Tonight’s dinner was an arugula cherry tomato salad then gnocchi with a tomato spinach sauce with a sprinkling of grana padano.
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Oops. Didn’t think about taking a pic…another Greek salad tonight with a small top sirloin for the protein.
It was delicious…I’d been craving a salad.
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With the lackluster selection of local Chinese restaurants, no, it would not have been tastier to get takeout!
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The Woks of Life’s Suan Ni Bai Rou (sliced pork with garlic sauce) by the BF. HOLY MOLY WAS THIS GOOD. We had thinly sliced pork belly in the freezer, so he found a recipe that used ingredients we had. Only problem was he didn’t want to boil the super thin pork belly slices for fear they’d fall apart. So he steamed them instead, and the meat turned out a bit tough, didn’t get as fatty-melty. But the incredible sauce hides a multitude of sins, and next time he’ll do a chunk of pork belly boiled and then sliced. He also sauteed cukes in a different spicy sauce of his own making and those were fantastic too - like spicy asparagus. Good job, BF!
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Pork, Asparagus and Snap Pea Stir- Fry. Pickled daikon, carrots and cucumbers.
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Our whirlwind trip to Hamburg started off a little sputtery. The car rental branch where we were picking up our car had run out of cars overnight (!) — presumably due to the holiday yesterday / long weekend, and the expected delivery of 60 additional cars to satisfy their bookings had never arrived. Wut 
We were sent up north to a different branch, which was thankfully on the same subway line 
Traffic was also heavier than expected, and the speed limit occasionally stupid low (60kmh/37mph), especially in an area where there is usually NO speed limit at all. It’s the AUTOBAHN after all!!! I will say that I rarely go faster anymore than 160kmh/100mph these days. Anything faster is just too stressful, and you don’t really save that much time.
We had a couple of pre-dinner drinks, a nice martini with a Hamburg gin at the hotel bar
before walking over to the restaurant.
Place was pretty busy, but we had a nice table near the front window overlooking the nabe.
The owner was happy to see us again & even joined us for a digestif, once things had calmed down a bit.
My boo and I shared a half dozen oysters to start with, my sis and BIL both had a fish soup they both deemed “too salty,” yet finished it.
I picked the sous vide Iberico neck on sautéed Swiss chard with papas arrugadas & chimichurri. The neck was a bit fattier than I might have wanted, but they did a great job with the chard, which I don’t much care for. Only the chimichurri might have gotten a bit lost on the plate.
Both my boo and my sis got the corn-fed chicken with chickpea fries, green asparagus & sauce béarnaise,
and my BIL the seared sea bass with zoodles, chorizo foam, and gnocchi.
We shared a bottle of wonderful Riesling, they shared 0.5 of a Vermentino.
Dessert was the tiramisu @LindaWhit wanted us to get, my sister chose the strawberries & rhubarb with almond crumble and sour cream ice cream.
Everything was solid, but I’m not sure a trip to HH just to eat here is warranted anymore.
Off to meet with our ancient cousin now! 
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BF had a friend visiting from out of town and wanted sushi, so we took the opportunity to take him to our favorite local place.
Started with a round of yellow tail and salmon bellies, sayori, and kinmedai.
Then had clam and octopus sashimi and king salmon and scallop nigiri.
Japanese uni and an unagi hand roll for dessert.
A great evening out and, stuffed, I went right to bed when we got home!
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I love your definition of sprinkle.
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Mr Bean’s favorite dessert.
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I tend to get carried away with cheese 
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I would say you are sprinkling the correct amount.
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Thanks 
I actually measured out how much cheese I put on my gnocchi last night and it’s actually one ounce of cheese. It looks like more since I had a smaller portion of pasta last night. I am always complaining I am not losing weight but I am tracking my meals on Weight Watchers so I know exactly where I am going wrong. I have been eating lots of noodles the last few years which are high in points so I would like to change that abit and go back to more meat-and-potato type dishes that my mom used to make. I also don’t need to make those HUGE servings of pasta I’ve been making so I’m going to try scaling down the portions a bit.
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Quite a night!
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This is what has been helping me. As well as my weekday treadmill walking. I’m trying to stay firm with doing that - in fact, I’m off to the small gym downstairs to do exactly that! Of course, then I’m heading over to the pizza place for a slice afterwards, so… 
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Suan Ni Bai Rou
I love this Dish. Did you guys cut back on the Oil ratio in the Sauce? When I have had/made it in the past it always had quite a bit of Oil/Sauce .
E.g.
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I’ll say! Time to chill again for a few days and recharge 
i noted that the BF’s differed from other pics we saw on the internet, so I’m assuming he did. He cut the recipe by more than half anyway, but I’m sure he also used less oil trying to be a bit more health-conscious. The sauce was so good, though, i wish he hadn’t!
After an eventful day we didn’t feel like having the leftover pizza from Wednesday night that was lounging in the fridge, and I didn’t feel like cooking as I’m likely to do so tomorrow & Sunday.
The döner place near us to the rescue! Another massive dürüm döner (we didn’t even get a big one this time 
), and my PIC wanted to try their lahmaçun, as they bake their own breads. The lahmaçun was legit & hit the spot. Ayran for me, beer for tha man.
Good to be back home
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