"hot both"
Our fifth anniversary was celebrated at our new find - Sichuan Gourmet in Billerica. We had dan-dan noodle, spicy chicken wings, kung bao beef, and twice cooked bacon. I was happy to finally have dan dan noodles after having read about them in Shark's Fin Sichuan Pepper. The food was spicy and delicious.
For our part, we've had another week of Italian. We made canederli (soaked bread and salami dumplings) from Trentino, more gnocchi and tagliatelle with wild mushrooms. Skipping down the eastern coast to Puglia, we made onion calzone accompanied with a Marche regional skewered seafood dish. Notably, this did involve using the grill outside in the snow. From the Emilia region, we made pickled vegetables with fried bread dough gnocchi, and by way of a highlight we made a Rice Bomb. The bomb is a fantastic centerpiece dish - risotto set with egg in a pudding basin around a gravy of wild mushrooms and game hen meat. For this, we also crossed a culinary line by buying truffle oil, a commodity which tends to never have set eyes upon a truffle per se, but which contains the strongest aromatic chemical compound of the truffle. The naming seems to be the controversial point; maybe it should be called a psychofungal exciter.
Since it was an important celebration tonight, our fortune cookies seem especially significant, though we're at a loss on their interpretation:
"Time to collect those good". - this sounds like gathering a holy war band.
"There is no sorrow in the world that a hot both woudn't help, just a little bit". - We both thought it was a hot bath, then had doubts and wondered if it was broth. But maybe it's both?
For our part, we've had another week of Italian. We made canederli (soaked bread and salami dumplings) from Trentino, more gnocchi and tagliatelle with wild mushrooms. Skipping down the eastern coast to Puglia, we made onion calzone accompanied with a Marche regional skewered seafood dish. Notably, this did involve using the grill outside in the snow. From the Emilia region, we made pickled vegetables with fried bread dough gnocchi, and by way of a highlight we made a Rice Bomb. The bomb is a fantastic centerpiece dish - risotto set with egg in a pudding basin around a gravy of wild mushrooms and game hen meat. For this, we also crossed a culinary line by buying truffle oil, a commodity which tends to never have set eyes upon a truffle per se, but which contains the strongest aromatic chemical compound of the truffle. The naming seems to be the controversial point; maybe it should be called a psychofungal exciter.
Since it was an important celebration tonight, our fortune cookies seem especially significant, though we're at a loss on their interpretation:
"Time to collect those good". - this sounds like gathering a holy war band.
"There is no sorrow in the world that a hot both woudn't help, just a little bit". - We both thought it was a hot bath, then had doubts and wondered if it was broth. But maybe it's both?