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How was your (wedding) food?
We just got married in September and I have to say our food was awesome for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception. We were working on a budget but food was really important to us so we cut other places to be able to afford the food we wanted.
We started with passed appetizers which included shrimp scalling potstickers, spicy eggplant tingmo, crab cakes, and shiitake chopsticks. The dinner itself was served family style so people could taste a little of everything and everybody could get served at the same time.
The salad was a Tuscan grill bread salad with pesto, kalamata olives, mozzarella, and coppacola. The entrees were black cod with shiitakes and sesame salad, pork belly with muscat figs, lacinato kale with lemon and toasted garlic, garlic fried smashed potatoes, and brown butter delicata squash.
For dessert we had a donut lounge where they did made to order donuts with you choice of chocolate sauce, caramel, vanilla mascarpone, or a seasonal jam. We also had a cake that we got at a local bakery who does pretty cakes. We saved money by just ordering a regular cake and not a wedding cake because the regular cake looked like it could have been a wedding cake but for far less money.
This post is already super long so I won't put up what we had at our rehearsal dinner but that was amazing too. It was just a great food weekend that helped make it a perfect wedding.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
My favorite would be the jiaozi (dumplings) we would make every Sunday when I was growing up. A close second would be za jiang mien...which I'm sad to say I haven't had in years.
Matching Wine with Food?
I highly recommend the book What to Drink with What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. They have an extensive list of pairings, and it isn't just wine but also things like beer and water!
http://www.amazon.com/What-Drink-You-Eat-Definitive/dp/0821257188
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Eating in Taipei
Thanks for the great tips everyone! I haven't been back to Taiwan since I was 8 or 9 and the only food memory I have is going to a McDonalds and the live frogs being prepped in my grandparents' kitchen for that night's dinner. How would you rate the cost of food and eating there?
How was your (wedding) food?
We just got married in September and I have to say our food was awesome for both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception. We were working on a budget but food was really important to us so we cut other places to be able to afford the food we wanted.
We started with passed appetizers which included shrimp scalling potstickers, spicy eggplant tingmo, crab cakes, and shiitake chopsticks. The dinner itself was served family style so people could taste a little of everything and everybody could get served at the same time.
The salad was a Tuscan grill bread salad with pesto, kalamata olives, mozzarella, and coppacola. The entrees were black cod with shiitakes and sesame salad, pork belly with muscat figs, lacinato kale with lemon and toasted garlic, garlic fried smashed potatoes, and brown butter delicata squash.
For dessert we had a donut lounge where they did made to order donuts with you choice of chocolate sauce, caramel, vanilla mascarpone, or a seasonal jam. We also had a cake that we got at a local bakery who does pretty cakes. We saved money by just ordering a regular cake and not a wedding cake because the regular cake looked like it could have been a wedding cake but for far less money.
This post is already super long so I won't put up what we had at our rehearsal dinner but that was amazing too. It was just a great food weekend that helped make it a perfect wedding.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
My favorite would be the jiaozi (dumplings) we would make every Sunday when I was growing up. A close second would be za jiang mien...which I'm sad to say I haven't had in years.
Matching Wine with Food?
I highly recommend the book What to Drink with What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. They have an extensive list of pairings, and it isn't just wine but also things like beer and water!
http://www.amazon.com/What-Drink-You-Eat-Definitive/dp/0821257188
Whole salmon
Thanks for the suggestions, I may have to pass on the poaching in my sink though. To answer Wookie's question, it's a 6.5 pound sockeye.
Mac n' Cheese: Tips?
I usually make a bechamel for my mac and cheese and fold in cheese and partially cooked macaroni before putting it in a casserole and baking.
For a pound of macaroni I'll use 6 tablespoons of butter, 1/2 cup of flour, and about 5 1/2 cups of milk. I'll cook my macaroni a few minutes short of the suggested cooking time on the box and then rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.
Start by making a roux with the butter and flour and then slowly pour in the milk (whisking the whole time). After you've got all the milk incorporated and the sauce has thickened season it with salt, pepper, and some cayenne. Next stir in some sharp cheddar (I usually use sharp white cheddar) and pecorino, about 4-5 cups total with most of it being cheddar. Of course how much cheese you want depends on your taste. Then I'll incorporate in my partially cooked macaroni and transfer to a casserole. Next I'll top it with more cheese and some buttered breadcrumbs before I pop it into a 375 oven until it gets browned on top, usually about a half hour.
Hope this helps!
Seriously Delicious Giveaway: Zingerman's Gift Certificate
i love me some chevre
Weekend Book Giveaway: 'The Elements of Cooking'
Care and respect for the food you are cooking.
What''s your favorite way to eat peanut butter?
My favorite is on warm toast where it starts to get a little melty
Cook the Book: 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' Book Giveaway
Curried lentils with roasted cauliflower
Cook the Book: 'How to Cook Everything Vegetarian' Book Giveaway
Farro with Swiss chard and chanterelle mushrooms...the ultimate comfort food!
Weekend Book Giveaway: Judith Jones's 'The Tenth Muse'
How could I not choose Julia
Terrific Local Products
We just love the beef, pork, bacon, chicken, and eggs we get from Skagit River Ranch here in western Washington State. In the summers we also get fresh halibut and salmon that had just been swimming a couple of days before and was never frozen. There's also a local forager who sells at the farmers' markets in Seattle and I just love to get all sorts of things from him...chanterelles, morels, lobster mushrooms, huckleberries, sea beans, etc. Being in the Pacific Northwest we're pretty lucky with all the fresh produce around here as well.
Eating in Taipei
Street food!!! Fruit!!! And nio ro mien - the spicy beef noodle soup. Sigh. I want to be in Taiwan. When I was traveling in Asia and would run across someone who'd spent time in Taiwan, we'd reminisce over how good the food is.
Eating in Taipei
Eating out is affordable and good. Though I will say prices have gone up dramatically in the past few years. To give rough numbers, you can still get stuff for under 75 NT on the street that is good. But the price it costs you to eat a full meal of street goodies is creaping up more towards 200 NT. For places with actual walls, it's closer to 400 NT. The Tapei 101 basement is priced almost the same as nice mall food in the US (though I find it's much nicer and better). The nicer sit down restaurants cost a little less then they do in the US. Last year I attended a party at a posh downtown tepanyaki restaurant. With a private room, 5 courses, no alcohol the tab was about US$50/person before extras. Luckily it seems like you can still get a yummy boba drink for less than US$1 =)
Eating in Taipei
I've had several friends that lived in Taiwan for extended periods of time. They all ate very well for little. When I've traveled there, food is my least expense. From what my friends who lived there said, eating out is cheaper than buying the food and preparing at home.
How was your (wedding) food?
Around here, most wedding food reminds me of school cafeteria fare, but a good meal was a high priority for us when we got married last year, so we booked a favorite locally-owned restaurant for the night. The chefs put together two entrees for our 100-person reception: pan-seared pheasant breast with rosemary mashed potatoes, grilled leeks, sweet corn relish and yam puree for the meat-eaters and fried zucchini with spinach-leek salad and heirloom tomato orzo for the vegetarians. It was fabulous, and (shhhh) no more expensive than the nice reception/banquet halls in my area.
Our cake was kind of pricey, but it was worth an extra $1 or $2 a slice to have a moist, delicious cake made with real butter!
How was your (wedding) food?
Our wedding food was quite awesome (12 years ago). I've also been to a few weddings since where the food was excellent.
Most is just okay. Some has been downright bad. My good friend JUST got married and gushed about the food - we dont' have the same taste in food - there was so much pepper on the chicken I couldn't eat it. And I *LIKE* pepper.
The food at my family weddings are all done by the same caterer. You remember elementary school, and how Thanksgiving dinner was pressed sliced turkey on white bread with gravy, mashed potatoes, and corn? Yeah, that's about right.
How was your (wedding) food?
We had a late evening deep winter (Feb 29) wedding. We had Champagne Flavored Cake with wonderful buttercream but no meal as there were many many people there. I had only one bite but it was amazing.
How was your (wedding) food?
Almost 13 years ago we had Great Performances cater our wedding. For the last 13 years we have had people tell us that the food at our wedding was some of the best food they have ever tasted. We planned our menu carefully and we brought in our own wines (14 different wines served by the glass, 2 Cabs, 2 Chards, 2 Zins, 2 Pinots, 2 Sauv. Blancs, a sparkling, a port, a cognac, an ice wine), but the food was prepared well & served well. In the years since, almost always when I hear about great wedding food it seems that Great Performances was the caterer. I am not a schill for Great Performances, but I am a fan through experience.
How was your (wedding) food?
Most weddings I've attended have been Asian weddings, which tend to get organized at a Chinese restaurant. They have special menus for that, and one orders by the round table (around 10 people per table). The first few times, one gets to eat supposedly good Chinese food (Cantonese style), but it gets very repetitive. There is a lot of food though, which includes expensive items that people don't eat every day such as shark's fin soup, lobster, and abalone.
The cakes never wow me.
How was your (wedding) food?
Not having much money at the time, my sisters and I prepared the food. We kept it relatively simple. We had a few people man the buffet tables and served sliced turkey, ham, various antipasti, cheese, and fruit salad. We had a lot of compliments and had just the right amount of food.
How was your (wedding) food?
I like the cake we had it was beautiful and it was a Borracchinis and that was all that was important to me. I food was okay.
How was your (wedding) food?
Very, very bad. So bad, it almost outweighs the fact that my MIL and SIL got into a fist fight over my bouquet.
How was your (wedding) food?
I went to a wedding which the couple spent a LOT of money on the hall and the food was awful! It was meant to be loosely served Italian style. Antipasto, pasta, main course, salad, dessert. The pasta was dry and tasted like it was reheated, the main course was dry and barely lukewarm and sickly sweet, the salad was meh, the dessert was okay. That was 4 years ago and people are still talking about it.
The hall was beautiful, but the couple certainly didn't get their moneys worth. Sometimes simple really is best.
How was your (wedding) food?
@LPC--did you have the traditional bottle of vodka instead of champagne at each table?
Our wedding food was forgettable. Overdone burgundy-mushroom tri-tip, canned green beans with bacon and tomatoes, blah rice pilaf, fairly decent chicken, and rolls. There aren't a lot of terrific restaurants in our town that are large enough to host a large amount of people. Everyone seemed to like the food well enough. The cake, on the other hand, was fantastic. My best friend made it.
How was your (wedding) food?
my wedding food was good if a little standard. we made a smart choice and skipped the included dessert (not the cake) and had a cheese plate. roaring 40's blue, port salut, nancie's camembert and manchego with membrillo, grapes and nuts. cake was awesome. orange-almond cake with mandarin orange and creme brulee fillings. nice white butercream frosting. absolutly no rolled fondant! the rehearsel dinner was great as well. it was at trader vic's we had crab rangoon and all the other pu-pu platter stuff on a huge buffet decorated with coconuts and all that. mai-tais and great tiki drinks. sadly that trader vics was in the palmer house in chicago and we were actually the very last party served there. they have since reopened somewhere else in the city.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
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arathi
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schnitzel
gastronomeg
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Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
peanut sesame noodles, like they used to make 'em at the Chinese restaurant of my childhood. finding them again (the restaurant has closed) is my white whale . . .
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
An oldie, but still a goodie, 'Mongolian Beef'...and who said my choice had to be authentic.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
Steamed dumplings, General Tso chicken, Beef Lo Mein
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
Hm. House special lo mein. It isn't authentic, but it's pretty good. I do love some scallion chicken and steamed dumplings.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
Any kind of crispy whole fish. If that's on the menu, and I can convince a few other people to share it with me, I'll get that every time.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
Peking chicken. I guess that's my most favorite.
This is a tough choice. Good noodles and dumplings are hard to beat. The real Kung Pao Chicken I had in China was amazingly good.
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
Roasted duck, chicken, ribs, char siu, squid, etc. anything that's hanging in the window when you enter- it goes great with everything (rice, noodles, porridge) and by itself as well. Yum!
Win Fuchsia Dunlop's 'Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper'
beef pancakes - i think it's a northern chinese thing? it's delicious!!
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Thanks for the great tips everyone! I haven't been back to Taiwan since I was 8 or 9 and the only food memory I have is going to a McDonalds and the live frogs being prepped in my grandparents' kitchen for that night's dinner. How would you rate the cost of food and eating there?