12 days of Christmas food blogging

There's nothing like December for family, friends, parties, stress and tight scheduling.  The holiday season offers another reliable highlight -- great, decadent food options.  I don't want to let this season fly by without attempting to capture a few of these moments.  And so it begins - 12 days of December blogging about some of the highlights of food experiences.

Philly Food Blogger Potluck

My kudos and thanks to Elizabeth (www.foodaphilia.com), who graciously hosted our most recent Philly Food Blogger potluck. As it turns out, folks who write about food are pretty good cooks, as well. Among my favorites included Sandy's spicy meatball skewers with couscous (Five Spice Duck) and hostess Elizabeth's Elvis Balls, a tasty concoction of banana chocolate chip bread covered in peanut butter icing. The folks who brought us Illadates brought pumpkin sage balls, which were truly amazing (recipes were promised!).

Check out the links to these blogs. Keri's Great Cheese Quest promises to meaningfully catalogue her samplings; there are already a few recipes from Rebecca's Plastic Bowl I want to try. And Joe's photography on An Equal Opportunity Eater is pretty amazing. David McDuff's blog, McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, inspires you to put down your computer, take a wine tasting class at Tria or, at the very least, drive to Moore Brothers. Marisa's living the food blogger dream at Fork You and Slash Food. Good stuff and a great evening.

Books!

This Christmas, I was lucky enough to have received a veritable shelf full of books, all about food and cooking. For these bitter cold days, nothing beats reading about food, snuggled up on the sofa. Or, should I find myself with actual energy, I may also cook some of the recipes.

Service Included: Four Star Secrets from an Eavesdropping Waiter. The first book from Phoebe Damrosch about her time as a waiter at Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York was also the first book I picked up from my presents and then couldn't put down. Like many very watchable two star movies, I gained no particular insight into life or literature, but I did enjoy the backstage peek into fine dining. With Thomas Keller, no less. Told from the point of view of an intelligent, twenty-something friend fascinated by food but unsure of her life's direction, Ms. Damrosch takes us through training, serving, and leaving, along with her romances throughout. Honestly, I could have done without the romance, finding her descriptions of and tips for diners eminently more interesting. Also, although I always suspected it, I was surprised to hear that six figure salaries were the norm for that level of servers. Her comments on the gender differences among servers were also insightful and worth the read.

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink. Edited by David Remnick, this collection of short pieces delivers what I've always wanted: an endless supply of New Yorker stories devoted to food. Having read Bill Buford's piece many years ago, and subsequently his amazing book, Heat, about his travels with Mario Batali and through Italy, I have been hooked on the quality of the articles in New Yorker and their ability to peel off more layers of the onion, if you'll excuse the pun, to reveal the full answers to my food questions.

Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking. In a word, hardcore. Reflecting an intense love of food and a more traditional approach to cooking, the book features articles ranging from preparation to memories of great meals. Old school and great.

The Hooters Cookbook. Because TPB has a sense of humor, and, on a good day, so do I, I received the Hooters Cookbook. Which would theoretically allow me to enjoy the wings without the degradation. It does sort of funnily include "shortcut" tips which include going to Hooters and picking up the wings, but hey, it is a restaurant. And I did laugh out loud when reading Amazon.com's product description, "The Hooters Cookbook salutes the 'Man Food' and carefree lifestyle that makes Hooters restaurants a worldwide destination." I mean, "Man Food"? really? Hilarious.

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids Favorite Meals. Although I have no children, TPB and I share a penchant for kid-friendly foods like pizza, hamburgers, fries, and other such super-healthy options. Here is the solution, finally: sneak in healthy foods, but have them taste unhealthy. You might think it's for kids, but face facts: it would work for you, too.

The New Intercourses: An Aphrodisiac Cookbook. If you're a foodie, I'm going to guess that you also enjoy the social aspects of sharing a meal: the revelations that cooking brings, the act of selection, the carefulness of preparation, the sacrifice of time, and the sharing of something visceral. You may have also seen Like Water for Chocolate, the ultimate movie about how food affects love and mood. So follows Intercourses, which offers recipes ranging from oysters to pumpkin and ginger soup, grouped by aphrodisiac ingredient. The recipes are also interspersed with stories of love and food, certainly two of my favorite things.

My thanks to the gift-givers.

Maggiano's, Chain Restaurants, and Blogging

I have certainly thought about being a great food writer. In these dreams, I would endlessly opine about the latest high-end restaurant to open. Being able to recognize every spice in every mouthful and determine its appropriateness in the dish, I would be ruthless but fair in my evaluations. I'd know how every vegetable should be chopped and how the chef varied from classical cookery to achieve a particular effect. My days would be spent writing about my experiences. For variety, I'd research how feasible the slow food movement really is and whether the farm bill really expands the nutritional gap between the rich and the poor.

Back in reality, however, I have a full-time job that occupies much of my energy and has nothing to do with food. Unless you count memorizing the Marathon Grill menu, which every Philadelphia lawyer has down cold. I like to cook, but mostly elaborate things and as a result, I don't cook that often. I like to eat out, but lately, it's been more about comfortable restaurants -- predictable, fulfilling, and offering lots of booths.

Which brings me to my topic: chain restaurants. When I looked back on what the first restaurant I wanted to review was, I thought of the last place I ate out. On purpose, not as an afterthought, quickly after work (although quick props to the reliable Square on Square and the awesome Tequila's). And that place was Maggiano's.

And it was good. Maybe even great. From the uber-professional host to the chatty but nice waitress, I really enjoyed it. We were seated in a great booth by the window, and the wine list featured one of my favorite cabernets by Sterling. I giddily ordered "zucchini fritti" and their shrimp appetizer special that night, which featured jumbo shrimp not just deep fried, but deep fried with asiago. That's right, breading and cheese. Yet with dipping sauces that ended in the word "aoli," I didn't feel like I was contributing to the downfall of the American palate. The "fritti" preparation lent itself to its subject in the precise way one wants from fried food -- it made it better, more reliable, more comforting.

Then my entree arrived -- strip steak "al forno," which apparently means baked. It apparently also means a thick, but not tough, outer layer, and a perfectly grilled center. It was perfect. I mean, it was better than non-chain restaurants. That's how tasty it was.

All of this good cheer led to ordering dessert, although we were sober enough to agree to split it. It was tartufo and it was great. It involved bits of chocolate and cherry frozen into vanilla ice cream and covered again with a chocolate shell. I have never been trained in the art of desserts, nor anything culinary actually, but the mix of chocolate, cherry and ice cream was somehow perfect.

The valet was even wearing a branded shirt, which was oddly comforting. Heck, the bar even looked good. I'd go back. Which perhaps summarizes the explanation of the popularity of the successful chain restaurant: its predictability. And its booths. I'm a sucker for a good booth.