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Sundae in the Park

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Everything posted by Sundae in the Park

  1. Chinese sticky rice is a big hit! They kids are even asking for it. Now, they usually leave behind most if not all the good filling ingredients (mushrooms, chicken, sausage, veg, etc.), but it's a start, and then my portion has double fillings... They are also obsessed with the Costco cod fillets. No matter how many you make, they will eat their share and then stare/whine at yours until you fork it over. Finally, right now they will eat whichever yogurt is NOT currently open. Not the whole milk with jam, not the maple Greek (both of which they ordinarily love, which is why we have them and they are open!!); they must have the individually wrapped Chobanis, which come in particularly magical flavors such as strawberry and blueberry. If I say they have to have one of the open options, they'll pass altogether. WTF??
  2. Real question - are these for carrying around and using at restaurants, or just at home? Do guys carry them around and, if so, where? Presumably a woman with a bag can carry them there, perhaps with a cleaning rod and/or holder so your bag doesn't get wet, but they don't seem super pocket-friendly. Maybe they are a reason to carry a man-purse? Paper straws have made it out to the 'burbs in Ventura County, as I've noticed their use a few times in the past month.
  3. They have beef XLBs!!!!! I actually don't favor the XLB here, as they have thicker skins and are blander than many other places, but we spotted these on the menu and ordered them for my folks, who avoid pork and shellfish. While the execution was only decent (I mean, DTF is right across the street), it's an odd ingredient that I haven't seen anywhere else and they turned out to be a special treat (because SOUP DUMPLINGS!!!). Lamb and pork pan-fried dumplings, as well as the beef rolls, were excellent per usual. Their cold cucumber plate is simple and not spicy at all, but just tangy and sweet enough to cut through the richness of all the snacks.
  4. Woohoo, Asian market trip week! We made another date-walnut cake and had bacon and hash browns for Mother's Day, but otherwise this week will be dedicated to using up all the goodies we grabbed at the market over the weekend. Monday night was pad se ew with a side of smashed, marinated cucumbers and last night we made sauteed king trumpet mushrooms, basil eggplant (finally made with enough Thai basil to taste right!!), and stir-fried green beans eaten on top of brown rice. Yesterday morning I seared some fresh rice noodle rolls, served them with a simple brown sauce (hoisin, oyster, sriracha, pepper, and sugar), and they were GOOD, nearly as tasty (though the texture was not quite as good as truly fresh) as decent dim sum. Tonight will be another stir-fried noodle dish with lots of baby bok choy.
  5. Leigh, you speak truth 😉 My kids had cake for dinner last night and there was still some (mangled) cake left on their plates when they were done.
  6. West Lake soup is an easy, brothy, high-protein soup made with mostly pantry ingredients with virtually zero carbs. I wanted to punch up my egg drop soup and have been playing with this and similar recipes to recreate several restaurant experiences. I like to add chopped shitake mushrooms (can use rehydrated dried mushrooms), sometimes silken tofu, and always a bit of sesame or chili-sesame oil. Ground beef works nearly as well as minced beef and is a lot easier if you're pressed for time/ingredients.
  7. Ha, excellent use of shoes! My most delicate jars always went in my steel-toed boots. Nothing would break in there!
  8. Monday night I made a big batch of bourbon chicken to be eaten with rice. Yesterday we made that limey eggplant/pepper/garlic/basil dish from America's Test Kitchen, sauteed green beans with egg, and roasted vegetables to add to the leftover chicken and rice (it's a great combination!), plus a batch of tuna mac for the kiddos.
  9. That is what I did when I lived in VA and traveled to CA for work! Flying cross-country with groceries is ridiculous and yet I did it, every time. I got really good at packaging bottles of sauces so they don't break in checked luggage...
  10. !!!!! I ❤️ Ranch 99, though I've only shopped CA locations, and I'm excited for you guys that they made it to the DC metro area!! I like it especially because of their Chinese/Taiwanese background so, despite being somewhat pan-Asian, they carry all the brands/types of items I grew up eating.
  11. We made pizzas again over the weekend, this time with homemade dough, which is always noticeably less salty than the store-bought dough. Other oven use included roasted squash and date-walnut muffins. I made a batch of vegetable stock and used some to make a fairly light chicken corn chowder, which is both springy and warming, so perfect for our "May grey" weather.
  12. Here's an article today from Slate about judging a restaurant from the outside. Since it's about food I clicked (bait: accepted!) and it was...fine. The usual tips (curated menu, attention to provenance, matching the restaurant decor/location to mission/theme, long lines, people of the same presented ethnicity eating there, etc.) , which more food-centric folks would already be well familiar with, resonated, albeit weakly because <shrug> we already know all this! But there was also a judgy section that bugged me - not about restaurants, but diners: These initial quick judgments usually take a few seconds, at which point we walk over to the posted menu and study it like the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here’s what you don’t want to see: everything. This isn’t a food court, and while figuring out what you want to do in life is often a long journey for people, restaurants should have this decided far before the menu is printed. “When it’s too cross-cultural, when it’s too all over the place, that’s an issue. There’s a restaurant I’m thinking of right now that has fettucine Alfredo with your choice of shrimp, chicken, or salmon. You’re like, ‘OK, that’s not a good sign,’ ” says Stowell. “That’s the way people used to eat in the ’80s: They would offer everything for everybody, and let them combine it how they want. But we’ve gone away from that and more toward, ‘We’re going to guide you to what’s good.’ If you’re everything for everybody you’re usually nothing for nobody.” Emphasis mine, on the lines I thought were unnecessarily reductive. I know a lot of these people!! They simply don't care about food as much as me, and derive much more of their dining utility from getting things just their way on a (perhaps a rare) night out. Which is fine, and it doesn't necessarily (but can, and that is also fine!) mean that they don't want high-quality food, or ambiance, or overall experience! And besides, who, exactly, is the audience for an article about how to pick a restaurant? People who care a lot about picking a restaurant will already know these very general guidelines or have their own, much more relevant metrics, so those that could most benefit from learning about these ideas to improve their dining experience are likely the very people being (gently, I concede) mocked as being decades out of touch. Anyway, I probably just wanted to pontificate this morning, but this section of the article really rubbed me the wrong way. Since I've gotten older, and moved to a more conservative area, and become a parent, etc., I've met and dined with many more types of people (than my City-dwelling, free-wheeling, proto-hipster, semi-rabid insistent days on authenticity and excellence), with lots more (and valid) dining preferences. I'm much more viscerally aware that more/most of America (especially away from the coasts) is occupied by people who, while more aware of food culture than in the pre-Food Network and Insta days, simply don't give food as much head space as me and are happiest when they can get exactly what they want, when they want. Holding their preferences in contempt is pointless and mean, and these days more than ever, I think, every kindness counts. (I'm aware that I am more sensitive to this perhaps perceived issue because I lost a friend back in the day after a meal at a wonderful DC restaurant during which I was, mostly unwittingly, a total a** about her food choices and naiveté, and I really wish I could go back and smack 20something me for being a jerk.)
  13. Ooooh, this brings back memories. When I lived within walking distance this was once of my favorite places to pop in and grab a treat, especially on the weekends when they pulled out the grill cart (pure genius for getting people to follow their noses!). Are they still doing periodic open houses? Those were the best and included tours of the workspace and lots of samples.
  14. The kids both really like brothy soups. The Little especially likes to drink up "Chinese style," holding up the bowl to his face and slurping away. Other than dropping the bowl, this method of eating is typically less messy than his usual excited spoon-waving shenanigans. Both, however, will magically leave behind pretty much all the solids except for noodles (even if they like the solids in other forms) and also refuse to eat the soup entirely if it too thick/pureed. All this is to say that the Little had a version of egg drop soup last night which was successful mostly because I didn't make it with many egg ribbons/shreds (as is my preference), instead incorporating the egg more fully into the broth kind of like Greek lemon soup, and the Big opted for chicken and rice (which we were also having) because there were no noodles available.
  15. We made more grilled chicken this weekend, plus a pot of chili and a batch of chicken korma curry. Yesterday I made West Lake soup (more or less this recipe, with the addition of chopped shitake mushrooms) for the first time, since I wanted something simple, brothy, and without a lot of alliums, per consideration of the sick folks in my house. I had been thinking about trying my hand at it ever since we had a disappointing version at a restaurant a few weeks ago (virtually no flavor, not enough egg, meat, or cilantro, too much tofu). I think it is interesting that the main meat choices are either lean beef or white fish, as they are not usually considered as substitutes! But it is correct - I've had both iterations at restaurants that tasted great. I cheated and used ground instead of minced beef and it came out pretty well and was really easy! It's a nice change of pace to add to the soup repertoire. I also sauteed up some eggplant with black bean sauce (still not using enough basil, argh) and roasted some vegetables to serve with a pot of rice.
  16. The new LA law is not a ban per se, like in SF or Malibu, but it does affect fast food restaurants, so it is more restrictive than the state-wide bill passed last year. So far in Ventura County in sit-down places I've noticed that servers ask if I want a straw (not in compliance with the law, which says the customer has to ask and went into effect on January 1 this year), but I don't usually use them so haven't felt much of a difference. In the more bougie areas (i.e., places with electric scooters scattered about like Santa Monica, UCLA-ish, etc.), it seems like they've already switched to paper/other reusable straws and have continued to just give them out.
  17. Ok Pat, now I want really want some lamb! Last night we had grilled chicken thighs served with rice and green beans stir-fried with egg. Also, sliced cucumbers and pineapple.
  18. Only food adjacent but this listicle (27 Tweets that Sum Up Costco Shopping When You're in a Relationship) is SO TRUE, made me and my hubs LOL today, and so I thought I'd share 😉
  19. Not big wedges but my Costco has the white cheddar Babybels (on sale this cycle!) that aren't very crumbly, if you are looking for a transportable snacking cheese. It is definitely a mild and not a sharp cheddar flavor. I do prefer the originals, which are a kind of Edam cheese, though they don't actually taste extremely different to me. At my Costco the Babybels aren't with the fancier wedge cheeses near the meat anymore, but with the large quantity shredded/string cheese in the yogurt/cold juice section. The moved them when I was pregnant and dependent on Babybels as a low-carb snack, so was really upset that they might have stopped carrying them and super relieved when I found them again. Wanted to mention that I always get the large jars of Better than Bullion @ Costco when they are available because they are a great deal. I haven't seen the big block of yeast in a while, but am keeping an eye out.
  20. Easterish items from yesterday were a giant batch of hot cross buns and chicken marsala with soooo many mushrooms. Other cooking from the weekend included a batch of spaghetti and meat sauce, a chicken/bean/corn enchilada bake (casserole version of enchiladas), impromptu corn chowder when I couldn't bear to throw away the corn cobs without making some broth, and roasted squash.
  21. Camarillo The Waypoint Cafe is a nicer All-American breakfast/lunch place that has quite a bit to recommend - it's at our teeny airport so you can watch the Cessnas land and take off, and has an outdoor seating and grassy waiting area where you can have drinks, take in the views, and wait to be seated. That wait, however, is its biggest drawback, especially at weekend brunchtime, when it can take literally hours to top the list. The food is good (especially on tri-tip days, when they are grilling on the deck and making the neighborhood drool) but not that good, and there is no way to make reservations. My town seems to have an unnatural fascination with breakfast dining (seriously. There is a wait everywhere on the weekends all morning long), and the wait here is exacerbated by the fact that friends of the house can count on cutting the line. Still, when I can pop over on a weekday before the lunch rush begins, it's a nice place to meet a friend amongst the chatty din, grab a milkshake/mimosa (or both!) with your choice of brunchy treats, and settle in for a while (which doesn't help the wait of the folks after you...). The price point is higher but generally worthwhile for the loaded plates of pretty food, and the wait staff absolutely hustle - no complaints there at all. The Hidden Cafe is a different animal, except for the wait. It's a joint serving up breakfast/lunch classics with a few California / Hawaiian twists (loco moco is often/always? a special). At least one person at our table always gets the chicken-n-waffles and their omelette/eggs/pancakes, etc. game is solid. It's smaller, more crowded, the tables are closer together, and the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly but not primed for lingering. It's cheaper, faster, at the opposite end of town, and always packed. There are a bunch of other breakfast/brunch places in town, but I'd say these are both the best and most popular. Greek Cuisine, which has a terrible location in the Trader Joe's plaza (you can't park right in front and it's not visible from the parking lot) and a small, utilitarian dining room, serves up a really good gyro and has warm, efficient staff. I can't speak to the rest of the classically Greek menu because I always get the gyro, which comes loaded with well-seasoned, plump and juicy (freshly sliced, of course, and warmed on the flat-top until the edges crisp a bit) meat and nicely balanced tzatziki sauce. My husband likes their desserts, which are served in big portions.
  22. I heard that my favorite ice cream shop, Portland-based Salt & Straw, recently opened up a location at Disney (the Downtown Disney District, anyway) and when I went to check their website, WHOA!! I knew they had come to the LA area in the past few years, but had no idea that they had so many locations up (hopefully) booming: 6 spots in greater LA, including Disney, 4 in San Francisco, 2 in San Diego, and 2 in Seattle, in addition to the 5 Oregon locations. The flavors are inventive, delicious, and ever-evolving, the ice cream itself is silky and lip-smackingly thick and rich, and, OMG, they deliver to your door and even have subscription clubs!! Highly recommended if you get a chance to stop by and worth the nearly inevitable wait.
  23. So I've been really delighted by the variety of less sugar or calorie / sugar free ice creams available today but generally disappointed with the taste (both mouthfeel and flavor) of said products. Some are better and many are worse, but none live up to even the junkiest kind of regular ice cream, at least for me. Instead, portion control seems to be the best approach, and we've really been liking the Blue Bunny mini swirls, which are small, pre-filled, chocolate-dipped cones a la classic drumsticks treats. The vanilla mini swirls have 140 calories and 16 g. carbs, of which 11 g. are sugars (the other flavors have slightly more carbs). Not bad for a decent-tasting treat, and easy to count, since 15 g. carbs is usually counted as 1 serving or "exchange." Also good for little hands and tummies if you have kids!! They have a less-sugar line called "Sweet Freedom," but if you compare the nutritional info, there are way fewer sugars (2 g.) but still 17 g. carbohydrates (though far fewer net carbs because there are 2 g. of fiber and 6 g. of sugar alcohols). When I get a chance to try them I will, for comparison, but in general I don't like the taste of sugar alcohols, and would prefer to just eat less of the real stuff, so it's nice to know about the regular cones. Just thought I'd share my ice cream musings 😉
  24. Both kids refused to eat the jap chae (sweet potato noodles, tossed with garlic-sauteed beef, mushrooms, and zoodled squash/zucchini/carrots, and soy sauce, brown sugar, onion powder, and sesame oil) when it was fresh on Tuesday night (though they've liked it in the past), but GUESS WHO wanted it all when I pulled it out for my own dinner last night, hmmmmm? And after they had both supposedly eaten a full meal of quesadillas before I got home! Plus they also wanted to share an apple! Nutritionally / palate-wise I was delighted but it was annoying that my dinner was relegated to various fridge scraps after they gobbled up Every.Single.Bite.
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