The Food Sitch

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes ... on a boat!

2019-05-12T23:20:00.000-04:00

Made these delicious Key Lime Pie Cupcakes for F's birthday celebration which included sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. I asked F's significant other for cupcake flavor ideas and got key lime pie, cinnamon bun, gingerbread, and pumpkin. At first I was thinking cinnamon bun cupcakes as that sounded like a delicious idea, but then after thinking on it a bit, with the fact spring was upon us and that we were going to be on a boat I figured key lime pie cupcakes would be a much better fit. Glad I did as these cupcakes were a hit! (I'll have to remember the cinnamon bun cupcake idea for next time...). I took pieces from a few different recipes as seen below. Unfortunately as I ended up being on a time crunch to make these (didn't want to be left behind on shore!) I didn't really take any pictures of the process so here are some sailing pics.

Graham Cracker Crust (recipe from Table for Two)

Ingredients*

5 whole graham cracker sheets
5 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan with 12 cupcake liners.
Pulse graham crackers in a food processor into fine crumbs (or by hand using a ziplock bag and a blunt instrument).
Transfer into a bowl and using a spatula, mix the graham cracker crumbs with melted butter and sugar until evenly moistened.
Drop a little less than a tablespoon of graham cracker mixture into the liners or fill the liners to desired crust thickness. Using your fingers firmly pack and press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the liners. After packing with fingers I used the bottom of a 1/4 measuring cup to further pack the crusts.
Bake for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and maintain oven temperature.

*Note for next time, try 6 graham cracker sheets and 4 tbsp butter as the graham cracker crust greased up the cupcake liners and I could have used a bit more graham cracker mixture.

Key Lime Cupcakes (recipe from The Cake Blog)

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cups sugar
6 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon key lime zest (2 key limes or 1 lime)*
3 egg whites
1 1/4 cups (163g) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons key lime juice*

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the amount of creaming time.
Add sour cream, vanilla extract, key lime zest and mix until well combined.
Add egg whites^ in two batches, mixing until well combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate small measuring cup, combine milk and key lime juice.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until well combined. Add milk mixture and mix until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
Fill each of the 12 cupcake liners about 7/8 full. (the cupcakes do not rise much)~
Bake for 15-17 minutes at 350°F, or until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs.
Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to cooling rack to finish cooling.

*I used bottled key lime juice which was available at my local Harris Teeter grocery store, however as actual key limes were not available there I used the zest of normal limes.
^Note for next time, maybe whisk the egg whites before adding. Mixture looked separated/curdled when egg whites were added so whisking before might help? I beat the mixture until the separated pieces were small and evenly distributed. It still looked off but the cupcakes turned out okay.
~I put pieces of paper towels in between the cupcake liners and cupcake tin to absorb some of the grease from the graham cracker mixture baking (see below). Next time might do this during the graham cracker mixture baking step as well.

Key Lime Frosting* (recipe halved from Culinary Ginger)

Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature for 1 hour
2 ounces unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for 1 hour
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon key lime zest (2 key limes or 1 lime)
1/2 tablespoon key lime juice
Green and yellow food coloring (optional)

Instructions

Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer.
Continue beating while slowly adding in powdered sugar. Add lime juice and zest^. Don’t over mix or it will be too soft to pipe.
To get the two-tone piping^, transfer 1 tablespoon of the frosting to a separate bowl and mix with green and yellow food coloring until it is lime green.
Refrigerate frosting for 30 minutes to make it firm for piping.
Add piping tip of choice to a piping bag. Hold the tip and turn the bag inside out over your hand, paste the green frosting to the side of the bag, close to the tip. Use a separate spoon to add the white frosting to the other side of the bag. Whatever ratio you use, you want more white than green. Pipe onto the cupcakes.

*I was originally going to go more complicated for the frosting, using the Key Lime Buttercream recipe from Better Homes & Gardens but ran short on time so went with this easier one. I actually didn't even have time to frost the cupcakes, so these were served as frost your own cupcakes :p
^As noted above I didn't have time to frost/do the two-tone piping (see Culinary Ginger images) so I just added 1 drop of green food coloring with the lime juice and zest in step 2.

Himitsu

2018-03-17T15:31:00.002-04:00

Some of the beautiful (and oh so delicious food) at Himitsu.

KURODAI CRUDO

local black bass

daikon-garlic sauce

french breakfast radish

tempura shiso

KANPACHI CRUDO

hawaiian amberjack

red onion, coconut milk

pickled squash, thai chili

lime+peanuts

CONGEE

caramelized braised pork

rice porridge

crispy shallots

+ 62° egg

Dinners

2017-05-07T19:13:00.001-04:00

A question I feel like I get asked a lot by my mom (and other parental-type figures) is what do you do for dinner/eat for dinner/cook for dinner every night? An understandable question, but sometimes gets under my skin, so I had the great idea of taking a picture of my dinner every night so I can be like "Here, this is what I eat!".

So here are my dinners mid January through mid February. Generally representative of what I eat, though I do go through phases. In Jan and Feb I was in a Chinese dishes phase and was (and still am) in a salmon and veggies phase.

15	16	17	18	19	20	21
Ski Trip: Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Salad	Ski Trip: Burgers and Hot Dogs	Ski Trip: Lasagna leftovers	Ski Trip: Chicken & Pasta	Ski Trip: Pizza* from Vinny's	Ski Trip: Fish at Timbers Restaurant	Ski Trip: CBLT* at SFO Gordon Bierch
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
Shrimp, Snap Peas, & Veggie Spaghetti	Salmon & Veggies	Homemade Dumplings	Buitoni Sweet Bell Pepper & Roasted Chicken Ravioli	Tilapia & Baby Bok Choy	Buitoni Sweet Bell Pepper & Roasted Chicken Ravioli	Chinese New Year: Steamed Halibut, Corn Soup, Dumplings, Pork w/ Sticky Rice cakes
29	30	31	1	2	3	4
Chinese New Year leftovers	Steamed Halibut & Rice	Steamed Halibut & Rice	Chinese New Year leftovers	Roasted Chicken at Rustico (leftovers)	Rustico Roasted Chicken leftovers	Baby Bok Choy & Rice
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Superbowl at N's: Various smoked meats, chili, pasta, and other stuff	Pepperoni Pizza at Rustico (leftovers)	Salmon and Mustard Greens	Chicken, Zucchini, and Vegetable Penne	Chicken, Mustard Greens, and Gochujang Noodles	Salmon and Baby Bok Choy	Prime Rib, Mashed Potatoes, and Broccoli at S&A's
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Store Kimchi Dumplings	Salmon and Steamed Veggies	Steamfresh Protein Blends Italian Style	Plov at Rus Uz (leftovers)	Rus Uz Plov leftovers	Salmon and Steamed Veggies	Chinese New Year Take 2: Dumplings, Chinese Sausage Noodles, Corn Soup, Steamed Halibut, Pork Sticky Rice Cakes, Garlic Yu Choy

*Not my pictures (the 19th and 21st)

Bar Bao to open in Clarendon

2017-02-26T01:50:00.002-05:00

Super excited for this place to open.

(Picture from arlnow.com)

Bar Bao is slated to open in Clarendon in April, where Mad Rose Tavern used to be. The menu is going to feature Taiwanese gua bao (割包) as well as a long list of cocktails. Hope it's good!

New Bar to Showcase Steamed Buns and Cocktails in Clarendon
A Massive Bar Dedicated to Bao To Open in Clarendon in March

From my Dec trip to Taiwan:

Lan Jia (藍家) a popular gua bao place near National Taiwan University

Clockwise from top: zong zi (粽子), corn & rib soup (玉米排骨湯), gua bao (割包). All was delicious and worth the wait!

Diaper Cake

2016-11-20T19:05:00.000-05:00

So it's not edible, but it is a cake!

I've made a few diaper cakes for friends' baby showers as both a decoration and a present. They are fun to decorate and usually are a hit with parents and guests. Here is a final result.

The basis for my diaper cakes is from this video which also shows how to make rose decorations out of washcloths but this is a better overall cake video with the same basics.

The cake "ingredients" includes ribbons, rubber bands, double sided tape, a tray, cake pans in three sizes, and diapers. For the diapers I usually use a small bag of each of N, 1, and 2 sizes for a 4 layer cake, or a small bag each of 1 and 2 sizes for a 3 layer cake.

For the cake "filling" you can go simple and just use more diapers and a paper towel roll like in the videos, but I like to put more gifts in the middle which requires cloth filling materials such as burp cloths, swaddles, onesies, hats, bibs and a tall item such as a large baby shampoo, lotion, bottle of alcohol, diaper wipes.

For the cake "icing" and "garnish" you will need a bunch of small items that can be tucked in between the diapers and fit on the cake layers such as socks, shoes, pacifiers, mittens, and washcloths. And lastly you need a larger toy or item for the cake topper.

I highly recommend looking through the parent's baby registry to select what items you use as this way you know you are adding things they want. If they have a theme you can try to match the cake to that theme. My friends S&S had a fox theme so I ended up venturing onto Etsy for fox themed items.

Basic ingredients

To make each of the layers, place the diapers into the pan, layering them so each one sticks out from the previous one by a little bit. Use the largest size diapers for the largest layer, the smallest for the smallest. Place a rubber band around the diapers.

Middle layer still in the cake pan

The bottom layers will be a little bit looser and have a hole in the middle. This is where your cloth filling and tall item comes in (or more diapers and paper towel roll). You might have to experiment a little with items, but the goal is to have at least a tall item in the center so your layers stay centered and have some stability and to fill around the tall item with the cloth items. For the fox cake I started with a toy and some cloth items and was going to put a baby powder bottle on top of the toy, but that wasn't stable enough, so in the end I just went with a champagne bottle. Another thing that works great is two diaper wipes wrapped with swaddles.

The various layers

Champagne bottle center

Two Diaper wipes with swaddles center

Stack the layers up and then wrap ribbon around the rubber bands using some double sided tape for the ends (or glue or safety pin). Another option is to wrap cloth items around the layers which allows you to emphasize a theme or add some variety. However I would not recommend doing all the layers this way as the fact the cake is made of diapers would be lost.

Then you decorate! I find easy items to tuck into the cake are socks and mittens (which can be tucked into the ribbon), pacifiers, and then the washcloth roses made by just rolling a washcloth up. You can also hang things off the ribbon such as toys or shoes or stuffed animals. See my below cakes for ideas.


Pacifier and socks	Washcloth rose

My diaper cake creations:

J&J

A&S

S&S

F&J

There is also lots of other fun diaper creations out there on the internet. Have fun!

Diaper Daisies	Diaper Roses
Diaper Stroller	Diaper Castle

Breakfast

2016-08-29T23:24:00.000-04:00

Yogurt, granola, and fruit on a porch with a view. Awesome.

China Wok's Peking Duck

2016-07-27T01:21:00.000-04:00

China Wok, random Chinese restaurant in the Tyson's area with good Peking duck and best of all the chef comes out to carve it at your table!

Birthday Desserts

2016-06-16T00:06:00.002-04:00

Ice Cream Sandwiches!

And Lemon Cake! Yum.

Disposable travel mug

2016-05-28T09:18:00.001-04:00

Borrowed this from my sister. I saw her use a jar as a travel mug substitute which I found odd though interesting. But then one day when I was trying to figure out how to transport liquid but didn't want to carry the travel mug around afterwards (my most common scenario being to bring a smoothie to drink on the way to the airport) I remembered this tidbit. Genius! Reuse and recycle those jars! :)

Aureole New York

2016-05-20T01:22:00.000-04:00

My first Michelin starred restaurant! I didn't even know it when I made the reservation. I did dinner and a show with my friend Joanna up in NYC. We went to Aureole "the flagship showcase for Charlie Palmer's unabashed, energetic signature Progressive American cuisine". They apparently received a Michelin star this year!

Dinner stared with a complementary bite. I didn't quite catch what it was, but it was delicious.

My 1st course: Wagyu Beef Carpaccio - Endive, Caramelized Onion, Blue Cheese, Buckwheat Cracker

Main course: Alaskan Black Cod - Bok Choy, Baby Turnip, Pickled Pearl Onion, Yuzu Dashi Vinaigrette

Beautiful dessert: Wild Strawberry Mille-Feuille - Vanilla Mousseline, Lemon Confit, Poached Rhubarb

Joanna's beautiful dessert: Raspberry Chocolate Sacher Cake - “Nyangbo” Chocolate Mousse, Toasted Almond Ice Cream

Everything was delicious and we took our time savoring each bite, so much so that we ended up being late for our show. I do have to say though the Black Cod was tasty, it was not as good as the Black Cod I had at The Publican in Chicago about a month ago. Jonathan caught me nodding with approval with each bite of that one. :p

Random Pizza

2016-03-31T01:36:00.000-04:00

Next time I make a batch of dough I'll do a making of the pizza post. Just the end product this time.

Sort of a jambalaya pizza. Cut too many peppers, onions, celery for jambalaya so threw them on this pizza with some andouille sausage and a kale and spinach mix.

Hula Girl Bar & Grill

2016-03-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

I'm always up for trying out new restaurants, so jumped at the chance to check out Hula Girl Bar and Grill located in Shirlington. Hula Girl features traditional Hawaiian dishes and a modern Hawaiian cocktail list. They started as a food truck and now have their own brick and mortar store.

I ordered Today's Catch because the catch of the day was ... shark! The waitress said the shark is similar to swordfish. Dinner dishes come with two sides so I got the Mac Salad and the Kitchen Sink Fried Rice with Char Sui & Spam.

I didn't love the shark, but as I ate it I also remembered that I'm not a huge fan of swordfish. So if you like swordfish you would probably like this dish. The sides were good, nothing amazing but I did finish them all. We also ordered as appetizers the Lomi Salmon Poke and the Waialua Root Beer Sticky Ribs (which can also be ordered as an entree). The ribs were good, but the Lomi Salmon Poke was delicious. I want a plate of that to myself.

They also have an interesting cocktail menu. I had a sip of the Say Pineapple 5x Fast which was delicious. Pineapple infused rum, roasted pineapple puree, sparkling pineapple wine, pineapple-sugar rim, pineapple air. N thought the drink was advertising it would make you 5 times as fast, but depending on the amount of alcohol in it, it might easily make you 5 times slower. :) Aloha!

Dumplings

2016-03-05T17:39:00.000-05:00

Dumpling making time! Stocking up the freezer. I love freezers.

Dumpling Dough - Made from just flour and water, amazing! When the dough is ready, take some of the dough and roll it into about a 1 in wide log and then cut into even sized pieces. I find it best to make a small batch of wrappers and then fill and wrap them one by one. Laying them out like I did in the above left pictures dried out the wrappers and made them harder to seal. I learned that is not the best way to do it. Also use flour to keep the wrappers from sticking to each other and place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough and wrappers to keep them from drying out.

Wrapper rolling - Roll out a basic circle shape then hold the wrapper in one hand and with the other hand roll the rolling pin from edge to center rotating the wrapper after each roll. This helps make wrappers that are thicker in the center and thinner at the edges.

Pork Dumpling filling - I like this recipe, though I didn't add the cilantro or ginger as I'm not a fan of either. I also made a second batch where I used chicken and shrimp instead of pork. Experiment and make your own filling! I had a few extra wrappers at the end so I rummaged in my fridge and made a few grilled chicken and hot habanero cheese dumplings.

Dumpling folding - This is a classic way to seal the dumplings. You can fold them in any manner that works for you, just make sure that the edges are sealed so the juices don't come out when you cook them. Also if you make different fillings you could use a different fold for each filling to differentiate them.

Mac and Cheese stuffed Chicken!

2016-02-26T00:38:00.000-05:00

Deeeelicious special from Matchbox Gallery Place. Chicken stuffed with .... MAC AND CHEESE! It was served over braised collard green with bacon and polenta (it might have been grits, I've forgotten which). Nothing left on the plate.

Random Pasta

2016-02-20T22:48:00.001-05:00

Whole wheat penne with red peppers, zucchini, onions, italian sausage and red pepper tomato sauce.

Apron

2012-05-25T01:40:00.000-04:00

Like my apron? :)

Check out these other fun aprons!

Buy Superman Apron	Buy Batman Apron
Buy Wonder Woman Apron

The Southern Mac & Cheese

2012-05-08T00:41:00.000-04:00

Some delicious mac and cheese was found! Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for me this mac and cheese was found in the streets of Chicago. During one of my visits with J, I was in the mood to check out some Chicago food trucks. J remembered he had heard about a mac and cheese food truck, which sounded like an excellent idea to me, so we tracked that truck down (twitter + food trucks is an excellent combination. What would food trucks do without twitter?).

This food truck, The Southern Mac and Cheese Truck, does not cook their food on the truck. Their truck is actually an off shoot from their store The Southern Mac and Cheese Store. They load the truck up with four offerings chosen from their twelve different kinds of mac and cheese and a daily special. Here is their full menu.

The day J and I went they were offering Hot Dog Mac, New Mexican Green Chile, Truffle White Cheddar, and Pulled Chicken w/ Blue Cheese Crumble and Buffalo Sauce. Although there were only two of us, and although the portions are very large (one order could feed two people), we couldn't help ourselves and ordered three mac and cheeses because they all sounded so good. We rationalized that it would serve well for a second meal later in the day. We got...

The Hot Dog Mac which was my favorite (and was a daily special). Such a classic combination which brings back fond memories of my childhood where getting such a meal was a special treat.

The Pulled Chicken w/ Blue Cheese Crumbles and Buffalo Sauce. Also an excellent, very tasty combination which was Buffalo wings meets mac and cheese. I would also get this dish again.

And lastly the Truffle White Cheddar. I surprisingly did not like this one. I felt they actually put a bit too much truffle in it as it overpowered the dish. Also the cheese flavor did not come through enough.

Overall some excellent mac and cheeses. I shall have to go back to try some of their other delicious sounding combinations.

Vegan Cookies

2012-02-21T01:53:00.000-05:00

K threw a cookie party where guests were to bring a batch of cookies for everyone to try. She herself made a few types of cookies to get the party started, one of them being vegan cookies because K is currently on a dairy-free diet. K's baby D is allergic to dairy, in particular allergic to cow's milk protein so this prevents K from having anything with dairy in it. Because of this I decided to also make some dairy-free cookies so she could have other cookie options besides her own to eat. After some internet searching I stumbled upon this recipe which was perfect since the party was during the holiday season. The recipe's animal free ingredients can be seen to the left.

The only ingredients that might be a little different from the norm is the margarine and the yogurt. Since most margarine has dairy in it one must pay attention to the labeling on the margarine. To be safe only buy the ones that are labeled vegan and not just labeled non-dairy. The term "non-dairy" only means less than 0.5% milk by weight (Wikipedia) so it is possible to still have a little bit of dairy in "non-dairy" products. Earth Balance is a good brand to go with. Smart Balance also has a few vegan options.

The other ingredient that you can get a vegan substitute for is yogurt. Vegan yogurts can be made from soy or coconut, found at a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's. But again be careful and look for that "vegan" labeling because even some soy yogurts such as Stonyfield O'Soy grow their cultures in Milk so therefore have trace amounts of milk and can cause an allergic reaction (about their soy yogurt).

The recipe itself is pretty standard. One thing of note is that although it calls for a spritz gun (a cookie gun that presses out cookies with a design), if you don't have one you can just made little cookies by hand like I did. The cookies will look more like whoopie pies instead of looking like cookie sandwiches, but they still taste delicious. Another tip about the recipe is that once the filling is made it should be immediately used to fill the cookies. If you leave it out for a while it gets hard and difficult spread.

Recipe Link: Chocolate Spritz Cookies with Candy Cane Filling

Worst Cooks in America

2012-02-15T02:40:00.002-05:00

Another food show to watch! It's time for the third season of Worst Cooks in America airing Sundays at 9pm on Food Network. I've watched the previous two seasons of this show and am hooked. The show keeps me coming back because of its mixture of being able to keep me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next disaster to happen, while at the same time being able to amaze me seeing the lack of common kitchen/food sense people have (such as not knowing how a pepper grinder works, or knowing that leaving raw meat out all day is not good), but yet still be a bit heartwarming as you see how important and an amazing life changer it is for these people to actually be able to cook. Here is the Season 3 teaser.

Honestly after watching episode 1 of this season it seems that the contestants this season are better than the previous contestants, so there were less disasters and more successes than in the previous season premiers. I worry this might make this season less exciting. However the preview for the next week's episode made it seem like the contestants have to perform more difficult cooking tasks than in the previous seasons, which means disasters may ensue! One of the things they show them doing is learning how to make hand pulled noodles. That is something that even a non-worst chef in America could struggle with.

Hand Pulled Noodles at Chinatown Express in DC

Another reason why I enjoy watching this show is that I get to learn new things along with the contestants. I am actually quite excited for next week's show to learn how to make hand pulled noodles. Some of the things I learned from this week's episode is when poaching an egg, a splash of vinegar in the poaching water helps firm up the egg quickly, and one can easily make infused maple syrup such as cinnamon maple syrup. You can also glean some easy tasty recipes from the episodes which are posted on the Food Network site. You can also watch the first episode of this season or the entirety of season two there. Go Watch! Go Enjoy!

The Big Waste

2012-01-06T02:34:00.000-05:00

Food Network is airing a special called The Big Waste this Sunday Jan 8th at 10pm EST. From watching the commercials, my interest is piqued because it seems that they are going to touch upon how much food gets wasted in the US. And this isn't the eat everything on your plate leftovers type waste, this is a mass raw product type waste, wasted from places such as the produce farms and the grocery stores. One statement during the commercial is "We've trained the American consumer to demand perfection" while showing images of piles of food just sitting in a field to rot, hinting at there is nothing wrong with this food besides a few imperfections, but these few imperfections deem the food not worthy for grocery stores and so therefore is just dumped. Another statement from a person who appears to be a produce farmer is "We are almost 40%-50% waste".

Surplus tomatoes are dumped on farmland in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Photograph: Sally A. Morgan/Ecoscene/Corbis¹

The part of this special that worries me a bit is the fact that this special is also a cooking competition. The premise of the special is two teams, Bobby Flay and Michael Symon against Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli, each having 48 hours to create a gourmet meal for 100 people only with food they find that is on it's way to the trash. I just hope they don't spend too much time on the competition part, removing focus away from what I think the focal point of the special should be of the food waste. (I mean the special is titled The Big Waste and not The Amazing Things Famous Chefs Can Do With Food On Its Way To The Trash). Well it's scheduled on my DVR so we'll see how it goes.

A bit more info on the special and when the special will replay can be found at the Food Network.
An interesting article about food waste at the Guardian (same link as the footnote).
And a good site with tips on how not to waste food at Love Food Hate Waste.

¹Image and caption from an article by Adam Vaughan for the Guardian found at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/08/food-waste

Asians like fried chicken too!

2012-01-05T02:39:00.000-05:00

While traveling with my parents up I-95 this holiday season, my dad was excited because it meant we could stop at one of the I-95 rest stops. In particular this excited him because it meant he could have some fried chicken at a Roy Rogers. My dad loves his fried chicken and since my mom doesn't let him eat it a lot, (it not exactly being a healthy food item) eating at a fried chicken restaurant is a treat for him, eating at a Roy Rogers Restaurant even more so as they are not located where they live. These few times he does get to eat at a Roy Rogers he likes to remind me of a story that goes something like this...

Do you remember the time when you were around four years old and your mom had to work evening shifts at the library? I was in charge of dinner for you those nights and so one night I decided to take you to Roy Rogers for dinner. I felt the kids menu items were not worth their price so I decided I would just buy one larger meal for us to share. I bought a three piece fried chicken meal expecting you to only eat one piece of chicken leaving the other two pieces for me. Instead you stole my second piece of chicken and I only got to eat one piece of fried chicken! I had to go hungry that night because of you.

I think to this day my dad begrudges me eating that extra piece of chicken. My mom joked saying that when my dad passes, instead of bringing flowers to his grave I should bring him a bucket of fried chicken. My dad replied that's a good idea! Maybe I can make it up to him by introducing him to KFC, Korean Fried Chicken. Now I actually haven't tried any myself yet, but F who has had it at BonChon Chicken in Annandale says it's delicious. This article about Korean fried chicken make me even more excited to go try some out with my dad the next time he is in town.

Not having taken a picture at Roy Rogers you'll have to make do with this picture from my first ever meal at Bojangles consumed this past summer.

Catfish Three Ways

2011-12-19T01:00:00.000-05:00

Fish is one of those things I feel like I should become more familiar with because it cooks so quickly and therefore makes for an easy, delicious meal. So one week when I was particularly bored with my usual foods, I decided to add catfish to an Arganica food delivery order. When the catfish was delivered, there were three very nice pieces of filet so I decided three meals, with the catfish cooked three different ways. The first choice was an easy one. Blackened. My favorite way to eat catfish.

This was indeed an easy dish to make. All you have to do is mix together the spices, dredge the catfish in the spices, get a pan with oil hot, then cook on each side for two to three minutes and you're done! Next time I make this I think I'm even going to make extra spice mix so that I can jar it to make the process one step quicker (and who knows maybe I'll find some other dish that the "blackened" spices will work well with).

For dinner the next night I knew I could go with the other classic way of cooking catfish of grilled, but I wanted something a little more than that. As I looked around my kitchen my eyes fell upon some corn tortillas. Bingo. Fish tacos. After doing some recipe searching I discovered that catfish is not a normal fish to use for fish tacos; I think because it's not a flaky white fish. Also cabbage, of the red or white kind, seems to be a common ingredient in fish tacos. Although I didn't have any red or white cabbage, I did happen to have some napa cabbage (another item I had picked up because I wanted something different from my norm). So as I had a white fish (albeit not flaky) and I had cabbage (albeit not white or red cabbage) I decided that this could still work and so I forged ahead. Catfish tacos with napa cabbage it was. Using this recipe as my guide, I marinated the fish in some oil, chopped up jalapenos, lime juice, cayenne, and chilli and then since I don't have a grill I pan fried the fish. I also sauteed the napa cabbage as napa cabbage raw seemed strange to me. To the taco I also added some salsa and a line of Sriracha (a.k.a. rooster sauce). Overall the dish was tasty, but could be better. The fish would have benefited from a longer, heavier marinade and the dish needed some texture. In hindsight since the cabbage is supposed to give the tacos some crunch texture I should have tried to make some sort of slaw with the napa cabbage.

And lastly I made an oven baked version of a battered fried catfish using this recipe as a guide. I don't like to deep fry things in my kitchen as I don't have a deep fryer and I find deep frying makes such a mess with the hot oil popping out of the pan and also I never know what to do with all that oil afterwards. Seems such a waste just to throw it away. My solution always is to bake things instead. Does anyone have any other good solutions? Or any other good ways to make a catfish dish? For me the overall winner is still catfish blackened. So yummy.

Recipe Links:	Not Lackin' on the Blackenin' Catfish
	Fish Tacos
	Oven Fried Catfish

Some Food News

2011-11-29T23:38:00.001-05:00

Mostly news of new restaurants, with a smattering of other food related information.

A crepe with gelato in it! At Sophie's Crepes in San Francisco.

- A second location of Good Stuff Eatery by Top Chef contestant Spike Mendelsohn is planning to open in Crystal City. They are hoping for a January opening. (arl now link)

- Living Social launches food delivery (at full price) of high end meals to your door complete with dishes, candles and cloth napkins with DC's Kushi. (all things d link)

- Komi's chef-owner Johnny Monis opens a Thai restaurant, Little Serow, next door to Komi. Also serving a prix fixe menu, but at $45 per person and is for walk-ins only. (eater link)

- Alton Brown answers questions in Haiku! Brilliant. (eater link)

- Clarendon's Harry's Tap Room becomes Market Tavern, a part steakhouse, part modern tavern. A largely unchanged weekend brunch will still be served. (arl now link)

- Tackle Box in Georgetown has reopened. Fellow fire victim Hook is being reopened as Mike Isabella's (top chef contestant chef/owner of Graffiato) Mexican restaurant Bandolero. (eater link)

- Starbucks test store selling beer and wine was deemed successful. More stores, starting in Chicago, are to start selling beer and wine. (huffington post link)

- Memphis Barbeque open in Crystal City. (eater link)

- A Trader Joe's opens in Clarendon on N Highland Ave at Clarendon Blvd. (clarendon patch link)

- CityEats hoping to be a competitor for Open Table. Restaurants such as Graffiato and Restaurant Eve backing CityEats. (washington post link, may have to create free account to read full story) (washingtonian link blurb)

Some lattes from a cafe on Stanford campus.

The Simpsons: The Food Wife

2011-11-27T02:42:00.001-05:00

Go watch The Simpsons: The Food Wife (Season 23, Episode 5) here at hulu or here at fox. This episode, in which Marge, Lisa, and Bart start a food blog, has not only guest voices Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, and Gordon Ramsay, it also had a character very much like our DC's own Jose Andres! (see preview video below). According to Eater.com Jose Andres even tweeted about the episode "They did my deconstructed Caesar salad? AMAZING." The episode will probably be available for two more weeks so hurry up! If you've missed it Eater.com also has a thoroughly annotated slideshow with some clips. You can also find preview clips here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T14:35:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with plenty of food! This year I went home to Mississippi where we had a Chinese American Thanksgiving celebrated with an international mix of people. We went easy and bought a bunch of the food which worked out pretty well. All of the traditional American Thanksgiving food was bought from Kroger, the local grocery store chain. For the Chinese side we bought a roast duck from an asian grocery store and the rest my mom cooked.

Our Thanksgiving was an international mix of people because my cousin PS, an international student from Taiwan, is here in the states studying for a TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Master's degree at Ole Miss. Since the international students don't usually go home for Thanksgiving she invited some of the friends she has made to our place for Thanksgiving dinner. We had 3 Taiwanese, 1 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 2 Kenyans, and a Brazilian over. It was interesting getting to know each of them and their stories. In particular, it was great getting to learn more about Kenya from the Kenyans as I plan to travel there sometime next year to visit my sister who is there with the Peace Corps.

This was our menu:
Main Course:
Oven Roasted Turkey
烤鴨 (Roasted Duck)
筍尖悶肉 (Pork bamboo with Chili Oil)
上海蠔油白菜 (Bok Choy in Oyster Sauce)

Sides:
Cornbread Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Cranberry Celebration
Giblet Gravy
Dinner Rolls
Veggie Tray with Jalapeño Ranch Dip
紅燒牛肉 (Braised Beef)
滷蛋 (Stewed Egg)
豆干 (Stewed Dried Tofu)
青蔥香腸 (Chinese Sausage with Scallions)

Desserts:
Apple Pie
Fruit Tray
蛋捲 (Cookie Egg Roll)

Happy Thanksgiving Holidays Everyone!