Mallards baseball + Banzo

Fattoush

I finally made it to a Mallards game. Beckie, Will, and I stopped at Banzo for dinner beforehand. I had the fattoush special and a side of falafel. Beckie has the falafel sandwich, and Will opted for the falafel platter. The fattoush (Levantian bread salad) was light and wonderful and featured more veggies than I expected. Their falafel is good. This time, it was a bit too dark, and it hasn't made me forget the Caspian Cafe's version. Alas, the Caspian Cafe has been gone for quite some time.

Falafel platter

Laura's July Visit

Laura tore herself away from her little Penny for a few days recently. As a special treat, we indulged in Muramoto, choosing à la carte items from the Restaurant Week menu, as well as favorites from the regular menu.

Seaweed salad

Chilled oyster trio

We started with the seaweed salad and the chilled oyster trio. From the left is the Thai relish, the cucumber granita, and the red wine mignonette threads. Our favorite by a far cry was the Thai relish. The other two were bland by comparison, but the Thai relish had the just right amount of garlic and spice. I wish we could've had all three with the Thai relish topping.

Oshkosh

Kristine and I ventured to Oshkosh for a conference not that long ago, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a Filipino restaurant called Manila Resto near our hotel. You don't often come across Filipino food, so we gave it a try. They also had sushi, and while we didn't try it, we heard rave reviews from other diners. We started with a fresh spring roll, or lumpia in Indonesia and the Philippines. (Fresh seems a bit redundant because I think of spring rolls as unfried. That's not always the case, though. Here's Wikipedia's take on the fried vs. unfried debate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_roll). The roll was nice, but the sauce could've taken down the sweet a notch and added more spice.

Fresh spring roll

Lumpia, or spring roll

Summer Dinner

Jim and Mike visited my humble abode for a lovely dinner earlier in the summer. The boys brought a Southwestern chopped salad with cilantro dressing that I'd seen on Pinterest. The Garden Grazer is responsible for the recipe. This is the first time I've encountered it, but it boasts some wonderful vegetarian recipes.

Southwestern chopped salad

Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

SALAD

Ingredients

Large head of romaine
15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 large orange bell pepper
1 pint cherry tomatoes
2 cups corn (I used frozen, thawed)
5 green onions
Creamy Cilantro-Lime Dressing 

At the beach

Earlier in the summer, Sona and I hiked at Governor Nelson, and there were some cool windsurfers taking advantage of the windy day.

Elise's visit

Elise visited from Milwaukee last weekend. She arrived around 10:30am, and we chatted and caught up. Then we made fish tacos (with tuna steaks and grilled, not fried). 

We hit a few garage sales, and since she'd never been, we went to Olbrich Gardens.

Muppets

Chicken pho

The Daleys and I took in Muppets in Space on the Memorial Union Terrace awhile ago. Beforehand, we attempted to try the bánh mì (a French-influenced Vietnamese sandwich) at the Viet Hoa Market in Monona. Alas, they were out of the sandwiches by the time we arrived. (They said to call ahead next time, and they'd make some.) I am not deterred, though. I shall try again.

Book of Mormon, the El, + Deep-Dish 'Za

On the El train

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting The Windy City to see The Book of Mormon. In the cab on the way to the show, the driver suggested that we take the El* instead of a cab, which was very kind. It saved us money and time since the ride was going to be about an hour and a hour downtown in rush-hour traffic. We made sure to give him a generous tip, so he wasn't being too slighted by offering the suggestion. Plus, it was a special treat for me because I'd never ridden the El before.

For dinner, we stopped at Trattoria No. 10. We had the baby spinach salad with crispy pancetta, radicchio, pears, goat cheese, pistachio, and goat cheese vinaigrette and black--hooray for squid ink--tagliatelle with scallops, shrimp, calamari in a tomato-fennel saffron sauce.

Indian Dinner

Saag paneer

I used the saag paneer recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East Vegetarian Cooking. Since I ran out of spinach from the garden, I substituted kale, which was surprisingly good. I might use it instead in the future. Also, I omitted the heavy cream because it didn't seem necessary.

Saag Paneer
serves: 4-6

Ingredients
1-in. cube of ginger (peeled and coarsely chopped)
3-6 garlic cloves
1/2 to 1 hot green chili, sliced roughly
paneer
salt
1/4 tsp. garam masala
1/8 tsp. cayenne
6 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1.5 lbs. spinach
3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Lunch at Chautara

Lamb palungo

I had the pleasure of lunching at Chautara recently. I'd heard they were closing in July, so I was determined to get there before they left. From the waitress, I learned that they'll be closed for 6-9 months, but then are moving into the Shakti space next door. This was a welcome discovery since I'm very fond of Chautara. Their fish dishes are especially lovely.

Piggies

Sardines with fennel + orange 

At Pig in a Fur Coat, Teresa and I had sardines with fennel and orange on whole wheat crostini, dates stuffed with chorizo and piquillo peppers and topped with a red pepper puree, and lamb carpaccio with pea shoots, egg yolk, and herbs. The dates were my favorite. I wasn't sure about the combination of dates and red pepper. I was worried it'd be too much sweet for me, but I was pleasantly surprised. The spiciness of the chorizo and peppers cut the sweetness of the dates.

Dates stuffed with chorizo and piquillo peppers

My least favorite was the lamb carpaccio. It was stringy and not terribly appetizing.

Lamb carpaccio