Hell’s kitchen – part 3

By the time Saturday arrived, I was dying to cook something incredibly involved and time intensive.  The weather however, was so lovely and hot that all thoughts and plans of doing anything in the oven had to be postponed.

Instead, I broiled steaks, marinated in a rich blend of herbs and spices, grillled olive oil drizzled asparagus spears and thick slices of orange pepper, and served some fresh grape tomatoes, Bibb lettuce, tabouli bought at the farmer’s market in the morning and some leftover bean salad.

While this concoction drew raves from my fella, I was disappointed.  I wanted to get right in there and create something wonderful and complex.

The following night I couldn’t do anything too extravagant as I was prepping for an interview with an author, so I not only had to finish the book, but prep the questions for the early morning meeting.  I threw together a turkey stir-fry with cashews and jasmine rice.

I know this might sound elitist, but I’ve always thought of stir-fry’s as meals that you make because:

1.you don’t know how to cook or

2. you’re too tired to make anything else.

I just wanted something healthy to sustain us while my fella and I worked into the night.  I have to say that it was absolutely delicious, thanks to fresh veg from the farmer’s market, juicy turkey strips and a little drizzled sesame oil, fresh ground five spice and topped with cashews atop of perfectly cooked rice.

But I still felt like a lazy bastard for doing a stir-fry.

Hell’s kitchen – part 2

Or at least they should have, except that this week all of my events fell within the same time period, so instead of being at home, cooking my little heart out, I ate out every night from Monday to Friday.

Monday and Tuesday evening,  I had my food book clubs (4 of ‘em!),  where we meet in a restaurant that I’ve paired with the region of the book we’re reading each month.  This month we went to Zin, a high-end Chinese restaurant in Yorkville, where the owner Rockie created a special fixed price menu featuring Hong Kong delicacies, like we read about in our book of the month, The Piano Teacher.

Because I am hosting for 4 clubs over 2 nights (not including the other 2 I host earlier in the month), I get to eat twice.  The first night I had garlicky, incredibly tender Rack of Lamb with rice and broccoli.  The following evening, I tucked into Duck Breast served with a rich Thai curry sauce and snow peas.

I am grateful for the chance to have eaten there twice, as both meals were simply divine and for the first time in this book club, we had 100% satisfaction from our members.

Rockie also included a 1 lb. Lobster on the fixed price menu, which I’m going to go back for, as well as a bunch of interesting dishes on the regular menu.

Wednesday night I did a restaurant review – Northern Italian, which was okay.

Thursday, I got together with my Mom and she treated us to Chinese in the Beach – egg rolls, sweet and sour chicken balls, chicken chow main and Chinese fried rice, all for the insane price of $8.50 a person!

Friday, I was determined to make dinner at home, but my fella decided to take the afternoon off and we ended up downtown looking at furniture.  We wandered around until sudden hunger impaled us and we went for sushi nearby.

So just to reiterate:

Mon – Chinese

Tues – Chinese

Wed – Italian

Thurs – Chinese

Friday – Japanese

Sayonara

I will have had Japanese 4 out of 5 nights by the end of tomorrow.

I reviewed a Japanese restaurant Friday night, went to one with friends for dinner Saturday night, cooked at home last night (potato leek soup from scratch, chicken with homemade barbecue sauce, rice, veg and salad) and then am going to a Japanese restaurant with 2 book clubs tonight and back again with 2 book clubs tomorrow night.

Similar to the “5 Indian Restaurants in 8 Days” bit in my book, I have had the opportunity to really compare and critique various techniques and dishes.  The only difference is that I think I could have a Japanese meal every day.

Hey, I’m working on it…

Finger licking

A couple of nights ago, it was simply gorgeous out so my beau and I decided to go for a walk along with dinner and a movie.

I love picking a spot spur of the moment.  Because I spend so much of my time picking out restaurants, what I’ll have, etc., this is a real treat for me.  Even better if my fella gets to choose for once .**

The area of town we were in was a fantastic mecca of choices – Would we have El Salvadorian or Korean?  Chinese or Hungarian?

We decided on Malabari cuisine, as it’s few and far between here.  Scott picked some lovely dishes.  We started with beef samosas with a tamarind sauce and then moved onto traditional Kerala dishes – Kingfish curry and crab curry, along with vegetables in a cashew coconut sauce, hot, buttery roti and plain rice.

Good stuff, but then the crab arrives.  There are a couple of whole crabs covered in a dark date-like paste.  We are not given any tools, nor was it described to have the shell on. It simply said, “Crab Curry.”

My guy, ever the trooper, dug in, brown fingers and all.  I had a couple of legs, but that was it was me.

Our night was memorable for a lot of reasons, but I’ll never forget Scott heading to the washroom to wash up afterwards and the owner rushing over to open the white door leading downstairs for him.

** When we go out to dinner with friends, they almost never choose the place because they say that I’ll know all of the best places to go.  Sure, I’ve been to many places, but that doesn’t make it any better than a place you’ll choose.