Singha, River North, Chicago
At FeedBurner we used to order Singha whenever there were meetings in the office or there was a special occasion, but I’d never been inside the restaurant until we moved to Google. Now our office is so close we can see Singha out the window. You can’t really tell from these photos, but there are platforms with holes in the center where the table comes out. Then you sit on the platform and put your legs in the hole. Pretty cool. And the food was as good as ever.
Musicians at Taj Restaurant, East Village, Manhattan
Not to confuse you because I still have photos from my Memorial Day weekend trip to New York, but I’m back in New York again, this time on business. Monday afternoon and night we all came together at Taj Restaurant on 6th Street, right in the heart of Indian Restaurant Row, which is on 6th between 1st and 2nd Avenues. The music was great but the service and ambiance was questionable. They did keep the Taj Mahal and Flying Horse beer flowing though, which was a good thing. The food was reasonably priced and was pretty tasty if you could break through the language barrier to get your order in!
Don, Bar 82, East Village, Manhattan
Afterwards we had a few drinks at Bar 82 and then made the long walk back to our hotel, the craptacular Radisson on 48th/Lex. It’s not that bad, it’s just so random. Like the wallpaper is peeling in my room and there are only hooks and stains where the artwork used to be above the bed, yet my room has a flat screen TV and a Herman Miller Aeron chair.
Vietnamese Coffee Granite with Vanilla Meringue, Spice Market, Meatpacking District, Manhattan
Tuesday was our first day at Google and was completely overwhelming with all of the information to take in. It’s really exciting to be working there officially. I think everyone is psyched. .. if only we can get our heads around everything. We had dinner at Spice Market, which I’d read so much about and was excited to try. It was about 100% fancier than the Indian restaurant that we’d been to the night before. The interior was really beautiful, if not over the top, and sort of Middle Eastern looking, while the cuisine was kind of Vietnamese/Thai/Indian. The Onion and Chili Crusted Short Ribs Egg Noodles and Pea Shoots was absolutely the standout dish of the night. I was expecting something like kalbi ribs, but it was the most tender bone-free beef I’ve ever eaten, I think. So delicious. For some reason I only took a photo of our desert. It was Vietnamese Coffee Granite with Vanilla Meringue. That night some people went out to the bar at the W, but I was so tired. I just stayed in and went to bed.
Mini Beers, Bar 82, East Village, Manhattan
This is turning into a food blog of the week, but Wednesday night we had pizza at John’s on Bleecker. Later on we had a couple beers at some generic Irish pub in Midtown. Everyone was too tired to really put any effort into staying out, so I hit up Duane Reade for some shampoo because the stuff at the hotel stinks and then headed in for the night.
Everything is so overwhelming this week. I’m waiting for Friday and looking forward to nothing on Saturday. Sunday I’m flying back out here.
Tags:bar 82·don·duane reade·east village·feedburner·flying horse·google·indian·johns·meatpacking district·New York·pizza·pool·radisson·spice market·taj·taj mahal·thai·vietnamese·west village
Thai Linda Cafe, Roscoe Village, Chicago
Thai Linda Cafe is one of our close by Roscoe Village restaurants. I like the interior decor and the food is pretty good. I like that Roscoe Street is all businesses and restaurants and the side streets are all residential. And that I can walk out, just steps away, onto Roscoe and have my choice of bars and so many different cuisines like Thai, Guatemalan, Southwestern, sandwiches, American, Italian, Turkish, etc. Can’t wait for the new Mexican restaurant to open!
For something different, I decided to make a Thai-inspired recipe. It was pretty simple and tasted pretty good. I accidentally bought pre-cooked shrimp so I skipped the step where you cook & saute the shrimp (or made it really short so as not to overcook). Next time, if we make it again, I think we’ll saute vegetables to go with. The shrimp was good, but it’s a lot of shrimp.
This was the first time I made rice with a rice cooker. For this recipe I used jasmine rice. Dallas showed me how you have to rinse the rice a bunch of times first and that the rule is equal amounts of rice and water. And then how the cooker works. It turned out so well. I think I can finally understand why he’d never eat rice at my house before I got the rice cooker.
Spicy Shrimp in Coconut Sauce
From Cooking Light
Serve this dish with fresh mango and pineapple cubes. Add more or less crushed red pepper to make it as spicy as you like.
1/2 cup light coconut milk
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon bottled minced ginger
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon chile paste with garlic (such as Sambal oelek)
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons chopped green onions (about 1 onion)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 cups cooked jasmine rice
Combine the first 9 ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.
Heat canola oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp, and sauté 2 minutes. Add green onions and red pepper; cook 1 minute. Add coconut milk mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 minute or until shrimp turn pink. Serve immediately with rice.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 1 cup shrimp mixture and 1/2 cup rice)
NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 310(20% from fat); FAT 7g (sat 2.2g,mono 1.9g,poly 1.9g); PROTEIN 36.8g; CHOLESTEROL 259mg; CALCIUM 97mg; SODIUM 513mg; FIBER 0.7g; IRON 4.8mg; CARBOHYDRATE 23.2g
Michele Powers
Cooking Light, JULY 2005
Tags:Chicago·cooking and baking·cooking light·dallas·east ukrainian village·rice·spicy shrimp in coconut sauce·thai
National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC
National Museum of the American Indian, Washington DC
Capitol Building, Washington DC
Escalator at the DuPont Metro Station, Washington DC
Rachelle & Kelly, Church Street Theater, Washington DC
After visiting the World War II Monument, Kelly and Jeff and I walked over to the National Museum of the American Indian, a museum that just opened a little over a year ago. Everything is so new there and I really liked the exhibits and how they incorporated video. Also, the restaurant there was pretty cool because it featured Native foods found throughout the Western Hemisphere.
After the museum we grabbed some dinner at a Thai restaurant near DuPont Circle. We finished off the night by seeing a Keegan Theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Church Street Theater.
Tags:a streetcar named desire·capitol building·church street theater·dupont circle·jeff·keegan theater·kelly·metro·Museums·national museum of the american indian·thai·Theater·washington dc