Dry white toast

Dry white toast

Seems the jetsetting has caught up, I've got the flu and I ache far too much to eat, let alone cook. There's something to be said for the sad fact that I can't be troubled to eat, but I can be troubled to blog.


Ingredients:

• White bread
  

Time to cook: 3 minutes (slow toaster)
Cost of ingredients: 30cents
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: Ha!

Gnocchi, with Bolognese and Meatballs

Gnocchi with Bolognese, Meatballs and a baby vegetable salad.












Nice and quick to prepare (especially when you cheat and buy the gnocchi), which apparently meant I could spend more time on the photography (note I managed to capture steam for the second time in about 50 posts). I couldn't get any pork mince tonight, so it was just veal and the bolognese suffered for it. The gnocchi was cooked to perfection and the crunchy salad made me feel virtuous as I enjoyed it so much. Managed to get the 3 year old to try all items on his plate, he wouldn't eat the rocket, but he really liked the cucumber.


Ingredients:

• Veal mince
• Tomatoes, canned
• Tomato paste
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt
  
• Basil
• Spicy sausage, cases removed
• Gnocchi
• Baby veg salad.

Baby veg salad

• Cherry tomatoes
• Golden cherry tomatoes
• Baby cucumbers
• Baby rocket
• Baby spinach leaves
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

Time to prepare: About 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: Supermarket isle browsing.

Airline Food: Qantas

Muesli with Yoghurt, Fruit and Milk.




Airlines being what they are they serve meals that make absolutely no sense, we departed san francisco at 11pm and the first meal they served was breakfast! WTF? The muesli actually was very nice, crunchy and just that little bit sweet to contrast with the tanginess of the yoghurt and out of season fruit.


Detectable Ingredients:

• Oats
• Almonds
• Rice bran (I think)
• Wheat bran (I think)
• Yoghurt
• Milk
• Green melon
• Cantelope

Time to prepare: Very little I suspect
Cost of ingredients: I'd guess less than $5
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: little or none

Restaurant Meal: Khan's Mongolian BBQ

Mongolian Chicken with Noodles


Another photo-less meal, sorry. This one was enormous and I couldn't finish it, was very tasty with just the right amount of chili heat to tingle the tongue. The process was cool too, I was given a bowl and then walked along a long line of prepped ingredients selecting what I wanted. When I was finished two guys threw the raw ingredients on a huge hotplate, that looked a lot like a kettle drum, and moved it about with over sized chopsticks. Then when it was done they scrapped it off the hotplate with a flourish and presented the steaming plate to me for consumption.


Ingredients

• Noodles
• Chicken
• Pork
• Bean sprouts
• Capsicum
• Onions
• Spring onions
• Garlic
• Sesame oil
• Chili Oil
• Oyster sauce
• Soy sauce
  
• Ginger
• Sugar syrup
• Salt
• Chicken stock

Time to prepare: About 10 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $US6.49
Number of serves: 1.5
Recipe inspiration: No idea

Restaurant Meal: Santa Clara Taco Bell

Burrito Supreme and Nachos


Suprisingly this meal wasn't enormous, was tasty and wasn't particularly expensive.

Detectable Ingredients

Burrito

• Flour tortilla
• Chicken bits
  
• Beans
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Sour Cream
  
• "Cheese" (it was bright orange and had the right texture, but that's about it)

Nachos

• Corn chips
• Melted "cheese" (again bright orange)
  

Time to prepare: Less than 5 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $5.49
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: No idea

Restaurant Meal: Santa Clara Bennigan's

Chicken Caesar Salad




No photo's again, due to "restaurant policy" as politely explained by our server (and our host and our busboy). Another huge meal, this time an enormous amount of overdressed lettuce leaves. No anchovy, no egg, no bacon, so pretty much no caesar beyond bucket loads of dressing.


Detectable Ingredients:

• Cos lettuce
• Grilled chicken breast
• Croutons
• Caesar dressing
• Cheese (definitely not Parmesan as it was orange)
  

Caesar dressing

• Garlic
• Mayonaise
• Lemon juice
• Mustard (maybe, not sure something had a tang)

Time to prepare: 15 minutes from order to table
Cost of ingredients: $US8.45
Number of serves: 2
Recipe inspiration: Not sure how inspired it is to delete all the yummy bits from a recipe

Restaurant meal: David's at Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club

Seafood Tortellini in Chardonnay Cream Sauce











Medium tasty and over priced. Came with lots of bread to soak up the excess sauce.

Detectable Ingredients:

• Mussels
• Clams
  
• Prawns
• Scallops
• Calamari
• Cheese Tortellini (appeared to be not restaurant made)
• Cream
• Chardonnay (not really detectable, but it was in the name)
• Napoli Sauce (that's the brown stuff, sorry the colours are off, it was really red)
  
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper

Time to prepare: 10 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $US 15.95
Number of serves: 1
Recipe Inspiration: very little.