Willy and I met my old boss, Mrs. Barbara Page for lunch at
Vinaigrette. I realized that it was
Valentine’s Day when we arrived at noon and found the restaurant filled with
people. After ten minutes we were seated
and ordered lunch. Barbara ordered the
Mushroom Stew and Willy ordered the combo of an avocado salad and a
sandwich. I ordered my usual French
Bistro Salad with frisée and extra lardons (fried julienned bacon strips) topped
with a poached egg.
Unfortunately, today
the bacon used for the lardons was exceptionally fatty. I did not know what to do. I would have normally sent it back for proper
bacon, but the restaurant was so busy that I could not in good conscience do
that, so I surgically removed most of the fat and ate it, even though the extra
bacon grease made the salad overly fatty.
I asked for the elimination of the $2.00 charge for extra lardons, but
the staff only reduced the bill by $1.00.
Alas, too many people to get good service from the kitchen and wait
staff.
Suzette was late because the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery
was full for dinner also, with two seatings; one at 5:30 p.m. and one at 7:30
p.m. Willy and I nibbled on baked tortilla
tostados I had made and PPI guacamole as I prepped three cups of Chinese
Broccoli (Gai Lin?) I had bought at Ta Lin last week.
Chinese Broccoli has a smaller head, more leaves and a thinner
stalk than our American variety. I made
a cup of rice and quartered the stalks so they could be stir fried while placing
the leaves and heads into a separate colander so they could be introduced later
in the cooking process. I also minced and
added 1 Tbsp. of ginger, 1 Tbsp. of garlic, 3 Tbsp. of sliced red onion and two
sliced shitake mushrooms to the stalks, so they would cook longer and flavor
the entire dish.
Suzette came home about 7:30 p.m. and we began cooking. I heated the wok and added 2 Tbsp. of peanut
oil and a dash of sesame oil and then stir fried the broccoli stalks. When the stalks and onions softened, I added
the leaves and heads and then poured some rice cooking wine, soy sauce and
sesame oil and threw a ½ tsp. of salt and ½ tsp. of sugar into the wok and
stirred it and covered it so it could steam.
Suzette heated the Ma Po Dofu in the microwave while I made a thickening
sauce of 1 Tbsp. of soy, 1 Tbsp. of rice cooking wine, a dash of sesame oil, 2
Tbsp. cornstarch and about 1/4 cup of water.
After the vegetables had steamed for a few minutes and softened, I
poured in the thickening sauce and stirred the vegetables. The sauce was too thick and clotted into a
sticky mess, so I added more water, a little at a time, until the sauce was
loose and shiny.
We then plated up rice, MaPo Dofu, and Chinese
Broccoli. Willy and I drank green tea
and Suzette drank a beer. We all liked
the dark green Chinese Broccoli in its velvety light brown sauce.
No comments:
Post a Comment