Soft Shell Crab, Eel Sauce & Duck: A Few of my Favorite Things @ The Bento Box

Happy Sunday!!!

Hope you are all doing well today! I know that I am extremely glad it's the weekend! In keeping with my Asian theme from Thursday I thought I'd write about another of my favorite local restaurants, The Bento Box. It's a sushi restaurant that opened several years ago but just underwent a makeover (and a short move) within the past few years. We've been going ever since it first opened and have never been disappointed. The atmosphere is very modern and zen, the food is fantastic and the service is always exceptional. I don't go as often as I'd like, as it's not particularly close to where I live or work, but each time I've gone I've always left satisfied. My most recent visit was over the summer, when I went with my mom and Chris.

Duck Confit Spring Rolls

As I've mentioned before, if a restaurant has duck on their menu, I will always order it, regardless how it is served. As soon as I saw that they had duck spring rolls listed as an appetizer I knew we had to get some. They come filled with duck confit, Thai chili, roasted garlic, cilantro and hoisin sauce, and served with a mango-meyer lemon relish. If you're not familiar with confit, I'll go ahead and tell you that it is the most juicy and savory way to serve meat (normally poultry, like goose or duck). The meat (usually served from the leg) is cooked slowly in grease, oil, fat or sugar water at a lower temperature than what is used when deep-frying. The result is absolutely incredible, and these spring rolls were no exception. They were fried perfectly - very lightly, and the duck combined with the herbs and other ingredients melded beautifully. I was slighgtly hesitant about the relish, because, personally, I wouldn't pair lemon with duck, but the mango sweetened up the lemon flavor and complemented the duck very nicely. The only other appetizer I had ordered here before was the tuna tartare (which I also highly recommend) but these spring rolls were equally as delicious. Definitely a promising start!

Garden Spider

The Bento Box is famous for its sushi, so choosing which roll to order is always difficult. This time, I went with the Garden Spider, which is an inside-out roll (meaning the rice is on the outside of the roll rather than the inside), consisting of soft shell crab tempura, shredded carrots and cucumber, topped with tempura crumbles, scallions, masago (fish roe, or eggs) and a spicy honey glaze. I have had Spider rolls before - generally, they have tempura soft shell crab, of which I am a huge fan. This particular Spider roll was fantastic. The crab was crispy and flavorful, the veggies were fresh and the glaze drizzled on top was phenomenal. If you have never eaten fish roe, I suggest that you try it at least once in your lifetime. The texture is surprising - the tiny eggs are firmer than you'd expect and burst in your mouth when you bite into them. I prefer the red or orange roe over the black (caviar); it's not as salty, and the flavor seems slightly less fishy. Every bite of this roll was spectacular, but my favorite part was the glaze. Equally spicy and sweet, it complemented the crab perfectly. Believe me when I say that every bite was savored.

Katsu

     Chris ordered the Katsu roll, which had eel, salmon, asparagus and cream cheese, rolled in panko (Japanese-style breadcrumbs) and flash fried topped with eel sauce and scallions. We are both big fans of eel and eel sauce in sushi - they add an extra savoriness to it, and really aren't as fishy as you might think. Flash frying the roll gave it a nice, crunchy exterior texture and warmed the cream cheese just enough so that it had a soft, velvety feel. Salmon, asparagus and cream cheese are some of the most popular items combined in sushi for a reason - these three elements go extremely well together. Between the Duck Spring Rolls, the Garden Spider and the Katsu rolls, we were all quite pleased with the outcome of our lunch choices. 

I'll leave you with a quote today from Virginia Woolf: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

Belly full of goodness - a culinary overview of my weekend

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was excellent - extremely busy, but definitely one of the best I've had in awhile! Spent some time with my mom, saw my dad (who is having some medical issues - please say a prayer for him!), got some more household items for our move, and ate some amazing food! I'll just be posting the highlights, as there was so much yummy goodness it would take me days to describe every tasty morsel. I'll start with the highlights from Friday's dinner...

The potato that will change your life

 Friday night's meal consisted of a good old steakhouse dinner: medium-rare (more rare, honestly - I prefer my beef practically still mooing) porterhouses with braised cauliflower and a baked potato. Everything was highly enjoyable: the steak was cooked perfectly and the cauliflower was buttery and tender, but the real star was the potato. I love a good baked potato as much as the next person, but Chris has opened my eyes to a new way of eating them. I thought he was crazy the first time he told me about this, but I trust him when it comes to food, so I tried it. You add the normal salt, pepper and butter to your potato, but you top it off with cottage cheese and French dressing. Sounds insane, right? Believe me, it will change your life. I detested cottage cheese when I was younger, but now, this is the only way I'll eat baked potatoes! Somehow the creaminess of the cottage cheese blends with tang of the French dressing, and the result is absolutely unbelievable. We prefer Ken's Country French with Orange Blossom Honey - it has an extra layer of sweetness that is downright heavenly. I could drink that dressing all by itself and savor every drop! If you are looking for a new spin on an old favorite, try your next baked potato with cottage cheese and French dressing - your friends may look at you like you're mad, but you will NOT regret it!

Saturday Sushi with Mom

Nikkis Restaurant & Sushi Bar

Saturday was awesome because I got to spend the day with my mom, as well as run some much-needed errands, and we also had lunch at my all-time favorite local sushi restaurant, Nikki's. In addition to a wide variety of sushi, sashimi and other Asian delicacies, they also have several items on their menu for the less adventurous types out there. I normally get their sushi, although I love their Beancurd Pita Melt (sounds terribly unappetizing, I know, but it's delicious, especially for a vegetarian sandwich). This time, though, I got a seaweed salad and my mom and I split the sushi special, which consists of two special rolls for around $16 - you can't beat that deal!

Their seaweed salad is perfect - the seaweed itself is crunchy and is seasoned perfectly with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and just a dash of rice wine vinegar, and was topped lavishly with sesame seeds. I love seaweed salad, and Nikki's makes one of the best I've ever had. Unfortunately, I don't have a description of the sushi itself, as these were special rolls that change daily and therefore are not on the menu. I can tell you that the one pictured on the right was cooked tempura-style with eel sauce and Sriracha drizzled on top, and was very flavorful and spicy (not sure exactly what was inside). The one on the left had asparagus, cream cheese and crab inside, as well as more crab, tempura flakes and fish roe on top. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them, as did my mom. If you are ever in Wilmington you must check out Nikki's - they have 5 locations around Wilmington and have been voted Wilmington's Best Japanese and Sushi by Encore Magazine for several years in a row, and it's not hard to see why. I don't know of anyone who has had a bad experience there. 

Sunday dinner, Italian style

The last dish I'll share today was from last night. Chris made a pasta dish with an Italian twist - carbonara. I want to post a quick disclaimer that this is a variation on the traditional carbonara, as I was (quite rudely) told on my Instagram account that this is not a "real" Italian carbonara. I looked on Wikipedia for the definition of a carbonara and discovered that Chris' version is about as authentic as it gets, with eggs, bacon, cheese and black pepper. While spaghetti noodles are normally used, several other types of pasta (including rigatoni, which he used) can be substituted. The article also clearly states that there are many variations outside Italy which can include an assortment of other vegetables. I felt tremendously better after reading that; even though I never doubted his skills and knowledge (he's been a chef for nearly two decades), it was reassuring to have Wikipedia echo my thoughts. So that's my disclaimer, so as not to hurt any feelings: this is not a "classic" carbonara, but a variation on a theme, if you will, and an outstanding one at that. The rigatoni (one of my favorite types of pasta) was cooked perfectly al dente. The sauce was light and silky, and brought the flavors from all the other ingredients (bacon, onions, peas and mushrooms) together beautifully. To top it all off, he added a light topping of shredded Italian cheeses, which added a creaminess and richness to the sauce. Noodles are some of my all-time favorite things in the world (I could never survive on the Atkins diet!), and luckily my amazingly talented fiance can make a pasta dish like no other, ranging from Italian to Asian cuisine. This dish was hearty and satisfying, and the perfect way to end the weekend.

Here's my food-related quote of the day: "You don't need a silver fork to eat good food." - Paul Prudhomme

Hope your Monday wasn't too stressful! Thanks for reading!