My mind works in strange ways. After reading today’s Best Ice Cream in New England post on Serious Eats (and a user comment about frozen custard) I immediately thought about the frozen custard of my hometown, Rochester NY. Spending the first 18 years of my life in Rochester, I ate plenty chocolate frozen custard from Abbott’s .

Even now when I go home to visit there’s only one flavor for me–chocolate with chocolate sprinkles. But because of the softer consistency, I always eat it out of cup and not a cone. It just melts too fast, especially in the hot, humid summers of upstate New York. For those of you who have never tasted custard, it’s creamier and denser than ice cream with an almost velvet texture. Also, it’s not served straight from the machine in the manner of soft serve. Rather the custard continuously flows out of the machine and is deposited into a holding bowl, and is then scooped into your cone or dish. By the time it hits your tongue it’s slightly warmer than your average ice cream, meaning you taste more of the flavor.

Now that I’m even hungrier than when I started this post, my mind wanders to another Rochester tradition–Zweigle’s white hot dogs. Made with beef, pork and veal it has the flavor of a mild bratwurst combined with the fine texture of a hot dog. My favorite is the natural casing white hot dog. When cooked on the grill the skin splits slightly and you experience a crisp ‘snap’ when you bite into it.

There are other Rochester foods that I crave from time to time. But I’ll wait and blog about those next time I return for a visit.

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Did a little snacking and shopping at the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market this morning and came back with both food and honey, as well as a poem about honey.

Had chocolate bomboloni from Boriana. I love chocolate, but I think this would have been better with no filling. The dough, fried and coated in sugar, is tasty, but a little dense. There was just something off about the combination of both the very sweet chocolate and heavy bread.

More on the honey…

(Read the article)

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Took a walk out to the Ferry Building this afternoon and had a salame and cornichon sandwich on crusty bread smeared with French butter from Acme Bread.

Btw, it’s official, I’m moving to San Francisco in less than a month! We now have a place to live but have to sell the house in Rhode Island. Wish us luck!

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I’m trying to use up the food in my pantry so I finally got around to cooking my box of soybean pasta. A co-worker made some a while back and brought in the leftovers and I didn’t taste that much of a difference in her dish (though she used a strong pesto sauce), but did notice that this pasta has a much chewier consistency than regular pasta.

I made up a quick pot of tomato sauce with garlic and basil and some turkey meatballs. I cooked the pasta even longer than suggested and it was still quite chewy. After letting it sit in the fridge for a day in the tomato sauce it softened a bit, but still a slightly chewier consistency (and slightly different flavor – hints of artichoke as well as a subtle nutty flavor) than the typical pasta. And I’ve been eating whole wheat pasta for a while now. Overall, I like the fact that it has 23 grams of protein, but would suggest you make it a day ahead and let is ‘marinade’ in you sauce of choice before serving.

I’m going to try it again, but this time toss it with roasted vegetables and a little Parmesan, as I think that might make a better flavor pairing.

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NPR ran a piece today about the famous Iberico Ham. It’s available now in the US, though the acorn fed variety, Iberico de Bellota, is not scheduled to be in the US until this summer at an estimated price of about $90 -120/lb.

I haven’t seen any in Providence, then again I haven’t been looking. I’ll have to try Russo’s in Watertown, as it’s not too far from the office.

If anyone in New England has spotted this treat, drop me a line!

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