CT Bento - Ithaca, NY Revisited!

Greetings fellow Ithacans (and those who follow our Ithaca restaurant reviews)!

Awhile back, we wrote a review on the sushi and bubble tea cafe on RT 13 that had just opened (read it here!) To our delight, our review was recently featured in CT Bento Cafe's website. Among our review, CT Bento Cafe had also featured other reviewers who commented on their great sushi rolls and rice bowls. We suggest you to check it out! Here is our updated review on CT Bento

White Lasagna with Spinach, Sausage, and Mushrooms

Lasagna is that fabulous type of dish that can provide multiple meals by virtue of storing well and being easy to make in large quantities. It's the kind of food that anyone can make at gourmet quality as well. Conveniently, it allows you to put all the elements of a balanced meal (vegetables, meat, carbs) into one preparation. And one recent weekend, when I was alone and in the mood for some simple yet hearty sustenance, I elected to make a less-conventional white lasagna with a bechamel-based sauce, and to incorporate hot Italian sausage, fresh spinach, and mushrooms. It came out really well, and it fed me for an entire weekend!

"Mocha" Roasted Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is a nice meat to work with because it cooks relatively quickly (due to its low fat content, it doesn't need a long braise or roast), and if treated properly it is moist and delicious. It is also amenable to a variety of marinades and sauces. I decided to try and be fairly creative with my most recent preparation. Although unexpected by many, cocoa is known to compliment pork very well. I decided to make a cocoa-based dry rub for this recipe. For the "mocha" aspect, I paired the cocoa-rubbed pork with an espresso-based glaze. This was a fun recipe that ended up turning out really well. Give it a try!

Mom and Dad's House - Holden, MA

Despite all the places in the world that we have traveled, one thing that is as true for us as it is for many other people, is that the most comforting place to be is with our parents. And of all the restaurants that I have dined at and raved about, home-cooking from your parents often beats it hands-down. With that in mind, I thought that describing a trip home to see my parents in sleepy Holden, Massachusetts (from a food perspective) might be fun. My family (mom, especially!) likes to cook up a storm, and here I present some of the deliciousness she cooked up on my last visit (starting with the peach strudel pie on the left!). 

Siddharth's Triple Mac and Cheese

Who doesn't like Mac & Cheese? It's one of the finest American comfort foods. And yet, many people don't know how to make a good mac & cheese from scratch. The presence of TV dinner-style mac & cheese or velveeta and shells is proof that many people are missing out on delicious homemade goodness.The best part about making mac & cheese at home from scratch is that you can make it as decadent as you like, and it's really simple! In my recipe here, I used 3 cheeses: extra sharp cheddar, colby jack, and smoked gouda. I also used pancetta, which can easily (and deliciously) be substituted by bacon (or omitted altogether).

El Vez - Philadelphia, PA

Restaurant Info:
121 South 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 928-9800

After having a nice brunch at The Continental Midtown, (see our review here) we decided to try out another Starr restaurant, El Vez. El Vez serves upscale Mexican-American food with some LA-flair. A short drive from the Philadelphia Art Museum where we spent our afternoon, we arrived at El Vez for our reservation at 4:30. Some of you might be surprised with our early reservation for dinner, but due to the restaurant's popularity, this was the only time slot we got for same day reservations, especially for a Saturday. But to our surprise, we ended up eating for 1.5 hours because we loved the food so much.

Chicago-Style Deep Dish Pizza

Making deep-dish pizza at home turns out to be a lot of fun. It comes out delicious (especially if you follow some of the tips here!), and there's nothing like the sense of accomplishment that comes with making something that sounds complicated on your own. I took my recipe for the crust from the posters over at http://www.pizzamaking.com/ with slight modifications (the specific poster that I borrowed from is Buzz). I used a cast-iron pan to create this pizza, and I think that worked out especially well in giving a crispiness to the crust. Give it a try!

Crab Stir-fry with Sugar Snaps and Oyster Mushrooms

Summertime on the east coast is when crabs are in season. Delicious blue crabs from Maryland emerge in local grocers, and you really can't beat the taste. At Wegman's, we get chunked lump meat from crabs, and after bringing some home the other day, I was determined to come up with something interesting to do with them. Crab cakes are good, but I was in the mood for something a little but different. I decided on a stir-fry. Stir-fry is always good, but introducing some incredible crab meat seemed like a way to really make it special. Sugar snaps and oyster mushrooms seemed like perfect accompaniments to crab. This is a great recipe for quick cooking after work, and it's pretty healthy too!

Muffuletta Pinwheel

Appetizers are an important component of any gathering. And they are one of the easiest parts of any meal to be creative with! In this recipe, I combined 2 things that I love - muffuletta and puff pastry - to make a bite-sized snack that everyone enjoyed. Muffuletta is a type of sandwich that is famous in Louisiana. It is generally served on a French round, and inside it has salami, pepperoni, soprasetta, capicola, and provolone or emmentaler cheese (not unlike a classic hoagie). It's most distinctive feature (which separates it from the hoagie) is that it is usually lined with olive salad: a marinated mix of giardineira (Italian pickled veggies) and good olives plus seasoning. To turn great sandwich into a "pinwheel", I replaced bread with puff pastry in my recipe, and I switched from olive salad to a garlic-olive puree. I then baked them, and got these delicious finger food for my party. They were a big hit, so I hope you try the recipe:

Red and Gold Potato Salad - with Bacon, Chipotle, and Chives

Quintessentially summer. That's what I think when I think about potato salad. Just the mention of the dish evokes memories of countless BBQs and picnics. So when I decided to throw an end of summer party, I decided that potato salad had to part of the menu. Now, while potato salad is certainly associated with good times, too often the dish can be bland and tasteless. This recipe avoids that trap by incorporating lots of big flavors (chipotle, bacon, red wine vinegar, and more). I used both red potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes with the skins on the get great color and texture. Before summer leaves us for good, why not give this potato salad a try?