So, there's a shop next door to ours called Cajun Joe's that is a little barbecue spot, chicken, ribs, wings... It's damn good! And the owner is just a sweet guy, a real friendly and helpful neighbor. His sauce is a delicious savory with a good amount of spice that gives a little heat that keeps you coming back for more! Coleslaw, mac'n'cheese, collards, sweet potatoes, cornbread... All of the best goodies, hearty home-cooking. I wish I could afford to come patronize him more, his food is SO GOOD.
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The best part about this one, is that it's actually made out of LEFTOVERS! I know there are some cultures that don't do leftovers entirely (WHAT?!) but I love it. Especially as someone who is only cooking for myself, it helps to have meals prepped ahead of time. And with taters being such a time-consuming thing to cook, I like to make a bunch and save them for later. Today is a breakfast quesadilla with yesterday's scramble, some more taters, and another of those jam & cream cheese onigiri, and orange juice again. It's very similar to yesterday's meal, but after spending so much time in Tucson, I really developed a fondness for quesadillas that is probably inadvisable, heh.
A quick little before and after! The base of this is some country fried potatoes tossed with black pepper, garlic salt, bacon bits, a bit of chili powder and diced jalapenos, which I divided into the bowl I'm eating now (with some cheese), and the rest set aside for another time. I also made an egg scramble with diced bell peppers, onions and mushrooms (and even more cheese), and one of the strawberry jam & cream cheese onigiri from when I made sushi! I like having that little pop of sweet with my savory, and am especially proud of myself for pre-prepping food! It's a much more efficient way to spend your time, and I like having something on-hand for when I don't have spoons. Papa cannot afford to eat out, so... One does what one needs must. And also a tall glass of orange juice, because I'm feeling a bit sniffly.
So, there's this really cool spot called Steelyard Commons, and, in the most Cleveland of fashions, it's a strip mall right next to a steelworks, the sheer industrialist vibe is pervasive everywhere, from the ex-quarry it's situated in to the architecture of the mall itself -- AND IT'S A NICE ONE! Walmart, Target, Home Depot, some restaurants, fast food joints, GameStop -- lots of really useful things in one very convenient spot. Among those restaurants is a Steak 'n Shake, which I mentioned I had never been to, although my father had always spoken of very highly.
So my roomie decided to help me fix this. I ordered a Jalapeno Burger (because of course I did), and it was a pretty solid burger! The fries were nice and crispy, the aesthetic was FANTASTIC (I'm a sucker for a vintage diner, especially one with an open kitchen) and the milkshakes were well deserving of their praise. Thick, creamy, but not so thick that I feel you gotta get a spoon out to actually eat the thing, but not so thin that you can suck half of it down without thinking of it. WE CRUSHED IT. It was fucking tasty, and I definitely get the hype! The crew were awful obliging and friendly, considering I was geeking out and taking so many pictures. Like, the guy working the expo station especially was happy to answer all of my ridiculous questions and was very amused by obnoxiousness. I want to blame the sugar from the milkshakes, but really, it was the aesthetic I was geeking out about. I really like retro diners, okay? It's a weakness. I gotta say, of all of the cuisines in the world, a couple of my favorites are probably Italian and Japanese. In particular, sushi is one of those things that I kind of have to budget into my diet because I have a... Problem.
One of the ways I've done to help this was learn how to MAKE sushi, from scratch, which has mixed results, to put it kindly. I've had sushi parties in the past, especially back when I was doing the bento blog back in college. I recently just got myself some new kitchen gadgets -- in particular, an onigiri press and sashimi press, so I wanted to finally play with my new toys to make some SUSHIIIII!!! First up is some black bean soup/chili stuffed onigiri. Onigiri is a rice ball, usually stuffed with something -- in the past, I've made it with jelly as a dessert (too much sugar, yikes) but bean paste or a meat thing is really common in Japan. I had some leftover chili, and decided that would be good enough, so I tried it, and it was actually REALLY CHOICE. Of everything, weirdly this was the thing I thought was most successful. Will def do this again. I also made a tamagoyaki rolls (traditionally this is a sweet egg omelete, but mine are just omeletes with a touch of sugar for sweetness) with duck sauce, a "spicy tuna roll" that was some canned tuna tossed with cayenne and soy sauce (...It was alright), and another odd vegetable one with carrots and cream cheese (...I was running out of things) and another with jalapeno, carrots and cream cheese. Fresh jalas in a sushi roll is great for texture, questionable for taste. I also made a tamagoyaki sashimi (with a touch of duck sauce to attach the egg to the rice -- usually it's wasabi or something like that), and a pickle roll (miracle whip, bread and butter pickles and carrots) that... Was actually pretty good. I tried something similar with the tuna, but it did not stick together terribly well, so I ended up making them into onigiri with a sesame seed garnish, because I was trying to make my trash sushi look extra. The last two little buckets were my very-originally-named Sweet & Savory Flavor Bombs (TM), with one made with cream cheese and strawberry, and the other with cream cheese, carrots and jalapeno. It was alright. There was one last black bean onigiri with spicy mustard in it that was dangerous to eat, but still tasty. All in all, it wasn't all great, but that's what experiments are for! I actually really loved having onigiri made up -- they're a nice pop of grain and protein, and when you warm them up they make a great on-the-run snack or small meal. And there's just something fancy about heating up some handmade onigiri and adding it to your plate like that's just a thing you do, and I might endeavour to do that some more in the future! I also like having a vegetarian sushi roll made up that, again, makes for a great addition to a meal or as a side in a bento box or lunch. And of course, after all of my cooking and prepping and experimenting was done, it was time to ACTUALLY EAT!!! Have some poor boy's instant miso to go with it, shall we? Again, Japanese food is a thing I really enjoy, and little ways like this to enjoy it a little more in my day-to-day diet helps scratch that itch more than the rather expensive vice of dropping $50 at a sushi bar, heh. Not that I'm going to stop doing that, but sometimes the budget just doesn't allow it. One needs must make compromises and be realistic about his financial limitations. OH RIGHT. BREAKFAST. Today's breakfast is a sammich made with wheat toast (I occasionally attempt to eat better, but don't count on it), miracle whip, pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions, fried ham and a pair of eggs, over medium. NOSH. I personally love to have a breakfast sandwich with eggs not entirely cooked so that they pop nicely when I slice a sammy in half, but sometimes I overdo it, as I did here. It's sad, but it happens. I've been doing this thing where I keep a jar (think pickle jar) of diced onions, one of jalapenos, that kind of thing. So it's easy to toss half of a handful into the pan before the ham and then eggs (EGGS GO LAST, ALWAYS!!!) so that we get some sweet, grilled deliciousness to go on the sammich, but to be very fair, that's an extra step than I usually do. Def worth it (as evident by me destroying half of it before I remembered to take a picture...), and the pepper jack cheese is always a nice touch.
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Brunch w/ BlakeHalf-boricuan, half-corn fed Indiana hick. Stir in a taste of the southwest and serve in LA, on the rocks. #BrunchWithBlake #FoodPorn #LAFoodie Archives
July 2021
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