Month: January 2013

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Chada Thai Restaurant

Posted on by Nuntius

Saturday afternoon and it was getting towards dinner time. Neither My Beloved nor I could decide what we were going to prepare for dinner.

If you look at the last post “Recycling and lamb’, which was posted 27 January 2013, you will see I said there that we were going out for Thai. I do not understand what happened, but that was Sunday, yet I am writing now about the previous day, Saturday, 26 Jan 2013. Now, how can that be? Well, it was because I had drafted the Sunday post, but not published it. It’s all about a learning curve, this blogging game, and a learning curve for this old brain is a shallower one than it was fifty years ago.

So, now we are back on track and I am writing today, Tuesday, 29 January 2013, about a visit to Chada Thai Restaurant on Saturday, 26 January 2013.

Although the clouds had crept across the San Jacinto mountains, there were no drops of water descending from them, so My Beloved and I set forth for Chada. Well, I am not exactly correct in saying that, because while we knew where we were going and to which restaurant, we did not know the name of it.

We were shown a table for two as soon as we walked through the door. We are pretty savvy diners, having dined in many countries, but we have rarely dined on Thai fare, so the menu had a certain mystique about it.

Nevertheless, when the Maitre d’ came (whom we believe to be the owner) to get our order, we boldly spouted out “Tom Kah as an appetizer, please,” to which he responded, “Bowl or pot?”. As My Beloved and I looked at each other wonderingly, he said, “Pot – better for you two share.” So he had made the decision for us. And we were, subsequently, delighted he had. However, he had not obtained all the information he needed. “What meat?”, he said. I had no idea what he meant: did he mean what did I want for my main course? Fortunately, My Beloved chimed in with, “Chicken, I think.” Obviously, she had read the menu better than I. So, Mr. Owner went away happy with her answer.

We were sipping our Merlot when he returned with a two-tiered apparatus, into which he plunged     a fire-starter and. lo and behold, flame shot out through the centre of the apparatus, a good 30 centimetres high. Never had either of us seen anything quite so exotic and lovely as a way of serving a soup.

And what was, or is, Tom Kah? A hot and sour coconut milk soup with Image
delightful little straw mushrooms, Thai name Hed Fang, which resemble tiny little helmets, lemongrass and, yes, the chicken pieces. It was delicious! Truly delicious!

Additionally, as our mains, My Beloved chose the lightly breaded calamari, which were lovely and tender with a side of hot sauce, and I chose the crispy catfish, which came with a very tasty mildly spicy red sauce, broccoli and a few discs of carrot. A bowl of steamed rice served well as a foundation for excess sauce from my plate.

We denied ourselves any dessert and the whole came to $55 including $10 tip. A lovely meal and we will return to Chada.

But now, it is time for dinner at here at home in the condo.

เจริญอาหาร
ceriỵ xāh̄ār – Thai for ‘bon appetit!’
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Recycling and lamb

Posted on by Nuntius

Last evening Terry came and joined us for one of My Beloved’s South Carolina Fish Stews. It has white fish and shrimp and clams and green peppers and onion and garlic and tomatoes and some heat from Tabasco. It is simply delicious. Along with some of her French bread.

Terry brought dessert, rice pudding with raisins and dried cranberries. Very good. He also brought a Sauvignon blanc and a good red (I took the bottle to recycle this morning and cannot remember what it was).

And we finished the evening with a bottle of my Port.

We discussed taking a really big collection of wine bottles to the recycling depot in the morning (today) to collect some cash.

This morning, around ten o’clock, Terry arrived at the door and he and I bundled the bottles into the trunk of his Mercedes. At the recycle depot we discovered that, although they would take the bottles, there was no redemption in California for wine of liquor bottles. Oh, well, project accomplished, Back in Halifax, we get 5 cents for every bottle. Mind you, we pay 10 cents on top of the price at the store: we get 5 cents back at the recycle depot and the other 5 cents go to pay for the process.

Terry suggested we go and get a Bloody Mary. We drove to a favourite haunt of his, where he ordered a Bloody Mary: I asked MaryBeth, for that was the barkeep’s name, if she stocked Clamato juice. Sure, she said. Then, I’ll have a Bloody Caesar, please, I said. Clamato juice has been popular in Canada since Mott’s invented it in 1966, but it has been slow to catch on in the USA, other than in California, where the Mexican influence is large and Mexicans use Clamato juice to make Chelada. So, I am always a happy drinker when I find a bar which stocks Clamato juice.

Sitting at the bar, I had an enjoyable chat with a British couple on their way via Vegas and Palm Springs, to New Zealand. The TV screen was showing Man U vs Fulham and Man U were trouncing Fulham with the great assistance of Rooney, who scored two goals in two minutes while we sat and drank. Another round of Bloody Mary and Caesar and we came home. 

This afternoon, Harold and Helen took us to Costco, where My Beloved and I bought some great-looking lamb chops and a boneless leg of lamb at $5.99/lb. Wow! Back in Halifax, that would run at two or three times that price.

Tonight, we are off to have Thai food. I think. Unless it rains, for it is walking distance. It does not rain very often here, but there has been talk of a shower if the clouds can make it over the San Jacinto mountains.

¡Salud y buen provecho!

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Pea Soup

Posted on by Nuntius

I tried to discover the difference between yellow split peas and green split peas.

Why? Because My Beloved uses green split peas to make pea soup and last evening we were invited to Harold and Helen’s to dine on yellow pea soup. Now I am able to write from experience and I deem both very tasty. My Beloved provided fresh hot-out-of-the-oven French bread as the accompanying side, while Helen provided the appetisers of shrimp and cheese, the desert of strawberry shortcake and a couple of bottles of Merlot. A simple, excellent meal. And the company (all four of us) was outstanding!

However,whether you like the different taste between them is, it appears, purely personal and, judging from the reviews, whether your mother used yellow or green peas. I do not recall what colour pea soup my Mummy made, but I have already told you that My Beloved uses green split peas, so that is the flavour to which I am accustomed. But, really, at my age the taste buds can’t tell the difference – or can they?. Some people say that one is sweeter than the other, others say that one is slightly more bitter than the other. As, I said, it all depends, I think, on what their mother made.

We are going to do a repeat at our condo for Helen and Harold, but using My Beloved’s green pea soup recipe. No, it’s not a competition: simply just another reason for four friends to get together for a pleasant evening.

I also discovered in my research what pease pudding is, as in the Christmas rhyme, ‘pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold, pease pudding in the pot nine days old”. It seems to be, basically, a very thick yellow pea soup. In the North of England, stotties are sometimes stuffed with pease pudding. Stottie? A new one on me, too, but it is a circular, 5cm thick. very doughy bread, cut in halves or quarters, with a pocket made in them and stuffed with the pease pudding.

It’s time for my yogourt and blueberry lunch with 24 almonds. 

Cheers!

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Planned Leftover

Posted on by Nuntius

Yesterday, I wrote about Leftovers. Today, My Beloved used a pork chop I had barbecued a week or so ago, one of four which was not eaten: because they were 4cms thick.  One of us ate one, whereas My Beloved and I ate only most of each of ours. Probably, my doctor would have said, I should not have eaten as much as I did. 

So, today, My Beloved provided me with one of my favourite meals: stir fry. She used the chop which was not eaten to provide the basis for the stir fry, adding onion, red peppers, garlic, ginger, celery, carrots and mushrooms, all in a wonderful red spicy sauce.

So, I am using the term ‘Planned Leftovers’, since the unused chop was not, strictly speaking, left over from another meal. It was cooked, not to be eaten with the other three, but with another meal in sight. Whatever!

Anyway, it was delicious.Image

 

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Leftovers

Posted on by Nuntius

Who hasn’t any leftovers in the fridge? Particularly after Christmas and New Year and after all those visitors have left.

My Beloved and I have been eating leftovers, it seems, for ever. Not really. It just seems that way. But today’s dinner was an example of leftovers:

  • We had leftover cheese-stuffed sausages from when we had grandchildren and some parents here over New Year – 2013, that is, not 2012!
  • We had leftover mashed roasted cauliflower and sweet potato from a dinner the other evening of huge barbecued pork chops.
  • We had leftover piece of sweet Mayan Onion from a couple of onion sandwiches I had made and eaten for a couple of lunches – oh, yes, not two sandwiches for one lunch. Have you ever had my onion sandwiches? They must be made with sweet Vidalia onions or the others which are nowadays available tasting even sweeter, with a fair amount of salt, a lot of pepper a little mayo spread on both pieces of bread, and sometimes a slice of Velveta cheese. Today, I sliced a jalapeno on it, too. Tonight, however, this leftover slice of onion was chopped up and mixed in with the mashed roasted cauliflower and sweet potato.
  • I’m not sure tomatoes can be considered leftovers when they have just been sitting on the shelf since we bought them a week ago, but, if they can be considered as such, then we also had leftover fried tomato halves.
  • And we had red wine. Not left over from anything, unless you consider the fact that if there is any wine in our house, it is left over and should be consumed.

So, the sausages were barbecued, the mash was fried up and crisped on one side, the tomato halves were also fried, all eaten while the red wine was drunk.

Then we sat down and watched the new young 19-year old American lass, Sloane Stephens, beat Serena Williams to gain the semis of the Australian Open Tennis and the Brit, [Scot] Andy Murray beat the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

All the while sipping some leftover red wine. Until it was bedtime.