David and I have been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations lately. On the show, he travels to different nations and countries, being a tourist, with a general focus on food and drink.
We have a love hate relationship with Anthony Bourdain.
We love his show. We hate Anthony, for nothing more than he’s out globetrotting, spending his days exploring Paris or on a beach, and we’re in Cincinnati in the middle of an unseasonable cold snap. Whenever a picturesque scene of the countryside of New Zealand or Puerto Rico comes into view, David and I jealously glare at the screen. “Asshole.” We mutter to ourselves. Not fair.
So for David’s latest welcome back dinner, I decided if we couldn’t go on vacation, I’d just bring the vacation to us. I quickly mapped out the plan for dinner.
you mean you don't mind map your dinners? Just me?
Vacation is all about relaxation, so I decided to keep the menu simple and Hawaiian themed. Another important part of vacation is the scenery.
kitty stayed out of the paint...mostly.
Spam is actually pretty popular in Hawaii. In fact, an item called “musubi”, spam wrapped in seaweed nori wrapper atop sushi rice, is so popular it’s sold as a snack in some gas stations. Thus, spam was a necessity.
I wanted cheese, but decided to put it inside the burger, juicy lucy style. Pineapple went atop the spam, and the burger was served on a homemade brioche bun. Brioche is a fussy dough, and even though the results were not quite what I was expecting, the buns were passable, and the bun was sturdy enough to stand up to the burger and its toppings.
Don't be fooled, the cheese is *inside* the burger
An integral part of vacation, to me at least, are frozen blended drinks. There was just one problem with that. David and I didn’t have a blender. It’s one of those things that we put off getting, pored over reviews and consumer reports for, and wavered indecisively about for the last few years.
With David out of town, I was free to go out and buy the blender of my choice. I didn’t know how David would react to my decision, but I figured maybe the banner might distract him from my purchase.
So bright... so beautiful... ah, Precious
After some research, I chose the KitchenAid 5 speed, one of the more powerful blenders available. And remember, with great power, comes great responsibility. And great pina coladas.
Aloha!
I laughed out loud at "...great responsibility. And great pina coladas." I look forward to more posts about blended concoctions. I can barely make a smoothie without smearing goop all over the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteThe musubi is insanely prevalent in Hawaii - almost anywhere you can get snack food, you'll find them. And sometimes if you go into a deli or something, you'll get variants of it - with egg, for example - depending on the time of day/meal. I also found it in other South Pacific islands while traveling for work. I tried it because I thought it was so gross as to be a must-try. It was actually quite tasty and renewed my childhood fondness for Spam. :)
ReplyDeleteIts nice not having to get away from it all when you got it all right there!
ReplyDeleteYou are so darn clever! Love your enthusiasm for the sake of enjoying good food and a good time with loved ones. Inspiring!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff and Kate!
ReplyDeleteAnd Kate, if you want to come over and paint, I've got about a gallon of poster paint and 40 feet of banner left :)
Sara, we made musubi once, and it was really good! The teriyaki glaze is key, I think.
This entire post is, in one word, adorable. Love it!
ReplyDeleteThanks Randy! I try :)
ReplyDelete