General Tso's Chicken... who hasn't at one point appreciated its greasy, sweet, weird wonderfulness?

Happily for me, Cook's Country, one of the many many food magazines that we receive, featured a recipe for the General in its most recent issue, and my husband, being undaunted by deep frying, agreed to prepare it for dinner this week.

A word about deep frying. I can't do it. Partially because it scares the hell out of me for some reason-- I am positive I am going to either set the house on fire or, alternately, cook something at an excessively high or excessively low temperature and destroy it. (Yes, we have a thermometer. Doesn't help the phobia at all). I also shy away from deep-frying because I know I shouldn't be eating that sort of food, because it is bad for you, and if I don't prepare it myself I can still eat it an pretend there aren't 50,000 grams of fat in my dinner.

Otis, however, does not share my phobias, and prepared a masterful rendition, although he insisted on calling it 'General Gau's Chicken' and kept talking about some place called the Food Wall. Memories of his former life as a Massachussan, presumably. It took about a billion hours, which is par for the course for recipes from Cook's Illustrated/Cook's Country, but I was willing to wait. It was worth it.

General Tso's Chicken

SAUCE
1/4 C hoisin sauce (Otis cut down the amount of hoisin by quite a bit, so it wasn't too sweet)
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
3 T soy sauce (we use light)
2T cornstarch
1 1/2 c water
1 T vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
2T grated fresh ginger
3 t red pepper flakes

CHICKEN
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks

FRY
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
lotsa vegetable oil for frying

1. Whisk hoisin, vinegar,soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and water in a bowl.
2. Using just enough to cover, mix with chicken in a bowl or bag
3. Reserve the rest of the sauce
4. Heat 1 T oil in a skillet and cook garlic, ginger and pepper flakes for 30 sec-1 min.
5. Add 2 cups of the sauce and and simmer while stirring until dark brown and thickened; remove from heat and cover.
6. Whisk egg whites until foamy.
7. Combine corn starch, baking soda and remaining sauce in a shallow dish until resembles coarse meal.
8. Pat chicken dry with paper towels,
9. Dredge egg whites and then cornstarch mix.
10. Transfer to a plate to fry.
11. Heat oil to 350 degree oil; fry chicken until golden.
12. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
13. Toss with sauce.

Last weekend we finally made it to Miyake, and I'm really regretting that it was the first time...I've wasted so much time!

The meal was phenomenal. Every single piece of sushi exploded with freshness and flavor, and contained a perfect balance of flavors. The clearing of each plate was a little depressing, but then a new plate would arrive with a new and amazing array of flavors.

It really was a wonderful meal. Otis and I made an improptu date with our friends Spencer and Shea, who had dropped off their toddler with the grandparents. Miyake is a busy place, and there was a bit of a wait, but the server was nice enough to take our cell-phone number and call us when a table was ready, so that we could go up the the Downtown Lounge and have a beer while we were waiting. Overall the service was very good; the college-aged server was friendly and prompt, and he had an excellent command of the menu.

We ordered pretty much exclusively from the specials menu, which totally paid off. The fabulous dishes included a ceviche roll; a salmon sampler; a California-style roll with seared Maine shrimp in a light spicy mayo on top; seared Kobe beef; and much more. Literally every plate was perfect.

I've had sushi in a lot of places (NY, SF, LA, Hawaii, etc.... unfortunately not Japan), and the meal at Miyake stands out as one of the best.

Prices are very reasonable, and it's BYOB. If we hadn't gotten the Kobe beef, which is $8 a piece, the total bill would have been about $100 for four people.

Don't do what I did and waste potential Miyake-eating meals! Go! Go!

(We went to the new Evangeline last night and had a lovely dinner...I'll post about that shortly as well. Yum, steak frites.)

What a meal!

Last Friday we were feeling frisky and flush with our $132 Maine tax refund (don't even get me started on what we owed to the feds) and went out on the town to the new Evangeline, owned by Erik Desjarlais from Bandol and Ladle. We arrived around 6 and grabbed open seats at the gorgeous red cast concrete bar. The decor is lovely; it's a homey, friendly space with a great vibe.

Joe, the sommelier, was a wonderful host whose energy clearly went toward making every guest feel welcome and special. (Full disclosure: he's the roommate of my high school friend Jon Dietz and the co-host of Deathmatch Japanese, so we do know him. But I saw how wonderful he was with every guest that night-- it wasn't just us.)

While we were sitting at the bar Jenn and I had a few glasses of red wine Joe recommended. Of course, I don't remember exactly what it was-- we ended up drinking a few (ahem) glasses and I forgot to bring my notebook. But the wine list is huge, and informative, with great maps of wine-growing regions, and Joe did a great job offering tastes of different options based on our preferences. One of the nice things about the wine list is that there are many wonderful wines available by the half-bottle, and the prices range from affordable to astronomic (depending on your budget of course).

The crowd was very diverse and friendly-- we chatted with a nice couple, who shared a bite of their calves' brain appetizer with Otis (I declined. Yes, offal is not my thing, but Otis said it was tasty). We also talked with a lovely older man, a quintessential 'Old Mainer' wearing a plaid shirt and red overalls. While we were waiting for a table we ordered the charcuterie plate, which had head cheese, prosciutto, and lamb prosciutto. I had never tasted head cheese before, but it really was delicious-- pieces of pork in a sort of jelly, molded into a loaf and sliced. My only complaint was that the bread that we were served was mediocre-- a basic focaccia. I would have preferred a crusty French-style bread, and I think it would be more appropriate to the food.

By the time we sat down for dinner (which took a while, but I can't really fault a restaurant for that on their second evening open) we were ready to order, having digested the menu at the bar. It's a fairly simple menu, with about as many small plates/appetizers available as entrees. I was excited to have the steak frites, which has always been one of my favorite French dinners. The entrees are reasonably prices, with most between $19 and $23.

Our waitress was excellent-- always on hand when we needed her, and knowledgeable about the menu. Amusingly, when I ordered the steak I asked for it medium rare, and she told me that's the only way they serve it! When I wondered what would happen if someone wanted it done to a different temperature, she said that they suggest an alternate entree. Although I absolutely agree that medium rare is the correct way to serve steak, I imagine that will make for some difficult conversations!

When the entrees arrived we were all so famished and impressed with the food we ate silently for a few minutes. My steak was perfect-- delicious, and served with a red-wine butter that was divine-- and the fries were such perfectly uniform tiny spears I had to wonder if they were hand cut. (They are.) The portion was generous; I took some of the steak home, although I ate all of the fries. (Everyone else cleaned their plates.)

After we finished, we declined dessert, but we were brought a plate of wonderful tiny sweets, including a chocolate with a little salt that I could probably have eaten six pieces of, despite my satiety. Sadly, I had to share with my husband and friends. Damn them.

Overall, our meal at Evangeline was outstanding. With our drinks (which, again ahem, we had quite a few of) the bill came to $112, including tip, per couple. It's not the kind of money we can drop on dinner every week, but for a special occasion (including tax refund time, depending on how you define special occasion) Evangeline will definitely be at the top of our list.