Lunch! What'd ya have? (2018)

liuzhou · August 10, 2018

Freshly made rice noodles* with pork tenderloin slices, garlic, baby bok choy, green and red chilli, rice wine and rice vinegar. Boiled duck egg.

Before adding broth to the bowl:

and after:

* by my neighbour.

Edited August 10, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

shain · August 10, 2018

Corn with coconut cream and red curry paste, lime zest, peanuts and coconut flakes.

Anna N · August 10, 2018

Japanese curry made with rotisserie chicken. I used an S&B brand “hot” curry roux that was an impulse buy. This was my second attempt at using such a product. The previous time I really hated it. I believe I used a different brand and a different flavour. This was quite palatable and I can see why it would be a comfort food in Japan.

heidih · August 10, 2018

@Anna N Hhmmm that sure looks thin the sauce department from anytime I've ever made it with House or S & B brands. BUT if it tasted good = all good

Anna N · August 10, 2018

5 minutes ago, heidih said:

@Anna N Hhmmm that sure looks thin the sauce department from anytime I've ever made it with House or S & B brands. BUT if it tasted good = all good

Didn’t seem especially thin to me! I judged it to be a bit gloopy (that’s a highly technical term).😂

suzilightning · August 11, 2018

A tuna salad sandwich from a Panera sandwich box that a family friend brought yesterday. I was thinking about making some but this was one of the best tuna salads I have ever had. I had another for dinner.....

Kim Shook · August 11, 2018

45 minutes ago, suzilightning said:

A tuna salad sandwich from a Panera sandwich box that a family friend brought yesterday. I was thinking about making some but this was one of the best tuna salads I have ever had. I had another for dinner.....

I love Panera chicken salad, too. I do find sometimes that they have used onion that is a little aged - very strong.

Anna N · August 11, 2018

May have been lunch. Might be dinner. In any case it is leftoverJapanese curry combined with leftover steamed vegetables.

Anna N · August 12, 2018

On 8/11/2018 at 3:50 PM, Anna N said:

May have been lunch. Might be dinner. In any case it is leftoverJapanese curry combined with leftover steamed vegetables.

Ditto today.

BonVivant · August 12, 2018

Natto, Münster, St. Albray.

liuzhou · August 13, 2018

Beihai (北海) is a smallish city in the south of Guangxi, by the sea, near the border with Vietnam. It's about two hours away from me and is seafood central. Nearly all the seafood and sea fish I can buy is caught there.

Like most cities here, it has it's own 'iconic' noodle dish. Rice noodles with clams.

The correct way to eat them is to put them into your mouth over and over until your bowl looks like this. (Do not eat the clam shells. Throw them on the floor.)

Edited August 13, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

BeeZee · August 13, 2018

Banza chickpea pasta (penne) with summer squash, artichoke, grape tomatoes, dressed with green olive spread (basically a finely minced/pureed tapanade), a bit more olive oil and balsamic. Topped with baked balsamic tofu cubes.

HungryChris · August 13, 2018

I ran errands this morning and did a bit of grocery shopping for dinner. I was hoping to spend some time in the garden this afternoon, but a steady rain has thwarted those plans. Today is the 13th of the month and we already have 5 1/2 inches of rain. I can almost hear my tomatoes cracking from here, in the dining room. For lunch, I went with a bowl of spicy chicken ramen, a cold beer and perhaps a nap.

HC

Edited August 14, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

liuzhou · August 14, 2018

A day off work.

Home made spicy quail scotch eggs, tomato, balcony basil and home made mango relish. There are more Scotch eggs in the fridge for munching later.

robirdstx · August 14, 2018

Yesterday’s lunch at Reef Seafood House, Texas City

Hushpuppies

Pickled Green Tomatoes and Coleslaw

Grilled Tilapia and Shrimp with Onion Rings

Edited August 14, 2018 by robirdstx (log)

kayb · August 14, 2018

@liuzhou -- I love Scotch eggs made with quail eggs. Perfect size.

@robirdstx -- does every eating establishment down there make those gorgeous-looking onion rings? I believe I could go on an onion ring tour.

robirdstx · August 14, 2018

35 minutes ago, kayb said:

@robirdstx -- does every eating establishment down there make those gorgeous-looking onion rings? I believe I could go on an onion ring tour.

🤣 Let me know when you come down and I’ll go with you!

HungryChris · August 14, 2018

Mortadella, baby Swiss, marinated zucchini and roasted red peppers on a corn Kaiser roll, along with a little reading material to help me decide on who will get my votes in the Connecticut primary when we vote this evening.

HC

Auspicious · August 14, 2018

Leftovers. Almost always leftovers. My wife of Italian heritage ALWAYS makes too much food when it is her turn to cook dinner. *sigh* Just keeping up to avoid wasting food is a challenge.

Anna N · August 14, 2018

Salad with a miso-sesame dressing. This is loosely based on a recipe in the book The Zen Kitchen by Adam Liaw.

lindag · August 14, 2018

Today's lunch is a chicken caesar (sp?) salad I picked up at Papa Murphy's...great salads for $5....got a pizza too for tonight.

After my acupuncture treatment.

liuzhou · August 15, 2018

I knew it wasn't a good idea, but did it anyway.

A few weeks back, I was given a box of packs of an "instant" variety of the local iconic noodle dish, Luosifen (螺蛳粉 luó sī fěn, pronounced roughly as Low Si Fun but with a different tone on each syllable.)

I like this dish. Typically, it is sold in small restaurants which are no bigger than shacks. A few years ago, the dish was featured on the highly successful Chinese television Series, "A Bite of China" and factories started making these ersatz "instant" versions.

For the real version, the stock/broth/soup base is based on the local river snails (螺蛳 luó sī). These are boiled, along with pork bones, for anywhere between 3 and 10 hours. Additional ingredients include black cardamom, fennel seed, dried tangerine peel, cassia bark, cloves, salt, pepper, bay leaf, licorice root, sand ginger, and star anise. No one really weighs or measures anything. Each shop ‘knows’ how much of anything is needed. There may be other ingredients, too.

Once the broth is ready, rice noodles made from ‘old rice’ are added. The ‘old rice’ gives the noodles a firmer, more chewy texture than other rice noodles such as those used in Guilin Mifen (桂林米粉 guì lín mǐ fěn), for example. Alongside the noodles, fried dried beancurd sticks, pickled bamboo shoots, black wood ear fungus, lettuce, peanuts and preserved cow peas are also added. A hefty slug of chilli oil is necessary for authenticity. You may add more chilli, pickles etc to taste. Then you are ready to rock.

To prepare instant luosifen, you boil the wrong noodles then add water and a bunch of gloop from plastic bags.

This is what I had:

This bag contained nine smaller bags. Here I've translated that they are:

The ingredients list is as follows:

Rice noodle bag: dry rice noodles (rice, edible corn starch, water)

Sauce bag: fresh snail meat, vegetable oil, edible salt, spice, rock sugar, monosodium glutamate (MSG), chicken powder, bone soup, rice wine, cassia bark.

Small vegetable bag: sour bamboo shoots, black wood ear fungus, mustard, dried radish, capers, vinegar, salt, paprika, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate)

Fuzhu bag: dried bean milk skin, sodium metabisulfite, edible oil

Peanut Pack: Peanut, Edible Oil

Spicy oil bag: cooking oil, chilli, spice

I love me some sodium metabisulfite.

The instructions told me to boil the noodles for 10 to 12 minutes (I choose the lower end of the spectrum), then drain and set aside.

I was then instructed to boil 350 ml of water and add the soup mix. Stir until well mixed, add the cooked noodles and the rest of the ingredients to taste. In the interests of exactitude I added everything.

I was convinced the 350ml of water was misguided but was determined to follow their recipe. Although the finished product looked right, it tasted awful. Massively over-salted, over MSG-ed and tasting of raw chilli. While a good luosifen does pack a clout, it is also full of complex and subtle tastes. This was just a hit to the head with a blunt instrument.

I'd say I was disappointed, but I wasn't expecting any miracles. My problem now is I have another 11 packs of this. I'll need to find some people I don't like to pass them on to.

liuzhou · August 16, 2018

Lunch chez a friend's house.

Hand-Shredded Beef, Braised Wasp Fish, Jiaozi Dumplings, Stir-Fried Duck with Ginger, Steamed Oyster with Garlic, Pan-Fried Steak, Minced Pork with Tomato Sauce Noodles, Fried Pork, Fried Sweet Potato Greens, Fruit.

HungryChris · August 16, 2018

The last of my mortadella with the usual suspects (lately this includes baby Swiss, marinated zucchini, and roasted red peppers). Today I added some homemade garlic dills, some tomatoes, blistered shishito peppers and a cold beer. It was just about all I could handle, but just enough to make me wish I was immortal.

HC