Lamarca Lamarca is my friend Hilary's favorite restaurant. She wanted us, her running buddies, to try the place she goes to for her carb-loading dinners. Aside from a couple of eccentricities, Lamarca has a certain charm. The tip cannot be paid on credit card. They're not open on the weekends and on working days, the restaurant closes at 10PM. The decor is simply unnoticeable, yet still feels clean, and thank goodness for restaurants with enough light so you can actually see your food.
They have a simple formula here. Most of the menu is pasta, in two price groups, $15.50 and $17. (Some of the $17 dishes are only available on certain days.) That comes with a perfect roll, hard and crusty on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, and a nice salad. The dressing is unique, almost like a chunky chimichurri.
I ordered the Chitarrucci con Salsa Aurora, recommended on a few on-line reviews. I really enjoyed the fresh square-cut linguine, my first experience of this shape. The sauce was similar to a vodka sauce but topped with smoked mozzarella. The combination worked well together but there was only enough smoked mozzarella for 2-3 bites and the sauce was sweeter than my preference.
Hilary had the Gemelli alla Ciociara, one of my favorite pasta shapes, in a simple sauce of olives, onions, and peppers.
I rarely make repeat visits since I always prefer to try new restaurants (and my list is really long), but if Hilary wanted me to go with her, I'd gladly go again.
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I decided to make banana muffins for the same reason as most, because I had extra bananas that now had brown spots on them. (I actually like eating bananas slightly under-ripe when eating them raw.) My first thoughts were banana blueberry muffins. Doesn't that sound good? Yes, but there had been a forecast of thunderstorms coming and I was afraid to go out. I am very afraid of rain, as if the wicked witch of the West, I apparently think I'm going to perish every time it more than drizzles.
Enough about me, the muffins became an experiment on Banana Crumb Muffins with Cranberries instead, which turned out to be a real keeper!! These are the most delicate of muffins, and taste so grandmother-made (ok, I don't even have kids yet). These could never be mistaken for store bought treats and will definitely send the message of love when you give them out.
Banana Crumb Muffins with Cranberries
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 ripe bananas (with spots), mashed
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
crumb topping
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon cold butter
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (350 degrees F if using convection). Line pan with muffin papers.
1. Mix together AP flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. Beat together bananas, sugar, egg, and canola oil. Stir the wet mixture into flour mixture just until moistened.
3. Fold dried cranberries into batter. Do not over mix. Spoon into each muffin cup.
4. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of AP flour, and cinnamon. Cut in cold butter until it resembles coarse sand. Sprinkle over the muffins.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. Then put them on a wire rack and continue to cool.
Here's one of the bottles of olive oil we bought at Mandarini (gourmet food shop) in Mykonos: Ta Mylelia. I regret not buying more since it's a beautiful bottle and would make a great gift, but we had no way of knowing which ones would be good.
We like this one very much, so we're 2 out of 3 so far. The flavor is quite unique, tasting more like olives than any other olive oil I've ever tasted. The viscosity is perfect and watching it pour and pool on the dish is very sensual.
I've gone through a bit too much bread in the last few days because of this olive oil, but the good news is, it is available on-line (although way more expensive). I do recommend buying it!
As a sort-of joke gift, Kasi and Stephen got me some maple-bacon lollipops from Lollyphile. As a concept I totally approve of this type of gift. First, it's food. Second, it's got bacon. Third, it's something I haven't seen or tasted before!
Darren, Nikola and most of the other folks at the dim sum table (where the gift was given) were pretty impressed at the unique gift. Now, several weeks later, I cracked into the box and started licking away.
Interesting? Maybe. Unique? Definitely. Good? Um, no. Can you tell from the image above that there are little bits of bacon in the lollipop? Well as the subtle, maple-flavored candy melts away (unusually quickly, actually), the tips of those bacon bits begin to say "hello" to your tongue by scraping at it. It's a bit like licking a tongue scraper over and over.
So, while I do love maple bacon, it just doesn't go over as a lollipop. I'd say this makes a good gag gift, as they're not horribly disgusting; but, for my bacon-based confections, I'll stick to the white chocolate pork rinds at Compass.
Good things come in small packages, like Butterfish. I ate these a lot as a kid. My mom would deep fry them and serve them with sweet and sour sauce. It's been years though since I've eaten Butterfish and I had forgotten them till I saw these cute fishes in the Chinese market on Thursday.
- These little fish pack in a lot of flavor. We were both amazed by how concentrated the flavor was in the tender and compact meat, definitely a taste winner.
- Quick and easy to make. Since these fish are cleaned at the fish market, they only take a few minutes to make and taste great with the simplest preparations.
- Butterfish are super cheap. If I remember correctly, I paid $1.23 for 4 of them. With rising food costs, I think I'll have these more often.
- As little fish, they contain much less mercury than those big ones like tuna.
Chimichurri is one of my favorite flavors. I have made it with different types of vinegars and gone back and forth between cilantro and parsley, but all versions come out wonderful. If you have extra sauce left-over, save-it. It goes well on chicken, fish, almost anything. I wrote down the recipe we used for our July 4th barbecue yesterday. Hope you had a fun and yummy one!
Chimichurri Flank Steak
Marinade and Sauce
- 2 cups fresh cilantro
- 1 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup dried oregano
- 4 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper sauce (I used Red Hot.)
- 2 1/2 pound flank steak
1. Put all the marinade/sauce ingredients in a blender or food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds.
2. Reserve 1 cup to use as sauce later.
3. Use the rest to marinate the flank steak (which we cut in half to fit our containers). Refrigerate for at least 5 hours.
4. Grill the flank steak for about 7 minutes on each side (with a 90 degree rotation if you want grill marks) to get medium rare. This will vary by grill.
5. Slice 1/2" slices against the grain and serve with reserved Chimichurri sauce.
Try my Asian Style Chimichurri Steak too!