Quarantine Food Review

For a few months we are all stuck in our houses, bored and not doing any of our usual activities due to COVID-19 :(. But that means a lot more time to cook and eat. I am going to write about my favorites that my family and I have cooked.

These are a collection of cookies that my family made

Who doesn’t like a 3 year old’s brownies? I really like brownies and as you know, I just returned from Europe, so I had a bit of a break from the best brownies. Rowena and Mom quickly fixed that up. The amount of saltiness was perfect and the texture was amazing, especially on the crust. Not to mention they got the correct percentage of cacao.

Similar to the last paragraph, it’s my little sisters making chocolate wonders. It was a delicious chocolate cake. My favorite part was the cake. It was not too rich and had a wonderful texture. I would like to add that the sprinkles on the top were the perfect color choice.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/ganached-guinness-goodness/

My food reviews have always had a certain dish that keeps popping up. You guessed it, steak. I really like steak but it is not complete unless you have A1 steak sauce which I have not seen since my family left America. But upon return my mom cooked some nice steak for us and made sure we had A1. If you haven’t had A1, You should try it ASAP.

Kids don’t like salad, but this dish is my excuse for salad. It is called a salmon bowl. My mom either buys or makes a spice mix that she cooks salmon in. She makes rice and prepares toppings such as: edamame, cucumber, carrots, seaweed, peanuts, avocado and scallions. Ironically I normally do not have the salmon but the dish is a family favorite. 

https://www.skinnytaste.com/seattle-asian-salmon-bowl/

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I like cereal, pastries, and bagels, But there is one thing in particular that I really like: waffles. I have not had a waffle in a really long time except for Belgian waffles which are not good and are not made for maple syrup. It was so nice to take a bite of a nice American waffle for the first time in a while.

This review is made mostly of old favorites from home. As I have written all these reviews, you are probably wondering what my favorite food is No it’s not steak or pasta Bolognese. It is a pasta called kugel. The recipe that I really like is not very similar to other kugels. It has the standard base of a kugel egg noodles with raisins, cottage cheese, sour cream, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. But what is special is the topping, a mix of cinnamon, a cereal usually corn flakes and melted butter. In the end it is more of a dessert than a main course.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/anne-whitemans-birthday-kugel-350156

Here is one that I did before in this review but only technically. It is another steak that is also good with A1. Flank steak is just what my family calls it because that is the cut used for this recipe. My mom makes a spice mix, slathers the beef in it then cooks it till the outside has a nice burny char. It is delicious especially with A1. (No this food review is not a paid advertisement)

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/dry-rubbed-flank-steak-with-grilled-corn-salsa-56389977

There are two vegetables that I really like, carrots and bell peppers. But I had to learn to like them somehow, and the answer to that is my mom’s tofu stir fry. When I first had it, my brothers and I always picked out the veggies and only ate the tofu. After a fair bit of scolding from my mom I tried the vegetables, and sure enough I kind of liked them. Now I really like tofu stir fry. It has two really good vegetables and I really like the texture of tofu.

I have always liked Mexican food or at least the Mexican food that I had in America. Make your own taco has always been a big favorite in my family. This time the grocery store had no duck. So we had pork tacos. I like to add Sour cream and Cabbage. I also char tortillas over the stove for me and my family. It is a great mix of chewy and crunchy plus savory and sweet. Though I prefer it with duck rather than pork.

https://food52.com/recipes/10642-slow-cooked-pork-tacos

Now it is time to talk takeout because that plays a very big roll in quarantine. Every good American town has a classic diner. In Truckee, California we have Jax by the Tracks. My family has always loved the place so when we couldn’t go there we ordered it, Twice actually. I am going to write about the second time (run on). I got a bacon burger which also came with pulled pork, coleslaw and a wicked BBQ sauce. It was really messy but it was totally worth it. Something that my family has always admired Jax for is their shakes. This time I got a Butterfinger shake and it was amazing with great big crunchy pieces of Butterfinger.

My older brother likes baking. He especially likes scones and he makes really good ones. This time it was for a nice brunch and he just made plain scones sometimes he puts chocolate chips or blueberries in them but not this time (run on). My favorite part about scones is the large granules of sugar on the top, it really adds a texture (run on — two sentences cannot be joined only with a comma). I also really like the level of sweetness in the bread, it is perfect.(same problem as last sentence — run on

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013297-classic-scones

America is home to some really good restaurant chains. Sadly a lot of them don’t even spread across the whole country. On the East coast there is Bojangles and on the west coast we have In and Out Burger. While my family drove home from SFO we stopped at an In and Out Burger drive through notorious for having very long lines. Due to coronavirus it was even longer than usual. I got a plain cheeseburger, with a toasted bun as usual, and a root beer. it was so nice to have root beer it had been a really long time (3 sentence run on). 

This review will be as long as the time that coronavirus stays in America. I normally do not like Funfetti. But when my sister Libbey made Funfetti cookies I decided to try them. They were delicious. They were the perfect flavor to have the crunchy sprinkles and the perfect color so that the sprinkles popped out. Now I am going to try every Funfetti thing I see.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/05/confetti-cookies/

I have always liked my mom’s penne Bolognese but this time she added prosciutto to the bolognese sauce. It was amazing the prosciutto changes everything it really adds a nice chewy texture.

There are a lot of foods that are impossible to not like unless you have allergies or you are vegetarian or lactose intolerant. Today I am writing about something that is impossible to not like. Chocolate chip cookie sundaes. Warm and cold are a perfect mix when you eat. Plus chocolate chip cookies were meant for Ice cream. The texture is chewy crunchy and soft. You just can’t go wrong with the combo.

Do you ever feel like the food on your table is way too much for you and your family for one week? Well that’s how I felt about my moms Bo ssam pork. It is a big hunk of tender pork with a crumbly salt, sugar and brown sugar crumble on the outside. In my opinion the sauce was too sweet but the pork was quite good.

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/bo-ssam-51208610

Cookies are delicious, but my favorite style of cookies is double chocolate cookies. I really liked my mom’s chocolate brownie cookies. They were very unlike most cookies starting with the fact that there were a lot of egg whites and I love egg white cookies. It was a crunchy cookie wich I found to really improve the idea of a cookie, the only problem was that it was a bit burny on the edges. run on

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chocolate-brownie-cookies

I like raspberries. If you ask my mom how many boxes a day I eat she would say three, and three is correct. the point is I love raspberries (run on). So when my mom makes a raspberry cake I am going to try it. It was delicious, the way the fruits melted into an amazing berry goo. The cake was sweet and the crust was crunchy it was amazing.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/raspberry-ricotta-cake

This has undoubtably been the longest review I have ever written. I guess I just had a lot of energy waiting to get out so I wrote a lot but it still took time that is why I have not posted for a while. Next up as my family drives through America looking for a place to move, I will be writing food reviews.