Mountain Dew as an ingredient

This post is actually dedicated to my favorite Dodge City boy — we’ll call him Cowboy. Cowboy loves Mountain Dew. Did I say love? I meant obsessed and addicted. He can, and would, drink gallons of Mountain Dew if he could.

So, Cowboy, here’s a Mountain Dew cupcake fer ya.

Image and recipes can be found at howtoeatacupcake.net.

Also, in the spirit of giving, I found a bunch of recipes for my dear friend Cowboy that specifically calls for Mountain Dew as an ingredient. There’s Mountain Dew apple cobbler, Mountain Dew cake and Mountain Dew jelly. (ewwwwwwww)

Hanukkuh pie

Cuz this is a PC board that likes to celebrate all holidays

image taken from Paulie Gee at Flickr

Pizza with Fennel Menorah

Slight change in plans

Got the wrong puff pastry so had to readjust my entire Xmas dinner. Instead of the flat kind, I got the puff pastry rounds that can be filled. UGH. So here’s the amended menu:

1. Appetizer: puff pastry filled with sauteed spinach, blue cheese, smoked bacon and dried cranberries

2. Second course: salad with apples and cheese in mustard vinaigrette

3. Main course: Filet Mignon served with a light sprinkle of gorgonzola and a gravy of mushrooms sauteed in garlic

4. Side 1: Lump meat crab cakes

5. Side 2: Wild Rice Pilaf

6. Side 3: String beans sauteed in butter and garlic

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!

xx

The Hungry Korean

McDonald’s “goes native”

Everyone knows you can find a McDonald’s in virtually every part of the world, but did you know that they are so enterprising, McDonald’s makes attempts to “go native” as well? In Korea, their McDonald’s hamburgers taste suspiciously like bulgogi (a Korean meat marinated in a sweet soy) and when I was in Hawaii they had a Spam burger on the menu.

Well in Japan (and Korea for that matter), in addition to the Filet o’fish, they also serve up the Ebi Filet o’shrimp — a regular sandwich on the menu. I like shrimp and therefore would try this without hesitation.

image taken from Tavallai on Flickr

Wikipedia has compiled a list of other “going native” products McDonald’s has served up; it’s pretty interesting.

On Atkins? Low carb gingerbread house for the holidays

All meat and nuts gingerbread house. Maybe if the evil witch lived in this meat house, Hansel and Gretel wouldn’t have gotten into so much trouble. ha ha

House is made of sausages, Slim Jims, almonds and a mixture of cream cheese and onion soup mix for the mortar. Go to the Examiner.com for more details on how to make this for the holidays. Not too late!

Pizza Burger

So we have had burgers made with Krispy Kreme donuts for buns, burgers with grilled cheese for buns and now……burgers with mini pizzas for buns!

image taken from Ms Noir on Flickr

These babies are served at Disneyland Paris for €6.45, or about $9.

Since I love pork so much, I think I’ll make a Porky Burger.  Give me a minute…..I know! I’ll take David Chang’s Pork Buns and use them as buns for my hamburger!!!

GENIUS!

The Hungry Korean does Xmas dinner

Line up for Xmas dinner is as follows: (My version of surf and turf)

1.  Individual beef wellingtons:  filet mignon with sauteed baby bella mushrooms and a dollop of gorgonzola encased by puff pastry

2.  Lump crab meat canelloni:  large tubes of pasta stuffed with sweet lump crab meat in a bechamel cheese sauce

3.  Asparagus sauteed in garlic and olive oil

4.  Wild rice pilaf

5.  Spinach salad with cranberries, blue cheese, roasted pecans and apples

Pictures to follow.

Top Chef Dieterle’s place

Perilla

Chef:  Harold Dieterle

On the blistering cold night that was this past Saturday, the aftermath of Friday’s snowstorm, I met my friend who I fondly call Strawberry for dinner.  We wanted to catch up before I left town for the holidays and to put some hearty warm food in our bellies.

We originally planned Spotted Pig as I had visions of sinking my chompers into their delicious burgers but the wait for two was an obscene hour and a half.  We walked over to Perilla as I love the food and Strawberry always wanted to try it.

image taken from forbestraveler.com

Perilla is Harold Dieterle’s  first restaurant and the food is very reminiscent of what led him to be Top Chef’s season one winner; it is warm home cooking comfort food with enough flair to make it special.

I chose the spicy duck meatballs with quail egg and mint sitting in a savory broth worth sopping up with the table bread.  It’s tender, moist and with only a hint of spicy. Four is never enough for me but I shared two with Strawberry since she was kind enough to share her pork belly appetizer.

The cripsy Berkshire pork belly is a foray in texture.  It’s very crispy on top and melt in your mouth delicious below.  The flavor is not at as strong as the meatballs but the belly was perfectly seasoned and full of rich taste.

Our waitress was so very sweet and sent us complimentary her favorite side dish: faro risotto with artichokes, parmesan sauce and sliced grapes.  Strawberry liked the bite of the faro where I found it to be a little too al dente for my tastes.  The sweet flecks of grape were delicious against the creamy sauce however.

Too greedy, I failed to take photos of our main courses. Strawberry had mushroom and ricotta cannelloni with a leek and white truffle sauce and a deep fried egg on the side.  YUM! The dish is cheesy and rich and I love truffles alot so it made it extra special for me.

I got the butter poached lobster with pea greens and crispy shallots in a coconut curry sauce. The lobster was cooked perfectly but I did not like the coconut sauce it sat in at all — it was way too sweet and overpowered the flavor of the lobster.

All in all, great meal and similar to my first visit to Perilla, I loved the appetizers more.  I think on my third visit, I’m just going to make a meal out of the appetizers.

Perilla, 9 Jones Street, New York, NY

What’s worse than ants in your pants? Ants in your food!

Except in this case. Painted on ants…really kinda cute.

You can get them at Etsy.

Meat cake that is actually cake.

For the opening of a new butcher shop in Brooklyn, Marlow & Daughters, a cake that looks like meat was made for the occasion:

It’s 3 layers of red velvet cake (made with lard instead of shortening) iced with buttercream between the layers, and Cream Cheese frosting on top made by the Brooklyn Kitchen.

What’s surprising is this cake is actually made of real cake ingredients but looks like meat whereas the meat cake I posted a couple days earlier is actually made of meat and looks like a “sweet” cake. Oh the ironies.