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A couple days ago this recipe from Tamarind and Thyme caught my eye. There was nothing special about it, no exotic ingredients or novel cooking method, so maybe its simple and unassuming nature was what appealed to me. Given the occasion to whip up something for a crowd, I jumped at the chance to try it out. This dish obviously bears resemblance to pasta carbonara and the taste profile is arguably similar. But frying the eggs before combining them with the pasta gives the cook some leeway. Since the heat of the pasta doesn’t bear the full responsibility of cooking the eggs, there’s less pressure to coordinate the cooking of the pasta with the other ingredients. Capiche?
I think this pasta is some of the best I’ve made, which sounds like a grand statement but really isn’t b/c I don’t cook pasta as often as I should. It’s delicious in a robust and full-flavored way, so beware, those with faint hearts and tepid palates. There’s a lot going on with the creaminess of the eggs, the bacon umami, sharpness of the cheese, and pleasant little explosions of pepper granules, but this dish is so easy to make. Despite deviating from the traditional carbonara way of generating the eggy sauce, I still believe the magic is in the timing — cooking the pasta just right, sauteing the bacon long enough to let it do its thing, and most importantly, making sure the eggs do not overcook. Do all this, and you’re guaranteed one immensely satisfying peasant meal.
As several of the ETAs are running in the marathon on Sunday, we joined together for a pasta potluck tonight to carb them up. I’ve not been in the mood for cooking lately, so I was just planning to throw together penne tossed with olive oil, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes. Unfortunately, I had a brain fart at the supermarket and got a jar of roasted bell peppers instead of the tomatoes. Read the rest of this entry »
For dinner tonight, a few of us trekked out to Festival Walk, a humongous shopping plaza in Kowloon Tong. I was eager to share with them a wonderful restaurant I myself was introduced to only two days prior called simplylife, a bakery/cafe that dishes out simple, health-conscious, and affordable Western fare. Since being inundated with Chinese food since my arrival (not that I’m complaining), simplylife was a welcome change of pace for my palate. The place is small and has an adorable bistro-like ambience, and Carla Bruni (!) was playing in the background — damn, that girl can sing.
From left to right: strawberry custard tarts, blueberry danish, peach danish, apple danish, and apricot danish. I have never come across a gleaming fruit danish I didn’t like admire.
Bread! A raisin loaf and a standard baguette type, I think. Both were awesome and declared ‘real bread’ by one of our resident food connoiseurs.
In the rear, Erik’s iced apple tea. In the foreground, my iced chrysanthemum tea. One sip of Stephanie’s and I nearly shouted at the waiter to get me one as well.
I was pretty adamant that we split this enormous appetizer: lump crab meat over mesclun salad with a sesame-soy-peanut dressing. I haven’t eaten much salad since getting here, and this one is killer. The dressing was present but not overpowering and the fresh greens did everyone good.
For my main course, I chose the organic tagliatelle with beef and pork sausage. Al dente pasta + grainy, salty, and fresh sheets of parmesan is nothing spectacular, just dependably good food.
Stephanie got the organic linguine with prawns.
George went with the organic fettucine and mushrooms in a truffle sauce. He did a man shriek when he found a coin-sized truffle in his pasta.
Erik’s dish, organic brown rice with peas, spinach, and goat cheese, was delicious. GOAT CHEESE…slobber. I heart goat cheese.
Another compadre got the organic brown rice with oxtail braised in red wine, red onions, and spinach. I ordered it the last time I was here and was very happy with it. Now that I think about it, I do believe that on the whole, simplylife’s rice dishes are better than their pastas. Those glutinous carb-y pearls seem to absorb so much more flavor and I love it when they burst in your mouth.
Before coming over from the States, I generally equated mall food with poor-quality, unhealthy fast food, which generally still holds true in the U.S. But Hong Kongers (and people in other countries, no doubt) have taken the concept of ‘mall food’ and transformed it into a first-rate dining experience. People come to malls expressly to dine, and I don’t blame them when there are restaurants like simplylife available. I’ve noticed that the same phenomenon occurs with instant foods, which are insanely popular here. In the U.S., I tend to think that instant stuff is almost inherently of inferior quality and that people who prepare instant foods sacrifice taste for time (like instant coffee, for example). But I’m not sure that’s true in HK because they seem to take their instant foods very seriously. There is are entire shelves in the supermarket devoted to instant milk tea/coffee and other such food products, and everyone seems to use them religiously. I’m tempted to think that eating and drinking the instant stuff is part of what it means to eat and drink Hong Kong…though I’ll stick with my coffee press 
I just realized that I entitled my previous post “14 July 2007.” Apparently my subconscious is a year behind schedule.
It’s amazing what some leftover fruit and yogurt can do:
Smooth, sweet, and slightly tart, this beaut was a great complement to a lazy summer afternoon. Speaking of lazy summer afternoons (I’ve experienced many in the last two months), they’re also ideal for light, playful lunches. I made a platter for two consisting of Jersey tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese (leftover from my bbq a couple weeks ago), and some chicken I found chilling in the fridge, all with a touch of black pepper. I served with some multigrain crackers, and the kick from the cheese made this dish golden. And the color on those tomatoes really is lovely.
For dinner one night, I made a vegetable stir-fry with carrots, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, and jap chae noodles. Boil the noodles for a couple minutes and give them a cold bath. Cook the veggies in some vegetable oil. I tossed in the onions first with some garlic, then took those out and cooked the carrots, mushrooms, and eggplant. After those cooked for about 10 minutes, I threw the onions and the noodles in, adding salt and pepper to taste, as well as some sweet soy sauce and some oyster sauce. I added some corn starch in to thicken the liquid from the mushrooms, and drizzled with sesame oil before serving.
D also whipped up some chicken wings and drumsticks marinated with soy sauce, scallion, and ginger, which were finger-licking awesome.
Over the weekend, I had a low key potluck picnic with some friends in the park. Among the delicacies:
McDonald’s McChicken sandwiches contributed by some lazy bums . I haven’t had a fast food burger in awhile, but I have to admit, this chicken patty nestles itself quite delectably in its bun bottom:
My good friend C made these wonderfully quaint cucumber sandwiches, which reminded me of one of my favorite plays, The Importance of Being Earnest:
We also had some subs, brought by some other lazy bums:
And I made a spinach, sun dried tomato, and bacon pasta:
Here is a recipe for a similar dish from Serious Eats. I like mine better because the bacon adds so much flavor, and dare I say depth. However, this dish minus the bacon would make for an excellent summertime vegetarian meal. Some strawberries and watermelon, some touch football, and lots of mosquito bites = good times.
