Sheesh!  That’s some good Middle Eastern food.  Whether your taste buds are craving anything from authentic Middle Eastern dishes such as kibbeh or shawarma, or desire a Mediterranean twist on chicken wings, Sheesh is the place.  Sheesh takes over as the supreme Middle Eastern restaurant in metro Detroit since the collapse of the La Shish franchise.  In fact, one of the owners of Sheesh was a manager at La Shish.  So, he has taken the exact menu from the formerly successful La Shish chain, but they cook up Lebanese food even better.  I have now eaten a lunch and dinner in this extremely relaxing restaurant with very friendly service.  Prices are almost a steal for lunch since wrap sandwiches start at $3.75.  But, not only is the price great; the food is outstanding as well.  From the lamb shawarma wrap to the falafel, lunch could not be more satisfying to the taste buds.  But, if you want a real treat, do not walk out of Sheesh without trying the Mediterranean Chicken Wings.  These wings take chicken wings, cut butterfly style in which all the meat is slid up to the top of the bone, to a whole new level.  They are incomparable to La Shish’s take on the appetizer because the sauce has little more of a barbeque kick all while maintaining a certain sweet after taste.  I have made all my dining mates taste the sauce, but I never let them take a bite of the wings because they are too good to share.  I have also been fortunate enough to try the fattoush salad, fried kibbeh (rice and chopped beef or lamb), arayes (a ground lamb dish), and the meat pies.  All of these dishes were well prepared and delicious.  You cannot go wrong at Sheesh; it is all tasty.  So, Sheesh! You haven’t been there yet?  Better make your way down to South Main Street to Sheesh and dine on some authentic and flavorful Middle Eastern food.               

Introducing the New Cooks section of Wolverine CuiZine:  Here is the first article in what promises to be a thrilling series of tips, tricks, and escapades for cooks of any caliber. If you’ve never so much as boiled a pot of water, then read on. And when you’re done, stop by the New Cooks page for more articles and resources.

I’d like to ask a question, what do you think drives us to eat?  Is it the fact that we’re hungry?  Or is it just the taste of the food?

I hate to break it to you, but your body manipulates you into eating those things that are good for it.  It’s a highly efficient, highly manipulative machine that tells you what it needs by how food tastes.  When your body is running low on certain nutrients, foods that contain those nutrients taste better than usual.  On the same level food often tastes better the more hungry one is.
The story begins thousands of years ago when humans were still hunter gatherers.  No one actually knew what was good to eat, but they knew what tasted and smelled good.  Those that ate the “better” food survived while their more bland brethren died out.  Over the course of thousands of years, humans developed a taste for energy efficient food that packed a lot of nutrients in a small package.

There is a downside to our evolution honed taste-buds, though.  Your body operates on the assumption that at some point it will go through a period of very little food, so in order to survive the next famine, it tries to build as much extra energy up as possible.  It does this by tuning your taste buds to find the most energy rich food.  These foods include meats, dairy, and sweets.  And that’s why these foods taste so good to us, they are the most energy efficient forms of sustenance on the planet.  Your body doesn’t care how it looks or how much cholesterol is in its veins, it just needs more energy because it doesn’t know when the next famine is.  

Your body can tell what’s in a food by its five components of flavor.  These five components are sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and savory (also called umami).  These components mix to create your favorite macaroni and cheese or chicken pesto sandwich.  For example, sweet and sour mix to create the taste of citric juices. Salty and savory mix to create the taste of salted steak.
Now here’s a fun fact: sight and smell affect how food tastes as well.  If food smells really good, and looks really good, it’s probably going to taste really good, too. Pretty ground-breaking.  But really, your brain processes how the food smells along with the taste and appearance to form a “collage” of sensations in order to understand what vital nutrients are in the food.

Here’s how the process generally works:  Sight comes into the picture when someone forms an impression of how food will taste based on how it looks (Do those green eggs look good?).  Smell gives a preliminary “chemical test” of the nutrients (How do those green eggs smell?).  Finally, taste rounds off the tests to give a better idea of what’s in the food (Now how do those eggs taste?). For those of you who have not tasted spoiled eggs, don’t.  It’s a bad idea. Trust me.
So what does this mean for cooks?  It means that they should make food look, smell, and taste good.  It also means that mixing flavors can make interesting new sensations. So try both when cooking.

Ann Arbor is a great town to find cheap, unique and diverse foods. However, being Mexican- American, I was really disappointed to find the pitiful selection of Mexican restaurants that we have here on campus. I do not consider “tex-mex” (essentially Americanized Mexican food) Mexican food. The same can be said for restaurants like Salsaritas, Taco Bell, or Panchero’s. Anything that has to be reheated, smothered in cheese or mispronounced by the waiter/kid behind the counter is not real Mexican cuisine. I’ve grown up eating and cooking awesome Mexican dishes, and I’ve spent half my life in Mexican Town in southwest Detroit, where you can only find the best, authentic restaurants and markets outside of the Southwest U.S and Mexico.  It’s an insult to me and my culture to wrap crappy ingredients in a tortilla and call it Mexican food. Mexican food is about long preparation, good ingredients and most of all putting the love of the culture into the food.  It’s about homemade tamales for Christmas, sweet and savory mole at weddings and menudo after a rough night of drinking. 

So, I had to make a choice: live the next few years without the wonderful food comforts of my home and culture, or begin a desperate search for my “real” Mexican food. So, over the last few days, I narrowed down a few places with “real” potential and went on a Mexican food binge. I only ordered in so as not to be swayed by any Mexican flags, sombreros or other props meant to confuse the diner into thinking their food is authentic. Sabor Latino was my first test. I only found my choice of a platter of chicken, beef and pork tacos to be mediocre –the pork was spiced very nicely but the chicken and beef were dry and bland. I also can’t forgive the fact that THEY FORGOT MY TORTILLAS! How am I supposed to have a taco without a tortilla? While I give them an A for effort for trying to represent many different Latin cultures with their selection of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Peruvian and more, I can’t ignore the fact that my boyfriend said that his tostada tasted bitter and inedible. So, I kept searching. Next was a little place on Packard called Taqueria La Fiesta. This place was actually pretty good and cheap. I may have had better barbacoa and arroz, but the food was authentically made and that makes me want to try other items on the menu before I write it off completely. The only thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t have much of a selection. I was starting to get worried, thinking I wouldn’t have a place to get my fix when I was missing home. Then, at my last stop I found a place that I think just might work. I went to El Camino Real near Briarwood Mall and ordered shrimp, chicken and steak fajitas with vegetables and it was delicious. It definitely tasted like home. The meats were juicy and spiced really well, the rice was the best out of the three and I was pretty impressed by their guacamole too- perfect consistency and flavor. The only thing about this place was that it was a little more expensive than I would’ve liked. 

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any Mexican bakeries or markets around here, which is a real loss for those who love Mexican food. Needless to say, I was relieved to find that I was mistaken in thinking that there were no options for real Mexican food in Ann Arbor. While none of them will ever be like home, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re looking for good authentic cultural food, Ann Arbor hasn’t forgotten about Mexico.

There’s more than one way to get burned in a bikini, this I learned the hard way. On a hot summer’s day I learned a very important cooking lesson: safety is key when working with oil. Oh, yes, I know you already see where this is going and you’re face just cringed at the thought, but listen to me when I say that in every mistake you make there’s always a lesson, especially in cooking. 

Coming in from the pool, I wanted to make a quick lunch, but like the good foodie that I am, I was not about to settle for a cold sandwich and a bag of chips. I decided to make a nice Italian/ Greek chicken salad, which is a Greek salad minus the dressing with thin strips of chicken breast sautéed in oil. Then, you add Italian dressing, fresh garlic and a little onion all topped with feta cheese. Now, I always make this whenever I have chicken in the house, so I was already thinking about the many times I’d been splashed on the hands and arms with little bubbles of oil and was trying to be extra cautious. Apparently, this didn’t necessarily require that I change out of my bikini. Everything was going fine until I put the chicken in; it had been thawing in the baggy in a bowl of warm water. I accidentally dropped the chicken in the water when taking it out of the bag, but thought nothing of it. With all the caution in the world I gently placed the wet chicken in the pan of hot oil—big mistake.  When cooking with oil, you should always pat dry your protein with a paper towel before putting it in the liquid. Oil and water don’t mix, a fact that somehow escaped me and forced me into what happened next: The hot oil splashed up onto my chest, stomach and down my left thigh. Stunned, I ran straight to the bath tub and continually poured cool water on my skin. I had 2nd degree burns.

If you get burned by oil or grease you need to know that it’s very different from a regular burn. The fact that I wasn’t wearing clothes actually helped me. The longer the oil is on you, the deeper it can scald, so if I had to take the time to remove my clothes (with the clothes keeping the heat on the burn) it would have been much worse. So, you should wash off the oil as fast as possible, and it helps to hold the area under room temperature to cool water. Cold water is only okay for first degree burns, and you should never use ice. I find that for those little burns from cooking bacon and the like, pain can be relieved by applying a little honey on it. Don’t ask me why, but it always helps; For burns like mine, using aloe vera for a few weeks will clear up most of it with very little scaring. Anything worse than 2nd degree burns that cover a large area should be seen by a doctor.

While watching football on a typical Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you’ll see a multitude of commercials for nationally-recognized brands of beer. But, did you know that some of the best beer in the country is brewed right in your backyard? Michigan has quietly built a reputation as a great beer state, with the fifth most breweries, microbreweries, and brewpubs per capita in the nation. Anyone who has enjoyed Bell’s Oberon on a warm summer evening can attest to the delicious brews Michigan can create. As the leaves fall, taps across Ann Arbor fill with specialty fall beers. On a crisp, cool Friday night, I decided to venture out with a friend of mine to see what sorts of October beers the local breweries were serving.

We ended up at the Jolly Pumpkin on Main Street, known for its diverse menu offerings and for producing a variety of interesting beer. It’s a bit expensive (have your parents take you there) and wait times can be a bit lengthy on a weekend night, but once you get in the door, you’re in for a unique beer-drinking experience. When my friend and I were seated, we asked our waitress about the October beers Jolly Pumpkin offered and she gave us two options. One, La Parcela, she described as a sour pumpkin ale, which was available on draft. The other, Fuego del Otoño, had only been served for a short while and was available in a 750 mL bottle. My friend and I decided to try both and split them between the two of us.

When the beers arrived, I decided to try La Parcela first. It was an amber ale, and I was a little taken aback upon tasting it. As our waitress described, it was sour at the first sip, and it tasted strongly of fruit. My friend compared it to the taste of wine. I thought it finished well, with a slightly sweet and wheaty aftertaste. Though it was atypical compared to the beer I normally drink, I thought it was rather enjoyable. I decided to give the Fuego del Otoño a try next, and was a bit disappointed with the results. It was a fresh, light beer, but I didn’t think it had a particularly unique taste that would set it apart from beers from other seasons. I wondered whether my analysis was hindered by the fact that it was in a bottle (rather than on tap) and that I had eaten something before trying it, which could have interfered with my ability to taste the subtleties of it. Nevertheless, I wasn’t impressed with it on that particular evening and let my friend drink most of it. But, I can’t claim to be a beer connoisseur, so I’d recommend you try it and taste for yourself.

So, before the weather gets chilly and midterms take over your life, I encourage you to enjoy the last days of Autumn in The Jolly Pumpkin, or perhaps Blue Tractor, Grizzly Peak, Ann Arbor Brewing Company, and beyond. It’s a special time of year for those who love beer. 

My favorite coffee drink is a vanilla latte, and so living in Ann Arbor has provided me with quite the selection of coffee shops. I’ve had a cup from Starbucks, Espresso Royale, Seattle's Best (in Borders), Biggby Coffee, Sweetwaters Café, Panera Bread, Beanster’s, Amer’s, and Rendez Vous Café. I’ve also tried to order one from Comet Coffee, but they don’t offer vanilla as an optional flavor. Instead I tried a caramel latte, which I have to say was quite delicious. Also, I sometimes shop at Whole Foods, which has a coffee bar, so naturally I’ve ordered one from there as well. 

Either I have an obsession for this delicious drink or my wide range of latte tasting shows that I have taken advantage of all of the coffee shops during my four years here; maybe both. You’re probably wondering which place has the best cup. Well, this is just my opinion, but I would say that Biggby and Whole Foods have served me the best in the Ann Arbor area. Not to say that the other coffee shops aren’t full of flavor, but if you’re out by by either of these two locations, give them a try! Step outside the comfort zone of Starbucks or Espresso. There are even more places that I haven’t been to. Ann Arbor has a diverse selection of coffee shops to choose from so why not try a new place next time?

When I heard that I was going to be spending the better part of my summer in South America, my first instinct was that of slight apprehension. I couldn’t help but think about how I would be missing prime Farmers Market season. I was preparing for a trip of a lifetime and was consumed by worry that I would be eating only bland beans and rice while my Michigan produce would be flourishing a world away.

Brazil, Bolivia and Peru were filled with culinary intrigue, though they also boasted a few pitfalls. I paired my new discoveries and disappointments down to five apiece.


Discoveries

1. Rice and beans. So simple. Soak and then cook some beans and make some quick rice-maybe from a bag if I’m feeling extra lazy. Little did I know the strenuous process of making a serious pot of rice and beans. There is a pressure cooker, some fragrant onion and garlic, a hint of oregano and a packet of Sazon. Water gets added to the cooking beans to form this beautiful sauce that is worthy of topping any part of the meal. I willingly ate rice and beans every day for a month, and during some lows food points (days of bread and oranges), I found myself desperate for a bowl.
   
2. Street food. I’m frugal; it’s cheap. I needed something to fill me up before countless bus rides, and it obliged. Highlights were hominy corn (a starchier corn with kernals twice the size I was used to), sweet tamales, and a simple rice and cheese bread that I would’ve killed someone in order to have the recipe. I could purchase a whole meal for less than half of a U.S. dollar, and the food was much better than any expensive meal we could’ve bought. Street food puts fast food to shame in price and taste.
   
3. Sweetened condensed milk. We don’t use it here but we seriously should. Brazilians use it in probably every dessert they make. When it is pressure cooked for a few hours it becomes dulce de leche (a thick caramel),which was often eaten right out of the container. The sweet is fantastically sugary and I definitely found myself hoping no one was looking as I topped it with sweetened condensed milk. 
   
4. La Bistecca. There are no words for this buffet in Peru. It was a splurge for us- 56 soles (about 18 USD) but well worth it. They had sushi, ceviche, soups, salads, make your own pasta bar (with the best Langosteen ravioli I have ever had), and a chocolate fountain. This was the best service I’ve had at any restaurant. I dropped my knife and before I had risen up to the table a waiter was polishing a fresh knife and placing it in front of me. For a dessert after our first one, the waiter brought us sundaes. Just to top us off, he proceeded to bring us a beautifully crafted warm apple strudel.  Three rounds of dessert/sweets? There was no way to say no.
   
5. Papaya and Guava. I have a list of foods I don’t like. It’s short, and everyone I know knows it. Chocolate and mint together (chocolate is for eating and mint is for brushing my teeth), avocado (flavor much?), cantaloupe (ditto on avocado) and papaya (no taste-waste of space). I found myself eating my words in Brazil when I apprehensively tried the fruit. I felt like I had been lied to for so long. There was this flavorful beauty with an ugly imposter commonly found in the United States.  I also discovered guava (too bad it costs a fortune here) and pineapple whose core you could eat.  You may want to include why you suddenly liked papaya and guava so much

Disappointments

1. Ceviche. The build up for ceviche in Lima was insane. We started talking about it before we left Brazil.  After about 70 hours on buses, our imaginations had run marathons talking about how great this was going to be. It was fresh fish, no cooking, and served right on the water.  Ceviche should have been a dish for the books. The dish wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything to write home about. The pieces of fish were a little large and the lemon juice they used to marinate it didn’t have strong enough flavors to keep me interested. 
   
2. Street food. Hoards of meat on a stick and I don’t eat meat. While I had some really great street food, there were a ton of chunks of grilled meats, especially when we were traveling on buses.  I ate a lot of rice, yucca (similar to a potato), and bread. By the end of the trip I think that I could have cried at the thought of eating another bite of yucca. Needless to say, I have yet to have any of those since coming back.
   
3. Five course meals. In theory, they sound great. Fifteen soles (5 USD) for a five course meal- appetizer, drink, soup, entrée and dessert- is a steal! In reality, the portions are miniscule, the service is terrible and the food is barely “stomachable.” Our drink was served in a shot glass, and though we laughed when they brought it out, we soon learned that they weren’t joking around with us. The only way we made it through that night was by following our meal with some falafel and hummus at a seedy Middle Eastern place. It was a third of the price and substantially better.
   
4. Seasoning. Oregano and sazon were all that we had. Imagine trying to come up with various flavor palates when you have one spice. Everyday (really was) Italian. Sazon is a variation on a Mrs. Dash, Brazilian style. There is one type for vegetables, beans and rice and another for various meats. They even have a flavor of the South when you really want to mix it up. Upon returning to the States, I purchased fresh herbs and avoided flavor packs like the plague.
   
5. Pizza. Epic fail. In Brazil we went to a restaurant that served pizza covered in a sub-par mozzarella (which we had eaten everyday for two weeks at that point) and seriously lacking in the sauce department. Lucky for us it was topped with my favorite seasoning- oregano! I really enjoyed the pools of oil that so delicately decorated the pie. To top it off, we were given ketchup and mayonnaise packets for dipping-the perfect complement to a hot mess of a meal.

Let’s say you have a recipe you would like to cook for some friends.  You have all the ingredients laid out before you, and the recipe is on the computer in front of you.  You’re ready to start.

So, what’s next?  Do you cook the meat or the pasta first?  How do you cut the vegetables?  Do you julienne or allumette?  And what the heck is allumette anyway?

A slew of questions can assault you when you start cooking.  You might not know where to start when you have all your ingredients in front of you.  But don’t worry, I’m here to help.  Or at least this article, and hopefully series of articles, is here to help.  I’m going to cover the basics of cooking from everyday guidelines to how to cut ingredients.

First things first, do you remember that saying “cleanliness is next to godliness?”  Well, it’s true.  A clean, organized kitchen is easier to work in and safer.  Wash your hands, wipe down surfaces with a disinfectant, and for goodness sake clean out the refrigerator.  There are a multitude of bacteria and molds that can transfer to freshly cooked food.  They can cause this annoying thing called food poisoning.  Think it can only happen in third world countries?  Wrong, salmonella and streptococcus can exist in your kitchen too.  I don’t want to scare you, but these illnesses can be very serious.

Knives, sharp knives, are the backbones of kitchens.  They’re for everything from slicing vegetables to chopping ribs apart.  Every job has the perfect knife, and if you’re really serious about cooking, you need only three: a chef knife (also called a French knife), a bread knife, and a paring knife.  One more thing: the sharper your knife, the better.  A sharp knife is easier and safer to use.  Why?  Because with a dull knife you’ll be pushing really hard to cut through, say, a chicken breast. If you slip, that knife will go flying, into either your fingers or your friend, and there will be blood.  So invest in a whet stone or a good knife sharpener.

So, keep your kitchen clean and your knives sharp.  Just doing these two things will make cooking easier and safer.  I’ll have more later, but that’s all for now.  Next time, we’re going to cover basic knife safety and culinary knife cuts.

Last month, I was dutifully sawing through a hunk of old wheat bread with a dull steak knife. Much to my surprise, the steak knife buckled, and the blunt steel end of the blade broke through the skin of my right palm (for the masochist: this particular knife is still available at Meijer).

That was an unquestionable you-know-you-have-a-problem-when… moment. I nursed my wound and rushed to Downtown Home and Garden to pick out a more reliable knife for cutting bread.

I chose this Dexter-Russel knife because it looked brutish enough to handle week-old bread, and I liked the offset design. I brought it home and cut through a loaf of ciabatta with ease. My dad had always told me that bread knives are ideal for slicing through soft tomatoes. A sharp chef’s knife will do the trick, but my new bread knife was equally smooth. And the feedback of a serrated knife is very fulfilling. That slight vibration makes me feel like I’m operating a miniature chain saw.

No bread has yet put up a fight against my bread knife. I started buying more durable loaves and keeping them in the pantry for longer, but I reached the limit of my ability to bite into the bread long before my new knife met any resistance.

I have only one concern with this knife:  This is a long, serrated instrument that can cut through anything, makes me feel like I’m holding a chainsaw, and has the name Dexter inscribed in its handle. How long do I have before I decide to cut into some more…alive?

Beef often gets a bad rap for having loads of fat, but there are certain cuts and preparations that will allow you to safely incorporate this high-protein meat into your diet. Steak is a great source of iron, contains traces of vitamin B6 and B12, as well as the minerals zinc, niacin, choline, and selenium. Its incorporation of B vitamins is a major plus, since they are often particularly difficult to integrate into an individual’s diet. Nevertheless, it is important to be conscious of the amount of red meat that is consumed on a regular basis. Recent studies have found that individuals who consume red meat everyday have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and cancer, and moreover, a 30 percent greater chance of mortality over a 10-year period [1].

Filet mignon (my favorite) is the leanest cut while rib eye, known for it’s marble texture, is one of the worst. Typically, when individuals dine out in restaurants and, indubitably, in steakhouses, the portion sizes are monstrous. Steak and Seafood, a restaurant in Lake Placid, New York is exemplary, known for its colossal prime rib—33oz! Though juicy and tender, I would definitely feel compelled to take home a doggy bag at the end of that meal! Steak contains virtually no carbohydrates, for those of you on a low-carb diet, however, individuals often compensate for this by complimenting their low-carb entrée with a traditional side of mashed potatoes or creamed spinach. This negates the benefit of the often-basic ingredient of a low-carb or diabetic diet, since it greatly increases the density of the meal. Don’t be afraid to inquire about how your steak will be prepared—restaurants are infamous for adding heaps of butter and salt without reserve. Ask for your steak to be grilled, plain and simple, sans any unnecessary and excessive ingredients.  

The final say: cut it down to just one or two servings of meat per week and stay heart healthy!


References:
1. http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/03/23/healthmag.red.meat.lifespan/index.html
http://www.westernbeefandseafood.com/cart/images/Filet-mignon-asparagus.jpg