What Chefs Eat - Sometimes.

What’s your favorite restaurant?  What do you like to eat?  Do you cook at home?  All good questions but the answers change like the weather.  I don’t have a favorite restaurant but there are a lot of places I like to eat.  I eat almost anything, except bugs, and I don’t really like intestines too much – their flavor is too strong.  I love to cook at home especially in the summer when the garden is in full swing.

This past week I spent a few days in Minnesota with our Big Bowl chefs from that area.  We found a new spot (for us) and we loved it so much we ate there twice.  Actually, most of the menu was typical Chinese American dishes; cream cheese wontons, General Tsao’s Chicken, etc, etc.  But we did manage to try a few select dishes that brought us back for a second night. 

The restaurant serves some truly hot and spicy Sichuan dishes swimming in fiery chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns.  Our favorites?  Room temperature plates of beef tendon, pig ears, pig stomach with black vinegar, and sliced beef tripe.  My favorite was the pig ears.    Steamed until tender, sliced paper thin, and dressed in chili oil, they have a clean, spicy flavor and a great crunchy texture. Here is a link to a version of a Thai Pig Ear's Salad you can enjoy at home! I am also a big fan of tendon.  Pure collagen, tendons have a gelatinous texture when slowly cooked that melts in your mouth. 

I admit these seem like unusual dishes.  Growing up in western Massachusetts, we did not see too many menus with such tasty pig parts and if I did I don’t know if I would have tried them.

I would love to hear about your food adventures.  Am I missing out on bugs?  Or intestines?  Will tendon and pig ears ever make it to the
Big Bowl menu?