cubes or slices or whatever you like and set aside. If you prefer your strawberries a little sweeter and slightly more syrupy, mix the strawberry bits with a couple of tablespoons of sugar first.

Spread some Nutella on a slice of bread and stick a second piece of bread on top to make a sandwich. A little Nutella goes a long way, but if you’re in the mood for gooey chocolate overload then by all means pile it on. Mix up some French toast dredge (a few eggs, a few tablespoons of milk, and a dash of vanilla) and you’re ready for breakfast magic.

Warm up a skillet to medium heat and melt a pat of butter in it. The skillet should be hot enough to sizzle the butter, but not much more than that. Put a Nutella sandwich into the egg mixture, making sure to coat both sides, and carefully place it in the skillet. Cook slowly, flipping once when the bottom is toasty and delish looking. You’ll know you’re close to done when the Nutella starts to get melty. Remove from skillet, top with strawberries, and nom.

Epic breakfast win.

tl;dr

Nutella French toast with strawberries

Ingredients:

some kind of bread (we used King’s Hawaiian)
Nutella
fresh strawberries
sugar
eggs
milk
vanilla extract
butter (salted or unsalted)

Directions:

Whisk together eggs with a few tablespoons of milk and vanilla extract. Spead Nutella on one slice on one slice of bread and cover with a second slice to make a sandwich. Dredge sandwich in egg mixture for 20 seconds per side or until moderately saturated. Place in a skillet over medium-low heat and cook slowly until browned, flip and repeat. Serve with sliced strawberries.

See also

Windy City Pizza

Posted on 08/16/2013 by Randomly Edible

One of my favorite pizza joints in the San Francisco Bay Area is Windy City Pizza. I’ve been going there for years, but it wasn’t until I actually visited Chicago a while back and had deep dish in its place of origin that I understood exactly how good Windy City is. Their light and fluffy crust perfectly complements the mile-deep layer of toppings you’ll find on one of their signature deep dish offerings, and their sauce is worth braving local commute traffic for.

In utter defiance of the Laws of Melted Cheese, these pizzas are not greasy in the slightest. I literally do not know how they do it… but I don’t really care. The cheese is a perfect bubbly golden brown every time, and totally lacking the coating of bleh one often finds in such circumstances.

Pepperoni and olives are the only way to rock a pie.

” It’s enough to make one wish they had four stomachs “

Don’t be fooled by the apparently small size of Windy City’s pizzas – they have a molecular density similar to that of depleted uranium. The large measures in at a measly 14″, but it’s way more food than it looks. One slice is a complete meal for a lot of people, and two slices is more than enough for even the oinkiest pizza gluttons, namely myself. Three slices is roughly equivalent to eating an entire moose – I don’t recommend attempting it.

My wife and I particularly love Windy City, as they offer hard-to-find green olives as one of their available toppings (see above picture and be jealous). They don’t have the very best prices I’ve ever come across, but it’s pretty easy to squeeze three full meals-for-two out of a single pizza; that helps offset the cost a bit. If you’re looking for something a little different than the norm, try their barbecue chicken pizza. If you’re feeling wacky and a little bit gourmet, ask to have pineapple added.

Windy City’s menu also contains a full array of outstanding Texas style BBQ, including pit-smoked pork, ribs, brisket, and chicken to name a few. It’s enough to make one wish they had four stomachs.

Overall, I rate Windy City Pizza an outstanding 34.7 out of a possible 41 Golden Pizza Cutters. Go there. Right. Now.

Windy City Pizza
35 Bovet Road
San Mateo, CA 94402
(650) 591-9457
www.windycitypizza.com

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Pizza and barbecue. Enough said.

An introduction

Posted on 08/14/2013 by Randomly Edible

Welcome to Randomly Edible, a blog that will often (but not always) be about stuff you can eat. As the tagline implies, this is only loosely defined as a food blog. A true food blog would contain artfully crafted original recipes, studio-quality photography, advice from experienced culinary experts, and perhaps even professionally written reviews of gourmet restaurants.

I will provide none of these things.

” I could only handle so much baked squash “

“So what in the heck are you going to write about anyway?” you say. I’m glad you asked! One day I might share a favorite recipe of mine, and another day I’ll write about the killer noodle bowl I had for lunch. I’ll discuss cooking tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years, let you know where to find the best popcorn in Chicago, and talk about the most disgusting candy I’ve ever tasted. I’ll praise the awesomeness of crawfish, theorize on why cookies are better as dough, and explain how mind-numbingly easy it is to make dinner in a Crock-Pot. In other words, I plan to write about all kinds of odd things that, while otherwise unrelated, are all linked to food in some way.

“What makes you qualified to write this blog then?” you ask. Well don’t get ahead of yourself, because I don’t happen to think I’m qualified at all. I have no professional culinary education, no restaurant experience, and my palette is not particularly well refined. (What’s a palette anyway? Never mind.) What I do have going for me is that I truly love cooking, and the eating part isn’t so bad either. I don’t claim to be a great cook, or even a marginal one, but I do rather enjoy the food I make … and I also don’t get a lot of complaints. Perhaps that’s just my friends and family being polite when presented with free food, but there’s a small chance I have at least a smidgeon of ability.

I’ve been interested in kitchen goings-on ever since I was a kid, and I would always pester my poor mother while she was slaving away over a hot stove. It didn’t take her long to figure out that I would stay out of her hair if I was given kitchen-y tasks to focus on, so I spent many childhood years mixing batter, measuring flour, and locating spices in the cupboard. I don’t remember the first thing I learned how to cook 100% on my own, but it was probably grilled cheese. When I was about twelve years old, my mother went on a serious health food kick of an extremely vegan nature; my carnivore father and I were horrified. I could only handle so much baked squash and steamed kale before I snapped, so in an act of sheer dietary self-defense I started teaching myself how to cook things that were actually enjoyable to eat. I learned a bit of kitchen know-how from my grandmother, my father showed me how to grill, a friend’s mother handed me down a few recipes… and here I am today.

I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts, mistakes, and aha! moments with you; hopefully my ramblings contain more desirable content than the overly vegan meals I remember from my pre-teen years. Thanks for joining me as I embark on yet another blogging adventure, and I hope you enjoy the journey. Don’t forget to tip the wait staff.

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