Lunch! What'd ya have? (2014–2015)

[kayb]

 

I felt like cheese. Clockwise from 12 o'clock, Irish cheddar with porter; butterkase; fromage d'Affinois; frog (fig-raspberry-orange-ginger) jam; Castelvetrano olives; bread-and-butter pickle spears. A little honey in the center for the cheddar. Ritz crackers on the side.

Edited July 6, 2015 by kayb (log)

[liamsaunt]

Caprese sandwich on foccacia.  Purchased from the food truck outside my office. It was actually pretty tasty.

 

[FauxPas]

Pickled eggs take me back to being 5 or 6 years old. I still remember how fascinated I was when I first saw these as a kid. I haven't made them in years, but added a few boiled eggs to a small batch of pickled beets I made recently. We had a couple of them for lunch along with some crackers and cheese and some fresh steamed peas. Fun! 

 

 

[liamsaunt]

Brown rice, oil-packed tuna, roasted pepper, olive, lemon, basil and scallion salad

 

Edited July 14, 2015 by liamsaunt (log)

[liuzhou]

For some reason which I can't figure, one of my local food outlets, one of the few which does any kind of cheese other than processed slices, is selling off its stock of Camembert cheese at a very low price. Normally it is 38元, but now reduced to 15元. It is well within use by date. I've been buying up most of it. 

 

OK, it's industrial Camembert rather than farm fresh, personally autographed by the cow Camembert, but in an almost cheese-free nation it is better than no Camembert.

 

 

So, it has been a regular feature for lunch recently. Here is a small part of today's - with anchovy stuffed olives. There was a salad and baguettes, too.

Thinking of deep frying some tomorrow.

Edited July 18, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[kayb]

I have cooked very little all week, having been gone and busy and such, other than a cucumber/grape tomato salad with feta cheese and kalamata olives that was quite tasty. I used a honey-citrus-balsamic viniagrette I'd made, and I like the touch of sweet it lends.

 

I did have an excellent Monte Cristo at one of the few sandwich shops I've found where one can still get a classic Monte -- battered en toto and deep fried, as opposed to made with a couple of pieces of French toast. They cut the sandwich diagonally, batter it in a fairly thick batter, and fry it. I always ask for it without the powdered sugar, but bring on the raspberry jam! It's so rich I can barely eat half of it, but it's worth it.

 

Excited about next week -- dinner one night is from Jones' Barbecue in Marianna, Arkansas, the only James Beard award winner in the state although we've had several compete. Jones' won an American Classic award a few years back. It's the oldest continuously operating, same family owned African American business in the state; he cooks nothing but pork shoulder, and serves it with white sandwich bread and slaw. And people come from everywhere to get it, and he's sold out by 10:30 every morning, at which time he goes home.

[liuzhou]

On Monday, I posted in the Dinner thread, the dishes for a reunion banquet with old friends from 15 years ago. Today, I had yet another reunion meal (this time 10 years ago), but  lunch for 12 (+4 kids) instead. It was taken in a Hunan restaurant.

 

We started with a mushroom and winter melon soup which I didn't photograph. Tasty, but dull to look at.

 

Other dishes, in order of being served were:

 

Stewed Lotus Root

 

Most people added this to the soup.

 

Hunan Style Spicy Beef

 

Noodles

 

Stir Fried Greenery

 

Sweet Red Bean Paste Balls with Sesame

 

Hunan Style Fried Cauliflower with Hunan Bacon

 

Hunan Charcuterie

 

Chicken with Chilli

 

I guess you could call this a Hunanese version of Sichuan's Chicken with Chilli (辣子鸡). No Sichuan peppercorns, but more and hotter chilli.

 

Red Cooked Fish Head with soy sauce and chilli.

 

The Red Cooked Fish Head with soy sauce and chilli is served with rice noodles to mop up the sauce.

Edited July 19, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[FauxPas]

Beautiful photos! That spicy beef woke me up.

[Norm Matthews]

I don't usually have anything worth mentioning or photographing for lunch but yesterday I made some chili dog chili and had it with a bratwurst, onion and cheese.

 

[Shelby]

Give me Liuzhou's fish head and a chili dog and I'm in heaven 

[gfweb]

Mexican chorizo and rock shrimp filled portobello mushroom

 

[kwankapang]

[kayb]

Cantaloupe and cottage cheese for lunch. Watermelon for dinner.Too damned hot to turn on the stove.

[liuzhou]

Leftover Lunch

 

Last night's dinner bequeathed a fair amount of leftover fish and rice which didn't go to waste.

 

Egg fried rice with seabass, shallots, chilli and garlic chives.

 

[Anna N]

Somewhat adapted from the book Vedge. Crabless cakes with hearts of palm and corn. Although I cannot eat crab that was not my reason for attempting these. I was intrigued by the idea of using hearts of palm as a stand-in for the crab. These were quite tasty in their own right and I think it's unfortunate that they are called crabless cakes even as I understand the reasoning.

I think that recipes like this are worth attempting as they do stretch your boundaries and give you a glimpse into the mind of the chef who created them. As I understand it it was the texture of crab that vegan chef Rich Landau hoped to capture and not so much the taste.

Were I to make them again I might toss the whole association with crabcakes and aim for a Vietnamese or perhaps a Thai flavour profile.

[kayb]

image.jpg

Somewhat adapted from the book Vedge. Crabless cakes with hearts of palm and corn. Although I cannot eat crab that was not my reason for attempting these. I was intrigued by the idea of using hearts of palm as a stand-in for the crab. These were quite tasty in their own right and I think it's unfortunate that they are called crabless cakes even as I understand the reasoning.

I think that recipes like this are worth attempting as they do stretch your boundaries and give you a glimpse into the mind of the chef who created them. As I understand it it was the texture of crab that vegan chef Rich Landau hoped to capture and not so much the taste.

Were I to make them again I might toss the whole association with crabcakes and aim for a Vietnamese or perhaps a Thai flavour profile.

 

Interesting. I have a recipe for fish cakes, using fish poached in white wine and made in the style of crab cakes, that I want to try. The corn is a natural, but I would never have thought of hearts of palm, either. Filing that away for future reference....

[scubadoo97]

Anna, those look excellent.

After having an allergic issue with canned crab I've been making crabless cakes with Patagonian scallops and processing them so the texture is very similar to crab. Corn is wonderful addition

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I don't usually have anything worth mentioning or photographing for lunch but yesterday I made some chili dog chili and had it with a bratwurst, onion and cheese.

 

 

 

Wow, Norm!

 

I have to say that is the best-looking hot dog roll I have ever seen.

 

I am sure you are going to say that you got it from a local artisan bakery, or your talented cake-baking daughter made it, but on the outside chance us unwashed masses could get our hands on it, I'm compelled to ask where you got it.

[Dejah]

Inspired / reminded by Anna N of a favourite breakfast combo from the musicians' digs while performing in England! 
It was the first time I had ever encountered canned tomatoes, and I loved them from the start, with anything, everything, and straight out of the can with a fork. .
Scrambles a couple of eggs with chopped cilantro, fresh green peppercorns, and a sprinkle of Cajun spice. Added the canned tomatoes and fresh peashoots. Satisfying brunch!

 

[Okanagancook]

Spicy Cucumber Yogurt soup with a squirt of peach/habanero sauce along with a Caprese salad and fresh greens & lemon cucumbers from the garden.

[Anna N]

Chicken soup.

[Anna N]

Toasted bacon and tomato. I paid $2.35 for this one single "heirloom" tomato. I've had better tasting cardboard.

[Kerry Beal]

That's a shame - looks nice though! What bread is that you have toasted - looks like a lovely toast texture?

Edited August 8, 2015 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Anna N]

That's a shame - looks nice though! What bread is that you have toasted - looks like a lovely toast texture?

I noticed how amazing the bread looked in the photo! Wasn't especially amazing to eat. Just my usual King Arthur flour site white sandwich bread. Made two loaves of Struan today. Now that makes good toast.

[Okanagancook]

BBQ'd pizza.