Bear Down Wildcats

Just use Aji Amarillo and you’re good.

I used aji amarillo, onions, garlic, green olives, tomatoes, and potatoes. It was the taste of Lima!

azgreg wrote: Wed May 18, 2022 11:17 am I might've found my new favorite restaurant. You sit down and they ask you how you want your meat. No menu.

Go on...

To make up for the By the Bucket disaster, tonight I'm making my own bucket of spaghetti and meatballs (in a red and white check pattern ceramic bucket), followed by a blueberry pie my wife is baking.

Pork belly tacos. Braised in the sous vide for 10 hours with soy/mirin/sugar/ginger/garlic/scallion. Crisped up under the broiler and served with spicy mayo and pickled cucumbers.

Beans and franks

First BLT of the season

Eggplant and cannellini beans. Can't get enough of it.

dovecanyoncat wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:07 pm Eggplant and cannellini beans. Can't get enough of it.

With raisins?

Longhorned wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:04 am

dovecanyoncat wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:07 pm Eggplant and cannellini beans. Can't get enough of it.

With raisins?

Never had it that way. Does it work well with red sauce?

dovecanyoncat wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 7:39 pm

Longhorned wrote: Wed Jun 29, 2022 10:04 am

dovecanyoncat wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:07 pm Eggplant and cannellini beans. Can't get enough of it.

With raisins?

Never had it that way. Does it work well with red sauce?

I doubt it.

Just got out of 5 days in the hospital, and on the way home I had my wife drive me through the eegee's drive thru for a watermelon eegee.

Damn was that delicious.

Now that I've finally learned how to cook beans, I realize there's nothing better. Not a perfectly grilled bone-in ribeye. Nothing. I and everybody else was making them wrong. Even the Rancho Gordo people.

It's just as easy to get high quality beans as it is to get everyday beans. And it's just as easy to make them right as it is to make them wrong. But until you've cooked high quality beans the right way, you have no way of knowing what you're missing. They shouldn't even go by the same name as the beans you've had in your life previously.

In Mexico and Brazil, I've had beans that were cooked right, but they were cooking mediocre beans.

At home, I've been cooking with great beans (Rancho Gordo, Ramona Farms), but I've cooking them wrong. The result was something that was okay, like an ingredient to be covered up with other things. Sort of like canned beans but with better texture, color, and size. But if you cook them right, you won't want to mess with them. You'll want to highlight them.

Here's how to cook them right:

1) Use the Instant Pot or another pressure cooker.

2) Use the whole 1-pound bag of Rancho Gordo beans

3) Rinse the beans and dump the water

4) Add the beans and fill up to the 7 1/2 cup line in the pressure cooker vessel (8 cups max)

5) Forget anything anyone ever told you about not salting the uncooked beans, or limiting the amount of salt. It's lies, all lies, and it makes no sense whatsoever. You need to salt the water until the water is as salty as a soup you'd want to eat if you weren't watching your salt intake. Just like you'd do when you're cooking pasta.

6) Add a generous amount of dehydrated onion. Like a tablespoon or slightly more. Don't mess with "real" onion. It becomes slimy and cloying after 6.5 minutes in a pressure cooker.

7) Maybe add a peeled clove of crushed garlic, but no more than one. Using garlic at all can limit what you're going to do with the finished beans.

8) Cover the whole thing in fat. I mean a lot of fat. Not just a few tablespoons. Cover it with a thick layer. Like extra virgin olive oil, duck fat, schmaltz, pork lard, or peanut oil. Personally, olive oil suits all my own needs. Don't use a flavorless oil like grape seed or "vegetable oil." Never, ever use canola.

2) Set the manual high pressure following these cooking times:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/ ... ooking.pdf

Any extra bean liquid is about the best stock you've ever had in your life, and you can use it for anything.

The beans are so good, you'll want to leave them alone. Dish into a bowl and cover with avocado slices. That's it.

Best Breakfast of All Time:

Garbanzo beans dressed with hummus and sriracha

This is amazing; thank you. I have a couple bags of rancho gordo in my pantry still I've been lingering on.

Hit Haus Murphy's tonight for some bratwurst, sauerkraut, and fried potatoes.

Merkin wrote: Mon Feb 13, 2023 9:08 am

Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night. You have family there, right? Got some restaurant suggestions? We like seafood and Italian and we don't plan to drive once we settle into the hotel. Anybody else who wants to weigh in would be appreciated.

dovecanyoncat wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:20 pm Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night. You have family there, right? Got some restaurant suggestions? We like seafood and Italian and we don't plan to drive once we settle into the hotel. Anybody else who wants to weigh in would be appreciated.

My daughter lived there for a few years in Chula Vista and Coronado, and have a son who lives in PB now after living downtown, North Park, Lemon Grove, and Clairmont the last decade. The Zonies are well known in PB.

Have to say SD metro has some of the best restaurants I have ever been to. The people are just young and beautiful too. I really felt old and out of place.

I can't remember any of the restaurants we go to, except for this one. We go here every time in SD and sit outside: https://www.sisterspizzasd.com/

I'm in San Diego all the time. Our favorite restaurants are in Pt Loma and Ocean Beach.

Merkin wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 9:19 pm

dovecanyoncat wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:20 pm Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night. You have family there, right? Got some restaurant suggestions? We like seafood and Italian and we don't plan to drive once we settle into the hotel. Anybody else who wants to weigh in would be appreciated.

My daughter lived there for a few years in Chula Vista and Coronado, and have a son who lives in PB now after living downtown, North Park, Lemon Grove, and Clairmont the last decade. The Zonies are well known in PB.

Have to say SD metro has some of the best restaurants I have ever been to. The people are just young and beautiful too. I really felt old and out of place.

I can't remember any of the restaurants we go to, except for this one. We go here every time in SD and sit outside: https://www.sisterspizzasd.com/

Thanks. One always needs pizza and calamari with tentacles.

Carcassdragger wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 10:07 pm I'm in San Diego all the time. Our favorite restaurants are in Pt Loma and Ocean Beach.

Thanks CD. I'll cast the net and check it out.

South Beach Bar and Grill at the end of Newport in OB. This was chosen as the best bar food in SD. It's become more of an eatery than a bar. Great views of the ocean and pier. Try the oyster tacos. Great calamari and marinated mahi tacos too.

The Bluewater is in the same area. It's a walk up counter with a variety of seafood dishes.

Also on Newport is Ortegas. It's a small Mexican food place. Their shrimp relleno is great.

Jimmies is in the harbor near the fishing fleet. Try the seared albacore sandwich.

If you like elegant and higher priced, the Fish Market is adjacent to downtown.

The Corner in OB is a real nice place with a great wine selection. It'll set you back a few bucks.

My favorite bar downtown is The Field. It's an Irish Pub with great drinks and good food.

Another good place on Newport in OB is The Joint. Good tapas and very good sushi.

Wow CD Ima make a list and return for further indulgence. Thanks!

dovecanyoncat wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:20 pm Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night.

We'll be there in 2 weeks ourselves.

azgreg wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 8:23 am

dovecanyoncat wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:20 pm Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night.

We'll be there in 2 weeks ourselves.

I'd love to live there.

dovecanyoncat wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 9:06 am

azgreg wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 8:23 am

dovecanyoncat wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 8:20 pm Hey Merk, we're gonna be in downtown San Diego for 4 nights starting tomorrow night.

We'll be there in 2 weeks ourselves.

I'd love to live there.

Just booked the Wyndham Bayside Hotel for 3 nights. Should be a great time.

I forgot to mention that breakfast at Ortegas is great. Eggs and squid Benedict . Mmm fantastic.

If you guys have any veterans with you, go to North Island and tour an aircraft carrier. Just walk up and ask for a tour. It's free and better than the Midway.

Tumerico has been named the No. 1 place to eat in America
Three other Tucson restaurants also made Yelp's list of the top 100 places to eat in the U.S.

https://thisistucson.com/eat/tumerico-y ... cd161.html

Why am I just now discovering at the age of 46 how goddamn easy it is to make really awesome chicken wings at home??

What method do you use? I use Kenji's oven "fried" one where you use salt and baking powder to dry brine the wings in the fridge for a day in advance then bake them in a convection oven. Just as good as any fried wing I've had. Much cheaper too.

Been air frying them with a spice rub that I coat them in with some butter & olive oil. Very simple very tasty. Going to try the baking powder method next.

Carnitas burrito from Filiberto's.

Chicat wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2024 8:43 am Been air frying them with a spice rub that I coat them in with some butter & olive oil. Very simple very tasty. Going to try the baking powder method next.

Definitely recommend

azgreg wrote: Mon Feb 12, 2024 5:20 pm Carnitas burrito from Filiberto's.

I went 15 years or so without filibertos and now I love their adobada.