tuftears | Catching Up: Sweet and Sour Chicken, Mediterranean Food, Fudge

More pictures to catch up on! I shall group these under 'food', I think.

First of all, I present to you,

mizkit's Fantasy Fudge! This was really very tasty. I re-wrapped most of these in small amounts and stuck them in the freezer for 'need sweets' moments.

I attempted cooking sweet-and-sour chicken again! I worked from this recipe but was perplexed to see the recipe called for dusting the chicken in corn starch, *then* dredging in egg. How curious!

Being logical, I decided to try making the chicken several different ways: first with the recipe-recommended way, then doing it the reverse way, egg and corn starch, and finally with an addition of flour to make it more like a regular batter. Honestly? I can't tell the difference, so you might as well do it whichever way is easiest.

The resulting sweet-and-sour chicken didn't quite work, mostly because I didn't follow the recipe which recommended apple cider vinegar as the basis for the sauce. I will try following the recipe next time. Which will have to be after I finish off the current batch, in a few weeks. (as usual for cooking, I make 4 meals at a time, then freeze 3 of those for later)

The other weekend,

dracosphynx dragged me off to Draeger's. We had lunch at Galata Bistro first since I was hungry:

This was a kofta pita sandwich-- filled with spiced beef/lamb and tomato bits and red onion and yogurt. Pretty tasty, and a lot of veggies which satisfies my 'healthy eater' needs. Not really my favorite cuisine but it was quite acceptable. I'd probably like it better with a savory sauce in place of the yogurt.

Those little golden sticks up to the left? Those are 'sigara boregi' -- fried phyllo dough rolls stuffed with feta cheese. The Mediterranean version of 'cheese sticks'! Quite tasty.

Draeger's was because Dracosphynx wanted me to take cooking classes there; we viewed the cooking section first, then downstairs, the quite extensive grocery store with its array of condiments for all occasions. I wound up going back there later to get

chipotle some coffee salt for his birthday.

I got a Kona mousse cake from Draeger's for dessert because even if I'm not much of a coffee drinker, I like the way it tastes in sweets.

dracosphynx got a dark chocolate cake, I think. A VERY dark chocolate cake. We watched some anime-- Starship Operators to close out the afternoon. Pretty good outing, all in all.