Ugly Drum Curbside

I used to love going to Smorgasburg to get Ugly Drum pastrami. After my first visit, I always came with tupperware so that they could pack my to go order in a sturdy travel safe container. Now that Covid 19 has changed the business models for everyone, I was thrilled to find that I could pick up curbside at Bludso's, which I must add has great BBQ. If you would like to kill two birds with one stone, order from both Ugly Drum and Bludso (ordering is separate, although pick up in front is the same). Even better for those too far away to pick up or get delivery, Ugly Drum now ships nationwide with Goldbelly where you can order 3 lbs of pastrami brisket for $139 with free shipping!

I got extra meat on my sandwich for $21 total, made with Bub and Grandma's fabulous bread.

A pint of their caraway cole slaw was my vegetable for $9 ;)

A side order of my favorite, the uglies, or burnt pastrami ends for $8.50

I also ordered one of their home made pickles for $2 so that I could have plenty of sides for my plate. They gave me a large container of their wonderful mustard that rounded out the richness perfectly. I only ate half my food at lunch, so time to eat the other half now....

Marie Curie

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

Marie Curie

Simpang Delivery

I appreciate having the option of delivery from my favorite restaurants during Covid 19, especially when they are a small one location operation like Simpang Asia. Some dishes are better for delivery than others, so I focused on items that would travel well as opposed to things like fried calamari which was great eating in (see my previous post). 

The driver was so appreciative of my tip that he thanked me profusely; please tip when you order delivery or pick up, especially nowadays. The safety that delivery and curbside pick up orders offer you by the people serving you should be appreciated with as much as you can afford, e.g., 20% + , every bit helps.

They offer a Traditional Meal for 2 for $27.95 which offered a choice of the Indonesian chicken that was so tender and flavorful that it did not need any of the sauce that came on the side. The sauces are SPICY here, so even the mild soy based sauce chili sauce may be beyond your heat tolerance, as I quickly learned after pouring it generously over my chicken!

I love their garlic string beans

and rice noodles, Kwetiau, both of which come with the meal in addition to the rice. There are many options for customization when you order, and you may make your meal entirely vegetarian.

In addition to the traditional meal, I also ordered the Rames for $14.50 which included lime turmeric chicken, coconut beef steak, fried noodles and garlic string beans.

Hmmm that was enough food for 3, so who wants to eat with me?

Blueberry Lemon Scones

I love trying recipes from Sally's Bake Blog, so when I decided to try making scones for the first time (I've eaten many, just never made my own), I chose her Lemon Blueberry Scones recipe. I love that she offer options for freezing before baking, freezing after baking, the option of using cream or buttermilk, and the unusual and very effective method of grating frozen butter to get the tender flaky texture of a perfect scone:) 

I recommend grating the frozen butter first because it is time consuming and a bit of a pain to grate frozen butter by hand with a box grater, especially during a heat wave in Los Angeles. I ended up putting what I had grated into the freezer and refreezing the butter I had not yet grated back into the freezer 3 times before finishing the process. The grated butter is beautiful, but it melts rapidly in 80F weather, so be forewarned that simply grating the butter may take you 30 minutes if you live in a hot climate. 

The rest of the recipe is easy and fast, especially if you have a microplane or rasp to get the lemon peel zested.

The texture of the grated butter incorporated with the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter should resemble this:

After adding the wet ingredients with a Danish dough whisk, it comes together quite nicely without the need for much more flour. Don't over mix, and add fresh or frozen (unthawed) blueberries at this point.

Shape the dough onto parchment paper or a silicone mat on a quarter sheet pan or jelly roll pan.

Cut with a pastry cutter or knife into wedges and brush with buttermilk or cream and a little sprinkle of sugar (I used my homemade raw vanilla sugar).

The only changes I made in the recipe was instead of refrigerating for 15 minutes, I put the scones in the freezer for 15 minutes, and I baked for nearly 40 minutes. 

They were delightfully tender, flaky and delicious!