Homecooked Dinner (2009.06.27)

Roasted bittersquash with beef. This is in response to TkN and the ways we eat bittersquash. I bought some bittersqaush from the grocery store yesterday. It was on sale for the first time this season at $.88 per pound! It wasn't super fresh, but I managed to find enough for one meal. I told mom it had to be cooked right away, so she decided to roast it with cubes of beef.


Cauliflower was also on sale yesterday at $.98 per head. Just throw some garlic and spring onions in oil and add water, salt and pepper and you have a light soup base. Put the cut up cauliflower and you have a very quick soup!


I've always had soup at the end of a meal. It seems odd to drink it in the beginning like in American restaurants. I remember when I lived by myself I actually had a soup bowl and a bowl for eating rice. Instead of drinking water or other liquids, I treated soup as my "water." At home we just have one bowl, so I just drink the soup last as a way to finish off the meal.

Chef Siri's (2009.06.14)

It seems I only go out to eat with AJ or E. At least according to my tags anyway...lol

Chef Siri's is a Thai and American Cuisine. Of course, 80% of the menu is Thai, the American stuff is for the "Americans." This is the fifth time eating there. I've tolerated everything I've ordered. I don't love it, but I like it more than other places I've been. I've tried something different each time and haven't disliked something too much.

We ordered an appetizer, two entrees and dessert. For the appetizer, we ordered the Thai Shrimp. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it tasted ok. It's not something that would turn me away from eating there again. Thai Shrimp consisted of baked shrimp stuffed with crab meat, cabbage and vermicelli. Thai sweet and sour sauce is drizzled over the Thai Shrimp. The shrimp was rather tiny and non-existent really. I'm not sure if there was actual crab meat, though it did have a seafood taste. The sweet and sour sauce wasn't too bad. They didn't mix it together, so you weren't stuck with Thai Shrimp dunked in sweet and sour sauce.


One of the entrees was Siam Duck. The menu capitalizes all the letters to "SIAM DUCK." Well, at first glance, it can look like "Slam Duck," which E found super amusing and was the main reason she wanted to order it. lol. Siam Duck is fried crispy pieces of duck with scallions, broccoli, carrots (lots of big chunks) and onions sautéed in chef’s special sauce. The special sauce was a mix of soy sauce, garlic, basil and curry. Not quite what I expected... The fried crispy duck was mostly batter with duck. I think I had more batter than duck, a bit disappointed with it.


The other dish was Thai Basil with sliced beef sautéed with fresh basil leaves, carrots, onions, carrots (lots o big chunks), chili & garlic in a brown sauce. It was pretty good, the overall flavor was decent. The beef could've used a bit of corn starch to soften it up, was a bit tough. I like the taste basil leaves give, but I'm not a fan of eating it. It's like my philosophy with ginger and garlic. I love the flavors it gives food, but I need it chopped up finely so I don't pick it out!!


Oh, and can you tell we weren't fans of big chunks of carrots? I like my above philosophy applied to carrots. That or at least shredded or sliced, no chunks though.

For dessert we ordered Thai Sticky Rice with Mango. The sticky rice was not the kind I was used to. It's long and thin. The rice was warm and had coconut drizzled over it. Slices of mango accompanied the rice with dabs of whipped cream and basil leaves as decorations. On it's own the, rice and mango were all right. However, when you eat the rice with the mango, it's pretty good. I wouldn't mind trying it again. The coconut gave it a stronger taste since mango or rice on its own doesn't taste like much.


Total price: $6.95 + $14.95 + $9.95 + $4.50 + tax + tip = $23/person

Note: Pictures are courtesy of E's camera...