How To Properly Cut An Onion

       One thing I notice whenever I cook with friends and family is that some people really seem to have a heck of a time cutting onions. It takes people forever.  Let's be honest, you want to get it over with as soon as possible.  I'll admit, I learned my technique from Food Network's, Anne Burrell, on her show Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  If I ever get to see her in person, she is going to have to endure a giant, smothering hug from me, because she has saved me so much time and has probably also saved my fingers.  This is the fastest, safest way to cut an onion that I have seen.

       To start, look at your onion.  On one end, there is a mass of roots, and on the other end there is a point of onion peel.

Your first cut, should be cutting of the peel end, just slightly behind this point of onion peel and almost completely through all of the layers of peel, but not quite.  You want to be able to use that cut to help you peel the onion, by grabbing that cut mass of dry peel and peeling it toward the root ball.

You may be able to get all of the peel off this way, but another easy option it to cut the onion in half from end to end (from the tip of the dry peel to the end with the root mass).  Then you should be able to peel the onion very easily from each half.  It is extremely important to halve the onion, so that it doesn't roll around in the following steps, which would be a dangerous way to cut.

After peeled and cut in half,  make even cuts of whatever thickness you need going almost all the way to that root mass.  You want to avoid going all the way through, because that root mass is holding your pieces together to make it easier to cut in the opposite direction, which is the next step.

Once you have your even cuts to the root ball, make cuts of the same thickness going in the opposite direction, giving you diced pieces of onion.  Even if you don't need diced onion, you can still start off by making cuts toward your root mass and then cut off the root mass to dislodge your slices.  I find that using that method to help hold all of the onion slices in place is safer for me than dealing with onion layers that keep slipping around.  Or if you want thinner onion slices, you could skip making the cuts toward the root mass and make thin slices in the perpendicular direction that I use for the final dicing step.

I usually store my onions in a dark pantry, away from other food so that my other food doesn't absorb the onion flavor.  My final tip is to place the onion in the refrigerator or freezer for a bit before you plan to cut your onion, especially if you will be cutting multiple onions.  This can really help with the intensity of the onion fumes, so you won't tear up as badly.  Happy chopping!

Taste of Belgium Serves Winning Brunch

        I know you think of it as “the waffle place,” and it’s true.  Their waffles are amazing and even better when they serve them warm with berries and fresh whipped cream, or with bananas and Nutella.  However, there is way more going on at Taste of Belgium than their waffles, and I highly recommend going there for weekend brunch.  

To start, they really have incredible coffee.  It’s always just the right intensity and really hits the spot on a weekend morning after a long night out.  They also serve traditional breakfast cocktails, like mimosas. They make wonderful crepes with fresh ingredients, which are great for a light morning meal.  The lavender sugar and lemon crepe is an excellent adventure, but it's not for everyone.

Another delicious option is the Mitraillette, which is a lamb sausage sandwich on a baguette, with chipotle mayo and served with frites (fries).  All of their sandwiches are very fresh. But if you know me at all, you know that I like my breakfast late and heavy.  And that’s where the Goetta Hash comes into play.  It’s delicious.  I don’t care if you think you don’t like goetta, you have to order this hash.  It comes in a bowl with a fried egg on top, which makes this wonderful creaminess when everything is mixed together along with the onions, peppers, and cheese and it reminds you of what morning must have looked like growing up on a farm with a mother who loved you and had growing boys to feed.  I’m telling you, I wish I were a growing boy with unclog-able arteries so that I could eat a breakfast like this every morning.  

If that isn’t enough to satisfy your appetite, try the Brunch Burger, a big piece of beef, covered with a slice of cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and a pancake, all smothered with local maple syrup within a hamburger bun and served with frites.  The sweet and salty savory combination is incredibly rich and really only appropriate for brunch. I promise I strive to be an everyday vegetarian, but this place always tempts me out of my PETA-approved weekday diet into a shameless carnivorian frenzy. Rest assured, eco-minded among you, their meat it locally sourced. I could never eat it as part of a guilt-free, three meal day. This is something I would love to re-create at home, especially for kids, or in a smaller slider version for a late-night Saturday snack.  

     Taste of Belgium is definitely one of my first choices for brunch.  I like to sit outside to people-watch, but their shared chef's table also offers a unique dining experience. Arrive early.  They fill up fast.    

OTR's Kaze, Take Two.

      After an underwhelming first visit to Over-The-Rhine’s newish Japanese gastro-pub, a Sunday evening with friends and few other OTR restaurants open brought me back for a second try at Kaze.

I have to admit, my first visit’s failure may have been a fluke.  There were so many things that I immediately loved about Kaze, which is co-owned and operated by Jon Zipperstein, who also owns Embers restaurant near Kenwood Mall, and Hideki Harada, who has been a chef at both Boca and Embers.  They have done a beautiful job of renovating the historic Cincinnati Color building with cozy warm colors, low lighting, comfortable seating, interesting wall treatments and ever-changing, large-scale, elaborate chalkboard drawings.  They have also done the best job of controlling the acoustics of all the restaurants in OTR.  The service is flawless.  The polite servers are more than happy to elaborate on menu descriptions and explain their dining style of encouraged sharing and bringing out plates as soon as their ready from the kitchen, not to mention help with pronunciations.  Wonderful.  So, what’s my problem?  The food.

On my first visit, we shared a couple of large sushi rolls and I ordered the Ramen Tonkotsu, which is pork belly ramen noodle soup with small portions of baby bok choy and egg.  I’m in no way a sushi snob, but these sushi rolls were mostly rice with a laughably small amount of actual sushi goodness in the center.  It was pretty low on flavor.  The pork belly ramen was served scalding, but unfortunately I didn’t burn my taste buds enough to mask the extremely fatty flavor of the soup, which was made with dashi broth.  I usually cook with chicken or vegetable stock at home, so I my palate may be accustomed to a milder broth, but the only flavor I could taste in the soup was fat, and I'm not talking about a bacon-y goodness, more like eating a stick of unsalted butter, but meatier.  I forced myself through some of the noodles, but overall it was inedible for me.

I am happy to say that my second visit was a complete flavor reversal.  Again, the service was amazing and they’ve even added some slatted partitions above and between the booths to make them more private.  This time, we ordered a house-infused sake, which was flavored with blood orange and ginger.  It was so delicious and fresh.  I ordered the Niku Sliders, which came as a pair and together made a healthy portion.  The sliders were the best thing I’ve tasted there, above all of my friends’ dishes and definitely a far leap from the pork belly ramen.  The sliders came with nice thick pieces of short rib, a spicy and cool cucumber kimchi, and an addicting barbecue sauce that had me practically licking my plate.  And, the buns weren’t a soggy mess.  The cucumber kimchi was a genius invention.  The cooling cucumber juxtaposed by the spicy dressing was an amazing combination.  

Again, we ordered sushi.  The Slammin’ Salmon came with a nice chunk of slightly blackened salmon, cucumber, avocado, scallion, tobiko, and yuzu creme.  Although, the surface of the salmon was charred, the fish itself was still raw, so it was extremely moist and nicely smokey. The Kato Roll with vegetarian kakiage, which is like a tempura, asparagus, avocado, and pleasantly crispy sweet potato was also surprisingly flavorful, with a proper balance of rice and a side ramekin of not-quite-enough yummy chimichurri dipping sauce.  I was totally satisfied.  What a total turn-around.  I have to conclude that maybe on the first visit I was unlucky in my choices, because everything during this visit was spectacular.

     I still need to investigate the back bar at Kaze.  I am happy to see that they are experimenting with infusions, which has me eager to try some specialty cocktails. They have happy hour from 5-7 p.m. daily, a special happy hour with food specials on Sunday and Monday nights from 9 p.m. to midnight, karaoke is on Wednesday nights from 8 p.m. to midnight, and they feature a DJ on Saturdays for a dance party from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. I suppose I'll need to return for a third take.