Friday night bar mitzvah catering

great finger foods & dips
roasted vegetables
fried sesame Chicken with chili crunch option
challah










always a gem. I have the salted fish with steamed minced pork. What is the source for this salted fish - I assume it�s tinned and sold in Chinese-specialty grocery stores?

The stuff I use isn't tinned, but sold in bulk packaging. It's from a chinese provisions store. Not sure if they're still around as I haven't needed to go there again until now. I have used the tinned stuff, but I always find it's not very good steamed. I have tried stuff from western supermarkets too... a bit better, but you need to soak it for quite a while.and the water gets wasted since you can't do anything with it other than pouring it down the drain.

Shared orders of salt and pepper squid, a caprese salad, and a thin minute steak in the QF lounge for a late lunch/ early dinner.

Smokeshack burger @ Shake Shack with a few fries pilfered from dining companion for dinner last night,. accompanied by water, which after the bottom shelf margaritas consumed prior to dinner, was the appropriate beverage.

Doenjang jjigae and haemul pajeon made at home. I know the soup will be good as we aced it the first time. The first pancake was, shall we say, a learning curve. I believe we will do much better this time. No Korean restaurants within a 4+ hour radius, so we do what we have to do...

Rice with two items (not quite economic rice, but similar concept).... Eggplant with fragrant fish sauce and assorted vegetables with hard tofu.... wasn't too bad... and better value for price vs. some of the other places in the area.

Sorry for the lack of pics.

A mushroom swiss burger made with a 1/2 pound hand formed patty, served on a not too large bun from a local Italian bakery.

This burger wouldn't have been remarkable several years ago, but these days even so-called decent restaurants almost always use the preformed premade patties that just don't compare.

For me at least, it's rare to find a restaurant burger better than I can make myself, but this was one.

beef taco supper - ground beef
including guacamole and queso fresco
i don�t really understand queso fresco. I thought it was a very coveted cheese for tacos and quesadillas. I bought a pack from a Latin American grocery store and my family said that it�s ultra mild. I�ll probably switch back to cheddar after we finish this package. I really don�t get it and I�ll often see queso fresco on menus.





for the 2 burgers I had this year:

1. godfathers
2. original joes

both are really great.

I don't normally see queso fresco in a quesadilla, but I like it a lot on refried beans. Tostadas, sopes, and a few other things too. I don't buy it much anymore since we don't use it often enough and it spoils. It is indeed mild.

I generally chalk it up to two things.... one.... Although there are lots of latinos in the US, "queso" could still be considered one of those exotic ingredients that evoke all sorts of "mystique" for many meat and potato americans. (I could be completely wrong, but still a possibility) To say you're regularly consuming something exotic helps to elevate yourself and is something that happens in all cultures.

The second thing is not necessarily a flavour profile. It could be a texture thing... a smell thing... Something that affects your other senses. Personally, for me it depends on if it goes with what I'm cooking. For example, I like ground beef tacos with a sharp cheddar. But I wouldn't feel the same about putting shredded cheddar on a fish taco..I might put queso on a pork carnitas taco... Try it and if it's good for you, go for it.... if not, move to the next one....

My guess is Mexico doesn't have/traditionally didn't have the means to store cheese to age and mature so fresh cheese was made (from excess dairy) and consumed, much like cottage cheese and the like.

My dinner is rather boring. A pasta with tomato sauce (home-grown tomatoes) and home-cured pancetta for flavouring. Dessert will be more interesting: cheese cake made with most of 5 pints of 18% milk fat coffee creamer I got at a negative price week before last and honey from my various bee hives (have close to 200 lbs of honey sitting around the house).

Jacks, San Bruno CA:

avgolomeno soup
chicken skewers entree with hummus, pita, tabouli salad, tzatziki sauce

Sweet!!!

Blaze pizza, serramonte, Sf ca:

pepperoni pizza with spicy red sauce

we all agreed that mod is overall better. The other family suggested this and it was fine. Perhaps Mod next time�

Hainanese chicken rice takeaway from a stall I passed by... Normally its closed when I pass... Not too bad. Will take photo next time I order.