Bakesale Betty’s Chicken Sandwich, Oakland California. Kendra Williams-Valentine.

This month’s Bon Apetit arrived, and behold, emblazoned on the front cover: A crispy chicken sandwich with fresh slaw- I instantly knew that somehow, someway, the Bakesale Betty gospel had reached the east coast, and now the nation for sure.

The Bon Apetit magazine cover that set my memories in motion: Bakesale Betty’s!

It was August 2011 when I visited this lunch-spot supreme. I was in Oakland, working with La Wanda from CocoaDiva for the month of August. She, aware of my culinary sensibilities (read obsession) wanted to take me to the new hot lunch-spot for a “Fried-” I instantly interrupted with a “yes!” eyes wide with anticipation. I regained my composure, apologized, and let her finish with a laugh: “fried chicken sandwich…but really really good, and fresh”. I have to admit, when she said “fresh” I was thinking “fresh out the fryer” so I was not expecting the glory that awaited (Although freshly fried was also true, she was referring to the fresh slaw in the sandwich). So what does two hard working women do on a hot summer afternoon in the middle of prepping for a food event? Ride over to the other side of Oakland to wait in line for a sandwich, that’s what (I’m in Cali baby, what do you want?).

Bakesale Betty Sign. Kendra Williams-Valentine

We had to get there in good time, as they consistently run out of the goods in a short lunch window of a couple hours. We arrived at a simple storefront, no furnishings inside and a hand written menu on the door. Just a good service line and boxes of dry goods lining the walls.

Outside, 5 or 6 colored iron boards propped up as tables with stools, serviced a few patrons as dining tables:

Hipsters trying to get out of the sun so either their vinyl accessories don’t melt or so they keep an edgy pasty complexion: I could not determine which.
Sneaker-heads looking crisp with cornrows and rare Nike Dunks, accountant guy that forwent an undershirt beneath his white see-through button down, and that old man with the eclectic sense of fashion who seems to always know where the mid day hot spots are: everyone was getting their bird on.

To be honest, it was love at first sight- let alone bite. Not close to any chicken sandwich I’ve had, but at the same time so very familiar. You can see and taste each ingredient, but still you get the feeling there is something special in the mix, something unbeknown to you, something spiritual. True, I am a southern fried food fanatic when I want to be, but this was beyond bias… looking around at the throngs of people I was reassured of this. Bakesale Betty’s is
decadent yet fresh.. something I’ve only grown accustomed to look to Vietnamese cuisine for.

That crispy slaw… how the hell does it all keep such integrity? The flaky breading, crunchy the whole way through (although we should remember we were not diddling through this meal, it was all business) and not one strand of slaw wilted by the warmth of the chicken… a marvel of execution.

In my head I did a jig… not as in ‘little dance’: full on Savion Glover/Crip walk hybrid… I can still remember it clearly nearly (2) years later. Oakland has a winner.

Chocolate Chip cookies without chocolate chips. These cookies are super tasty, and stay that way even the next day!

Anyone who knows my cooking preferences, knows that I am not big on baking. Especially not using yeast. Not that it’s my achilles heel, it just doesn’t bring me joy to follow someone else’s recipe (or my own for that matter) perfectly… reading and measuring out carefully with very little room for improvisation.

Not my thing.

However, cookies do have a special place in my heart. Why?

1. I usually have all the ingredients on hand.

2. They don’t take forever to prepare or bake.

3. There is NO YEAST involved

and last but not least, they carry memories upon memories of home.

So, about a month or so ago I was having a conversation with my friend about cookies, and she revealed something awfully curious… she loves chocolate chip cookies but not the chocolate chips.

How the hell does that work??? and no don’t tell me its called a damn Snickerdoodle… that’s not the same thing Betty Crocker.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I understood what she meant… and since I live in in the European ‘land of hard to find chocolate chips that cost a ton for very low generic quality’ I began to think maybe that wasn’t a bad idea.

So, I decided to keep that thought in the back of my head, and try to figure out a recipe that could make the “Elusive Chocolate Chip Cookie without Chocolate Chips”.

A couple days ago, the thought of a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie from Mrs. Fields’ popped into my head. Torture I have grown used to living abroad.

So I decided to look around the interwebs, and do some research online (and procrastinate doing the research I should have been doing). After awhile, I consolidated all the recipes for “Mrs. Fields’ cookies” but anyone who knows anything about cooking at home from scratch verses commercial franchise is: it can not be the same. For one thing, no preservatives that gives it that extra zing you have gotten familiar with as part of the flavor. For better or worse.

BUT! There was one feature that looked really promising… a call for oatmeal (Havregryn in Swedish) powder (Which is taking dried oats and blending it in a food processor until it becomes powder).

AHA!

Perhaps that is the extra texture I would need to help a cookie stand on its own enough to forgo chocolate chips. So, I altered the recipe per usual (Sorry guys its very hard for me to follow recipes, like ever) but I think this is a good start to something that I will continue to perfect…. try to make some at home, and email me what you think!

Disclaimer: These cookies are NOT cookie monster friendly. They have no crumble factor. They are crisp on the edges and chewy in the center, and stay that way even the next day!

“Dena’s Chocolate Chip Cookie’s (without the chocolate chips)”

You will need:

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. real vanilla extract (or 1 tsp. vanilla sugar)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2½ cups oatmeal or Harvregryn (This is measured before it is blended into powder)
*½ tsp. salt (if your butter has no salt)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda (Bicarbonat in Swedish)

Phase 1:

Melt the butter on low until half is liquid and half is very soft. While the butter is melting, make your Oatmeal powder in the food processor (might work in a blender also in very small batches)

When butter is ready put: butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix together thoroughly.

Add eggs and vanilla, stir couple times (but do not mix thoroughly, you will continue to mix after adding other ingredients.)

Mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Makes sure the dough has a nice smooth and sticky consistency. (you can add a spoon of water, cream or milk to be sure its not dry).

Place cookie dough in the refrigerator (15 min or so.) while your oven heats up (375 F or 200 C). Take cookie dough out the refrigerator 10 min before you want to start baking, and let sit on counter to re soften a bit.

(Obviously, you can simply store the dough until you want to use it.)

Drop round balls with a 1 inch (2.5 centimeter) diameter on ungreased cookie sheets, two inches apart, and bake 6-8 minutes. Do not cook until it is really brown on the edges, when you let the cookies cool you will find they are done perfectly.

These bad boys even stay soft and tasty if you accidentally leave them out exposed all night, because you passed out with a tummy ache from eating too many Trust me on this one. Breakfast of champs!

Vietnamese noodle soup: made easy.

It seems I’m on a bit of an Asian kick these days… which is not unheard of since I’ve spent many a day hanging out in Chinatown as a teen. One particular favorite I used to eat at least 3 times per week was Pho or Vietnamese noodle soup. I get cravings for this soup that creep up so quickly its shocking.

Now, I love spending entire Sundays cooking down marrow bones into broth, but this sunday I wanted my Pho- and I wanted it fast. This is what I came up with, and the broth had far more depth then the last take out Pho I attempted in Stockholm- awesome.

Look what I found in Stockholm!

This morning, I was woken up with a phone call: “You’re not going to believe it, there’s a pop up store of one of your favorite places…. Starbucks! Right next to the castle!(Literal castle, this is Stockholm)” Me: “No way… no way, oh snap! Merry Christmas to me!”

So, I gathered up my snow gear and went over to check out the situation, and indeed found a contingent of Starbucks ‘workers’ next to the castle, however it wasn’t the unimaginable portable Starbucks cafe complete with pastries I like to look at but never buy, I had tried to imagine… it was a promotion. A promotion for a cold latte product for sale in stores.

My free sample of the retail product: Starbucks Discoveries Latte

That’s right, cold Starbucks for a cold winter day… funny, funny. But who am I kidding, I indulged, after all it was free. I didn’t earn my Starbucks Gold Card from passing up on the goods.

Howard Schultz, if you get this: Please save me airfare by opening a real Starbucks in Stockholm. Me love you long time.

A happy Starbucks promotion worker: I think she would be happier inside a real warm Starbucks

Here is the Glögg or spiced mulled wine that I used in my cooking.

Its Christmas time, and in Scandinavia that means time for cups of warm Glögg (mulled spiced wine) at parties. Last year, I had a lot left over from the holidays, so I decided this year the holiday drink should pull double duty and I should think of a couple of ways to use it in my cooking.

The first great opportunity came last Weekend, I was making a pork tenderloin. I crusted the tenderloin with freshly coarse ground peppercorns and allspice. As we all know, pork goes well with a bit of sweet and spice, so I instantly though of using some leftover Glögg for a sauce. You can tweak the flavors any way you like, but using the things I had on hand I made a reduction using:

Pan drippings from tenderloin

Glögg

Dijon mustard

Apple cider vinegar (tiny splash)

Ginger ale

Agave syrup (or honey)

A dash of salt

I started with the Glögg on high heat to scrape pan drippings from the pan and then turned the heat to medium high. I added the rest of the ingredients, in about the same order as listed, allowing each one to blend into the sauce before adding the next. Just use a bit of each ingredient, keeping ratios about the same (except the vinegar, just a small splash and the Gløgg should be double the amount of the other ingredients combined) You can always taste as you go, and tweak the ingredients to your taste. To finish, I reduced the liquid down, cooking until I had a few spoonfuls of a glossy sauce. Done.

Peppercorn & Allspice crusted Pork Tenderloin with Glögg Agave reduction

For my non- Swedish friends, ‘Fika’ is a both an event and verb for a long coffee break people take, where they eat sweets, chat, and drink coffee… Apparently this can happen multiple times per day, because every time I call Claes at work, he is about to have Fika. Hard work this Swedish life.

Ready to roll! Literally.

Svensk Kardamumma Bullar (Swedish Cardamon Buns)

Svensk Kardamumma Bullar (Swedish Cardamon Buns), Kendra Williams-Valentine

Chilli Sausages
No side plate, so I had to beast it.

That’s right, Czech Republic.  The quintessential European city.

Czech food is the grandmother of good old ‘meat and potatoes’ cuisine, and you get great value for your dollar. You truly don’t need to worry about budgeting for a good meal.

Prague is a MEAT LOVERS PARADISE (Vegetarians, this is not your culinary city) however, heaven can quickly turn into hell (read: meat night sweats by day 3 and dreaming about a salad to cool.) Of course you can find more then just Czech food to get a bit more variation, I spotted a couple Vietnamese places in the Vinorady district… but I couldn’t help myself and indulged in Czech fare exclusively.  Just remember: that Pork knuckle you are ordering is a dish, of a huge pork knuckle (with perhaps a bit of horseradish and mustard on side) you will need to scour the menu (and even then I would just ask to see if they have any sides, that isn’t a potato)

Nakládaný hermelín (pickled cheese)

You know your neck deep in a beer culture when all the starters,even at a restaurant, pairs well with (you guessed it): BEER. It would be great to have some of these bad boys to start making an appearance on the local pub menu… or gastro pub for that matter (hint hint all you cool bar owners out west). I must say, I do enjoy a good sausage, and this city rules this specialty. However, there’s lots more then sausages, I’d try the Nakládaný hermelín (pickled cheese)

LOKAL: I like this place

Lokal is a beer hall restaurant not far from old town square, and my meal here really made my whole trip. Not just the food, but also the atmosphere. It is more of a beer hall, with long communal tables, bustling with life (and a bit of smoke in the front section). I am still thinking about the tripe soup (from bar buffet) … it was so tasty, I wanted to go back for more the next day. True to Czech fashion, there was only tripe in it- but between that and the broth I really didn’t need anything else. On the menu they state “no flavorings added” and Maggie (a seasoning salt) on request with goulash. This lack of confidence must only be as far as the goulash because all I needed was a spoon for that tripe soup… I don’t even want to talk about it anymore.

The schnitzel w potato salad didn’t look like much coming out, but cut a piece and its buttery crisp in all the right places. Very well done. Don’t let it get cold while you take pictures, eat it fresh out the pan or not at all. I don’t claim to be a schnitzel aficionado; do but I know a damn thing or two about fried food… hats off. Well played.

Mandatory tourist stop: pay for the pleasure of eating in the municipal house restaurant downstairs, a serious Art Nouveau gem (I could go on and on about how much I love Art Nouveau). Or just take a drink in the small American Bar attached to the dinning room and take a peak inside the dinning room at your leisure. I’ll save my words and allow these photos by Claes Helander, speak for me.

Municipal House, Prague Photo: Claes Helander

Municipal House, Prague Photo: Claes Helander

plzenska restaurace, Municipal House, Prague
Photo: Claes Helander

Note on Czech service:
Only inexperienced travelers will call it terrible. I saw people ripping the service left and right online, and honestly I suspect they are mostly of the hordes of Americans visiting. There are few places in the world you will get the kind of service Americans are accustomed to. The wait staff are generally straightforward (no smiling nonsense) and work hard. Always moving and watching your beer glass from afar, which is better then many restaurant cultures (Holler back Italy). Besides, with the mammoth portions they send out, you really should not be bothering with asking for anything else!

It actually started 1.5 years ago at the same time as I was introduced to the topic of this little write up: During an immersive entrepreneurship program funded by the Swedish government (A strong public sector is socialist perk!), that took me to San Francisco to study food culture, entrepreneurial endeavors, etc, etc. Many of the other students in the group were all about Silicon Valley… I just wanted to see, be seen, and eat.

I ended up attending a panel discussion; I think it was on marketing your food product. I was helping a lady with a business in the Mission district, so we went together. This event was put on by the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, a wonderful resource for the community. It was very nice for these successful bay area entrepreneurs to give their time: one of which was James Freeman, the Founder of Blue Bottle Coffee.

After the panel, the image from his at times ‘soliloquy’ styled presentation, which was intended as advice, stuck with me.

Did he have a  plan?

Not so much, he just wanted to make a the best coffee, no matter the measures he needed to take… and thereafter making sure his employees do the same, and that’s the product is kept fresh: sold within 48 hours of grinding.

Did he spend a lot of time on marketing?

Hmmmm, not really, he figured, if they like it, they will come back.

Any peaks and valleys to speak of?

I recall perhaps a story about a mishap with a machine, but all in all his tone was kept quite uniform and relaxed, with one exception: he thought it was oh so sophisticated (I am pretty sure at one point he actually used the word ‘glamorous’) to see Blue Bottle served at the MOMA in NYC. That is the only point in the speech where I heard any distinctly enthusiastic inflection in his tone, this obviously excited him. I was suspicious he was perhaps an intellectual whore… its like Hipster, but they came of age in the 90′s when the independent film was ‘invented’ by a friend of a friend… but I prompted myself to digress and take heed to confirm first.

I looked around the room, and could imagine some of the people’s thoughts: “What the hell, does this guy know he’s a red blooded American capitalist or what? Where’s the beef? The scoop? The strategy?”

All in all, this guy seemed more of an auteur of the art of coffee then an entrepreneur. Unless, of course, his nonchalance was in itself a marketing tool to appeal to the consciously aloof yet somehow well informed hipster crowd that seem to take their coffee EXCRUCIATINGLY seriously in SF. However, I doubt this was the case, as this panel was far from a press opportunity… the room was sprinkled with folks who run mom and pop shops in the cities outskirts, who were genuinely looking for insight in how they can develop their bodega or product to play with the larger contenders.  In other words, people who really needed the advice, not any glamour.

He spoke mostly of his coffee technique, as if it was an art style. Very much a different creature then the other two entrepreneurs on the panel, who broke down their secrets from co packing, to UPC bar codes, and the tricks grocers have to sell shelf space.

No, No, No… this was not the Blue Bottle world: Although Blue Bottle has developed into having multiple locations and expanded (and since then sold for $20 million). That was not the part of the story worth elaborating on for Mr. Freeman or perhaps those things just happened on their own, I’m not sure, and the couple of questions posed to get some clarification were met by him with a combination of modesty and briefness that could be read as apathy…  this guy reminded me much more of an European artist then anything else.

It made me think….

Did this business happen by chance? Or did his passion for creating something truly of a quality, without any pretext otherwise, naturally bloom a business people appreciated?

I’m not much for fairy tales, not when business or people’s lives are concerned.

 If either is the case, is this man an entrepreneur if he did not set out to create this dynamic business? Well, I’ve thought on it for a bit and realized:

“You know what, it really doesn’t matter.” Why? Because he still set out to create value.

I know, its a matter of semantics, and that line can be considered a cop out in explaining the realities of the world, but there is something to identifying ‘value’.

Now, of course if no one knows you have even developed a product of value, its a tough sell, but apparently the “if you build it, they will come” approach does still work when the temperature is right… and we know the guys at Blue Bottle know how to finesse a temperature gauge.

Although, I was a initially a bit confused by his coolness and seemingly lack of insight… after the inaugural steps of initiating my own endeavor, I began to think about this oddball entrepreneur and find comfort in his general lack of predisposition. This approach is the antithesis to many of the entrepreneurial ‘lessons to live by’ that have been hammered into my subconscious (most graciously) during this past year’s education. Sure, we covered ‘passion’ in spades, but it was always coupled with ‘plan’. I would not abandon planning, momma didn’t raise no fool, but evaluate the process.

I did laughed a bit inside when I saw that gleam in his eye as he talked about a literal DROP of coffee… but somewhere in there was a truth and conviction for what he does. Besides, I’m no stranger to looking far too enthusiastic when I talk about food… actually I could benefit from learning to play it bit more cool like Mr. Freeman.

When you deal with things so close to the primal heart as food, there is a lot of merit in passion and precision when it comes to your business. Any food lover will tell you “when it’s made with love, you can truly taste it.”  I would never use that line in business, too corny, but I must admit, its true.

I have to be careful never to forget that.