Avalondaughter's Profile
Harbor steak and seafood in mamaroneck
Turkish Meze, Rani Mahal... The times I have been at Piri Q have been pretty good (although I don't go there often since they don't have a liquor license). Le Provencal I used to like until their service became atrocious. Giban seemed to resolve its bad service issues and I've had some nice meals there. I haven't been to Piccolo Mulino in a while but I've always enjoyed meals I've had there in the past.
Maybe my expectations are too low? I eat out every weekend, so I'm not looking for high-end culinary extravaganzas every time I go out. Perhaps I'm just not enough of a food snob?
Harbor steak and seafood in mamaroneck
I was wondering if it was open yet. If it opened, there wasn't much fanfare, which surprises me. But I did see some people that looked like servers hanging around there when I was getting on the train one evening.
Menu looks a lot like the old MacMenamins. That's not a bad thing as it was one of my favorite restaurants in its heyday (it's decline was very sad for me). I'm more than willing to give it a try. What I DON'T like about it is that it's also a nightclub. I'm not sure I like this trend of nightclubs in Mamaroneck. I wonder how that condo complex by the train station is going to tell about the Club Car lounge.
Shamefully unprepared for a week in Paris!
I went to Paris unprepared a year and a half ago. I didn't know where to go and CH'ers kept recommending places to me that needed reservations two weeks in advance. We weren't out to spend a lot of money on high-end places (except for our anniversary night).
We just winged it in the end. We were staying in the Latin Quarter and often ventured far during the day and when we came back to our hotel at night, we would often just want to stay close to "home". We checked out our guidebooks some nights (which led us to Rotisserie Du Beaujalais one night and Atelier Maitre Albert another. One night we went to the touristy Sergent Recreuter on my Dad's recommendation. One night we also did the touristy thing and went to La Coupole.
There were other nights we just winged it. We just walked around the blocks surrounding our hotel and just picked a place. Mostly it was French restaurants. One night we did cous couse.
You know what? We learned it's really hard to eat a bad meal in Paris. Some places we ate at were better than others, but every meal we ate was tasty and well prepared and we regret none of the places we went to. I think if you blindfolded yourself, spun around a few times, and pointed, you would probably have a good meal.
Most of the time for lunch we would just grab a crepe from a street vendor. I thought it was the coolest thing to grab a crepe on the streets of Paris the same way I'd grab a hot dog at home on the streets of NY.
Enjoy your trip!
April Religious Holidays 2013 - What's on the Menu?
My mother and I are putting together a menu that's a bit souther, a bit traditional Italian, and a bit whatever we feel like.
Pulled Pork
Chicken salad with grapes and pecans
Potato salad
Roasted asparagus
Rolls
Biscuits
Pizza Rustica/Easter Pie
Coconut-white chocolate pie
Hazelnut pound cake
Pulled Pork in a Romertopf?
I have been mulling over the idea of doing pulled pork sandwiches instead of ham for Easter this year. Since I don't have the means to properly barbecue a pork shoulder, I will slow roast it in the oven.
I don't own a proper dutch oven, and was thinking of just using one of my larger pots. Then I realized I do own a clay pot. Could I do a slow roast in a clay pot?
How low should the oven temp be?
Should I add water to the pot, or will the steam from soaking it be enough liquid?
How long? The standard 6 hours, or more or less time?
Any suggestions would be welcome - even those that say I'm better off just borrowing a dutch oven.
What food find still haunts you - that you had once and haven't found since?
Years ago I traveled with my boyfriend at the time to the DC area for his annual trip to visit his father's grave in Arlington. We stayed at some seedy hotel in Vienna, VA. The morning we left, we stopped for a late breakfast at a nearby diner. The diner was advertising a cake they made that had taken the prize at a local chocolate festival.
It had a brownie crust studded with butterscotch chips. Two layers of chocolate mousse (white and dark) sat on top and the whole thing was enrobed with ganache. It was a chocolate lover's fantasy for sure! Ex BF and I had a piece for "dessert" at 10 in the morning and took another piece home with us.
I wondered for years if the restaurant would ship, but I forgot the name of it and have had no luck googling diners in Vienna VA. Ohwell. I have nice memories.
What food find still haunts you - that you had once and haven't found since?
Oh yes to those PA Dutch sticky buns. The best ones I ever had were at a B&B in Lancaster County when I was in college. I still miss them many years later. I suppose I could go back to the B&B, but I have few reasons to go out that way these days...
Foulest flavours...
No, they have flavor. I remember just eating the breading off a fried oyster once and it was AWFUL!
Are you a dessert person or not ?
YES YES YES. Chocolate is my life as is cream and butter and ICE CREAM! I also love to bake and the richer, more buttery, and creamier that better.
This is the thing though. When I'm hungry, and my blood sugar is low, I want sweets. However, I want a meal before I have dessert normally. I'm a huge protein eater.
After a meal of all of the things I should be eating, I usually do want dessert because I like the balance of it. I had my savory, now I want my sweet.
That being said, I rarely ever eat dessert. I have been struggling for years to keep my weight under control, so I don't keep sweets in the house. The only time there are sweets in my house is if I'm making a homemade dessert for a dinner party.
I used to order dessert almost every time I went out (and that was at least once a week), but I've cut that to once a month. Curses to this Paleo diet!
Strange & frustrating dinner at Kashiwa (Mamaroneck)
I was there for the first time a couple of months ago. I don't remember the service being this bad (the worst service I ever had at a Mam'k Asian was the first time I ever went to Ginban - I'm amazed I ever went back), but I remember the food wasn't all that. Certainly nothing to differentiate it from the other places on the block. My mango chicken dish was actually kind of gloppy - like you could taste the starch that thickened the sauce.
Things that don't taste like you expected they would...
Foie Gras. I expected it to be mealy and gross like any other liver. When I first tried it after having a few glasses of wine, I fell in love.
Things that don't taste like you expected they would...
Agreed. Coffee smells wonderful, but I don't really enjoy drinking it. I do like it as a flavoring for desserts though.
Things that don't taste like you expected they would...
True that. Spring arugula, or supermarket arugula, is pretty mild. I bought arugula at a farmer's marketin late summer and it was so peppery I couldn't eat it.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Really, I never heard anyone say it before Rachael Ray became famous.
I will also thank her for nothing! That'sextravirginoliveoilkids!
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
I like chocolate cake and I find that red velvet cake isn't typically very chocolately. I'd rather a good devil's food orthe like.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
I'm surprised no one has said red velvet cake. We have red velvet cakes, cupcakes, pancakes, waffles, brownies, cheesecake...
What the big deal? It's minimally flavored cake with a lot of food coloring. There are a hundred better flavors of cake out there.
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Something we definitely need to get rid of: The term EVOO!
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
Not to mention the word is abused.
Panini is the plural in Italian. Panino is the singular.
You know what I hate more than people saying "paninis"? People who say "panini's". How exactly are the sandwiches in question possessive?
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
I stayed on a farm in Italy back in October. While the food was a bit simpler than Italian food in the US, there were certainly similarities. I ate pasta with tomato sauce, escarole, risotto, chicken saltimbocca, and even a parmigiana type dish made with zucchini (far less cheesy though).
New 'Menu Items That Need to Be Retired", 2012 edition...
EXACTLY. Let me state for the record that I love sweet froufy cocktails and don't drink real martinis, but even I can't stand the misuse of the world martini. A friend once said to me, "Anything in a martini glass is a martini, right?" Her husband moonlights as a bartender!!!! No, the name comes from the ingredient (Martini & Rosse vermouth) and not the glass it comes in. ARRGGGHH!
How Often Do You Use Recipes?
I use recipes about 50% of the time as a guide or post for me to jump off from. If I want to konw how to make a new recipe, I want to see how others have done it before, but I rarely follow anyone's recipe to the letter.
OTOH if I'm baking I always stick to the recipe.
Do you eat the...gulp...fat?
I was born loving fat. I'm sure fat preferences are genetic. I can remember eating meats as a kid and devouring the fat. I would also suck every last bit of meat and gristle off bones.
When I was a little older my family worried about this fat love and I can remember my mother (not Dad though - he's like me) and grandparents always harping on how disgusting fat is and how bad it is for me. I was made to excise every bit of fat (although I was allowed chicken skin) or it would be done for me.
I told myself they were right. I told myself I didn't like it. I agreed out loud that anything fatty was awful.
Then secretly I would devour any fat I could get my hands on!
I'm still a bit embarassed about my fat habit. Generally what I do in company is I make a show of trimming off the larger bits of fat, but make sure that there is still some of that fatty succulence clinging to the egdes of the meat. When I"m alone, I attack it all with gusto.
Your all time favorite 'TV' cooking show chefs?
Graham Kerr and Jeff Smith. Those were the first cooking shows I ever watched and they were the ones that really got me into the kitchen. Even sober Kerr is a hoot!
I know Smith had some serious issues, but I still miss that crazy old pervert!
Raising a non-picky eater
I don't think there is any guarantee out there that will keep your kid from being a picky eater.
My father is a total foodie. My mother is a health nut. All kinds of foods were in my home growing up, including plenty of fruits and vegetables. Despite this, I had VERY definite ideas of what I liked and disliked. If I couldn't get it past my nose, I wouldn't eat it (seafood, peas). I ate milk, ice cream, and cold cheese, but hated anything creamy like yogurt, cream cheese, sour-cream-based dips, and yes, ranch dressing. I even hated pizza because I didn't like warm, gooey cheese (same for lasagna, baked ziti, manicotti, etc.) My older brother will eat anything you stick in front of him and always has. I was always skeptical of new foods, assuming I wouldn't like them. Even things I thought I would like would sometimes repulse me once they were on my plate and I could smell them.
Some of my pickiness was odd, but some of it was typical. I also liked foods many kids shun. I hated mac and cheese, but I was more than happy to have spaghetti marinara. I wasn't anti-tomato sauce (but anti-raw tomato) and ate a few veggies and many fruits.
My eat-everything brother OTOH, has two kids who are far pickier than I ever was. They hate all fruit and won't eat tomato sauce. They will eat more seafood than I eat, but that's about as open-minded as they get.
You really can't account for some people's taste.
I don't bake because?
I don't bake regularly because I don't want temptation around the house. That being said, I do love baking for special occasions and for other people.
I learned to bake before I ever learned to cook . I was making homemade pie before I ever roasted a chicken. As a young teen, the precision of baking was attactive. ONE cup of this. TWO cups of that. Measure carefully. Bake at THIS temperature. You followed the formula, you got the results.
Cooking was scary because of the lack of precison. How high is "high heat"? How am I supposed to know if something is reduced by half? I can't stick a toothpick in the middle of a pork chop and know that if it comes out clean, it's done. While I did, and still do, enjoy experimenting with flavors, I sometimes wish for the kind of precise measurments and instructions with cooking that come with baking.
Healthful School Lunches: How Do We Get Kids to Eat Them?
Quinoa salad and black bean burgers? No wonder kids won't eat the lunches! I wouldn't eat them either when I was a teen and I was a decent eater. You're shoving things at them that probably don't taste too good.
How about a leaner burger on a ww bun with some non-mayo cole slaw on the side? How about mini pizzas on a pita? How about a grilled chicken breast with brown rice studded with peppers and onions and tomato? Houw about spaghetti bolognese with turkey? How about baked chicken nuggets and carrot sticks?
You don't have to be so radical in order for kids to eat better. That's why I never liked those "Honey We're Killing the Kids" shows. They made the families go from pizza and burgers to tofu and fish all at once. Yes, it will make positive changes in health sooner, but will also be much harder to stick to than doing small changes at once.
Westchester - Exceptional Restaurants That Have Barely Made it Through A Year
I acutally do review a lot of the places up and down the street on my blog. Maybe I should link to some of the posts of places folks are interested in.
I've tried all of the Asian places, but since I don't like sushi, they're pretty much all the same to me. I like them all, but the only one that has a dish that really stood out above the others was a duck and soba noodle dish I had at Ginban. Actually, I tried the newest one recently and thought it was the weakest of the bunch.
Cutting Butter Into Flour--What Instrument Do You Use and Why for Pie Dough
If I'm using butter and not shortening, then I use a food processor. I find that with hard, cold, butter, a pastry blender won't cut down into the butter, it just kind of splays around it. Only a food processor will really CUT the cold butter.
Westchester - Exceptional Restaurants That Have Barely Made it Through A Year
It appears it has. I'm not surprised. I went there when it first opened and I didn't think it was as bad as many people here thought, (I thought they did some things well) and my husband and I went a few months ago to see if it had improved at all. The place was nearly empty and they were "out" of half the stuff on the menu. We decided to just pay for our drinks and leave. Husband was never so happy to be eating in the Diner as he was that night.
With so many new places opening in Mamaroneck lately, I'm starting to wonder if I should start a pool on which one will close next.
