Breakfast
Still in San Diego the Foodies had a working breakfast with Cirina Catania at Nutmeg Bakery Cafe.
Foodie Greg had the nutmeg scramble:
Both were both great meals, cooked exactly as ordered. Our friend generously paid for our meal.
Dinner
While Thursday night is our steak/pork chop grill night, tonight we felt like having satay sauce, but had no appropriate steak in the freezer. Having done it once before, we decided to substitute marinated and grilled Japanese eggplant.
- Two eggplants were $1.35 or 68c per serve
- The peanut butter was $3.99 and we used about 1/8, or 25c a serve
- Other seasonings in the satay sauce add 35c per serve
- Add 50c for marinade ingredients
- Bean sprouts were $1.49 but we used the remaining ⅓ or 25c per serve
- Carrot adds 10c per serve
- Mint came from our garden.
The eggplant ends up with a custardy, creamy center while being nicely caramelized from the sugars in the marinade, which also contributes to the crispy skin. Overall, way more flavor than even a great piece of top sirloin, but with a very different texture.
The peanut sauce, as usual was the star, while the bean sprout salad gave a wet, crunch balance to the spicy eggplant and satay sauce mouthful. A very satisfying meal for $2.13 per serve, about ⅓ of the equivalent steak meal!