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Author: Livia N

Dining Out for Life

I try to participate in Dining Out for Life every year, but I often end up too busy or distracted.

Well, this year I managed to go out for both lunch and dinner!

Oddly, however, there must have been a shortage of volunteers this year as neither venue had someone stopping by the tables to talk about the event, nor were there envelopes with the check to encourage you to donate even more to HIV research.

Lunch – Pod
I had been there once before for dinner for a Dining Out for Life and had ended up with mediocre sushi off of their conveyor belt. But I tried it again because it really is quite convenient to where I work. (I have been told since that other people manage to really enjoy their sushi and that my experience was unusual.) This time, I ordered from the menu.

Despite being told that the mushroom fried rice was exceptional, I was distracted by the Thai Chicken Salad (Thai chili dressing, avocados, peanuts, oven-dried tomatoes and egg with shredded lettuce and napa cabbage). I ordered it with the dressing on the side, and it ended up delivered dressed – but the dressing was well balanced and the salad didn’t feel wet at all.

Oh, and I also could not resist the chicken potstickers. The dough tasted oddly like a perogie (perhaps it had been cooked down with onions?), but had a nice amount of browning and it was a delicious (though I’m not sure intentional) fusion. There wasn’t regular dipping sauce, only mustard aoli. I was surprised that I did not mind the substitution at all. Yum! If I hadn’t gone with a friend, I would have been tempted to order a second round of the dumplings they were so good.

Dinner – Lemongrass Thai
This was my first time going, and I went with two friends.

We ordered thai iced teas, and this might be the sweetest one I’ve ever had. I’m not saying it was bad, but I did ponder asking for a little more tea to even it out (did not ask, though).

The menu is laid out weirdly: first regional specialties, then chef specials, other entrees, vegetarian options, and then more specials hidden away at the back.

I ordered the Eggplant Stinger (marked with three chili peppers for spiciness – Steamed Thai eggplants lightly sautéed until golden brown, then braised with chicken, garlic, hot chili peppers and fresh basil). It wasn’t spicy at all, but the eggplant melted in my mouth and the overall dish was quite good. The flavors were a bit more muddled than the best Thai places I have been to, but it was very tasty.

One of my friends ordered the Salmon Supreme (fillet of salmon wrapped in grape leaves and grilled to perfection, served with mild Tamarind fruit sauce). The chicken was cooked quite thoroughly, which we both liked and it didn’t have a texture of being overcooked at all. The grape leaves were theoretically edible, but I picked them off of my bite, as they were rather thickly wrapped. It felt as though they should have been using tobacco leaves or something sturdier and smokier. And then the tamarind sauce was lovely – I am taking quite a shine to light/sweet-ish tamarind sauces these days.

And my other friend ordered the Masaman curry* with chicken (rich red curry peanut sauce with coconut milk, onions and potatoes – and three strips of red bell pepper). I think this was probably the best dish of the meal. The cocnut really sang, and it was worth eating until we were overfull.

After the fact, I went and read some other reviews online, and several of them complained about the service. I don’t know what to say about that… our servers were reasonably attentive and my water was refilled frequently, but it was oddly not quite friendly. And they ended up asking my party to leave so that they could seat another party even though we were looking out at a mostly empty room (not the only dining room) and we had only been there an hour and a half (i.e. we were leisurely, but not obscenely so). So I’m not sure on that point.

*note: for more reviews of Masaman curry in the Philadelphia area, it’s a dish that Mac & Cheese talks about.

Waverly Farmers’ Market

I love my local farmers’ market. That said, I get very excited whenever I have a chance to visit Baltimore and go to the one in Waverly.

There are a wide variety of prepared foods – from the Curry Shack to the mango sticky rice vendor. Oh, and there was a woman there this last time whose soups looked delicious, but I was on my way to brunch after.

My prepared food purchase this trip was some granola. I wandered over to Michele’s Granola and was drawn to taste the Ginger Hemp, and didn’t even bother to try to others before buying. The ginger flavor could be more pronounced and I would still be happy. But it’s gluten free, so it’s fully of many different seeds and toasted coconut, and it has this nice woody taste. I’ve been especially enjoying mixing it with dried cranberries.

And then I bought butter. Seriously, I’ve been wanting to gush about this farmers’ market for about two weeks now, but I held off because I wanted to make sure I had bought my butter first. Sometimes they sell out. South Mountain Creamery makes the tastiest butter in the world. It’s made with pure cream, and they estimate that it’s 42% butterfat. I buy the salted version, and it’s prenty salted and perfect. There are times when I have been tempted to just dive facefirst into the container of butter it is so good. For Passover, there’s usually some need to change things up a bit for the bland boring breakfasts – maybe some matzoh brei or matzoh meal pancakes. Oh, no – I just went through a couple pounds of matzoh with nothing but this butter and considered it a luxury indulgence. So good!

There’s also a woman who goes to the farmers’ market who sells fresh peas and beans. I woke up extra special early so that I’d be able to get there before she sold out (there’s usually a line and swarming and it’s not pretty), only she wasn’t there. I brought a cooler for her peas! I guess I’ll have to hope the season hasn’t passed by the next time I’ll be in the area (mid June-ish).

I did catch the guy who was there selling nothing but his fresh asparagus picked that morning.

What else? There’s one produce vendor who is more awesome than the many awesome produce vendors, but I have no idea his farm’s name, so I can’t link you to him. He’s a real sweetheart, though.

And the people with the ginger and the salsas are always very patient with my taking many delicious samples but never buying anything. Though in the dead heat of summer, their ginger drink will sustain you though your shopping.

And the mushroom people! Wide varieties of fresh mushrooms! I’ve never had a mushroom dish planned, so I’ve never bought from her because I was afraid of wasting the expensive fungus. Maybe, you know, planning around buying mushrooms wouldn’t be a bad idea sometime in the future.

Oh, and there was a new guy! He had his big copper kettle and was popping popcorn right there. It seemed an odd thing to pay for when I have only recently discovered the joys of popping my own, but a friend of mine was telling me that she loves his product and that it keeps for over a week.

So, yeah, I make excuses to see my friends in Baltimore so that I can schedule trips to the farmers’ market.

Gardening

I am very excited that I might actually have a real garden in my backyard this summer. I have done all of the prep work and put in the stakes for the tomatoes, and now all that’s left is putting the plants in the ground (and managing to have them not be killed by squirrels or lack of water).

Now if you are thinking that I am a proper locavore who is doing this to be closer to nature or organic gardening or some such, let me tell you how I first got into gardening. My sister and I went to Space Camp, so we got on a list that was invited to try growing Seeds from Space! Sorry, let me say it again = Seeds From Spaaace! *glee*

So before the Challenger explosion, a satellite (the Long Duration Exposure Facility – LDEF) was installed into orbit. The plan was to see how well various construction materials would withstand orbit in space, and they contracted out space to non-government experiments as well. And one of the experiments was to test 25 pounds of seeds.

So we received our packet of seeds, and we weren’t told whether they were space seeds or control. And we got out a little lab notebook and grew them. And it was awesome. They were delicious. My sister and I had never had read tomatoes ripened on a vine before. And we preserved seeds and observed the same strain of tomatoes for about three generations. And then we started adding other varieties and some hot peppers… and we had kept a garden ever since. And ever since I’ve moved to the city, I have been craving my own garden, instead of having to drive out to the suburbs to forage from my parents’ garden.

This year looks like success.

So I’m planning what to plant:

Garden

  • 4 tomato plants
    • 2 early girl
    • 1 grape
    • 1 roma
    • I am really tempted to try to plant more, but I don’t really have the space, and I don’t know that I’ll be sharing the harvest with that many people
  • hot peppers
    • 1 regular jalapeno
    • I saved seeds from my neighbor’s garden last year that had small jalapenos that turned red quickly
    • maybe something else
  • Squash – I saved some delicata seeds last summer, so I’ll see if they sprout. Otherwise, I have no idea. But just 1 squash, whatever the variety
  • Herbs
    • Basil – I hear it does especially well near tomato plants
    • Cilantro? I always manage to kill it in pots. Maybe it will do better in the ground
  • onions? I have an onion that was sprouting that I properly rooted. I hear that alliums help deter insects

Small pots on my porch

  • 6 – 4″ pots (need to buy 3 more to replace cracked ones)
    • dill
    • parsley
    • sage
    • thai basil
    • marjoram or savory
    • lovage
  • 6 – 6″ pots (need to buy 2 to replace cracked ones – there was an incident with a dog with a loose leash on my porch last summer)
    • bronze fennel
    • more parsley?
    • more rosemary
    • lettuce
    • ?
    • ?
  • up to 4 – 6-8″ pots (I have three plastic 6″ whose rims are too wide for the other plant stand)
    no plans yet for this stand

Step 3: Profit!

I want a whole field to plant. There are so many things that I just keep not even considering because I don’t have the space.

experiment #2 with mustard oil – Potatoes with onions and peppers

How did you miss experiment number 1? Easily. I hadn’t posted about it yet.

Well, there I was reading A Mad Tea Party‘s back catalog of entries, and I came across this piece about the joys of mustard oil, and I was intrigued. A few months later, I decided to give it a try and dropped her a comment for help finding the piece and looking for suggestions, and she has generously become my guide to this new-to-me lipid.

So I went to my local Indian grocer and located the mustard oil – all of which was explicitly labeled at massage oil, not for consumption. So I went to the guy behind the counter and commiserated with him about the evils of US Customs and their regulations on importing foodstuffs, but I was assured that it was good quality and edible and just the thing I was looking for.

So experiment 1 was going to be with the mashed sweet potatoes served at Cooking with Catladies. Only not only did I decide that they didn’t need any oil, but also I found the taste of the mustard oil surprisingly strong. Straight out of the bottle, it tasted of dark green, earthy things – sort of like gnawing on the very dark tip of leeks. Which I do, so it’s not a deal breaker, but it did put off subsequent experiments.

So I wrote a comment to the original inspiration for the experiment, and I asked her if it was supposed to taste like that (just in case). And heard back that it was indeed, and that high heat cooking mellows out the flavor.

Well, I do surprisingly little high heat cooking. It’s the combination of my love for electric ranges and my love for non-stick cookware. Yes, I know I have no class. I’m okay with that, and it’s easy to make rice and wash dishes.

But I’m still excited about the mustard oil.

So when I was looking for something to do with two scrawny remaining potatoes, I reached for the mustard oil.

Potatoes with onions and peppers

I poured 2 teaspoons of mustard oil into a pan, and turned up the heat.

When the oil had spread out, I added 1 tsp mustard seeds (and propped a larger skillet over top because they pop up and get everywhere otherwise).

After the mustard seeds were popping away gleefully, I threw in 2 potatoes, cut into pieces just a bit larger that 1cm squared; 1 diced yellow onion; and 2 jalapeno peppers, de-seeded and sliced.

When the onions became limp, I added 2 minced cloves of garlic and a frozen cube of minced cilantro.

I added some curry powder, and that dried things out a bit too much, so I added water. I had the feeling that dicing a fresh tomato into the mix would have been the perfect option here, but I didn’t have any fresh and a can would have been too much.

The end product was tasty. Actually, it was a little too oily, but the oil flavor was mild and delightful and it was not strong at all.

Victory!

When I first went to register this domain name, I was shocked that all permutations of nocounterspace were available despite its applicability to both cooking and interior design. 12 hours later, .com was taken. Grrr! Squatters!

But I said, “La la la – let them have .com – .net is good enough for me.”

A couple weeks ago, though, the squatter had the balls to email me and ask, “So didn’t you want this domain? Look it’s all shiny.”

And I wrote him a fun email denouncing the whole squatting thing and saying that I was perfectly happy with my .net anyway. Thank you.

Only, I randomly googled a little bit later, and all of a sudden the domain was free. Hee!

So, yeah, now nocounterspace.com will redirect here. (sorry, interior designers)