Making every bite count

15 July 2007

Birthday dinner planning

Fred's mom's birthday is tomorrow, and we're having her over for dinner, along with Fred's sister and her boyfriend.
His mom lived in Italy and Egypt for quite a few years, so I think we're going to do something Mediterranean-inspired.
But today, I stopped by an Indian grocer, so now I feel like I want to make something Indian. Hmm...
I experimented with a green chickpeas hummus this afternoon. Trader Joe's sells frozen green chickpeas, and I had a bag in the freezer. They taste a little more like peas than traditional chickpeas.
I think that tomorrow I'll make baked samosas with hummus inside. Yum!
Now for the rest of the meal... Hmm...

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05 March 2007

Tangy, hot, sour and oh so good

I hate cardio some days. Tonight, as I was sweating away on the Precor machine, I started fantasizing about dinner. Lunch was three-grain rice with edamame, tamari and sesame seeds, so was starving by the time I finished working out. My mind drifted from Korean food to Indian to Thai... or something like it. Mmm, hot and sour soup!
A quick stop at the grocery store for carrots and ginger, and I was ready to cook. The skanky store near my house only had silken tofu, not firm tofu, so I used mushrooms instead. I added a few odds and ends from the pantry. A success, with plenty of leftovers. This recipe could easily serve four.
An explosion of flavor in my mouth! Mmm!!!
Doesn't it look delicious?
Here's the recipe:
Hot and sour soup
1 box chicken or vegetable broth
1 can light coconut milk
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes*
2 t rice vinegar*
2 t soy sauce*
1 t tamari*
1 t fish sauce*
1 lime or lemon
1 red pepper, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 package fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 t vegetable oil
1 small can bamboo shoots
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 handful cilantro, chopped
* Start with half the amount of these seasonings, then add to taste. Adjust as you like.
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the mushrooms, carrots and peppers. Add the hot pepper flakes, garlic and half the scallions and cook for two more minutes over medium heat. Don't allow to develop color. Add the ginger, soy sauce/tamari, fish sauce and lemon/lime juice. Cook one minute, then add the bamboo shoots.
Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add the coconut milk and cilantro, stirring well.
Serve with rice and sprinkle with remaining scallions.

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03 February 2007

finally reaching my heat threshold, and a review of heat

It's freakishly cold in Cincinnati this weekend, so I decided to heat up with a review of hot food around town.
I love hot food, the spicier the better. After a year of Korean food, I have a pretty strong gut when it comes to spice, so I tend to be a bit ballsy when eating out. On a scale of 1-10, I usually go with 10 at Thai, Korean and Chinese places and an 8 at Indian restaurants.
I met my match at my favorite restaurant, Udipi. I ordered chana batura, which is a light, fried balloonlike bread with spiced chickpeas on the side. I had ordered this a couple of times before, but this time I asked for "extra spicy."
PJ laughed as tears ran down my face and I greedily slurped raita in between long, exaggerated inhales through pursed lips. My nose ran incessantly, but I kept eating. My stomach would be fine and my fiery lips would cool. The chickpeas were so rich, so spicy, so delicious! I couldn't stop.
Oh, and a meal at Udipi for two with appetizers, never goes above $20! More reason to love it!
Here are my observations on other spicy dishes I've eaten recently.
Riverside, in Covington: Tofu soup with clams. 2, perhaps. As far as Korean food goes, it was tame. (But the food there is delicious and quite authentic!)
Teak, in Mount Adams: Seafood Choochee curry. Oh, the squid was divine. So tender, as it should be! I ordered an 8 the first time and felt nothing. The second time there I went for a 9, which was a nice 4 or so at dinner. The next day, the leftovers were definitely a 9. Their curries are the best I've found in town.
Wild Ginger, in Mount Adams, also makes good curries. I ordered salmon choochee there a couple of weeks ago, and an 8 was nicely flavored but not hot enough. Not even the leftovers were fiery. Oh, and the salmon -- a nice-size fillet -- was buried beneath the vegetables and sauce. Perhaps this was to conceal that it had been dreadfully overcooked. I love a crispy piece of salmon, but this piece was crunchy most of the way through. The thinner end of the fillet was nearly inedible. The last time I'd been there I ordered a green curry with chicken. I think I ordered a 6, because my friend and I were planning to share. It was bland.
My "book club" went to Aqua in Mount Lookout for half-price sushi night two Wednesdays ago. The sushi was fabulous, as were the scene and the wine, but the spicy scallop rolls were what really stole my heart. The scallops were fresh, sweet and succulently tender. The spice almost detracted from them, but the heat was so serendipitous that I didn't mind.
I'm always looking for good ethnic food, so share!

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26 January 2007

Where I've eaten. (updated frequently)

(Mostly for me)
Vinyl
Mesh
Udipi
aoi
Wild Ginger
Teak
Riverside
Moon Garden
Molly Malone's
Hideaway
Greenup Cafe
Chez Nora
Zola's

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15 January 2007

from my Korea journal

I was rereading my Korea journal (home sick with nothing to do), and I found this list. I'm a pretty adventurous eater. How many of these have you tried?
I know that some of this info has already been included in my journal. However, I want to keep one list of all the new foods I've tried here.
*quail's egg. At a sushi restaurant last weekend, one of the namul (side dishes) included four speckled eggs. When I asked what kind of bird they were, Joon-Hui had to look it up. The dictionary said "snipe." Hmm... Snipes aren't real, I learned in high school. So I thought. quail. I looked up "quail" in the English/Korean dictionary. Yep. Quail. I tried one. They weren't bad, just like any other egg, but the yolk was milder. (And, I learned later that the word for quail egg is mae-chu-ri al. Learned that when I taught Bible school... don't ask!)
*poop pig. Apparently, there is a kind of pig "black pig" that eats nothing but human waste. The meat is especially good, they say. They were right. It is good.
(From http://talesmag.com/tales/postcards/island_postcards.shtml Here's one for when you're feeling down. Cheer up. Life could be worse. You could be a Jejudo black pig. A long time ago, down on the farms of South Korea's largest and most southerly island, the ever-resourceful inhabitants came up with a raised-platform latrine system in which human waste fell directly into the family pig pen…and you know how picky pigs are about their food.)
*a whole fish. I still can't eat the eyes, but I ate a broiled about four inches long. I tried not to look at it as I ate it.
*frozen tuna. They can't really get fresh tuna here, so tuna sushi has often been frozen. Often times, it is served thinly sliced and still frozen. It's actually interesting. Many dishes are served ice cold or frozen here, especially noodles. It's quite refreshing on a summer day. *sea squirt. I tried a bite. It was sealike and crunchy.
*pig skin. (yep, they fry it on the grill at bbq places. Joon-Yui and Yong-sun made me try some. Not bad if it's burned!)
*dried squid. (seen at right drying on a rooftop on Ulleung-do) The kind that still look like an actual squid. It's pretty good.
*chok pal. Pig leg/foot meat. It is fatty and smoky, but not so bad. It's not great, either.

*jellyfish
. they eat it with vegetables (shredded carrots, cucumber, cabbage, etc) and wasabi mustard. Tasty with the extras but flavorless and gelatinlike on its own.
*still-squirming squid. Americans limit their squid consumption to fried calamari. Koreans don't play around. They like their food fresh, ca veut dire still moving! One night, Joon-Hui came over with food. He brought squid hwae (sushi en coreen). Apparently, they are still alive when you order. Five squid (a whole family) give their lives so you can eat them. An hour after their deaths, their little tenticles still squirm. I was like a child, playing with my food! The suckers attached to my finger. Strange-y.
*squid-ink bread. (left) It was black, strange and not good. My boss bought it for us.
*snails. I think they were sea snails. Just like escargot, they were chewy and a bit slimy.

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