Friday night we decided (at least temporarily) to avoid the Beer Week ridiculousness and stay in. We ordered Chinese from our new favorite take-out place Golden Empress. One great thing about this place is that they have a full vegetarian menu, even with some vegetables on it! As opposed to just being fake meat. Of which there is a lot. We have gotten both meat and vegetable items and everything has been great. I especially enjoy the pan fried pork wontons and the Moo Shu chicken. While eating we watched Changeling. I was fairly impressed. I honestly did not expect a whole lot from this, mostly because I didnt know anyone who saw it. But it was very good. Angelina Jolie was great and actually looked distraught and disheveled and overall not terribly attractive in some scenes. Which I totally mean as a compliment. You know those movies when a women is going through (quite literally) hell but is still well coiffed and made up? I hate that. The acting all around was very good, particularly by John Malkovich and Jason Butler Harner, with the notable (in my opinion) exception of Eddie Alderson. In case you, somehow, don't know the movie, it is about a woman (Angelina Jolie) whose son disappears in LA in 1928. The much-scrutinized, scandalized and criticized (in large part by John Malovich) LAPD reunites her with her son five months later. Except the boy they reunite her with is not her son. And the LAPD does not want to admit the "mistake." It explores police corruption, the powerlessness of the everyday citizen, especially women and a little bit of psychosis in 1928 while showing the power of organization, friends in high places and a little bit of hope. The movie is beautifully done and I believe it is well worth the 2 and a half hours.
After the movie Matty went to Doobies with Dan for the tail end of the Yuengling event there and met the owner and talked for awhile. I read. Currently nearing the end of Needful Things. I am enjoying it, though feel like I probably should have read the other Castle Rock books first.
Saturday we headed up to Northern Liberties for brunch at El Camino Real, the new Tex-Mex restaurant by Bar Ferdinand owner Owen Kamihira. We had really high hopes as we absolutely love Bar Ferdinand. And we were pretty disappointed. Our brunch was ok. We got the brisket hash (wagyu beef brisket, potatoes, poblanos, corn, with 2 fried eggs on top) and carnitas burritos. The brisket was very good, very tender but the whole dish felt like it was missing something. Hot sauce helped. And I think if my eggs were actually over easy (like I ordered them) the yolk would have helped pull things together. It was good, it just wasnt something I would order again. The burritos were interesting. Just onion, cilantro and pork, served in 2 flou tortillas. The pork was definitely on the dry side. Carnitas is not supposed to be dry. It was tasty, but dry. And since there wasnt much else going on the in burrito, it was pretty noticeable. Though it was served with salsa verde (which was very good) and that helped, as did hot sauce. We ordered chips and salsa as we were starving and the chips were good and both the red and green salsas were very good. But they were free and so we were wondering why we had to ask if they had chips and salsa instead of being asked if we wanted some. And the service was AWFUL. The place was about half full and they had plenty of wait staff but it took forever for us to get anything. We want to try it again before passing full judgement. We have heard great things about the ribs and the mac and cheese and due to our Bar Ferdinand love, we will give them another shot.
After brunch we stopped at the Foodery for some Irish cider for me for that night and then headed home for some baking. Matty (with my help) made Irish soda bread and an Irish Apple Cake. The soda bread is my mom's recipe:
4 1/2 C flour
2 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking Soda
1 tsp baking Powder
¾ C raisins
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 C buttermilk (I use cultured lowfat)
1 lg. egg lightly beaten
400 degree oven
1. In large bowl mix first 5 ingredients
2. Stir in raisins and caraway
3. Add buttermilk and stir with wooden spoon, then with fingers knead 10x with well floured hands
4. split dough into 2 round loaves and brush with egg.
5. Put 1 inch slash on each round.
6. Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet for 35 – 40 minutes until golden.
*Dough may be a bit “crumbly” – just barely holding together
* I make the rounds about 11/2 inches thick so they cook through in 35 minutes.
Both the cake and the bread were great. Well, I dont like caraway or raisins, so I didnt like the soda bread. But everyone else did. It is a lot moister than most and is very tasty. The cake is really good too. It is mostly apple (4 apples to 1 cup flour) and the batter is very yummy. We served it with a caramel sauce with some whiskey mixed in (for good measure). Very yummy indeed. We made this all for Dan's St Patty's Day party Saturday night. We also brought Irish Potatoes candy. Again, not something I like but seems very popular around here. Dan made corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Your basic boiled dinner. And there was Guinness and Smithwick's and whiskey. And Bailey's for car bombs. A drunken time was had by all, or at least many.
Unfortunately, due to an emergency in the mouse colony, I will have to finish this up later. So come back for a parade and a Speed Racer review.
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