deangold

We called in an order and picked up from IndAroma and it was very good. Nicely spiced and a ton of food. I called in the order and it was ready when Kay got there. She said they were quite nice people. Order was taken buy a very efficient lady and they got the order right and it was on time. More details

We are not ordering out very much these days but tonight we needed to. So we tried IndAroma. I called in the order and Kay got it. Total was $35 for a ton of food and Kay left them a nice tip in the ajr. Bhel Puri was really nice. We smothered it iwth the provided mint and tamarind sauces and a little raita. Lots of crunch bits, very filling for something that seemed so insubstantial at first. it was really good. Aachari Paneer Tikka was quite tasty, but way to much of an order for just the two of us. It was a heavy dish that could ahvave gone 4 or 6 ways. The paneer was denser than most, maybe homemade? It was rubbed with a sour pickle sauce and than put inthe Tandoor. Good, and we did finish it, but not a thing I'd order again unless we were with a large group. I do believe that we used to go out in large groups to eat, but I am not sure if that really used to happen or if it is just some sort of mass hallucination.. Kabob Platter was a dish of seekh kabob chicken tikka and shrimp, 4 pieces of each. ALl were well cooked in the tandoor and then they served it in a rick red gravy loaded with onion & pepper. It was sneaky spicy. Again, really good. The paratha was just OK. I don't think it traveled well. The raita was, again, better than I expected. All in all, a very pleasant surprise and it will be in our rotation in the future. Kay said the pickup process was easy.

Got to enjoy the feeling of opening an avocado at perfect ripeness. it is rare. Spread on the last of this week's Atwater Sourdough loaf and some crackers. Quite delicious with pickled red onion in balsamico. This has been marinating for weeks so the flavors are really deep and yet the onion still has some crunch. This is basically the end of the batch, but I plan on reusing the balsmcio for another batch.

St Andre & Bread. Still have about 3/8 of the wheel we bought.

Spot is telling us his puking is just giving us gifts of love. I say he is a little piggie and eats too fast.

Salad w/olive oil, lemon & parm Japanese ickles: purple eggplant pickles, yellow pickle, homemade soy pickles with a really good kikusui Jumai Ginjo sake. Meatballs w/a touhc of parm w/more sake. Brilliat Savarin w/Atwater Sourdough and Stoned Wheat Thins. Spot had pizza and chow, with a glass of fine water, Chateau Alexandria I believe. Then the the little so and so jumped up on Kay's chair just because she had cat treats. This is the first time he has every jumped up on either of our chairs and the turncoat went to his cat mom. So I went into the bedroom, where he retired to his bed, and gave him a stern talking to. Then he offered me his head and I scrattched his ear until he had anough and he dismissed me. Again, I taught him who is the boss.

Finished off leftovers: The mushroom pasta which was better today, cold, than originally. The overnight evened out the moisture in the pasta so it was uniform texture wise, and cold the garlic and ginger were more pronounced. Leftover spinach, again cold. Quite delicious. Again, the best of the three times we ate the spinach. Spot puked up his brekkies.

Veal tongue sandwich on Atwater sourdough w/ homemade may. homemade fermented mustard. Coffee: beanestics Flores, a new origin for us. Very smooth, fell. Not as fruity and the Bali bloe moon but quite good indeed. Spot had half a pizza, and a TJ's cat treat and is recovering in bed.

Wait until Dr Fauci's senate testimony Wednesday.

Salad with marinated artichoke, hearts of palm, olives, balsamico & oil from the artichokes. The artichokes came from a huge jar of commercial quality artichokes with stems. The chokes pretty good but the industrial oil they came in was rank. So we drained them and repacked them in a huge jar with tons of 'stuff' and the everyday oil we used at the Grotto along with fresh herbs, garlic, dried oregano & chile. They have been marinating for weeks now and really good. When we are done, we will refill the jar with a new batch. Pasta w/mixed Asian mushrooms, green onions, garlic & ginger. We ahve a fabulous pasta brand we are loving, Opera, but tonight's shape was not the best. We finished the bag at least. They are pasta 'lillies' and the uneven thickness means almost none of the pasta can be al dente. Japanese soy pickles. We have been waiting on this for 3 weeks or so. This is just a marinated pickle, not a fermented one. I took the veggies and salted them for a few minutes very lightly. Just enough to flavor and not to ferment. Then we added out mix of soy, vinegar, mirin & spices. After the batch is done, we strain the liquid and reuse it beefing it up with more vinegar. These are refrigerator piackles. A very poor biscotto from TJs. If it had been sold as a gingersnap bar they would have been quite good for that, but they simply were not biscotti and our jones for a biscotto will go unfulfilled. Spot has his usual pizza but the dry food was supplemented by TJ's cat treats. They actually got him to follow me around the apartment and even rise up on his hind paws to eat them. Finally he realized he had be played and he put his paw on my wrist and just flashed his claws and I let him have the last one. He knows who is boss. Definitely.

Pensive. Regal Cat Dad, we gotta talk and it doesn't look good for you! Time for your review.

I have to mention this. He is paying me too well to stop being his PR agent. I just noticed this is now his own thread! I think I get a bonus payment for that. I ahve to check the cat-track.

A leisurely dinner after a lot of cooking and prepping the past two days. Cocktail: Orri Mandarin Daiquiri- mandarine juice, juice of 2 mexican key limes and the zest of the lmes, brown sugar symple, 2.5 oz Cotton & Reed Dry Spiced Rum. SHaken vigorously, double strained. Cheese & crackers part 1: Brillat Savarin at the point of perfection. right on the edge between unctuous and runny. Beet & Other Green Soup: We have 3 kinds of beets candy or Chioggia, red & yellow. So I took the greens plus the greens from a bunch of hakurei turnips, kohlrabi, & 2 bunches of radish. All from Barajas, except for the Kohlrabi which was a new farm for me: I want to say Starstead but I am not sure. Then added a lot of ginger, garlic, carrot & onion, Tuscan Jewish spice blend, crushed canned tomato, water, veggie broth, Trinidadian hot sauce. Cooked it for a while until the greens were well cooked and lost any sense of crispness and got that well-cooked, soft, sweetness that al dente veggies lack. Wine: The rest of the bottle of Panther Creek 1986 that had been coravined overnight. Even better tonight! Lamb Meatballs: When I started to make this, I was thinking meatloaf so I soaked some panko in milk. Then I made meatballs resulting in a very wet mix that needed far to muc panko to get to rolling stage. The result was a slightly pasty but incredibly moist meatball. So I finally use wet panko, dry panko, an egg, 2 spring onions sauteed from Barajas, lots of ginger & garlic, fresh oregano & thyme, enthusiastic cracked black pepper. Browned the meatballs in olive oil and then simmered for an hour in Fra Diavolo tomato sauce. Then we left them over night and reheated them today. Really good if just ever so off in texture and weight. Cheese & Cracers #2: Castelmagno w/Stones Wheat Thins. Drop of Templeton Rye. SPot had pizza, water, lots of ear scritches. By the way, Spot has his own Twitter account: Spot_the_Cat @SpottheCat6 He mostly trash talks about me and his cat mom. Ingrate! He is not yet an Instacat. But he will accept food in exchange for being an influencer when he gets around to it.

We were looking on one of the free stuff apps when Kay found an ad for Spot and all his stuff including litter and food and scratching post so we went to meet him and brought him home that day! Free! Of course that was before his $700 vet bill and $200 prescriptions and canned food! Still he's worth it. When we had the restaurant we couldn't think of having a pet. Now in the apartment without piles of restaurant equipment everywhere, hes found a new home. His old home had a newborn and he couldn't deal. Now he gets to ignore us or complain loudly in peace and quiet.

Salad with marinated artichoke, kalamata, barajas spicy mix, shallot oil & balsamico. Udon in Dashi Broth flavored w/Korean brewed soy sauce, mirin, Chinese black vinegar w/mushrooms and spinach leftovers from the other night. Have enough Dashi broth to do it again tomorrow! 2.5 little lamb meatballs that just finished cooking in the tomato & onion sauce we used to use in the Fra Diavolo at the Grotto.

The rice cooker comes with a steamer basket. Put 2 cups of water int he rice cooker pan, then the shrimp in the steamer basket above. Fastest boiling water I know. No heat in the kitchen like stove top. I do the same with my Waring Cooker if I want to steam more.

Onsen Tamago. Cheese & Crackers. Veal Tongue.

International Market? Where is that? I go to Grand Market for the fish mostly. Same parking lot as Pho Factory, Hee Been or Chef Guo's

The verdict on the coconut is in. The flavor of the gelato is just too intense to actually taste the coconut. So the work of enrobing the coconut would only add texture and I don't see a flavor boost. The gelato is SOOOOOOO good on the other hand. Next up is coffee where I steep French Press grind coffee as I scald the milk and cool it down for the egg addition.

Shrimp steamed in the rice cooker. We haave now finished tht 2# bag of shrimp from Restaurant Depot. Need another! Salad with salad greens, cukes & hothouse tomato from Spring Valley, kalamata olives. The dressing was the leftover leek infused oil from our tofu from last night, ume paste, ume-shiso vinegar. Spiced chocolate gelato. Corpse Revivers w/Broker's gin, fresh lime, Cocchi Americano & Luxardo triplum & Luxardo cherry. I washed the glass with Elixir Novasalus which worked surprisingly well. I don't have absinthe and I am not enough of a fan to go buy some, so we have used Chartreuse, Dimmi, and now Novasalus. Shot of Templeton. The less water I add to it before sipping, the better I like it. I did not add any water tonight but I htink a tiny drop rounds out the alcohol. All in all, I am not impressed with Templeton. Spot had Pizza.

The problem with taking online ordering in house is that there is a mass marketing effect with Postmates/ I cuold offer a discount on an order and pay an increased comission of $3.99 on a minimum $10 order. My order count would skyrocket to 3 or 4 times normal. ANd maybe 20% would be $15 to $20 orders that I would lose money on. But as many were 40 or more orders that I made good money on. My orders skewed to burrata {very little labor} and pasta {low food cost} compared to inhouse dining. I had a link on my website and got a reduced comission from the serviceif a customer clicked from three. Getting a customer to click from my website to order from one of the big guys was very hard. Almost all my pickup orders came from phone calls.

Coffee. Cheese & crackers: last of the Boxcar brie, first of the castelmagno. SLices of veal tongue w/salsa verde & horseradish. Passionfruit tea.

Used left over rice w/yellow pickle and umeboshi & nori to make quick onigiri. Leftover tofu w/ramp oil. Israeli tangerine & 2 tiny Trader Joe's Mandarins Spot puked on the carpet, then went back to get more cat chow.

We had been anti cat for many years due to a roommate of Kay's cat who peed on Kay's clothing and was trained to jump up and share her car mom's food directly from the plate. The cat thought all human plates were her bowl. We even started a cookbook. 1000 recipes for your cat which began with our classic recipe for "The Correct Method for Microwaving Your Cat." Now that we have Spot, we know we were wrong.

The spinach used up the left over egg. green garlic mix from last night's shrimp spiced up with spring onion greens, garlic & ginger. Added some fresh lemon & barrel fermented fish sauce. Spinach from Barajas and Spring Valley. Silken Tofu w/ramp oil- heat corn oil almost till smoking and pour over ramps, Aleppo, ginger. then put back on the fire and cook again. Them, while almost-smoking hot, our over the tofu. Spectacular. A fine farewell to fresh ramps. of course we have 3# of grilled ramp butter and about a quart of grilled ramp pesto. Mushrooms {seafood, enoki, shimeji sauteed w/garlic & ginger, tossed with sesame oil. Earthy and rich. Heritage rice from California, umeboshi & eggplant pickle. Makkoli. Spiced Chocolate gelato. Spot had Pizza & water.