On the right foot with Wild Boar

…aaaand jumping right into the new semester. Just a few days after arriving back on campus from break, I cozied up to a pumpkin muffin and mug of coffee at Wild Boar, fortifying myself for an afternoon of proofreading and fiction critiques. Muffin, thumbs up; not enough time to adjust before the assignments flood in, thumbs down.

Coopersmiths, after an East Coast return

MC was kind enough to pick up KS and I from the airport in Denver when we arrived, and once we got back into Fort Collins we headed straight for Coopersmith's. It's always weird coming back from a long trip or being away from someplace for a while, and having lunch together before parting ways was a brilliant move to ease that feeling of oddity.

For my meal I asked for the "High Plains" beef brisket sandwich, which was a moderately tender pile of sliced beef on a hoagie roll, smothered in grilled onions and barbecue sauce. There were also pretty good wedge fries, which were crisp on the outside and pleasantly mealy within.

And of course we shared a pitcher, in this case one of Cappy's Hop Top, a nitrogenated pale ale with a bag of actual hops for each glass. The flavor of the hops got overwhelming after a while though, and because the nitrogen process gave the beer smaller bubbles it edged on tasting flat. We'd probably get something else next time, but still it was great to have a beer after being on a plane all morning.

Bidding farewell with a bountiful breakfast

At the end of break, the morning I flew back out to Colorado, I enjoyed an early breakfast with my family before my parents drove me to the airport. With a leftover bit of pork and a handful of scallions my dad mixed up the filling for some homemade pan-fried buns, which he prepared that morning. There was also pan-fried taro and turnip cake, kaya (coconut jam) on toast courtesy of my brother, orange and pomelo wedges, and a large pot of jasmine peony tea. It was one of the nicest send-off breakfasts that I can remember.

An early Lunar New Year feast

The day before I flew back to Colorado, my brother and I went with our parents to an early Lunar New Year celebration at their friend's house in Long Island. It ended up being a huge potluck with all of the members of an alumni association that they give ballroom dance lessons to, and there was a ton of food.

Here's the plate I filled from the table. Yes, those veggie dumplings are a pretty horrifying shade of green, and the Peking duck buns (someone got a tray of them from Corner 28, in Flushing) were dried out, but like all potlucks there was also a good mix of other items. I felt pretty happy about having a chance to celebrate the new year with my family, even if it was a week early.

Let's be friends forever.

This is purely a post to give kudos to JL and LB of FoodMayhem, who when they invite you over to dinner will be excellent hosts that will wine and dine you in style. TL and I made our way over to their apartment and were greeted by a full table of homemade lox, grilled salmon skin, sliced salami, turkey meatballs in puttanesca sauce, shrimp in garlic and chili oil, and a pear, feta, and orzo salad. TL and I also brought over a wedge of Humboldt Fog and wheel of Camembert from Murray's Cheese, which turned out to be a serendipitous choice for the meal. We all had a great time putting together different combinations from the spread to eat atop chunks of crusty homemade bread, which is pretty much my favorite way of eating. And TL went to town on the salmon, since he's a Vancouver boy separated from his fish, and all.

After several rounds of Rock Band, too, there was dessert: chocolate-cappuccino cheesecake squares, the recipe for which you can find here. JL did a beautiful job decorating the squares, and she decorated each of our plates with a curlicue of whipped cream, too, before serving. Should you ever get an invitation to dine at the FoodMayhem household, make sure you don't pass it up.

A solo dumpling-off: Tasty Dumpling and Fried Dumpling

I didn't mean to eat ten dumplings at once, I swear. It's just that when I first walked into Tasty Dumpling on Mulberry Street, the place was entirely filled with high school kids chowing down, which made sitting down with a plateful of the porky morsels impossible. So I walked around the corner to Fried Dumpling on Mosco Street, where amid more kids stuffing their faces there was a single spot at the counter open.

I asked for five fried dumplings and a milk tea, which cost me a buck-fifty altogether (a dollar for the dumplings, fifty cents for the tea). But when I opened up the styrofoam container to dig in, I found that the dumplings were barely browned and cold, hardly the ideal. These dumplings were definitely not in their prime.

The tea, also, was a disgrace—more lukewarm milk with a bit of sugar and tea color than a decent hot cup. And I managed to spill half of it down the front of my coat while juggling my purse and grocery bags while walking out of the place. I regretted the mess on my coat, but not the loss of my tea.

So when I passed Tasty Dumpling again on my way back and saw that the place had cleared out, I couldn't help but take advantage of the sudden table room. I put down my dollar-twenty-five and was rewarded with five large, crisp-bottomed dumplings, piping hot and squirting pork juice with every bite. They would have been worth the wait, had I only had the patience. There's a lesson in there for sure: Hold out for the good stuff!

Hanging out in Hiroko's Place

I don't remember when I first read about Hiroko's Place, but ever since I did I'd been wanting to check it out. It seemed to have such a great combination of appealing elements: inexpensive, home-style Japanese fare; good coffee; shelves of books and couches to read them on; a quirky and cozy atmosphere. When I met up with RT and RL to have dinner there near the end of winter break, I discovered the place was even more charming than I expected—it was like some hip Asian grandmother's living room.

I arrived about half an hour early, having given up on strolling the neighborhood once the sun set and the night turned dark and icy. After settling myself on the couch with a menu, I noticed that Hiroko's Place offered coffee brewed using a siphoning method which I had never seen before. Though the prices were a little high (the above, a large, was $4.25), I ordered myself a mocha, which was noted as being unflavored and unsweetened. Watching the brewing process was fascinating—I totally went back to my high school science experiment days—and the mug I was served was filled with coffee that was very smooth, clean, and rich tasting with an edge of bitter chocolate.

Once RT and RL arrived, we moved to a table to have our meal. I went with the kino-tara spaghetti, which was spaghetti in salted cod roe with an assortment of mushrooms and mixed vegetables. Rather than being creamy as I had expected, this dish was more like a stir-fry of spag and veg, and it came with a scoop of Japanese-style potato salad on the side. Simple but enjoyable.

RL added on a ladle of Japanese chicken curry over her omelette-wrapped fried rice; hers also came with a scoop of potato salad. RT went with the seafood gratin over macaroni, which reminded me of some kind of baked seafood mac and cheese. I didn't sample either of them, but they looked good, and both RT and RL seemed to enjoy their dishes.

For dessert the three of us split a green tea parfait and a green tea cake. The parfait was beautifully layered with assorted fruit, sweetened red beans, whipped cream, green tea ice cream, and corn flakes—a touch that in its incongruity seemed quintessentially Asian to me. In both desserts the ice cream was a little icy, and the green tea roulade was slightly dry and didn't seem like it had been baked in-house, though I'm not certain. Didn't stop us from finishing it all, though.

We lingered for a while after our plates were cleared, and the place seemed exactly right for doing so. The service was consistently friendly, our water glasses were continually refilled without our prompting, and no one seemed antsy about us staying that long. We left a large tip in thanks.

Portfolio: Hot pizza on a cold day

I'd passed Portfolio a thousand times, but it wasn't until I made a lunch date with MW there at the suggestion of TL that I finally stepped inside.

Unfortunately, without a cover over the entrance to shield the interior of the one-room restaurant from the frigid wind blowing in from outside, I could barely concentrate on anything at first but getting warm. MW and I both opted for to go for pizza, she with a sausage version and I with the "Pizza de Parma," which came topped with sauce, mozzarella, parma ham, and arugula. It was fine, but I think I would have preferred for the arugula to be just slightly more integrated with the rest of the pizza—slightly wilted, maybe, or intermingled with the ham. This was a margherita pie with cold toppings added on later, and while that may be a particular style, I just wanted something piping hot through and through. Should have thought of that before ordering, I guess.