Crispy Black Bean Cakes

Me and Kea tag teamed this one. I did step one while he was at school and then he did the rest while I was at Pilates. It came out pretty good, although he said it soaked up a lot of oil and so it maybe didn't taste as healthy as we would've liked. We really felt like we just wanted to eat it with fruits and veggies. (Luckily we had some carrots and oranges.) We thought salsa might be good, but we didn't have any.

Along the way, I thought maybe it would be better as an appetizer. And then today, when we decided to make chili, I thought they might go well together. And I also thought they might be good with a fried egg for breakfast.

Some challenges we faced: I didn't follow the directions about food processing because ours is cheap and I was worried it wouldn't be able to handle. Kea took one look at those giant pieces of onion though and decided to blend. But then he had trouble keeping the patties together. (They would fall apart when he dipped them in the egg.) So... please follow the directions about food processing.

The Soup Spoon Cafe in East Lansing

Went to breakfast Saturday morning with SP, K, and SR. K suggested The Soup Spoon Cafe (1419 E Michigan), so that's where we went. It wasn't busy--at around 10 on a Saturday, but this was fine with us. The place was cute, walls painted in bold and vibrant colors, decorative tea tins lining the shelves. Has that indie feel.

I was disappointed with the menu at first. I prefer savory stuff for breakfast, but the menu was dominated with different variations on Eggs Benedict, which I'd never had before and was honestly sort of afraid of. I'm not sure the richness of hollandaise sits well with me anytime, let alone in the morning. They also had omelettes, but again none of them really interested me. The worst part was that in the make-your-own section, mushrooms were not an option! Sacrilege!

Anyway, I tried to get someone to just pick something for me and SP and I ended up sharing the San Diego Eggs Benedict and the french toast. It turned out really good. The hollandaise in our Benedict was a little spicy, which made me happy. The eggs also had avocado and tomato on it. Oh, and it came with potatoes. I love breakfast potatoes.

The french toast had strawberry cream cheese spread between the three slices of bread, which was awesome--although it was not the most appealing visually. There's a reason they don't put the strawberry cream cheese on the top layer.

Yep, I ended up very pleased though. Great food--although I think I would like to share one savory and one sweet again next time... but then I usually do prefer to do that at breakfast. Nice ambience. And we stuck around for awhile after, just catching up on things...

Buying oatmeal

You'd think
buying generic oatmeal would be no big deal, wouldn't you? Or maybe it is just me. In case you are wondering, brand matters. I usually buy Quaker--in bulk from Costco. Besides oatmeal is so cheap anyway that even the big brand is still cheap. The box is sort of unwieldy though so I decided I'd go with the supermarket brand. It was probably like a dollar for the standard round box.

And it was sooo nasty. I could tell before I cooked it that the grains were smaller. And after it was cooked, it was glue-y. So... I guess we will use it for cookies or something. Just wanted to share my experience... beware generic oatmeal...

Breakfast in Ann Arbor

We are out of syrup and Kea wanted pancakes so we first headed to Northside Grill, a place originally recommended by our vegetarian neighbors. We've been unimpressed in the past--with omelettes and huevos rancheros, which were good, but nothing special. Since then, however, we've been told that the skillets and breakfast sandwiches are the thing to try. Northside was crazy crowded though. For real. There were like ten people standing just inside the door waiting for tables. Why does everyone in this town wake up so late? I don't care if they're all students and professors!

We considered Pilar's Cafe, a really great El Salvadorian restaurant--for breakfast and other meals. Unfortunately they don't have pancakes, and spicy hot chocolate and chorizo omelette were not enough to lure us there today.

We ended up at The Broken Egg, a diner on Main. It looked well patronized, but with no line. They had a huge menu, complete with a savory pancake (with spinach and ham just like ours!), Eggs Benedict (which I am afraid to try. I don't think I would like Hollandaise), all kinds of omelettes, some vegetarian options, a typical variety of pancakes, and some things I'd never heard of before like chicken hash, breakfast stew, and a cornmeal waffle. I went with the breakfast stew, which sounded--and was--what I think is usually called a skillet. You know, scrambled eggs with stuff inside. Mine was vegetarian and had a good mix--onions, red bell peppers, zucchini, spinach. The serving was huge and I got the veggies I wanted, but it was a pretty basic dish.

Kea's cornmeal waffle was more exciting. It sounded scary because it was described as being made of butter, milk, and cornmeal, but it was really good! Maybe it had more ingredients than what was listed...

New York Food Report

This is all I have energy for...

-new york has lots of cosi-like delis that are great for getting decently priced, decently healthy food at a conference.

-had scones from alice's tea cup. jenny and laurie picked up cuz they are great.

-had bagels from a dude who tried to kick laurie's guide dog out of the store. of course she was pretty mellow about it. and i was like, "that's illegal!"

-pastries and sandwiches from the french place. i don't know this is what j and l call it.

-Thai food including a super hot papaya salad. a little too hot but still made me happy.

-three course dessert at ChikaLicious. Fucking insane.

-there are a lot of Japanese restaurants by NYU

-hot dog and Frappuccino for lunch. This is not good. Do not do this.

-oh yeah got ripped off on the hot dog. i could tell the guy was thinking when i asked how much it was but i still thought two dollars was a pretty good deal. apparently it is supposed to be one.

Amadeus and Cafe Zola

The food at Amadeus was good, some of it spectacular. We ordered two combo plates, one veggie combo, two extra salads, and two desserts for five of us. I'm not really sure what the logic was behind that becuase the husbands ended up still hungry, but I guess it is their own fault for staying at the sports bar across the street to finish watching the basketball game. I guess it was because the combo plates sounded really big. Anyway, I had too much to eat so they should've spoken up and I would've shared with them!

The kielbasa was very popular as was the apple torte. The cabbage roll was pretty good too. It tasted like the kind my mom used to make. Of course she is Chinese American so I have no idea if it's "authentic," but I liked it! The pierogis were underwhelming. I think that I expected fatter dumplings. I also like it when there's a mixed filling while these were only pork, mushroom, or cheese.

I think I'm also developing a taste for wine.

For breakfast at Cafe Zola, I had a ratatouille crepe and loved it. I'm not sure if I've ever had ratatouille before but somehow it was exactly what I expected--except for the purple crepe. Not sure why it was purple, but it was cool. The crepe also had sour cream on top and was the biggest crepe I have ever seen, like a half sheet of folder paper. Oh I did start craving cheese part way through so I might try a crepe with cheese next time.

Kea had the Black Forest waffle with a side of chorizo. I took some and both were yummy. Our friends had the strawberry banana waffle and the Turkish eggs. The fruits on the waffle and the veggies with the eggs looked really fresh. The eggs looked like they were done in an oven. I don't know, but I have decided that I like crepes even better than omelettes. Kea and I shared the Irish breakfast tea, which was good, but boring; I should have insisted on genmaicha. Our friends had coffee and said it was very strong.

Weekend Plans

A few friends from school are coming over this weekend. It's sad when Ann Arbor is the escape for food and shopping, but *shrug*

Anyway, we'll be headed to Amadeus European Restaurant on Friday night. I have always wanted to try pierogi; I think I am a dumpling kind of person. And I figure I should stop eating mediocre Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese food and just eat white people food cuz that is the kind of place where I am living. Like you don't go to a steak house and order sushi (although I did once--holy moly), you don't come to the midwest and eat... sushi. Unless you are really craving it that bad. Anyway, I like white people food. Mac and cheese, tuna casserole... mmm... So here is another kind of white people food. Check out this menu. Everything sounds so good. I think I may have to be a piggy and get the combo cuz I want to try everything!

Saturday morning we'll have brunch at Cafe Zola. They say that they're named after the writer. Ew. I don't know... somehow Francophilia seems the worst of all the philias. Oh, except Asiaphilia. Okay, and I have eaten at total Asiaphile restaurants. Cursed New York--it tricks me. Oh and of course Francophilia is not as bad as like pedophilia and necrophilia... but definitely, of the regional philias, one of the most obnoxious. Anyway, despite it's potentially snobby name, I am eyeing the crepes. And also the tea selection. Yum...

Will report later...

Ricotta Pancakes

I had some leftover ricotta and remembered that I had seen a recipe for ricotta pancakes. I think the one I originally saw was fancier, but this one looked fine.

As always, I adapted--soy milk for cow's milk cuz that's what we have in the house. I threw in an extra egg white I had in the fridge.

The egg whites probably didn't get as stiff as they should've. This was my first time beating egg whites. I used our new stick blender and it got foamy on top but not so much underneath. (I first tried doing it with a whisk. That was silly.) Still, the pancakes were pretty light. Compared to regular (Bisquick) pancakes, they were more moist, maybe eggier.

They're good, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to make them. Maybe only when I have leftover ricotta. Or maybe this is one of those foods that will grow on me--I don't think much of it now, but in a month or so I'll be craving it. I'll let you know.