Little Man Rolling Matzo

 

Photos by Val Jarrett

Subscribe to Ninth Street's mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

My email subscription

• Weekday Specials
• Saturday Night Dinners and Special Events

Weekend Update

This weekend we had stellar sales at our Farmer's Markets, a delicious Vietnamese dinner Saturday Night, and an enterprising addition to the Brunch game on Sunday.

Chef Matt's Vietnamese menu was great - standouts for me were Matt's pickles and Katya's dessert, the Banh Cam (a banana and cinnamon filled deep-fried rice ball rolled in sesame seeds).

Sunday, the newest addition to our kitchen crew, Nick, came correct with Chocolate Babka French Toast, Quiches, and other fun Brunchy foods.  Looking forward to doing this again!

Veggie Quiche

Nick with Celebration Challah

Track of the Weekend:

Falafel: Five Hour Energy

We have an employee who I will keep anonymous who we affectionately call "Five-Hour Energy".  He tirelessly works through some of the most physically demanding jobs at the bakery.  I'm continually in awe of his work ethic and stamina.

When I need five hours of hunger-free energy, I use Chef Matt's Falafel.

Under the guise of the humble ground garbanzo bean, Matt's falafel is a energy bomb of proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fiber.  After that sandwich drizzled with tahini sauce and the requiste amount of crunch from fresh lettuce -- all packed into a hummus-schmeared pita, I feel like my workday is now completely powered up.

Events

Recently, we have been programming events to diversify the audience and purpose of the Ninth Street Downtown space.  We have had baking contests, academic discussions, dance parties, rock shows, and maybe even a little bit of theater upcoming.

What would you like to see at Ninth Street?  How do you think our prime Downtown location should be used to benefit the community at large?  How can we be giving back to more organizations that do good works locally?  Do you think there is an audience for our cafe and bar area to be open every night instead of just Saturday nights?

Gastronomical Intensity

At the bakery, we are often in dialogue of what makes food taste good, especially when making comparative judgements ("Why is this wine better than that wine? Why is this falafel better than that falafel?").

I would argue to use a new perspective for this purpose adopted from Gilles Deleuze called intensity.

The best way that I could define intensity as Deleuze uses it to emphasize its properties of dimensionality. With a good wine, (multiple) dimensions are encurled such that infinite space can exist within a droplet of alcohol. Conversely, one might say that a poor wine is flat or monodimensional or "one-note".  Perhaps that is too simplistic but that is the heart of it.  When your palate searches for taste in a food, it can either open up or close off experience. Tastes like umami are something like pure intensity - the fermentation process has turned a common salted soybean into an addictively satisfying gold.

Deleuze speak of the contents of an egg as containing intensities - all the genetic code and nutrients necessary to form a chick are contained within the shell, but in the early goings of incubation, there is nothing discernably chick-like if you were to crack it open. Thus, all the dimensions which will uncurl to create a chicken (or a snake, or a dinosaur) are enfolded microscopically within what appears to be absolute uniformity/consistency.

As Deleuze says, the egg is "defined by axes and vectors, gradients and thresholds, by dynamic tendencies involving energy transformation and kinematic movements involving group displacement, by migrations: all independent of accessory forms because the organs appear and function here only as pure intensities."

Deleuze

Weekend Update

- We got poured on at our Farmer's Markets this weekend - thanks so much to our stand sellers Stu, Sammi, Amanda, and Sonoe - y'all are the green berets of our of our local food economy.

- Our Rosemary and Olive Oil Matzo was a huge hit - can't wait to make more of this next year.

- Katya put together a delish Mac & Cheese (vegan) that was extremely popular in-store - can't wait to see more of this.  Mac & Cheese pancakes next?

- Getting ready to repaint the floors in the next couple of weeks - get ready for a whole new sheen!

Brunching With the Ladies of Ninth Street: Katya, Amanda, and Kristi

Tracks of the Weekend:

The New Gastronomy

Via SMW, from: https://medium.com/p/f7ab43f210ee

A Clean Slate

I've wanted to repaint the cafe walls since we took over 6 months ago.   We finally got to it last weekend (big ups to KA, CS, and SMW for helping!).  Hopefully everyone can see the difference.  Floors are next!

   

Our Next Baking Contest: April 25th

Katya: What Shabbat Means to Me

When I went vegan three years ago, my grandmother was very upset.

Even now, she refuses to even say the word “vegan” and resents that my little brother has since gone vegetarian.

But love and care lie at the core of her resentment: namely, the frustration that she can no longer feed me when I come to her house. The food I eat is now different from the food she eats (let’s be real here- Bubbie don’t mess wit kale), and she hates the feeling of not being able to share the traditional foods she’s been making, in her words, ever “since G-d’s dog was a puppy.”

My wonderful, sassy grandmother with her Eastern-European-Brooklynese accent passed her Jewish Mother Complex on to my mother, who has undoubtedly passed it on to me. I’ll admit this openly: I have a pathological drive to feed people.  It makes all too much sense that I love my job here.

This Jewish Mother Complex led me to host a number of large dinners and pop-ups throughout college and my early twenties. I felt connected to traditional Jewish food and its significance to my culture, so I hosted Passover Seders, Shabbat dinners, and an annual Chanukah popup called "Latkes and Vodkas". I’m so excited to now take these recipes -- recipes passed on from friends, family and my own kitchen developments -- and execute them on a larger scale here at NSB.

Matt has been very gracious and supportive in allowing me to do these dinners, and is kindly serving as my sous-chef as we temporarily switch roles. Just as he has taught me so much about classic American food, I’m now trying to explain things like kashrut and the difference between Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardic Jewish dishes. The biggest struggle: explaining to a gentile what kugel is (“So, it’s kind of like casserole, but less goyish…and it can be sweet or savory…you can eat it as a side dish or main dish or breakfast or…uh... just google it.”).  But while I continue to struggle with this, the preparation begins.  Tomorrow, I hope the supermarket cashier won't laugh at me for buying a gazillion canisters of Matzo meal.

Weekend Update

This past weekend we had an amazing menu from Chef Matt - African Night.  Word on the street was that it was one of his best yet.  There were many shouts for getting the Maharagwhe (an East African curry) on a regular basis at NSB.

Pic of the weekend:

Happy Babka Eaters at the Durham Farmer's Market

This coming weekend: Shabbat
We are excited to hold two nights of Shabbat dinners this coming Friday and Saturday.  More coming soon on the inspiration and preparation for this event.

Tracks of the Weekend:

Shout-out!: Morgan

Morgan G. is the charismatic face of Ninth Street Bakery’s vegan kitchen operation. She’s not vegan and chooses to stay far away from kitchen work, but she’s everything we could ask for as the third member of our trifecta. If you’ve ever chatted with her at the counter, you understand why that is.

I’m always impressed by Morgan’s ability to provide customer service that is genuine and consistent. Beyond being upbeat and patient, her communication skills make her a perfect liaison between the kitchen and the customer.  The skill sets that she contributes are ones that Matt and I certainly lack, so we would never want to run the dinners without her.

What you don’t see behind the scenes is that when Morgan isn’t helping a customer, she’s organizing, cleaning, filing, or doing other helpful jobs that are necessary but that no one else has the time to do. The same helpful, considerate nature that she shows to the customers is shown to Morgan’s co-workers.

If you haven’t yet introduced yourself to Morgan during a Saturday night dinner, definitely do so. The girl’s got tons of creative style (she runs her own vintage company and makes jewelry), so be on the lookout for her contributions to a much-needed makeover of the café space.

                                                                                                                  ------Katya

Shabbat Menu

Shabbat Menu is up and this ish is going to be epic!  First time Matzo Balls have been seen in Ninth Street.........Two nights only......Not to be missed.

Weekend Update: On Corndogs and Feeling Like an American

 Thoughful wrapup this week from our sous-chef Katya A.

When I first looked at the SliderShack menu, I got a little nervous and said to Matt “I have never eaten, let alone cooked, most of the dishes on this menu.” His response was, understandably, to make fun of me: “I’m Katya and I’m so cultured that I’ve never eaten chili cheese fries!” When I told another friend about it, her response was that I deserved to be deported back to wherever I was born.

I was born in the US.

I grew up on rice, beans, chicken, pasta, frozen fish sticks and 50-cent school lunches courtesy of federal assistance. This was supplemented by bagels on Saturday mornings and my mother’s tabouleh, falafel and hummus.  I ate PB&J sandwiches and pizza like every other kid, but there was an unspoken kosher twist to what I thought was my standard, low-income American diet. I’d never eaten corndogs or cheeseburgers and never heard of chili cheese fries or biscuits and gravy. Growing up in a small city (Ithaca, NY) with a large international student and immigrant population, this wasn’t abnormal.

                I went vegetarian when I was 18 and vegan when I was 20, which steered me further toward South Asian, East Asian, Middle Eastern and West African recipes in my own cooking (not to mention countless meals of plain, sautéed kale when I couldn’t afford anything else). I didn’t bother trying to veganize American food because I’d somehow managed to grow up in America without figuring out what American food was.

                Two months ago, I moved to North Carolina and learned what “chicken-fried” meant. Since Matt undeniably did grow up eating classic American food, I’ve gotten to hear and think about what that is (also see here).  It’s been a valuable learning experience to execute Matt’s recipes for state fair food, Southern soul food, and “Midwestern church picnic food”.

                On Saturday, I got to sample the dishes from our Slider Shack event. I have to say, I’m not sure I’ve ever felt as much like an American as I did in that moment. Culture and politics aside (you may never hear me say that again), I felt a sense of “Oh, I get it now!” patriotism when I tried sliders and chili cheese fries. After trying a few bites of each dish, I felt like waving an American flag above my head and singing G-d Bless America.

                So in honor of Oscar night (that happened recently, right?), let me conclude with a fake acceptance speech: I’d like to thank football, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and most of all, Slider Shack night for making me feel connected to the country in which I was born.

Track of the Weekend:

To Neal's Garage

I've never gone online with a customer service complaint.  But after my interaction with Neal's Garage, I felt they had really "done me wrong" and were unsympathetic when I told them I was not happy with the service on my vehicle.

In November I had our Mercedes Van towed to Neal's Garage as they had previously worked on it, and I had not had any negative experiences prior - in fact, they routinely gave us free oil changes in return for our patronage.  

To: Neal's Garage

Re: Mercedes Van in your shop

I wasn't really mad when you kept putting off the date my van would be ready.

And I wasn't mad when I would call every week and you would say that you were trying to get to it and to just give you a couple more days.

And I wasn't peeved when you said the holidays got in the way of the repair.

And I wasn't upset when you told me a starter replacement would cost $500 plus labor.

And I wasn't exasperated when you told me the starter was fixed but there was a problem with the electrical box.

And I wasn't enraged when it took nearly three weeks to get an electrician to look at it.

But I started to get a little worried when an independent mechanic was able to turn over the engine by switching battery cables that were in the wrong place.

And I started to get a little infuriated when you appeared then to have not an idea what the issue was two months after the van arrived in your garage.

And I felt betrayed when you told me the independent mechanic had not been authorized to look at the van (I had given him my authorization) - how else could he have received the keys from y'all?

And I started to act resentful when I realized that my best option at this point would be to sell the van and its resale value had probably now been sliced in half.

And I started to get pissed when I met the mechanic who had worked on the van and he wrung his hands, stared at his shoes, and could not answer my question as to what the existing issue with the van was.

And I was legitimately surprised when you told me I couldn't speak with the owner of Neal's Garage because he was out of town for "several weeks".

And I felt lied to when it turned out that the owner (Chris Snipes) actually was in town and could call me.

And I was sad when Chris was condescending and rude to me over the phone and refused to budge from the full repair cost, which at that point had run to over $1,600 (including a $320 battery replacement when the batteries had been perfectly fine and recently replaced when the vehicle arrive at the garage) and still had not fixed or identified the issue.

And I was upset when Chris refused to allow an independent mechanic to test the supposedly bad starter that was pinpointed but never proven as the original issue.

And I was lastly fit to blog about the experience when Chris told me that my credit card was not good at his place of business, and that I would need to either bring cash or bank check to tow my van out from his lot "by Friday, or I am putting it in storage".

 

Postscript: After towing, the independent mechanic then diagnosed the vehicle, purged the fuel line (there was air in it), and got the bus working in short order.

Chef Matt

I like to give shout-outs on the blog to our steadfast, workaholic crew, but here I really have to give a double-thanks to Chef Matt.

Matt has been going way way beyond the call of duty since our changeover last September.  He's regularly logging 60+ hour weeks, doing menu creation, training, ingredient purchasing, prepping, cleaning, the whole shebang.

On top of that, the food itself that is coming out has been stronger, more focused, and more finished.  The menus lately have had a great precision, both of ingredient combination and preparation technique.  You should watch this guy cut mirepoix - it's so evenly diced it's like it came off a machine!

Matt's cuisine has grown so much over the last year - I really can't wait to see where it goes.  He is now building a food lab in his home, so I am especially looking forward to more wildly exotic fermented things - kombuchas, kimchis, curry pastes, and so forth.  I really have no doubt that Matt is one of the most talented vegan chefs in the U.S.  While the food we cook is not served on white linens, I think the deliciousness quotient matches anything you might find elsewhere.  Typically, when you go to a fine dining restaurant and order the vegan or vegetarian plate, what you get is a salad or or a side dish medley.  Matt's creations are all designed so that the plant is directly centered in the middle of the plate - entrees are entrees and are wholesome, savory, and filling at that.

Chef Matt at Home

Food Pilgrimage: Skylight Inn, Ayden, NC

Usually when I go on food pilgrimages, it is outside of North Carolina (cf. Katz' Deli).  But for the last year or so I have been waiting to travel to Ayden, NC to sample the barbeque at the Skylight Inn. Self-titled as the barbeque capitol of the world (hence the gaudy replica of Capitol building on the roof), Skylight was filled on a Saturday with barbeque eaters lined up out past the door and into the parking lot.  The only other food you can get at the Skylight besides barbeque and their hardtack cornpone is barbeque chicken and it's only served Thursdays and Fridays.

I was ready to be disappointed after reading David Ross' review of The Pit wherein he gives a sideways diss to Skylight, but I have to say that I found Skylight's barbeque to be an almost perfect expression of Eastern NC barbeque, almost like barbeque as ideal type.  The meat is rubbed only with salt before smoking and then gets a simple additional helping of salt, pepper, apple cider vinegar, and Texas Pete once chopped.

And the flavor, not to put too fine a point on it, is in the chopping.  Laid upon a bowed cutting board and chopped using two cleavers, the barbeque retains a startling amount of flavor and juiciness in the five minutes it takes to go from board to sandwich or platter.  All the flavors come through equally pronounced without muddling each other -- the smoke, the meat, the salt, and the spice.  Though I love Allen and Son, the barbeque at Skylight just tastes fresher since it has not been marinating in a steam table for hours. My food pilgrimage companion JCD was equally smitten and was looking forward to bringing friends the hour and forty-five minutes east towards Greenville to make a return trip.

Pi(e) Day Cometh