When the Greater Manchester Chamber organized its first outing with the Taco Tour last year, there was a steep learning curve, said Cole Riel, the Director of Taco Tour Manchester.
“Last year, we were able to get a handle on logistics, like line control and helping restaurants put out product,” he said. “It’s not what we’re used to, serving 20,000 taco-loving folks.”
This year’s Taco Tour on Thursday, May 2, from 4 to 8 p.m., in downtown Manchester promises to be the biggest yet. Started in 2011 as a way to draw attention to Manchester’s vibrant food scene, the Tour has grown each year, drawing in more and more local restaurants to participate, and increasingly larger crowds to taste their tacos or Mexican-themed dishes and vote on their favorites. The restaurant with the winning taco will win bragging rights, a trophy and $1,000 to donate to a charity of its choice. Originally conceived and organized by the Hippo, the Tour was run by Intown Manchester in 2019, then took a Covid hiatus, returning last year organized by the Greater Manchester Chamber.
According to Riel, this year’s Taco Tour will include more than just tacos.
“There will be a concert stage at the corner of Elm and Bridge streets,” Riel said. “Fun acts like the ones who will be performing just add liveliness to the event.” The acts will include Harrison Goodell (harrisongoodellmusic.com) at 4 p.m., Cody James and Joe Delault (thecodyjamesgang.com) at 5 p.m., and deSoL (desol-music.com) at 6 p.m.
According to Steve Freedman of radio station 92.5 The River, which is helping sponsor this year’s live performances, the performers are particularly well-suited for Taco Tour.
“We [The River] are proud to break new artists and promote local artists,” Freedman said. “The first two acts — Harrison Goodell, Cody James and Joe Deleault — are ‘homegrown,’ and the main act, deSoL, is a Latin rock band that we at The River have supported for over 10 years. ”
There will be other fun events, such as a pet watering station and a doggie costume contest run by the Friends of the Manchester Animal Shelter, and a Stonyfield Yogurt Family Zone at the Manchester YMCA (30 Mechanic St.).
This will be the second year that The Potato Concept has participated in Taco Tour, though the first year from their new brick-and-mortar location, on Hanover Street.
“We’re pretty proud,” said co-owner Brandon Rainer. “This event is the town jewel for Manchester.” The Potato Concept’s offering in this year’s Tour will be a “Potaco,” a twice-baked potato skin with seasoned ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and sour cream. There will also be a “Vegan Potaco” with a black-bean salad filling.
900 Degrees Pizzeria (50 Dow St.) will serve chicken tacos with a house-made fresh pico de gallo.
“We love this event,” said 900 Degrees General Manager Dan Gove. “It’s a lot of fun; it gives us a chance to give people something completely different than we normally do.” He and his staff are preparing 1,000 tacos.
The overall mission of Taco Tour Manchester has remained the same since 2011: to make the public aware of the depth and diversity of Manchester’s restaurant scene.
“We want to provide an awesome, well-rounded experience for families and restaurant enthusiasts,” Riel said. “We want to remind them of restaurants they may have forgotten about since the last Tour. They will taste [our food] and make plans to come back shortly after.”
The tacos
More than 70 local restaurants are participating in this year’s Taco Tour. See the map for their locations. Here are their scheduled offerings:
Annapurna – Steamed chicken and fried momo (dumplings) taco with an authentic Nepali sauce, and vegetable or pork steamed or fried momo taco with authentic Nepali sauce
Antojitos Colombianos – chicken, pork and vegetarian Tacos
Bad Brgr – “Smash Burger Taco” and a chicken taco
Barcode Lounge & Grill – “Mac & Cheese Tacos” with pulled pork, Jerk Chicken with pickles, as well as dessert tacos
Ben and Jerry’s – Mexicone Dream Ice Cream Nachos (Americone Dream ice cream, waffle cone “chips,” caramel drizzle)
bluAqua Restrobar – “The Jaws Taco” with fresh shark
Boards and Brews – “Garlic Parmesan Ranch Tacos” with chicken tenders and fries, and sweet potato fry tacos
Buba Noodle Bar – “Bahn Mi Taco” with lemongrass beef, Asian pickles, cucumber, cilantro, umami sauce
Campo Enoteca – Polpetti (Meatball) taco
Cat Alley Cafe – Breakfast Taco with scrambled eggs, chorizo, potatoes, and queso fresco
Consuelo’s Taqueria – “Taco’n Madre” with sauteed pork served on a corn tortilla topped with green tomatillo, guacamole salsa with onions and cilantro
DeadProof Pizza Co. @ Bonfire – Street birria taco and vegan maple gochujang cauliflower taco
Diz’s Cafe – “Diz’s Magic Taco,” a beef taco with DizSpinaca, topped with shredded lettuce and pico de gallo
DoubleTree by Hilton Manchester Downtown – birria beef taco
El Rincon – “Taco Borracho,” with carnitas, pork, and beef with caramelized onion, jalapeno, and chorizo
Firefly Bistro & Bar – “Cheesy Chicken Taco” with seasoned chicken, cheddar cheese, chipotle crema, and crunchy tortilla chips in a soft flour tortilla
Granite State Candy Shoppe – “Chocolate Taco Crunch Mix,” with chocolate-drizzled waffle cone pieces with cinnamon and chocolate
Granite YMCA (The YMCA of Downtown Manchester) – Sugar cookie taco with strawberry and whipped cream filling, oreo crumble, and orange and green sprinkles
Hooked + Ignite – fried fish tacos
Industry East – Peanut chicken satay tacos, with confit chicken, Thai spiced peanut sauce, scallions, and sesame
Keys Piano Bar & Grill – Jerk chicken soft taco with cabbage slaw and ginger, or a vegan option with grilled vegetables
Kisaki – Sushi taco, with spicy crab and lettuce with tempura seaweed skin
Margarita’s Manchester -–soft flour tortilla with carnitas, garlic crema, picked radishes and fresh cilantro
Maya’s – jerk chicken & jerk beef tacos
Manchester Fire Department Central Station – smoked pork taco with cilantro lime coleslaw and a special hot sauce
Osaka – Spicy Crab with crunch and avocado wrapped with seaweed (hand rolled) and Spicy Tuna with crunch and chopped raw tuna, wrapped with seaweed (also hand rolled)
Patz Deli – “Mexican Chicken Salad” with chicken, carrots, peas, corn, mayo, sour cream, crushed Fritos, Sriracha, in a soft flour tortilla
Pho Golden Bowl – “Pho Taco,” with beef, sour carrots, rice noodles and basil
Piccola Italia Ristorante – Chicken Parmigiana with a chicken cutlet, sauce and mozzarella, and a Chicken Caesar Taco with grilled chicken, romaine lettuce, caesar dressing, Parmigiano flakes and croutons, also a dessert Cannoli Taco
Queen City Cupcakes – Churro Cupcake
Rare Breed Coffee – Iced Horchata Cortado and Caliente Hot Chocolate
Shopper’s Pub – “American Taco” with tender broiled pork in a toasted shell with sweet pickle relish and a blend of spices
Strange Brew Tavern – whiskey-marinated shredded chicken in an ancho pepper-infused crema
Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream – Ice cream tacos and nachos with waffle bowls as tacos and nacho shells
Taj India – Chicken Tikka Taco
Thai Food Connection – a wonton shell with chicken and Thai sauce
The Farm Bar and Grille – BBQ pulled pork, cheddar cheese, coleslaw, in a flour tortilla
The HopKnot – “Walking Taco” with jalepeňo honey, beer cheese, pico de gallo, and beans
The Patio @ Hilton Garden Inn Manchester – “PB&J Taco” with blueberry tarragon jam, peanut chicken, sour cream & onion potato chips, and Sriracha aioli
The Pint Publik House – Soft flour tortilla filled with Jamaican curried chicken, cheddar-jack cheese and shredded lettuce
The Potato Concept – “Potaco” with ground beef, cheddar, lettuce, tomato and sour cream
The Stoned Wall Bar & Grille – A jerked chicken and kiwi salsa taco
Thirsty Moose Taphouse – “Beef & Cheese Taco” with pico de gallo and sour cream
Thousand Crane – “Teriyaki Chicken Taco”
To Share Brewing Co. – “The Elvis” with banana slices, honey drizzle and optional bacon, on a flour tortilla
TACO TOUR When: Thursday, May 2, from 4 to 8 p.m. Where: downtown Manchester plus a few spots outside downtown Cost: $3 per taco, cash only Voting: tacotourmanchester.com/voting The Official Taco Tour 2024 Map, available on the Taco Tour website (tacotourmanchester.com/map), includes information about locations of participating restaurants, ATM’s, portable toilets, water stations and more.
Featured Photo: Previous Taco Tour. Courtesy photo.
We’ve all made impulsive kitchen purchases — exotic ingredients or fun toys — and then never used them. When faced with a new piece of kitchen fanciness, most of us are a little gun-shy.
Today’s recipe, while extremely simple to make, uses one piece of specialized equipment and one ingredient that you probably don’t already have in your pantry: a microplane zester and lemon juice powder. Should you have a grater to zest lemons with? (Yes, because it’s incredibly cool and makes zesting citrus, hard cheese or chocolate extremely easy.) Why in the world would you have a jar of lemon juice powder in your pantry? (Short answer: to make things taste lemony without making them wetter.)
You can totally get by without either of these — grate lemons with the side of your box grater with the tiny holes, and substitute lemon zest for the powder — but making a pie (this pie, anyway) will be easier and better with them.
Crust
½ cup (175 g) finely ground cookie crumbs – these can be stale homemade cookies, crispy grocery store cookies or even graham crackers; your blender or food processor will do a good job of crumbifying them
5 to 6 Tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice powder, or the zest of one lemon
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then press into a 9-inch pie pan. Build up the sides of the crust if you can, but don’t let this stress you out.
Chill the crust in your refrigerator for half an hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes.
Set aside to cool.
As you pull your crumb crust out of the oven, there is a very good chance that the sides will have slumped down to the bottom of the pan and there is a giant cookie grinning up at you instead of a pie crust. This is where most of us will start second-guessing ourselves and wallowing in shame:
The thing is, it doesn’t really matter. Unless you are competing on a British baking show, nobody cares. The pie will still taste great. So what if it’s in layers? Pretend this is what you meant to do, and move on.
While the crust is cooling, make the filling:
Filling
1 cup (200 g) sugar
¼ cup (60 ml) sour cream
4 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, roughly the juice of 4 lemons
Add all the ingredients to a bowl, and mix thoroughly. If you are measuring your ingredients by weight, put the mixer bowl on your kitchen scale and add each ingredient, taring (zeroing out) the weight as you go. You’ll be surprised how relaxing this is.
Pour the filling into your prepared pie crust, and bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the center of the pie is just a tiny bit jiggly.
Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool. Once it is cool, put it in your refrigerator.
Just before you are ready to serve, make the topping.
Topping
1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
2 Tablespon sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice powder, or the zest of another lemon
Combine all ingredients, and beat until it makes whipped cream with medium peaks. Cover the surface of your pie with whipped cream, and garnish with even more lemon zest, if that seems like the right thing to do.
This pie has an incredibly high reward-to-effort ratio. It tastes juicy and lemony. The crumb crust with added lemonosity is a revelation. It is easy to make look pretty — just slather any mistakes with whipped cream.
Maggie Prittie calls herself a chocolate sommelier; “sommelier” in French translates to steward. She teaches people how to taste, pair and source fine single-origin chocolates, and teaches them the history, art, science and culture of chocolate. She has created, produced and customized chocolates for pastry chefs throughout southwest Florida. She has led more than 350 local wine and chocolate pairings. She has made chocolates for the directors of the Louvre Museum, the Salvador Dali Museum, the Ringling Museum, Sting, and Yo-Yo Ma, and on the set of a Food Network series. She studied under renowned chocolatiers Ewald Notter and Anil Rohira. She is a member of the FCIA (Fine Chocolate Industry of America). Originally from New Hampshire, she recently moved back to the state to share her knowledge as an educator, sales representative, and recipe developer with World Wide Chocolate in Brentwood.
What is your must-have kitchen item?
Aside from the normal appliances, a convection/toaster oven, wooden and rubber spatulas and parchment paper.
What is your favorite local eatery?
Totally depends on my mood. Never fast food!
What celebrity would you like to see eating your food, and why?
Giada De Laurentiis. She is genuine and not pompous.
What is your favorite thing to make?
I love challenging myself with developing new recipes all the time, like Pistachio Spaetzle or developing a good espresso chocolate chip cookie recipe.
What is the biggest food trend in chocolate right now?
The biggest trend presently is just acquiring cocoa. The prices are skyrocketing and will keep rising. Single origin, farmer awareness, craft chocolate seems to be on the radar and hopefully will be more trendy.
What is your favorite thing to cook at home?
Grilled domestic lamb with pistachio spaetzle. For dessert, Ritz Carlton chocolate cake with chocolate panna cotta frosting and a drizzle of bourbon caramel sauce.
Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies From the kitchen of Maggie Prittie
Wet ingredients 1 cup browned unsalted butter ½ cup dark brown sugar (firmly packed) ¼ cup light brown sugar (firmly packed) ¾ cup granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons vanilla paste (Prova) 2 room-temperature eggs 2 Tablespoons Prova Arabica Colombian Coffee Extract
Dry ingredients 2½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cornstarch (adding cornstarch helps to make chewy cookies)
Chocolate chips 2½ cups Domori 75% Venezuela Wafer Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine them. Brown butter, then let cool to room temperature (I let it cool in the bowl of the KitchenAid mixer). Using the whipping utensil of the mixer, whip butter until soft, almost fluffy. Slowly add all wet ingredients, adding separately, add eggs one at a time. Whip until well-mixed and almost fluffy. Slowly add dry mixed ingredients into wet ingredients. I add them ¼ cup at a time. Add chips once all dry is incorporated. Do not overmix. (Adding the wafers while mixing does break some of them up.) Bake on parchment paper-lined cookie sheet at 325°F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on rack.
Nashua Center will present its 21st Taste of the Towns event at the Sheraton Nashua on Thursday, May 2, at 6 p.m.. Eighteen area restaurants, caterers, brewers and distributors will present food and drink as varied as Thai food, baked goods, Mexican dishes or vodka.
Taste of the Towns is the Nashua Center’s signature fundraising event of the year. Proceeds go to support the Center’s mission to provide high-quality specialized care and support to small children and young adults with developmental difficulties in the greater Nashua area.
“Everyone involved in the event is very proud,” said Nashua Center’s Director of Development, Maryanne Gordineer. “We’re so proud of the vendors who come back year after year, and for them this is a way of connecting with the community and giving back.”
Gordineer described the event as a way for like-minded people to network with each other and chat in a relaxed, celebratory atmosphere.
“It’s a memorable experience,” she said. “It’s just fun!” Gordineer said there are usually more than 300 guests who attend the event and circulate around, socializing and tasting samples from the participating vendors: “I like to think of it as dinner by the bite.”
In addition to its role as a fundraiser, Taste of the Towns is a way to bring attention to the Nashua Center and the work it does for the Nashua community. Established in 1973, the organization helps people build fulfilling lives as part of the community. In the case of very young children, this can take the form of early intervention services to help families identify developmental challenges and give them support. For young adults with special needs, it might be helping them experience post-secondary education, whether it’s attending classes, getting vocational training, or just experiencing an aspect of college life like using a school’s gym facilities or cafeteria. The Center helps provide adult day services or residential services for other clients.
“It’s all about inclusivity,” Gordineer said. “We facilitate independence and community participation.”
Tickets for Taste of the Towns cost $75. They usually sell out quickly, Gordineer said.
For Gardineer, who started with the Nashua Center shortly before last year’s event, it was an introduction to New England foods. “I’d never had a lobster roll before!” she said, adding that it was a revelation.
Taste of the Towns When: Thursday, May 2, at 6 p.m. Where: Sheraton Nashua, 11 Tara Boulevard, Nashua Tickets: $75 at nashuacenter.org Participating vendors: Bellavance Beverage Co. Bistro 603 Friendly Toast From the Barrel Brewing Co. Graceful Baking Imported Grape K’Sone’s Thai Dining & Lounge Liquid Therapy Live Free Distillery The Peddler’s Daughter Prestige Beverage Group Shorty’s Mexican Roadhouse Smokehaus Barbecue Tara House Grill Thon Khao Tito’s Handmade Vodka You You Japanese Bistro Woodman’s Artisan Bakery
The name of the Sal Terrae Spice Company came from owner Meredith Touma’s daughter, who was studying Latin at the time.
“It means ‘Salt of the Earth,’” Touma said. “To be the salt of the earth means to be excellent; to try your hardest, but not to be perfect.”
Derry-based Sal Terrae (salterraespiceco.com, 548-1490) specializes in producing spice blends made from ingredients sourced from around the world. As an example, za’atar, a traditional Middle Eastern mixture, has sumac as a core ingredient. Sumac, a deep red, intensely tart spice, is extremely popular in other parts of the world but difficult to find and source here in the United States.
“My husband is Lebanese,” Touma said, “and I send him home several times a year to bring high-quality sumac back with him.”
Touma started her business during the Covid lockdown. She said it was an outgrowth of her personal values. At the time, she was a stay-at-home mother of four and had made a commitment to always serve homemade meals.
“I wanted to teach my children to not be scared of new cultures or flavors,” she said. “During shut-down, [a lot of] people were eager to explore new things while they were stuck at home. Suddenly, there was a market for new flavors for them.”
The spice blends Sal Terrae sells vary from the traditional, like za’atar, to new blends that Touma has developed herself.
“The Beach Blend is the most unusual blend that we make,” she said. The blend, which includes smoked paprika, oregano, ginger and cloves, was developed with seafood in mind.
“It was partly inspired by Old Bay,” she said. “It’s a classic, but it seemed like it was missing something. It needed some smokiness and depth.” The smoked paprika adds a bittersweet quality that complements the savory flavors of fish, like salmon.
“It [Beach Blend] has a little sourness to it,” she said. “That acidic quality helps bring some of the more subtle flavors to the surface. That’s why they always tell you to cook your salmon with slices of lemon on top.”
That sourness plays a background role in some of Sal Terrae’s other spice blends, such as, surprisingly, the Sugar and Spice blend. Because it has a similar color to the “warmer” ingredients, it’s visually appealing and rounds them out. Traditional baking ingredients like ginger and cloves make sense. Three types of cinnamon are exciting to spice nerds and seem like a natural in this kind of blend. The cardamom is a little surprising, but welcome. And then there’s the subtle background sourness from the sumac, which brings the other flavors into sharper focus.
According to Touma, turning the traditional concept of “warm” or “cool” spices on its head provides her a lot of room to introduce her customers to different ways of cooking and new flavor profiles. Indian and Middle Eastern cooking traditionally use mace, cinnamon and cloves in savory dishes, while most American cooks use them in sweet applications. By focusing on what sorts of profiles she wants to create, Touma puts together nontraditional combinations that give her customers new ways to appreciate their favorite foods.
“Even as the owner, I’m still learning something all the time from my own spice blends,” she said. “None of our blends are going to be completely perfect for everyone, but everyone can find one that is perfect for their taste.”
Touma said today’s cooks have resources that allow creativity that past generations couldn’t take advantage of. “They were largely limited to cookbooks or word of mouth,” she said. Today, if someone wants to try a new ingredient or to cook something completely new to them, they can look up options on the internet. This is exactly the role she hopes that Sal Terrae’s spice blends will play — being able to play with food traditions, without being locked into them.
“OK, these ones are great,” said Keith Sarasin, pulling a bag of Indian snack mix down from a shelf. “They’re made with black salt, which isn’t something that most Americans are really familiar with. It’s got sulphury back-notes that are a little freaky at first, but after they’ve tried it, most people get addicted to it.”
Chef Sarasin is the chef and owner of Aatma, an Indian-themed popup restaurant. He describes himself as “Indian-food obsessed.” We were at Patel Brothers, an Indian supermarket in Nashua, looking over an aisle of dozens of varieties of snack mixes. He explains that people in South Asia — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — are passionate about snack foods. As if to illustrate his point, for every aisle of produce or staple ingredients at Patel Brothers, there is another one devoted to a different type of snack food.
“These,” he said, pointing to a package of biscuits (cookies), “are what you would have with tea. If you’re Indian, you keep some of these around all the time to serve to guests. There is a saying in Hindi that translates to ‘The guest is a god.’” That’s how seriously they take their snacks.
Almost every culture around the world has snacks that the people eat on the street, or sitting with friends, drinking tea, beer, coffee, or tequila, gossiping and arguing about sports. More and more of these snacks are making their way to New Hampshire — in supermarkets, superettes or convenience stores.
So, let’s do some exploring.
The following snack foods represent a small fraction of what is available at four local international markets — one Indian, one Filipino, one Mexican and one East Asian. These stores, in turn, are a fraction of the international snack landscape around us. There are Bosnian, African, Middle Eastern, and Greek markets that we haven’t had the opportunity to get to.
The snacks have been sorted by the stores where they were purchased (with tasting notes provided by snackers at the Hippo office). Because these are all ready-to-eat snacks, each section of regional snacks is followed by a recipe for a traditional snack from that culture that you probably won’t find on a grocery store shelf.
Patel Brothers. Photo by John Fladd.
Patel Brothers:
Masala mix & West Indies potato chips
Patel Brothers (292 Daniel Webster Highway, Unit 8, Nashua, patelbros.com, 888-8009) is a large supermarket that is part of a national chain of more than 50 stores, according to the website. This one sits in Willow Springs Plaza in Nashua, next to Home Depot. It is a full-service supermarket with produce, groceries and products from all areas of South Asia and it features an in-store bakery.
Gharana brand Chakri (Muruku)
Where it’s from: Indian snack, made in New Jersey Description: A dry, crunchy churro-shaped cookie or cracker, wrapped in a spiral. Tasting notes: “A deep-fried flavor with a spicy back-end.” “Unexpectedly spicy”
Lay’s West Indies Hot & Sweet Potato Chips
Where it’s from: Lay’s, the PepsiCo-produced chips you’re familiar with, has produced flavors for the Caribbean and South Asian market Description: A ruffled potato chip with Caribbean flavors Tasting notes: “I taste paprika; the heat grows as you eat.” “Very reminiscent of Old Bay Seasoning.” “Wow, this excites my taste buds with the sweet, then the spice!”
Swad brand Mamra Laddoo
Where it’s from: Indian snack, manufactured in New Jersey Description: Hard, crunchy caramelized puffed rice balls Tasting notes: “Very crunchy.” “A second cousin to caramel corn.”
Where it’s from: South India Description: Nuggets of dried bananas covered with sugar and spices Tasting notes: “This would be good with tea.” “Slight banana flavor — mostly hidden under the jaggery and cardamom. I like this.” “It tastes a little like garam masala.”
Bombay Kitchen Mumbai Masala snack mix
Where it’s from: Central Indian snack, made in New York Description: A snack mix made of chickpea crackers, peanuts, raisins, rice flakes, lentils, green peas and spices. Tasting notes: “There is a wide variety of textures. The flavor is subtle at first, with an aftertaste of garam masala.” “There is a variety of very crunchy and not-so-crunchy textures, with a nice amount of spice.” “I was much softer than I had thought. Not bad, but you need a decent handful to get the true flavor.”
Haldiram’s Khatta Meetha snack mix
Where it’s from: India Description: A snack mix made of chickpea crackers, peanuts, mango powder, lentils and spices Tasting notes: “Sweet tasting, with many spices. It isn’t hot.” “It starts out kind of bland, but quickly becomes addictive, with a sweet, mild heat and a soft crunch.”
Snack to make at home: Slacker Vada
Slacker Vada. Photo by John Fladd.
Vada, a fried fritter-like food, are popular street snacks in Southern India. Passengers on trains will reach out the windows of their carriages at stops along their journey and buy them from vendors at each train station. They are a perfect on-the-go street food — crunchy outside, comfort-foody inside, and easily eaten on the go.
Let’s be clear about this: This recipe is not authentic vada. An Indian auntie would have a lot to say about how not-authentic they are. A vada wallah (a vada aficionado) on the streets of Mangaluru would take a bite of one, then shake his head at the state of this weary world. But, these vada are tasty, deep-fried and easy to make at home. Once you have a vague idea of how good a vada is, you will want to seek out one that is more authentic and involves intimidating ingredients like asafetida (a spice that requires a whole other conversation).
1 15-ounce can of lentils – I like Goya
½ 15-ounce can of chickpeas (sometimes labeled as garbanzo beans)
2 Tablespoon finely chopped cashews
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
⅓ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
2 hot green chiles, finely chopped – New Hampshire chiles are notoriously unreliable; your best bet is probably serrano or Fresno chiles, which have a good flavor and a reliably moderate level of heat
2 Tablespoon rice flour, possibly more
½ teaspoon salt
vegetable oil for frying
Your best tip for Indian cooking — or any cooking — is to prepare all your ingredients and lay them out so you know where they are when you need them and don’t need to rummage through your cabinets or refrigerator looking for something that you forgot you were out of. Professionals call this mise en place; it’s just another phrase for being properly prepared. Do that with your vada ingredients.
Rinse the chickpeas and lentils in a strainer until they stop being foamy.
Blend the lentils and chickpeas in your blender until they look like peanut butter and smell like refried beans. If the mixture is too thick, add water, a spoonful at a time, until it gets to where you want it to be.
Transfer the puree to a bowl, and mix in the other ingredients. It should be just stiff enough to work with your hands. If it’s too sticky, add more rice flour, again a spoonful at a time, until you can hold it and shape it with your fingers.
Take enough of the mixture to roll into a ball about the size of a golf ball. Roll it, then poke your finger through the middle of it, and shape it into a miniature doughnut. Vada are doughnut-shaped for the same reason doughnuts are: to allow them to cook completely in hot oil before they get greasy. It also allows you to get a deep-fried crispiness on the increased surface area of the vada. Make two or three while your oil heats up.
Heat 4 to 6 inches of oil in a pot to 350°F. If you choose a small pot, the oil will come to temperature quickly and you won’t need as much of it. You will only be able to fry one or two vada at a time, though, and the temperature of the oil will drop more easily when you add the room-temperature vada to the pan. If you use a bigger pot you will have more oil, can fry more vada at a time, and will retain a good frying temperature.
Fry the vada like you would doughnuts — 2 or 3 minutes on each side — until they are crispy and the color of brown car upholstery. Drain them on paper towels.
Because these are doughnut-shaped, part of your brain expects them to be sweet, but they are entirely savory. There are bits of chewy coconut, but also brightness from the chilies, ginger and cilantro. The background flavor is undefinably savory but supports its co-stars. These are excellent hot from the fryer, or at room temperature, although they are at their crispiest while they are still hot. They go very well with chai or coffee, and with a chutney, preferably coconut chutney.
Make these, grow to love them, and then we’ll talk about asafetida.
Saigon Asian Market:
sweets and seaweed
Saigon Asian Market (476 Union St., Manchester, 935-9597) is a medium-sized supermarket with groceries and products from Vietnam, China, Taiwan and Thailand. It offers fresh produce and excellent fresh seafood.
Kaoriya Mochi Peanut Flavor
Where it’s from: Traditional Japanese snack, made in Thailand Description: Soft pillowy rice mochi, with a sweet, peanut filling Tasting notes: “Two distinct textures; it tastes like a peanut butter bun.” “Very chewy; peanut flavor is very prominent, but not like peanut butter.”
Ricky joy brand Strawberry Mellow Cone
Where it’s from: China Description: Brightly colored, ice cream cone-shaped candy. Tasting notes: “Fun filling inside.”
Mag Mag brand Thai Hote Madame Plum
Where it’s from: Thailand Description: Spiced dry plum Tasting notes: “Madame is beautifully sweet and sour.” “Not too spicy — a nice balance of sweet plum and heat. I’m voting this my favorite.”
Tao Kae Noi: Mala Flavor seaweed snack
Where it’s from: Thailand Description: Dried, seasoned strips of seaweed. Tasting notes: “It has some heat.” “The spice builds as you eat it. It’s very fishy.”
Koe-Kae Sriracha Chilli Sauce Flavour Coated Green Peas
Where it’s from: Thailand Description: Freeze-dried peas, coated with a sweet sriracha flavoring Tasting notes: “It has a good crunch and good heat in small doses.” “Excellent crunch! The heat builds then recedes nicely.” “Great crunch! Perfect amount of spice for a snack food.”
Teddy Bear Sweet & Sour Spicy Tamarind
Where it’s from: Thailand Description: Dried tamarind fruit with added spice Tasting notes: “This has a delicious sour tamarind flavor. There are large seeds.” “Interesting combination — I got the sweet, the sour, and the spicy (in that order), with a nice gummy texture.” “I was not prepared for the seeds, but otherwise, I loved it. Sweet and sour with an earthy taste.”
Snack to make at home: Kluay Thod
Kluay Thod. Photo by John Fladd.
These fried bananas are a specialty in Bangkok, where street cooks use small, finger-sized bananas. Those totally work in this recipe but can sometimes be a little hard to find. Half-inch rounds of a regular Cavendish banana will work just as well, as long as it’s properly ripe — yellow, with a lot of brown spots on it. If the convenience store you buy your morning coffee from has bananas up by the register, they will be just about perfect for this recipe, especially later in the week, when the bananas have seen too much of life and have given up hope. Think of this as helping them fulfill their destiny.
10-12 finger-sized bananas, cut in half, or ½-inch rounds of 3 large, ripe ones
1¼ cups (200 g) rice flour, plus more for dredging
1½ cups (200 g) all purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 cup (200 ml) water
1 cup (200 ml) coconut milk
½ teaspoon salt – I like to use coarse sea salt
½ cup (50 g) sesame seeds
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup (50 g) finely minced coconut
vegetable oil for frying
Fill a pot with 4 to 6 inches of vegetable oil and set it to heating over medium heat. Keep an eye on it; you want it to eventually reach 350°F.
Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients, aside from the bananas, in a large bowl. It will make a thick batter.
Pour a smallish amount, maybe half a cup, of rice flour into a small bowl. This is for dredging. When you’re deep-frying something, wet batter doesn’t like to stick to wet or damp ingredients, so it’s a good idea to cover whatever you’re frying with something dry and powdery — fried chicken often calls for seasoned flour or cornstarch, for example. In this case, you’ve already got rice flour on the counter, so we’ll use that.
When your oil has come to temperature, dredge several pieces of banana in rice flour, then dunk them in batter. Even with the rice flour, the banana might balk at being completely covered; you’ll have to convince it.
Carefully drop the battered banana pieces into the oil and cook them until they are a rich brown color. You’ll know when they’re ready; their beauty will stagger you. Fry a few banana pieces at a time to keep the oil at a consistent temperature.
Drain them on several layers of paper towels.
You owe it to yourself to eat at least a couple of these hot and crispy right from the fryer. They are lightly sweet, with banana notes in the background, and a savory, sesame-forward flavor from the batter. There’s a comforting contrast between the soft banana and the crispy/chewy texture of the sesame coating.
True to their street food origins, you and whoever else is in the house with you will probably eat this standing in the kitchen. If there are any left, they will still be good for several hours, especially with a glass of Thai iced tea.
GFM Pinoy Food Mart:
ube and adobo
GFM Pinoy Food Mart (224 North Broadway, Salem, gfmpinoyfoods.com, 458-1957) is a very small, snack-heavy Filipino grocery store. There are some refrigerated and frozen foods from the Philippines, but most of the stock is dry goods.
Fritzie’s Ube Cheese Pandesal
Where it’s from: Filipino pastry, made in New Jersey Description: A purple bun (ube is an Asian purple yam) with a mild cheese filling Tasting notes: “This tastes a lot like a croissant.” “It reminds me of pan dulce slightly. I can’t really taste the cheese.” “It … has a nice taste, like a sweet bread.”
Jack ’n’ Jill brand Chicharron ni Mang Juan (vegetarian pork rinds), Sukang Paombong flavored
Where it’s from: Philippines Description: Light golden-brown fried snack that is curled to look like pork rinds Tasting notes: “Salty and savory with more depth of flavor than I was expecting.” “Mild and crunchy; they would be excellent with three or four beers.”
Boy Bawang Cornick: Adobo Flavor
Where it’s from: Philippines Description: “Marinated Meat-Flavored Fried Corn” Tasting notes: “Chickeny-tasting corn nuts.” “Crunchy puffed corn with a mild flavor.” “Fave! I love these. They are like Corn Nuts, but not tooth-breaky.”
Jack ’n’ Jill brand Chippy Barbecue Flavored Corn Chips
Where it’s from: The Philippines Description: Barbecue-flavored corn chips the size and shape of Fritos Tasting notes: “The taste is a mix between a Bugle and a Frito.” “It’s light on the barbecue flavor, but I love the corn chip for a nice change-up.” “Savory, meaty taste at the end.”
Jack ’n’ Jill brand V-Cut Potato Chips
Where it’s from: The Philippines Description: Lightly smoky rippled potato chips Tasting notes: “It reminds me of a barbecue sandwich in a chip form.” “I really enjoyed the barbecue flavor of this one. Not too strong; just perfect.”
Snack to make at home: Tambo-Tambo
Tambo-Tambo. Photo by John Fladd.
Tambo-Tambo is a coconut pudding with tapioca pearls and rice balls from the Philippines. Because the Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, each with its own culture, and because it is in the middle of several major trade routes, you never know what you’re going to get in a Filipino snack. The food culture of the Philippines has been impacted by East Asian, Indonesian, Spanish and even American influences. This particular snack leans heavily into three ingredients deeply rooted in the Filipino landscape: coconut, cassava (which tapioca is made from) and rice.
½ cup (75 g) small tapioca pearls
1 cup (250 ml) water
1 cup (150 g) glutinous rice flour – it will probably be called Sweet White Rice Flour in your supermarket, but it’s the same thing
another ½ cup (125 ml) water
1¾ cup (400 ml) unsweetened coconut milk
another ½ cup (125 ml) water
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (100 g) sugar
diced fresh fruit – mangos are traditional, but I think fresh cherries would be fantastic
Soak the tapioca in a cup of water for half an hour, then rinse thoroughly.
Meanwhile, mix the rice flour with half a cup of water, then roll it into half-inch balls with wet fingers. (Your fingers should be wet. Giving the rice balls fingers would be disconcerting.) Cover them with a damp cloth until Game Time.
Mix the coconut milk, salt, sugar, and the last half cup of water in a small saucepan, then bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
Crash the heat to low, then stir in the rice balls. Cook them for about 4 minutes, until they are cooked through and chewy. Stir pretty much continuously, to keep the rice balls from sticking to each other.
Bring the heat back up to high, then stir in the rinsed tapioca, and stir until the tapioca has been cooked, another 3 or 4 minutes. The tapioca will thicken the mixture noticeably.
Remove from heat, and let the pudding cool, maybe 20 minutes. Serve, garnished with fresh fruit.
This snack is full of contrasts — the coconut pudding is creamy, the rice balls are chewy and the tapioca is, err, tapioca-y. The coconut is sweet — perhaps even a little too sweet on its own — but it is balanced out by the mildness of the rice balls. This snack is great warm, but even better cold and refreshing. I can imagine standing in a market in Manila, desperately hot and completely overwhelmed, then grounding myself with a dish of tambo-tambo.
La Michoacana Market:
Takis and Zambos
La Michoacana Market (112 Pine St., Nashua, 882-0271) is a small neighborhood market with Mexican snacks and products. It serves a small selection of American-style hot food, some with a Mexican twist.
Bimbo brand Nito snack cakes
Where it’s from: Mexico Description: Dry, chocolate-frosted and -filled snack cake Tasting notes: “A strong cocoa flavor.” “The sweet bread enhances the sweetness of the chocolate icing; it isn’t too sweet.” “Nice and chocolatey.”
Takis Hot Nuts Fuego
Where it’s from: Mexico Description: Peanuts with a spicy/sour coating Tasting notes:“The spiciness is all in the electric red dust.” “Very acidic.” “All the spice of a Takis with a peanut finish.” “Shockingly spicy at first, but ends nicely. It makes you want more!”
Yummies brand Ceviche Flavored Zambos
Where it’s from: Honduras Description: Ceviche-flavored plantain chips Tasting notes: “Outstanding lime and salt flavors; the fishy background is distracting.” “This tastes sort of like a seaweed chip; it’s pretty good.”
Diana Brand Jalapeňos tortilla chip
Where it’s from: El Salvador Description: Seasoned tortilla chips Tasting notes: “Tiny triangles. Delicate corn flavor with mild heat.” “not as hot as I expected but tasty and easy going with a great touch of spice.” “I’m obsessed with these! They are perfect, and almost no flavoring sticks to your fingers.”
Bimbo brand Choco Bimbuňuelos
Where it’s from: Mexico Description: The packaging describes it as “Sweet Crispy Wheels with Chocolate Flavored Coating” Tasting notes: “Extra crunchy. The chocolate is very melty.” “These are very dangerous! You could eat a whole package if you weren’t careful. The chocolate is so creamy and the crisp is light.”
Snack to make at home: Pemoles
Tambo-Tambo. Photo by John Fladd.
Mexico is another country that has had its food shaped by a huge number of influences — indigenous, Spanish and even French. Mexico has a complex and sophisticated baking tradition. There are Mexican cookies that would blow your mind. Pemoles are wreath-shaped cookies made with masa harina (corn flour) instead of wheat flour, and are flavored with coffee.
2 cups (250 g) masa harina (corn flour)
¼ teaspoon salt – again, I like to use coarse sea salt; it plants little salt bombs in the finished cookie
1 Tablespoon finely ground coffee
1¼ sticks (125 g) butter — authentic pemoles are made with lard, which tastes fantastic in baked goods but can be intimidating, so we’ll use butter instead; feel free to use the full-octane fat, though; you will not regret it
½ cup (125 g) sugar
1 egg
¼ cup (2 ounces) coffee liqueur
Toast the masa harina in a dry skillet, stirring constantly, until it darkens to a golden-brown color — about the same color as a lion. Transfer it to a bowl to cool.
Add the salt and coffee to the roasted masa harina. Stir to combine.
Using your electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until they are pale yellow, light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg and then, once the egg is incorporated, the coffee liqueur.
Gradually mix in the dry ingredients.
When the dough has come together, refrigerate it for half an hour.
OK, this is where things get a little weird. Every recipe for pemoles says that you should knead the dough until it is smooth before chilling it. This seems impossible. The pre-chilled mixture is much too soft to work with your hands. Additionally, because there isn’t any wheat in this recipe, there is no flour to produce gluten, the stuff that makes bread and other baked goods pliable. I’m sure that the Mexican nuns who invented pemoles could do it; I haven’t worked out a way to.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Pinch off a tablespoonful of the chilled dough and form it into a 6-inch-long snake. Apparently, rolling it is recommended — and that would probably work if you could manage to knead the dough — but I’ve found that squeezing it in my palms works better. Put your snake on the baking sheet and form it into a circle. You should be able to form about a dozen cookies.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. You won’t be able to tell by the color when they are done, but if you poke a pemole and it feels like a cookie that hasn’t firmed up yet, they are ready to take out of the oven.
Let the pemoles cool, then eat them.
These have a crumbly, sandy texture, much like a really good shortbread. This is something bakers call sablé. The roasted corn flavor is deeply satisfying — a little like a good cornbread — and the not-over-the-top coffee flavor gives you an emotional anchor to hang the “Ooh-I-like-this” part of your brain on. It goes without saying that these are a natural to have with coffee.
