Recipe: Sticky Lemon & Honey Chicken

http://www.greedygourmet.com/2010/02/26/sticky-lemon-honey-chicken-drumsticks/

I was never a fan of Lemon Chicken; I always thought it's too sweet. I read through this recipe and it looked like the ingredients would give a perfect balance of flavor.

My cooking instincts didn't fail me. Although it is not the traditional Chinese Lemon Chicken, I can now say that I like Lemon Chicken. There was a perfect balance of flavors from the honey, vinegar and soy sauce.

Reasons why I'm gonna cook this again (aside from flavor):

- the recipe was very easy to follow. even a new cook can do this without breaking a sweat

- simple ingredients

- ready in 30-40 minutes

- uses just one pan (i hate doing the dishes!)

Restaurant: Kindee (Minneapolis, MN)

http://www.kindeethairestaurant.com/

They were awarded the Best Thai Award by MetroMix.com.

Kindee is located right in front of Guthrie Theater. A small place with modern Thai interior, the place offers a menu with classic Thai drinks and dishes with a western twist.

I forgot what drink I ordered but I think it was something like Snap Dragon Riesling? The menu said that it's perfect with spicy Thai food which we later proved true. My husband ordered Chang which he thought tasted like San Miguel but I thought it tasted more like tamarind beer. We may argue on the flavor but we both agreed it's a good beer so kudos to our server for recommending it.

I started off with Tom Yum soup with shrimp. It's not the best Tom Yum soup around but it had good amount of heat enough to wake up your palette. We also ordered Tamarind Wings. If you are familiar with spicy Thai tamarind, imagine juicing that and using it to coat crispy chicken wings - sweet, sour, spicy on crispy chicken skin...yum-o!

I ordered Green Curry with chicken and shrimp. Soup spicy curry + fluffy white jasmine rice = happy me :) My husband loved this and he's never been a fan of curry. My husband got Thai Basil Fried Rice with Shrimp and Egg. I wasn't able to try the shrimp nor the egg but the sauce alone would have been a good dish on its own since it's full of flavor.

For dessert, my husband ordered a banana-base item which is really just Turon with drizzled chocolate syrup. I ordered, Lychee Panna Cotta. Extremely light, perfect amount of sweetness, and I wanted more and more and more.

All in all we spent 77 bucks including tip and tax.

I haven't been to a lot of Thai restaurants around so I can't really say if Kindee is indeed the best Thai restaurant. Basing it from the ambiance, food, service and price, I'd have to say that Kindee is a good Thai restaurant and I will probably drop by again before I go back home.

Recipe: Nutella Frappe

http://www.bellalimento.com/2010/01/21/frappe-alla-nutella-nutella-milkshake/

It's Nutella Milkshake. What else is there to say?? :)

Recipe: Arroz Caldo by Cristeta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristeta_Comerford

Cristeta Comerford is the first woman and first Filipina to be named White House Executive Chef. She was granted this position during the Bush administration and has been retained by the Obama's. She gained more popularity when she competed with Bobby Flay against Batali and Lagasse in Iron Chef America.

http://www.pinoylifestyles.com/2009/01/22/one-of-our-own/

Her recipe is pretty much the same as the Arroz Caldo my folks would cook at home. The only thing that's different is the milk. I've never had Arroz Caldo with milk before but I think from now on, I'm cooking Arroz Caldo the Cristeta way.

Recipe: Spicy Shrimp Tempura

http://www.ouichefnetwork.com/oui_chef/2010/01/nobus-spicy-shrimp-tempura.html

We've had too many tempuras the past few months (probably enough til April) so my husband wasn't too excited to hear that I was preparing shrimp tempura.

The picture does not do the recipe justice. Working on the mayo made me swear never to make mayo from scratch ever again. When I finished the recipe, I promised never to speak too soon like that again and include this in my recipes-to-keep list. :)

Recipe: Winter Cranberry Beef Stew

http://www.kayotic.nl/blog/?p=6149

This recipe caught my eye cos I have about 3lbs of untouched cranberries sitting in the freezer. I was a bit discouraged thinking it looked like another tomato-based stew which is quite familiar in the Philippines during Fiestas (they all look the same but the folks say they're called different names).

As what the recipe says, it's exactly how a stew should be - "The meat melted on your tongue and the golden brown gravy was nothing short of a flavor bomb." Looking at the picture, it probably looks like our very own Kaldereta. I'd say it's close but this has more depth in flavor - thanks to the bouillon, red wine and sweetness of the cranberries, my effort wasn't wasted in creating the same dish.

It took me 20 minutes to prepare the ingredients and 2 hours. Around the 1-hour mark, the aroma was so good my EQ dropped and I just had to try it. :) I never really liked dishes that would take more than an hour to make but this one is worth the wait.

Restaurant: Smash Burger

http://www.smashburger.com/menu_minnesota.php

We've been waiting for Smash Burger to open a few blocks away from our place since we've heard and read good reviews about this place. And it was worth the wait. :)

My husband ordered the Twin Cities smashburger 1/3lb with a side of Haystack Onions (the one on the left). I ordered the Classic smashburger 1/3 lb with a side of smashfries (the one on the right).

My husband and I thought that their burgers are way better than Red Robin because their patties are waaaaay juicier and their buns are waaaaay softer. Their patties are so juicy (and cheesy) it can get messy eating them so be ready to do the Guy Fiery trick.

The haystack onions are crisp and well seasoned - we didn't even need to use the sauce they provided. Smashfries is french fries that won't make you feel guilty. It's tossed with olive oil, rosemary, garlic and other herbs for a savory flavor. Sounds organic and anything organic is good right? Or maybe I'm just convincing myself that it is healthy.

We will probably back next week to try out more of those yummy burgers. And next time we'll save some room for the milkshake or rootbeer float. :)

*iPhone shots