I just tried Barilla Plus Spaghetti, from the new pasta line from Italian pastamaker Barilla. It was surprisingly good. It’s a little bit darker (and the spaghettis seemed cut a little thinner) than regular Barilla pasta, but it tasted pretty much the same. That’s not too surprising as its main ingredient is still semolina – but what makes this pasta special is that the semolina is mixed in with a mix of ground lentils, chick peas, oats, spelt, barley and flaxseeds) which give the pasta extra fiber and protein (4g of fiber and 10g of protein per 2 oz portion). The flaxseeds also give it a lot of omega3. The pasta still has a lot of carbs (38g) and calories (200), but it does seem a healthier alternative to regular pasta. For me it’s particularly enticing as Mika doesn’t like sauce on her pasta, so when she eats it she has it plain – which doesn’t do much for balanced nutrition.
Anyway, I think it was about 2.50 at Safeway for a 1lb box – expensive but I think worth it. I’ll definitely continue buying it.
Year: 2005 (Page 6 of 13)
Saturday night we had our friends Aamani and Kavin over for dinner. Kavin is a vegetarian and, of course, I wanted to make a menu that would be appealing to him. I wanted to integrate the dinner with my international cooking project but, alas, there are not many cuisines that are vegetarian friendly. I consulted my friend Regina, a semi-vegetarian herself, and she suggested Indian, Ethiopian or Mediterranean food. Indeed, she said I could make a vegetable couscous. And that’s when lightening struck – couscous, North Africa, Berbers. As I am working (still) on the “b’s” this seemed providencial. As it was, I did not have Berber cuisine in my list of cuisines to cook – and even today I’m not sure if there is such a thing as Berber cuisine distinct from North African cuisine – but it was easy enough to add it. After some time searching for recipes online I found enough to make a whole menu.
The food was all delicious, Aamani and Kavin were very impressed and I have a couple of new recipes to incorporate into my repertoire.
You can find my Berber menu at http://www.marga.org/food/int/berber/
Trader Joe’s frozen pad thai is surprisingly good, it’s sweet and spicy, with nice chunks of chicken. The noodles are a tad too soft (and I like soft noodles) but all in all it’s one of the better frozen entries I’ve had.
During my last trip to Trader Joe’s I stocked up on bottled and frozen items. I tried the Trader Joe’s korma simmering sauce. It didn’t taste at all like a korma, it wasn’t creamy, it was sort of spicy and quite acidic, in other words, it tasted just like their curry sauce. I wouldn’t buy it again.
I also got the frozen nan bread. At $2 for 4 pieces it’s kind of expensive, but I think worth it. In all it’s pretty good, it tastes just like the nan bread from a good Indian restaurant, it’s light and fluffy. Plus as you cook it yourself it’s also quite warm when you get it. The only minus is taht you have to preheat the oven for 10 minutes before cooking it, though I’ve done it for less time in my toaster oven.
Finally, I got a bowl of tortellini with pesto sauce – not worth it. The tortellini themselves were good, nice al-dente consistency, yummy cheese filling, but the sauce was completely tasteless. They were actually better without the sauce.
Today we went to the Greek Festival at the St. Nicholas Church in San Jose. It was a smallish affair, just occupying the grounds of the church (but it’s a large church). There was greek music and dancing, a couple of bounce houses, a few stands selling Greek things and, of course, food, tons of it. It’s clear that most of the people go to the festival for the food – there was a deli and a bakery selling stuff to take home, a loooong stand selling gyros, souvlakia, sausages and other grilled specialties, another one selling mousaka, pastitsio and tyropitas in addition to other stuff, some of which you could also get inside the main dining hall, and Kokkari had a stand selling grilled lamb chops. There was also a “cafe” inside offering Greek sweets and Greek coffee. As you can imagine it smelled wonderful.
We tried hard to taste as much food as we could, but there were only three of us. We had the souvlakia ($5)- a skewer with thick pieces of marinated pork. It was very good though the pork was a bit tough – probably because of how lean pork is in the US. When I went to Greece many, many years ago I subsisted on souvlaki pitas (fat pitas smeared with tzaziki and filled with meat and french fries), but I could have sworn the meat was beef or lamb, not pork. In any case, we liked it. We liked the Greek sausage ($4) in a pita smeared with tzaziki even more – we’ll have to look for those sausages, they were spicy, but not too much, and so flavorful.
Later we had the pastitsio ($4) and a baked chicken ($4) with a lemony marinade. Both were quite good, even if the chicken was so dried. All the food left us with the question, if Greek grandmothers can cook so well in such large quantities for the church, how come our local Greek restaurant, Luke’s Grill can’t?
I don’t tend to like baklava ($2) but a taste proved that this one was of superior quality, though still too sweet and syrupy for my taste. A cookie dusted with powder sugar ($1) that I got for Mika wasn’t that good, mostly tasteless.
Still, I’m sold, I’ll definitely be going to their festival next year and I’ll keep my eye open for other Greek festivals closer by.
Today we went to the Greek Festival at the St. Nicholas Church in San Jose. It was a smallish affair, just occupying the grounds of the church (but it’s a large church). There was greek music and dancing, a couple of bounce houses, a few stands selling Greek things and, of course, food, tons of it. It’s clear that most of the people go to the festival for the food – there was a deli and a bakery selling stuff to take home, a loooong stand selling gyros, souvlakia, sausages and other grilled specialties, another one selling mousaka, pastitsio and tyropitas in addition to other stuff, some of which you could also get inside the main dining hall, and Kokkari had a stand selling grilled lamb chops. There was also a “cafe” inside offering Greek sweets and Greek coffee. As you can imagine it smelled wonderful.
We tried hard to taste as much food as we could, but there were only three of us. We had the souvlakia ($5)- a skewer with thick pieces of marinated pork. It was very good though the pork was a bit tough – probably because of how lean pork is in the US. When I went to Greece many, many years ago I subsisted on souvlaki pitas (fat pitas smeared with tzaziki and filled with meat and french fries), but I could have sworn the meat was beef or lamb, not pork. In any case, we liked it. We liked the Greek sausage ($4) in a pita smeared with tzaziki even more – we’ll have to look for those sausages, they were spicy, but not too much, and so flavorful.
Later we had the pastitsio ($4) and a baked chicken ($4) with a lemony marinade. Both were quite good, even if the chicken was so dried. All the food left us with the question, if Greek grandmothers can cook so well in such large quantities for the church, how come our local Greek restaurant, Luke’s Grill can’t?
I don’t tend to like baklava ($2) but a taste proved that this one was of superior quality, though still too sweet and syrupy for my taste. A cookie dusted with powder sugar ($1) that I got for Mika wasn’t that good, mostly tasteless.
Still, I’m sold, I’ll definitely be going to their festival next year and I’ll keep my eye open for other Greek festivals closer by.
Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Science and had lunch (well, I had lunch) at the Grow Cafe there. There seems to be a trend now to have high-quality eateries at museums and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Following that trend the Grow Cafe serves gourmet sandwiches (though all with deli meats, no fresh chicken or beef here) and salads.
I had the Roast Beef oven toasted sandwich ($6.95) which came with gorgonzola, balsamic roasted onions and sun-dried tomato spread. It was very good, I really liked the pungent taste of the cheese sneaking into the sweetness of the onions. It was also a nicely-size sandwich. I’d order it again.
I had a large fountain coke which was flat and not very large and too expensive at $2.
The space for the cafe is small, but we managed to maneuver two double strollers.
free shipping with a 50 minimun order: FREEDEL2
Waikiki Hawaiian BBQ is located in the space that once belonged to Cafe Zula (OK but overpriced) and later to a taqueria which, at least according to my friend Boris, was pretty bad. Even though the space is close enough to city hall to ellicit a healthy lunch trade, the space seems to be doomed and I can’t imagine Waikiki Hawaiian will last long, it just isn’t very good. In a city that’s quickly filling up with Hawaiian restaurants, Hawaiian food fans have better places where to get their fix.
Waikiki Hawaiian offers a large number of Hawaiian plate lunches (starting at $4 for “mini plates” and going up to $6.75 for a combo plate) as well as sandwiches and burgers (starting at $1.65!). They have many things marinated in teriyaki sauce but also some more unusual offerings such as lemon chicken and beef curry. Mike and I decided to try a little of everything, I got the BBQ Mix Plate (teriyaki steak, short ribs & chicken) and he got the seaffod combo (mahi mahi, deep fried shrimp and choice of meat). None of the food was good. The chicken had the weird consistency of processed chicken, the ribs were mostly bone and fat and the little bit of meat was very chewy, the steak was chewy too and the sauce wasn’t very yummy. In all, we were quite disapointed and see no reason to go back.
Waikiki Hawaiian is part of a small chain with locations in El Cerrito and Concord.
Waikiki Hawaiian B-B-Q
635 E 14th St.
san Leandro, CA
510-0-882
Su-Th 10:30am – 9 pm
F-Sa 10:30am – 9:30 pm
Note:
You can read Meathenge’s take on the El Cerrito branch here. It may be that we just ordered the wrong thing.
Last Sunday night I finally cooked my Bahian dinner – as in food from Bahia, Brazil. I had been planning this meal for a WHOLE year. First, I couldn’t find dende or palm oil, an essential ingredient of Bahian cuisine. A friend finally gave me a jar, but I was then missing malagueta peppers which I finally came across in a Latin store in LA. Finally armed with all the ingredients, I set a date for the meal and invited my friends Boris, Vienna and Frank over.
The meal was a great success, the food was excellent and unusual. My friend Vienna is from the Caribbean and she hadn’t encountered those types of flavors either. As everything is cooked with palm oil, everything is awfully fatty but I imagine Bahians can get away with it as their protein mostly comes from seafood, which is usually low in saturated fats. The palm oil makes most dishes pretty orange as well.
In all, I’m very pleased with how the meal turned out and you can find the whole menu here.
Next on the menu: I may make some more Bolivian dishes this weekend and I have a Berber meal planned for next week.
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