sondrac's Profile
Best Croque Monsieur in SF?
I've tried Brenda's and Butler and the Chef and IMHO, Cafe De La Presse makes an excellent Croque Monsieur / Madame.
Practicing my hostess skills
With menu planning, why not ask your friends what they like? The best tip is to try to make things as easy as possible so that you can enjoy your friends. Some other tips: Roasted chicken is made moist by inserting a halved lemon in the cavity (or you can buy skinned parts if you've never carved a chicken before). A super-easy crowd-pleaser is to spread pesto over salmon, then bake at 350 until the white fatty bits drip out (make the pesto the day before). A sprinkle of chives and a dollop of creme fraiche will add beauty and flavor to your soup. Try adding other root vegetables - carrots, beats, turnips, fennel, onions - to your roasting pan for variety (roasted mushrooms are great too). An easy green to serve is arugula, because you can basically use it as an edible garnish (place meat or fish on top to allow heat to wilt and juices to flavor). Pair a selection of blue cheeses (Stilton, Blue Castello, Gorgonzola dolce, and even a Valdeon) with a sweet dessert wine for after dinner nibbling. And buy fresh flowers for decoration. Good luck!
Brenda's French Soul Food--Report
I had the oyster poboy and a side of half cole slaw, half fries. The bread was soft and the fried oysters tender. So good! I want to go back for the crawfish beignets.
Softshell Crabs
One more thing: during baking they put the cutlets onto a rack placed in a pan. This elevated the cutlets for even browning on both sides.
Softshell Crabs
OH - I should also mention that they used PANKO breadcrumbs. These are the Japanese style breadcrumbs that are larger and produce a crunchier texture than reg'lar breadcrumbs.
Softshell Crabs
America's Test Kitchen attempted to come up with a no-fry version of chicken parmesan that you might want to borrow from. Here's what they have to say:
"We found that if we first toasted the bread crumbs with a little oil before coating the chicken, it would give them flavor and color—enough so we could then bake the breaded cutlets on a rack in a 475-degree oven."
If I remember correctly, they did flour the cutlets and dip them into egg before applying the breadcrumbs.
Greek restaurant in Valley w/ floor show?
The Great Greek does a floor show between tables (no dance floor). They have live music throughout the evening and at a certain point, the waiters do some traditional line dancing. Guests are welcome to come up and dance, so each show can be unique. When one of the waitresses began belly dancing (in her waitress uniform), some gals from another table joined her (and so did I). An older man, in from Greece visiting his family, did an inspiring solo dance and then my cousin joined him for a lively partner dance. In the end, everyone was invited to join a long snake dance through the restaurant.
Just Bought A Bottle Of Cachaca
I've been making my own version of the caipirinha:
Fill low highball glass 1/3 full of Leblon cachaca.
Top with Odwalla Lime Quencher.
You can salt or sugar the rim, depending on your taste.
Best Sushi Item
Uni. Love the subtle flavors and smooth texture. I order this sashimi style.
Ikura - Pop, pop! Delightful blasts of salmon flavor.
Strange Pairings that Taste Uncommonly Good
Salt also helps to keep the color of sliced fruit (similar to lemon).
Strange Pairings that Taste Uncommonly Good
Mmmm, poutine sounds great. I love wet fries - fries with brown gravy - so a little cheese curd can't be bad.
Strange Pairings that Taste Uncommonly Good
When I was a pre-teen, my Dad once received a gift basket filled with little jellies and jams. My younger sister and I had recently been introduced to cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. We began experimenting immediately. It was all tasty and we enjoyed the experience immensely. The strangest combination was cream cheese and mint jelly. I still feel a little weird when I think about that one.
Great Mistake
I love cooking Indian food. The wealth of spices and combinations of flavors excite me. Where my experience and expertise lacks, I try to make up for with experimentation.
Recently, I screwed up a relatively easy dish, bhindi masala - a mixture of tomato, onion, garlic and spices. I'd made it plenty of times, but for some reason this time I got the order of ingredients mixed up and instead of tender bits of okra in a minimal, clingy sauce, the texture came out more like a thick gumbo. (Well, that's what you get when you keep tasting the wine...!)
The bhindi masala was to be a lunch item for my husband, accompanying some Indian flavored golden beats I'd made the previous day. The flavors were still good, so I decided to try creating an Indian influenced meal around it for dinner instead.
I fried up some crab cakes, used canned crab, combined with breadcrumbs and mayo mixed with tandoori paste - I also spread a bit of the mayo-tandoori mixture on the outside of the cakes before frying for extra flavor. I topped the cakes with a few squirts of lemon juice and a dollop of home-made raita (yogurt, shredded cucumber and salt) and placed them on top of a mound of the okra. I decorated the plate with slices of the Indian beats (flavored with cardamom and cumin) and some mixed pickles (an Indian condiment we love). Yum!
Ethnic/local dinner in San Francisco
I have heard about Cha-Am from co-workers. Sorry if it's a mislead. We frequent Mehfil regularly for lunch - "curry in a hurry". :)
Memphis Minnies - ugh!
Nope. My bill with tax plus a tip was almost $15. I got the pulled pork sandwich with fries and then ordered an additional side of cole slaw. I'm sorry, everything else was such an unpleasant surprise that forgot to mention the fries. They were basic - and cold.
Allowing for differences in bbq style, I can appreciate that this was not what I expected - but that doesn't change the fact that the meat was bland and dry.
Seeing that BCC is more aligned with my taste preferences, I will trek out to Oakland to try BCC. Thanks for the pictures of the smoking drums and the dishes of food - they made my mouth water!
Ethnic/local dinner in San Francisco
THAI: Cha-Am express, 4th/Howard
DIM SUM: Yank Sing, Stevenson btwn 1st/2nd
INDIAN: Mehfil, 2nd/Folsom
Memphis Minnies - ugh!
This place is expensive: I had a pulled pork sandwich and a side of coleslaw and it was almost $15!!! Outrageous. Especially since the small side container was barely larger than a shot glass. The eating experience was not good either. The the pulled pork had almost no flavor and the meat was completely dry. I'm serious, it was just meat on bread. They threw in two puny containers of sauce - one, a tangy mustard sauce and the other, some kind of red concoction that made me wince. Neither did anything to satisfy my craving for the classic bbq sauce that usually smothers this dish. And the coleslaw was some kind of raw foods nightmare. The flavor and texture were all wrong: no sweetness, just sour with other vegetables mixed in. More like pickles than slaw. Not sure whose idea of bbq this is, but it's definitely not mine. I'd recommend Brother's in Law's for classic bbq.
Strange Pairings that Taste Uncommonly Good
I love this kind of creativity! As a child, I liked Triscuit crackers spread with butter, sprinkled with sugar. Here are some I enjoy as an adult:
Egg salad, made with mayo, chile powder, raisins and a little salt.
Blue cheese, smoked oyster and basil on a saltine cracker.
Sesame balls (Chinese dim sum) with Yank Sing chile pepper sauce.
Dianda's or Delessio's Tres Leches cake?
I've had Tres Leches from Lelinita's. It's the only one I've tried. We enjoyed it. Keep in mind, the smallest one they sell will serve a crowd.
Help me choose a cold cereal!
For breakfast in the summer, I enjoy honey flavored Yogurt of the Gods (a thick Greek style yogurt) with fruit and nuts. Almonds and raisins are delicious additions, as are cranberries and walnuts.
Help me choose a cold cereal!
Me too. I like to add raisins (can you tell I like them?).
Help me choose a cold cereal!
Yes, yes, yes! I prefer it crunchy, so I eat it dry and add raisins for some sticky sweet texture.
Help me choose a cold cereal!
I love to do this too. I also add raisins and butter along with brown sugar. Cream is the sinful additive, but milk does just fine.
How do you eat your smoked salmon?
Lox goes well with lots of things! According to your favorite tradition, you might like it served with caviar, minced red onion, capers, cream, tomatoes, olives and/or dill. You could serve it on pumpernickel bread, flavored crackers, bagels, crostini or vegetables.
A LEO (lox, eggs and onion) is a standard yummy breakfast preparation. I've also made a LEA (lox, eggs and asparagus) as well. You may also want to add some chevre.
Personally, I prefer nova (a less salty version of smoked salmon). I'll smear half a bagel with cream cheese, then top it with paper thin nova slices, red onion, tomato and a slice of munster cheese (the sweet kind). The other bagel half gets a thick layer of smoked whitefish salad.
