A bit off what I usually write about (as though my writing isn’t broad enough already).

In Morris, IL, a trailer crashed and flip over, causing the 14 tons of Double-Stuffed Oreos that it was transporting to spill on to the road.  The driver is fine.

Oh, how I wish I was there with at least a gallon of milk!

Via the Village Voice

Lola restaurant has been scrutinized by the SoHo Alliance in their attempts to obtain a liquor license, as well as to legally have live bands perform at the restaurant. Sean Sweeney, executive director of the SoHo Alliance, has been very vocal in his opposition to Lola’s attempts to get these documents.

Towards the end of the article, he claims not to be a racist.

However, when people say and do things like:
1. “I don’t think you need a martini to go with chitlins and collard greens. What wine goes with jambalaya? I can’t think of one,” when it’s quite obvious that they have not looked at the menu, because jambalaya and chitlins are not on the menu (collard greens is offered as a side). Even if they were included, Sweeney is obviously dismissive of Southern/Soul and Louisianan Creole cuisines.

2. Even though Sweeney claims that he nor the SoHo Alliance had nothing to do with this, fliers have been placed around the neighborhood that claim that “Lola’s r&b music would bring “unruly crowds” and “more crime” to the neighborhood.” Umm, I wonder what “unruly crowds” these fliers are referring to?

3. Say that one is not a racist because “[Gayle Patrick-Odeen] is from Barbados. She’s a British subject; she’s not African-American. She didn’t suffer Jim Crow, Reconstruction, lynching. . . . For her to exploit the true sufferings of African-Americans is disgraceful,” which suggests that:
a. Racism, in his book, can only affect African-Americans, so I guess everyone else is fair game;
b. However, by his description, the majority of African-Americans cannot experience racism now, because the Jim Crow and Reconstruction Eras occurred decades ago (insertion 5/10: although many of the practices, behavior and acts reminiscent of those eras, both at the institutional and social level, are still present today; just needed to make a note of this);
c. Therefore, racism is dead and one cannot be a racist anymore, so everyone is fair game; hooray for colorblindness!

Well guess what Sean, this combination of factors and the other actions mentioned in the article is racist behavior.

Lola can expect my patronage soon!

New York City lacks supermarkets and accessibility to quality food. According to a new report from the NYC Department of City Planning, three (3) million NYC residents live in neighborhoods, primarily communities of color, that have a high need for supermarkets and grocery stores.

Many NYC residents finds themselves having to buy food from local convenient stores and drugstores that do not supply fresh produce or meats. For many, the nearest supermarkets or fresh food markets are a significant distance away. Modes of transportation and one’s ability to transport bags of groceries by one self, particularly the elderly, affects one’s ability to obtain quality food and groceries. Food shopping and preparation is still viewed by many as a gendered task, so this disproportionally affects women as well.

Supermarkets in NYC are closing down at alarming rates:

In one corner of southeast Queens, four supermarkets have closed in the last two years. Over a similar period in East Harlem, six small supermarkets have closed, and two more are on the brink, local officials said.

Supermarkets disappear as real estate developers comes crashing through looking for those large enough lots to put luxury residential buildings, and as landlords deny lease renewals in order to seek something more profitable, or want to raise rents by ridiculous amounts:

Executives at Pick Quick Foods, which owns the supermarket, say that Vornado Realty Trust, which bought the shopping plaza for $165 million last year, wants to double their rent to $50 a square foot. They fear the landlord wants to push them out.
[…]
“We’re at a point where landlords do not feel any concern that they are taking supermarkets out of communities,” said Pat Purcell, the union’s director of special projects. “They just want to maximize their profit. I get that, up to a point. But food is different. It affects your health.”

This also obviously affects the employment rate in the respective neighborhoods:

At stake at the Bronx store are more than 100 jobs, many of them filled by local residents, including teenagers and single mothers.

(Quotes are from the NY Times Article linked at the top).

And with no competition in town, remaining supermarkets have raised the prices of the products. I find myself having to go into Manhattan’s East Village to an Associated Chain Supermarket or the Trader Joe’s, whose prices are much more reasonable than my neighborhood’s C-Town-oops-I mean Billy’s Market (hey, they gotta appeal to hipsters some way or another). However, many people do not have the same ability or time as I do, to go into a different borough, buy food, and carry home 4-5 bags loaded with food at 10:30pm.

We had one supermarket shut down last year in South Williamsburg. Fortunately, it was taken up by another management company and there’s another supermarket again, with prices lower than the C-Town for the most part. Yet, the quality of produce is subpar and the store hours are shorter.

Lack to quality and affordable food has many consequences. A NY Times chart shows, as supported by studies, that obesity and diabetes rates are higher where there are fewer fresh food suppliers/markets. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) states that 1 in 5 NYC children live in homes without enough food; that’s 417,000 children! In total, approximately 1.3 millions NYC residents face food insecurity.

For more information, please click on the hyperlinks throughout the blog post.

For examples of health disparities particularly within communities of color and its connection to unequal access to food, read NYCCAH’s report “Hunger and Obesity in East Harlem” Environment Influences on Urban Food Access.” Please pay close attention to the charts at the end, for a compare/contrast (more of the latter) analysis between East Harlem and the Upper East Side.

Update: In connection to this issue with a more-in depth gender analysis, please also look at the following posts on the global food crisis:
Diary of an Anxious Black Woman: “Food is a Feminist Issue: Keeping the Third Horseman at Bay”
Feministe: “Food is a Feminist Issue”
Feminocracy: “the Rising Cost of Food = Very Real Hunger, Part 1″

This weekend, I attempted to make my first Dominican pudding cake, and that’s pretty much been my food intake for the past few days. I am very proud of my first attempt, better than what my mom has done in the past, but shhhhh!

The “pudding” variation is different from the standard Dominican cake in the following ways: 1) it has double the amount of eggs, 6 whole eggs, 4 yolks, and 4 whipped egg whites that are folded in at the very end; 2) the butter and sugar part is mixed for 30 minutes, while in the regular cake it’s mixed for about 10 minutes; 3) the texture of the final product is much softer, yet a bit dense, than the regular cake, which is grainy and airy.

I have seen that a few people have found my blog when they search for “dominican cake” recipes. For those who have found my blog that way, here’s a little gift for you:

(from “Cocina Dominicana”)
Dominican Pudding Cake
*All ingredients should be at room temperature

4 Bars of Butter, equivalent to 1 lb (Salted, NEVER, EVER Unsalted)
1 lb All-Purpose Flour (approximately 3 1/2 cups), sifted twice along with the baking powder
1 lb Sugar (2 cups using a standard measuring cup)
1 tablespoon Baking Powder
10 Small Eggs
8 oz Pineapple Juice (Orange Juice is fine; Milk is not recommended because the cake will not last as long)
1 tablespoon of Vanilla extract (use the real stuff, not the imitation)
1 tablespoon of grinded Lime peel.

Preparation:
Beat the butter first for 7 minutes. Then add the sugar gradually. Beat the butter and sugar mixture for 30 minutes. Separate the egg whites from four (4) of the eggs, reserve the egg whites for later. Add six whole eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, beating for one minute each egg before adding the next. Also, add the separated egg yolks (not the whites!), again one at a time, beating for one minute each.

Reduce the speed of the mixer, add 1/3 the flour mixture, mix until just incorporated, add half of the juice. Mix in the remaining 2 parts of flour and one part of juice, and remember to not over mix. If it looks mixed, it’s mixed. Put the cake batter aside, clean the attachments and in another bowl, mix the 4 egg whites you initially separated until it forms peaks. Fold (do not mix) in the egg white mixture into the cake batter, slowly and carefully. At the end, fold in the vanilla extract and lime peel.

Pour the cake batter into a greased cakepan (the original recipe says that it can be poured into two 11in round pans or two 10×10 square pans, but I managed to pour the batter into a 9×12 pan; I had some leftover batter, enough for 4 standard-sized cupcakes). Put the pan in a preheated oven at 350 degrees, for 45 minutes (my oven sucks, it took well over an hour for it to bake, but it came out fine). Do not open the oven until after the 45 minute mark. To see if it’s done, take a fine knife, “stab” it at the center, and if it comes out clean, it’s done.

Suspiro (Dominican Frosting)
4 Egg Whites
1.5 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Water
1 tablespoon Lime Juice
Food Coloring (optional, but always fun)

Preparation:
In a small pan, mix the sugar and water. (This will take a good while) Let it boil until you see that when you dip a spoon into the syrup and take it out, the syrup starts to make thin threads as it drops. As the syrup is boiling, mix the egg whites until the peaks form. When the peaks begin to form, start to pour in the syrup gradually, yet constantly. Do not stop beating the frosting at any moment. Add the lime juice. The longer you mix the frosting, the harder and firmer the frosting will become. Gradually add in food coloring, until you get the color desired. Frost/decorate the cake after it has fully cooled.

Lessons Learned:
1. This recipe is not for impatient people.
2. Buy a stand mixer; preparing the cake batter for almost 50 minutes with a hand mixer was pure hell.
3. Do not over mix the batter after the flour is added in.
4. Apparently there’s really no such thing as adding in too much sugar syrup to the suspiro. I somewhat reduced the suspiro recipe, and also reduced the sugar syrup. I should have added more syrup, but it still came out fine. So, if anything, make a bit more syrup than suggested to be on the safe side.
5. The cupcakes that I made with the leftover batter came out really good. It took about 25 minutes to bake in my conventional (electric) oven. I might consider in the future to use this recipe for cupcakes, as well.

I will throw in some autobiographic posts once in a blue, however, not in the traditional “I was born and raised…majored in…work in…aspire to be..but actually am” sense. Just tidbits of information here and there, whatever random crap my mind decides to throw out at random moments.

“Random Crap at Random Moments” #1:

(image via Chockylit)

I have a known obsession for cupcakes. I’ve mapped out surrounding bakeries in search for luscious, orgasmic cupcakes. I have gone to Harlem, Upper East Side, Chelsea, East Village, Lower East Side, Tribeca, the Financial District, Williamsburg, even freakin’ Starbucks to sample cupcakes. (Hey! Starbucks had a pretty decent vanilla cupcake, the only pastry worth trying there).

Here is just a handful of the bakeries that I’ve been to, along with a quick review of the cupcakes I sampled:

1. Magnolia Bakery: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream (the cake was too dense and too bland for my taste and the cream needed more chocolate).

2. Billy’s Bakery: Vanilla Buttercream cupcake and Coconut cupcakes (both were too dry, brick-hard, obviously days old).

3. Crumbs Bakery: Red Velvet (the cake itself was lacking an obvious cocoa flavor, but overall it was a good cake; the cream cheese buttercream was also very well balanced). Oreo (surprisingly good chocolate cake, moist enough, and the buttercream was also sweet enough). Coconut (the coconut flavor was too light, but as a cake it was good overall). Strawberry Buttercream (I was surprised by this one, I was expecting an artificial strawberry flavor, but they use real strawberries in the cream and it’s very apparent, good choice). Vanilla Buttercream (the classic, can’t go wrong with this one). Sprinkles (same as Vanilla Buttercream, with sprinkles, but the one I had was a bit dry). Chocolate Buttercream (ehh, the cream was a bit too much for me, way too sweet, not enough chocolatey goodness).

4. Sugar Sweet Sunshine: Sunshine (yellow cake with vanilla buttercream, the cake is consistently good, but the cream is a bit too much, I usually take some off). The Bob (yellow cake with chocolate almond buttercream, I’m not a fan of that particular frosting). Sexy Red Velvet (the cake is good, it could use a bit more cocoa through; the cream, which they called “the Moose”, just tastes like whipped cream and butter, with the emphasis on butter). Pistachio (ohhhh, the cake is so good with a pleasant pistachio flavor, but they put “the Moose” for the frosting, I just scrap most of it off and simply eat the cake). Lemon Cake with Lemon Buttercream (the cake was alright, but the cream, whoa, Lemon overload, too, too much). Coconut (my favorite, but not usually made; again the coconut flavor is faint, but the addition of coconut slightly changes the cake’s texture, which reminds me of Dominican cake; the meringue frosting is just right).

5. Cheeks: I was a bit excited to discover that there’s a bakery around my way that sells cupcakes, although I am less than enthusiastic about these hipster spots popping up all over the place. I bought the vanilla and chocolate buttercream cupcakes…just ordinary cupcakes, nothing special.

6. Tribeca Treats: I had a cupcake attack due to my idiotic ex’s stupid stunt last week. I searched Menupages.com and I found this place by City Hall. I usually stick to the basics, especially if it’s my first time at a bakery, but I couldn’t refuse the Fluffernutter (yellow cake, with a layer of peanut butter, and marshmallow buttercream). A bit steep at $2.15 for three bites of cake, but I tried it anyway. The cake was good, the buttercream had that buttery feel to it and no marshmallow flavor. However, the peanut butter layer balanced it out a bit. It was OK, but too small for $2.15.

7. Starbucks: since I commented on it earlier, I might as well go into details. Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream (the cake was decent, moist enough, not too dense, the buttercream was nice and just sweet enough; however, the sugary decorations can be a bit much). Orange Cake with Orange Buttercream (the cake was alright, artificial orange flavor, but not too distracting; the orange cream was a bit weird, it had some sort of “sweating” look going on, as though it was separating a bit). Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream (it was a disappointment; I don’t remember the details, but I just remember throwing it out).

Those are just some of the places that I have been to. I am always in pursuit of the perfect cupcake. I haven’t attempted to do cupcakes from scratch, but eventually I will get to that