Once a month, my mom gets together with some of her friends to play bridge and eat dinner together. My mom plays bridge with the husbands while the aunties chat and prepare dinner. Since I was in town, I helped prepare dinner and chatted with the aunties (rather, I listened to them since I can’t speak Chinese that well). For May’s party, we drove to Asheboro, about 30 minutes from Greensboro, for the monthly party.
Here’s this month’s spread:
Sauteed vegetables:
Short ribs:
Whole fish with garlic and ginger:
Stir-fried noodles with shrimp:
Ribs with black bean sauce:
Edamame with black pepper and sesame seeds:
Mung bean noodles with peanut sauce and cucumbers:
Spinach with shrimp:
Cold plate homemade kimchi radishes, bean sprouts, thinly sliced vegetables, bamboo, and sliced liver:
Aunt Yimin preparing her dish, fish cutlets with chili peppers, cilantro, and various sauces:
The fish dish:
Her husband, Dr. Zhang, made a fruit focaccia – the focaccia was topped with almonds, cherries, blueberries, and apricot or raspberry jam:
A picture of me with the Zhang’s:
The party was really fun; my mom had fun playing bridge with her friends and I had fun helping the aunties prepare dinner. Since the potluck/bridge game rotates every month based on the guest list, everyone said they’d drive to NYC for dinner in August!
By
grace.g.yang
· May 6, 2010
Under:
Uncategorized Over the weekend, my mom and I went to Super G (the Asian market in Greensboro) and I found these:
No, it’s not a lemon – here’s a side by side comparison:
The fruit hails from Mexico, you eat the seeds, and the flesh is white. Any ideas?
When I’m not in the mood to cook dinner, David and I usually walk to Whole Foods to pick up a rotisserie chicken, some veggies, and some fresh fruit for a quick dinner. The other night, I was in the mood for having chicken with mayonnaise (maybe because I wanted to improve on the chicken salad I had at Fairway Cafe). I had most of the ingredients for a basic chicken salad (mayonnaise from my lobster roll party and celery from making chicken noodle soup when I was sick). Adding in some rotisserie chicken, some walnuts, and spreading it on my homemade focaccia made a really quick and delicious weeknight dinner. If I make it again, I’d add something sweet – maybe some dried cherries from Trader Joe’s or some fresh grapes (my mom loves adding grapes to chicken salad!)
Basic Chicken Salad
Ingredients
1 rotisserie chicken
1 cup walnuts, chopped
3-4 stalks celery, finely chopped
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon black pepper
First, finely chop your celery:
Add your black pepper:
Toss in some chicken:
Add your mayonnaise:
Add the walnuts and toss:
Serve with a side of bread or just eat it straight out of the bowl:
Next time, I’m going to combine the mayonnaise with the celery before I add in the chicken so the chunks can be preserved better. This is also great for preparing beforehand and saving for a picnic!
What do you add to your chicken salads?
I usually don’t talk about my personal life, but there’s no time like the present to start! A couple weeks ago, I went out on a date with Joe’s co-worker. Since we’d never met before, Joe suggested we get together for drinks first to see if we would hit it off. We decided to meet at The Barrel, a wine bar in the east village.
We started off with a bottle of Malbec and also decided to get some snacks since it was around dinner time. To start, the waitress brought along three butters and bread:
Paul was really impressed with the different types of butters – it’s actually the first time I’ve been to a restaurant where they’ve presented three different flavored butters (the closest second would be Del Posto, which gives you regular butter and lardo).
After we placed our order, we got a tiny amuse bouche of goat cheese on toast:
Side story: I was really nervous to be on a date and I wasn’t paying much attention to what we were ordering. Paul mentioned that their servings were really small and we ordered something else with goat cheese, so I thought that amuse bouche was our actual dish! It wasn’t…and I felt like a complete idiot.
We ordered two flatbreads – Smoked Salmon & Goat Cheese Flatbread with fried shallots & capers:
Prosciutto & Sun-dried Tomato Flatbread with gruyere cheese:
The smoked salmon didn’t taste quite right on the flatbread but we were both fans of the prosciutto.
We also decided to order the chef’s tasting of canapes:
The beets and hearts of palm were good (although not difficult to prepare) but the rest of the canapes weren’t great (or even good). Paul was not a fan of the pork and chicken liver (neither was I). We finished our bottle of Malbec and decided to get another drink, so we went with some dessert wine to go along with our chocolate souffle:
Oh.my.god this “souffle” was absolutely terrible; it was sponge-like yet heavy and also a little dry. The only good thing about the dessert was the banana ice cream!
So my date with Paul was semi-successful; before we went out, Joe told me that if Paul didn’t like me, he would let me know right away (luckily, he didn’t tell me that he didn’t like me). We were going to go on a second date, but Joe intervened and decided that it wasn’t a good match. So, Barrel might be a good place for a first date, but only for the wine – the food is definitely not worth an individual visit.
Two weeks ago, Soren and I met up for a late afternoon lunch at Keith McNally’s newest restaurant, Pulino’s. Pulino’s has been getting a lot of buzz; the chef, Nate Appleman, was plucked from the west coast specifically to open this pizza joint on the lower east side for Keith McNally. We were both excited to try it out, especially since we’re such big fans of Balthazar, Schiller’s, and Minetta Tavern.
We started out with Mozzarella Burrata with roasted beets, tuscan olive oil & sea salt:
I’m not a huge fan of ordering mozzarella at restaurants, but burrata holds a special spot in my heart because it is just so delicious. The roasted beets contrasted nicely with the creamy and perfectly salted burrata.
Originally, we wanted to order an appetizer, a main course, and two pizzas, but our waiter quickly pointed out that the pizzas were probably going to fill us up. We decided to order two pizzas and then order more if we were still hungry. I ordered the Salsiccia (sausage, tomato, mozzarella, broccoli rabe, chiles & pecorino):
The sausage was a little heavy but the broccoli rabe was crispy (so was the crust). The waiter also brought along house made chili oil to go along with the perfectly charred crust. Want to see it? Here you go:
We also ordered the Salame Piccante (salame piccante, tomato, mozzarella, olives, oregano & chiles):
Our waiter told us that the salami is cured in-house and that it was one of the more popular pizzas. We both liked the pizza, but thought that it was a bit too salty (the combination of olives and salami was a bit too much for both of us).
We really enjoyed our lunch at Pulino’s and the waiters were really nice; not too overbearing but very attentive with refilling our waters. Some shots of the interior:
The bar area:
My friend went for breakfast and said that all of the pizzas were really wonderful (and he bakes bread for a living!). The restaurant is already packed for dinner reservations and our late lunch was already a little busy, but if you plan on going to Pulino’s without a reservation, definitely go for lunch.
