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From street foods of New York City to meals cooked by me and my wife, Into the Mouth of Corbo will will be a place to review and share the delicious foods that I am eating.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cooking at Home - Banana Cream Pie


For a recent trip to a friend’s house, my wife and I decided to try out a new recipe we found for Banana Cream Pie.  I’ve seen various types from simple vanilla pudding to more elaborate ingredients which take a long time to put together. The recipe we went with was a happy medium. It definitely took some planning but only a few hours.

Due to time restraints, we decided to go with a store-bought Nilla Wafer crust but next time, and there will definitely be a next time, we will attempt to make our own crust. The filling is quite simple and is essentially just bananas, milk/heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar. Once the filling is poured into the shell, throw it in the refrigerator for 2 hours with some plastic wrap across the top to prevent a skin from forming.

Finally, remove the plastic wrap and whip up some whipped cream and apply liberally. The recipe calls for some shaved chocolate on the top which we skipped since we only had milk chocolate and I’m not a huge fan of milk chocolate.  Voila! A simple Banana Cream Pie that is apparently delicious…judging by the speed at which it was devoured by everyone.


Side Note:  Pie always tastes better when served out of cups or mugs.





Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Taim Mobile


On a recent trip to visit my buddy Frankie over at Cupcake Crew, he told me of his new friends in the truck next door; Dave and the guys at Taim Mobile. Taim offers up delicious falafel and everything to go with it. Since my introduction to falafel a few years ago, I've been trying a lot of different places to see what can really be done differently than just balling it up and frying it. I can say now, that I am an idiot. There is so much more to it that that. Some of the street vendors I have encountered just take their ice cream scoop to the vat of green stuff sitting on the side and dropping it into the fryer. It always comes out dripping of grease and is flavored by burnt oil. Taim does not follow these same rules. But let's not jump the gun just yet.


The first big option you need to decide upon is whether you want a falafel sandwich or platter. Being this was my first visit, I had to go big and get the platter which comes with falafel, hummus, quinoa salad, Israeli salad and your choice of a white or wheat pita. I placed my order and had my food in hand in under 5 minutes; which was very impressive seeing that there were 2 people in front of me waiting. I was handed my bag and set off on my hike back to work where I layed out my lunch. The guys at Taim really know the meaning of healthy portions. My eyes opened wide at the amount of food that sat in front of me as my mouth began to water. And this is when I knew these guys were not like the other falafel places I had been; set aside in their own little brown paper bag were the falafel balls. They weren't just thrown into the platter, they were kept crisp and apart like the true star of the meal waiting for their big entrance. So it was up to me if I wanted the falafel dipped in the hummus or place in the pita or just eaten plain. The platter was broken up into three sections: the large division contianed a pool of (obviously fresh) hummus, adjacent to two smalled sections of the two salads. Finally, I unwrapped my whole wheat pita and was very happy to see that this was no ordinary pita pulled off of a supermarket shelf. It was fresh and teased with some olive oil and herbs on top.


As a whole, the meal was delicious, but what made this so great is that all of the individual pieces stood strong on their own.  The hummus was so fresh and delicious and although it looks very oily, it does not taste so. The quinoa salad was also great. It has dried cranberries, chick peas, herbs & preserved lemon. All of the textures worked really well with each other. Unfortunately, my aversion to tomatos kept me away from the Israeli salad but it is tomato, cucumber, parsley & lemon mint dressing. (The cucumbers tasted good!) Last but definitely not least is the falafel itself. At first glance, you might think that they are over-cooked or burnt, but crack them open and you'll reveal a light (and vibrant) green inside. The crust adds just enough bite and chew and the flavor is great.


So go out and grab some falafel! Maybe you'll even see me there, I will definitely be going more often now that the weather is warming up a little.

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Taim Mobile
Twitter: @TaimMobile
Facebook: Taim Mobile

M.I.A.

Hey Everyone -

Sorry I've been slacking on my posts lately.  That's what happens when you have a pregnant wife at home. :-) But this should hopefully be the start of some new posts.

Coming soon: Homemade Banana Cream Pie, Sausage Rissotto, Taqueria del Sol (Atlanta, Ga), my cousin's Low Country Boil and coming later today...my newest Food Truck visit; Taim Mobile.

Stay tuned!