Dingo Breakfast
A yawn, a leak, and a good look around.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Food updates
It's been awhile since I updated anyone on the food in my life, so here's a few good ones for you:
This past weekend, my friend Mike was in town to visit Valerie, and Matt recommended that we all go out to a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose, Vung Tau. We split an appetizer of Bi Cuon (forgive the lack of alternate characters): shredded pork (with the skin - as detailed by our waiter, as if we wouldn't want that) in rice flour rolls with basil and mint leaves. These were... well, not my favorite. Kind of bland, a bit like eating soap-flavored pork. We also got a green papaya salad with sesame chicken and basil, which was awesome - the sauce that was on the salad was quite tasty, sweet but soaked into the papaya really well. Our entrees were a red curry chicken (standard curry dish, nothing special) and an amazing vermicelli dish - lemongrass beef on a banana leaf. The ultimate in DIY-ing, you're supposed to grab a lettuce leaf, a layer of the sticky vermicelli, some of the thinly slicked lemongrass beef and fresh veggies, and voila, eat up! (Easier said than done.) Regardless of difficulty, this was definitely my favorite dish of the evening. Definitely a restaurant worth checking out.
So, in addition to that, I was really missing New England chili around Election Night, so I went ahead and attempted my own 3-bean vegetarian chili. Okay, well, I actually stole it from Rachael Ray (which, normally, I would never admit to) and adjusted it to my liking. It went over really well with everyone on Election night - some key things to remember:
- ALWAYS use beer instead of vegetable broth - and more than it calls for (I used about 1 3/4c of Blue Moon, but I'm trying to get my hands on some Cave Creek Chili Beer for next time)
- ALWAYS use something spicier than what the recipe calls for (i.e. two jalapenos instead of just one)
- I used Tapatio as my 'hot pepper sauce' - totally recommend it
Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as our group did! Cheers!
This past weekend, my friend Mike was in town to visit Valerie, and Matt recommended that we all go out to a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose, Vung Tau. We split an appetizer of Bi Cuon (forgive the lack of alternate characters): shredded pork (with the skin - as detailed by our waiter, as if we wouldn't want that) in rice flour rolls with basil and mint leaves. These were... well, not my favorite. Kind of bland, a bit like eating soap-flavored pork. We also got a green papaya salad with sesame chicken and basil, which was awesome - the sauce that was on the salad was quite tasty, sweet but soaked into the papaya really well. Our entrees were a red curry chicken (standard curry dish, nothing special) and an amazing vermicelli dish - lemongrass beef on a banana leaf. The ultimate in DIY-ing, you're supposed to grab a lettuce leaf, a layer of the sticky vermicelli, some of the thinly slicked lemongrass beef and fresh veggies, and voila, eat up! (Easier said than done.) Regardless of difficulty, this was definitely my favorite dish of the evening. Definitely a restaurant worth checking out.
So, in addition to that, I was really missing New England chili around Election Night, so I went ahead and attempted my own 3-bean vegetarian chili. Okay, well, I actually stole it from Rachael Ray (which, normally, I would never admit to) and adjusted it to my liking. It went over really well with everyone on Election night - some key things to remember:
- ALWAYS use beer instead of vegetable broth - and more than it calls for (I used about 1 3/4c of Blue Moon, but I'm trying to get my hands on some Cave Creek Chili Beer for next time)
- ALWAYS use something spicier than what the recipe calls for (i.e. two jalapenos instead of just one)
- I used Tapatio as my 'hot pepper sauce' - totally recommend it
Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as our group did! Cheers!
Labels: alcohol, Blue Moon, friends, politics, restaurants, review, snack foods
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