Pre-Dance Meal

My coworker Jimmy/Dan is starting a new club/event on 2nd Saturday's of the month at Catalyst Cocktails called "Now Hear This" which advertises "Forgotten Favorites" and "Rare B Sides." Oh, and lies. Wait, that was my contribution. Anyways, you can go to the above link to check out set lists and streams of said sets. So Saturday was a super cook off of Beef Shanks but we'll save that for another posting. I invited other co-worker Chris over for a pre-club/dance meal. Chris being a vegetarian...
















The left one is just carrots, celery, bamboo shoots, (mung) bean sprouts, with vegetable stock and starch sauce. The right one (Chris claims to not like mushrooms so I made these on the side, the right side) is shitake mushrooms with black wood ears. The sauce is hoison, water, and sugar. There was supposed to be some sesame oil in it but I forgot.
















Chris is my #1 patron of banana nut bread but today I did something different. This is Plum Bread. The toppings are sliced plums, chopped almonds, and cinnamon. It's made just like Banana Nut bread but I used 3 plums (blended) instead of 3 bananas and almonds instead of walnuts or pecans. I also used an additional 2 plums to layer the slices on the top as well as putting some bigger chunks in the mix which turned out to be a good idea. You can see one on the side in the picture. Every plum was greeted by a hearty "MMMM!!!" by Chris. Eating it warm also helps.