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Imagine
this: You're in a truck kitchen. You've got a line of people waiting
for you to feed them and 16 feet of space in which to do it. You're
grilling up fish tacos, are up to your ears in lime crema,
and there's a steady stream of orders pouring in and no break in sight.
You need to think fast, move fast, remember people's names, rattle
off their likes and dislikes, figure out the inevitable generator/diesel/propane
hiccups, and on top of it all, you have to call the meat supplier
and make sure the delivery will be on time.
It's the kind of scenario guaranteed to scare most people back to
their office cubicle and make them give up fantasies of running their
own show. But for 29-year-old Joanna Garnett Raeppold, this is a dream
and she's living it. The brains and brawn behind a mango-yellow Mexican
food truck called Lucinda, Raeppold grew up in San Francisco and found
herself pining for its tradition of street food when she moved to
New Jersey.
She knew what her ideal eatery would have — fresh, delicious fare served by friendly people — and realized if she wanted a place like that, she'd have to set it up herself. So she took the leap, abandoning her office job to drive around Jersey City in a six-ton kitchen on wheels. Raeppold loves her career switch, and her "Lucinda Loyalists" love her marinated skirt steak burritos, washed down with a cinnamon dulce de leche iced coffee. The yellow truck has become such a fixture in town that alarmed customers made frantic phone calls asking, "Where are you? What happened?" when she went on holiday.
What's her secret formula? Simply going back to basics: fresh, locally
sourced ingredients, familiar flavors, and a flexible menu that allows
people to customize their lunch. "We get great ideas from customers.
Some people know exactly what they want: black or pinto beans, lime
or green-chile crema, hot sauces. Others like to have me
make suggestions," she says.
Her favorite item on the menu? "Lately, breakfast has been a soft-cooked scrambled egg, black beans, salsa fresca, and lime crema. Sometimes, if I'm feeling indulgent, I'll add guacamole and hot sauce. It's a favorite with our morning regulars. In fact, we were five minutes late one day last week and had a customer waiting on the corner for this very burrito."
For those of us envious of Raeppold's escape from corporate life, she adds laughingly, "We always have internships available."
Lucinda Burritos + Tacos can be found parked at the corner of Hudson and York streets in downtown Jersey City, Mondays to Fridays, from 8:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Visit their site for menu updates and delivery information. — Wan Yan Ling (Jan. 24)
It's the kind of scenario guaranteed to scare most people back to
their office cubicle and make them give up fantasies of running their
own show. But for 29-year-old Joanna Garnett Raeppold, this is a dream
and she's living it. The brains and brawn behind a mango-yellow Mexican
food truck called Lucinda, Raeppold grew up in San Francisco and found
herself pining for its tradition of street food when she moved to
New Jersey.She knew what her ideal eatery would have — fresh, delicious fare served by friendly people — and realized if she wanted a place like that, she'd have to set it up herself. So she took the leap, abandoning her office job to drive around Jersey City in a six-ton kitchen on wheels. Raeppold loves her career switch, and her "Lucinda Loyalists" love her marinated skirt steak burritos, washed down with a cinnamon dulce de leche iced coffee. The yellow truck has become such a fixture in town that alarmed customers made frantic phone calls asking, "Where are you? What happened?" when she went on holiday.
What's her secret formula? Simply going back to basics: fresh, locally
sourced ingredients, familiar flavors, and a flexible menu that allows
people to customize their lunch. "We get great ideas from customers.
Some people know exactly what they want: black or pinto beans, lime
or green-chile crema, hot sauces. Others like to have me
make suggestions," she says.Her favorite item on the menu? "Lately, breakfast has been a soft-cooked scrambled egg, black beans, salsa fresca, and lime crema. Sometimes, if I'm feeling indulgent, I'll add guacamole and hot sauce. It's a favorite with our morning regulars. In fact, we were five minutes late one day last week and had a customer waiting on the corner for this very burrito."
For those of us envious of Raeppold's escape from corporate life, she adds laughingly, "We always have internships available."
Lucinda Burritos + Tacos can be found parked at the corner of Hudson and York streets in downtown Jersey City, Mondays to Fridays, from 8:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Visit their site for menu updates and delivery information. — Wan Yan Ling (Jan. 24)
We're
sure the good people over at Pinch
Plus heard our collective lament. Based in Wooster, OH,
this small family-run operation has rolled out 24 different one-tablespoon
sachets of herbs and spices at 99 cents each. Some may recoil at the
idea of shelling out a dollar for a tablespoon of herbs — but,
then again, isn't that the lesser of two evils, when compared to letting
an entire bottle of it grow musty and insipid in a forgotten corner?
Besides, how nifty is it that you can buy just a pinch of,
say, turmeric, when that's all you need?The company also has, hands down, the most beautifully designed "Cook's Library" of spice booklets we've seen. These little tomes open out to specially tailored recipes and individually packaged spices, and come in themes: a Pinch of France, Thailand, India, Mexico, and Maine, and even a Pinch of Christmas. They serve as excellent muses for dinner parties and are a convenient launching pad for exploring culinary traditions around the world.
Pinch Plus's sachets of herbs and spices are organic, contain no salt or additives, and keep for over three years if unopened. They're available at good retailers throughout the country and at the Pinch Plus online store. — Wan Yan Ling (Sept 9)
In
Mort Rosenblum's 1998 book Olives:
The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit, he waxes lyrical about how "people
who live among olive treestell you their air is pure and their lives
are full. They expect miracles as a matter of course." He cites
as living proofJeanne Calment of Arles, France — then 121 years
old and the world's oldest living person, she downed the "golden
elixir" daily and memorably said: "I have only one wrinkle,
and I'm sitting on it." We're not sure about guaranteeing immortality
(or wit, for that matter), but we think you'll like Portugal's Cortes
de Cima olive oil, which is estate-produced and bottled, and pressed
from 100-percent native cobrançosa olives, plucked while still
green. Portugal is one of the world's most prolific producers of olive
oil, but exports almost none at all — most of it is consumed within
the country. Which comes as no surprise, when you learn just how good
it is. Cortes
de Cima's 2006 olive oil has been reaping awards left and right — both
the gold medal at the LA County Fair, as well as a Gran Menzione at
the XIV Concorso Leone d'Oro dei Mastri Oleari. The oil is verdant both
on the tongue and nose, with an unexpected hint of apple and a persistent,
peppery finish. We think the feisty Mme. Arles would have approved.
Visit Cortes de Cima's online
cellar door. — Wan Yan Ling (July
19) Singapore is a mecca
for food lovers. Global cuisines come together in a ragtag jumble at
hawker centers and food courts. A favorite afternoon snack is the Cantonese hum
jin peng — deep-fried discs of yeast-leavened dough infused
with spices and flecked with sesame seeds. With an added texturizing
boost from minute and, yes, perfectly safe amounts of lye water and
ammonia powder — common additives in Asian pastries — these
puffs are crisp and light, with a pleasantly springy interior. There
are plenty of vendors selling hum jin peng on the island, but
our pick is the stall at Maxwell Market because customers are given
the rare opportunity to fry their own.
A one-man show, the elderly proprietor has been a fixture at the market since it was used to temporarily house illegal street hawkers in the '80s. Hunched over his workbench, he deftly pulls, shapes, and slides discs of dough into a huge wok of simmering oil. Then it's up to the line of customers to flip their puffs with extra-long chopsticks, working quickly so that the dough just develops a beautiful gold exterior with toothsomely soft insides.
For S$1 dollar (US$0.65), hungry patrons get seven puffs in their choice of two varieties: sweet, speckled with sesame seeds and filled with a dab of red-bean paste; or salty, redolent of Chinese five-spice powder and dusted lightly with sugar and salt. Business hours are from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, but get there early, as the old man retires as soon as the daily 55-pound sack of flour is gone. Hum Jin Pang (stall 28), Maxwell Market Food Centre, 2 Murray St., Singapore — Wan Yan Ling (May 19)
A one-man show, the elderly proprietor has been a fixture at the market since it was used to temporarily house illegal street hawkers in the '80s. Hunched over his workbench, he deftly pulls, shapes, and slides discs of dough into a huge wok of simmering oil. Then it's up to the line of customers to flip their puffs with extra-long chopsticks, working quickly so that the dough just develops a beautiful gold exterior with toothsomely soft insides.
For S$1 dollar (US$0.65), hungry patrons get seven puffs in their choice of two varieties: sweet, speckled with sesame seeds and filled with a dab of red-bean paste; or salty, redolent of Chinese five-spice powder and dusted lightly with sugar and salt. Business hours are from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily, but get there early, as the old man retires as soon as the daily 55-pound sack of flour is gone. Hum Jin Pang (stall 28), Maxwell Market Food Centre, 2 Murray St., Singapore — Wan Yan Ling (May 19)
