FOOD IS AWESOME

This is most definitely why I'm fat. That and I'm unemployed, captivated by my computer, and just generally a puddle of nothingness. But! I do love me some cooking. There's nothing quite like having no money to go out to make one become a chef.

That's why I present to you my first recipe!!! It's simple, cheap, and you've probably had it before, but it's also complex in taste, and you've probably only had it in expensive Italian restaurants. It's...

SHITAKE MUSHROOM RISOTTO

This dish requires a lot of "babysitting", so I'd recommend getting all your ingredients out and chopping them up ahead of time.

You'll need, for 1 (very hungry) person...

1/2 cup risotto (arborio rice)
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 cup shitake (or any kind, really) mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp. olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 cup parmesean cheese, grated
some thyme, doesn't matter what form (though fresh or dried is better than ground)
some black pepper

Cooking risotto is different from your previous rice experiences. I like it, because, well, I've fucked up a lot of rice in my day, and this process allows you to know exactly what is up with your rice at all times. It's like Jersey Shore, or other quality television shows. First, put the broth and white wine on the stove, and get it hot or boiling. Then, in a separate (and medium-to-large) saucepan, get the olive oil hot, then put your onions and garlic in. Cook them until the onions are translucent and smell all nice-like. Next, put the risotto into the same pot. Weird, right?! Coat the rice in the olive oil. Now add about 1/4 cup of broth. Constantly stir (this is the theme, by the way). Wait until the broth has been absorbed by the rice to add another 1/4 cup. Constantly stir.. Add the mushrooms at some early point (takes about 10 minutes to cook em real good). Constantly stir. It will take about 15-20 minutes, constantly stirring, to absorb all of the broth. Upon the final addition of broth, add the parmesean cheese, thyme, and pepper. At this point, if you are not constantly stirring, the rice is now burning on the bottom. This is why you should have been stirring.

The result is friggin' awesome. I've also made it without the wine, and it was almost as delicious (and still delicious). The parmesean cheese dominates the flavor, so use sparingly, if you don't like it. But let's just face it, who doesn't like parmesean? Isn't that the one cheese we can all agree on? Aren't there reasons we should love Italians, in spite of Jersey Shore and The Sopranos?

Of course, there's a picture. I just haven't taken it yet.

But I do want to post a picture right now, because I'm OCD like that. So here is a picture I cannot stop staring at even though I hate cake, unless it's from Pix or has cheese in it. It's Owen's birthday cake!!!


Yay!!!

That old stand-by...

So I've been out here exactly 1 month--my dad a little longer--and both of us are still looking for that one restaurant we go to when we're all out of ideas. Our only criterion for this "stand-by" restaurant is that it possess at least one item on its menu that we always crave, and won't break the bank. Well, I think we've found it: Room. Dad likes the brie, bacon, and honey hamburger (hold the brie, bacon, and honey), and I enjoy the Asian-style beef carpaccio, garnished with ginger, sesame seeds, green onion, rocket (spring greens), and soy sauce. My Indian-spiced main course of rack of lamb was also excellent, but I didn't love the sides that came with the orange-almond halibut I'd had last time, though the fish itself was tasty. Hard not to love rack of lamb, though. On the side was some mint cous-cous. Dad's cream of zucchini soup was very good, and the raspberry creme brulee was excellent though simple.


Another cool thing about Room is that they have a selection of board games you can play while waiting for your food--surprising for the upscale interior, but adding to a sense of relaxation. I had almost forgotten how to play Mastermind, but it turns out it's one of the most straightforward games in Parker Brothers' repertoire. I mercilessly won a match in 4 turns. OH YEAH. (That's my Mac-from-It's-Always-Sunny-Season-4-finale-voice, that is, when Charlie announces that Mac gets to be both Night and Day Man in his musical "The Nightman Cometh," mocking Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," though the names are where the similarity stops.)

SPEAKING OF IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY...Season 5 begins tonight! Well, tomorrow morning for me. Don't know how timely European television is with network premieres in the States, but the internet should serve me well.

Tonight should be really fun--I've made a friend! Well, I sort of forced the relationship. He's the landlord's son, and the exchange of telephone numbers was virtually before we had met, but he's 20 and attends "university" in nearby Delft and speaks perfect English and Dutch (well, they all do here, but he's Australian). Anyways, we're going to watch a soccer match at an Irish pub a few doors down from my apartment, then we might catch this carnival-smelling thing at a downtown park. It's probably a lame festival (free entry) but I rode past it Tuesday night on my way home from seeing Kit Armstrong and a few others play in the Chamber Music Festival and really wanted to photograph it. Armstrong debuted an original quintet, inspired by one of Mozart's, for "blazersprogram", or, "winds" (bassoon/French horn/oboe/clarinet) + piano. He's only 17! American, but it reminded me most of Schoenberg, though a little more fluid. It was all right. I think I liked the Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Cello that opened the night the best.

Later dudes.

"The most beautiful restaurant in the world."

That's how Andrew Lloyd Webber once described The Witchery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Located a few doors down from the very touristy Edinburgh Castle, this fine dining spot boasts a traditional Scottish fare with a decadent twist. My dad and I waltzed in, exhausted from climbing all the way up to High Street (it's high, yep) from our hotel on Grassmarket. Really that's only about half a mile, but vertically I'd guesstimate at least 800 feet. We were underdressed, but it was no problem, and neither was our lack of reservation (though we had to be finished eating by 8:00, said the host). Once seated, I took in the surroundings--lavish wooden walls that looked like they bore a great history, a single red leather bench that snaked around the entire perimeter, and beautiful table settings fit for a king.


I started with the haggis, neaps, and toddies, for, "when in Rome..." Now, it may look like a pile of dirt (it does really look like a pile of dirt), but haggis is seriously the best thing I've tried in--maybe ever! What is it? Aged mutton (sheep's meat), generously spiced and salted. It has the consistency of hamburger meat, but it is much more tender. Neaps are the turnips, and toddies are potatoes. At The Witchery, the turnips are pureed and the toddies fried. The fat content of sheep meat must be incredible, because I could not stop eating it.


For my main course, I tried the "pig's cheek", stuffed with "black pudding" and wrapped in Serrano ham. Don't know what black pudding is; don't particularly want to know. On the side were some roasted pears and a nice sauce reminiscent of hollandaise, minus the lemon. It tasted like pig, all right. I was trying to be adventuresome, but overall, it was a bit too sweet and lacked any acid. Oh it wasn't bad, but the REAL treat of the night was...


DESSERT! Oh my god dessert. For 10 pounds, one gets to try the whole array of sweets that The Witchery offers. I failed to get a great picture, but all of them were so amazing that I must include this one.

The first one (and best one...well, it's difficult to tell when it's your first, as your palate gets sort of ruined) was a sort of creme brulee, except instead of sugar, it had heathered honey! Amazingly delicate with a really nice finish, my dad and I literally fought over bites. It was rough. Then there were two ice creams: one of "mulled winter fruits" and cinnamon, and the other a nice chocolate. I love fragrant ice cream, and the mulled winter fruits reminded me of lavender. In the background, you'll see an orange custard. The shot glass was much too small for our small sugar spoon. In my best British, I asked the waiter, "Now how do you suppose I eat that?" He got me a smaller spoon. It still didn't suffice. So, my dad and I were all clever and drunken and turned the spoon around to scrape out the last lovely bit (and the only orange flavoring to the custard). The chocolate mousse you see in the foreground wasn't too rich, nor too light. It was sort of a heavy pudding rather than a mousse, but not the almost-hard-they're-so-thick-with-chocolate cakes you'll see in other restaurants. The strawberries with a small piece of shortbread on the top was unusually sweet and really delicious, providing a nice tartness to the platter of sugar. We finished with the layered raspberry dessert, and good thing, because it was the least memorable of the bunch (though very pretty).

Overall, an excellent meal and experience. The night ended up with some amazingly thin and flavorless ale and Gin--the card game, that is--at Maggie Dickson's. The story of Maggie Dickson is quite fascinating. Essentially, she was buried alive! You'll have to read the rest on Wikipedia; it's too long to tell, and I haven't got any of the details. But honestly, who likes Guinness that's tried "real beer"? I've gotten quite used to the Holland and Belgium beers, Amstel, Leffe, Hoegaarden...i.e., beers with spice, bitterness...anything! Guinness may be dark, but it tastes like water with a bit of bread or yeast in it. Just nothing. However, I still insist that America makes the best beer. I miss me some IPA. Or any kind of ale, for that matter--besides this watery English bullshit. I've even gotten over Newcastle, which used to be my standby at low-selection outlets. Too watery!

This blog is inspired by Kate Williams' entries at http://sea-salted.blogspot.com/. Hope you enjoyed my first post!