sörenberg bahnen

Sacha here! You might remember me from Erin's review of Pho 54 . I am also known as  @zigged . Our  2014 family road trip  took us east to visit my dad in New Jersey + enjoy adventures in Ocean City, MD, and New York City. The itinerary I planned included stops at restaurants that are reported to be culinary gems. This time: SangKee Asian Bistro. To be honest, I didn't find this one on any list (although its website says it was voted Best in Philadelphia Magazine 2006). It was suggested by a college professor of mine that we planned to meet for lunch. Of the few choices he offered, this one looked the best. The Huz, The Kid, and I all got the bento box lunch special ($13), which is a choice of three items. We all chose shrimp with fresh garlic sauce as the main item, which was fantastic. Tail-on shrimp, snow peas, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, and maybe a few other things all tossed with an  umami licious sauce. He got jumbo lump crab cake and chicken ho...

As everyone knows, tomorrow is National Toasted Marshmallow Day, and while I’ve never done an actual toasted marshmallow video (because that would be ridiculous), I do have something even better to celebrate with...this s’more ice cream pie! Not only is this very easy to make, and a proven crowd-pleaser, but just think of all the money you’ll save on sticks. Follow this link to read the original post . Enjoy!

Some recipes just shouldn’t be translated to English. It’s not that telling your guests they’re having “Cock with Wine,” sounds so bad, it’s just that after dinner I want them tweeting about how great the dish tasted, not how funny/inappropriate the name was.  The other issue would be one of false advertising, since I have no idea where you get an old rooster these days. I like to use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs instead, which I think work perfectly here. Like all braised dishes, tougher cuts with lots of connective tissue work best, and on a chicken that would be the thigh/leg section. Of course, someone will ask if they can use chicken breasts, and technically you can, but please don’t. They just will not add that sticky goodness to the braising liquid that the thighs will. This really is a simple recipe, and all gets done in one pan, but there are several steps, as you build up fond after fond. Before any wine or stock hits the pan, we want a thick, gorgeous layer of caram...

I was celebrating my friend @wibia’s birthday with him and he chose Bluebeard for lunch (ok, I might have heartily suggested it as well). If you read my blog, you know I am a really big fan of Bluebeard—although lunches there have been a little more mixed for me than dinners. We split a small roasted beet salad to start ($7). I have said it before, but I think Bluebeard has some of the best salads in town. They do just the right amount of various different ingredients with interesting dressings that are properly balanced and are tossed with the salad. This one had roasted beets, field greens, feta and really crispy fried shallots with a balsamic truffle vinaigrette. Just the right combo of things—and things I wouldn’t normally think of putting together that tasted really good. I had the shrimp po boy sandwich ($10). I am often lured in by shrimp po boys and I figured Bluebeard would do a good one. They did. It was a nice soft roll that was filled with what they called tempura shrimp, ...

Do you have a lot of zucchini this summer? If so, this is a great way to use it. This treat is super chocolate-y, super moist (in fact it gets even more moist on day two), super easy to make and freezes very well. (2) one ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate (melted) 3 large eggs 3/4 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup white sugar 1 cup vegetable oil (I used canola) 2 cups shredded zucchini (squeezed dry then measured) 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 + 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips Things to do first: 1. Preheat your oven to 350° 2. Toss the chocolate chips into the measured flour to get them well coated,that way they won't sink to the bottom of the bread as it cooks. 3. Grease two large (9" x 5") loaf pans. I lined mine with parchment and then greased the parchment (this bread tries to stick to the pan if you go light on this step, but with the parchment p...

During the Great Depression, sandwiches weren’t quite what they are today. Forget about choice of aioli, or did you want roast tri tip or smoked turkey; back then it was more like, “Did you want cucumbers in your sandwich, or nothing in your sandwich?” Okay, cucumbers it is. At the end of summer, the excess "cuc" crop was sliced, salted, pickled, and put up in jars for the cold, lean months ahead. If you thought summer Depression-era sandwiches sucked, it was much worse in winter, when you couldn’t even find a bland vegetable to slap between your slices of buttered bread. I can just imagine what a treat it must have been to fill a sandwich with these sweet crunchy coins, or "bread and butter pickles," as they came to be known. I’m sure it was a wonderful break from what must have been a fairly flavorless existence. Happily, times are a bit better now, and we only make these because they taste really good. So, make a batch, experience a little piece of American cul...

The Pint Room is a new venture in Carmel following in the growing trend of restaurants having extensive beer lists. I can take or leave the whole giant beer thing, because I’m really just not a beer girl, but when I hear there is a potential for good food, you know I have to check it out. And I know a lot of you guys are really into the whole massive beer list thing—so if you are, you should check it out. I met my friend Suzanne there and we ordered a couple of things to share. When a restaurant calls itself a “Burger Bar,” you have to order a burger right? And as soon as we read the description of the “Hangover” burger, ($12) we knew that’s what we wanted. Pint Room uses a blend of Kobe beef and US Prime chuck and I like that they cook it to order. The blend of beef they’re using makes for a very tender burger—it’s a fairly thick style, but because of the tenderness, it’s really good. The Hangover is topped with a slight runny fried egg (you can see how it lured me in), smoked cheddar...

Sacha here! You might remember me from Erin's review of Lucky Lou Seafood Restaurant . I am also known as @zigged . Our  2014 family road trip  took us east to visit my dad in New Jersey + enjoy adventures in Ocean City, MD, and New York City. The itinerary I planned included stops at restaurants that are reported to be culinary gems. This time: Red Egg. Way back in April I came across a post (via Twitter ) on the best dim sum places in the country . It was no surprise to see a restaurant in Manhattan but HALF-PRICE DIM SUM? That spoke to this cheapo's heart. When The Kid asked to see a Broadway show , and The Huz wanted to see the 9/11 Memorial , my request was for a discount dinner. Do we know how to do a day in Manhattan or what? Sui mai There were six of us at the table, as two friends (whom I knew from Twitter but met that day for the first time) joined us. It allowed us to order quite a sampling of the goods. I wish I could be more specific but I forgot to take t...

Hubby and I had a date night and nothing specific planned, so we decided to check out the new Union 50. And then a week or so later, I ended up back there with girlfriends, so I had a chance to sample a fair amount of food. I have always enjoyed Chef Layton Roberts’ cooking (originally at Mesh and then at Meridian) so we were looking to see his spin here. Union 50 is kind of more of a bar first I think, and then a restaurant. As for the food, I liked it. Hubby and I started with an order of the salmon lox ($10) and a small order of the hand-cut fries ($5). You can get the fries with several different flavors, and you also get to choose two dipping sauces. We had the duck fat and rosemary fries (how can you say no to duck fat?) and the truffle aioli and beer cheese sauces (incidentally we ordered the exact same combo with the girls). The fries were spectacular. Hand cut and super crisp with the extra richness from the duck fat and a touch of woodiness from the rosemary. They looked almo...

I saw this technique on the Huffington Post a while back, and while it wasn’t the first time I’d seen, or used the micro-method, it was the first time I’d seen it in video form, thanks to the lovely and talented, Carl Blemming . By the way, I’m assuming Huff Po didn’t pay him anything for it, so to make up for that, neither will we. This proves something that I’ve known for years…no matter how great a kitchen technique is, unless you use it regularly, you’ll forget about it. Usually, as soon as I get home from the store, I shuck the corn, and go from there, but as soon as I saw that ear go into Carl’s microwave, it all came back. Now I can forget about it all over again. I’ve heard through the grapevine that some other food channels have also published this “hack” recently, but since I don’t watch anyone else, I can’t confirm those reports, but I couldn't have been the only one. The point is, it works. It works perfectly, and I hope you give it a try soon. Enjoy!

This topping rates 5 out of 5 stars for an ice cream topping, but it is also DELICIOUS over pancakes, pound cake, cheesecake and right out of the jar with a big spoon!! It is nice and thick and bright red (not a hint of watery-ness........is that a word?)  It is economic to make for a large crowd and it keeps well in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Only TWO ingredients!!     2 pounds of frozen strawberries 1 cup of sugar   I buy large bags of bulk frozen strawberries from our local discount store. I let them thaw for about 1/2 hour or so, then I pulse them in the food processor several times until you get a fairly small dice.   Add 1 cup of sugar, stir and put it in a heavy bottom kettle (heavy bottom kettles help it cook but not scorch). Cook on medium high heat until you get a good boil going, then turn down the heat to a medium low boil and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes.   After 20 minutes, remove from he...

I’ve never been a big fan of panzanella salad. I love the flavors in the dish, but stale, soggy bread just isn’t something I crave. The sogginess is understandable, as this dish was invented as a way to ingest rock-hard bread, but now that we’re just making it for fun, and not to avoid starvation, we can tweak a few things for texture’s sake. The key is frying the bread cubes in loads of olive oil, in a skillet, which obviously makes them crispy, but the healthful fat also soaks in and renders them semi-waterproof, or should I say dressing-proof. The same goes for the dusting of Parmesan we apply halfway through. You may be tempted to save some work and bake them in the oven, but don’t. By using the pan, you get nice, crispy surfaces, but the very center of the crouton stays just a touch chewy. The oven tends to dry the bread out, and you don’t get the same texture. The gorgeous pool of tomato juices, oil, and wine vinegar will still soak in, and soften the bread, but you’ll still ge...

After a recent back to school event the family and I decided to hit George’s again. It’s in our neighborhood and it had been awhile. I appreciate having a large family style restaurant that is independently owned, even though it isn’t a place I frequent on a regular basis. Luckily, it was a nice night and we had decided to sit outside (they have a nice patio) because when I walked in to get a table, there was a band playing in the bar and it was pretty darn loud. Even in the non-bar part of the restaurant, conversation would have been a bit difficult. We were all arguing over which appetizer to share and couldn’t agree so we splurged and got a sampler platter (not cheap at $15.99 but basically three different things for the price of two apps). I appreciate that you can choose pretty much any of the appetizer choices. As it turns out, they basically give you three full sized apps, so it is a good deal, although a more appropriate choice size-wise for a larger group. We had quesadillas (...

Okay, now all you broke college students can leave me alone (he said with a wink). This delicious orecchiette pasta recipe only has a handful of ingredients, is very cheap to make, and probably most importantly, only uses one pan or pot for the entire procedure. Every year when it’s time to go back to school, I get inundated with requests from students to post recipes that are super easy, only cost pennies, and require a bare minimum of kitchen equipment. This should work. And here’s a quick idea; the next time you're going out to get another tattoo, don't, and instead go buy something for your kitchen. Do this every-other time, and you’ll eventually have a nicely stocked kitchen, and still plenty of ink covering your body. Anyway, back to the recipe! Cooking pasta in the pan with the other ingredients lets it absorb more flavor, and the starch it releases creates a very nice, rich, and comforting sauce. This does require you paying attention and constantly adjusting at the st...

I throw away a lot of tortillas, do you? I use 5 or 6 out of a package and freeze the rest with good intentions of using them later, but I never do. Before long they are covered with ice crystals and hiding in a dark corner in the freezer. So I recently decided to teach myself how to make flour tortillas. I was pleased to discover that they are very easy to make in the food processor and very inexpensive as well. They also taste worlds better than the ones from the store, I promise!! It is like the difference between store bread and bread out of the oven. This recipe makes (8) 8" tortillas 1+3/4 cup all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil (see note below) 1/2 cup of hot tap water In a food processor, place the flour, baking powder, salt and vegetable oil.  Pulse several times until it looks like coarse corn meal. While the food process is still running, stream in the hot water (it doesn't hav...