It’s been awhile since I’ve treated myself to dinner, so I figured with actually getting out of the house this fall, it wouldn’t hurt to stop into Cheddars. Didn’t go too experimental this time around, stuck with the standard fare of onion rings, mac n’ cheese, mashed potatoes, honey dijon chicken, rice and mushrooms.
I do miss ducking into places like these nowadays.
Breakfast in Queens is always simple. It’s quite a different change when you’re on the road scrounging McDonalds biscuit and eggs; sometimes my aunt does give something more Guyanese when we arrive, but often breakfast is very simple, composing of bread and cereal.
This was the case here, especially since we were trying to get back home in time for July 4th. Breakfast was very simple; regular bran flakes, milk and coffee. Honestly, I actually enjoyed this before heading out, especially considering this was eaten at 7:30AM. Though I got hungry pretty quickly afterwards.
Recently I decided to try cooking my ramen a bit more fancier than straight out of the pack, and got really creative recently. I got to this point this evening with my ingredients; soft-boiled egg, some cut up bits of Morning Star Buffalo Wings, mushrooms and green onions. All of that into the above-normal size soup bowl, it actually makes a pretty good dinner by itself.
I also made one of these for my brother, and he absolutely loved it, mushrooms, eggs and all (he typically doesn’t eat those ingredients, so it was a miracle so to speak). Apparently the selling point for him was that the spiciness of the Buffalo Wings leeched out into the ramen gravy, making everything very tasty.
I’ll get you a recipe on how to do this sometime, do stay tuned!
While this was a below-average lunch because of the dal and rice, this was interesting because I had fish to go with it. Apparently my parents would eat something similar in Guyana, except the fish would simply be pan-friend local offerings (and often without the bhaji). Ultimately this meal wasn’t bad, and it was even interesting to eat in the bowl.
A snap of some Indian food that got snagged from Bombay Palace earlier this evening. Medium-spiced Mushroom Matar, along with a garlic naan and chicken pakora. Very tasty combo all in all!
So why is this called Mystery Fish curry, even though it’s vegetarian? Simple; it’s never made the same way twice. Sometimes it can be worse, sometimes it can be made better. The last time it was made “great” was sometime in 2012 I believe, I’d have to go back and look. Despite this we regard it as a special dish, and we make truthful jokes of “how the fish curry will come out this time”.
When I stopped by Cheddars for din din tonight, I noticed that they had a special menu item; New Orleans pasta. They had some sort of dijon sauce, and mixed up shrimp and chicken in rigati pasta. It wasn’t quite something I really liked, but it did taste good and I would recommend it to someone who likes that sort of thing!
When I got my goody bag from Christina this holidays, I was introduced to the goodness known as Trader Joes. So the first free chance I got, I trekked it to Knoxville and visited the one out there, across from Toys-R-Us on Kingston Pike. This was my haul!
Goodies include fruit jellies, coffee, cheese puffs, cheese sticks, pub cheese and licorice sticks. Sue me, I love salty, savory cheese products.
So when my aunt came to visit this holiday season, she whipped up some pepper pot for my mom. Sadly they didn’t have lamb for it (that was used on curry instead), so she used a chunk of goat meat in its creation.
Apparently you let this stew in a crock pot overnight to cook. I have to get the specifics again on how to create. But you add pepper and spice stuff to it, hence the name.
This was my first exposure to the dish, and the first time I ate goat. It actually wasn’t too bad; this one wasn’t tender and very chewy. Otherwise, it typically goes with bread and you use it to suck up the gravy.
It was a welcome change to get to eat a more genuine Guyanese dish.
I know this may not seem like much, but I decided to follow long-lost advice from an online denizen and put a soft-boiled egg in my ramen for “extra protein”. I suppose I was just stressed with the stuff with the house going on, and decided to try something new.
But back in my pre-ETSU days, this person who I’ll just refer to as Jade (because I honestly don’t remember her online handle anymore), recommended that I “Dump egg in your ramen for extra protein! XD.” I thought it was a silly idea for all this time, but while I’m not of the mind to dump in the egg while boiling, I suppose I can try it this way.
It really didn’t taste bad, and I think I’ll be doing this a lot more often. Maybe I’ll get adventurous and start dumping more ingredients, too.
My name's Janeil.
Welcome to my part of the galaxy.
Moonlight game dev, creative writer, sharing my personal experiences.