It seems like every time I travel internationally I find some delicious snack food that local folks don't really even think about, but is maybe the best recipe to bring back from that place. In Catalonia, that was obviously pan con tomate; in Paris it was shredded carrot salad; in Oaxaca, cheese empanadas; in Shanghai it was green onion noodles. Unlike the far more elaborate headline "national dishes" featured on the covers of menus and cookbooks, these are all things I've made multiple times since returning.

In Hyderabad, India, that snack food is "crispy corn" or "crunchy corn snack". As far as I can tell, this dish doesn't even have a specific name in Telgu, but it's everywhere. I had my first one at a coffee bar the day of my arrival and the last one in a restaurant at the airport. It makes a great appetizer, and a terrific snack with tea or coffee on its own, and both kids and adults adore it.

And yet, it's super-easy. At least, when you make it my way. You can see the full traditional method here, which is good for restaurants but takes this away from "fun, easy snack".

Now, some notes on the ingredients so that you can make this year-round from whatever you have. We're looking for maximum flexibility here.

Corn Kernels: if you're making this during the summer, use fresh, sweet corn kernels cut off the cob. At other times of year, you can make it using frozen corn, as follows: thaw the frozen corn completely. Then drain it in a colander for 1/2 an hour, and blot it dry with a towel. It won't be completely dry, but mostly dry is fine. Do not use canned corn. While raw corn takes longer to cook, frozen corn needs more drying out, so I find that the cooking time is about the same either way.

Flour: below I use a combination of corn flour (as in finely-milled cornmeal, not corn starch) and rice flour, which gives a nice flavor and crunch. However, you can substitute other non-wholegrain flours, like chickpea flour or fine semolina. If you use AP flour (wheat), then partner it with a pure starch like corn starch or potato starch.

Spices: I give a very simple masala (spice mix) recipe below, but once you get used to making the snack, you can swap in other masalas.

Peppers: make this as hot, or not, as you want. The sliced peppers can be sweet (lunchbox or nardellos) to very spicy (cayenne or serranos), and the chile powder you use can be mild to hot, depending on your taste.

Amchur Powder: this is ground dehydrated mango powder. If you can't get it, substitute coriander seed, and add lemon juice at the end as noted.

crispy corn snack

The masala:

• 1 tsp red chile powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp aamchur powder (or 1/2 tsp ground coriander)
• 1 tsp salt (or black salt, if you can get it)

The corn:

• 16oz corn kernels
• 2-3 skinny red or green peppers, sliced into rings
• 2-3 shallots, peeled and sliced thin (subs. 1/2 onion)
• 1/4 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup corn flour (fine-milled cornmeal)
• 3 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs lemon juice, if no amchur powder

Mix the masala ingredients. Toss together the corn kernels, pepper slices, shallot, and 1 teaspoon of the masala (3/4 tsp if no amchur). Then, toss with the flours, lightly coating everything.

Heat the oil in a wide pan or wok until at or near smoking point. Scoop in the corn using a slotted spoon, so as to leave any loose flour in the bowl. Fry, stirring regularly, for 5-10 minutes, until the flour has turned dark brown and the corn is scotched in spots.

Dump out the corn onto a paper-towel-lined wide bowl or platter. Shake it around to absorb some of the excess oil, and then pull out the towels while still hot. Sprinkle with 1-2 tsp more masala to taste (and lemon juice, if needed), and toss.

Serve hot or warm. Can be eaten with a fork, or with fingers. If there's any leftovers, re-crisp them in a hot pan.

Every year for the Leikam Hanukkah Craft Market I make a few new things to have them available for holiday sales. All of these will be available for purchase this Sunday (Nov 2).

First, pictured above, is two new Sluggakiahs, for those who want a more Pacific Northwest note to their festival of lights celebration.

I've made a few new syrup birds for your brunching pleasure.

Since I needed a new crock for our 20-year-old San Francisco sourdough, I made a couple extra to sell.

Now, I realize it's totally the wrong time of year for this, but I also needed a new wine chiller for the back patio, and thought that other folks might want one as well. So there will be 3 on sale.

And, of course, there's always mugs:

So, if you're in the Portland area, please drop by Leikam Brewing on Sunday and check out what I and nine other artisans have to offer.

If you're further away, check my online store next week for more goodies for the holiday season.

Join us for the 5th annual Hanukkah Craft Market at Leikam Brewing! This year, we're ready to kick off your holiday shopping at the beginning of the season:

Sunday, November 2
1 to 6pm
5812 E. Burnside, Portland

Facebook Event

We will have 10 artists and crafters for your Hanukkah gift browsing, which you can do while sipping some of the great kosher beers from Leikam Brewing. Our artists this year include:

Ceramics and Wood:

BOG Woodworking
FuzzyChef Pottery
Rain Dragon Studio

Fiber and Apparel:

Dye-Enu Studios
Western Wools
NavaYiskah Arts / Nava’s House

Painting, Drawing, and Prints:

Dennis Hopkins
Nacho’s Honey Art

Wax and Scents:

The Gilded Post
The Remedy Candle & Apothecary

There will also be a food cart if you want to make a lunch or dinner of your visit. All vendors will be donating 10% of their sales to charity.

Get your holiday shopping started early, and best of all:

No Tariffs On Anything

It's the end of summer, and if you're gardening you have an excess of home-grown tomatoes still to use before they get mushy. Even if you don't have a garden, local tomatoes should be plentiful and cheap at you nearest farmer's market. If you also happen to have some all-butter puff pastry in the freezer, one of the easiest meals you can make is an easy French-style tomato tart.

Like some of my other recipes, this is more of a "kit", because there's really only two ingredients in this recipe that aren't substitutable: the homegrown tomatoes and the butter puff pastry. So, before we get to the instructions, let's go through some of the others:

Puff Pastry: You really want all-butter, or at least part-butter, puff pastry for this. We load up on the Trader Joe's frozen pastry during the winter holidays (the only time they have it); if you didn't, the rest of the year you pretty much need to grab the overpriced Dufour. You can make this with shortening-based puff pastry like Pepperidge Farms, but it won't taste quite as good, but it's still better than no tart at all. You could, of course, make your own but that changes this from a quick weeknight dinner to a major effort.

The Trader Joe's pastry comes conveniently in two 9oz squares, which makes for two nice square tarts. Dufour comes in a single 14oz rectangle, which could be either one really big tart, or cut into two for two more modest ones. For the Dufour, which is thicker and creased, you'll want to roll it out a bit.

Cheese: this recipe requires two cheeses, a soft cheese to put on the base, and a hard cheese to grate over the top. The soft cheese can be almost anything soft and mild, as long as it's not too wet: drained and blotted ricotta, chevre, farmer cheese, neufchatel, cresenza, or a mild camebert. For most cheeses, you want around 6oz per square foot of tart. You could also use a little creme fraiche, but spread it very thin since it's rather wet.

The hard cheese is easier; just 4oz of Comté, Gruyère, parmigiano, or similar cheeses, grated fine.

Tomatoes: This tart can be made either with large tomatoes, sliced 1/4" thick and shingled (photo above) or with cherry tomatoes, sliced in half and packed in, cut side down (photo below). Either works equally well, so use what you have the most of. The important thing is that the tomatoes be fresh and picked ripe.

Herbs: chives, parsley, thyme, or marjoram could all work with this tart, or a mixture. Use what you have access to -- as long as it's minced or cut fine.

In the tarts pictured, I used Black Sea Man sliced tomatoes, sungold cherry tomatoes, Don Froylan requesón cheese for the base, grated DOC Comté cheese, and minced fresh chives.

Now, on to the recipe.

Simple French-style Tomato Tart

• 14-20oz frozen puff pastry sheets
• Either 2-3lbs of large slicing tomatoes, or 2 baskets cherry tomatoes
• 6-9oz soft, but not wet, cheese (see above)
• 3-4oz hard grating cheese
• 2-3 tbs minced herbs
• Salt and pepper

A day before, put the puff pastry in the fridge to thaw.

Heat the oven to 375F with fan, or 400F if you don't have a fan.

Unroll or unfold the puff pastry. Use a rolling pin to gently roll it flat. If it's more than 1/4" thick, maybe roll it out a bit to stretch it. Place it on a baking sheet, and carefully cut a square or rectangle about 1/2" from the edge of the puff pastry, and only about 1/2 way through it (depth of about 1/8" inch). You should end up with a "frame" around the edge which will become your crust. Dock the center rectangle using a fork or a docker (if you have one).

Spread the soft cheese over the center rectangle, making a very thin coating -- thinner the wetter the cheese is. Sprinkle 1/2 of the herbs over the soft cheese, and grind a little pepper on it. If the cheese is unsalted (such as ricotta), sprinkle a little (1/4 tsp) salt as well.

Put it into the oven for 12-16 minutes, or until the frame/crust around the edge puffs up and gets browned on top. If doing two baking sheets because you have two pieces of puff pastry, then remember to swap positions on them after 5 min.

Take the cheesy pastry out of the oven and allow it to mostly cool, 10-15 minutes. Carefully cover the cheesy center with the tomatoes. Sprinkle them lightly with pepper, and then with the rest of the minced herbs. Finally cover the tomatoes with the grated hard cheese.

Place the tart back in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until the hard cheese is melted and the crust finishes getting crisp and brown.

Allow to mostly cool before slicing. Enjoy with a French green salad.

In honor of BridgetownBites Salad Week and the fact that my porch thermometer reported 100F today (it's still 88F at 7pm), I thought I'd make two salads for dinner, neither requiring any heating at all, just cutting, washing, and marinating. Each also requires one obscure ingredient, but hopefully you can still make use of them for your own heat wave days.

When we have a heat wave like this, I don't want to turn on the stove, and I also don't want to go outside to the grill. So I look for dishes I can prepare which require no heat. Salads top the list, of course, and I could just do a green salad. But in the middle of summer, I can be more creative. Also, the heat wave already killed my lettuce.

I also wanted to take advantage of some produce I had. First, we'd recently been to Walla Walla and brought back a bag of their famous sweet onions (it's the season). Second, Nathan the Watermelon Man started deliveries this week, so I had a delicious Hermiston watermelon. This led to a Persian onion and barberry salad, and a Greek watermelon salad.

Persian Onion Salad

This onion salad comes to us from Naomi Duguid's Persia, with my usual tweaks, of course. It's a very traditional Persian salad, usually served to accompany grilled meats, but delicious on its own if made with sweet onions like the Walla Wallas. I don't recommend making it with regular brown onions except as a topping for meat; without real sweet onions, it would be too sharp to eat by itself.

The obscure ingredient here is dried barberries. These are a staple of Persian cuisine but only found in good Middle Eastern markets here in the US. Fortunately, I live near one. They are quite tart, so if you can't get them, try unsweetened dried cranberries, chopped. The recipe also requires the spice ground sumac, but most major supermarkets carry that these days.

The onion requires a bit of sitting, so start this recipe early.

• Two large Walla Walla, Maui, or Vidalia sweet onions, about 2lbs
• 1 Tbs or more kosher salt
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup dried barberries
• 1 tsp dried mint, or about 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 1 tsp ground sumac
• 2 tsp sherry, champagne, or cider vinegar

Halve, peel, and thinly slide both onions. Layer them in a colander with a sprinkle of kosher salt over each of 4-5 layers of sliced onions. Let sit in the sink for around 1/2 hour. Soak the barberries in 1 cup cold water for the same period of time.

Drain the barberries. Put the sliced onion in a large bowl, fill it with cold water, mix it around, and drain. Then put the onions back in the bowl, fill it with cold water again, and let sit for another 15-20 minutes. This should remove most of the salt and any sharpness from the onion. Then drain the onions, maybe even drying them on a towel.

Toss the onions, barberries, mint, and sumac together. Drizzle over the vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes, then serve.

Greek Watermelon Salad

This type of salad will be more familiar to many readers. I got it from Diane Kochilas Meze years ago when it was less familiar to Americans, and have made it ever since. It's a very tasty salad, and a great way to use up leftover watermelon. Do use quality watermelon, though; if yours is bland or too watery the salad will be meh.

Kochilas' recipe includes a traditional, and hard to find, ingredient that most American recipes leave out: barley rusks. These add a strong, earthy flavor to balance the salad, and absorb the excess watermelon juice. The salad really isn't the same without them, so they're worth mail-ordering.

• Around 3lbs peeled and cubed watermelon
• 2 oz barley rusks
• 1/4 of a large (or 1/2 of a small) red onion, peeled and minced, around 1/2 cup.
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
• 8-12 oz mild, creamy feta cheese, cubed or crushed
• black pepper
• 1 Tbs red wine vinegar

Crush the barley rusks, breaking each rusk into 4-6 pieces. Put these in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Cover them with the watermelon cubes, and then pile the feta, mint, and onion on top. Sprikle with black pepper, and drizzle the vinegar over.

Leave the salad 10-15 minutes for the watermelon juices to soak into the rusks. Then toss thoroughly. Some of the feta will break up during tossing, which is desireable. Serve.

I hope both of these recipes give you some options for dining during a heat wave, too. Have a good Salad Week!

In late May I found out that I needed to make five dozen custom tiki cups for an event in mid-July. I've never made a tiki cup before, although I'd thought about it, so I wasn't at all set up to create any, let alone more than 50 in about seven weeks. Potters will understand, that's a very short timeline for someone who only does pottery part-time, especially considering firing schedules.

This meant that a lot of more standard methods of making them weren't a possibility. Creating new plaster molds for casting would take too long, especially since I don't regularly do casting and am not set up for it. Sculpting the cups individually would take even longer. What could I do to put designs on them that would be relatively fast, both to engineer and to make each cup?

I asked on a ceramics forum (Clay Buddies) for ideas, and several people (including Tim See) suggested that stamps were my best bet. I hadn't had a lot of luck, though, stamping individual cups will on (or off) the wheel. So after some tinkering, I tried a different approach that I'd used with other textures; instead of bringing the stamp to the cup, I'd bring the cup to the stamp. I needed a texture mat.

TPU is flexible printable plastic. I've been finding it works much better for stamps than rigid plastic, both because you can bend it around pieces and also because it sticks a bit less. It's perfect for texture mats. So I found some cartoons of tiki faces on a clipart site, modified them to make them simpler and more geometric, and turned one into a texture mat, which I printed in black TPU.

The next step was to create a wooden form for the inside of each cup, which could be used to roll the cup across the texture mat without losing its shape. I made mine from a 2" diameter post and inserted part of a broom handle for control. I did not want to 3d print the inside-cup dowel, both because plastic sticks to wet clay, and because I was concerned about strength.

Next, I had to throw a bunch of perfectly cylindrical cups, with interiors that were 2.25" diameter and 5.5" tall to match the dowel. This was a bit harder than it sounds; I hadn't thought about the fact that my hands are too large for a 2.25" diameter cup, and as a result I had to finish each cup using a throwing stick on the inside.

The next step was to roll the cups on the mats to make the tiki faces. The first batch of 6 cups I ended up turning into regular mugs, because I found out (the "hard" way) that the clay needed to be quite soft to take an impression, like just 12-15 hours after throwing.

I learned a few things with this first trial. First, it was quite difficult to get a good impression if the design, like this one, had any large blocky shapes. Also those squares at the top with sharp corners really dug into the clay, ruining some cups. But I felt like I was on the right track.

So I did two new designs, which were composed only of lines, and gave fairly even design coverage over the whole height of the cup. I also started dusting the designs with dry clay to make them stick less.

This worked a lot better. Those designs really popped and were clear all over the cup, and would look good once glazed.

Next I repeated that several dozen times. And then drying, and firing, and glazing. Tip: if you do use dry clay to prevent a stamp from sticking, make sure you brush off all the loose dry clay once the piece hardens. I didn't do that on all the cups and it ruined the glaze on a few.

I glazed them all using translucent glazes (two celedons and two others) which would do the best job of emphasizing the tiki designs. They were all done, not just on time for the event, but actually two weeks early. Yay!

I'll definitely use this technique again, although I'll make some changes. Some padding on the dowel would probably be good. Also, maybe a cup form that was a bit wider and shorter to speed up throwing. But it worked pretty well.

Brunch is a big thing around our house. We rarely go out, because we enjoy making and eating brunchy dishes at home, in our bathrobes. We love both fancier and heartier brunch fare.

Given this, the current egg shortage has been hard to bear. So I've been looking for brunch dishes that require very few eggs, or none at all. One of them is something we had in Oaxaca, enfrijoladas:

See, as an American I was very familiar with enchiladas (who isn't?), but never realized before visiting Oaxaca that enchiladas is just one of a suite of "en-*-adas" dishes, all of which consist of dipping tortillas in some kind of leftover sauce and folding them.

• enchiladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover chile sauce
• entomadas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover tomato sauce
• enmoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover mole
• enfrijoladas: corn tortillas dipped in leftover pureed beans

Notice the "leftover" part of the description; these are all breakfast dishes, because you make them with tortillas (which you always have if you're Mexican) and some leftover sauce, maybe from dinner last night.

Importantly, enfrijoladas consist of tortillas, bean sauce, cheese, and sometimes garnishes. No eggs required (although topping them with a fried egg is delicious).

Now, for my readers who are more familiar with Tex-Mex enchilada casserole, these enfrijoladas are going to seem kind of minimal. But that's really how en-whatever-adas are for most Mexicans, both in Oaxaca and Mexico City. It's a quick breakfast dish, consisting of just tortillas, a sauce, and some cheese. The "stuffed enchiladas" which are standard in so many Mexican-American restaurants descend more from enchiladas suizas, a fairly elaborate restaurant dish from Mexico City.

They are, however, very filling. And easy to make once you get the knack of things.

The recipe below says "Oaxaca-style black beans", which means some black beans, slow cooked with epazote, garlic, onion, chile, and avocado leaf. If you don't happen to have any on hand, but you do have some canned or vac-packed refried black beans, or canned whole black beans, then just season them as follows:

• 2 cups refried or pureed cooked black beans
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 to 1 tsp powdered Mexican chiles (ancho, guajillo, or pasilla)
• 1 tsp dried epazote (if available)
• salt to taste

You'll be making a sauce from the pureed beans. The only part of this recipe that takes some learning is getting the bean consistency right. You need to coat each tortilla in the beans, which means that they need to be neither too thick (in which case the beans won't stick) or too liquid (in which case the beans will drip off). Once they're hot in the pan, start with them fairly thick, and then add warm water to thin them until you have a consistency that works for you as you dip each tortilla.

Because of the beans, enfrijoladas are a lot more filling than you'd expect. The recipe below makes a very hearty breakfast for two people (4-5 tortillas apiece) or a light breakfast for four people (2-3 tortillas apiece).

Enfrijoladas Oaxaqueñas

• Around 2 1/2 cups Oaxacan-style cooked black beans
• 10-12 good quality corn tortillas
• Warm water, as needed
• Salt, to taste
• 4-5oz crumbled queso fresco, or finely shredded queso Oaxaca
• 1 medium or large avocado, pitted, peeled, and sliced (optional)

Equipment: comal, griddle, or large steel pan; 9-10" frying pan, preferrably nonstick; small tongs; towel or torilla warmer

If starting from whole beans, puree them as finely as you can. If they're too thick to puree easily, add a little water. If you're looking to make this as fancy brunch, then push the puree through a seive to remove skins, but I never do this.

Put both the comal/griddle and the medium frying pan on the stove over medium heat. Put the beans in the frying pan, and heat, watching them for when they start to bubble. Turn your oven onto low, around 200F.

While the beans heat, toast the tortillas. Get the comal/griddle very hot (350-400F), and toast the tortillas on each side for a minute or two. They should bubble slightly. Wrap the toasted tortillas in a towel or place them in a tortilla warmer.

The beans should be getting hot by now, or concurrently. Stir them, and then add warm water, a little at a time, as needed; you're looking for them to be thick but still liquid, about the consistency of a hearty tomato sauce or a smoothie. Taste to see if they need more salt. Turn down the heat, and stir periodically to avoid scortching or boiling.

Now it's time to make the enfrijoladas. Get a stack of plates ready, near the stove. You will need to work quickly with each tortilla, so make sure that everything you need is within reach.

Take each tortilla, one at a time, and press it into the bean sauce. Flip it over with the tongs, and get the other side coated with the beans as well. Fold the tortilla in half, and put it on a plate. Repeat, and put the next folded tortilla overlapping the first. Keep going, adding between 2 and 5 tortillas to each plate depending on people's appetites.

When a plate is full, sprinkle it with the cheese, and place it into the warm oven. Get started on the next plate.

As you go, you may need to add a little more warm water to the beans to keep them at the right consistency. If there's beans left after dipping all the tortillas, you can add more water to get them really liquid and then pour the bean sauce around the enfrijoladas on each plate.

Once all the enfrijoladas are made, make sure the last plate gets a few minutes in the oven (for the cheese to soften), then take them out and decorate with the avocado slices, if using.

Serve, together with Oaxacan coffee (if you can get it) and juice. Salud!

Q&A

Can this be made vegan?

Easily, just skip the cheese. You could also use vegan cheese.

Can I use flour tortillas?

No.

Could I use other kinds of beans?

Sure, why not? Black beans just have a bit more flavor.

Shouldn't I dip the tortilla in hot oil?

That's a lot more mess, and also not the way it's done in Oaxaca.

Browsing the Multinomah Library's cookbook collection, I ran across the book A-Gong's Table, which was a vegan Taiwanese cookbook. This enticed me, as I'd long wanted to share Taiwanese cuisine with my sweetie, but most of the recipes I had access to were meat-heavy. So I borrowed it and paged through it.

One thing caught my eye: a recipe for stir-fried Taiwanese cauliflower. I'd noticed that our local Vietnamese grocery had started carrying Taiwanese cauliflower, and I'd wondered what to do with it. So this seemed like the perfect dish to make for Lunar New Year.

Taiwanese cauliflower is a variety known as fioretto in Italy ("flowering"); it has a very loose head with florets that spread out from each other, with bright white flowers and light green stems. Because of its looseness, it's often sold wrapped into a bundle with plastic wrap. Unfortunately, there isn't any substitute for it in this recipe; regular cauliflower is too dense and too starchy, and broccolini has too strong of a flavor.

If you can get it, though, make the recipe below. It is subtle and delicious, and offers you Chinese food that's very different from your standard Cantonese diner fare. Ideally it should be served with "new rice", that is rice that was harvested last fall.

Gong hei fat choi!

Taiwanese Cauliflower

recipe from A-Gong's Table with minor alterations

• 3 Tbs high-temperature cooking oil (sunflower, peanut, canola)
• 1 medium large Taiwanese Cauliflower, around 1kg (2lbs)
• 3-4 medium cooking tomatoes, around 300g (12oz)
• 1 bunch (7-10) green onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, around 1 tsp
• small piece ginger, minced, around 2 tsp
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp golden sugar
• 3 Tbs water
• 3 Tbs Shaoxing wine
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• medium-large wok with lid

Dismantle the cauliflower, snapping off the florets and discarding the larger stems. Cut any especially large florets in half. You should end up with a pile of medium-large florets that will fill an 8 cup bowl.

Cut the tomatoes into 6-8 wedges each, depending on size. Slice the green onions into 1/4" (0.5cm) pieces, separating the whites from the greens. Peel and mince the ginger and garlic. Mix the Shaoxing wine and water in a cup to have ready, and the salt and sugar in another cup or prep bowl.

Heat a wok until smoking and swirl the oil to coat it. Toss in the green onion whites, garlic and ginger, and fry, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sliced tomatoes and stir-fry for another 1-2 minutes, until the tomatoes just start to soften. Put in the cauliflower florets, and sprinkle over the sugar/salt mixture.

Cook the cauliflower, tossing frequently, for 3-4 minutes, or until they start to cook through and the heads turn pink from the tomato juice. Pour in the wine/water mixture, and toss one more time. Cover and turn down the heat in the wok, and steam for another 3-4 minutes.

Open the lid and check the cauliflower for doneness; it should be cooked, but still somewhat crunchy. Toss in the green onion pieces, the white pepper, and stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then turn off heat.

Serve with rice; serves 5-6 as part of a multidish Chinese meal, or 3 if you're having just this, rice, and spring rolls.

Ingredient Notes:

Shaoxing wine is the standard "Chinese cooking wine" used in many dishes. Sometimes it is sold salted, in order to avoid alcohol regulations. If you have the salted kind, cut the salt in the recipe to 1/2 tsp. If you can't find Shaoxing wine, substitute a light sherry for it. If you don't want the alcohol at all, substitute stock and reduce the salt.

Golden sugar is a less-bleached, very lightly tinged with molasses, granulated sugar which is popular in Britian, but available from Domino in some stores in the US. It's somewhere between light brown sugar and white sugar. In this recipe, you can substitue regular granulated sugar, or Sugar In The Raw if you happen to have some (but don't make a special shopping trip for it, it's only 1 teaspoon).

Cats! Cats that are also hot beverage safe drinking mugs! What could be better than tea/coffee/chocolate and a kitty -- in one hand? I've added some new cat mugs to my store, and will be adding more in the next few days. In the meantime, meet Mungojerry, Pickles, and Oh Lawd He Comin'.

Get them online, or at the Leikam Hanukkah Craft Market this Sunday.

The cat mugs I make have evolved over the years, becoming more and more fully sculpted into the shapes of cats. I've been able to do that and yet keep them comfortable to drink out of. Each has a curled tail/handle:

They also have feet on the bottom:

The last cat's name is a reference to the famous Feline Chonk Chart. It's by far the widest cat mug I've made, holding more than 22oz. So if you know someone who really needs a cat mug/beer stein, Oh Lawd is here for you.

Regardless of whether you want these, or Buck, Mrs. Tibbits, or Tuco (coming this weekend), I hope you get one and enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making them.

I have new salt monsters in my shop! Meet Oggie, Kilroy, Champ, and Wadjet.

Like my previous salt monsters, these four are there to hold your coarse salt next to the stove so that you can pinch and fling it into your cooking food, like a video chef. Or you can use the provided tongue-spoon to be a bit more measured about it. Whatever you like; salt monsters don't judge.

You can buy these from my online store, or you can come to the Leikam Brewing Hanukkah Craft Market this Sunday.

I'm particularly proud of Wadjet, whose fanginess is both daunting and amusing.

Who would have believed that one day the abandoned filling station at 72nd & Prescott would host a real food cart pod? Certainly not me. And yet, today, it definitely does, with a taproom, coffee, five carts and a restaurant across the street.

This page is the best guide you'll find to all these food carts. Bookmark it; I'll update it periodically with the changes in the pod.

They are carts, though, so opening hours and menus can vary. Particularly, most of the carts cut back on hours during the rainy season, and expand them during the summer. But sometimes, carts are just closed.

The Pod consists of the old filling station and its grounds, and neighboring properties. Inside the filling station is Junior's Coffee in the mornings and early afternoon, and Upright Brewing in the late afternoon/evening. Three carts sit on the Upright/Juniors property. Next door, in front of a disused HVAC shop, are two additional carts. Finally, there is a middle eastern deli (Samo's) across 72nd from the whole complex.

The food cart pod has ample outdoor seating, about 1/3 of which is covered from rain. Because of the angle of the sun, during sunny days you'll want to move around the outdoor seating; only about 1/3 is actually shaded in the aftenoon. Upright/Juniors has a small amount of indoor seating, including three small tables, and around 12 bar seats. If you're eating inside, you should really order a drink from whichever business is open (Juniors or Upright).

Information last updated November 9, 2024

Junior's Coffee

Serves: Coffee, espresso, and tea

Location: Inside the main building

Hours: 7am to 3pm, 7 days a week

Junior's coffee is the 2nd coffee outlet by the folks who also own Guilder (the Princess-Bride themed cafe). They offer espresso drinks, coffee and tea 7 days a week, and a very small selection of pastries. They roast their own fair trade, organic, family-farm coffee, which is also available by the bag.

Juniors/Guilder is the only coffeehouse I know of in Portland that offers shakeratos in the summer.

Upright Brewing

Serves: 10-12 beers on tap, plus assorted things in bottles and cans.

Location: Inside the main building, behind the bar

Hours: 3pm-ish to 10pm, weekdays, noon-10pm Sat & Sun

This is the 2nd taproom for Portland-based Upright Brewing. Their beers skew towards real ale, side-taps, and other artisan service, including sours, a British-style bitter, lager, pilsner, and saison, as well as the mandatory IPAs. Particularly, if you appreciate a lower-alcohol beer (4.5-5.5%) so that you can have multiple pints without falling off your stool, this is your place.

DesiPDX

Sadly Closed

Maybe they'll come back someday. Their original location, in the Prost! foodcart pod, is still open.

Schmunchburger

Serves: Burgers, fries, and the Schnitzelwich

Location: Cart along 72nd ave

Hours: 1pm to 8pm Tues-Sat (usually)

Schmunch adds a burger-and-fries option to the food cart pod, although their burgers are a little special.

Yes, they do have a veggie burger option. They also theoretically have schnizel sandwiches, although those seem to run out a lot.

Niños Birrieria

Serves: Tacos, quesadillas, birria, quesabirria, chips, etc.

Location: truck in front of 7131 Prescott Street

Hours: 10am to 9pm 7 days a week

Niños is the always-open standby for this pod, rarely closed during dining hours. Birria lovers will find lots to eat here, but others have options as well, including fish tacos and taquitos; they have quite the menu for a food cart.

Note that when they say "hot", they mean it. Do not take the "bomb shell challenge" unless you regularly participate in hot pepper eating contests.

They have a breakfast menu too.

They're also a good option for non-beer-drinkers since they regularly have aquas frescas.

R-Haan Thai Kitchen

Serves: Thai standards, including noodles, stir-fries and rice dishes

Location: cart in front of 7131 Presscot Street

Hours: 11am to 8pm Thursday-Monday

R-Haan is the newest cart, and I've eaten there only once so far. The cart offers everything a typical American Thai restaurant would offer, including Pad Thai, Tom Yum and Panang Curry.

Pine State Biscuits

Serves: Biscuits and Gravy

Location: Airstream on the left side of Upright building

Hours: Friday 4pm-9pm, Sat/Sun 8am-2pm

This is yet another outlet of the Portland-leading biscuit franchise. They offer biscuits, biscuit sandwiches, and biscuits with both meat and vegetarian gravy, plus assorted seasonal specials. They're pretty much just open for brunch on weekends.

Samo's

Serves: Middle eastern street food, plus diner griddle standards

Location: Across 72nd ave. from the food cart pod, in the Samo's building

Hours: 9am to 10pm 7 days a week

You may have noticed the lack of a felafel/schwarma cart. Well, that's because Samo's is just across the street. If that's what you have a yen for, hop across the street, get your schwarma wrap, and come back for an Upgright beer.

Join Fuzzychef Pottery on December 8 for the 4th annual Hanukkah Craft Market at Leikam Brewing!

As always, we will have local artists and crafters, many with a Hanukkah theme. And Leikam will have kosher beer, including the new Holiday Macca Beer. Artists with their wares include:

• FuzzyChef Pottery (me)
• A+S 2020 Ceramics
• Orah Samba henna painting
• Nava's House garments and fabric art
• Sun & Rayne herbal medicine
• Hebrunes Oracle tiles & Judaica
• Grant High School Woodworkers
• Mudge Fudge for your snacking needs

Among other things, I will have my Cat Mugs:

... and also some Hanukkiahs (menorahs).

So, join us and do a little Hanukkah Shopping!

Leikam Hanukkah Craft Market
Leikam Brewing
5812 E Burnside St, Portland, OR
Sunday, December 8
1pm to 6pm

Lots of potters by now are familiar with the Ball Opener tool, popularized by Tom Whitaker. Speedball even has a version for sale, although I'd argue that it's inferior to one you make yourself from PVC. I use ball openers when I make matched sets, because making sure that the bottoms of all pieces are identical thickness makes it much easier to make them all identical.

After a few years of making plain glued PVC ball openers, I started thinking about how I could improve the device. Particularly, how could I incorporate 3D printed elements to make it better, and maybe make the thickness dynamically adjustable? I did a bunch of experimentation, and a bunch of trials, and have come up with a new design that I call "Ball Opener Mark 2". For any of you with a 3D printer and assembly skills, I think you'll find it a worthwhile improvement over the individual design.

Building The Mark 2

To make the Ball Opener Mark 2, you will need:

• 2-3ft of 1/2" thick wall PVC pipe
• A 4-way PVC junction and two elbows
• 3ft of 1/2" wooden dowel rod
• A cutoff, table, or band saw for cutting that pipe and dowel
• A power drill and 1/8" bit
• One 2.5" piece of 3mm brass rod
• PVC "glue"
• Superglue gel or E6000 glue
• All of the 3D printed elements included in this set
• A toothpick

First, you'll want to print all the 3D printed items for the Ball Opener. There's a bunch of them, so get started now. PLA filament is fine. See the notes in the Thingiverse entry on how to print them.

Cut the PVC pipe into two pieces 4.5" long, two pieces 3.5" long, and one piece 3" long. Fit the two 3.5" pieces on opposite sides of the 4-way junction, and cement them in with PVC glue. Fit the elbows onto the ends of those pieces, and glue them in, making sure that they are exactly parallel to one of the unused openings of the 4-way junction. Fit the two 4.5" pieces into the elbows and glue. Finally, glue the 3" piece in the 4-way opening on the same side as the other two pieces, forming an "M" out of PVC. Allow all the PVC glue to set, around 1 hour.

While the PVC glue is setting, cut three 6" pieces from the dowel rod. Attach each of the 3D printed ball opener Opener Tips to one of the dowel rods. Glue these in with the superglue/E6000. Bend down one end of the brass rod, about 1/2".

Once the PVC glue has set, glue in the rest of the 3D printed parts. The two PVC Plugs go on the two outer legs of the M; these are to keep the PVC from getting worn down by the friction of the wheel too fast. The Top Plug goes in the top of the 4-way junction. As you glue this in, make sure that the slot on top is exactly parallel with the PVC cross pieces. Now, time to wait for all that glue to dry, at least a couple hours.

Once that's all set, fit each dowel into place by inserting it up through the center of the M. Mark the dowel rod where the slot in the Top Plug is. Take it back out and drill a hole through it at that mark. Repeat with the two other dowels. Label each dowel with its gauge thickness with a sharpie.

Your Mark 2 is now manufactured. You might want to wait overnight for all glue to be completely set.

Using the Mark 2

To use your new tool, push one of the Opener Tips with its dowel through the center of the M, and then anchor it using the brass rod. You can change the height by switching which of the Opener Tips you use, and you can (and should) 3D print more with different thicknesses. I have named the Opener Tips with the distance from the wheelhead, which becomes the thickness of the clay bottom. These distances are not exact, particularly given that none of us is precision-cutting our PVC.

Now, you can use it like a regular ball-opener per Tom's video.

However, the Mark 2 comes with a bonus feature: a Width Gauge. I designed this because, in order to make matching pieces, I also wanted to make sure to open each hole the exact same amount. The way you use it is this: before locking in the dowel with the brass rod, you slide the Width Gauge over the top of the 4-Way, ringing the Top End, with the slots matching up. Then lock everything in place with the brass rod. Put a toothpick in the little hole, pointing down. When you throw, follow the toothpick with your eye to see if you've opened the hole the right amount.

The example width gauge in my 3D print set is for a hole 95mm wide. You will, of course, want to make ones a variety of sizes. Note that the flat bar needs to be 27mm shorter than the desired hole width, because of the width of the ball opener itself. Eventually I'll create an OpenSCAD template for generating them.

On to the Next

I hope you enjoy building and customizing your own Mark 2 Ball Opener.

For me: it's been a learning experience, and I already know how I want to build the Mark 3.

Q&A

Why use PVC plus 3D prints instead of 3D printing the whole thing?

Extruded filament plastic, regardless of filament type, doesn't have anywhere near the strength of commercially formed PVC pipe. A fully 3D printed model would break in use. Another artist is experimenting with resin printing, and I'll update this based on what they find out.

Why not just make a bunch of all-PVC standard ball openers at different heights?

Because that would have been a lot less fun, and take up more space. Also, this design has some other advantages like the width gauge.

Is it important that all my pipe and wood cuts are exactly perpendicular and smooth?

Yes.

Why do you mix American and metric measurements?

Sorry, I live in the USA, that's how things are here. If you're in another country and want to make an all-metric one, you'll need to redo the measurements yourself.

A little while ago the Washington Post taste-tested various "fake bacon" products -- which I'm hereafter calling "facon" -- with some surprising results. They decided that supermarket-standard brand Morningstar Farms (see endnote) was actually pretty good, and worked as a reasonably convincing facsimile of fried bacon.

This was doubly surprising for me. Morningstar Farms first came out with a facon back in the 80s, just as my family had transitioned to keeping Kosher. We tried it immediately, and were treated to strips that tasted like we'd simply cut up the box and fried it instead.

So, I had to try this.

We bought a box of the Morningstar. The strips come in a tightly-packed stack, and uncooked have a texture like chewing gum strips. I was dubious, but I put several strips in a pan with some vegetable oil and fried them. They cooked much faster than the instructions suggested; I was taking them off the heat in less than 2 minutes per side. I'll try cooking them on lower heat next time.

Once they cooled enough to eat, my bacon-loving sweetie tried a bite.

"That's disturbing," she said.

"Bad?" I asked.

"No, these really taste like some kind of bacon. Super-thin sliced, burnt bacon. But bacon."

"Well, I did burn them a little."

My ability to judge was limited, simply because I haven't had fried bacon strips in over 20 years. They did, however, taste better than cardboard.

Note that Morningstar's facon is not vegan; it includes egg whites.

In summer, what does one do with fried bacon? Make a BLT, of course. Although since it's fake-bacon, I guess it's an FLT.

FLT

Per sandwich:

• 3-4 strips of Morningstar farms fake bacon
• 1 brioche bun, foccacia roll, or other soft sandwich roll, or slices of thick country bread
• 1 small-medium slicing tomato, or 2 slices from a big tomato
• 1 large or two small leaves of soft lettuce
• Mayonnaise or similar spread

Fry the facon according to the instructions on the box. Let cool and drain on paper towels.

Split your roll, and lightly toast it. Spread both sides with a thin coating of the mayo.

Arrange the facon slices overlapping to cover the bottom of the roll. Put the slices of tomato on top, followed by the lettuce, folding or tearing it to fit. Cover with the roll top.

Eat alongside some chips or tater tots.

Notes and variations:

FLTA: peel, pit, and slice 1/4 to 1/3 of an avocado. Put this on the bottom of the roll before adding the facon.

Spreads: mayonnaise is traditional (or vegannaise if you prefer), but I tend to prefer spreads with a little more flavor, such as dijionnaise, aioli, or (in the case of the FLT in the photo) a mild sweet onion mustard.

It's better to make your FLT when tomatoes are in season.

History Note: Morningstar Farms originated as the vegetarian foods venture of President Warren Harding's Seventh-Day Adventist, sanitarium-owning cousin Dr. George Harding in 1939, because he believed that a meatless diet helped calm psychotic and neurotic patients. This venture was so successful -- owing in part to WWII meat rationing -- that Harding was able to buy up most of his competitors. The Adventist Church still owns a large part of MorningStar. It is not determined whether President Warren Harding ever ate a soy steak.

It's now late summer, and if you have a vegetable garden like I do, you're festooned with a glut of tomatoes. Maybe you've already made gazpacho, fresh tomato sauce, Turkish salad, and more tomato things. The tomatoes keep coming in from the gardent.

It's time for something French: a tomato tart.

This recipe is pretty simple, but it does require some gourmet ingredients. It also requires you to be comfortable working with puff pastry. Since the ingredients are so critical here, some notes on them before the recipe.

This tart is really much better with all-butter puff pastry, which I realize is hard to find in the US. I used Trader Joe's, possibly the only butter puff pastry in the US that is both good and affordable, but is sadly only available seasonally (and not in summer). This recipe is sized for TJ's 18oz box of puff pastry (which comes in 2 squares). If you're using Dufour's 14oz box, or some other brand, you'll need to scale accordingly. And, if all you can get is palm-oil-based puff pastry, use it anyway -- or made your own rough puff.

The cheese I used was homemade, a Neufchâtel-style cheese I made from some raw milk a friend gave me. You won't have this, so use chèvre, ricotta, camebert (rind removed), or a similar soft cheese with mild flavor. The cheese needs to be very soft, but not too wet, so if you do use ricotta or farmer cheese make sure to drain it or press it dry.

This recipe also uses olive tapenade. French tapenade is generally very mild flavored and that's what you want here. If you can't get any, then just puree a cup of pitted ripe black olives (not canned). Another option is actually mustard; French tomato tarts often feature it instead of the tapenade.

French-style tomato tart

• 18oz fridge-temperature puff pastry
• 8-10 oz soft mild cheese (see blog post)
• 2-3 oz olive tapenade
• 6 to 8 medium tomatoes or 4 to 6 large tomatoes
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tsp dried
• 1 oz finely grated Comte, Gruyere, or Parmigiano cheese
• Fresh ground pepper
• Olive oil for drizzling
• Baking sheet(s), sharp knife, baking parchment, pie weights, rolling pin, spreading spatula

Heat the oven to 375F with fan, or 400F if you don't have a fan. Spread out the puff pastry on top of baking parchment, using one sheet of parchment for each square if using the TJ's pastry. Flatten it out a bit using the rolling pin.

Using the point of a small, sharp knife, cut around 1/8" deep square/rectangle around 1/2" from the edges of the pastry. You're making a box for the filling, where the edge of the pastry will be the "crust". Use a fork or a dough docker to dock (make indents) all over the pastry inside the box. Cut some more parchment to fit the inside of the box, place it on the pastry and pile pie weights on it to keep the center of the pastry compressed.

Bake for 15 minutes. The edge portion should puff up and the pastry should be very lightly browned and dry. If the pastry is still "wet" and the parchment won't pull free, give it another 3-5 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

Spread the center of the pastry with the cheese and the tapenade. Which order you spread them in depends on their relative softness; you want to spread the softer thing on top.

Slice the tomatoes around 1/4" thick and cover the cheese with the slices, slightly overlapping. Sprinkle the thyme leaves across the top, along with a little ground pepper. Evenly cover with the grated Comte or Gruyere, and drizzle with a little high-quality olive oil.

Put the tart back in the oven and bake for another 12-18 minutes. It's done when the pastry finishes browning, and the tomatoes soften just slightly. Do not overcook, as it will turn into tomato/cheese soup.

Remove from the oven, slide the tart onto a cooling rack, and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes. Slice into squares. The tart can be eaten warm, but is easier to handle at room temperature. It does not reheat or freeze well; allow left overs to come to room temperature and eat them that way.

Serves four as a light meal with a green salad, or 6-8 as a first course.