February feast

We felt like cooking a really elaborate, solid meal last weekend, something that we haven't really done in some time. It was also our first, proper dinner partyish thing since we moved back onto the MIT campus. We're glad to report that the stove works and the oven temperatures seem just right.

Kenneth headed out to buy the groceries in the day, going crazy at favourite grocer Russo's, then buying some scallops at Whole Foods. Whole Foods is one of those yuppie supermarket chains that sells mostly overpriced stuff, but their seafood is pretty decent. Kenneth was looking for some mayonnaise there, but he got a little thrown off by the fancy stuff they were stocking. Another guy who was also looking for mayo also had some trouble, and he mentioned to Kenneth: "Don't they have just mayo?"

Anyway, we ended up cooking a full meal for us and our friends, Daryl and Xiaojuan. There was a simple salad of lettuce, arugula, grilled endives and roasted red peppers. Kenneth forgot to make a dressing! We roasted some bacon rolled around asparagus spears, mashed a few potatoes with parsley and topped that off with sauteed beech mushrooms, bacon bits and onions. And then there was the scallop, which was seared and paired with a mayo-soy-mirin-butter sauce.

Dessert was pretty interesting. DaJuan have an ice cream machine, and after a tedious voting process we all decided to make a curry chocolate ice cream. We basically followed a recipe for "Decadent Chocolate Ice Cream" and added curry powder to taste. The ice cream leaves a trail of spiciness down your throat. We're not sure if the curry taste made it through all that chocolate, though. The next time maybe we'll add some coconut milk or simmer the curry powder longer in the cream.