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Leena Eats: Just kidding…NOW I’m back! And with dinner party photos!

Leena Eats: Just kidding...NOW Im back! And with dinner party photos!

DUDE. You guys. I made this. For reals. Lovin the Momofuku Milkbar cookbook right now!

So. I said I was back, and clearly, I lied. What I actually meant is, hi, see you again in four months or so. Leena Eats: Just kidding...NOW Im back! And with dinner party photos!

I spent from mid-June through early October studying my ass off for a little test called the GRE, because I decided hey, wouldn’t it be fun to get a doctorate and research food and culture for a living? It paid off, because I didn’t completely fail the math, and I did ok in the verbal and kick-ass in the essay section. BUT. It also meant no brain energy was left at the end of day to cook, let alone blog about food. Or exercise. Or eat well.

But I did occasionally bust out some winners, the cake above included. That bad-ass monstrosity was a chocolate chip cake layered with passion fruit curd, chocolate crumbles, and coffee buttercream frosting from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.

More after the jump!

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Gastro Friday: Out with the Baby Food Myths, in with the Global Baby Food!

Gastro Friday: Out with the Baby Food Myths, in with the Global Baby Food!

A baby with a bland and unbalanced diet grows up into an adult with a crappy diet. At least that's what my mommy says.

After all my research into what I should and shouldn’t feed my baby daughter, the information I found was limiting, bland, and in some cases, problem-causing (remember some foods are movers, and others are slowers!). I had to wonder, What do infants around the world eat? Surely, the rest of world isn’t feeding their baby rice cereal and pureed sweet potatoes and unknowingly turning them into tiny constipation bombs, are they?!

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Gastro Friday: You Know You’re a New Foodie Mama If…

Gastro Friday: You Know Youre a New Foodie Mama If...

A little rice never killed a baby.

You know you’re a new foodie mama if…

1.Your baby regularly has food particles stuck to them due to hanging out directly below your mouth.New babies like to chill on your lap, especially if they are breastfeeding. And it’s not like I’m NOT gonna eat just because there is a baby there, right? DUH. Hence, rice on baby (see photo above).

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Leena Cooks: Oven Caramelized Onions

Leena Cooks: Oven Caramelized Onions
Need a ton of caramelized onions? Too busy/lazy to stand at the stove all day? Check out this oven recipe–it kicks ass!

I have a four and a half month old daughter, and I’m not gonna lie—I made a damn cute baby. I love holding her on my lap in the early morning light, seeing her slowly rub her eyes and wake up. She stretches this adorable baby stretch, turns her innocent blue-gray eyes towards mine, and coos a little, making my heart melt. And that is when I hear a familiar sound, an almost-empty ketchup bottle-style fart vibrating across my thighs.

And I treasure the moment.

But the more moments that I treasure, the less time there seems to be for one of my favorite past times—cooking. Most of her treasured moments come with a lot of clean up, so if I actually want to cook something, it needs as little active cooking time as possible.

Read more after the jump!

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Happy Halloween from Leena Eats!

Happy Halloween from Leena Eats!
I may look cute, but eff up that chicken stock and my fury will RAIN DOWN UPON YOU.

Happy Halloween from Ella and the Leena Eats crew! If you’re baby is young enough (hell, even if they are old), I hope you manage to steal your fair share of Halloween candy from them. It’s your God-given right as a parent! And before you ask, yes, I totally shoved a bag into Ella’s little fist to Trick or Treat and then ate all her candy. All of the Halloween magic, half of the effort. Score.

~LTG!

Leena Eats: Homeroom, the Mac n Cheese Mecca in Oakland

Leena Eats: Homeroom, the Mac n Cheese Mecca in Oakland
Homeroom restaurant in Oakland.

Ah, mac and cheese. What could be bad about a bowlful of pasta with cheese and other delicious tidbits? This dish is a perfect example of how American cuisine has formed: a dish was brought in by one country, and left looking like an entirely different dish. Refugees of the French Revolution introduced macaroni and cheese as French food, but it was quickly adopted by the South and turned into a true comfort food dish, richly packed with more cheese and cream than the original recipe. If slapping some extra cheese on a dish doesn’t equal American food, I don’t know what does (HELLO, cheese-stuffed crust pizza, I’m looking at you).

And we Americans do love our cheese with pasta. Whenever I leave my husband for a few days, I can rest assured he will eat at least one thing: mac and cheese. Boxed mac and cheese to be specific, the same kind he grew up eating with the neon orange cheese powder. So when Homeroom, a mac and cheese restaurant popped up in Oakland, we were on that shit like white on rice. More food porn and the review after the jump.

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Leena Cooks: Family favorite Spinach Budjiya with Cilantro chutney

Leena Cooks: Family favorite Spinach Budjiya with Cilantro chutney
A bit of spinach, a bit of garam masala–the makings of the perfect spinach budjiya.

Spinach budjiya was one of the first and only Indian foods I enjoyed eating while growing up. They were fried crispy on the outside, warm and fluffy on the inside with a bit of spice. Because budjiya batter is often dropped from a spoon into the hot oil, they take on funny shapes, and I used to love eating those extra crunch tentacles of dough it created.

I wanted to whip out something delicious, fast and Indian for a small baby I was having, and I was shocked when I found out just how easy and popular it was. If you’ve ever seen fried vegetable pakoras on an Indian restaurant menu, this is in the same family. If you have trouble sourcing ingredients, try to find an Indian grocery store or check a health food store like Whole Foods. Trust me–this is so worth the extra effort. The recipe for spinach budjiya and cilantro chutney recipe after the click.

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Leena Eats: Tasty Al Pastor Tacos at Tamales Mi Lupitas truck in Oakland

Leena Eats: Tasty Al Pastor Tacos at Tamales Mi Lupitas truck in Oakland
Little secret about Tamales Mi Lupitas–don’t get the tamales. Al pastor tacos are where it’s at!

After my recent trip to a vegan Mexican restaurant, I was in dire need of some meat. Thanks to yelp, I came across this little taco cart in the Fruitvale hood of Oakland. It was known to have killer al pastor, and Anthony Bourdain had even visited it on his last trip to the Bay Area for his show, No Reservations. Pork and Bourdain? Why the hell not?!

Heaps of food porn and my take on the meal after the click!

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Gastro Friday- Kids prefer food with cartoons on package!

Gastro Friday  Kids prefer food with cartoons on package!
Photo from http://livingliberally.org/eating?page=7

Two interesting studies have been done that suggest the power of food marketing on children. In one study, researchers found that cereal boxes with cartoons on them actually made the food taste better to the children than those without.

This research was piggybacked off of another study done by Sesame Workshop that involved giving children a choice between eating broccoli or chocolate. 4 out of 5 kids went for the chocolate, but when they put Elmo on the broccoli and an unknown cartoon character on the chocolate, at least half of the kids went for the broccoli.

Even though I don’t have children yet, these studies intrigued me because 1. They prove that food marketing to kids can easily have a negative impact on what kids eat, especially if the product being marketed is unhealthy. But on the other hand, 2. They show that food marketing can be used to to influence kids to eat healthier products, which is definitely not a bad thing.

What do you think? Should we use food marketing to promote healthy eating to kids? If you have kids, have you witnessed popular food characters influencing the way they want to eat? Feel free to spit your words in the comment section.

Happy Friday!

~LTG!

Gastro Friday: Queer Beer–The Next Alcoholic Frontier!

Gastro Friday: Queer Beer  The Next Alcoholic Frontier!
Image from http://www.drinkinginamerica.com/queer-beer/

I’ve always heard that, “Gay people are just like you and me, except for the sex thing.” And apparently the beer thing. Minerva, a small brewing company located in Jalisco, Mexico, is marketing their artisanal honey ale to gays and lesbians, who they say have had their palate ignored by beer makers long enough.

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Leena Eats: A damn good sandwich at SLOW in Berkeley

Leena Eats: A damn good sandwich at SLOW in Berkeley
A sandwich worth searching for: pulled pork shoulder with slaw, pineapple chile compote and aioli at SLOW in Berkeley.

Is there anything more perfect to eat than a sandwich? Created by John Montague, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, so that he didn’t have to leave the table and stop gambling, this simple meal of two slices of bread with a filling is both compact and easy to eat. Up the quality of the filling, and you got yourself a damn fine meal.

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Gastro Friday Essay: Why My Baby Hates My Stomach

Gastro Friday Essay: Why My Baby Hates My Stomach
Goodbye jelly doughnuts, hello blood sugar meter. Ah, the joys of pregnancy.
diabetic blood sugar kit from Crestock High Quality Images

 

So I’m pretty sure my unborn child is entirely against my culinary happiness. Hear me out on this one.

For the first four months of pregnancy, I had severe nausea. I’m talking puking morning till night, so doped up on reglan and zofran all I could do is sleep and shove a few crackers down my throat the few minutes I was awake. Culinary happiness? Around -10.

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