beXnlog

Flavor

I'm at work and be's at home; we're on the phone:

be: "...so i'll make something for dinner."
me: "Do you want me to pick up anything?"
be: "We're out of garlic. I can't cook without garlic!"

I burst out laughing. This is the guy who practically hated garlic when i met him. Now he's exclaiming he can't cook without it. (He also added a bit of the hot red bean paste to his bibimbap last week and exclaimed that it was better with it! In 2001, his hot tolerance was so very low that black pepper made his throat burn.) I'm so proud of how far he's gone these past few years!

be's delicious dinner consisted of cellentani pasta with sauteed fresh spinach, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. He added some feta crumbles to his while i used a little parmesan. I'm not that into feta, although chevre in France is a totally different story. I juiced 3 oranges and we had 1 kiwi each, as well.

I'm a garlic freak. Almost every dish i make must begin with sizzling garlic in hot oil. Sometimes a little ginger. I rarely use onion these days as it makes be gag; i don't really miss it except in some sandwiches and burgers. Besides garlic, i love using freshly ground black pepper, chiles, hot sauces, toasted sesame oil, ground cumin, pine nuts and fresh cilantro to obnoxious degrees. I really can't understand why half the population apparently hates fresh cilantro (aka Chinese parsley and fresh coriander). I think it's the absolute best herb in the world. It's been described as "soapy" but i really don't get it.

Yesterday O, be and i ate at the CUP Diner (we wanted O to try the banana cream pie) and again, i think the place has promise but they need to work on making better quality food. For instance, my minestrone soup came with a filo dough fontina cheese "crouton" on top, but the actual soup wasn't that good. Progresso makes a way better canned minestrone! They have all these special touches on their dishes, but besides the aforementioned pie, nothing else has been rave-worthy.

Has anyone been to this "Grilled Cheese NYC" restaurant i keep hearing bits about?

posted by beXn @ 1:33 AM