What's that you're eating?

Found a new spot along the Sacramento River (literally in the middle of no where) to eat.

It's a place called Steamboat Landing (on the "wrong side" of the river) in Courtland, CA (midway between Sacramento & Antioch which has re-opened as a Chinese restaurant. Arrived there yesterday (a Wed) when it opened at 1130am and it was PACKED by 1230pm. So, it's quite popular with locals.

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The menu has a definite "Chinese American" orientation which means it's oriented more towards the taste of White folks than Asians, which makes sense given its location, but is not a "good thing" from my culinary perspective.

I am also very suspicious of any Chinese restaurant that serves that thick sweet red "sauce" with its fried food items (as pictured below) and doesn't offer chopsticks with which to eat.

So, I ordered something that I considered "safe" to eat which in this case was "Beef & Broccoli" which I had w/a couple of small bottles of Asahi. They only offered Coors Light on draft which was NOT an option. ;)

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The Beef & Broccoli was pretty good; the beef was very tender and the broccoli was crisp & not overcooked. The sauce also tasted as it "should."

On the other hand, my guest ordered a bowl of won ton soup which came w/some house made BBQ pork. Unfortunately, the won ton filler was only made w/pork (it's best made w/a blend of pork & shrimp) and the BBQ pork was too lean, which in both cases made them "too dry."

So, mixed reviews on the food here but I'll probably try it again when I'm up that way & in the mood to eat something that tastes "Chinese."
 
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sgt1372 said:
I've already gotten my fill of crab this season but I may buy a couple more before the season ends. :cool:
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I'm ready for Jonah Crab season to open here. I usually go to Rhode Island and buy them right off the boats. My favorite dipping sauce is Nuoc Mam with freshly ground ginger and Thai chili peppers.

Can't wait for Aunt Carrie's to open up so I can get some clam fritters.
 
For lunch today, I opened a 6# (4qt) can of Menudo.

After jarring & setting aside 2 quarts of the soup, I put the rest in a pot to heat up, added some chili powder & served myself a couple of bowls topped the bowl with fresh cilantro, chopped white onions & a tbsp of lime juice with a couple of heated/buttered flour tortillas on the side.

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There was a bar next to our corporate office that used to have the best happy hours in the 00's. Happy hour was free fried buffalo wings and deep fried Totino's. Beers were $3, although the best beer they had was Newcastle.

Those were some really good times, especially for someone who had just entered the workforce.
 
Breakfast the other day . . .

My take on an Eggs Benedict w/o the hollandaise sauce because it's too difficult to make it correctly.

A round slice of ham that I cut out w/a empty can on top of 1/2 of a heavily toasted English muffin topped w/a poached egg. Break the egg and mix it w/the butter & you've got hollandaise. 🤷‍♂️

Topped the other 1/2 of the muffin w/more butter & orange marmalade & added a sliced orange for fruit, so that all food groups would be represented.

LOL! ;)

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Prepared some Beef Stew with these ingredients last night:

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It's a mishmash of various recipes which are all basically the same: 1) Brown the meat (chuck) & set aside, 2) Saute the aromatics -- garlic, onions & celery in this case; 3) Deglaze w/red wine & reduce; 4) Add beef stock w/tomatoes & tomato paste; 5) Return beef to the pot & braise til tender (1-1.5 hrs) . . .

This is where diverge from the standard recipes: 6) Remove the beef and set aside again; 7) Cook the potatoes, mushrooms & carrots separately in the pot and set aside in separate bowls; 8) if using peas, just defrost in a separate bowl, no need to cook; 9) Use an immersion blender & corn starch to make the gravy . . .

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And then, 10) Prep a bowl/plate of the ingredients (meat & veggies) you want to eat together and microwave & then reheat the meat in the gravy and the veggies in the micro. This process avoids any of the veggies getting overcooked.

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The batch I made will last me at least a week. LOL! ;)
 
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sgt1372 said:
The menu has a definite "Chinese American" orientation which means it's oriented more towards the taste of White folks than Asians, which makes sense given its location, but is not a "good thing" from my culinary perspective.

I am also very suspicious of any Chinese restaurant that serves that thick sweet red "sauce" with its fried food items (as pictured below) and doesn't offer chopsticks with which to eat.
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Chinese American has been around long enough to be considered an official "Chinese" cuisine now, especially since it's in almost every town in the U.S. I will admit that I do like a good General Tso's chicken and also a Hot & Sour soup since it's not something we make at home.

My wife did make an authentic Chinese fried rice (Grandma's recipe from China) on Sunday for a pot luck. Doing a large batch on a griddle is so much easier than in the house.

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The wife’s been in a snack mood these last few weeks. Beef sticks for lunch and cold cereal for dinner. Made a little crock-pot beef roast with slaw yesterday but she didn’t touch it. We’ve had a cold snap. Been running the heat constantly. I think she’s just ready for better weather and fresh air. She wants to go out for crab cakes and cocktails this Saturday so maybe that will perk her up a bit.
 
It was a really warm week here in CT. Next week should drop down to the 30's at night and the 50's during the day. So hopefully, I'll get one more week of sap. Turned about 40 gallons of sap into 1 gallon of maple syrup. This year's batch has a lot of caramel notes.

Reducing outside and waiting until it hits 219°.
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First batch done of the year. I wish I started a few weeks ago, but life was too hectic.
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