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!

Just Another Breakfast at the Captain’s Shack

16 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Breads, Acme Bake Shop Multi-Grain, Bread, Breakfast, Breakfast At The Captains Shack, Breakfast With Robin, Captain's Shack, Classic Sauces, Dill, Eggs, Hollandaise Sauce, Icebox Lox, Local Harvests, Meadowlark Farms, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipes - Sauces, Seafood, Vegetables, What's For Dinner?, Whats For Breakfast?

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Eggs Benedict, Hollandaise Sauce, icebox lox

I reported earlier that we received a luscious, fresh Alaskan salmon from our neighbor. Here are two breakfasts that we made. I updated the Easy Blender Hollandaise Sauce and I think this one is a little better. Another layer of light flavor. Great on the Eggs Benedict with Lox we had. Would also be good on asparagus.
Both of the breakfasts below have Robin’s Icebox Lox in them. Again, this one really turned out great. Take a good look at the photos – enlarge them using Left-Click – and enjoy! Both of the recipes listed are really easy to do. The Hollandaise may be the most difficult of the two. And just to note: The Eggs Benedict is not an everyday breakfast, although it would be good!

Grilled Asparagus and Robin's Icebox Lox Omelet Fresh Fruit

Grilled Asparagus Omelet
Robin’s Icebox Lox
Fresh Fruit

Meadowlark Farms Eggs Benedict
Robin’s Icebox Lox
Easy Blender Hollandaise Sauce
Acme Bake Shop Multi-Grain Toast
Fresh Fruit

Fresh Alaskan Salmon 2 Ways

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Alaskan Salmon, Asian Food, Captain's Shack, Classic Cuisines, Classic Herb Blends, Cooking Styles, Dinner With Robin, Grilling, Heirloom Carrots, Herbs, Photos By: Bob Young, Recipe by: Robin and Bob Young, Recipes, Recipes - Marinades, Salad, Salmon, Seafood, Vegetables, What's For Dinner?

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Asian marinade, Asian salmon, food photos, Grilled Salmon, recipes

Wow! This salmon was super good and fresh! It should be. Our neighbor, Cary White, returned from an Alaskan trip and brought us a side of fresh salmon. Thank-You so much, Cary, this was superb. We made Asian Grilled Salmon, a new and awesome recipe that we tried, and Robin’s Icebox Lox from the side. I know the Asian Grilled Salmon was wonderful – we had some last night – and I know the lox will be superb. Here are some photos of our endeavor. Enjoy and Enjoy the recipes! Cheers.

Robin’s Icebox Lox getting ready for the refrigerator and the weight.

Asian Grilled Salmon getting to know the marinade. Just remember to use a hot grill and 3 – 5 minutes per side. Cook just long enough so the salmon releases from the grill or grill pan easily and is slightly “marked”.

Asian Grilled Salmon
Fresh Asparagus and Snap Pea Saute
Green Salad with Yellow Heirloom Carrots

Tailgate Food?

04 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Avocado, Bigwood Bread, Black Beans, Brunch, Captain's Shack, Chicken, Comfort Food, Dinner With Robin, Egg Salad, Eggs, Fruits, Italian Food, Meadowlark Farms, Party Time, Photos By: Bob Young, Raspberries, Special Dinners, Vegetables, Watercress, What's For Dessert?, What's For Dinner?

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avocado, Bigwood Bread, Bigwood Sourdough, black beans, watercress

Robin has made some awesome “tailgate” food in the past several days. Here is the Tiramisu recipe from Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network. Raspberry Tiramisu. The photo here is Robin wearing her new BSU Bronco hat! You can Left-Click any of these photos to see them enlarged. Enjoy!

Robin constructing the tiramisu.

Completed tiramisu.

Want a slice? Left-Click to enlarge.

Black Bean, Corn and Avocado Salad. Another yum offering.

Black Bean, Corn, Chicken and Avocado Salad. Another yum offering.

Egg Salad on Sourdough with Water Cress. Corn, Chicken, Avocado and Black Bean Salad. The Acme Bake Shop Sourdough was not available at the COOP when I went there, so I tried the Bigwood Bread Sourdough out of Sun Valley. This sourdough was a lot denser than the Acme sourdough. Not bad, but I prefer Acme Bake Shop. Hard to overcome that bias! Just a personal preference.

Making Your Own Vinegar

03 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by Bob and Robin in Boise Farmers Market, Captain's Shack, Classics, Fruit, Pickles, Recipes, Special Information, Vinegars, What's For Dinner?

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apple cider vinegar, Braggs vinegar, herbal vinegar, homemade vinegar, vinegar, vinegar mother

Oh yes. It is very possible and easy to do. We make our own wine vinegars, both red and white, from left over lees. Add some herbs, and you have an expensive herbal vinegar. Here is a great link for making the mother for the vinegar. Making a Vinegar Mother. But first – What is a vinegar mother? Wikipedia explains it this way,

[A vinegar mother] is a substance composed of a form of cellulose and acetic acid bacteria that develops on fermenting alcoholic liquids, which turns alcohol into acetic acid with the help of oxygen from the air. It is added to wine, cider, or other alcoholic liquids to produce vinegar.

And from Mossgrownstone, we learn that

The resulting vinegar tastes great- use as you would use store brought apple cider vinegar. It takes less than 5 minutes to make. I make about 2-3 batches a year- making about a half gallon at a time. Other than the initial cost of the bottle of Braggs vinegar with the mother my only cost is the apple juice. I cook and clean with the vinegar but I do not do my canning with it. In order to can with homemade vinegar it is important to get a hydrometer (anywhere with homebrew supplies should carry one) in order to insure the vinegar is acidic enough.

You can learn more about making your own vinegar from Making a Vinegar Mother. Have fun and explore the variations.

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!

Boise Farmer Market Newsletter. Newsletter Link. Check out their Web Page, too. Lots of great information.

Here is a Beef Stew we made for a New Years Day Party. Mostly local products: beef, carrots, onions, potatoes and herbs. It was yummy!

2015 – Here We Come!

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Bob and Robin in 5 Hour Duck, Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Sourdough, Appetizers, Bread, Captain's Shack, Carrots, Celebrations, Comfort Food, Crockpot, Dinner At The Captains Shack, Dinner With Robin, Duck, Grilled Vegetables, Holiday Gatherings, Holiday Menu, Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Meadowlark Farms, Photos By: Bob Young, Slow Cooking, Special Dinners, Special Events, Tomatoes, What's For Dinner?

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new years day, new years eve

Well, 2014 has been a good year. We spent some time on a houseboat in Portland, OR. We saw my brother and sister in Jacksonville, FL – I had not seen them for “too many years”. We saw old high school classmates in Florida, too. Had a great time in the kitchen and will be making our own pasta from now on – we got a pasta machine for our Kitchen Aid – and we will be making our own pie crusts now. The store bought ones although being good, have too much salt in them. Buddy, pictured here with his Teddy Bear, is now 12 years old. Here is how we are preparing for the New Years celebrations – Our menu.

New Years Eve
East Coast Crab Dip
Stuffed Mushroom Caps
Fried Baby Artichokes with a Yogurt Dip
Bacon Wrapped Scallops

New Years Day
Open House at Meadowlark Farms in Nampa. We are making an Italian Pot Roast with as much local products as possible; Beef, onions, carrots and potatoes are all local.

Here are some photos of our meals for the past few days; Our New Years Prep meals.

Start off with

Shrimp Pasta
Acme Bake Shop Garlic Sourdough

5 Hour Chicken
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Creamed Onions and Spinach

We have done 5 Hour Goose, 5 Hour Chicken and the original 5 Hour Duck. The duck is by far the best.

Baked Ham
Grilled Zucchini Squash
Baked Yam

So there is our Lead-Up dinners and then our menu for New Years Eve and New Years Day. And of course, there will be wine from our cellar and Martinelli’s also. What are you having? Staying home? Going out? Be careful and have a Happy New Year! Cheers!

2014 in review

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Bob and Robin in What's For Dinner?

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annual report

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 34,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Night of Dungeness Crab!

19 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Bob and Robin in Blue Crab, Captain's Shack, Crab, Dinner With Robin, Dungeness Crab, Hat Ranch Winery, Main Dish, Photos By: Bob Young, What's For Dinner?

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Blue Crab, dungeness crab

It’s not often that we elect to have Dungeness crab for dinner, but tonight was one of those special dinners. Blue Crab was not available! Dungeness Crab is a much sweeter and a cold water crab, 50 – 60 degrees F. Whereas Blue Crab is slightly saltier and has a higher iodine content, due to its location. Water temperatures around 59 degrees F are good whereas water temperatures greater than 91 degrees F are lethal to Blue crabs. Blue Crab generally comes from the east coast, Atlantic Ocean region, although there is some off of Vietnam that have been introduced through ships ballast. Dungeness, on the other hand, comes from the deep, cold water of the Pacific Ocean, generally off the coast of Washington. Both are delicious, but for different reasons. Our supplier is Reel Foods here in Boise; Fresh seafoods of all kinds, including soft shelled crabs that they had today! I didn’t get any. We made a good dipping sauce that complemented the crab extremely well. And then the 2012 Hat Ranch (ID) Chardonnay was a very good paring. Enjoy these photos. Cheers!

Dungeness Crab ready to be cleaned.

Cleaned Dungeness and dipping sauce.

Buddy waits patiently for a “nubbin”.

Robin enjoys a bite.

On my! That’s all that there is left.

Housemade Sauerkraut and ………

19 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Bob and Robin in Acme Bake Shop, Acme Bake Shop Breads, Acme Bake Shop Rye, Blueberries, Boise Farmers Market, Buy Idaho, Captain's Shack, Comfort Food, Fruits, Housemade Sauerkraut, Local Farmers Markets, Local Harvests, Local Markets, Mushrooms, Oils, Pennsylvania Dutch, Photos By: Bob Young, Pickles, Reel Foods, Sauerkraut, What's For Dinner?

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fresh sauerkraut, Housemade Sauerkraut, Mushroom Omelet, truffle oil, waffles

Yup! It’s that time of year. Sauerkraut comes out of the crock and goes into pint jars. 8 of them. 14 lbs of fresh Idaho cabbage was fermented (krautenized) for 12 weeks at 65 degrees F. Oh yum! And it passed the test – Robin said it is good! And the graphic here is our label. But before one works on the kraut, one must have a good breakfast or two. Breakfast first …. Kraut second. Enjoy these photos – Breakfast first, kraut second.

Blueberry and Bacon Waffle
with
Whipped Cream and Fresh Maple Syrup

Bacon and Mushroom Omelet Fresh Blueberries and Raspberries Acme3 Bake Shop Toasted Rye Bread

Bacon and Sauteed Mushroom in Truffle Oil Omelet
Fresh Blueberries and Raspberries
Acme Bake Shop Toasted Rye Bread

Sauerkraut in the crock about ready to be liberated!

Coney Island Hot Dogs Pickle Housemade Sauerkraut Plocman's Whole Grain Mustard

Coney Island Hot Dogs
Pickle
Housemade Sauerkraut
Plochman’s Whole Grain Mustard

Oh yummers! What a way to start a day and then relax at lunch. Fresh steamed Dungeness crabs for dinner. Famous Idaho Potato Bowl tomorrow – ESPN. See the Blue Field. See Boise and the mountains, which are getting snow as we speak. Baked potatoes with all the trimmings! And maybe a Stella. Cheers!