Year: 2024

The Weekly Dish 24/10/24

News from the local food scene

• New wraps: Wrap City Sandwich Co. (1525 S. Willow St, Manchester, 782-5838, wrapcitysandwiches.com/location/willow-street) has opened in a new location in Manchester, across from the Mall of New Hampshire. Its website describes its offerings as “regional and international.”

• CodeX closed: CodeX B.A.R.on Elm Street in Nashua has closed. It was a speakeasy-style cocktail bar.

• Ansanm closed: Ansamnin Milford closed at the end of September. Owned by James Beard Award-nominated Chef Chris Viaud, it was known for its Haitian-influenced fusion cuisine. In a telephone interview Chef Viaud said, “For us, Ansanm has always been a passion project. It came time at the end of our lease where we just had to make a decision if we wanted to continue on with this passion or dedicate our time to other projects. So we’ll continue to live on through pop-up events throughout the community as well as catering opportunities.”

• BrucePac meat recalled: According to an Oct. 14 press release, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has issued a warning against consuming recalled BrucePac products. “The products have been recalled by the company because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” the press release read. Find a list of the specific items in the recall at fsis.usda.gov.

‘Fries are just kind of the perfect food’

Street serves them up with kimchi ketchup

According to Lynn Theth, the Chef at Street in Concord, the secret to a really good french fry is cooking it twice, then watching it like a hawk.

“We parcook [fries] just enough so they’re lightly golden,” she said. “We blanch them in canola oil just until they’re lightly crispy, just enough to hold their integrity. And then we fry them again to order, just so they get nice and crispy and nice and hot. Once they are where we like them to be, nice and golden brown on the outside, we take them and we toss them in a subarashii spice that we make in-house. [Subarashii is a Japanese term that means “splendid or glorious.”] It’s our own blend that we make just for the fries. And then those come with kimchi ketchup that we make as well and the scallion mayo to top it all off.”

The idea behind the double frying, Theth said, is to make sure the inside of a french fry is cooked enough to be fluffy and tender. That’s why she blanches the potatoes in cooler oil. She gives the fries enough time to cool down before cooking them to order. The second frying at a higher temperature brings the surface of the fries to the point where they are crispy without overcooking the interior.

That’s fine in theory, but Theth said that working the fry station in Street’s kitchen on a busy night can get complicated. The fry oil cools down a little with every batch of food that is dropped into it, then heats back up, so it’s never the same temperature for long.

“You kind of have to judge it just by the looks of it,” she said. “We have a very high volume for what we do and when we’re cooking at the volume that we are cooking at, the temperature of the fry oil fluctuates. When you’re cooking them — personally for me, I like to judge by the color depending on when you drop it. Usually, when I’m training people, I’ll talk to them about the integrity of the french fry, because if you don’t blanch them far enough they’ll get soggy and they’ll get all mushed up when you’re trying to double-cook them.”

Then there’s the sound. “When I’m cooking the fries myself,” Chef Theth said, “I usually kind of shake the basket a little bit. And then you can hear those fries like hitting the sides of the basket. And if they’re crisp enough, you can kind of hear them.”

Frying potatoes perfectly is just the first step, though, Theth said. Street is known for its condiments.

“All of the recipes have been the same since we opened,” she said. “For our kimchi ketchup, we use just regular ketchup, but we add probably about a gallon of kimchi to each batch. It’s a cabbage kimchi, just your standard cabbage kimchi. There is fish sauce and things like that in the mix, so it is not vegan, but it’s still delicious. We blend it all and puree it all down, and add a couple other things — rice wine vinegar, some shallots, and other things — then just mix that all together.”

Although Theth and her team develop recipes with elements from all over the world, she said french fries hold a special place in her heart. “You can kind of do whatever you want with them. You can put whatever you want on them. I’m a sauce girl; I love just condiments and things like that. You can use them [fries] as a vessel for whatever you want. If you get a really nice starchy potato, it can uphold whatever you’re going to use it for.”

“Fries are just kind of the perfect food, in my opinion.”

Street
76 N. Main St., Concord
333-2125, streetfood360.com

Featured Photo: Curry fries and Subarashii fries. Courtesy photo.

Trick, treat and shop

Concord holds its annual downtown Halloween Howl

By Zachary Lewis
[email protected]

Grizzly ghouls from every tomb may be closing in to seal your doom, but participants can forget their woes at the thrilling Halloween Howl on Main Street in Concord on Friday, Oct. 25, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Sarah Glaude, Chair of the Halloween Howl Committee and a member of the acting board of directors for InTown Concord, talked about what visitors can expect to find that evening.

“It’s usually the Friday before Halloween and it’s essentially a trick-or-treating kind of event,” Glaude said. “So all of the downtown businesses participate and they hand out candy in front of their storefronts. The kids kind of go in a circle throughout all the downtown businesses. The streets close down. And it’s just a really nice family-friendly activity.”

Candy hander outer-ers can win prizes too. “We have a Trunk-or-Treat where we give a prize out to the best trunk. So people park on the end of Main Street near Loudon Road,” Glaude said.

The trunks will be tricked out. “A lot of people just kind of usually will stick with a theme,” Glaude said. “I think last year somebody did mythological creatures, they did a dragon-themed trunk.”

This year Glaude is introducing Quick Bites Corner to the Howl. It’s a spot downtown where a variety of food trucks will park. “On Pleasant Street we’re going to have Wicked Tasty, Pours & Petals and Teenie Wienies. We’re really excited about that because we know that parents are bringing their kids to go trick-or-treating [and] they’re probably hungry because it’s around dinner time, so we were thinking that we would have some food options.”

Music will be in the air.

“In Bicentennial Square we have Wandering Souls; they’re a group that is putting together Halloween music. That’s our kids’ zone,” Glaude said.

Meanwhile, over in front of the Capitol, local DJ Nazzy will be cranking tunes. “He is kind of like our emcee for the night,” Glaude said. “… So he’ll announce the costume contest. There’s multiple different categories that people can sign up for ahead of time. We also have Nazzy’s Not So Scary Dance Party Parade. … We’re going to have a couple of flash mobs, too, throughout Main Street,” Glaude said. Flash mobs will be performed by Creative Dance Academy and The Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region.

The treats continue with a bunch of games for the little tricksters. “We’re going to have two games run by the Girl Scouts in Concord, and then three games run by InTown for us to facilitate for the kids. We’re going to have face painting by Salon Lotus, and that’s going to be in Capitol Plaza.” Look for bowling and spin the wheel, plus giant Jenga, cornhole and more, she said.

“It’s a big event. Usually between 3,000 and 5,000 people show up.” Glaude said. And yes, the Chair of the Halloween Howl Committee will join the festivities Friday evening too. “I’m excited to be a bumblebee this year,” she said.

Halloween Howl
When: Friday, Oct. 25, 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
Where: Main Street in Concord; Main Street will be closed to traffic from Centre Street/Loudon Road to Hills Avenue from 4 to 9 p.m.
Info: intownconcord.org

Schedule of events
5:30 p.m. – Wandering Souls live music in Bicentennial Square
5:45 p.m. – Nazzy’s Not So Scary Party/Parade
5:45 p.m. – Creative Dance Academy flash mob
6 p.m. – costume contest (signupgenius.com/go/904094BA5A722A7FF2-50945177-halloween#)
6:30 p.m. – The Wicked Witches of the Lakes Region flash mob
7 p.m. – Spooky performance (music & stories) in Eagle Square

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

On The Job – Andy Vachon

Maintenance Supervisor

Andy Vachon is the Maintenance Supervisor for the Parks division of the Manchester Parks and Recreation Department. Anyone interested in maintaining the landscape of the Queen City with Andy, or other Department of Public Work careers, should check out manchesternh.gov/Departments/Human-Resources/Employment.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I am the Parks Maintenance Supervisor. I oversee the maintenance crews for the Parks. … So the Recreation [Department] has a supervisor that oversees the recreation portion of it. Cemetery has a supervisor that oversees the cemetery portion, and I oversee park maintenance. We have 16 employees. Of those 16 employees, we also have a dedicated tree crew. So the City of Manchester Parks Division is responsible for maintaining a safe right of way for any trees or limbs that were to happen to fall into the road … 13 of them work for us mowing fields, preparing athletic fields for game plays, mowing, trimming parks, passive parks, active parks. We oversee pickleball courts, tennis courts. Playgrounds, we have 55 play structures across 36 parks that we inspect and maintain….

How long have you had this job?

I’ve been in my current position now for six years. I’ve been with the city for 23 years.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I graduated college in ’97. I have a business administration degree with a concentration on golf management. So I was a golf professional at Derryfield Country Club for three years. Derryfield is owned by the City of Manchester. … I worked at McIntyre Ski Area in the winter. They were looking for a manager for the ski area and that’s where I started in 2001. I was the general manager for McIntyre Ski Area for 10 years. .

What kind of education or training did you need?

Fortunately, with golf, I took agronomy courses in college, learning about how to grow grass, how to mow grass and how to maintain equipment. That definitely helped me, as well as my management skills, being able to manage employees, being customer service oriented as well.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

There is a lot of mowing, so hearing protection, safety glasses, pants when you’re running power equipment, chaps, helmets when you’re running chainsaws. Our staff gets short-sleeved T-shirts with the city logo on it to identify them. Ours are green for parks. I wear a golf shirt with the city logo on it. We try to brand ourselves so people know who we are and what we do.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received

Well, for us, it’s all about the users and the constituents in the park. If we make a safe, clean environment for people to be outside and recreate, that’s what makes us happy. Being outside and getting fresh air for people and doing it in a safe and clean environment is something that we strive for. — Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: One Base at a Time by David R. Mellor. It’s a great, great book.
Favorite movie: Caddyshack
Favorite music: The Grateful Dead and Phish
Favorite food: Backroom chicken tenders, man.
Favorite thing about NH: Every season is different. Winter, spring, summer and fall.

Featured photo: Andy Vachon. Courtesy photo.

Planting in October

How many gardeners does it take to plant a garlic bulb?

For some of us, planting time is long past — but not for me. I am always busy in the fall, planting everything I can. It is almost time to plant garlic, which is my easiest crop of all. And I’ll soon be planting spring bulbs, both in the ground and in pots for forcing.

Garlic is by far my least labor-intensive vegetable crop. I start by weeding out one of my wide mounded beds and loosening the soil well. I use my CobraHead Weeder to loosen the soil and to make shallow furrows 8 to 12 inches apart. I sprinkle some granular organic fertilizer in the furrow, and run my hand tool through the soil again to work in the fertilizer.

Each garlic bulb has four to eight cloves, which need to be separated for planting. Plant them 3 to 4 inches apart and about 3 inches deep. Cover and press down the soil over them, watering if the soil is dry. Lastly mulch with a thick layer of straw or mulch hay. I use 8 to 12 inches of loose straw, which gets packed down to 4 inches by the winter snows. Garlic will grow up through the mulch, but most weeds will not.

I also plant a lot of spring-blooming bulb flowers in pots for early blossoms indoors and as gifts to friends. I mix used planting mix from summer pots with good compost and plant daffodils and tulips in planters and my window box. You can pack the bulbs close together in pots, and they need only a couple of inches of soil mix above and below them. Store them in a cool, dark place — 35 to 50 degrees is best. But even a cold garage will work if they can establish roots early and then snooze a little if the soil freezes.

Daffodils take about 12 weeks of dormancy before they should be brought into the warmth of the house, but tulips do better with 16 weeks. Little things like crocus can be forced in 8 to 10 weeks. Be sure to label them with the date planted and variety. Water lightly once a month. My favorites are Tête-à-Tête daffodils — small early daffodils in bright yellow. I pack four bulbs into a 4-inch pot and share them in February and March when friends need a pick-me-up.

This is also the time to plant bulbs outdoors for spring. Most bulbs like a sunny location with well-drained soil, but you can also plant bulbs under deciduous trees if they get enough sun filtered through them, or before they leaf out. If you have a site with good sun but moist soil, there are a few bulbs that will work. “Thalia” is a white blossomed, late-blooming daffodil that does well even in fairly wet soil.

Camassia is a bulb plant that prefers damp soil. It produces blue to purple flowers on tall stems — up to 3 feet tall with hundreds of small blossoms. A good sandy loam is best, but it will do fine in any sunny soil that stays moist during the bloom season. It is not of interest to deer, and will keep coming back for years if happy where you plant it.

Tulips, on the other hand, are delicious to deer as flowers, and to rodents as bulbs. To foil the deer I plant 100 tulips in my vegetable garden most years and surround and cover the bed with chicken wire. I grow them as annuals, pulling the bulbs after they bloom.

Over the years I have planted hundreds, nay, thousands of daffodil bulbs. Most survive and thrive — nothing eats them. I have a patch of daffies from bulbs I dug up at my boyhood home in the early 1970s — some 50 years ago. To keep them producing well it’s good to top-dress the soil with “bulb booster” or a good slow-release organic fertilizer either now or in the spring.

To plant 25 daffodils I dig a hole about 6 inches deep, a couple of feet long and about 18 inches across. I loosen up the soil in the bottom with my CobraHead Weeder, a single-tine cultivator. I sprinkle a cup or so of organic fertilizer in the bottom and work it in, working in a bucket of compost too. Then I plant the bulbs, pointy end up. I tend to plant them 3 or 4 inches apart. If it is sandy or full of clay, I mix the soil I use to refill the hole with a 50-50 mix of good compost and soil.

So take a sunny afternoon and go plant bulbs — either outdoors, or in pots for forcing. It’ll be something to look forward to all winter.

Featured photo: Seeds and roots of dock, a big weed. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Treasure Hunt 24/10/24

Dear Donna,

Is this pink glass old? We found it in my mom’s cabinet while cleaning out. I don’t remember ever seeing or using it while growing up. It’s in good clean shape with quite a few pieces to the set as you can see in the photos. Thank you, Donna, for your assistance.

Deborah

Dear Deborah,

What you have found is a later version of what we call Depression glass. Yours was not from the 1930s or ’40s. It was a later version produced by the Arcoroc Co.

Even though it was produced later and is a less expensive version of Depression glass, today it has a collectible market. Condition is important in all older glassware, so no scratching, chips or cracks.

Deborah, thank you for all the photos. It helps in determining values. I would say your pink swirl dishes would be in the $150 range to a collector as long as the condition is good and clean.

Thanks for sharing with us. I hope your set finds a new place in your home.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!