All posts by Nate

Nate is the Techie / Barbecue-y half of the House of Annie team. Born in Hawaii, his favorite hobby is surfing...WEB surfing that is. Visit my Google+ Profile
Fruit, Mexican, Poultry

Rotisserie Chicken, mango salsa

1 Comment

Annie and I were out on a date in Los Altos, a small town northwest of San Jose, one Thursday evening. We were going out for sushi but, when we got out of the car, we noticed a farmer’s market that was open in the evening one street over from the restaurant. We hadn’t been to a farmer’s market in over a month, so we went over to investigate.

It was a very bustling farmer’s market. As it turns out, a Roli Roti rotisserie truck was there selling rotisserie chicken and baked potatoes. We had read about Roli Roti in a post on EatingAsia that enthused about their porchetta (roast pork). Too bad only the San Francisco one sells it.

Even though we were planning on sushi that night, we still picked up half a rotisseried chicken to take home for the next night’s dinner. Here it is, served with kalamansi limes. It was very flavorful but, being reheated in the microwave, it probably would have been better eaten the day we bought it.

At the farmer’s market, Annie got some mangoes for cheap. She made a mango salsa using one of the mangoes, the tomatoes we bought, plus a mild, sweet pepper. Seasoned with lime juice, s&p, and ground cumin and coriander.

The porchetta will have to wait till another day.

Aloha, Nate

Bay Area

Dim Sum @ Dynasty Restaurant (San Jose)

4 Comments

Back in Honolulu, Annie and I used to go produce shopping almost every Saturday morning in Chinatown. By lunchtime we were famished. If we didn’t have other plans, we’d often stop in at Mei Sum on Pauahi and Smith Streets. You could get pretty good quality dim sum at a more reasonable price than the fancier places like Legend in the Chinese Cultural Plaza.

Nowadays, dim sum is more of a “once in a blue moon” deal. There are some good places to eat in Milpitas and Cupertino, not to mention faraway restaurants like Koi Palace in Daly City. We’ve tried out other dim sum places (Hong Kong Saigon in Sunnyvale and East Ocean in Alameda) but our go-to dim sum restaurant of choice is Dynasty on Story and McLaughlin right here in San Jose.
Continue reading Dim Sum @ Dynasty Restaurant (San Jose) →

Italian, Pasta, Pork, Tomatoes, Vegetables

Linguine w/ Pancetta, shallots, zucchini, and homegrown cherry tomatoes

Leave a comment

Pasta has been one of my comfort foods going back to small kid time when we used to add bottled Ragu sauce to ground beef and ladle it on a big bowl of spaghetti, then top it with torn up Kraft American cheese slices. The ingredients have significantly improved in the House of Annie (as demonstrated by her recent Linguine alla carbonara). This time, she decided to kick things up a notch.

Instead of the regular bacon, Annie used pancetta. She also used shallots instead of onions. The cherry tomatoes were picked fresh from the garden, as was the basil chiffonade

How do you “kick up” your pasta?

Aloha, Nate