McDonald's... hmm

First it's people getting married at Mickey D's...

Would you like a wife with that? McDonald's offers weddings | CNNGo.com

Then, you get a lady who shows you what a Happy Meal looks like in 6 months.

Ahhhhh!!!!

Bourdain

So, Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations was in town. Of course, other than being a chef, a tv host of TV show and guest judge for several other reality shows; he's also a writer.

That said, last night at the Jones Hall talking to a sold out crowd. There are people from all walks of life that was there. I'm presuming that it is really because of his show, honestly I was hoping more foodie there. Whose to say that they're not, but from some of the questions in q&a you can tell that they're there because of his show. (Yes, I'm a snob, so sued me)

Anyway, this 'speaking engagement' was really good, in my opinion. Now, albeit that I am not a food nerd that goes out to buy his books and watch every show he's on. But from what I heard the entire speaking engagement was almost verbatim of the book. To me, it's a good rambling from him. He has some good stories to tell and some sidebar antidote.

Some reviews I've read were harsh as though, you don't need to waste your money to see him live just read the book for $19.99. Here's the thing, not that I don't like to read, or his books (haven't gave it an honest try yet), but the real thing is not the same as words on pages. So, as pissed as these people are, I don't agree. It's like would you like to hear a story at storytime or would you rather sit there and read it yourself? Well... ok then.

So, after he talked for over an hour, about how to be a greatful American traveling aboard rather than the stereotypical ugly American with those ugly shorts with black socks with white sneakers. Go eat what the locals eat. One of the stories he told was that he was sent to a restaurant that is spotless with several other foreigners. That's a sign that you should run the other way because that's not where the locals go. He said he passed by a taco truck that is at some construction site with 50 people lined up waiting in line, THAT's the place you want to be at.

The Q&A that was annoying... some people were like, I want your job how can I get it? Urm... you're not that lucky. There's this one girl was basically doing self-promotion when she got a chance to ask him a question, that's just annoying... dude... it's about the guy, his book, his show, his experience, not to promote your own agenda. Grrr. Some people was asking dumb things like how to eat good meat without bone. WTF?! Urm... yeah.

Overall, I enjoyed his talk. He made sure to ham things up and not be a generic asshole act that I know that he is capable of doing. Even if the show is verbatim of his book. I take a dose of the real Bourdain any day over words on pages.

Macaron

Let's talk macaron, shall we? Not the coconut w/ chocolate ones, but the French ones... you know the one w/ only one 'o' instead of 2.

Anyway, the recipe I tried this weekend is here. This is a better recipe that I've tried. I think too that since I know how to do it, I did alot of prep work overnight. First thing you should do ahead of time is set the egg whites aside ahead of time. And take it from me, using pre-made egg white yield to a very different result. This time I used real eggs and separated them apart the night before.

I was baking something else and I thought while I was at it, I also went ahead and sift the flour ahead of time. Here's another tip for you, do not use the sifter that has 2 layer sift. In theory, that was a good idea, but in reality, you can't clean that thing. What's more ridiculous was that I was searching online if there's any info on how to clean, some people say don't clean it. WTF??? You need to have to have a way to clean it because stuff gets stuck and it will remain stuck in between the layers. Bleh! Either use a grinder style to sift or use a tamis. A tamis will be a pain, and your arm will hate you the following day, but it will get the job done and cheap.

That said, this time around, I didn't achieve the 'feet' that a French Macaron would. Unlike last time w/ the beginners luck. However, the taste of the cookie was not shabby. The consistency was good. According to recipe, it was supposed to bake for 11-13 mins. Personally, I left them in there while working on piping the batter and about 16 mins or so, and that was nice and golden brown. Now, I have yet to try to add food coloring in there, so that obviously will come into play. But for plain janes, wait till they are golden brown.

The whole piping thing too, there's a trick to it. I used a size 12 piping tip and as someone described, its like making a chocolate kiss and have that little tip on top. When it bakes, the tip disappear. So, don't worry.

That said, I did space them out, and made them smaller. Last time I made them too big. But, because there's nothing in the batter to raise the dough, it won't expand more than what you pipe out. Oh, and parchment paper, saved my butt. If it's golden brown, it'll pop out nice and easy. If it's not golden brown (read: under baked) it will stick. As a matter of fact, it sticks together even a day after it's been out of the oven.

Another thing to note, the recipe only called for 4 ingredients, but when in fact, they had left out granulated sugar. You need granulated sugar in order to whip the egg white (and a pinch of salt) to nice and stiff peaks. From my research, 2 tsp of sugar slowly added will do the trick.

Now, on to the filling. This recipe has a nice little ganache filling. I must say, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it'd be. It came out pretty nice too. I'd figured that it'd be over empowering-ly sweet. But it came out nice and easy. When you put it between the two almond cookies, it balances out nicely.

One thing I would say on that recipe is that it yielded way too much ganache. Now, maybe I'm not generous enough with the filling, which I didn't think that was the case because I squish them nicely and neatly. Not alot of overages coming out of the cookie. So, don't know. But let me tell you, when I was done w/ the cookies, I had to throw away half of the ganache batch, I felt very sad. :(

All in all, great recipe. If I were to do this again, this will be my go-to. It has only 5 ingredients that you can easily locate. Yes, you do have prep work to do ahead of time. But if you do half of them the day before you bake, it came out to be pretty easy.

Don't forget the sifting tip, don't forget your granulated sugar, cut the ganache recipe in half, and you're good to go!

Gluten Free Oreo Cookie

So my husband is on the gluten free diet. The problem is that not alot of good dessert is out there that's not dried and cardboard tasting. I am on these blogs and found this recipe from Wise Bread.

That said, I didn't follow the recipe

to a T. First of all, it calls for the gluten free all purpose flower. And while I know in theory, it's 3 parts of this, 3 parts of that, 2 part of something, and 1 part of something else or another... So, instead of making the mixture, because I don't want to do the match to divide them out to 1 1/4 cup of that mixture. I went to the trustee Pamela's Pancake mix.

My thinking was, if majority of ingredient is already in that pancake mix, why not just use that. Of course, in my mind, they are the same portion w/ all the ingredients... not having a clue if that's true or not.

That said, next time, if I were to do it again, I may go w/ Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free all purpose flour. I'm just curious how the consistency will come out.

This time, to me, it's a little grain-y.

The shortening made a very good cream in the middle. The review I've gotten were that it looks like moon-pie and definitely too big to dip into any glass of milk.

In reality, it doesn't taste super chocolatey like Oreos, you can definitely tell there's chocolate in there. I would rather it be smoother. The filling wasn't bad, so I wouldn't change that. Maybe just lesser portion.

I think I may try a different recipe if I were to do the oreo-like cookies again. And by the way, because they call for gluten free flour, they do burn easily, so keep an eye on it.

HRW 2010: 17

In case you haven't heard, it's Restaurant Week in Houston. This is where my gluttonous self comes out. Also that's where I go broke...

I love this time of year because not only do you get to taste the yummiest food around town. You get it in a prix fixe format. On top of that, $5 of each meal goes towards theHouston Food Bank. You get to eat well and do good... why not?

One feature I love for this year is that more and more restaurants are offering lunch for $20 and dinner, like last year is $35.

So, the first place we went to was 17. We went last year where the executive chef had first arrived. The best thing I remembered was the deconstructed beef wellington. This year, having the year under his belt, things are significantly more casual.

This is what I had:

1st
17 Crab Cake, Tomato Broth
This was one of their signature dish. I must say, they weren't lying. It was easy to love, and the tomato broth I wish I can dip everything it in.

2nd
Texas Peach Braised Pork Shank
Corn and Barley Compote, Pork Lacquer

The pork was truly delicious. It was so good that the meat fell off the bone. The compote was more like a pasta than cous cous. I am, however not a big fan of corn, so I did pick around it. Haha.

3rd
Chocola

te Pound Cake
Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Orange Anise Glaze

The dessert was a little misleading and not as good as I'd thought. Even though it said it is a chocolate pound cake, the amount of orange zest and glaze around it, really empowered it towards more orange taste than chocolate taste. I wish they have more of a balance.

17 at Alden Hotel

1117 Prairie St

Houston, TX 77002

832-200-8800

http://www.aldenhotels.com/17.php

Peninsula, Chicago

So, it's been a month's time since I posted, but I wasn't done w/ the Chicago eating venture; so here's the last post on the Chicago trip.

The last day of the trip I've made a habit of calling up the room service. I know that sounds snobby, and usually takes 40 mins to get the food, but it's very time efficient. I know that's silly but I usually try to capitalize the last day and run whatever errands. Usually up till the shops closes which also means that dinner at normal restaurants are also done. I do have occasionally go to the reverse-happy hour and get good deals. Mostly, I have it down to a science to order room service and use the remainder of the time to pack.

Since it's usually late late late dinner for me, it's helps to not have a big meal. Plus, what you see here, as little as it is, it cost about $50. Yep, you read that right... $50.

So, let's see what I ordered...

Sliders w/ fries... yes, that cute little cup contains fries... I think there's about 6 fries in there... All 3 mini sliders are different. One is plain burger, one is w/ blue cheese, and one is with cheddar cheese. The meat of the burger is top notch. You're probably thinking it'd better be. And it is... the plain one is just that, meat, bread and pickle. Since I'm not a pickle person, it's really meat an bread. The buns are also yummy, must be buttermilk of some sort, definitely made in house... no doubt about that.

Lastly, I always order their creme brulee. You just know that they will use real vanilla beans to make this. I'm not sure about that rolled up cookie thing, but mixed w/ the diced applies it's brings up the sweetness of the brulee.

For their brulee, they do change it up by season. Once I ordered the creme brulee without reading the description, turns out it was pumpkin brulee... It tasted fine, but that's what I psyched myself up for... But this is not bad if you ever get a chance to try it.

Also not to neglect that the hotel itself has some wonderful restaurants in-house. For instance, they're known for their afternoon tea service. You do have to make reservation ahead of time. The Shanghai Terrance is not bad and yes, you do need a reservation. Another great place at the hotel is the Pierrot Gourmet. They have great breakfast, and lovely to sit out at the sidewalk and do lunch. Dinner is not bad either, except they do close early. The wine pairing with the dinner is lovely. You don't need a reservation for that.

Peninsula Chicago

108 E. Superior St. (at Michigan Ave)

Chicago, IL 60611

(312) 337-2888

BRC Gastropub

Gastropub is gaining its popularity in terms of its usage. It's almost like saying we're not quite a pub, but we serve better food. In Big Red's case, that's true. Before we go any further, make all the jokes you want, but yes, BRC does stand for Big Red Cock. To that, they actually do have a big giant cockatoo in the parking lot.

BRC is a brain child of the guys from Glass Wall, Lance Fagen & Shepherd Ross, and Carl Eaves from The Social. To be honest, I've never been able to go to the Social nor have I ever been to the Glass Wall. I'm always intimidated by the wait for the place and rather go somewhere else where the wait is not so horrible.

While BRC isn't exactly wait-free. The place is definitely more welcoming and you wouldn't mind waiting while watching a soccer match. The bar serves a wide range of local beer, something for everyone. The wine list isn't shabby either. When you sit down at the bar, first thing they throw at you is this little book of wine and beer choices... needless to say, it's a very long list.

The place is definitely theme for the crowd that hangs out at the Washington Corridor. But the food is definitely the higher end comfort food.

On to the food:

Dr. Pepper Fried Quail

From what I understand, the guys from Glasswall is famous for their quail. Which explains alot. I liked the quail, it's not game-y and juicy. I'm not too sure about the potato salad that has less flavor, but the quail itself has a very juicy texture and if I can say so myself, it's meaty too.

The potato salad has the look and feel to it, but the taste was lacking a bit. While the quail draws a sweet taste to the meat, the salad has almost no taste. That kinda surprised me, as I'm not sure if they are trying to 'balance' out the main piece or if it is how it's supposed to be. So, will have to go back and try again.

Mac & Cheese du Jour:

I was a tad hesitant at first because I wasn't looking for a heavy side for my quail, but whatever I wanted to get wasn't available. Since the bartender recommended it, why not. The mac & cheese du jour was spread w/ andouille sausage and bacon bits. It's not over empowering with the cheese, but you can still taste the meat. Talk about it's my kind of mac & cheese. It has never been kind to me, but this one worked. So, I'm sticking with it.

Just a quick note about parking, they do have a small parking lot. They also made arrangement w/ the big silver building next door to use their parking in the evenings and the weekend. However, they've also have arranged w/ their neighbors about parking in the evening on weekends. That comes in handy only if there is not a Roller Derby game next door at Kicks. So, I suggest you check the schedule. If not, the big giant parking nightmare would be a clue.

BRC Gastropub

519 Shepherd Dr.

Houston, TX 77007

713-861-2233

http://www.brcgastropub.com/