The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 3)

liuzhou · February 13, 2020

17 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Well aside from the fact that the noodles got short shrift from me given that I was just trying to remain alive, I found them very disappointing. Think soggy pasta. But I have absolutely nothing to compare them with in terms of what are good versions.

The noodles are usually served after the diners have eaten the chicken and spuds, to soak up the spicy* juices. They are meant to be "soggy".

* The spiciness is believed to be because the inventor of the dish was from Sichuan, but for whatever reason relocated to Xinjiang, but took with him his favourite spices - chilli and Sichuan peppercorns. Who knows, but the dish does feature both, neither of which are indigenous to that area.

KennethT · February 13, 2020

During my (extremely brief) time in China and SE Asia in general, I'd agree that I never noticed any splintered bones - even though it was quite common to find a leg piece (for example) cut crosswise into 2-3 pieces. I think my local NYC places, no matter how "authentic," have extremely blunt cleavers...

liuzhou · February 13, 2020

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

During my (extremely brief) time in China and SE Asia in general, I'd agree that I never noticed any splintered bones - even though it was quite common to find a leg piece (for example) cut crosswise into 2-3 pieces. I think my local NYC places, no matter how "authentic," have extremely blunt cleavers...

My lovely chicken vendor lady in the market chops my chicken. Never a splinter.

(But I have to be careful - "chicken lady" in Chinese is also slang for a prostitute, which I'm sure she isn't!)

Edited February 13, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

Anna N · February 13, 2020

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

But about your bones!

Thank you so much.

Kerry Beal · February 14, 2020

11 hours ago, liuzhou said:

The noodles are usually served after the diners have eaten the chicken and spuds, to soak up the spicy* juices. They are meant to be "soggy".

* The spiciness is believed to be because the inventor of the dish was from Sichuan, but for whatever reason relocated to Xinjiang, but took with him his favourite spices - chilli and Sichuan peppercorns. Who knows, but the dish does feature both, neither of which are indigenous to that area.

Does the tea from the Xinjiang also contain a bit of sichuan pepper?

liuzhou · February 14, 2020

19 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Does the tea from the Xinjiang also contain a bit of sichuan pepper?

I don't know, sorry. Could have, I suppose. I'm not a tea drinker. That said, Xinjiang is not a big tea drinking area.

KennethT · February 14, 2020

When I was in a very popular Xinjiang restaurant in Beijing, they had a lot of herbal/flower teas. We had a really nice rose tea.

Edit: not that that is necessarily indicative of what is true to the area itself... but the restaurant was highly regarded

Edited February 14, 2020 by KennethT (log)

kayb · February 14, 2020

Today I was "the lady who lunches," at a new-to-me establishment in Memphis called Puck Food Hall. I went there because one of its vendors is City Block Salumeria, where I went in search of Toulouse sausage; alas, they had none. But there was a vegan place called Revelation that offered Buddha bowls, stuffed potatoes and so forth.

I had a stuffed sweet potato whose stuffing was quinoa, black beans, corn (sorry, @liuzhou!) and tomato, some sort of viniagrette with a bit of a kick to it, and finely chopped kale. I'm not normally a big kale fan, but this was good. I couldn't see how the combo of flavors would work, but...it did. It worked well enough, in fact, that I forgot about taking a photo until I was halfway through it, and at that point it wasn't nearly as attractive.

As for the Toulouse sausage -- perusing recipes, it appears it would not be horribly difficult to make, save the fact I do not possess a sausage stuffer. I'm wondering how it'd do if I just made link-shaped "meatballs" and chilled them until they were firm, and then just placed them in the cassoulet as though they were cased sausages?

Anna N · February 22, 2020

After an appointment yesterday my daughter and I decided to grab a bite to eat at Pintoh.

Glass of Riesling for me.

Fresh salad rolls with peanut dipping sauce. I also asked for the mint dipping sauce. It was quite delicious and packed quite a punch..

Tom Yum soup for me.

I also had duck laarb.

Daughter had Gang Ped.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Anna N
Typos (log)

heidih · February 22, 2020

@Anna N Wow - the serving dishes alone would have made me happy. The first image - I need the glass - forget the drink. Duck laarb sounds like a plan once it gets above 45F here. My Chinese market sells legs by the piece. On the long but for sure list.

blue_dolphin · February 22, 2020

6 hours ago, Anna N said:

Glass of Riesling for me.

This looks like a study for one of the very commercially successful artist Thomas Arvid's super-realistic wine paintings like this one.

Anna N · February 22, 2020

50 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

This looks like a study for one of the very commercially successful artist Thomas Arvid's super-realistic wine paintings like this one.

It is actually most likely the result of having both pupils very severely dilated. Was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other! Eventually I acknowledged this and handed the camera to my daughter.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Anna N (log)

heidih · February 22, 2020

4 minutes ago, Anna N said:

It is actually most likely the result of having both pupils very severely dilated. Was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other! Eventually I acknowledged this and handed the camera to my daughter.

Art is often a happy accident and in the eye of the beholder

Edited February 22, 2020 by heidih (log)

shain · February 22, 2020

It's not often that I have lunch out, and even rarer that I take a picture of it. But I found this plate of hummus & masabacha quite pretty.

The taste was OK.

Edited February 22, 2020 by shain (log)

rotuts · February 22, 2020

@shain

nice !

Id suggest :

1 ) get out more , but not too often

2 ) pics of that food are very interesting to many of us

3) so take them , possibly w discrete surroundings

cheers

heidih · February 22, 2020

@shain Appealing food as always. I think raw onion is quite underappreciated as an enhancer. All the talk about "taming" the workhorse vegetable. On my long list of things that make me crazy.

shain · February 22, 2020

9 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@shain

nice !

Id suggest :

1 ) get out more , but not too often

2 ) pics of that food are very interesting to many of us

3) so take them , possibly w discrete surroundings

cheers

I eat lunch at the office, so that's limiting my chances. I promise to take photos whenever I go out for a sufficiently interesting dinner

4 minutes ago, heidih said:

@shain Appealing food as always. I think raw onion is quite underappreciated as an enhancer. All the talk about "taming" the workhorse vegetable. On my long list of things that make me crazy.

I love raw onion, especially with legumes, and salads.

Kim Shook · February 25, 2020

Lunch with Jessica with Jessica at Zorba’s, a favorite Greek place. Greek salad:

We both had the gyro:

When I sent the pictures to Mr. Kim, who sadly had to work, he said, “you realize you’ve had that same kind of sandwich three times in the last 10 days”. No apologies – it is my very favorite sandwich.

Anna N · February 26, 2020

Today both Kerry and I decided that a return visit to Celadon House would be a good idea.

strong, sweet ginger tea for Kerry.

Glass of Pinot Grigio for me followed by another glass of Pinot Grigio. There is no end to my infamy.

spicy calamari.

garlic mushrooms Gambas

Curry beef noodle soup.

KennethT · February 26, 2020

@Anna N Interesting - just by the name, one would think that all the servingware - cups, bowls, plates would be made from celadon. Years ago, my wife and I picked up a whole bunch of celadon in Chiang Mai - at a factory/store called Baan Celadon (Celadon House). Beautiful stuff - all handmade, and at the time, a great bargain - especially with what the exchange rate was back then... not so much nowadays...

Anna N · February 26, 2020

12 minutes ago, KennethT said:

@Anna N Interesting - just by the name, one would think that all the servingware - cups, bowls, plates would be made from celadon. Years ago, my wife and I picked up a whole bunch of celadon in Chiang Mai - at a factory/store called Baan Celadon (Celadon House). Beautiful stuff - all handmade, and at the time, a great bargain - especially with what the exchange rate was back then... not so much nowadays...

It’s a stretch!