San Diego Part 4: Mission Bay

On the fifth day of our San Diego honeymoon, we headed north for the day to the San Diego Safari Park. We walked the entire park and saw lots of animals, but getting close up to lions and kangaroos were two highlights.

As far as food offerings go, it was standard theme park fare. I did appreciate the coffee options and I'll never turn down a churro. It was a hot day, and the plentiful food stands and carts all offer free water bottle refills, which was great.

After spending the day at the Safari Park, we checked into our hotel for the rest of the trip, on Mission Bay. It was a perfect place to relax for a few days.

We dined nearby at Dan Diegos Pub. They serve all the Irish pub classics, along with an extensive beer list. The fish and chips really hit the spot, and I enjoyed a nice oatmeal stout.

To top it all off, some nice people at a nearby table decided to pay our bill!

We spent most of day six relaxing at the pool. This included lunch from the bar. 

For dinner, we went to Andrés Restaurant, a Cuban and Puerto Rican restaurant located close to our hotel. I'm not sure I had ever had Cuban food before, and I greatly enjoyed it.

We started off with a plate of appetizers, which included fried plantains, empanadas, and fried yuca (cassava). I had definitely never had yuca before, which is amazing given that it is a common staple food in the Caribbean, South America, West Africa, and other places. The fried yuca was a bit like a french fry, crispy on the outside, but creamier on the inside. 

For the main dishes, we went for variety. The photo above shows, from left to right, macitas de puerco (crispy pork), rice and beans, plantains, pernil de puerco (roast pork), and yuca. The photo below shows, from left to right, pollo alla plancha (grilled chicken with onions), rice, plantains, and ropa vieja (shredded beef stew). 

The chicken was a bit of dark horse here. Given a choice of meats, chicken breast tends to be pretty low on my list, but this was done fantastically. I also learned about mojo de ajo in this meal -- a condiment made from olive oil, citrus, and garlic that was served with most of the dishes. The version at Andrés also includes bacon. I was hooked from the start, and I've started making it at home.

It so happened that it was free flan night, which I'm always happy to partake in. There are only two days left to cover, but lots more great food coming up!

Birthday Special 2020 (and Chinese Year Year)

 Happy Birthday to Ariel and a happy Chinese New Year! With last year's cake being such a success, I made the same recipe again. Ariel came through with Mark Bittman's chocolate frosting as I was working on dinner. During dinner, Ariel said that 31 sounds old, but she feels young. I tried writing this on the cake, with some success, though I'm still working on my technique. 

With Ariel's birthday falling on Chinese New Year, we decided to have a few friends over for a Chinese dinner. This featured a few different dishes that have appeared on No Free Lunch. We started with chive pancakes, made with Chinese garlic chives. I rolled them out ahead of time, and stored them in a gallon bag with parchment paper between them.

The main dinner consisted of four dishes, shown in the photo above. First, eggplant Sichuan style, which is one of Ariel's favorites, and one I don't make often enough. Second, stir-fried rice cakes ("tongue depressors"), a Shanghainese classic for Chinese New Year. I made them with Chinese black mushrooms instead of pork. Third, stir-fried Shanghai bok choy with garlic, one of my favorite Chinese vegetables. Finally, we had hongshao ("red cooked") pork belly. This is a braised pork belly dish which Ariel and I both love. This particular recipe, from the Woks of Life, was supposedly Chairman Mao's favorite. I have been experimenting with different pork belly recipes recently, and I think this was my best yet. This will be a work in progress, but will surely show up on the blog eventually.

It was quite an undertaking to bring this all together, but it was a big success. While I was preparing the meal, I couldn't help but think about all the wonderful Chinese lunches and dinners we had around this table while it sat in my grandparents' house. We even used a few of their serving pieces. I hope this will be the first of many.

I usually take the birthday special as an opportunity to review the last year. In terms of the blog, I didn't post very many recipes this year, but the ones I did really reflect the way I am cooking these days amid a busy schedule. There's something to be said about simple braises that don't require actively watching the pot. Of course, 2019 was a very big year for us, with the wedding in July and our honeymoon in San Diego. I have a few more posts planned on that, which should be out soon. This year, I hope to get back to more frequent blog posts. Last night's dinner has gotten me thinking about diving back into Peimei's recipes, and getting back to the Chinese roots of No Free Lunch. Cheers to a great 2020. Gan bei!

San Diego Part 3: USS Midway

On our fourth day in San Diego, we visited the USS Midway Museum. USS Midway entered service just after the end of World War II, and had a distinguished career spanning nearly five decades. The carrier saw significant action during the Vietnam War and later during the Gulf War. Midway became a museum after being decommissioned in 1992. 

We ended up spending most of the day there, exploring the ship and its exhibits. Nearly every aircraft to serve on U.S. Navy carriers can be seen on the ship, ranging from the World War II-era propeller planes on into the modern era, including an extensive collection of helicopters. What I wasn't expecting was an incredibly wide-ranging self-guided tour of the lower decks. We got to see where the sailors slept, lived, and ate. Midway's galleys were well-known for having some of the best food in the navy.

Buffet line at the enlisted mess

One of the more interesting aspects we learned about life on a navy ship was the strictly enforced class system between the ranks. We toured several different dining areas for enlisted men, chief petty officers, junior officers, and senior officers. Certain doors and hatches were labeled "officers country," indicating areas restricted to commissioned officers. There was also a special dining area where pilots were allowed to eat before changing out of their dirty flight suits.

Senior officers' wardroom

The various dining areas also had example menus posted. The officers' menu included:

• Creole soup
• Jamaican jerk chicken
• Salisbury steak
• Steamed rice
• Au gratin potatoes
• Mushroom gravy
• Simmered peas and onions
• Hot dinner rolls
• Salad bar
• Dessert bar





Junior officers' wardroom, with silver service on the left

The chief petty officers' menu included:

• Surf and turf
• Baked potato
• Green beans
• Salad
• Pie and ice cream

The kitchen on the ship was truly immense. We saw enormous stew pots, pressure cooker, meat slicers, and more. 

Giant stew pots

We ended up spending most of the day on the Midway, and it was a great experience I would heartily recommend. In the evening, we walked around in San Diego's Old Town dined at Cafe Coyote, a venerable Mexican restaurant known for its freshly made tortillas and extensive tequila menu. 

We both enjoyed some sizable margaritas. 

Shrimp and fish tacos

Ariel ordered shrimp and fish tacos and I had chile verde (pork and tomatillo stew). 

Chile verde with housemade tortillas

This would be our last night staying in Little Italy before moving on to the next part of the trip. Next time, we get out of town for the day before settling in on Mission Bay. Stay tuned!

Braised Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

We'll return to San Diego shortly, but in the meantime let's dive into some more chicken. Like so many of our family favorite recipes, this one happened by accident. A few weeks ago, Ariel was on her way home from a work trip and it was up to me to have dinner ready when she arrived. I had some chicken and not a lot else. I was thinking about making chicken chasseur again, but didn't have any tomatoes. What I did find was a jar of mixed dried mushrooms. These have a ton of flavor and are a great thing to have on hand. This particular jar came from World Market. The dish came together beautifully, and this is my best attempt to recreate it. 

This recipe utilizes one of my favorite tricks, which I haven't featured on the blog before. I got the idea of using Parmesan rinds in soups and braises from Kenji's "Tuscan" bean soup recipe, which imparts some extra flavor as the sauce cooks. Every time I buy a wedge of Parmesan, I cut the rinds off and freeze them so they are ready to go any time. Similarly, whenever I use chicken thighs, I trim off the excess skin and save it to make schmaltz. Whenever I use shrimp, I save the shells to make soup. There's flavor hiding in these scraps - don't throw them away!

One last note: this is the first post using our beautiful new dishes from our wedding registry! The color is a nice contrast for this decidedly brown dish.

Ingredients

• 4-6 chicken thighs
• 1 large onion, sliced into strips
• 5 cloves garlic (adjust to taste), minced
• 2 Tbs flour
• 1 cup dry red wine
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup (about 50 g) dried mushrooms (I used a mix of oyster, shiitake, porcini, and black trumpet)
• 4 inch piece (about 50 g) Parmesan rinds
• 1 lb dry pasta
• Olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Instructions

Trim excess skin from chicken and season both sides with salt and pepper. In a large sauté pan or similar vessel, heat a little olive oil on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken, starting skin side down, until browned on both sides and the skin has rendered. Remove chicken and set aside, but do not drain the pan.

Drop heat to medium and add the sliced onion to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until softened. 

Add garlic, stir together, and cook another minute. Add the flour, stir together, and cook another minute. Deglaze the plan with wine, scraping up the bottom of the pan. Reduce briefly, then add the chicken stock. Stir in the oregano, bay leaf, mushrooms, and Parmesan rinds. Place the chicken back in the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Simmer for about 40 minutes. 

While the chicken cooks, cook the pasta. You can undercook it a bit, as it will finish in the sauce. When the chicken is done, remove from the pan and set aside. Turn the heat up to high and reduce to desired thickness, about 5 minutes. For the last minute, add the pasta to the pan and toss until well coated. 

Serve with grated Parmesan and bread.

San Diego Part 2: Dim Sum and Tacos

On our third day in San Diego, we planned to have dim sum at Jasmine Seafood Restaurant. It is located in an area of northern San Diego with a lot of Asian restaurants and businesses and is one of the few restaurants still offering cart service on weekends. We got there right at opening time before it got too busy. Dim sum is not something we get often, and is quite rare outside major cities with large Cantonese populations. As such, I've often had to scratch my dim sum itch at home. I've previously featured my attempts making turnip cakes and steamed spare ribs. Dim sum at Jasmine was a real treat, and a great opportunity for me to write about the true dim sum experience.

Our first round of dim sum had some classic items. First, har gow, the shrimp dumpling with a translucent wrapper made of rice flour. The best har gow are delicate and not gummy. I have not attempted to make them, but they are definitely on the list. Next, siumai are a pork dumpling shaped somewhat like a basket. The Cantonese style is very different from the Shanghai version I've made. I tried making these once, but didn't get the pork mixture right. Look out for these in the future, as well. Next, we had steamed spare ribs with black beans, which I've covered before. These tender and delicious. The one item we got that I wasn't familiar with was the shark fin dumpling. I was certainly intrigued by the name, as shark fin is banned in many places, including California. I later learned that these dumplings typically contain imitation shark fin, though we couldn't really differentiate the filling from the siu mai. 

Clockwise from top: siumai, shark fin, spare ribs, har gow

Next up was one of my absolute favorites, the char siu bao. As a home cook, this is the holy grail of dim sum, which I've attempted a few times but never gotten right. I can handle the char siu filling -- it's one of my most frequently cooked items. The fluffy, pillow-like bun, on the other hand, I have not been able to master. At this point, we also had some fried taro dumplings, which I didn't take any pictures of. Those also rank among my favorites, which we've made one (mostly) successful attempt at making. 

Char siu bao

The next item we found were xiaolongbao. These are not a classic Cantonese item, but rather a Shanghainese one. I love them, of course, and the ones we had were very good. The soup explosion  in each dumpling makes for one the most perfect single bites there is. We attempted to make them once, and it was not successful. Both the filling and the wrapper have to be perfect, and we hit neither. Perhaps one day.

Xiaolongbao

Next up is Ariel's favorite dim sum: nai wong bao (custard buns or, as she calls them, "eggy buns"). I've had dim sum many places, and while most restaurants make them, they don't often show up on the carts. I had to ask for them here, but when they did arrive, they were fantastic. We have made them a few times, with varying degrees of success. 

Nai wong bao

Cheung fun are another absolute classic. These are sheets of rice noodles wrapped around a filling into a tube shape. The Chinese name, which translates as "intestine noodle" is wonderfully evocative, but the usual English name is "rice noodle rolls." Jasmine offered all four of the common fillings: beef, shrimp, char siu, and youtiao (fried dough). As there aren't a lot of beef-based dim sum items, I typically get that. The first time the cart came by, we had a lot on our table and passed. It didn't come back until a long time later, so let that be a lesson. We were so excited, we ate half before I remembered to take a picture! We have made these once, and it was a very labor-intensive process, even with two people. They turned out decently, though I would make some changes for next time.

Beef cheung fun

The next item is a deep-fried crab ball. The crab meat is formed around a piece of sugar cane which serves as a handle, breaded, and fried. They were served with a sweet chili sauce. Although I'm a fan, I've never thought to try making these.

Fried crab balls

At this point, we had already eaten way too much, but when I saw a special cart come by frying turnip cakes tableside, I had to have some. 

Turnip cake cart

Some turnip cakes are better than others, and it's usually a texture thing. This is determined by how finely the turnip is grated and how much cornstarch was added. The turnip cakes at Jasmine had a light, creamy texture that I've never experienced before. On top of that, freshly frying them on the cart took them to the next level. 

Turnip cakes

Overall, this was an excellent dim sum experience. We arrived early and took our time with it. Dim sum for two is a bit difficult, as you want to try everything, but have to pace yourself. We definitely over-ordered, but you only have one honeymoon. We ended up lounging around the rooftop pool at the hotel in the afternoon as we digested. 

For our evening meal, we headed south to Chula Vista, about halfway between downtown San Diego and the Mexican border. The ticket seller at the maritime museum recommended Taqueria Revolución, a local joint we never would have discovered otherwise. His recommendation was spot on. We each ordered three tacos. I had adobada (pork cooked on a rotisserie, similar to a doner kebab), birria (braised beef), and carnitas (slow-cooked pork). Ariel tried the adobada, pollo asado (grilled chicken), and carne asada (grilled beef). The adobada tacos were our overall favorite. 

Adobada, birria, and carnitas tacos

We also both had a cup of horchata, the Mexican rice drink. We've been fans of horchata for a while and order it any opportunity we get. This was one of the best I've had, and I'm going to try making some with our new blender. We were also offered cups of beef broth, a byproduct of the birria tacos which was packed with flavor. 

Beef broth

After dinner, we walked back to Little Italy to visit Salt and Straw for ice cream. With several locations along the west coast, they are know for their unusual flavor combinations. Ariel went for the almond brittle with salted ganache, and I had a half-and-half of the coffee and bourbon and the carrot cake ice creams. 

Ice cream on the piazza

In the next post, we'll take a break from all the eating for some naval tourism!

San Diego Part 1: Little Italy

We thought it would be fun to use the blog to share our San Diego honeymoon. While we certainly enjoy small town life in South Dakota, this has been a great opportunity to break out of that bubble and experience everything a major, cosmopolitan city has to offer. As this is still No Free Lunch, this series of posts will focus on food, but I'll also mention other things we did.

We had an early flight out of Omaha, so we spent our first night there. Dinner was at Hiro 88 in downtown Omaha. While the focus is mainly on sushi, they also have some Chinese items. We split some sushi, sashimi, and walnut shrimp. Sushi is one thing we really miss living in Vermillion, and we definitely take opportunities to get it. While we enjoyed this meal, more sushi is to come later.

Sashimi, sushi, and walnut shrimp

Our first few nights in San Diego were in the Little Italy neighborhood. The large Italian population in San Diego was associated with the fishing industry, but the neighborhood is now a bustling area full of shopping and dining. There are eateries across the spectrum, including coffee, gelato, pizza, pastries, and higher-end dining. It's a fun area with lots to do without feeling overly inundated with tourists.

Piazza della Famiglia at night

We stopped at Caffe Italia for lunch and coffee on our first day. I enjoyed a prosciutto and fig panino, while Ariel had a tacchino (turkey, pepper, and pesto) panino. 

Tacchino (left) and prosciutto and fig (right) panini

Afterwards, we spent the afternoon at the San Diego Maritime Museum. We explored their collection of ships, including a Soviet submarine that almost defrosted the Cold War and HMS Surprise, the ship used in the filming of Master and Commander.

HMS Surprise with submarine B-59 in the background

We returned to Little Italy for dinner at Buon Appetito for one of the finest meals of the trip. The menu was so full of Italian classics that it was hard to choose. To start, we split a calamari and zucchini appetizer. 

Fried calamari and zucchini

For the main course, I couldn't pass up the ossobuco with saffron risotto. Like most braised meats, it doesn't photograph particularly well, but it tasted great. Notice the small fork for digging the marrow out of the bone.

Ossobuco with saffron risotto

Ariel had the squid ink pasta, which neither of us have had the opportunity to get since my post on St. Louis seven years ago. The pasta came with a variety of seafood.

Squid ink pasta

The next morning, we walked around the Little Italy Mercato, a huge farmer's market that takes up five full blocks of Date Street. There were tons of local products to sample, from fruit to dips, to cheese, and more.

Ariel at the Japanese Friendship Garden

Afterward, we headed to Balboa Park and explored the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park and listened to some Beethoven at the organ pavilion.

Matcha plus Beethoven is a good time!

We made a quick stop at the tea pavilion for iced thai tea and matcha drinks before moving on to the Air and Space Museum. Some of the highlights there were the incredible collection of World War I aircraft (mostly airworthy replicas, but a few originals) and the command module from Apollo 9. 

Apollo 9 command module

Our last dinner in Little Italy was thai food at AAHARN. Thai is another cuisine we used to have frequently in Indiana, but have few opportunities to get now. We shared mango and duck curry and pad thai with river prawns. 

Mango and duck curry

The river prawns were enormous, almost like mini lobsters, and a totally new experience for us. They have a firmer texture closer to lobster, but with a mild shrimp flavor. The chili sauce they gave us on the side kicked it up in a good way.

Pad thai with river prawns

After dinner, we stopped at Pappalecco, an Italian cafe down the street from our hotel, for gelato. That covers our first two days in San Diego. There's already been some great food and experiences, but we're just getting started!