beXnlog

Holiday Roundup

These past few weeks have been a blur. There's a lot to talk about so here goes; i'll post chronologically of course.

On the night of Dec 24th we had a lasagna face-off at be's parents' house. His sister made the "normal" lasagna from his mom's recipe while be made the "other" lasagna which contained fake beef, spinach with pine nuts and three kinds of cheese. I've had his mom's lasagna plenty of times and although it tastes fine, the noodles are usually overcooked and the cheese runs. I didn't try his sister's since it had beef in it, but on the other hand be's lasagna was excellent. Too bad no one else at the table was "brave enough" to taste it besides his sister, mom and dad.

Around 5am on the morning of Dec 25th we started our drive down to Northern VA to spend a few days with my family. The entire trip can be summed up easily with one word: shopping. Who knew be could shop without dropping while i trudged along in a daze? In summary:

1) First, check out that picture of fresh chickpeas! I found them at Grand Mart, one of the big international supermarkets in NoVA. The peas look just like the dried/canned ones but are light green and very hard. The pod is pretty tough and hairy. I didn't try to cook them since i only bought a tiny handful and didn't know how. At Grand Mart i also picked up some El Yucateco XXXta Hot Mayan Style (now it's the only place i can find it!) and deliciously dangerously addictive Korean seaweed. Grand Mart is so awesome!

2) We tried some Choxie, Target's brand of chocolate. The dark chocolate almonds, spicy toffee and milk chocolate peanut butter patties were surprisingly good. The hot chocolate (in cute oblong tin) was okay. It was much oilier than i thought hot chocolate should be, but still very chocolatey and satisfying. I'm not sure i'd buy the hot chocolate again but i will definitely check out more Choxie bars, truffles and the like.

3) My sister brewed up some elderberry syrup and gifted us two bottles! It's generally used as a cold, cough and flu remedy and unlike Robitussin, it tastes great! I'm not too familiar with elderberries but they're also used to make jam and wine. She also baked a batch of excellent brownies. Thanks Bonesli!

4) be's in love with Trader Joe's. I don't think i've ever seen him walk so slowly. We picked up numerous items such as mango sauce (like apple sauce, but mangoes!), goat cheese and herb potato chips (absolutely delicious) and mint hot cocoa (a little thin but very refreshing). We can't wait to access a car and head out to the Trader Joe's in Long Island! I'd go just for those potato chips.

5) We met up with the Rices for an afternoon at Hidden Pond. I keep overestimating the ages of Sol and Luna because they're shockingly smart. I gave Sol a copy of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH which was one of my favorite books growing up. The Rices gave us 3 tins of tea from Adagio: Earl Grey (which be loves), Genmai Cha Pop and Dragonwell; a special baking issue of Cooks Illustrated and a tin of great homemade Nutty Nuggets and Lemon Bars! I'm excited to try some of the CI recipes and the rest of the teas, which all look and smell wonderful. Unfortunately all the cookies are gone. Thanks Rice House!

6) My uncle, aunt and little cousins spent a week in VA with my family. My aunt and uncle are both very good cooks so in between eating out, they made us some delicious eggplant and another yummy dish with carrots and rice noodles. My uncle recently sold his business in Chicago which started as a pan-Asian take out restaurant but soon included pizza as well. It's not so strange if you consider the Chinese/Mexican restaurants all over New York! Regardless, all that pizza talk left me with a giant craving for some good deep dish even though i truly love thin crust. He was telling us about the differences between brick ovens, electric v gas and how percentages of sauce/cheese/crust really matter. For the record, he claims that a stone-lined oven powered with gas is the best.

7) Lastly, a few places we ate out at:
a) Viet Bistro in the Eden Shopping Center at 7 Corners. They don't make pho (Vietnamese noodles in beef broth) from scratch but my mom loves their seafood dishes. Surprisingly, they offer quite a few vegetarian dishes and what we had was good: fresh spring rolls, tofu and vegetable casserole. The rice was notably excellent, so soft and fragrant.
b) Two Amigos in Centreville. be really loves the Salvadorean food here and they also offer Mexican dishes. We had some yummy tamales de elote with crema fresca (tamales made with fresh corn with thick sour cream) and be had a big pupusa (cheese-filled pattie) while i polished off the curtido (pickled cabbage and other vegetables).
c) Sakoontra Thai restaurant in Chantilly. Everyone loved the green papaya salad, so crunchy and hot. All of our dishes were good but my mom was pissed at my dad for ordering duck curry!

posted by beXn @ 3:24 AM