Korean Sliced Rib Eye

Last night, my comfort food was a korean meal made by yours truly. Actually, I didn't do much. Hardly anything at all. The dish I was in search of is simply thinly sliced rib-eye steak that you cook on a griddle (preferably set at the table) and because the well, marbled meat is so thin, it cooks up in seconds. My grandmother used to make a scallion side dish. I always took some of the scallions seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and black pepper. The scallion has to be cut to 2" in length and then julienned. This way you can take a nice bunch and put it on the meat and then roll it. (usually using chopsticks) Or you can take a straight piece of meat and dip it in your pile of salt, pepper and sesame oil. We never mixed all three. They stayed in separate piles. Of course by the time you're done eating, all the seasonings have melded together.

We bought two different kind of kimchis. Kimchi is a staple in the korean diet. Koreans cannot eat meals without some form of it. I bought one made from cucumbers and one from napa cabbage. The one made from cabbage is the main kimchi and the others (roots, leaves, any veggie) can be made into kimchi using red pepper powder, some shrimp sauce, garlic and a couple of other things. Kimchi is potent. If not sealed properly, it will (without a doubt) cause your refrigerator to stink like garlic and something like tabasco or other hot sauce.

I served a bowl of jasmine rice with it. I would've preferred japanese or korean sticky rice but we didn't have any. So that was dinner last night. The meat was delicious. Absolutely delicious with the sesame oil, salt & pepper. The combination is so simple but oh so good with the meat. Oh, I didn't like the cucumber kimchi. It had too much of a fishy flavor as some kimchis do. I like the kind that is nicely fermented with a little vinegary flavor. And the right amount of salt.

So, a meal like this was common in my household while I was growing up. Of course, my grandmother would also prepare lots of side dishes like soups, stews, little fried yummy things and just a whole lot of stuff. It's not uncommon for korean food to be served with many side dishes. They're called banchan (I don't think I spelled that correctly.) If you ever try korean food, definitely go to a korean barbecue restaurant. Nicely marinated meat (suggesting kalbi - rib meat) comes to your table raw and you cook it to your liking on your barbecue grill that's built into the table. Prepare to smell like barbecued meat after the meal. Eat Something Good!

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Trader Joe's Eggplant Parm

So, last night for dinner we decided to try one of those Trader Joe's baked eggplant parm dishes. I served it with a side of sauteed escarole (lemon juice, red wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.) The eggplant. Much to my surprise, Steve thought it was good. I say this because when I first met him he made it very clear that he does not eat eggplant. Like maybe it wasn't manly enough. Come to think of it, I've never seen him eat quiche either.

So, the first time he had it was at one of my regular restaurants, Pizza & Brew. It was good food, good service and reasonably priced. (It's a chain restaurant.) There are always people there, but you can always get a seat. So I ordered the eggplant rollatine there. And I made him try some. He was was all, oh my god. And then the next few times we went there, that's all he'd order and he'd love it.

Eggplant story number two. I thought we'd conquered his fear of eggplant. Not so. I had to twist his arm for months and months to get him to try an eggplant parm wedge. I think it was more like years then months. Finally one day, out of nowhere, he agreed to take a bite. And from judging on the expression on his face, he was either very surprised or very pleased. Or perhaps both. He could not get enough of it. Subsequent trips to our favorite pizzeria involved eggplant parm wedges.

Now, so you figure he's had eggplant parm as a wedge that he'd have no issues with trying to eat it without the wedge part. Nope. He resisted yet again. And finally, last night he took the dive. Head first. And I was, golly gee, surprised especially because it wasn't one of the better eggplant parms I've had over the years. Trader Joe's doesn't bread and fry theirs, it's baked. Fine and dandy an' all but not quite as good as the traditional way. Wanna make your belly smile? Eat Something Good!

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Trader Joe's Frozen Food Review

Last night we went a little crazy at dinner. We decided to make it a frozen food night and sampled some of Trader Joe's food. First we had their Roasted Vegetable Pizza. And it was sorta like a pizza except there was no cheese. I was skeptical at first and I was wise in doing so. The pizza is a thumbs down for me. First a highlight. The crust. It's the best pizza crust I've ever had - amongst frozen pizzas. The dough looked like it was about 1/4" thick. And the bottom had a nice crisp that lead into a well-risen dough. It was just the right texture. Soft and semi-light and not doughy. Now if you were to put sauce and cheese on that, I'd have given it a high rating. I just wasn't loving the caramelized onions. Way too many and way too sweet. The shitake mushrooms & red peppers didn't do too much to help either. My favorite little nugs were the artichoke hearts. But they weren't plentiful.

Despite the lack of cheese, it was a lot more filling than we had anticipated and we thought twice about heating up the lasagne just as I put it in. We decided to go ahead with plans. The thing took about an hour to heat completely so we had some down time. Unfortunately, a jar of salsa and blue corn tortilla chips (yes, Trader Joe's...) were calling to me and I had myself a little munchfest. Steve busted me. Then he joined me. We were bad.

So the lasagne, Roasted Vegetable Multi-grain lasagne. Steve really, really, really liked it; I thought it was okay. Left to my own devices, I would not buy it again. But because Steve likes it so much, I know it will be dinner again some time soon. And I don't mind. It had a lot of tomatoes in it and lotsa veggies like broccoli bits, cauliflower bits, grated carrots..And the multi-grain part wasn't too bad. At worst it was too slimy and mushy. At best, it was a nice thickness of lasagne noodle with a little chew. The flavor, to me, was masked by all those darned tomatoes. Oh, there was a little bit of mozzarella cheese on top. So, nay on the pizza. And okay on the lasagne from me; really, really good from Steve.

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Broiled Chicken Breasts with Rib-bone

According to Steve, the dinner was a success. I made chicken breast on the rib bone with jasmine rice and sauteed escarole. The chicken was marinated in soy sauce (not the dark kind), lemon juice, lemon zest, black pepper, ground ginger, dried thyme and dried rosemary. Then I broiled it. The jasmine rice was cooked up with water and a little olive oil. It perfumed the kitchen nicely as it simmered away. The escarole was a pain in the ass to clean. (I don't have a salad spinner so it was extra cumbersome.) Anyway, I discarded the icky pieces and tore up some of the really big pieces and left the smaller ones whole. Then I heated up a minced garlic cube (*see blog: Garlic Cube) in a little olive oil. Then threw in the escarole. I sauteed it with the garlic, salt, lemon juice and red wine vinegar. And that was the menu for the evening. Broiled soy-marinated chicken breasts with rib bone, jasmine rice & garlic sauteed escarole. Wow, that sounds yummy!

Good News. The chicken skin came out all crispy with dark spots. The marinade didn't penetrate the meat completely but the chicken was flavorful. And very moist and tender as per Steve. Steve loved the escarole and wants me to make it more often. I like cooked greens. They're yummy but because I bought regular (instead of organic) I'm paranoid about pesticides. Not so much so that it stopped me from eating them though. It was worth it. And of course the fragrant jasmine rice. It was a very nice starch to have with the meal. Oh by the way, Steve confessed that he thought that I'd overcooked the chicken to death because of how dark it was. But he was very happy about it and said it wasn't burnt at all. Take a break & Eat Something Good!

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El Dorado Salvadorean Restaurant

Steve was doing some yard work today while I reclined in bed and televeged. *grin*. He mowed the lawn, raked some leaves, washed his motorcycle, both scooters and both cars. Nice. He did have a little helper today. And I did collect and take out the garbage from both bathrooms and the kitchen. And I did all the dishes. At least I did a little. Now Steve's doing laundry. And I'm baking cinnamon rolls. Picturing this makes me smile.

The cinnamon rolls will be a nice finish to a great meal we had tonight. We went to one of our favorite salvadorean restaurants, El Dorado in Brewster, NY. At first, I thought I was in the wrong place because they started serving pizza as well. Fortunately the stuff we came for was still there.

As per usual, I had two pork pupusas with curtido and tomato sauce. Curtido is sorta like cole slaw without the mayo . Then I had the carne asada. It's a thin steak, well seasoned, and then grilled. It's always cooked well done. And even though I prefer my steaks medium/medium rare, this steak tonight was very, very delicious. I almost felt guilty that I'd ordered the most delicious dish at the table. I gave my both of my dinner companions a little piece and they were all...Mmmm. I'm sure they would've preferred it to their grilled thinly sliced pork pieces. (When I wasn't feeling it with beef one day, I decided to try the pork. And it *is* very good. But when you want red meat, carne asada is better.)

My steak came with a simple iceberg lettuce salad with a half slice of tomato and a couple of onions. I used my lime wedge and squeezed it over the salad and added a little salt. (I would've put pepper too but there was none on our table and I didn't feel like dealing.) Also, there was rice (very nice) and what looked like a black bean puree. Re-fried beans, I'm sure. Duh. All very, very good. I wasn't in the least disappointed with tonight's dinner. It's been one of the best I've had in a long while. Aside form drinking water and pomegranate juice, I had two cups of coffee. And there ya have it! Do like I do and Eat Something Good!

El Dorado Restaurant
542 N Main St
Brewster, NY 10509

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Roma's Pizza

We took a motoride this evening to a place called Roma's. A place that the locals swear by in lower westchester county. And sometimes when Steve speaks excitedly about a place, I take it with a grain of salt. But tonight, he did good. The pizza was really good. Brick Oven. Thin crust. Hesitate to call it flaky cause I always think of buttery pastries. I can't call it crumbly either. But it was both. It was an imperfect crust with little areas of almost blackness. Burnt. But didn't taste burnt. It was really good. And the sauce, thumbs up. I like my sauce to have a good fresh tomato flavor mildly seasoned with herbs. Usually just basil. I don't like my pizza sauce to be too herby (especially if they're dried) or too spicy. I don't like spice at all on my regular cheese slices. Specialty pies are another story. Oh, the cheese was good. Gooey but not too much of it. I didn't feel like I was gagging on cheese. It's been an issue with me lately. On the ride down, I was having so much fun. I got the giggles and was laughing so hard that I made noise on the inhale. I was struggling to get air back into my lungs. The ride back was a little chilly here and there but we made it back in one piece. Why is it that the rides back always feel faster? Anyhow, I'm way tired. Niters.

Roma Restaurant
29 Columbus Ave
Tuckahoe, NY 10707

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