Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Mr. Yoshida is a friend of mine





You know how when you get older your tastes change and things you never liked as a kid suddenly you can't get enough of? I hear this happens most often with coffee and whiskey, although for my dad it was blue cheese.
I always hated asparagus as a child. Although it looked interesting, it smelled weird when cooked and raw so I wanted no part of it. (This is in contrast to carrots, which I enjoy raw, but can't abide when they are cooked.) Now that I am older I still hate asparagus...except when Ben Lewis makes it.
Ben uses a marinade called Mr. Yoshida's Marinade and Cooking Sauce and I think it would make any food better. Except maybe coffee and whiskey, but those are beverages, right?
It's a pretty basic process. He marinates the asparagus in a Ziploc for an hour or so, then grills it (or has Noah grill it), and voila, delicious. The sugar in the marinade makes it crispy and masks pretty much all of that terrible asparagus flavor, making it a candied, textural treat. Mmm, vegetable candy.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

This birthday cake smells like burnt hair



This year for my birthday Ben Lewis made me a cake. The candles he used were of the Dr. Seuss variety and were taller than your usual birthday candles. As I was leaning over to blow them out, Matt said, "Watch out or your hair will catch on fire." And then my hair was on fire. Thank goodness Noah has such cat-like reflexes and put it out before it got very far. I think I laughed for 15 minutes at least. Guess how the cake was? Delicious.
(Photo credits: Richard P. Lewis)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Palace Omelette

Earlier this week Ben Lewis told me about The Palace Omelette. Essentially, it consisted of leftover Chinese food from The Palace restaurant and eggs. Sounded delicious. This morning I decided to re-create the magic with leftover food from the Chi Dynasty and eggs. Guess how it tasted? Delicious.