My Past Week

I've been busy with the store and life and stuff and so I haven't had a chance to really update lately. I have still been eating and while I've had some fairly disappointing (#9 Park) meals and some not really worth mentioning because they were so average and blah (Casa Romero), I've also had some great meals worthy of discussion.

Okay so I had a bunch of asparagus left in my fridge and I pondered what to do with it. I thought about making cream of asparagus soup, but I wanted something that would take better advantage of the fresh green flavor of the asparagus. I had two egg yolks in my fridge leftover from some other recipe and so I decided I'd steam the asparagus a bit and make a basil aioli. I grated a clove of garlic and whisked olive oil into the eggs until they were the consistency I wanted. I added the garlic, some dried basil (didn't have fresh), salt and pepper.

This picture does my aioli no justice! It looks like raw eggs waiting to get scrambled. But the mixture was very glossy and had a thick and lovely consistency. The aioli was a bright, almost florescent yellow (oh, forget to mention I added a couple threads of saffron too). It was lovely to look at. And dipping my steamed asparagus spears thru the sauce was such a treat. Yum!

Besides cooking and eating out, I also love (and kinda live for) eating at friend's houses. My friend Jenn invited me over for homemade Korean food and Wii last Friday. It was a lovely offer all around and one I would have to be dumb to refuse. Behold the table ladened with yummy stuff!



We had bibimbap, kalbe beef and really nice homemade condiments, all courtesy of Jenn. The food was comforting and filling.



I love bibimbap! It's something I really should learn to make on my own. I can't imagine it's hard to make. It all comes down to the chili pepper paste for me. I love that stuff and maybe it's b/c I'm Korean but I always end up adding more than my fair share of the stuff. I love it so!

Dessert came courtesy of our friend Harin. It was a concoction of his own. It was like a fruit tart pizza.
Topping a pastry crust we have chocolate spread, kiwi fruit and whipped cream. Simple and yet very very tasty! Plus a cool dessert wine that Harin brough as well:
After dinner we played Wii and I learned I lack any sort of coordination to do well at DDR. Oh well, friends, dinner and Wii is always the best combination ever!

Monday was my birthday. I went to dinner with my friend Walter. I actually wrote a review about this meal and posted it on yelp. You can also find my review of #9 there as well. I don't really feel like talking any more about the #9 experience. But the Oleana experience was really wonderful and I will repost my review here for posterity's sake. And I apologize for the really crappy pictures. It was dim in the dining room and I only had my trusty camera phone.

One of my dear friends shares my birthday so we get together every year to celebrate our births. This year we chose Oleana. I had already been with my parents last year and while we all enjoyed the meal, it wasn't quite magical. But last night was fantastic. I ordered the two specials for the evening. A different take on greek salad and a stew with meatballs.


The spicing and flavors had me going "oh wow, oh wow" all evening. The food was divine. If I could have licked my plates clean, I might have done so. My friend and I love dessert and ordered three for the two of us to share.

A lovely baked Alaska,

bread pudding,

and a cold meyers lemon souffle.

The bread pudding was my friend's favorite and I loved the textures and flavors in the baked Alaska. Yes, the service was really nothing special and sure the busyboy did knock a full glass of water over so I ended up with a wet white shirt and wet jeans (ick) but no biggie. Stuff happens and at least it wasn't wine. They were sweet about it and gave us one of the many desserts we ordered on the house to make up for it. This is meal was probably one of the best I've had in Boston so far and I can't wait to get back in the summer and see what's new on the menu.

Overall, a great food week for me! And this Sunday is my bacon party, stay tuned!!!

Spring, Where the #!@%$!! have you been?

Last night when I got home from the gym (a killer spin class and some squats and kettlebell swings), all I wanted was a bath and food. Something quick and yummy. Something protein ladden and kinda good for me.

I remembered I have purchased a couple of bunches of asparagus and remembered how we had it as kids. My mom would saute it with butter flavored with garlic salt and sprinkle the finished dish with toasted pecans. It was simple but so delicious that somehow it felt gourmet.

I didn't have any pecans but I did have some pine nuts, and even thought garlic salt was a regular pantry staple growing up, I never use it. I'd rather use fresh garlic. So I got out the asparagus and as I was pulling it out, I saw this 1/4 of a yellow onion I had to use up and took it out as well. I quickly toasted the pine nuts in a dry skillet; a task I find really satisfying...I have no clue why. I melted a good sized slab of butter in my skillet and tossed big chunks of the onion into the pan too. If I wasn't being lazy, I would have chopped them more finely, but eh, it was only me eating. When the onions were soft, in when the garlic, a good two pinches of salt, a quick sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper and the rinsed and prepped asparagus.

I put a lid on the entire lot and wait until the asparagus was just tender enough. I like my asparagus kinda crunchy. I slid the entire mess on a plate with 1/2 a cold roasted chicken I had in my fridge from my banh mi dinner. I sprinkled the pine nuts over the asparagus and covered the entire plate with more salt and more pepper (I'm a total salt fiend) and sat myself down to eat.

It was all delicious. The asparagus tasted like spring to me and made me extremely happy. It reminded me that season change is bound to happen (even in Boston) any day now. The chicken was flavorful and didn't need anything more than the salt/pepper but if it did, I would have shared my recipe for wassabi honey mustard.

Yay for spring!