The other day though, I decided to get a Vietnamese grilled pork chop on rice because my brother-in-law always gets that. And he’s Vietnamese. It has to be good right? Haha.

Anyhow, I got the pork chop at Saigon Kitchen and it was phenomenal! It was thin with crispy flavorful charred areas, and the meat was tender, served with rice and a little bit of tangy vinegar sauce and a little pile of pickled veggies on lettuce. It wasn’t heavy, and the flavors came together quite nicely. We were told to pour the vinegar sauce on the rice, and that made it even better. I can’t wait to go back and get it again!

I also indulged in Che ba mau, a Vietnamese dessert drink you can find at more authentic Vietnamese restaurants. It’s a rainbow (3 color) jelly and bean dessert layered into a tall clear glass, and served with a spoon and big straw. The ingredients can differ between restaurants, but usually you’ll find it with mung or white beans, red azuki beans, green agar jelly, sweet coconut milk, and crushed ice. People have told me you’re supposed to mix it all up prior to drinking/eating it. But you know I kind of like digging into the separate layers and alternating bites of this and that. I’m so glad Saigon Kitchen has started serving them.

Now if you ask me to name everything I ate, well that may be difficult! Cochin (in the state of Kerala) was the highlight of my dining experience, although it may be because The Gateway Hotel had such an amazing breakfast and lunch buffet spread. Here’s an example of my lunch plate, the roti and naan are coming to the table. I think I ate a pound of naan a day, really. I love naan.

And I could not get enough of paneer. For those unfamiliar, paneer is pressed cheese (similar to a dense and drier cottage cheese) that looks like tofu and is usually served in cubes sauteed with different sauce bases. My fave!

Pani puri was a fun experience for me, too. You have thin and hollow delicate puffs that have been fried, and a little hole in the top. They have a little bit of vegetables and spices inside, and you dip these little “boats” into a spicy watery sauce to fill the cavity with a small amount. Then, you pop it in your mouth and enjoy.

I had a non-traditional Indian dessert while at the hotel as well, and thought I’d mention it because it has a nice flavor profile. It was fig in a reduced wine syrup with chilis. I’m not sure what was all in it, but I’d like to experiment making something similar for a party perhaps.

A few other things that were new to me were dosas, these ultra-thin crispy crepe-like rice breads eaten at breakfast. I had mine plain and dipped into a sauce, but you can get them filled with potatoes and other things as well.

Idly were white rice-based little plush pillows of bread eaten at many meals, and were also delightful. The plain almost bland flavor worked well as a vessel for all the various sauces and curries.

Surprisingly masala chai was not common anywhere I went, and in fact a few of my friends said they associated drinking masala chai with having a sore throat! Well I absolutely love India’s masala chai, and when I was in Delhi I had pots and pots of it at every hotel. Maybe masala chai is a tourist thing. I don’t know…

They’re extremely easy to make and leaves you feeling a tad less guilty than eating a tub of ice cream. You can easily search for a recipe online if you like. The basics are: You peel and cut a banana in half. Stick a toothpick in the end of each half, wrap snugly in plastic wrap and freeze for a day. Then melt some chocolate and coat your frozen banana. Wrap again and freeze in a tupperware/plastic bag until you want to eat it. Cool and creamy, and addictive. I prefer using dark chocolate because it’s not as sweet and looks very pretty in its svelte perfect thin coating.

I’d show you pictures, but well…I ate them both too quickly and didn’t think about you guys.

And my other favorite thing this “winter” …the hot toddy. With whiskey please!

Fika had some of the most beautiful bonbons at the show, beyond shiny molded chocolates and the subtle artistic flair only a skilled craftsman could create. Other favorites include Screme Gelato in NYC and Comptoir du Cacao in France who had some nice crunchy fillings (similar to feulletine or croquants).

The show was a nice introduction to a bunch of chocolate boutiques, but I was a little disappointed in not getting to see a live chocolate fashion show or sculpting arena. The website made it look as though there would be a catwalk and people actually wearing costumes partially made of chocolate. I just assumed there would be large and decadent chocolate sculptures, but I only saw a few smaller ones. Maybe all that was on one of the other four days of the show, who knows? It was a fun experience, and I’d probably go again if I was in the industry or had a free ticket… Ah chocolate!

I usually think of escargots as a splurge on appetizers at a french restaurant where they’re ten to fifteen dollars for a plate of six. This can sitting in front of me was around three dollars, but of course you’d have to have the shells or a fancy cast iron dish to bake them in. I was going to experiment and cook them in a pan with butter, garlic and parsley. Forget the shells!

You can actually buy the shells at specialty food stores and random places, but I had some puff pastry I’d made a few weeks back. I decided to make an attempt at vol au vents for the first time. Vol au vents are hollowed out little puff pastry shells that hold a filling. They’re usually about three inches in diameter and sold in the freezer section at the grocery store, or they’re on the shelves at supermarkets in France .

In fact the first time I’d ever seen a vol au vent was when I was staying with a French host family years ago. My host mom had to work that day and told us kids to heat up the leftovers and pop them in the vol au vents for lunch. This was probably one of the fanciest lunches I’d ever eaten, and the “leftovers” were amazing. It was a creamy pasta sauce made of italian hams, mushroom, and wine, herbs, and who knows what all thrown together. Amazing cooks the French. So anyways, we put this sauce in the vol au vents and had that for lunch.

I made my homemade vol au vents with a fluted cookie cutter and punched out the middle, then flattened out the punched-out piece to use as a bottom. I carefully reassembled the cups and baked them in my oven until they puffed up nice and tall. I let them cool while I heated up the snails.

After cooking the snails in a pot with butter, garlic and parsley, I put one into each cup and spooned a little sauce on top. I put them back in the oven for a bit so the flavors could meld together. Then, I ate them!

Unfortunately, I had made too small of vol au vents (two inches in diameter), and that’s why the escargots are sticking out of the hole…they didn’t quite fit. I guess I should’ve opened the can to see how big they were.

So how were they? The flavor was good, but the texture of the snails could’ve been a little more chewy to be honest. I thought they were almost fatty in texture. I guess I’ll just stick to ordering them at restaurants. But they were fancy looking at least.

Every once in a while I open a can of dace in black beans. This was something my grandmother made when I was growing up, so it has a nostalgic quality for me. What are dace in black beans exactly? Well they’re sold in the canned food section of asian grocery stores and come in short oblong cans similar to cans of sardines but a little taller. The ones I buy have a yellow label and a picture of a fish on it (the brand my grandmother always bought). The can has two small preserved fish with fine edible backbones still intact, and they come in an oil with fermented black soy beans. Because they’re preserved they have a pretty dense flesh and are salty. I can’t say any of my friends have ventured to eat this dish, so it may be an acquired taste…

In fact eating canned dace also reminds me of the time I opened a can and microwaved it in my shared dorm room. Needless to say my roommate (and still very good friend of mine) was horrified by the smell. I know…who microwaves fish in a tiny dorm room? She made me promise not to ever do that again. Haha!

Anyhow dace in black beans are still something I like to prepare by heating it in a pan  and serving with rice and veggies. My grandmother always made a handful of shared dishes to go along with rice for dinner at our house. It was usually a fish, a meat, veggies, and rice. She had a large garden in the back, so we always had fresh asian vegetables like Gai Lan, green beans, wintermelon, or some other leafy green. Growing up people always asked me if I ate chinese food at home since my family was from China and we owned a restaurant. They thought we ate chopsuey and sweet sour chicken all the time. But in reality we ate fairly simple dishes for lunch…chicken and rice or beef and green peas. On Sundays my dad would order pizza or take us to McDonald’s. Dinners were probably the most authentic Chinese meals I had, mostly because my grandmother was a farmer and she loved to cook (and was a phenomenal cook at that). I always laugh a little when I think of how she sometimes made Devil’s food cupcakes from scratch…I think the only non-Chinese food she ever made and liked.

Because of my habitual eating of this fish, I was also able to use the word dace in a few word games to win. I taught Adam about dace. And shortly thereafter I was playing Animal Crossing, a Nintendo DS game where there are a variety of fish to catch, including dace! When you catch one, your character will shout “Dace in the hole!” I’ve learned many food terms from the translations in the asian grocery aisle. Next time you’re in one, take a look around and learn a thing or two. That’s how I first heard of agar, gluten, and durian.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/45-mcdonalds-items-not-available-in-the-us-that

And for those of you food scientists, or if you’re just curious as to what goes into a product beyond conceptual inception:

http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/mcdonalds-paneer-burger-mcspicy-paneer-mccurry-pan/1/15778.html

Right so where was I…craving Chile Rellenos but not needing the breading on the outside. I was looking for a way to make a healthier Chile Relleno, which for those of you not familiar is a poblano pepper stuffed with a mixture of Mexican cheeses, vegetables and sometimes meat. It’s then breaded in a batter and fried and served with a nice tomato-based sauce. Frontera Grill in Chicago has an awesome version of it, although last I knew it was only made in limited quantities.

Below is my recipe for stuffed poblano peppers. To make it tastier, I would make a nice mixture of Mexican cheeses like Queso Oaxaca or Chihuahua. You can make a vegetarian version, just mix in the marinade ingredients with your veggies.

Serves 2 people

Peppers:

• 4 Poblano peppers
• 1/2 bunch swiss chard
• 3 oz. Monterey Jack cheese (shredded)
• 6oz. pork tenderloin
• 1 can Chiles in adobo sauce (in the Latin American aisle)
• pinch cumin
• pinch coriander
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Tbsp. Cilantro
• 1/2 lime
• salt and pepper to taste

1. For the sauce, combine  in a food processor and blend until uniform. Heat in a saucepan for about 10 minutes. Reheat when about to serve.
2. Cut the pork tenderloin into small pieces about 1-2 cm cubes and put in a tupperware container. Squeeze half a lime juice into the container with a pinch of  cumin and coriander, pinch salt. Mince the garlic and half a can of adobo peppers (and half the sauce in the can), add them to the container. Then finely chop some cilantro and add that to the mixture. Stir well and let marinate in the fridge while you prep the rest.
3. Roast your poblano peppers on a grill or gas stove range until the skin blisters and is black. I did this under my oven broiler for a few minutes. You just want the skin to blister, but be careful not to overcook the peppers or they’ll be too soft to work with.
4. Once peppers are blistered on all sides, carefully put them in a tupperware container and put the lid on for about 5 minutes. The steam from the hot peppers will release the skin. Carefully peel off the blistered skin, it’s okay if all the skin doesn’t come off. Put aside to cool.
5. Clean your swiss chard and remove the thick stem running down the middle of the leaf. Chop the leafy parts into smaller pieces like 4 inches long (just so they’re not too large or too small). Sautee the swiss chard in a pan with about 1 tsp. olive oil until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Heat some olive oil in a fry pan and cook the marinated pork. Once fully cooked, combine with the swiss chard and set aside to cool.
7. Take a paring knife and carefully cut a 2-3 inch slit up the side of each poblano pepper. Carefully remove the seeds and any membranes, the peppers will be fragile to handle.
8. Fill the poblanos with half the cheese, then add spoonfuls of the pork/veggie mixture into the peppers. Top with the rest of the cheese and stick in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5-8 minutes just until cheese is melted.
9. Spoon some sauce on a plate and serve the peppers on top.

I ended up using our cookbook as a reminder, but not a step-by-step guide. You can really put whatever kind of vegetables you like in it, but I would stick to pork and shrimp for meats. I also recommend the use of garlic, ginger, white pepper, and a touch of chicken broth to give the dish a nice savory flavor with a fiery kick. Bean sprouts can be nice, but there weren’t any at the grocery store this time. Thus our rendition had ginger, garlic, chicken broth, curry spice, onions, red bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, marinated pork, shrimp, green onions, and rice noodles. All this you can get at the grocery store (rice noodles are in the ethnic section and are thin and white). I won’t list a recipe here, because I kind of just threw mine together without measurements…

If you’re not into cooking, most chinese restaurants have Singapore noodles. Apparently they’re not really from Singapore though, they’re kind of like the Americanized chop suey or sweet sour chicken.

Europeans created it and decided to call it Singapore noodles since it was spicy and had curry. I don’t care who made up the recipe so long as it’s delicious! The only downside to this dish is that I end up eating two servings of it. I suppose next time I should make authentic Singaporean chili crab to go with it…now that has me salivating.

I was at Cafe Dewitt the other day having brunch and had the most refreshing soda ever. It’s something you could make at home, but for convenience sake and times when we’re not looking to do the work…Fizzy Lizzy is perfection in a bottle. It’s basically a 2-1 ration of fruit juice to carbonated soda water, but there’s no added sugar or other stuff. It’s a natural spritzer in a bottle!

It may not sound all that exciting, but for bottled drinks it’s really fresh-tasting and delightful. I had the grapefruit soda and I just love the taste of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. This one is not bitter or overly sweet, and has a nice ruby peachy color to it.

It’s got my stamp of approval!