ND Food & Travel Posts

It's been a long, long time since I did a food update. I think that the ramen and salmon wellington were real highlights.

Meals

American Chinese Chicken Fingers

https://feedgrump.com/chinese-chicken-fingers/

Not too difficult of a recipe, but it felt like an achievement to make the breaded chicken fingers I would get from Chinese takeout in my hometown. The recipe says it's more New England than classic American Chinese.

Ciasto z całych pomarańczy

https://madameedith.com/przepis/ciasto-z-calych-pomaranczy/

Looked up Polish orange cakes after seeing one in Justice (2024 Netflix series). The comments suggest the full amount of sugar and removing the peel (+white) to avoid a bitter cake.
I added less sugar and it wasn't so sweet. It had an unusual texture from the almond bits and orange pulp. I've seen recipes which have orange juice in the batter, but this was my first time boiling an orange for the food processor.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

https://www.instagram.com/fitwafflekitchen/reel/DCmVfooIAJT/

Instagram shows me tons of "cinnamon roll" cookies, babkas, croissants, pastries mixed with chocolate and pistachio, really everything. Made these and froze half of the cookie dough for later.
Frosting didn't drizzle well for me, but it's AOK.

Coconut Fish and Tomato Bake Recipe

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022129-coconut-fish-and-tomato-bake

Fairly certain that I actually made this before. Got to use the broiler, which is a little weird in my kitchen (the oven has its gas burner at the bottom, so the broiler is a separate door / compartment below the oven).
This time around I kept the fish in the broiler a little longer and it charred the pan sauce and shrunk the fish. Just give it a little roast in there.

Dulce de Leche Babka

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/dulce-de-leche-babka-recipe/

Note the recipe amounts are for two loaves, and the butter teaspoons should be tablespoons (not enough moisture otherwise).

Easy Lemon Ricotta Pasta & Spinach

https://theclevermeal.com/10-minute-lemon-ricotta-pasta-with-spinach/

I wanted to use up my ricotta - this wasn't all that impressive though

Eggless Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

https://mommyshomecooking.com/eggless-chocolate-crinkle-cookies/

Sick on Election Night, no eggs, asked ChatGPT for help and then looked up a real recipe.

Feta + Spinach Stuffed Fish

https://www.foodbymaria.com/stuffed-salmon/

The recipe suggests putting shrimp and everything inside a thick tail cut of salmon. I was happy with the results with arctic char and leaving out the shrimp (seafood gives me the ick). I thought that cutting open the raw fish and stuffing it would be messy, but it turned OK!

One Skillet Salmon with Lemon Orzo

https://www.servingdumplings.com/recipe/one-skillet-salmon-with-lemon-orzo/

Tasty, and re-made it for dinner at the family Christmas vacation rental.

Orzo Chickpeas and Spinach

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEnCTfuINtF/

Unusual mix of pasta and chickpeas. It passed the leftover test (and perhaps the leftover-groceries test).

Panko Sesame Crusted Salmon

https://nutrient-matters.com/recipe/panko-sesame-crusted-salmon/

Salmon + couscous recipe, and an interesting variation on baked salmon. I should try this with the "everything bagel" seasoning.

If you halve the recipe, make sure to halve the boullion cube!

Salmon Wellington

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNx_L0ukes&ab_channel=Tasty

I used a can of Delhi saag, a mix of spinach and mustard greens (this meand that I did not add pepper and limited cheese).

I thought it turned out really well!

San Marzano Tomato Sauce

https://asimplepalate.com/blog/san-marzano-tomato-sauce/

Made a quarter-recipe with the Midwest's "Red Gold" tomatoes because I've had a 28oz can on my kitchen counter for too long. Err on the side of more garlic and add two chili peppers. Went well with frozen gnocchi, but I wasn't super impressed, I will still buy sauce.

Spiced, Braised Short Ribs with Creamy Potatoes

https://www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/spiced-braised-short-ribs

Found this while looking for a halal short ribs recipe for Thanksgiving. This one has a bit of spice (arbol chili). Made a quarter-recipe based on what I got from the store, added an extra chili and a full carton of bone broth.
I made this pappardelle and tomato sauce but generally ate them separately.

Spicy Duck Ramen

https://www.reddit.com/r/chicagofood/comments/1hxdjec/our_spicy_duck_ramen_from_akahoshi/

A restaurant in Chicago has been doing special menu items every month for the local subreddit. This looked so tasty that I wanted to do the research. I got concentrated ramen broth from Amazon, fresh noodles from H-Mart, duck from "Wild Forks" grocery, and made the duck ramen.

Later did this pork ramen, marinated pork tenderloin easy to pick up from the grocery, bake, and slice:

The trick to homemade high-quality ramen might be... getting everything cooked at the same time! Timing the duck, boiling the noodles, getting the ramen broth up to boiling and then tossing in veggies. Somehow I never attempted this before or got the special ramen bowls / spoons, and now I might double down.

Yogurt Pasta (Macarona bi Laban)

https://nutrient-matters.com/recipe/yogurt-pasta-macarona-bi-laban/

Looked great on Instagram, tried it out. This was the first time I bought pine nuts (which I associate with pesto) and it wasn't so difficult to brown them in a frying pan.
If I made it again I'd add more spice to the meat, since the "sauce" is mostly garlic and yogurt. After this photo I followed the directions to add in paprika, but I didn't really get a good photo because as you can see, it's a mess.

Fails

Chipotle Orange Chickpeas

https://plantbasedrdblog.com/2021/08/chipotle-orange-chickpeas/

Tasted mid, no interest in leftovers, IMO. Just chickpeas and bell pepper.

Imeruli Khachapuri

https://www.carolinescooking.com/imeruli-khachapuri-georgian-cheese-filled-bread/

Alternative khachapuri recipe, I guess to make a stovetop calzone.
No idea how the dough/cheese ratio in the recipe could be right. I used farmers cheese which might be too gooey. Eventually baked one ball 11 minutes at 350 degrees.

Light & Fluffy Masa Pancakes

https://crunchysaltysweet.com/2021/06/27/light-and-fluffy-masa-pancakes/

I wanted a recipe to use up my blue corn masa, but this is grainy, and still needs cornmeal and flour.

Spicy and Saucy Cherry Tomato Pasta

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020690-spicy-and-saucy-cherry-tomato-pasta

The timing on frying capers, then tomato paste, then garlic, then starting the cherry/grape tomatoes made a dark brown mush before I even added the tomatoes.

Thin & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

https://mycountrytable.com/thin-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Not so great in the world of cookie recipes.

Asides

While going up through the Istrian coast of Croatia I didn't see too many burek options, maybe a spinach / cheese roll type. Once I got to Slovenia there were too late night burek place, open even on a holiday. Tried a "pizza burek". Wikipedia has some details on geographic distribution of different forms of burek.

Almost ten years ago in Bagan, Myanmar, at the end of lunch they gave me a stack of soft candies which are sour like Skittles, but are the size and thickness of a penny. They told me that it was tamarind, and I could never find that candy. I recently saw a video about a NYC restaurant, at 6:44 they melt the candy (haw flakes) in a sauce, so I ordered some. They come from a different fruit (Chinese hawthorne).

I did a few attempts at a Japanese "omu-rice" omelette but I'm not ready to say if it's a success or a fail here.

I have lived in NYC many times and never eaten a chopped cheese. I've seen some discussion about how recently it became a "signature" food. I still appreciated this chopped cheese fan-post: https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/1ihngqp/nyc_chopped_cheese_has_changed_my_life/ 

Julie Powell from "Julie & Julia" famously wrote that she hadn't eaten an egg before starting her Julia Child cooking series. After hearing this in a review, I did some Googling and it turned out that Powell later explained that she had eaten eggs, "in cakes" and "in the Texas fashion". https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9873994-chris--the-one-who-wrote-the-halfway-creepy-thing-about

Foxtrot grocery returned to Chicago, but mostly fizzled: https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1gvafdw/has_anyone_returned_to_foxtrot/ 
Fresh Market opened in one of the old Dom's locations around Halloween. It has generally the same layout and items, but it's not the same cookies and snacks. I also haven't found a good source for paneer?

Instagram is showing me more franken-croissants again. Stan's Donuts here has an Almond Croissant Donut with filling, which was a good treat on the 20th.

I got a dan dan sauce jar on Amazon, but it was much too salty.

I followed a miso salmon + edamame rice cooker recipe, this time with egg mixed into the rice, and some mushrooms. The egg-rice formed unpleasantly odd textured blocks, but everything else was cooked. Could make this again but add the egg last-minute.

H-mart has a tray of "curry beef" which I was able to try in the Japanese curry. It felt higher-end compared to ground beef, but it's definitely still a stew meat quality selection.

Oyster Mushroom grow kits are leading to invasive mushroom colonies in forests across the US.

Reportedly truffles were farmed at scale until disrupted by WW1

Podcast episode on illegal popups in Seattle