Lunch! What'd ya have? (2018)

[chileheadmike]

Popeye's 2 piece spicy, leg and thigh. With onion rings and red beans n rice.

 

Darn good. had to wait a couple of minutes for the chicken to get done. Bonus for me. 

[Paul Bacino]

On the Big Freezer Clean--  found some Butternut Squash Ravioli-  Topped with Stewed veg melody 

 

[Anna N]

More of this soup.  It improved exponentially with a few days rest in the refrigerator!

 

[liuzhou]

蝴蝶面 (hú dié miàn), literally 'butterfly' pasta are the Chinese equivalent of the Italian farfalle. I'm not going to get into who came up with them first, but I'd wager heavily that Marco Polo had nothing to do with it!

 

Anyway, here they are with slivered chicken stir fried with garlic, ginger, chilli, scallions and soy sauce. Simple and quick again.

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

12 hours ago, chileheadmike said:

Popeye's 2 piece spicy, leg and thigh. With onion rings and red beans n rice.

 

Darn good. had to wait a couple of minutes for the chicken to get done. Bonus for me. 

 

Me too! I actually love it when I have to wait a while for freshly cooked food, especially something like fried chix or french fries. There's a little mom and pop's BBQ place that's the only place in town I know that does fried chicken to order. The Chinese takeout joint has horrible "Chinese" food, but marinates, then par fries and freezes chicken wings and completes the frying to order along with fried to order frozen french fries. Bonus: they're also cheaper than any of the wings places around here. It's just about the only thing that's safe to eat there. I still like their "crab" rangoon, but have been burned so many times on the Chinese menu, I'm too scared to experiment anymore. Even their eggrolls have deteriorated to the point I won't try it again, and I LOVE a good eggroll.

 

I managed to get some hot french fries from Wendy's today, and that was the high point of my very stressful day visiting my brother in the hospital. Wendy's fries are really good, and I think the medium size I ordered is larger than McDonald's large size. The chocolate Frosty was good and so thick I couldn't get it through a straw at first. The burger was fine, but could definitely have been hotter. Still better than McD's all day long.

 

I miss having access to a Popeye's. They are my favorite fast food fried chicken place and when they were in our area years ago, good sides too. Does anyone know if they still offer fried okra? I loved getting that and corn on the cob with my order of spicy fried chicken.

 

Edit: take out messed up link to "Chinese" joint.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[liuzhou]

9 minutes ago, Thanks for the Crepes said:

The Chinese takeout joint has horrible "Chinese" food, but marinates, then par fries and freezes chicken wings and completes the frying to order along with fried to order frozen french fries. Bonus: they're also cheaper than any of the wings places around here. It's just about the only thing that's safe to eat there. I still like their "crab" rangoon, but have been burned so many times on the Chinese menu, I'm too scared to experiment anymore. Even their eggrolls have deteriorated to the point I won't try it again, and I LOVE a good eggroll.

 

I'm so glad you put "Chinese" in quote marks. Sounds revolting. Plus point is that their website is as dysfunctional as their kitchen. Their menu page is empty.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

22 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

 

I'm so glad you put "Chinese" in quote marks. Sounds revolting. Plus point is that their website is as dysfunctional as their kitchen. Their menu page is empty.

 

Thanks for letting me know. When I made the link, I noticed that the webpage had been totally overhauled, but failed to check the menu link. I'll just take out the link since it's pointless. But yeah, unspeakable acts done to once lovely ingredients except for the chicken wings. Even the expensive vegetable stir fry is overcooked and shrouded in a flavorless, unnaturally brown, gloppy, cornstarch thickened sauce. I'm glad you weren't with me when these atrocities happened. Oh my God! I can make a killer pepper steak, which is popular here, but I would not doubt unknown in China. I like a lot of onions with the peppers, some celery and a bit of tomato added at the end. My husband ordered this dish one time and one time only. I tasted it, and then the raccoons got the lions share. Their rendition was HORRIBLE. Still, I persist in liking the chicken wings cooked to order.

[liuzhou]

Made a soupy lunch. Knife cut noodles, pork, Shanghai bok choy, in a chicken broth with chilli, ginger and white pepper.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

 

Lunch yesterday. Toasted homemade rye bread with processed cheese and bacon and some of @HungryChris‘  marinated mushrooms.

[shain]

Mushrooms, soft tofu and fried onion, shawarma style. Stuffed into a fluffy pita.

Then I've added a finely chopped salad of cabbage, tomatoes and pickles, plenty of tahini, zchug and some amba. 

 

[Nicolai]

It's Saturday Kibbe day. These are three different types of Kibbe away from the ubiquitous torpedo shaped Kibbe offered in restaurants worldwide.

BTW. the torpedo shaped Kibbe served in restaturants are machine rolled while all these are lovingly hand made by our cook.

 

Obviously, sides of Hummos, Mutabal, Yoghurt, salads....Arak...........etc

 

For the small history. Such kibbe is similar in shape to the Baklawa range. I already indicated in a previous post that Baklawa is a generic term for a range of Arabic sweets.

What I am not sure about is the chicken and egg conundrum whereby which were the original shapes, Kibbe or Baklawa?

I will venture to say it is the Kibbe as historically the ingredients and cooking methods were available before the sophistication of the Baklawa pastry.

 

 

Our Kibbe in the pic shows the Kibbe bel Seniyeh (baked) which are the Diamond shape pistachios or walnuts filled. The round sliced ones which are equivalent to the Mabroumeh and is called Mabroumeh Pistachio and the ball shaped one which is Kibbe Mechwieh pine nuts filled and is cooked on the grill. 

There were two more shapes which I will leave for another post.

 

Also for the record, Kibbe which is claimed to be various countries specialty, is offered with a very small range of variations. However, Aleppo has the best and largest range of Kibbe in the world with a record of approx 130 recipes. I only tried couple of dozens and love it..........not that anybody cares, but it makes feel better stating it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The similar shape of the Baklawa range is as follows:

 

1- Diamond Baklawa

 

 

 

 

 

 

2- Mabroumeh Pistachio

 

 

 

 

 

 

3- Kol we Shkor 

 

The Power that Be made me stroll on the beach for two hours following lunch before a dip in the sea as apparently it is good to loose some of the accumulated fat.

Women.......go figure  

[Okanagancook]

@shainI want that pita.  That's the best looking pita I have ever seen.

 

[kayb]

Oh, @Nicolai. That all looks wonderful. I wish I had a plate piled high with all of it!

 

[shain]

1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:

@shainI want that pita.  That's the best looking pita I have ever seen.

 

 

Those are from a tiny bakery that makes nothing but pita breads, located in some tiny industrial zone between a metal shop and a wood worker. They are the best I've had Israel, so I consider myself lucky to live nearby

[Anna N]

 

Reheated beef with lots and lots of onions  leftover from here.  I had frozen some of it as it made far too much for one meal.  Today wrapped in a lovely flour tortilla with some shredded lettuce. Messy but good.  I used to hate wraps so much so that I would go hungry if that’s all that was offered. I suspect it has much to do with the wraps which taste to me like cardboard from which all the flavour has been removed. These flour tortillas are just gorgeous.  They are from a place about 45 minutes away so might be a while before I get them again. 

Edited February 25, 2018 by Anna N (log)

[Duvel]

On my way to the wild, wild west (of northern China) one stop-over at Shanghai Hongqiao. And when in Shanghai ...

 

Xiaolongbao

 

And because I like Sichuan food much better (even when prepared in Shanghai) ...

 

Dan Dan Mian

 

Tea-smoked duck

 

[Anna N]

 

Cheese and onion quesadilla. 

[BeeZee]

hastily stuffed in my maw while sitting in the parking lot...a new Indian (East Asian) bakery opened in our little town (it is a local franchise, I know of one other location about 20 minutes away) - was running errands on my day off and spotted the "grand opening" sign. I was disappointed that the items in the bakery case were not traditional Indian sweets, but they did have some savories available. I chatted with the gentleman working there and bought a veg samosa. It was slightly warmer than room temp (guessing cooked up about an hour prior) since I didn't tell him to reheat it. Potato and peas, dough was not too heavy or greasy. He gave me a little container of a tamarind dipping sauce that was tasty if a bit too sweet. It was a dollar and a perfect little pre-lunch snack.

[BonVivant]

Korean new year soups and noodles again because my usual camera stopped working last week whilst in the middle of making photos of this very same meal. Have been using my travel camera which is also new.

 

 

 

Beef shin meat in a marrow bone. (I made the broth with a thick disc of beef shin and marrow bone.)

 

The soups and accompanying bits.

 

A kind of stew with fermented soya bean paste. Had it for the first time in Korea last month and liked it straight away. Makes Japanese miso soup look so dainty and refined. Doenjang Jjigae is quite something else. This is my version using only what I had laying around.

 

Noodles with chard and Hokkaido squash. Ribs with fermented soya bean paste were leftover from one dinner.

 

Quinoa topped with red cabbage kimchi, maatjes herring, pickled daikon, tamari-sesame oil tuna, samphire. Oysters, salmon roe and confit yolk in the middle.

 

Buckwheat, confit yolks, salmon roe, pickled daikon, bean shoot kimchi, maatjes herring, tuna (same as above).

[HungryChris]

Mortadella, baby Swiss, tomato and cabbage slaw on a roll.

HC

[kayb]

I'm not a huge mortadella fan. But when you post those sandwiches, I always want one.

 

[HungryChris]

6 hours ago, kayb said:

I'm not a huge mortadella fan. But when you post those sandwiches, I always want one.

 

Thanks for the kind words @kayb. When we first visited Italy, I fell in love with Tuscan Salami, Finocchiona, especially the softer and almost spreadable version of Finocchiona  called "Sbriciolona". I went into a deli in Rome and realized there was none to be had and pointed at the mortadella out of desperation. That was the first time I ever had it. I was pleasantly surprised. It took years before I found a source of good quality mortadella, but if I could find a good source of the salami, I would never look back.

HC

Edited February 28, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[Anna N]

 

Chunky, spicy vegetable soup with  cheddar toastie sprinkled with smoked paprika. 

[kayb]

5 hours ago, HungryChris said:

Thanks for the kind words @kayb. When we first visited Italy, I fell in love with Tuscan Salami, Finocchiona, especially the softer and almost spreadable version of Finocchiona is called "Sbriciolona". I went into a deli in Rome and realized there was none to be had and pointed at the mortadella out of desperation. That was the first time I ever had it. I was pleasantly surprised. It took years before I found a source of good quality mortadella, but if I could find a good source of the salami, I would never look back.

HC

 

Is that anything like nduja? I ordered some of that. I'm afraid of it. I'm not sure what to do with it.

 

[liuzhou]

One thing I like is that, here in China, duck is cheap.

 

This one cost me ¥10.80 ($1.70 USD). A similarly sized decent chicken is between ¥50 and ¥60 ($8-$9.5).

 

 

The feet and most of the wings had been removed to be sold separately. I jointed it and one breast and the legs are in the freezer for another day. I also have a load of fat in the fridge to render later.

With the carcase, including the head, I made a duck stock which I chilled overnight, then de-fatted. Made stock with the meat from the carcase and the other breast.

 

Leeks, onions, carrots, mushrooms, chilli and a splash of white rice wine vinegar. Hot and sour duck soup. Served with steamed bread (馒头 mán tóu).

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by liuzhou (log)