Cookin again

[Dannyalcatraz]

I sympathize. I’m not a fan of stack o meat burgers of any kind, I’d rather not half to dislocate my jaw like a snake or risk spontaneous apocalyptic disintegration of my meal due to compression.

Now, a wider burger is a slightly different story...

 

[Zardnaar]

I sympathize. I’m not a fan of stack o meat burgers of any kind, I’d rather not half to dislocate my jaw like a snake or risk spontaneous apocalyptic disintegration of my meal due to compression.

Now, a wider burger is a slightly different story...

I just crush them but I find the burgers just taste like grease or neat not much flavour.

Or you feel bleah after eating them.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Salad for dinner:

Mine (pictured):

Baby spinach
Romaine lettuce
Sliced white button mushrooms
Celery
Green onion
Onion sprouts
San Marzano tomatoes
Sliced Merlot Bellevitano
Sliced sopresatta
Shredded prosciutto
Chunked glazed ham
Homemade vinaigrette: EVOO, red wine vinegar, spicy brown mustard, and fresh ground black pepper

Mom’s (not pictured):

As above, but with raw carrots, cauliflower and broccoli florets, no onion sprouts, and lesser amounts of shared ingredients. Hers was dressed with Buttermilk ranch and EVOO.

Mine was one of the better salads I’ve done for myself in a while. This is largely due to the combination of ingredients and the unusual vinaigrette. Most of the time, when I make a mustard-based vinaigrette, I use Dijon mustard. But I couldn’t find mine tonight, and decided to try the spicy brown instead of some of my other condiments (like creamy horseradish).

Merlot Bellevitano is a cheese usually reserved for our charcuterie boards, but I had just a little left, and went with it. It tastes kind of like Parrano- somewhere between gouda and Parmesan- and the Merlot-soaked surface adds color and a little “winey” tang.

And the ham? Purely luck that we had it. My maternal aunt makes a delicious brown sugar/butter/strawberry/pineapple glaze, and dropped one off at the house while I was taking Mom to a MD appointment.

The combination of the non-standard vinaigrette, the repurposed cheese, and the sweet ham was an eye-opening lesson in how some flavors can sometimes combine in unusual ways to create a surprisingly good experience. I have NO doubt that I’ll revisit this flavor trio in the future, and not necessarily in a salad. I could easily see trying this combination in a crepe or soft taco roll-up.

 

[Zardnaar]

Write up in some of our locals. The ice cream place is closed by about a mile away.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Write up in some of our locals. The ice cream place is closed by about a mile away.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

Man, that sounds like a lot of fun stuff to try!

 

[Zardnaar]

Man, that sounds like a lot of fun stuff to try!

Only tried a few of them. It's more the fine dining/hipster stuff I like Middle Eastern and pub type meals. The beer place is good and it's one of my favorites.

Student city so lots of cheap and cheerful smaller places.

There's also some great spits in various flyspeck towns. One has 200 odd people with a restaurant that gets Hollywood types visiting.


Here it is. Pity I don't like fish.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You can definitely find awesome food in places off the beaten path.

When I was a kid, we used to do a lot of road trips, including when we moved from one state to another. Even as an adult with a stabl living situation, I often travel Texas highways & back roads for business and pleasure, and occasionally even drive to New Orleans to visit family.

So I’ve found some interesting places to eat in some pretty small towns. There’s a restaurant on the TX/LA border that did great catfish, and offered a remarkable remoulade sauce instead of cocktail or tartar sauce, At a gas station in the middle of nowhere LA, they sold fritters made with crawfish, crab or shrimp so good we went back for seconds before we got too far away.

Between Dallas & Houston, there’s a family that owns gas station/restaurants on opposite sides of the same highway exit. They sell an array of fruit preserves, smoked meats, and snacks like bacon wrapped quail. We tell people to stop there and bring us stuff...and order stuff from their webrute.

On the interstate between Dallas an Austin or San Antonio, I’ve found Czech bakeries, southern-style bakeries, steakhouses, German, Austrian, and Hungarian dining halls that were as good and authentic as any I’ve been to in those countries...because they’re owned & operated by transplanted Europeans and their descendants.

 

[Zardnaar]

You can definitely find awesome food in places off the beaten path.

When I was a kid, we used to do a lot of road trips, including when we moved from one state to another. Even as an adult with a stabl living situation, I often travel Texas highways & back roads for business and pleasure, and occasionally even drive to New Orleans to visit family.

So I’ve found some interesting places to eat in some pretty small towns. There’s a restaurant on the TX/LA border that did great catfish, and offered a remarkable remoulade sauce instead of cocktail or tartar sauce, At a gas station in the middle of nowhere LA, they sold fritters made with crawfish, crab or shrimp so good we went back for seconds before we got too far away.

Between Dallas & Houston, there’s a family that owns gas station/restaurants on opposite sides of the same highway exit. They sell an array of fruit preserves, smoked meats, and snacks like bacon wrapped quail. We tell people to stop there and bring us stuff...and order stuff from their webrute.

On the interstate between Dallas an Austin or San Antonio, I’ve found Czech bakeries, southern-style bakeries, steakhouses, German, Austrian, and Hungarian dining halls that were as good and authentic as any I’ve been to in those countries...because they’re owned & operated by transplanted Europeans and their descendants.

Don't have all those options. Small town had a German bakery. If you really want that small hard dark loaf of bread.

 

[Zardnaar]

My glorious plan tonight kinda failed.

So far so good.

Ran out of bread 3 days ago. Couldn't be bothered going out so thought I would make a loaf. Used 50/50 wholemeal/white flour.

In my mind's eye I was creating a beautiful open stack sandwich for dinner. I cut the bread wrong and it was a bit to hot. Messed up the order and it kind of fell apart. Along with the bread.

On the plus side it still tasted great but just ended up with a mess of salad, bread and chicken on the plate.

From memory last week mixed the salad in a bowl and cut the bread thicker. In a hurry/distracted/tired this week.

In the plus side the bread was great and with nibbles before diner I polished off the last of it after dinner (small loaf).

 

[Zardnaar]

Haven't been to our local for breakfast for three weeks. Used the Covid AP at the door because that's what we're supposed to do.

Wet winter day quiet at 9am just the way we like it.

New items on the menu!!!

Ordered the waffles along with my mother in law. Wife just had her usual Eggs Benedict. Very hard to get her to try new stuff outside raiding my plate.

Waffles with rubarb compote, dukkah and mascarpone. Not sure what mascarpone was but I enjoyed what they served up.

Waffles were ok but the topping was great. Waffles uncommon here not that many places do them but not exactly rare either.

They weren't very sweet which I liked.

Took a snack home.

Boysenberry and dark chocolate brownie. So rich couldn't eat much of it. What made it great is Whittaker's Dark chocolate. NZ brand that's reasonably priced. Blows Hershey's and Cadbury out of the water but if one found a recipe would recommend Lindt or Tobleron as a replacement or a nice Belgian chocolate.