Weekend eats and cooking for the future

I'm feeling a lot less like cooking these days, despite all my cooking last week. By the end of the day, I just want to get off my feet. So we ate out a good amount this weekend. For date night on Friday, we ate dinner at Pop's. I ordered the housemade gnocchi. This was a slightly crispy on the outside, delightfully light potato inside gnocchi served with venison meatballs, spinach, mushrooms, pomodoro and romano cheese. This was a great dish. I wasn't completely into the sauce, but I think my palate has been a little off lately due to pregnancy so you should definitely judge it for yourself.

My hubby ordered the angel hair with smoked chicken, pickled banana peppers and a bacon cream sauce. This dish was creative and very tasty. If you like pickled banana peppers, I urge you to try it. They shone in this dish. Speaking of banana peppers, have you ever tried the deep fried ones at Bull McCabes? Or the Wooden Nickel in Hillsborough? Soooooo good. I'm off topic here, sorry.

Saturday night we ate at Shiki Sushi. As always the sushi was fantastic, the service was okay and the place was loud as hell. I don't know why they blast the music in there so loudly. All it does is force everyone to shout over it. I ordered the bagel roll and the shrimp tempura roll. The bagel roll is such a treat. It's salmon, cream cheese and avocado, battered and deep fried and garnished with eel sauce. Battered and deep friend sushi, it just doesn't get more delicious then this...

We also ate again at the Silver Spoon on Saturday morning. Having gotten enormous dishes the first time, we both ordered what we felt would be smaller portions and still were unable to consume it all. I had the egg croissant sandwich with home fries. Hubby had an omelet with homefries. We both loved our dishes. The only thing I felt could be improved upon are the homefries. I like mine a little crispy and these are monster potato slices, amply seasoned, but I think they're most likely baked and not crispy. Still the service was phenomenal, the portions huge and the food was served hot and exactly as I ordered it.

I did manage to prepare a good Italian Sunday dinner. I made egg parpadelle tossed with spinach, mushrooms, shallots, chicken and pesto. I served it with a big side salad. I was just too tired to photograph and write down the process, so I can't really share much beyond the description. I am going to work on making a lot of casseroles and food that freezes and reheats well over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned! I plan on stocking up the freezer prior to baby arrival :) Any suggestions for dishes are welcome!

Akashi Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar - Hwy. 54, Durham

Over the last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to dine at Akashi a few times. I can't believe I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Akashi is my new favorite for sushi in Southwest Durham.

Currently, I'm only able to order cooked sushi, but their menu is helpfully labeled to aid me in making a quick, easy decision. I also like that they break their expansive sushi menu into descriptive sections (rice on the outside, fish outside, etc). They do a lot of business during the lunch hour, but they are still very efficient in taking orders, and turning good food out quickly and at a good price. The service I've experienced each time has been attentive and friendly.

One of the things I really like about their sushi is that with the shrimp tempura, the end shell that most places leave on, they actually remove. So you don't have to dismantle your last bite of the roll to eat it! Genius!

All of their rolls are half price (listed on the sushi menu) and I've yet to go with someone else who didn't love what they had. They also have a hibachi menu and offer bento boxes at lunch time. While I'm always tempted to try them, I opt for sushi instead. I'm a little sad that my work recently moved farther away from Akashi, but I'll still manage to get a lunch visit in here and there :)

Sushi Love II - Erwin Terrace, Durham

Last night I returned to Sushi Love for the third time with a very old friend. Due to her later work schedule, we dined much later then I am used to eating out. I arrived around 8pm and Sushi Love was packed with people. All the tables were filled and it was pretty noisy. I will say that there were no noticibly loud and out-of-control children this time. Perhaps that was due to the later hour? My friend had already grabbed us a table and some spring rolls. Sushi Love is a mixture of chinese, thai and japanese, best described maybe as Asian fusion.

We both ordered sushi for our dinners. I ordered 2 of the crunchy roll (since all the rolls are buy one get one free). The crunchy roll has a tempura batter and spicy mayo inside and is topped with cooked shrimp and imitation crabmeat. I order it with sesame seeds instead of roe and I am always pleased. Last night the rolls were a little light on the spicy mayo (non-existant in one roll) but that wasn't an issue because the waiter brought a side of it at my request. She ordered the Crazy Roll and another roll that was a combo of jalapeno, cream cheese and tempura. She seemed pleased with her rolls. The service was good, the atmosphere was a little loud, but had died down to a nice lull maybe an hour or so later as the crowd thinned out.

Because I've been to Shiki Sushi a ton of times, I do miss the longer list of specialty rolls. I think part of this may be due to my limited options right now though (only being able to eat cooked sushi). However I love having Sushi Love in my neck of the woods!

Sushi Love - Erwin Terrace, Durham

Last night two of my gal pals and I tried out Sushi Love. I was thrilled to finally have decent sushi in central Durham. I am a big fan of Shiki Sushi in southwest Durham and have missed it terribly since moving this spring. Sushi Love, according to Carpe Durham, is owned by the same people that run Shiki and the menu is similar. They don't have quite as many specialty rolls, and the ones they have are a good deal different and cost more. Specialty rolls at Shiki start out around $7. The cheapest at Sushi Love was $9.

All the rolls are buy one get one free and this applies to the entire table so its best to all order similarly priced rolls. I ordered the lobster roll which had tempura cooked lobster, avocado and cucumber. My other roll was the crunchy roll which was filled with crunchy tempura batter, spicy mayo and topped with crab and shrimp. Both rolls were very tasty, but I was less pleased with the lobster roll. It was 5 thin slices, of which the end two slices didn't even have lobster. The crunchy roll was much more substantial and I think I actually preferred the flavor of that one as well.

There seems to be quite a variance in the size of the rolls. My one gal pal ordered the Poseidon and it was twice the size of any other single rolls. It was more expensive too so perhaps that's why? My other gal pal ordered the blue devil roll which had cooked steak on top. Everyone seemed to love their rolls and I know I'll definitely be going back, probably this weekend if I can haha.

We followed this up with my first trip to Locopops. I tried the chocolate brownie pop and it was fantastic. It was more like a brownie on a stick then a traditional popsicle. It was packed with flavor, creamy and delicious.

Peony Asian Bistro - Patterson Place, Durham

Last night, after a couple of beers at the pool (not mine, oh how I envy the pool), my friend and I went to Peony Asian Bistro for some sushi. They opened a little over a year ago and I had been once right after they opened. The are located close to Kroger and have buy 1 get 1 free sushi rolls. The fancy rolls are not part of this deal. Basically any regular rolls (cucumber, spicy tuna, spider rolls, etc.) are the ones that are buy 1 get 1 free.

We ordered the crab rangoon appetizer to share. It came out quickly and hot! For $3.25, it's hard to beat. There were 6 little crunchy wanton parcels filled with cream cheese, green onions and imitation crab meat. They were served on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce with a sweet/sour dipping sauce. For as simple as it was, it was yummy.

I ordered the spicy tuna roll and the philly roll. The philly roll was 8 pieces filled with cream cheese, salmon, tuna and avocado. It was very tasty. The spicy tuna was better. The spicy mayo was perfect for me and the roll had a crunchy tempura inside which complimented the texture of spicy tuna nicely.

The menu is a peculiar mixture of americanized chinese and sushi. The atmosphere and food aren't up to par with that of Shiki, but hey, it's a strip mall restaurant. I'll certainly be eating there again. Was it the best sushi I've had? Not by a long shot, but for a middle of the week meal, it definitely fit the bill. $7.42 after tax to be exact.

Oh and that buy one get one free deal is good on take-out orders as well!