phood adventures

what's cooking?

this isn’t exactly a phoodpost in the sense that i didn’t cook/read/eat, but it does pertain to food.

i just got a movie called what’s cooking? from netflix. this movie is directed by gurinder chadha, the director of bend it like beckham. but unlike her more popular movie, this one takes place in los angeles.

the movie is about four different families celebrating thanksgiving in los angeles. you have a latino family, an african american family, a vietnamese family, and a jewish family with a lesbian daughter and her partner.

the part of the movie that made me want to post it here was the fact that they do show the sorts of preparations each family does on their own take. you see one turkey being done in two different ways (traditional vietnamese and traditional american), tamales being prepared, shiitake mushroom stuffing, macaroni and cheese, among other dishes.

having just watched the oscars earlier this week, this movie isn’t the greatest in the world. the plot could be improved, but the movie is worth it just for the phood!

corned beef a la i-slept-in-late

on friday night i decided to make something to help me with this cold weather. while at the grocery store i decided to make some corned beef and cabbage.

according to wikipedia, corned beef is:

Corned beef is beef that is first pickled in brine and then cooked by boiling. Usually, cuts of meat are used that feature long muscle grain, such as the brisket.


The name corned beef is due to a coarse salt being used in the pickling. Corn originally meant grain, as in a small particle of something, and referred to the corns of salt.


Corned beef is often purchased at delicatessens. Perhaps the most famous sandwich made with it is the Reuben sandwich, consisting of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on rye bread and served hot.

so at the store i bought a 3.5lb chunk of grey corned beef (now, before people start making icky sounds, grey corned beef just means that the meat keeps its natural color after being in the salt and isn’t red with the addition of nitrates). i also got some carrots, onions, garlick, and a small head of cabbage. when i got home, i got the ingredients together and got the crockpot ready as well.

most of the websites i had seen said that you had to cook the corned beef at low for at least 12 hours, halfway through the cooking time one would have to add the cabbage. the vegetables that could be added varied on each website, so i just took the average of them all. also, the websites all said to use 3lbs or so of corned beef, but i only added half of that amount since i’m the only who is going to eat the dish.

i cut three carrots into 2” segments, quartered the onions, smashed the garlick cloves, and a teaspoon or so of peppercorns. about 2 cups of water were also added. and they were ignored for many hours.

i woke up pretty late the next morning and had to improvise with the cabbage. i cut the head into quarters, put three of those quarters into a pan with a cup of the broth from the crockpot. i then let it simmer for 30 minutes, until the cabbage was nice and soft. after that was done, i then added all of that to the crockpot and served myself.

next time i will NOT sleep in.

a feast-to-be

it seems that i’m just cooking up a storm here.

so my friend has decided to have a mini-winter break by coming up from sunny san diego, california, to cold-ass boston, massachewsits. so i’m making her indian food. it seems to be my trademark or something. i mean, how often do you hear about a mexican guy making pretty darned good indian food? i’ve been told by indian friends or friends who are used to authentic indian and they say it’s good. wait, why am i typing all of this again, you all already know!

so i am making beef korma. i usually make it with chicken, but i found some pot roast in the freezer and decided to use that. no mushrooms or anything, just plain ol’ beef.

i am also making the chicken in tomato and butter sauce. i’m making sure that i don’t forget the butter at the end of it all. right now the sauce is simmering and the house has a wonderful cinnamon/clove/garlick smell everywhere. yummy.

i am going to make spice-saffron basmati rice. the rice has cardamom and cinnamon and saffron. i just remembered that i used up the last cinnamon stick in the chicken dish. so much for making that rice. maybe i’ll just go with the basic saffron rice. it’ll keep things balanced since all of the other dishes are spicy.

at mj’s suggestion, i’m also making dal. just a plain ol’ dal. it’s got garlick, ginger, cilantro, tumeric, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and some fried cumin. yum. that’s already done and is now resting in the oven.

since i had to a cilantro bunch and only using a tiny bit, i’m thinking of making a fresh green chutney with cilantro and yogurt. it uses a cup or so of cilantro, so why not? it also uses some pepper, roasted cumin seeds and some lemon juice. sounds good and i’ll let you all know how it turns out.

and after all of this is done, i have to wait a few hours until i can go pick up my friend from the airport. oh well, i’ll be superhungry by then!

get your own plates here

last night, chris and i met a friend of his (who is from bangladesh) for dinner. we went to pakwan, which is a no-frills pakistani/indian restaurant. wow.

it smelled great when we walked in. when you get there, you order (we ordered eggplant bharta, lamb kabob, chicken tikka masala, regular AND garlick naan), you get your settings (we got our own dishes, silverware, our own caraffes of water) get any mini sidedishes (they had lime juice sliced onions, mint sauces and tamarind sauces used mostly for samosas), set up your table and then wait until your number is called. people even bring their own beer cans in brown paperbags!

the phood

• we had to wait a while until everythign was ready for, but when we finally got the food and it was amazing. the tikka masala chicken tasted like it was a creamy korma sauce, with a hint of chipotle in there. now that sounds like something i should try next time i make chicken korma, to give more of a fusion twist to this indian favorite. why hadn’t i thought of that already?


• the eggplant bharta had peas in it and was mashed up. you couldn’t see the eggplant slices in there, but it was still tasty. a tiny bit spicy, so even better.


• the kabobs were lamb. i am not one for lamb, but i didn’t have any problems eating it. very yummy. the kabobs had roughly chopped cilantro and some onions slices for decoration.


• the naan had been made fresh in the restaurant’s tandoori oven, where the kabobs had also been made. they were both delicious, except the garlick naan were just fabulous. what can i say, i’m biased

i would definitely go back to this place, in fact, recommend it to anyone who is ever in san francisco. sure, this place is more of a self serve sort of place, but it’s well worth it. unfortunately, since i hadn’t really eaten all day it seemed that we didn’t order enough for me to have my fill.

next time i go, i am going to have to order samosas!