Night on the town.

We went to thein NYC. Fun joint, lots of whiskey and I had two of the worst drinks I've ever had in my life.
A pickelback, that's a shot of tasty whiskey that doesn't really require a chaser, which is then chased with a shot of pickle brine.
And a Dark and stormy. The dark and stormy was pretty much the worst thing I had ever tasted, ginger ale, sugar, rum, sugar, orange peels, sugar and to top it off some sickly sweet gingery liquid.
Maybe this was a well made dark and stormy but still... I shall not be ordering it again anytime soon.

Then we went to a tea house and waited in a tiny tiny space for almost an hour to get a table. As you can see Alex fits into the tiny space better then me. Anyone else ever notice I appear to be quite a large guy?



During our hour long wait my girlfriend was obsessively taking picture of this cute lesbian couple on a date.
I ordered a round of mochi, little balls of rice dough wrapped around dark chocolate mousse and green tea mousse. Phenomenal, though it seems the mochi wrapper was so thin that it was more of a chocolate and green tea mousse delivery system, totally not something to complain about.
Tamara and Alex both got the green tea creme brulee. I tasted a little bite and it was pretty phenomenally tasty. Tamara got some sort of green milky drink which was interesting but even she didn't really remember what it was once it arrived.
Tasty night in NYC! Thanks Tamara for hosting us!!!

-NOM!

Berg Beef Spring Rolls!

So my girlfriend is a little obsessed with spring rolls. By a little obsessed, I mean my barely tips the scale above 100 lbs girlfriend can put down 12-15 spring rolls the size of a Hooot-pocket in a sitting and will probably dip into the fridge and make a few more later on that day... and for lunch the next day and as a "snack" while I'm making dinner.

Basically I'm just saying we tend to eat a lot of spring rolls. This is probably the best spring roll I've had to date. We start off with my brother-in-law's secret family recipe for Berg Beef. I can't tell you exactly what's in it but here is a picture of the ingredients.

And here is the caption, from the left along the top, skirt steak, dark brown sugar, sesame oil, Teriyaki sauce, dijon mustard, white sugar, and at the bottom green onions and garlic. OK so the recipe may not be as secret as I led you to believe.

This is a picture of the beef rubbed with the mustard garlic and green onions.

Here is a picture of the liquid marinade made from a whole bottle of teriyaki, a cup and a half of sugar and brown sugar mixed together, and a couple tablespoons of sesame oil.
We marinated the steaks for a few hours and broiled it in the oven.(why the F are we broiling things in the summer heat in NYC)(because I'm stupid - more on this later!)

Now we've gotten our Berg Beef out of the oven and let it rest for 20 minutes. The resting is immensely important a juicy succulent well cooked piece of meat can be utterly ruined by cutting it too early turning it into a dried out tough hunk of flesh.
After we've properly rested our meat we assemble the other ingredients for the spring rolls. My girlfriend is also very assiduous about washing all the veggies since it will be eaten raw, I think she's a little nuts, but I've never had e-coli poisoning and I think I'd like to keep it that way.

Julienned carrots cucumbers and sliced green onions, lettuce, arugula, parsley, rice noodles and rice paper wrappers. I tossed the rice noodles in oil and the juice from the bottom of the pan I cooked the berg beef in. The hot sauce is Yank Sing XO sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
You dip the rice paper wrappers into some hot water and try to toss it onto your plate before they melt and fold up into a big ball. Stack everything on your wrapper and fold it up into a neat little package. (some people are better at this then others, I'm not naming any names, but my sister might not be employed at our spring roll cart anytime soon. she makes them the size of a football, talk about high food costs!

Spring rolls are a great mixture of cooked and raw ingredients, I actually love them, but don't tell my girlfriend I'll never be able to eat anything else!



To be honest the Berg Beef was so good I volunteered to help clean up the cutting board I used for the meat. I had to use an improvised sponge. Yumm cleaning up can be soooo Tasty. I mean rewarding. yeah mom, rewarding.

-NOM!

Dinner at Tamara's

My sister bravely allowed me and Jessie to come stay with them in NYC. This is one of the meals we prepared to thank them.

Jessie is a master sangria maker we stopped at the market and bought some fruits and berries, wine gin and ginger ale.
Delicious mango, apples oranges and blackberries.

I brined a chicken with thyme and garlic and green onions for 2 days and the baked it at 450 degrees for one hour in 90+ degree heat(this was a really bad plan. I'm pretty stupid when it comes to amazingly delicious food)
It came out well pretty well nice golden skin and moist delicious meat (it's the salt not any doing of my own)


A few days before this me and my girlfriend had stopped in the park to eat an ice cream sandwich. I decided that commercially made ice cream sandwiches you buy from a guy in a truck while delicious, kinda suck. So I decided to make my own! I made a sheet of brownies on a cookie sheet so it would be as thin as possible. Then I cut ice cream sandwich sized chunks out and filled them with delicious vanilla ice cream.


Shazam! Ice cream treats! They were very tasty but I'd like to get the brownies even thinner. Using vanilla ice cream instead of the shit( cool whip)? they put into a normal ice cream sandwich made it LOADS better though.

Pretty tasty, there were also some sides. Mashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus but so I want you to form a picture in your head of creamy fluffy mashed potatoes with lots of butter and cream and garlic and some decadent dark green spears. Sorry I know that's kinda lazy but you know what mashed potatoes and asparagus looks like and I didn't take any pictures.

-NOM!

Peking Duck House!

Welcome to part one of the peking duck feast, The peking duck. This was at the Peking Duck House in chinatown 28 Mott St. NYC



I would rate this peking duck at about a 9 on the standard scale to 12. The skin was a little tough rather then the melt in your mouth crispy that I have come to expect in San Francisco but the meat tasted great and the fixings included cucumber in addition to the standard spring onions.

All in all not the best duck I've ever had but it was free(thanks Sis) so who am I to complain? What is that you say? I always find something to complain about food? No, no it's all just constructive criticism.

The rest of the meal was awesome. I love NYC chinese food more then San Francisco Chinese food even though in SF it is supposed to be more "authentic" but the heavier darker more flavorful sauces are really phenomenal in NYC. I guess I'll just have to tour around china for the final vote... Damn, the sacrifices I make for you, the reader.

-Nom!