Udon with Fixings

Ingredients:

• 1 Package of udon, with soup base
• Sliced nappa cabbage
• 1/2 lb chicken breast, cut into small slices
• 1 or 2 eggs
• Optional fixings: dumplings, seaweed, japanese fish cakes, whatever that makes your heart content

Preparation

Bring the recommended amount of water and soup base powder to a boil in a small/medium pot. Throw in the nappa cabbage and chicken, then wait till the water boils. You can also add in the ubon in the previous step, but it might make the noodle too soggy. I usually wait a couple of minutes before putting the udon noodles in.

Since addition of extra ingredients tend to lowe the temperature, wait until the water boils again once all the fixings and noddles are in the pot. Quickly beat two eggs and pour it slowly into the center of the pot, thus creating the infamous “cloudy egg” effect like Chinese egg drop soup.

Taranta

Personal review from dining at Taranta during the 2006 Restaurant Week in Boston. Taken from their website, Taranta is the result of a marriage between Southern Italian Cuisine and Peruvian Cuisine

So, on the plate for the Platinum Chef:

Pan Roasted Mussels – Fresh PEI mussels with Sicilian Marsala, Pancetta Abruzzese and Balsamic roasted shallots.

My $0.02: What a wonderful appetizer! Maybe it was restaurant week and they’re trying to advertise themselves, but they definitely weren’t stingy on the amount of mussels given to each one of us.

Cancha Corn Crusted Tilapia - Cancha corn crusted tilapia filet served with friend garganzo beans, baby spinach, marinated red onions and buttermilk aji amarillo sauce

My $0.02: Wasn’t too crazy about this dish, which was served with a mildly tangy buttermilk sauce. The description did not mention that the tilapia fillet would be fried. I think that a true fish aficionado would agree with me that frying removes the true essence/taste of the fish. Apart from the fish itself, the combination of marinated onions and baby spinach looked and tasted great.

Somebody ordered the Gnocchi Di Yucca Can Ragu D’Agnello, and that was quite good.

Hazelnut Mousse – Hazelnut mousse with dulce de leche

My $0.02: Star of the night! The ‘light’ texture of the mousse was surprising given the richness of flavor. A must!

Shrimp Kabobs

Ingredients

• RAW Shrimp, 26-30 per pound size
• Skewers, soaked in water to prevent burning prior to grilling
  
• Green & Red Bell Peppers, cut to 3/4″ pieces
• Pinapple Chunks, canned w/ juice
• Soy Sauce
• Celery Salt
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper

Preparation & Cooking

Remove shell and clean shrimp, set aside to drain dry. Chop red & green bell peppers to 1″ x 0.5″ pieces. Drain pinapple chunks but save the pinapple juice for grilling sauce. Carefully, place a mix-and-match combo of shrimp, bell peppers pieces, and pinapple chunks onto the skewers.

Preheat grill to 350 degrees C. Place skewers on a not too shallow dish and sprinkle some celery salt, garlic salt, and pepper onto the surface of the prepared skewers. Then, combine pinapple juice with soy sauce and brush the mixture onto the surface of the shrimp and bell peppers. Use a moderate amount of sauce mixture.

Place skewers onto the grill and cook for about 2-3 minues on each side, or until the shrimp turns pink. Remove from grill and serve immediately.

Sam Adams Black Lager

This stuff is good. I picked up a Sam Adams Brewmaster’s Collection today and had one of the Black Lagers, it was awesome. As described on the packaging:

Smooth and malty with a deep roast character and dry finish.

Well said Sam, well said!

Chicken Cacciatore (from foodnetwork.com)

Pretty good recipe for making Chicken Cacciatore, provided by foodnetwork.com.