This wasn't supposed to be a blog post, just dinner on Monday night. There are no photos of cherry tomatoes casually rolling toward the edge of the counter, or a scatter of pasta strategically positioned behind the bowl. There's not even a fork, just a quick snapshot because I was texting it to Wolf to get him to hurry up on home. Then, I was pleasantly surprised by how fast and delicious it actually was, so, well, here we are. Gemelli con salsiccia e pomodorini…which sounds fancy, no? Gemelli with sausage and cherry tomatoes. Let’s go.
Beets were on my top food offender list when I was a kid. Beets didn’t come from a farm or the grocery store, they came from a salad bar. Sizzler, Soup Plantation, even Carl’s Jr. (yes, they had a salad bar in the ol' days) all had ‘em. Sliced or julienned, my auntie would pile…
This week, fall has slammed into us full force. The rain came in over the weekend, and then last night, it was stormy enough that we lost power for a few hours in the middle of the night. It's a good thing, the yard is in desperate need of a soaking, and with that soaking,…
I’m tiptoeing into Fall. The last few mornings there’s been more of a chill in the air, but the afternoons are still warm. I'm still wearing flip-flops, but with long sleeve t-shirts. My cherry tomato in a hanging pot is in its second wind. This is when we keep our fingers crossed for one last push. Last night’s pasta carried that forward. Summer's Lite Brite punches of heirloom tomato and basil were left behind, making way for the earthiness of mushroom. We (er, I) haven’t quite given ourselves (read: myself) over entirely to the autumn, but this mushroom ragu was a first tentative step.
Some nights you just need a little detox, a light dinner to take the edge off days-in-a-row of too much rich food, or a little too much imbibing. OJ calls that meal, "Japanese Dinner." It's clean -- simply cubed tofu topped with green onions and drizzled with soy sauce, served with rice and quick pickled…
From the outside, Ba Bar (yes, Ba. Bar. Not the elephant.) looks like a coffee place. Its big windows face the street, and even as you step inside, the espresso bar with a few baked items is on your right. The floors are acid washed concrete. Walk into the main dining space and off to one side, there's an enormous, typical Pacific Northwest-looking wood bar. You might take it for a gastropub. But sit down and the menu in front of you is...Vietnamese street food.
There's almost nothing more comforting than a bowl of noodles. No matter what country it comes from -- China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, Italy, heck, even America -- noodles fill your belly and soothe the soul. So it should be no surprise that after a 6-hour flight from Seattle to Kauai, our first stop was Hamura Saimin in Lihue.
Have you ever stood in the pasta aisle at your grocery store and noticed they carry 4-5 different brands of spaghetti or farfalle? Then they've got capellini, fettuccini, linguine, orecchiette, penne, orzo, and then you get down to the bottom shelf and there are the egg noodles. But where are the large elbow macaroni? Small elbows, check. Large elbows? Nope. When did the large elbow fall out of favor? Did it get pushed out by the whole wheat and rice pasta?
The La Palma Chicken Pie Shop in Anaheim, California is an institution (an institution without a Web site, so you know they're old school and proud of it). I haven't been in years, probably double-digit years, but it doesn't look like it's changed much, still a classic 50s-era coffee shop/diner with naugahyde booths and counter seating.