The Irascible Chef

When I want a very good, solid, Italian, meal at a very reasonable price, there’s no question that Pasta Pomodoro is the place. Consistency is key and they’re almost the definition of consistency.

We took the 3 kids there the other night and it was great! I must say the waiter was the best part on this particular night! The food was delicious, but the food is always delicious, like I said—Bubbie(def. #1), it’s consistent, and I expect it to be.

We didn’t have to wait to be seated and were sat at a nice spacious table—perfect for kids and the food and the drinks and the fun / educational placemats and crayons that keep them satisfied / occupied while waiting for their food.

The kids drinks were Shirley Temple cocktails (remember when they were fun and before you were too cool?) and PP has figured out that it just might be best to serve large spill-able drinks with covers for the kids! The focaccia was still warm right out of the oven and perfect in their seasoned olive oil pesto mix—we all love that!

The waiter came by many times to make sure we were happy—we were! He brought us extra bread when we needed it—which we did, you can’t let those delectable sauces stay on the plate when they can be in your belly with a little-bread-wrist action! He also brought refills for the kids drinks. Our Moretti’s were just fine—cold and perfect with the food!

Pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs (no as good as mine—but NOBODIES are!) grilled cheese pannini, Gemelli with chicken, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, in a garlicky cream sauce, and a half order of lasagna and small salad lightly and properly dressed.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

Did I mention that the kids $6 dollar meals (in a sit down, waiter service, restaurant) come with ice cream sundaes? How can you beat that? You can’t! But Pasta

Pomodoro can!

On Tuesday’s, for every adult meal, the kids meal is free! Wahooo! Now in our case one of the kids had an adult entree, but our waiter brought three sundaes (no extra charge) because he knew it would make everybody very happy! (He probably also knew that it didn’t cost them anything because we had 3 Adult meals and probably were entitled to 3 kids meals if we wanted—the customers and the House won on this night!)

Special thanks to the waiter this evening! See, how important the waiter can be???

Oh, by the way Pasta Pomodoro can be enjoyed with or without the kids (though not as much fun) and a bottle of wine for a romantic delicious dinner for two or party of ten—and, regardless of the size of your dinner party, very affordable!

What are other people saying:

Melon Scrapings Stuff that wants to get out of my head. Life, and other things like it.

B O N N E T bitching and moaning inspired by teenage angst

Technorati Tags: Affordable Italian food, food review, Pasta Pomodoro, Restaurants, Shirley Temple

Thank you to all the Veterans who served in the US Military. Thanks to those who sacrificed for their country, their family, and all of us. I’m sure there were hard challenging times during your service, both at home with your families as well as the service to our country in general—but you still did it!

Some of you were called upon by your country to serve and some of you volunteered your service and all of you deserve our sincere thanks, gratitude, and prayers… Thank you!

Other voices: Here, there, and everywhere:

Happy Veterans Day linkfest By Michelle Malkin

On This Veterans Day by RightVoices

Happy Veteran’s Day by Warren Throckmorton

Veterans Day by Laura

Happy Veterans Day! by Ed Morrissey

Veteran’s Day 2008 by nicedeb

Technorati Tags: 2008, Thank you, Veterans day

with spaghetti squash and peas. Very simple and delicious! My favorite part is the fennel and kosher salt. The whole dinner can be finished in one hours time if you already have the ingredients. Although could be thought as comfort food, you’d pay a nice price for this dish at your favorite eatery.

Pork loin:

Soak in salted water for a half an hour and then drip dry.

Season pork with: salt, pepper, light onion and garlic powder, fennel, and olive oil.

Roast in a 400 degree oven with drained peach slices. The peaches soak up the meat juices, seasonings and soy sauce making them ever so savory.

With 10 minutes left sprinkle with soy sauce.

Remove roast and deglaze pan with white wine and beef bouillon while meat rests.

Slice meat thin and sit meat in reduced sauce.

Spaghetti squash:

Cut in half lengthwise and remove seeds.

Spray the inside of both sides of the squash and season with salt.

Place cut side down on pan and roast in 400 degree oven and cook until you can squeeze the outside with minimal pressure. Scrape inside out with fork and adjust seasoning if need be.

Peas are great with a little salt and pepper.

Bon appetito,

—iChef

Technorati Tags: fennel, iChef, peaches, peas, Pork roast, Recipe, spaghetti squash, wine

I was feeling a little sluggish when I got home from work today. I didn’t manage to get myself out to the garage to workout, but I did eat right! I did have to go to the store to pick up the fish, but whattaya gonna do?

Simple, simple, simple…

Salmon, tail end fillet: salt, fresh crushed black pepper—COARSE, and extra virgin olive oil—broiled.

Spring mix blend with olive oil, drop of balsamic.

Told you it was simple—it was also quite delicious and nutritious!

Bon appetito,

—iChef

Technorati Tags: food, healthy, nutritious, olive oil, Recipe, salmon

It will be the dinner menu from that evening’s dinner.

I might on occasion dabble in other meal menu’s, but for now, just dinner. I might even be nudged into a recipe or two—don’t get too excited, you haven’t seen what I consider a recipe—unless you’ve read The Road Letters that is…

Dinner 10/21/08

Broiled pork chops with fennel, peaches, and soy sauce.

Steamed peas and corn.

Corkscrew pasta with butter and grated cheese.

Green grapes.

Technorati Tags: Broiled pork chops, Corkscrew pasta with butter, corn, fennel, grated cheese, Green grapes, peaches, peas, soy sauce.

I had the salad on the right—excellent!

Aldo’s in Los Gatos—Fantastic!

What a pleasant surprise for Italian food! Family owned and PRESENT. Atmosphere is sort of rustic charming with a high ceiling, maybe could have been a little less bright overall.

Our waiter complete with Italian accent was attentive and not obtrusive. Oil with roasted garlic and fresh bread was very flavorful and nicely done to get the juices flowing.

The Chianti was the right wine for the table and went with everything. Let’s talk about the everything: the table had Minestrone soup and the house salad or Insalata della Casa. The Minestrone looked good and hearty, and the diner was happy with it. The salad was very flavorful with just the right amount of dressing.

The entrées were Scaloppine al Limone—veal with white wine and lemon, Vitello Ripieno—veal stuffed with proscuitto and mozzarella in a Marsala wine sauce with mushrooms, and Barbara Special— spring mix salad with grilled salmon, scallops, and shrimp with balsamic vinegar. The veal was tender enough to cut it with your fork! The Marsala sauce was tasty, but a little sweet for me, but everyone loved it. The grilled fish on the salad was perfectly cooked and very tasty. We didn’t save room for dessert which looked good on the menu. So sad…

The menu itself was flawed with a few spelling mistakes that seemed like the cause was lost in translation. Something about it was charming—when usually it’s like a fork piercing my eyeball! My guess is that great food and service can overcome and make me forget how important spelling is.

The food was fresh and nicely presented—we were also complimented with chilled Limoncello—a lemon flavored liqueur from Italy—helps with the digest… Nice touch

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Aldo's, eating out, family, food, iChef, Italian food, Los Gatos, Restaurant, Service

I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs! I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs! Chil… — wrong restaurant, wrong jingle, wrong, wrong, wrong! (Austin Powers, Fat Bastard’s version)

We’ll go Outback’s tonight! Life will still be there tomorrow!

We did the old-barnstorming-pop-in before the movie, Eagle Eye, trick. Told the waiter that we were in a rush. He handled it like a champ! We split: a No Rules Burger—medium, with everything except tomato and onion with the blue cheese dressing on the side, fries and a 22 oz Sam Adams October fest. Man O’ Man do they make a tasty burger at Outback! Menu and descriptions.

And I would dare say it was picture perfect! Fluffy bun, plump juicy burger, and fresh nicely done toppings! The perfect amount of food for two. Not too full, just right!

Of course we still got the buttered popcorn, sour something candy, and a large diet to wash it all down with.

Advice: Stick with the burgers, fries, and beer and you won’t be disappointed! Every once in a while (get a little excited drooling at the pictures on the menu) we stray from the proven recipe of perfection and we are muy disappointed—you will see the pretty pictures and get sucked in—don’t, just take our advice! Or don’t, you’re a big-boy (or big-girl, but you have to be careful with that one!) you have free will, live and learn!!!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: food, food review, iChef, Opinion, Outback Steak House, Restaurant

A Recipe. Lentil soup and family memories…

I stumbled across this recipe this morning. One of the first recipes, I ever made as a child, taught to me by my great Aunt Lilly. This recipe and others have been taken from and featured in the book, The Road Letters—a memoir about love, travel, food, relationships, and coming of age! Enjoy!

Available autographed at The FeenX Gallery!

When I was a little boy, maybe 4-5 years old, I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers. My mother would drop me off at their house and I would spend endless hours playing house with them—It wasn’t a game for them—just another day working from home. My grandmother and great aunt had their own seamstress business. Imagine the excitement for a 5 year old child! So, I either drew, sewed, or helped cook in the kitchen. Busy work mostly, but I learned a lot—I can sew a button if I have too—could you?

I had a very important job with the making of lentil soup, a soup that played a big role in our family—it was a lucky soup that was supposed to bring fortune! Money anyway. A very tasty soup that the entire family could make. Each with slight variations to the amount of individual ingredients—offering subtle differences that they each claimed made their version the best. So there was some pressure here for excellence—you would be rated or berated… Maybe that’s where this blog was really born

What was my important job? I was the lentil sorter! If you’ve ever read the package of legumes it will say this is a product of nature and may contain other ingredients you might not be so interested in including. So this required someone to separate the lentils from the foreign material—lentil by lentil! A time consuming fastidious—IMPORTANT JOB! Kept me busy anyway… You can’t imagine if uncle so-and-so got a small stone instead of a tender lentil!

Road Recipe

Lentil Soup—Have your kids sort the lentils! Wash hands!
(The first recipe ever taught to me by Aunt Lilly)

Ingredients:
chicken and beef stock
carrots
onions
garlic
celery
lentils
salt and white pepper to taste
olive oil
ham hock
ditalini

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients and reduce by half.
2. Pull cooked ham hock from bones and chop and reserve, toss bones.
3. Hand blend 1/2 of the soup until smooth and then mix with the other half.
4. Boil ditalini in chicken stock, cook until al dente, strain.
5. Add ditalini and chopped ham hock to cooked soup.
6. Serve with grated Parmesan (optional)

Suggested Accouterments:
Cocktail: Harveys Bristol Cream Sherry
Wine: Pinot Noir
Beer: Sam Adams Boston Lager
Music: Background noise from the 6 o’clock Eyewitness news
from the early ‘70s

I can still here the theme from the 6 o’clock Eyewitness news and I can still picture my grandmother watching the news, in a mirror, setup to allow her to watch while sitting at the sewing machine. I can still smell the lentil soup and aunt Lilly’s voice saying come to the table. I miss Grammy and aunt Lilly…

You have to read the book to fully understand why amounts aren’t included in the recipe. It’s quite an interesting irascible thread intertwined into the book… You should read the book anyway! To view the book trailer visit: The Road Letters official website.

Technorati Tags: Books, Cookbook, Drink, food, iChef, Irascible, Lentil soup, Music, Recipes, Road Recipe, The Road Letters

Based on Previous review of Ace Wasabi: How Important is the Waiter

Hi iChef,

I wanted to apologize to you. I am truly sorry for the lack of service our waiter provided to you and your guests…
…btw, I appreciate your fairness and I hope to see you again at Ace.

Ken Lowe
Owner of Ace Wasabi Rock and Roll Sushi

The power of the Internet… Power for the people! Power to the people! Power of the people!

People are listening, taking notice, taking action! Of course and unfortunately negative press gets more attention than compliments. We start to take compliments for granted, we become complacent, money is good—keeps rolling in, less need to sweat the small stuff!

Add all the small stuff together, you get a big ball of little details, and that’s really what it’s all about! Successful people do sweat the small stuff! Ken Lowe owner of Ace Wasabi and a bunch of other assorted successful eateries has taken the first step in making a difference and cleaning up the big ball!

I couldn’t find contact info on Ken, but Mr. Lowe did find us through our review that’s all over the Internet! He accepted responsibility for the faults of his restaurant, contritely apologized, and assured me of an exact strategy for fixing the problems. Oh, he also thanked me for my review and fairness.

This is the kind action I totally respect! Goes miles with me! And I will scream from the roof tops and let people know about this as well! Thank you Ken!

—iChef

Technorati Tags: Ace Wasabi, Blog, food, iChef, IrascibleChef, Ken Lowe, Restaurant, Review, Rock and Roll Sushi

I was grooving to a little Amy Winehouse (YAY! She’s still alive!) and checking in on the polls this morning. In mid glance, mid sip of the coffee, I thought I read… well, I’ll show you what I thought and you can tell me the mistake:

Daily Gallop

Public Divided on Need for Third Party

September 26, 2008

The public is evenly divided as to whether the two major parties do an adequate job of repressing the American people (47%) or whether a third major party is needed (47%). That is a shift from 2007, when a majority saw the need for a third party.

Technorati Tags: America, Amy Winehouse, Coffee, Daily Gallop, Election 2008, iChef Politikos, News, Opinion, Politics, Polling