Existential Eating #27

If you have any suggestions or ideas for future Existential Eating strips, please email or comment below.  Sadly, our current collective imagination will run dry.  If its related to food, it can be the topic of an Existential       Eating comic strip.  Just share your idea and Ramsey will do his best to draw it up (probably, someday).

Dinner In @ NorthSlice Pizza

When I heard NorthSlice was opening, we put up a post spreading the word.  Northside shines on Independence Day weekend, and that's when NorthSlice opened up.  So far, they've been rocking the pizza window - no dining room just yet.  We've had a chance to stop by for a few slices, and recently ordered a full pie.  This pizza is worth driving across town for, but thankfully, we live right around the corner!

The Food:  The only thing we've had (the only thing they make thus far, I think), is pizza.  Our classic order is pepperoni and green olives, and this time we got one half with cheese.  What stands out about this pizza stands out right away - the freshness and flavor of the ingredients really pop.  We were told before that they don't cook the sauce, and the tomatoes are a bit tangy and sweet, very good.  They go pretty light on the cheese and ingredients, which also leads to the sauce standing out.  Plenty of fresh herbs on top of the pizza add to toppings we chose.  Just as we'd been expecting, the crust is not too thick, not too thin.  But because that crust is doused in herbs and salt and crunchy cornmeal, it has a nice crunch (especially around the edges) and a great taste.  Overall, it comes together quite nicely.

The Ingredients:  When we spoke with Mike, the owner, initially, he talked about buying local ingredients, doing his own herb garden, and more.  I'm not sure how that's panned out so far.  Next time I see him I'll try to get some more info on how the sourcing is going.

The Story, Setting, & Service:  Read all about the story of NorthSlice in our original post.  We're excited that they appear to have gotten off to a good start, and are hopeful for more over time.  As I mentioned above, it's only a pizza window right now, but you can peek in at the graffiti walls and see the hip logo and know it'll be a cool hang out some time soon.  The owner is a really nice guy who has been a fixture in Northside for many, many years, and I've had nothing but smiles and kindness from the other folks I've encountered so far.

The Last Bite:  This is definitely the best pizza in Northside.  It's true that it is more expensive than NYPD, but the quality is simply far better.  Whether you're stopping by for a quick slice mid-day or late-night, or ordering a whole pizza for dinner, you won't be disappointed by the fresh flavors at NorthSlice.  For convenience plus taste, this has clearly moved into our number one ranking for pizza in Cincinnati.  Check the menu in the slideshow below.

NorthSlice Pizza

Existential Eating #26

If you have any suggestions or ideas for future Existential Eating strips, please email or comment below.  Sadly, our current collective imagination will run dry.  If its related to food, it can be the topic of an Existential       Eating comic strip.  Just share your idea and Ramsey will do his best to draw it up (probably, someday).

Dinner In @ Thai Namtip

I had a quick (unsuccessful) tryst with an Android phone, and it certainly does have some nice toys.  The Yelp app was one of them, and when we plugged in "thai" searching nearby our house, Thai Namtip came up as the closest option.  As it turns out, the map was wrong and its not as close as we thought, but since we'd already put the call-in order in, we gave it a shot.  If you're a West-sider in particular, then you'll definitely want to read on, as there aren't as many Asian options on your side of town.

The Food:  We ordered a pad thai with tofu and a panang curry with chicken over the phone, without even seeing a menu.  After snagging a to go menu, I can say they do have a full, if pretty typical, selection of dishes to choose from.

The pad thai was solid.  It didn't jump out at me in any major way.  Not as sweet as the way I like it, but you can't make everyone happy.  If you like it spicy, I'd go for a pretty high number on their scale - they didn't seem to trust me that I wanted a kick.  As for the curry, it was flavorful and had a decent stock of vegetables - cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.  Those veggies were overcooked though, which may have simply been a function of us driving home for 15 minutes, but I don't think so.  Plenty of flavor though, and definitely not bad.

We also ordered spring rolls, which were nicely filled and crunchy.  I didn't like their sauce as much as Thai Express' (although I didn't take specific notes, so I can't remember why exactly) - Thai Express is my gold standard generally in this town.

The Ingredients:  No mention of local, organic, or sustainable ingredients.  If we ever go back, I'll ask, but I would be very surprised if this was something they do and don't publicize.

The Story, Setting, & Service:  Thai Namtip is sitting in a strip mall just as North Bend Road takes a bend, about 3.5 miles southwest of College Hill.  We got our food to go, but while it is unassuming on the outside, it is quite large and well decorated on the inside.

Probably the most surprising thing to me was that they had a sushi bar as well.  I have been seeing this more and more lately, after my recent read of Zen of Sushi, which in part discusses the expansion of American interest in sushi to the Midwest, I am especially in interested in what kind of operation they run.  Could the fish possibly be fresh?  Could the sushi chef possibly be good?  Who knows.

The Last Bite:  If you live on the west side, then this may be your best option for thai food.  As is for us, we can make it to Clifton or Hyde Park in just as much time, where there are better options, so I doubt we'll go to Thai Namtip again any time soon.  But, nice to know that the option is there.  I'd be satisfied sticking with pad thai and curry at Thai Namtip, but if I go again I'll probably give the sushi a try and branch out a bit on the menu after talking to them about any specialties they may have.

Existential Eating #25

If you have any suggestions or ideas for future Existential Eating strips, please email or comment below.  Sadly, our current collective imagination will run dry.  If its related to food, it can be the topic of an Existential       Eating comic strip.  Just share your idea and Ramsey will do his best to draw it up (probably, someday).

How to Eat Sushi: A Book Report

I really enjoyed reading Fuchsia Dunlop's Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper recently - an autobiography where Fuchsia tells of her culinary and cultural travels over a decade or so in many of China's provinces.  So if you like one book and you want to find another one that is similar, what do you do?  I'm sure there is some sort of fancy web-based software or algorithm, but I went the old fashioned route.  I called a librarian.

See, I've been really digging the downtown public library lately - they have an amazing collection of cookbooks, and of course, much, much more.  So, now I have a couple of autobiographical food-related books on India due to some clever catalog search tools by said librarian.  And yet, my most recent book, Zen of Sushi, I found the old fashioned way - browsing the meager shelves at the Northside branch around the corner from my house.

Zen of Sushi follows a group of students at the California Sushi Academy in Los Angeles as they go through a 12 week course, and along the way you learn everything from the science to the art of sushi.  There are a whole lot of learnings in this book, but here's some quick, simple things I gleaned that I bet you might be interested in if you ever go out for sushi:

- don't rub your chopsticks together to get rid of the splinters, its considered rude
- eat at the bar so you can get to know your sushi chef, and they can get to know you
- order "omakase," putting it in the chef's hands to choose the best, freshest options for you
- it's typical to eat nigiri (rice with something - usually fish - on top of it) by picking it up with your hand - the rice may fall apart if picked up with chopsticks, but sashimi is picked up with chopsticks
- disposable wooden chopsticks are horrible for the environment, take your own or ask if they have plastic ones you can use
- miso soup comes last, not first
- dip your fish in the soy sauce, not the rice, and don't put ginger in the soy sauce
- crisp nori is prized, so if you aren't sitting at the bar don't order a typical roll because by the time it gets to you the nori will already be too moist
- ginger is for cleansing your palette between fish, not an appetizer
- eel sauce is sweet and tasty, and it's made with eel brains
- if you're interested in more of this basic etiquette, stop in at the library and read the appendix of this book - it'll take you 5 minutes

Got any food-related book suggestions?

Existential Eating #24

If you have any suggestions or ideas for future Existential Eating strips, please email or comment below.  Sadly, our current collective imagination will run dry.  If its related to food, it can be the topic of an Existential       Eating comic strip.  Just share your idea and Ramsey will do his best to draw it up (probably, someday).