Pork Lo Mein
Lo Mein is a great way to sneak in an extra night of pasta in the week. I mean, you can’t expect the family to tolerate pasta too many nights in one week. If you’ve got Sunday pasta with gravy, and another dinner planned with pasta and other mix-ins, how can you sneak in another night to get your full pasta fix? By calling the dish by a foreign language. Then the family believes you’re having Chinese food for dinner and not serving up more winter, hibernation comfort food for yourself. Lo Mein by another name would be a pasta dinner with pork and vegetables. But Lo Mein sounds foreign, more exotic, less redundant, more diverse for my ever so deserving, discriminating family.
I’m so glad I’m clever.
Expectations
I really thought this dinner made on Tuesday night would be good. After all it started with frying bacon and ended with serving over egg noodles. That Chicken Paprikash sounded like a real winner to me. I lovingly, oh so lovingly fried that bacon and resisted the urge to take pieces of it before adding the onions, the peppers, and the raw chicken thighs. There was plenty of paprika and other dried herbs put into the dish and I dutifully stirred in the full fat sour cream. But something just wasn’t right about the flavors. The only thing I really wanted to eat was the noodles. I could have finished the entire 12 ounces if given half a chance. But Louisa took half of that chance and the rest had to be divied up among the others. Poor me. Left wanting something else with unrequited love.
That disappointment was followed by last night’s dinner, Taco Pie (by the way, both recipes come from December’s Food Network Magazine). I was under the proverbial gun as I raced to get this dinner on the table much earlier than my normal schedule. Louisa was singing in the chorus and playing violin in the orchestra (yes, she has more talents than being a food critic) in the Middle School’s winter concert and we had to get her there ON TIME! Of course, Louisa always has to be on time, if not a few minutes early. We still don’t know where she picked up that early/on-time virus. I usually shoot for within 5 minutes of on-time and Joe is more the kind of person that is task oriented, not time oriented. Which means he prefers to finish what he started before moving to the next thing. But Louisa never wants to be late. I’m sure that will be a useful trait someday, but right now all it does is make me feel pressured!
Did I move off topic? Sorry. Back to food. That Taco Pie was whipped up in no time at all, less than half an hour. I was so ready to be on time, but so prepared for a bad dinner. It turns out the dinner was much better than expected. But maybe because I had no time to taste it as I raced to be on time. And we were.
Would You Eat This? Or, Why I’m Not a Gourmet
I’m a long time fan of “Top Chef”, so I’m not stranger to the concept of foam as a food. For years I’ve watched the hot shot chefs use their foam technique to impress the judges. And for years, all I could say was “yuck!” I’m sure it’s all about giving flavor to a plate without any texture or heaviness to the food. But I still say “yuck.”
This plate of foam was created by famous, beloved chef Wolfgang Puck. My brother sent me this picture from a lovely multi-course meal that was created by Mr. Puck especially for him and his associates at the Bel Air hotel . My brother loved the meal. But could you imagine starting out with this on your plate? My feeling is that if a chef is going to put spit on my plate, I hope it would be as a result of something I did to tick him off. At least I’d have the satisfaction of knowing I annoyed him. But to have foam show up, with no good reason, is an unearned punishment. And then that little leaf of gold on top troubles me too. I know it’s supposed to be edible and fancy shmancy, but I’ll keep my heavy metals on my fingers, thank you very much.
See, this is why I can’t be a gourmet. Because a gourmet would go for a food experience no matter what. I’m looking for something “good to eat” on this blog and, at my table, you don’t “eat” foam or gold. How about you?