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Have you ever eaten an EMU EGG? It’s totally weird!! I found these photos in my boyfriend’s iphoto library from a WHILE back ago when I fried my first EMU EGG. First of all, it is quite an exotic thing to behold. The shell is a beautiful dark emerald green color, and it has a strange yet friendly bumpy texture. It looks fake, but it’s real. Here is what an EMU looks like just to remind all of you, then you can imagine the EGG that I am holding in the photo above coming out of this amazing creature!!
I was lucky enough to obtain this egg, leftover from our EGGISODE shoot from long ago. Our friend Alex Lombardo was able to find them for us at a WHOLE FOODS in Virginia, and brought them back to New York for us. He really rules. I felt pressure to make something amazing with this egg, but in the end, I just wanted to taste it without too many distractions from flavorful ingredients and extravagant techniques, so I simply FRIED the damn thing. Luckily, Danny B was around to document the whole thing!
Because the shell is very THICK, you have to SAW it to give it a start before your whap it and crack it open. I use this hacksaw with an all-purpose wood/metal Lenox blade.
Here is an animated gif of the egg being cracked into the frying pan:
Here is another gratuitous animated gif, fun with the egg shell.
I was VERY AMAZED by the egg white to egg yolk ratio!! VERY yolky. Totally weird.
I was bummed I broke the yolk, but the yolk was a noticeably lighter color, and the actual volume of the egg must have equaled about a dozen chicken eggs. I let the egg sit on the stove at a VERY low heat for quite a while to let it firm up. The SCARY PART was, as it cooked, it developed a FACE. Here is a short and poorly produced video of the EGG FACE::
In a feeble attempt to flip this egg over, I failed. Pretty miserably.
Here I am loosening the egg from the pan:
Then the FLIP!!
LOL!! All in all, this emu egg was kinda weird. The flavor was mild, and the texture was… (for lack of an appropriate descriptive adjective)…different from chicken eggs. It didn’t bubble the same way chicken eggs do. Around the edges, it bubbled in almost a foamy, yet crispy, manner. It almost seemed to have a lighter density than the eggs I know and love, but without actually being lighter. Basically, I can only describe it as being like an alien embryo(?).
I leave you with this weird egg claymation I made over 2 years ago. Have a nice day!! Love, Thu
Look what I ate today! It’s a falafel bacon cheese sandwich. The inspiration for this was the concept of a “Middle Eastern Burger,” which would basically be a cheeseburger, except with a falafel patty instead of a hamburger patty, and with basic burger toppings, like bacon, american cheese, tomato, and whatever. This was also made with my very first attempt at making my own falafel. I had some mixed results, but the overwhelming flavor was totally decent, and even delicious. So first I googled “falafel recipe” and the first thing that came up was this link:
http://mideastfood.about.com/od/maindishes/r/falafelrecipe.htm
I assumed that normally whatever is the first on the google list is the best. The recipe they gave me was this:
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hours, 45 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried chickpeas or 16 oz. can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans.
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 3 tablespoons of fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 tablespoons flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- Oil for frying
Preparation:
Place dried chickpeas in a bowl, covering with cold water. Allow to soak overnight. Omit this step if using canned beans.
Drain chickpeas, and place in pan with fresh water, and bring to a boil.
Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then let simmer on low for about an hour.
Drain and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Combine chickpeas, garlic, onion, coriander, cumin, salt and pepper (to taste) in medium bowl. Add flour.
Mash chickpeas, ensuring to mix ingredients together. You can also combine ingredients in a food processor. You want the result to be a thick paste.
Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball. Slightly flatten.
Fry in 2 inches of oil at 350 degrees until golden brown (5-7 minutes).
Serve hot.
I used canned chickpeas because it was faster, and used a ton of fresh parsley, but didn’t have any coriander, and used a hand blender. My patties actually ended up a little muushy, which probably resulted from the amount of water absorbed in the canned chickpeas, and also the use of a mechanic blender made the texture very fine. To modify this recipe, I might add an extra tablespoon of flour and maybe muush the chickpeas by hand next time.
Here is what my paste looked like:
I used Polish rolls as the buns, because it was freshly and cheaply and closely available. I also used a horseradish apple sauce as a spread on the sandwich, which RULED. Also on the sandwich was a slice or pressed bacon lunch meat, one slice of American cheese, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and…. hummus.
Earlier in this blog when I called these sandwiches “totally decent” I was really selling them short. They were actually VERY GOOD! BUT, I need to up my falafel game, for sure. Here I am with the Coker sisters enjoying these delicious sandwiches. Despite my miserable expressions, I am actually having quite a ball!
Afterwards, I fell into a food coma and enjoyed the latest ULINE catalogue!! The End!
Hi everybody!! This is Thu. Me and Danny B made some cookies a little bit ago that I dubbed “Lemon Devastators!!!” The recipe is quite simple. I simply took a Martha Stewart recipe for Lemon Poppyseed Cookies, and replaced the poppyseeds for about a quarter ounce of very finely mortared and pestled OREGANO. Oh yeah and food dye for fun!
Here is Martha’s Lemon Poppyseed Cookie recipe with my modifications:
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 3 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (2 to 3 lemons)
- 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, plus more for sprinkling
- 1/4 oz oregano, finely mortared and pestled (or chopped or food processed)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bring lemon juice to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat; cook until reduced by half. Add 1 stick butter; stir until melted. Add the oregano to the butter and allow it to simmer over a very low heat for an hour or two until the herb becomes very fragrant.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream remaining stick butter and 1 cup sugar on medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in egg and lemon butter. Mix until pale, about 3 minutes. Mix in vanilla and 2 teaspoons zest. Mix in flour mixture and poppy seeds.
- Stir together remaining 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons zest. Roll spoonfuls of dough into 1 1/2-inch balls; roll them in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Press each with the flat end of a glass dipped in sugar mixture until 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with seeds.
- Bake until just browned around bottom edges, 10 to 11 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.
The amount of oregano added a huge devastation element to the cookies, and also the herbal flavoring complimented the citrus-y lemon zest flavor VERY WELL!!
We “glued” the three colored cookies together with strawberry Nesquik syrup. These cookies RULED SO HARD.
The second cookies I had no involvement in, and was all Danny B in his state of devastation. I thought they were actually pretty terrible, but in a very hilarious way!! These cookies were inspired by “green screens.” This kind of green screen:
If you are confused as to how a green screen can EVER possibly inspire a cookie, you got me there. Here is Danny B making the cookies:
Okay, so the recipe for this if anyone is interested is VAGUELY this:
- butter
- flour
- sugar
- nesquik strawberry syrup
- egg
- a big squirt of high quality green food dye
Mix the above ingredients together in a way where you end up with a very thick paste. Then add more flour until you have a dough. Form into squares and roll in sugar. Bake at 375 until HARD. Roll in more sugar.
The End.
In theory, if you were filming someone eating these “green screen” cookies, you could theoretically “key out” what they are eating and replace it with whatever! These cookies were VERY dense due to the lack of any rising agents like baking soda or powder. BUT, the shape remained true and square as a result as well. I picked a cookie up and dropped it on the plate and it sounded like a bunch of rocks clanking together. Danny B of course ate every single one of these. Try it at home if you like!
Love,
Thu Tran
Mr. Bee Reporting!
Flying thru brooklyn in the snow today I noticed a sign hanging from the corner of a building. I thought wow! they can’t rip off the bad boy club and get away with it!
Something about the angry faces and the jagged lines, I think these two guys must be blood relatives. So I did a little searching and found this image of their mother…
Poopy logo contest. I declare a tie .
Flying away I had a tiny laugh and sipped on hot coffee to warm my little wings.
Hi Everybody, I would like to introduce you guys to our new blog contributor, Mr. Bee:
He is my very special friend. He has a lot of eating credentials. You can read more about him in the BLOG CONTRIBUTORS page. Look forward to his BLOGZZ. See ya!
