Eritrean: Asmara

Yesterday, nine of us broke all the rules and went out on a homework night.

Gasp.

We headed to Asmara (739 Massachusetts Ave.), and ordered two of these:

From center clockwise:

Beef, lamb, shrimp, chicken, carrots, lentils, and spinach. I would love to elaborate, but I can't, as I the menu online is not an extensive list, and I can't find the dishes that were served to us. Also, "beef, lamb, shrimp, etc." is how the meal was described to us during dinner, so it should suffice.

We ate all this with injera, a yeast-risen flat bread with a spongy texture. Injera is also gluten-free, so celiac gastros should head over to Asmara in the near future :)

After dinner, we headed across the street for some baklava, which was absolutely delicious. Honey, nuts, and butter are a few of my favorite things in the world, and baklava had them all.

I didn't look at the name of the restaurant that sold it, but they had Greek food to go and had hookahs lined up by the window, with a sign reading "shisha for rent". That's like saying "water for rent" or "food for rent", but to each his own.

I digress.

Anyways, BIG thank you to everyone that came out: Molly, Laura, Lauren, Sarah, Stephanie, Margaret, Kristi and Margo.

I'll be sending out an email soon with a poll of where to go next; I want to switch up continents every month, so Africa will be tabled until after October, but feel free to roam around Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and Europe (or the Caribbean islands!) and let me know where/what you want to eat next!

Keep eating,

Steph

PAD THAI

Posts like this will usually be accompanied with a recipe.

But not this one!

This is because this particular pad thai is a TOP SECRET recipe of Margo's uncle.

It looks so delicious, especially with all those lime slices!

I love lime. It's so acidic.

Have you ever wondered the pH level of lime juice?

If you know, will you let me know?

Because I want to know.

Thanks.

albino raspberries (golden raspberries)

OH HELLO.

These berries are marketed under the name "Golden Raspberries", and their color is due to the expression of recessive genes in red or black raspberries (Punnett Square anyone?). They should maintain the same distinct flavor as their more vibrant siblings, which means they are very yummy.

I have never tried these berries myself, but Jason sent me this picture with the word "yum", so I am assuming they were tasty (or merely palatable).

For those of you interested in trying some golden raspberries, ask Jason. He thinks he got them at the farmers market. But he's not sure.

Anyways, more on our albino raspberries! In New England, most of these pale raspberries are derivatives of red raspberries. The color phenomenon also occurs in the wild, and can even be cultivated in your own backyard.

Fun fact: according to a Finnish study, regular consumption of raspberries will benefit against pain (but so would regular consumption of pain killers...)

Much thanks to Jason Mazzella for sending in the picture, and to the makers of Wikipedia for allowing me to research the peculiar raspberries in less than ten minutes!

Thanks for reading,

Steph

pulled pork in new york! (what I had this Saturday)

If you ever find yourself in the middle of Clinton, New York, please make it your goal to find Nola's (9 West Park Row) and eat there.

I beg you.

You are currently looking at chipotle spiced pulled pork in tortilla with cilantro sour cream with red onion and cheddar, served with homemade potato chips.

The pork was more sweet than spicy, but delicious nonetheless. The onions were sweet and soft. I especially liked how there wasn't 6 square inches of tortilla left on each end of the wrap...THAT NO ONE WANTS TO EAT (something that often happens at the school cafeteria or Chipotle). WHO LIKES TO EAT PLAIN TORTILLA? AHHHHHH

Moving on, ever since I learned sour cream was basically pure fat, I had my qualms about eating it.

Whatever. I dipped the chips into the cilantro sour cream, and spread some of it on the wrap; though it didn't spark any fireworks, I still liked how the cilantro was super green. (So I ate it. Because it was green. And green evokes Mother Nature.)

I like green things. For example, jalapeno peppers! LOVE 'EM.

Anyways, big thank you to Bret for recommending Nola's!

hungry people.

NOTE: Excuse any grammatical errors. Here. As much as the point of this blog is to coherently display amateur photography (aka iPhone snaps) share recipes, introduce "new" restaurants, and disclose things that make me salivate, sometimes...oh, words fail me.

Last week I was really hungry and home alone. It was devastating. I really wanted some muesli, but I had no patience to soak oats in milk for an hour.

So I put 2 eggs into a boil for a few minutes, 2 toasts in the toaster, washed a handful of strawberries and cooked some bacon.

Here is what I ate. (Counterclockwise!)

Eggs: I was going for soft-boiled, but I lost track of time while watching Grey's (on megavideo, if you were interested), and they turned into more of a medium-hard variety.

Bacon: I have yet to decide if I'm a fan of crispy or chewy. But I do know throwing away bacon grease makes me want to cry.

Toast: Butter 'em up, and spread on some strawberry and apricot preserves.

Strawberries: I could have used those mini scoopers to take out the white/stem parts, but I'm too lazy to wash them...so that is why my strawberries are ugly.

I ate outside, and it made me feel very transcendental. Hah, who am I kidding, I was watching Grey's on my laptop, eating, outside, for forty minutes. But I did feel pretty damn cool when I drank orange juice and Christina and Owen also drank orange juice.

Anyways, this post is an introductory post of sorts: I eat that much for breakfast, I love Grey's, I like edible things...

See you all soon, and hopefully some of you can make it to the GG kickoff dinner! :)