The road to Dingle

The Dingle peninsula is a pretty popular place for tourists, but not quite as popular as the Ring of Kerry (on a peninsula just south of Dingle), so we got to avoid some of the more kitschy stuff. However, the Dingle Pub in Dingle town outdid pretty much everything else we saw in Ireland for being so stereotypically (and hilariously) “Irish”:

The Dingle Pub

I didn’t get it in this picture, but on the side of the building the pub owners have painted a giant (and I mean giant) four-leaf clover.

Dingle town is pretty tiny; there’s only a couple of roads. But because it’s right on the sea, there’s a lot of fishing, and there’s absolutely fabulous seafood. Our first night there we were lucky enough to score seats at Out of the Blue, a seafood-only restaurant on the harbor. They only serve the day’s fresh catch; if there was a storm and the fishermen didn’t go out, the restaurant doesn’t open. Here’s my dinner from that night:

Dinner at Out of the Blue

The scallops were amazing! They were served with grilled halumi cheese (the kind that squeaks when you bite it!), seriously incredible roasted potatoes and a very excellent salad.

The big thing to do on the Dingle Peninsula is to drive around it, hitting a bunch of Stone Age ruins and spectacular views on the way. Here’s some of what we saw:

View from the Dingle peninsula

Looking through the ruins of a stone fort

Slea Head

We stopped for a late lunch at the Tig Bhric pub, where I had beef-and-stout stew. (It was, of course, delicious!)

Lunch at the Tigh Bhric pub

After lunch we continued on, encountering more sheep.

I'm on the right, watching the sheep go by

I really enjoyed the drive around Dingle. We were lucky that it was such a gorgeous day — sunny and bright, though the wind could make it a little chilly because you’re right on the water. (Although we’re used to that, since we live in Northern California.)

If you have a chance to go to Ireland, I highly recommend Dingle. It was fantastic. We were sometimes the only people wandering through the ruins (albeit we were not there in the high season), and there’s nothing better than experiencing nature and the past all alone.

Have a great weekend!

Last weekend I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie in honor of a friend’s 40th birthday.

Strawberries and rhubarb

The strawberries (organic, from Watsonville, CA) smelled amazing, but they were quite tart (it’s still early for really good strawberries), so I added more sugar than I usually do in a pie.

The filling before baking

Then I baked it.

The pie, fresh from the oven

And finally, we ate it.

Heaven

This pie was truly incredible, if I do say so myself. I did not expect it to turn out so well, because as I mentioned the strawberries were very tart. But to counteract that, I sprinkled the filling (and the crust) with sugar, and also dotted the top of the filling with 2 tablespoons of butter. It worked. Yum. I wish I had some left, but the entire pie was gone five hours later!

Happy weekend! May you get some pie.

Moss on bricks

Looking up at the sky

It’s supposed to rain all weekend, so I’ll have to keep returning to these photos to cheer me up. But a little sunshine goes a long way.

Have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are, rain or shine.

Christmas dinner 2009: braised short ribs

We made braised short ribs (with parsnips, carrots, and potatoes) from a Martha Stewart recipe, and also buttermilk biscuits. Buttermilk biscuits are not on the post-holiday diet.

But where was I? Oh yeah, Colorado. Here I am on the Pearl Street mall in Boulder, encountering a sculpture of wolves:

Aw, look! Wolves are so cute!

Wolves make a cameo appearance in Huntress, and for some reason I’ve been seeing wolves everywhere because of it. Not real wolves! On TV, in statues, etc. Odd.

We also ate at Jax Fish House, which is notable for being the restaurant where Top Chef winner Hosea Rosenberg worked. Hosea wasn’t there when we visited, though. The menu even explained that he was on hiatus. Here’s some of what we ate:

Kimchi fried oysters

These oysters were actually a little bland. I expected kimchi fried oysters to have something of a kick, and the kimchi was pretty tasteless. Kind of a bummer.

Seared hamachi

This hamachi was apparently seared, but it seemed pretty much raw to me, which was fine. It was dressed in a very citrusy dressing, which sort of overpowered the flavor of the hamachi, but actually, I enjoyed it.

Scallops and roasted figs

For my entree I ordered the seared scallops, which came with yummy mashed potatoes, a prosciutto chip, and these delicious-looking roasted figs. Overall, pretty tasty, but the scallops weren’t as good as the ones at Absinthe.

Jax was a fun place to eat, but the food wasn’t as adventurous as the menu made it out to be. I’m not sure what happened between the menu and the plate. I’d go there again, but maybe at lunch, because dinner prices were a bit high.

Now I’m back home in California, where the weather has been a bit grim lately. I think it’s putting me in kind of a grim mood, where all I want to do is lie on the couch and read, or maybe complain loudly to anybody who will listen (sadly, I work from home, and my dog isn’t interested). Hopefully the weather — and its unintended side effects — will clear up by next week.

Diana and the Stag, Metropolitan Museum of Art

I saw this when visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last month, and it is so fantastic I can’t believe they haven’t replicated it for sale. Somebody should!

This is an automaton called Diana* and the Stag, made by Joachim Friess around 1620. According to the description (which I photographed separately, so you’ll have to believe me): “The stag has a hollow body and a removable head and can be used as a drinking cup. When used in drinking games, a mechanism in the base was wound up and the automaton was allowed to run freely on concealed wheels until it came to a halt before one of the participants at the table, who had to drink everything in the cup.”

How awesome is this?! Again: Why is this not widely replicated and available for sale as a fabulous gift? Because I want one.

Moving on …

Green dragon, Philadelphia

This is one of two giant green dragon sculptures I saw in Philadelphia. I believe they’re guarding a parking lot. I think they’re fantastic.

Shhh!

These are figurines of librarians, plus a library cart! Notice that one of the books is titled Darwin Awards. LOL. Found in the librarian’s office at Petaluma High School.

And lastly, well, these aren’t objects exactly, but I’m always missing #SUYC on Twitter, so here I am, finally participating, sort of.

#showusyourcocktails

That’s a beer (imbibed by Amy) and a Black Label-and-soda (imbibed by me), at the Grafton Street bar in Harvard Square last month. Cheers!

* Anyone who has seen/heard my powerpoint presentation on Ash (which admittedly isn’t that many of you) will know that Diana, the Greek goddess of hunting, is one of the inspirations that went into creating Kaisa (and the general concept of huntresses in Ash’s world). So I’m always on the lookout for interesting representations of Diana.

Back row, left to right: Me, Sarah Quigley, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, J.A. Yang, Lauren Bjorkman. Front row, left to right: Patty Norman (Copperfield's), Anna Koval (librarian)

I feel that the fact that we’re surrounded by busy students is a sign of authenticity. We were there!

After Casa Grande, we had a couple of hours to kill before heading over to Petaluma High School, so we went and had brunch at the Tea Room Cafe, which is especially appropriate for writers because it has a stuffed raven perched on a mirror, as well as a giant spoon. Thus, we get Edgar Allen Poe atmosphere (sort of), as well as bizarreness. Totally writerly.

The Tea Room Cafe in Petaluma, CA

OK, maybe I’m stretching it a little, but the five of us had a very nice brunch. Here’s what we ate:

J.A. Yang's brunch

Lauren Bjorkman's brunch

Goat cheese, tomato, avocado, and basil omelette, ordered by me, Cheryl Herbsman, and Sarah Quigley (we all have great taste)

May you have some excellent brunch food this weekend!

For the first course, we had fish mousse:

Fish mousse

Looks a little weird, eh? Yeah, that’s a mousse made out of fish molded into a ring, and then in the middle (where the hole would be) is a pile of cold baby shrimp, covered in a fish-cream sauce. It was actually pretty tasty, and given the complexity of the recipe, I was very impressed. But let’s just say I’m not super into putting cream on fish. And then eating it cold.

The main course was boeuf bourguignon (of course!). Here it is on the stove:

Boeuf Bourguignon

And on the side, Amy and I made a gratin of ham, cheese, and eggs:

The gratin

The dinner plate, completed with some home-made bread (not a Julia Child recipe):

Mmmm!

My conclusions?

1. Amy and I admittedly picked a gratin because it seemed pretty easy, and it was. We’ll totally make it again! Except we’ll use less butter, because …

2. Mastering the Art of French Cooking should be subtitled “Using More Butter Than You Ever Thought You’d Need!”

3. I will totally make that boeuf bourguignon myself sometime.

4. But not the fish mousse.

Have a great weekend!

To do so, I googled “hongshao rou” and “red-cooked pork” (the literal translation of the Chinese phrase) to see what other people had done. Most of the recipes did not resemble the one my mom makes. It wasn’t until I googled “red-cooked beef,” remembering that my mom sometimes uses beef, that I came across a recipe that looked like hers.

I decided to go with this one — but with a few modifications. I used pork instead of beef, potatoes instead of turnip, and omitted the tangerine peel recommended because I didn’t have any. I also had previously made my own chicken-and-pork stock the week before, so I used that. (I don’t usually do this, but I was at the local Chinese supermarket and pork and chicken bones were super cheap, so I bought them.) Here are the raw ingredients:

Dark soy sauce, shaoxing wine, pork, spices (fennel seed, star anise, dried chili pepper, cinnamon stick, ginger)

Potatoes and carrots

The recipe calls for parboiling the meat first, but my mom never did that (I don’t think) so I just browned it until the liquid burned off. Then I added all the other ingredients except for the potatoes and carrots and let it simmer for one hour. At this point I added in the veggies and let it cook until the potatoes were very soft.

Into the pot!

Here it is off the stove:

Almost just like Mom used to make!

I also stir-fried some green beans to eat alongside.

Green beans in the wok with some garlic

The green beans were very simple but absolutely delicious. First I heated up some oil in the wok, then added a few whole smashed garlic cloves before tipping in the green beans. It was very loud! I stir-fried them for a little, then splashed in some shaoxing wine around the edges, sprinkled some water on top, and put on the lid while turning down the heat a bit. This lets the beans steam a little. At the end I added salt, white pepper, and some oyster sauce. Very, very good.

Here’s the whole meal:

Chinese home cooking

I was sooo satisfied with this meal! It was seriously almost exactly like my mom used to make. I could hardly believe it.

There was one difference though: the hongshao rou was quite a bit soupier than I anticipated. I think I just added too much stock. However, the liquid was so tasty that it reminded me of beef or pork noodle soup! So later on, I used the leftovers to make noodle soup, and it was seriously awesome.

Next time, I’ll either add less stock so that the hongshao rou is less soupy, or just make it into a big soup to use for noodles. I can’t wait!

We started with their Hawaiian ahi poke, which came out looking like some kind of alien communication device. (We also ordered the bargain-priced happy hour wine tasting flight for $11. Fab!)

Hawaiian ahi poke

It was delicious! That was followed by Kobe beef carpaccio.

Kobe beef carpaccio

Sarah Rees Brennan described Kobe beef thusly: “It is like beef and marshmallow had a baby. And then I ate that beefmallow baby.” All I can say is, yes, despite that slightly disturbing imagery, it is true. Mmmmmmmm.

Next up, what Amy referred to as “Japanese french fries” (they came with an aioli to dip them in):

Grilled calamari tentacles

I ate one of these. Well, part of one of them. They were kinda chewy, and honestly, tentacles are not my thing. But Amy loved them, plus they look kind of … fascinating. Like the limbs of a sea monster.

I much preferred this:

Kabocha squash tempura

Followed by this:

Crunch roll

The crunch roll consists of unagi, avocado, tempura flakes, spicy crab, tobiko, and a huge helping of YUM.

For dessert we had this:

Bread pudding - green tea & sour cherry brioche

It was all right, but did not compare to the rest of the meal, although like every other dish, it was presented beautifully.

I’m looking forward to going to Sushi Ran again sometime. It was definitely memorable. Enjoy your weekend!

Mouthfuls of deliciousness!

OK, I’m cheating a little bit by putting the dessert first. This is what we had to finish off a series of snacks at the Slanted Door a little while ago. I can’t remember what this was, but it was amazing. It was creamy on top with some kind of cake on the bottom, and those berries were amazing — tart and sweet, like the freshest jam ever.

Before this confection, we ate this:

The most mysterious-looking plate ever

Believe it or not, this is beef carpaccio with amazingly light crisps on top that tasted like ultra-gourmet shrimp chips (which I love). The beef tasted a bit like the Korean raw beef I love, seasoned in soy sauce and vinegar (I think). It was perfect.

Sadly, these heirloom tomatoes were not perfect. They were cold, hard, and slightly mealy. Ugh. I’ve probably watched too much Top Chef, but seriously, Tom Colicchio would have sent these back. The chef should have tasted these first — they were clearly not ripe. But the lotus chip was nice, and it was sort of a pretty presentation.

The end of tomato season?

Anyone who’s been to Slanted Door will tell you that the bar there is very good, and it’s true. They even have wonderful non-alcoholic drinks, which not enough restaurants do. Check this out:

The elderflower spritzer

I love it when drinks come out looking like a garden, I really do!

Then, the other day we were driving along Marina Blvd. in San Francisco and encountered a kite festival. There were some incredible kites:

Jaws in the sky

This was followed by some touristy hiking of the hills around Coit Tower, where we saw this ship about to dock, it seemed, at the end of the street!

Can this really fit under the Golden Gate Bridge?

Last but not least, I leave you with this image of a gate. I like it because the lion has only one green jeweled eye. What happened to the other one? Did it just fall out or is this a partially blind lion?

Beware the one-eyed lion!

Have a great weekend!