What's for Lunch 2017

I didn’t know that Poland is still using Zloty, I thought it being in the Euro zone… well, actually it’s a smarter move at the end of the day! 23% tax ! for drinks I bet!

“Service not included” in English! Very cool!
The pancakes look good.

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It’s an extortion. Tourists are expected to pay “service charge” (Poles just round up the bill). Americans bring their tipping culture everywhere they go so they expect all tourists to do it as well. I have read waiters fight for jobs in restaurants in touristy places for this reason.

I have looked through the restaurant bills, it’s clear places where there are tourists the line in English “service not included” is on them. I think the 8% is the service charge. We made a mistake of giving 10% on top of the total bill and not before taxes.

I will ask the lodging’s owner later. I will also ask someone at the official tourism site to decipher the bill for me.

My new travel guides bought recently. Poland is 1 of them, the other 4 are all expensive countries and have no tipping culture.

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100 sounds expensive for Poland, was it for 2 persons? Don’t tell me it was the meat sandwich place you have been the other night…

For 100€, you can find very good meal in France, even in Paris.

Lunch was NY Strip from the Italian Grocery that they sliced very thin , topped with danish havarti cheese cooked on the teppanyaki grill of my vulcan range with onion, red and green peppers . that I cooked with a dash of garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper and red chili flakes. (Lighting no good)
served

with garlic rosemary bread , topped with danish havarti cheese again

There was enough steak for me and the 2 poms , with left over onion pepper for another meal.
Dessert was store bought Brazilian guava paste

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Chicken tacos

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Vietnamese lunch (for the challenge this quarter).

A dim sum favourite. Yes, the southern Chinese also brought it to VN. This is store-bought (frozen from VN). Sorry people, I am no domestic goddess. Will have a go at making it someday.

We wish there were more.

Bitter gourd with scrambled eggs for me.

And for the partner who is not abstaining from meat and alcohol for a week.

Filled with mince, garlic, mushrooms, fish sauce.

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I love radish cake. Yes, it was probably brought to Vietnam by the Southern Chinese, my ancestors are from Xiamen, Fuchien or Fujian
My mom taught me to prepared it with chinese sausage, rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, chinese chives and dried Louisiana shrimp.
We steam ours in a meat loaf pan, then pan fry it when ready to eat served with ketchup and tabasco.

I love bitter melon also. As a child, I was not particularly fond of it. But now, I love it. This is very nice way of serving , elegant, chinese or vietnamese way.

http://www.clovegarden.com/recipes/smm_ampalps1.html
Here is another way of preparing bitter melon with shrimp ,pork and fermented shrimp paste, the Filipino way I use ground pork . This is more or less the way I prepare it ( I do not follow recipe)
It is good served with rice if you like fermented shrimp paste. If you want to try cooking this, use the fermented shrimp from the Philippines called BAGGONG ALAMANG ( made from krill)

The filipinos also use Bagging alamang as a spread on their green mangoes. The mangoes has to be green, and crispy. It stops your teeth from floating when the mangoes are green .

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Philippines’ version looks a bit like Vietnamese fermented shrimp paste, which is used a lot in Vietnamese food. The fermenting process is probably similar, the seasoning could be different but I don’t know that. Love the Vietnamese version. An acquired taste for many no doubt. Had the Macanese version in Macau and thought it tasted almost the same.

Found a site with some info on Vietnamese fermented shrimp paste here.

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oh! the mangoes with the shrimp paste reminds me of my childhood days. However, we usually pick the greenish mangoes possible, not any mango that has turned slightly yellow. I guess when the mangoes are slightly ripe similar to the picture, it does not make one’s teeth float!!!
I have never been able to find mangoes that are that green here. Thanks for sharing.

Chinese steamed eggs for lunch. Not as silky as I would like, taste is okay. I added some tiny shrimps on the top with soya sauce.

I read a bit more how to improve my texture and found this:

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Open face cheddar cheese burgers with lettuce, onion, and a big slice of fresh, ripe Jersey tomato.

Oh, and some tater tots.

Drink is passion fruit ice tea with a little seltzer.

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Egg & Chorizo tacos:

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Seared SV pork shoulder steaks with savoury glutinous rice. In Vietnam you buy it from a street vendor, the food is wrapped in banana leaf. There are several versions of both sweet and savoury. I love them all but especially savoury.

http://i.imgur.com/71GxPE1.jpg

Store-bought deep fried shallots (imported from Vietnam). Malay and Danish versions are more like bits and not rings.

Frozen Vietnamese raw papaya. I used to use fresh green papaya but shredding it is dangerous so no more of that. Blanched prawns.

A speciality of a coastal town not far from HCM City. The crabs are done when the salt stops popping madly. Dipping “sauce” is always lime juice, salt and pepper.

Leftover rice and other things. Also has lemongrass and fermented shrimp paste in it. Quite a bit, actually. Taiwanese brown rice.

Looks much better here than in the wok.

Also part of lunch. 2kg.

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Went to rockville md to service my car , stop by Chinese supermarket for grocery and Taipeh Cafe for lunch with my GF, a coworker prior to my retirement. Her husband owns Hunan Best restaurant in Gaithersburg, Md. She drove to Rockville to meet me for lunch and of course, knowing the owner and the waitresses there, we had excellent service. Our lunch was dim sum ( Gua Bao ) made of braised pork belly garnished with powdered peanuts. I love the texture of the bun , but did not care as much for the pork belly as it has too much fat although the flavor was excellent. Then, we had fried shrimp with shells and head , dried bean curd with pork , crispy whole tilapia in brown sauce.

I did take a picture of the dim sum but for got to take pictures of the rest until we had finished eating, Took left over home for dinner. Pictures are left over. Sorry!

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Ok feeling inadequate. My lunch was a handful of cashews

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Ham & Swiss on Rye, homemade Manhattan clam chowder, watermelon:

To drink, cranberry pomegranate earl grey ice tea.

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Tofu slices were marinated in some sesame oil, Sichuan crispy chilies, soya sauce. Some bonito flakes on top. Dark sauce is a “master sauce” which was reduced after making soya braised chicken.

Radish kimchi on left.

Leftover Vietnamese lemongrass meat now stuffed in ciabatta.

A few slices of octopus tentacles as well.

Finely chopped smoked tofu.

Red sauce is just butter with some paprika.

Maatjes herring tartare.

Exactly the same but the chunks are huge and with a bit of cream added to it.

Something sweet from the Asian supermarket. I scraped off the paste on the knife and had a taste of it. Insanely sweet! My mouth was in pain from the sugar. Partner ate it all (1 each day), said “it has onion bits”. Durian can taste like onion or disgusting old socks to some people. I would be happy to eat fresh durian, however.

http://i.imgur.com/DM0BSoF.jpg

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AHA! Fresh Durian Stinks but taste good. Used to run away when someone has fresh durian.

Was at Asian store yesterday, now addicted to guava paste ( guayabana paste) I thought there was a difference between guava and guayabana but the label from different companies has both fruits labeled on them. I am not fond of sweet things but this is definitely not too sweet.

My son made these last week but used chipotle spiced chile tortilla wrappers. He prepared them again today but the chipotle chile wrappers were not available , so just plain tortilla wrappers were used.
Filings were scrambled eggs, cubed potatoes sauteed in olive oil, caramelized onions, sweet peppers, maple sausage patties, bacon bits , aged cheddar cheese and some spinach with a splash of chipotle tabasco. He made a dozen of them, froze them. Now, I do not have to worry about lunch if I am busy.

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Optical illusions !!

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