My plate runneth over.

[rivka]

Lots of good food happening in the last day or two. curiousangel and I went to the Purple Orchid last night and had their notorious cream of crab soup, followed by some decent but forgettable sushi and a truly glorious mango creme brulee.

(I can never have creme brulee without wishing I had one of those little torches. It's not even my favorite dessert - although the mango version was delicious - but having the torch would be so cool.)

This afternoon I took minnaleigh around to look at apartments in Gaithersburg. On the way back we stopped at Niwano Hana, a sushi bar that therealjae had found in Zagat's. (I Googled for "Niwano Hana" to see if I could link to a review, only to find that it appears to be owned by the Unification Church. Huh.) They had some really fun, imaginative rolls - for example, the "dynamite roll," with spicy tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and something else, was rolled into narrow cylinders and dusted with red pepper, with a sprout for the "fuse." Unfortunately, we didn't see the "greenpeace roll" on the list of specials until after we'd ordered. It had, of all things, kiwi, cream cheese, and tuna. We were really curious, but when we tried to order it afterwards the waitress refused to put the order in, claiming that they were already closed.

(We considered going to Jeepers, because their slogan - "Food, fun, and a monkey!" - simultaneously terrified and intrigued us. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out just how monkeys might figure into their service. I still think it's a great concept. As someone named Newsgoat says,

"Food, fun, and a monkey!" Talk about marketing genius! You can go anywhere for food, or fun, or some combination of the two. But, throw in a monkey, and now you've got something! It makes me wonder how many years they struggled, only offering food and fun, until someone with some business sense thought, "...And a monkey!" And, all of a sudden, they're living the American dream...

Also, Jeepers had something called the "Tiny Rhino Diner," which was hard to resist. But we weren't sorry that we had sushi instead.)

Now I'm home. wcg and curiousangel are both napping. I've got a chicken roasting in the oven, stuffed with two lemon quarters, six large peeled cloves of garlic, and four sprigs of rosemary. I don't think I've ever cooked a whole chicken before - I'm usually just cooking for two people, and besides, whole chickens are so animal-shaped - so I'm not sure how much flavor will be imparted by the seasonings. I'm planning to make a pan sauce with the juices and a little white wine. It smells soooo good.

Comments

Comments and ramblings

[fernblatt.livejournal.com]

Oh yum on the food!! Drool even, Mango creme brulee. Surprizingly enough, I have one of those little torches right here on the desk. I did not pay a Williams-Sonoma price for it, but it is right here with my ecclectic mixture of things -- the recipe books, the thermocouple thermometer for adjusting ovens, the UV light, the assorted multimeters, scopes, Mercedes parts, radio tubes, PDAs and accessories, bits of buss bar and a a stuffed animal or two. No, really! But I am pretty sure there I do not have a monkey in the room. Not sure where I would put it unless I bolted it into the big rack cabinet in the corner. I am fairly sure it would be and unhappy monkey there, particularly if it grabbed hold of the high voltage section of the radio gear that is already living in that rack. :-)

Oh, the whole chickens. They are *supposed* to be animal shaped. *giggle*
We usually use several times the amount garlic, but we re-use the garlic
in related dishes along with the drained stock.

Re: Comments and ramblings

[trinker.livejournal.com]

What's a buss bar?

And I agree...not-animal-shaped chicken is a scary thing. McD's piecesparts!