Category: entertainment

There was a crazy sale on whole pork tenderloins at the grocery store, so Jen stocked up. We’ve cooked two so far, and I think we have at least four more in the freezer. Tonight’s pork-speriment was to make kabobs out of them… and they were so good, I have to share. Since Brian likes squirting the lemon juice bottle, there had to be citrus involved, and I like things a little spicy, so there was a bit of Cajun seasoning. Here’s what I did.\
h4. Ingredients

* 1 sweet onion (I should have used 2 – I ran out about half-way through assembling everything)

* 2 green bell peppers

* 1 bag tiny “dutch butter” potatoes

* 1 pork tenderloin

* 5 lemons

* 5 limes

* 1 small package of baby portobello mushrooms

* 1 small package of white mushrooms

* 1 pork tenderloin cut up into a billion approximately half-inch cubes (no smaller than that, some of them were much larger – it’s a lot of work, so do what you can – larger than a sugar cube, smaller than a Rubik’s cube).

* salt, pepper, and cajun spices

* 1 quarter cup of olive oil

* 1 quarter cup lemon juice

* 1 quarter cup lime juice

* 1 big ass ziploc bag\
h4. Directions

1. Quarter the lemon and lime and put it into the ziploc bag
2. Combine the lemon and lime juice, salt, pepper, cajun spices, pork cubes and olive oil in the ziploc bag with the lemon and lime wedges and mush them around until they’re all well mixed and looking evenly covered. Seal the bag well and put it in the fridge for a couple hours (I left mine in for 2 hour – just enough time to watch Mythbusters with Brian and then chop up the veggies). I know it sounds like a lot of citrus, but a whole pork tenderloin is a lot of meat.
3. Chop up the onions and green peppers into kabob-appropriate sizes (if the green peppers and onions pieces are too small they’ll split when you try to put them on the skewers).
4. Clean both packages of mushrooms and cut off the end of the stems (leave the bit in the middle – I cut the protruding stem bit to make more room on the skewer).
5. Before you’re ready to start assembling everything, boil the little potatoes for fifteen minutes.
6. Now, assemble your skewers. I usually start with some order to things, but get bored or run out of an ingredient halfway through and start assembling franken-skewers. I ended up with one at the end that was just pork and lemon and lime slices (but, damn was it good), and a couple that were just pork and potatoes.
7. Grill ’em. Mine took about 20 minutes total.
8. Eat ’em.\
   I’d never used potatoes on kabobs before, but they were great. They got a little charred on the outside, but were perfectly done on the inside. The best part was that they really picked up the flavor of whatever was next to them on the skewer. The second best part was not having to make rice or anything else because you had almost all the food groups (except bacon and peanut butter) on a single kabob. The only problem with all the veggies is that sometimes you didn’t get quite enough meat on a kabob… but that was a good excuse to eat more, and I guess we ate more veggies that way.\
   I think we ended up with a good 20 kabobs, including the weird ones at the end. We have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow night… but you can’t have them. They’re too good. That’s why I’m giving you the recipe so you can go make your own.

A challenge is afoot! Very Good Taste created a list called the Omnivore Hundred and challenged people to post it to their blogs and bold the things they’ve eaten. So, here’s mine, most of them with commentary and I linked to the Wikipedia entries for the ones I’d never heard of:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros – Many many times. I used to stop at Filiberto’s in Tucson on the way to work a couple times a week and get either huevos rancheros or a breakfast burrito.
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile – I had alligator sausage in Charleston, SC, so I’m counting this one.
6. Black pudding – A couple times in Dublin. I prefer white pudding with fried eggs. Not a huge fan of black pudding.
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht – My friend Becky had a Russian dinner after she got back from her LDS mission and we had borscht with sour cream. It was good.
10. Baba ghanoush – Not a huge fan of eggplant, so this probably won’t be a repeat.
11. Calamari
12. Pho – Yesterday for lunch.
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi – In Bangalore and at a buffet in Herndon.
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle – Not all by itself, but I’ve had several sauces with black truffle in them.
18. ~~Fruit wine made from something other than grapes~~
19. Steamed pork buns – Thanks to Cindy Li and Dim Sum Sundays!
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes – Several times from Great Country Farms and other places.
22. Fresh wild berries – We used to pick our own on the side of the road when we lived in North and South Carolina.
23. Foie gras – Oh yes. At my favorite restaurant in the entire world in the South of France, L’Hermitage du Riou
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters – Yes, hated them, and now with my shellfish allergy, no more.
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. ~~Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl~~ – Again, with the shellfish allergy, not going to happen
33. Salted lassi – I love mango lassis from Shalimar, in Mountain View, CA. I’m not sure if that counts. I had a weird cucumber one, that I hated, so I’m assuming that was salted.
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. ~~Cognac with a fat cigar~~ – Don’t drink or smoke.
37. Clotted cream tea
38. ~~Vodka jelly/Jell-O~~
39. Gumbo – In New Orleans even, but again, stupid shellfish allergy, I can’t eat it again.
40. Oxtail – In Germany as a kid. One of the strongest tastes I’ve ever experienced, I can still remember it twenty-something years later.
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. ~~Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/\$120 or more~~
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala – Once in India even, but I prefer Butter Chicken.
48. Eel – as sushi, not a huge fan, but I’d try other kinds of someone served it.
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer – At least three or four different kinds.
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal – I used to get them occasionally as a kid, but I don’t like the sauce anymore, and since watching Super-Size Me, I rarely eat fast food.
56. Spaetzle
57. ~~Dirty gin martini~~
58. ~~Beer above 8% ABV~~
59. Poutine – No, but after hearing my brother describe it, I want to!
60. Carob chips – Mom used to “secretly” replace the chocolate chips in cookies with carob chips. We always knew.
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads – In Paris at an amazing dinner with Daniel Glazman, Jen and his wife. Amazing.
63. Kaolin – The only mention I can find of Kaolin is a clay or Kaopectate. If it’s Kaopectate, you betcha I’ve had it.
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs – Max and I tried them at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Sterling. He liked them. They were OK.
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake – All four!
68. Haggis – In Edinburgh with Arun and a whole host of awesome W3C people. One of my all-time favorite dinners. The haggis was actually pretty good too.
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. ~~Louche absinthe~~
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill – Not that I know of… but I have lived in the Deep South, so who knows.
76. ~~Baijiu~~
77. Hostess Fruit Pie – Not in years, but I remember going through a phase where I loved the cherry ones.
78. Snail – Several times, once in France.
79. Lapsang souchong
80. ~~Bellini~~
81. Tom yum – I’ve had it at least once, but can’t think of where at the moment.
82. Eggs Benedict – Jen gets this whenever she can when we go out for breakfast. I know we both ate it at least once on our honeymoon.
83. Pocky – My sister introduced me to this one.
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant – I don’t know how many stars L’Hermitage du Riou has, but I’ve eaten there at least 8 times so I’m counting that.
85. Kobe beef – At the Microsoft cafeteria in Mountain View during a CSS Working Group meeting as a hamburger. One of the best burgers I’ve ever had.
86. Hare – At L’Hermitage du Riou – baby hare wrapped in bacon – the best meal I’ve ever had.
87. Goulash
88. Flowers – My brother and I ate dandelions once, and I know I’ve had edible flowers before.
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab – But not anymore… sigh
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish – All over the South, fried in filets, on a sandwich, as nuggets. You name it, I’ve had it.
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake\
     Of the hundred, there are a few I won’t do because they involve smoking or drinking, but I’ve tried 59 of the hundred, which isn’t too bad.\
     Things I’d add to the list:
101. Ankimo – Monkfish liver, introduced by Alex Mogilevsky at a CSS Working Group dinner at my favorite sushi restaurant, Satsuma, in Mountain View. When it’s good, it tastes a lot like foie gras. Ask for it at your favorite sushi place. It’s rarely on the menu, even if they have it!
102. Pylsurs – James McNally reminded my of them with one of his Iceland pics. We used to get them whenever we went to town when we lived in Iceland. Lamb hot dogs… yum.
103. Club Orange – The best orange soda, hell, just best soda, on the planet. Like Orangina but with real flavor. You can get it imported from Food Ireland or just go to Dublin.
104. Fanta Grape – The European version with real sugar.
105. Sarsaparilla – Birch Beer would work too.\
     So, how’d you do?