Croissant in the City

When I heard that Marco Pierre White would be hosting a reality show, I have to admit that I was a little bummed. It's Marco Pierre White! I love The Devil in the Kitchen and his bad boy chef attitude. How can you not respect the drive he approaches his cooking with, and his huge move to give back his 3 Michelin stars when he left the kitchen?

I am friends with a group of amazing chefs, and yet, after 4 months of running around together, we haven’t really cooked much together outside of work. Perhaps it’s because we have all fallen into a rut. We go to work and do the same thing day in and day out. I’m grateful to be gainfully employed, don’t get me wrong. However, we definitely do feel a lack of inspiration on most days and an outlet to plug in that creativity. 

I went to the bathroom at Loco yesterday and this was written on the
door. It reminds me of a guy I used to work with in Las Vegas. His
name is Lenny and he is one of the funniest people and highly talented
graffiti artists I’ve ever met. One of his catch phrases is “Thug
Life” and when I saw it on the door yesterday, I knew I had to snap a
pic!

I love ice cream! It’s my dessert on most nights at home. However,
it’s been a while since I’ve found truly inspired ice cream…until
today!
Sweet Republic has been in a lot of magazines and on the news here in
Arizona recently. Today on the news I saw them hand an news host a
cone of blue cheese and date ice cream. I knew I had to pop over
before work and try it out.
Blue cheese and date ice cream: so tasty! Blue cheese is not
overwhelming which is what I was afraid of. It’s a beautiful melding
of flavors done well! You must try it!
Caramel: classic and also well done. I hate when I get caramel and
there is little caramel in it…Sweet Republic caramel is oozing with
caramel!
Two good size scoops for under $5! You can’t beat that!

When I decided to become a chef, one of the appealing aspects was going to be getting together after service, having a few drinks and cooking for each other. Up to this point, we have gone out to eat at our favorite late night spots, but the cooking has been kept to a minimum. 

Last night though, after a beer at Papago, Mlle Vino, her boyfriend, Llama, and our friend Asian Al (who is ironically not Asian, but cooks some mighty tasty Asian food!) headed back to taste some of Asian Al’s (AA) cooking.

AA had just been to the Asian market, filling his fridge for $120. Those groceries at a regular grocery store would have cost about $300…not too shabby! 

He started by wiping up a simple sauce…simple for him, I still can’t remember everything that he put in there and it was a lot of different ingredients. AA even grinds up his own spice mix. I took a big whiff and there was definitely some star anise in there. 

I literally walked out of the kitchen to change the song playing, came back, and this is what I found on the stove:

It smelled so good! Especially at 1am when we were all starving! The sauce was slightly creamy (coconut milk) and had a little bite to it (chilis), but not too spicy that you totally loose the flavor and can only feel your mouth on fire.

The finished product was quickly delivered to Mlle Vino and myself lounging in the living room, while mocking lame porno that Asian Al had recorded on his DVR. 

Asian Al, after entertaining a lady friend the night before, only had a few pieces of pork egg roll leftover, but he fried them up for us and they were probably the best egg rolls I’ve ever eaten. They were spicy, filled with ground pork and a myriad of ingredients, layered upon each other. Mlle Vino and I were sad that AA and his lady friend had eaten them all because we could have sat and stuffed ourselves with 100 of them! 

Excellent presentation as well. Ha ha

Llama was orgasmic about the sauce and kept dipping his duck bones in the sauce to lap it all up. He kept pacing the room exclaiming “this is the best Asian food I’ve ever eaten!” Mlle Vino and I just sat, with full, happy bellies, and laughed.

We quickly planned for a feast to occur on Sunday night. Asian Al will cook, I’ll make dessert and Mlle Vino will bring wine and sake. Llama, will sadly have to work, but we will save him a plate…maybe. 

It will be a feast to remember…stay tuned for pictures and commentary. I promise to take better notes on what Asian Al throws in his wok!

Much Love, Croi

Song of the Day: Pink Cloud Tracing Paper by: Asobi Seksu