By
grace.g.yang
· October 9, 2009
Under:
My Life,
UWS Over the weekend, I had a date with my favorite little girl, Faire. We made plans to visit the American Museum of Natural History to see monkeys and dinosaurs (her favorites!) Here are some pictures of our date:
Faire’s impression of a turtle:
Check out her amazingly adorable red leather shoes:
I love this picture of Faire looking at monkeys while she’s snacking on prunes and crackers:
After the museum, we headed across the street to the park and went to the little playground and went on the swings and this slide:
Isn’t she the cutest? Check out her post from last week.
Last Thursday, after a really fun night at a gdgt.com event, I headed to Luke’s Lobster to check out their lobster rolls. Surprisingly, I never had lobster rolls growing up; living in central Illinois does not bode well for fresh seafood. Everytime I had lobster, it was prepared in a traditional Chinese way (stir-fried with scallions, and garlic). However, once I moved to New York City, I discovered the greatness of the lobster roll and have enjoyed many since.
My favorite type of lobster roll has just enough mayonnaise and a very buttery (toasted) bun. I’ve had some pretty bad lobster rolls; Martha’s Vineyard sold some that were pretty terrible (the lobster just didn’t have any taste), and please do not get me started on the crap they serve at Ed’s.
When I arrived at Luke’s, I wasn’t expecting much. The restaurant is more like a take-out joint (they only have a couple bar stools) and it’s sandwiched between the Caracas Arepa’s Bars:
The place was quite packed when we got there and it looked like almost everyone was ordering the lobster roll. Luke’s also serves shrimp rolls and crab rolls (and even a combo of all three!!) The lunchbox is also a good choice and it includes an Empress Crab claw, a soda, and a bag of chips:
Here are the employees cheerfully preparing our lobster rolls:
The lobster is pre-packaged (each is 4 ounces and they cut it in half when you order a 2 ouncer). The shrimp and crab is also packed and stored in the fridge at the front of the shop:
Luke is from Maine, so the soda choices aren’t your usual Coke/Pepsi products – they’re soda’s from Maine that are extra tasty. A close up of the lobster:
And the shrimp:
Finally, the lobster roll I ordered:
Luke’s Lobster doesn’t really fit into the criteria for my kind of lobster roll; their lobster doesn’t have any mayonnaise on it and the seasonings on the lobster are very simple (salt, pepper, and celery salt). The bun has a squirt of mayo on it and THAT’S IT. Surprisingly, i actually REALLY loved it! The lobster was in HUGE chunks and it was some of the most tender lobster I’ve ever eaten. The only thing I didn’t like – the mayo was really unevenly spread, so some bites were extremely mayo-filled and some didn’t have any at all. I’d probably use a knife to spread the mayo more evenly in the future.
Luke’s was a great surprise and I definitely plan on returning very soon to fill up my frequent buyers card (buy 10 lobster rolls and you get one free!!) They’re $14 each, so it’s much cheaper than a lot of the stuff in the city AND they’re open until 2AM on the weekends.
One of my favorite types of fish to eat is cod. I fell in love with it in Spain; my family went to the Boqueria in Barcelona and ate at Bar Pinotxo, where they served cod with potatoes and tomato sauce – a simple dish that might’ve been the best cod I’ve ever had. The bar seats 14 and has amazing food, but that’s a post for another time. I’ve had some pretty awesome cod in New York as well – places that come to mind: Pearl Oyster Bar and A Salt and Battery. Since eating out is not always an option (time, money, finding dinner companions), I decided to buy some cod at Trader Joe’s and make some at home. The dish is REALLY easy to make and it turns out I had everything in my fridge, so I didn’t have to run to the grocery store to pick anything up. You might have the ingredients, too, especially if you made the spaghetti alla carbonara from last week!
Ingredients:
1-2 cod fillets
1/2 cup of basil leaves (freshly picked from the Aerogarden!
1 small handful of thyme (also picked from the Aerogarden!)
A little olive oil
Black pepper
2 tablespoons of chicken broth
1 lemon
A pinch of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese
First, I placed the basil into my handy dandy mixer and added the lemon juice and chicken broth:
Next, add the parmesan:
Side note: if you don’t have a mixer in your house, you can always just roughly chop up the basil and mix everything together.
After, add the garlic powder and black pepper and pulse the mixer:
Funny story: apparently my handy dandy mixer wasn’t completely closed or has a leak in it because when I started to pulse it, basil, lemon juice, and chicken broth came out and splashed all over me! Minor set-back, I somehow made it through this dinner.
After 10 seconds of pulsing, you should get a slightly watery mix like this:
I didn’t have any thyme in my original picture, but I wanted to show you guys that I used thyme from the Aerogarden!!:
So we have our “pesto,” now we have to work on cooking the cod. First, I cut the cod into two portions (although I ended up eating both portions because I was hungry and the cod was really delicious):
I added some butter to the pan and placed both pieces of cod on the hot pan:
Then, I added some of the pesto (about two spoonfuls on each, getting the chunkier bits into the pan):
Now, this is where some of you guys may differ from my preparation, but for some reason, I really like the taste of slightly burnt parmesan cheese. Since i like that taste, I flipped over the fish (with the pesto on it) and made sure the pesto kind of burned on the pan (which I transferred to a plate later). You can wait until the fish is cooked to add the pesto (about 6 minutes on each side using a medium heat), but I think the heat really brings out the wonderful parmesan flavor. After cooking for about 12 minutes, I took the cod out of the pan and added some more pesto:
The fish is super easy to make and was really satisfying – the sauce is good enough to drink (which I may or may not have done). The pan seared cod is perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner!
Cost breakdown:
1 cod fillets (half of the bag from Trader Joe’s, which totaled $7.50) – $3.75
1/2 cup of basil leaves (freshly picked from the Aerogarden! – since it came from the Aerogarden, which was a gift, I’ll have to say free
1 small handful of thyme (also picked from the Aerogarden!) – since it came from the Aerogarden, which was a gift, I’ll have to say free
A little olive oil – olive oil costs about $8 for the jar and I used about 1 tablespoon, so I’ll just guess and say about $.25
Black pepper – let’s be serious – I’m never going to use this thing up but we’ll say it cost $.25
2 tablespoons of chicken broth – chicken broth cost $2.29 and I still have about half of the container left (even after I took out those TWO tablespoons!), so we’ll say $.10
1 lemon – $.50
A pinch of garlic powder – can we just say free?
2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese – $0.20
Total: $5.05
Are you doing anything next Tuesday night? Well, if you don’t have plans for October 13th and you’re interested in pickling, I have the perfect event for you! The American Museum of Natural History is hosting an awesome event called “The Magic of Pickling,” where you’ll learn why pickling is so popular, what kinds of food pickle well, and learn about the history of pickling!
Lucy Norris, an oral historian, ethnographer, and author of Pickled: Preserving a World of Tastes and Traditions, joins local pickle maker Bob McClure of McClure’s Pickles to answer these questions and more in this new installment of the Global Kitchen series.
Attendees will also learn about the history of pickling and how cultures across the globe have tinkered with pickling recipes to make dishes spanning the gamut of tastes. Tastings are included. The event costs $20/pp and sounds like it will be a LOT of fun. For tickets, call 212.769.5200 or visit ww.amnh.org I’m attending the event (the museum has graciously given me a free ticket) and will report back on the 14th!
Funny story: last week, I didn’t post an Aerogarden update on Tuesday. I didn’t think anyone would mind, but someone actually twittered and asked about the post! I was REALLY flattered that someone would actually REMEMBER that Tuesday was Aerogarden day! I was thinking about phasing out the Aerogarden updates (especially because I haven’t really been using the herbs yet), but I’ll stick to Tuesday posts until I hear otherwise from you guys. Onto the update!
As I mentioned in last week’s post, lowing the lamp makes a huge difference for the stragglers – just look at the left side of the picture:
Notice how the smaller plants have grown a lot since last week?! The one that surprised me the most was oregano:
The leaves are starting to look larger and it looks like it’s almost time to use them!
The dill is also doing a lot better since the lamp was raised:
And the chives have almost hit the lamp, although I wish there were more so I could use them in a recipe:
The thyme has been getting a little crazy, but I used a bunch in a recipe (I’ll post about that tomorrow):
And I just plucked a bunch of basil before taking this picture (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow as well):
Finally, I’m not quite sure what I should do with this mint:
Because it 1. doesn’t taste like mint and 2. I’m not sure if it’s edible or not. Any suggestions? Maybe I could use it as an air freshener!
