Pretzel 2.0

There has been much clamoring and demand for my pretzels, and as my cousins are in town it seemed appropriate to make some. Butter, flour, salt, and yeast, all this and a lot of love: these are the things that pretzels make. Topped with a gentle egg wash and finished with some whole grain mustard. The simple things in life can sometimes be the best.

Rack of Lamb in Rosemary and Thyme

These bad boys were later given a wonderful whole mustard crust and finished in the oven, however I was too engrossed the act of consumption to snap a good capture, that is how incredible these are. High quality lamb, vacuum marinated in fresh rosemary thyme and olive oil, cooked to high quality perfection. There are few flavors in the world that might rival this.

ISO 1250

35mm

f/6.3

1/160 sec [Speedlite 430ex]

Whiskey Apple Bacon Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing Balls

Oh Thanksgiving, the most food glorious of holidays. Everyone loves a well brined bird and some smooth sweet potatoes, but we all know the most satisfying part of the Thanksgiving meal is the stuffing. Thank the Ahlquist family for sharing their traditions with me last year, they gave me the idea to alter my own recipe into the shape of balls. Whiskey Apple Bacon Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing Balls: its a mouth full.

ISO 1600, 250, 250

35mm
f/7.1, f/5.0, f/5.0

1/25 sec. [430ex speedlite on the last two]

Perfect Mid-Rare

New York Steak, perfectly seasoned with red Hawaiian sea salt, and fresh ground black pepper, cooked to a perfect medium-rare, thinly sliced and served on toasted garlic bread rounds. This appetizer, this glorious taste of Heaven kept us from leaping off the edge of insanity while the ribs cooked, slowly and carefully to the apex of tender savory flavor.

ISO 640
19mm
f/2.8
1/60 sec

Memphis: Build your own burger

Tuesday nights are build your own burger night at Memphis in Santa Ana. Needless to say I built a burger. [Top] Mid Rare buffalo on baby greens, tomato slices, caramelized onions, with bacon, chèvre and chermoula. The chèvre was nice, but a bit over powering, the chermoula came out quite nicely adding just the right amount of spice to compliment the buffalo without covering it up. You can imagine the rest, bacon, onions, greens etc. A very savory burger. Buffalo is a touch dry, I'll go rare next time. My friend had a southern sandwich as his custom burger, I hesitate to call it a burger though. Fried Chicken with red onion, bacon, and a fried egg, with melted aged cheddar, smothered in rich country gravy. Both came on a very nice egg burger bun. I got sweet potato fries, and he got gumbo. It was good.

ISO 300

30mm

f/4.0

1/50 sec

Canon 430ex speedlite [bounced off of the wine list]

Banh Coun

I'm pretty sure I spelled that word wrong, so if any of you know Vietnamese please help me out. I'm not actually sure that is what this dish is called, except that it is delicious. Rice noodles wrapped around pork and mushrooms. Topped with a blend of cucumbers, herbs, sprouts, and toasted garlic. The dish is then finished with the gentle sweet tang of fish sauce. mmmm so Vietnamese.

ISO 500
27mm
f/5.6
1/40 sec.

New York Steak

Steak. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure if this counts as more of a steak or a roast because of its size and the way it is served, however I do know that the cut of beef would be New York Steak if we were to cut steaks out of it so thats what it is. Steak. I want it, in my mouth, right now. mmmmmhgph.

ISO 400
50mm
f/2.2 f/2.8 resp.
1/2000sec 1/60 sec resp.

Figs

Figs. I never knew how much I liked figs. I mean newtons are a cake and not a cookie, but this is an entirely different animal. Above you see figs. Stuffed with almonds and blue cheese, wrapped in double thick bacon, pan seared and baked to melty blue cheese almond perfection. purr. feck. shun.

ISO 400
50mm
f/2.2
1/50 sec

KBBQ at home!

For a long time I have deeply enjoyed a genre of foods known as KBBQ or Korean BBQ. Such establishments commonly have little gas powered BBQs embedded into their dining tables, and provide, for some nominal fee, limitless meats to be grilled therein. Today I did the unthinkable. My mother, God bless her, brought home, presumably from a Korean market, an otherworldly amount of Korean style marinated short ribs. I made them, and sautéed some mushrooms and green onions, and toasted up a baguette. KBBQ! At Home!

ISO 1000
35mm
f/4.0
1/30sec

Bun Thit Noung

So my mother has been on a streak, she has been making all these wonderful, colorful, childhood favorite Vietnamese foods for me to eat. Guess who has been eating and taking pictures of them. This is Bun Thit Noung. Or rice noodles, with grilled pork and shrimp. There is a mysterious melange of vegetables and herbs in there, basil, mint, some herbs that don't have recognizable English names. Some pickled carrots as well. Topped with crispy garlic and fresh home made fish sauce. Oh yeah. its good.

ISO 1600

16mm

f/4.0

1/60 sec