The Beauty of Food

Dunkin Doughnuts Blueberry Coffee. -- I have drank this every other day for the past week....well okay, practically. Help! I'm addicted and I can't stop. The taste though is starting to get to me and well, I can say that I'm glad for that...no more of this DDBlueberryphase, please!

So I have been eating out a lot lately... I really can't help it with all these great restaurants in Chicago. I wanted to note a small find of mine while with my friends this past week. Especially for my DePaul Loop campus/business majors, you should check this one out : ) -

The place I speak of is Boni Vino, located right on Vanburen at the intersection of Vanburen and Clark. Boni Vino specializes in Italian cuisine...this time though, I decided to stray away from pizza as I was not quite in a pizza mood; I tried out the Deluxe Boni Vino Famous Steak Sandwich Special- Steak, melted provolone & grilled onions on garlic bread. Simple as that. It really did satisfy my mood for a "just enough" meal. The steak was cooked so that when you bite into it, it is not too chewy/dry/rough but comes off together WITH the cheese, bread, and onions... mm... I approve. The meal comes with fries which are pretty standard. My rating: 8/10.

So often times, I look at Food Gawker- for inspiration and to put me in a good mood. People often say that I take a lot pictures of food...I won't lie, I do(!)- yet honestly, behind the drooling and "nom noms", my reasoning for doing so is because I believe that food is an art. I believe that when one takes pictures of food before eating, you suddenly start to realize how much more you appreciate food...your food, your dish. It's admirable how chefs and cooks are able to plate their dishes with the ability to enhance the meal experience for their guests. This brings me to sharing with you some of my own food pictures that I took a few days ago:

...so, what do you think? Am I suited for professional food photography? Ha ha ha.. kidding, kidding.

The same day I experimented making my own Strawberry Shortcake (real simple!)

Here's a hint at the ingredients I used for this simple recipe:

Premade dessert cakes, Cool Whip, strawberries, and lime. In the past week, I have had a sudden craving to make angel food cake. When I got to the grocery store however, I thought, why don't I make some mini "angel food cakes?" and better yet! I can put my own twists on it by having many smaller versions. Not to mention that it saves a lot of time. Here is the premade dessert cakes that I bought packaged. They were less than $2 for a pack.

For this recipe, you will use two shells per serving. One for the bottom and the top. The best thing about these cakes are the slight room left for holding the filling. There is a total of three layers. The first will be placed within the cake shells.

Squeeze out roughly three tablespoons (I eyeballed it) of Cool Whip. Using a grater, grate three to four strawberries into the Cool Whip. Mix semi-well. Make sure that it has a foam consistency and is not watery. If it does become watery, simple add more cool whip and strawberries as desired. The filling should be light pink. Now for the first twist- using half a lime, squeeze-oh so slightly-some lime into the filling. Place the completed filling into the shells followed by a layer of cool whip (your second layer):

Afterwards, slice thinly one to two small strawberries (your third layer) and arrange as such:

Place the second shell on top and fill with Cool Whip. I used the top of the strawberry to complete the dessert. I think it looks better this way : ]

The end result:

Later that night, I also tried out a second twist to this dessert. Instead of using lime, I used the grater to grate peaches into the Cool Whip/strawberry filling. This turned out to be equally as good! Another idea would be to add sugar into the filling for an extra sugary kick. This is a very easy recipe to try out with premade ingredients. Try to make your own twist ;)

Until next time... Eat more, experiment more, and don't forget to ENJOY (even during experimenting, see pic below) ~~ ha ha~

Until next time,

Savor~

A Twist On A Twist

A mini venture this time. Not quite as exotic as the last but still delicious!

Today I'm packing for New York but a snack is a must when you're packing...well, for me it is! Haha.

My mom brought home some twisted biscuits (called "banh no" in Vietnamese) that she bought from Tai Nam Market in Argyle.


Though I like the biscuits, they're a little dry for my taste so I decided to add one of my favorite toppings: condensed milk.


The biscuits have a lightly sweet taste but the condensed milk adds a little more of a kick. The milk will drip and there will be a thinner layer of it on each biscuit. The picture shows how it would look before it drips.


Now that's what I call a treat. (Though if you have less of a sweet tooth than me, go light on the condensed milk) Bon apetit!

A Taste of Ethiopia

Now, who has tried Ethiopian food before?

It seems like it's a rather uncommon cuisine, no? Personally, I hadn't even heard of it until just recently, let alone having the idea of trying it! But I figure it's summer and I want to try new things, so what the hay! Let's do this!

My friend Andrew and I went to an Ethiopian place called Ras Dashen on a Tuesday near the end of July. This restaurant is located on the north side of Chicago. I had Ethiopian once before this experience and it was Andrew's first time. Needless to say, we were like "noobs" in a game going into this restaurant.

The menu was very helpful, because it had instructions on ordering and gave a little insight into Ethiopian culture and how to order the food. The waitress that we had...not so much. She seemed in a rush...though we were the only customers there. Points docked there. If you would like to view the menu, click here.

We did the "Omnivore Dinner for Two" (3 entrees and 3 sides) and it turned out to be more than enough. This is literally a "hands on" experience because that's all the utensils you get! (You could ask for utensils but why fight the system, right?)

First off, injera is the bread that they serve with their dishes. It's a spongy bread that has a sour hint to it after you eat it.


They place the entrees and sides on top of a large piece of injera and serve it on a platter, as shown by my guest of honor, Andrew:

Before we get to the entrees, let's introduce you to the sides.


The first side - Misser Salata - This is a dish of chilled lentils with red onions and colorful bell peppers. The flavor was tangy and complemented the injera well.


The second side - Qosta - Very simple dish of spinach cooked with onions, garlic and spices. It had a lighter taste compared to the misser salata. I guess you could say it was more bland but I thought it brought out the flavor of the injera. Plus, I like spinach so to me, it was good!


The third and last side - Diblik Atkilt - A mixture of green beans, potatoes, zuchini, and carrots stewed with tomatoes. One of the heavier side dishes because of the potatoes and there was an egg in there too. I liked the spices a lot for this dish, so I would recommend it.

Now, onto the entrees~


The first entree and my personal favorite - Dorot Wat - This dish is chicken and egg cooked in berbere sauce. It is apparently also known as the "national dish of Ethiopia". Now, of course if the menu says that...it was something that couldn't be passed up!


The next entree - Yebeg Dereq Tibs - A dish of lamb tibs pan-fried with onions, garlic green peppers and rosemary. For this dish, I really only had the sauce since I didn't feel like eating too much meat, but I could taste the lamb in the sauce. They did a good job making sure every portion had its unique flavoring.


The last entree - Kitfo Tere - This is a fancier dish with Ethiopian steak tartare seasoned with spiced butter (also known as "kibe") and red pepper blend (also known as "mitmia"). I enjoyed this dish but the meat was just a tad too dry for me. The seasoning was very delicious though.

And that makes all of the dishes! I don't think it'd be too fair for me to rate the dishes since I'm not experienced with Ethiopian food but it's definitely something I'd recommend.

Ethiopian food definitely has an exotic taste. It's nothing like the food I've eaten before. It's a good cuisine to try with friends and/or family since it focuses on communal dishes. I say have fun with it and try it out!

Next time, I've got to take Jenny and Silvia with me for sure!

So much for keeping things short, huh?

Now how's that for a venture? ;)

-Van "Venture"

P.S. A great exotic fruit to try. I got this the other day at Tai Nam Market in Argyle, also on the north side of Chicago.

Dragonfruit

JUST a Hello & Welcome!

Hi You! Yes YOU (That's reading this post now)!

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jenny, aka "Just" Jenny. Me being the "Just" symbolizes that my name is indeed, just Jenny, not Jenni or Jennifer. Or it could also mean that you should "JUST Venture & Savor" and enjoy the deliciousness in the world. Don't let anything hold you back because that one thing, might become your all time favorite thing. That goes for both trying new things (living life) and trying new foods. :)

Moving on, I am currently a junior attending the same university as my close friends Van and Silvia. I love to dance, sing (in the shower), EAT, try new things, watch movies, and so on. I can go on with things and people I like/love, but I will save you time reading it since you probably don't care. Haha, just kidding..I hope. ;)

Anyway, this blog was originally thought up by Silvia and Van, and then I sort of just jumped in and joined. I love food and would love to share to you all the savory, sweet, sour, salty, scrumptious adventures that I, or with Van and Silvia, will endure as the summer slowly comes to an end and autumn inches in. Summer ending too soon? Yes, sad I know.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or email me with subject line including my name, Jenny, and I would be more than glad to respond.

Without further ado, welcome to JVS's Blogspot and Enjoy!

I Love Watermelon. Yummy! :)

Have A Little Venture In Your Life

Just thought I'd drop by and introduce myself a bit. My name is Van and I'm currently a student and close friends with Silvia and Jenny.

I like keeping things short so if you have any questions, just shoot an e-mail and put my name in the subject line. I don't bite...usually. Just kidding, I promise I won't. Haha.

We're hoping to have a good site so hopefully you guys enjoy what we have to show you! We're excited for this so hopefully you guys will have fun reading it.

That's it for me, but I'm sure you guys will hear from me again soon.

With love,

Van "Venture"

Savor US!

Hi guys! It's "Savor" Silvia here. Welcome to our very first food blog...I am more than happy to start this as I enjoy eating, taking pictures of food, and (attempting) to cook...[I'm still working on it! Haha!] Hope you have just as fun following us on our culinary adventure :)

Also, I had started a blog actually quite awhile ago. I hope that you will check it out (esp. if you are planning on going to NYC!) I was just there this past month at the end of July visiting friends & family. ENJOY! (See below) Nom, nom, nom...

~~~

Helloo all!! It is a beautiful Saturday morning & I'm finally getting around to blog about my whole two weeks. My trip to New York was amazing. I had a chance to see my family who I haven't seen in two years & also my wonderful friends from study abroad Hong Kong (woo!)

Before that, I had mentioned that I had a cooking night with Van where we decided to experiment with salmon. We both have been trying to eat healthy so we decided to have it be a cook night/"healthy" night. Healthy in quotes because that usually tends to be just one night, well for me at least. Oops! Guilty. Yup.

Van brought over some food that she had bought at Pete's Market near south side Chicago. We had some fresh asparagus (steamed), freshly cut salmon, spinach, and bell peppers.




The salmon was seasoned with four different kinds of dry seasoning (orange pepper, onion pepper, lemon pepper, & garlic pepper)

This is a simple dish that can be cooked by everyone. We steamed all the vegetables and added salt for taste. The salmon was simply seasoned and pan seared with oil. We added fresh yellow bell peppers to the spinach leaves with lemon pepper salmon & steamed corn. The asparagus was a side. Easy as that! Following Chinese custom, we had a fruit plate afterwards. Props to Van for the plate setup:



~~

So...when I was in NYC, I went to a few restaurants as mentioned in my previous message. I wanted to emphasize two in particular that I felt that YOU! all should visit if you go to the N - Y - C : ]

There are two places in particular that I would like to share with you about. The first was Telio, a Greek restaurant in New York City located in the Upper West Side. It is a mix of Mediterranean and Italian food (Yelp lies...the menu said Mediterranean/Italian..hmm). We went around brunch time where they had a select list of specials for $9.95 including a choice of Mimosa or Bloody Mary's. I had the Arizona wrap- Grilled chicken, mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatos, and pesto sauce with a greek salad (could choose fries):






I usually don't like wraps but this one was really good! The salad was crisp and fresh. Greek dressing was just the right tartness. The best part about the wrap was that all the ingredients blended together. It's like eating a hot calzone out of the oven. Each bite a complete one. Could not taste the sun dried tomatoes though (minimal taste). The pesto sauce was subtle... I liked that. In my opinion, depending on the dish, it can be slightly over bearing. Another thing to note, the ambiance of the restaurant was nice. Open space, Greek interior decorating, casual, outside seating available. My rating: 7/10.

Second, Amy's Bread
located near the Meatpacking district in The Village. Although I felt as if it was a secret find, it has been featured in magazines and even Martha Stewart's show...yes Martha Stewart. She may be doing some sketchy insider trading but at least she knows how to eat.

I had the Almond Brioche Toast. Felt like eating into a pound cake with crispy edges of a toast. Soft in the middle...if you like Almond, you can't go wrong with this one:



They also had some tasty cupcakes, fresh baked breads, sandwiches, and pastries . Look at this happy camper (Sharon, my friend) who was the one who discovered Amy's Bread:



Haha~ I love this picture. I think it goes to show that Amy's Bread will leave you pretty darn happy. My rating? A 8.5/10...Yumm!

We were in The Village around 11:30, this was our first meal. Nothing like starting your day backwards, with SWEETS. Isn't it nice to spoil yourself sometimes? I think so*! We sat in an area with benches just right by Amy's Bread and enjoyed the nice summer day :)




...I leave with you with this question:
If you had to pick ONE, would you pick savory or sweet?

Our responses:

Van and I: Sweet
Jenny: Savory


~Signing off guys! Until next time-
Always, Silvia "Savor"



*Silvia's eating philosophy #1: There is always room for dessert[s]