stinky cheese man

One kinda great thing about where I work is I have access to a whole grocery store of amazing eats (duh). And just so happens I am counter neighbors with the stinky cheese mongers. Like I said before, part of the reason I even went into Whole Foods before was to stare at the cheese counter. Not really buy anything… just stare. And eat the samples.

I’ve since wandered to the cheese counter and actually purchased a cheese or two. When I made the bruschetta for the World Cup dinner, I used a parmesan-esque goat cheese. Buttery, salty, melted on the tongue like a good parmesan should.

My man met me at the store so we could do some post-shift shopping. I was having all these insane cravings and wants and needs, we ended up with a cart full of miscellaneous. All natural BBQ chips, potato salad, 2 jugs of organic lemonade, frozen pierogi’s, frozen edamame, guacamole, salsa, a baguette, a fresh cheese pizza, black cherry soda, 2 chocolate mousse desserts, pulled pork and these two goat’s milk cheeses:

Both with distinct stinkyness and tang but all the right creaminess.

I love cheese. I dont care how many pounds or pimples I incur upon consumption… I love it. I do have certain cheeses I prefer not to be friends with.. like swiss… I mean, ok, I’ve only had the processed crap from those packages with 8 slices. I will give swiss the benefit of the doubt and say I just haven’t met Mr. Right.

This frumpy round one that looks like a white hockey puck that’s been rolled around on the concrete is actually peppered goat cheese. Very spicy! I give you, capricho de cabra – peppered!

Lovely.

For this slice of pie: it was a little more stank… chevre de cremiers from France. Oui oui!

Creamy, salty, tangy…. People who choose to live their life sans cheese are mutants.

…enjoy your meals!
C

gooooooooooool!!

I played soccer around the time when getting kool-aid stains around the perimeter of your upper lip and being front teeth-less was the height of sophistication. Oh I so wish I could find my soccer picture. I was 5 and very sophisticated. So much so I wore a pearl headband…like every game… and the ref would always politely take it from me (I guess it was a safety thing?) oh and might I add I was the only girl on my team. Well I wore the headband in said picture. And just so happens I have the most bad ass kool-aid stain around my mouth EVER. Somebody embarrass me on Facebook and post that photo.

Thats the extent of my soccer experience. I know just next to nothing about soccer.. oh pardon.. fútbol. So as the World Cup played out I kinda ignored it. Sadly. I know… its like the epicenter of international sports next to the Olympics but its like whatever…. is there food involved?

When our friend invited us over to watch the finals it was my excuse to make something. Too bad I had to work that day and 100 excuses later all I could come up with was bruschetta. I was kind of craving it anyway.. I bought a garlic parmesean baguette, salty, buttery goat cheese and an ugly heirloom from the farmer’s market and threw together these:

I need a windowsill in my kitchen.

Onto more exciting news…. I found this while we were in Walgreens… I am such a sour fiend. My heart almost beat outta my chest when I saw these. My mouth is doing the weird salivating thing it does when I talk about really sour stuff. (Please someone out there tell me this happens to you too!) Ok so these are amazing and I cant even believe someone out there in Warhead land answered my prayer:

Insane. I know! (AND! They were $1!!!) These are reeeeeeally sour. These are not for the tart of heart.  Now I just need to get my hands on some citric acid. My world would be complete. Dear Santa…

enjoy your meals… and Warhead freezer pops 🙂

happy mouths, angry ears

One of my biggest pet peeves about eating out is noisy, obnoxious restaurants with huge flat screens and even louder and more obnoxious people screaming at your plate. Can I eat in complete silence anymore!?

So when we went to Delray Beach with my brother and his wife and shopped Atlantic Ave. for our double date dinner destination, we were in for happy mouths and angry ears upon tucking into City Oyster & Sushi Bar before the rain hit.

My brother and his wife came to visit us from Houston this past weekend and one thing my brother had on his bucket list for this visit was he wanted to eat at really great restaurants. We are most definitely kindred spirits. (In fact, the longer we are around each other, the more our similarities reveal themselves. Bobby pins in ears and all.. ) Atlantic Ave. in Delray is a strip of trendy eateries and bars, it was definitely a spot we had to hit.

City Oyster called our names in the way of pricey seafood. I mean, if there are appetizers over $20 it has to be good…… right? Shayne & I being the poor folk we are, looked at each other, gulped and decided that if we’re going to splurge, tonight was decidedly the time and place…. hoping the food is phenom.

Verdict? The food WAS phenom. However, the atmosphere gets a distinct thumbs way down for the gathered throng’s consistent dull roar as we ate our stellar meal. I mean, how can a restaurant serve amazing food and house a bar crowd of 40-something neanderthals yelling and high-fiving each other right next to the dining room? Oye… but that’s what comment cards are for.

Our appetizers were a surprisingly light, buttery lobster bisque, rich miso soup and these!, the most flavorful tray of oysters we’ve ever feasted on!:

All 3 entrees were marvelous.There was nothing about any one of our meals that was less than perfection. The swordfish (which Shayne & I had never had), was like eating a steak, hearty, smoky and tender. Zui’s crab stuffed shrimp, what I was originally going to order but I like to eat off everyone’s plate so I like the table to order different things, decadent! But my brother won best ordered entree of the evening with pan-seared scallops and mushroom risotto. The risotto was a dream. The planets were aligned that night and the chef had a lucky charm in his apron because he served the best risotto he’s ever made to the right table.
Shrimp:

Scallops & Risotto:
Swordfish:

Desserts! We all ordered different desserts, of course! I think mine won best…. key lime tart with orange sauce. But the sundae was decadence!

Moving on to other meals shared with the LeBlanc’s this weekend:

A crappy breakfast buffet aboard our cruise ship to the Bahamas:

(Our cruise dinner was a disgraceful, spit in the face of our life-changing dinner the night before. No pictures).

But the fresh conch on the island was sooooo yummy! We ordered a few things off this little hut’s menu.

fried conch, fish and conch fritters and a piquant conch salad:

I was mesmerized by this guy’s knife skills. He was cutting so fast with that machete!

We ventured up to West Palm Beach for the 4th and ate at City Cellar in CityPlace. We found out this restaurant was under the same management umbrella as City Oyster…mmm…it has to be good!!
No.
I can only assume City Cellar is the neglected foster child of that company. My brother drew the wrong straw that night… he ordered the infamous Hangar steak, which our waiter came back to the table to inform us they “ran out.” (How do you run out of something before dinner service?!). My brother then ordered the crab stuffed Chilean sea bass, which had no apparent flavoring. The prep cook who was responsible for fish that day forgot culinary 101: always season fish before cooking. My salmon was not seasoned either. So my brother sent it back and ordered a hamburger. Which sucked. Dinner was in shambles and did not recover after even poorer service and no acknowledgment from a manager. What an ass….
But Shayne won best ordered entree and these were, in fact, soooo good:

We took them to Primanti Bros. in Fort Lauderdale for the monster sandwiches and delish pizza. They’re the folks who stack fresh cut fries and coleslaw on their sandwiches. Outta control.

We had a blast with them 🙂 So glad they chose to spend their summer vacay with us down here in SoFlo. Love ya LeBlanc’s!