I just don't get it.
For someone who loves food as much as I do, I am a dreadful cook.
Most people don't believe me, thinking I am being modest or even that I'm lying.
I can assure you, as can the boy for that matter, I am a truly awful cook.
So I dream. I eat out, I dream, I try (hey, that counts, right?) and I always end up falling back on stuff that I know well enough how to do.
However, being frustrated and with a bit too much time on my hands, I decided this week to attempt cooking something new.
There was no doubt in my mind what to cook. It had to be
Jaden's Persian Sour Cherry Saffron Rice (Polow). It had been taunting me day and night. I "visited" the recipe every day since I've seen it, absolutely certain that despite it being cherry, it would be the perfect combo of tart, sweet, salty and comforting. My favorite combo.
I know that to the accomplished cook, this would be an easy dish. You don't understand. Whenever I step into the kitchen, it's like I step into the twilight zone where I become an absolute idiot.
Case in point. I didn't melt the butter.
I melted half of it in the pan at the beginning, then, when layering the rice, cherries and saffron water, I panicked and quickly melted the remaining 1/4 cup and stupidly dumped it OVER the cherries.
Yep, I'm an idiot. Luckily the recipe still worked and was very delish although totally ugly (I stirred too much...) and unphotographable. THANK you
Jaden. I will make it again and again and again. I kept sneaking bites throughout the night despite my distended belly.
I then decided, mainly because I had bananas languishing, all soft, mushy and unwanted in the fruit bowl, to make the
banana cake Orangette posted about. No oil and no butter needed. Just the thing.
And what did I do? Well............I left out the chocolate chips, the vanilla essence and I substituted cassonade for half of the white sugar because I ran out. OH, and I also cooked it for over TWICE as long because it was still so incredibly gooey inside. I have no idea what happened but I blame it again on the shroud of incompetence that descends on my head every time I step into the kitchen.
Dang it but the cake turned out fine. Slightly too burned on the outside but perfectly moist and chewy inside. And from the boy's quick demolishment of it, it was still good enough to eat.
So please, don't go by incompetence and try the fabulous recipes out there by wonderful bloggers out there. Next I want to try
Umami's rice salad, even though I am highly skeptical...
Aside from annoying the boy, I also tasted all tongue-y concoctions. 
Next, I tasted the long tongue cross sections in gelatin. The French enjoy jellied meats and vegetables as a dish in the summer, served with a side salad. I never really understood it as the texture of the food preserved in the gelatin always changed and tastes mushy to me. In the case of the tongue, it didn't change the texture too much and I would say it had more of a 'chew' than the vinaigretted tongue. I'm not sure whose or what animal's tongue this was. I'm still guessing pork (i.e. the magical animal who keeps on giving).
Finally it came to the prettiest one of all, the one with pistachios. This one was quite mild, with almost no chew, with a texture more like ham. The pistachios were an interesting touch and was nice with the tongue. I liked the look of this one best but overall I did prefer the vinaigrette tongues best.
The restaurant was small but immaculate and it felt like lots of care had gone into the decor which had modern Thai touches, including a shrine over the kitchen door. The restaurant was manned by what seemed like a Thai couple and their son, who were all very friendly, sending over complimentary amuse gueules when we moved to a different table to accommodate a party of three. It consisted of a bite sized deep fried pastry with minced chicken and vegetables. Inoffensive but forgettable.
Our entree of spicy Thai beef salad arrived, very prettily plated with perfectly cooked meat that was still toothsome and rare in the middle, the sauce was fabulous but not spicy in the least but very tasty with the perfect mix of tart, sweetness and kick from the herbs. It was a generous portion and so moreish and tasty, I quickly dug in, even munching the onions which had been marinated long enough to lose its normally harsh bite.
Our Thai green chicken curry with glutinous rice came after these two dishes were cleared. I was delighted to find the little 'eggplant' pods, bitter with a great texture in this version, which was not spicy but deliciously flavorful, wonderful with the sticky glutinous rice. The pretty vegetables were cut in very similar sized finger sized sticks, complete with lacy, wavy edged zucchini. 
In any case, we were soon distracted by our appetisers of beef carpaccio with raspberries and broccoli, and brownie foie gras. The latter turned out to be simply that. A brownie plated with foie gras, drizzled with dark chocolate. The combination, for me, didn't work at all. The chocolate sauce was much too strong and made only the texture of the foie gras as opposed to its lovely richness stand out. The brownie also, I can only guess was a play on textures as it was very crumbly and dry, tasting like a stale thin slice of brownie. 
The boy's beef tartare was a bit more disappointing. Although it was a generous portion, it tasted a little too much of mayonnaise and was a little too well minced, making the texture somewhat mushy. These were served with crispy fires, not homemade but still decent.
