I love any excuse to pull out Mr. Dragon: just please don’t tell him he cosplayed as a snake this year (made possible by his lack of any legs)…. We pulled a selection of dim-sum-adjacent recipes from my Try file for a Lunar New Year brunch. I think the youtiao were the biggest hit b/cContinue reading “ESC #33: Year of the Snake”
Tag Archives: esc
Catching up with ESC: 30-32
Just focus on the cute olive penguins and ignore how far behind I got with documenting these…. The penguins were from #31: Tree-hunting Edition, and they weren’t actually experimental—I’ve made them before. I don’t remember where I got the recipe/idea (you can basically see how to make them). I’m going to go out on aContinue reading “Catching up with ESC: 30-32”
ESC #30: Birthday Edition
I had kinda given up on ever being able to make the “linguine ricci di mare” recipe from my Try file because it involves fresh sea-urchin roe (most commonly known by its Japanese name, uni). When its fresh, uni is one of the best things you can put in your mouth on the planet: itContinue reading “ESC #30: Birthday Edition”
ESC #29
In which we encounter the only true failure of the ESC series to date…. An Asian theme on this one. The winner for everyone was the dessert. The lumpia were very good as well, and the chive green beans straightforward and flexible. David Chang’s Spicy Pork Sausage Ragu with Rice Cakes was the problem here;Continue reading “ESC #29”
ESCs #27 and #28
[Insert usual apology for the lack of pictures; as is manifestly apparent at this point, I can’t cook and take photos at the same time….] ESC #26 had a Southwest Asian vibe. The fish curry and samosas were the standouts. The cauliflower was fine, and the golden compote, while promising on paper, turned out tooContinue reading “ESCs #27 and #28”
ESC #26
This one had a sort of late-summer-at-an-Argentinian-estancia theme. It was all pretty good, but the lomo al trapo stole the show—as you would expect from a $90 piece of meat that you wrap in a red-wine soaked dish towel and throw into a fire…as long as it comes out right, which it did b/c it’sContinue reading “ESC #26”
ESC #25: DessArt Day 3 (Bookmaking)
Nicole taught us how to do a fun and easy pamphlet bind with a paper cover, and some folks painted really pretty watercolor covers for their books. Favorites on the menu included the blueberry pie and the salted caramel mousse, but the butterscotch bars and meringue cookies also got lots of thumbs up. Ugly ButContinue reading “ESC #25: DessArt Day 3 (Bookmaking)”
ESC #24
Woo, this one was chef-y; at least the main course. I cannot for the life of me locate the Food & Wine recipe for Grilled Black Cod and Herb Bundles with Elk Spice online anymore, but it’s probably not up your alley unless your alley runs behind a Michelin-starred destination restaurant on an island inContinue reading “ESC #24”
ESC #23: Afternoon Tea Edition
Well, as usual, I didn’t take photos, and that seems particularly unforgivable when you’re stacking lovely little tea goodies on étagères…. But as there’s no going back, I’ll just give you notes on the menu. Personally my favorites were the mini lobster rolls and the scones, the latter of which got a little melty inContinue reading “ESC #23: Afternoon Tea Edition”
ESC #22
This one had a rough Moroccan theme. The Bizzy Izzy cocktail was OK, but I got a little loosey-goosey with the substitutions (arrack for bourbon–I know, what was I thinking?) and had to off-road pretty significantly to save it–turned it into a champagne cocktail, because who doesn’t like a champagne cocktail? I can’t give youContinue reading “ESC #22”
The Rookery 