Momosan Ramen

It's getting really cold here in NYC which means it's good weather for ramen and other noodle soups. We were over in Bryant Park looking at the holiday shops last weekend, and decided to try someplace new for dinner. Chef Morimoto's ramen shop, Momosan, opened back in the spring, but we hadn't made it over to Murray Hill yet to try it, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Everything on the menu looked so good, but we managed to narrow down our choices to two bowls of ramen and an appetizer. We often over-order, but the tables at Momosan are mostly communal, so if we ordered a lot more dishes, we probably would have looked like giant pigs to all of our neighbors with their single bowls of unfinished ramen.

For our appetizer, we went with the tetsunabe pork gyoza ($10), which was pork and chive gyoza served on an iron skillet (that would be the tetsunabe). A word of warning if you order the gyoza - the hot plate with the gyoza comes out, and then they pour sake on top followed by the ginger scallion sauce. It sizzled a lot and there were lots of little pops of oil all over the table and our phones (and probably our clothes). The gyoza themselves were good. The pork and chive filling was hearty and flavorful, and the ginger scallion sauce balanced that out nicely. Four gyoza for $10 isn't cheap, but they were really tasty.

For the ramen, we decided to get two different types so we could try more. A chose the tonkotsu ramen ($13 for the regular/large, $10 for a smaller portion; we got the larger one for both) with pork chashu, aji-tama (soy marinated egg), takana (pickled mustard leaf, not sure if that is the same as the Chinese pickled xue cai but it tasted like it), kikurage (wood ear mushrooms), toasted nori, garlic oil, and soy tare. The tonkotsu ramen also had scallions in it even though they weren't listed. This ramen was really good. The broth had so much depth and richness to the flavor, and all the vegetables included complemented it well. The chashu was soft and tender. Everything about this ramen was good.

I chose to go with the Tokyo chicken ramen ($12 for larger, $10 for smaller size) which had steamed chicken, aji-tama, menma (soy braised bamboo shoots), seared garlic chive, kikurage, toasted nori, and soy tare. After trying the broth in A's tonkotsu ramen, the broth in the chicken ramen seemed a little more one-note. It lacked some of the nuance and the depth that the tonkotsu ramen had. It was still good and had a lot of flavor, but just not as good as the other one. This ramen had menma and garlic chives instead of the takana and scallions; personally I would have preferred the second but these were good and probably were better with this broth. The aji-tama was delicious, and good in both ramen bowls. Overall this chicken ramen just tasted very clean.

The Momosan menu had a page devoted to the concept of "nobiru," which they described as "the condition where noodles absorb soup and get soggy." They apparently worked with Sun Noodle to develop noodles more resistant to that condition, which held their texture for longer. The texture did seem to hold up better than some other places, which was good since I tend to eat slowly. As far as the amount of food, we were pretty satisfied but not stuffed. That just meant that a few hours later we had room to eat some freshly baked cookies to celebrate National Cookie Day. Overall we really liked our visit to Momosan and are already plotting when we can return to try all the stuff we didn't get to this time.

Taloula Mango's

The second stop on the Quantum was St. Maarten. After breakfast, we headed into the port, grabbed a cab, and made our way to Maho Beach. We were hoping to see more than one beach during our time in St. Maarten, but between the weather and limited time, we only made it to Maho. That was our priority though, since we really wanted to see the planes landing at the airport, especially the giant KLM one. It was fun, even if we were huddled under the umbrellas at the bar in the pouring rain, and later under towels we had taken from the ship as blankets for warmth. After we watched many planes land, we took a cab back into Philipsburg, walked around a little bit, and then decided to get some lunch at Taloula Mango's, which was located on the Philipsburg boardwalk.

Taloula Mango's bills themselves as a Caribbean cafe, and most of what we found on the menu were pastas, sandwiches, and other standard cafe fare with a Caribbean accent. To start, we got an order of the Caribbean conch fritters (6 for $10.25, prices as of two years ago and we think in USD) to share. These were described on the menu as "tender conch minced with red and green peppers with a touch of fire in a cornmeal batter served with two Caribbean dipping sauces." One of those dipping sauces was sweet and the other seemed like a yellow curry mayonnaise.

The conch fritters were kind of crunchy on the outside, maybe a little bit over-fried, but the filling was good. You could even see the pieces of conch inside. We really liked dipping the fritters into the yellow curry mayonnaise.

A chose to get ribs for lunch, more specifically the one from the tapas section of the menu called "good ass baby back snack" ($10.95). The menu noted that this was "one slab of deliciously marinated fall off the bone baby back ribs." A really liked these and thought they were cooked well and had a nice char flavor. They didn't exactly fall off the bone, but they also didn't take much effort to eat.

I decided on the jerk chicken caesar wrap ($8.25) for my lunch. That was described as "classic caesar salad rolled in a toasted spinach tortilla with jerk chicken," and came with sides of red cabbage slaw and watermelon. Pretty sure I gave the watermelon (or most of it) to A, but the cabbage slaw was nice and crisp. The jerk seasoning on the chicken was pretty light, not as spiced as most jerk rubs we've had before, making it more like a regular, nicely seasoned grilled chicken wrap, but that was fine for lunch.

From our seat on the second floor at Taloula Mango's, we were able to see the beach and take in the atmosphere of the boardwalk, which was pretty fun. It was so nice to be able to escape winter and sit in the open air with ocean breezes while we ate and drank some lemonades to rehydrate. While the food may not have been the most exciting we had on our trip, it was solid and we were happy with our choice.

Devinly Decadence

One of the places we were most excited to eat on the Quantum was Devinly Decadence, the "healthier" restaurant on the ship. Unfortunately at the time that we sailed, lunch and dinner there cost extra, and only breakfast was included. They eventually changed that and made it another free option, but not soon enough for us.

On the fifth day of our trip, we finally got up early enough (they closed before the Windjammer) to make it to Devinly Decadence for breakfast. We were really happy with what we found. Most of the breakfast was a buffet but we found far more interesting things in this buffet than the one was the Windjammer. So many of the dishes had so much more flavor and were made with healthier ingredients. We pretty much decided then and there that any day we could get up early enough, we'd be here for breakfast instead. It also wasn't as crazed as the Windjammer since they didn't have some people's breakfast essentials like bacon and egg yolks.

Some of the stuff we got on our first visit included turkey chili-topped egg white scramble, breakfast enchiladas, sweet potatoes o'brien, turkey chorizo patties, asparagus-chicken apple sausage scramble, and another turkey sausage crumble. Lots of chicken and turkey mixed with seasonings, spices, egg whites. What a difference from the Windjammer.

There was also plenty of yogurt and some sweet snacks (although M greatly preferred eating all the savory stuff they had). A also found the yogurt and savory items far more interesting.

We were really happy with our breakfast. It was great to eat something different and so tasty, and it was the perfect fuel before we headed off for our day in St. Maarten!

Week 50 - Umami

Umami, the "fifth taste" (which wasn't taught as one back when I learned them in elementary school), was the Week 50 challenge. I wasn't sure what to make, but mostly because there were lots of options. In the end, I decided to concentrate on a couple of Asian ingredients commonly associated with umami - miso and fish sauce.

The recipe that I was immediately attracted to was Bon Appetit's ginger miso glazed eggplant. It sounded so good, and after seeing the photo, I really wanted to make that. (I'm easily convinced by cookbook and recipe photos...)

The ingredients I used, slightly adapted from the original, were:

- 4 Japanese eggplants (about 1.3 lbs) ($1.82)
- olive oil (enough to brush all the eggplant slices) ($0.40)
- 1/3 cup miso ($1)
- a couple tsp of ginger paste ($0.25)
- a couple tsp of toasted sesame oil ($0.20)
- a tsp of reduced sodium soy sauce ($0.10)
- a tsp of white vinegar ($0.05)
- a few grinds of black pepper ($0.05)
- a few shakes of sesame seeds ($0.10)
- 1 bunch of scallions, chopped ($0.75)

(Is it obvious that other than the miso, I didn't measure anything precisely and just eyeballed it?)

The steps were:

- wash eggplant and cut into slices about 1 inch thick (I don't know if they really were since I didn't measure but they didn't look nearly as thick or cover as much of the eggplant as the ones in the photo)
- brush both sides of each eggplant slice with oil and put on parchment lined baking sheets
- bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through

- make sauce: mix miso, ginger paste, toasted sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and pepper, along with 1 tbsp of water
- once sauce is well combined and miso has broken up, add 2/3 of the chopped scallions and the sesame seeds, and stir well

- after the eggplant are done baking, add the sauce on top of each slice, covering as much of the eggplant as possible
- bake at 425 degrees for another 10 minutes or so (the original recipe says broiling, but we still haven't figured out how to use the broiler on this oven so I just baked it)

The eggplant came out so well, and as soon as I ate the first piece off the baking sheet, I knew I wanted to make this again. Even if I don't use Japanese eggplant in the future, I can see using this miso sauce for lots of vegetable applications, or even as the basis for sautéing things in general. The sauce was just so good, and it went so well with the eggplant. I just wish Japanese eggplant were easier to find closer to home.

For the second part of dinner (which I decided on that afternoon without much advanced planning), I made some tofu and mushrooms with a marinade that I found at A Love A Fare after googling tofu and fish sauce together.

The ingredients for this portion were:

- 1 package of tofu, cubed ($1)
- 6 large mushrooms ($1.94)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce ($0.10)
- 1 tsp sesame oil ($0.10)
- 1 large spoonful minced garlic ($0.10)

The total for the tofu portion was approximately $3.34, which when added to the eggplant and the brown rice we ate with it, made for a grand total of just over $9.

After making the marinade by mixing together the fish sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and garlic, I marinated the cubes of tofu for at least 20 minutes (wasn't really keeping track). Then I added the tofu to a large pan with some olive oil (and whatever liquid marinade was left), let it cook for a few minutes, and then added all the mushrooms and cooked them together, stirring every so often, until they were done.

The tofu and mushrooms were really good, and you could definitely taste the fish sauce from the marinade. The marinade is really simple, and I think I should use it again sometime when cooking tofu with lots of vegetables. Overall, the umami dinner was pretty successful in our opinion!

Sriracha Chicken

It was late afternoon yesterday when I went for lunch thanks to a bit of a doctor's office fiasco, so I wanted something quick. There was a Wendy's nearby, and they're probably my favorite of the big 3 fast food spots, so I stopped in there, lured in part by the giant sign for bacon sriracha fries. Once inside though, I saw that not only were there bacon sriracha fries, but a sriracha chicken sandwich. That sounded even better to me.

After doing a quick check online to make sure there was no broccoli slaw hiding anywhere in the sandwich (I've been surprised by it before), I ordered it. The sandwich (which is technically called the "spicy sriracha chicken sandwich") had a sriracha-infused bun, spicy crispy chicken, sriracha jack cheese, a few slices of applewood smoked bacon, creamy sriracha aioli, spring mix, and red onions. It seemed like they pretty much added sriracha to every single component that they could. It showed, as the spice of the sriracha was definitely there. There was a bit of a burn (in a good way) from the sriracha. I liked the sandwich.

As I thought about the sandwich more and more as I was eating it, I realized that this might be the closest thing I've had at Wendy's to the wild mountain chicken sandwich that they offered more than a decade ago and that I still miss. I think I mention this sandwich every single time I try something new at Wendy's, but I can't help it. It was so good. That one had a southwestern pepper sauce instead of sriracha aioli, and because of it, the spice there was more zesty than the burn of sriracha. There was also colby jack instead, which I preferred to this cheese. But otherwise, it was close. It was good on its own and even better because it came close to the best sandwich they've ever made.

Light Salad Snack

Our visit to San Juan was nice, although brief. It's always tough when you're only in port for less than 6 hours, and those hours are in the evening. It really limited what we could do since attractions started closing and there really wasn't enough time or daylight to travel much. Working with the schedule we had, we did have a good time strolling the city, touring the governor's mansion, and having some dinner (that delicious mofongo!) and yogurt.

Once we were back on the ship, for some reason I felt like I really wanted a light snack. I don't know how I could have possibly been that hungry after eating a full dinner and then some yogurt for dessert, but maybe it was that whole "always eating while traveling" feeling I've mentioned before. (To be fair though, it had been at least 2.5 hours since dinner.) The easiest thing to do to try to satisfy those cravings was to head back up to the Windjammer.

I got some more of the tabouli, since it was my favorite thing from lunch, along with some of the chana chaat from the day before and some vegetables from the taco bar. Looking at what I got, it was clear that what my body wanted were things that were light, fresh, and full of vegetables. It was a pretty big contrast with the meat and potatoes people we were people-watching were eating while we were there. (It was truly amazing to me how people could eat solely meat and potatoes and in such a large quantity. I'm clearly not built that way.) It was definitely the type of clean snack I was looking for after our time in San Juan and hit the spot. An hour later, we were back in Sorrento's eating some (less healthy) pizza, but after 26,000+ steps and 100+ floors (according to my Fitbit) that day, we earned it.

Frozenyo

After our tasty dinner at El Jibarito, my parents told us that they wanted to take us to an ice cream place that they had discovered on a previous visit to San Juan. A was pretty excited since he loves ice cream, and I'm always happy to try someplace new in our explorations. We walked around Old San Juan for a little bit since they couldn't remember exactly where it was, and then we ended up at Frozenyo on Calle Tetuan.

Our first thought was, "This isn't ice cream..." We don't have any issues with frozen yogurt, but we were expecting to see an ice cream shop and this wasn't that. Frozenyo was one of those yogurt shops where you filled up the cup yourself with the flavor you wanted and then added toppings to it (we think), not like Pinkberry. Since getting ice cream or frozen yogurt on the ship was extremely unreliable (machines constantly broken), we were happy to be getting any type of frozen treat.

While we remember going to Frozenyo and we remember eating frozen yogurt, this is the point where this review is going to fall apart. It's a perfect example of why we should have finished all of our Quantum reviews prior to the date it shipped off to China. We barely remember anything about the yogurt. That's not to say it was bad. It's just been two years. And unfortunately our memories aren't what they used to be. And our notes for that trip were scant, and in the case of the yogurt, nonexistent.

Did we get one frozen yogurt or two? We think we got two, but why didn't we take a photo of the one A got? We think he got something chocolate-flavored, because I have a vague memory of eating chocolate with cookie dough toppings that looked just like this but I don't remember for sure. What flavor yogurt did I get here? Pink lemonade? Kiwi strawberry? It looks pink to me. Did we try different flavors before we chose? What did we like? What did we not like? I know that my toppings were strawberry, kiwi, and cookie dough because that's in the picture, and I remember the cookie dough being good, but that's about it. I also remember that we sat outside eating our yogurt, which was quite a pleasant experience on a warm December night.

We wish we remembered more about this, but unfortunately we don't. What we do remember is that when we were in DC earlier this year, we saw a Frozenyo when we were walking around Columbia Heights. We hadn't known that they started in DC at that time (since we hadn't looked them up yet to write this post), so that was a surprise for us. We had a giant dinner that day and no room for yogurt so we didn't go check them out. Hopefully the rest of our Quantum reviews aren't going to be as lacking in detail as this one.

El Jibarito

Two years ago today, we were on the Quantum of the Seas, finally arriving at our first port, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was A's first time in San Juan and M's second (previously there for a business trip). Unfortunately the ship didn't get to San Juan until late afternoon, and with that type of scheduling, you couldn't visit the rainforest or do much sightseeing because it was almost dark. By the time we got off the ship, there wasn't a lot of time to do very much other than stroll Old San Juan and get something to eat. 

We had narrowed down the dinner options in Old San Juan before the trip, and the one we picked was El Jibarito, a centrally located restaurant specializing in local dishes, which had been around for decades. We started off the meal with some juices - acerola/Puerto Rican sour cherry and maracuya/passion fruit. The passion fruit one was nice and sweet, and the sour cherry one had a really familiar taste that we couldn't place at the time (and still can't). A got the sour cherry, and M got the passion fruit, but we obviously shared.

After our double lunch, M wasn't really that hungry when we got to the restaurant (but we couldn't find anything else to do at the time other than to just go to dinner). Instead of getting an entree, she got two appetizers for her meal. (We were sharing anyway so we could try as much as possible, so this meant we could try even more.)

The first appetizer was the alcapurrias, plantain fritters stuffed with beef. These had a general meat taste and were very deeply fried. M isn't as big a fan of just "meat" flavors so she was a little disappointed by these, but overall they were still okay. For A, they just seemed like wonton wrapped, deep-fried meat sticks.

The second appetizer was the bacalaitas, flat, saucer-like cod fritters. We had never had cod fritters in such a flattened shape before, but they were pretty good. Unfortunately neither of us really remembers much about these two years later, but our guess is that we both preferred these more as bacalaitas are more our style than that type of fried ground meat.

M's mom and A both got variations on the same entree - camarones al ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce). This entree was better than both of M's appetizer choices, and we were glad we ordered it.

The shrimp dish was full of garlic flavor, and featured shrimp mixed with onions and green peppers in a butter sauce. This was so good. It had a heavy but not overpowering garlic flavor that paired nicely with the sweet shrimp. The onions and green peppers also added some nice freshness to the dish.

Each entree came with a choice of rice, plantains, or mofongo, and the mofongo itself had a bunch of options. A chose to go with the trifongo (also called the mixed mofongo), which combined sweet plantain, green plantain, and yuca (cassava). All three were mashed up together and fried, and it paired so well with the garlicky shrimp. M liked this so much that she put it on her favorites list from 2014. A had read about and often wanted to try mofongo so this was a great experience for him, and he's glad that it was so tasty.

We really enjoyed visiting El Jibarito, and it was nice to get some Puerto Rican food while we were in San Juan. While there were some tourists there, there were also locals, so it didn't feel like a total tourist trap. We would definitely go back there for some more shrimp and mofongo if we found ourselves in Old San Juan again.

Week 49 - Spanish Tapas

I was really excited when the Week 49 theme turned up as Spanish tapas. I love tapas and I love Mediterranean food, so even though it meant a lot of dishes in one night (and I'm slow in the kitchen), I couldn't wait. I knew I wanted to make patatas bravas, because I had made them once before but forgot how since I never blogged about it. I decided to add on one of my favorite vegetarian tapas - espinaca con garbanzos - which I've made a couple of times but also hadn't blogged about. For the last piece, I chose something new, a bean and chorizo salad that I found when looking through lists of tapas recipes and which I thought would go well with the others.

Patatas Bravas

A couple of years ago, I did a tapas night that included patatas bravas based on a recipe from BBC Good Food. I chose to use the same recipe again this time, hoping I could remember what modifications I made that time since, from what I remembered, it had come out pretty well.

The ingredients for our version of patatas bravas were:

- 5 small to medium potatoes, peeled and chopped ($1.04)
- olive oil ($0.30)
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped ($0.10)
- 1 can of diced tomatoes ($0.80)
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste ($0.20)
- 1 tbsp of paprika ($0.10)
- 1 tbsp of chili powder (planned for a couple tsp but used more than expected) ($0.10)
- 1 spoonful of sugar ($0.05)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)
- parsley to garnish ($0.45)

The steps for making the potatoes were:

- add peeled and chopped potato to greased baking pan and roast for about 50 minutes at 400 degrees until golden and a little more crisp
- add olive oil to large pot, heat, add onions and cook until soft and starting to brown
- add garlic to onions, cook for a minute or so, and then add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, paprika, chili powder, sugar, salt and pepper
- simmer sauce over low heat for at least 10-15 minutes
- when potatoes are done, add to the tomato sauce and mix together
- cook over low heat for a couple of minutes
- remove from heat and mix in parsley garnish

The potatoes came out pretty well, but they weren't really spicy like patatas bravas should be. The flavor seemed a little subdued despite all the paprika and chili powder that was added, so it was more like potatoes in a nice tasting tomato sauce. That said, it was still good, but just didn't have the kick that we wanted it to. Maybe next time I'll use smoked paprika instead.

Bean and Chorizo Salad

The new dish that was part of our tapas night was based on another recipe from BBC Good Food (didn't plan for this to be a BBC Good Food night, but just happened that way). I thought a bean salad would be a nice way to balance out two more hearty, rustic dishes.

The ingredients for the salad were:

- 4 large mushrooms, chopped ($1.05)
- olive oil ($0.50)
- 1 small red onion, sliced ($0.36)
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar ($0.25)
- 1 can white beans, drained and rinsed ($0.89)
- 1/2 batch of parsley, chopped ($0.90)
- 1 stick of chorizo ($3.34)
- salt and pepper to taste ($0.05)

The bulk of the cost here was the chorizo, which wasn't even regular chorizo but the chorizo seasoned salami from the salami trio gift pack at Trader Joe's. We just didn't have time to go out looking for actual Spanish chorizo and went with that instead. No idea how that would have impacted the cost if we did go looking for it.

The steps to make the salad were:

- heat olive oil in small pan and then add mushrooms, sauté until most of the water has released
- add red onions to pan with mushrooms for a minute
- remove mushrooms and onions to a small bowl and add red wine vinegar, chill for 10-20 minutes (I left it in there until everything else was done and it was time to mix the salad)
- in a large bowl, mix the white beans with the onion/mushroom mixture, parsley, some olive oil, salt and pepper, and the sliced chorizo, and season to taste

I had forgotten that the original recipe called for the onions to be mixed with the vinegar, and I had added them to the pan with the mushrooms to try and reduce the sharpness. I don't know how differently this would have come out if I did that instead but the onions would probably be stronger.

The salad came out pretty well and was A's favorite part of the meal, mostly because the chorizo had a lot of flavor. I thought that the salad tasted better the next day when I ate the leftovers for lunch, after the salad had a chance to chill in the fridge overnight. When eating it that way, the chorizo was actually my least favorite part of it, as I thought the salad was better on its own once the ingredients had sat together for hours.

Espinaca con Garbanzos

I have no idea what recipe or what place inspired me to make espinaca con garbanzos the first time, since I've been making this here and there ever since I first started cooking more a few years ago. Wherever it came from (and there are probably many similar ones to it online), it's one of my favorites.

The ingredients for this were:

- olive oil ($0.20)
- 1 onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 3 cloves of garlic, chopped ($0.10)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- smoked paprika (to taste, but a generous amount) (still using one we got for free, which will skew the totals but is truthful)
- 1 can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained ($0.75)
- 1 bag of baby spinach ($1.99)

The cost for the spinach and chickpeas portion of dinner was $3.59 (since the smoked paprika had no cost), which when combined with the patatas bravas ($3.69) and bean and chorizo salad ($7.34), leads to a grand total for dinner of $14.62. Not the cheapest dinner but there was a little bit of chickpeas, a small bowl of salad, and a large bowl of potatoes left over, so the price covered a couple of lunches too.

The steps were:

- heat olive oil over medium heat
- add onions and garlic and cook until softened
- add chickpeas, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika, combine well, and cook for a few minutes
- push the chickpea mixture to the edge of the pan and add the baby spinach until the spinach leaves are wilted, mixing wilted spinach in to the chickpea mixture (maybe it's because we were using a different pan but it took a lot longer to do this than I remembered and I had to do the spinach in batches)

I tried the chickpeas prior to mixing in the spinach and thought the dish had much more flavor than the finished product, which was odd. There definitely was enough smoked paprika pre-spinach and there wasn't that much spinach. Even if it wasn't as strong in flavor as I was expecting, I still really like this dish and it was my favorite part of dinner.

It was a fun and tasty tapas night, even if we didn't eat until very late because of how much work it was. I tend to rationalize our tapas nights saying that we're eating at a very Spanish time of 10 or 11 pm, but that's never really the plan. At least it was good!

Week 47 - Czech

I searched Czech recipes for a long time before seeing one I wanted to make - a Czech garlic soup (or česnečka) that I found on About's Eastern European food site. It sounded really good, simple but healing, and perfect for a cool fall night.

The ingredients for the soup (slightly adapted from the original) were:

- 1 tbsp butter ($0.15)
- 1 large onion, chopped ($0.50)
- 1 head of garlic, 3 cloves crushed, the rest chopped ($0.34)
- 6 cups of water ($0)
- 3 spoonfuls of chicken bouillon ($0.65)
- 5 potatoes (equivalent of 3 medium potatoes or thereabouts), chopped ($1)
- salt and pepper ($0.05)
- parsley for garnish ($0.20)
- 1 bag of cheese and garlic croutons ($2.99)

The cost for the soup was about $5.88. We ate it with some panko chicken, but even including that, the total for dinner was well under $10. Always happy to see that.

The soup was really simple to make, just a little bit of prep and then however long it took for the broth to boil and the potatoes to soften. The steps were:

- melt butter
- cook onions and chopped garlic until softened
- add water and bouillon
- bring to boil
- add potatoes, salt and pepper
- simmer over low heat until potatoes are fork tender
- add crushed garlic
- cook for a couple more minutes
- ladle into bowls, add parsley for garnish (not really necessary but we had some parsley that I didn't want to waste), and top with croutons

Really, really simple, but lots of flavor.

This soup was so good. Loved the strong garlic flavor, as that made it feel really restorative. It had a lot of flavor just from the chicken broth and the simple ingredients. Very happy with this, and it was easy for the two of us to finish off the entire pot of soup since outside of the croutons and potatoes, it was really just broth. The crispy chicken tasted good dipped into the broth too. After a week of doing cooking challenges almost every day, it was nice to end with something so easy but so good.

Week 45 - Pacific Islands

For the Week 45 Pacific Islands challenge, I decided to go with a Micronesian coconut chicken curry recipe I found on food.com. There aren't really many restaurants that cover the cuisine of the Pacific Islands (outside of Hawaii), at least not here, so we haven't had much exposure to it. I researched this mostly by searching different countries + cuisine on Google and seeing what looked good. Luckily, thanks to my Sporcle geography obsession, I didn't have to research what countries were in the Pacific Islands, so that saved me a step.

The ingredients for our chicken curry (adapted from the original were):

- olive oil ($0.25)

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts ($3)

- 3 potatoes ($0.62)

- 4 carrots ($0.45)

- 1 large yellow onion ($0.50)

- 1 large spoonful of minced garlic ($0.15)

- a few squeezes of ginger paste ($0.25)

- 2 red bell peppers ($1.98)

- 2 14-oz cans of coconut milk ($1.98)

- curry powder ($0.30)

- chili powder (the Asian ground red pepper one) ($0.15)

- salt and pepper ($0.05)

- brown rice ($1)

The total for the recipe was approximately $10.68. Pretty good for a filling dinner for two plus enough for lunch another day.

The steps for making the curry (also modified from the original) were:

- prep: peel and chop potatoes, peel and chop carrots, chop onions, chop red bell peppers, trim fat from chicken breasts and slice into cubes, set up rice in rice cooker

- add olive oil to large pot and then cook chicken until cooked through

- remove cooked chicken to a separate bowl and add potatoes and carrots to the pot

- fry potatoes and carrots for 5-10 minutes

- add onions, cook for another few minutes

- add ginger and garlic, cook for another few minutes

- add red bell peppers, cook for another few minutes

- add chicken, coconut milk, curry powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper

- simmer until potatoes are soft and curry has thickened (could also smash some potatoes against the side of the pot to help it thicken like I did), probably at least 20 minutes

- season to taste while cooking (I did but ran out of curry powder)

- serve over rice

We liked this curry but it would have been better with more curry powder (didn't realize how little we had left). It reminded me a little bit of the curry from the Caribbean challenge which makes sense since that also had a coconut milk base, curry powder spice paste, and bell peppers in it. The chili powder here really came through, much more than the curry powder even though we used less. I would make this again, just with more curry powder.