Matcha Cookies Four Ways

Prelude

Duo: Honey I just blew half the food budget on matcha powder. Bai!

David: You motherfucker! *shakes fist*

David and I are in charge of the food for the Our Fair City Season Six Launch Party. It was shortly before our third design meeting, and the menu was falling into place. We had already showcased the majority of what we wanted to serve at the 2nd design meeting, but the general consensus was that, while the daifuku I presented was great, we should really have something available for people who are not as adventurous when it comes to food.

I had my mind settled on cookies. Green cookies. Unwilling to use food coloring unless I absolutely have to, I opted to make matcha (green tea) cookies, which are naturally green. I did some napkin math and arrived at a ratio of approximately 1 tablespoon of matcha powder per cup of flour used, and I thought it would be a pretty reasonable investment.

As it turned out, matcha powder was about $6 per ounce. In comparison, radishes, which are prominently featured in two of our dishes, ran about $0.69 per pound. 

Mother. Fucker.

I was entirely too stubborn to retract my idea, however, so I plowed on. Somewhere along the way, I thought: you know, this shit is expensive, so I'm going to try to make the best fucking matcha cookies ever. Luckily, my wonderful downstairs neighbor Mark gave me another 4 ounces of matcha powder for free, so I had the resources to experiment.

Take One: Shortbread

I have made shortbread style matcha cookies previously, so that's where I started. I went with Smitten Kitchen's recipe because I wanted the matcha to shine through:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons matcha powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Whisk dry ingredients together.
Cream butter. Add almond extract.
Combine dry ingredients and butter.
Divided into discs and chill for 2 hours.
Roll out and cut.
Bake at 325ºF for 15 minutes.

This recipe made me remember why I hate shortbread recipes, especially in the winter. Since there are no binders beside the butter, shortbread recipes are the poster children for mass measurements over volume measurements. The butter never fully softened (my fault), so the fat had a hard time wetting the dry ingredients. After initial mixing, the ingredients took the form of slightly wet green sand, and I had to knead the dough together with my hand in order to melt the butter and get the dough into cohesive clumps. Despite my best efforts, the dough still had a tendency to crumble when I tried to roll it out. Luckily, handling it wasn't a complete disaster.

"The green tea is lost on me."
"I can't really taste the green tea."
"I like the almond flavor."
"Texture and color are both good."
"It's kind of dry."
"It should be smaller."
"Needs less salt and more sugar."
"The salt level is fine."
"Can you just use green food coloring?"

For the launch party, I guess that would make more sense. I think I'll just make a bunch of green sugar cookies: easy to handle, easy to recognize, relatively inexpensive, and hard to turn down.

But we're not done here. This post is about matcha cookies.

Take Two: Modified Shortbread

I upped the sugar, added almonds in place of almond extract, and made sure to soften the butter this time around (first thermally, then mechanically with my trusty Slovenian tenderizer) based on this recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons matcha powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2/3 cup chopped sliced almonds.

Mix flour, matcha powder, and salt.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add dry ingredients to butter+sugar. Mix to combine.
Stir in almonds.
Roll into logs. Chill for 1 hour.
Cut logs into slices.
Bake at 325ºF for 15 minutes.

After making this cookie, I was convinced that a cold kitchen and shortbread recipes simply do not mix. The dough was even more crumbly than the one produced by the previous recipe, and it took monumental effort to shape the logs. It was impossible to make the logs perfectly circular, so the cookies were shaped like rectangles with rounded edges. Oh, by the way, don't even think of rolling out this dough, because it'll explode into a thousand pieces, punch you in the face, and drink your tears while giving you the finger.

"It's so buttery."

"This one is my favorite."

"I like the almonds."

At least people seemed to like it, but I'm going to save this one for the summer, when butter stays softened and the kitchen doesn't feel like a walk-in freezer.

Take Three: The Chewy Kind

Ali, who helped me with come up with the idea of making multiple versions of matcha cookies, had the following suggestions for her ideal cookies:

chewy!
a little fluffy, so not thin, but soft and chewy.

Taking Ali's suggestions into consideration, this one is an original recipe, or as close to one as cookie recipes go.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons matcha powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup candied ginger nibs or candied ginger, cut into small pieces

Combine flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt.
Melt butter. Let it cool slightly, then mix thoroughly with brown sugar and white granulated sugar.
Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract to butter-sugar mixture. Stir to combine.
Beat dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
Stir in ginger nibs.
Roll dough into balls.
Bake at 325ºF for 18 minutes.

Now this is more like it! The dough was easy to handle, the ginger nibs complemented the matcha flavor well, and the cookie was chewy and remained chewy for up to two weeks (had to save some for Ali).

"Oh my god."

"Great mouth feel; chewiness was excellent."

"Sweetness was on point."

"Green tea flavor was good."

This is by far my favorite matcha cookie recipe, and I will be bringing these to A Month Of, my storytelling show, tomorrow. The current batch contains some slightly burned cookies because I found a hot spot in my oven, but you will probably like it anyways.

Take Four: Vegan

I have a few friends who expressed interest in a vegan variation, so I made one based on this recipe.

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons matcha powder

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick vegan shortening (Earth Balance), softened

2/3 cup white granulated sugar

2–4 tablespoons apple sauce

2 tablespoons toasted black sesame seeds.

Make your own apple sauce, because half the stuff you'll find in grocery stores are not vegan and you can use the leftovers for latkes!

Peel and core, like, some apples. I had 3.5 pounds. 

Place apples in saucepan. Add enough water to submerge apples. Heat to a boil. Reduce to medium and continue to boil for 35 to 40 minutes.

Add sugar to taste. I added 1/4 cup of white granulated sugar because I used Fuji apples, which are pretty sweet to begin with.

Blend until smooth.

Combine flour, matcha powder, baking powder, and salt.

Cream vegan shortening and sugar until smooth.

Add dry mix to sugar-shortening mixture.

Add apple sauce tablespoon by tablespoon until a dough is formed. 3 tablespoons worked well for me, but your mileage may vary.

Stir in sesame seeds.

Roll dough into balls.

Bake at 375ºF for 15 minutes.

This was my first time making vegan cookies, and I was happy with how it turned out. I wasn't able to taste the apple sauce at all. The cookie was soft: not chewy like the previous recipe, but also not a gag-inducing puck of dryness. The sesame provided a nice texture contrast.

"This is vegan?"
"I like the sesames."
"It reminds me of a Japanese tea ceremony."

Conclusion

Success! Come eat cookies and tell stories with me at A Month Of tomorrow night. Bai!

Work Potluck Week Eleven: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and Taking Symbolism Too Far

Last week's theme was Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was also the first week Anna actively participated in the potluck. The theme was a lot more abstract than that of the previous potluck, but we are super smart people. Once again, we drew the Seven Wonders at random and then chose which course to make.

Anna: Lighthouse of Alexandria

Stuffed bell peppers with feta, (sausage), corn, onion, and cornbread stuffing. Anna didn't have a great explanation for the dish except that stuffed peppers are part of traditional Egyptian cuisine. I remarked that the peppers resembled stoplights, which is (tenuously) connected to the lighthouse.

Amanda: Great Pyramid of Giza

Egyptian style pitas, feta, and baba ghanoush
Amanda also opted for traditional Egyptian dishes. The Egyptian style pitas she made were denser than the typical pita encountered stateside, and their color was reminiscent of sand.

Duo: Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Watermelon limeade with pineapple and cherry garnish

Zeus, being the head honcho of the Greek pantheon, invented many things, including infidelity. While Hera was technically Zeus' wife, Zeus loved some of dat mortal ass. My original idea was a limeade because sour flavor had a shocking quality to it, which I made more obvious by adding lightning-shaped pineapple garnish and citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. The limeade turned into watermelon limeade (to emulate the all powerful presence of Zeus, I squeezed the juice out a watermelon with my bare hands), and a cherry garnish was added, because... well, remember what I said about Zeus, infidelity, and dat mortal ass?

Greg: Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Garden salad with mixed greens, peppers, tomatoes, and feta
Originally, Greg was going to bring an empty salad bowl because the hanging gardens' location has not been verified. Knowing that we would spite him for that, however, he opted to bring a huge mix of vegetables, some of which looked very much like each other. Tomatoes resembled peppers and vice versa, and who could keep all of the salad green varieties straight?

Jaycie: Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Vegetable kebabs with zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, onion, and baked cheese
The temple of Artemis would have been a lot easier to execute if the potluck weren't vegetarian. So, instead of serving venison to represent the bounty of the huntress, Jaycie modeled her dish after the columns supporting the temple. The ingredients are also skewered because one of Artemis' signature weapons is bow and arrows, the latter represented by toothpicks to signify the act of hunting.

Sam: Colossus of Rhodes
Stuffed mushrooms with spinach, cream cheese, feta, parmesan, and garlic
The Colossus of Rhodes is a statue of the Titan Helios, the personification of the Sun. Do you know what comes from exposure to the Sun? Vitamin D. Do you know what else contains a lot of Vitamin D? MUSHROOMS. The connection is so clear I'm surprised you didn't arrive at it earlier.

Sarah: Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

S'mores of the Dead

Why s'mores? Because graham crackers are like the earth, chocolate is like the physical remnants of the deceased, and marshmallows are like ghosts. Plus, are you seriously going to turn down s'mores? I don't think so.

Work Potluck Week Ten: Welcome to Chicago Anna!

A few weeks ago we welcomed Anna, our new Lead Teacher to the School Programs team. What better way to welcome her to Chicago than to make dishes based on Chicago neighborhoods? We each randomly drew from a cup filled with Chicago neighborhoods, emphasis on randomly.


Amanda: Little Italy
Panzanella: bread salad with Italian bread, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and olive oil. We love carbs, but I think she made a little too much.

Duo: Chinatown. IT WAS RANDOM I SWEAR.
Cold eggplant salad: chilled boiled eggplants with garlic, ginger, scallions, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, Szechwan peppercorns, and homemade sesame paste. I've been wanting to cook eggplants for a while, and since I knew people will be needing the stove for their hot dishes, I made the eggplants ahead of time. It's not the prettiest dish, but it is flavorful.

Greg: Lincoln Square
Assorted root beer: Lincoln Square is on the Brown line, and root beer is brown. Lincoln Square is a German neighborhood, and Germans make the best root beer. Square Roots Festival also takes place in Lincoln Square.

Jaycie: Andersonville
Swedish pancakes: Jaycie and Andersonville are both Swedish (randomness is not without a sense of irony), so she made slightly sweetened pancakes, rolled and served with jam.

Sam: Pilsen
Re-imagined churros: cinnamon sugar pitas with salted caramel and cream cheese sauce. Pilsen is famous for its multitude of great Mexican restaurants. Also, remember when I said we love carbs? We really, really love carbs.

Sarah: Lincoln Park
Bow tie pasta with garlic scape pesto: garlic scapes are the green shoots that grow from garlic bulbs. You may have seen them when you've had bulbs of garlic for a while. There's this great farmer's market called Green City Market by where we work, and Sarah picked up some garlic scapes on a whim. The pesto is made from said garlic scapes, pistachios, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Even though garlic scapes are not as overpowering as raw garlic cloves, they still pack a punch!

Work Potluck Weeks Eight and Nine: Eat Your Feelings and Under the Sea

Week Eight: Eat Your Feelings

For this potluck, each participant drew from a random assortment of emotions and was tasked to create a dish that conveys the emotion drawn. Each participant's course assignment was chosen before the emotions were drawn.

My assignment was a passionate appetizer. Food and sexuality possess strong ties throughout human history, and the first thought I had was to look up a list of food that were supposedly aphrodisiacs. However, in my infinite wisdom, the google search string I came up with was "sexually charged appetizers." I urge you, dear readers, to run that search string and see what you get. Google tailors top search results based on your browsing history, but even for someone like me, who reads a lot of food blogs, none of my Page 1 results were remotely food-related. The only one that came close was a pun about a historical study of American sexual activities. Too much missionary, not enough Mission Street. Moving on.

In the end, I decided to create a cheese pairing. The non-cheese bits were homemade chocolate graham crackers (phenylethylamine yo) and vanilla candied cherries (According to the reputable food science journal Cosmopolitan, vanilla "mildly stimulates nerves, making sexual sensations feel even better." I don't think I need to explain the sexual connotations of cherries.)

The cheese on the left is the Robiola Rochetta. Made in northern Italy, this soft cow-goat-sheep milk blend has a great tangy finish. The cheese on the right is the Bay Blue cheese from Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. It's a fairly mellow blue cheese that's modeled after English Stilton. It's not nearly as pungent as some of the other blue cheeses I taste tested, but it possesses enough earthiness and saltiness to balance the sweet cherries and chocolate crackers. 

I was very apprehensive about coming up my own cheese pairing at first, but after about 2 hours of online and in-person research, the conclusion I arrived at is this: it's very hard to get a cheese pairing wrong. Much like the subject of passion, cheese pairing is not a hard science. Sometimes, when you taste two things together, you just know they go well together. It's like making eye contact with someone across Intelligentsia and feeling an instant connection, only to realize later that she was reading one of your favorite novels.

Amber made a happy main dish: homemade mac n' cheese. It's traditional comfort food.

Amanda made a giddy dessert: 3-berry medley topped with mango sorbet and fizzy soda. Pinkie Pie would be proud.

Greg made a bitter salad: strawberry almond apricot salad with lemon honey vinaigrette and aromatic bitters.

Sam made a fearful side: spinach balls. The dish itself isn't very fear-inducing, but the story behind it was great. It's a family recipe, and once upon a time Sam successfully convinced one of her teammates that it was in fact cat poop, which most definitely scared the poor girl. As someone who enjoys food-based scares and psych-outs, these cat poop nuggets (actually made with onion, thyme, spinach, stuffing mix, and garlic salt) are greatly appreciated.

Jaycie made a snarky beverage. Snarky is a difficult emotion to put into food, so Jaycie channeled the great snarky role models of pop culture. Who is snarkier than Severus Snape? Drawing inspiration from the potions professor, Jaycie made an Arnold Palmer, a drink that is part sweet, part sour, and a little bitter. We also had some gummy frogs encased in ice cubes left over from Week Three, which made the drinks even more wizard-like.

Snape... approves?

My personal favorite dishes came from Sarah, who was tasked with making a sneaky salad. What better way to sneak vegetables into someone's diet than to disguise them as other food? Take a look at the picture below and tell me what you see. 

Did you guess cat poop, bitter salad, mashed cauliflowers, and mashed avocados? Why, what an astute observer you are. Cheesy mashed cauliflowers were disguised as mashed potatoes, and chocolate mashed avocados were disguised as chocolate pudding. Both were delicious.

Week Nine: Under the Sea

We were short a few people for Week Nine, which meant we had less dishes but more latitude: our dietary restrictions were downgraded from vegetarian to pescetarian. Not as much hyper-creative thinking went into the meal (at least not compared to Week Eight), but everything tasted superb.

The week's theme had Sarah thinking about relaxing on the beach, so she made (virgin) piña coladas.

Sam made SeaMonkey bread. It was loaded with butter, Parmesan cheese, and garlic. 

Seizing the opportunity to serve meat, Amanda made a delicious salmon pizza loaded with herbs, goat cheese, and smoked salmon.

I made a seaweed salad out of 4 different kinds of seaweed. The dressing is a pretty standard Asian dressing with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sugar. Roasted sesame seeds served as garnish.

Jaycie once again delivered. She adapted one of her favorite desserts from her childhood and to this week's theme. She made a delectable icebox cake using Nabisco chocolate wafers and whipped cream filling. Because the cake is black and white, she shaped the topping into whale tails and called her creation... the Orca-reo cake.

Admit it. It's pretty punny.

Next week, we welcome another new member to the potluck. She just started this Wednesday, and we made it adequately clearly to her that weekly potlucks are kind of a big deal.

Work Potluck Week Seven: Welcome Jaycie!

This week, the amazing Jaycie joined us on the 3rd floor. Since she was born and raised in Tucson, AZ, we decided on a Southwest theme.

Once again, I drew dessert. Researching Southwestern desserts online has led me to some awful atrocities that rival Sandra Lee in terms of half-assed awfulness. So, I decided to head south of the border and made dark chocolate truffles with cayenne peppers and cinnamon. Think of the truffles as tiny balls of Mexican chocolate. Well, they're missing cloves, but I didn't think to infuse the heavy cream with cloves at the time I was making the ganache.

I didn't spare any spices, so the truffles packed a punch. The cinnamon was immediately noticeable, but the cayenne peppers insidiously encroached upon one's taste buds. Sorry Amanda!

Other dishes include:

Blueberry lemonade. The lemonade was super tart and super refreshing. It complemented the cheese-heavy potluck and the sweet truffles very well.

Beer guacamole. I love avocados, and the guacamole was amazing. Unfortunately, because I'm such an observant person, I mistook the avocado pits for heirloom tomatoes and almost swallowed one! In my defense, they were very small pits.

Nachos! You can't go wrong with plain melted cheese on tortilla, but the one with black beans and jalapenos were extra tasty.

Strawberry salsa to go with, well, everything! Normally I up the contrast and saturation a bit because the photos I take usually look washed out, but this salsa was so vibrant that no contrast/saturation adjustments were needed.

Quesadillas! We had both chicken and cheese quesadillas, and they were both delicious.

Speaking of quesadillas, we pronounce the word really weirdly at the office. Amanda pronounces it as "kay-sa-dyllahs," and we snowballed from there. "Kway-sa-diyas," "kray-so-dealahs," and my contribution, "kay-so-dillos."

And then we discussed the recent research on how to pronounce "Taco Bell" based on this article, because apparently people from Arizona pronounce it completely differently from the rest of the country. Yep, we're the best.

Work Potluck Week Six: Sarah's Birthday!

This week, we made dishes that we think would make our birthday girl Sarah happy. A self-described regular twenty-somethings girl, Sarah claims her diet consists mostly of coffee and dessert. When she's not destroying her body with aforementioned deliciousness, she likes to eat "healthy" food (ah, the eternal struggle). However, her mention of quinoa as one of her favorites foods raised a few eyebrows.

One of the healthy foods Sarah said she liked was avocados, so I made some avocado ice cream. I had originally planned to make beautiful lime zest tuile cookies, but I botched the batch horribly last night. Next time, I'll use bigger pans and nonstick spray.

Instead, I fried up some flour tortillas and coated them in sugar, which served nicely as substitute garnish. Add some lime zest to top the ice cream and I've got the whole "dessert guacamole and chips" thing going on. Surprisingly, the extra tortilla garnishes became a huge hit in the office as no one can resist the siren call of fried carbs topped with more carbs.

Yes, the plate says "Twinkle." No, you shut your mouth, it's awesome.

Speaking of awesome, everyone stepped up their game this week for Sarah's birthday. Here's the rest of the menu.

Avocado bruschetta. Apparently I was not the only one who thought avocados were a good idea.

Strawberry rosemary punch. This delicious beverage contains pureed strawberries sweetened with honey and infused with rosemary, lemon and lime juices, and a base of sparkling cider.

Strawberry caprese salad. Fresh strawberries, basil, mint, and buffalo mozzarella balls.

Sarah's sandwich. Prosciutto and herb cream cheese (parsley, basil, chives, and scallions) sandwich on pretzel roll, topped with cucumber, green pepper, red onion, and arugula.

Next week, the potluck group welcomes a new member. Oh, we have such tastes to entice her.

Work Potluck Week Five: Pop Music Guilty Pleasures

This week, we made dishes based on our favorite pop music stars and/or their music.

I made a lemonade based on Lady Gaga and specifically the music video for Poker Face.  I made lemonade from scratch and dyed it blue. The completely edible garnish is supposed to resemble Lady Gaga's face. It did not come out as well as I wanted, but the resemblance was there so I won't complain too much. Pineapple hair, cantaloupe face, lemon peel lightning bolt, and blue raspberry rock candy stone on the lightning bolt.

Prototype and planning:

Baked beans: inspired by Tim McGraw's Something Like That. Fortunately, none of us got BBQ stains on our shirts.

Corn and black bean quesadillas: inspired by Nicki Minaj's Beez in the Trap. The yellow corn and black beans represent the bees, and the tortilla and cheese represent the trap.

Depression era cake: inspired by Jay Z's Hard Knock Life. The cake batter contained no butter, which was scarce and expensive back in the day.

Creamy purple cabbage salad with raspberries: inspired by Prince's Raspberry Beret, Purple Rain, and Cream. 

Work Potluck: Inception and Previous Themes

Inception: Honey Humpday

A little over a month ago, I was sitting in the bibliothèque at the office, furiously  hammering away on the keyboard of my laptop. My single track mind was further railroaded by that special combination of too much caffeine and too little food, and I was oblivious to the movements around me. That is, until I heard the unmistakable sizzle of fat in a pan. A few minutes later I was offered a grilled cheese sandwich with Gruyère cheese, pear, jam, and honey. It was delicious. I shared the grilled cheese and other honey-laced dishes with my coworkers, which was a welcome break from searing my eyeballs with the laptop screen.

"Happy Honey Humpday," a coworker said.

"Okay, so what do I have to do to be a part of this?" I asked.

"Well, choose a color then pick a course at random."

A few minutes later, I had my assignment for the next week: a red side dish for Wainbow Wednesday (yes, we pronounced it that way for the entire week.)

Week Wone: Wainbow Wednesday

Everyone chose a color and picked a course at random. For my red side dish, I made a chilled red pepper soup topped with crème fraîche and thyme. Other dishes included currant scones (purple dessert), paella (yellow main dish), fauxjito (green beverage).

Week Two: Tiny Thursday

The week's theme was "small things." I drew beverage and made tiny virgin (can't daydrink at work :( ) sangria shots with mangoes, green grapes, pomegranate seeds, and white grape juice agar gels flavored with rose extract. Other dishes included mini pizzas, Waldorf salad lettuce wraps, and raspberry cheesecakes.

Week Three: Movie Wednesday (We Ran Out of Naming Mojo)

For this week, everyone picked a dish based on their favorite movie(s). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this potluck, but I can tell you all about the dishes and the associated movie clips we watched.

Atlantic Potion (inspired by The Little Mermaid): citrus soda, grapes, and blue ice cubes with gummies frozen inside

French salad (inspired by Moulin Rouge): homemade French salad dressing, lettuce and cherry tomatoes

Beans and rice with mango salsa (inspired by Jurassic Park, because the movie takes place off the coast of Costa Rica): watch the clip.

"Will someone please pass me the fucking" asparagus (inspired by my favorite movie, American Beauty): chilled asparagus with honey dijon dressing and lemons, the dish was a replica of the asparagus Lester requested and eventually threw against the dining room wall.

Persian style rice and tofu with walnuts and pomegranate molasses (inspired by The Color of Paradise, which I want to see now!)

"Choose Your Own Adventure" cookies and icing (inspired by multiple movies): choose from star (Star Wars), plane (Top Gun), football helmet (Remember the Titans), and T. rex (Jurassic Park). In true Calvin and Hobbes fashion, I put a T. rex on a plane.

Week Four: Hometown Wednesday

We put everyone's hometowns into a hat and drew randomly. I drew Stillwater, MN, and made a traditional hot dish with sautéed mushrooms and onions, cream of mushroom soup (from a can!), frozen vegetables, a ton of cheddar cheese, and topped the whole thing off with tater tots.

Beijing: my boss made dumplings from scratch. They were impressive.

Lexington, MA: lemon iced tea for the Boston tea party

Carmel, IN: unfortunately Indiana is kind of a culinary wasteland (someone prove me wrong), so we had a corn and cucumber salad because, well, corn and cucumber both grow in Indiana. The person responsible was tempted to make something that more realistically reflected the culinary traditions of Indiana by slathering canned corn with mayonnaise, but we were all very glad he chose not to pursue authenticity in this instance.

Berea, KY: cookie and ice cream sandwiches

Fort Thomas, KY: cat's head biscuits. The biscuits do not contain cat heads, or any parts of cats for that matter. Instead, they were named for their approximate size: the size of a cat's head.