French wine

Just got home from playing the piano at a concert tonight, and the reception thereafter. They had some really good French Chateau Saint-Etienne wine.

ThaiTanic

Just discovered that ThaiTanic has a branch location in northern Columbia Heights when Morgan dragged me there for dinner tonight.

Cooking at home for a change

Mmmm. Grilled pork chops for dinner, simply prepared with lots of salt and pepper and a little dollop of butter.

Symphony concert

Out on the terrace for intermission sipping gin and tonics. Keeps us from getting malaria, you know.

McCourt

I think I ate at least two pounds of shrimp at the reception tonight following the Tribute to (the late Irish author) Frank McCourt. Gotta take advantage of it whilst we can....who knows how much longer we'll have affordable shrimp—or shrimp at all! (Gee, thanks, BP!)

Wine list

I can always tell a restaurant is bad when their finest box of wine has a missing kid’s picture on it.

Mexican

Dining at Cactus Cantina with Morgan and I'm totally stuffed.

Trio

It's a pleasant night, sitting out on the patio at Trio.

Elegant dining

Now at Tastee Diner in a tuxedo.

Summertime

Just ate a carton of ice cream for dinner. It seemed the summer thing to do.

Embarrassment of riches

You know, the problem with those "10 mangos for $10" sales at the grocery store is that those mangos all tend to get ripe at the same time.

Social Safeway grand re-opening

Just back from the brand new "Social Safeway" in Georgetown (it's 24-hour now). They held its grand re-opening earlier in the day and starting with an invitation-only cocktail party last night, in a brand new building at the old site. I took pictures. (Yes, I know the photography is bad, but I was trying to be surreptitious and use my Blackberry.) Didn't get any pictures of the sushi bar, butcher case, or fishmonger case, because we were there after midnight and they had put all those things away for the day. This new store is in close competition with Dean & Delucca for having the biggest and best selection of very pricey gourmet foods in the District. The "normal" stuff is still Safeway-cheap, but they are carrying a lot of high end stuff in this store.

Here's the link to the photo album over on Facebook (you don't need an account to view):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2420759&id=9637217&l=9f44758b03

Julep!

What time is the Kentucky Derby? Do I have time for a mint julep or two before post?

Hollywood in D.C.

Ran in to and met former TV star Randolph Mantooth (John Gage in Emergency!) at lunch today on Dupont Circle, and he bought me a cheeseburger at Five Guys! He's a fellow Seminole Indian. Really nice guy.

Sigh

After last night's glorious meal and music, I am now reduced to lunching at KFC and listening to the obnoxious thumping bass of a car out in the parking lot.

Masonic food

Tonight's menu, for those of you who didn't come to my lodge's annual grand visitation. Yep, we cooked it ourselves.

The Doughnut Plant, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

Creme brulee doughnut, $3, from the Doughnut Plant.

 

This tiny ball of doughnut contains custard cream on the inside, and the outside has been coated in sugar and broiled (propane torched) to give it the traditional hard crème brulée crust. Not sure exactly where this place is.....Lower East Side?? I'll have to ask Ian.

Lavandou Cuisine Provençal, Washington, D.C.

Lavandou Cuisine Provençal is another of my favorite French restaurants around the District, this particular one emphasizing foods from the Provence region along the Riviera. It's located up in Cleveland Park, though, where I never go unless we have an unusual, specific reason, usually either to eat at Lavandou or at the Indian restaurant Indique; otherwise, there's nothing up there.

Lavandou means lavender.  Many contemporary cooks will recognize lavender as one of the major ingredients in herbes de Provence, a commercial herbal cooking mixture. Of course, old, traditional food from that region did not include lavender in routine cooking, although today many chefs have started experimenting with it to help fulfill expectations from food tourists.

I'm actually not quite sure how we ended up here.  We had been to the late Palm Sunday Mass and were driving around, looking for a place to eat where we could also find a place to park the car.  Then, it started to rain very heavily.  Somehow I discovered we were near Cleveland Park, so it seemed like a fun idea to pop into Lavandou. I actually wanted to go to the (newish) Irish pub next door, but Morgan was swayed by the big sign in Lavandou's window announcing half-price martinis.

Once inside, we got a very nice window table with a view of the rainy sidewalk and street.  Morgan made me order a martini (remind me next time to call the gin) and he ordered a French 75.

Having come straight from Palm Sunday Mass, we were hoping to have hearts of palm salad, but, alas, there were no hearts of palm to be had.

For a starter, Morgan picked the escargots beurre d'ail. While he'd had snails before, it was his first time to have to negotiate the little critters in those big snail shells. Personally, my favorite part of escargot has always been the garlic butter, sopped up with crusty French bread. My starter was one of the specials du jour, a lovely salade de betterave et tomate au chèvre frais.  Slices of heirloom tomatoes and poached beets interlayered beneath a mound of baby mesclun greens and all was dressed in a light vinaigrette and dotted with bits of fresh goat cheese.  It was quite delicious!

We both endulged in seafood for our main courses.  I switched to a nice house sauvignon blanc and Morgan had another French 75.  After great consideration, Morgan finally decided to get the cassoulet du pêcheur, a hearty seafood stew with lots of fish, mussels, clams, and other goodies in a tomato-based provençal-style broth.  I got les moules safran avec pommes frites, a nice, big bowl of mussels steamed in white wine, saffron, and cream, accompanied by a bowl of fried potatoes with a handmade mayonnaise—almost an aioli—dipping sauce.  I always enjoy the earthy basic qualities of steamed mussels, and it seems like I get a double main course, since there's always the delicious broth to be drunk up at the end.

We weren't going to do dessert, but the things all looked so tempting.  Morgan got a lavender-scented crème brulée served in a square dish, and I picked a traditional tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.  We couldn't decide what wine to drink with dessert, so we opted for cognac.  Then, we couldn't decide which cognac to get, so we got one Martell and one Courvoissier.  I thought they were both quite adequate.

And, thus, we ended our observance of Palm Sunday and kicked off Holy Week in a grand way.

Family way

Out cocktailing with a pregnant lady and watching her drink iced tea and eat whole deep-fried dill pickles. LOL

Query

Who wants to go out with me tonight to get a piece of pie to celebrate Pi Day?

Dining Out for Life

We are participating in Dining Out for Life tonight to raise money for Food for Friends just by dining at Cafe La Ruche in Georgetown, a 35% sponsor!

Health Department warnings

Beware! The five filthiest restaurants in D.C.: Gordon Biersch Brewery, Georgia Brown's, The Palm Restaurant, Toscana Cafe, and Capital City Brewing (Massachusetts Avenue). While I've eaten at four of these, fortunately, none of them are on my D.C. "favorites" list.
www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Hundreds-of-eateries-rack-up-health-violations-87267627.html

Oyamel, Washington, D.C.

Lodge afterparty at Oyamel.

Liquid diet

Chewy Jello-O at the George Washington University Hospital

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Poor Laurent was having a bad week last week, and a particularly frustrating Wednesday, so I rescued him from the remnant snow piles and brisk winds as he left the gym and spirited him off to Chinatown for dinner. It didn't hurt matters any that I happened to have a Christmas gift card to the restaurant, but I didn't tell him that! LOL

So, off we went to Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, the only in-District store of this national chain of microbreweries with a pleasant, moderately-upscale menu. No doubt due to the weather, the restaurant was far from full when we walked in, so we were immediately seated near the bar area. This particular store is in a stunning setting, since they occupy the ground floor of a former bank building, and they have what amounts to a two-story tall space supported by Corinthian columns and all kinds of ornate stonework everywhere.

Still tired from his workout and wanting to maintain some semblance of healthy eating, Laurent decided to have the large spinach salad for dinner.  He had them add a sliced, grilled chicken breast to the salad, and also added a large slab of grilled salmon.  Spinach and protein.  Sounds healthy, I guess.  I don't know if he actually got any benefit, though, since he washed it all down with a tall glass of the brewery's winter brew beer!

Not being cursed with a gym addiction, I didn't feel the same culinary restrictions on my menu selections.  I chose the pasta jambalaya, a very interesting dish full of chicken, shrimp, and andoille sausage with lots of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers, plus lots of hot spices, all in the traditional jambalaya concept, but, instead of this being basically a rice stew, they substituted orzo pasta (little tiny pieces of pasta that look like fat grains of rice) for the rice, giving the dish a completely different texture and appearance.  I also got their side house salad, a pretty substantial little chopped salad full of cheese and bacon and candied pecans and other delicious things.

Our waitress was nice, friendly, and chatty, and talked us into ordering dessert.  I decided to get her favorite, the apple bread pudding with whiskey sauce and vanilla ice cream.  It was good.  Laurent got the hamburger of the day, a buffalo sauce/blue cheese burger, and a side dish of the day's vegetable, asparagus.  The kitchen messed up and brought him garlic fries, too, but the waitress didn't charge us for them.  She was quite amused; I don't think she'd ever had anybody order a hamburger for dessert before.

After dinner, we ventured back out into the cold and headed home.  I think dinner at least put Laurent in a somewhat better mood!

For those of you in the area, there's also a Gordon Biersch out at Tyson's Corner Center.

Bubbly

Hit the post-New Years champagne sales and picked up a bottle of Henry-Detaly from France for just $19. It was very yeasty smelling on corking, but turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant wine for a "bargain." My only complaint was that it was highly effervescent and took forever to fill up a flute.

Rice to Riches, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

After our pizza experience in So-Ho at Lombardi's, Ian wanted dessert, so we went across the street to a unique dessert shop called Rice to Riches, a speciality place serving only different varieties of rice puddings.  I don't know if there are other rice pudding shops elsewhere in the country, but this was a new concept to me.

The shop is a long, narrow, deep store with a long counter that looks much like a futuristic ice cream store.  They seemed to have dozens of flavors and varieties of rice pudding, and a huge selection of toppings and add-ins to be mixed into a pudding dish.  We split a 14-ounce bowl ($8.50) and chose two different flavors.  Ian picked "Coast to Coast Cheesecake" (though he almost got the "Cinnamon Sling with Raisins") and I got "Man-Made Mascarpone with Cherries."  Side by side in the bowl, it was hard to see which was which, but they both had very distinct and delicious flavors.  The puddings are served in translucent orange heavy plastic bowls with lids (Ian took it home to use as "Tupperware") and in lieu of spoons we got these little flat, stylized plastic paddles.

I really enjoyed Rice to Riches, and I'm going to convince myself that it's much healthier to be eating rice pudding than just plain old ice cream!

Lombardi's Pizza, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

One night we decided to venture out to another historic restaurant.  This time, we went to SoHo to Lombardi's Pizza, the very first pizzeria in the United States.  They even have a big bronze plaque outside their door commemorating their achievement and 1905 founding.

Now, when pizzas first started coming over from Italy, they weren't at all like the modern pizzas we know today.  They tended to be small appetizer flatbreads with only tomatoes on them, and it wasn't until the late 1880s that melted mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves were added (one legend says that that was to create the colors of the Italian flag).  As the pizza came to America, the tomato mixture began to be replaced with tomato sauce, and American bakers used high-gluten wheat flour that allowed them to toss the dough to make it stretch and become very thin crusts.  Eventually, Americans began to add other toppings and the pizza evolved to the Italian-themed quintessential American food that it is today.

We wanted to be traditional, though, so we ordered a large pizza margherita to share (the "original" kind with just tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil).  It took a while to bake, but it finally arrived, piping hot and balanced on a cake pedestal.

I'll have to say that the pizza was just okay.  I've certainly had better, even in the "traditional" New York or neapolitan style, but it wasn't bad.  I enjoyed the chewiness of the crust, which had been baked in a stone oven.  The biggest thing to give me pause about the pizza, though, was the price, since it was quite an expensive pizza at $20 for a large that wasn't really very large.  And, on top of that, the restaurant does not take plastic!  They are cash only!  They have an ATM in the dining room, and we were wondering if they got a cut of the ATM fees.  It was all an adventure, though, and we now can say we've eaten at the original American pizzeria.

The menu at Lombardi's is pretty much limited to pizzas, salads, and beverages.

El Cantinero Mexican Restaurant, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

The night of the Great Pre-Christmas Blizzard, Ian and I were out walking around Manhattan when we decided that 1) it was snowing hard, 2) the wind was blowing those snowflake at high speed and they were attacking our faces like knives, 3) it was cold out, and 4) we were hungry, so we dashed into El Cantinero Mexican Restaurant down in the Village.  It was late enough and the weather was getting sufficiently inclement that we were able to get immediate seating.

We stayed simple and hearty with our food choices.  Ian got the chicken burrito and cheese enchilada platter, bare.  I got the beef chimichanga and beef enchilada platter, and had the waitress give me Ian's unwanted guacamole and crema.  Both platters came with rice, cheese-covered refried beans, shredded lettuce, and large slices of cucumber.

The waiter kept the free chips and salsa coming throughout the meal.

Ian wanted dessert, so I agreed to split a dessert burrito with him.  They wrapped a banana in a flour tortilla,  deep-fried it, and served it covered with vanilla ice cream, copious quantities of whipped cream, strawberry sauce, and a maraschino cherry on top.  I'm glad we split it, since it was way more than I would have wanted to eat by myself.

I thought they did a pretty good job with the basic Mexican food at El Cantinero.  One never knows how the Mexican food will be when one is not in Mexico or the American Southwest, so this was a pleasant surprise, especially since I've yet to find an adequate Mexican restaurant in Washington, D.C.

My only criticism of the place, and a major black mark in my book, is they served me a piña colada glass full of ice with some light tan liquid in it garnished with a lime wedge, charged me $5, and called it iced tea.  Then, they wanted to charge me for refills!  Needless to say, I stuck to water the rest of the meal.

The Cottage (UWS), New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

One night, Ian and I couldn't decide where to go eat.  Ian decided he wanted Chinese, and, while I was amenable to the idea, I didn't want to go back to the same place we'd been before in Gramercy Park.  So, Ian dragged us all the way up to the Upper West Side, where we went to another Chinese restaurant that offered free wine with dinner.  We got there, and it turned out to be another of the three branches of The Cottage! It took me a bit to recognize it, though, since the arrangement and decor was completely different from the Gramercy location, and even the menus were different.

The restaurant was really quite crowded and noisy, and this location is about half as big as the Gramercy site.  They were also doing a brisk take-out trade from the main cash register in the center of the dining room. We had to wait for quite a while to get seated, and it was rather awkward, since there was no real place for waiting patrons to sit or stand.  Finally, we got a table, but it was a little tiny two top in a corner where the architecture of the room made it a very tight squeeze for us both to sit at the table.  Service was quite brusque in that rushed way that can be seen in many Chinese restaurants, and clearly the waitresses were trying to get people in and out as quickly as possible.

Ian didn't want an appetizer, but he did want some crispy noodles, those fried strips of won-ton wrappers that Chinese-American restaurants often serve with soups; he didn't, however, want to pay the $1 charge for the noodles.  So, I got a bowl of hot and sour soup, with which the crispy noodles came for free.  It was interesting soup, with nice pieces of mushroom and more than the usual quantity of tofu.  And, Ian ate my crispy noodles.  Then, he decided he wanted more, so he ordered another bowlful and paid the $1 charge.  LOL

For his main course, Ian ordered the chicken lo mein.  The lo mein noodles were quite thick, and the large plate was laden with clearly enough lo mein for two.  Instead of coming with a fork or chopsticks, a big pair of tongs came with the platter.

I was in the mood for something spicy, so I got the shredded pork in garlic sauce.  There was a large quantity of pork, and quite a lot of green vegetables like scallions, celery, and Chinese cabbage.  It wasn't terribly spicy-hot, but the garlic was a very strong presence.

This store wasn't as generous with the free white wine, and only allowed us to have two small carafes.  The food quality was similar at both of the Cottage locations, but the Upper West Side store was much more crowded, noisier, and had less congenial service, so if I had to choose between them, I would definitely prefer the Gramercy location.

Pete's Tavern, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

For brunch, Ian and I went to the historic Pete's Tavern, said to be the oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant in New York City.  Even during Prohibition, the tavern became a flower shop and was a notorious speakeasy.  Around a century ago, the tavern became famous as the location where writer O. Henry penned his classic short story, "The Gift of the Magi," a story I remember reading back in junior high school.

Since it was brunchtime, we both opted for daily specials.  Ian got the four cheese omelette and I got the artichoke and mushroom frittata, which was really quite good.  Both dishes came with home fried potatoes and warm blueberry muffins.  Oh, we also each got a free bloody Mary with brunch, too!

After our egg dishes, we were still a tiny bit hungry, so we decided to split a piece of "Oprah's Red Velvet Cake," a dessert allegedly made from Oprah Winfrey's recipe.  Now, I'm a bit of a fan of red velvet cakes, so I know a bit about them and how they are made.  This was a good effort, but the layers of cake were a bit overbaked, and, hence, dry.  It was still edible, but not worthy of carrying the name of a particular cajillionaire like Miss Oprah.

Still, it was fun being in a restaurant with so much history.

Casa Bella Ristorante, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

After all my trips to New York over the years, I had never made it to Little Italy for dinner, so one evening, I dragged Ian there to find a nice Italian place to eat.  We walked up and down the main drag of Little Italy looking for a mutually acceptable place before deciding upon Casa Bella Ristorante.  Casa Bella seemed like a wonderful setting for a Godfather movie.  It's a large place, full of customers and bustling with waiters.  It was busy, but we were there late enough that we were able to be seated immediately.  Now,  some of the reviews I have read about Casa Bella were very critical of the service, but we had no reason to complain, and found our waiter and assistants to be quite accommodating.  

Ian started dinner with ravioli fritti, a piece of deep-fried ravioli with a large boat of marinara sauce for dipping.  I had a Caesar salad.  We also got a carafe of the house chianti to last us during the meal, and it wasn't bad for a house wine.

For my main course, I selected the veal saltimbocca, a nice veal dish presented on a bed of sauteed spinach with a lemon, butter, and parsley sauce.  The plate was decorated with cherry tomato halves and a couple of fried gnocchi.  The meat came hot and tender, and I found the overall dish to be quite simpatico.

For his meal, Ian started with the spaghetti bolognese on the menu, and from there, asked the waiter for a simple sauce without meat.  Well, "meat sauce" is the very definition of bolognese sauce, but the waiter didn't blink and tried to accommodate Ian's whims.  I guess that what he ended up getting was a spaghetti with marinara sauce and an ample grating of parmesan cheese, all garnished with fresh basil leaves.

We had to have dessert, too.  Ian got the Italian cheesecake and I got the tiramisu.  I actually thought the tiramisu was pretty good, and it was nice to have one made with actual mascarpone cheese for a change.

So, that was our Little Italy experience.  I thought it was kind of fun.

Private Roof Club and Garden, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

After we wandered all over the Gramercy, Flatiron, and Chelsea (where Ian's office is) neighborhoods shopping and playing tourist, it was nearly midnight and Ian and I were ready for dessert. We'd been inside the private park there in Gramercy, so we decided to walk across the street to the Gramercy Park Hotel, and made our way up to the Private Roof Club and Garden. The bar is a nice place that runs around the perimeter of the floor with nice views of town and almost all of the seating is sofa and easy chair combinations, with all kinds of trees and plants providing privacy for the seating groups.

Unfortunately, the kitchen had closed at eleven, so our waitress said we couldn't get anything to eat or any desserts. So, we just ordered cocktails. I had a Sapphire martini and Ian got some kind of champagne cocktail, a berry bellini, I think it was. The only problem with this bar is that at most bars and restaurants, they deal in legal tender in one dollar units; here, everything seemed to be priced in twenty dollar units. I guess that's just a function of being in Manhattan and in a nice neighborhood.

Soon, though, our waitress magically reappeared bearing two desserts, a custard cream with fresh blueberries and raspberries and a warm chocolate buttermilk cake drizzled in melted chocolate—and, keeping with the magic, the desserts were "leftovers," so they were both complimentary! In celebration of that windfall, Ian promptly ordered another (different) $20 champagne cocktail.

The Cottage at Gramercy, New York, NY (Manhattan)

Since Ian moved to an apartment on Gramercy Park in New York this past fall, I've wandered over a few times to visit and run around town with him. Try as I might (and I've been trying for years!), I still haven't been able to turn him into a gourmet or even an adventurous eater. When I ask him where decent places are to eat in his neighborhood, he usually just points to fast food or one of the ubiquitous Chinese take-aways. It, therefore, has become my mission to drag him out to different places to make him try new things, though that can be a major challenge given his Aspergerian aversion to change and his unhealthy fiscal frugality.

The first neighborhood place he picked for us to dine was a sit-down Chinese restaurant just a few blocks from his building called The Cottage at Gramercy. I'm not really sure how the restaurant got it's name, since "Cottage" doesn't really evoke an Oriental feel and the decor was more standard Chinese place than "homey." The most exciting thing about this restaurant for Ian is that they offer unlimited free wine to diners, which I suppose can be a good deal. The place was crowded and noisy when we arrived, and we had to wait a bit for a table. Once we were seated, they brought us a small carafe of inexpensive white wine, and away we went.

Ian ordered what I later found out was his "usual," the sliced chicken with string beans in a brown sauce. He got a very big plate full of very long green beans with some chicken breast and what looked like a lot of diced garlic and flecks of dried red pepper. I picked the "Neptune's Nest," a basket made of formed and fried Chinese noodles filled with a melange of seafood (including salmon) and vegetables, which I liked. Steamed rice came on the side. When we asked for more wine, they quickly and without question brought us another little carafe.

As usual, there was no dessert at the Chinese restaurant, so we moved along after our fortune cookies. I would not be opposed to coming to The Cottage again sometime.

Abuelos Mexican Food Embassy, Tulsa, Oklahoma

On another Tulsa adventure, my friend Justin and I went to Abuelos Mexican Food Embassy for dinner.

We started with a big bowl of chile con queso, a white cheese dip, to supplement our complimentary dishes of salsa. I particularly like their "hot" version of their salsa, which has a nice, distinctly smoky taste.

We filled up so much on all that queso, salsa, and chips, we could have gone home then and called it a dinner, but we still had a lot of food to go!

Justin ordered the chicken and chile enchiladas for his main course. The chicken enchilada arrived covered with white sauce and melted cheese, and the chile enchilada was covered in a red, spicy tomato sauce. Rice and beans accompanied the enchiladas.

Feeling more adventurous, I tried one of the house specials, enchiladas de Cozumel. Cozumel, of course, is the famous Mexican seaside resort, so this dish featured all kinds of fresh seafood in a creamy white sauce. The enchilada was nicely stuffed full of seafood, and they didn't skimp there. Along with the enchilada, I got rice and steamed brocolli florets.

Desserts were equally adventurous. Justin picked the dessert nachos, and got an absolutely huge plate (enough for at least two or three) of cinnamon-dusted flour tortilla chips covered with ice cream, whipped cream, pecans, and several sauces. I had the tres leches cake, artfully presented on a pool of custard sauce decorated with raspberry purée and topped with a sliced fresh strawberry.

Shiloh Restaurant, Tulsa, Oklahoma

After hitting the casino and one of the malls, we went to Shiloh Restaurant, a simple and modest eatery located in an old Kettle Restaurant by a small hotel in far east Tulsa.  One really needs to know it's there in order to look for and find it, since there is only a tiny sign by the roadway, and it's easy to miss.  Shiloh has been one of my favorite "comfort food" restaurants for years, and I understand they recently opened a second location in Broken Arrow.

They make some wonderful hot rolls at Shiloh that are provided complimentary for the table, and for those in the know, they also offer some delicious strawberry-rhubarb compote to put on the rolls.  They should bottle that compote, it's so good.  I wish they'd increase their percentage of rhubarb, though, since I like a tarter mix, but I imagine most of their clientele prefers the gentle sweetness of the strawberries.

Naturally, for dinner, I had the country-fried steak with gravy.  If you look at the picture, you'll see some gravy on top of the steak.  Fear not, Southerners, there's plenty more.  In fact, they put gravy underneath the steak.  Along with the steak, I got fried okra and a little dish of macaroni and cheese.

My mother got the chicken-fried chicken, along with okra and a side Caesar salad.  My aunt wasn't very hungry (we'd been to the mall, and she'd gotten an order of French fries at the food court), so she just ordered a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich on homemade bread with some potato salad.  I think the sandwich was bigger than she expected!  We took a big go-box of blackberry cobbler home to my father, where it was quickly devoured.

 

Te Kei's Chinese/Asian Kitchen, Tulsa, Oklahoma

We went to Te Kei's Chinese/Asian Kitchen, a pan-Asian local place that's very much like a P.F. Chang, with higher-end entrees and teas and what have you, plus an elegant dining atmosphere with quality Asian art and artifacts.  Oddly enough, Te Kei's opened in Tulsa just a couple of weeks before the local P.F. Chang franchise opened just a few blocks away.  Tulsans have continued to support the local place, as it's been open for five or six years now, and the food quality and service continue to be much of what I remember from their opening days.

We started our lunch with individual French press-style pots of their vintage green tea, something to ward off the December chill.  I like their green tea.  It has a nice, nutty, warm taste to it.

We did the luncheon specials for our meal.  My mother chose the cashew chicken with fried brown rice on the side.  It was more than she could finish, and included lots of brocoli, napa cabbage, mushrooms, and red bell peppers with the ample chicken white meat and cashews.  

I had the Mongolian beef with brown rice.  The serving was primarily well-flavored, tender beef with a moderate amount of heat, plus some woodsie mushrooms and a lot of scallions.  A few red pepper strips and bean sprouts added additional color and interest.
 

For dessert, we split a piece of their banana cream pie.  They take a cookie crust and glaze the inside of the shell with chocolate.  Creme patisserie, bananas, and whipped cream fill up the shell, and then the whipped cream is garnished with shaved chocolate and a little sprig of fresh mint.  It is always a nice bit of sweet to end the meal.
 

Oklahoma Christmas

We sort of got snowed in on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Oklahoma this year.  I can't remember when we last had a white Christmas—we've often had an "ice" Christmas, but usually not white.  The roads being what they were, we couldn't go out to eat (I doubt the restaurants were even open), so I had to throw a few things in the oven.  Here's a little 22-pound turkey I did for Christmas just for my parents and me.  Didn't have any fresh herbs to stick under the skin, so I had to use a few sprigs of parsley.  This is the turkey before I carved it in the kitchen—it's always easier for me to cut things up there and put on a platter than to try to wield sharp instruments at the dining room table.  We also had leftovers from the ham we had on Christmas Eve.