Breakfast At “The Shack”

30 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Beans, Black Beans, Boise Farmers Market, Breakfast, Breakfast At The Captains Shack, Breakfast With Robin, Buy Idaho, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Cooking Styles, Corn, Eggs Jasmine Tea Mock Fried, Ethnic Foods, Guacamole, Idaho Polenta Floriani, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Mexican Food, Photos By: Bob Young, Whats For Breakfast?

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bean sprouts, black beans, guacamole, Pico de Gallo, polenta, polenta cake

Ah yes. And a different one it was. When the Chef arrived, Robin ordered his black bean and fried polenta cake special. This plate comes with fried polenta cake, black beans with turmeric and cumin, pico de gallo and bean sprouts. Bob ordered the Chefs’ special fried polenta cake and jasmine tea mock fried eggs. Oh yum!! Here. Take a look and enjoy!

Robin ordered

Black Beans
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole
Fried Polenta Cakes

I ordered

Black Beans
Fried Polenta Cake
Jasmine Tea Mock Fried Eggs
Pico de Gallo

Seafood Potpie For Dinner

28 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Farmers Market, Buy Idaho, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Dinner For Robin, Dinner With Robin, Green Peas, Housemade Pie Crust, Idaho Wine, Lobster, Onion, Photos By: Bob Young, Potpie, Reel Foods, Sea Scallops, Seafood, Shell Fish, Shrimp, What's For Dinner?, Williamson Vineyards and Orchards, Wine and Food, Wines - Italian

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fish stock, lobster, lobster meat, lobster shells, Reel Foods Fish Market, Sea Scallops, shrimp

This was an awesome recipe from Ina Garten for Seafood Potpie. Although I did alter it slightly. I could not find lobster meat – my seafood shop, Reel Foods Fish Market here in Boise was out of it – I used three small lobster tails. (We are really lucky here in Boise to have such an outstanding seafood market that brings in some really fresh product.) I removed the lobster meat from the shell and then stewed down the lobster shells and shrimp shells to make my own seafood stock. It made a fine rich stock. I also used a small jar of clam juice with the stock. Add to this dinner a wonderful glass of 2012 Williamson Vineyards Blossom, 100% Sangiovese Rosè, and we had a great dinner. Try the recipe. Let us know how you liked it and/or if you altered it at any step. Enjoy these photos. Cheers!

Seafood Potpie

This was really very good and we did like the housemade seafood stock.

Break open that luscious crust and one exposes peas, pearl onions, shrimp, scallops and lobster.

Two Different Meals

27 Friday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Sourdough, Breakfast, Breakfast With Robin, Buy Idaho, Cabbage, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Green Salad, Housemade Sauerkraut, Photos By: Bob Young, Pork, Potatoes, Salads, Sauerkraut, Scrapple, Sourdough Bread, What's For Dinner?, Whats For Breakfast?

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Philly, Rappa Brand Scrapple, scrapple, sourdough toast

Well, I’m sure Robin liked these two meals – her plate was empty and clean! Buddy was with me. Wonderful dinner of pork, mashed potatoes and housemade sauerkraut. A Philly Breakfast of scrapple, scrambled eggs and sourdough toast. And now you are asking, “What is scrapple?” A Philadelphia area treat and staple. If you have never had it, think pork. Crispy fried. With a little ketchup. The “Scrapple Purist” like it thick sliced and no ketchup. Which ever way, it gets a crispy outside. Delicious! Yummy! It’s traditional! We have it shipped in from Bridgeville, Delaware. I know, that’s not Philly. The dish was originally from Philly and has since spread. But it has not traveled far. Enjoy these photos. Cheers! But first, dinner. Left-Click any of these photos to see them enlarged. Tonight’s dinner? Seafood Pot Pie with our Grandson Chris. He likes seafood. ‘Specially lobster.

Roasted Pork Medallions
Green Salad with Carrot Strings and Pickled Beets
Mashed Potatoes and Housemade Sauerkraut

Scrambled Meadowlark Farms Eggs
Acme Bake Shop Toasted Sourdough
Rappa Brand Fried Scrapple

Mai Thai Visited

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in 4-Stars, Asian Food, Boise Restaurants, Buy Idaho, Curry, Dinner With Robin, Duck, Locavore, Mai Thai, Photos By: Bob Young, Sushi, Vegetables, What's For Dinner?

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Asian - Mai Thai, chicken, curry, duck, Mai Thai, sushi

We have been to Mai Thai several times, but this is the first time for the lunch buffet. They are located at 750 W Idaho Street, Boise. (208) 344-8424. Such a treat! They continue their outstanding cuisine. With just a small comment: The duck could have had more of the fat removed and the connective tissue trimmed. The vegetable tempura was good, but slightly soggy and cold. For those reasons, I can only rate this visit a 4-Star, out of 5-Star, meal. The ambiance is terrific. The Waite staff is very attentive and polite. The price, $11.95 for the buffet, is extremely reasonable for the amount of food that is available. Mai Thai is well worth the trip to go there. If you like Asian cuisine for lunch, this is the place to go. It is just a little more of a formal setting than most of the other Asian places in Boise. Give it a try. I have also listed Mai Thai on TripAdvisor. Here are some photos we took. Left-Click any of the photos to see them enlarged. Enjoy!!

Buffet menu

Makings for a salad

Lettuce Wrap Ingredients and Vegetable Tempura. (The tempura was not heavy with batter.)

Sushi offerings

Curry

Noodles

Chicken and Duck

Vegetable Tempura, Salad and Sushi

Sushi close-up

Duck, Noodles and Curry on Rice

Happy 1 Year Birthday Cloud 9 Nano Brewery!!

17 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Beer and Ale, Beer and Food, Birthdays, Boise Adventures, Brew Pubs, Buy Idaho, Cloud 9 nano Brewery, Cod, Comfort Food, Dessert, Dinner With Robin, Fish and Chips, Idaho Breweries, Local Farmers Markets, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Potatoes, Restaurant Reviews, Seafood, Shepards Pie, Special Events, What's For Dinner?

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fish and chips, potato soup, scottish ale, shepards pie

And it was a rousing St Patrick’s Day celebration and birthday party!! The turn out was superb. The food was awesome as usual and the beer/ale was outstanding! Glad they are so close to us – about 1 1/2 blocks. A nono brewery produces less than 5oo cases per year. They are small but they are sure delicious! Here are some photos from the evening. They had to put a tent up outside in addition to the patio seating. It must be a Rite of Spring, because it sure did feel like it. Happy Birthday Cloud 9! Here’s to many more! You are definitely a 4+-Star Pub (Out of 5-Stars). Love it!

The inside. About 8 tables and bar seating. Children are allowed but not at the bar. Full and delicious menu of Idaho and local products.

The beer/ale menu.

(L) Stout and (R)Scottish Heather Ale

Shepard’s Pie and Potato Soup. Both were delicious!

Fish and Chips are awesome. These are always on the menu.

Happy Birthday cake!

“Edible Idaho” Spring Brunch Party

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in 4-Stars, Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Rye, Black Beans, Boise Adventures, Boise Restaurants, Boise Weekly, Breakfast, Breakfast With Robin, Brunch, Buy Idaho, Chevre, Crème fraîche, Eggs, Eggs Poached, Hopi Blue Corn Polenta, Idaho Chefs, Idaho Dairy, Local Harvests, Locavore, Lox, Meadowlark Farms, Moroccan Food, Organic Foods, Party Time, Peaceful Belly Farms, Photos By: Bob Young, Photos By: Robin Young, Purple Sage Farms, Restaurants, Seafood, Special Events, What's For Dinner?, Whats For Breakfast?

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Acme Bake Shop, Crème fraîche, Earthly Delights Farm, Homestead Natural Foods, hotel, lox, Meadowlark Farm, Rollingstone Chevre

This morning, it was great to join Guy Hand, Edible Idaho Managing Editor, and friends at the The Modern Hotel for an awesome breakfast and the Spring Brunch Party. And from the menu for the brunch, The Modern states that “… thanks EDIBLE IDAHO, Earthly Delights Farm, Loganics, Rollingstone Chevre, Meadowlark Farm, Coiled Wines, Idaho Kombucha Co, Acme Bake Shop, Peaceful Belly, Homestead Natural Foods, Waterwheel Gardens, Next Generation Organics, Sweet Valley Organics, Gaston’s Bakery, and Miss Mona’s Chicken Ranch for their local products.” It’s just great to Eat Local and to support your local agriculture! Robin and I try very hard stay local! Enjoy these photos from this morning. And if you are in the area, The Modern serves some great meals. Try them and check out their website as listed above. They are definitely a solid 4-Star out of 5-Star restaurant.

Guy Hand and friends.

Guy Hand

Tara Morgan, Edible Idaho Editor and food writer for the Boise Weekly.

Guy Hand and Tara Morgan

A. Minskoff and Angie Shaltry from Coiled Winery

Sandy and Rich Ostrogorski and Meagan

Scone with Riesling Jelly

"Rizza" Cured Steelhead Lox Loganics Farm baby greens salad, Acme Bake Shop German rye toast, creme fraiche

“Rizza” Cured Steelhead Lox
Loganics Farm baby greens salad, Acme Bake Shop German rye toast, crème fraîche

Moroccan Black Beans and Poached Eggs
Organic Idaho black beans, Earthly Delights Farm heirloom Hopi blue corn polenta, preserved Meyer lemon crème fraîche, Meadowlark Farm poached eggs

It was a great breakfast!!

Scones and Mimosas

Cottonwood Grille Revisited

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Bearnaise Sauce, Beef, Boise Restaurants, Buy Idaho, Chocolate, Chocolate and Food, Classic Sauces, Colter's Creek Winery, Cottonwood Grille, Dinner With Robin, Herbs, Idaho Wine, Idaho's Bounty, Kobe Beef, Locavore, Oysters, Photos By: Bob Young, Potatoes, Restaurant Reviews, Salads, Seafood, Shrimp, Snake River AVA, Special Dinners, Syrah, What's For Dinner?, Wine and Food

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Béarnaise sauce, Colters Creek winery, cottonwood grille, Crème Brûlée, garlic mashed potatoes, London Broil

It was a good meal. And to get the negative out of the way, I thought the peas we had were a little salty for us – we eat very little salt – so the saltiness may not be entirely true for everyone. We would have liked a little more garlic in the potatoes. So will this keep us from going back? Probably not. The Kobe beef that Robin had was so very tender and delicious. My London Broil was good and the Béarnaise sauce on it was wonderful! Robin had an awesome Chocolate Mousse served in a White Chocolate Cup and I had a delicious Crème Brûlée. Here. Look at these photos and enjoy! If you want a more detailed review of the Cottonwood Grille, look at Our Restaurant Guide.

Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail

Wonderfully fresh seafood!

Oysters On The Half Shell

How fresh were these? You could taste the ocean and smell the ocean and hear the waves crashing on shore. That’s how fresh they were!

Caesar Salad

Love how this is presented.

Fresh Green House Salad

Kobe Beef with garlic mashed potatoes steamed peas

Kobe Beef
with
garlic mashed potatoes and steamed peas

London Broil with Bear garlic mashed potatoes and steamed peas

London Broil and Béarnaise sauce
with
garlic mashed potatoes and steamed peas

Chocolate Mousse in a White Chocolate Cup

Crème Brûlée

And with our dinner, we asked for a Fraser Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon but they were out of it. So we got a good 2011 Colter’s Creek Syrah, both are Idaho wines are very good and went quite well with our dinners.
But beforer we went for dinner here at the Cottonwood Grille, we went to the Arid Club, which is designed “To establish a club of business and professional men and women whose members are uniformly congenial with one another as nearly as may be, to provide them with an attractive and convenient meeting place, and to exclude there from bigots, propagandists, boosters, go-getters, uplifters, reformers, and snobs. [Arid Club Preamble]” for the release of the documentary film on the Idaho Wine Regions called “Idaho Wines: From Bud to Taste Bud”. It is on its way to be presented at the Sun Valley Film Festival.

Super Bowl Vittles

01 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Appetizers, Boise Farmers Market, Buy Idaho, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Corn, Dinner With Robin, Ethnic Foods, Gameday, Local Harvests, Meadowlark Farms, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipes, Shell Fish, Shrimp, Super Bowl, What's For Dinner?

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garbonzo beans, grits, hummus, idaho polenta, shrimp, Super Bowl Party

Well it was a good game, even though the Seattle Seahawks lost. But then, that was a weird call in the last 20 seconds and on the 2 yard line that probably cost them the game. 24-27 was a good score. The way a Super Bowl should end up.
I think our appetizers were much better. And 99% of it from Idaho products by local farmers. If you want to see these photos enlarged, Left Click the photo and it will go larger. Here. Take a look. Enjoy!

Fried Meadowlark Farms Eggs
Steamed Shrimp with Housemade Tartar Sauce
Idaho Grits

A very good breakfast!

Crab Dip East Coast Style

Steamed Shrimp with Tartar Sauce

Fresh Hummus

What you don’t see are the Steak Tacos that we made. Again, from scratch. They were yum! Actually the food all night was yum!

Thailand Express by Chef Pong

19 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in 4-Stars, Asian Food, Brocolli, Buy Idaho, Dinner With Robin, Duck, Ethnic Foods, New Restaurant Trial, Oriental Food, Photos By: Bob Young, Pork, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipes, Recipes - Sauces, Restaurant Reviews, Restaurants, Restaurants To Try, Rice, Seafood, Shrimp, Singha, Soup, Special Dinners, Spring Rolls, Thai Food, Thailand Express, Vegetables, Vegetarian Foods, What's For Dinner?

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Asian - Thailand Express, Chef Pong, Thailand, Thailand Express

Located at 2025 12th Ave Nampa, Idaho 83686. This was a very good surprise! Super food. Great Waite Staff. Ambiance was OK – open and more like a country cafe, not formal like Mai Thai in Boise. From their website, “Looking for mouthwatering Thai restaurants in Nampa, ID? Call Thailand Express at (208) 501-7975 and ask all about our menu that is chock-full of delicious Thai Food. Our chef has years of experience working in top tier restaurants and provides some of the best Asian food in the area. Whether you are looking for quick and easy lunch specials to share with coworkers or something a little fancier for dinner, you will find it here. We have both spicy and mild dishes for the whole family.” Here is a link to Thailand Express.
We found their food to be deliciously intriguing. Not spicy hot, unless you want it that way. Very large servings – Robin and I could have shared a bowl of the soup – no telling how large the pot size of soup was. Probably good for a family. Presentations were good. Prices were good for the quality and serving sizes. Watch their opening times as they are open twice daily, with a break in the afternoon when they are not open. “NEW BUSINESS HOURS – LUNCH —Tuesday-Friday–11:00a.m.2:30p.m., Saturday-Sunday–12:00p.m.-3:00p.m., Dinner –Tuesday-Thursday 4:30p.m.-9:00p.m., Friday-Saturday 4:30p.m.-9:30p.m., Sunday 4:30pm – 9:00pm. Monday Closed”
We rate this 4-Stars out of 5-Stars – on their FB site and their website they have a rating of 4 1/2-Stars. We will return to Thailand Express by Chef Pong. Enjoy these photos of the evening. Left-Click any of the photos to see enlarged.

Wall decorations.

Table Appetizer

Marinated roasted duck and fresh veggies wrapped rice paper and served with special brown sauce. 4 pieces, $6.95

Peking Duck Roll
Marinated roasted duck and fresh veggies wrapped in rice paper and served with special brown sauce.
4 pieces, $6.95 (Well presented and delicious!)

Thai Brown Sauce. This recipe is what we came up with after trying theirs. It is very close.

Coconut Soup (Tom Kah) Coconut milk, chicken and mushroom in lime juice and fish sauce served mildly. Bowl $3.95, Popt $8.95

Coconut Soup (Tom Kah)
Coconut milk, chicken and mushroom in lime juice and fish sauce served mildly.
Bowl $3.95, Pot $8.95 (Robin had a bowl. Delicious!))

Wonton Soup
A traditional Chinese soup with homemade wontons and veggies, mixture of seasoned ground pork, minced shrimp, chicken and water chestnuts.
Bowl $4.95, Pot $9.95 (I had the bowl. Delicious!)

Chef's Special Honey Crispy Duck Half duck marinated sauce and then roasted. Served with special honey sauce on top a bed of vegetables and jalapeno soy on the side. $13.95

Chef’s Special Honey Crispy Duck
Half duck marinated in sauce and then roasted. Served with special honey sauce on top a bed of vegetables and jalapeno soy on the side. $13.95
(Robin made a really good choice with this.)

Praram Long Song Your choice of meat (Pork) stir fried in Thai peanut sauce and served atop a bed of stir fried broccoli. Jasmine rice on the side. $9.95 and worth every penny. There was none to take home!

Praram Long Song
Your choice of pork, beef, chicken, veggie, tofu, shrimp or duck (Pork) stir fried in Thai peanut sauce and served atop a bed of stir fried broccoli. Jasmine rice on the side. $9.95 and worth every penny. There was none to take home!

Glad I tried this Thailand beer. Light and a refreshing lager that was a perfect match to the food. After a language lesson, it is pronounced “sing-ha” with a slight inflection on the “sing”. Our Waite Person was delighted that we asked how to pronounce this. She was very helpful throughout the meal. Thank-You!

Locally Produced Foods Still Available

02 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Farmers Market, Bone-In Pork Chops, Buy Idaho, Hard To Find Foods, Healthy Eating, Idaho's Bounty, Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Locavore, Special Information, Stew, What's For Dinner?

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Boise Farmer Market Newsletter, local foods, Winter Boise Farmers Market Newsletter

Yes! Even at 12 degrees here in Boise, we still have an outlet for those wonderful locally produced foods. Get to know your local farmers, and they will probably be able to get you some of their product that is not available in the stores. For instance, Ed Wilsey, Homestead Natural Foods, is looking into 1 1/2″ bone-in pork chops for me so I can stuff them. Yum! Here is a link to the Winter Boise Farmers Market Newsletter. Great information resource for places that sell local foods. Enjoy!