May 17, 2023 Lunch - Vietnam Taste. Dinner - New Recipe, Sautéed Shrimp Scampi, Chorizo, Roma Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Onion over Cassarecce Pasta tossed in Burrata, cream, and white wine with parsley

May 17, 2023 Lunch - Vietnam Taste. Dinner - New Recipe, Sautéed Shrimp Scampi, Chorizo, Roma Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Onion over Cassarecce Pasta tossed in Burrata, cream, and white wine with parsley

I ate a poppy seed toasted Kaufman’s poppy seed bagel with cream cheese, sliced red onion, lax and capers for breakfast.

I then worked until noon when Suzette came home from an appointment.  We decided to go to lunch at Vietnam Taste at 5721 Menaul.  I thought that was the Vietnamese restaurant that Willy took me to, but the restaurant Willy took me to was Vietnam Pho at 4208 Menaul.

Suzette ordered wide noodles tossed with vegetables, beef, and shrimp, which turned out to be in a thick sweetened brown sauce that tasted a lot like Pad Thai.  She said she liked the Vietnam 2000 version with the lighter sauce.

Suzette also ordered Vietnamese iced coffee and claimed upit was bitter.  I tasted it and I think the bitterness was due to the addition of little or no condensed milk.

I ordered Bun Cha Gio with marinated grilled pork. We were amazed at how delicious the strips of pork were.  It had been marinated for a long time and was tender and flavorful even though it also bore a delicious charred flavor, easily the best pork in any bun Cha Gio in the city and the dish was only $10.50, so the price had not gone up, as prices at other restaurants had.

I think I have a new favorite Vietnamese restaurant for Bun.

We only ate 1/2 of our dishes, so I boxed the leftovers and took them home.  There are enough leftovers for another meal. 

When I returned home around 2:30 I made a Vietnamese iced coffee with a heaping T. of condensed milk that was almost too sweet and watched the last twenty minutes of the EUFA semi-final match between Man City and Real Madrid, which Man City won 4 to 0; a stunning victory that indicated that Man City is probably the best soccer team in the world at this time.

At 3:00 I returned to my office and checked my portfolio and was pleasantly surprised that it increased 1% today with the NASDAQ rising 157 points and the Dow over 400 points, thanks to positive comments by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and President Biden that the negotiations are making progress and they think a resolution will be reached that will avoid a debt default by the U.S.

I worked until 4:15 and then meditated until 5:00.  I then finished a letter by 5:45 and then discussed with Suzette possible dinner menus.  I wanted shrimp scampi with sausage in a red sauce, but mentioned Alfredo sauce. 

Suzette put the two together into a new recipe.  I sliced a chorizo sausage, 1/2 of an onion, four cloves of garlic, four Roma tomatoes, and three portobello mushrooms.  I then shelled and sliced about a dozen colossal shrimp Suzette had thawed into bite-sized thirds and minced about 1/3 cup of parsley. We selected Cassarecce pasta, which Suzette boiled and then tossed with a burrata, cream, chopped parsley, and champagne.

While the pasta was boiling Suzette sautéed the sliced onion, mushrooms, and garlic, and diced tomatoes and added the shrimp and sausage and then added spaghetti sauce and ground Parmesan cheese and dried basil powder.

I opened a new bottle of wine, a 2019 Montepulciano di Abbruzo produced by Masciarelli.  We liked it very much, although it was so rich in flavor and heavy, we decided to dilute it and cool it with 4 cubes of ice per glass.

The combination of a spicy red sauce medley of vegetables, shrimp, and sausage on a base of creamy pasta was delicious.

We agreed that there was no restaurant in town that served anything like this dish.

Later I ate a bite of chocolate halvah and fetched a bottle of Maison Serrenes cognac and poured Suzette a sniffer. I poured a small amount of cognac into a Glass and added some Grand Marnier.

We then watched three episodes of La Brea and we went to bed at 9:30.

Suzette slept and I watched Alex Wagner and then Lawrence O’Donnell and blogged this entry.

It was a good day for the law practice with over three hours of billable time and a new client, thanks to a referral from Charlie.

I love days like this; a moderate amount of work, an exciting soccer match, a surprisingly good lunch and dinner, and a good day in the market.

Bon Appetit