Ugh, dinner was a big bust. We were ordering from a well-regarded Chinese spot that we hadn't been to before. Their preferred ordering site apparently doesn't include comments/special requests on the ticket, so my notes requesting no bell peppers never got communicated, meaning I couldn't eat half the dishes. And our twice cooked pork appeared to have only been cooked once (white pork belly anyone?) so that went straight in the trash. I realize restaurants are suffering and Xmas Eve is likely one of their busiest nights of the year, so we're not going to poster them, but also are unlikely to ever try them again.

I find calling the restaurant and ordering directly from them and picking up a better experience in general. I don't like those delivery services and the outrageous fees they charge. I find after 2-3 times in a close period, they become familiar with you and give you better service.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Xmas supper - we have a 3:30p arrival and we only need to bring fruit pie. We are also bringing a half cheesecake with sugared cranberries.
i believe the supper will include
ham
Turkey
mashed potatoes

i know I’m excited.

it’s tricky because some restaurants STILL prefer the online ordering with 3rd party platforms. Once we called a place to ask about something and the person at the restaurant told us to include a special comment on the app. it’s hard to be sure with a new spot.

total bummer on the restaurant.

i still use Eric’s as my main local Chinese because it’s a mile away so I call the restaurant and fetch it myself. If I was a newbie for Eric’s, I might automatically use a 3rd party platform.

Maybe it's different in the States? Up here, all the non-americanized chinese places prefer direct ordering. The only ones that prefer the platformed sites are the "modern" places (which are usually higher priced too). Many still use the delivery services, but if they can save on the commission, they will (generally the old-skool places also don't accept anything other than cash).

Good info, but the VAST majority of Canadians and Americans have no access to "non-americanized chinese places".

Christmas dinner: roast pork tenderloin stuffed with garlic and seasoned with fresh rosemary and thyme, pork gravy, acorn squash baked with olive oil and paprika, steamed broccoli, baked sweet potato, blueberry walnut quick bread.


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That pork is gorgeous.

We had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potato casserole, gravy, apple/onion stuffing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, broccoli/cranberry/almond salad, crescent rolls and pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.


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I don't know about that. At least in Canada, with the influx of mainland chinese students on top of the HKers, all the major cities have asian-chinese foods available. BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are covered. The smaller provinces should have as well (especially those with known universities).

In the US, all the major cities should be covered as well... maybe not in the less populated states...

Christmas dinner with friends...it takes a village to get a simple meal on the table. A village and 2 meat thermometers, one oven thermometer, 4 cosmopolitans, and much debating. But it was great...prime rib, Yorkshire puddings, roasted potatoes, creamed spinach with pancetta, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.
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I'll take your word for it. I very rarely if ever see it outside of certain large metropolitan areas.
Fine with me, as I prefer the Americanized version. :)

Don't get me wrong, American-chinese food is edible (and in some cases, tasty)... just the delivery and price points are different. My preference is for asian-chinese as I prefer the wok-hei (for the most part) that the american-chinese just doesn't deliver. But if that's what is presented, that's what I'll eat.

I could make a meal out of just those potatoes. I’m drooling.

My Christmas Day feast was very similar to Corky's, except I probably had eaten that amount equal to the entire plate of prime rib on that image all by myself. We also had goose (out of tradition, I suppose) and bunch of sides & desserts guests had brought over.

I tried to roast a goose a few years ago. My son insisted that he wanted to try it, so I ordered one from the butcher and began roasting. About half way through cooking, all of the fat which was melting began to smoke in the oven. The next few hours were spent with windows open, smoke pouring out, neighbors coming over out of concern, and hard wired fire alarms going off.
Never, ever again!
Yesterday was a lot easier. Broiled some thick, bone in pork chops. Made a stuffing on the side, and green beans.

LOL. Your goose was cooked.

LOL...yeah, it may resemble a duck (distant cousins? not that I know much about animals) but it's certainly a much heavier and fattier bird. Hard to imagine geese can fly with all of that fat and meat density.

Lol, Might I suggest a chinese meat shop or asian supermarket (with a hot food section)? Many will have roasted goose on sale (in addition to the other roasted/BBQ'ed meats). You could order one in advance if you want. Some western supermarkets also sell roasted goose, but I don't see those very often.

There’s alway a goose in the freezer at my local Publix. I assume they change it out once a year. I’ve never seen anyone buy it.

xmas supper:

apps:
sausage, sliced salami
cheeses
olives & nuts

turkey with mashed, stuffing, gravy
Brussels
creamed spinach
other choices unchosen

jello salad
cheesecake
french silk pie (homemade)
apple pie
nuts
other dessert options unchosen

Hope we get invited back :-)

i haven’t had goose and I’ve wanted it for years. I’m hoping to finally get it at a China/HK bbq place in 2022.

My son and I have wanted a Christmas goose ever since we enjoyed it while visiting Germany and Austria during Advent.

There's no way I would cook a goose for just the two of us and I suspect my wife and daughter would leave the house for the day (or more) if I ever tried to cook it here at home.

Anyone up for goose and raiding the wine fridge some day next Christmas season? LOL.

Boxing Day dinner at our friend ‘ s . An Indian curries spread followed by log cakes . After all the usual CHRISTmas fare , thought the change of mains was a welcome
The photo of the accompanying wine is on another thread . Forgot some photos as we were having a blast .


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Mutton and prawns / quail eggs curries
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Plain apom , also had the one with egg ( forgot photo )
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Dhal
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Chicken curry
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Starting with ..

We have bought and roasted a frozen supermarket goose several times. No special technique, just like a chicken or turkey. No grease fires or excess smoke. We find the breast meat quite good. The rest of the bird, not so much, and most is tossed. One of my favorite meals in Germany was goose breast, red cabbage/apples, and potato dumplings.

carryout from Gayle’s, capitola
Italian ficelle sandwich
assd cookies
tuna salad with baguette from home
assd beverages from home

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15 February trips in Nuernberg and I never had goose. Tons of beloved pork and other great Franconian cuisine. No goose. Sad!

Perhaps a regional thing. All my time in Germany was spent between Mannheim, Heidelberg and Schwetzingen. Far from Nuremberg. Goose was always a one day a week thing. I forget which day, but it was always popular.

More Penang style tonight except for desserts


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Hokkien prawn mee hoon soup
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Chye Tau Kway
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Egg fu yong
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Small lor bak ( pork & prawn roll ) with sweet sauce
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Both
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Espresso log cake


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Thin slice of the log cake , home baked fruitcake and sugee cake by neighbour
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What the logcake was like before .. cake “ decorations “ placed by yours truly

Also shui jing pao , forgot photo .. perhaps add later


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Here they are ..

Tonight is Christmas part 2 for the part of the family that couldn't join us Friday/Saturday. Keeping it casual with Lou Malnati's catering:
- Pan of Lou's salad
- XL thin crust
- Large deep dish classic
- Pan of penne pasta

enjoy Lou’s - which location? I only know uptown highland park location before driving West.

The downtown Northbrook location. We considered Barnaby's but they didn't do catering trays for the salad and pasta.

We are looking at take-out tonight from Ramshackle Cafe. They have an extensive menu. Choice will be difficult. But I expect we will order light since there can be no leftovers as we are leaving tomorrow for a week.

omg I love Lou’s way more than barnaby’s :-)

Half pound bacon burger with onion rings. The burger was slightly charred on the outside and red and barely warm in the center. I loved every bite. The onion rings, however, were quite pedestrian.

Mrs BV had a cranberry walnut (chicken) wrap. Bigger around than her forearm. She is saving half for the road tomorrow.

My father-in-law ordered a half slab of ribs with baked beans and macho nachos. Combined this must have weighed 10 pounds. He ate about half and the jalapeños were strong enough to make his upper lip perspire.

Overall, a good experience. We really need to order from there more often.

Comfort food
Campanelle with San Marzano tomatoes, arugula, garlic, wine and shrimp
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Sorry to be slow with the replies. This restaurant indicated this was their preferred way of taking orders. And the menu includes chicken gizzards, pigs feet, pork kidney, sheep entails, ox maw and pork intestines and blood, but also more mainstream dishes and proteins. So only somewhat Americanized Chinese.

tarpy’s roadhouse, monterey ca (actually super close to mry)
shared pretzel
shared wedge salad

brisket supper

chocolate peanut butter pie with whipped cream (I also enjoyed whipped cream on its own ala efrem!)


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feels very Sichuan / spicy style. Yum. Total bummer about the green pepper situation.

I love this whole order. This is what I consider comfort food. I've had a huge craving for onion rings lately, sorry yours were boring. I had an onion ring tower on order a couple days ago via UberEats before realizing that the restaurant was closed (not sure why UE accepted the order). Short of making them, which is unlikely, I'm probably not getting those rings until 2022 now.

Tonight - Albacore tuna from our Sitka share that was delivered yesterday. Not sure how we'll prepare it yet. Leftover Lou's salad.

I love the hackney’s onion ring loaf :-)

RE: Onions rings

I love onion rings and prefer ordering this more than fries. Heck, I even like those Burger King fake ones! Had a planned one day business trip that turned into another one of those unintentional 48 hour fasting things, and leaning towards going to Morton's later for steak & onion rings.

Dinner followed the partial Indonesian meals theme for the day :)
Loved it all even if the chicken was a touch spicy , corn fritters were fine & other items too .
The hard boiled eggs potatoes combo is brilliant
Forgot photo of the soup

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Delightfully delicious 😋 home cooked meal shared with us❗️

A local place, Brick and Barrel has unparalleled onion rings. They are dense and heavy. The onion inside is cooked, but just barely. The breading is like a fluffy egg or beer batter and has a faint vanilla flavor. An order may consist of only 5 or 6 large rings but they weigh a lot and it’s always a challenge to finish. I suspect they’ve absorbed a lot of grease. I’m gonna order me some as soon as I get back.

Meanwhile, maybe I’ll stop at Sonic for some rings this week along with a chili coney.

Tried a takeout-only Indian restaurant that we hasn’t visited before. Used the $35 December Amex Uber credit to try the lamb vindaloo and khatte chole (chickpeas). It was better than expected and we look forward to returning.