FoodB

Surprisingly Anaheim doesn't taste like mouse. Who would have thought...

A few weeks ago, Jenn and I were driving along the 55 and I noticed that the Arrowhead Pond had erected a new giant advertising-tron thing (do those big tv's have a name?). One of the ads that came up was something called The Taste of Anaheim. That really caught my interest because we had gone to a similar event in Oregon called the Bite of Oregon to see They Might Be Giants play and really enjoyed the food. At the Bite of Oregon (kudos to these event planners btw, they are pretty original with the names here) Jenn was able to sample some elk and I of course chowed down on all the BBQ I could find. We had a really good time and hoped that the Anaheim event would be the same.

Well once we got there we had to wait in line to get our will call tickets. Usually that wouldn't be much of a hassle, but there was only 2 windows to get your tickets and I'd say somewhere around 75% of the people bought their tickets through the website, which only offered will call. That too wouldn't have been a problem if I weren't so dang hot and the sun was right on us. Well we powered through the line pushing old ladies and children aside, and finally made it into the event which was also outside. Another note to the event planners, if you are going to do something outside, don't do it in a parking lot! And if you do, don't charge me $3 for water. I almost went Woodstock 99 and tried to get everyone together in a riot but I'm too old for that.

Well let's get back to why we were there, the food. The way it was set up was there were about 40 restaurants with booths and you walk from booth to booth and sample their food. It is a really good way to find restaurants that you haven't tried yet but don't feel like shelling out the $500 to try them all at once. The list of restaurants varied from fancy to Hooters, and someone should have told them to serve beer because no one goes to hooters for the food. Some of the food was really good and some of it was pretty bad. The odd thing I found was that a lot of these places decided not to serve their food hot. One example was JT Schmidt's. I've been there and the food is okay but to serve me a cold rib at this event was just a mistake.

Here are three of the places that Jenn and I really liked:

Catal Restaurant & Uva Bar
ESPN Zone
Orange Hill Restaurant

Catal served something called "Pastilla of Braised Lamb with Harissa Scented Tomatoes" and it was really good. It was a little piece of phyllo bread with a little bit of lamb dabbed on top with herbs and tomatoes. It looked really odd and I thought I was going to hate it but ended up thinking it was the best thing there. ESPN had hoisin ribs and they changed my thinking about BBQ sauce and ribs. They gave Catal a good run for the best thing I had. Orange Hill was giving out braised pork and even though got a really fatty piece, I really enjoyed it.

So of the 3 restaurants serving that I liked, the only one I had not ever been to was Catal. It is a mediterranean cuisine located in Downtown Disney and we will be checking it out soon because we both love mediterranean food (greek or arabic).

Even with the extreme heat and having to pay for water we both really enjoyed ourselves. I would have enjoyed Super Diamond a little more if I hadn't been felling the effects of the sun so much. But I guess that is the cost of living in Southern California again or just me getting old.

Posted by Gordon at 11:53 AM | Permalink

Wow!

Jenn made beef and cheese manicotti from Giada De Laurentiis' book Everyday Italian and all I have to say again is wow! Do yourself a favor and go out and get some manicotti shells because I don't think I've ever had something this good in a restaurant. And I'm not trying to win points with my wife when I say this because I told her that I was going to be honest about what she cooks, good or bad.

She cooked the manicotti shells and stuffed them with some cooked onions and beef along with mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta cheeses. Top that all of with some marianna sauce and some more mozzarella and you got yourself some good eating. She says the recipe was pretty easy but it was just time consuming. It would have been quicker as well if we had a pastry bag to fill the shells.

p.s. She also just mentioned that instead of beef she was thinking about changing it up a little and adding ground veal or pork. I guess this means she is just going to have to make them again so I can tell her which is best. It sucks to be me :).

Here is the recipe and I think my favorite italian dish that she makes for me, orzo pie, might have some completion now.

Beef and Cheese Manicotti

I will write up what I thought of our outing to the Taste of Anaheim tomorrow. I'm really worn out from going because they held it outside on a very hot day and didn't provide a good water source for us poor folks that don't want to pay $3 a bottle.

Posted by Gordon at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last night I created something we have never had before. Last week we had some friends over for Shabu Shabu and after the meat and vegetable portion we usually add Udon noodles to the left over broth and have soup. Well if you have ever had Shabu Shabu before, you will know how easy it is to fill up on the meat so we ended up skipping making soup. Unfortunately we had bought Udon noodles so when I was making this weeks menu I looked for something that would incorporate those left over noodles that would be a change from the typical ramen type soup (I've eaten enough ramen in my life to be pretty damn bored with it unless it is homemade).

I found this recipe and tried it out. It took about 5 minutes to cook everything. In fact, I took longer chopping the ginger than I did with all of the rest of the recipe combined. Jenn and I both really enjoyed it and the only thing we thought it needed was another package of Udon noodles because it was very vegetable heavy. Also I forgot to add the roasted sesame seeds but it didn't take anything away from the flavor.

So if you ever need to cook something in a hurry, go ahead and give this recipe a try.

On the menu for tonight: Beef and Cheese Manicotti. Yum!

Posted by Gordon at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You may be wondering where you landed. I started this site because I am a fan of food blogging sites and I thought I would throw my 2 cents into the fray. Also I found that with the last blog I created, it was a great learning experience and it never hurts to try and act like I have some english skills. One of these days I might even make my high school english teacher reconsider the D she gave me, not that I didn't earn it at the time.

Now, what the hell are you going to talk about you say. My wife and I have, for the last year or so, been learning that food is more than just something that gives us energy. I've developed a better sense for better tasting food through BBQ'ing and she has gotten some good cookbooks that made us realize that we too can make something that would cost us $25 a plate at some fancy restaurant. She is an awesome cook by the way and I imagine a lot of the cooking reviews I do on here will be related to something she made during the week and not from myself. So hopefully this site will explore recipes that we enjoy and some reviews of restaurants that we decide to splurge on. Who knows, I might even go into some equipment reviews.

I hope you enjoy my site and I hope to meet some new people that are as interested in making dinner not just another chore.

Posted by Gordon at 09:37 AM | Permalink