~ Belly Dancing + Great Food at Casablanca ~

My wonderful friend organized another dinner this past weekend. This time, we explored Moroccan cuisine at Casablanca in Alexandria,VA. Overall, the food was good and it was very entertaining. Get ready, this is a lot of pictures of food. Close the browser now if you are hungry.

Before you eat, of course you have to wash your hands. They will hand you towers and come by with water to wash your hands. Pretty cool!

When you are all clean, you can eat. First, the bread. Of course there was bread. What else were we supposed to eat while we wait for everyone to show up? I have never had this kind of bread before. It was very soft on the inside and just a little bit crunchy on the outside.

Of course there's the dip for the bread. I have no idea what it was. Probably chick peas? It was good though. Not really sweet or salty. Just....nutty. It's served cold though. For some reason, I thought it would be warm.

Food is served family style. They have 5 course, 6 course and 7 courses "feasts". We chose the 6 courses one for $23 each person. It has Harira soup or salads, Bastilla appetizer, two entree choices, homemade bread, mint tea, and pastry. We chose soup. It was like a tomato soup.

The Bastilla appetizer was the best part of the meal! I was skeptical at first because I see the powder sugar and cinnamon and I thought I wouldn't like it. I am not a big fan of cinnamon. I actually didn't really look at the menu at all so I have no idea what this was.

Then, the forks started flying and all I heard were mumbled words of appreciation. It was good! It is "Phyllo dough pie filled with chicken, eggs, almonds, walnuts, onions, parsley and sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon." I didn't taste the parsley at all! It's a little bit salty and sweet at the same time.

The chicken was very tender and soft. It was very flavorful, but not too much.

5 minutes later....completely consumed. This is the girl's table by the way. We had two tables and the guys all sat in the other table. Surprisingly, we ate more than them :)

Yeah, there's Moroccan beer!

We were able to order 4 entrees to share. We ended up with 2 lamb dishes and 2 chicken ones. At our table, the Lamb with Zucchini and Tomatoes. I actually dislike lamb. Everyone else says it's good. I tried it. It tasted like lamb. Very strong taste of lamb. Yuck.

The other table got the Lamb with Sesame Seeds and Prunes. Uh...prunes?? I tried it too. But, again, too lamby for me.

My favorite was the Chicken in harrisa sauce. It was supposed to be spicy, but it wasn't. The sauce was good! It was a whole chicken. Every piece was very tender and juicy. Even the white meat was tender. I didn't get a picture of the other chicken dish, but it wasn't all that. I ate some, but dipped it in the harissa sauce because it was a little bit bland.

All of a sudden, the lights dimmed. The entertainment had begun! This beautiful, tall woman in red started belly dancing! It was very fun to watch and she even dragged two of the guys up there to dance a little bit. Then, she dragged some of the girls! There's a video of this on Facebook, but I am not going to post it here. I am shy :)

After the show, sweetened mint tea and cookies were served. Both were good. Mint tea was a little too sweet for me though.

Since the place was empty as we were getting ready to leave, we decided to take some pictures. They have these little alcoves with nice plush seating and round tables. It feels very intimate and comfy in there.

I like these lights. They looks so fun and colorful. The decor definitely feels Moroccan.

They have 20% off coupons for the feasts valid from Sunday - Thursday. 12% Friday and Saturday. It was a pretty good deal. $25 for good food and entertainment. It was not crowded at all when we went on Sunday, which was good. Less noise and more relaxing. I really like the alcove seating, but it's further from the stage. So, if you are there for the belly dancing, pick a table on the main floor.

Next week is DC Restaurant Week. More and more eating!!

~ Initial Branding Thoughts + Penguins ~

I finally had time to take these babies out and take some pictures! Here are the little girl penguins, with pink flowers on their heads and a matching light pink scarf.


Now the gentlemen.....


I have been thinking a lot about branding lately. I want my pictures to be really nice and unique so you just look at the pictures and you know it's me. But, that's really hard. I see a lot of Etsy shops do really well with their branding. I see their stuff on the front page and I know it's theirs before I see the shop name. So, starting with the basics....I decided to use cotton as clouds and a blue background. Get it? Happy Cloud?


Yes or no? I am thinking maybe it's too obvious? Maybe too tacky? I also need to get something to soften my lights. You can totally see them reflected in the penguins!


I may just do pure white background and no props. Now that I have Ottlights, it seem easier to get that pure white background. Dilemmas, dilemmas.

~ Momo vs Mini UFO ~

Every once in a while, UFOs will appear in my house. Momo, being such a loyal protector of myhousehold, will chase after it and try to destroy it. Ok, it's really little remote controlled UFOs that my dad got from China. He loves these little toys.


It's tiny! It's just made out of styrafoam and a little plastic chopper. And whatever else that makes it fly of course. These things are so fun. They look like physics projects. He has a bunch of these things and when they break, he'll know what parts to switch out to fix it. I didn't realize that my dad is this geeky. I guess that's where I got in from.


Momo loves these things! He is a little bit afraid of it, but wants to catch it and kill it. One of the helicopters was destroyed by him after he caught it. It was in his mouth for 1 second! So, my dad is extra careful not to let Momo actually get to it. Here's a video. Enjoy!


By the way, these pics and videos are taken with my Nokia N86. Not bad for a phone right?

~ How to Make Hot Chili Sauce ~

My dad finally got around to making the hot sauce. I think it's becoming an annual tradition. We had a very good crop of chili this year so we ended up with a lot of hot sauce. There's really no recipe. Every time he makes it, it's different. This year, he used:

• red chili
• garlic
• fermented black beans
• rice wine
  
• salt
• oil

Step 1: Prep the chili's and garlic
Take off the stems from the chili. Sun dry them a little bit. Then, skin gloves of garlic and cut off the bottom hard part. Garlic to chili ratio is about 1 to 5.


Step 2: Chop up the chilis and garlic
You can chop them yourself if you are not making a lot. Chopping gives it a more solid texture, less mushiness. But since we had so much, we decided to use our blender. If you plan on chopping it yourself, make sure you wear gloves. These babies will give you a nice burn. Cold water, ice, cold milk, aloe gel and rubbing alcohol will only provide temporary relieve.



See how mushy it is? Let me tell you that it took a lot of time to soak and wash this blender to get rid of the garlic smell. So, don't use your juice blender for this. Unless you want a lil kick in your juice.


Step 3: Mix in salt
He totally eyeballed this. I think he used about 2 table spoon for this huge bowl of chili.


Step 4: Put the mixture in a glass jar and mix in the wine
This is crucial. This rice wine is as strong as hard liquor. It's not your mom's rice wine that she splashes into her dishes. This is hard core stuff.


Put enough to cover the mixture and add a little more.


Step 5: Wait...
Leave it in a dark corner (or your pantry) for 2 weeks.
Image of chili clock from Etsy shop SpareTime. Click on the image to go to the listing.



Step 6: Mix with chopped fermeted black beans
Or whatever you want to mix in. Examples are dried shrimp, dried scallop, and fried scallions. Try and have fun. I am guessing that anything that spoils easily shouldn't be put in this mixture.

Step 7: Cook in oil
Put the mixture in a big wok. Put a lot of oil. The oil should be about 1/2 inch above the mixture. Once it starts boiling, put it in medium/low heat. Stir occasionally. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Make sure you open your windows and doors and turn on the fan. This is going to make your house smell really spicy. May make the kids cough.


Step 8: Wait...
Wait for it to cool so you can pack it up.


Step 8: Jar it up!
We have all these glass jars from pasta sauce, store bought hot sauce and even baby food. Comes in handy at a time like this.


This batch is not as hot as last year's batch. I couldn't even eat last year's sauce! Just the oil was enough to burn my lips. But, this one is acceptable. And it has such a nice red color. I love seeing the results of our hard work! Ok, it was mostly my dad's hard work. I am very proud of him :)

~ The Famous Fish Tacos at Carbon ~

My brother said, "We are taking you to eat fish tacos." I hate fish. I have only started to eat some fish in the last couple of years. He knows that. But, he insisted that it's good. I gave him the blank stare. His wife said, "It's an orgasm within an orgasm." Ok, that's all I needed to hear. I want to see what this O within an O is all about.

So, we drove around and parked under this bridge. Everything looked so gray and industrial and then there's this big red sign. "Carbon". It's pronounced "Car-bone", by the way.


According to their menu, they are all about "Authentic Mexicn Food"...."Burritos and Tacos with emphasis on protein versus filler"...."Live fire cooking"..."Signature Elote" and more. Inside is nice and cozy, except that I noticed two holes that look like bullet holes in the glass where my head was when I sat down. Oh well, that's not going to keep me away from good food :)


So, first up, the Elote. It tastes like spicy mayo with corn. I love mayo. I love a little spice. I love corn. I love it!!!


Then, it was the Fire Grilled Steak and Tequila-Lime Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast tacos.


There's medium and pineapple salsa if you want some too. They were ok. Nothing spectacular to me.


The steak taco was good! I could taste the live fire! Or whatever makes it taste very ... grilled. It was juicy and not too salty.


The chicken one was a little bland.


I had to put some hot salsa on it. That hot salsa had a pretty good kick. Good thing I had a big cup of authentic horchata. It definitely cooled the burn.


Ok, the famous fish taco. It's Tortilla Encrusted Tilapia with creamy tequila lime sauce and cabbage.


I can deal with fried fish usually. So, I was pretty excited.


It's a pretty big taco. I had to hold it with both hands. The fish was crispy and the sauce was tangy. With the cabbage and the flour tortilla, it didn't feel too oily at all. I like it a lot even though I usually don't like tilapia.


Next time I go, I am definitely getting more elote, steak and fish taco. Price is not bad at all. $2.5 for each taco. $2.75 with cheese. The elote is $1.75 for a small and $2.75 for a large. They also have burritos for about $6. Chicago's 10% tax sucks though.

I don't think they have a website, so here's the address:
300 W 26 Street, Chicago.

~ New Years Celebration ~

Happy New Year! Did you have fun on New Year's Eve? I didn't really party this year. It's been very busy lately and still busy now, so I just wanted to chill with my fiance and count down with him. Well, before the count down, of course we had to end the year with good food. And that means hot pot!


The future in-laws came over. My fiance's nephew had a lot of fun! I found some stickers and he started putting them on his daddy's pants.


But of course, his daddy decided that my pants will look better with stickers.



This is what happens when the food isn't ready. Thankfully, we started eating and he got distracted with the food.


As the night went on...the stickers magically moved to his face..... :)


After dinner, my fiance and I went out to count down with our friends at a local sushi restaurant. Before I left, I gave Momo a New Year kiss.


Then, the real New Year's kiss....ok this was taken 5 minutes before the count down. But close enough.


Hot pot was awesome. We had so much food that we did it again tonight. We still have a lot left. I think it's gonna be instant noodles with hot pot ingredients for lunch and then stir fry hot pot ingredients for dinner tomorrow. I actually slept really early (1:30am). Sleeping earlier is my unofficial new year's resolution. It doesn't look like it's going to happen tonight though. Javascript doesn't program itself. Good luck with all your resolutions! Have a great 2010~!