What have you eaten for dinner?

[opebo]

I ate a NY Strip steak with thin-cut fries and a chicken noodle soup... with the restauran't s own pilsner

Sounds great!  I do miss American steaks.  Could I inquire as to the cost?

[Joe Republic]

Ooo, talking of steak, I ate a 16oz rib eye a few nights ago.  $42 (!)  But worth every penny.

[opebo]

Ooo, talking of steak, I ate a 16oz rib eye a few nights ago.  $42 (!)  But worth every penny.

Wow.. I'm sure it was worth it, but the last thing I 'ate' that cost $42.......

[clarence]

I ate a NY Strip steak with thin-cut fries and a chicken noodle soup... with the restauran't s own pilsner

Sounds great!  I do miss American steaks.  Could I inquire as to the cost?

The steak was around 19 bucks with the sides included... whole meal was 108 with tip since I was paying and included drinks

It was only a 12 oz but had great mushroom sauce and bleu cheese garlic butter- yum!!!

[NSA is just two letters away from NSDAP]

I made bibimbap last night. It was missing a few things, because I didn't want to go all the way to the Asian market in Virginia, but it still tasted pretty authentic and delicious.

[patrick1]

Yesterday, I made steak with boiled potatoes and a side of onions, assorted peppers, mushrooms, garlic and tomatoes sauteed in a mixture of  soy sauce and Worcestershire.  Also made up a big pot of chili and put it in the refrigerator overnight for the game. 

[© Tweed the Younger]

Chinese takeout boneless ribs are on the way.

[Snowguy716]

I ate a NY Strip steak with thin-cut fries and a chicken noodle soup... with the restauran't s own pilsner

Sounds great!  I do miss American steaks.  Could I inquire as to the cost?

Here  you can get a thick 16oz. New York strip or ribeye for about $25... that includes potato, vegetable, salad, and bread.  And you can cut the steak with a butter knife.

You get overcharged elsewhere in the U.S. for decent steak. 

In Omaha I had a 16oz New York Strip cooked on a flat top with butter.. seasoned with salt only.. cooked medium rare.  For $30, that included soup, salad, vegetable or pasta, and potato.  The fat on the steak literally melts in your mouth.  Now that's good eating.

[clarence]

Chinese takeout boneless ribs are on the way.

You have inspired me to do the same... I would go out to a bar to watch the game but I'm ill so delivery it is!

[opebo]

Here  you can get a thick 16oz. New York strip or ribeye for about $25... that includes potato, vegetable, salad, and bread.  And you can cut the steak with a butter knife.

You get overcharged elsewhere in the U.S. for decent steak.  

In Omaha I had a 16oz New York Strip cooked on a flat top with butter.. seasoned with salt only.. cooked medium rare.  For $30, that included soup, salad, vegetable or pasta, and potato.  The fat on the steak literally melts in your mouth.  Now that's good eating.

Very nice Snowguy!  Is 'here' Omaha or Minnesota?

For myself tonight I had a plate of strange vegetables a little like a zucchini, with minced pork and shrimps, a bowl of soup with small pork ribs and a really delicious internal part of bamboo shoots - it looks like a little tubular latticework.  I also had a second bowl of soup free because I was practicing chit-chat in Thai with the restaurateur, and I mention I was just getting over a fairly severe two-day head-cold, so she gave me a bowl of special ginger soup with scallions and a little bit of I think pork for free.

Finally I had a nice plate of sweet sticky rice with sliced ripe mango on top, covered in a sweet coconut milk syrup for desert.

How many of you guys get free stuff at the restaurant? It happens to me fairly often here, even after years and years of residence.  

[Snowguy716]

Here  you can get a thick 16oz. New York strip or ribeye for about $25... that includes potato, vegetable, salad, and bread.  And you can cut the steak with a butter knife.

You get overcharged elsewhere in the U.S. for decent steak. 

In Omaha I had a 16oz New York Strip cooked on a flat top with butter.. seasoned with salt only.. cooked medium rare.  For $30, that included soup, salad, vegetable or pasta, and potato.  The fat on the steak literally melts in your mouth.  Now that's good eating.

Very nice Snowguy!  Is 'here' Omaha or Minnesota?

For myself tonight I had a plate of strange vegetables a little like a zucchini, with minced pork and shrimps, a bowl of soup with small pork ribs and a really delicious internal part of bamboo shoots - it looks like a little tubular latticework.  I also had a second bowl of soup free because I was practicing chit-chat in Thai with the restaurateur, and I mention I was just getting over a fairly severe two-day head-cold, so she gave me a bowl of special ginger soup with scallions and a little bit of I think pork for free.

Finally I had a nice plate of sweet sticky rice with sliced ripe mango on top, covered in a sweet coconut milk syrup for desert.

How many of you guys get free stuff at the restaurant? It happens to me fairly often here, even after years and years of residence. 

By 'here', I meant Minnesota.  Of course you can pay much more for a marginally better steak in Minneapolis... but by that point you're just paying for ambience and location.  You can get 16oz. NY Strips from the butcher here for $10 that cut like butter.

I do believe that all the TV chefs have a point when they talk about the two different kinds of cuisines in the world.  Most cuisines are complex and loaded with spices and herbs because the people often only had staple grains and just a bit of offal or meat to flavor their dishes.  Because of that, slow-cooking with lots of spices was necessary and the use of offal was popular.

On the other hand, you have relatively few areas where ingredients were often plentiful and of high quality... so there was no need for strong flavorings to make things taste better.

Thailand is definitely the former... the midwest is definitely the latter.  My grandma grew up on the latter type of diet despite being very poor.  Her father was a carpenter and her mom stayed home.  For her mother, food more than anything, took up her time.  She had to plant a large garden every year and then she would can as much as she could... planning for an entire winter... so that they'd have enough beans, potatoes, peas, carrots, rutabagas, squash, cucumbers, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, and raspberries to last the winter.  Keep in mind this was northern Minnesota in the 1930s/40s, when summers were dry and harsh with unseasonable frosts.  The whole family spent inordinate amounts of time covering up the garden to protect it from frosts in August or early September just to make sure everything could ripen.

She'd go every week to the store and buy a 50lb sack of flour and she'd bake 8 loaves of bread every 2 days, enough to last the family 6 days of the week.  On Sundays they would go to the grocery store and buy white bread and ice cold milk to go with their dinner... dipping store bought white bread in cold milk was an incredible treat to my grandma and her siblings.

She grew up on meat and potatoes.  When my great grandfather finally got more permanent work, they no longer had to raise their own chickens... so the grocery money pretty much went to flour and meat/dairy.  All the vegetables/fruit came from the garden.

My great grandfather died in 1958 at the age of 52 and my great-grandma in 1979 at the age of 73.

Because my grandma was never that much of a cook (her younger sister took an interest in that while my grandma was always more into sewing/crafts), my great grandma taught my mom how to cook.  She also gave my mom her cast iron skillets that she made the best fried chicken and fried pork chops in.  Those skillets have never been washed with soap. 

My grandma ended up being pretty much the stereotypical Minnesota 1950s/60s housewife cook.  Her idea of chili was browned hamburger, kidney beans, and tomato soup.  And pretty much everything else she cooked was a "hotdish".  To this day my mom can't stand hamburger macaroni hotdish even though my grandma does "spice it up" now with garlic and bell peppers.  So for the past few months I go over there once a week and cook for them.  I made them homemade spaghetti with meat sauce, pork-schnitzel with fried serviettenknödel (dipped in lingonberries), and last week we had homemade chicken pot pie and homemade "peasant" bread (with rye and whole wheat flour) with roasted eggplant spread and a salad.

But yeah, I think I'm getting a bit longwinded here.

[© Tweed the Younger]

not really dinner, but with supplies dwindling and my bank account consistently dropping (now below $230) I challenged myself to try to make an edible meal with whatever I have on hand.  I have a few spices, a large can of crushed tomatoes, brown jasmine rice, lentils, green peas, and black beans.  feels like something out of the Battle of Stalingrad.

[opebo]

not really dinner, but with supplies dwindling and my bank account consistently dropping (now below $230) I challenged myself to try to make an edible meal with whatever I have on hand.  I have a few spices, a large can of crushed tomatoes, brown jasmine rice, lentils, green peas, and black beans.  feels like something out of the Battle of Stalingrad.

The test with this sort 'home cooking' is twofold - 1) did you feel hungry again soon afterward?, and 2) did you fart excessively?

You want to avoid both of these unpleasant side effects.

As for myself, I'll tell you about last night - I was in the big town having just had a very hunger-inducing session, and  at about 1:00 or so in the morning I went out and my usual spicy-noodle-soup (mama-tom-yum) shop had run out of most of their ingredients (pork ribs, chicken feet, and about 6 other varieties of mysterious meat), so I went across the street and reluctantly ordered a huge bowl of wide, transparent noodles in a broth soup, with scallions, onions, garlic, and enormous firm balls of minced pork.  It was delicious - I was only reluctant because this particular restaurant charges 70 baht, which is nearly double what most places charge - about $2.30!! 

[© Tweed the Younger]

I haven't eaten it yet.  I haven't eaten all day and I'm ravenous hungry so I am sure I will enjoy it.  I'm loading it with black pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder, plus pan frying it in olive oil.  it should be ok.  also added some tofu.

[clarence]

I ordered a Cobb salad for lunch... delicious

[© Tweed the Younger]

it was fine.  should feed me for the next few days.  I squirted lime juice atop it before eating.

[opebo]

I ordered a Cobb salad for lunch... delicious

I love Cobb salads!  Miss them to be honest.. never see such things here.  What restaurant?

it was fine... I squirted...

Glad to hear it.. I had a nice weekend as well... a two lime weekend.

[MilesC56]

Krispy Kreme donuts for lunch and probably easy mac for dinner. I have a notoriously junky diet, but this bad even for me!


The culinary thrills of college...

[clarence]

I ordered a Cobb salad for lunch... delicious

I love Cobb salads!  Miss them to be honest.. never see such things here.  What restaurant?

it was fine... I squirted...

Glad to hear it.. I had a nice weekend as well... a two lime weekend.

Chilis... I am trying to eat healthier- I usually get a chicken fried steak there

[VP Duke]

Just had leftover pork roast and a romaine salad mixed with some homemade vinaigretteand a chai tea!

[shua]

I had an overripe Plantain. I've never had Plantain before except in chip form, but I got one last week at the store to try it out, and ended up letting it sit on the counter a bit longer than I'd met too.  I opened it up a little to see if I wanted to eat it uncooked, but I decided to stuck it in the microwave for a minute. The side that was facing up was great, sweet and a little bit firm - tasting something between corn and sweet potato. The stuff underneath was not so great. I think they say to flip the plantain daily as it ripens, which I neglected to do.

[NSA is just two letters away from NSDAP]

I made my own pasta sauce tonight, using a recipe that's pretty popular on the food blogosphere. It's a can of peeled tomatoes, half a stick of butter, and a halved yellow onion cooked together for about an hour. Turned out really good, a nice creamy texture with a rich tomato taste. It should last me for the rest of the week.

[opebo]

Tonight for one AM snack I went to the late-night fry-up place - I think you all may have noticed I'm very prone to late-night snacks.  This place has a huge array of deep-fried items (mostly chicken and fish) set out, mostly coated with their special crunchy breading.  Well, the last few days we've had another cold snap, getting down to 60 at night, so all the fried things were, alas, very cold.

I had a chicken sausage, three chicken wings, and a set of super thin-sliced chicken breast on a stick, all heavily breaded and deep fried, with a single-person sized packet of sticky rice and a spicy/sweet dipping sauce, all for about $1.45.  The chicken breast was by far the most delicious of these items, and I think I will go back for that again sometime.

[Gustaf]

I had dinner with my parents, as per tradition, following our also traditional afternoon tennis game.

We had steak and pasta and left over pannacotta for dessert. My mother usually gets steak for when I come since I'm quite the carnivore...

[opebo]

I had dinner with my parents, as per tradition, following our also traditional afternoon tennis game.

Very posh.  Did you change for dinner or just wear your whites and dine on the patio?