Eat Our Blog

To continue my exploration of what pork can be used for in it’s variety of forms, I decided to make the Vietnamese sandwich called the Banh Mi. This sandwich featured pork loin seared and then cooked off in the oven (you could also use pork shoulder/butt). When cooked it was moist in the center with a bit of a crispy fatty edge. Awesome! For the toppings I pickled some carrots in vinegar, salt and sugar. Chopped up some jalapenos from my garden out back,

some sliced cucumber, cilantro, mayo (with lemon mixed in), and some soy sauce drizzled on top. This was all served on a white sub roll. Now traditionally this is served on a french baguette but I thought I would try it on a fresh sub roll. If you need a bit more heat just add some sriracha. This sandwich combines a lot of flavors and goes perfect with a cabbage salad and a dry Asian beer (i had a Sapporo).

Now the recipe was a combo of different techniques I came across online. Here was the main source.

A couple of my variations were to

1. use pork loin (sear it then finish off in the oven)

2. add a bit of lemon to the mayo

3. Use a sub roll instead of french baguette.

4. A little sriracha to add bit of heat.

If you are looking for a sandwich that is a little bit different and has an explosion of flavors, check this one out.

Pork has become one of my favorite meats as of late due to its versatility and great taste.  I think that we can all agree that bacon is one of the best ingredients ever.  But this week is about the ribs, slow cooked and seasoned North Carolina style.  North Carolina has its own way of doing barbecue and that way is all about the vinegar.

What I did first was brine the ribs.  Brining is soaking the meat in a salt water overnight to tenderize the meat and make sure they stay moist.  For the sauce its a mixture of apple cider vinegar, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and liquid smoke.  Now I used liquid smoke because I did the ribs in the oven.  If you have a smoker on your grill use that. Bring all the ingredients to a boil and that’s it.

Next is to cook it slow for 3 hours on 275 basting every half an hour.  After that you have perfect ribs, tender and moist with a great caramelized sauce on top. Here is the full recipe.

I also grilled up some fresh corn we got from the farmers market and Lina made a classic cole slaw.  This was a great southern style meal ya’ll.

Check it out!  Kafta is a very traditional dish from Lebanon. Since I am from Lebanon, I grew up eating this but in other ways such as baked in pan with potatoes, onions, and tomatoes…I decided to put a modern twist on it and give a twist on basic burgers. Here’s the recipe.

Kafta Burgers
Servings: 4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooke time: 15 minutes
1/2 cup curly parsley (finely chopped)
1 pounds ground turkey (or beef or chicken)
½ cup onion (diced)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
1.5 tsp salt
3/4 tsp pepper
¼ cup bread crumbs (only if using chicken/turkey; don’t need for beef)
1 medium tomato (sliced in rounds)
4 buns
Cucumber sauce:
1 clove garlic (minced or pressed using a garlic press)
1 cup yogurt (Greek yogurt preferably, but regular yogurt is fine)
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup shredded cucumber (after water has been pressed out)
salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation
Heat outdoor grill on medium. (If you do not have a grill, you can just use a grill pan or skillet on the stovetop.)

Mix ground meat, chopped parsley, diced onion, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and allspice in a bowl. Once mixed, form into 4 patties. Press thumb into middle to form a slight indention to keep burgers from puffing up.

Grill for about 7 minutes on each side.

Grating cucumber

Squeezing out the excess water from the grated cucumber

Mixing cucumber sauce ingredients

While the burgers are grilling, mix together the cucumber sauce ingredients and set aside.
Lightly grill the buns to heat through. Once burgers are done, place on them on the bun, top with tomato and cucumber sauce.

Don Ishiyaki is one of my favorite casual dining spots in the city.  Great food at a good price and they have kimchi, so that brings me back to my days in Koreatown (LA).   The star of the menu is the Ishiyaki which is means “cook on hot rock”.  I started out with a house salad which has mixed greens, carrots, cucumber, and fried wantons.  The dressing is a classic ginger dressing.  One of the few casual spots that chooses to serve mixed greens instead of iceberg.  Kudos for that.

For my entree I usually go with the Bibimbap with brown rice.  Bibimbap is steak, kimchi, green onion, bean sprouts and raw egg on top (you can’t see it in the photo because i got excited and forgot to take a picture).  It comes out in this hot rock bowl and you can push the egg to the side to start cooking it.  I mix it in a little.   The rice at the bottom continues cooking and gets this great crunch to it.   They also bring out some sauces and the spicy asian is a must.  The entrees are also served with a bowl of miso soup on the side.

Lina got the Veggie Ishiyaki and that is just as good.  Comes with tofu, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, spinach, onion and zucchini.  She also got hers with brown rice to keep it on the healthy side.

This place is great for a casual lunch, low key dinner or group dinner before a night on the town.  Did I mention the vibe is killer.  The lights are dim and I think I heard some Hot Chip while I was there.

Last night I made harissa rubbed chicken legs baked in the oven with fingerling potatoes and yellow zucchini (from the farmer’s market). This was my first attempt at using harissa. Harissa is a north african spicy red paste that can either be used as marinades, a dip, or an addition to sauces, mayo, etc. I’ve been hearing more and more about it so I thought I’d try it out. I got the can from a local middle eastern market. Here’s what I did…very simple:

1. Rub the chicken legs on the outside and under the skin with the paste. Let marinate for an hour or so if time allows.

2. In the meantime, I parboiled the potatoes and cut up the squash.

3. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

4. I then removed the chicken from fridge, threw the potatoes and squash into the baking dish.

5. Put salt, pepper, and olive oil on the chicken (both sides) and the veggies.

6. Cook in the oven for 50 minutes….and then you have a full meal ready for you.

It was a good dish…a change from the typical spices we use. Strangely, the heat of the harissa hits you with the first couple of bites and then it just all of a sudden mellows out and allows you to taste the real flavor of it.  I have a bunch of harissa left and am going to play with other ways to use it.

Potato Torte

For the first time yesterday I made a pastry crust! Last night’s dinner was a potato torte with cream (infused with thyme), Gruyere cheese, bacon, and pastry crust. Might I add that the crust has 2 sticks of butter in it! I felt really guilty but once we took our first bite, that guilt washed away. It was amazing! So, we didn’t eat the WHOLE thing, but we ate about 3/4 of it. How sick is that? It was so easy to eat. It seems like it would taste so heavy that you could only have a little, but the crust was so light and flaky and there is honestly not that much cream and cheese in the entire thing. Did you notice the cute “U” for “Urmos” I put in there as the vent holes for it? That keeps too much steam from building up inside the torte which would cause the crust to be soggy.

Plus, does it make us look any better that we didn’t eat the out crust of our slices of torte? And does it make it even that much better to know we had a big salad with it? Well, whatever, it made ME feel better. So that’s all that matters right?

Strawberry Granita

And for dessert (yes I said dessert). Yes, we were able to cram even more food down our throats after that. I had made a strawberry granita earlier that day and put it in the freezer. The granita has a little mascarpone in it and is infused with mint. This is something I’ve made many times. It’s so easy and so refreshing.I’d highly recommend it…especially in the hot weather months.

Note to all, at 9:26am this monday morning, I am FINALLY feeling the fullness I should have felt last night. Ugh. Hopefully that will pass. Some exercise will definitely be in order today…but seriously, in the end, I have no regrets. Every bite was worth it and tasted just as good as the bite before.

Not having access to really fresh sushi and sashimi is a pain I deal with living inland. Nothing compares to sushi so fresh you can taste the sea it came from. So when a new sushi place opens up I get excited and hopeful that this may be the link to that freshness.

When you walk into Imperial Koi it feels clean and formal. The service is top notch, they are very attentive to you all night, not letting a glass go empty and making sure that “everything is wonderful”.

Lina and I went with a group of friends so I got to see alot of different dishes. The menu had a good selection of starters, entrees, and sushi. I started off with some nigori sake which came in a small glass with a stick of cucumber. For starters I got the seaweed salad which was a nice start to the meal, simple and clean.Lina got the Simple Salad which was mixed greens (not iceberg), wontons, and orange segments. The dressing was a ginger dressing. Very nice salad.

For my entree I needed to try the sushi so i ordered ala carte. Tuna, salmon, white tuna, sea urchin, and a spicy tuna roll.

The plate came out simple and clean. What I was looking for was freshness of the fish. All the sushi was quite good as a whole which is hard to find here. Between the tuna, salmon, and white tuna nothing stood out but were all great pieces of fish. The sea urchin was delicious, this is one of my favorites and this one was awesome. But the highlight of the night for me was the spicy tuna roll! I usually don’t order this roll but I wanted to see the execution. This roll had great texture, the spicy tuna mixture had a little kick and did not have too much mayo. This roll was outstanding.

My wife ordered sweet potato tempura roll, eel sushi, and shrimp and cucumber roll. Everything was good but the highlight was the sweet potato tempura roll, it was an interesting twist on a roll and the sweetness of the potato played nicely with the saltiness of the soy sauce.

And finally for desert we got the chocolate banana spring roll with vanilla ice cream. This was nice end to the meal as the portion was perfect and the flavors were well balanced.

I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for fresh sushi, great service, and an awesome spicy tuna roll!

Mmmm…breakfast this morning. French toast with sauteed figs.

We went the slightly healthier route by using whole wheat bread. Very simple and basic recipe. Bread soaked in a mixture of eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon. For the topping – we sliced the figs in half, sauteed them in a teaspoon of butter on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Topped the french toast with the figs and a little maple syrup. Delish.

A couple of weeks ago Mark and I went to Revolution for dinner before checking out a show at the DPAC. We were beyond impressed. The decor was our first “entree” so to speak. Really hip and clean looking. We never had a water glass that went below half full before it was refilled. The bread was delicious.
We started out with an appetizer of prosciutto, arugula, parm, and preserved orange. The orange didn’t quite “fit” for me, but otherwise it was really good. A good clean start to the meal that prepped us for what was to come.

Mark opted to get two appetizers for his main course. Above is a photo of the foie gras BLT made up of foie, serrano ham, arugula, and tomato. He quite enjoyed it. It’s a very rich appetizer but he seemed to love it. For me, it was too rich but I just can’t seem to appreciate foie the way many foodies do. Oh well. I keep trying.

He also ordered the Korean BBQ Short Ribs with kimchee. He’s a big kimchee lover so this was also a winner with him.

Now for my dish. I ordered the seafood paella and it was TOO DIE FOR. Such a lovely sauce. It’s not your classic paella but they did a really good job with it. Each mussel and clam had a bit of rice and vegetables in with it. It was a really neat way to serve paella.

By the end of the meal, we were so full from the food, the bread, the beer (mine non-alcoholic of course…being preggers and all). So we went for an espresso. It was so delicious and I just loved the added touch of the biscotti that was served with it. Those details truly do make a difference.

I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. They push the envelope more than they do here in Greensboro. Check it out….Their website is: www.revolutionrestaurant.com

Last weekend we went to Salvino’s…my favorite Italian restaurant in Greensboro. They (by far) surpass any other Italian restaurant I’ve been to in the area. The food is perfectly flavored and salted. And the portions are fairly large so you definitely get your money’s worth.

The last meal I had was a linguini with scallops, shrimp, lobster, sundried tomatoes, and scallions in a “rose” sauce (which is a mix of marina and cream). It was delicious. They have the best scallops I’ve ever had around here. There is no fishiness to them at all. My only issue is that there was a little to much sauce for me. But that’s easily resolved by just asking them to go light on the sauce next.

My husband got their classic lasagna Bolognese. He loved it and ate it all! I tried it and it was definitely delish.

So, we would highly recommend this restaurant. The service has also always been great. And fyi, you can’t make reservations there and need to have your entire party there before you get seated.

Their website is: http://www.salvino-restaurant.com