Check out their locations to see what I'm talking about.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Blaze Pizza
Check out their locations to see what I'm talking about.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Zaytinya
If you ever find yourself near Gallery Place in Washington D.C., why not treat yourself to an Eastern Mediterranean-style meal? Across from the National Portrait Gallery is a spacious, modern restaurant called Zaytinya that serves Greek, Lebanese, and Turkish inspired cuisine by mezze - small plates.
Zaytina means olive oil in Turkish and it is served with vinegar to dip the complementary puffed pita bread. My friends and I named it "air bag bread" for its unique appearance.
The seafood plate that cannot be missed is Octopus Santorini – grilled Mediterranean octopus with marinated onions on a yellow split pea puree. Presented colorfully like an art piece, the octopus is easily chewable and tender, unlike the toughness of usual octopuses.
Lamb dishes make up most of the meat section of the menu. We ordered the Lamb Bahar plate which is a kebab of spice-rubbed lamb cooked medium-well. Another meat plate called Keftedes Kapama offers beef and lamb in the form of meatballs. Bathed in a pool of sweet and salty tomato sauce and sprinkled with feta cheese, the four balls of skewered ground meat with a pinkish middle satisfied the whole table. We also loved the Seared Skuna Bay Salmon for its soft fish meat and crispy skin.
Zaytina means olive oil in Turkish and it is served with vinegar to dip the complementary puffed pita bread. My friends and I named it "air bag bread" for its unique appearance.
The seafood plate that cannot be missed is Octopus Santorini – grilled Mediterranean octopus with marinated onions on a yellow split pea puree. Presented colorfully like an art piece, the octopus is easily chewable and tender, unlike the toughness of usual octopuses.
Lamb dishes make up most of the meat section of the menu. We ordered the Lamb Bahar plate which is a kebab of spice-rubbed lamb cooked medium-well. Another meat plate called Keftedes Kapama offers beef and lamb in the form of meatballs. Bathed in a pool of sweet and salty tomato sauce and sprinkled with feta cheese, the four balls of skewered ground meat with a pinkish middle satisfied the whole table. We also loved the Seared Skuna Bay Salmon for its soft fish meat and crispy skin.
For dessert, the delectable Turkish Delight is a popular pick at
Zaytinya. A scoop of walnut ice cream encircled by yogurt mousse, honey, and
orange-caramel sauce dusted with caramelized crushed pine nuts make the dessert
nutty and not too sweet.
Every
plate, though a bit small in portion for the price, has an artful presentation with
different colors and textures on white dishware. I definitely would come
back to try more mezze creations in the future.
Zaytinya
Address:
701 Ninth St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Phone:
202-638-0800
Hours: Open
at 11:30 AM every day, and close at 10 PM (Sunday & Monday), 11:00 PM (Tuesday-Thursday),
and midnight (Friday & Saturday)
Website: www.zaytinya.com
$$
Monday, November 2, 2015
Grandma's Dish
The holiday season has begun, but this year my family gatherings will feel very different with the passing of my grandmother last month. Up until the last few years when her health slowly declined, she was an incredibly capable woman.
My grandma loved to cook and rarely ate out at restaurants because she believed making food at home was tastier, healthier, and more economical. Every time relatives visited her house, she would ask what dish of hers we wanted to eat. One particular dish called mi fen zheng rou (米粉蒸肉) was and still is everyone's favorite. It is steamed pork with rice flour, and Grandma spent most of her adult life perfecting the recipe that even my dad remembers eating it in his childhood.
I imagine many of the dishes from my grandma's time back then were complicated and required years of experience to get right. Grandma didn't use any recipe books; everything came from her own set of cooking knowledge and skills. Dishes like mi fen zheng rou use simple ingredients, but the process takes more than a day to complete because it is made from scratch. That's the difference between the food on the table that we eat today and that of older generations. Much of what we consume is processed/packaged/frozen foods that saves us time at the cost of health whereas my grandma used natural ingredients for a hearty meal.
Because so much work and time goes into preparing mi fen zheng rou, our family only eats it at Christmas time when 20+ people can enjoy it together. I will cherish that one time I helped Grandma make the dish. And I will cherish her recipe that I fortunately wrote down for a school assignment a month before she passed away. When I attempt to make it this Christmas, I know my grandma will be looking down happy and proud.
My grandma loved to cook and rarely ate out at restaurants because she believed making food at home was tastier, healthier, and more economical. Every time relatives visited her house, she would ask what dish of hers we wanted to eat. One particular dish called mi fen zheng rou (米粉蒸肉) was and still is everyone's favorite. It is steamed pork with rice flour, and Grandma spent most of her adult life perfecting the recipe that even my dad remembers eating it in his childhood.
 |
| Coating the marinated meat in the rice flour, one-by-one |
Because so much work and time goes into preparing mi fen zheng rou, our family only eats it at Christmas time when 20+ people can enjoy it together. I will cherish that one time I helped Grandma make the dish. And I will cherish her recipe that I fortunately wrote down for a school assignment a month before she passed away. When I attempt to make it this Christmas, I know my grandma will be looking down happy and proud.
 |
| The finished dish! |
Recipe for Steamed Pork with Rice Flour
1. Pork:
o
2 pounds of pork belly
o
Trim about 90% of the fat off
o
Cut into one square inch chunks (slice
pork perpendicular to the meat lines)
2. Sauce
for marinating – in large bowl:
o
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
o
1 teaspoon of cooking wine
o
½ teaspoon black pepper powder
o
½ teaspoon Chinese pepper powder
o
1 teaspoon of sugar
o
Juice one orange
o
Put pork chunks into the sauce
o
You can sprinkle extra Chinese pepper
powder over marinated meat to mask raw meat odor
o
Leave covered in refrigerator overnight or
for 8 hours
3. Homemade
rice flour:
o
2 cups of uncooked rice on a pan, low heat
o
Add
a pinch of salt
o
Stir for 10 minutes until golden-yellow,
or until you start smelling the rice
o
Put rice into a blender to make into course
powder
4. Coat
each piece of marinated pork in the rice flour
5. Skin
yams and cut into large pieces
6. In
a steamer or rice cooker:
o
Evenly put the first layer of rice covered
pork with pieces of yams
o
Drizzle water and cooking oil over layer
to make it moist
o
Repeat previous steps for next few layers
7. Steam
for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes
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