Week 37 - Mystery Ingredients

For the mystery ingredients challenge, someone else was supposed to go shopping for you, and then you were supposed to make a meal with what they got. We decided to model the challenge after Chopped (meaning I would have to use specific ingredients but was free to use whatever else I wanted), and on our last Trader Joe's visit, A went around the store choosing 3 random items. Since we don't have a fully stocked pantry at home like they do at Chopped, I then picked up whatever else I would need on the same trip to supplement our pantry.

The ingredients A chose were:

- 3 portabello mushroom caps ($2.49)
- 2 ears of corn ($0.98)
- 1 package (4 sausages) of weisswurst ($5.99)

The other ingredients I used, some of which I picked up on that visit and some of which we already had at home, were:

- olive oil ($0.20)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.79)
- about a cup of shelled edamame ($0.90)
- 1/2 batch of scallions ($0.65)
- lemon juice ($0.05)
- freshly ground black pepper ($0.05)
- garlic powder ($0.05)
- dried sage ($0.15)
- a couple tsp of chopped fresh parsley ($0.45)

The total for the meal was about $12.75, a little more than we would normally spend for something like this, but quality weisswurst didn't come cheap. At least the bulk of the price was from the "starring" mystery ingredients and not what I used to supplement it.

My plan was to make a saute out of the corn and sausage with some other vegetables, and then top that with some grilled mushroom caps. I wasn't sure exactly what else I would end up using, since I wasn't sure what the weisswurst tasted like, so I picked relatively mild vegetables to start with. The prep took more time than I was expecting, but there was a lot to wash and chop - mushrooms, onions, sausage, corn, scallions, and parsley. I also boiled some water and let the frozen edamame sit in the hot water while I prepped other stuff.

For the mushroom caps, I just added some olive oil to our grill pan, added the mushrooms, and brushed them with olive oil. I grilled them over medium heat for a while, and then switched it to low while I waited for the saute to finish. I figured some extra time over heat would only make them softer (or at least that was what I hoped would happen). They were on the grill pan probably for at least 20 minutes.

For the saute, I started with the onions, then added the (already fully cooked) sausage to brown, followed by the edamame and corn, and finally the scallions. After some of the sausage had warmed in the pan, I tried it to see what seasonings I should add. The main ingredients in the weisswurst were pork, veal, heavy cream, parsley, with some other seasonings including salt, white pepper, and ginger. The sausage itself was really mild in flavor but what I did notice was a very lemony aftertaste to it, much more than I was expecting. The package had advertised it as a "traditional German holiday sausage with lemon and parsley," and the lemon definitely stood out.

Although it was the predominant flavor, it got more muted once the vegetables were mixed in, so I added some more lemon juice, along with black pepper and garlic powder. I tried it, but I still didn't think it had enough flavor, so I added sage, one of my go-to spices. Had I thought of it earlier before I put in the sage, I think I might have gone with herbs de provence. I added what I thought was a little too much sage, as more shook out of the jar than I planned, but I think it ended up being the right amount. To finish off the dish, I added some fresh chopped parsley after taking the saute off the heat.

This saute was relatively simple but it came out well. I was lucky that A was nice to me, and didn't throw in some completely random ingredient like mango cereal bars or gummy candy. Part of the reason was that he knew that we'd both have to eat whatever I ended up making, so it was in both of our best interests that it not be a complete cooking experiment fail. I actually really enjoyed this challenge for making me try to think more creatively on the fly. I don't usually go into cooking for the night having no idea what flavor profile I'm using, so this was good for getting out of the box.

Week 36 - Famous Dishes

When the theme for Week 36 came up as famous dishes, it sounded a lot like last year's signature dishes challenge. Iconic restaurant dishes seemed to fit this theme though, so I decided to make something I've been wanting to make for a long time - imitation cheddar bay biscuits, based on the ones they serve at Red Lobster. Those were easily the highlights of most of our past meals at Red Lobster, so I thought for dinner we would have our own Red Lobster night.

Cheddar Biscuits
I started off with this recipe on Damn Delicious for the biscuits, which I had printed way back in 2014 but had just never gotten around to making. I made a couple of changes, but mostly stuck with it to try to get the flavor just right.

The ingredients for the biscuits were:

- 2 cups all purpose flour ($0.25)
- 1 tbsp sugar ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp baking powder ($0.25)
- a little more than 1 tbsp garlic powder ($0.10)
- a few grinds of salt ($0.05)
- a pinch of cayenne pepper ($0.05)
- 1 cup buttermilk ($0.95)
- 1/2 cup butter, melted ($0.50)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese ($1.75)
for the topping:
- 6 tbsp butter, melted ($0.40)
- a couple tbsp chopped parsley leaves ($0.45)
- 1 tbsp garlic powder ($0.10)

The process of making the biscuits was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Using this recipe, it was so fast! I hadn't realized how quick it would be, or I would have done a lot of the prep before I started mixing the biscuit ingredients because the baking time was definitely not enough time to get all of the other parts of dinner done, like I thought it would be. The steps were:

- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, garlic powder, salt, cayenne).
- Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a medium bowl and then add buttermilk, and mix together.
- Add butter/buttermilk to dry ingredients and mix together until batter forms. (I followed her advice and used a rubber spatula to mix everything.)
- Add cheese and fold in until relatively well spread throughout the batter.
- On baking sheet lined with parchment paper, scoop out mixture in 1/4 cup measuring cup. (I was amazed that it made exactly 10 biscuits. Nothing ever comes out that even when I make it!)
- Bake for 12 minutes. (I probably left them in a minute or so too long.)
- While biscuits are baking, melt the 6 tbsp of butter and chop the parsley, and mix both together with the garlic powder.
- After biscuits are done, brush with the parsley butter mixture.

Really easy and so quick! If I knew it was that easy to whip up a bunch of cheddar bay biscuits, I would have done this ages ago.

Overall, the biscuits were pretty good. They weren't exactly like the ones at Red Lobster, because I think those are a little softer and more buttery, but they were definitely good (and better than waiting for 2 hours to eat at Red Lobster). I was thinking I could get even closer to those if in the future, I made these changes:

- bake for 12 minutes and not longer.

- allow the buttermilk to warm up to room temperature before mixing with the butter.

- brush with the butter mixture immediately after pulling out of the oven. When the biscuits were done, I was still chopping the parsley. Once I added it to the 3 tbsp of melted butter from the recipe, we quickly realized it was impossible to brush them with how much parsley was in there. (I thought it was 1 tbsp when I was chopping it, but it was probably more like 2.) So then we had to melt another 3 tbsp of butter and mix it all together. All that time was time that would have been better spent with the butter soaking into the hot biscuits, but hopefully that will be the case next time. Even with 1 tbsp of parsley, I'm not sure the 3 tbsp of butter would have been enough, but I'm glad we did it our way because I liked adding more parsley.

- more garlic powder in the batter, more garlic powder in the topping.

That said, they were good as they were, but they would probably have been even better with those tweaks. I decided to test my theory later in the week since we still had more buttermilk to use up (after using it in both pancakes and mashed potatoes, and there was still some left after those), and make another round of biscuits. But this time, since we were just eating biscuits without anything else, I also added some corn and bacon. They had to bake longer because of the different ingredients, and it made for 12 (well, 11.5) biscuits instead of 10, and we didn't have parsley at all so I just used the 3 tbsp of butter for the topping, but otherwise they came out about the same. They were fluffier, more buttery tasting, and texture-wise, a little better than the first set earlier in the week. Still not as garlicky as we would have preferred or thought it would be from the amount of garlic powder, but pretty good.

Soy Ginger Cod

Originally, I thought about making shrimp scampi to go with the cheddar bay biscuits, but changed my mind and made the rest of dinner a little healthier to offset all the butter and starch in the biscuits. Most meals at Red Lobster consist of seafood + sides + biscuits, so fish and vegetables seemed like a good match. I had picked up some pre-marinated soy ginger cod on a recent Trader Joe's visit, so we made that.

The main ingredients in the marinade were soy sauce, sugar, olive oil, miso paste, ginger, garlic, and rice vinegar, pretty much what you would expect from the advertised flavor profile. I followed the instructions on the package for cooking - 2 minutes on each side in a covered skillet, and then a minute or so uncovered with the marinade added. The fish came out perfectly. It was flaky and soft, and not overdone at all. The marinade was a little salty, probably more salty than if I made it myself, but it was so convenient not having to do that step for dinner. We would get this again.

Quick Sesame Snow Peas

I bought some snow peas to make alongside the soy ginger cod since we happened to be at the store the day before the challenge and I could get them fresh. I didn't really have a plan for them, figuring that maybe I'd just saute them in some olive oil with garlic, but decided to survey some snow pea recipes online to see if there were other ideas that might fit better. I decided to go with these quick sesame snow peas I found on The Kitchn, as it seemed pretty easy and like it would go well with soy ginger cod.

The ingredients were:

- 9 oz snow peas ($2.29)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil ($0.20)
- lemon juice (not sure exactly how much, I just added until it seemed right, which I know is unhelpful) ($0.20)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- sesame seeds ($0.10)

A did most of the work on the snow peas since I was preoccupied with the butter topping for the biscuits and needed to get the snow peas done simultaneously to clear the burner for the fish (the problem with having limited counter space). Basically, you just heat the sesame oil, add the snow peas, cook them for a couple of minutes stirring constantly until "tender crisp," add the lemon juice, remove from heat and cover, let stand for at least 5 minutes (ours sat until the fish was done), add salt, pepper, and sesame seeds, and mix everything together. Very quick, very easy, and fit right into the timeline as we could let it sit while the fish was cooking. This was a pretty basic snow pea preparation, and I could see us making it again sometime if it fit what we were eating.

Red Lobster Night

The total for our entire Red Lobster-esque meal was about $14.08 ($4.95 for the biscuits, $6.29 for the cod, and $2.84 for the snow peas). That's not too bad for a meal with so many components, including one being fish, and likely cheaper than eating for one at Red Lobster. We even had a couple of biscuits left over (although they were not as good refrigerated as they were fresh). It was a pretty nice dinner and the biscuits were almost as addictive as they were in the restaurant. We had to stop ourselves from eating all of them that night, which is usually what happens there too. Would definitely do this again.

Week 35 - Nordic

Our feast for the Week 35 Nordic challenge didn't fully come together until the day I made it. I had decided earlier that I would make some Lindström patties (based on this Guardian recipe page, but with turkey instead of beef), and figured I would follow the Guardian's suggestion and just serve it with pan-fried potatoes and a vegetable side dish (although I planned to do peas instead of mangetout, which I hadn't known at first were snow peas). The day I was going to make the patties, I decided to search to see if there were any Scandinavian potato recipes and came up with a recipe for sugar-browned potatoes on Epicurious. Since that only had basic ingredients that were already in our pantry, I decided to do that for our potatoes side, especially curious about how it would be since it had been published in House & Garden back in 1964.

Lindström Patties

The ingredients for the Lindström patties (adapted a bit) were:

- 1 lb ground turkey ($4.99)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- 2 egg yolks ($0.20)
- a little more than 1/4 cup of cornichons ($1.35)
- a little more than 1/2 cup of pickled beets ($0.85)
- 2 spoonfuls of capers ($0.25)
- about 1 tbsp dried chives ($0.10)
- 1/2 medium onion ($0.25)
- butter for pan-frying ($0.25)

The total for the patties was about $8.29, not too bad for turkey burgers.

The steps for making the patties were:

1. Prep - finely chop onions, finely chop cornichons, chop capers, finely chop beets, and measure out chives.

2. Add ground turkey to mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper, and add the 2 egg yolks. Lightly mix together with hands.

[Note: The original recipe said to also add some water here, which I did, despite my instincts telling me not to. I thought the vegetables had more than enough water content, but followed the recipe anyway. As soon as I poured the water in, I knew it was a mistake (at least for the ingredients we had), as it was like the ground turkey was swimming in soup. It was going to be way too watery after mixing in the ingredients, as there would be nothing to bind it or soak up the water, so I drained most of the water out, and then added more pepper to replace the stuff that got washed away.]

3. Add all the chopped vegetables into the turkey mixture and mix together well with hands. (Don't overmix, but just make sure everything is evenly distributed.)

4. Form the turkey mixture into patties. (To make them all fit on one plate, I made them into meatball shapes and then flattened them out when pan-frying them. I had to squeeze the water out when making the meatballs and then again when flattening the patties. Way too much water.)

5. Melt some butter in a frying pan, and then pan-fry burgers, a couple of minutes on each side until cooked through. (I had so many that I ended up doing them in 3 batches.)

It was sometimes hard to tell whether the patties were done because they were still pink from all the beets. I ended up cutting one patty from each batch open to check them, and they were cooked through. (It also gave us an excuse to eat a few patties before dinner since it was late.)

Overall the patties were really good. There was sweetness from the beets, saltiness from the capers, and a nice sour flavor from the cornichons that all worked together really well. It was nice eating patties with so many vegetables inside, as they tasted so healthy.

Sugar-Browned Potatoes

I followed the original recipe for these potatoes pretty closely, other than using baking potatoes instead of small boiled potatoes, mostly because we had the giant bag from Costco. The ingredients I used were:

- 2 large baking potatoes ($1)
- 2 tbsp sugar ($0.15)
- 2 tbsp butter ($0.20)
- sprinkling of salt ($0.05)

The total for the potatoes came out to $1.40. Paired with our vegetable side (5 large mushrooms, a couple cups of frozen peas, and the other half of the onion cooked in olive oil) and the patties, the total for dinner was approximately $12.94. It made a lot of food, and there were some potatoes and vegetables left over for lunch the next day, so it seemed worth it.

As far as making the potatoes, the process was pretty easy. Boil the potatoes until fork tender and then drain. Melt butter in a pan, add the sugar, and stir constantly as the sugar browns (but doesn't burn). Add the potatoes, coat them in the sugar, and keep stirring until potatoes are browned or as done as you want them to be. When they're done, take them off the heat and sprinkle with salt, and mix some more. Because of the constant stirring, I was really glad I had A's help so I could fry the patties at the same time.

The potatoes were really good, and when we first tried them, we could definitely taste the difference. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about sugar-browned potatoes, thinking they might be too sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the taste. They weren't super sweet (not like candied yams or anything), but the mild sweetness of the sugar helped the flavor of the potato come out. The subtle sweetness was really good. We were impressed. No wonder this recipe from 1964 is still floating around out there.

Overall, our Nordic night dinner was a really good meal. We would make both of these dishes again (the vegetables are pretty standard and we make stuff like that all the time). It was a little time-consuming making 3 different dishes at once considering the size of our kitchen and amount of usable counter and stove space, but it was really delicious.

Week 34 - Fire

I wasn't sure what to do for the fire challenge. It sounded so similar to the camping and outdoorsman challenge, which had also been complicated since we couldn't cook over an open fire in our small indoor apartment kitchen. That situation hadn't changed in the past few months, so I figured I was going to have to go with the spicy interpretation of "fire" (but how would that be any different from last year's spicy food challenge?). After doing some more searching through the recipe folder on my computer, I found the perfect "compromise" recipe - this escalivada recipe from Serious Eats. The recipe gave instructions for how to make this over smoldering coals, but also alternatively in an oven. A recipe that would qualify for fire but with an oven alternative? Perfect.

The ingredients for the escalivada were:

- 1 medium eggplant ($1.79)
- 1 red pepper ($0.99)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.50)
- olive oil to coat the vegetables, about 1/4 cup ($0.75)
- salt and pepper to coat the vegetables ($0.05)
- about 1/4 cup olive oil ($1.50)
- a few tsp sherry vinegar ($0.30)
- 1/2 batch of parsley, chopped ($0.90)

The total for the escalivada was approximately $6.78. We paired it with a few panko chicken tenders and a microwavable rice packet, so the total for the entire dinner was probably somewhere around $12 or $13. This made a big bowl of escalivada, but since they were really just roasted vegetables, we ate it all in one night.

The steps for making the escalivada were:

1. Wash and dry the eggplant and red pepper. Rub the eggplant, red pepper, and onion with olive oil and top with salt and pepper.

2. Create a separate foil packet for each of the 3 vegetables.

3. Bake vegetables at 350 degrees for 2 hours.

4. Remove vegetables from oven and open packets to allow vegetables to cool.

5. Remove the vegetables from the packets. Remove skins from the vegetables (as much as possible - in our case, some of the skin stubbornly stuck to the eggplant). Remove seeds from bell pepper. (The recipe said to do this for the eggplant too but the seeds were all mixed in with the flesh, and I would be throwing away too much if we threw away the seeds, so I left most of them in.)

6. Rough chop vegetables and put in a large bowl.

7. Chop parsley and add to vegetable bowl.

8. Mix vegetables together. Add about 1/4 cup of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and then add a couple tsp of sherry vinegar. Adjust flavors to taste.

The escalivada was really tasty, and it felt so good to eat something so healthy. It took a lot of time to put this together, mostly because of how long the vegetables had to roast, but it was pretty easy to do. No idea if the flavor would have been different roasting it over coals, but we were happy with how it turned out. We love eating healthy Mediterranean food and this was really good.

Week 33 - Cajun

The theme for Week 33 was Cajun, and when it was announced, I immediately wrote down "jambalaya" on my meal planning list. There were lots of options for Cajun food, but I went instantly to jambalaya. I based my version on this Emeril recipe for Cajun jambalaya, figuring that if it came from Emeril in this arena, it was likely solid.

This jambalaya is one of the more expensive challenge meals we've done. The ingredients we used were:

- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced ($1.50)
- 1 lb of medium sized shrimp, peeled, deveined, chopped ($9.99)
- Emeril's essence seasoning, a few tbsp ($0.20) *
- 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.40)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 1/2 large green pepper, chopped (about 1/2 cup) ($0.50)
- about 1/2 cup chopped celery ($0.30)
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped ($0.10)
- 1 can diced tomatoes ($0.75)
- 3 bay leaves ($0.20)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.05) **
- 1 cup brown rice ($0.50)
- about 3 cups of water ($0)
- 2 spoonfuls of chicken bouillon ($0.50)
- 1/2 lb smoked andouille sausage ($4.60)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)

* A had put this together back when he made Emeril's recipe for shrimp and grits, and we still had some leftover. Cost of the portion here is pure estimation.
** There was also supposed to be about the same amount of hot sauce, but apparently our Cholula was really old. It did not taste good, so it's a good thing I tested it before just adding it.

The total for this meal was approximately $20.14. (I should have calculated it right after I made it, since now I'm writing this post a few weeks late and I'm not 100% sure on the amounts I used.) Not our most expensive challenge dinner ever (so far, I think it's this one), but definitely up there.

The steps for making the jambalaya were pretty straightforward, but prep did take some time. The steps were:

1. Prep proteins - remove tails and chop shrimp. Chop chicken. Combine shrimp and chicken in bowl with the essence seasoning, and work seasoning in well. Allow to sit while preparing everything else. Chop sausage (or do it later while cooking since it's one of the last things to be added).

2. Prep vegetables - chop onion, green pepper, celery (I skipped this since I had pre-chopped celery from the freezer), garlic.

3. Add olive oil to large saucepan, and then add onion, green pepper, and celery. Saute for a few minutes, and then add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce (and hot sauce if you're not us).

4. Over medium heat, add rice, water, and chicken bouillon. Cook until rice absorbs all the liquid and is ready to eat. I don't remember how long that took.

5. Add shrimp, chicken, and sausage. Cook until meat is done. I think this took about 10 minutes like the recipe said, but didn't really count the minutes (and don't really remember).

6. Season with salt, pepper, and more essence seasoning.

The jambalaya turned out really well, so I kind of wish I remembered more about exactly what I did. (This is why I should at least write down some notes after I make something!) It was a nice, hearty, flavorful one-pot meal with a nice kick to it. But as tasty as it was, it was really expensive, and we don't really like spending that much on a single dinner. We might make this again, but it's not going to be part of our regular rotation.

Laurenzino

When it came time for our second (and final) dinner in Brugge, we had no idea where we wanted to go. We figured we would wander the streets a little bit, and then pick someplace that looked good and didn't have too much of a line, maybe picking up some snacks along the way. At some point after walking through the winding streets, we ended up right across the street from the grocery store we visited earlier in the day and decided to pick up some wafels.

One of the things we knew about eating in Belgium was, when in Belgium, get wafels (and chocolate and beer). We hadn't actually had any wafels yet during our few days in Antwerp and Brugge, and Laurenzino seemed to be highly recommended by others (and our guidebook), so we stopped in for a wafel.

We decided to split a wafel with chocolate and sugar on top. Chocolate is always a good topping for Belgian wafels. Unfortunately, the shop wasn't that crowded at the time, so the wafels weren't being freshly made when we got there and a few were already sitting out under the heat lamps. It was still good, but we imagined that it definitely would have better had it been made fresh.

Considering how much walking we would do before finally finding a place to eat dinner, it was probably a good idea that we split this wafel for a snack. It seems that in the 6 years since our visit, Laurenzino has closed (according to Foursquare via Timehop). Although it wasn't the best wafel we got on our trip, it was satisfying and we're glad the shop was there.

Delhaize

After having some beer at the brewery, we wandered the streets of Brugge a little bit more, ending up at a grocery store called Delhaize. We wanted to pick up some snacks and some breakfast, since we had run out of the breakfast bars we had gotten from Albert Heijn, but also we just wanted to visit our first grocery store in Belgium as part of our usual grocery store exploration.

Most of what we found in the store seemed pretty standard, although we did find some bottled packs of Brugse Zot, the beer we had just consumed after our brewery tour. Since we only had one more night in Brugge, we didn't feel the need to buy a six-pack, but it was nice seeing it for sale in town.

I enjoyed browsing the condiments section, something I like doing at home too, finding samurai sauce (similar to what we had on our Vleminckx fries), other fry sauces, and tons of mayonnaise (which, technically, would also be a sauce for fries). There were a lot more mayo varieties there than I had seen at home.

The beer aisle was also well-stocked. In addition to the Brugse Zot, there was all sorts of other "local" beer. It's great when you can call stuff like Chimay and Leffe local. We didn't drink as much craft beer then as we do now, so at the time, we thought people in Belgium were pretty spoiled with so much good beer. They still are, but there's plenty of good and interesting stuff at home now too.

I think I just thought these cookies and crackers looked fun and interesting, but I'm not really sure why else I took this picture. Because of the Smurfs, Spongebob, and the Simpsons? It's been 6 years. I have no idea.

We were amused when we wandered into the frozen section and saw bolognese pizza. We had already been commenting on how everything in Brugge seemed to be about bolognese, so seeing even more bolognese (and there was more than just the pizza) just reinforced that point.

We didn't buy a ton of stuff from our grocery visit. We did pick up one of these Magnum Gold bars that had been advertised all over Amsterdam while we were there, and ate it while walking back to our hotel (in circles, as we got slightly off track again). From what we remember, it was a relatively standard ice cream bar with a little salted caramel, but good quality.

Our mini grocery haul - breakfast bars (really just Special K bars like we have at home with red berries), Yakult (most of which A drank in the hotel room that afternoon), strawberry fruit-tella candies (sweet and very chewy), and some big bottles of water. Not a very exciting haul, but we weren't looking to pick up a lot during our travels. I think this was the only grocery store in Belgium that we really spent any significant amount of time in, so we were glad we were able to make the stop.

Brugge Food and Drink Touring

6 years ago today we did some food tourism while on our travels in Brugge, Belgium. The two places we ended up seeing were Brouwerij De Halve Maan, the local brewery, and Chocolatier Dumon. Both places were very interesting to see and taste, and we were very happy to have done some local business sightseeing.

Having already gone to a local brewery in Amsterdam (twice), we wanted to get a tour of a local brewery in Brugge as well. De Halve Maan does brewery tours for a fee, currently €8.50. They're run in either Dutch, English, or French and run approximately 45 minutes. They also now offer an "XL tour" that includes a private beer tasting and tips on how to properly taste beer. This option wasn't available when we went, though, so we didn't get a chance to do it. Be warned that the brewery has a lot of stairs, some of which are steep and narrow, and the ceilings aren't always extremely high. I had to duck a lot to get in and out of places since I'm tall, but if you're like M and more vertically challenged, you probably won't notice.

The tour itself was interesting for me. I always enjoy hearing about the history of breweries, and this one is especially old (established in 1856). It was also very interesting to see how the brewery adapted to fit into the building they were housed in to maximize space usage while also providing adequate facilities to brew the beer.

At the end of the tour they give you a glass of their Brugse Zot Blond in their restaurant/tasting room. They describe it as: "Brugse Zot Blond is a golden blond beer with a rich foam collar and a fruity yet spicy bouquet. The beer is brewed with four different kinds of malt and two aromatic varieties of hop which give the beer its inimitable taste."

I don't remember much about the beer, but I do recall that I had ordered one recently at a restaurant since it was local. What I do remember is that it was crisp and refreshing but without much of the hoppiness that I've come to love in recent years. It was refreshing and a perfect end to the tour.

After the brewery tour we went to Chocolatier Dumon, a chocolate store that I believe is famous as I had heard of it prior to doing any research into Brugge. That could be an entirely false memory, but I definitely remember hearing of it long before we went. Regardless, whether or not my potentially false memory had anything to do with it, I'm glad we made the visit. The smell of chocolate hits you as soon as you step in the door, and the lady working behind the counter was very patient to answer all of our questions and also offer samples. They had a special Ecuadorian dark chocolate that they had just gotten in of late, and the sample we had was amazing. In the end we opted to purchase a sample box full of a lot of their chocolates (white, dark, and milk) including a piece of the special Ecuadorian. It was supposed to come with a marzipan piece as well, but M mentioned that she wasn't (at that time) a fan of marzipan. The lady was very nice and offered to substitute another piece of the Ecuadorian in its place, and we were more than happy to accept.

We really enjoyed our time in Brugge a lot, and this day of local food tourism was incredibly enjoyable. It's so great to sample locally made specialties when we travel, and we definitely recommend visiting both if you have the time.

Khao Man Gai NY

Earlier this summer, we stopped by the Urbanspace Broadway Bites market for a lunch break as we wandered the city hunting Pokemon. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, it was pretty crowded, but relatively manageable. One of the stands that caught our eye was Khao Man Gai NY. We remembered that they had won a Vendy Award as a market vendor, and decided to start our lunch adventure there.

Although we really like khao man gai and it would have made sense to try their namesake dish, we were really drawn to the tom yum noodles on offer as well. It was really tough to decide between them, but eventually we chose the tom yum noodles, figuring it would be easier for us to share that one. The dish was rice noodles mixed with pork belly, ground pork, fish balls, peanuts, Chinese celery, scallions, bean sprouts, chili paste, and lime juice. It felt a bit like eating pad thai but with all the spicy and sour flavors of tom yum soup. We had never had noodles like that before, but were pretty satisfied as the taste was excellent.

Coming in at $10, the noodles weren't cheap, but nothing at Urbanspace ever is. We did really like them though and would get them again, along with maybe trying the khao man gai and maybe one of their Thai iced tea varieties. Although this summer's Broadway Bites is a distant memory, Madison Square Eats starts up tomorrow, and they are scheduled to be part of the fall market, so maybe we'll make it down there to try some more good stuff.