Category Archives: food

jam

heck: “i should make jam…i could make it you know…”
rachel: “‘course you could…”
heck: “you wait till i make jam. then i’ll rock your world.”

imagine me and you

is it wrong that i make things that i want and say i’m making them for m? i didn’t think so.

i am again attempting a tasting table recipe: strawberry-hibiscus jam. not only does it sound good, but we have all of the ingredients at home and the recipe only has 2 steps. my kind of recipe, especially if it tastes good.

jam

tasting table recipe: strawberry-hibiscus jam

jam

finished product. now if only i knew someone who made bread…

wontons!

m tried her hand at pork wontons:

  • 1.2 lbs ground pork (note to j: not jimmy dean pork sausage)
  • 4 roasted 3.5″ korean chilies
  • 2″ knob ginger
  • 1/4 bulb garlic
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 packet gelatin dissolved in water
  • 4 white pepper cherries
  • boil for 3m45s ~ 4m15s

good bad ugly

tagline: “oh, how the mighty have fallen” or “when you’re at the top, the only place to go is down.”

first, the bad…eva (pronounced “eee-va”) restaurant is one of our favorite restaurants. clarification: one of our top two favorites – hatfield’s being the other. we had cap of the ribeye and amazing carrots using a gilt coupon. so, of course, we snatched up some more gift certificates for brunch and dinner. i suppose part of our disappointment has a lot to do with how high our expectations were, sadly. at first, there was so much potential: bottomless mimosas! eggs! fried chicken! a famous cinnamon roll! double chocolate pot de creme! but then the server took the mimosa glass away and never came back or mentioned anything to us. additionally, our gem lettuce salad with mustard vinaigrette became a hearts of romaine caesar. it was good, but wtf?

mimosa

the disappearing bottomless mimosa

caesar salad

this is not a gem lettuce salad w/ mustard vinaigrette…

next, the ugly…the breakfast sandwich was greasy, soggy, waaaaay too sweet, soaked in butter, and tasted less like jam and more like tomato paste. on the flip side, the egg was absolute perfection. not a single drop of runny white. the salmon with horseradish creme fraiche and roasted beets was lovely and very cute nestled in its white bowl. (actually, as i look at it more carefully, it is dwarfed by that bowl. *sigh*)

this is what disappointment looks and tastes like.

breakfast sandwich

the sandwich which must not be named

salmon

tasty, thankfully

finally, the good (which has absolutely nothing to do with eva restaurant)…this is my kimchi chigae that i made yesterday using year-old kimchi and ramen noodles:

kimchi chigae

kimchi chigae with medium firm tofu and ramen noodles

good morning

this is how today started:
[a] sip sugary milky coffee
[b] taste test kimchi to make sure it’s still good for making chigae
[c] drink more coffee

only a korean stomach could survive such gastronomic feats. in case you were wondering, the kimchi (purchased 9/25/11) is *fantastic*. not even sour and i had awesome garlic breath for the next 4 hours.

summer summer summertime

peaches

right: OMG!!! best f’ing peaches ever!!! left: let’s buy them again…OMG – did we buy the wrong ones?!?!

nope. we bought *exactly* the correct ones. this calls for peach cake!

veggie grill

is it so wrong that we have gone to veggie grill the past two nights for dinner and will probably go again tonight? you see, m is scheduling and the world as both of us know it has come to a standstill and there is a moratorium on cooking at home. it might not be wrong to go to a restaurant three consecutive nights, but it is certainly wrong that we don’t eat until 9 or 10 pm. veggie grill is open until 11 pm and walkable from home so that makes it our go-to late night nosh spot.

the first night, i had the quinoa mac and cheese. i must say, i like quinoa pasta as it doesn’t have that grainy quality that whole wheat pasta has. i also sampled the nachos (love me some spicy raw jalapenos!!!) and the buffalo wings. ah, yes, buffalo wings which are actually soy protein in the shape of a tender smothered in spicy vinegary wing sauce (salivate *here*).

last night, i tried the baja fiesta salad and added the soy protein chicken. this was overkill as we ordered the buffalo wings again and i was way stuffed on soy protein disguised to resemble chicken. but the salad was very good and it wasn’t drenched in the ginger-papaya vinaigrette. the lettuce was extra crispy which was really what i was looking for.

before this recent series of trips, we ordered take-out from veggie grill when it opened many moons ago. we had the chili, the kale salad, and the v-burger. none of these were standouts, although i think most of southern california swears by the kale salad. i love me some kale, i just don’t remember being blown away by the salad.

so what am i having tonight? the buffalo wing salad, of course. with a side of buffalo wings. ;)

chobani taste test revisited

we put 2% strawberry-banana up against 2% mango this morning. interestingly, m hated the mango and i hated the strawberry-banana. everyone won! admittedly, i didn’t like the mango chunks as well as i liked the apple chunks. apple 0% and lemon 0% are the only ones left in the fridge. oh, and there are a few more passionfruit left, too.