Rogue Sap

Rogue Sap, this is my new favorite roadside refreshment.

Straight from the maple tree the sap drips into the bucket waiting to be boiled down into nice amber syrup.

Clear, just sweet enough and slightly sticky to the lips. I’ve never heard of anyone drinking straight sap before but I’m not one to ever turn down tradition. It was tasty and refreshing; it honestly tasted like simple syrup. You want to be careful though as I was told that raw sap should only be consumed in small quantities otherwise you may give your self an upset stomach.

Maple sap is better used to make maple syrup as it takes 40 gallons of maple sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup. A single tap can produce around a gallon of sap in a day during optimal weather conditions.

The Salted Cod does not condone stealing any hard dripped sap from maple farmers. Luckily I was in “Wheeler” county where they have the rule of the land.

Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat

The New York Times ran an excellent article yesterday on the young farmers movement. The Times interviewed the two young farmers who left life behind in Brooklyn to start the The Hearty Roots Community Farm in upstate New York. I found this article to be quite inspiring as I've thought about doing this myself for some time.

It's nice to see some of my peers finding success in this field...

Click here to continue to the New York Times article.

Happy Johnny Appleseed day

Johnny Appleseed was a very well liked man. The apple variety he planted generally grew fruit that was too sour for eating and baking. Most of his apples were turned to hard cider. Therefore people were excited to see him because he was the guy bringing the booze. He was one of our country's leading conservationist responsible for many plantings and he was born in Leominster MA.

In celebration of this special day I’ve posted the lyrics for all of you to sing the “apple picking song.”

"Picking apples, picking apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done, Picking all the apples, Picking all the apples,'Til we're done, 'til we're done.

Climb a ladder, climb a ladder,In a tree, in a tree, Hello everybody; Hello everybody, Look at me, look at me.

Making applesauce, making applesauce swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish
Pouring the applesauce, pouring the applesauce in a dish, in a dish.

Eating applesauce, eating applesauce,Yum, yum, yum; yum, yum, yum. Eating all the applesauce, eating all the applesauce. Now we're done, now we're done."

Artist unkown

You could also visit an orchard to celebrate…

Norway’s Doomsday Vault

NORWAY DOOMSDAY VAULT
Originally uploaded by a1e2000

This week Norway has opened the "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters. The vault has been built deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard which lies only 600 miles from the North Pole.

The International Herald Tribune has a great in depth article on this.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/28/europe/seed.php?page=1

Tuscan Beet Green Soup

I wish I knew of this simple soup this summer while I was still receiving my CSA share from Parker Farm. I received so many nice beets with the greens but I never really had anything to make with them that I enjoyed.

I received Mario Batali's "Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at home," as a gift this Christmas and have adapted this recipe form there.

1/2 cup of olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 gloves of garlic, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, diced
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 cups beet greens, cut into ribbons
3 cups water
3 cups chicken stock
1 can cannelli bean
1 bay leaf

In a large pot add your olive oil and bring to high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, add remaining ingredients and cook over low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.

I topped this soup with Pecorino Romano cheese. I was also lucky enough to have potatoes in cold storage from my CSA for this soup, they really absorbed a lot of great flavor making them extra tasty. A nice thick slice of great homemade oatmeal bread for dipping made a wonderful accompaniment.

Enjoy your greens.

Fresh horchata

I've recently become obsessed with horchata after trying this milky drink at a local taqueria that offered it in my area. Ever since my first sip I have been looking out for it everytime I grab some Mexican food which seems quite frequently. I did a little research on this and found there is actually no milk in this sweet aromatic and refreshing drink. It is a type of rice milk so this is also a very vegan friendly treat.

After a few google searches I found the following Horchata recipe by Rick Bayless a Mexican chef I have always enjoyed on PBS. This recipe was featured in his book “Authentic Mexican Cookbook.”


Ingredients:

6 tablespoon white rice
1/14 cups blanched almonds
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 2-inch strips of lime zest(colored rind only) 3/4 inch wide
about 1 cup sugar

Directions:

Thoroughly pulverize the rice in a blender or spice grinder. Transfer to a medium -size bowl and add the almonds, cinnamon stick and lime zest. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of hot tap water, cover and let stand at least 6 hours or preferably, overnight.Scoop the mixture into a blender jar and blend for 3 to 4 minutes, until no longer feels very gritty. Add 2 cups of water, and then blend for a few seconds more. Set a large sieve over a mixing bowl and line with 3 layers of dampened cheese cloth. Pour in the almond-mixture a little at time, gently stirring to help the liquid pass through. When all has been strained, gather up the corners of the cheesecloth and twist them together to trap the dregs inside. Squeeze the package firmly to expel all the remaining liquid.Add 2 cups of water and stir in enough sugar to sweeten the drink to your taste. If the consistency is too thick add additional water. Cover and refrigerate until you're ready to serve. Stir before pouring.

Yields 1 1/2 quarts, 6 to 7 servings.


I ended up with enjoyable results, it was not quite as flavorful as the horchata I have been drinking locally but it wasn’t bad either. Next time I make this I will double the cinnamon quantity and possibly grate some nutmeg in as well. You may need to adjust the amount of water if you prefer a lighter or thicker drink. This lasted for about a week in the fridge so this recipe does make a decent amount.

Soup's On! Wild mushroom & walnut

For my first post as a member of The Salted Cod, I wanted to start by sharing my favorite and most impressive soup.

Mushrooms and walnuts are two of my favorite foods. In this soup, they get to slow dance together all night long.

ingredients:
1 c. chopped carrots
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped leek
2 c. chopped crimini mushrooms
3 tbs. butter
salt
black pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1 pinch dried thyme
1 pinch dried sage
1 c. dried porcini mushrooms (1 package)
1 c. chopped walnuts (I always add more)

First step: soak a cup of dried porcini mushrooms in 2 cups hot water for 30 minutes to re-hydrate them.

Then saute a chopped cup of each of the following in some butter, salt and pepper: crimini mushrooms, celery, leek, carrot and onion. add 2 bay leaves, couple garlic cloves, a pinch of sage and a pinch of thyme (dried is fine) After the veggies have just started cooking add 8 cups hot water, the porcinis and their soaking liquid. simmer that for about an hour.
Remove bay leaves.

Then, in small batches, transfer soup to blender, and puree. Make sure you use really small batches. note: when blending hot foods, steam builds up in the blender and the pressure can cause the lid to pop off. To avoid burns, I wrap my hand in a dish towel and hold the lid on that way.

After all the soup is pureed, transfer back to the large saucepan. slowly reheat the soup, and add the cup of chopped crimini mushrooms and the cup of chopped walnuts. If you really dislike walnuts, this soup is probably fine without them. I happen to love them and think they bring a great flavor and texture to this soup.

Enjoy, my new friends!
I hope you don't hate it.

Sweet Crêpes

Snowed in today, what's for breakfast? There's been a jar of nutella in the closet I've been eyeing for a while.

I got the idea for these nutella banana crêpes from a good breakfast I had at Z Square in Harvard square a while back.

I adapted the following crêpe batter recipe from The Joy of Cooking.

3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Sift all dry ingredients then add and mix

2 eggs
2/3 cups of milk
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

I found the batter to be too thick as my first two crêpes failed miserably. I added another 1/4 cup of water and turned the heat up and I got much better results.

Plate your crêpes with nutella and sliced banana roll it and enjoy. Great crêpes but actually quite filling and very, very sweet.

Tunch the soup queen

Just wanted to let everybody know that we have a new contributor who has signed on to the Salted Cod. "Tunch the soup queen!"

Tunch will be contributing from beautiful western Massachusetts. Tunch has been dubbed "the soup queen" because of her obsessive love for inventive homemade soups.

She is also known to occasionally hit the road and go on tour across the USA. If we're lucky we might be able to get mobile posts from some great American holes in the wall while she is on the road.

Welcome aboard soup queen!

Cucumber Maki

This is my first attempt at sushi, very basic cucumber maki roll (my avocado disappeared from the fridge!)

I stocked up at the Super 88 in Allston, I didn't spend more the $10 on this. All I really needed was a bamboo rolling mat which I picked up for 98 cents and some easy to use premixed sushi rice seasoning. The pre-mixed saves you the time of mixing sugar and vinegar, with this you can just add a few tablespoons in.

In a nut shell, cook your short grain or sushi rice, let it cool, mix the rice seasoning, spread it onto the nori sheet, add your cucumber and roll. I ended up with 4 rolls from 2 cups of rice.

I have yet and probably never will master cooking rice. It seems so simple but it's either dry or too wet and never compares to sushi house quality rice.

Acceptable results with this first attempt, as it made for a nice lunch at work.

Thank you Melissa for having a camera at work!

AS220

We didn't think we would be visiting any farmers markets for a few months as we are smack in the middle of a New England winter...

Enter the AS220 Winter Farmers Market!


AS220 is a non profit community arts center that hosts a weekly indoor farmers market in Providence Rhode Island. When we arrived there were probably half a dozen vendors set up.

Our most notable vendor was local artisan cheese makers Narragansett Creamery. We sampled all varieties available including fresh homemade ricotta which was excellent. We purchased a nice block of fresh farmers cheese or queso blanco. It's a rather mild and salty cheese which is great for melting in quesadillas. Lucky for us at the next vendor was actually selling homemade corn tortillas made on Atwells Ave. We also picked up a huge bag of pecans for $2.



Other items available products include root vegetables, hearty winter greens, local shellfish, Rhode Island roasted coffee and pet treats.

Speaking of quesadillas, AS220 is also home to Taqueria Pacifica. A hip west coast style Mexican joint and former taco truck. We had some great horchata (rice drink flavored with almond and cinnamon) to go along with our breakfast quesadilla. Two eggs, sweet potato's, cheese and mushrooms stuffed inside one massive tortilla. Topped with salsa verde, this really hit the spot.



We can't really say enough about the AS220, lots of local art and artists, a winters farmers market, a taqueria, a print shop, and small bar and stage for bands as well. They also offer a wide variety of classes to the local community. We'll be there next month learning to silkscreen t shirts!

Tonno e fagioli

This is the perfect light summer dinner on a warm Tuscan night.
Unfortunately it was about ten degrees outside and snowing when I decided to make this. Delicious none the less.

Pure simplicity.

-Italian tuna packed in oil
-White beans
-Very thinly sliced red onion

Top with a bit of good olive oil and sea salt.

Get a away for a minute.

Happy Holidays from the Salted Cod

King Corn

The Salted Cod recently viewed a screening of the new documentary King Corn and we were inspired to try to dig deeper and reach out to the creators of King Corn.

We had the great opportunity to ask Ian Cheney of King Corn 10 questions.

"King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm."

1. What was your goal going into making King Corn?

Ian: Growing up on the East Coast, I had a decent understanding of where apples, blueberries and cranberries came from, but the majority of what I ate came from elsewhere. Put simply, my goal in developing King Corn with Curt and Aaron was to tell the story of where our food comes from -- by growing it.

2. How was King Corn financed? Were large donations made to the making of the film?

Ian: King Corn was a grassroots operation. Small foundations and dozens of generous individuals buoyed us through the first several years, until the Independent Television Service (ITVS) came on board with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

3. Did you have any previous education or experience in the food industry or agriculture going into this film?

Ian: In college I became very active in bringing local farmers to campus to supply their produce to the dining halls. Like many of my peers, I had an almost instinctual desire to forge a better connection with the sources of my food. As this work developed into the Yale Sustainable Food Project, I also completed a Master's degree studying the ways in which consumers become disconnected from the sources of their food. But it wasn't really possible to study food or farming at my liberal arts college, and most of the calories in the dining hall were from cattle ranches or processing plants thousands of miles away.

5. Did you ever raise enough to buy the acre of land? Was it left empty or was something else planted on it?

Ian: We couldn't afford to buy our acre of corn, but we're still hoping to -- although Chuck is more likely to sell us an acre on the edge of a field, as opposed to the middle of it.

6. Why did the farmer you stayed with end up leaving Greene? Was he forced out, retired, etc...?

Ian: None of Chuck's seven sons really wanted to be farmers, and I'm not sure Chuck feels that there is a lot of value left in farming, either. In fact, I read recently that in a recent survey of current Iowa farmers, more than 50% advised their children against farming for an occupation.

7. What does your diet consist of now? Have you tried to make an effort to modify your diet and/ or eat less corn byproducts after the completion of this movie?

Ian: Being on the road a lot, it's been tough to eat the way I want to. So much of our "foodscape" is made up of the same stuff -- junk foods and fast foods. I want to eat better, but on the road it takes a lot of time and money to find the foods I consider healthful or sustainable. Curt and I are actually trying to avoid corn-derived foods for the entire month of November -- so far so good, but I'm wishing we'd chosen a shorter month. Check our website for updates...

8. Do you believe that the average person would pay a higher premium for grass feed cattle if it was just as easy as buying corn fed cattle, knowing it was healthier and better for the environment in the long run? For example: if your local chain restaurant had two menu options, an organic grass feed burger for $12.00 and a corn feed burger for $7.00 with accurate descriptions of each item.

Ian: Some will pay more, some won't. That's true with everything. But corn-fed beef is artificially cheap. We subsidize it with our tax dollars, and then pay for the health problems it creates through our health insurance bills. And rural communities pay for all the problems the feedlot waste creates. So maybe if the menu said $7.00 + hidden costs (sick cows, fat people, polluted waterways), then the $12.00 burger would look a little cheaper. (Also, I just had a grass-fed beef burger at a bar-restaurant in San Francisco for eight bucks, and it was great.)

9. How did you connect with Michael Pollan? How large was his role/influence in the making of King Corn? Was the King Corn concept born before Michael Pollans omnivore's dilemma was published?

Ian: In my college days I met Michael at an event at Yale, and several months later he agreed to be an advisor to our film project. He'd begun work on his book, and was naturally very talkative about corn -- one of the reasons we honed in on Zea Mays. Throughout the process he was a wonderful help and inspiration, generous with his time and insights. We were in the final editing stages of King Corn when his book was published.

10. What is the best way average people can change the way our food system is currently set up for the better?

Ian: There's a lot to be done -- but I'd like to say, "Ask." Ask your waiter where the beef or pork or chicken comes from. Is it grass-fed? Pasture-raised? Local? Are there local options on the menu? Ask at the grocery store, at the convenience store -- and if you don't find what you want, ask why not?

________________________________________________________

View the King Corn trailer

You’ll soon realize how dependent the American diet and food system really is on corn. Read food labels and ask questions. Try to get out there and see a screening of King Corn while you can, it will be well worth your time.

Please check http://www.kingcorn.net/ for screening times and cities.

The Salted Cod would like to thank Ian Cheney & Naomi Starkman for this great opportunity.

Fornino: Williamsburg

Fornino, Margherita Classica
Originally uploaded by Slice

We really love pizza. We’ve been known to go on long pizza binges, sometimes so desperate we'd fry a pizza slice to reheat it out of necessity. We've also been known to anger others with our intense pizza cravings. Luckily for us, we found heaven at Fornino’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Fornino’s is artisan pizza at its very best. As far as we know from reading the menu, everything is made in house, including the mozzarella. They also have their own garden space to grow herbs and tomatoes. The wood fired oven gives the crust a nice, crispy, slightly charred flavor. This is the only way too cook a pizza; we’re thinking of starting a petition to have the government mandate this.

We actually visited Fornino on two consecutive nights. On our first visit we ordered (and engulfed) a pie called the Al Roker. This was ordered partly due to the hilarious nature of the name, being the only celebrity pie on the menu. More so because we were craving caramelized onions on our pie. In addition to the caramelized onions, the Al Roker included sopressata, garlic, rosemary and fresh mozzarella. A winning combination, the rosemary really accents the sweet smokey tomato sauce while the sopressata is just salty enough to make you crave more.

The next night we truly tried to find a new joint to check out but we had to face the facts, we wanted another slice of Fornino. We order the Margherita classic as pictured. So simple, so good. Some great olive oil drizzled on at the end was a nice touch.

We’re already craving more; maybe we’ll hit up Emmas in Cambridge this week…

Hired Gun.

The Salted Cod was recently asked to cater a party. This was both exciting news and an honor to be asked. I cordially accept this offer.

(Starting at the top from left to right: Caprese, arugula & shaved carrot salad, balsamic & oil, lemon garlic vinaigrette, sauerkraut & apples braised in apple cider, meatballs, kielbasa & lasagna)

After accepting this offer I had around a month to plan a menu with my client, purchase all items for the event and finally and most importantly prepare the menu. This was my first time catering such a large event and quite honestly I was not too sure on how much food was really needed. We agreed on a menu which we both thought would be more than adequate for the number of people attending. I am going to take you through each item along with progress made.


The party menu is as follows:
Caprese salad with balsamic & oil
Arugula & shaved carrot salad with lemon garlic vinaigrette
Grilled Kielbasa marinated in Sam Adams Oktoberfest & Fresh pressed apple cider served with a side of sauerkraut & apples braised in apple cider
Meatballs
Lasagna
Birthday cake provided by host

I left work at 4:30 with the massive shopping list; I had a few stores to go to acquire all of the needed ingredients. I arrived back home at 7:30, unpacked and sorted a trunk full of items and get to work.

First thing first, I had to make two massive batches of tomato sauce for both our meatballs and lasagnas. This is my basic sauce minus the chili flakes that we make quite often. It is like by most people so we didn’t mess around. I had a hell of a lot of San Marzano tomatoes, onions, a bit of sugar, olive oil and basil. Once the two massive pots of sauce started bubbling away we moved on to our meatballs.


I found the meatballs to be the most challenging part of the hire. We decided on two trays for the party with a total of 10 pounds of meat. I split the meat right in half, half beef, half pork. The meat was seasoned with salt, garlic, and parmesan. We also had some day old crusty bread which we soaked in milk to help keep the meatballs moist. We flash fried the meatballs just enough to keep them together before simmering in the sauce to finish.

At this point I'm ready to call it a night, its 1 am and the sauce and meatballs are complete. We have one last quick thing to do. Stick all the kielbasa in a pot to marinate with the Oktoberfest and cider.

First thing first crank that oven up and pump out 3 trays of lasagna with enough time to rest each tray before serving. We mixed our ricotta with 3 eggs per 2 quarts of ricotta, parsley, black pepper, salt and parmesan. Each tray had 5 layers of sauce, pasta, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan, with the middle layer receiving a splash of green with some fresh basil.


Lasagna done.

I purchased the Kielbasa at Euromart in Dorchester. Euromart is a great polish deli with lots of homemade goodies and great meats.



The kielbasa was grilled with no problems at all, about an hours worth of work. I also had a small spray bottle of cider to constantly spritz the meat while grilling. The drained sauerkraut and diced apples were braised in cider to serve as a side.




I had a great helper for the salad who did most of the prep for me while I made the dressings.













Everything is now packed and ready to go 3 hours before show time.



What a whirlwind of a weekend. I clocked in 10 hours of kitchen time without counting trip the store. It turned out to be quite a feast. The meatballs were a bit on the bland side, theys to could have definitely used more salt. I found it on the harder side to control the quality with such a large batch. Next time we will be making mini balls to test along the way. The rest of our dishes came out great and were well received.

I got home and fell directly asleep with my clothes on, exhausted at 9:00pm. It was a hell of an experience.

I remember Halloween...

Happy Hauntings from The Salted Cod!

I’ve enclosed a slightly embarrassing picture of my radical costume this year, "Cosmic space dude." Every year we embark on a zombie trolley ride around the city of Boston to go party hopping and try to spook the general public.

The highlight for me is wolfing down as many Halloween treats as I can at manage to eat at each party. I had way too many spooky shrimp, devious deviled eggs and other tasty Halloween treats. Not to mention plenty of devil's punch which may have caused me to space dance with my snazzy silver space cape.

We will be heading out to Salem Massachusetts to take in the festivities tonight, maybe we'll see you there!

A special Misfits Halloween treat

Cider

This month, we were lucky enough to try our hands at a favorite New England tradition, apple cider pressing.

The idea first came about when our good friends in Shelburne Falls obtained a cider press which was built years ago but apparently had been "forgotten" about. We were shocked to discover this, but later learned the press was shared with a family friend who also took part in the building process and had been hiding it in their garage.

If you've never had the opportunity to visit Shelburne Falls, we highly recommend you do. Its small town New England at its best with everything you could ask for- glacial potholes, candle making, kayaking, foliage, sugar shacks, the bridge of flowers, an obscenely old bowling alley, the elderly and everyone's favorite shop Mo's Fudge Factor.

In order to make a significant amount of cider, we realized early on it would be quite expensive so we used our Shelburne connections to work a deal with the owner of a local apple orchard. Instead of picking perfect apples from the trees with everyone else, we followed a man in a golf cart to the back of the orchard who directed us to our ground apples. Sure the apples were full of bruises, bumps and other imperfections, but faired wonderfully for the cider (especially since they had higher sugar content from all that sitting around.) We heard tree apples are for snobs anyway. No time was wasted and quickly grabbed every apple we could cram into a Chevy Malibu. Don’t worry though; no members of The Salted Cod actually drive a Chevy Malibu.

I was given a lot of flack from the rest of our crew (particularly from a fellow Cod) for wanting to wash the apples before grinding them into a delicious juicy pulp. Apparently dirt on the apples provides character to your cider. Bull.




In the end, we compromised by hosing the apples down on the grass. After our short set back, we finally began grinding the apples. Although fun at first, grinding was far more labor intensive than we expected. It turns out that food bloggers are weaker than most folks, including large five year-olds. Luckily, one female member of our crew had a blue ribbon arm for grinding apples. When she became tired from cranking she’d simply switch off with the five year-old. It seemed like a good system.
















In case you were wondering, the ground apples were being caught and filtered by some old cheesecloth found in a junk drawer. I was skeptical of this at first but must admit, it really did the trick. So basically, once you’ve ground as many apples as you can fit in the barrel lined with cheesecloth, the press is then lowered and the cider begins to flow. If the press is lowered too quickly the cider flow will change from a fountain trickle to a small waterfall so we had to keep testing its limits until the right pressure was found.

We also discovered during this step (to no one's surprise) that bees love cider. We tried our hardest to shoo any cider-loving bees away from the press but one or two may have reached their fate and passed through. Of course, most of our crew didn't mind dirt in their cider so obviously a few bees didn’t phase them.


The cider was then filtered through cheesecloth one more time and poured into clean gallon jugs our Shelburne friends apparently bartered for from a local farmer.

We repeated these steps of washing, grinding, pressing and bottling the apples for the next three or four hours with relaxing kayaking breaks throughout the day.

In the end, we used every ground apple which produced around twelve gallons of cider. Because our cider was unpasteurized (with a fridge life of around one week), most of the cider was frozen for later enjoyment. I’m looking forward to sipping hot mulled cider this winter. We also provided the compost with large amounts of apple pulp.

A helpful hint when picking ground apples; wear clothing with long sleeves…especially if there is a nasty patch poison ivy surrounding your apples. It will really help prevent two long weeks of having to explain to your friends why you only have poison ivy on your forearms.

We have some cider surprises in store for the very near future, so stay tuned. Seriously.


Click here to view the complete photo set from our day on our flickr site

Lunch routine?

We just wanted to take a minute to share our lunch with you. It’s rare that The Salted Cod gets stuck in a lunchtime routine but we seem to be handling this okay.





We have been making a small salad with arugula, cherry tomatoes, and shaved carrots (everything but the tomatoes came from our CSA) and topped with a quick lemon vinaigrette.


We also purchased three year barley miso from South River Miso here in Massachusetts. Just plop an over sized table spoon of miso into a coffee mug with a lid and add some furikake for extra flavor. This is a Japanese seasoning which consists of a mixture of sesame seeds, bonito flakes and seaweed. To finish, we add fresh tofu and chopped scallions. This has worked out to be a quick and easy lunch at work. When ready to eat, just go to the water cooler and add hot water. Talk about instant soup, take that ramen noodles!

We're not one to eat at our desk or be chained indoors at lunch so we usually take it to the streets.

Pretend You're Local.

The Salted Cod is never one to turn down a roadside stand. We’ve spent a lot of time in Maine this summer and this is the one establishment that we kept hearing and reading about but never had a chance to make it there. Finally we did.

Flo’s Hot dogs in Kittery Maine has been in operation since 1959. Flo dogs have been revered by locals, tourists, truckers and food critics alike. This is a one woman operation working out of a simple shack serving up dogs, soda, and chips. The floor slants upwards as you get closer to placing your order. We heard rumors that the older lady behind the counter has been compared to the soup nazi in Seinfeld, turning away customers who don’t order fast enough or leave the door open. One story goes a trucker stopped in to get a cup of coffee; she asks “how about a dog?” The trucker says “I ate down the street.” She says “you can get your coffee down the street too.” We unfortunately did not see her on our trip.

Inches away from hitting the ceiling at 5’8, the line was long and crowd was hungry. One larger (honestly large) man in line ahead of us suggested we order the house special. This consists of a steamed dog and bun topped with mayo, sauce and celery salt. We ordered 2, our friend ordered six.

The dogs were quite tasty and very soft, we were hesitant to order mayo on a dog but it worked quite well and we will never turn down the advice of a man of that stature. As for the sauce, from what we could take it was onions reduced in a molassesey sauce giving it the taste and look of Boston baked beans.

Our belly was quite happy and was actually barking for one more. This is a great stop for some classic American road food.