Scallop salad with edamame, yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes and spring mix. I didn’t overcook the scallops this time!
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Cornmeal Crusted Soft-shell Crab Tacos with Salsa Veracruzana, loosely adapted from this Rick Bayless recipe.
This was excellent! My dredge for the crabs was equal parts Wondra and very fine cornmeal (with some salt and pepper) and I shallow fried them in avocado oil over medium high heat for 3 minutes a side. Perfect! Lots of great flavor from the meat and innards/crab miso that stood up to the briny flavors in the salsa.
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Wow! 
When are you opening your supper club???
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Aw, thanks 
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So, educate me on soft-shell crab (I’m on the west coast). Do you cook/eat them with the shells on? 
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Empanadas filled with picadillo. I didn’t have the capers or pimento that the picadillo recipe called for but did have a jar of “muffaletta salad” mix that included olives, pickled vegetables, and capers that worked well. Served with a salad of romaine, more olives, cherry tomatoes and hearts of palm plus grilled corn on the cob.
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Yes! Soft shells are harvested, killed, and cleaned right after they molt. So, you can eat the whole thing. I have a fish monger who gets them to me cleaned and frozen, but they can be purchased live during the season depending on where you are.
At about 10:30 in this video, the host and a crab farmer discuss it:
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They are available in a few places here, during the season (about now). I found them at Monterey Fish on Hopkins in Berkeley, and at Berkeley Bowl West.
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Pizza night. Roberta’s dough formula. Homemade NY style sauce. Fresh basil from the garden. Four cheeses. Pepperoni. Onion. Pickled peppers and red pepper flakes optional. Baked in a 550 convection oven on pre-heated stone.
Served with garden greens in vinaigrette.
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Harissa honey pork tenderloin, Moroccan Inspired Cauliflower Pilaf. Spinach salad, red onion, celery, avocado, orange marmalade, rice vinegar & oo dressing. I highly recommend the pilaf. I didn’t add the cloves to the spice mix.
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Last night’s Chicken Piccata, extra capers. Haven’t made this in forever. So delicious.
Tonight was Trader Joe’s frozen Indian food (after getting home late). Chicken Vindaloo, Palak Paneer, and naan. Their frozen Indian dinners are more than adequate-- better than homemade Indian with jarred simmer sauces though not quite restaurant quality, but close!
both nights.
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That looks so perfect, my all time favorite meal.
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Kohlrabi and Soy Sauce-Seared Tofu Salad from “Ever-Green Vietnamese” by Andrea Nguyen - very nice mix of flavors and textures. The salad had coarsely shredded kohlrabi and carrots, rehydrated black fungus mushrooms, pan-seared tofu (which was quickly marinated in soy sauce), coarsely ground, toasted sesame seeds, cilantro and mint with a vinaigrette made with fish sauce, lime juice, agave syrup, serrano chili and garlic
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We arrived at our tiny Airbnb late afternoon, after a gorgeous drive down south from Catania to the southeastern tip of the island.
When I say ‘tiny,’ I mean tiny as in that trendy Tiny House kinda tiny, which turns out not to be our kind of trend: we are basically staying in a kitchen-bedroom with a bathroom. The bed is a double bunk bed 
It’s situated on fairly expansive grounds that border the waterfront, along with other properties that may or may not be as tiny. …. but at least there is a nice outdoor patio with a killer view,
a small grill, a single gas burner, and an outdoor shower. To get here, you have to take a bumpy dirt road that would give some Penna roads a run for their money as far as potholes are concerned, and you pass many adorable semi-feral cats living on the grounds. We can’t quite figure out if peeps live here permanently or if these are summer/weekend homes.
Our host was nice, but lacking English, and he had but one restaurant recommendation for the nearest town — about a 5 min drive / 10 min walk along the water, which we were most certainly not going to entertain after dark.
The restaurant was ok. A relatively small menu, save for a vast pizza selection I wasn’t really in the mood for. TBH, I was really disappointed with our home for the next 6 days, especially given the price, and it positively killed my appetite 
My beloved caponata was only available as a side dish, not an app, and it had carrots in it. It still tasted fine, but….carrots? Perhaps a local variation 
My dood got himself a very good-looking pie generously topped with bufflo mozz, sausage, and spinach.
I picked the ‘spaghetto fresco with seafood alla moda nostra’ (I coulda sworn there was more than one spaghetto on that plate 
), which was likely a frozen seafood mix in tomato sauce. Did I mention I wasn’t particularly hungry? At least the Zibibbo we got was very good, crisp with hints of pear.
We’ll be exploring our ‘property’ today & an alleged beach nearby, but it looks like we’ll be moving to a more connected place in Ortigia on Sat for the remainder of our stay…. bc as beautiful as the view & quiet here may be, having to drive to dinner every night wasn’t our plan at all.
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Were the photos of the joint deceptive on the Airbnb site?
IME, photos for any rentals are usually taken from the most flattering perspective. As it is, we made the silly assumption that there might be an actual separate bedroom, and the bunkbed in the kitchen for extra folk.
Silly us!
Plus, as you will see, the host is a favorite & the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Maybe we’re just not the ‘roughing it’ kinda peeps. Who knew
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Ya, the photos look good, but you can’t really tell till you get there. No smaller hotels nearby?
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I’m sorry to hear your airbnb didn’t work out - it must be disappointing. I hope the next place is better.
Should I have said “home-prepared”?
