mussel up (20.52)

we had some peeps over for the final four game on saturday and in celebration (or just an excuse) joon was kind enough to bring some grass-fed ground beef for burgers and 2 lbs of mussels. while he and z concocted a plan to make the best burger ever, i rolled up my sleeve on how to make these mussels.

joon and i decided to make a white wine mussel dish and at the last minute, i decided to add some linguine to add some more substance to the plate. followed this recipe courtesy of the food network. i added more butter and salt/pepper as the recipe itself left the sauce a little tasteless. but in the end, it was delicious.

then sunday rolled around where i got to see my lovely mother in FW and watch the chorus line on broadway with g and his parents.

monday brought around depression as i watched butler lose badly to uconn. sad.

20.52: watched a chorus line

crispy braised chicken

g was coming home from houston – a mark of his last travel stint until may! i wanted to cook something yummy for him so out came my friend, thomas keller, and his ad hoc at home book. i was hoping to find a relatively quick recipe as i only had around 2 hours to prep (and shop) before g came home. aha! introducing the crispy braised chicken thighs:

i’ve never worked with fennel before so had no idea what to do with it. i want to say the stems remind me of something highly inappropriate, but i’m immature like that. looks like an onion but doesn’t make me cry.

just a light seasoning on the chicken and then we’re ready to start the cooking process! seared the chicken skin first in an oven-proof pan then on the meat side. when just browned, took them out of the pan and set on a cooling rack while i sauteed the fennel, onions, garlic and thyme. once that’s done, you just set the thighs on top, and stick ‘em all in the oven for about 20 minutes to cook through!

ta-da!! it was yummy. garnished with parsley.

more photos here.

into the country (18.52)

last saturday we decided to embark on a journey to FORT WORTH. i know – so very far. jana had mentioned the previous weekend that there was this amazing bbq place called cooper’s so we decided to tack on rahr & sons and make it a whole day trip.  we all (steph, jessi, jana, joon) met at our place at around 12pm then split into two cars to drive to the brewery.

it was a really pretty day – slightly windy but the sun was in full force. the line into the brewery wasn’t as bad as last time but it was also not a special celebration anniversary this time around. it was awesome cause we filled our pint glasses right when we got in vs. having to wait 15-20 minutes like before. went outside and sat on the benches – which is where i got my glorified sunburn from sitting with my back to the sun. awesome.

after drinking for about 1 1/2 hours – we decided it was time for some much needed MEAT. steph left back to dallas to get ready for savor while the rest of us piled into jana’s car in anticipation of this so-called awesome bbq. and awesome it was. when you first walk in to cooper’s you are immediately greeted by a pit of meat and get to select what you want. i’m not sure what all we ordered, but it was something like brisket, prime rib, half chicken, pork loin, sausage… probably a rib – who knows, but it was all so very GOOD.

here’s jana who looks very excited about the pounds of meat in her hand… as she should be.

GLORIFIED MEAT. notice the juicy juicy prime rib on top YUM.

nom nom nom. everything was so good and tender. awesome bbq! will definitely go back.

here’s a random bread face(s) picture for you.

we were so stuffed and craving ice cream so we decided to 1) walk off our food while 2) searching for ice cream. good combo, right? the stockyards were just across the street so we hopped across the road (not literally), stared at horses and longhorns for awhile and enter the famous ft worth stockyards. yah – not as impressive as i thought it would be, but oh well. there was this nice grassy field upon entering so we decided to be hippies and quickly spread out across the lawn.

yum – nice grass. jana and i searched on our phones for the closest ice cream and nowhere within the stockyards could we find any. fail. walked up the street, realized there was really NOTHING here and left where we drove back home to get marble slab ice cream. along macarthur there was an accident and g insisted we walk up the street so he could take a photo (he is collecting photos of accidents he sees). awkward much? and i got ice cream in my hair.

18.52: visited the ft worth stockyards, ate at cooper’s, took g’s cousin to go shopping for her birthday

roast of the chicken

my first weekday experiment with thomas keller and ad hoc. decided to make whole roasted chicken on a bed of root vegetables for jessi (and g got the leftovers). thanks for joining and being a guinea pig, jess!

bed of veggies including: red potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, turnips, brussel sprouts, leeks and onions + garlic and thyme (i self added the brussels because i’m obsessed)

seasoned the cavity of the chicken with thyme, garlic, salt and pepper – really massaged it into the meat. let it sit for a little while mixing the veggies with canola oil, salt and pepper

before and after the roast

it was definitely a success. i LOVED this dish. it was so comforting and delicious and EASY. will teach anyone if they are willing. :]

here’s jessi having the after-meal sweats… jk, she just hates pictures

chicken and peppers

ad hoc round 2. pan roasted chicken with sweet sausage and peppers. not too bad at first glance, but as i read more into the recipe it called for me to make an additional three things out of the book on top of the main recipe. oh joy. looks like i was in for another full day of cooking with thomas keller!

step#1: brine. i didn’t take any pics since i’ve done so already in posts before… there are only so many pics i want to have of the same brine. i am certain that brining anything will make it 10x better now.

step#2: start the soffritto – which acts as a ‘base’ of sorts to many dishes, but is primarily caramelized onions, virgin olive oil and tomato. this took around 5 hours to make.

step #2: peperonata rustica – red, yellow and piquillo peppers roasted and stewed along with the soffritto for around 30 minutes. topped off with chives.

step #3: take the chicken out of the brine, season with kosher salt, pepper and pan fry to get the skin a little crispy and cook the chicken and sausage a little bit. after both are golden, dumped it into the dutch oven tucked into the peperonata rustica and let is stew in the oven for around 15 minutes. and DONE.

thanks to g, jana, atef, eric and joon for being my guinea pigs and eating up the food so i wasn’t eating this the whole week. and thanks to g for making all the veggies since i neglected to think about any other foods to accompany the meal. special shout-out to atef for bringing dessert and to jana for bringing delicious guac.

even though i didn’t think of veggies to go with the meal, i did think of additional dessert/snack items… banana nut bread MUFFINS!

the bongo man (15.52)

and now begins your weekly weekend recap!

friday – i began my ad hoc at home journey! this tale actually begins thursday evening (where i also visited sprouts for the first time and fell in love), but i made buttermilk fried chicken! thursday night i made the brine and woke up at 7 on the dot on friday morning to put the chicken into the brine. once i got home from work, i took the chicken out to let it come back up to room temperature and then LET THE FRYING BEGIN!! i was a little nervous as i have never, ever made this before – much less fried anything, and was very scared i was going to overcook everything. but it turned out really well and i have decided that all fried chicken should be brined before frying. thank you, thomas keller, for the inspiration.

brine ingredients: honey, kosher salt, lemon, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves

cutting the chicken in 10 pieces as directed by TK – first time i had to rip the backbone out of a chicken

time to batter & oil up!
batter ingredients: garlic powder, onion powder, flour, cayenne pepper, kosher salt, pepper
dipping: buttermilk, garlic salt

TA-DA!

after the chicken extravaganza, had some people over and then headed out to whirly ball in plano to celebrate eric’s birthday early. yellow team WINNERS! stopped by filmore pub in “downtown plano” where i suffered from sleepiness and even almost fell asleep walking around. awesome.

saturday – hair cut! chopped my hair off in preparation of the hot weather. my only requirements were to leave enough for me to still tie up (hate exercising with my hair down) and layered bangs. stopped by sprouts for round 2 then headed home where sunny, jana, g and i had an amazing steak grilling, potato roasting, garlic corn experience. i’m telling you. we eat well in the wong/pang household. after a little rest, got ready to go out to zouks for anthony’s goodbye party. oh, insanity.

sunday – was a little groggy this morning, but headed out to meet steph and see her (amazing) new apartment then picked up kat for a surprise brunch at hotel zaza’s sunday school. it might have been a little too early for this kind of party… but definitely appreciated the experience more than the food. just a small celebration for kat’s birthday. HEART.

afterwards, i enjoyed some peace and quiet and then headed to varun’s house to watch the oscars. i love his family – they are super cute… and his mom cooked a DELICIOUS meal for us. yummm – i’m still full :]

15.52: and again, this one is just between me and g :]

slow cookin’ to a tee (14.52)

i think i had a pretty productive weekend. more or less.

friday – hung out at the wong/pang residence playing buzz and just chillin. ate a lot of blueberries, strawberries and pretzels… that’s the kind of junk food you’ll find at our place…

saturday – woke up at around 10:30 am, took a quick trip to kroger to get some ingredients and started to make a recipe from williams-sonoma’s essential of slow cooking book. i decided to start off on one of the simpler recipes – the chicken adobo which is a filipino dish. i took some photos of the process of using our crockpot for the very first time:

slicing two yellow onions – key to the dish

garlic cloves & ginger

trimming chicken thighs of skin & excess fat

additional flavor – white wine vinegar, soy sauce, pepper, salt and sugar

layering ingredients into the crockpot and cooking it for four hours

the finished chicken adobo & my two guinea pigs…

during the four hours that the chicken adobo was cooking, g, z, varun, asif and i decided to try our hand at playing a 9-hole golf course. first time ever doing this and i thought i was going to be terrible. turns out i was average, coming in 3rd out of the five with a score of 46! not bad, i think, for my first time. g was close behind me with a 47. the guys wanted to be cute and take pics with each other… awwwww.

after feeding g and z, we went out to meet up with christine + friends for card games and karaoke. haven’t seen them in SOOO long and it was a blast hanging out with them again.

sunday – took it easy since yesterday was so hectic. picked up around the house, laid outside in the grass with the dogs, watched the social network with g and went out to eat at king’s bbq in arlington with g’s fam.

monday – had the day off for president’s day. drove g to the airport at 5:15 am and happily went back to bed to sleep longer than i usually get to. jess came over to hang out and we went shopping at h-mart and ate lunch there. all in all, enjoyable and relaxing day off.

now, back to the grind. :]

14.52: played an actual course of golf

the place at perry’s

i bought a groupon a couple months ago for $30 worth of brunch… so why not schedule it the day before valentine’s for me and the g-man? SURE!

when: 12:30 pm, sunday
wait: none (reservation, although they had lost it…)
customer service: A
food rating: A

i’ve heard good things about this place and was filled with anticipation as i drove uptown. as a sister restaurant to perry’s steakhouse & grill, which we had sampled in austin with my family a couple years ago, i knew that if it was anything like perry’s, it would be good.

situated at the corner of routh and cedar springs, i found parking quite easily along the side of the road. walked up the large steps to the double wooden doors into a darkened lobby/waiting area. took my eyes a second to adjust to the lighting as it was bright inside and was greeted by the hostess. unfortunately, my reservation via opentable wasn’t in there system… even though i had gotten a confirmation email the night before… but we were quickly seated anyways.

the place is super quiet. g and i were definitely the youngest there, although we were seated next to another asian couple who were probably a couple years older than us. everyone else were definitely in their late 40′s/50′s and beyond. i felt a little out of place in the beginning to be honest. the decor is very “old classic” – not really sure how to describe. but there are aged photos hanging on the walls of celebrities who have visited and the deep mahogany of the furniture gives it a rich, classic feel. it was a little funny though that their chairs are all scuffed and when the couple next to us left and the waiter was changing out the linens, the table underneath was terribly scratched and beaten. good thing for tablecloths…

our waitress was very nice and friendly. we started off with some drinks, the orange sun for me (oj, proseco and aparol) and morning nector for g (infused pineapple and prickly pear tequila mixed with oj, agave nectar and a hint of ginger). both were good. i liked mine better because it wasn’t as strong. we were brought an assortment of bread that included a jalapeno/cheese bread and cornbread. loooved the cornbread. delish! then we put our orders in:

the place’s deluxe benedict - by far, the most expensive at $20, but SO WORTH IT. i had originally skipped over the benedict/omelette section since i’ve never been a huge fan of dishes focused around eggs. g however saved me and pointed this particular one out to me and i just had to have it. consisting of two grilled artichoke bottoms each topped with jumbo lump crabmeat and poached egg with crawfish hollandaise… how can you beat that?! when the plate was set in front of me i wanted to curl up and die with happiness. the eggs were perfectly cooked and you can’t go wrong with crabmeat and artichoke. the dish was also served with some sort of starch and i’m still not sure what it was. it was like a purple yam and i even stretched to say it might have been taro. but it was goooood, especially when dipping it into the leftover egg yolk.

chicken & waffles – g couldn’t resist this sweet temptation, and for what you get for $12? yeah, definitely a good deal. a crispy chicken breast served over a fluffy belgian waffle with maple praline syrup – yum. although i only had one bite, it was good and g ate as much as he could (half) before he surrendered and took the rest to go.

carrot cake french toast – this was so intriguing that we had to get it to share. not really sure where the french toast part of this was, but it was very tasty. again, i only had a bite since my benedict filled me, but the cake was moist and the warm icing on top gave it a very comforting feel. this was great as an after-brunch “dessert” for those that like things on the heavier side.

summary – very delicious and i’m itching to go back just to have the deluxe benedict again. it will be hard to tear me away to try other things. by the time we left, the place had livened up a bit, so maybe we went too early. but it’s still a quieter brunch place than normal – so if you’re looking to giggle and gossip with your girlfriends over mimosas after mimosas… would recommend to go somewhere that you won’t feel like a spectacle. like i said – old classic.

chef’s point cafe

introduced to us by david after our brewery adventure at rahr & sons

when: 4:00 pm, saturday
wait: 25 minutes
customer service: A
food rating: A

i’ve never eaten inside a gas station before, but there’s a first time for everything. tucked inside is a little gem of a restaurant – chef’s point cafe – which was started by a nigerian immigrant and his wife. featured on guy fieri’s diners, drive-ins and dives, the couple tells the story on how they wanted to start a restaurant, could not get a loan for one, but COULD get a loan for a gas station. and there is the birth of chef’s point. located out in watuga, tx (ft. worth).

when you walk in, to the right is the typical findings inside a gas station – snacks, beef jerky, beverages… and to the left is a kitchen and around 20 odd tables with chairs. a little sketch? maybe so – if you didn’t know any better. forget about being able to sit if you come in after lunch hour has already started. david, g and i were there at the random hour of 4:00 pm and still had to wait nearly 30 minutes to be seated. it’s simple inside – nothing fancy. the tables feature printed advertisements from local businesses and the waiters are all smiles and friendly.

starving by this time, so right when david, g and i sit down and peruse the menu, we quickly order our food. took around 10 minutes or so, but felt like eternity as i eagerly waited to fill my belly.

appetizer | stuffed artichokes bottoms - stuffed with crab meat and cooked in the chef’s point asiago sauce – this is something i’m going to crave from time to time. simply covered in the asiago sauce in which i was spooning into my mouth after all the artichoke stuffed crab was gone. simply delicious. the stuffing was good and you can taste the crab. i only wish there was more than just three on the plate… and more artichoke!

my entree | grilled salmon – leave it to me to order the only “not-as-good” thing on the menu. the salmon was beautifully grilled, but was relatively tasteless and a tiny bit overcooked. i liked the red potatoes and was expecting more based on the description, but the fresh mixed vegetables (aka squash and zucchini) kind of conquered the plate. all in all, it wasn’t terrible, but i do with it were a little more tasty.

g’s entree | duck – half-roasted and with chef’s point orange sauce, this duck was the perfect blend of sweet and salty. the skin was crispy and delicious – probably my favorite thing about this dish. the flavor was genuine and true to the bird. served with angel hair pasta, the sauce mixed together with the duck and noodles so well.

david’s entree | blackened stuffed chicken - filled with pepper jack cheese and crab meat, this bad boy was sooo good. the chicken was so juicy and covered with the same amazing asiago sauce that was in the artichoke appetizer. not sure what else i can say about it except that it was perfect.

summary – this dive of a place serves genuine, loved and non-pretentious food. it’s comforting, homey, and as you can see from the above pictures, will not short change you on the amount of food given to you for the price. if ever in the fort worth area, this place is definitely on the top of where i would stop by for a bite to eat.

superbowl madness (12.52)

although i had no interest in either team playing in this year’s superbowl (or… do i ever have an interest in pro football? not really), the festivities were very much front and center. i’ve never seen dallas so packed. friday night we decided to just avoid the crowds and played poker at varun’s house (won $45 profit – holla!).

saturday night we gave in and ventured out into uptown. lucky for us, we found parking quite easily along lemmon/mckinney but the crowds! sub-par clubs were charging up to $150 entry to get in, and for what? stupid. so we just found the no charge places and walked around, stopping at the trophy room and ending up at blackfriar pub where we spent the rest of our night. then off to pluckers to satisfy cravings where we ran into some interesting people we had never met before. i lost my coach clutch at the trophy room and almost lost hope in finding it due to the immense crowd, but thankfully found it with all it’s contents. the clutch is muddy and gross now, which actually matches all of it’s negative memories. :] so i’m not too bummed about it – i was more concerned about the cards and phone!

sunday funday! g and i hosted an all-day superbowl party focused around EATING. and did we eat. we had a crazy menu and i pretty much stayed in the kitchen all day cleaning and prepping for the NEXT meal. i gained a huge respect for anyone who has to stay on their feet all day. my legs and feet were KILLING me by the end of the day. but as long as our 26 guests + 4 dogs had fun, it was well worth it. :]

because i’m so proud of how much we all consumed, below was our food for the day:

breakfast
- waffle and pancake station (toppings: whipped cream, chocolate chips, butter, powdered sugar, walnuts, maple syrup… and bacon ended up being a featured topping as well)
- breakfast taco bar (bacon, eggs, ground beef, green onions, tabasco, salsa, cheese, tortillas, potatoes)
- mimosas galore

lunch
- burgers
- brats/sausages
- guacamole/chips
- asif’s salsa (yum)/chips
- asif’s pound cake (yum)
- cheese/meat plate from jade & patrick (amazing – truffle cheese, aged cheddar and cranberry goat cheese)

dinner
- slow-cooked beef tenderloin (jade & patrick made this dish AWESOME complete with a wine reduction sauce that complimented the beef so well. this made the party)
- grilled steaks (filets, t-bones, sirloins)
- grilled chicken
- grilled bacon-wrapped chicken and shrimp (also, turkey bacon for the non-pork eaters)
- apple walnut salad w/ champagne or raspberry dressing
- corn with roasted garlic
- roasted potatoes
- cheesecake cupcakes

here are pics (courtesy of stephanie) of the slow-cooked beef because it was THAT GOOD.

12.52: hosting an all-day party