Food in HK – Tim Ho Wan

Posted on 16 April 2010 by christao408

Most of my eating in Hong Kong this trip could best be described as the Curry Puffy Cuisine Crawl, since most of the recommendations came from Gary’s suggestions based mostly on his December trip back to Hong Kong. Each time I return to Hong Kong, eating good food is a central objective. This time was no exception.

Tim Ho Wan is the least expensive, and perhaps the unlikeliest, Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. Its one star shows that Michelin can overlook dismal locations and lack of pretty presentation and focus its attention on the food.

Located several blocks from the Yau Ma Tei MTR station, this restaurant was opened by the former dim sum chef at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel. It is fair to say that the only things missing are the fine china and refined ambience. The quality of food is exactly what you would expect from the highest calibre restaurant, especially when it comes to dim sum.

I think most of you know that dim sum (yum cha in Cantonese – “drink tea”) is the original “small plates” dining experience, a breakfast/brunch type meal that features small dishes with dumplings, noodles, buns, and other tasty morsels. Eaten with a group, it is an excellent way to enjoy many flavors and textures while socializing. Good dim sum is light and refreshing, made with high-quality ingredients. Bad dim sum is heavy and made with whatever scraps were leftover from the previous night’s banquets.

Even at 10:00 on a weekday morning, there was an hour wait for this twenty-seat restaurant. Instead of a queue, customers took their number and wandered off, coming back closer to their estimated seating time. While waiting, a few other gweilo (foreigners) arrived, including a couple from San Francisco, foodies with whom we struck up a conversation. Non-Chinese speakers need to pay attention or learn how to count in Cantonese, otherwise they might be passed by! Even with a local friend waiting with us we still managed to miss our number.

With an hour to kill, Tawn entertained me with his many expressions. Lest you think an hour is a ridiculous amount of time to wait, let me assure you that this was one dim sum place worth waiting for.

The restaurant itself is nothing fancy. This was about half of it. I wanted to go take a picture of the kitchen but knew if I didn’t get yelled at, I’d get run over by the workers. This is a no-nonsense place attentive to just one thing: turning out good dim sum.

The highlight of the meal was the barbecued pork buns. Unlike the usual steamed buns, these were lightly fried, so were flaky and crispy at the same time. The pork filling was made of good quality, sizeable pieces of pork rather than the ground-up remnants of yesterday’s pork that you so often find in these buns. These are cooked several dozen at a time so the waitress will bring out nearly all the tables’ orders at once, causing much ooh-ing and ah-ing around the room as diners taste these succulent treats. We placed a second order (plus two additional orders for our friend Michael to take home) after we tried this first basketful.

Har gow, steamed shrimp dumplings, were very nice, too. A good measure of dim sum quality is how thin and translucent the wrappers are. Thick, heavy wrappers are coarse and filling. These wrappers were almost transparent, very pliable, and light on the tongue.

We ordered another typical dim sum dish: glutinous rice stuffed with meat and other goodies and steamed in a lotus leaf.

Again, instead of the usual barely identifiable contents, there were large slices of good quality pork loin and vegetables inside. Very tasty!

Siu mai, steamed pork dumplings with shrimp, were also very tasty, again with a light skin and good quality ingredients.

One of my favorite dim sum dishes is the rice noodles stuffed with shrimp or pork, served with a soy sauce. We had pork in ours and found it to be a really lovely dish. The theme kept repeating: light, delicate wrappers with generous, high-quality fillings.

My favorite dish, second only to the barbecue pork buns, was the fried daikon radish cakes. These are made of shredded daikon, seasoned with bits of pork, and then pan fried until crispy. The perfect cake is delicate and creamy inside with a crisp exterior that isn’t too oily. These were ideal.

Tables were shared and so the three of us dined with an old granny, who informed us that she was having her usual lunch of deer tendons and a bowl of noodles. She explained that the collagen from the tendons kept her looking so young. I have to say, she did look youthful, so we ordered a dish. The texture is a lot like eating pig knuckles, the cartilage is soft and flavorful with a sweet soy sauce.

The total before we ordered the deer tendons and three extra orders of barbecue pork buns was only HK$94 – about US$12. At a price like that it and with quality like that, it was well worth an hour wait.

Food in HK – Sushi One

Posted on 15 April 2010 by christao408

Ah, Hong Kong! I lived here in 1998-99 and ever since it has been one of my favorite cities. It has the cosmopolitan nature of New York, the civilized infrastructure of a former British colony, the good food of anywhere with a large Chinese population, and the awesome views thanks to the close proximity of hills and harbour. Whenever I’m back in Hong Kong, I feel like I’m back home.

With all the good Chinese food here in Hong Kong, it might seem a little strange to begin my food entries with a sushi restaurant, Sushi One. This place was not only near our hotel but it was also well-reviewed. To top it off, it was open late and offers 50% off the sushi after 10:00 pm.

Sushi One has several locations throughout Hong Kong. We chose the location on Cameron Road (near Chatham Road) in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.

There is a row of fish tanks along one wall with a series of small tables surrounding the sushi bar in the center of the room. A conveyor system was in place but pretty much everyone was eating sushi to order. We found the sushi to be of high quality with fresh flavors and good attention to presentation detail. Plus, with the half-off discount on the sushi (although not on appetizers and other plates) our total bill was about HK$170 – about US$23. Not too bad.

Seared crab stick with uni – sea urchin roe. They did several seared dishes, which adds a nice flavor and texture contrast.

Smoked duck breast.

Left: Salmon and mango roll; Right: Salmon salad gunkan maki

Japanese pumpkin and sweet potato tempura

Left: Eel handroll; Center: Soft shell crab handroll; Right: Spicy tuna handroll

Seared salmon

Left: Seared Hamachi; Right: Inari – sushi rice wrapped with tofu skin.

A nighttime shot of the venerable Peninsula Hotel facing the Hong Kong harbour.

Panini Extravaganza

Posted on 10 April 2010 by christao408

After dining twice at ‘ino in New York and purchasing their cookbook, Simple Italian Sandwiches: Recipes from America’s Favorite Panini Bar, you knew that I would begin preparing as many panini as were necessary for me to feel confident in my understanding of them, right?

Condimenti

The first step was to make some of the condimenti. Perusing the cookbook, I realized that one thing that had kept my pre-New York panini from really popping was the lack of a flavorful condiment. Generally, a panini is made with a meat ingredient, cheese, and an acidic or sour ingredient. Most of the time I was using mustard but that didn’t have enough impact.

I started with four main ingredients: garlic, red onions, red peppers, and a kind of chile that was the closest thing to a cherry pepper I could find.

Several of the red onions were cut into sixteenths and then tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After about two hours at a low temperature with frequent stirring, we had a nice mass of caramelized sweet onions. I also made some balsamic roasted garlic bulbs.

Using some of the sweet onions as a base, I chopped some of the hot chilies (mostly deseeded to keep the heat at a tolerable level) and a little bell pepper to create a relish. Normally this is made with cherry peppers, which are mildly spicy round peppers.

Finally, I made peperonata, red peppers cut into one-inch dice and tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme and chile flakes, roasted for thirty minutes under tender.

Bread

The “secret” to ‘ino’s panini is that instead of using loaf bread they use ciabatta. Slicing the top off to make it roughly flat, they then slice the ciabatta in half length-wise. This way each bite has some of the nice crust on the bottom.

I made a couple of loaves of ciabatti and while the flavor was good, the rise wasn’t as high as I thought necessary and the crumb was very wide with large air bubbles. This made for a tough sandwich to grill as the fillings just worked their way through the bubbles and out the crust.

Batch #1

Italian Coppa, sweet onions, roasted garlic, arugula, and gouda cheese.

Homemade pesto, peperonata, and fresh mozzarella cheese.

The results: tasty, but a bit flat. The pesto nearly soaked through the bread.

Batch #2

Similar to the first sandwich – except with pickled red onions instead of roasted sweet onions. More cheese this time as the gouda seems to evaporate rather than melt.

Pesto, peperonata, mozzarella cheese (this time not fresh but lightly aged), with some chile relish for a change.

The results were better with this second batch – my ciabatti were higher thanks to folding over the dough several times during the rise. In this picture, you can see how the rolls have had their tops sliced. Still, though, the panini end up too flat because the bread just isn’t high enough.

Batch #3

This time a trio of sandwiches using a baguette I baked. Since I couldn’t get the ciabatta as high as I wanted, I decided to try an alternate style of bread.

Based on a suggestion from Sheldon (with some modification), here is rocket (arugula), camembert cheese, and the chile relish.

A scrambled egg with roasted sweet onions and gouda.

A different and prettier arrangement of peperonata, mozzarella cheese, and basil pesto.

This trio turned out very nice (accompanied with some of the balsamic roasted garlic) with bread that remained substantial after grilling. The only challenge was that since the diameter of the loaf is pretty small, there was a lot of crust to deal with. I love crusty bread but it was sometimes a bit tough on the roof of the mouth to chew!

Conclusions

One thing I’ve decided is that the regular loaf bread like a boule is the most suitable for panini, despite what ‘ino does. If/when I can make a ciabatti that has enough height or can find a place to buy decent ciabatta, then I’ll switch back to it. In the meantime, I’ll return to my pale ale boule recipe.

Another pleasant discovery – you can use the condimenti for other purposes.

Omelet with lightly pan fried zucchini, mozzarella cheese, and roasted sweet onions.

I hope you enjoyed!

Food in the US – Shake Shack and Ōttō

Posted on 6 April 2010 by christao408

Wednesday evening in New York, Tawn decided to attend a yoga class led by a particular instructor about whom he had read. This resulted in a late dinner, so our friend Biing suggested we try Ōttō, Mario Batali’s family-style wine bar (is that an oxymoron?) and pizzeria on Fifth Avenue a block away from Washington Square Park.

The challenge was Biing and I had several hours to kill before meeting Tawn for dinner and we were hungry. Working our way over to the Madison Square Park area near the yoga studio, we decided to split a burger and fries at Shake Shack by way of an appetizer.

On this pleasantly not-frigid evening, there as quite a crowd gathered around Shake Shack, which is nicely nestled in the midst of the park. The Empire State Building looms to the north (visible on the left of the picture). Lights strung across to the still leafless trees reminded me of a line from the Les Miserables song “On My Own” and the tables closest to the heaters were still popular, a reminder that Spring had not quite yet sprung.

Opened by New York restauranteur Danny Meyer, whose restaurants include Grammercy Tavern and the Union Square Cafe, the Shake Shack is Meyer’s attempt to tackle the classic American treat, the hamburger. Considered by many to be the best burgers in the Big Apple, I found the burger to be good but not great. There are a lot of relatively expensive, good quality burgers out there these days. To that end, I might as well just eat one of those relatively inexpensive, good quality burgers that are also available.

Not that there was anything wrong with the burger – there wasn’t – but I just don’t see the fuss. As for the fries, they reminded me of Ore-Ida fries taken from the freezer, devoid of fresh potato flavor. We didn’t try the nameshake – excuse me, namesake – shakes as the weather was still a bit chilly.

Arriving at the building where we were to meet Tawn, Biing and I had to ride in what is the narrowest lift I’ve ever seen. The camera is being held in the upper corner of the car. Thank goodness for wide angle lenses. After picking up Tawn we walked down to Ōttō, building up his appetite and burning off our burger.

Ōttō’s design conceit is that of the Italian train station. Names of guests waiting for a table are displayed on a signboard that looks like an arrivals and departures board. It is a pretty space, a little loud, and definitely made for socializing. This is Mario Batali’s “low end” restaurant, the one that is most accessible to the masses, and it is known for its antipasti, pizzas, and pasta.

Service was friendly and pretty attentive, given how busy the restaurant was this late in the evening. A small package of brown butcher paper was set on our table, which we unwrapped to discover some fantastic bread along with imported breadsticks. I’m not sure I understand why breadsticks need to be imported, but they were light and crispy and enjoyable, so why ask questions?

We ordered a trio of verdure – greens – for $4 each. Our selection was the Funghi Misti (mixed mushrooms), Asparagus and Pecorino cheese, and Roasted Peppers and Capers, front left. This was a tasty combination to snack on with the peppers being my favorite. The saltiness of the Pecorino cheese didn’t seem to rub off on the asparagus, which was barely cooked and not seasoned. The mushrooms were nice although they also seemed a little under-seasoned.

We also ordered a plate of Salumi for $9, a really tasty sausage with hunks of lard mixed in with the meat. I was reminded of a meat appetizer dish I had on my first night in Italy back in 2001, after which I spent the next day drinking copious amounts of water trying to rehydrate myself from all the sodium.

According to Biing, pastas are the weak point on the menu at Ōttō. We ordered a Linguine Puttanesca, a classic sauce made of anchovies, capers, olives, chilies, and roasted tomato. It was tasty but wasn’t very distinctive. For $9, though, it was a reasonably priced bowl of pasta.

The pizzas are supposedly the big deal. Some say the best in New York but of course everyone has an opinion when it comes to that matter. We ordered a Margherita DOP, with nothing more than tomato, Bufala Mozzarella cheese, and basil – perhaps the best combination with which to compare the qualities of a pizza. Interestingly, Ōttō’s pies are cooked on a griddle. This results in the crispest crust I’ve ever had on a pizza, one that remained crispy throughout the whole eating, down to the final piece.

The sauce, however, was a let-down. It tasted like a tin of tomato paste with no added seasoning. That was the flavor: flat tomato and nothing more. And it was spread rather thickly on the pizza so it soon became the overwhelming flavor on the tongue. They say it is the sauce that can make or break a pizza and in this case, I’d agree.

For dessert, we enjoyed the homemade gelato, which offers some very unconventional flavors. Last August I stopped by here while Biing and Tawn were shopping for an afternoon pick-me-up of olive oil gelato.

This evening, I had the trio of dark chocolate, Guinness, and salty peanut gelati topped with coffee bourbon sauce and chocolate crumble. It was very tasty. The Guinness gelato tastes just like Guinness beer.

Tawn had the Olive Oil Coppetta, a mixture of olive oil gelato, candied clementines and kumquats, lime curd, tangerine sorbet, and fennel brittle. It was also very nice although the mouth feel of olive oil gelato remains a bit heavy for me.

My only concern about the gelati is that they are very soft when they arrive and they, of course, quickly become softer as you try and take pictures, even if you hurry!

So the overall review? Ōttō is an enjoyable place for a group meal with good service and decent prices for what you get. The food is good, not great, and the pizza is on my to-avoid list. For a drink and some appetizers, though, this is definitely a good choice.

Food in the US – ‘ino

Posted on 4 April 2010 by christao408

A grilled cheese sandwich. One of the most perfect foods to eat, especially if we’re talking about a grilled cheese done in the form of an Italian panino. (Plural: panini) Last August I wrote about this little Italian panini shop and wine bar in Greenwich Village called ‘ino. Opened by Jason and Jennifer Denton, protégées of Mario Batali, this is the cutest place and, though I didn’t know it beforehand, kind of a ‘big deal” in the New York Italian restaurant scene.

The place is tiny – perhaps ten two-seater tables plus a half-dozen stools at the wine bar. With a brick wall on one side and a bar on the other, it is cozy and welcoming, a place that you just want to stop by on your way home to have a drink, snack on a few tasty bites of something, and catch up on the neighborhood gossip. It is what I think a “third place” should look like.

The kitchen is thirty square feet, no larger than enough room for two people, two panini grills, and a toaster oven. It is enough to make me stop complaining about my kitchen and instead think about adding some more shelves.

Tawn’s school friend Rosrin and her husband Sean recently moved to Manhattan from Boston, and had their first child, Quinn. Being equally big foodies as Tawn and me, we met Rosrin (along with her father and her son) for an early lunch one morning.

Back at home, we regularly make panini as a weeknight dinner. Cut from a fresh loaf of homemade whole grain bread, two grilled slices with some meat, cheese, and something tangy inside make for a healthy and wholesome meal. Serve it up with a side of mixed greens and it transforms the ordinary sandwich into something really special.

While eating, I discovered that ‘ino sells their cookbook, Simple Italian Sandwiches: Recipes from America’s Favorite Panini Bar. Needless to say, I now have a copy. Now, why do I need a recipe book for something that is, at its most basic, a grilled cheese sandwich? Because I realize that my panini, while satisfying, are pretty plain. I’m not getting the most out of them. The panini I eat at ‘ino have another level of flavor complexity that elevates them to a whole other plane of existence.

For Tawn, there was one objective in mind, besides visiting with Rosrin: to have a slice of ‘ino’s truffled egg toast. This thick-cut white bread is toasted, hollowed out, filled with egg yolks, and topped with fontina cheese. After a few minutes of broiling, a healthy dash of truffle oil is poured on top and some sautéed asparagus is served alongside. Available morning, noon, and night, the egg toast is the highlight of the menu.

Now that I have the cookbook, I’ve discovered the not-so-secret secret to making their egg toast. When I tried this at home after our last trip, I put a whole egg into the middle of the toast, which was too much egg and overflowed. Now I realize that the trick is to use two yolks and no whites.

I’ve also learned about several spreads and sauces I can make to help spice up my panini at home: roasted peppers, olive tapenade, an balsamic roasted garlic, to name a few. Watch for some future entries resulting from the purchase of this cookbook.

P1000636

Above: Panino with pepperonata (roasted bell peppers), fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil pesto.

The panini are really exquisite at ‘ino. Another lesson I learned is that instead of cutting slices from a loaf of bread, they use ciabatta rolls with the top sliced off. This ensures that every bite has some crust from the bottom side. I’ve tried doing this but so far my homemade ciabatta have so many large bubbles that fillings form the panini spill through the bread. I’ll have to keep practicing and see if I can create (and then consistently reproduce) a ciabatta that compares to the ones made at the Blue Ribbon Bakery, the next door bread supplier for ‘ino.

P1010270

Above: Scrambled egg, cheese, and sweet onions. How’s that for a breakfast treat?

We returned for breakfast the day before we left, one last chance to enjoy one of the most fun little restaurants we’ve been to, a gem that we would love to recreate here in Krungthep.

Could you imagine this somewhere along Soi Thong Lor? Not with people dressed like this, I think.

Food in the US – Mama’s Food Shop New York

Posted on 31 March 2010 by christao408

You always knew that Mama wanted you to take care of yourself and eat well. At this hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the East Village of Manhattan, you can get a healthy serving of good food prepared just the way your mother would want it to be. This may sound like an advertising claim but it is actually an accurate description of what you find at Mama’s Food Shop.

Located on 3rd Street between Avenues A and B, Mama’s was a recommendation from our friend Biing during our visit to New York last summer. Biing’s list of recommendations was too long to complete on our last visit, so we used this trip to check a few more items off it.

Arriving to our midtown hotel, the Affinia Dumont on 34th Street, on a rainy and cool Monday evening, we needed somewhere easy for dinner but didn’t want to take a chance on the unknown restaurants in the Murray Hill neighborhood that surrounds the hotel. We hopped a taxi down to Alphabet City.

The funky decor is shabby-chic with Christmas lights on one wall and portraits of mothers on the other.

The floor is wooden, the seating eclectic and unassigned (table sharing is common), and the smell of frying chicken permeates the space and your clothing.

The efficient kitchen turns out five mains each at $12 a plate with one side: fried chicken, roast chicken, roast pork shoulder, meatloaf, and pan-seared tilapia. The sides include simple yet satisfying dishes such as mac and cheese, roasted beets, broccoli and garlic, mashed potatoes, and cole slaw. Additional sides are $1 for an extra serving or you can buy them to-go in half-pint and pint quantities.

So a main with two sides works out to $13 – not overly expensive but not quite a bargain, either, until you consider the quantity and quality.

My plate of roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and beets was huge – three pieces of chicken and a week’s worth of beets.

Tawn’s tilapia (they also do a veggie plate composed of three sides for $11) included two large fillets to go with the roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli. Flavors were consistently good although the sides were not piping hot – possibly due to my picture taking.

All in all, Mama’s does right by their customers, including a 10% dinner discount for students. The food is simple, healthy, and generous. Next time I think we’ll skip on the extra sides and maybe even share a plate.

Food in the US – Lidia’s Kansas City

Posted on 30 March 2010 by christao408

While I don’t have a lot more pictures to share of things we did in the US, I will share a series of entries about some of the food we ate. I’m a big believer in the value that a good meal adds to your life. Not only quality food and careful preparation but also good company, all of which are necessary to really eat well. This first entry is about Lidia’s Kansas City, the first location of several restaurants opened by Italian grandmother and public broadcasting celebrity Lidia Bastianich.

Andy already wrote about this meal, so if you read his blog as well, you’re in for a rerun especially as his camera is better than mine. Nonetheless, humor me with this entry.

Lidia’s was the location of our wedding reception last August. It is a charming space in a converted freight warehouse adjacent to the rail yards across from Union Station. Service is great and the food is prepared with a lot of attention and love. Just the kind of place to celebrate our union. In fact, the waitress who served us on our most recent visit turned out to be one of the waitresses who had worked our reception. She was very excited to see us back and took good care of us during our meal – a good reminder of why it is always a good idea to treat servers very well.

Andy and Sugi made the drive down from Omaha to visit us and spend the night in KC. While I grouse in my entries about the feeling of having to make lots of appointments and visits with people while we’re in the US, that really doesn’t apply quite as much when we’re in Kansas City, where most of the people we know are family. Andy and Sugi feel just like part of the family and seeing them was one of the highlights of our trip, and a reminder of how much we miss close friends while we live overseas.

A Friday evening, it seemed appropriate to begin with drinks before moving on to a really nice bottle of wine. I’ve recently decided that Campari and soda is my new apéritif of the moment – the bitters are nicely refreshing.

Lidia’s features a nice selection of homemade bread, including some of the lightest breadsticks I’ve ever enjoyed. The menu includes seasonal selections with an emphasis on locally grown produce and meat. There is a three-course fixed price menu for $32 which is a good value given the quality of the food.

Choosing from three “primi” or first-course offerings, I enjoyed the Montasio Cheese Frico. Kind of like a quesadilla made without the tortilla, the frico has potato, leek, and in this case lump crab fried with melted cheese until crisp. It is then topped with a light salad. Very refreshing and flavorful start to the meal.

For my “secondi” I chose the Battutina of Veal. As the name implies, it is a battered (pounded) veal steak that is fried and served with broccoli, prosciutto, and a Taleggio sage-tomato sauce. Despite its tenderizing, the veal wasn’t all that tender. It was very flavorful, though. In hindsight, I should have enjoyed the risotto with Gorgonzola and pear instead.

Andy enjoyed a wild boar ravioli. Lidia’s gets bonus points for all of their pasta being homemade. An excellent touch that makes all the difference in terms of taste and texture.

Another option on the menu is the bottomless tasting of a trio of pastas, the selection of which changes daily. Servers bring pans around, refilling as long as you’d like more pasta. Of course, no obligation to take seconds, but if you want just a few more bites of your favorite, of course that’s okay!

Today’s trio included a spinach linguini with shrimp and tomato sauce, a rigatoni with butter and herbs, and a wild mushroom ravioli. All were very nice – my favorite was the mushroom ravioli.

Why is it important to treat your servers well? Because when you come back next time they treat you well in return. After we ordered dessert, our waitress brought us a plate of homemade cookies, candied orange peel, and vanilla gelato. Yummy.

We split two desserts including this very good tiramisu.

We also had this Torta del Mascarpone, a Mascarpone cheesecake with pistachio crust, vanilla rhubarb, and salted pistachio brittle. I’m a sucker for anything with rhubarb in it. Beebop-a-reebop rhubarb pie, if you know that reference.

After dinner Tawn, Sugi, Andy, and I posed for a picture against the original brick wall of the freight warehouse. Interesting artwork on the wall, eh?

It was a wonderful dinner with wonderful company, followed up by some more wine and conversation at the Trio Cafe on the Country Club Plaza. As we called it a night, the freezing rain was coming down. By the time Andy and Sugi dropped us off at my sister’s house, the first flakes of snow were falling.

Chef Burger

Posted on 21 March 2010 by christao408

Before the snows hit us Friday night, we took the nieces to downtown Kansas City’s Power and Light District, for a special “uncles and nieces only” lunch at Chef Burger.

Ava bundled up on a chilly afternoon. The Power and Light District is a new entertainment zone in downtown KC that was finished in the last year. In an attempt to revive the mordant downtown, the KC government has worked with developers to build housing, restaurants, new theatres (live stage as well as a cinema), and shopping (including a Costentino’s grocery store that is very nice). If we moved here, I could imagine buying a place downtown.

The girls with me, waiting for the burgers to arrive.

This burger has bacon, an onion ring, barbeque sauce, and blue cheese. It was wonderful. Especially the bun, which is a freshly-baked egg roll.

Sweet potato fries. Emily wouldn’t try them since they had the words “sweet potato” in the name. Ava, however, thought they were much better than the waffle fries.

Ava and Emily enjoy their real ice cream shakes. Needless to say, the majority of the calories consumed were in liquid form.

Afterwards, Emily and Ava practiced some tap dancing steps on the hardwood deck outside the restaurant before we walked back to the car. Stopping at Cosentino’s grocery, we bought some chocolate truffles, everyone picking one truffle each. I bought a curry truffle which was decorated like a pair of dice. The girls wanted to try and although I warned them they wouldn’t like it, they surprisingly did. “Tastes like pumpkin,” said Ava. Anything that’s covered in chocolate must be okay.

We stopped by my grandparents’ house, which isn’t that far from downtown. My parents were there, too, so we enjoyed a game which Ava and Emily directed. Kind of a version of musical chairs in which we passed toys from person to person and whomever did not have a toy when the music stopped, was deemed “out”.

Later in the day, back at my sister and brother-in-law’s house, it was time for some exercise. Tawn showed the girls some yoga moves.

Today is our last day in KC then we’re off to New York tomorrow. Just a few days there and then we head back towards the Pacific. Obviously, my entries are a bit off chronologically. Bear with me, please.

From Pig to Porkchops

Posted on 17 March 2010 by christao408

We’re in Kansas City, which is experiencing slightly cooler-than-normal weather, visiting family and some friends and generally trying to unwind. The first several days of vacation have seen some of my attention turned towards work as a project needed to be wrapped up. Nothing too difficult, just some reading of documents.

Since St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, we decided to prepare an Irish (Irish-ish?) dish: shepherd’s pie. We involved both the nieces, figuring that one is much more likely to eat new foods if one has been involved with preparing the foods.

Emily and Tawn peeled and chopped potatoes, carrots, onions, and squash for the pie.

Ava assisted me in making a loaf of Irish soda bread, which had hints of orange zest in it and turned out very nicely.

After preparing dinner we headed about 30 minutes outside Kansas City (towards Lawrence) to visit the Gasper Family Farm. A local, family-run sustainable farm that I’ve been following for about a year and a half, I wanted to bring the girls out to see a real farm and, while there, to purchase some cuts of pork, some fresh eggs, and whatever else was available.

My parents decided to tag along for the ride. My father spent the first six years or so of his life living on a farm in central Missouri.

The farm is relatively simple – a house, a barn, and a few other small buildings. The cows are pastured a few miles away on rented land. There are pigs, geese, loads of chickens, and a horse that provides transportation.

The slightly older chickens – these are raised for meat – that haven’t feathered out enough to be taken to pasture, so they are still living in one of the chicken coops.

After a lot of coaxing, Ava and Emily agreed to pose by the pig pen. The animals were a little more “wild” than I think they expected, their previous farm experiences being limited only to petting zoos!

Everybody peering into the smaller chicken coop which contains the young chicks. They were running around, peeping, staying close to the warming lamps. It was chilly out on the farm and so after about twenty minutes we bundled back into the car with our sausage, pork chops, and two dozen eggs, and heading back to town.

After the visit to the farm, everyone was ready for a hearty dinner of shepherd’s pie, soda bread, and steamed artichokes – a not very Irish addition to the menu. Tawn and I were scheduled to head out to dinner with a friend, so didn’t join this meal.

Above, shepherd’s pie. We substituted pork for lamb and added some acorn squash for additional flavor. I did try a bite to make sure it turned out okay.

For dinner, we headed to Houston’s, a chain that has knife and fork ribs that Tawn really likes. We met our friend Jack there, a Thai who has studied and worked in the Kansas City area for more than a decade. This was a good chance to put my new camera to the low-lighting test. I’m happy with the results, although I need to play around with the instruction guide and settings a bit to learn how to coax the most from the camera.

Double-cut grilled pork chops with mashed potatoes and spinach.

Cous cous

Apple and walnut cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Sunday Mediterranean Brunch

Posted on 28 February 2010 by christao408

There’s a cookbook I bought years ago called San Francisco Flavors, compiled by the Junior League of San Francisco. While I never thought I’d have much use for something that seemed so high society, over the years I’ve found a lot of useful recipes. The recipes make good use of locally available ingredients and given the Bay Area’s Mediterranean climate, many of the dishes have flavors that echo those found in the Mediterranean region.

This afternoon we had two friends over, Tammy and Roka. Tammy is the sister of a friend I worked with during my high school days spent tearing tickets and popping popcorn at a cinema. She’s now living here for a few years. We’ve known Roka for a few years now and she’s recently moved back after a year in Australia. They made for perfect company on a Sunday afternoon for brunch.

Above, Chris, Tawn, Roka and Tammy. I don’t think Roka and Tawn coordinated, but maybe. I need to think more carefully about my placement in photos – I look huge!

The meal centered on two dishes from San Francisco Flavors, both of which I ended up modifying just a little. The first one was a cauliflower dish served at room temperature.

The ingredients are interesting because the flavor of the sauce is very savory. A closer look:

Clockwise: kalmata olives, capers, garlic, chili flakes and anchovy paste. In this case, not having anchovy paste I just minced several anchovy fillets. Add some tomatoes, parsley, rosemary, and thyme and you have your dish.

You sauté the cauliflower until just starting to brown but still crisp. Remove from the pan and then cook the savory ingredients for several minutes until soft. You then add the cauliflower back and cook for a few more minutes until starting to get crisp-tender. In a small saucepan you bring a bit of balsamic vinegar, sugar and tomato paste to a boil then pour it over the cauliflower mixture.

The whole thing is allowed to marinate overnight before serving at room temperature with some additional thyme added to it. This turned out to be a very tasty way to serve cauliflower.

The main dish was crepes stuffed with a chicken, apple, and mushroom filling. The original recipe called for regular crepes but I used buckwheat flour mixed with all-purpose flour, which lent the crepes a little more heft. When making the crepes the night before (something I like about crepes is you can make them in advance) they were a little delicate. I need to look for a better buckwheat crepe recipe, one that tears less.

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The filling takes onions and mushrooms (supposed to be shitake mushrooms but one of my guests isn’t a big fan of shitakes) and sauté. Pull that out of the pan then cook the chicken, which has been cubed and dusted in flour to help thicken the mixture. I deviated from the recipe a bit and marinated the chicken breasts in soy sauce and sake to give it a bit more flavor. Then you clear the pan again and sauté the apples, finally adding everything together with some pre-cooked and crumbled pancetta. I substituted regular smoked bacon. Add some chicken broth and cook for a few minutes until the liquid is reduced. I finished up with some parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

The filling process this morning was easy enough – a small scoop of the chicken mixture then fold like a burrito, tucking snugly into the dish.

Nice colors, huh? The spots are on the “second” side of the crepes whereas the lines that look like the surface of the moon are from the first side on which the crepes are cooked. I mixed it up a bit so there would be more visual interest.

The original recipe has no sauce on top and you just sprinkle cheese and bake. This seemed a bit dry so I made a roasted red bell pepper cream sauce and poured that on first. Almost any time I have the oven on I go ahead and roast some peppers. They store nicely in the fridge and add a wonderful flavor to many dishes. The sauce was easy to pull together and the flavor and color brightened the overall dish.

The finished dish turned out very nicely and with twelve crepes would have been enough to serve at least six people. In fact, given how filling buckwheat flour is, one crepe per person would have been fine!

With those two dishes anchoring the meal, all I needed was a nice salad to round things out. I went for a Greek style salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, and the rest of the kalmata olives, all tossed in olive oil and basil and served on a bed of greens.

Served with a glass of Argentine Viognier, it proved to be a very satisfying meal. A nice accompaniment to the pleasant company!

I hope your Sunday was great, too.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Tag Archives: food