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I am not much of a sandwich person. I live with five men though. They definitely Looove a good sandwich. I can sometimes get stuck in a rut of salads, rice dishes, and noodles for weeks on end. The five men don’t love this. Every now and then they just wanted something simple but good. With meat. Enter: Wanpaku.

A meaty, savory, gooey, delightful stack of Asian sandwich ingenuity.

First things first, we’re gonna whip up the Honey Sriracha Mayo:

Six easy ingredients. Mayo, Honey , Mirin, Soy Sauce, Sriracha, Black Pepper.

1/4 C. Mayo, 2 tbsp Honey, 1 tbsp, Mirin, 1 tbs. Soy Sauce, Sriracha to taste, Black Pepper to taste. Whip together with whisk. Done.

Next, gather your sandwich ingredients. We used Italian Bread, Ham, Teriyaki Chicken, Romaine, Tomatoes, Broccoli Slaw, Avocado, Kimchi, Red Peppers and Fried Eggs. It’s hard to keep this sandwich level, usually it’s wrapped in parchment paper to keep it together. We usually do this, but we were hungry, and skipped it this time. If you skip this step you will wrestle with the sandwich the whole time you are eating it. But if you inhale it like we did..? Not as much.

You can definitely spend tons of time and energy putting together a picture perfect sandwich for each family member. We tried this a couple of times and only a select few sandwiches were photo-worthy, so this is a simple recipe for sandwich beginners, but can take some trial and error to master. Perhaps we’ll take a crack at this again after our ‘wanpaku game’ improves.

Unlike one of the previous sandwiches we made, this one won’t kill you so be sure to give it a try. Did you slap something other than ham and kimchi on that sucker? Did you even get it to your mouth before it fell apart like ours? Leave us a comment or maybe send us a pic of it!

Do you speak Spanish? I don’t, so I had to have Google translate the title. A little back story here: Yesterday we took a day trip to Buffalo NY, not gonna lie, it was, again, for the food. Donuts this time. You see, we had just gotten word that our local Cider Mill was not going to open this season, as it has consistently done for more than 40+ years each September for apple season. This place is a gem, selling fresh made donuts every morning and cider pressed on site. I grew up just down the road from this place. Some of my fondest fall memories are centered here, riding bikes with friends, with whatever meager funds we could manage scrape up between us, for hot, fresh doughnuts straight out of the oven. Heaven. Long story short when we got the sad news, we went a little crazy. We hopped in the car and drove to Buffalo, to Paula’s Donut’s. Have you ever been to a Paula’s? 10,000 calories…Worth it. Then we headed on to Niagara Falls, because a couple of the boys had never seen it.

After doing a fair bit of walking around Niagara Falls we convinced ourselves that we had burned off the donuts, and since our kids had never eaten at Ted’s Charcoal Hots, we indulged in the most unhealthy meal in existence: chili dogs and onion rings. Looking back, I get ill just thinking about it. We never eat like this. The boys were begging for a detox all the way home. It used to be, when they were younger, I was the one begging them to eat healthier. Now the tables have turned and they will guilt, remind me to eat healthier if they feel we’ve overindulged. This is is simultaneously inspiring and annoying. But this post is not about donuts…or, God forbid, chili dogs, it’s about salad. Green salad. The green salad that my boys asked for. Since it was their ask, I let it be their recipe. We have this little game that we play called Spin the Globe. Sometimes when we are feeling uninspired by history lessons we will spin the globe and let the small fry put his finger one it, and the region it stops on is the region that we learn about that day. So we decided to put this to use with cuisine as well. So we spun the globe. It landed on the border of Spain and Portugal. They chose Spain and we were off. To the library, where we perused shelf after shelf of recipes books. We leafed through many and settled on these two.

After getting a feel for the flavor profile we decided a green salad with shrimp, patatas bravas and seared olives was the way to go. Then we just tossed in some extras, whipped up a super easy olive oil, lemon and garlic dressing, and dove in.

Here’s how to get started:

Gather greens, tomatoes, Asiago cheese, 3 or 4 eggs and red peppers. Put eggs in pan to boil.

For potatas bravas you’ll need:

Potatoes, olive oil, tomato sauce,garlic, paprika, crushed red pepper, black pepper parsley,

Toss some olive oil in a hot skillet, about 2 tbsps. Slice some potatoes, thin cut. I used a hand slicer. Cook them until brown and crispy. Add 2 tbsps of tomato sauce and dose heavily with paprika. Chop some garlic, throw in pan with potatoes, hit up with a bit of crushed red pepper, salt, black pepper and parsley, fresh or dried works.

For the shrimp and olives you’ll need:

Shrimp, fresh or frozen, olive oil, lemon, paprika, black pepper

Next, throw olive oil, olives, a squeeze of lemon, spanish paprika , and black pepper into a hot skillet cook for a few minutes then toss in shrimp, sear, and finish with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of spanish paprika.

My favorite is La Dalia. I normally purchase them three at a time through Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Dalia-Sweet-Smoked-Paprika-Spain/dp/B0085WJOLG/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3OY9IOLAP8F16&keywords=la+dalia+smoked+paprika&qid=1566924785&s=gateway&sprefix=la+dalia+smoked+%2Caps%2C1163&sr=8-4

Next, Toss some greens in a bowl, we used baby spinach and romaine. Then pour a half cup of olive oil into a bowl or salad dressing shaker add, two cloves of garlic, chopped finely, whip or shake, squeeze two lemons and add to dressing. Set aside. Slice red peppers.

Layer greens, potatoes, olives and shrimp in a bowl. Top with tomatoes peppers and egg slices. Drizzle with lemon garlic dressing. Grate Asiago generously over top. Dig in!

Tell us what you think of this easy throw-together salad. Whether you’re the kind of person who binges junk for a day or two and then takes a veggie break, or maybe you just need a fresh spin on your every day salad, this should put a smile on your face

Sounds a little weird, huh? Mexican and Thai don’t mix, do they? I’m here to tell you now; maybe. Like most excellent ideas, this came to us after recovering from a pierogi-induced coma. On the back of the package of pierogies, we stumbled upon the recipe given to us to try, pierogi nachos. A good effort, but we thought instead: “What if we took frying cheese and made nachos with it?” One thing led to another and now we’re here. We’ve been on an Asian-cuisine kick as of late, (as evidenced by our previous post) so our first choice was to take a simple food like nachos and Thai-ify it. (We’re coining that term, by the way.)

Thai food is instantly recognizable from other Asian cuisine due to their love for aromatics and spice, so we decided to pick the arguably, best of the two, spice.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Frying Cheese, sliced thinly and preferably into triangles.
• Crab Meat or other seafood.
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Onion
• Lime Juice
• Jalapenos
• Thai Chili Sauce, sweet is recommended
• Basil to season/taste
• We used corn flour to aid frying but it’s not required.

This recipe is as easy as frying your cheesy nachos and tossing everything onto a plate. A small sauce pan gives the best result for the frying cheese. Set about an inch of olive oil in the bottom of the pan and set to medium-high heat. Your nachos should be crispy and dark, but not black.

Once you’ve finished frying, evacuate your nachos and place them on a plate. Over top of your delicious nachos, place your seafood, cucumber, onions and avocado, Use jalapenos and Thai chili sauce sparingly, because that will bring up the heat by quite a bit.

Another food coma later and I believe it is self-explanatory that this is an unorthodox but exceptional pairing. It’s funny to think that two completely different food cultures could combine to make something better than the two could achieve alone and therefore makes it satisfying to discover the little niches.

What did you think of the nachos; did you try them out? Leave us your impressions down below!

Unlike last week’s Fool’s Gold Loaf ( https://canigetaramen.food.blog/2019/08/15/poor-mans-fools-gold-loaf/) post which we recommended trying only a small taste of, this is something we eat regularly for breakfast or lunch, albeit, an Americanized version; a Japanese classic: Tamagoyaki. When done correctly, Tamagoyaki is a Japanese rolled omelette with soy sauce, mirin, sugar and salt. In our house it is often just eggs, salt, pepper. For the post, we decided to try to make a more authentic version, so we checked out some Pinterest posts and landed on one in particular from Chopstick Chronicles, another food blog which specializes in Japanese cuisine. https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/tamagoyaki/

Tamagoyaki Japanese rolled egg

This gave us a wealth of information on Tamagoyaki, and cooking techniques which were different from the ones we had used previously. We also watched an episode of Make it Big by Tasty on YouTube, which the boys are huge fans of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syH0oN_B4g0

We learned a few tips and tricks to roll the Tamagoyaki, plus which utensils and pans work best; and while we did not use 120 eggs for our rolled omelet, we did go through at least 2 dozen to get it what we considered was “right”.

Usually we will whip up four eggs, splash in a little milk, cook and roll, if I don’t have mirin (rice wine vinegar) on hand. This time I made sure I had both soy sauce and mirin so we could make it a little more authentic. It changes the texture more than I had remembered so it did not roll as easily as an Americanized omelette. It took us a few tries to make the necessary adjustments and get it how we wanted. We had a debate over which pan was best, which the kids won, as proven by the success of the third omelette. I was convinced that the smaller, more square pan would produce thinner layers, thus achieving a flakier, more-layered omelette. I was so wrong and the omelette burned very easily. After two failed attempts I finally listened to the advice of the boys, which worked out wonderfully for the eggs, but not so much for my ego.

With a little forethought, that which we are generally lacking, we had tossed some rice in the rice cooker a few minutes before we started prepping the Tamagoyaki, so all we had left to do was plate it, top with salmon, cucumber, and avocado and try to make it look pretty.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 8 Eggs, cracked and whisked.
• 2 and a quarter cup of rice.
• Water, 3 cups.
• Soy sauce and mirin.
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• A pinch of salt to taste.
• Smoked Salmon.
• 1 Avocado, one half is best.
• 1 Cucumber.

It’s easiest to set up your rice in the rice cooker first and then work on your omelette while that cooks. Whisk your eight eggs together and add a splash of soy sauce and mirin, mixing them into the eggs thoroughly. Once this concoction is well mixed, add one teaspoon of sugar and let it melt and dissolve. Pour half the mixture into an eleven inch, square pan or small griddle pan and allow to cook most of the way through. Next, you want to carefully, but briskly roll it to one side and repeat for the next batch of eggs. From here, you’ll want to take your previous roll and place it to one side of the pan, rolling the new layer of egg over-top of it, allowing it to cook and roll again. When done slice it into six pieces and plate. Scoop your rice onto a plate with ice cream scoop, and top it off with a slice of smoked salmon, avocado and cucumber as desired. Enjoy!

So, what do you think? Have you tried to make Tamagoyaki before? If so, have you tried it with rice? When you inevitably do, please let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Don’t Think Twice, It’s not All Right.

Unless you are a Fool Who Rushes In, do not consume this entire sandwich. 8,000 Kilo-Calories is not good For The Heart. – Mdbridge81

Stop, Look and Listen. Tomorrow is the 42nd Anniversary of Elvis ‘The King’ Presley’s death in Graceland, so It’s My Desire to pay homage to the legend himself and make one of his all-time favorite sandwiches which he only ever had once; The Fool’s Gold Loaf. Don’t Ask Me Why we chose this one, it just sounded like it would be worthy of paying respect to The King of Rock and Roll. Aside from that, Doncha’ Think It’s Time? The Fool’s Gold Loaf is a whole french bread loaf hollowed out and filled with one jar of Peanut Butter, one jar of Grape Jelly and finally one pound of bacon. While this one has been ran through the recreation wringer multiple times, we’re gonna put a unique twist on it that we thought would improve upon it and would be great For the Good Times. We also did not use an entire jar of either peanut butter or jelly because, frankly we didn’t want to die.

Don’t Leave Me Now, because here’s what you’ll need for the original recipe:

• One whole loaf of french bread; hollowed out.
• One Jar of Peanut Butter
• One Jar of Jelly (Grape or otherwise, we won’t judge.)
• One package of Bacon

For our rendition, you’ll need:

• One whole loaf of french bread; hollowed out.
• One Jar of Peanut Butter
• One Jar of Orange Marmalade
• Maple Syrup
• One package of Bacon
• Four Eggs
• One Cup of Milk
• Confectioner’s Sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 Degrees. Cook your bacon on griddle, ours did burn just a little, but it was okay even so. When it is mostly done drizzle the bacon with a bit of maple syrup, then continue cooking until it is brown and crispy. Whip together eggs and your milk and set that aside. Cut the loaf of bread in half, hollow out center, and Shake, Rattle and Roll each half of the bread in the egg mixture. This is much easier to do if you cut it in half vertically and then horizontally. Set your egg dipped halves of bread on a jellyroll pan and bake them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Fill the bottom half with peanut butter, top with candied bacon. Fill the top half with your jelly of choice (We chose orange marmalade for half, and blueberry preserves for the other half.) and smoosh them together. Make sure to sprinkle it with confectioner’s sugar.

The Fool’s Gold Loaf is a sweet, sticky and savory amalgamation which has captured the interest of culinary Elvis historians for many years with it’s unorthodox pairings and pop-culture status as being the mythical sandwich only Elvis and a select few have eaten. Our rendition I believe really pays homage to the legend of the sandwich and respects not only Elvis Presley, but his love of food as well. I Can’t Help But Fall In Love with this thing but even so, this thing is a heart attack waiting to happen, so I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine, I will never make this thing again; I Shall Not Be Moved. What did you all think of the sandwich? Did you make one of your own to celebrate the King of Rock or did you decide to keep your arteries intact? Most importantly, did you catch all of our Elvis references? Send us pictures and thoughts in the comments below!

Strolling down Delaware Avenue in Kenmore, NY, you may come across a little shop called King Condrell’s Candy and Ice Cream. This family-owned ice cream parlor has been delighting Kenmore residents with it’s delicious confections since 1966.

As you step through the door you are treated to the smell of the chocolate filling the counters. Chocolate covered pretzels, bon-bons, truffles, sponge candy are just a few examples of the extensive number of specialty chocolates created by their resident Master Chocolatier, Rich King.

Aside from the impressive array of handmade chocolates, there is a small section filled with kid friendly gummies, jellies, and lollipops, which the small fry didn’t hesitate to hit up for tart LEGO brick candies.

As we came in and began to scope the place out, we were greeted with smiles and handed menus. We sat down to look over the ice cream offerings, and were blown away by the unbelievable collection of flavors available for ice cream sodas. We were immediately hooked. The choices we settled on were Loganberry, Marionberry, and Shortbread. Each was outstanding. I chose the Loganberry, which can only be described as a culmination of all my childhood dreams, but being the adventurous sort I have already chosen the Cookie Butter Ice Cream Soda for the next time we go.

One of the boys chose this wonderful concoction called the ‘Butterfingerpalooza,’ a culmination of all things good; chocolate, toffee and Butterfingers. Needless to say, he thoroughly enjoyed it, but did say he can’t wait to try an ice cream soda next time we’re there.

The other two weren’t feeling as daring, so they went with their usual; chocolate milkshake, and a cookie dough cone, and were extremely happy with their choices.

My one regret, is forgoing the handmade chocolates, thinking that we had already consumed enough sugar for one day. If I know one thing about myself, it’s that while I may not need the sugar today I will definitely want the chocolate tomorrow.

If you find yourself in want of something to do in the Buffalo area, don’t hesitate to check out King Condrell’s. There is easy parking right out front and also, I believe, there is more space across the street. You will enjoy every minute of the experience.