Nebraska State Capital
Lincoln, Nebraska: My husband, Jim, and I just finished watching The Hundred-Foot Journey, starring Helen Mirren, an enchanting tale about a young chef with a natural talent for creating culinary masterpieces. It made me hungry!
Next to travel, food is one of my favorite subjects. Of course, I love to eat, but also love to cook. If I could turn back the clock, I would go to culinary school, become a chef and open my own high-end restaurant. Life, however, took me in another direction and I am content with being a fairly decent home cook. A favorite dish is my Greek meatballs made in our tagine. I serve it with rice, tzatziki sauce, Greek salad and warm pita bread. Yummy!
Greek Meatballs
Jim is a great cook too. I particularly love his Chinese lettuce cups made with ground turkey.
When we aren’t whipping something up in our kitchen, we are going out to dinner. And while we have our favorite regular spots here in Marin County (Sushi69, The Garden Bistro, Panchitos,) we often take advantage of living in a culinary paradise – halfway between San Francisco and the Napa/Sonoma Wine Country. There are a number of Michelin Star and Zagat top-rated restaurants just a short drive from our house. We haven’t been to all of them, but we are trying.
On New Year’s Eve, Jim and I look back and make a list of our favorite meals of the year. In 2014, there were a couple of standouts. Dinner at Morimoto (as in Iron Chef Morimoto) in Napa was out of this world. The tasting menu at Pabu, Michael Mina’s newest San Francisco success, was a joy. Here in Marin County, we discovered Bungalow 44 in Mill Valley. We ate there alone in September, and again with our family on the night before Thanksgiving. Both times I had the tagine lamb stew (obviously 2014 was the year of the tagine) and it was delightful.
Toro Tuna at Morimoto in Napa
One of our best meals of the year, however, came at us from left field. Our dinner at Dish in Lincoln, Nebraska was heavenly. It proved to a food snob like me that you can have an excellent, well-prepared, and sophisticated meal outside of big cities and the culinary capitals of New York and San Francisco.
Jim and I met two of our good friends – Julie and Chip — in Lincoln for a football game. The University of Nebraska Cornhuskers played the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Julie graduated from Nebraska and I am a Minnesota alum. Football is BIG in Lincoln and we thoroughly enjoyed the pomp, pageantry and excitement of the game. The Gophers upset the Cornhuskers, but the outcome of the game was unimportant because we had such a great weekend. During our three-day visit, we were introduced to some of Nebraska’s culinary traditions – Lee’s Fried Chicken, Chili and Cinnamon Rolls, and Runzas (steamed bread pockets filled with a beef and cabbage mixture.)
Dinner at Dish was the culinary highlight of our trip. I ordered the crispy fried duck in a sweet chili mango sauce, with mashed potatoes and green beans. I don’t order duck that often, but I know that the skin often can be too greasy, limp and lifeless, and that the meat can be overdone and “gamey.” Dish, however, scored a perfect 10! The skin was just perfect – crispy and crunchy with no hint of oil. The meat was tender and succulent. I ate everything on my plate and wanted more.
Duck with Sweet Mango Chili Sauce
Of course, a good meal is more than just the food. Atmosphere, company and conversation all add to a culinary experience (or subtract from it if you are with the wrong people.) On this particular Saturday night, I was with the most important person in my life, two very dear friends, and two of Julie’s hometown friends. The atmosphere was warm and inviting, and the conversation stimulating. All in all it was a perfect evening made even better by an out-of-this world duck.
Latitudes & Longitudes 