Tortiglioni in a really quick “meat sauce”
Defrosted one of the burger patties from the freezer, sautéed it with onions and garlic, tossed in some Rao’s marinara and sone liquid from cleaning the jar, cooked that down a bit till it was thicker with some parm rind
" Star-Chiva Cuisine, East Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill " - Quality standard is back and better than ever. Parking is also way easier!
Treating an out-of-town ’ Chinese food deprived ’ nephew, from Montreal, to a delicious Cantonese lunch. Because it’s a holiday long weekend, I deliberately picked Star-Chiva cuisine for our venue since it is NOT a Dim Sum restaurant and hence way less busy!
We had the following really well executed and delectable dishes:
Their ‘back-to-previous-form’ is one great piece of wonderful culinary news for us Richmond Hillers!
Jerk chicken fried rice with broccolini, sugar snap peas, scallions, garlic, scrambled egg. All FM veggies. Recipe based on 2008 Fine Cooking “five-treasure fried rice”, the idea being a mix of veggies, greater in volume than the rice. Super yum, the heat of the jerk seasoning definitely came through!
WFD tonight is bits & bobs from the pantry, fridge & freezer: Greek-ish seafood fettucce with black tiger shrimp, feta, cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, 2 shallots that need used, a bunch of garlic, a healthy splash of leftover white & some red wine, frozen basil, fresh parsley.
Terrible plating, terrifically tasty 
TJ’s pork belly, pan-seared until the fat was rendered and brown, then glazed with a spicy chili sauce and cooked in the oven at 350° until it caramelized. Roasted grapes, Near East rice pilaf, and buttered steamed green beans alongside.
Wine. And more strawberry shortcake for dessert.
The weekend weather here in the Boston area continues to be disappointing more often than not lately. Today it is hovering around 70F and has been varying between light showers and sheets and sheets of rain. It seemed like comfort food weather. So, we went with Shrimp Khao Soi, adapted from The Woks of Life.
Lots of very delicious broth left. Tomorrow we’ll decide if we have another go at khao soi or put it in the freezer for another rainy day meal.
It seems gray and cloudy with a good chance of pouring rain has been our weather for 3+ weeks. We take advantage of the sunny/cloudy day because the rain is coming. (And the humidity has barely let up!)
Exactly! Humidity - and, it even looks like we have thunderstorms to look forward to in an hour or so. It would be one thing if this actually knocked the pollen down. It never does.
Well, at least I got yummy noodle soup out of it!
Pan-roasted Alaskan sockeye. Leftover scallion potato wedges refried in duck fat. Freshly picked carrots in a house vinaigrette. Tarter sauce from a jar.
We enjoyed another excellent dinner at Fiorentini Restaurant in Rutherford, NJ, including burrata with compressed watermelon, roasted heirloom tomato, black garlic, and pickled shallots; wagyu steak tartare; handmade raviolone with ricotta filling, creamy fresh farm egg yolk, sage, and truffle; black ink tagliolini uni-cacio-e-pepe; scallops with corn, mint, cucumber, fresh peas; seafood risotto carnaroli with lobster, mussels, clams, and scallops; lavender creme brulee for dessert. It all went great with an excellent Amarone and Chateauneuf Du Pape.
Vietnamese-ish noodle salad with pork. Rice noodles, marinated roasted pork tenderloin, romaine, mint, cilantro, pickled daikon and carrots, cucumber, nuoc cham and lime.
Leftovers from a pre-July 4 BBQ today for dinner. Jerk chicken (recipe), broccolini, and Jamaican rice and peas (recipe).
Washed down with a Planter’s Punch (recipe).
Oh, my! That entire meal is right down my alley 
Dinner party tonight - almost like old (pre-kid) days. Beet pickled eggs with soy glaze and sesame, steamed edamame, and blistered shishito peppers to start. The main was David Chang’s bo ssam with ssamjang and scallion-ginger sauce, sticky short grain rice, Boston lettuce, kimchi, sesame shredded beet salad, scallion pancakes (TJ), and cilantro-carrot ribbon salad (Maangchi - carrots were my addition). They brought an insanely buttery French peach and almond cake and we had lots of wine and a gingery Bee’s Knees cocktail to start.
I’ve never seen food guardrails like that.
Birthday in NYC today. Got a late start since it was supposed to rain and we debated going at all. The bad weather actually held off until pouring like a bastard for about 30 minutes.
Late lunch which would qualify as dinner for some. Da Gennaro in Little Italy. Shared Eggplant Rollatini, arancini (stuffed with mozzarella and peas-- delicious), and garlic bread. Martini for me, cucumber basil gin smash thing for BF. Fortunate to have a gorgeous window seat to people-watch.
We then went over to historic Fraunces Tavern, built 1762. George Washington drank here, but I don’t think he had this pretzel.
I had an Old Fashioned or two. BF had several beers. Normally I do not switch up liquor but this was definitely a whiskey-leaning bar. The bartenders looked like experts in their craft. Actually, the guy we had peeled the orange for my drink right in front of me.
What we learned today: 1) Fraunces may have the best atmosphere of any bar I’ve ever been to, 2) The City is absolutely majestic during a thunderstorm, 3) The umbrella we brought was not quite as big as we thought. #soaked
Happy Birthday, yours or BFs?
Duck Ragu with Casarecce - ragu made with ground duck, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, red vinegar, orange zest, thyme, oregano, basil, bay leaves, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Topped with some parmesan.
Happy Birthday!!!
I LOL’d
Happy birthday, Greg! 
