6 posts tagged “lunch”
(Read the rest of the entry here...)
Last Thursday, an urge to make curry hit me in the middle of the work day as I was chatting to one of the graduate students and one of the undergrads. I announced then that it was my desire to make curry that night, and after they gave me some semi-interested glances, our conversation abruptly returned to our pending trip to St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (I will be presenting a poster at the ASLO conference there in June about my research).
Their interest in my dinner plans may have waned, but mine craving for curry did not. A little while later, I dialed home and spoke with my mother. Always glad to give up the kitchen to someone else who is willing to cook dinner, she offered to help me purchase some of the materials I needed for the curry. Then, sweet, darling mother that she is, she also said that she would start boiling the meat to tenderize it. Hurrah! All I had to do was pick up some more curry roux cubes on my way home, and dinner would soon be on its way.
I ended up with an extraordinarily large pot of curry. My parents insist on putting extra of whatever particular ingredient they like best, which means more carrots for my mother and more potatoes for my father. In addition, I had already started with a lot of meat. There isn't a picture of the curry because I left it in the pot and then doled it out on top of the rice before serving and it really looks like every other curry I've ever cooked (see old entry here). But it was yummy nonetheless.
Especially because I got to have a nice lunch the next day with my leftovers!
It's horribly adorable, I know. The story behind the cute (and safe!) fork you see in the picture is quite simple, really. (And no, I did not steal it from a small child!) When I first moved into my old apartment two years ago, everyone who lived with me had similar silverware. I mean, when they're all crowded in the dishwasher, who's going to actually look so carefully as to pick the fork/knife/spoon that was hers? So I went to Buy Buy Baby and bought some cute utensils that I could identify as my own immediately without any hassle. Of course, I didn't realize that this would make all the other girls in my apartment eager to use them too. I would often find a spoon or a fork in an unwashed bowl in the sink... Ah the joys of living with five other girls in an apartment.
I kind of miss it, really.
In other news, I started teaching art lessons to my friend Anna a couple of weeks ago. We're both still beginners: her at drawing and me at teaching. So I have a niggling suspicion that it'll be an interesting ride.
Because it was more convenient, the past two lessons have been at her house, and I would arrive with my art supplies and we would spend time drawing, chatting, and generally having fun. This past Saturday we decided to expand our time together and have brunch together. Originally the plan was to check out The Original Pancake House in Bethesda, but seeing as how I have been on a pancake-making spree in recent weeks, I offered to cook. She supplied the materials, since it was at her house, and I was chef-slash-art-teacher for the course of the day.
It took a few pancakes of time to get used to her stove and how it heated, but once I got the hang of it, the pancakes turned out pretty well. I started with blueberry pancakes. They came out pretty well, although the first couple were slightly burnt while I was still adjusting to the temperature of her stovetop.
I also made chocolate pancakes, but the chocolate tended to melt and burn and spread all over the pan, so I resisted from taking pictures of such ugly (but apparently tasty) creations.
So you can see the slightly deformed chocolate pancakes in the front, flanked by the blueberry pancakes and some delicious apples and oranges (I am a total fruitaholic), with adzuki pancakes and a few sausages in the back. The extra adzuki beans, whipped cream, and maple syrup (seen in the back) were our toppings of choice.
Needless to say, the art lesson was delayed until much later in the afternoon.
The last of my Washington D.C. Restaurant Week excursions was Ceiba, a restaurant featuring contemporary Latin American cuisine. Once again I slipped ever so effervescently from my lab and made my way into DC, sauntering through Chinatown on my way (it's not really "on the way," but I wanted to go out for a brisk walk in the brisk, brisk air).
I met my brother outside the restaurant, and although we were early, we were met with cheerful faces who, after we checked our coats, brought us to our little table and presented us with the following:
It was more like several large pita chips, and I really enjoyed the slightly spicy dip it came with. Spicy but not too much so. The only problem was the fact that our table was absolutely tiny and I felt very uncomfortable and incapable of maneouvering my body around the many things on the table. Much to my chagrin, I ended up dropping a piece of bread on the floor. It made me very sad.
But after I got over my initial embarrassment at my inept bumblings, we ordered lunch.
First Courses--
West Indies Conch Chowder - Sweet Corn Johnnycakes, Gosling's Dark Rum, Outerbridges Sherry Pepper Sauce
In any case, it apparently wasn't enough to make anyone drunk, especially a heavyweight like Jon.
I saw a bunch of people with plates on top of a tray of ice when I entered the restaurant, and I wondered what in the world they could possibly be eating that would require the usage of a tray of ice? It was disturbingly reminiscent of my own lab work, which may not have been the best thing to come to mind. Luckily, I don't work with any toxic substances.
The ceviche was light and delicious. I don't know how they prepared the dish, but I enjoyed every bite of it. I think I got the better deal, appetizer-wise, compared to my brother.
Main Courses--
Jon's dish seemed very Asian influenced to me. I guess the fried rice made it just that much more Asian. I don't think it was uniquely different from any other Asian fried rice that I had ever had, but the swordfish and the sauce made up for it.
I really enjoyed the platones (?) in this dish. Sweet and squishy, they complimented the greens and the rice and peas well. The salmon was larger than I expected and I could not finish eating this dish. To tell the truth, I think I've been eating salmon too much at home, and I've gotten too used to its taste. However, I had never had one cooked to medium doneness before, so that much was a new experience. The brown sauce tasted a bit like curry, which was an interesting pairing with the salmon and rice and beans. Perhaps I'll try cooking curry with salmon next time...
Dessert--
All in all, Ceiba was an excellent addition to my repertoire of fine restaurants to visit in DC (A complete list includes DC Coast, Butterfield9, Chef Geoff's Downtown, and Ceiba, among many).
Thus ended my restaurant week. I can't wait until the next one!
Well, as for TODAY's lunch...I cooked dinner for my family yesterday (went out in the morning to buy the chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onions), and since curry is the first dish I ever learned how to make, it's also one of the easiest to make when the need for my cooking arises. So I made chicken curry yesterday, and I took the leftovers to work today.
What you see in the picture: On the left are two cupcake holders that I use as semi-dividers/containers that are holding some grapes. I could put them by themselves in the slot provided by the bento divider, but then I couldn't heat up my lunch (somehow I don't think nuked grapes would be very tasty). Therefore I put them into cupcake containers so I can pull them out of the bento box while I heat the food. On the right is my little bowl of rice (I usually don't have this nice dome of rice-- I was just curious about the amount of rice I put in my bentos usually) topped with furikake (a Japanese rice condiment that's made of varying things such as seaweed, fish, eggs, sesame seeds, etc.) and surrounded by my chicken curry.
Needless to say, I enjoyed my lunch! I wonder if I'll ever become one of those people able make beautifully designed bentos that they post all over the internet... Eh, we'll see. I think I'm a bit too lazy....
So when my big boss has meetings every other week or so (they're more like lecture discussions), everyone in the department gets free lunch. Last time it was sushi, this time it was a huge bento-- which I couldn't finish. It wasn't the best 便當 that I've had, although I must say that the 青菜 (veggies) was very good... the meat was more on the "eh" side. I'm getting spoiled when it comes to bentos... Aish.
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