MEGA RECIPE MARATHON!

What a lucky day for you, you guys. Today is MEGA RECIPE MARATHON day! Meaning I will offer much-abbreviated reviews of *6 recipes!* Of course, this is really just an excuse for me to catch up on the many, many recipes I have yet to review without spending all night doing it, but let's pretend I'm doing this for you.

Arctic Char with Orange-Caper Relish. I made it with salmon, because they're basically the same thing. This was refreshing and different, but not amazing. Definitely make sure you supreme the orange, because otherwise the eating of this dish could get pretty messy. Served with an arugula salad dressed as recommended by the menu, but with Greek yogurt in place of mayo. 7/10




Artichoke and Goat Cheese Strata. I made this with skim milk instead of low-fat, wheat bread instead of white, and added ~6 pieces of proscuitto, cut into squarish pieces. The proscuitto made a huge difference...I think the strata would have been a bit bland without it. This was fantastically delicious, but, sadly, not super-satisfying. I had leftovers for lunch and was hungry not long after. Great dish to bring to a potluck brunch though! 8.5/10

Marinated Lamb Chops. I had high hopes for this dish, not least of which was because the chops were freaking expensive! Even with overnight marinating, the lamb was not super flavorful (although it was juicy). Also, it took so long to cook I ended up having to nuke it in the end. But that's probably because I suck at cooking meat. Made with sugar snap peas and sliced red onion dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. Don't bother with this dish: 3/10, max. Sad face!

Okay...I'm actually feeling even lazier than I thought. Let's take a break and revisit the other 3 recipes tomorrow. It's not like you were going to cook all six tonight anyway!

Ping Pong Dim Dum

Ping Pong was pretty much exactly what I expected. It delivered, pretty decently, on being a great, trendy place for a girls' night out.

The service was slow, though gracious, the drink list was long and strong, and the food was solid (though, as anticipated, very Americanized).

To start, we shared a bottle of prosecco (celebrating P and my engagement!), and I ordered the Ping Pong cocktail (yum! but dangerous). We split a bunch of dishes among the six of us, which worked out perfectly--since each dish had 3 pieces we just cut everything in half. Standouts, though nothing blew us away, were the squid (actually, cuttlefish, but the most tender cuttlefish I've ever had it), the char siu buns, which were really stewy and satisfying, pork shumei, and the many sauces that accompanied each dish (one tasted like hoisin and five spice). Sticky rice was eh. The only BIG FAIL was the "Chinese broccoli," which was clearly not Chinese, but standard run-of-the-mill broccoli florets, and undercooked at that.

Also fun--big round tables were great for a group, and there's a shelf under the bench seating for purses and coats.

Good for a group! Probably mediocre for anything else. (x-posted to yelp.com)