Lunch! What'd ya have? (2017)

[HungryChris]

Dirty water dog with sauerkraut, onions and mustard with a side of three bean salad. 

HC

 

[kayb]

Taco Bell.  My dirty little fast-food secret vice. 

[Okanagancook]

Pathetic pizza out.  One could not call it a crust.  More like cheap bread.

An utter waste of calories 

[HungryChris]

I had to visit the eye doctor this am. Even though my vision was declared 20/20 in both eyes, I just couldn't see coming home without sushi.

HC

 

[HungryChris]

Corned beef and Swiss on seeded rye.

HC

[Anna N]

Ever since I learned there was a dish called Dublin Coddle it has been on my "must make" list.  Today was the day.  No, they are not Bangers. I still haven't found those.  But these pork and spinach sausages were acceptable to me. The dish is strongly reminiscent of Lancaster hot pot. That dish of course is made with lamb.

 

 

Dublin Coddle with the requisite sploosh of brown sauce (HP).  

[HungryChris]

Bangers and chips. These ale and onion actually have much less flavor than the original flavor from Aldi.

HC

[sartoric]

My plan was to use up leftover rice by making rice balls with a cube of mozzarella in the middle. It soon became abundantly clear that they weren't going to stick together very well. Plan B was a rice slice - canned tuna, grated zucchini, mozzarella, grated parmesan, beaten egg, chopped sage all mixed well and pressed into a sprayed dish. Topped with panko for crunch, and extra cheese for indulgence.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

Egg & Salmon Donburi from Diana Henry's book, Simple

 

[Anna N]

 

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is shakshuka. This is "fusion" cooking. The base is South African (here). 

Only mine came out of a can. 

 

 

 This has been in my pantry for quite some time and today I decided it had hung around long enough.  I can take a little heat but this stuff is lethally spicy. 

[Shelby]

11 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

You could be forgiven for thinking that this is shakshuka. This is "fusion" cooking. The base is South African (here). 

Only mine came out of a can. 

 

 

 This has been in my pantry for quite some time and today I decided it had hung around long enough.  I can take a little heat but this stuff is lethally spicy. 

Am I the only one that finds the phrase on the can hilarious?

 

"it's the best you can do"

 

[HungryChris]

Dirty water dog with chili cheese and onions. Redneck haute cuisine.

HC

[chromedome]

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

Am I the only one that finds the phrase on the can hilarious?

 

"it's the best you can do"

 

I was hung up on the brand name, and didn't even see the slogan. 

"Open a can, and BOOM! Chakalaka..."

[Anna N]

30 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I was hung up on the brand name, and didn't even see the slogan. 

"Open a can, and BOOM! Chakalaka..."

Even washing the dish afterwards brought on a painful fit of coughing as the peppers hit the back of my throat. 

[Anna N]

 

 I am grateful that while I was sober I was smart enough to decant some akvavit so that there was no chance of a whole bottle being frozen and ready to drink.  Somebody once said there will be days like this.  I shall be sleeping for an hour or three. 

[kayb]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 I am grateful that while I was sober I was smart enough to decant some akvavit so that there was no chance of a whole bottle being frozen and ready to drink.  Somebody once said there will be days like this.  I shall be sleeping for an hour or three. 

 

I can say it no better than this:

[robirdstx]

A couple of recent lunches, using up dinner leftovers:

 

Taco Meat Nachos

 

 

and Chicken Marsala

 

 

[BonVivant]

I have many lunch photos from last week, too many to post them all in 1 go. Here are a few:

 

Beetroot marinated Skrei (winter cod from Norwegian arctic).

 

 

What the Skrei looks like before slicing:

 

Maatjes in cream with beetroot and appel.

 

Herring roll.

 

Labskaus is a typical lunch food in northern Germany. All port cities in northern Europe have their own versions of Labskaus. This is my version with the same ingredients. Everything is normally next to each other on 1 plate and the egg is fried and runny.

 

Labskaus always comes with beetroot mashed potatoes. I ran out of eggs but had beetroot eggs so I used them.

 

First photo in the back garden this year. Shrimp are full of roe.

 

Shrimp rolls

 

Rye bread and toppings.

[kayb]

I almost hate to follow up @BonVivant's gorgeous meals with my own, but lunch this week has been work-driven. That meant that on a day on the road Wednesday that took me to Sikeston, MO., I had to stop at Lambert's, a southern icon of a restaurant which elevates old-fashioned country-cooking meat and vegetables to an art form, mainly by stuffing you so full of them you can barely move.

 

The meat-and-twos on the menu are massive enough in their own right; my lunch companion's country ham steak was a center cut of cured ham, a good half-inch thick. I went for a vegetable plate, instead -- cucumber onion salad, baked beans, candied yams, and pineapple walnut salad, a sweet concoction (I had it for dessert) of fresh pineapple, walnuts, and sweetened cream cheese thinned with sour cream. The yams were merely adequate; the baked beans, superbly smoky and sweet. The cucumber onion salad was sublime -- peeled, thinly sliced cucumbers and thin slices of onion, marinated in a just-slightly-sweet white vinegar bath. Utterly simple, utterly good. I'm convinced it's one of the chief reasons God made cucumbers.

 

That would have been plenty to fill me up, but then there were the "pass-arounds." In the course of your meal, a dozen or more of the army of teenagers Lambert's employs will come by your table and offer you things like fried okra (I passed; I don't like battered okra. It should be just lightly dusted with cornmeal, salt and pepper), white beans, fried potatoes and onions, black-eyed peas. As many times as you say "yes," they'll keep heaping it on your plate.

 

And of course, there's the Lambert's special schtick -- the "throwed rolls." Which are pretty much what they sound like. Huge, fluffy, slightly sweet yeast rolls (I swear; these things are nearly as a big as your head!), which a kid brings through on a cart. You hear him call out, a la the ballbark beer vendor, "Rolls? Hot rolls?" and you stick your hand up. And the kid, who no doubt is a pitcher for the high school baseball team, because he's pretty accurate, fires a roll at you. It's more fun if it's across two other tables and 25 feet or so away. 

 

I was absolutely miserable when I left; both because I was so full, and because I just couldn't eat any more, and because I could manage only one roll.

 

If you're ever on I-55 about halfway between St. Louis and the Bootheel, and find yourself passing through Sikeston, it's worth a stop. Info here.  Allegedly they have excellent desserts, too. I wouldn't know. I've never had room for one.

 

In a decided comedown, I needed something to stand between me and hunger pangs today, and I was too busy to fix anything. So I dumped a cup of Great Value (WalMart brand) black bean and white corn salsa into a bowl and grated a couple of ounces of extra sharp cheddar into it. That, with some corn chips, made a decent lunch. I loathe WalMart, but had to stop by, so I did what I always do on my infrequent trips -- bought four jars of this stuff. 

 

 

 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

31 minutes ago, kayb said:

I had to stop at Lambert's, a southern icon of a restaurant

 

When you posted in the Dinner thread last night teasing me with your great lunch that left you too full to eat dinner, I immediately went to the lunch thread to see if there was a report. Alas no, but I hate prodding people into doing something they are not inclined to do, so I held my peace. I am SO happy to see your post here today, so I could go to Lambert's website and the Yelp reports for all the food porn and reports on the experiences of diners. I had read about on Lambert's on Roadfood years ago, I realized.

 

Oh. My. God. How I wish I could have been there with you! This place is my nirvana. Throwed bread!  I also would not have passed on the okra either. Wow! You have made my day.  The only problem for me would be deciding what to order, but I expect it's hard to go wrong there. *Drool*

 

I just had to edit to comment on the fact that they do not accept credit cards, but all checks are welcome. Talk about old school.

Edited March 31, 2017 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I am still perusing the 345 photos on the Yelp site for Lambert's, Sikeston. I am loving it, but seriously, at one point, I found tears welling up because I will probably never be able to eat there. 

[liuzhou]

I've been thinking about doing this for weeks, and despite being seriously incapacitated after a recent accident, I was determined to deal with it today - if only on an experimental basis.

 

For several years, back in the 1980s in London. Sunday afternoon consisted of settling down to watch the omnibus edition of Eastenders, a still-popular British soap opera. This was always accompanied by a large plate of cocktail sausage rolls, freshly baked from frozen. They were supermarket sausage rolls - I forget which brand, but they were OK.

I left the UK shortly afterwards and have lost all track of the soap and of sausage rolls. But, as I said, decided to experiment.

 

I only made four, each about two inches long.

I had to do the sausage meat myself. Chinese sausages would be completely inappropriate - as they always are! The supermarkets do sell preprepared minced/ground pork, but I prefer to know what is in the stuff. So, I bought some fatty pork belly and minced it myself. Can't find the spices I want here either but heavily black-peppered the sausage meat it and added a little nutmeg. Rolled the sausage mix in pastry and baked.

 

 

I know the photographs look like they may be overdone and the filling looks black, but they weren't and the filling was nicely pink. Must be that Chinese light!

I was happy with the result and so was my mouth. I can think of ways to improve them, though. Next time.

[Smithy]

@liuzhou, do you have a meat grinder of some sort at home, or did you mince the meat just using a knife or two? If the latter, I admire your determined energy given your recent incapacitation.  

[liuzhou]

16 minutes ago, Smithy said:

@liuzhou, do you have a meat grinder of some sort at home, or did you mince the meat just using a knife or two? If the latter, I admire your determined energy given your recent incapacitation.  

 

I do have a grinder somewhere. Haven't looked at it in years. I've been Sinicized. I do all my mincing with the two cleaver method. Stick on some vintage rock and roll and make like Ringo.

It was painful today, but I feel like I have to loosen up some very stiff muscles, so it was worth it. I don't know about "determined energy" - I call it stubbornness.

I'm on the mend. Thanks.

Edited March 31, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

 

 After my "criminal" breakfast I didn't need much for lunch. These few shrimp did hit the spot. Another recipe rescued from one of the old Recipes that Rock topics.