Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Dinner and desert at le petit portoise

Rabbit, monkfish, duck breast, tarte tatin.

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Le Petit Portoise

Apetizers from last night. One with crab, one with creyfish and beans, one camembert crusted almond and honey.

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

King crab

Had to post another teaser, behold delicious cold king crab pre cracked with special mayonnaise. Found again at l ecume st honore. Caw!

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Bistro d'henri

Forgot to post dinner two nights ago. In the 6th, french, fall aparty lamb was the best, and the sardine salad, then way too many drinks. Julie is still drinking 3 days later.

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Normandie oysters

Paris introduced me to oysters with salted butter, rye bread, lemon and mignonette and today we had that and enhanced with a soundtrack of seagulls and surrounded in super fresh looking fish. Number 3 oysters are small, getting larger as the number goes down we had 4 types of oysters split and currently ordering a followup of king crab and saumon fumee and marinade de langoustine of course all with a bottle or two of sancerre.

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L ecume st honore

Forgot the name of the oyster place. Its on rue marche st honore.

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

First tango in paris

Rencontre with fusilli and broccoli at the coude fou in paris. Delicious 'lotte' (monkfish) with veggie pate and fall aparty steamed veggies and skewer fare. Broccoli's soup in a pumpkin trick, ginger, coconut and pumpkin. And I missed the shot of fusillis virginal feast but shot her here with backdrop of vagine and wine.

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Parisian Meat surfboard

dinner at karens in paris, featuring a meat surfboard - the creamiest fois gras ever, country french cured ham and other treats. I failed to take the shots of 4 amazing cheeses, my favorite 'l'epoisse'. Then killer reds, one of which was a gevfrey chambertin 2006. Broccoli to post more on the night.

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Not Turkey

This year's Christmas dinner marks the beginning of a new holiday tradition. A Christmas without Turkey... without stuffing, without mashed potatoes and best of all... without driving for hours on end on Christmas eve.

Instead, a chance to relax and enjoy the perfect holiday meal... beef tenderloin with a green peppercorn sauce. On the side—sautéed savoy cabbage with pancetta and rosti potato.

Happy Ho Ho

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sweetwater


Back in October, some friends and I went to the After Dark event in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. After exploring the new and very beautiful inside-and-out Modern Wing, we walked north on Michigan Avenue past Millennium Park to a not-so-new-now spot called Sweetwater. It's a large, open space with huge windows and roomy booths with a fantastic and tasty (and from a graphic design point of view, well-designed) menu. It was a rainy and cold night in Chicago so I opted for comfort food: the "Homestyle Meatloaf" with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus, coleslaw and honey butter corn bread. Makes me hungry just writing about it. Hmmm....what to have next time?!

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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

What I've been eating & tweeting

I found someone else (other than Broccoli) who tweets what they eat! And better yet, they actually put their data to good use by analyzing it. So I decided to plug in my data, and this is the tweet cloud that was spit out:


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Mom's Hot Chocolate


Hello Blog. Sorry it's been so long since the foreign correspondent checked in. Many weddings and other fun times this fall have kept me away from blogging. But I have many images from the archives to share. I was just in Omaha for Thanksgiving. Family, fun and delicious food. One of the many culinary highlights...Mom's hot chocolate. It really doesn't taste the same without the sprinkles. What I wouldn't give for some of this hot chocolate in this "blizzie blizzardo" weather outside my window tonight!

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Sunday, December 6, 2009

Bar food at home





You know how on every episode of  a Nigella (Lawson, like you needed to ask!) show, she sneaks down in the middle of the night to have a bite of some delectable leftover in her fridge? This calamari could be that midnight snack for me; I guess I over-estimated how much two people could eat. Crispy, light, and so easy to make, the batter is just cornstarch, semolina and Old Bay seasoning (paprika, if you can't find Old Bay) sizzled to perfection in grapeseed oil but peanut oil's also a good option. Tonight we had it with garlic mayo for dipping, edamame and Beau's, an organic local beer I picked up while visiting friends in Ottawa last weekend. Happy hour at home!

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Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Attack of the giant strawberry




This doesn't seem right: a giant siamese strawberry that's *practically* the size of a 6 year old's head? Okay, a slight exaggeration, but still.

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A San Frantastic Workcation

Sometimes work can be fun. In particular, when work takes you to San Francisco!

First on the list—a visit to the Ferry Building where each Saturday they have an incredible farmer's market. The highlight was definitely this strange fruit called Buddah's hand.



The beautiful hallways at The Clift. So Starck.


One night I was lucky enough to get a tour of Palo Alto, attend a lecture at the offices of IDEO and tour the campus of Standford.


Around the corner from the hotel is an incredible breakfast place called Dottie's True Blue Cafe. The routine—line up at 7am so you can get in the door when it opens at 7:30. Don't forget to bring your own coffee, all their creative energy went into the food.


By Saturday morning, I'd had enough of Dottie's coffee so I searched for breakfast options on Yelp. I found The Butler & The Chef, an awesome French bistro


The smolked salmon eggs benedict, fresh squeezed o.j. and a delicious latte. It was so good, I went back the next day so I could line up for 45 minutes to have a breakfast crepe.


Heading to the farmer's market, I walked along the Embarcadaro and right under the Oakland Bay Bridge. Beautiful.


I love my macchiato from Bluebottle Coffee. The only problem... you have to line up for 20 minutes to get one. It's worth the wait.


They have food too! Hello Mr. Waffle.


Random chocolate fountain!


An outdoor indie music fest in the Mission.

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A salad that reminds me of Christmas



Beautiful feathery white ribbons of fennel mixed in with paper-thin slips of apple. Pretty to look at, fresh and crisp to cleanse your palate.

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Last night's dinner










Mushroom gyozas (sorry, I wasn't ambitious enough to make these myself) pan fried and some beautiful purple cauliflower which just got more psychedelic blue-y purple after roasting in the oven. The cauliflower weren't as crisp as I'd hoped, maybe I should have broiled them after the initial roast? But you can bet the dumplings were crispy on the outside and savoury on the inside. The traditional Korean dipping sauce for dumplings and wontons? Vinegar and soysauce.

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Monday, November 16, 2009

addicted




I am seriously addicted to and obsessed with this granola. If you've been following my tweets, or sit next to me at work (yes, you Lionel!) you'll know that I eat my version of olive oil granola every single day with a dollop or two of Liberté Mediterranean-style extra thick, extra fat yogurt with a side of coffee. Friday is my granola supply shopping day, which I usually do with Tomi, who introduced me to brown rice syrup. I think it's the je ne sais quoi ingredient that makes the granola taste like there's crack in it. I substitute brown rice syrup for the brown sugar and maple syrup that the NY Times recipe calls for. This week's granola contains: pepitas, almonds, sunflower seeds, wheat bran, dried cranberries and flax seed.

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Eating what's in my cupboard





A couple of months ago, I decided to run an "experiment" where I had to eat only what was in my cupboards and fridge/freezer. No grocery shopping for special ingredients, or any ingredients for that matter. Once I completely ran out of something, that's when I'd allow myself to go to the store for replenishment. The experiment was supposed to last a week, but it went longer… only because then I sort of got used to not buying groceries and making due with the stuff I had. Also, it kind of became a game for me to see what I could whip up with the odds and ends laying around. I should mention at this point that C was also doing the same experiment at his place so we had double the amount of food since some days he'd cook for both of us. And, I didn't need to buy vegetables since we were getting a weekly delivery from our CSA.

The dinner I made tonight sort of typifies what I would have during the no-grocery days and eating what would be in my fridge and pantry… dried beans, whatever greens would be onhand, and good old eggs. Presto! Navy bean stew with rapini and spinach, potato and eggplant frittata, and a salad with carrots.

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Prosecco eats broccoli (and cauliflower)





Chez moi ce soir: Spelt linguine with Ontario broccoli and orange cauliflower sauce. Deliciously and lovingly prepared by C, now christened by Broccoli as "Risotto". Are you still with me? A dash of olive oil and a dusting of Romano (which I mistakenly bought thinking it was Parmigiano) and dinner is served. Enjoy!

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Sunday, November 8, 2009

Dinner last week



I know this looks like a weird, random m̩lange of food, which it is. But it's not just about looks, it's the taste that counts: kale chips, carrot sticks, marinated eggplant wedges and last but not leastРpommes de terre boulang̬re. As a sidenote: I never used to think I could be a vegetarian, but this dinner was all vegetable and I was very satiated. The only thing preventing me from becoming a vegetarian (and Jewish): PORK. The meat-love of my life.

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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Happy Birthday!


What could be better than having a birthday dinner with friends? For me, only a home cooked meal with friends on your birthday. Prosecco and C (C—I'm officially giving you the blog name: Risotto) invited fusilli and I to the villa for an extravagant meal with fine wine, fine dining and even finer company.

To start we had pork lard on fresh toasted bread... yeah, I ate that so fast, no time to take pictures. Next, melon wrapped prosciutto and a delicious frittata. It was tough, but I was careful not to fill up, I could see at least three more courses waiting in the wings.

Risotto made an excellent, well... risotto. The incredible colour is from the beets.


Another favorite — Osso bucco.


I hope I get this right... chocolate peanut butter bacon pie, with candied bacon on top. Insane? Yes. Delicous? If you like choco-peanut-bacon pie... YES! This wins for the most unusual dessert I've ever had.

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