Chocolate panini: breakfast, snack or
dessert. Photo courtesy Vosges Haut
Chocoalt.

*Pain au chocolat is often called a chocolate croissant in the U.S., but this is incorrect; Croissant means crescent, and pain au chocolat is not crescent-shaped.

Katrina Markoff, founder of Vosges Haut Chocolat, was inspired to port the concept to Italian panini. From her large repertoire of chocolate bars, she selected her Oaxaca chocolate bar, 75% cacao bittersweet chocolate with guajillo and pasilla chiles. (Oaxaca [wuh-HAH-kuh] is a state in Southern Mexico thought to be the birthplace of chocolate cultivation.)

Adding raisins evokes Mexicao’s mole sauces. If you want to get even more creative, consider adding other mole sauce ingredients such as cinnamon, peanuts or pepitas.

Ingredients For One Serving

 
†Spiced chocolate bars return to the roots of chocolate, first served as a spicy drink by the Olmec and Maya. Vosges also makes a Red Fire bar: dark chocolate with ancho and chipotle Chiles and cinnamon.

Chop suey was first available to non-Chinese Americans in the mid-19th century, when Chinese restaurants began to appear outside of Chinatown areas. The dish was received with much acclaim [source].
There are several myths about how chop suey was invented in the U.S.

Chop Suey is actually a prominent dish in Taishan, in the Guangdong province of southeast China. It is a city of 95 islands and islets in the Pearl River Delta.

A dish called tsap seui is common in the area, and Guangdong province was the home of many early Chinese immigrants to the U.S. [source]. Thus, when immigrants from that area opened restaurants, it was on the menu.

In a stir-fry recipe, chop suey means “assorted pieces.” These can include beef, chicken, quail eggs or other cooked eggs, fish, pork, and/or shrimp, plus vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, celery, and snow peas. Starch is added to create a thickened sauce from the oil and wok drippings.

What today we’d call a stir-fry, back then Americans called chop suey a stew.

American variations have included vegetables popular that are not in the original Taishan recipe; for example, broccoli, carrots, onions and zucchini. Numerous American recipes also “specialize”: beef chop suey or chicken chop suey, for example, instead of a mixture of proteins.

Chop suey went from exciting to mundane when Chinese immigrants realized the business opportunity of serving chop suey and other Southern Chinese dishes to Americans of all classes.

It was then that the authenticity of the dishes began to decline.

When a Chinese statesman visited New York City in 1903, he was shocked to find hundreds of Chinese restaurants serving substandard Chinese cuisine.

“As for what they call ‘chop suey,’” he fumed, “the cooking skills involved are so subpar that no one in China would ever eat it” [source].

 
 
CHOP SUEY VS. CHOW MEIN

In China, chop suey is typically served with a bowl of rice. Chow mein is chop suey that ditches the rice and adds noodles* to the recipe. In other words, if your “chop suey” contains noodles, it’s chow mein.

For a moment of beauty on National Chop Suey Day, take a look at photo #2, the painting of a chop suey parlor (as some such restaurants were called many years ago) by the American painter Edward Hopper. Here’s more about the painting.

Warning: You can find canned chop suey from La Choy. Caveat emptor: It may be tasty but is far removed from fresh-made chop suey.

> Check out more food histories.
 
 

[2] Edward Hopper, Chop Suey Parlor, 1929 (photo courtesy Wikipedia).

[3] Stir-fry this chicken chop suey. Here’s the recipe (photo © Recipe Tin Eats).

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*There are two styles of chow mein: crispy chow mein, which uses fried, flat noodles; and soft chow mein, which uses spaghetti-style noodles. “Chow mein” means stir-fried noodles. “Subgum” means “numerous and varied,” a chow mein that is a combination of ingredients (see chop suey list above) instead of all vegetable, all chicken, etc.
 
 

[1] A Hurricane cocktail served in the traditional Hurricane glass, fashioned after a hurricane lamp (photo © Alex 9500 | Panther Media).

[2] The Hurricane is so popular that the Hard Rock Cafe in Stockholm has its own printed Hurricane glasses (photo © Bacardi Rum | Facebook).

[3] Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum (photo © Gosling’s).

Everything is now closed, including things that never close, such as the public transit system and the theaters. The subway is not expected to be up and running until later on Monday. Instead of a “snow day,” we have two “hurricane days.”

So last night we threw a hurricane party and invited some friends who live in our apartment building for Hurricane cocktails—an appropriate name even though no hurricane engendered the creation of the drink.

The rum cocktail called a Hurricane was invented by New Orleans tavern owner Pat O’Brien in the early 1940s.

He had too many cases of rum, because the wholesale distributors required the purchase of a large number of cases of rum in order to buy a case of the more popular whiskeys.

Scotch and Irish whiskeys were in limited supply because of World War II.

Stuck with many cases of rum in the basement, O’Brien did what any businessman would do: He concocted a cocktail to use it.

The curvy, footed cocktail glass he used, shaped like a hurricane lamp, was called hurricane glass. That’s how the drink got its name.

The Hurricane became a fixture in the French Quarter, with Pat O’Brien’s bar a tourist destination.

Alas, with the use of cheap mixes to maximize profits, today’s French Quarter Hurricane is likely to be just another sweet, artificially colored drink, even at Pat O’Brien’s.

So if you want a good Hurricane, you’ll have to go to a top venue, or make your own.
 
 
RECIPE: ORIGINAL HURRICANE COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the rum, passion fruit syrup and lemon juice in a shaker; shake vigorously until the mixing tin frosts.

2. STRAIN into a hurricane glass over fresh crushed ice.

3. GARNISH with an orange and cherry “flag” (skewer) and serve.
 
 
Check out the variations below.

As with almost every recipe, there are myriad variations on the Hurricane.

 
The choice is yours.

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*Rum is fermented from sugar cane and molasses. Light rum (also called silver rum or white rum) is fermented in steel and filtered and has a clear color. To make dark rum (also called amber rum or gold rum), the clear light rum is aged in charred oak barrels, acquiring a caramel color and rich layers of flavor. Rich, caramel dark rum is made by aging clear rum in charred oak casks, giving it a deep brown color and a full flavor. Spiced rum, often colored dark with caramel, is not a dark rum.

Don’t stick it in a closet and forget about it. Our parents’ liquor closet grew and grew for 30 years, until the house was sold and a bar’s worth of over-the-hill drink had to be drained and recycled.

Here’s a better approach:

Why spend money on small jars of “specialty” bean dip when it’s so easy to make your own? You can use black beans (also known as common beans and turtle beans, among other names) or white beans (use cannellini, Great Northern or marrow bean varieties).

The cooking video below demonstrates a chunky black bean salsa dip: a combination of beans, onion, cilantro, jalapeño, lime juice and zest. (The word “dip” is extraneous, except when necessary to explain to non-Mexicans what to do with it.)

Personally, we skip the last step in the video recipe, which adds the juice, zest and segments of an orange. It’s a “fusion” addition: The orange originated in Southeast Asia* and although available in modern Mexico, isn’t part of traditional Mexican cuisine. Instead, add a cup of cooked or raw corn kernels (corn is indigenous to Mexico).

How To Use Black Bean Salsa/Dip

In addition to a dip for chips, it’s a delicious salsa (the word means sauce) for broiled or grilled fish, burgers, chicken, over rice and in a salad with greens and/or vegetables. (Beans are legumes, not vegetables.)

For an even better flavor, plan a day ahead and start with dry beans: They need to soak overnight and cook for up to 90 minutes, until soft and ready to purée.

Want a white bean dip? Try this recipe. This spreadable, puréed dip is delicious on bruschetta and sandwiches as well as for dipping chips.

Beans are a guilt-free food. Among the most inexpensive and nutritious foods available, beans are a great source of protein that can substitute for meat. They are typically low in [beneficial] fat and are cholesterol free, while delivering folate, iron, magnesium and potassium and fiber.

• Check out our Bean Glossary for the many different types of beans.
• All about bean nutrition.
• Make a vegetarian sandwich with white bean dip, using our recipe for a hummus sandwich.

*For those who point out that the lime also originated in Southern Asia: OK, but it’s been a flavor in Mexican cooking for hundreds of years.