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Food Thread: The Blog Is Wonky Edition

The classic Sunday Roast is at home, surrounded by friends and family (or just your POSLQ), or perhaps in a wonderful neighborhood pub that has a great roast and delicious cask ales.

But...we were in central London and had a decidedly non-traditional roast, and we are all the better for it! The restaurant was hip and modern and did not have that lovely neighborhood feel of a pub Roast. But...it did have spectacular food, so they are forgiven.

Everything was excellent, including the plating. Instead of piling everything onto the plate, they served a communal bowl that gave the main course a chance to shine. And shine they did!

The bottom one is a pork belly, but it was made in the style of Porchetta. What a good idea, and it was delicious! The other was a simple filet, but the restaurant bragged about the beef, which they claimed was dairy cow. I have read about it, but as far as I know have never had it. Which is a shame, because it was delicious. Rich and beefy and reasonably tender.

But the star of the show may have been the rutabaga mash. Or maybe it was butter and rutabaga. Or cheese and butter and rutabaga. But whatever it was it was delicious.

And those potatoes were damned good too! Hell...even the carrots and green stuff (kale, I think) were great. And that gravy boat? The gravy/sauce was superb.

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The blog is wonky and slow and doing weird things, so I am going to phone this one in because who the hell knows what is going to happen!
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Wow...these were great oysters. And the guy was friendly and funny and chatted with me about oysters and oyster knives and beer.

I then walked about 50 feet to a pub and had a cask ale. Because it was uncharacteristically hot, and a beer is always a good choice for cooling off. Of course were it unseasonably cold I would have done the same thing, so I am not sure of my point.

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WeeKreekFarmGirl sent this along, and damn! It looks delicious! How often does a food look this good AND have an awesome name? "Toad In The Hole?" It doesn't get better than that!

I came across a recipe (in Cook's Illustrated) for Toad in the Hole and had some bangers in the freezer and thought I would go for it. I usually find Cook's Illustrated recipes fairly fiddly but went for it anyway.

"Fairly fiddly." Exactly. They are a good resource, but I always tread through the recipe very carefully, because they often throw in some nonsensical and unnecessary step, just to be cool.
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Somebody sent me a recipe for a Shishito Pepper & Corn salad. Sure...why not. Luckily my SiL had just brought me a bag of nice fresh Shishito peppers, so the stars were aligned.

And it was pretty damned tasty!

Blistered Shishito and Corn Salad is froma cooking site that is new to me, so I can't vouch for anything other than a single recipe, but it was absolutely worth it and will go into my rotation.

[Use fresh corn.]

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Good butter, and Flap Meat...whatever the hell that is...just send it, Broccolini that isn't $6/bunch, garlic...lots of garlic!, well-marbled hanger steaks and elk chops to: cbd dot aoshq at gmail dot com.

Who are those poor deluded souls who shake their Manhattans? These are the same people who drink fine bourbon with coke, and probably shake red wine with ice too.

My and the world's patience has run out. Shaken Manhattans henceforth will be banished to the land of Long Island Ice Teas and Frozen Strawberry Margaritas.

And yes, I used to demand fancy bourbon, but let's face it, $1,200 for a bottle of bourbon is just stupid, insulting, and a ghastly affront to most people's palates and wallets. I think the sweet spot is $40-$60 for excellent and interesting bottles, and bumping that to $100 gets you an incremental improvement in quality, but nothing mind-blowing. More than that and I think you are paying for hype and rarity, which may look good in your liquor cabinet, but doesn't translate to more quality in the bottle.