Dining out, Dining in. The last few days

We had a nice relaxing weekend and got off from work on Saturday due to inventory constraints (I guess?). I was so sore and tired on Saturday just from working on Friday. It was ridiculous how plating a few dishes for a cocktail party for two hours can be as tiring as playing in a 2 day long ultimate tourney (college, not club). Anyway, here's some pictures of random crap I prepared today since my parents knew I wouldn't be home much for dinner anymore due to work. It was pretty fun to use some ideas that I learned from Chef Bucco at Uproot Restaurant to bring back to my house for an evening.

Here's the final look at my main dish... Mom pulled out some crappy frozen Tilapia... and we had some left over parsnip from when I used it last so I whipped up this pile of garbage.

From 2009-11-08

Sauteed some greens in some butter and popped in some white wine/fish liquid (wasn't the raw shit) and let it simmer away for a bit. This was right after a quick blanching/ice bath. Shiver...

From 2009-11-08

Pureed and didn't strain some parsnip/cream/seasonings (yeah, very unrefined, but very delicious... need a tamis or chinois or whatever). Just starting to whisk into cream.

From 2009-11-08

Tossed together some Herb salad with orange slices (taken from Chef Bucco) and some nice Olive Oil/salt.

The fish was seasoned with salt/paprika/dash of sugar. SmokeY!

Also a little parsley / lemon sauce sprinkled around. I finally got around to buying some "spray bottles"... unfortunately these are ketchup and mustard bottles... best ShopRite in Rocky Hill could do for me. Mofos.

From 2009-11-08

Overall, pretty tasty... would definitely cut the fish smaller, it's pretty much swallowing the whole plate... then again, I'd never use a thin piece of tilapia for something like this. Boohoo.

I also made French Onion soup again. Third time, this time it tasted really good, very deep onion/thyme flavor and tangy finish from a red wine I used. My little brother drank a gallon of it I think. I bought a little ramakin to attempt to play with plating. I think it turned out pretty well, toasted some Italian bread and made some parmesan crisps. Really tasty. (I think the broiled cheese on top of the shit is a little overrated)

From 2009-11-08

Toasting some bread

From 2009-11-08

Making the Parm crisps

From 2009-11-08

From 2009-11-08

Tasty. I want to make some parsnip Ice Cream.

Oh, I was also very inspired by the amount of Mint I had leftover... so I made some Mojitos. My style. Asian style w/ PEEKLED GINGAR! Well, just ginger.

Ginger infused simple syrup.

From 2009-11-08

Mash some mint leaves

From 2009-11-08

Mix? Unfortunately, no seltzer/club soda... meh. Tasty. Add some water + lemon juice

From 2009-11-08

A few days ago, we went out for my Dad's birthday, to a place I googled in Princeton. Tre Piani. It was pretty amazing. The total cost for the 4 of us was around 270 bucks, we did get a bottle of wine (40) and unnecessary dessert, so the price wasn't that bad. I had to explain everything on the menu (for the 10th time I'm pretty sure because I've explained these things to my parents before).
A tartare, carpaccio, fois gras, etc are pretty difficult words to pronounce and to understand for Asian parents.

Appetizers:
Venizon Carpaccio with some bitter greens, shaved parm, mustard, caramelized onions (Mine)
-lacked acidity! but really nice cuts of meat, wayyy too many greens on the plate that weren't dressed properly at all.
Fois Gras with Apple/Cinnamon and a raisin toast (Mom's)
-delicious. absolutely amazing. buttery fois gras that was seared (maybe for a little too long, oozing and charred a bit too dark on the outside) for a bit, served with really tasty diced apple/cinnamon stuff + crispy cinnaraisin toast.
Tuna Tartare with some Aioli (didn't really taste it, Dad's)
-tasty and mustardy. lotta horseradish in the tartare.
Caesar salad (Little Bro's)

Entrees:
Moullard Duck breast with a crispy rice cake (Mine)

From Recently Updated

-very well cooked medium rare duck breast with very crunchy skin (YUM FAT). The rice cake had parsnips and carrots in it with a very crispy exterior. The cranberry sauce on the duck tasted perfect with the rice side. Awesome dish.

Nut-encrusted Scallops with greens and some other stuff... (Mom's)
-slightly overcooked scallops, but very tasty. great tasting greens.
Monkfish with some random mix of vegetables and cream sauce (Dad's)
-underseasoned fish, very rustic and boring presentation, underseasoned and uninteresting vegetables
Meat lasanga (Bro's)
-really tasty Bolognese meat sauce and cheesy. Boring rustic presentation and sort of boring to eat after a few bites.

Dessert:
Don't remember
Nutella Semi-fredo (TASTY)

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some shaved ice sort of stuff...

Overall an awesome restaurant experience, but a few entrees were definitely lacking or the presentation didn't seem to fit the theme of the restaurants other dishes. The service was really lax as well, but still friendly when they had the time to walk by...

I have to update about the cocktail party that happened on Friday at Uproot! It was an awesome experience.