Menuism Featured Reviewer: ninathomas
Menuism reviewers are truly awesome! Whether they found an unexpected tasty gem of a restaurant or took it for the team after having a terrible meal, we truly applaud all their efforts in giving us the scoop on where we should be spending our hard-earned money on. On that note, I’d love to introduce you to those reviewers who we feel really contribute quality content to the site as well as quality information to fellow Menuism’ers. Our Featured Reviewer today is ninathomas from California.
I’m a wife and mother who lives in Corona,CA. I’ve been a teacher for 10 years, mostly middle school, but currently teach in a women’s prison.
1. How did you find out about Menuism?
Menuism sponsored the IE Foodies Meetup Group, where I am a member and Asst. Organizer.
2. What about Menuism first appealed to you?
I like that its regular folk like me just giving their opinion on restaurants.
3. What restaurant did you write your first review about?
Sushi Palms in Moreno Valley, CA
4. What is your food philosophy?
While good food is worth every calorie, great food is packed with flavor without packing on the pounds!
5. What are your favorite restaurants?
Shogun Kitchen, Mimi’s, Buca Di Beppo
6. What are your favorite cuisines?
Sushi, Indian, Italian
7. What are your favorite comfort foods?
Chicken Pot Pie, Meatloaf, and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
8. What is the best meal you ever ate and why?
The dinner I reviewed at Sensi. It was the most incredible food I’ve ever tasted.
9. Do you have any favorite cookbooks (if any)?
The Cook Yourself Thin Cookbook and some old cookbook I inherited from my mom that no longer has covers and is probably 40 years old.
10. What words of encouragement would you give to first time Menuism reviewers?
Share your experience, just how you see it! Don’t get caught up in trying to sound like a “foodie.” You’d be surprised how many people will apprecitate the same features of the food and service that you do.
If you’d like to be able to keep up with ninathomass reviews, click here to check out her profile!
If there is a Menuism reviewer who has really helped you make great dining choices and you’d like to see him or her be a Featured Reviewer, than be sure to message me or send me an email at abby@menuism.com.
By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager
1 comment October 28, 2009
The Seasonal Menu or Why Did My Favorite Dish Disappear?
Have you ever had an experience where you ate at a restaurant and really enjoyed a particular dish, returned and only to find it no longer on the menu? There could be a lot of reasons why that dish is MIA, but these days, more restaurants are focusing on creating seasonal menus. Simply, the dishes will change according to the time of the year due to the availability of certain ingredients. Although it is possible to get strawberries in the winter and squash in the spring, you really get the most flavor and nutritional value from foods that are in season; hence, winter strawberries will not be as sweet and enticing as during the spring/summer months.
If you really think about it, seasons form the natural backdrop for eating. Stop for a second and envision a vegetable garden in the dead of winter. Now imagine this same garden on a sunny, summer day. When looking at this side-by-side comparison of these two seasons, it’s quite clear that a delicate strawberry plant probably would suffer in colder temperatures, while the hearty squash may fare a little better. Today, it’s really easy for us to forget about seasons when we eat because modern food processing and worldwide distribution has made food available all year long. What we find on our grocery shelves in July would be the same things we’d find in December, but is that really that an advantage? For some yes, but not as much for those who enjoy savoring the season’s best at their peak of flavor.
Don’t despair if that favorite dish of yours is gone. It just means that the Chef really cares about the food that he or she wants to present to you and would rather please, than disappoint your palate. It doesn’t mean that the dish won’t return at a more opportune time. If a restaurant doesn’t have a seasonal menu, here are some things for you to keep in mind when ordering. The availability of any of the fruits and vegetables below are still quite dependent upon where in the world you live, and what is available at your own market. At least, it’s a good start and will hopefully, make you more aware of the quality of ingredients that show up on your plate.
Spring:
- Apricots (start)
- Artichokes
- Arugula
- Asparagus
- Beets
- Carrots
- Chard and other greens (particularly in colder regions)
- Cherries (seasons starts some places at the end of spring)
- Fava beans
- Fennel
- Fiddleheads
- Garlic scapes/green garlic
- Grapefruit
- Green onions/scallions
- Greens (particularly in colder regions)
- Kohlrabi
- Kumquats (end)
- Leeks (end)
- Lemons
- Lettuce
- Morels
- Nettles
- Spring onions
- Navel oranges (end)
- Parsley
- Pea greens
- Peas (garden, snap, snow, etc.)
- Radishes
- Rhubarb
- Scallions/green onions
- Spinach
- Strawberries
- Turnips
Summer:
- Apples (late summer)
- Apricots (early summer)
- Avocados
- Basil
- Beets
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Boysenberries
- Cantaloupes
- Carrots
- Chard
- Cherries
- Chiles, fresh
- Corn
- Cucumbers
Autumn:
- Apples
- Artichokes (second crop)
- Arugula
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Broccoli raabe, rapini
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac/celery root
- Celery
- Chard
- Cranberries
- Edamame
- Eggplant (early fall)
- Fennel
- Figs
- Garlic
- Grapes (early fall)
- Green beans (early fall)
- Horseradish
- Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes
- Kale
- Kohlrabi (late fall)
- Leeks
- Lemongrass
- Lettuce
- Limes
- Mushrooms (wild)
- Okra (early fall)
- Onions
- Parsnips
- Pears
- Peppers (early fall)
- Persimmons
- Pomegranates
- Potatoes
- Pumpkins
- Quinces
- Radicchio
- Radishes (all types)
- Rapini
- Rutabaga
- Salsify
- Scallions
- Shallots
- Shelling beans (early fall)
- Sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes
- Sweet potatoes
- Turnips
- Winter squash
Winter:
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussels Sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cardoons
- Carrots (storage)
- Cauliflower
- Celeriac/celery root
- Celery
- Clementines
- Escarole
- Fennel
- Grapefruit
- Horseradish
- Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes
- Kale
- Kiwi
- Kohlrabi
- Kumquats (late)
- Leeks
- Lemons
- Mandarins
- Onions (storage)
- Oranges
- Parsnips
- Pommelos
- Potatoes (storage)
- Radishes (large varieties)
- Rutabaga
- Salsify
- Shallots (storage)
- Sunchokes/Jerusalem artichokes
- Sweet Potatoes
- Tangerines
- Winter squash
1 comment October 16, 2009
Funny Food Videos That Will Make You Giggle!
It’s easy to lose a sense of time on YouTube, especially when you run into some hilarious videos that revolve around food. Check out some of really funny finds below and enjoy!
2 comments October 15, 2009
10 Things to Know About Pasta
The interesting thing about pasta is that it’s truly an international dish, whether it’s made into chow mein, raviolis, ramen, pansit, pierogis and that’s just tipping the ice berg, so I thought it’d be fun to learn more about this very versatile food. I present to you 10 Things to Know About Pasta.
An Oldie, but a Goodie: The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5,000 B.C.
Make Mine a Heart Shape: There are more than 600 pasta shapes produced worldwide.
Pasta Pretender: Gnocchi is almost always listed with pasta dishes on a menu but it’s not really pasta. Gnocchi is made from potatoes or even bread crumbs, unlike pasta which is mainly made from wheat and water. Gnocchi is even cooked differently than pasta.
The Deadly Tomato: Pasta existed for thousands of years before anyone ever thought to put tomato sauce on it. The Spanish explorer Cortez brought tomatoes back to Europe from Mexico in 1519. Even then, almost 200 years passed before spaghetti with tomato sauce made its way into Italian kitchens and that was because tomatoes were once thought to be poisonous.
Italian National Food? According to the National Pasta Association, Americans consume about 20 pounds of pasta per person each year. Italians eat more than 3 times that amount.
April’s Fools Joke: The British Broadcasting Corporation made everyone believe that spaghetti grown on trees in 1957…On April Fools Day!
The Eggs Have It: Egg noodles contain egg; almost all other dry pasta shapes do not. By federal law, a noodle must contain 5.5 percent egg solids to be called a noodle. So without egg, a noodle really isn’t a noodle.
Mind Your Manners: According to Miss Manners (a.k.a. Judith Martin), a fork is the only utensil that may be used to eat spaghetti while anyone is looking.
The Long and Winding Roads: Spaghetti junction is a term used to refer to roads or on/off ramps that are twisted and intertwined, like a plate of spaghetti.
Pasta By Horse and Sunshine: The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega. Mr. Zerega managed the entire operation with just one horse in his basement to power the machinery. To dry his spaghetti, he placed strands of the pasta on the roof in the sunshine.
1 comment October 11, 2009
Culinary Byte: Fun Food Quotes
Need some food for thought? Check out some of the fun quotes below.
One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends. ~Laurie Colwin
By November I had convinced myself that I had better things to do than read ‘Moby Dick’ and learn about the Continental Congress. Cook for instance. ~Ruth Reichi
Wine makes a symphony of a good meal. ~Fernande Garvin
Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. ~Robert Redford
Eating rice cakes is like chewing on a foam coffee cup, only less filling. ~Dave Barry
For the millions of us who live glued to computer keyboards at work and TV monitors at home, food may be more than entertainment. It may be the only sensual experience left. ~Barbara Ehrenreich
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. ~Calvin Trillin
My favorite animal is steak. ~Fran Lebowitz
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch. ~Orson Wells
I’ve been on a diet for two weeks and all I’ve lost is two weeks. ~Totie Wells
Ham and Eggs – A day’s work for a chicken; A lifetime commitment for a pig. ~Anonymous
The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other. ~Johnny Carson
Add comment October 9, 2009
Soups Around the World
With winter soon coming upon us, soup is going to be a popular dish to help warm us from the inside and out, so if you’re looking for a little variety beyond just chicken soup, here are some ethnic soup options that may just hit the spot.
You’ve already learned a little bit about ramen, but let’s get a little more souped up education. Even if the ones below don’t catch your fancy, hopefully, it’ll open your eyes to new possibilities.
Borscht from Russia and Poland [BOHR-sht]
Originally from Russia and Poland, borscht is a soup made with fresh beets. It can be prepared using an assortment of vegetables, or with meat and meat stock, or with a combination of both. Borscht can be served hot or cold; it should always be garnished with a dollop of sour cream.
Bouillabaisse from France [BOOL-yuh-BAYZ, BOOL-yuh-BEHZ]
A celebrated seafood stew from Provence, made with an assortment of fish and shellfish, onions, tomatoes, white wine, olive oil, garlic, saffron and herbs. The stew is ladled over thick slices of French bread.
Congee from China [KON-jee]
A soup of boiled rice and water, which serves as a background for a host of other foods including fish, shrimp, chicken, peanuts, sesame seed and eggs. In China, where it’s also known as jook or juk , congee is particularly popular for breakfast
Menudo from Mexico [meh-NOO-doh, meh-NOO-thoh]
Long touted as a hangover cure, menudo is particularly popular in Mexico on New Year’s morning. It’s a hearty, spicy soup made with tripe, calf’s feet, green chiles, hominy and seasonings. It’s usually garnished with lime wedges, bowls of chopped chiles and onion and served with hot tortillas.
Mulligatawny Soup from India [muhl-ih-guh-TAW-nee]
The name derives from the Tamil, a people inhabiting southern India and the surrounding area, and means “pepper water.” This soup is based on a rich meat or vegetable broth highly seasoned with curry and other spices. It usually contains bits of chicken (sometimes other meats), and can also include rice, eggs, coconut shreds and even cream.
© Copyright Barron’s Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.
Want to check out some of these more unusual soups? Then look below for some restaurant recommendations.
Borscht
Traktir
8151 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90046
(323) 654-3030
Bouillabaisse
Le Central
112 E 8th Ave
Denver, CO 80203
(303) 863-8094
Congee
Mike’s Noodle House
418 Maynard Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 389-7099
Menudo
Brothers Taco House
1604 Dowling St
Houston, TX 77003
(713) 223-0091
Mulligatawny
Gaylord India Restaurant
100 E Walton St
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 664-1700
Add comment October 8, 2009
The Not So Instant Ramen
Though of Chinese origin, it’s unclear how ramen was introduced to Japan. The only thing that is known is that in the early Meiji period, ramen was originally called shina soba which translated to “Chinese soba.” By 1900, the few Chinese restaurants in Japan had on their menu a simple ramen dish made of noodles, a few toppings and a broth flavored with salt and pork bones. Ramen evolved after World War II when cheap American flour flooded the Japanese market. Concurrently, Japanese troops were returning from China and East Asia and now familiar with Chinese cuisine, quite a few of the servicemen started opening even more Chinese restaurants. Even with the emergence of more Chinese restaurants, ramen was still more of a special occasion food.
In 1958, taking advantage of the availability of the American flour, instand noodles were invented by Momofuku Ando, the Founder and Chairman of Nissin Foods. This instant ramen was a hit and it was a dish that spread in popularity not just in Japan, but internationally as well. Who couldn’t fall in love with a dish that people could make just by adding boiling water?
While instant ramen is currently prevelant in most pantries and dorm rooms a like, dare I say that instant ramen is just a mere shadow of the real thing. So let’s learn more about ramen cooked the non-instant way. First and foremost, although a wide variety of ramen exists in Japan, ramen can be generally categorized by its three main ingredients: noodles, soup and toppings.
Ramen noodles are made from four basic ingredients: wheat flour, salt, water and kansui. They may be fat, thin, or even ribbon-like, as well as straight or wrinkled. It’s all about preference of the ramen noodle maker.
The soup is generally made from pork or chicken stock and combined with a variety of ingredients. These ingredients could be any one or more of the following: kelp, tuna flakes, dried baby sardines, beef bones and more and flavored with salt, miso or soy sauce. The resulting combination is generally divided into four flavors (though these are sometimes mixed together to produce new, original variations):
- Shio (“salt”) ramen is made with a simple chicken broth that is clear and almost transparent.
- Tonkotsu (“pork bone”) ramen has a thick broth made with crushed pork bones that have been boiled for hours.
- shoyu (“soy sauce”) ramen soup is made by adding a soy-based sauce to a stock usually made from chicken and various vegetables.
- Miso ramen is a relative newcomer, having reached national prominence around 1965. This uniquely Japanese ramen features a broth that combines chicken stock with a fermented soybean paste.
Standard toppings for ramen are boiled egg, fermented and pickled young bamboo, nori, spinach, finely chopped scallion and traditionally a thinly sliced boiled pork. Other toppings may include stewed egg, bean sprouts, wakame, deep fried scallion, or kimchi. Hokkaido-style miso ramen is often topped with sweetcorn. In most cases, toppings are added after having been already cooked so as to not change the flavor of the soup.
Instant ramen is what I refer to as a starter ramen. It’s a good way to give ramen a test drive, but once you’ve had the real thing, you may never look at instant ramen the same way again. Ready to check out real ramen for yourself? If so, look below for some restaurants suggestions.
Goma Ichi Ramen
631 Keeaumoku Street
Honolulu, HI 96814
(808) 951-6666
Hakata Ramen Shin-Sen-Gumi
8450 E Valley Blvd
Ste 103
Rosemead, CA 91770
(626) 572-8646
Halu
312 8th Ave
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 221-9165
Hashiguchi Jr.
3400 Around Lenox Rd NE # C520
Atlanta, GA 31132
(404) 841-9229
Yuzu
4130 SW 117th Avenue #H
Beaverton, OR 97005
(503) 350-1801
3 comments October 4, 2009
Congratulations to our September Winners!
They dined, they wrote and were voted the most helpful. Congratulations to our top 3 winners for September’s Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Between the 3 of them, they garnered 100+ helpful votes. Wow! This trio definitely knows their stuff and apparently, many of you agreed. Hat’s off to them and if you’d like to keep up with their reviews, check out their profiles below.
As you can see, all three of our winners also received some prize money and if you’d like a chance to compete, than be sure to click this link to get more info on the October Menuism Restaurant Reviewer Contest. Good luck and maybe, in a month, we’ll be announcing you as winner as well.
Add comment October 2, 2009
The Small, but Hearty Pupusa
At first glance, a pupusa may look like just a thick tortilla, but take a bite and you’ll get to experience the tasty treasures within. First, let’s talk a little history. Pupusas are a creation of the Pipil tribes from El Salvador.
In fact, the cooking tools used to make them were discovered after an excavation of the site of a two thousand year old native village. This particular village was buried in volcanic ash after an eruption, which meant that all household items and even food were preserved.
For the most part, pupusas stayed in El Salvador and primarily in the rural countryside, but it wasn’t until the 1950s and 1960s that Salvadorans started moving to the cities and taking the pupusa with them. Pupusas stands started to proliferate across the country and even in the neighboring areas of Honduras and Guatemala, sometimes with variations in shape, size or filling.
During the 1980s Salvadoran Civil War, Salvadorans started migrating up north and quickly established communities in major US and Canadian cities. From being just El Salvador’s national food, the pupusa is now well-known part of the the North American food landscape.
So enough history, right? Let’s talk now about what a pupusa is. Simply, a pupusa is a thick hand-made corn tortilla that is stuffed with one or more ingredients usually placed one on top of the other like cheese, fried pork meat, squash blossoms, refried beans, loroco (a vine flower) and more.
There’s also the Pupusas Revueltas where the ingredients are mixed together and for something completely different, there are the Pupusas de Arroz where the tortillas are made of rice flour instead of corn masa. Pupusas are traditionally served with a pickled cabbage relish and eaten by hand. This El Salvoran food isn’t very big, but a couple pupusas can be quite a hearty meal and even better, they’re fairly inexpensive. Interested in trying this tasty dish? Than check out some restaurants listed below.
Atlacatl Restaurant
301 N Berendo St
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 663-1404
Gloria’s Restaurant
5100 Belt Line Rd
Ste 852
Dallas, TX 75254
(972) 387-8847
Guanaco’s Tacos Pupuseria
4106 Brooklyn Ave NE
Ste 102A
Seattle, WA 98105
(206) 547-2369
La Pupusa Factory
1947 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33135
(305) 646-9922
Pupuseria El Salvador
3557 E. 106th St.
Chicago, IL 60617
(773) 374-0490
1 comment October 1, 2009
October Menuism Restaurant Review Contest
Halloween is just around the corner and wouldn’t it be a scary proposition for you not to enter the October Menuism Restaurant Review Contest? Especially since there will be so many fall foods hitting the seasonal menus of your local restaurant. Think stews, soups, meat and potatoes and so much more. So check out that new restaurant you’ve always wanted to dine at or re-visit old favorites. Afterwards, put fingers to keyboard and tell us all about that restaurant, from meal to ambiance to service. We want to know it all.
Now there’s even more chances to win with both 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes that are available. The criteria for winning entries will be on how helpful other Menuism’ers find your reviews to be. So what makes a review helpful? Check out a past Menuism article called 5 Tips Towards Writing a Great Review for some ideas or you can even emulate some of our Featured Reviewers, who have done a fantastic job sharing their dining stories with all of us.
In the end, it’s all about quality, not quantity. So how can you improve your chances? Things to do could include giving dish reviews and uploading pictures and when combined with your informative review, those will definitely get you those “helpful votes.” You can even encourage friends to sign up to Menuism.com and vote for your reviews or even contribute some of their own.
Now it’s time to get out, dine out and than get your fingers a-typing. With a total of $170.00 in prize money, think of what you can do with any part of those dollars Enjoy a Sunday brunch. Purchase a lovely bottle of wine. Get that new kitchen gadget you’ve been eyeing. You won’t have a chance of winning, if you don’t even try, so let’s see what you got.
Menuism Restaurant Review Contest
How to Enter:
- Dine out and than post your restaurant review to the Menuism website. There are no limits to the number of reviews per month. No need to manually submit your reviews to the contest
Restaurant Review Criteria:
- Winners will be decided based on the number of helpful votes for the reviews they’ve written in the given month with awards going to the top 3 users with the most helpful votes. Click here to see if you’ve made it to the Leader Board and click here to get more info about how the Leader Board works!
- Reviews must have 50 words or more to qualify.
Announcement of Winner and Prize:
- After the contest due date, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place Winners will be announced the first week of the following month.
- PRIZES:
- 1st: $100
- 2nd: $50
- 3rd: $20
- Profile Badge for Each Winner!
Rules:
- Reviews that are considered inappropriate, vulgar or lacking information will not be considered.
- Winners who do not claim their prize within 7 days of the announcement of the winner will forfeit prize money, but not the award.
Ready to get started? Sign up for your free Menuism account and start writing reviews!
October is now here, so we’d definitely love to see all of your great quality reviews. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line at abby@menuism.com.
By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager
3 comments September 30, 2009
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