Archive | October, 2010

Stone Street Tavern

13 Oct

Mike and I love to dine on Stone Street.  It’s a (closed) cobble stone street Downtown near Wall Street that has a few restaurants with outdoor seating lined up.

We try a new place each time we are there, and this time, it was Stone Street Tavern.  

Unfortunately, this experience did not start off well.  There were some very rude tourists who were chain smoking at the table next to us.  Now…  it is 100% illegal for people to be smoking where food is served, even outside, unless in a designated area that is separate.  Stone Street Tavern’s waitress, however, denied this and offered for us to move tables.  We did… but it was still wafting.  Just what I want when I’m eating.

Thankfully… the food arrived soon after.  Both Mike and I must have been either hungover or recently drinking, because we both ordered their aptly named “Hangover Burger.”  Angus beef “loaded with cheese bacon, onion and fried egg.”  

My mouth is watering just thinking about this burger.  It was incredibly messy… but incredibly delicious.  That fried egg was fan-freakin-tastic.

And the fries were damn good too.  Usually steak fries are just too mushy for me, but these were perfectly crisped

My test of a friend egg is by how runny it is.  This, my friends, was a perfectly runny egg.

Nomilicious.

Total Nom Points:  7 out of 10 (0.5 points docked due to the smokers)

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Eggplant Parm

13 Oct

I was hearing this kitchen “fact” about how it’s important to brine eggplant before cooking it.  Some say it brings out the flavor, some say it removes the bitterness, some say it makes them sweat less (so they are less watery and… have less BO… I guess), and some say they just do it because it’s what their mama taught them.

Well… my mama taught me nothing about eggplant.  So one night we decided “what the hell!” and we salted our eggplant for an hour before making it.  Honestly… I have NO idea if it made a difference.  But it tasted great so I’m going to give it a thumbs up until I can give it a head to head.

This recipe came from The Food Network.

After salting and rinsing, we then coated it in an egg and milk bath and then in a mixture of breadcrumbs, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.  We then quickly browned them in a pan.

Next we stacked up layers of slices with marinara sauce and shredded mozzarella in a greased oven dish.

And baked it to ooey-gooey browned perfection.

I then realized that we had no tomato sauce for the pasta.  What to do?  Why not just make one?  So I set about my new “make my own sauce” recipe where i basically throw tomatoes and spices into a pot, cook it down, mash it up, and then puree it a bit with the hand mixer.  Works like a charm.

And tastes great too!

I think this was my favorite eggplant parm we’ve made.  The added seasoning to the breadcrumbs just made it that much better… and who knows? Maybe the salting isn’t a myth!

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Bonus post: Corn Salad + Sesame Blue Fin Tuna

12 Oct

In my quest to post every day this week to make up for my major slacking this past month, I even have a bonus post for you!

Mainly it’s bonus because Mike made it and I don’t have recipes, so you just get to “oo” and “ahh” at the pictures.

What I can tell you is that the corn salad was made a few times after this and was based on a recipe on the cover of a magazine.

The fish was blue fin with a sesame crust.

I wish I knew the recipes to share them… but for now, they live with Mike.

And they were goooooooood

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