Pesce al sale – whole fish baked in a salt crust – is my favorite kind of dinner party dish. It looks complicated and fancy, but it’s actually idiot-proof. It requires only a few minutes of hands-on work, and it’s very hard to mess up – even if you have no idea how to cook fish.
Cooking “food with a face,” as my sister puts it, makes some people squeamish. I understand; it’s taken me a while to get used to it as well. But if you can get past this aversion, fresh whole fish is often cheaper and easier to prepare. Ask them to clean and scale the fish for you at the market, and the rest is easy.
The first time I ever ate pesce al sale was three years ago on the island of Ischia, off the Naples coast. Ischia is magical: thermal spas, gorgeous coastline, wonderful food and wine (far superior to its flashy neighbor, Capri, don’t let anyone tell you different).
We were traveling with close friends – Abby and Adam, Nick and Tracey – a reunion of Hawaii ohana living in Europe. Abby and Adam took us to a restaurant they love near Castello Aragonese. They ordered the pesce al sale, and the waiter brought out an enormous fresh fish for us to inspect and approve (clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose). We busied ourselves admiring the view of the castle and enjoying a bottle of wine or two.
Then the waiter returned, pushing a wheeled cart piled high with rock salt.
Crack, crack, crack.
He deftly cut around the mountain of salt and pulled off the top in one solid piece, revealing the perfectly cooked whole fish inside.
It was insanely impressive. I’m sure we caused a scene by yelling, “Bravo!” and clapping (but really, isn’t that welcome any old night in southern Italy?).
Thus began my love affair with pesce al sale. The salt crust holds in moisture and keeps the fish tender. It pairs beautifully with many different sauces; my favorites are beurre blanc with capers, Italian salsa verde and chimichurri. And it’s so forgiving that a recipe hardly even seems necessary. But here’s one anyway.
Tuck your fish into a bed of sea salt, egg and water.
One 3- to 4-lb. (1.4 to 1.8 kg) whole white fish* (or two smaller fish), cleaned and scaled
4 lb. (2 kg) coarse sea salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 lemon, sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled
Parsley
*Sea bass, bream or any other white fish will work well
Instructions
Mix sea salt with eggs. Add a splash of water (2 to 3 teaspoons) to moisten the mixture. It should have the consistency of sticky, coarse sand.
Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil. Spread a ¼-inch (2 cm) layer of the salt mixture across the foil.
Stuff fish with lemon slices, garlic and parsley.
Place fish on the salt layer, and cover evenly with remaining salt so it has an even ¼-inch (2 cm) coating all around.
Cook fish. On a charcoal BBQ: cook over indirect heat (around 300 F/149 C) with the kettle lid on for 45 minutes. In the oven: preheat the oven to 200 C/ 400 F and bake for 35 minutes.
Let fish rest for 5 minutes.
Using a fork, crack open the salt crust, cutting around the perimeter of the fish and removing the top layer of salt. Brush off excess salt.
Using a knife, cut behind the gill of the fish head. Slide the knife between the spine and the top filet. Carefully remove the meat and set aside. (The fish will be very tender, so don’t worry if it breaks apart a little.)
Remove the head, spine and aromatics, exposing the second filet.
Divide the two filets into four portions. Serve with sauce.
Tofu is one of the most maligned and misunderstood foods. Common complaints include: “The texture is weird,” and “It doesn’t taste like anything” and “This isn’t meat, you know.” If you’ve only had sad vegetarian stir-frys with mushy, slimy tofu bits, I get why you’re not a huge fan.
But I love a perfect tofu bite that’s crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. The best – as is true of pretty much all foods – is when it’s battered and deep-fried and covered in sauce. I’ll happily order that dish in a restaurant, but it’s a bit aggressive for everyday cooking.
This recipe uses quick pan-fried tofu (using The Kitchn’s technique), tons of fresh vegetables, a modest bundle of rice noodles and just enough sauce to tie it all together. The veggies are flexible – you could easily swap in snap peas, mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, squash; the more, the merrier. So go on and get excited about that tofu.
Finely chopped green onions or cilantro (optional)
Sauce
1/3 cup (80 ml) soy sauce
1/3 cup (80 ml) water
2 tablespoons (30 ml) honey or agave
2 tablespoons (30 ml) rice vinegar
2 tablespoons (18 g) cornstarch
Splash of sriracha
Instructions
First, remove excess water from the tofu. Take tofu out of its packaging. Line a plate with a few paper towels, and place the tofu on top. Add another layer of paper towels and a second plate. Place something heavy, like a cast iron skillet or a book, on top of the plate to weigh it down. Leave it for at least 10 minutes.
Cut the tofu into small pieces, and blot excess moisture with a paper towel. Place pieces in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cornstarch; mix well.
Whisk together sauce ingredients and set aside.
Cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse under cold water, then drain. Coat with a splash of oil to prevent sticking.
Heat oil in a wok or large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add tofu in a single layer. Cook, turning occasionally, until all sides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Add onion, broccoli, peppers, carrots and green beans to the pan. Cook veggies, stirring often and adding more oil if necessary, until they are tender-crisp, 7-10 minutes. Add the ginger, garlic and the sauce the last few minutes of cooking; it will thicken slightly.
When the veggies are cooked, mix in tofu and noodles until warmed through. Serve with a garnish of green onions or cilantro.
Every year, I fall into a bit of a funk as the sweet summer produce slowly disappears at the market, and is replaced by… root vegetables. So many root vegetables. All of the root vegetables.
Don’t get me wrong. I love squash and beets and sweet potatoes and the rest of ’em. But on month three of roasted veggies, it’s hard to muster the same enthusiasm as I did at the beginning of the season.
To avoid dying of boredom (or just indulging in all the mashed potatoes, pot pies, and mac and cheese I really want to eat all winter), I’ve been experimenting with new ways to use roasted veggies.
The basic idea is this: make a pan or two of assorted vegetables (plus some sautéed greens if you have them). How to Roast Any Vegetable from The Kitchn is an excellent overview of how to do this like a pro. Then mix and match recipes throughout the week, and give yourself a gold star for being such a responsible adult.
10 Ways to Use Roasted Veggies
1. Spicy Veggie Bowls
Layer veggies on a bed of grains – like whole-wheat couscous or bulgur. Drizzle with plain Greek yogurt mixed with harissa or sriracha.
2. Goat Cheese Polenta & Veggies
Make a quick pot of cheesy polenta, and serve with vegetables.
3. Pasta
Cook pasta, toss with olive oil or butter, and mix in vegetables. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and fresh ground pepper.
4. Tacos
Combine Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday, replacing the standard ground taco meat with roasted veggies. Serve with all your favorite fixins: salsa, avocado, sour cream, pickled onions, jalapeños and cheese.
5. Pizza
Roll out homemade or store-bought pizza dough; cover with tomato sauce, roasted veggies and cheese, and bake. (If you have a cast iron skillet, I highly recommend the insanely delicious Foolproof Pan Pizza recipe from Serious Eats.) The picture below is a variation loosely based on the flavors of tarte flambée (Alsatian tart): crème fraîche, roasted veggies, sautéed Swiss chard, queso fresco and crispy pancetta.
6. Omelets
Jazz up a plain omelet with roasted vegetables and goat cheese.
7. Vegetarian Curry
Sauté chopped onions in olive oil until they soften. Add a few spoonfuls of curry paste or powder, and cook another minute. Mix in a can of coconut milk and roasted vegetables. Simmer for 10 minutes; serve over rice or noodles.
8. Sandwiches
Spread hearty bread with a flavorful sauce, like pesto, romesco, hummus or tapenade. Add a layer of roasted vegetables, and drizzle with olive oil and vinegar.
9. Salad
Spoon veggies onto a bowl of mixed greens, lettuce or spinach. Add nuts, crumbled cheese and vinaigrette.
10. Soup
Bring chicken or vegetable broth to a boil. Add dry pasta and cook till not quite al dente. Stir in veggies, and cook until heated through.
These ideas barely scratch the surface of the possibilities. What are your favorite ways to use roasted veggies?
I have a terrible cold right now, which means I will be a terrible person for at least three more days. I’ve also given it to Brian because I’m just generous like that – and who wants to wallow in feverish self-pity alone?
Of course all I want to eat is chicken noodle soup, because it’s the only thing that will make me feel better (It’s science.) And none of that salt-bomb canned stuff with soggy noodles. I want homemade chicken noodle soup.
Well, you can see the conundrum.
So I made a big pot of this soup to last us a few days. It tastes way better than canned – but doesn’t expect miracles from a cook who can barely get out of bed. I’m filled with rage when I see ingredients like “finely chopped parsley” in a chicken soup recipe (It’s 5 p.m., and I just managed to shower. You seriously expect me to have parsley right now?).
Adjust the following “recipe” (if you can call it that) to your circumstances. Send the healthiest person in your house to the grocery store to pick up a rotisserie chicken and all of the NyQuil. Skip all the vegetables if you don’t have any, or throw in a bag of frozen veggies right before the noodles are done. Whatever it takes to get this soup in your belly.
1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled off and shredded into pieces
8 cups (2 quarts/ almost 2 liters) chicken broth
Dry pasta (I used 1 cup corkscrew noodles)
Salt and pepper
Dried oregano, crushed red pepper and/or poultry seasoning (optional)
Instructions
In a large pot, cook the onion in oil for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the carrots and celery; cook for another 5 minutes, until they are slightly more tender. Add garlic and cook for a minute.
Add chicken broth; simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are starting to get tender. Season with salt and pepper (and other herbs and spices, if using).
Add noodles and chicken pieces, and cook till noodles are al dente.
If you want to offend an Italian, refer to polenta as “Italian grits.” I’m guessing. I’ve never actually had the guts to do this, after getting burned making a similar wine faux pas a few years ago:
Me: I love Primitivo wine. I think it’s made from the same grape as Zinfandel, which we produce in my hometown in California!
Primitivo Winemaker: **look of disdain/horror** We have been making Primitivo wines for thousands of years. It is not the same as this Zinfandel.
Me: …… [nods/ hangs head in shame/ holds out empty glass for more]
But really, polenta – long a staple in Northern Italian cuisine – is just coarsely ground cornmeal. Just like grits. Depending on where I’m living and what’s available at the store, I use Italian polenta and American cornmeal interchangeably. Both are easy and affordable to prepare. Both make a rich, hearty porridge when cooked in liquid. And both absolutely benefit from generous helpings of butter, salt and cheese.
In wintertime, I love to serve polenta with braised short ribs or some other meaty sauce. But as the weather gets warmer, polenta is an ideal base for lighter vegetable-based dishes. This version combines simple roasted spring veggies with creamy, cheesy polenta. I advise making extra for leftovers.
16 oz./ 453 g jarred or homemade marinara sauce, heated
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F/ 204 degrees C.
Place vegetables in 2 roasting pans: the asparagus and snap peas in one pan, and the rest of the veggies in another (the first pan might not take as long to cook as the heartier vegetables). Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes, or until veggies are lightly caramelized and tender.
Meanwhile, start the polenta. In a saucepan, bring the water to boil over medium heat. Add a dash of salt, then slowly pour in the polenta, whisking to break up lumps. Let polenta cook, stirring occasionally, until it is soft and thick and starting to pull away from the edges of the pan (around 20 minutes). Stir in butter, goat cheese and 1/4 cup grated Parmesan until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the polenta onto plates or shallow bowls. Top with marinara sauce, roasted veggies and grated Parmesan.
Notes
*You can vary the veggies depending on what you have, and what’s in season.
I love artichokes. I get a huge kick out of seeing their symmetrical little shapes all stacked up at the market this time of year. Growing up in California, I gorged myself on them… and I burned the roof of my mouth more times than I can count because I can never wait for them to cool down before digging in.
Until recently, I would order fresh artichoke dishes in restaurants, but I would never prepare them at home. They just seemed like too much work, and canned artichoke hearts are pretty fantastic. But it’s artichoke season, and we keep getting beautiful artichokes in our CSA basket. I am racked with guilt every time I neglect them and they go bad, so I started playing around with this pasta.
The ingredients are simple, but they complement each other so well. The artichokes are earthy and buttery, and the lemon adds a touch of brightness. And cream and Parmesan are always a good idea; use just a little for a lighter dish, or be heavy-handed for a decadent, creamy sauce.
To be clear, you can make this pasta with canned artichoke hearts, and it will be delicious. But if you have some in-season artichokes just begging to be used… well, here you go.
2 T. lemon juice (plus more for cooking artichokes)
Generous splash of cream
½ cup grated Parmesan
6-8 whole artichokes (or 1 can artichoke hearts)
Instructions
Cook artichokes. If using whole, fresh artichokes, roast them with garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice according to this recipe. If using canned artichoke hearts, rinse and drain them. Sauté the hearts with 1 T. of butter, a spoonful of minced garlic and a splash of lemon juice. Roughly chop and set aside.
Boil a large pot of salted water. Cook pasta until just shy of al dente.
Meanwhile, melt 3 T. butter in a large skillet. Add lemon zest and cook for a couple minutes. Pour in cream. Use tongs to add the cooked pasta, lemon juice, artichokes and Parmesan. Toss, adding a few spoonfuls of pasta water to thin the sauce if needed.
Season with salt and pepper, and a splash of olive oil. Serve with additional Parmesan and lemon zest on the side.
All I want, all winter long, is a big bowl of body-warming, soul-soothing soup. And usually I want it instantly, with next-to-zero work on my part. Ramen is the magical concoction that satisfies both of these desires.
I make it a little differently every time, depending on what veggies and toppings we have in the house. It is delicious in its simplest form – broth and noodles – but I love it even more when we have greens, mushrooms, sprouts, soft-boiled eggs and other fixins to add for flavor and texture.
Feeling a little chilly and also a little lazy? Go fix yourself a steaming bowl of broth, noodles and veggies. You deserve it.
Soak mushrooms in warm water until they soften (20-30 minutes); rinse and drain. Slice mushrooms.
Heat sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. Cook garlic and ginger for 2 minutes, then add miso and cook for another minute. Add broth, a splash of soy sauce and Sriracha, 5-star spice (optional) and mirin (optional).
Stir in mushrooms. Bring the broth to a simmer and season to taste.
While broth is heating, boil water in a separate pot and cook noodles until al dente. Drain and rinse with warm water; set aside.
Add greens to the broth and cook for a few minutes until wilted.
Put a serving of noodles in each bowl, ladle soup over the top, and garnish with toppings.
Unless I’m making chocolate-chip cookies or brownies, I find baking stressful. I like to experiment when I cook, even when I’m following a recipe. But apparently “winging it” and baking don’t mesh well.
Nevertheless, I want to bake around the holidays. You can’t have Thanksgiving dinner without a homemade pie, right? My mom always made amazing pies for holidays, and she insists it’s not that tricky. I can totally make a pie! All of the pies!
So my annual pattern is:
Attempt a new and complicated recipe the day 15 people are coming over for dinner
Fake confidence and refuse help
Freak out when something goes wrong
Swear profusely and insist the holiday/the dessert are ruined
Halfheartedly eat the slightly mangled finished product anyway
It’s fun. For everyone. Happy Thanksgiving!
This year, we asked several other people to bring dessert so I could start step #1 without as much pressure. And with wonderful pep talks and troubleshooting advice from friends who are better bakers than I am, this pumpkin crumble tart experiment turned out surprisingly well. I wanted the creaminess of traditional pumpkin pie, along with the crunchy texture of a crumble, and this checked both boxes.
Before I dig into the recipe, here are some caveats:
This is a quick and dirty recipe; I didn’t plan to write it up until I had made it a few times and had taken more photos. But tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and this is top of mind. (Just like I always say, “Better done than perfect.” Hahahaha, just kidding, I would never say that.) The picture above Brian snapped with his phone, and I’ll update once we’ve polished the recipe and made it a second time.
1 cup (100g) pecans (or almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts)
1/4 cup (50g) packed dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, chilled and cut in rough chunks
Instructions
Make the dough
Let butter soften out of the fridge for about 5 minutes before you use it. Add it to the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, then add the sugar. Mix until there are no large chunks of butter.
Add the egg yolks, then flour and sugar. Pulse the mixer a few times until the dough is sticking together.
Grease a 9 1/2-inch (24 cm) nonstick springform pan, and place a circle of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan (cut to fit). Use your fingers and the heel of your hand to press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan, and about halfway up the sides.
Put the pan in the freezer for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Line the chilled crust with parchment paper and cover with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes, remove pie weights and set aside.
Make the filling*
Whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs and brown sugar. Add the cornstarch, salt, spices, cream and milk. Mix well until everything is combined.
Pour filling into the crust; it will likely go past the edge of the crust.
Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes; it may jiggle slightly but appear mostly set.
Make the crumble
Pulse the ingredients in food processor (or chop the nuts and mix ingredients by hand)
Place the crumble ingredients in a thin layer in a second pan. When the tart has been baking for about 20 minutes, put the crumble pan in the oven alongside the tart to start browning. Add the crumble topping to the top of the tart toward the end of the tart's baking time, when the filling is almost set (about 10 minutes before it's done).
Take the tart out of the oven and set on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife along the inside edge of the pan. Let it rest for 30 minutes before removing the springform pan.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Notes
* I had a difficult time working with the Trader Joe's organic pumpkin puree. It seemed to have a more watery consistency than Libby's, making the filling super thin, and I ended up using two cans of the TJ's puree – but it did set correctly in the end. If your filling seems very watery, use 1 1/2 to 2 cans of filling.
In a previous post, I talked about what inspired me to do my thesis on food and cooking. Now that it’s done and turned in, I thought I’d adapt some portions of my writing and focus on them here. One of the first, and most significant topics when talking about our food, is that of food processing.
Scientists, doctors, nutritionists and health organizations all acknowledge that the production and consumption of processed food and drinks are important causes in the current pandemic of obesity and related chronic diseases.1
As food writer Michael Pollan so eloquently puts it, big food corporations “cook very differently from how people do (which is why we usually call what they do ‘food processing’ instead of cooking). They tend to use much more sugar, fat and salt than people cooking for people do; they also deploy novel chemical ingredients seldom found in pantries in order to make their food last longer and look fresher that it really is”.2
These novel techniques and ingredients, along with excessive amounts of sugar, fat and salt, create a diet that health professionals describe as “intrinsically nutritionally unbalanced and intrinsically harmful to health”.3
Shall I go on? OK, I will…
Carlos A. Monteiro, Director of the Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition at the University of Sao Paulo, proposes that the amount of processing our food undergoes is what determines how healthy or unhealthy it will be, not the food itself, nor its nutrient parts.
Across the globe, government food recommendations do not recognize this difference, and as a result, food like whole fresh fruit, fruit canned in sugary syrup and reconstituted sugary fruit beverages all get classified as “fruit”.4
Side note: A 2010 study found that the diets of nearly the entire US population did not fall within federal dietary recommendations. So, even with sugary fruit beverages being classified as fruits, we still do not meet the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Monteiro argues that most food today has some degree of processing and that there is little use in classifying food into only processed and unprocessed groups. Instead, he proposes three levels to describe the drastic differences in processing that occur between, for instance, pre-washed fruit and a gummy fruit snack.
The three categories are:
Group 1: Unprocessed and minimally processed foods: No processing, or mostly physical processes used to make single whole foods more durable, accessible, convenient, palatable or safe. Group 2: Processed culinary or food industry ingredients: Extraction and purification of components of single whole foods, resulting in producing ingredients used in the preparation and cooking of dishes and meals made from Group 1 foods in homes and traditional restaurants, or else in the formulation by manufacturers of Group 3 foods. Group 3: Ultra-processed food products: Processing of a mix of Group 2 ingredients and Group 1 foodstuffs in order to create durable, accessible, convenient, and palatable ready-to-eat or to-heat food products liable to be consumed as snacks or desserts or replace home-prepared dishes.
The groups are described more thoroughly below (from Monteiro’s research) but it’s easy to see that foods like cookies, snacks, pre-prepared meals, processed meat like chicken nuggets and burgers all belong in Group 3.6
From “Food classifications based on the extent and purpose of industrial processing”. by C. Monteiro, 2010, Cadernos de saude publia, 26, p. 2042. Copyright 2010 by Carlos Monteiro.
He does not propose that healthy diets are made up of entirely unprocessed/minimally processed foods, but rather a healthy balance of the three groups.
The problem is, that across countries like Brazil, the UK and the US, we seem to completely lack the ability to maintain this balance.
In Brazil, ultra-processed (Group 3) foods made up 20% of consumed calories. As income increased, so too did the presence of these ultra-processed foods. In the households with the highest income, nearly one-third of all calories came from ultra-processed foods.7
In the UK, ultra-processed foods made up 45% caloric intake.8
In the United States, the five most commonly consumed foods were all considered Group 3 foods: sodas, cakes and pastries, burgers, pizza and potato chips. These five foods alone made up 20% of the total calories consumed in the United States.9
A similar study in Canada showed that 61.7% of dietary energy consumed came from ultra-processed foods and that 80% of the Canadian population had diets consisting of more than 50% of ultra-processed foods in terms of caloric intake.10
Yeah? So what does that mean?
Monteiro’s claim that the act of processing food is a culprit in our rapid decline in health is being confirmed more specifically in subsequent studies. One recent study showed a link between two commonly used emulsifiers and the development of metabolic syndrome and low-grade inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract of mice.11
Emulsifiers can be found in nearly all processed food and are used to prevent ingredients like fats and oils from separating. They go by many names, but some of the common ones are: polysorbate 80, lecithin, carrageenan, polyglycerols and xanthan gum. The “metabolic syndrome” that these items are linked to is a term used to describe a group of risk factors, including high levels of cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar, as well as obesity. Someone with metabolic syndrome is more likely to develop more serious health issues like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and strokes.12
The addition of emulsifiers is by no means the only cause of obesity, but the inflammation that it causes in the gastrointestinal tract appears to interfere with the feeling of “being full” while eating.13 Not feeling full often leads to overeating and, in turn, the development of more fat.
So what can I do about it?
Simple! First, decrease, limit and/or eliminate ultra-processed foods from what you eat. It has clear benefits in preventing disease and promoting general well being, Monteiro says.14
Second, even with the downward trend of cooking, more than two-thirds of caloric intake for adults in the US still occurs in the home.15 Therefore, the most good can be done by focusing on food and meals we consume at home.
I think these point to a clear path forward: cut down on processed foods by cooking more at home. It is one of the easiest daily acts we can do to improve our health.
Numerous studies have the same conclusion, one even suggesting that, “Efforts to boost the healthfulness of the US diet should focus on promoting the preparation of healthy foods at home while incorporating limits on time available for cooking”.16
An increase in cooking at home has been shown to relate directly to a decrease in Body Mass Index (BMI),17 and lower BMI decreases the risk other health issues like diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease and many types of cancer.18
So what are you waiting for? Put down the fast food and the pre-packaged meals and make your next meal from simple, fresh ingredients.
If you want to read my Masters Thesis in its entirety, you can download it in the Download section. You can also see a shorter slide show here. Enjoy!
We’ve been on a grain-based salad kick for a while, combining couscous, bulgar, farro or whatever we have in the cupboard with vegetables, nuts, legumes, herbs and spices for new combos. I think this started because:
Green salads can get pretty grim during the winter months.
Whenever we serve simple salads to guests, no one eats it and we end up with a neverending bowl of wilting lettuce in our fridge.
I like these heartier salads because they have endless variations, and they are a blank canvas for all the spices we have been collecting. I made this one for our last EatWith event and loved the contrast of the different textures and flavors (I think the cinnamon is a must).
