The perfect dish to make when you want to impress someone….
On Baubles, Bubbles, and Beautiful things:
Whole-wheat shells with asparagus, feta, and mint
Pappardelle with duck ragu
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Category Archives: Guest Bloggers
Sun-Dried Tomato and Arugula Pizza
Sun-Dried Tomato and Arugula Pizza
Read more about this dish here: Baubles, Bubbles, & Beautiful Things
Guest Blogger: Anne Massey Walter
Aloha,
I recently moved back to Oahu after living in Seattle for 2 ½ years. I met Eric while I was working on my Masters in Nutrition. He inspired me to actually have some cooking skills to match my nutrition knowledge. So, now I am learning to love cooking and while my husband continues to loves to eat. It really works out nicely for both of us.
If you’d like to know more about my serious side you can check out The Fabulous Fridge. If you’d like to learn about my not so serious side you can check out my personal blog: Sparks on My Tongue.
I make no promises of my skills in photography!
Like this:
Guest Blogger: Calina Garcia
Hi folks,
While Eric’s in Copenhagen working at Noma (the world’s best restaurant!), I’ll be keeping you entertained with my amateur cooking attempts. There are no professional chefs in my house, but both my husband (Ed) and I LOVE to cook!
If you’d like to know more about me, Calina, you can check out my personal blog: Baubles, Bubbles, & Beautiful Things. I also contribute to the Seattle PI’s Inside Belltown blog.
Grilled Baby Octopus with Roasted Peppers and Potatoes
IxaRiveraCooks: Restaurant Bodega, Puerto Rico
Ole!
Two weeks ago we went to the town of Guanica, PR. They have a place called La Bodega de Andreu Sole. It is nicely located by the water and the atmosphere is awesome.
The place is located in his house and he has prepared his house patio to received guest from Friday to Sundays. He makes his own wine and also makes artisan liquors (yum).
He doesn’t have any signs outside announcing his place, it is just word of mouth. They serve tapas, his own wine and beer and drinks made out his artisan liquors.
They have very relaxing music and it is a night to just forget about everything and just enjoy what you have. Love the place and Andreu is great. Oh, the grape vines are everywhere in the yard. Love it!
LYA,
Mom
IxaRiveraCooks: Hacienda Luz de Luna (Puerto Rico)
Tonight our friend Janet (my friend from childhood) invited us to dinner at Hacienda Luz de Luna. Wow, what an excellent place. The Hacienda is located in the town of Adjuntas and the owners live in the place.
About a year and a half ago the mom, which she is the hostess and a very lovely lady, came up with the idea to open her house for dinner and special occasions in the Hacienda Luz de Luna and her son Chef Ventura Vivoni Rivera run the place. They only open twice a month on Saturdays and Sundays and you have to reserve well in advance.
The minute you drive into the hacienda you know that the food is going to be good and that you are going to relax and enjoy your surroundings. The menu changes all the time, so you don’t know what you are going to get. If you have allergies or you don’t eat certain kinds of food they will accommodate you, and the surprises are excellent and worth not knowing.
They welcome you with sangria and then the chef’s mother comes and starts talking to you telling you about the place, the food, and makes you feel part of the family; she is very charming and elegant.
Then, she brings the menu and the show starts. One important thing is that since this is in the mountains you can’t get cell phones signals in there. It doesn’t matter what cell phone company you have; NO CELL PHONES 
I just love it. The service consist of 10 plates of food with dessert and of course coffee or tea. They have wine, no beer or sodas. They have fresh juice. The ambiance is amazing, the food is amazing and Chef Vivoni, his family, and his staff are amazing.
When Chef Vivoni comes out with the plates he takes the time to explain how he put together the plate and were he got his ingredients from. He has spices from all over the world and also fruits and herbs that they grow in the Hacienda. After the meal you get a tour of the Hacienda including the house.
We came home all happy and ready to make reservations again very soon. We loved how warm and personable they were and how excellent the food was. When you come to PR we will definitely take you over there. Oh, the mom has a book where you can write your thoughts about the place. I read some of the comments in the book and all of them were excellent. We were in there three hours and every minute was enjoyable.
LYA,
Mom
Ixa
IxaRiveraCooks: Lunch, Gazebo, and The Scary Dog
Hello kids!
Here are some pictures of our lunch today. Our menu consisted of very traditional Puerto Rican cuisine, white rice, bistec, green beans (sorry they are not fresh), green bananas tostones, quenepas (fruit) and macarrons from the local bakery. The tostones are fresh from my garden to the dinner table. In the bistec I added some fresh green peppers and aji dulce from my garden. The fruit quenepas were given to us from a friend.
I made the hot pique a while ago, but everything is from my garden except the garlic. The macarrons are fresh from the local bakery. Sorry you were not here for lunch, but Dad and our friend Lourdesita enjoyed the lunch. What’s for dinner, nothing!
The other pictures as you can see is the final product of the gazebo. I should call it Dad’s place. He enjoys spending time listening to music and drinking wine.
Martita as you can see discovered all the glass closet mirrors. She loves to look at herself in the mirror and also likes to watch television. What can I say, she is beautiful.
Enjoy the pictures!
LYA,
Mom
Ixa
Like this:
KennyBenchTravels: Food in Vietnam- Diep Ca, Ot, and Trung Muoi
Eric,
Sorry for the long hiatus. So to make up for the long absence I thought to include 3 new edibles.
The first is a vegetable. It took Lam and I a while to figure out what the name was and we were more confused once we found out. The name of the vegetable is “Diep Ca” which directly translates to “Mint Fish”. It’s named this because the smell resembles fish, which I didn’t get and I’m not one to argue. The leaf is firm and when folded too far will snap. The flavor has a very strong sour taste and is slightly lemony with a slightly bitter aftertaste. They use this leaf a lot of fresh rolls and they also pulverize it to make healthy vegetable juices.
The second edible is the Vietnamese Chili which is called “Ot”. These come in 2 varieties, red and green. You find these absolutely everywhere and they are used in a ton of dishes. They are used as a cooking ingredient as well as just eaten as is. Almost every restaurant will have these readily available in the fresh variety or they will provide a mushy version which they take chilies with some vegetable oil, blend it then cook slightly that you scoop with a spoon to add some spice.
Now to break the myth surrounding the “1000 Year Eggs”. In Vietnam they call them “Trung Muoi” which is just “Salted Egg” and they don’t take 1000 years to make….but they do take about 1/2 a year. The process is you take a duck egg and soak it in very salty water for 1 month. After that you cover the egg in either a special saw dust or mud from a certain region of Vietnam.
After that you let them sit for several months. The albumen of the egg gelatinizes and with the saw dust version takes on a brownish/yellow tint while the mud version becomes quite dark. When they are ready you clean off the egg and boil it and eat it like normal. Usually these are used in pork dishes. We were able to open one of the yellow ones to take a look inside, but the mud ones I guess are too runny to open. Mmmm…doesn’t that sound delicious.
I’ll try to send more soon…there are still more things left to see.
Kenny
Thanks Kenny!!!
Eric
IxaRiveraCooks: Barceloneta, Camuy, and Hatillo in Puerto Rico.
Hello kids!
Yesterday we went with our good friends to the factory outlets in Barceloneta which is located in the north part of the island. We had a great time eventhough it was pouring down rain. A small storm is hanging over the island, but that didn’t stop the four of us for having a great time.
We stayed overnight in Hatillo which is a small and cute town on the north side of the island. Hatillo is the town were they have the mascaras festival.
The next morning after breakfast we headed to the next town over, Camuy. Camuy is where they have the beautiful caverns. Our friends took us to a place to eat empanadillas, fish skewers and fresh fish.
The name of the place is Villa Pesquera. It is located by the beach and you can also buy fresh fish, and other types of seafood. We had Marlin skewers with tostones and also sweet plantains, empanadillas de chapin, a good sampler of octupus salad and I had fried fish.
I picked the fish that I wanted and they fixed it for me. I saw a lot of people in there coming and buying fresh fish and while waiting they had an empanadilla with beer or a refreshment.
The place is very clean and the owners are very friendly. I will take you guys when you come next time. In the mean time, just look at the pictures……….they last longer.
Oh, I forgot the flamingo lives there by himself. He has been there for years and people just enjoy visiting him, but not disturbing him at all. Flamingoes are not from Puerto Rico. Wow!
LYA,
Mom
Ixa
IxaRiveraCooks: Field Trip wth Grandma
My grandma likes pirates….I do to…..so my parents took her on a little field trip. Take it away mom!
Hello kids;
Here are some pictures of Grandma’s field trip to La Guarida del Pirata in Aguadilla, PR. It was a beautiful day and the place was gorgeous.
You can see grandma smiling, Dad having fun and of course me always having fun. Oh, I forgot, Martita Chin came with us. In these place they had a replica of when Columbus discovered Puerto Rico and also about the place the piratas of the Caribbean hid and guarded their treasures (jewels , oh by the way I bought a new boat as you can see and it comes with Christopher Columbus.
Also I took a picture of the iguana that was roaming around. No me gustan las iguanas.
Eric the picture of the super bacalaitos are for you to enjoy, so as the picture of the piraguas (Angelie that one is for you). As you all can see from the picture of the super bacalaito a family of five can eat from one. With the economy being so bad, we puertorricans are very intelligent by buying one super bacalaito to share with the family. You learn two lessons, share and economy.
Also you can see how beautiful my orchids in La Parguera are. They are small orchids, but I make them big, not with fertilizer, just with the zoom in my camera.
Enjoy! LYA,
Mom
Ixa
KennyBenchTravels: Ambarella in Vietnam
Kenny is back again this week with another really interesting piece of fruit, ambarella. Take it away Kenny!
Eric,Here’s some photos of Ambarella. It’s a strange fruit that you eat when it is still very firm and crunchy. It has a very light sweet flavor and you eat it with some chili salt.
The interesting thing about this fruit is that you don’t really cut it, you kind of break it. What I mean is that after you wash it you take a knife and make vertical cuts into the fruit. Once you make several vertical cuts you put the knife into the fruit and twist it so that it breaks a section of the fruit off. The reason for this is because of the seed.
The seed is very spiny and looks kind of like a sea urchin with all its spikes. They hold the fruit firmly in place so you can’t cut it, thus the breaking method. The first time I ate this my Vietnamese friends gave me the seed which still had some fruit on it. I quickly tossed it into my mouth and bit down, which instantly caused me tons of pain and cut the inside of my mouth. Biter Beware.More to come…Kenny
KennyBenchTravels: Dragon Fruit in Vietnam
Kenny is back again with more fruit from Vietnam. I love his posts and once again, thanks for coming to the dark side!! Take it away Kenny!
Here is a fruit that many people have probably seen, but when I first started to travel through Vietnam was completely new to me. The sheer stark contrast of the inside versus the outside and the vibrance just under the skin was amazing.
When I took photos of the fruit it might look over-saturated in color but this is really how the fruit looks. If anything I have had to tone down the saturation just because the inside of the skin is like disco neon pink.
The plant grows like a cactus. It’s not a very tall plant but when it initially grows is soft like a cactus but as it matures hardens and becomes more tree like but still not very tall. Most of these are grown in the southern part of Vietnam where the temperature is more consistently hot and humid year round.
People eat it as is, just cut grab a spoon and scoop, or you can slice it and put it on ice with a little sugar or some yoghurt. The texture of the fruit is very close to a kiwi just before it becomes fully ripe. So a little firm but gives away when you eat it. If you get one that isn’t quite ripe, then there is really no flavor. When the fruit is ripe then it is a a little sweet with a sour initial flavor and with a very slight earthy flavor. Oh and you just eat the seeds, so no spitting these ones.
I’ll show you a fruit next that has a seed you definitely want to avoid.
Kenny.
KennyBenchTravels: Fruits in Vietnam
My friend Kenny has been in Vietnam for quite sometime now and I have been begging him to take pictures of food related items for about a year now. Finally, he has agreed to come to the dark side! He’s funny as hell and he takes amazing pictures…..perfect fit for this blog!
He has had his work published on www.activeasiavn.com (click) and a few other sites too so it’s a huge honor for me to have him on here. I don’t exactly know what he’s going to send me so we’re all in for a surprise! Welcome Kenny!!!!!
Eric,Yo, so here’s the first couple photos of a fruit in Vietnam. I’ll keep processing the rest and send them over. I’ll start with a slightly mundane fruit and move towards the bizarre.
The name of the fruit is: Longan. This fruit has to be along the family lines of lychee. The outside of the fruit is a dry brown shell. You open it by digging your nail into it and the shell just kind of cracks open. The inside of the fruit is this slightly translucent meat which you can see the big black seed in the middle. The fruit has a similar taste to lychee which I describe as a grape cantaloupe spinoff. Texture is similar to lychee or a firm concord grape. It’s really sweet….and the seeds are a good size so you can really get some distance once you’re done cleaning it off.
This is one of the more normal ones, it gets better from here and get’s even as bizarre as some photos I have a fruit which I don’t know the english name yet, but it looks like you cut open someone’s chest and revealed 12 bloody hearts imbedded. Very sci-fi.
Some of these fruits have interesting points…some just look bizarre. Also here is a picture of a general wet market in Vietnam.
Kenny
Thanks Kenny!!!!! Can’t wait to see what else you’re up to/eating!
Eric
IxaRiveraCooks: Churrasco Salad and the always scary Martita Chin
Yes, I know…..you think the dog is cute….I think it’s scary. Take it away mom!
Hello boy!
How was your day? Here are some pictures of what I cooked today Sunday. All the herbs of course are from my garden. I made churrascos yesterday and from the lefovers I made this pasta dish. It was delicious. Dad like always loves everytime I cook for him, so that’s very easy because he loves anything you set him on the plate. I added a vinagrette to the dish when I was stirring it.
Hera are also some pictures of Martita Chin takin an inventory of some of my jewels. She is the sole heiress of my jewels (sorry).
You can also see Dad taking Martita Chin in a tour through the indegenous park in Ponce.
That’s the same park abuelito took you and Angelie one time. Oh, look at the achiote tree. Also there is a picture of how the gazebo in our backyard is coming along. Wait until it is completely done, it is going to look beautiful.
My love to you and Mindy.
Ixa
IxaRiveraCooks: The Martita Chin Chronicles
Hello readers of ericriveracooks.com,
My name is Martita Chin. Yes, I know, I am beautiful….no need to stare. Don’t be fooled by my good looks, I will destroy you….yes, you, your family and all that is good, bad, happy, sad, well everything.
I have hacked Eric’s blog to show his dog Blue that I am not afraid of the water like he is. They say that Border Collie’s are the smartest dogs in the world but I bet you he never thought about an inflatable raft. Where is your critical thinking now Mr. Blue???? Yes, laugh at the pink lei around my neck but I’ll be laughing harder when you’re on shore and I’m going to hang out in Puerto Rico with Ixa in the ocean.
Are you laughing now Mr. Blue???? I didn’t think so…. How is the weather in Washington? Stormy you say??? Interesting…..
Martita Chin
