Hail Caesar!

Occasionally D indulges in a salad and when he does, it's usually of the Caesar variety. Besides, any salad that has more calories than a double Whopper begs respect.

Dressing:
1. Ken's steakhouse Caesar dressing
2. Creamy blue cheese
3. Dijon mustard

Toppings:
1. Grilled smoked Boar's Head bacon
2. Flavored croûtons
3. Roasted garlic almond slivers
4. Grilled bratwurst
5. Whole anchovies
6. Hard boiled egg(s)

The healthy stuff:
1. Romaine or cos lettuce leaves
2. Cherry tomatoes

Method:
1. Wash and arrange the healthy stuff into a big bowl
2. Mix the dressing in a separate bowl
3. Douse dressing onto the leaves and tomatoes
4. Placed toppings on top
5. Indulge

At least this is something I can predictably churn out from my little kitchen =)

D

Best Wingers Express, Manhattan, NYC

Sometimes the food that really hits the spot is the greasy stuff from the shop down the street. Best Wingers Express is a small shop in Midtown East which pretty much serves take-out and delivery clientele. They do have a few small tables if you want to dine in and they provide wet napkins because it'll get messy.

They're well known for their spicy buffalo wings which comes in a range of heat levels. Needless to say, only the hottest will do. The outside is really crisp which makes the inner meat suffer slightly from drying but the moist sauce makes up for that.

One of the very few vegetarian options on the menu, these breaded deep fried fresh mushrooms were actually very delectable.

The beef ribs were huge but there was way more bone than meat in this. Quite amusing how they smothered it in a smoky bbq sauce and topped it off with a fried bun.

The buffalo tenders are essentially similar to the wings except it's all white meat and there are no bones to contend with.

The Roman chicken sandwich comes in a surprisingly tasty warm and crusty bun with a tangy blue cheese dressing and chewy melted cheese.

For the slightly more health conscious people, they have a pretty decent grilled chicken Caesar as well. But salad in a joint like this? C'mon, who are you trying to kid?

D

Sushi You, Manhattan, New York

One thing good about Manhattan is that there are a fair bit of authentic sushi joints around. I'm a fan of small little family run style shops where the focus is pretty much on the food and no other fancy nonsense. Sushi You is such a place.

We started with the unagi, tobiki and avocado wrapped in thinly sliced cucumber. Refreshing and tasty. The freshness of the ingredients shone through, a good sign of things to come.

The ebi tempura was fairly decent too. Although the shrimp wasn't humongous, they were fresh. The batter could have been a bit lighter though.

For the main we had the chirashi sushi deluxe. This definitely satisfied my sushi craving. Heaps of fresh raw fish piled up onto rice which was cooked and seasoned just right. Sushi You delivered a solid performance tonight and I guess the fact that I was one of only four non-Japanese patrons was a testimonial to their authenticity.

D

Etete Ethiopian Cuisine, Washington DC

I truly love trying new types of cuisine. When AH suggested Ethiopian food for dinner I jumped at it immediately. Of course the description of eating chunks of meat with my barehands was a great motivating factor haha.

Injera is sort of like a soft pancake (almost like a dosai/tosai) made from teff flour. It's fermented prior to being cooked so there's a slight sour tinge of flavor which makes this a rather acquired taste.

Besides the additional injera on the side, the base of our serving platter is made out of one huge sheet of injera. It comes with some basic gravies and the food is piled on by the server.

Each different dish is gradually piled onto the same platter.

Once everything is done, we peel off pieces of injera and proceed to eat with our barehands all the tasty morsels that's been placed on the main injera platter. Communal barehand eating; awesome.

Although all the dishes tasted pretty damn good, my personal favorite would be the grilled beef short-ribs. Grilled till they were slightly charred but still maintaining a juicy interior, these savory and spicy treats of meat-on-bone were truly delectable.

We had some fine red wine to accompany the meal and also some tej. Tej is a traditional Ethiopian wine fermented from honey and a form of hops called "gesho". Rather sweet with a slightly muddy(?) flavor, this tasted odd initially but paired well with the tart injera.

Best part about the meal is that you get to eat the plate when you're done! Well.. technically not really the plate but the layer above the plate... which is made of injera... ok.. you get the idea.

There's something so primitive and primal about eating meat with one's barehands that appeals to me so tremendously; this I felt was pure genius.

Etete, my first Ethiopian dining experience and definitely far from being my last.

D

Cakelove, Washington DC

This little bakery along U street seemed to be garnering quite abit of popularity, so we stopped by for a look.

Apparently they specialize in cupcakes. At 3usd a pop, these are definitely at a premium compared to some that you get back in Singapore.

Nevertheless the flavors and colors did inspire us enough to buy a little box home to sample.

They turned out to be pretty tasty. The icing on top help kept them moist and buttery even though we ate them at the end of the day.

D

Ben's Chili Bowl, Washington DC

One of the "must-eats" in DC is a half-smoked from Ben's Chili Bowl. Now why do they call these hotdogs half-smokes? Some say the name came about because the hotdogs are sometimes sliced sagitally when being cooked. Apparently there are different theories about that but I didn't really care as long as they tasted good.

How much of an icon is Ben's? Well they've been here since 1958 and is part of the African American Heritage trail; nuff' said.

The first thing you see and smell when you step into this establishment are the half-smokes being cooked teasingly right by the front window.

Ben's is still family owned and run till this day. Join the line and place your order.

The side of cheese-fries here were pretty mind-blowing. Unlike the one at Shakeshack, none of these chips were soggy and they were heaps generous with the melted cheese. Salty and totally artery-clogging greasy, this hit the spot.

Lo and behold the magnificent half-smoke order with EVERYTHING on it. Coarsely minced pork and beef in an extremely snappy casing served in a soft warm hotdog bun. This is one wiener I can eat almost everyday. If I were to nitpick though, the chili could be spicier but that's all I'm going to gripe about.

I will refrain from making any crude jokes about the superimposed double phallic symbols here haha. Visit DC, drop by Ben's, period.

D

Thanksgiving 2007 in Washington DC

Thanksgiving is pretty much an American and Canadian holiday. I'm not going to go into details on what it's about (because there's Wikipedia) but it's a holiday I appreciate due the huge amounts of food consumed. Here's a picture of at the dinner table of my gracious host, AH and family. D's spotting a new haircut but more importantly spotting an extremely hungry tummy too, which explained why he didn't take more pictures of the food he enjoyed that evening!

Round the corner of AH's neighbourhood is a cool wholesale market.

They sell everything here and I mean "EVERYTHING". What the hell is "cow something??!!?".

And living up to the wholesale name, everything here is sold huge bulks too (and look at those fantastic prices!). But AH had a whole list of restaurants lined up for this long weekend, I would have loved to throw some of those ribeyes on the barbecue. Maybe next time aye?

Since the viewing of all the meat drove us to the brink of a hunger frenzy we had to stop somewhere to break our fast.. er.. or just to have some breakfast haha.

We started with some pastries. But what's this? Pastries (read as non-meat) won't cut it for a proper brekky.

A bowl of steaming hot beef soup. Generously served with pieces of short-rib, this was exactly the thing for the cold late Autumn morn.

And of course we had to stuff ourselves with beef tacos just for the hell of it. Tender, well marinated beef chunks on a warm soft taco shell = yum.

This wholesale complex also sells kitchen equipment. Here's D with a badass giant pizza spatula. I so need my own brick oven pizza one day.

A. Litteri. Inc is famous for their cold cuts and submarine sandwiches. Alas, we were too full to have a sub.
But we did pick up a fine selection of cold cuts, a few bottles of excellent lambrusco and I got this apron!

D

p.s: Thanks for all the well-wishes in my previous post, I'm going to reply them personally soon.

Ali Baba Turkish Restaurant, Manhattan, NYC

I know I haven't been updating this blog as often as I would like to but life has been extremely hectic here. I don't know if anyone's still checking this blog out but I'll still update it periodically. Ali Baba Turkish restaurant is a pretty kick-ass joint (despite the cheesy name) for Middle-Eastern food in Manhattan.

Some warm oven-fresh breads were placed promptly after we ordered and I'm a sucker for warm soft Turkish breads.

The warm, soft and chewy breads went very well with the platter of spreads and dips that we ordered. The humus and yoghurt dip in particular were excellent.

Our hot appetizer of arnavut cigeri (fried tender veal liver) was indeed an indication of how good this meal was going to be. Fried till they were just cooked, these tender cubes of liver lightly seasoned with salt and pepper were just the thing to whet our appetites.

Since this was my first time here, I decided to get a sampler in the form of the mixed-grill because I could not make up my mind. All the meats were tasty and succulent but the donor kebab stood out in both flavor and texture.

The other main ordered was the spicy beyti kebab which consisted of minced lamb marinated with various herbs and spices including ground chili. This was pretty damn good too, I may order this the next time I'm here.

We ended the meal with a complimentary serve of baklava. Crisp but not too dry, flavorsome and not too sweet, an excellent baklava to end an excellent meal.

D