Home Grown Cafe - Grew Up To Be A Crack Ho

What makes small college towns tolerable? No, not beer pong every Friday night. If a small town has a college, they usually have a vegetarian restaurant to accommodate those crazy, tofu-eatin’ kids.

I was happy to find Home Grown Café in Newark, DE, home of the University of Delaware, when I arrived in the Delaware Valley a few years ago. As the restaurant's name suggests, they have/had a college town, hippy vibe going on. Why wearing patchouli and growing dreads in college is a rite of passage, I do not know.

A few years ago, a shop selling jewelry made by the owner and hippy-themed goods was connected to the restaurant. The adjoining shop was phased out to expand the restaurant, as were the large tie-dye wall hangings in the restaurant. The restaurant now has vampy booths, low lighting and a bar specializing in frou-frou cocktails. They dropped the healthy, hippy vibe and joined the slick, metro bandwagon. Incongruously, the name of the restaurant and its rainbow swirled sign remain, as well as a few jewelry cases.

Get past the jewelry cases and you can get to the menu. About 75% of Home Grown’s menu can be made vegetarian or vegan, usually by substituting seitan. In the past, I’ve eaten a couple of their different seitan wraps, spaghetti with "meatballs", falafel, burrito, and “chicken” sandwich.

The seitan “chicken’ sandwich with garlic aoli was my favorite, and I ordered it every time I went after I discovered it. I crave this sandwich, but I have not been to the restaurant in over a year. I finally paid a visit last week to see a friend’s band play, and…they changed the menu!!! Gone was my garlic aoli “chicken” sandwich, along with the polenta fries and some other things I used to order. What was I going to order?

I thought about mac and cheese, since I’m obligated to try it when I go out, but theirs sounded sooo wrong – "panko and tortilla crusted macaroni and cheese served with avocado lime aioli, chipotle ketchup and micro herbs." You know that saying about how you should take off an accessory before leaving the house? Well, that mac had waaay too much bling going on. It scared me. Just Say No!

I decided to order the green apple wrap with seitan, brie, granny smith apples, walnuts, tomatoes, and apple vinaigrette. All of the ingredients listed in the wrap, with the exception of the seitan, were indistinguishable in each bite. I could not have told you what was in the wrap and the vinaigrette was not tangy.

A choice of side – chips, field green, or mashed potatoes – comes with wraps and sandwiches. I’ve had the field greens, and they are just that – a smattering of some greens. Not too exciting. I’ve also had the mashed potatoes and remember them being buttery and yummy. The mashed potatoes I got were cold.

My friend ordered a falafel. The first thing she said was that there were too many onions in her sandwich. When will kitchens realize that onions are strong and need to be either caramelized or sliced very thinly? The falafel balls were as dry as a desert and slightly burned. I don’t think I’ve tasted a worse falafel. I felt embarrassed that I had praised Home Grown before bringing my friend.

My frou-frou drink was not as pretty as they used to be, either. Last time I got a red candy rim on my glass with a slice of apple. This time? ¡Nada!

What the hell, Home Grown? I suggest you wipe that coke from your nose and go back to tokin’.

Warning – Home Grown is really more of a restaurant than a bar, but bands play on a small stage and it can be loud. Avoid the restaurant on music nights if you want to have a conversation with your date. Also, late at night, squealing college kids – it is a college town – come in to drink martinis and look chic. Annoying and comical at the same time.

Home Grown Cafe, 126 E. Main St., Newark, DE 19711, 302-266-6993
Mon.-Sat., 11a.m.-1a.m., Sun., 10:30-11pm

Herbs to Grow...and Eat

Most of my time is not spent in a kitchen or with food, but outdoors in gardens with plants. Today I threw down many yards of compost and ripped the lateral buds off peonies. That's what I really do. I'm no food expert; I just like to complain give my opinion about food in my spare time.

Spring has sprung where I am, so it's time to get my herbs together. If you're some place warmer this happened about a month ago. If you're some place tropical, I have a sweet apartment in DE that I'll trade you.

I've had large gardens and container gardens. I've started everything from seed and I've bought all of my plants. You are no more saintly if you have a large plot and start every plant from seed than if you buy your plants and stick them in a pot .

I'm currently renting on the second floor of a row house, so I'm growing in pots. Time slipped away from me, so I started nothing from seed this year, unless you count the cilantro in my tire planter that made it through the winter.

MY MUST-HAVE HERBS TO GROW FOR COOKING -Yes, there are others.
Basil, Bay Leaf, Chives, Cilantro, Dill, Lemon Grass, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme.

EASY FROM SEED - Ready for use this season
Basil - Annual. Very sensitive to cold, so don't put out too early. Will not live through the winter.
Cilantro - Annual. Re-seed every two weeks because it finishes its life cycle quickly. Don't buy because it's life is almost over by the time you're buying it.
Dill - Annual. Will re-seed itself and pop up next year everywhere but where you want it.

JUST BUY THESE
Bay Leaf - Can grow into a shrub. Take indoors or protect if you live in zone 7/8 or colder.
Chives - Perennial. Don't be afraid to chop it to the ground. It will return.
Lemon Grass - Perennial if in zone 8 or warmer. Freeze the bottom fleshy part of the stalk to have for cooking in winter.
Oregano - Perennial. Makes a lovely groundcover. Mine dies sometimes during the winter in a pot in DE.
Rosemary - Perennial. Take inside or protect if colder than zone 7/8.
Sage - Perennial. Doesn't like to live in a swamp. Mine always die over-wintered in a pot. Sometimes they don't make it through the winter in the ground, either. I don't waste my time pampering if it looks like crap. I yank and go shopping for more.
Thyme - Perennial. Makes a great groundcover. Wait until it leaves-out in the spring to trim the dead. Sometimes it pretends to be dead, but is not. Patience. I have none.

A FEW VEGETABLES - I have room on my porch for only a few vegetables.
Thai Dragon Peppers - I grow these because the plant is compact and produces tons of tiny hot peppers. One plant produces enough peppers for an entire year. I pick them and let them sit on my counter to dry at the end of the season and use them year round.
Cherry Tomato - I grow one in a pot and train it to my fire escape railing. An indeterminate tomato plant will keep growing like a vine, so it's ideal for training horizontally.
Larger Tomato - I grow these in a small piece of ground in front of my house because a large fruit just requires so much water that a pot does it no justice. I have to pick the fruit before it's truly ripe or else people walking past steal them. Such is life.

Herbs and Vegetables like all the sun you can give them and will not do well with less than 6 hours of sun. Just remember that pots in the sun may need watering every day if not multiple times a day.
Tip - Clay pots look nice, but are porous and dry out quickly. Plastic pots are better if you have a job and cannot come home to water twice a day.

Now, get to the nursery this weekend and pick up your favorite herbs. I know you forgot to start seeds, too.

Maoz - That's Falafel to You

The best falafel I ever had was at a Turkish joint in Berlin about fifteen years ago. The chickpea balls were perfect and the sauce tangy with a little bit of sweetness. Plus, the guys who made it were so friendly to us tourists. I can’t say that about most of the Germans I ran into.

When I eat a falafel, I always compare it to the one I had in Berlin and none can beat it. Perhaps I’ve romanticized the memory a bit, but I still have Paris… uh, Berlin?

The next best falafel I’ve had is at Maoz. It's pronounced mows and when you oder a falafel, you order a maoz. This info will help you in ordering - see the downsides below.

Maoz is a European chain that happens to have it’s only US store on South Street in Philadelphia. The place is t-i-n-y and almost always packed with people. There are no tables in the vibrant Euro interior, but there are a few stools along a street-facing window. If it’s crowded, I’d advise getting out of there as fast as you can. Moaz is really more akin to a street vendor, since there are no tables, everything must be held it your hand, and they really want you to just take your food and leave.

Falafel is their main gig and they do that well. Their balls are not dry – the worst kind of falafel. They’re never burned and they don’t fall apart. You can order your falafel in a homemade regular pita or whole-wheat pita.

The falafels are cheap - a little under $3 for a small and a little under $4 for a regular. Small just means less falafel balls in your pita. Hummus or eggplant will cost you extra, but why fork out more dough when they have a pretty impressive “salad bar” with which to stuff and adorn your falafel filled pita. The bar has cauliflower, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, tabouli, cabbage, plus more that I’m forgetting.

They also have a handful of different sauces that you can drizzle all over your falafel. They have one sauce in particular that is what really makes their falafel the second best I’ve ever had. The garlic sauce is the one I pine for and keeps me coming back. It’s creamy, tangy, and a little sweet. I put so much of that stuff on my falafel that you can smell me for an entire day.

The other main attraction at Maoz is their Belgian fries and lemonade. The fries are good. The lemonade comes in a tiny cup and is hardly worth the money.

The Downside to Maoz – Unlike my experience in Berlin, the staff is rarely friendly. They’re a little like the Soup Nazi and can get a bit pissy. They used to provide small containers to put your sauce in if you wanted to put more on your falafel later, but they have done away with that. Soon they won’t provide napkins! The last time I went the person who made my falafel actually was nice and smiled at me, so who knows. Maybe the tides are a changin’. The falafel is worth the attitude, though. Just go in and tell them straight up what you want and don’t ask questions.

My Maoz Strategy – Since you’re more than likely ordering and leaving with your falafel in hand, you can not revisit the “salad bar” and re-stuff your falafel as you eat it. I’ve asked for a cup to put a few things in, but got an abrupt, “NO.” Sooo, in order to eat a falafel with lots of goodies in it, you order the small maoz. The small maoz has less balls and more room in the pita for stuffing goodies. First I pile on lots of sauce, then I stuff my pita with some of the smaller and harder to pick up items like cabbage and tomato salad. I then top it with larger items like carrots and cauliflower and go back for another ten of so spoonfuls of the sauce – the spoons are small. THEN… Here’s where I outsmart them. I put more of the larger items between the pita and the paper holder that the sandwich comes in so that I can reload my sandwich as I eat it down.

Ha! Gotcha Maoz!

Maoz
248 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-625-3500
Open daily at 11 am until late

Matzo Ball Soup

Passover is still going on, which means All Things Matzo!

I’m usually curious about food on the ethnic aisle at the grocery store, but I must say that the boring Manischewitz packaging and the jars of testicular-looking gefilte fish in the Jewish section have kept me moving along with my buggy.

Sometimes it helps to have someone open you up new experiences, as is the case with matzo ball soup. I tried it for the first time last year and fell in love with it.

It’s a very simple soup – matzo dumplings in a soup broth. What I love about the soup is the texture of the balls. They are light and spongy and lots of fun to put in your mouth and squish.

Follow the recipe on the box and perfectly light and spongy floaters result. I’m not sure how some people get theirs to be dense, heavy sinkers. Every body has a preference– floaters or sinkers.

So, grab a box of matzo ball soup and try it if you've never done so. Just shield your eyes from the jars of gefilte fish as you reach for the box.

To get you through the week here's a hip-hop matzo song.

Pimento Cheese

Today I’ll share with you my Easter family tradition – a picnic in a cemetery!

Easter is my favorite holiday. Growing up, Easter meant baskets of candy, Easter egg hunts, and picnics. Candy, games, and dining outdoors – that’s my idea of a perfect day!

Our family picnic basket, which was an old peach basket, always held fried chicken, pimento cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs, chips, pickles, and fruit.

Another family tradition was to have picnics in cemeteries. No, my family is not Goth, but my Dad is into genealogical research, so cemeteries were a common weekend destination. Not all Easter picnics were in cemeteries. Azalea filled parks and historical sites were also prime places for picnics, but I did a fair share of looking for Easter eggs behind tombstones.

Perhaps we were a little strange, but old cemeteries are quite beautiful with magnificent trees, old boxwoods, flowers, and manicured lawns – think Bonaventure in Savannah, GA; Woodland in Dayton, Ohio; or Arlington outside of DC.

Not only are old cemeteries beautiful, they are very peaceful. You don't have to contend with crying kids, screaming parents or blaring radios from other picnickers, 'cause, more than likely, you'll be the only one dining in the cemetery. After your picnic you can curl up on your blanket and take an undisturbed nap in the sun.

When I think of picnics, pimento cheese sandwiches instantly pop into my head. Pimento cheese is very Southern and I’ve found a few people who don’t know what it is or who have never tried it. Most people who grew up on pimento cheese have very strong sentiments - mostly adoration - for this orange cheese spread speckled with red peppers.

More Pimento cheese recipes and stories – because these sandwiches come with distinct memories.

The secret to good pimento cheese is extra sharp cheddar cheese and good mayonnaise. We always used Cracker Barrel extra sharp Cheddar cheese. And, let me reiterate my love for Duke's mayonnaise. If you are using a national brand like Helman’s or Miracle Whip, do not add sugar – there is already too much sugar in those brands. The mixture should not taste sweet. The teaspoon of sugar in the recipe is just to take the edge off the sharp cheese, so do not add sugar so that you can taste it. In fact, just abandon mission if you're not using Duke's, homemade, or some other natural ingredient mayonnaise.

Pimento Cheese

10 ounces extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 small jar pimentos
5-6 tablespoons mayonnaise (Duke's or homemade)
1 teaspoon sugar
black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon chopped chives, or grated onion

• Grate the cheese into a bowl.
• Drain the pimentos and dice.
• Add the pimentos, mayonnaise, sugar, pepper, and chives to the cheese and mix until incorporated.
• If there are clumps of cheese not coated with mayonnaise, add more mayonnaise.
• Spread between two pieces of bread and you have a pimento cheese sandwich. Spread on crackers or celery and you have hor d’oeurvres.

Shalom

Photo by double blind









Last night I was privileged to experience my first Passover Seder in Philadelphia at the Congregation Mikveh Isreal, the second oldest congregation in the U.S. I was treated to the full-fledged Seder that continued past midnight.

The service and meal was quite an experience for a gentile like myself. It made me feel very special to glimpse someone else’s traditions. I witnessed many traditions and rituals, and ate food I have never eaten before.

My favorite food of the night was the charoset, a sweet mixture of nuts, fruit, spices, and wine. How the charoset was eaten was the most interesting part. Jews are now twiddling their thumbs and rolling their eyes, but this is all new and exciting to me.

Charoset is eaten in my new favorite sandwich – the Hillel sandwich.

The Hillel sandwich is charoset and horseradish squished between two pieces of matzah bread. At first I was wary of putting horseradish in my sweet charoset, but who am I to go against tradition. Surprise! - or maybe not, really. The sweet charoset balances the spicy horseradish. This spunky combo manages to make matzah bread quite palatable.

Apparently, I’m no sandwich history buff. Rabbi Hillel is credited with creating the first sandwich during the first century B.C. I know nothing – or at least not every thing. That’s why experiencing new things can be so awesome.

I do know that if I had to eat matzah for a week I’d make loads of charoset and have lil’ Hillel sandwiches every day.

Charoset recipes (Epicurious)

(What's The Story) Morning Glory

I had heard about the long lines for Morning Glory’s weekend brunch, but was hoping that the cold, miserable rain had kept people away. Nope. Not only did I have to wait, (40 minutes to be exact) I had to stand outside in the rain for most of my wait. The diner is smallish and doesn’t have a waiting area inside.

The food had better be good because a.) I had to stand in the rain. b.) I had to wait a long time. c.) I was now very hungry. d.) While waiting inside, I was subjected to watching a patron 2 inches away eat with her mouth open. I was ready to r-i-p them.

The diner sits only about 50 people at the counter and tables. If you’re sitting at the counter you get to watch the grill cook and get knocked by people waiting for a table. It’s the more “adventurous” area of the restaurant. No matter where you sit, counter or table, the noise level is extremely loud when the place is packed to capacity. As we were leaving around 1 o’clock on a Saturday, the crowd seemed to thin, but only slightly. I’m not sure when there’s no line or it’s quiet - probably never.

I ordered the salmon, asparagus and goat cheese frittata sans the fish. Accompanying sides included a buttermilk biscuit, spiced warm apples, and grits. The frittata was the size of a Frisbee golf disk – way more than I needed since I had sides. The frittata was too fluffy and dry. The biscuit was huge, but not in the traditional, round biscuit shape. They bake their biscuits in a sheet and cut them into squares. The apples were cinnamon-y and a different, but welcome, addition to breakfast. The grits were white – I prefer yellow – and just like any grits cooked at a diner. All of my sides rocked, but the frittata was dry.

An aside: Grits should be eaten immediately after cooking so that they are still a little gritty. This cannot be done at a restaurant without making individual batches as they are ordered, so when eating grits at restaurants, they are always overcooked. Grits are better at home.

A companion ordered the tofu scramble. Again, the sides rocked, but the scramble left a lot to be desired. The scramble was not really scrambled, but cubed silken tofu with a one-dimensional curry sauce.

Lets just lay down the rules for silken tofu right now. Silken tofu can be cubed and used in miso soup and other Japanese dishes. It can be whipped and used in desserts, baked goods, or dips. It can be frozen to change its texture and then crumbled to resemble scrambled egg. Um, that’s about it. Otherwise, I never want to bite into a squishy cube of tofu.

While I’m at it, let’s lay down the rules for curry. Curry must be made from fresh, whole spices in order to get a flavor that has dimension. Curry powder does not cut it. Curry usually doesn’t come off that well unless someone’s mother from India makes it.

So, that’s all the ripping I’m going to do on Morning Glory. Now, I’m going to sing such high praises that if I could carry a note it would shatter glass.

Their macaroni and cheese is the real deal! They won me over so hard, that I’ll wait in any freakin’ line to have this side dish of theirs.

They followed the rules exactly on making the mac and cheese. They used elbow macaroni, not some fancy-schmancy shape. They used LOTS of cheese. Their choice of cheeses was not mild. It was greasy and it was g-o-o-d.

The regular menu and daily specials menu has all sorts of delicious sounding sweet treats like carrot cake pancakes with cream cheese frosting and cherry and pineapple pancakes. Unfortunately, no one at our table went the sweet route. Next time I go for brunch I’ll get one of the tempting pancakes and a side of mac and cheese. Yep, I think that’s the way to go.

Morning Glory Diner
735 S. 10th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147
215-413-3999
Tues.-Fri., 7 a.m.-9 p.m, Sat.-Sun., 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
cash only