Still feeling Spain vibes, whipped up a 10” pan of Basque Burnt Cheesecake this past weekend.
Spinach and Cheese Egg Soufflé
Reprising one of my favorite homemade dishes during the pandemic, it is almost nostalgic making these Panera-style baked egg soufflés once again!
Recent Eats
A sampling of most recent notable eats.
Taste of NYC
[17 December, 2022]
Feasted on a lovely gift of nostalgia from my nephew that harks back to foodie trips to New York City: a holiday package from Katz’s Deli of their iconic pastrami and corned beef for homemade Reuben sandwiches. A yummy taste of NYC, indeed!
Fox in the Snow
[30 November, 2022]
I’ve been wanting to visit Fox in the Snow, a popular cafe/breakfast spot with a couple branches in and around Columbus. Some personal business that brought me downtown finally gave me the opportunity. Definitely worth the trip.
More Reunions and COVID-19 Tests
[22 September, 2022]
Another round of reunions with long-time friends, another Covid-19 antigen test. And of course, more delicious food, this time, Korean and Spanish.
Pan-Asian Eats
[17-19 September, 2022]
A weekend that started with the community street food market led to an unintentional foodie tour of Southeast Asia. First, it was a family dinner at Nanbantei, an izakaya-style Japanese restaurant in the Greenbelt shopping, dining, and entertainment area.
The following day, it was lunch with a close childhood friend of mine and his lovely wife at Mango Tree, supposedly the best Thai restaurant in BGC.
Later in the evening, my nieces prepared some of my favorite home cooked Filipino dishes for a wonderful dinner replete with family nostalgia.
And finally, on Monday, it was another family lunch, this time at Tim Ho Wan, Hongkong’s Makati branch of their world-famous 1-Michelin star dim sum restaurant.
All told, a wonderful weekend of Asian-style small plates cuisine, shared and enjoyed with loved ones.
Weekend Street Food Market
[17 September, 2022]
Scenes and loot from this weekend’s Salcedo Community Market , a short walk from where I was staying.
Chinatown Food Crawl
[6 September, 2022]
A fun afternoon with a couple of my nephews exploring Manila’s Chinatown, the world’s oldest Chinatown, and sampling several of its many culinary delights.
Neighborly Food Tastings
My next-door neighbor likes to occasionally pop over for a leisurely chat over a bottle of red wine every once and again. This time around (last Sunday), we both apparently had the same idea to make it more interesting by also putting together some tasty dishes in the Spanish and Italian styles.
He had smoked a rack of beef short ribs earlier in the day and brought over some cubed portions along with a plate of goat cheese and sliced tomatoes from his garden, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Oh, and of course, an excellent bottle of Italian red.
For my part, I prepared small portions of fresh bruschetta, ventresca tuna in olive oil dressed with relish aioli, roasted piquillo peppers, and some prosciutto with shards of Parmigiana Reggiano. I also made some gambas al ajillo (shrimp and garlic simmered in olive oil).
All eaten tapas-style over toasted crusty slices of baguettes from Dan the Baker.
Lobster Roll Dinner
My buddy Brad stopped by Thursday afternoon after I got back from donating blood to help me with some small projects at home. Afterwards, we decided to hit downtown Powell for some dinner at Huli Huli.
Started with crab rangoon dip paired with prawn crackers. And lobster roll is in the menu so of course I had to have it.
Crab Rangoon Dip
Lobster Roll and Fries
Cookout with the Breakfast Club
A cookout this past weekend to celebrate the Moodster’s birthday and to bid farewell to Steve who’s moving back to Alabama.
Big Green Egg Life
Now that the backyard landscape is finished (and thriving despite this recent stretch of dry and hot weather), I’ve been putting the BGE to use in its new table setup.
Two Foodies
Work colleague and good friend @steve_rodia was in town from B-ham, AL so it was a good reason to get together for some good eats.
Homemade Gelato
Putting another of my Florence cooking classes to the test, I made a batch of light-as-air Fior di Latte gelato and enjoyed some with a generous drizzle of the 12-yr old Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale that I brought home from Reggio Emilia. It truly is a taste of heaven, one of life’s little luxuries!
Breakfast Delights
Baked goods from Dan The Baker.
Strawberry and vanilla bean cream fruit tart with edible flowers and a ham and gruyere croissant.
Country sourdough bread.
Cooking Italian
Putting the Italian cooking classes I took in Florence to the test at home.
EKA
Spent almost four hours making my first dozen batch of homemade Dominique Ansel’s Kouign Amann (DKA) pastry, with a soft, sweet, flaky croissant-like interior and a sweet caramelized outside crust. Not bad for a first attempt: taste- and texture-wise, it was pretty damned close to the original! It also worked well sandwiching a scoop of my other homemade creation, avocado ice cream.
Magic Book!
This arrived in the mail on Saturday. Look out for my home-made DKA’s and cronuts!
Twin Tomahawks
Saturday’s dinner party main course was a pair of 3-lb tomahawk ribeyes, prepared sous vide style and finished on the grill. A second dish of spicy prawns with a spicy lime mango salsa rounded up the surf and turf theme.
