Friday, September 3, 2010

August Eating

Farewell to summer almost, but not to good eating. This past August I sampled Korean food , albacore tuna, Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate ice cream (to die for, BTW), and various pastries, though not all in one sitting.

The Korean food was quite an adventure. My friend and I stopped into a Korean Barbeque restaurant in the Fubonn shopping center on SE 82nd. We both ordered the same thing: The tofu bowl with mushrooms and cauliflower. When we'd walked in we saw a server pushing what looked like a dim sum cart over to a table of customers. To our surprise (one of many), our order came out on such a cart: a colorful display of 2 bowls and various little condiment dishes. As the server was placing the vast array in front of us, I wondered what we were supposed to do with all the little plates of things. Were they supposed to go into the boiling bowls of tofu & vegetables? Or do we eat them individually? We decided to eat them individually, and most were quite delicious: Potato with hardened honey on them, kimchi, bean sprouts (probably mung bean), cole slaw, cucumber and seaweed salad; and 2 eggs. After grazing on the condiments for a time, my friend asked me, "Do you think the eggs are raw or cooked?" I said, "Of course they're cooked. But I could be wrong." She decided to open one to find out. It was raw! Oh, we said; so that's why the tofu soup was boiling -- so we could do an egg-flower-soup kind of thing and break the egg into it. Now, of course, the tofu soup had stopped boiling, so of course we didn't eat the eggs.

Then, for our 14th wedding anniversary, my husband and I treated ourselves to the fine dining restaurant Wildwood. This is where I had albacore tuna -- and when the server asked how I wanted it, I said "cooked." Well done? Medium well? Well done tends to come out dry, he said, so I opted for medium well. There were long green beans underneath the tuna when it came out, artfully presented on the plate. Best, it was all delicious. I ate every bite, and so did Steve, who'd ordered duck confit, which is roasted duck, and vegetables. Neither of our portions were a lot, but with the starter salad we ordered -- a frisee with bacon and curly greens -- it was just right. We even ordered dessert, and shared a splendid chocolate cake with chocolate icing, baked in a ring mold with a wonderful sort of vanilla-flavored sabayon (sauce) around it on the plate -- again, another lovely presentation, and with one lone, charming little candle to celebrate our union. We blew out the candle together, and each of us devoured exactly half the little cake. Yum. An excellent restaurant for our excellent adventure in dining out to celebrate. Great pick!

Technically, it was September -- 2 to be exact -- when I first tasted Haagen-Dazs's Dark Chocolate ice cream. What a treat. Just melts in your mouth, man. And there's still some left!

So, yes, I did go back to talking about food in restaurants, although those restaurant excursions have indeed been cut way back due to time and money considerations. However, I am still in Baking & Pastry School at the Art Institute, and boy, have we been busy. See my next blog for all my baking adventures in school!
Buon appetito!
ciao
Deb

No comments:

Post a Comment