Not all of my Bucket List adventures are about getting out of the house; some of it is about getting in the kitchen, baking a souffle (that doesn't fall flat), or making creme fraiche flambe (without setting the house on fire), or re-creating the most precious dish from my most beloved restaurant in the whole wide world, Crustacean's Garlic Noodles -- yes, it deserves capital letters -- Number 67 on my Bucket List.
After several stabs at various self-authenticated internet recipes, I think I've finally found the right combination of ingredients. If you've never been to Crustacean, it's a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach. The Beverly Hills restaurant has a river-like koi pond underneath a fiberglass floor that wafts through the restaurant along with Hollywood's elite. Mama An, the chef and proprietor, has a "Secret Kitchen" from which she creates her specialty of roasted crab that is to live for, and her Garlic Noodles make you want to beg for more. For those of you who love them, too, try your hand at the following recipe:
Egg noodles (no substitutions). Boil, then drain and set aside to cool.
Saute 3 cloves of crushed garlic in 4 Tbsp of olive oil, fuse, then add 4 Tbsp of butter. Add in 2 1/2 tsp of chicken bouillon powder (not granules), 2 Tbsp of garlic powder, 2 Tbsp of oyster sauce (available in the Asian section of any market), blend well over heat, then set aside to let cool.
Once the mixture and the noodles are both at room temperature, pour sauce over the noodles, then -- and this is the surprise kicker -- toss well with grated parmesan cheese to taste, then eat to your heart's delight, because the heart loves garlic.
After first tasting them, Sarge said, "This tastes just like Crustacean's, but where's the roasted crab?"
"Hey, hey," I said with a mouth full, "You'll have to take me to Crustacean for that."
To which he silently returned to his plate of Garlic Noodles with a renewed appreciation.
2 comments:
I recently saw the movie, The Bucket List, with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Did you get the idea from there or did you already have a bucket list?
What percent of your list have you completed?
Great questions! I always had a to-do list; I just didn't know it was called a Bucket List until I saw the movie. The list has about 90 items so far -- I keep adding to it -- and I've done about one-third of it so far. I plan on it being a lifelong process!
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