In the spirit of Tony Bourdain, food as adventure. Try everything twice in case it was made wrong the first time. Eat without fear or prejudice.
Brownie had her foodie bachelorette party, so naturally, her bridal shower had to be equally food-centric. It was absolutely lovely! The four hostesses really outdid themselves. Hostess #1 made homemade scones served with clotted cream and strawberry jam.
Her talented husband smoked his own salmon. There were also wonderful little lobster tails, so sweet.
Hostess #2 made the moistest, prettiest lemon cake. Hostess #3 provided prosecco and prosciutto with melon. Hostess #4 made tea sandwiches (I think the lobster tails were hers too).
But I know that brownie's favorite was the cupcakes. Hostess #1 who made them is also set to bake the wedding cake - I can't wait!
One of the thrills of Top Chef (a favorite of the TIGBG crew) is witnessing a hotly- debated cooking question get played out amongst the contestants: which works better- talent or technique, home-spun cookin' or classic preparations? This week's episode gave us that match-up on the silver plate of the classic-contemporary French kitchen.
We were looking for a nice place for dinner in Rehoboth and my friend told me about Cafe Zeus. Like many restaurants in Rehoboth, Cafe Zeus resides in a cute Victorian house. The space is great -- cozy rooms and a large terrace where we sat and were serenaded by Nikki Lee, soul singer, while lesbian couples slow danced. It was all very Rehoboth.
I loved my lamb - it was so good, I wanted to reach over and gnaw on the bones from Duncan's plate!!
Sake Bar Hagi is a basement izakaya on West 49th. You really have to keep an eye out or you'll never find the entrance. Apart from not having "Ir-ra-se-ma-se!" shouted at you when you walk down the stairs, you feel like you've just stepped into Japan. The warm, cozy room has bar seats and tiny tables and a wall with shelves of sake bottles with names on them, the bar holding on to personal bottles for the regulars.
We were starving, but in typical leisurely drinking style, it took a while for the dishes to start coming. We started with black edamame which had a sweeter marinade. Wasabi octopus sashimi with shredded mountain yam was cold and gooey and slimey -- these are good things, mind you....
We ordered just one yakitori skewer: the special on the board -- alligator. It was alright - you know, tastes like chicken. I think we probably shouldn't have been swayed by the exotic and stuck with a more standard yakitori like chicken gizzards and skin.
The onigiri (rice ball) was the least interesting - pretty standard, and not enough bonito inside...
To me, food-wise this place didn't live up the rave reviews I've heard, but then again, I've had a lot of good Japanese food in my day.
We've reached the point where in girls cooking night, a lot of us are starting to bring 2 dishes -- we thought this would be fine for Tapas Night, but well, no one really made tapas-sized small plate portions... Still even with all this food, we managed to devour most of it!
Melissa, as host, actually felt compelled to make 3 dishes: a spicy potato and chorizo; a salad with apples, cheese, and walnuts; and a classic Andalusian gazpacho with wonderful homemade croutons.
Brownie made a baked mushroom, potato, onion dish. Debbie brought a green salad dressed with peaches and a tasty dressing, and sauteed spinach with pine nuts.
Last week, went with bigfatlar, kwan, and 2 members of Chicago band Mass Shivers to local Baltimore pizza place Iggie's in Mount Vernon. Honestly, they now have topped my list as favorite pizza in Baltimore.
The place is BYOB and you also bus your own table, but their Neapolitan style pizza was delicious and worth any hassle.
Their pizza has a fantastic thin crust the way I prefer. We got the Funghi with mushroom ragu, leeks and goat cheese.
We also got the Alice with garlic spinach, fresh tomato, goat cheese and pesto.
For dessert, we finished off with a blood orange sorbetto- a little tart mixed with sweet was a perfect end to the meal.
Stop #3 was my favorite on the safari. Unidentified Flying Chickens is one of several Korean fried chicken places that have opened up in the city. The Korean style of frying chicken involves frying once, pulling the chicken out and letting it cool slightly, then frying a second time. What this does is render the fat of the skin, making it thin and crispy. Then your choice of sauce is put on the chicken. We went with soy-ginger and spicy hot sauce. They were both phenomenal, and the crispy skin was amazing.
I'm also hoping that they'll sell t-shirts online one day with their cute logo chickens.
Our final stop for dinner was the Holy Grail of Thai food in NYC, which brownie had been wanting to go to for years now: Sripraphai.
We started with a variety of salads: the crispy watercress salad which I love, a shredded green mango salad that was also wonderful, and a dried mushroom salad.
The "dried mushrooms" were actually ying-er, or silver wood ear, a tree fungus.
It's amazing how even though the salads had similar ingredients -- squid, red onion, lime -- the flavors of each salad were so different.
We also got drunken noodles (above), green curry with fish cake and thai eggplants, and sa-tor beans with spicy sauce and shrimp. Brownie was the only one who liked the bitter beans, but the other two dishes were wonderful as always.