Ladies Lunch in Fillmore and Japantown

A few weeks ago, I met with a friend of mine for a leisurely lunch. We deliberately left our schedule open, for we planned on doing nothing except enjoying each other's company. We wanted to spend our day aimlessly browsing the designer shops, contentedly window shopping, and delightfully gazing at the idyllic scenery in hazy San Francisco.

My friend and I met at one of my favorite San Francisco restaurants, La Mediterranee. There, I ordered the lunch special, which came with a creamy, silken yogurt soup to start. The decadent and lemony soup invigorated my palate, and whetted my appetite for more. The taste and consistency of the soup reminded me of a homey cream of broccoli soup. For my main dish, I enjoyed a protein trio consisting of (1) chicken pomegranate, a fall-of-the-bone dark meat drumstick marinated, basted, and slowly baked in a sweet and slightly acidic pomegranate sauce with wild herbs, (2) a crisp filo levantine meat tart filled with lean ground beef and toasted pine nuts, and (3) chicken cilicia seasoned with cinnamon-spiced chicken and served over golden rice pilaf tossed with crispy almond slivers, chickpeas, and raisins. The chicken cilicia also came in a golden-brown filo wrapper, and exhibited a perfect balance of complimentary sweet, sour, and savory flavors with the hot chickeny interior and sweet dusting of powdered sugar. I also enjoyed the pillowy wedges of warm pita, which I dipped in a small mound of tahini-rich hummus.


After our filling and satisfying meal, we stopped by Dosa, a trendy and new Indian restaurant, to appreciate the luxuriously designed restaurant space, which oddly was once occupied by Goodwill. The vividly colored hanging chandeliers glittered and sparkled with their feathery and beaded outgrowths. We decided to order some refreshments, and I went with the sweet mango lassi, which had a hint of mint and a rich, smooth, custardy consistency.


As we wandered from shop to shop, we made our last stop in Japantown. First, we visited the Hotel Kabuki, to visit their beautiful tea garden and watch the peaceful koi fish eagerly encircle the whispering waterfall. Next, we stopped by San Francisco's Benkyodo Co., where we snacked on their "manju of the month," a sticky rice flour mochi cake filled with supple marshmallow and chocolate filling. As we dusted the sweet manju flour from our lips, we took a last stroll around Japantown, and a few hours later, concluded our restful and enjoyable mini-tour of San Francisco.


I hope my day gave you some ideas of where to visit if you ever come to San Francisco. All of these places are within walking distance of one another!

Hail to the Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th

In the last post, I told you about the beau's brother ("BB," for short). In this post, I am going to tell you about the BB's wife ("BBW"), a New York Native, who introduced to an eatery I will never forget, the legendary Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th. But I should preface my post with a warning: there will always be a line of eager patrons excitedly entwined around the street vendor, but the lengthy wait is more than worth it.


Orders from the Halal Cart are packaged in a wrinkled/pleated aluminum takeout pan, and covered with a cardboard disc with a shiny heat-resistant backing. Inside, after your fingers pry open the aluminum ruching, you will find a bit of Halal heaven on earth.

As for my meal, BBW ordered for all of us. She ordered the "mix" combo, which came with spiced long grain rice, chunks of chicken meat, notable gyro meat, pillowy pita bread, and scrappy squares of iceberg lettuce. The two stellar standouts from the entire combo, were the rice and the lamb. The moist, succulent gyro-fied lamb came in delicious flakes, adeptly carved by knives that sweepingly crisscrossed against the grain of the lamb while it was suspended on the vertical spit. The lamb contained the ideal proportion of gyro spices. The rice was also well-cooked, with each distinct grain the perfect shade of red and perfect flavor of Middle Eastern spices.


My takeout tin of food also came with two plastic containers of sauce, (1) a mysteriously palatable "white sauce" that no one knows the ingredients for, nor ventures to guess at, and (2) an assasinating "hot sauce." The deliciously addictive "white sauce" tastes like a mild ranch dressing, with the same salad dressing consistency. The "white sauce" provides a classic cooling sensation to the meal (just as a yogurty tzatziki sauce would).


As for the "hot sauce". . . Well, that is another matter, entirely. While I love spicy foods, the Halal Cart's "hot sauce" tastes like hell. By "hell," I don't mean bad, I mean, eyeball-scorchingly evil, like Satan handmade that stuff with all of the sinister, fiery peppers he could get his hands on. One bite and your eyes will water furiously, like gushing waterfalls, and your frightened tongue will recoil so far into your head, you can feel it lodge into your neck. Basically, just imagine those old Looney Tunes cartoons, where Wiley Coyote would accidentally eat some hot peppers, and spew fire from his mouth while his bloodshot eyeballs bulged out several feet from his face. You will feel the sting from the hot sauce for several minutes, before the numbing, tingly pain abates. Legend has it, that the Halal Cart used to incorporate the hot sauce into the meal, but too many people complained (because they "couldn't handle the truth.")

If you are in the Theater District of Manhattan, and are looking for a bite to eat, I would definitely visit the Halal Cart on 53rd and 6th. It is worth the wait, and more.

I Love Being Barefoot

I adore Ina Garten. I worship her recipes, show, taste, and wit. Did I mention that I am enamored with her recipes? They are precise, easy-to-follow, and yield immensely satisfying results. Her vanilla ice cream? Do die for. Her roasted chicken? Hells yea, it's good.

My favorite Ina Garten recipe is her take on tabbouleh, a fresh, cleansing, and uplifting parsley salad from Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. Ina's version is amazingly delicious, although, not entirely as parsley-dense as the versions that you find in Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants.


To make a more traditional (or more "restaurant-like") tabbouleh than Ina's version, (1) cut the portions of boiling water and medium grain bulghur wheat in half, (2) chop and add an additional bunch of flat-leaf parsley, and (3) also add a tsp of cumin or a pinch of allspice. You should definitely try her recipe, but check out my slightly adapted version, here.

Tabbouleh
Recipe adapted from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Parties!
1/2 cup medium-grain bulghur wheat (grains should be this size, look at the fifth picture down)
3/4 cup boiling water
juice from 2 lemons
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 bunches of flat-leaf parsley
1 bunch (not one sprig) of scallions
1 bunch of fresh mint
1 cucumber
3 medium tomatoes
1 tsp cumin, or a pinch of allspice
salt, to taste

In a large lidded pot, combine all of the liquid ingredients (the hot water, lemon juice, olive oil), the cumin, and the bulghur wheat. Immediately cover the pot, and set aside.

Finely chop the parsley, scallions, and mint, discarding the brown leaves and stems. Add the parsley, scallions, and mint to the bulghur wheat mixture.


Next, peel and cut the cucumber into small dices, and core and similarly dice the tomatoes. The tomato dice should be "pico de gallo salsa-sized." You can keep the tomato seeds and juices and add them in the tabbouleh salad, if you'd like. They usually will be absorbed up by the bulghur wheat. Now, add and stir all of the ingredients together, and add salt to taste.


I hope you enjoy this recipe (or Ina's). It's a refreshing and healthy salad that goes great with toasted whole wheat pita bread, and creamy hummus topped with toasted pine nuts. I like to let the tabbouleh sit in the fridge, to allow the flavors to combine, and have it the next day at a picnic or at lunch.

Boulevard of Fulfilled Dreams

From the moment I first set foot in San Francisco, "the" restaurant I wanted to visit was Boulevard. Even when I was offered an extravagant all-expenses-paid birthday supper at Gary Danko, my unrequited lust and dedication never wavered from Boulevard.

Because my San Francisco friends are discerning individuals and because I tend to indiscreetly drop inappropriate hints, my friends brought me a farewell lunch-to-remember-for-ages at Boulevard.

After arriving at the famed restaurant, I recall my hands trembling and sweating profusely when I was seated. I remember drawing in a sharp breath and sitting upright in eager anticipation when I opened the menu. (If you are a food blogger, you will understand that dining at certain restaurants may be more nerve-racking then going on a first date.) "Will the food be up to your standards or offensive? Will it have bad breath? Err. . . I mean, will it emit noxious odors, or a stomach-growl-inducing aroma?"

In date-speak, let us just say I got lucky that afternoon.

For my main course, I ordered the oven-roasted pork tenderloin. According to the menu, the pork tenderloin came with (1) a "melted mountain of gorgonzola butter," (2) soft polenta with pine nuts, (3) grilled mission figs cooked in a fig vincotto, and (4) a frisee and curly cress salad. When the dish arrived onto our table, I delayed for a moment before realizing that the "melted mountain of gorgonzola butter," was actually a puddle of dark au jus careening across the plate. I disappointedly thought, "substantial puddle of gorgonzola butter would have been a more apt description."

Nevertheless, with one bite, the beast within me was appeased. The figs were tender, voluptuous, and enlivened by the fig vincotto liqueur. While there was no mountain of butter discernable with my naked eye, there was a copious mound of polenta present at my disposal. Every forkful of the pillowy and pudding-like polenta contained the muted whisper of gorgonzola and a pleasant crunch from the toasted pine nuts. Finally, the unblemished pork tenderloin was succulent and flavorful.

My companions dined on pan-roasted local petrale sole with summer beans and king trumpet mushrooms sautéed in beurre noisette, and

Wood oven roasted Creekstone farms angus bavette bathed in beef au jus with baked fingerling potatoes blanketed in creme fraiche, smoked bacon, and chives, sautéed erbette chard.

To close our meal, my companions and I shared three desserts, including a warm chocolate budino cake with chocolate sauce, fresh cherries, and vanilla cherry sorbet swirl ice cream. As the budino cake at Boulevard confirmed, anytime "warm" and "chocolate cake" are used in a sentence, the result will be euphoric. The intoxicating and bold cherry flavors of the ice cream perfectly complemented dense chocolate cake.

We also divvied up a vanilla crème bruleé. As all good crème bruleés are, the vanilla crème bruleé was silken and creamy, and channeled fresh springtime flavors with the addition of the sweet blueberries and tart blackberries.

Finally, we shared a dessert of caramelized angel food cake with blossom bluff peaches, ginger marscapone cream, and fresh peach sorbet. When the dessert arrived, I found myself being taken aback by the heavy scone-like appearance of the angel food cake, for I had envisioned a generic slice of the pale and airy cake drizzled with a simple syrup. Instead, Boulevard had taken classic dessert elements and concentrated peach flavors and repackaged them into a dessert you would expect to see in the pages of a Martha Stewart magazine. Although I enjoyed the peach biscuit, the artificial peach flavors reminded me a little too much of gummy Haribo peach rings that I consumed as a child.

As I finished my meal, and wiped my mouth, I looked down at my once-trembling hands. My hands were no longer shaking on the table. Instead, they were busy unzipping my tight pants so that my stomach could make room for more.

Five Favorite Places to Eat in San Francisco

I have really been enjoying the memes that Tigerfish has been tagging me for! The object of her most recent meme is to list my five favorite restaurants in my hometown, the City of San Francisco. Here are my five favorite places in San Francisco, in no particular order. These places are not high-end, but they are places I feel comfortable going to on a regular basis with great food. If you are a tourist, I recommend you to stop by the Ferry Building and "peruse" the foodie atmosphere there, but these five are definitely worth your visit and your money.

#1. Tu Lan: Although this is a recent discovery for me, every experience at this restaurant has been a extraordinary one. Touted as "Julia Child's favorite restaurant in San Francisco," the image of Julia Child scrawled across the cover of the menu is an endorsement to be remembered. You will always hear two things about Tu Lan: 1) the considerable portions of food served and 2) the rock-bottom prices. Although Tu Lan is in a relatively seedy area of the City (read: "non-tourist friendly") and it is a sticky-table dive in the truest sense, it is the best value in the City for great Vietnamese. My favorite item there, is the refreshing chilled noodle salad, or bun cha gio thit nuong, which comes dressed in a spicy fish sauce and lime vinaigrette. The cha gio (fried imperial rolls) are substantial, cylindrical hunks of oil-crisped rice paper wrapped around ground meat. Dizzam! Those cha gio are a force to be reckoned with! (By the way, the pictures in this post are from Tu Lan.)

#2. La Mediterranee: In the Fillmore District of San Francisco, this tiny restaurant is flanked by colorful boutiques with glistening glass windows that showcase flowing mesh skirts and dangly artisan jewelry. You can work up a hearty appetite after perusing what the neighborhood shops have to offer and then feast on soft and chewy pita breads that are kept warm in cloth napkins. The pita breads are partnered wonderfully with La Mediterranee's flavorful extravaganza of thick and creamy Mediterranean dips, made with ingredients such as chickpeas, eggplant, or tart Greek yogurt. Check out a recent post of mine on my lunch at La Mediterranee, here.

#3. Chutney: This is my all time favorite Pakistani restaurant, I cannot say enough about the creamy, rich, and tomatoey sauce in their chicken tikka masala. I was one of the first patrons of Chutney on the day they first opened, and will be a patron of this fantastic restaurant until . . . Well, forever! Other "must try" items include bengun bharta (which is made with softened cubes of tomatoes and eggplant) and garlic naan (which is served piping hot and liberally sprinkled with roasted garlic and fresh cilantro).

#4. Café Bastille in Belden Place: Belden Place is a quaint, cute alleyway bordering Chinatown and the Financial District in San Francisco. Belden Place contains restaurants that are San Francisco's closest equivalent to the bistros on the cobblestone streets of Europe. Strings of white Christmas lights dangle wistfully across the skies and outdoor chairs and tables line the length of the alleyway. The alongside the tables are glowing heater lamps that warm your relaxed shoulders on chilly evenings and open-faced umbrellas that provide a blanket of shade on sunny days. My favorite restaurant in Belden Place is Café Bastille--I love it because of the croque madame sandwiches, with the blistered and enveloping gruyere surface and the glistening and runny egg yolk that oozes oh-so-gracefully over this classic open-faced French ham sandwich.

#5. Marnee Thai: Walking into the restaurant, you will immediately notice several things about this comfortable place. First is the hatch-patterned bamboo façade on the walls. The second is the numerous plaques and certificates decorating those walls. Those awards are for winning international competitions for pad thai. And yes, I said "international" competitions. Their awards for the pad thai are extraordinarily well-deserved. This place seriously has the best pad thai outside of Thailand. The flavors in the pad thai are delicate and arousing, with the perfect amount of tartness and sweetness from the tamarind paste. The noodles are also immaculately textured--mildly agglutinative but firm enough to be discrete, separate from the other noodle tendrils. For more on the deliciousness that is Marnee Thai, please one of my previous posts on the restaurant.

Additionally, if you are lucky enough to have transportation around the City, check out Shanghai Dumpling King for the best Chinese meat dumplings in the entire City. Try looking up the MUNI bus lines for easy public transportation access from where you are staying (if you are a tourist). It is definitely worth the trip. Also, for good Chinese food in Chinatown, don't just stop in any old place. There are many tourist traps with really bad food in Chinatown. I recommend R and G ("RNG") Lounge, which is a pricier place, but their Chinese food is no-fail. Definitely amble down North Beach for some Little Italy dining. Finally, for cheap and delicious banh mi sandwiches, check out Saigon Sandwiches in the Tenderloin District. Oh yes, and for a touristy taste of San Francisco's sourdough bread, check out Boudin Bakery, where you can get affordable clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.

And I would love to hear other people's take on San Francisco restaurants. For other San Francisco places, check out my posts tagged with "San Francisco Eats." For this post, I would like to tag my wonderful food blogging friends who write:

Taste Tests (see her list here)
The Short Exact Guide
Cooking with the Single Guy (see his list here), and
The Food Hoe (see her list here)!

As for all of my meme tags, even if you are tagged, feel no obligation to write a response. I understand you are busy. However, I would love to learn what restaurants earn your seal of approval. Also, if you were not tagged but are interested in this meme, let me know!

A Glimpse of Sun-Shine: Mediterranean Entertaining

This week has been an extraordinarily hectic one. I haven't been posting (or even checking my favorite food sites) lately because of a Mediterranean party the beau and I have been planning and eventually threw yesterday night for group of close friends. The event involved a significant amount of prep work and shopping, but what made the party difficult, is that I had to simultaneously make time for my biggest annual commitment: the NBA Playoffs with the Phoenix Suns. When I watch Suns games, I get "in the zone," and all else in my life takes second place--including cooking and eating. To me, Suns games are more important to me than imbibing my daily requirement of water or consuming life-sustaining nutrients. Yes, I said that correctly: Suns games are more important to me than food.

But, now that I have a brief period of off time (Game 4 just ended), I want to make some time for my other commitment, my friends here at the food blog! I want to share with you some pictures I was able to take of the food at the party. Unfortunately, because I spent huge portions of my pre-party time watching Friday's game, I wasn't able to take as many pictures as I usually do, but here are some of the tastier pictures I was able to snap.

The most difficult and labor-intensive item that I made for Saturday's party was the dolmades. Dolmades are made with thin blankets of veined grape leaves, which are carefully bundled around moist filling made with steamed long grain rice. The rice filling is festooned with specks of coarsely minced mint; sweet, plump, and flavor-saturated raisins; crunchy pine nuts; and a savory blend of steaming and caramelized onions and garlic. For the full recipe, check here. For a step-by-step pictorial on how to assemble dolmades, see the pictures below:

The dolmades went perfectly with tzatziki, a cooling dairy-based salsa made with thick, Greek yogurt. Tzatziki is infused with the zesty and taste bud-penetrating flavors of mint and mixed with suspended, gravity-defying diced cucumber cubes. Tzatziki should be made ahead of time, to allow the flavors to imbue themselves throughout the creamy yogurt concoction.

Also, for the party, I prepared my favorite refreshing Mediterranean salad, tabbouleh, made with a coarsely minced herb blend of flat-leaf parsley, mint, and green scallions. The salad is dressed with fruity extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and lemon zest and interspersed with crumbly and absorbent kernels of coarsely milled bulghur wheat. This too should be made ahead of time, again, to allow the mixture of the flavors.

Along with the above pictured items, the party meal featured southern-cooked spinach and poached asparagus spears with lemon zest (which was cooked ahead of time, and unfortunately, not very photogenic), roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary (didn't have time take a nice picture of this) and commercially-made pita bread and hummus.

Okay, back to watching SportsCenter highlights and replays of the Phoenix Suns playoff game! You're welcome to come to San Francisco and watch with me, if you don't mind my trash talking!

The Oscar for Best Looking Hummus Goes to . . .

This Saturday, I stopped by Costco to pick up basic food supplies for this weekend. Although I wouldn't be watching the televised Oscar ceremony this Sunday, I would be helping to cook for church on Sunday evening, and I knew that that we had to spruce up the church meal to make it Oscar-caliber. Into my cart, I threw a few refrigerated logs of goat cheese, an aged wedge of parmesan cheese, and a plastic mesh bag filled with purple onion bulbs. Those ingredients would later come together as a "baked chevre and onion tart," with golden-brown puff pastry strips laid over the top as a lattice crust.

But imagine my pleasant surprise when I stopped by the refrigerated foods aisle and saw a gigantic tub of creamy hummus. This was no ordinary hummus. The presentation was outstanding. Underneath the transparent plastic lid, the exposed surface of the hummus was generously bespeckled with a burgundy-colored paprika and topped with a tight cluster of pine nuts, strategically placed in the center.

I don't need to open an envelope to discover that Costco has won the award for best presentation and costume design of commercially-made hummus.

Reaching My "Dining Out" Limit for 2007

Already?

Just like the classic comic strips, each time I open my wallet to pay my portion of the restaurant bill, little gnats humiliatingly fly out of my wallet and buzz around my head as if I hadn't showered in several days.

But just before I am done dining out for 2007, I want to relive a meal that I enjoyed at a retirement party at Faz Restaurant in San Francisco just this last week. Perhaps that way, I can later look back at 2007 not as the year that I blew my "dining out" spending limit in the first month, but as a year (or month) that I ate pretty darn well.

Eating "darn well" included starting with Faz's organic salad of mixed greens which helped to refresh and ready my tired palate for my second course: pomegranate chicken. The dish included a sizable half of a fire-roasted chicken, bronzed and caramelized from the glowing coals and dancing oven flames. The chicken was served in a thick pool of reduced pomegranate sauce and was garnished with crunchy and nutty pomegranate kernels which exploded their abundant juices into my mouth with each bite. The chicken also came with paper thin-skinned, roasted fingerling potatoes which were steaming and creamy on the inside; and crisp and verdant haricot verts.

Last course? A fluffy, cream-saturated mattress of tiramisu, adorned with two angular strawberry spears and crunchy chocolate chips. The tiramisu was topped off with a generous dusting of superfine powdered sugar and equally ample drenching of a luscious creme anglaise.

Although I hit my spending limit relatively early this year, because I also hit my waist-size limit, I consider myself victorious!

Ticket to Spain Via Passionate Eater Express

Thank you so much for all of your visits these past several days! I am racing to keep up with everyone, but I think I'll have to catch up with your comments (including your kind compliments, generous wishes, thought-provoking inquiries, and humorous observations) next week! Hopefully.

Until then, I wanted post some photos of a meal I recently enjoyed at B44, so that you can feast your eyes (and imagination) on the roasted flavors and vivid red colors of Catalan cuisine. I hope these pictures are help you to travel in mind, spirit, and stomach to Spain, via the Passionate Eater Express!

What better image to start you on your journey to the picturesque Spanish countryside, than an image of a rustic dish of morcilla blood sausage, soft baby white beans, and herbed aioli? This sausage dish immediately evokes images in my head of a lively, local, family-owned tapas restaurant with aged, cured meats hanging in the windows with tightly-raveled butcher twine.

Now, briefly depart from your stay in the Iberian peninsula, to visit the Balearic Islands, by visually sampling tender monkfish, shrimp, clams, and mussels, all harvested from the rich ocean waters encapsulating the islands, and swimming in a pureed tomato and pine nut picada.

Your journey in the pristine and abundant Mediterranean waters is not finished without a visual taste of a romescada or operetta of plump shellfish with romesco sauce. By visualizing this dish, one can gain a better understanding of the crucial role that seafood plays in the Catalan cuisine.

But remember, although that Catalan dishes focus heavily on the bounty of the sea, the dishes are not just seafood-oriented. The best way for you to remember this is through a picture of roasted rabbit with a hazelnut garlic picada. Such an image will help you to envision rolling grass fields and dense, forested areas that supply the inland Spanish region with wild game, mushrooms, and truffles.

How could any visit to Spain be complete without the saffron-infused paella and chockful of fresh shellfish, roasted peppers, and spicy chorizo? Simply put, it couldn't.

And of course, crema catalina, a crème brûlée imbued with the warm spiciness of cinnamon, helps one to appreciate the prolific Spanish dairy farms which produce fine, smoky-flavored cheeses which are paired perfectly with fruity Spanish wines from local vineyards.

Add a stamp of hunger on your passport, you've just traveled with me to Spain! Now if only we could get frequent flyer miles for trips on the Passionate Eater Express!

Working Eater Series: Chokehold on Dinner

Out of dinner ideas?

Open up a can of whup-@$$ on your dinner guests with the savory and delightful artichoke plant. Versatile and taste bud-arousing, the artichoke can adapt as a side to almost any kind of main dish. Artichokes feature a diversity of textures: one can nibble away at the tender, almost ivory-colored base of the outer artichoke leaves; pull the tight, fibrous leaf through one's clamped teeth; and use the tapered tines of the fork to delve into the tender, fluffy, baked potato-like stem interior. The artichoke flavor concentrates in the inner most leaves, or the heart of the 'choke, which throbs and pulsates, not with muscular contractions, but with a wealth of woody and earthy flavors.

But lemme tell you, artichokes are hell-on-earth to prepare. Be careful not to get poked by the pointed barbs on the tips of the outer leaves. They sting like lil' b!+¢#e$!

Salad of Steamed Artichoke Hearts and Balsamic Vinegar
6 fresh artichokes, whole
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese (optional)
sea salt, to taste

Peel of the outer leaves of the artichoke that are green in color. You may discard these leaves, or you may steam them and nibble the ends of the leaves and scrape them through your teeth to eat every remaining bit of artichoke flesh. After you've removed the green leaves (there are quite a lot), use a paring knife to cut off the excess the green, snapped-off leaf vestiges near the stem. Then, cut the yellow artichoke hearts in half, and use a spoon with a pointed tip to remove the hairy, ultra-fibrous choke from the inside of the artichoke. For a great pictorial guide on how to do this, check out Becks & Posh. For a great recipe on how to prepare artichokes whole, check out the Unemployed Cook.

Put the readied artichoke hearts into a large, microwave-safe glass bowl with a few tablespoons of water and tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Microwave the hearts on high heat for 10 minutes. After microwaving, carefully remove the plastic wrap, being careful of the steam. Sprinkle the artichokes with the sea salt, drizzle them with the balsamic vinegar, and if desired, add the grated parmesan cheese over the steamed artichokes. Now you're ready to enjoy a deliciously warm salad!

In addition with the recipe above, here are two more suggested recipes that compliment the artichokes and make a complete meal:

Fluffed Moroccan Couscous
1 1/2 cups of Moroccan-style couscous, made of durum wheat
1 can of fat-free low-sodium chicken stock or broth
1 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
lemon wedges, to serve
mint leaves, to serve

Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a small sauce pan with a tight lid. Add the extra virgin olive oil and couscous, replace the lid to cover the couscous, and immediately take the couscous off of the heat. Wait for 5 minutes, remove the lid, and use a fork to fluff the individual grains of couscous. Serve with lemon wedges and garnish with a few mint leaves.

I love couscous as a side, because it takes less time than boiling an egg!

Finally, I would serve the artichokes and couscous with broiled steaks. The recipe below isn't really a recipe, but I am on a roll with artsy recipe names, so here goes:

Virgin Steak au Poivre
2 hearty steak cuts of beef, such as t-bone
salt
whole peppercorns, ground with a mortar and pestle or in a pepper grinding mill

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Ready the steaks, by generously seasoning both sides with salt and freshly ground pepper, and lay them on a ridged baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until the insides are done.

Serve with the couscous and artichokes.

By the way, this last recipe isn't even close to real steak au poivre, which is made with a gorgeous glazed reduction made with cognac, but the name makes plain ole' steaks heated in the oven sound much fancier! Besides, poivre just means pepper in French anyway!

I hope you've enjoyed the recipes, and my submissions to the fair recipe trade!