On Saturday, the family went to Grace Garden again. New items tried were Sichuan beef, chock-full of ma-la (spicy and numbing from chiles and Sichuan peppercorns); the hot and spicy smoky shrimp; 5-spice-scented wok-fried quail; Hakka-style braised tofu, and a very pedestrian chicken and string beans. We also re-tried the pork belly with mui-choy, and the vermicelli. Apart from the chicken and string beans, everything was flavorful and enjoyed by the entire party. Already planning our next excursion for sometime in June!
Here's a pic of the pork belly dish from the first time we tried it. It looked the same this time.
On Sunday morning, I made some orange/chocolate chip/walnut drop scones from a recipe in the Joy of Cooking. They blew up to amazing proportions and were somewhat muffin-y in texture. No matter, they hit the spot. (I was in the mood for donuts but wasn't about to leave the house in search of bad-for-me treats.)
For dinner, I had to make sense of the panoply of leftovers stocking up in the fridge. So I threw together a cup or so of leftover tomato-basil pasta sauce which housed chunks of sundried tomato chicken sausage, half a can of coconut milk, and about half a cup of clam sauce, with some shrimp and fish bouillon cubes, a tablespoon or so of Thai chile basil sauce, and some frozen tilapia. Oh, and a cup of leftover gemelli pasta and a roasted bell pepper, chopped up. It was spicy and rich and went well with some sunflower flaxseed bread from Atwater's schmeared with a bit of smoked paprika butter.
I'm looking forward to eating my leftover leftover concoction for lunch today.
'the hot and spicy smoky shrimp'
ReplyDeleteThe spice didn't overwhelm the poor little shrimpies?
We had some recently that just had a garlic sauce and 'poof' any trace of the shrimp flavor totally disappeared.
Nope - they weren't really smoky at all, and the chiles were hot but not incendiary. Plus, if you eat the shells, you get all the good shrimpy flavor. :)
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