Lunch! What'd ya have? (2017)

[HungryChris]

Bruschetta pomodoro e basilico on wispy thin homemade bread crostini. I do not like the way crispy crusted bread goes soft when you bag it, but neither do I like the way the sliced surface of the bread dries out, so I slice off that thin crust before using the bread and discovered that those slices make excellent crostini when toasted.

HC

 

[Okanagancook]

@sartoric another way of cooking pappadums if you have a gas stove:  Turn the flame to high.  Grasp the pappadum with tongs and using your wrist flip it from one side to the other quickly.  After about 30 seconds it will be cooked evenly and you can better control how toasted it gets.

[Paul Fink]

26 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

@sartoric another way of cooking pappadums if you have a gas stove:  Turn the flame to high.  Grasp the pappadum with tongs and using your wrist flip it from one side to the other quickly.  After about 30 seconds it will be cooked evenly and you can better control how toasted it gets.

That's the way my Indian friend taught me to cook them

[Okanagancook]

I didn't know about this method until I was watching a TV program about cottage industries in India.  Pappadum making is a cottage industry.  The program showed a large building where the various types of pappadum doughs were mixed.  Local ladies arrive to pick up the dough and at home they roll them out.  The program showed a group of ladies on a roof in the sun all working away and laying the finished product in the sun to dry.  When dry they package them and take back to the factory.  The program showed how they cooked them over a fire.  Very interesting.  They are actually an extremely healthy alternative to potato chips.  Virtually no fat and made with lentil flour!  Unfortunately they do have a rather gaseous side effect 

[Anna N]

[shain]

After recent discussion in a thread about the herb butnaj, I've decided to have soma fava beans with it. I also added mint, cumin, paprika, lemon and olive oil. Also some garlicky pearled barley.

Edited April 15, 2017 by shain (log)

[HungryChris]

We observed the fried clam season opener today. If I had driven up to Ipswich or Essex, MA and had these, I would have been disappointed, but these were passable in Moodus, CT. ....And yes, @rotuts, WBC!

HC

 

[blue_dolphin]

I tried the recipe for pappardelle with cavolo nero, chiles & hazelnuts from Diana Henry's Simple.  I substituted tagliatelle. I often make a similar dish with greens, garlic and red pepper flakes so I was intrigued by the addition of orange zest and hazelnuts here. I'm neutral on the nuts but don't care for the orange zest here. Maybe it was the extra oily and flavorful cara cara orange zest that I used?

 I'm glad I tried it but I have other similar recipes that I like better.

[blue_dolphin]

I had a couple of lonely spicy brats so I made a little 2-sausage sized pan of the Baked sausages with apples, raisins and hard cider from Diana Henry's Simple.  I was curious to try this before the weather turns entirely to summer.

I'm not a big potato hound so instead of the mash suggested as a side, I put a sausage into a crusty roll slathered with grainy mustard, gave the rest of the ingredients a rough chop, put them and the syrupy pan juices on top of the sausages and washed it down with a glass of cider. I really loved the flavors of the caramelized apples and onions, Calvados-soaked raisins, cider and sausage and will definitely make it again in the fall and winter months. And I'll add extra onions and apples as I think they'll make an excellent condiment to use with other meats or cheeses.

[Auro]

Easter Lunch.

Shrimp conchiglioni.

[Okanagancook]

I have some of those pasta shells!

nice idea.

[blue_dolphin]

For today's lunch, I tried the recipe for spiced avocado with black beans, sour cream and cheese from Diana Henry's Simple.

I often make some sort of beans-on-toast for a quick and filling meal but I do not usually include all the accoutrement used here.  It was very good, if somewhat messy to eat.

[robirdstx]

27 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

For today's lunch, I tried the recipe for spiced avocado with black beans, sour cream and cheese from Diana Henry's Simple.

I often make some sort of beans-on-toast for a quick and filling meal but I do not usually include all the accoutrement used here.  It was very good, if somewhat messy to eat.

 

I am going to have to make this! 

[blue_dolphin]

9 minutes ago, robirdstx said:

 

I am going to have to make this! 

 

It's pretty tasty.  The recipe calls for canned black beans to be cooked with onion, red bell pepper, garlic, chicken broth, orange juice, S&P and a final squeeze of lime juice.  I had excellent Rancho Gordo Midnight black beans already cooked and ready to go but I think it's a great way to take canned beans up a notch.

[Duvel]

Donkey sandwiches at Fatty Wang's in Beijing. Crusty and flaky bread, braised donkey meat, chili and cilantro. Had some sweet&sour peanuts and garlicky cucumbers. Unfortunately, they were out of the braised intestines, much to the delight of my wife. Beer, of course. Doesn't get much better than that (although the roasted duck from the night before wasn't bad either ...).

 

[liuzhou]

30 minutes ago, Duvel said:

Donkey sandwiches at Fatty Wang's in Beijing.

 

Donkey is my favourite meat and few do it better than Fatty Wang! Must hie me to Beijing sometime soon.

[Anna N]

[BonVivant]

Duvel, that's a lot of peanuts. Are they fried in oil? I would eat donkey, happily. Intestines on the other hand... I've tried countless times but couldn't get into it, mostly because my incisors and molars are dull (I think). On top of this the texture of trails.

----------------------

 

Recent lunches. These days I hardly eat anything besides asparagus and chard.

 

Taking my sweet time eating North Sea crab claws, North Sea shrimp, North Sea oysters. Salmon roe from Denmark, I don't remember anymore.

 

 

 

Aberlour scotch and beetroot water in the cure.

 

 

Faroe Islands salmon. I no longer want to cook Faroe Islands salmon.

 

 

Pickled herrings in cream sauce.

 

 

One has cucumber and parsley, the other beetroots and dill.

 

 

Leftover sausages.

 

 

 

Small asparagus farm and bakery inside a windmill in the countryside 3.5km from my house.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Today I did something I've never done before in my 21 years in China. Come to think of it, I only ever did so very rarely anywhere in the world - and then only reluctantly.

 

I ate in a university canteen.

 

I studied and worked in universities nearly all my life but avoided the canteen totally. I was fortunate enough to have a small apartment near the university (thank you, parents for your generosity), so even as an otherwise impoverished bachelor degree student, I could go home and cook. It wasn't exactly lobster and caviare every night, but I did OK.

Today, I was visiting a Chinese university on some business and lunchtime was looming. It was suggested that, as we had a tight schedule, we partook of the canteen offerings rather than go off-campus. I took one for the team and went along so see what was on offer.

 

I should have taken more photos of the place. It was crammed with students and the occasional faculty member. Basically, there are dozens of windows all serving something slightly different.You wait in line at your window of choice and when you get to the front, you find trays of cooked food on hotplates, make your choice and hey ho!, the server spreads a plate with rice, lobs your choice on top, sprinkles with chilli oil and hands you your plate. You place this on a tray from the pile to your right. Add a bowl of "soup", then try to find a seat among the heaving mob. More about the soup coming up.

 

This university has 10,000 students who all descend on the two canteens at the same time - three times a day. It is an amazing operation.

 

So, I got to the front of my line and somehow ended up with a tray of grub. As did my companion (who eats there almost every day).

 

My lunch:

 

 

I seem to have picked up roast duck and I do remember requesting the green veg. No idea what it was though. My companion claimed it to be water spinach, but it was like no water spinach I ever saw before. But it was very pleasant and very well cooked. Not overcooked in other words. It still had bite. The duck was fabulous. Crisp skin and juicy meat. There were also some noodly looking things (top right of my image). Not noodles but very finely sliced daikon radish. These were unrequested - apparently everyone gets those.

My companion went for this:

 

 

Char siu instead of my duck and lotus root instead of my unidentified frying objects. She also got the radish strips. She said it was very enjoyable.

The soup, which again is served to everyone was really just a bowl of hot water with some chicken powder, I think. It was OK and wet. I couldn't find a wine list!

 

To my astonishment, I thoroughly enjoyed my meal, although neither of us were able to finish the huge pile of rice. I noticed that most of the students didn't either.

After lunch, you tip your uneaten food into huge bins (happy, well fed pigs round here), deposit the crockery in huge containers and go off for a good sleep. Siesta culture here - I love it!

I have to go back to the university in a couple of weeks as a follow-up to what we were working on, so, if I can, I'll go back to the canteen and take more photographs.

 

Oh. One more thing. Our lunches cost ¥5 each - (73 cents - US; 57 pence - UK; €0.68). For teachers, it's free.

Edited April 20, 2017 by liuzhou
typos (log)

[robirdstx]

 

The last of the Jalapeño and Cheese Venison Sausage on toasted Pumpernickel with Mayo and Horseradish Mustard

[Anna N]

 

 Note to self: those lovely mushrooms you were looking forward to enjoying? Exactly how long have they been in the refrigerator?  That long?  Hmmm. 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

On 4/19/2017 at 9:10 AM, liuzhou said:

After lunch, you tip your uneaten food into huge bins (happy, well fed pigs round here), deposit the crockery in huge containers and go off for a good sleep. Siesta culture here - I love it!

 

Your lunches look good, liuzhou. My grandparents also fed the leftovers from school cafeterias to their free range pigs, and that was some of the best-tasting pork I will ever be likely to eat. I was too young and naive to know I was supposed to be embarrassed about riding with grandpa in this pick 'em up truck to pick up the garbage cans full of slop from the schools. I was embarrassed for a while under peer pressure, but no more. That is the way to raise hogs, and nothing goes to waste. That way is pretty much gone in my country, to the detriment of the hogs and the folks who consume them, and also the landfills. That is a travesty. We are such a wasteful society. It is good to see such a tradition still being practiced on such a large scale.

 

And, yes! What an operation you describe. It must take an army of culinary professionals to feed 10,000 people, never mind well.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

That way is pretty much gone in my country, to the detriment of the hogs and the folks who consume them, and also the landfills. That is a travesty. We are such a wasteful society. It is good to see such a tradition still being practiced on such a large scale.

 

Yes. I do get so annoyed when I read so many articles and comments about China's terrible environmentally destructive practices. I don't deny there are massive problems, but at the same time I've never known a country which recycles so much. I have people queueing up to buy my garbage, and food waste is social disgrace.

 

In the university I visited, every light switch has a sticker reminding people to switch off lights when not needed. And people obey them. The public conveniences have similar signs regarding water usage.

Switch off lights
Save electricity; (the rest of the sentence is equivalent in sentiment to something like "From small acorns, oak trees grow.")

 

Meanwhile, I've made a convert of my lunch companion. She was intrigued that I was photographing not only my lunch, but also hers and today sent me a picture she has taken of her canteen lunch today!

Roast pork and cabbage Over rice.

 

[chromedome]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Switch off lights
Save electricity; (the rest of the sentence is equivalent in sentiment to something like "From small acorns, oak trees grow.")

 

A Dutch acquaintance of mine had a similar quote from his grandmother, to the effect that "crumbs are bread, too."

 

They don't seem connected, but that was the gist of it...take care of the little things, and they add up to big things. 

[blue_dolphin]

Carrot hummus, roast tomatoes & harissa yogurt from Diana Henry's Simple, on toasted ciabatta

I added garlic and salt to the hummus and only a couple of tablespoons of the recipe's specified 1 cup  of extra virgin olive oil.

The tomatoes roasted with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and harissa are really good.