Happy Chinese Food Coma at Home

For dinner, Jon made some truly delicious homemade Chinese food.

Definitely better than Trader Joe's. It consisted of pan-fried tofu, with water chestnuts, mushrooms, and red onions, in a mirin and soy sauce. The overall effect was one of heavenly glutamate deliciousness.

To go with it, I made some basil ice cream with leftover basil from Sunday's panzanella.

The flavor is not at all like the amazing basil ice cream I had years ago at some posh restaurant in Santa Fe, the name of which escapes me. It's actually rather bitter. Which I attribute to my sad basil leaves, and not the recipe I used. The upside is that I never before realized how awesome my ice cream maker can be when I use eggs- lots of eggs- in my ice cream. The consistency is gorgeous, and exactly like commercial ice cream, but better because it's fresh.

To drink, I had a glass of red wine from La Granja. The tempranillo is my favorite go-to cheap Spanish wine from TJ's. Under $4 a bottle, and a decent, nicely tannic red. Pretty shocking for cheap wine with a cute label. (Dear flickr users: why do you take unoriginal photos of wine labels and reserve all rights? I already threw away my bottle.)

Italianish Pasta at Home

For dinner, I made some pasta with rapini, with white wine to drink.

I'd never had rapini, aka "broccoli rabe" before. I'm going to stick with rapini here, because it's not broccoli, and is actually related to the turnip. In any case, a quick search of the internet reveals disdain and loathing for rapini. People complain that it's bitter and awful-tasting. I, however, found it extremely tasty. And pretty.

I prepared it with a quick blanching, then sauteed with aleppo pepper, garlic, and olive oil, before mixing in the cooked penne and adding grated Pecorino Romano. It had a mellow, buttery flavor that reminded me a bit of asparagus. Here and there, I got a slightly bitter leaf, but the overall effect was delicious.

I ate it with a glass of the leftover Chardonnay/Macabeo, which paired nicely with the rich pasta.

Gorditas at Home

For lunch, I had a gordita, with a glass of pineapple-coconut juice.

The gorditas are from TJ's frozen section. I heated mine in a cast-iron skillet, per package directions, to get a crispy exterior.

The result was on the slightly questionable side of passable. I guess if you're a fan of Doritos, you might enjoy them, as the effect of the skillet was to turn the outer layer into a massive corn chip. I, alas, am not. The filling- cheese, beans, and roasted chile- should've been tasty, but was not. There were only two bites in which I could distinguish some mild chile flavor, and the cheese seemed skimpy for how bad they are for you (very bad). As with the majority of TJ's prepared foods, this one's a definite pass. A similar result could be had for fewer calories and less cost by simply making a quesadilla with corn tortillas.

The juice, however, was very good. We bought TJ's not-from-concentrate pineapple juice to make popsicles with, and I had some extra coconut water in the fridge. I mixed them, 50/50, for a nice tropical drink. Relatedly (dear Blogger, why don't you recognize so many real words as words? Like "relatedly"?), they do also make great popsicles. Next time, due to consistency issues and general adoration for sweetened condensed milk, I'm going to try adding it in 1:3 to make even more awesome popsicles.

Shake Shack in Dupont

For lunch, I had a cheeseburger with onions, and frozen custard. The cheese fries were Jon's, I swear.

It was our first experience at a Shake Shack. Thank god we don't live closer, because I'd get even poorer, and start schlumping around like this, despite our awesome Capital Bikeshare memberships:

(We took a breather at the Natural History Museum before lunch)

Or maybe it's what's really going to bring about Judgment Day.

(The subway still contains these awesome ads)

It's like a yuppie version of This is Why You're Fat. Perhaps most illustrative of this, because I don't think you can see how soaked my cheeseburger bun was with grease(butter? animal fat?), is today's frozen custard flavor.

Coffee. And. Doughnuts.

Yes, really. Completely brilliant, and going to kill us all. It consisted of coffee-flavored frozen custard, studded with large chunks of glazed doughnuts. It was as amazing as it sounds.

The burger was also pretty good. Somehow most of the (copious) grease ended up soaked into the bun, or on the surface of the wax paper baggie that held it, rather than on the burger itself. This made it tasty without being truly disgusting.

Although we didn't sample their beer, wines, or other custard creations (I am SO ordering a Washington Monu-mint next time), I wanted to try basically everything on the menu. Like I said, it's a good thing we don't live in the neighborhood.

Kitfo at Meaza

For dinner, I had an Ethiopian food coma. I ordered my standby, kitfo (ie, that disgusting raw crap I love) which came with some housemade cheese, and a side of lentils.

As you can see (bad photo, but that thing's a large platter), portion sizes were huge. This photo is actually from halfway through the meal, after we'd descended upon the huge pile of meat like this:

Meaza was the locale. I really wanted to go to Meskerem, my known known of DC-area Ethiopian. But the vagaries of living in a large urban area interceded- we figured a 20-minute walk to the metro, 20 minutes on the metro, a 10-minute walk on the other end, and god knows what kind of wait. So we were lazy Americans and drove five miles instead.

The kitfo was ok. I was excited to discover it was appropriately spicy, because it usually isn't spicy enough. And they included extra berbere and spicy sauce if I wanted more. But three bites later, I was depressed at the cloying seasonings. It was a heady mix of the usual berbere, a huge punch in the mouth of cardamom, and maybe even some pepper. Really intense. It had a pleasant burn, without being overwhelming, but the actual flavors were quite overwhelming. I especially like kitfo for the musty, green undertones (no clue which particular spice it is), but this stuff was cardamom-heavy and lacked balance. The restaurant was convenient and cute, and I'd go back, but would probably order something else. Jon's meal, some kind of beef-with-injera-tidbits thing, was delicious.

Clearly the food was pretty decent. I also brought home leftovers...

Chinese Food at Home

For dinner, I had some sweet-and-sour chicken, with brown rice and a glass of white (gasp!) wine.

It all came from Trader Joe's (hello again, delicious corporate overlords). The chicken is from their freezer section. Made with thigh meat, it comes breaded and fried, with a side of peculiar sauce. The first time I tried it, I hesitantly sampled a few drops of the sauce alone. It was awful- vinegary and acrid. But somehow it magically turns gingery and fragrant when tossed with the chicken. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's about as good as decent Chinese takeout, and less trouble.

We made a side of brown rice to go with it, in our new rice cooker. Sadly, the old one died a few months back. I made the mistake of replacing it with a smaller one, thinking it would take up less space. It does, but it also completely sucks. I failed to account for the surface area issue, so it takes FOR.EV.ER. to heat up. Other lesson learned? Don't overfill it. Especially not with sticky things that stain. Yes, it's still covered with blobs of fuchsia from the time I tried to make cranberry sauce and it exploded everywhere. In any case, the rice turned out nicely nutty and chewy.

The big surprise tonight was the wine. It's Terrenal label from Spain, made with an equal mix of Chardonnay and Macabeo grapes. It's also kosher, and $4.99. I bought it because I'm always curious to try unusual grapes, especially ones from Spain. The TJ's wine guy gave me a dubious look and warned me to "chill it...a lot!", even though he'd never actually tried it. Duly warned, I was surprised to discover how interesting it is.

The caveat is that I never drink white wines, and never Chardonnay. So maybe I've just forgotten what they're like. But this one is fascinating- it has sort of a ripe-nearly-to-rotting cantaloupe meets green apple aroma, with licorice, honey, and maybe a little violet as it warms up, plus the richness of Chardonnay. I think the sign said it was unoaked, and I don't taste any. I had another glass before dinner with some aged Parmigiano-Reggiano, and it was equally fabulous; next time, I'd probably pair it with a rich fish, or maybe mac n'cheese, and not funky Chinese food.

Turkey and Arugula- in DC

Ok, so I'm back blogging again. Hopefully permanently. Because I moved to DC, and there's a lot of delicious food here to eat and discuss.

For lunch, I had some arugula and deli turkey, with mint tea. I'm currently jobless, and have found myself grazing rather than eating complete meals. The upside is that I'm not tempted by convenience foods, so things have been relatively healthy during the days. I daresay a little crazy, as well. For example, I had a sweet potato for breakfast, left over from last night. That's just unreasonably healthy.

I also did a little lunchtime cooking by attempting the infamous NYT no-knead bread recipe

(actually, the whole-wheat modification). It turned out puck-like and awful. Exhibit A:

The crumb wasn't much better.

Extremely dense, with a crust that, though quite crispy, is a menace to dental work and unpleasantly dry. Kneading isn't that big of a deal; I'll keep looking for a whole-wheat standby, because this is definitely not it.

Dear food blog, I miss you....

Ok, so maybe I'll start blogging here again sometimes.

Every time I have a really awful meal out somewhere, I wish I had the passive-aggressive satisfaction of being able to blog about it. I actually had photos of a horrific fish sandwich from Brandt's, aka the *worst*fucking*restaurant* in St. Louis (you know something's wrong when the header on their website is "New Year, New Brandt's"...in February) sitting around on my iPhone for months, before wondering why someone who doesn't food blog anymore would do that, and deleting them. I know Brandt's is also a bar, and that they have a good selection of Belgian beers. But, for the love of God, please go to Cicero's instead. It's right down the street, the bartenders are actually nice, the food is actually good, and their beer selection is better (if less Belgian).

I was again reminded of blogging yesterday, when we were at The Fountain on Locust. Despite the boisterous children quotient, I love that place. It's like Panera, but without the grossness, and with better decor and more local love. Not to mention made-from-scratch food, the best ice cream in the city, and retro cocktails (which I still have yet to try). Oh, and the country's best bathroom of 2010. How do I know this? My father-in-law made sure we knew. Yes, world, St. Louis has America's best bathroom. And also great ice cream.

Sometimes A Grain is Just A Grain

Sorry for the long lull in posts. I'm getting a little bored with the concept, but have yet to figure out what's next. If anyone has ideas, let me know!

But I had to post about tonight's meal, because it epitomizes the freakish nature of my best weird meals.

I had stuffed peppers for dinner, with a side of toasted ravioli and scotch.

Not weird, you say? The pepper was stuffed primarily with oatmeal...

I have been experimenting with fermentation for awhile now- first a sub-par cider, then a strange grape concoction. I approach it with the same disregard of rules I apply to cooking, so I'm comfortable producing sub-par things, as long as it's kind of educational.

In any case, this morning I started my first quasi-beer by boiling some grains in water- about 60% oatmeal, 40% red wheat. I made my quasi-wort, then wondered what to do with all the leftover grains. Needless to say, I don't have a cow (which is where brewers ditch the byproducts of beer-making), but the grains weren't overly mushy. I ate some for breakfast, a la cereal, but had a ton left over.

Around dinnertime, I realized I had a ton of veggies I needed to eat. Stuffed peppers sounded good, but I didn't want to have to cook quinoa, kasha, or rice. And then I remembered the oatmeal.

I was grossed out by the concept, but a little curious. And in the end, it was a great call. I added a little mozzarella, then baked them for close to an hour. The cheese made the grains taste sufficiently savory, to the degree it was very tasty. I couldn't have distinguished the grain primarily as oatmeal based on taste.

We'll see how the quasi-beer turns out in a few weeks...In the meantime, my Glenmorangie is pretty decent.