poached salmon on the grill and cold rice noodle and veggie salad

back in college my friend bryan and i got this great idea. we were going to go on a road trip after graduation. we saved our pennies (well actually bryan saved his pennies and i applied for more credit cards) and stocked up on camping supplies and snacks and off we went for a month out west in bryan's granny car with no cruise control, the phatty buick.

we hit up colorado springs, the grand canyon, las vegas, zion national park, san diego, tijuana, mesa verde, phoenix, and a bunch of other places i am forgetting right now. we spent the trip alternately having a hilariously awesome time and not speaking to each other because we were so sick of each other's shit.

my favorite place we stayed on the trip was at this crazy bed and breakfast slash farm place run by these two very gay guys in nowheresville colorado somewhere. the place was rustic and there were dogs and chickens and turkeys running everywhere, including in and out of the house. we went for drinks at the only bar in town and everyone stared at us. however beer was like $1.50 so we did not care. kind of like the west side.

here i am at the grand canyon. this was back in 2002 so nobody had a digital camera. in fact i am not even sure why i have this photo.

at another point in the trip we were in utah and sick of camping. we decided to get a hotel. well good luck if you are an unmarried guy and girl trying to get a room together in utah. one after another every hotel with a vacancy sign told us they were full. we swore up and down that we were not going to have sex, and in fact, if either one of us touched the other one we would punch them and then throw up, but to no avail.

finally after driving about an hour we realized that we could just tell them that we were married. it worked like a charm. the fact that we wanted separate beds did not even phase them. the next day we went to the local bar for drinks and were told that bars do not serve alcohol on sundays. don't go to utah.

one of our stops on the road trip was at my uncle james's house in santa fe. we loved it there because it was free and spacious and they fed us. james married a french woman a while back and upon tasting foie gras, he who hadn't eaten meat in 20 years took up consuming animal flesh with a vengeance. one night for dinner they made us the most amazing salmon. they had cooked it on the grill in a foil pouch with butter, soy sauce, lemon, and white wine. it was awesome and one of the best salmon dishes i have ever had. i made a mental note at the time to make it when i got home and then promptly forgot.

today i was wondering out loud to my coworkers about what i was going to grill for dinner and kieran said "salmon" and then rickell said "put it in foil on the grill." and then eric who just stopped being a vegetarian like a week ago said "i love eating dead animals." immediately i knew what i was making... uncle james's foil pouch salmon. it came out damn tasty.

poached salmon on the grill

all you do here is get some salmon and marinate it in whatever the hell you want for about 20 minutes. i used approximately equal proportions of fresh lemon juice, soy sauce, and white wine, and i also put in some lemon zest, garlic, and ginger.

get 2 sheets of foil and form one of them into a square bowl shaped thing (flat with edges). put the salmon and sauce in, cover it in some little chunks of butter, and cover the whole thing with the other sheet of foil. crimp all the edges so no steam gets out. throw it on the grill on low heat for about 8-10 minutes. pull it off the grill and let it sit in the pouch for another 10 minutes. open it up and eat.

i think i am going to go eat more of this right now

with this i decided i wanted something light and crunchy and flavorful so i invented the following salad.

liz's fresh and tasty cold rice noodle salad with veggies

8 oz. vietnamese rice sticks
6 oz. (or a package or whatever) sugar snap peas or snow peas
1/2 english cucumber, halved and then sliced thinly, or cut into strips
about 15 baby carrots, roughly julienned (i just wanted to say "julienned")
2 scallions, sliced into little circles
1/2 romaine heart, julienned (again!)
1/4 red cabbage, julienned (ok can you even julienne that?)
1/3 c. san-j thai peanut sauce (or maybe more than that)
1/3 c. seasoned rice vinegar
2 T. cilantro, chopped
2 T. toasted sesame oil
1 T. grated ginger
a few dashes of chili oil
a few dashes of fish sauce
a few squeezes of sriracha

put cucumber, red cabbage, and carrots in a bowl with the rice vinegar. mix and then let sit for about 20 min.

cook the rice sticks according to directions then rinse them in cold water. blanch the snap peas and then rinse them in cold water too.

add all vegetables except lettuce to the bowl. then add rice sticks. add sauces. toss together. add lettuce. toss a little more. sprinkle with cilantro. enjoy.

this was an absolutely delicious light summer meal and eating it brought back all kinds of memories of my trip, such as the time bryan ate a whole plate full of "navajo tacos" at some hole in the wall just to spite me because i thought they tasted like hell and refused to eat them. he then got the shits so bad that he had to take a dump in an outhouse in the middle of monument valley. i laughed my ass off and would have made fun of him except that we were not speaking at the time.

here is bryan on our second road trip in 2007. we were not speaking to each other but i still insisted on taking pictures "to document the journey." clearly he was thrilled.

can you believe that we went on another road trip together 5 years later up route 1 in california? it was a fun trip for a few days, and then in san francisco we got in a huge fight and stopped talking to each other. still, at least i got some good food out of it.