take-out review: yia-yia's. the best fast food is a slice

when one lives in a place like lincoln-- where people drive to their parked car, and often through fast food drive-thrus-- one can miss out on my favorite fast food: the slice.

yia yia's might not look like an inexpensive place to grab a slice. but that slice on the right up there... just a regular plain slice... is $2.59. find me something that tastes that good that isn't twice as bad for you (for that price tag) within walking distance of yia yia's. oh, one more caveat: the place serving this food needs to be open in the evenings, and now on sundays.

yia yia's only has thin crust. they have a bunch of toppings to choose from if you want to create your own slice, as happened with the experiment on the left.

like i implied earlier, it's a nice place to eat in, and they have the biggest selection of bottled international beers that i've ever seen in a restaurant. but don't forget that you can call ahead and get slices to go, if you're already downtown and just want some food to take home.

kung pao shrimp from hy-vee

it's 3.99 for one entree from the chinese hot bar at hy-vee, with steamed or fried rice, egg roll or crab rangoon, and fortune cookie. i had the kung pao shrimp which was, happily, very spicy and full of peanuts.

one dollar bacon

super saver at 48th & o has best choice pre-cooked bacon for a dollar a 2.1 oz package. probably so cheap because it's dated 9/23-- but still, i won't have any problem going through this package before then.

farmers' market salad: baby romaine and pea shoots

i went to the farmers' market a little late on sunday... still managed to get some shoots and baby romaine from shadowbrook. stopped by red clover for some tempeh, where i also picked up some new salad dressing from bragg's, a sesame ginger flavor that has a complete amino profile. did i mention the local tomatoes? i know i didn't leave out the cooked brown rice.

wise oven bakery, havelock

so this place has strange hours and great bread. i think it's the only green olive loaf in town.

it's also hard to find. you have to walk through against the wall art gallery to get there.

hours are listed on the label in the picture: wednesday, thursday and saturday from three to six. you could make the most of a trip to havelock if you went on a wednesday night, when you could also go to the farmers' market and pepe's.

take-out review: pepe's

ever since i read about pepe's in the ground zero, i've wanted to go. if you read the article, you'll want to go too. havelock, my favorite neighborhood in this town, is not that convenient for me to get to at lunch. so my friends and i went for dinner last thursday... and it turns out they're not open for dinner on thursdays, like it says they are in that ljs piece. dinner only on wednesdays, which happens to be the night of the havelock farmers' market (which runs from 3 to 6:30).

so today i had to go pick up lunch. the interior is lovely. fabulous exposed brick, lots of windows, fresh flowers and potted herbs on the tables. the tables also all have books on them about sustainable food and design. this place would fit right in napa valley... if it weren't affordable and unpretentious.

the menu changes daily depending on what produce is available. this order of black bean and vegetable tacos was 4.50 and delicious.

farmers' market favorite of the week: kohlrabi

there was a lot of kohlrabi at the farmers' market sunday, and it was cheap! this huge bulb was huge and well-trimmed and one dollar.

you can cook kohlrabi, and i might try some stuffed baked kohlrabi soon... but i prepared this one my favorite, easy way. i just peeled (the skin is less than a quarter-inch thick, and this bulb was the size of two fists) and sliced it, and shared it along with some other snacks. in-season kohlrabi has a fresh, light crunchy texture; and mild flavor. (and it's very good for you.)

tangential points of interest: my guesses about the etymology of the name didn't even touch on germany, but that's what it says on wikipedia, so it must be true. also, doesn't that look like a face where the stem was cut? i can't put my finger on who it resembles. it might be robert downey, jr in tropic thunder. (you can click on the picture to see more detail.)

actually, in this picture, the whole bulb itself looks like a deranged triceratops character from sanrio. have they even done dinosaurs yet? not in the brand's traditional cutesy form, as far as i can tell, but a google search of 'sanrio' and 'dinosaur' did lead to this eye-candy i'll share with you.

green beans, sesame sticks, and steam

when i make green beans, i like to use bacon and shallots. that wouldn't have worked when i recently got a bagful of garden-fresh green beans (thanks, once again, to the green thumbs around me), with a vegan dinner to go to the next night.

i wrote about sesame sticks in salads recently; and i thought i'd try them here, braised with the green beans in some ginger citrus dressing, and then steamed with just enough water to be absorbed by the crunchy sesame sticks. (i threw some hot peppers in as well, chopped large enough to be avoided on the fork and also sink to the bottom of the pan before this picture was taken at lid-off.)

honestly, i'd thought the sticks would break down to a texture like tvp in the cooking process, but they didn't. however, they had a similar size and complementary (spelling intended) color to the beans, so that was a lucky accident. this was salty enough that i'd mix it with some rice next time, though i didn't hear much complaining.

let us have bread and chocolate

i've seen these chocolate bars for a while now at the mill, and i finally broke down and bought one. dark chocolate with rather salty bits of baguette. very nice flavor. this doesn't appear to be selling as well as the other flavors. more for me? because i am going to buy this again.

now it's rice cake croutons

my old favorite: broccoli slaw! now with crumbled rice cakes as croutons.

i tossed some yellow tomatoes and lilac peppers in with the slaw, and dressed with some ginger citrus dressing. then, about a half-hour before the salad would be served, tossed in some crumbled rice cakes. shooting for their absorption of dressing making them not too crunchy, not too soggy.

and yes, i made the salad in a ziploc bag, since it needed to be portable. that worked out well for transport; but if you try this, you have to ask for a bowl to serve it in when you get there.