There’s a really great restaurant under the Williamsburg Bridge in my little Brooklyn nabe called Diner. It’s in one of those weird, out of place, sorta hard to get to Brooklyny locations but it’s worth the search. The printed menu is simple and they always have a ton of incredible-sounding specials that the dirty-but-beautiful wait staff explain with great flourish while underscoring the specials by scribbling them down in pen on your paper tablecloth.  Dramatic. I’ve yet to be anything but thrilled with the specials, but perhaps that’s why they’re called “specials.”

Anyway, so I went there last week and ordered 3 brunch meals, though I was only dining with one other person. After assuring the waiter that I could handle that much food (I’m from the Midwest, thank you very much, and I haven’t eaten for 15 hours.) I was served a bowl of warm corn pudding with eggs on top. I couldn’t get over the sweet, creamy corn taste of the pudding and vowed to try it on my own. I think the key to this dish is fresh corn, so make it now before the last of summer’s corn runs out.

I noticed in this Wednesday’s Dining section of the Times a piece on soft boiled eggs for more than brunch. The nerve – eggs for dinner! So I suggest to any of you ovo-eating vegetarians out there to try this pudding topped with soft boiled eggs. I served mine with some bacon-style smoked tempeh strips, though some tofu strips would work well too. The roasted tomatoes added color and a nice acidic accompaniment to the sweet-n-creamy pudding. (I’ll be adding the recipe for the roasted tammys soon.  Update: the recipe for the Roasted tomatoes is here) And do not forgo the garlic toast. Make the toast any which way you like, but it’s imperative for dipping!

Serves: 4 (add a protein of your choice for a main dish)
Time: 45 minutes

Corn Pudding

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
8 ears of corn
1 ½ cups of half n half
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey
¾ tsp salt
2 tbsp flour, cornmeal, or masa harina

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I have a 3-day weekend from work (Thank you, Columbus. I was just wondering what you’ve done for me lately.) and had to put the first part on a low simmer since I had to wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to get my spandex-wearing heinie to the Chase Corporate Challenge Championship Race in Manhattan with my team from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I’ve always like to think of myself as a Wheaties-esque Champion, and look at me now, running around on Park Avenue with champions from all over the world trying not to glare at the camera crew who, riding comfortably in a small vehicle try to get me to answer “You look great! How do you feel!?” When how I felt was: ohmygod WHY isn’t this race over yet and stop FILMING me for gods sakes, at least until my hair isn’t all sweaty and plastered all over my red puffy I’ve-been-short-of-oxygen-for-3-miles-now face, for crying out loud. Please.

There was a free brunch after the race, and it brought so mind some of my favorite food quotes. Here they are:

It is the sauce that makes the fish edible (French Proverb)

Hunger is the best pickle (no idea who said that)

I went into a McDonald’s yesterday and said, ‘I’d like some fries.’ The girl at the counter said, ‘Would you like some fries with that? -Jay Leno

None of these seemed to quite fit, so I’ve decided to coin my own:

A free brunch after a 3.5 mile race makes cheap pancakes taste like golden moonbeams

Forget this Atkins cr*p, carbo-loading on pasta is where it’s at

Which is not quite as elegant as Sophia Loren’s “All you see, I owe to spaghetti.” Hubba hubba.

And that’s my story.

Ever since my lovely dining experience at Pure Food and Wine last week my brain’s been bursting with thoughts on raw food.  I started typing and these ideas started breeding on my computer screen, and I think I should probably just press “post” before this little essay gets even further out of hand.  Comments welcome.

Raw Food, just so ya’ll know what I’m referring to, is a diet of all fruits, veggies, nuts, and grains and legumes that are “raw” in the way that they are not heated over 118 degrees.  Grains and legumes are often sprouted to make them digestible.

I first heard of raw foods a few years ago and was sorta like “yeah, right, who *does* this?  Then started reading up on it a bit.  I got a few cookbooks.  I tried “cooking” a few raw meals to see what the hype was about, and look at me now – eating at raw restaurants and blogging my little heart out on the subject.

Here’s the general “raw” argument from wikipedia:

• Raw foods contain enzymes which act as catalysts to regulate the digestive process in the body. Heating food degrades or destroys these enzymes in food.
• Eating food without enzymes makes digestion more difficult; deprives the body of enzymes; and leads to toxicity in the body, to excess consumption of food, and therefore to obesity and chronic disease.
• Raw foods contain bacteria and other micro-organisms that stimulate the immune system and enhance digestion by populating the digestive tract with beneficial flora.
  Living and raw foods have higher nutrient values than foods that have been cooked.

My personal raw thoughts after the jump.

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I’m pretty sure that everyone I’ve come into contact with in the last month is currently wiping their nose with a tissue or making sad little “I’m sick” noises. And I’m unhappy to report that I suffered through this nor’easter of a cold last week. One of the few things that made me feel better was this soup.

I’ve gotta thank my dad for inspiring this “sick soup” – when I had a cold when I was little he used to make me “tea” with boiling water, fresh chopped garlic and ginger, honey, lemon and probably something else that made the whole thing sorta vile and un-tea like. (Please note that no actual tea, herbal or otherwise, was used.)

But, now being adult I can appreciate his wisdom and have turned the active ingredients of his “tea” into something you’ll actually want to eat. The garlic and ginger have antibacterial properties to help fight your cold and flu, thyme helps control and sooth a cough, spinach is a traditional strengthener and tonic.  The tofu and noodles provide sustenance and energy. And while the bamboo shoots may seem a little out of place, the crunchy texture benefits your senses of adventure and humor.  Imperative when you’re sick!

So, I made this soup last week for myself but now wave 3 of this sickness is going around the household and the Li’l Sis needed a bit of a pick me up. Not only that but the Sistaster sent me this scathing email about having to use the food that’s already in the fridge:

“I will go to the store. That’s fine. But I’m not buying things other
than lunch/breakfast stuff until there’s an outline for all the food in
the refrdigetor (sic).”

What’s additionally nice about this soup is that you probably already have the ingredients or feasible substitutes on hand and the whole recipe only takes 30 minutes, short enough for any sickie deal with.

I surprised the Sisters (who went off apple picking – sick and without an outline about what they were going to DO with the apples they picked) with a big pot of this soup and an experimental macaroni-and-peas casserole, pretty much emptying the fridge, freezer, and pantry with the exception of the beets that I got at the farmers market last week. I decided that they were too pretty to cook so watercolored them instead. I’m thinking roasted beets and garlicky beet greens soon! Get ye to the grocery store Sistaster - we’re out of garlic!

Update: The Sistaster went to the store and made a delicious apple crumble with her handpicked apples. And she bought garlic.

Serves: 4-5
Time: 30 minutes

The Best Vegetarian Noodle Soup for a Cold or Flu

10 cups veggie broth
3 carrots, cut into coins or half-rounds
4 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 tsp thyme
8 oz can bamboo shoots, drained
8 oz tofu, cut into small cubes
10 oz frozen spinach or other leafy green
8 oz ribbon noodles
6 cloves of garlic, minced
½ inch of ginger, minced
juice of ½ - 1 lemon
hot sauce

Put the broth in a large soup pan and bring to a low boil. Meanwhile, chop the veggies.

Toss in the carrots and celery and cook for 5 – 10 minutes. Add the thyme, bamboo, tofu, frozen spinach and noodles and cook until the noodles are almost done, adding the garlic, ginger and lemon at the last minute to keep as “raw” as possible as this is when they have the most antibacterial effect. The pungency of the garlic and lemon and balmy feeling of the thyme feel good on a ragged throat.

Serve steaming hot with plenty of hot sauce – both the steam and the heat from the hot sauce will help clear those sinuses!