365 Days of Food

We met people for drinks at Trio/Fox & Hounds on one of the first nights that was good for outdoor seating; the heat lamps were on, but they weren’t really needed. I had not been there in a while (it’s in a section of DC that hasn’t really changed in 15 years) and they at…

The lamb meatballs took forever to cook in the oven and they ended up crunchy on top; they reminded me of spring rolls so it was a good thing I’d decided to put them on top of Vermicelli noodles. My favorite time to cook bún is in the spring when you can throw all kinds…

Smoked salmon from Costco that comes with very addictive packets of dill mustard. I opened some Albariño (white wine from Galicia in northwest Spain) which produced an asparagus taste in the back of my throat. One can probably chalk this up to the poor quality of the cheap wine, yet it ended up being a…

Patê sô. Viet’s mom made them for us: small Vietnamese puff pastries with meat paste inside. Viet insisted on eating them with chopsticks. I don’t speak any French, but according to the Internet, pâté used to mean “pie” and the Vietnamese name comes from “pâté chaud” in French. In modern usage, pâté is no longer…

Spaghetti and meatballs. I made the Italian meatballs from Joy of Cooking, and they ended up nothing like I’ve ever seen them in a restaurant or a movie. I chopped up an onion in a food processor and mixed it with a half cup of parmesan cheese, some garlic, bread crumbs, an egg, tomato paste, and…

We had brunch with family at Ted’s Bulletin in Merrifield. The waiter convinced us to order the cinnamon roll, which is meant for the whole table and is the size of a chicken pot pie. I ordered the crab cake eggs benedict as well as a kitchen-made pop-tart, which the restaurant is known for. They…

We went over to our friends’ house to see them off before they moved out of town. I made chocolate chip cookies and brought over takeout Vietnamese: bún with pork and spring rolls, and chicken bánh mì. The ideal chocolate chip cookie, which I strive to create, is soft enough that the body of the…

Lace cookies. As advertised in the recipe, they are thin as snowflakes and disintegrate in your mouth. With snowflakes on my mind, I pictured something intricately held together and weightless. However, the main solid ingredient used is oats (just a tablespoon or so of flour). They look like flat oatmeal cookies and taste like caramel….

I mashed up some canned tomatoes and cooked them with broccoli, tofu, and ancho chiles. My idea, and I don’t know if it was a good one, was to make a stir fry flavored like a taco. I suppose I could have added sour cream and cilantro too. I’m still not good at distinguishing separate…

Chicken with spring onion kimchi. Spring onions (some might call them scallions) are a good choice if you really want to bring out the kimchi flavor. Unlike cabbage, they tend to hold together instead of collapsing inside the jar. (Photo: Festa Major de Gràcia, Barcelona.) >> March 10 << March 8  

It was an exasperating day at work and also the day when spring arrived, all of a sudden and hyperactive. I decided to go home and make blueberry muffins. I’d frozen a bunch of blueberries last year and I finally realized I’d have to use them soon before it was summer again. For the muffins,…

I made crepes for breakfast, following the advice of The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion that you should let the batter rest at room temperature for an hour. I used a small nonstick skillet, the same pan I use for omelets, because of course the crepe and the omelet are two small variations on the…