Pastrami Breakfast Ciabatta

In my kitchen I often get help putting together something delicious. What started out as a boring pastrami sandwich became infinitely more exciting the moment Crystal said “Stop! Take it off the grill, I want to add egg to it.” I eagerly complied as I idly mentioned I’d never had pastrami and egg together before. After the mere moments it took her to scramble the three eggs, I inserted them into the sandwiches. Out of the Panini grill it all came, combining for a union that may be the best breakfast sandwich I’ve ever had.

The cheese is havarti, it’s been my go to white cheese on sandwiches for a while. The softness of the ciabatta goes great as breakfast even though I just bought it to take a break from sourdough. I was a little worried the mayo and mustard I had already put on wouldn’t work with the egg, but it actually kind of completed the sandwich. I’m glad I had someone to save my lunch from mediocrity.

Fettuccine Alfredo and Lamb

Expectations are a tricky thing, especially when you have high expectations for something you know nothing about. I’ve made pasta once, lamb once, and I’ve never made Fettuccine Alfredo. My expectations were high despite all that because I knew I had tons of onions and garlic to keep me from messing it up too much. Failing that, there’s always the Spanish wine I had to wash it down.

I expected the sauce to take the longest time so I started with it first. I planned on sharing this dinner with a lactose intolerant friend so I did my best to tone down the dairy in an almost entirely dairy sauce. The much smaller amount of cream caused it to cook before I could get the noodles and ground lamb cooking. Thankfully I had company that didn’t mind stirring the sauce for me. I expected everything else to go smoothly and it did, with large quantities of green onions and garlic ending up in both the sauce and the meat.

Everything actually turned out better than expected, with just enough sauce to coat the meat, exactly what I was going for. I didn’t expect to lose my appetite by the time it was done, but I’ve never been much for eating dinner after 10.  I at least made sure to pick out the meat before declaring myself full, and I look forward to trying it all again.

post american breakfast

This bizarre looking combination of foods is a mixture of so many dietary preferences it kind of represents modern so cal to me. I’m hardly trying to look for deeper meaning in my food, but I can’t help but enjoy the broad cultural range my regular breakfast covers.  I guess the best thing to call it would be Soyrizo Fried Rice.

By the time I stand in front of the stove to get started I’ve already got the rice cooker beeping at me that the rice is done. I start out squeezing half a tube of soyrizo into the pan, which somehow manages to be better than actual chorizo. A vegan ingredient, the eggs I add later demote this dish to vegetarian, but being a meat eater I’m not too concerned. After I quickly dice up the onions I toss them in to cook with the soyrizo. It all cooks pretty quick so I need to stir 2 eggs up with some salt and pepper as quickly as I can and combine that with everything cooking in the frying pan. The psuedo chorizo and green onions represent the hispanic influence, and at this point it sometimes ends up as a breakfast burrito. I add the rice into the frying pan now making a delicious bowl of Soyrizo Fried rice.

I think the Asian/Hispanic/Vegetarian combo of the dish is a pleasant coincidence for something that looks so unappealing but tastes so good. It’s also a great breakfast for dinner option.

Wow creamy coffee ice cream!

It had been a while since I dug out the ice cream maker.  It was one of those rarely used impulse purchases,  but now I’m ready to use it. My constant yearning for sugar products cant be stopped so there is really no need to fight it. At least the machine is cool, I remember picking it up super cheap. The box promotes ice cream in 30 minutes, but leaves out the 12 hours minimum of prep time.

Once I took the machine a part to check on the ice cream it was a pretty large hassle to put back together. I managed but the thickness of the ice cream made it pretty difficult for the motor to get back to stirring the ice cream. I suppose the window in the top is supposed to help me avoid all that, but I chose too large a spoon.

Delicious ice cream was the reward for a semi-patient wait. The creamy coffee flavor was absolutely delicious, and only opens the door for more experimentation. I can’t wait to try making not just other flavors of ice cream, but other types of coffee. Jamaican blue mountain ice cream anyone?

Homemade Chili Justice!

It’s been nagging at me for months, a strong desire to make chili. Having never made chili before I had no clue where to start with this “project.” Determination set in and an instant message to a friend across the country got me a chili recipe that didn’t need beans and would go great on top of hot dogs and french fries. Beef and canned tomatoes would do for content so a quick visit to the store was all I needed to get started.

Only the chili is from scratch, with onions, garlic, a heavy amount of chili powder, and looooooooooove. It tasted “OK” but I wished I had used even more garlic and onion. Even worse was the thick consistency it picked up as I kept it warm long after it was ready to serve. Because of those errors I was initially pretty bummed about my chili endeavor, but the next day it reheated into the most delicious Sloppy Joe I’ve ever had and all was forgiven.

Christmas pig?

I’ve always known my Christmas is a little different from everyone else. Turkey? Turkey is for Thanksgiving. Cubans <3 pork, so a redundant turkey holiday will not do.

I’ve had BBQed pig every Christmas Eve of my life. For my family Christmas Eve is the big day for celebrating, we’re a little different. My dad says back in Cuba the 3 wise men bring presents instead of Santa Clause, but just like Santa Clause they look suspiciously like your father.

Welcome Back Burritos and Mojitos

New posts, more writers, Today is a good day for Burritos and Mojitos.

First up is Wayne, he loves lunch trucks and cheetahs.

Frysmith

On my lunch break, I spotted a new lunch truck on the block called Frysmith.

The truck runs on fry oil and their specialty is fries. Currently, their menu consists of trays of french fries with various toppings and even has a vegan item! I ordered Kimchi fries, which is topped with Kurobuta pork belly, onions and cheddar cheese, with a Filbert’s, on their recommendation.

The fries are great–none of the Smart and Final frozen stuff here.  Hand-sliced, freshly fried, crispy, crunchy, with a great “bite.” The smaller pieces were nice, golden and crunchy. According to their website, Frysmith uses fresh kennebec potatos specifically to get this effect. My only gripe with the fries was that it had a tendency to hide the pork, which by itself was very tasty, juicy, and tender.

I was a bit skeptical of cheese and kimchi together and having a tray of fries for lunch. After a couple bites, I’d forgotten about how weird cheese and kimchi might be together. The cheese was used sparingly and went surprisingly well with the kimchi and onions.  Thankfully they’ve somehow toned down the kimchi’s usual pungent smell (probably with the cheese) and I was able carry it into the office without someone mistaking it for a sphincter malfunction.

The serving size turned out to be good for me. It’s quite starchy and filling and the topping has quite a bit of content.  As with many fried or salty foods, it left me thirsty, even after finishing off the Filbert Cola I got with it.

They have a great selection of unique soft drinks with prices on par with other trucks. Next time around, I’ll try either their Rajas fries (fire-roasted poblano chiles, caramelized onions and shawarma-marinated steak with Jack cheese) or their vegan chili fries (Organic tomato and mixed beans with soy chorizo and smoked paprika, with or without cheese). For curious readers, take a peek at their menu and tell me what you want me to try next.

• Kimchi fries $5.47
• Filbert’s Cola: $2.28
• Tax $0.76
• Total: $8.51

• The Good: The fries (fans of fat steak fries look elsewhere), the kurobuta pork, the kimchi, soft drink selection, truck runs on veggie oil.
• The Bad: Texture and seasoning of fries overwhelms the pork at times.
• The Ugly: The napkin I used to wipe my mouth off

Find them at:

http://www.eatfrysmith.com/

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/frysmith

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Frysmith/69856653747

Ocean Park Pizza

I’ve found it extremely difficult to find pizza by the slice that is exceptional. Unfortunately this place ended up being another unimpressive pizza joint providing me with a par of a lunch. I don’t have a particular problem with thin crust, I just don’t understand why restaurants are unwilling to make thin crust with flavor, it’s like eating cardboard. I guess that’s why I’ve always preferred a thicker crust, because I actually care about the crusts flavor.

As I get older deciding on topings for pizza has proven more and more difficult. It’s no surprise that my expanding tastes would correlate with a broader preference for pizza topping, but more recently I’m struggling to find places with desired toppings. The benefit of getting slices from a place like this is limited selection, but it also means there will be very little available that strikes my fancy. I went with Hawaiian and Pepperoni at this place just because they were my favorites from the limited options.

Casa Blanca

The main reason I wanted to visit this place is its got the same name as an area of my hometown. It wasn’t the nicest part of Riverside, but I had a couple friends that lived there and I figured I had to try this restaurant that shared a name with that community. I roped my roommate Tree into it when we found some favorable reviews on yelp and off we went.

I made my choice of a wet burrito however because a different piece of hometown nostalgia, the wet carne asada burrito from Templo Del Sol. ultimately the burrito was underwhelming, with both me and my roommate voicing our dissapointment at its medicority. The red sauce is so red but has so little flavor, it was an overall bummer to the whole experience. It seems I never put a Templo Del Sol post up however so I’ll haveto dig around and try to find some pictures. If not, theres always an excuse to go take more.

15922 Gale Ave
Hacienda Heights, CA 91745-1603

(626) 330-9549‎