And... we're back!
Sorry for the lapse in BlogDollYa postings, I got distracted by too much (mostly great) stuff over the past 2 years. Technically, it is Chinese New Year today, so I don't feel I've let too much of this first month of this year of the Dragon lag . In some cultures, I'm exactly right on time for my resolution phase to begin, so I'm not feeling too bad for wasting the first 22 days of the year failing miserably at sober january. I've been urged/asked/encourage by a number of friends to blog about my exploits in cooking, traveling, music (three of my many passions) so here I am. I've also put out the word to a few friends who might want to contribute so you may be seeing a post or two from them. Hit me up if you'd like to contribute?
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I've been craving a meal from one of my all time favorite restaurants anywhere in the world, Avalon (in Maui, Hawaii), specifically the whole Opakapaka served with a spicy Indonesian style black bean sauce for a quite a while and wanted to try a hand at re-creating it. As a former employee of the restaurant, I was fortunate to have chef/owner Mark Ellman send me the recipe via a facebook chat a while back, but never got around to utilizing it. I had an adventure around procuring some of the ingredients, fortunately sourcing obscure ingredients for uncommon dishes is one of my hobbies, so it wasn't all bad times. After the high of finally finding fermented black beans at Duc Loi , I ran into the problem of my timing this particular meal with my favorite local fish store, Sun Fat closing to observe the Chinese New Year. I looked around the Mission at a few other seafood stores but nothing compares to the clean, fresh array of seafood from Sun Fat. After walking up and down Mission Street, trying to find a suitable seafood store option, I decided to take a minute (and a much needed bathroom break) at one of my favorite bars, the 500 Club where Rachel Cohen made me a killer Bacon Bloody Mary and my attitude got the adjustment it needed. Since one can count on Whole Foods to have safe, clean and fresh fish and since the alternate Mission Street seafood options had the potential of poisoning my house guests (which didn't seem to be a very hostly thing to do) I caved and bit the bullet. I had to substitute Tilapia (which worked out fine) for the Opakapaka/pink snapper I was after but it was all fine in the end.
I invited a couple of friends over for dinner Saturday night and we started the evening with Lillet and fresh orange rind, Burrata stuffed Peppadews, Vietnamese shrimp and crab spring rolls with Nuoc Cham and Romaine Lettuce then moved onto Cauliflower soup shots before the main whole fish course. For dessert, I also re-created Mark Ellman/Avalon's Carmel Miranda, a fantastic light, fruit laden way to end a meal. It starts with a large dollop of freshly made caramel on the bottom of an oven safe plate, fresh fruit come next (I used pineapple, mango, blackberries, strawberries), plus few pieces of good quality chocolate strewn about on top of the fruit. Broil for 5 or so minutes then top the plate with a good quality Vanilla based ice cream. I looked high and low for Macadamia Nut Haagen Daz but settled on the Creme Brulee since I was out of luck on my first choice. It was fantastic.
I didn't take any photos, but it was my first go with all these recipes and will revisit them again soon!
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