RR: Helmand & Vaccaro's

Joe, Kamini, Kendal and I went out for a dinner in order to celebrate the end of semester and graduations of two of them. Beside this wonderful occasion to celebrate, an initial idea was to organize regular dinner meetings to explore the cultural restaurants in town. I decided to pick an Afghan place (or just start with "A" in the list) from Yelp, which is considered as somewhat reliable reviews. Overall, it was a successful trial. I lack experience of the middle eastern cuisines but I had an impression that chief has put some effort to preserve their originality without running out of business in Baltimore.

Banjan Laghatak - stewed eggplant with yogurt cilantro sauce. The texture of eggplant and yogurt actually blends well. The cilantro and yogurt combination itself is worth studying.

Bowlawni - a couple pastry shells each filled with potato and leek. I do not know how the potato inside was spiced but it exceeded the expectation of regular meshed potato. Leek was chopped and slightly cooked in oil so the chunks don't fall out of pastry upon cutting.

Dwopiaza - Don't get me wrong, I like lamb dishes. However, lamb is lamb. I haven't seen a delightful variation in cooking lamb other than marinating then roasting it. The best part of dish, surprisingly enough, was the piece of tomato in the center. The spice used for marination was savory and lightly sweetened, differ than the ones in pasta sauces.

Kabuli - baked rice with lamb tenderloin. I wasn't sure why would they bake the rice to make it so fluffy that I was worried about inhaling them into the wrong hole every time I put a spoonful in my mouth. Again, spices used for rice was good enough to forgive the presence of the raisins.

Aushak - Afghan ravioli filled with leek topped with ground beef. I highly valued the inspiration of putting grass inside the ravioli, which actually turned out good but the beef had too much of flavor of its own only to kill the vegetarian ambiance of the ravioli.

Shiraz (2008)

Then we went to Vaccaro's Italian Pastries for dessert. The place had more than just Italian pastries as long as they are high in sugar and fat. I am not a dessert person so no further comment.

Coconut Napoleon(^^) + Rum Cake(?) + Cannoli Cake(!)

Cafe Mocha

Apple Cider

Peanut Butter Fantasy - I'd title it "a nightmare of the new year's resolution."

Sticking a spoon to the nose - I am not sure how that helps.

Homestyle Pound Cake

Kamini ordered Bailey's hot chocolate. It was very good; could been better if they had put more Irish cream - like 1:1 ratio.

Cannoli - trust me, these are dangerous.

The store provides an insulation bag for the left over ice creams.

Helmand
806 N Charlse St.
Baltimore MD 21201

Vaccaro's
222 Albemarle St.
Baltimore, MD

Autumn is Here

looks like a Home Economics lab in 8th grade

Brianna is the first of Kendal's friends who visited our house more than once. She teaches Science (mostly physics) in a secondary school in NJ. She deserves some admiration for dealing with Physics and teenagers at the same time. Moreover, she is amazing in a sense that she did week-load of our dishes, made two meals, baked croissants, made caramel apple and assembled a desk for my office within a weekend. Brianna, you are always welcomed to come back down to our house!

Kendal masculinely crushing the 'nuts(!)'

so masculine that he uses a beer bottle...

historically hot summer offered the sweetest apple

I don't like apple. However, caramel apple is the best excuse I can ever come up for consuming sugar and nuts. I mean, it is caramel covered but still a fruit. Also, caramel apple has less calories than a bar of Sneakers yet contains more vitamins and fiber. Do I need more advocacy?


Caramel Apples
(serving 6)

• 6 gala apples
• 12 oz caramel, cubes
• 4 oz peanut, crushed (optional)
  

1. Rise apples and dry them. Put sticks through the cores.
   
2. Melt caramel cubes in a sauce pan with low heat. Add water water if needed.
   
3. Heat for 7-10 min until caramelized. Constantly stir so the caramel doesn't burn.
4. Coat the surface of apples with caramel.
5. While caramel is warm and soft, sprinkle the crushed peanuts.
6. Place the caramel apples on a sheet of greased wax paper.
7. Cool it.

best part of preparing caramel apples - it smells so sweet!

extreme makeover: before

after

Capoeira

Rhythm of Brazil.

I ran into the JHU Capoeira practice on the campus. I have been always fascinated by this artistic martial art but never had a chance to observe right next to it. Not sure if individual movements belong to categorized forms but it seemed very improvisational and freestyle performance. Even though I was little worried about their joints, it was a two thumbs up performance!

Extremely flexible.

She is not in contact with ground at all!

I love seafood. Especially being a beginner vegetarian, my major protein source is fish. Unfortunately, Americans seem to have very limited cooking methods for fish compared to Asians. Most cases, people here deep fry fish, ruining the unique flavors of fish. Fortunately, Americans developed with variety of marinades in compensation for poor fish cooking skills. I have tested different marinades for seafood plates because it is one of the simplest way of suppressing "fishy-smell" while boosting "fishy-flavor," yet still allows various heating methods such as steaming, baking, frying, etc.

I am satisfied with most marinade formulas so far, except the fruity ones. This week, I gave one more chance to fruity-fish marination using citron preserve. Long story short, the fruit-flavored marinade for fish failed my test again. I get the idea of suppressing the smell of fish with the flavors of fruits, however, it does not work well in reality. Fruits and fish are not the best combination (in my opinion). But it could be just me so I am still posting my citron mackerel.

Citron Mackerel
adapted from Momo
(serving 2)

• 2 fillets Spanish mackerel
• 2 carrots
• 5 roots green onion scallion
  
• 1 onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper (omitted)
  

• 3 Tbsp citron preserve (유자차)
  
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp Japanese apricot extract (매실청)
• 1 tsp sesame oil

1. Chop the mackerel fillets into 2-3 pieces.
2. Julienne carrots, an onion, and green onion scallions.
3. Heat a wok on a low heat and pour the citron preserve and warm up.
   
4. Pour the rest of the sauces into the wok and mix them well.
   
5. Pour the vegetables into the pot and boil until the sauce smears into the vegetables.
6. Add the mackerel pieces into the wok and boil until they are cooked (approx. 10 min).

Citron preserve, in general, is made for preparing tea.

Still not buying fruit-fish combo...

The First Win!

Midfielder Park Ji-sung gave South Korea a 2-0 lead. (AP)

World Cup is "the most popular sports event on earth." Moreover, it is like a time machine to me because the past events in my life is often recalled by the memories World Cup games. It works just like the greatest-hit songs. This is why "hit me baby one more time" reminds me of my junior high (a bad example though). Anyway, I am impressed that Korea had its first win in World Cup 2010 against Greece, who was once the European Champion. Especially watching the BEAUTIFUL second goal by Park felt like a pint of ice-cold beer after 5K in mid-summer. Go Red Devils!

Luce and her family in Jacksonville.

I visited my cousin Luce last Christmas. She is a wonderful wife and mother, but most importantly, she is a great cook. She is busy working so cannot afford too much time for a family dinner. Her recipes are simple, yet they are healthy and blends together well without losing individual taste of each recipes. It took a while to get a tube of wasabi paste, a key ingredient to her best dish, and I am finally trying this out.

Udon Noodle Salad

adapted from Kitchen Lab(serving 1 person)

• Udon noodle
• 2 oz spring mix
• 1/2 tomato
• 3-4 stems asparagus
• 4-5 cocktail shrimps, cooked
  
• 4 tsp soy sauce
  
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 2 tsp honey
• 2 tsp rice wine-vinegar (미림)
• 4 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp wasabi paste

1. Mix all the sauces in a bowl. Make sure wasabi is completely dissolved.
2. Cut up the tomato into a few pieces.
   
3. Steam the asparagus for 4 min or microwave for 30 sec. Cool down.
   
4. Heat a pot of water. When water starts to boil, add the udon noodles and boil for 4 more min. Drain water and rinse with cold water.
   
5. Put spring mix, udon noodles, and prepared dressing from #1 into a salad bowl and mix.
6. Decorate the dish with tomato, asparagus, and shrimps.

Wasabi salad dressing

udon noodles were thinner than I expected but it blends better with salads

added a few droplets of ginger dressing on asparagus

Wine Recycling

"Sour rotten juice." That is how my roomie Kendal describes wine. Seriously, don't offer him any wine because a goldfish would appreciate it more.

Russino brought a bottle of red wine about a month ago. I and Kendal are not big of drinkers so it was about to go bad. I decided to prolong its life by making Vin Chaud with it. Vin Chaud is usually served warm and used as a cold medicine back in old days in France. I wasn't sure about drinking "a glass of warm wine."

The first sip was quite a surprise. It tasted little dull after blowing all the magic (alcohol) away but such taste indeed emphasized the fruity flavor and rich scent of the cinnamon. I am still not sure whether a glass of Vin Chaud can cure your cold but now I know some French recipes actually work (j/k).

Vin Chaud
adapted from Sweet Room

• 1/2 or 2/3 bottle wine
• 1 orange (I used two)
• 1 lemon
• 1 Tbsp. clove (omitted)
• 1 Tbsp. honey (I used sugar instead)
  
• 2 tsp. cinnamon powder
• Slice a lemon and oranges

1. Slice the citrus
2. Push clove pieces into the peels of sliced citrus
3. Pour the wine into a pot and add the prepared citrus, honey and sprinkle the cinnamon power.
4. Boil the wine for 20 minutes on the lowest hit. Make sure to simmer, i.e. you shouldn't see any bubbles.
5. Filter out the citrus and the herb remainders.