Mari Vanna in NYC

Took a tour on the East side today and came across Restaurant Mari Vanna, a Russian restaurant/cafe somewhere next to President Roosevelt birth place.

So I sat there sipping my mango tea on a sunny memorial day afternoon... surrounded by nice deco and friendly people...

I even tried out one of their beef pastry....

http://www.marivanna.ru/

Dandelion

I might have seen them selling dandelion in the supermarket; however, I might not have eaten it before....  Then, the other day, as part of my new life's adventure into cooking... I picked it up from the supermarket....

The recipe I used was something like... extra virgin olive oil, pressed garlic, some herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary), salt and pepper... chopped red onion and a whole lot of dandelion leaves...

The outcome... a huge bowl of dandelion green.... sauteed... rather than boiled.... (wow high tech for me!  considering I spent the majority of the past 15 years cooking via bring everything to a boil together)

I was all excited until I took the first bite...

OMG... bitter is the only thing I could think of... 8-O lol

At that point, I finally came closer to understand what is means...唖子吃黄蓮... 8-X (so is the story of my life especially at this time... 8-O lol sigh)

Anyways, I stood there staring at the huge bowl da bitter green.  Who could I blame it on?  I brought it forth myself.

Since I don't waste food, that extremely bitter thing.... one bite at a time... I finished the whole bowl....

All that I could say...

Well, so they say...

Dandelion is good for your health within moderation... bitter, for instance, is believed to help detoxing and good for liver... http://health.howstuffworks.com/dandelion-herbal-remedies.htm

The second day, I tried to cook Dandelion again... this time, I added some vinegar to season the dish and... interestingly, it did cut the bitter taste down big time. 

When I cooked it for the 3rd time, I actually simply boiled it with other vegetables... the water might have diluted whatever constitutes the bitter taste.... It didn't taste all that bitter at all...

By the way, in the above article, the author mentioned that you can also add ingredients such as mushroom and kyle if you are trying to prepare a sauteed dish.  I think I will try this out today and see whether it makes it more edible.

Gnocchi alla Romana

My friend cooked me some Gnocchi alla Romana yesterday...

I thought all gnocchi are made of potato... ended up... this is made of the thing called semolina.... something with the texture of couscous....

Really Yum yum... except for... really rich at the same time...

Following is a recipe I found online... http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9306/gnocchi-alla-romana

Mineral oil

I've never heard of the thing called "Mineral oil" until a few weeks ago...

To mineral oil or not to mineral oil... Is mineral oil really all that bad? 8-O


http://thebeautybrains.com/2006/11/28/the-top-5-myths-about-mineral-oil-part-1/