Sriracha grilled chicken salad and cheesy toast

Sriracha grilled chicken salad and cheesy toast

This is the best and easiest salad of all time.  I did cheat with a couple ingredients such as authentic sriracha from the US, but you can get knock off sriracha from Barrio Chino to do the trick.  My touch of jalepeno, chili jam, however, is only to be found at the farmer's market in San Francisco.  Anyhow, it's a very basic lunch or dinner that I love.

Ingredients: Serves 2

1 bread roll
Cheese of your choice
1 small onion
1 avocado
1/4 kilo of cherry tomatoes
1 salad mix of shredded beets and carrots
2 chicken fillets or 1 large chicken breast, skinless
1/4 cup of mayo
1 large tablspoon of sriracha
1 tsp jalepeno jam (can substitute for honey or other fruit jam)
1/2 tsp honey

Directions:  Whisk mayo, sriracha, jam, and honey together in a bowl.  Add chicken and let marinate while preparing the salad.  Slice onion into very thin slices and add to a pan with a somewhat generous amount of olive oil (this will become the dressing).  Cook on very low heat for about 30 min or so until the onions are carmelized.

Prepare the salad by cutting the tomatoes in half and the avocado into bite-size pieces.  Add to the beets and carrots and toss together with salt and pepper.  When the onions are ready, turn off the heat and let them cool. 

Add the chicken to a hot pan and let cook on high for a few minutes.  This puts a nice sweet and spicy char on it.  Turn the heat down a bit and flip the chicken over and continue cooking until done.  Once ready, slice into thin strips.

Place cheese on bread and toast in the oven. 

Add the onions and remaining oil from pan to salad and mix well.  Add chicken slices to top.  Take out the cheese toast and enjoy.

Easter Brunch

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Closeup of French Toast and Eggs

My friends think I'm just organized and into event planning, some even call me "la patrona", but what they all don't realize is that I only organize events involving large quantities of food.  Easter serves that purpose extremely well.  We decided to hold the annual Easter Potluck Brunch this year at Rich's house and everything came out great.  It's been about 8 hours and we're still in a food coma.  Enjoy the photos and menu with links to the recipes that inspired me!!

Menu:
Baked French Toast
Frittata (corn, cheese, carrots, onions, zucchini, milk, salt, pepper, eggs - put in oven)
Banana Bread
Bacon
Fruit Salad
Fajita de pollo al verdeo (Colombian treat from Joanna's friend)
Potatoes (potatoes, batatas, butter, salt, garlic, cumin, rosemary and chile powder and....butter again)
Medialunas de Jamon y queso

Banana bread, medialunas, fajitas, fruit salad

Full spread with eggs and french toast

Hallie Bartending Mimosas

Casa Mun - New "secret" restaurant

Sashimi and Sushi

Casa Mun is a new closed door restaurant in Palermo/Barrio Norte.  I must admit that I was initially attracted to the dim sum on the menu.  Yes, you read that right: DIM SUM, otherwise known as DIM to the mother effing SUM!!!  If there is one category of food that I miss the most, it could possibly be dim sum and casa mum didn't disappoint.  There were not, unfortunately, lovely Asian ladies carrying around carts of dumplings for me to point at request, but the BBQ pork bun he made was to die for.

The restaurant is in the Chef's house and is only open on Saturday nights.  His business partner takes care of the wine (4 generous glasses and a little champagne reception I might add) as chef Mun prepares a 5 course "trip to Asia".  We had everything from delicate sushi, to spicy tacos, to wasabi guacamole.  Everything was great, the ambiance was fun, and I thought it was a good deal for $190 pesos a piece.  Put it on the list ladies and gents!

Chinese Dim Sum

Korean “Dak Bulgogi” Tacos

Korean “Bibimbap”

Torta Chocolate with Fresh Berries

Sipan Restaurant

My farewell dinner with my mom before I returned to eating licuados and tartas was at Sipan.  Sipan is one of the most expensive restaurants in BA and ranked very highly on guiaoleo, so as peruvian food lovers, we decided to give it a shot.  It was decent, but way overpriced.  We ordered 3 appetizers and 2 entrees for three of us and it cost 700 pesos!!!  Entrees were 150 pesos a piece!  Overall it was good, but not worth it.  P.S. sorry for the missing entree photos, but sometimes I get carried away by the food and forgot to take pics!

Salmon sashimi with passion fruit sauce

Roasted scallops with parmesan cheese

Tempura sushi

Food explorations in the North of Argentina

Quinoa and veggies

 My mom and I went to Salta and Jujuy the other week which is my most recommended travel destination in Argentina.  I loved it, not only for the 1 peso empanadas, but for the changing terrain that goes from lush green mountains, to desert, to jungle, to vineyards in a matter of 100 miles.  To negate each day's walking, we did our best to find the most delicious food and taste everything.  Special plates there range from quinoa to empanadas to humitas to llama to lamb.  Very, very good and very, very cheap compared to Buenos Aires.  If you're in Argentina long enough, you have to make it to the north.

Humita - a must!!

Trout with pesto

Cheese and grape appetizer

Humita casserole

More quinoa

Andean gazpacho

Chicken salad

Squash and zucchini soup

Quinoa tartelettes

Cheese lasagna with humita

Best resturant I've found in Buenos Aires to date

My mom came to visit me last week and we decided to splurge one night on a 9 course meal at a highly ranked restaurant in BA.  I've always avoided this place because it's far away in San Telmo and $195 pesos a person.  Playing the "convert to dollars so I don't feel bad about myself" game, $50 a person seemed like a steal and we gave it a shot.  I'm a total food snob and don't think I've eaten at a restaurant that I haven't said was great for BA standards, but I've had better at home until now!  Aramburu Resto is so beyond good for BA standards that it even ranks among the best restaurants I've been to EVER.  It was so interesting and fun.  Everything tasted great, the service was fantastic, and overall well worth the price coming from someone who drops 200 pesos on meals relatively often.  If you don't want to spoil the fun, don't look at my pictures and just make a reservation and check this place out ASAP.  In fact, let me know when you're going because I'm down to go again.

Mystery box appetizer

4 little tastes

Bread basket in a stone!

Deconstructed Salad

Poached egg from heaven

Sizzling shrimp on a hot stone

Fish made to represent the ocean

Amazing steak and potatoes

Ice cream #1

Ice cream #2 smoking from dried ice

Whole wheat pesto pasta with veggies

Ingredients

 Homemade pesto is the easiest and best way to spice up and ordinary meal.  This week's meal was inspired by all the beautiful, fresh produce I found at the verduleria and my last remaining goat cheese from Tandil.  I loved all the different colors and textures of this one.  Super quick and tasty!

The outcome, not the best photo of all time!

Ingredients: 
- 1 package whole wheat pasta (I choose a tricolor one)
- Fresh basil
- Handful of chopped walnuts or other nut of choice (pine nuts are the traditional, but super expensive here so I usually use almonds, but had walnuts this time.
- Sharp cheese (I use goat, but usually use parmesan)
- 1 eggplant - cut into bite size pieces
- 2 carrots - sliced
- 1 bell pepper - chopped
- 1 onion
- garlic (1 bulb for pesto and 1 for veggies)
- 15+ cherry tomatoes
- olive oil, salt, and pepper

Directions: First make the pesto by adding the basil, 1 garlic bulb, 1/4 cup shaved cheese, a handful of nuts, salt and pepper to a blender or food processor.  Then add about a 1/5 of a cup of olive oil.  Most recipes call for more oil until the pesto become paste like, but I find that you have to add so much oil that it's greasy and unhealthy.  So I just add a bit of water until it starts becoming a paste.  I also usually add about half a container of queso finlandia if I'm going to use it on sandwiches etc.  In this case, I didn't because it seemed like overkill.

Add chopped onion and garlic to a pan and saute until golden and clear.  Add eggplant and peppers and cook for about 5-7 min. When eggplant is nearly done, add carrots.  I hate overcooked carrots, so I add them last.  Cook until eggplant is done.

In the meantime, bring salted water to a boil and add pasta cooking until done.  Drain pasta, add veggies, cherry tomatoes, and pesto to your liking.  Voila!