new site

We've moved over to Xanga! This is so our brother PigPen can read our site since he is in China and they ban blogger over there. Anyways, here's the new site. I hope you enjoy!

www.xanga.com/mocdog

italy

I apologize I have been away from Blogger for a while. I was sans computer due to a slight humid accident. Anyways, here are some more photos from my europe trip - 2 months later.

So the first night we got into italy, we stayed in Bologna where we got in kind of late. We asked our concierge at the hostel/hotel we were staying at where to eat. He recommended going to this pizzeria which was called "thnoopy pitheria two". ha ha. Anyways, inside joke. So we ended up going to this random place and we started with a salad that had mozarella, roasted red peppers and some other stuff.










For the second course we had proscuitto stuffed with cheese.



Followed by the third course - the pasta. It was spaghetti with meat sauce - or spaghetti bolognese, which is what Bologna is known for. It was okay...

The next day we went to Venice. Where we walked around the city and just snacked on little things in stands along the way. Here are some pictures of things we snacked on.
Canoli










Fried Shrimp, Fried Squid, Fried Anchovie (Which venice is known for)













and of course pizza (here with goat cheese and spinach)



The following day we went to Florence. We didn't get to see a lot because it was the Italian holiday and everything was closed. Anyways, we grazed throughout the day at the different stands. But after a lot of walking and sightseeing we got some coffee and dessert (tiramisu).













For dinner we decided to have a real meal. Here is a picture of the house ravioli. It was sooooo good!







In Cinque Terra (off the west coast of Italy) we had some seafood.
Here is a seafood appetizer plate with salmon, octopus, anchovies (which were so good).









Then we had seafood risotto. It was pretty good, kinda salty.



And this balsalmic vinegar was really good, proably the best I've ever had.




And of course no trip to Italy is complete without Gelatto!! This was the best one I had and it was in Cinque Terra. I got mint chip and watermelon. YUM!!! And eating it by the water only made it that much better.



That it for italy! It's off to Switzerland next!

7-11

Food stand at 7-11 convenience store! Looks good, huh? --MM

Dumplings

To go food from street side vendor in Taipei. --MM

Peppers

Cool idea! Chili pepper plant lined the sidewalks of the National Park in Taipei. --MM

Shilin Night Market

Spicy wontons and shaved ice.

It's been a while since either Rocketdog or I have blogged. Sorry, Jill. ;) I still have a ton of pictures from my trip to Asia to blog about. One of our favorite places to eat in Taipei is at the Shilin Night Market. There are many vendors who have a little food stand with some tables. You walk through the market until you find a vendor who's selling something you like. Have a seat and the vendor will bring the food to your table. Cheap, fast and delicious. --MM

Shish kabob - a la Taiwan

___In Taiwan, anything edible can be put on a stick for convenience (no more dish-washing) and "take-away-ability"...cuttlefish, squid, quail eggs, candied cherry tomatoes (picture on left) and even stinky tofu - aka "cho tofu" (picture on right). --MM

Cuttlefish in Danshui

I'm back!! After spending a wonderful but hot and humid two weeks in Asia, I'm home again...at least until tomorrow. For today, I'll post as much as I can while I prepare for my trip to SoCal.

Mr. Moc and I went exploring in a neighborhood just on the outskirts of Taipei called "Danshui". There's a boardwalk like area lined with many little shops and restaurants (see top picture). We wandered into this little restaurant - more like a small room with a few tables. I noticed that a lot of the small restaurants in Taipei are little rooms with a few tables and with the "kitchen" located at the front of the restaurant. The second picture shows what Mr. Moc had for lunch...a steaming bowl of cuttlefish balls and vermicelli with various seasoning. My lunch (see third picture) was essentially the same as Mr. Moc - minus the vermicelli. We also shared a bowl of dan dan noodles (see bottom picture). --MM

Germany

This is a picture of some German Beer. Notice the line, that is where they are supposed to fill it up to. It's so good, and so cheap.




There's poop in my soup! Jk. In Cologne we went to this German restaurant and had "german" food. This is some sort of liver meatball soup or something. It was pretty good, although I thought it was going to be more of a stew as opposed to poop in broth.



And here is my main dish which was a mitwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Delicious! Good heavy food.



When we were in Cologne we also went to the Chocolate Museum. The Museum itself was kind of dissapointing, we thought we'd get to eat more chocolate. But we had some chocolate shake type things in the cafe. They also had an amazing souvenior store with all sorts of chocolate.





On our way down to Munich we stopped at a Burger King for a snack. We got fried cheese with jalapeno. It's a lot like a jalepeno popper at Jack in the Box but better! MM you woulda liked these.

--RD

Amsterdam

I am going to do one giant blog for Europe. So, I spent 9 days in Europe travelling with PigPen. We went EVERYWHERE. Holland (Amsterdam), Germany (Cologne, Munich), Italy (Bologna, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra), and Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich). I have to say my favorite was Switzerland, more specifically Zurich. And the food was great everywhere. We ate a lot of meat, bread and cheese! Here is my culinary adventure.



The first picture is of Pommes Frites (Amsterdam) - Fries, here we ate it with Mayonnaise. We also had it again that same day but this time with curry, not at good as the mayonnaise which is way better than that American crap.



Here is a picture of Heneiken beer, fresh from the brewery museum in Amsterdam. We downed 3 beers in about 1/2 an hour. Not so bad! =)

In Amsterdam we also ate at this cafe where I experienced a pancake with cheese. It's kind of like a crepe with cheese. We also had Indian food for dinner, it wasn't so great. Also at the hostels we stayed at they provided breakfast. It was cold cuts, cheese and bread mostly. The same goes for in Germany. It was like our lunch here was their breakfast!

More to come later...
--RD

my apologies

I would first and foremost like to apologize to our loyal reader, Jill, because I have done such a horrible job blogging. Also to MOCMOC, because she's been picking up the slack. I have been MIA because I have been doing a lot of travelling. Anyhow, no fear! I am here and I have no job. So... let the blogging begin!
--RD

MIA

Hi Jill - sorry for not blogging. I'm in Asia right now but I promise to blog when I'm back home. As for Rocketdog, I don't know what the heck happened to her! She's been home for a week now and should have plenty to blog about from her European trip but I have no idea why she isn't blogging.

For now, I'll just have to blog without pictures. Mr. Moc and I have been doing plenty of eating while vacationing this past week. We've been eating a lot of great Taiwanese food for cheap. Cheap food is so easily accessible here. All you have to do is walk out your door and within a few steps, there should be something you can pick up and eat while you walk. Of course, you can sit if you want - most places have little tables set up on sidewalks for a quick bite. Mr. Moc left this afternoon to fly home. I'm in Taipei for a few more days before I head to Singapore. After my meetings in Singapore, I will be meeting up with PigPen who is flying into town early Saturday morning. We have about 36 hours to eat our way through Singapore! :)
--MM

Shrimp 'n' Grits

My lunch from Mertz - grits with shrimp! I heart grits. --MM

Fried Chicken 'n' Fixin's

Rocketdog's lunch from Mertz - fried chicken (white meat) with collared greens and mac 'n' cheese (bottom picture).

Mr. Moc's lunch from Mertz - fried chicken (dark meat) with candied yams and cole slaw (top picture). --MM

Cornbread

Please see Rocketdog's post entitled "Unsweet tea please" for more details. Mertz has BEST cornbread I have ever had...EVER! They bring it out of the oven fresh and hot and then you slather on the honey butter so it oozes into all the nooks and crannies. yuMMMMy!! --MM

Crab Cakes Benedict

Alright, it's been a while since I blogged. I've got some catching up before my trip to Asia this weekend.

What you see here is one of my favorite breakfast foods. Unfortunately, I can't get that anywhere in Cleveland. Actually I think there aren't too many places that offer this dish. I had this yummy dish of Crab Cakes Benedict in Baltimore at a place called Blue Moon (I think that was the name of the place). Crab cakes benedict are just like eggs benedict but the eggs are replaced by fresh lump-meat crab cakes. YUM! --MM

happy birthday roomie

Tomorrow, well, today, August 8th is my roomie's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROOMIE!
In honor of her, I made some red velvet cup cakes with cream cheese coconut frosting. I made these from sratch and it was tricky. I had to use red dye, haha. And I made twice as much frosting as I did cake batter, so I have some left over which I froze and maybe can use in the future. Unfortunately I won't really be able to celebrate Roomie's birthday with her as I will be on plane all day to Europe. (which is also the reason for the spurt of blogs, i will be mia for a while). Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROOMIE (again!!)

--RD

tender greens

My roomates and I went out for dinner last night at this new restaurant that opened up down the street from us. It's called tender greens. It's pretty cool they have a simple menu and you order at the counter and they bring it out to you. It's mostly salads, but they also have a meat option that comes in the form of a sandwich or hot plate. The hot plate comes with a side salad and mashed potatoes. It was really good. I got the ahi tuna hot plate which came with salad with spinach, nuts, goat cheese and the mashed taters. I think MM would like this place. Anyways, afterwards we went to go watch Talladega Nights. They shot a lot of it in charlotte. "Dear 8 lb 6 ounce baby jesus..."
--RD

unsweet tea please

Sorry, MM and I have been gone, we both went down to take a visit to North Kakalaki to visit the parental units. Anyways, one of my favorite places to go when I go back to Charlotte is Merts. It's a southern/soul food restaurant in downtown Charlotte. When I lived in the city I worked right across the street from it and I have to be honest I wasn't that big of a fan of it. Mostly cause everything is fried, sweet and cooked in lard, which is the secret to southern cooking. But since I have moved away I have missed it cause I can't get it out here. I guess I secretly liked it when I was there I just didn't want to eat there a lot cause I didn't want my arteries to stop working. I would also take any friends visiting from out of town there, so they could experience southern food. Anyways, this is my usual there - fried chicken (white meat please), mac and cheese and collard greens. The corn bread is to diiie for there, esp when its right out of the oven. I am also a huge fan of their banana pudding, but I didn't have room for it this time. Oh, and as with any southern restaurant if you want ice tea, you have to make sure you order unsweet tea or else they will kill you with the sugar.

--RD

Vacation

Hi Loyal Reader (that means you, Jill), Rocketdog and I are both going to be away for about a week, attending a family wedding and then spending some time at the family abode in the countryside (aka - the parental units home in NC). Don't worry, we are taking Mr. Moc with us. In any case, no blogging from Mocmoc for about a week and probably no blogging from Rocketdog for a few weeks. I promise to have plenty to blog about after I get back. In any case, I leave you with this picture of some random couple I saw on Manhattan Beach when I was in town earlier this month. I like the colors of the umbrella against the blue color of the sky. --MM

Salmon of Salmon 'n' Slaw Fame

Here's the salmon, RocketDog! Since you couldn't see the salmon due to the excess of veggies from July 25th's post of Salmon 'n' Slaw, I posted this picture of the salmon for you. See the crispy skin on top? --MM

Italiano

It's Italian night at the Moc household. Whole wheat penne pasta with andouille sausage and grilled onions and orange bell peppers with a spicy tomato sauce. We also had caprese salad - made of fresh tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese with a light dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. --MM

Salmon 'n' Slaw

Another at home creation...part of my "Bring RD to Cleveland" campaign. Grilled wild atlantic salmon with crispy skin (we could have made salmon skin handrolls with this crispy skin) and an asian veggie cole slaw (made with red cabbage, carrots and snow peas). --MM

Sampling at Costco

I know, this picture doesn't look great. In fact, the dish itself doesn't look great but it didn't taste as bad as it looks. We were at Costco when we sampled this whole wheat ravioli stuffed with basil, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. I made a vodka marinara sauce and shaved some parmigiano-reggiano cheese to top the ravioli. I think next time, I'll just make a simple meat sauce to top the ravioli. --MM

Salad

Taking the leftover rotisserie chicken from the previous night's chicken quesadilla, I made a chicken and potato with watercress salad. Nice and simple with a light mustard vinaigrette dressing. This salad is one of my favorite things to make in the summer. --MM

Tex Mex?

Since Rocketdog has been complaining about my lack of blogging and in anticipation of my vacation next week, I thought I'd upload a few extra posts. Giving the BBQ a break, I made some turkey chili (actually I made this a while back and froze a meal-sized portion in the freezer) and chicken quesadilla w/avocado for dinner. YuMMy. --MM

Chick - On!

Like I said we were on a BBQing kick last week. The chicken was marinated in a basil dressing and grilled until just tender and flavorful. I made a simple salad and some grilled zucchini and squash to accompany the chicken. --MM

Pork 'n' Tomatoes

Continuing with the BBQ theme, pictured here is grilled pork tenderloin topped with a lemon-fennel sauce, tomatoes stuffed with arborio rice and salad. The tenderloin was brined in a bath of salt/sugar water and herbs for a few hours before grilling. I think it turned out pretty well - the pork was very tender and moist. --MM

Steak 'n' Potatoes

Now that it's summer, Mr. Moc and I trying to BBQ as much as possible. At the same time, I've been trying to cut back on rice and pasta and eat more veggies. Mr. Moc grilled up a couple of steaks which were seasoned with a rub he made. I made up a batch of warm potato salad and a simple salad of mixed greens, cucumbers and grap tomatoes. --MM