Happy Birthday Shelby!

January 28, 2015

Yesterday was Shelby's "bertday"! Normally we have family over for cake and pizza, like we do every year for our birthdays. This year though we had cake night the day before her actual birthday and had dinner at Terrapin last night. This month's Merroir Terroir ended up being on her birthday, Merroir Terroir is Terrapin's seasonal wine and oyster pairing they hold once a month--I'll write more about that later. I just wanted to give a little shout out to the best wife and buddy a guy could have. Happy Birthday Shelby! XXXOOO

Virginia Beach Restaurant Week 2015 - Ammos for Lunch

January 15, 2015

Shelby messaged me yesterday and asked if I wanted to go to Ammos Authentic Greek Cuisine off Great Neck Rd. for lunch. Her co-worker said she wouldn't mind checking it out—cool—we haven't been either! It's Virginia Beach Restaurant Week and they were participating in the $10 lunch special.

I remember being at Yiannis Wine Shop last year and Yiannis said I had to check out the Greek place across the street. He said the food was very good and authentic, I assumed he knew what he was talking about since he was from Cypress. Yiannis even offered to pay for dinner if Shelby and I went to check it out. I declined his generous offer and promised that I would check it out. Sadly it took me several months but we finally made it and we weren't disappointed.

I met Shelby and her friends Crystal, Laura and Jonathan who were already seated. There were supposed to be 6 of us but one of them couldn't make it, no worries though, seating was readily available for them when walked in arrived. Our server, Adriyan, promptly offered water and asked if we wanted anything else to drink. The Restaurant Week menus were on the table, we checked out what was being offered.

We were given choices for two courses, here's what was being offered:

First Course

Choice of Dip (tzatziki, melitzanosalata, taramosalata, scordalia, tirokafteri or hummus)
Spanakopita
Cup of Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo or Lentil Soup

Second Course

Gyro or Chicken Pita with Fries
Small Greek Salad with Gyro or Grilled Chicken
Mediterranean Pasta

Melitzanosalatawas with Pita — Melitzanosalatawas with Pita

I already knew Shelby would go for the Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup, she loves that stuff. I saw a Greek version of Baba Ganoush called Melitzanosalatawas available with the pita so I ordered that. Crystal, affectionately known as “Turd” had the Lemon Chicken Orzo too, Laura took the Spanakopita and Jonathan had a cup of Lentil Soup. Adriyan was a great help explaining what was available and what might be the best bet when ordering courses. She told us the Lemon Chicken Orzo is on the normal menu, but the Lentil Soup was a special for Restaurant Week. I think that had Jonathan lean towards the lentil which he ultimately ordered.

Adriyan went over the our second course options and I decided I'd go with the Chicken Gyro since Shelby was ordering the Greek Salad with Gyro. Laura and Jonathan both went with the traditional gyros plates and Crystal had the Mediterranean Pasta. After heading back to put in our orders she quickly returned with our first course meals. My Melitzanosalatawas was served with a generous amount of soft pita for dipping. I liked the texture and it had plenty of garlic, which I love. I don't know if Shelby will later when we were home though. I didn't get to try the soups but the feedback was good. I was snapping photos of peoples plates but didn't get a shot of Laura's Spanakopita, she had already ate half of it!

Before we could finish out the first course the second came to the table. The portions were good and everything smelled great. My Gyros plate came with fries so I started picking at them. I have a tendency to always eat my fries first—I have no idea why, been doing it since I was a kid. I pinched off a piece of the grilled chicken in my pita and it was cooked perfectly. Moist, a little grill char on the outside and seasoned nicely. The sauce and vegetables in the pita wrap blended well and I didn't have a problem finishing the whole thing. Shelby's salad looked good and she was getting into the feta cheese and olives. The gyros meat on the salad was the same in the Gyros meals and it was standard fair, what you would find in most Greek restaurants. Crystal seemed to be enjoying her pasta which had sun dried tomatoes, capers, onions, olives and a few other things including a white win garlic sauce.

All in all it was a good meal and the service was great. I'd like to come back and hit the regular menu for a proper dinner sometime. I love lamb and I bet they have a couple of great plates with it. Their Restaurant Week dinner menu does have a braised lamb on it, so maybe that's an option? Maybe next time, we try to head to different restaurants during Virginia Beach Restaurant Week to try places that are new to us.

Can't wait to see where we end up next!

Virginia Beach Restaurant Week 2015 - Mannino's

January 13, 2015

Virginia Beach Restaurant Week 2015 has kicked off for the new year! Just thinking about all the possibilities for lunches and dinners has me worrying about my cholesterol and blood pressure. If you're not familiar with Restaurant Week, participating area establishments offer lunch and/or dinner specials at reduced prices to entice diners to visit their restaurants to try something new. On average lunches are $10 and dinners run from $20-$30.

Virginia Beach Restaurant Week is celebrating its 10 year anniversary with over 90 restaurants taking part. We were able to hit a few last year: Braise, Croakers, and Chic's to name a few. Our first Restaurant Week outing this year was to Mannino's for lunch! If you didn't know it yet, Mannino's has the best She-Crab soup in Virginia Beach—hands-down. I don't say those words lightly either! Starting with a good soup sounded perfect since we're in cold weather now. Shelby made reservations for us at the new Oceanfront location, this will be our first time at that shop.

They have an extensive Restaurant Week lunch menu made especially for Restaurant Week. I didn't realize how much they were offering until I actually checked out the menu. For $10 you get two courses: The first could be Prosciutto & Fresh Mozzarella, Calamari Friti or a cup of the Award Winning She-Crab soup! (I know what I was ordering.)

The second course ran one and a half pages, anywhere from salads, sandwiches (including an Oyster Po' Boy), and a wide range of pastas and sauces. We had 5 in our lunch group Shelby, myself, Nana and Marleigh who brought along a friend for us to meet. Once we were seated our server brought out a hot, fresh loaf of bread for the table and small plates to mix olive oil and balsamic. We used the delicious, crusty bread to dip into the mixture and finished off the small loaf quickly. I asked for another immediately afterward. The table pretty much stuck with the first course She-Crab soup except for Nana who has an aversion to shellfish. Our meals came with salads too, a nice house salad and a Caesar. As for entrées we ordered the following: Two plates of Four Cheese Ravioli (one spicy), Vitello Parmigiana, Smoked Turkey & Provolone Panini and a Fried Oyster Po' Boy.

When the first course was brought out I was surprised at how large the calamari plate was, it was the regular serving size. The soup came in cups, as described on the menu. Nana ordered the calamari and passed it around the table to share, even after doling out some to everyone she had a healthy portion left to herself. The She-Crab soup was spectacular as expected. The large chunks of sweet crab meat were hiding just below the creamy soup and I made sure to divvy out equal amounts of each with every bite. I can be a little anal about how I eat my food. The Caesar was very nice and I loved the croutons that came with it, I like mine a little airy. I didn't try the house salad but it was pretty with a variety of lettuce and long slivers of carrots and beets.

After the bread, salads, soups and calamari we were getting full. I had to finish Marleigh's soup because it would have been a sin to let that go back to the kitchen to be dumped! When the entrées were brought out we saw they really did stay with the regular menu portion sizes (or close enough!) I had the Vitello Parmigiana, veal Parmesan, that I really enjoyed. I don't get out for Italian much so this was a nice change of pace. The veal was lightly breaded and cook well, the cutlet was sitting on top of a mound of penne and sauce. I ended up giving the rest to Shelby in a take-out. She had the spicy ravioli and was gushing over the sauce. Nana had the panini and seemed pretty happy with what she ordered, it looked good and she ended up taking home some too. Marleigh's friend Patrick had the oyster po' boy that was huge. It had at least 6 plump, fried oysters in it with all fixings to the side with two sauces to choose from.

Overall everyone was impressed with the meals being offered on Mannino's special menu for Restaurant Week and can't say enough how great of a deal it was for $10 a plate! I hope we're as lucky with the next place we pick. Make sure to get out and see what's being offered, the chefs and kitchens usually put something special together to let people get a taste of what they have to offer. Take a tour of Virginia Beach's restaurants, see if you find a new favorite out there.

Virginia Beach Restaurant Week runs from 10-19 January 2015.

Fried Calamari

Spicy Thai Basil Fried Rice

January 8, 2015

I love Thai style fried rice, Thai food in general. People would assume it's because my mother is Thai but that's not it. I grew up in Virginia, I ate a lot of fried chicken, pork chops and hamburger gravy (sounds gross but it's so good!) My mom would make the foods she thought we should eat since we were in the U.S. When she ate though, she liked to make the foods she grew up eating.

I remember watching my mother prepare Thai food. She would sit in the middle of the kitchen floor with a wooden mortar and pestle she brought over from Thailand. It was worn down in some spots from her pounding and mashing Thai chilies, garlic and any number of ingredients in it. Years of use had seasoned it so that when she brought it out you could smell the delicious aromas pouring from its smooth center. It smelled great and that seasoning would be infused anything crushed in it.

My mother's food was hot. Very hot. When I was very young, I tried to eat some of a meat salad she made (Yum Nua) because it looked delicious. As soon as I put it in my mouth it started to burn and I became very cautious about eating the food she made for herself. That didn't mean I wouldn't eat any Thai food, fried rice and the whole fish she made was something I enjoyed a lot. If I could see chopped or whole Thai chilies though...I was wary. It was years later, when my palate matured, I could properly appreciate Thai food. We eat it frequently now.

Being familiar with what I grew up with and eating out at countless Thai restaurants I came up with my own recipe for Thai Basil Fried Rice, known as Khao Pad Kraprow. If you search for it you'll see it is spelled many different ways. I've seen simpler recipes and I've seen more complex ones, this is how I like it. Give it a shot at home, start by reading the pointers I listed.

A few tips before you get started:

Cook the rice the day before. Day old rice is better suited for fried rice. It's less sticky so it sholdn't attach itself to the wok. Fresh, moist rice tends to fall apart a bit too while its being tossed and scraped in the wok.

Do not salt! Fish sauce is very salty, if you're familar with it you know this already.

I prefer pork when I make this, I think it picks up the flavors the best but anything can be used (chicken, beef, tofu, ~~people~~ etc...)

Most people cook with vegetable oil, I like sesame seed oil. It has a nice nutty flavor but it's a little more expensive

Whisk the sauces and sugar together before you start. This will give the sugar a chance to disolve a little and you'll be using it as you go along.

You can make this a vegetarian dish easily by substituting the meat for a viable options. If you're vegan the fish and oyster sauce can be substituted with a vegatarian "fish sauce" found at most Asian markets.

I've also included a photo walk-through at the bottom of the page. Click through each step for tips on how to cook this!

Ingredients:

1 pound of protein of your choice (I prefer pork)
4-6 Garlic cloves, crushed or minced finely
2-4 Red chilies, Thai, crushed/ground
1-2 teaspoons White Sugar (to taste)
1/2 to 1 large bunch Thai Basil, whole, chopped, julienne, however you want it, more is better!
Several dashes of Golden Mountain sauce
Several dashes of Fish sauce (maybe one or two extra)
Several dashes of Oyster sauce
Pepper to taste
2 cups jasmine rice (measured uncooked)
1 Red onion, chopped
1/2 large Green bell pepper
1/2 large Red bell pepper (mainly for color, but they're a little sweeter than the green too)
2 handfuls - Green beans, trimmed
4 Green/Spring onion, chopped

Prep the vegetables and meat, this cooks fast, so you won't have time to chop up stuff once you start cooking. Cut it all to whatever size you like, personally I like the vegetables to be a little chunky and the meat sliced thin. I use a wok and I usually cook out back on my grill's side burner to reduce smoke in the house. One time I made this at a relatives house and when I started cooking the chili in the pan it was like a low level crowd control gas canister started leaking. I started hearing coughing in the next room.

Heat the wok up, once it's hot pour some of the oil in. I like to make sure the bottom is coated. When the oil starts to smoke, toss in the half of the garlic and red chili you prepped, remove from heat and swish it around the wok. You'll coat the sides of the wok when doing this.
When you can smell the garlic and pepper put it back on the heat and throw in the meat. (If the pepper hits your nose and it makes your eyes water, that's a good thing)

Note: I just wanted to mention if you leave the garlic and chilies on the burner/heat after you can smell it, chances are good that you're going to burn it.
Add some of the seasoning mixture you prepped earlier, about 1/3. I also season it with some pepper and let it brown a little before tossing it, brown the other side.
Add about 1/3 of the basil.
Keep in wok until all of it is cooked. Obviously, the pork needs to be cooked all the way through. If you use shrimp or beef, the cooking time is a lot less.
A lot of recipes don't do this, but I like to remove the meat from the wok and place it aside. You'll add it back in again (juices and all) after you get the vegetables and rice cooked.
Add some more oil to the wok, then work the garlic and chili again, same drill as before.
Toss in the all the vegetables except the green onion, that tends to gets soggy pretty fast. I like a little char on some of the vegetables before I toss them but they should be firm and not over-cooked.
While the veggies are cooking, toss in 1/3 of the basil, sugar. Pepper and add sauce mixture.
Keep vegetables in the wok, add the rice and the rest of the ingredients that are left. Add the green onion at this time too.
When you start to mix the rice add the meat and drippings in. Add the remainder of the sauce mixture; salt and pepper to taste and let it brown.
Optional - You can squeeze a little lime on it once you're done cooking it if you have any sitting around.

Seems a little involved, but it's really easy when you get the hang of it.

If you don't have a wok or Golden Mountain Sauce, go to the local Asian market. A good wok is about $12-20. You'll want to clean off all that funky stuff that's coated all over it from shipping. Scrub it real good, wash it, and then season it with some oil, burn it into it. I don't scrub my wok after I start seasoning it, it has a nice carbonized, black coating on it now. Nothing sticks to it.

As for the spices and ingredients, you can add or remove as much as you like. A lot of the time I'll use whatever I have in the fridge, it's great when I have a little bit of everything in the crisper. I don't use soy sauce in this dish. Thai basil and fish sauce are needed to make this the right way. Thai basil is in any Asian or international market you might have in your area (well, probably not the Russian one.) If you've never bought Thai basil, the leaves are smaller and the stalks are purple. It has a slight licorice flavor too, you'll be able to smell it through the packaging.

Good luck and send me feedback with your own experiences making this. I have my Mom's seal of approval with this stuff so it's gotta be alright.

Garlic, always have garlic on hand

Garlic breakdown

Use whatever method you like to peel it.

Shake it

I used that garlic peeling method that was all the rage the other year. It works better for my wife than it does for me.

Ready for the knife

Thai Chilies

Carefully slice lengthwise and scrape the seeds out.

Seeds = Heat

Removing seeds is optional.

Bell Pepper

This is how I remove the stems from my bell peppers most of the time. A quick push on the stem inward...

Bell Pepper

...and the seedy core and steam come right out. Might take a little practice.

Vegetables ready for the wok

Meat

I buy the cheapest cuts I can get. Most of the time this means I'm deboning it, no problem.

Slice thinly to cook fast

Heat up the wok

Make sure everything you are cooking has been prepped before you heat up the wok. It'll be very hot and you won't have time to chop up anything before the oil burns.

Cook the meat

You'll be adding a little garlic and red chili in the wok before you toss in the meat and vegetables. I add the sauce mix in about halfway through the fry of whatever is in the wok. Add a little towards the end for flavor.

Browned and done

I like to try to get a the meat on the hottest parts of the wok to get a little char on it. I believe it adds to the flavor.

Thai Basil

You can taste a little licorice in Thai basil. You need to use Thai basil if you want this dish to taste right. Chop it or pull it apart, I like my pieces to be a little big bigger and rough.

Stir fry the vegetables

Don't overcook! You don't want the vegetables to get soft. About 5 minutes max, season the same way you did the meat.

Rice time!

Again, I like to try to get a little char on the rice when I put it in the wok. Use your utensil to break down large clumps of rice. Season as we did earlier with the meat and vegetables.

Color

When you have it in the wok and all the herbs and seasoning has been added, you'll start seeing color.

All in

When the rice is about done, toss the meat and vegetables back in. Mix thoroughly, make sure to scrape the bottom of the wok to get any rice that might be sticking to it. Mix for about 8 minutes.

Eat!

Garnish with cilantro, green onion and lime.