"So what sport do they play in the Super Bowl?"

Answer: Football. My great friend Miguel, born in Chile to his defense, asked me this question. But really, with great beer and great food, who cares what sport is on TV, right?

Its been over a week since the Super Bowl, and all the little boys are having football withdrawal. Poor babies. Maybe this post will make you feel better since its about beer (AND FOOD) and you can all still drink plenty of that until fall.

(thanks for this photo Miguel!)

Markus hosted a Super Bowl fiesta at his house. To most people that means nachos, chili and beer. check. check. check. But we wanted to take it to a new level so we started with a pre-game Beer Tasting of "carefully selected" brews paired with exquisite cheese, then a menu of new takes on old faves.

The first obstacle of having any party in Queens is to convince all your friends from Brooklyn to come. The second is to maintain an even boy to girl ratio, especially when your best gal has this to say about the game: "Its represents everything I despise about american culture ... over eat, get too drunk, all in the name of dudes displaying their most neanderthal tendencies. Therefore reducing humanity to its lowest common denominator, providing the prime situation for corporations to brain wash us with their propaganda! And its the day of the year that has the highest instance of domestic violence. I try not to support even the idea of this spectacle, even if its just an excuse to hang out with friends. We don't need an excuse." I slapped that on the invite and I think all the Brooklynites were intrigued.

Third obstacle: what kind of beer and what kind of cheese?

We used this guide. And Markus is very beer knowledgeable, but when there is a sea of brew in front of you, you can get pretty lost.

So, after I was romanced by the cheese guy in Whole Foods, who took me to the "special cheese" (e.g. expensive) area, and convinced me with only a few tastes to buy ALOT of superb and outlandishly priced cheese, this is how I found Markus. And the parking meter was ticking. We did good in the end and didn't get a ticket.

Our collecting provisions adventure ended Saturday night at Mexico 2000, a hole in the wall Mexican super-market under the el train in Brooklyn to get authentic corn tortillas and these awesome canned jalapenos. One of the reviews on yelp says, "I want to bang all the ladies who work at Mexico 2000 for doing outstanding work replicating Mexican food in Williamsburg."

Thanks for the recommendation Gus! (Was that your review?)

Morning of party: project red neck. Markus and Miguel carried the seat from "the van" up two gigantic flights of stairs then plopped it in the living room in front of the pair of TV sets.

We went for quantity over quality with the TVs. The picture sucked. But we watched the pre-game show alongside A Clockwork Orange.What a nice cheese/beer presentation Mr. Host put out. He used some motorcycle part as the centerpiece.

And here goes for the pairings (left to right):

1. Comte, France - an unpasteurized cow's milk gruyere paired with with Meantime London Porter, England. And the crowd goes wild! This was the favorite.

2. Montenebro Goat Cheese, Spain - a hard fresh tangy goat cheese rolled in bitter ash paired with Weihenstephaner Dunkelweisse, Germany from Brouwerij Lane.

3. Brie, France - a double cream soft cow cheese paired with Abbe Triple Karmeliet, Belgium.

4. Sheep's Milk Bleu, New York paired with Arcadia Ale's Hopmouth Double IPA

Bonus fancy beer: Thomas Hardy's Ale & French Country Ale, St. Amand, France.

Beer tasting = Success! I kind of wonder whether all the cheese would have tasted great with all the beer, because its agreed that all cheese and most beer is pretty tasty, especially after a few tastes, but it doesn't matter because everyone seemed to enjoy the pairings, whether we knew what we were doing or not, at least it seemed that way.

Wait there was a game on, too. Eh, let's talk more about food. The main courses were as follows:

1. Free pizza from Paulie Gee's! He was testing his first batch of dough before he opens and were were the lucky recipients of trial run pizza. Conveniently the new pizza place is on the same block as Brouwerij Lane. A couple of growlers and some pizza; thats a party right there. Paulie Gee, outstanding pizza! Stay tuned for the opening, everyone!

(thanks for this photo Miguel!)

2. Miguel's Guacamole. Always the best. Avocado. Onions. Garlic. Lime. Cilantro. Tomatoes.

3. Indian Style Chili. I built on this Rajma Style Red Kidney Bean Chili recipe that called for spices like cumin, turmeric and ginger, by adding some carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes, pomegranate powder, cilantro, cayenne and in the end, my gal Melissa brought it all together by adding some beer to the pot. Perfect!

4. Coconut Corn Bread. I found this recipe. And Melissa, the best baker I know, helped me with this one, too. (AKA, I ran around the partying drinking beer and chatting while she took over the kitchen and made the corn bread.) It was typical Jen/Melissa baking together. Me: messing everything up. Melissa: yelling at me, then saving the dish. Some more yelling. Some hugs. And "I Love You's" all around. We really need a "Crazy Italian Bitches" Cooking Show.

4. Markus' Special Half Time Nachos Tradicionales. He even has a story to go along with them. A Mexican restaurant owner was about to close when some hungry patrons came in and all he had were some corn tortillas, jalapenos and cheese. So Markus did what he did: quartered the tortillas and fried them into chips, melted sharp cheddar on top, and topped each with one jalapeno slice. Simple. Delicious. 100% better than the mess of crap we call nachos in this country.

(thanks for this photo Miguel!)

5. Vietnamese "Cauliflower Sandwich" Salad. This salad is an ode to my favorite Vietnamese Sandwich from Num Pang. Its like the sandwich only in salad form. Cauliflower roasted in olive, salt and pepper. Shredded Carrots and Cucumbers. Fresh Cilantro. Homemade (Vegan) Roasted Garlic Chipotle Mayo. Divinity in salad form.

6. Melissa Love's Chocolate Stout Cake. I died and went to heaven when I ate this cake. Then I was revived, ate more and basically over two days finished the entire cake by myself and am surprised I am not dead. It was just perfect. Moist, great rich flavor and the crumbly chocolate topping gave it a wonderful texture. And its just oh so pretty, too.

So we thought the party was going to be Markus, Miguel and myself. But we had an unexpectedly awesome turnout and a really fun time eating, beering and oh yeah, watching the Saints come through in the clutch! Great friends visit friends in Queens! And even bring beer!

deutschen Nacht

     To kick-off Oktoberfest bestest and oldest friend Monica and I hosted German Night. Monica, who must legally change the spelling of her name to "Monika" because its way more authentic and Ks are cooler than Cs, raided her Oma's recipe book and her parent's house for beer steins, German music, a German board game and even a collectible Oktoberfest German Barbie! 

      So with German blood flowing through everyone's veins but mine (I really felt outnumbered) plus lots of German beer, we set out to group cook a delicious German feast. Ja!*

     I put out some radishes with salt, a typical snack served with beer during Oktoberfest. I also served some bleu cheese with honey (not German but I couldn't find German cheese) and really dark rye bread.

     Tim made an appearance in my head and prepared some some of the most delicious Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes) I've ever had. Some potato pancake pointers: drain them really well over a strainer or a cheese cloth and wear onion goggles because it can get brutal grating them. Tim was crying like a baby. Then to kick him while he was down, Monika asked him to open a bottle of Riesling, because he has wine opening skills. All of a sudden the the cork pushed into the bottle and sprayed him in his already irritated eyes. (It wasn't Tim's fault though, I have a bottle opener that should be recalled). He was a trooper and still fried those delicious pancakes up to perfection and I would expect nothing less than excellent frying skills from Tim. We ate them with berry apple sauce and sour cream.

     For our main event, Monika prepared Omi's Huhner Goulasch (Grandma's Chicken Goulash - recipe to follow) made with cornish hens and lots of onions and paprika. Monika got brutal on the poor cornish hens. I turned my back for one second and she cut them in quarters like a true German butcher's daughter. Arnt taught her well. 

    There's Monika (above) working the knife and if you look in the background there is a vile blue bottle of germaphobe spray that she sprayed on everything that the raw chicken remotely came into contact with, even her own hands! I was like, "Noooooooooo, Mooooonika!" She even offered to spritz Tim in the eyes to soothe his onion/wine irritation. I think she gargles with the stuff in the morning. 

    As a side I made Rahmspinat (Creamed Spinach) with boiled eggs on top. Tim though it needed to be creamier so I just poured in more and more half and half and butter to taste. I also didn't make the cream sauce separately and it was a lot easier and still great.

   I thought it would be barbaric to eat some organs, so Monika fried up some chicken hearts in butter and shallots. It was the first time I ever ate a heart and it will not be my last. It tasted like yummy dark meat, my favorite kind. Thanks to that Julie and Julia book, I am not scared to eat any weird organ as long as its drowned in butter.

    For dessert, the challenge was Altwiener Apfelstrudel (Traditional Viennese Apple Strudel). Neither Monika nor myself had ever attempted this before. I was scared. I did some research and found out a few things. Phyllo dough is not a proper way to make the strudel dough. I set out to make it by scratch. I have never made dough before. Ever. It actually wasn't that hard. Some flour, water and salt. Knead and let it sit in a ball in "neutral" oil for an hour. I interpreted that as olive oil since thats the only kind I had and I secretly wanted to insert some Italianess into German night. 

   Strudel takes a long time so I made the dough in the morning and left it in the counter all day. When the dough is ready, brown bread crumbs in butter. I was super excited about this. I had no idea that strudel had buttery bread crumbs in it. Let that cool.

    Next peel and slice all those apples into tiny slices and let them sit in nutmeg, sugar and cinnamon while you prepare the dough. I used Gala Apples.

    To make the dough super thin the technique is to kind of keep lifting and pulling it at the ends until you have a 2X3 thin sheet of dough that you roll the strudel in. Transfer the dough to a floured towel, much like flipping a cake onto a plate. Then butter the dough up. (I got a my first pastry brush that day!) Spread the bread crumbs on that. Then the apples. Then the rolling and more buttering. I made slits on top even though the recipe did not call for that and somewhat regretted it because it was a little drier than I would have liked. Bake at 400 for 20 min then 350 for another 40 min. Let cool then sprinkle powdered sugar on it. 

   After I served all the Germans the strudel with fresh whipped cream on top, I sat quietly waiting for their reactions, hoping they'd like it. Germans aren't always the most exuberant of people, they weren't going to get up and do a polka over some strudel, but I think they liked it. German night was a sheer success. Next time, Jaegerschnitzel!    

Omi's Huhner Goulasch Ingredients: 4-5 onions chopped 1-2 tbsp. paprika 2 Cornish hens - cut up into 4 pieces each 4 tbsp. olive oil 3-4 boulien cubes 2 cups of water, enough to almost cover the chicken 2 peppers cut into chunks 1 package egg noodles Method: Cut up onions and saute with paprika, olive oil & boulien cubes. Once browned, put in Cornish hens. Add water and peppers. Let simmer for approx. 1/2 hour. At the same time boil noodles, drain and then add approx. 4 tbsp. sour cream. If sauce is not thick enough, add cornstarch with a little water.

*Disclaimer: I am using an online German to English translator for this post, so everything will probably be wrong 

OYSTERS AND BEER AT JIMMY'S NO. 43

    God I'm glad I started loving oysters. All I can say is mmm salty slimy goodness. So apparently this guy Henry Hudson was named after this river or something and its like the 400th anniversary or something. All I heard was oysters and beer. 

   Oyster Night at Jimmy's No. 43 was to support Slow Food NYC with $4 plates of 3 Oysters and $5 Ommegang (those are Dutch) beers. We got a brochure from Sea Grant that explained shellfish aren't only good for your taste buds because (I am plagiarizing this is right from their brochure): as filter feeders they improve water quality and species diversity and shellfish aquaculture is sustainable and good for the environment. Read more here.

   I like Jimmy's No. 43, it was dark and underground with a warm feel and antlers everywhere. The good intentioned wait staff was not prepared for the oyster craziness, and they ran out of the fixins, cocktail sauce and lemons, but these Peconic Bay Oysters were good just like that.

   I tried a bacon wrapped oyster. What a waste. I might as well have just eaten bacon straight, not a problem, because I didn't taste any of that oyster inside.

   We got a really yummy soft goat cheese with apple and peach salsa and not enough delicious bread.

   And a mild radish salad. We get these insane radishes from Sergio the CSA farmer and these just were not up to par for me at least in the spicy department.

   For dessert, a warm bread salad, nice flavor but on the dry side, with cold creamy dipping sauce that needed to be warm in my opinion.

   We were there for oysters and beer and we got some delicious oysters and beer then went and got more beer. Good night.