The Gravy Train

our life recently, in food

2012-02-13T06:28:00-05:00

Looking back at the last few weeks, there's been some quality eating and cooking going on with us. It started with a food truck rodeo at Marion Square, right in the middle of downtown, and enjoyed barbecue, crawfish mac n' cheese and smoked fish lettuce wraps (top row).

I tried my hand at making a salted chocolate budino (middle row, left), still haunted by our outstanding meal at Trattoria Lucca (my version was dense, overly rich, and not at all like the light-as-air confection I'd had at Lucca, so I won't share it here). I made the Gravy Baby and the hubby an impromptu grilled mahi mahi fillet topped with fresh avocado and golden tomatoes and drizzled with a spiced yogurt sauce, which was much more successful than my budino mishap (middle row, center pic).

On weekends, we've been frequenting a friend of my sister's husband's brother-in-law's friend's gourmet donut shop, Glazed (don't think too hard about how we're linked -- I'm not even sure that's right). One of our favorites recently is their "Curry Up" donut (middle row, right), a decadent chocolate-iced creation seasoned with curry and topped with crystallized ginger. I'd call it the next gimmicky fad food, kind of like how people all riled up over cupcakes these days. But these donuts are so seriously tasty that I'm willing to jump on that bandwagon.

We loved the carnitas burrito at Santi's, a neighborhood Mexican restaurant we dropped by one afternoon. Great food and eclectic atmosphere will keep us going back there. The mole enchiladas are absolutely on point -- richly flavorful and comforting. The fact that the Gravy Baby destroyed some delicious Mexican rice and beans should also serve as a ringing endorsement.

And lastly, the hubby surprised me with a birthday dinner at Husk, the nationally celebrated Lowcountry restaurant that's the hot ticket these days. The highlights were starter shrimp and clams dish over Anson mill grits surrounding a perfectly sous vide egg, and I got a little Meyer lemon meringue over an espresso budino for dessert. But I'm still processing our experience there, which I'll share in a separate post. There are some meals that need time for reflection and thought.

Of course, there are always those meals that get inhaled so thoroughly and quickly that there's barely time to even taste it.

Not that I would know anything about that.

a fond fishy memory

2012-02-08T06:48:00-05:00

One of my ongoing New Year's resolutions is to judiciously edit and delete the unnecessary photos from the 30,000+ photos I took last year (no, I'm not kidding; my Asianness and growing compulsion for photography as a hobby makes me dangerously shutter-happy).

In the process, I unearthed this little gem, a local sea bass steamed in scallion, ginger and soy sauce at a restaurant inside the Takashimaya Department Store in Taipei. We ate there over the summer when we stopped for a night during our epic move back to the U.S. It's one of my aunt's favorites, known for its deliciously light, interesting takes on Chinese classics. Even though sea bass steamed in a soy/ginger/scallion sauce is kind of like the peanut butter and jelly of Chinese seafood dishes, this one had braised local olives as a garnish. I couldn't believe the brininess of the olives didn't heighten the saltiness already present in the dish, and the olives were just so gosh-darn tasty.

Anyway, in a sea of blurry, horrendously lit, terribly off-center photos, it was nice to find one that was worth saving. And the fact that it gives me an idea for a new twist on a classic dish we eat at home -- well, that's just plain lucky.

Gingko | Takshimaya Department Store | 55 Chung Cheng Road, Section 2, Taipei City 111 | Taiwan

shucking for two

2012-02-02T06:43:00-05:00

As if the friendly faces and the balmy weather weren't enough to win our hearts over to Charleston, this past weekend they had to throw another doozy at us with the Lowcountry Oyster Festival. I mean, 10,000 people all getting together to eat only oysters? Sign me up.

I have to admit it, though -- I was a little skeptical going into it after I heard that the oysters get shipped in from Galveston, Texas and aren't taken from the waters around these parts. I love the local oysters here. They're briny and so fresh that they shimmer. But within seconds of cracking open my first official festival oyster, I was a goner. The Galveston oysters that were the star of this festival -- my, were they ever delicious. Sweet with just a touch of brine, they slid so easily and quickly down my gullet that I wondered if the two buckets we'd purchased for the five of us (the hubby, me, my parents and the Gravy Baby) would be enough.

As it turns out, those buckets hold a deceptive large amount of oysters, and my tummy holds an astonishingly small amount in comparison. I used to think of myself as quite the hefty eater, but is it possible that I've gone soft in my old age? Why am I suddenly eating less?

Oh, that's right. This guy is eating enough these days to cover both of our appetites.

(PS - he likes oysters, too!)