what is for dinner - give me some tongue

I like offal, I eat it often, liver, kidney, gizzards etc, but I think this is the first time I cooked tongue. these are pig's tongue, they are really small, must be from piglets. I braised them in a soy based sauce I use to braise a lot of stuff (duck wings, pig ears, chicken gizzards ...), ate them chillied, sliced, with a little drizzle of vinegar and sesame oil and topped with ginger, scallion, and hot chili. I probably could've sliced them thiner, but as they were (1/8 in slices), they were tender and nicely flavored. Excellent starter for those who don't mind a little tongue from time to time.

what is for dinner - salad?

green beans and potato, the sort of sides you get at catered wedding, along side of a piece of overcooked salmon or beef. but when sauteed in a skillet, with some whole garlic cloves, chili, then spiked with a little vinegar, mustard after it is cooled slightly. it is a sort of like a no boil potato salad. nothing like the cheap wedding dinner side dish. the beans were somewhat unevenly cooked, and the potatoes were just a tad too firm. but I liked the flavor.

oh I also ate a huge pork chop.

what is for dinner - chicken breast

I have had an off and on relationship with chicken breast over the years. when I was a kid, I liked it a lot, because it is got fewer bones to pick, easier to eat. But as I got older, I realized that most of the time, a thigh or a drum stick or a wing is going to be juicer, and have more flavor, and at that point I definitely was not shy about getting my fingers dirty to get a nice piece of chicken in my mouth.

but on occasions over the last few years, I have had breast meat from good chickens, cooked properly, that were just as delicious and satisfying as any hind quarter. This particular breast from a free range bird I got a few days ago was just that (it is interesting how we say a lot of things with white meat taste like chicken, but the probability of getting a chicken that have real chicken flavor has been going down for a while now). Although sloppily butchered (it has been at least 6 months since I bought a whole chicken), I didn't fuck this up on the stove (or in the oven). once again brussel sprouts almost steal the show.

What is for dinner - 4

quick and sloppy spaghetti with tomato, fresh pork sausage from this guy wayne at the farmer's market, a little bit of greens, and the last bit of bread crumb I made last week. the red wine vinegar used for deglazing got together with the mustard green stems and gave a pickle like quality. really not bad, I was really hungry though.

what is for dinner -3 (and go huskies)

fuck yeah, fuck USC.

A salad of green beans, peach, parsley, and sheep's milk feta cheese. pretty good, but I should have remembered to add a little mustard, as is (even with garlic), the flavor was a little muted.

then a decent size pork chop, small yukon gold potatoes cooked in duck fat, and sauteed brussel sprouts. Satisfying dish, if very conventional/boring in a meat, starch and veg sort of way. Not surprisingly (not to me), the brussel sprouts was the best part. I am pretty convinced that this vegetable tasted best after it is sliced, thinly, then cooked quickly. Garlic, chili, and a squirt of lemon juice or good sherry vinegar help bring along the cabbage sweetness/bitterness quality that I enjoy.

what is for dinner - 2

everyone wants to be a critic, that is why sites like yelp is so popular. But having an opinion does not make a person a critic. Hell, the long time food critic at the SF Chronicle, Bauer, writes some of the worst restaurant reviews ever. I read them online still even though I don't live there anymore, for the train wreck qualities his columns seem to ooze . Of course, I probably can't do any better than he does.

but just for fun, I am going to start writing critiques of my dinners, and since I cook most of my meals, I will be trying to picking on myself. I wish I could come up with a better title than 'what is for dinner', them I remember for years at the lab at UCSF, Duan use to say 'what is for lunch', to no one in particular, at like 10:30 am. so 'what is for dinner' has a familiar stupid funny quality to it, at least for me.

last night I had noodles with braised pig's feet. I was so hungry that I didn't remember to take a photo until I was half way through. The greens in the soup (baby mustard) was cooked for too long and didn't provide any freshness contrast that you sometimes want in a soup or braised dish. I really liked these thick fresh noodle from China town. The pigs feet were great, essentially falling apart, although I know some like them to be just a little big chewy. With the temperature dropping to 50F in the evening, a hot bowl of noodle was a very good dinner indeed.

what is for dinner - 1

I will explain the title in a different post.

Orecchietti is one of my favorite shaped pasta, it works especially well with things that are in or are good in small pieces, such as corn, mushroom and sausage. Those things and some leeks, garlic, thyme and toasted breadcrumb, made a decent dish. The flavor is a little flat, I think a little white wine and more herbs would have helped. yeah, a little more fiber, a little more acid.