I guess this is Japanese?

It's interesting how there are so many ingredients in Japan that I have yet to sample, many of which are available in the US. I find myself eating new ingredients and foods from Japan for the first time in the US...

At Bobby and Margaret's dinner party, I encountered yet another foreign Japanese ingredient - murasaki imo, literally translated to its English name, the purple potato, aka Hawaiian or Okinawa potato. Although Okinawans also eat this purple potato, my quick look through Japanese websites suggest that it is enjoyed else where as well...


Fellow party-goer, Larry, brought along a clipping about the potato from Sunset magazine, which gave me some background. I did a little bit of Googling and found that the Japanese even make vinegar out of it. I wonder if I would be able to find purple potato shochu/soju... That would make for a festive drink!

The potato itself was very reminiscent of other sweet potatoes. The flesh was tender and soft without being too starchy. There was a subtle roasted scent to the meat itself, which I believe is inherent in the potato instead of the cooking method. The sweetness was very natural and not at all overwhelming.

Apparently, there are many different varieties of purple potatoes and the lighter colored ones tend to fall apart too easily for most cooking methods, while the lighter colored ones are more suited for most potato applications; the dark ones will give a nice red color to rice if cooked alongside rice, according to the Japanese government.

I'll have to experiment some more with this intriguing new find!

Bobby's Beef

I'm a very shy person. Really. When I first started hanging out with the Mogurin in college, one of his friends said to him, "Alice?! She's the most unfriendly girl in school!" or something in that line. I've since become a little bit more social, but down deep, I'm still a shy person.

So, it was with some timidness that I ventured over to Bobby and Margaret's house. I was a house guest there, although I had never met Bobby nor Margaret. How did this happen?

You see, the Papa Bear always talks like he has friends, but I had yet to see any evidence that he had any. There are a few names I hear over and over - Mike, Bobby, Dean, and a few others - but through the three years or so I've known him, I'd only met Mike. I figured Mike was real and the rest must be imaginary friends a lonely bear created for himself, just like the Pooh Bear...

But it wasn't true! The Papa Bear really do have friends! And Bobby and Margaret are real! And they cooked a tremendous pre-Thanksgiving meal a couple weekends ago and shared the meal with some friends.

One of the most memorable dishes from that dinner is ready to become a staple at our parties and potluck attendances. We call this dish "Bobby's Beef" for a lack of better titles - I'm actually surprised that the Papa Bear hasn't made one of his dirty comments about the name we've chosen.


Oh gosh, now I can't really talk about Bobby's Beef, because I'm too self-conscious! It was delicious. That's all I can muster up now! Thanks a lot, Papa Bear! Maybe I'll just wait for Margaret to describe how good this dish really is...

Bobby told me that the secret is in marinating whatever cut of steaks (NY strip, ribeye, etc) in Italian dressing for FOUR days and then grilling the steaks on a open flame. Tender, moist, succulent, and full of flavor, all the guests instantly fell in love with this dish.

We attempted to recreate it at the Post-Thanksgiving dinner at our place on Saturday with mixed results. The Papa Bear's Beef was flavorful enough but it was... just not as good. More practice needed - that's for sure!

Hats off to Dylan!

A fellow food blogger has taken his passion to a whole new level - cooking in a kitchen as a second job! Yes, that's in addition to his full time position as an Art Director in the advertisement industry. We writes about his first weekend in the kitchen, concluding with the most memorable sentences I've read in a long, long time, "And all of a sudden, I felt alive again. Completely alive."

As I go back to work with my feet heavy and my mind unfocused, Dylan's sharp contrast to how I feel left me wondering... Is there something else out there for me that would remind me of how it feels to live with passion?

My Favorite Spots-Updated 12/14/05

After a fabulously delicious meal at Anzu in SF, I updated the Sushi section of this list. I also added a Sake section as well, judged on selection and variety, cost performance, and knowledge of the staff.

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Since a number of people have emailed me asking for my recommendations or favorite dining spots, I've compiled a list of places I like for the types of food I feel qualified to recommend. This is my very, very subjective preference, reflecting how I feel about these places at this very moment. I promise to update this regularly and make it available as a side-bar link. Please use the Google Search box on the side-bar to find individual posts about these restaurants.

Sushi:
KING:Sushi Yoshi (Newark)

Runner-up:
Anzu (SF, ONLY at the counter)

Honorable Mention:
Yuzu (San Mateo)
Ino Sushi (SF)

Ramen:
KING:Himawari (San Mateo)

Runner-up:
Dohenkotsu (San Jose)

Honorable Mention:
Ramen Halu (San Jose)
Gen Ramen (because we have a history...; Fremont)

Izakaya:
KING:Gochi (Cupertino)

Co-Runner-ups:
Saizo (Sunnyvale)
Yumeya (Sunnyvale)

Honorable Mention:
Tanto-Saratoga (San Jose)

Pho+?:
co-KINGS: Beef Noodle #1 (San Jose) & Pho+? Ao Sen (Oakland)

Runner-up:
Pho+? Y (San Jose)

Honorable Mention:
Turtle Tower (SF)

Sake:
KING:Kiss Seafood (SF)

Runner-up:
Saizo (Sunnyvale)

Honorable Mention:
Yuzu (San Mateo)
Gochi (Cupertino)

The Best Recycled Turkey - Ramen

I had a belated Thanksgiving meal last night (Saturday) with some friends at my place. It was a pretty eclectic menu, consisting of a roast turkey with basil-cilantro-garlic shoved under the skin (best way to get the flavors into the bird!), brown and wild rice stuffing with raisins and a variety of Asian mushrooms, soymilk turkey broth gravy, pumpkin Israeli couscous, soy milk mashed potatoes, and pomegranate molasses carrots. Appetizers were sliced grilled steak that the Papa Bear and I call 'Bobby's Beef'(more on this on later this week) and home-shucked Kumamoto oysters with homemade daikon gratings and ponzu sauce. Heh, not your typical Thanksgiving meal, but the spirit was definitely there...


Surprisingly, we didn't end up with a whole lot of leftovers besides the turkey carcass. But the bird carcass is actually my favorite part of cooking an entire animal. I am too much of a cheap-o to make stock with an entire bird, but a carcass with most of its meat picked off? Perfect. I take this as my special opportunity to create delicious broth by cooking the leftover body for hours on end. I had a few left over beef bones as well, so I threw those into the soup to add some more iosine monophosphate umami into the mix to counter act the predominantly glutamate-powered broth.



I usually turn this bird broth into risotto or some other Western dish, but as I was dancing around the kitchen celebrating the fragrant turkey aroma my broth was emitting, the Papa Bear came downstairs (our rooms are upstairs) to see if I wanted to go out for pho+?. As I was still in my PJs and planned to stay in my PJs for most of the day today, I suggested that I make turkey-pho for us instead. To this, he asked me if we had any pho noodles at home...which we didn't have. So I quickly replaced my suggestion with ramen. The broth I had made was so rich and so deeply complex with cilantro, basil, garlic, and some left over rice stuffing floating around, I was certain it would rival most ramen broths in the Bay Area. We agreed that ramen for lunch sounded good, so I decided to do a little experiment.


As most ramen fans know, most stores have a big pot of stock that has no seasoning in it, and ramen soup is made from stock and seasoning individually in each bowl. What that meant was that I could try a few different combinations of seasoning to go with my rich turkey broth. I assembled a simple old-school shoyu broth (extra-strong bonito broth with soy sauce), a tomato-powered salt broth (because tomatoes have the same molecular umami composition as bonito broth and soy sauce), and nuoc mam (Vietnamese fish sauce) with counter-balancing ginger.


I added just enough turkey stock to the three seasonings to create a trinity of choices. Each of them was so individually different, I was totally amazed. Utterly taken back. I mean, theoretically, of course all three soups ought to taste different, but boy, this was an unique experience. All three of them had the same background flavor of that almost gamey turkey smell, but the top note - the first taste - was so drastically different. The shoyu was buttery and powerful in a delightful way, the tomato-salt was gentle and nourishing, and the nouc mam... that just didn't work. The nuoc mam-ginger was just too edgy and harsh; it didn't envelope the stock to bring anything out of it.


The Papa Bear was immediately smitten with the shoyu while I preferred the tomato-salt (which is to be expected, since the Papa Bear likes rich ramen, while I gravitate towards the lighter, delicate ramen broth). Once the soup seasoning was decided upon, I made more of the seasoning we liked (the first batch was tester-sizes), prepared some boiled eggs for toppings, cooked up some frozen, ex-'fresh' ramen noodles (did you know that if you freeze 'fresh' noodles, they get chewier?), and voila - shoyu and shio ramen was created from our Thanksgiving leftovers! What was also very amazing was that this dish, even though there wasn't a piece of turkey meat in the end, was very deserving of being called 'turkey ramen'. The broth mingled beautifully with the noodles, such that each bite was full of turkey essence and fragrance. I will definitely do this again next year!

PS:
The Papa Bear preferred my seasoning over the store-bought packaged seasoning...

Izakaya S&T: Tempura Finish!

Wow, it's been a few days since I updated this blog! I spent much of this four-day weekend being totally unproductive aside from a few hours a day I worked both Thursday and Friday. I had plans to go into San Francisco or to Berkeley and do some Japanese-grocery shopping in San Jose, but for some odd reason, the day was over before I could do any of them. Alas, I feel rested and relaxed, and perhaps that's what's most important...


It's a good thing the tempura at Izakaya S&T was so memorable! I can still smell the fragrant oil and taste the crunchy batter as I recall my last course at Izakaya S&T. The tempura was fried just as we were concluding our oden course and served while the batter still sizzled. Unlike my failed tempura attempt, these golden shrimp were crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside.


The oil dripped happily in perfect unison together with the shrimp juices. I had almost how succulent shrimp tempura can be until I had these. They were vastly different from the chewy, stringy tempura shirmp I've come to expect at most restaurants.


Supplemented by shiso-tempura (battered and fried only on one side), the tempura course was a delicious finish to a fabulous meal. As a final treat, we concluded the meal with a ten-don (tempura donburi - 'donburi' being dishes with goodies served over rice). Ten-don is a specialty of the house, in which the shrimp tempura rests on a layered bed of rice and tempura-bits (ten-kasu). This creates a mouth-feel full of crunch with every bite, even when the tempura-sauce is poured over the shrimp.

Izakaya S&T, Gochiso-sama! May I be so lucky as to visit this place again sometime soon!!

Izakaya S&T: the Ultimate Winter Treat

Although the weather here has been uncharacteristically warm, even for CA standards, November still conjures up images of winter (at least to those of us who grew up with four distinct seasons). Additionally, because seasonality plays a critical role in Japanese cuisine, constructing an omakase menu without a sense of season is just not Japanese enough. So, it was only natural that the middle course at Izakaya S&T was the quitessential Japanese winter treat: oden.


Oden is the Japanese drunkard's best friend. Oyaji, the tired middle-aged men, often found weaving the streets of Japan drunk off their butts with their neckties around their foreheads as bandanas and a take-out order of sushi for their family - which inevitably never gets eaten because they get home way after the family has gone to bed already, love oden with their sake on a cold winter night. Although I am not an oyaji myself, I have rather oyaji-like preferences, as evident by my love for the neba-neba foods. Neba-neba is the sound of being sticky in Japanese - our language has a sound for everything, even for the clouds just hanging out in the sky...

Anyway... back to the oden, the oyaji's winter best friend. Oden is a soupy, stewy dish, but one in which the goodies in the broth play an equally large role as the soup itself. I'd almost call it a Japanese bouillabaisse, because bouillabaisses are in between stew and soup in a very similar way with a focus on seafood ingredients.

Oden is made with a bonito and/or seaweed-based broth to which fish cakes and balls of fish (ha!) are slow cooked along with boiled eggs and konyaku, the firm jello-like potato cakes that are believed to be negative-calorie foods (they require more calories to digest than they offer). The flavors from the fish cakes blends with the flavors of the soup and combined, the dish becomes a perfect union of broth and goodies inside the soup. Loved by all oyaji and imitation oyaji, oden nourishes the tired spirit with its gentle warmth...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - have a happy Thanksgiving to all those who are celebrating - looks like I'll be heading to work in my never-ending quest to determine why nothing is working in the Lab...

Izakaya S&T: Appetizers

It might sound strange that I am talking about 'appetizers' in an izakaya setting, but since Izakaya S&T is actually more like part-izakaya, part-ryotei (a full-fledge dining establishment), my meal at Izakaya S&T definitely had a sequence of events during my gastronomic adventure.

We were greeted with the chamame as soon as we sat at the table as an opener. The appetizers soon followed, which really kicked off the meal by awakening our epicurean senses.

First came an interesting twist on the 'morokyu' theme, in which moromi-miso ('moro') is usually paired with cucumbers ('kyu'). At Izakaya S&T, the miso was not the average moromi-miso, but was the 'ninniku-miso' or garlic miso. Thinly sliced garlic was marinated in a semi-sweet savory miso, giving a periodic garlic-y kick to the rich condensed umami of the miso. The cucumber crunch provided texture and refreshing vegetable juices with each bite.



Then, came the clam saka-mushi ("sake-steamed"). I couldn't get enough of this, especially since I am a big mollusk lover.


Not a grain of sand in this preparation! The carrots were decoratively sliced, acting as a dash of color as well as a sweet contrast to the savory broth. The broth was simply divine, after absorbing the briny clam juices into its sake backbone. The clams were tender and soft, cooked to the perfect timing of done-ness. Because this dish was light without any added oil, it acted as the perfect appetizer that made me even more hungry afterwards. I literally licked my fingers, waiting for more deliciousness once I finished these clams...

This delicious feast continued for two more delicious 'courses'...

Izakaya S&T: Exotic Edamame - Chamame

I ate some of the best Japanese food I've had in a long, long time on Friday night. And sorry, I can't give out addresses or phone numbers to this mysterious Izakaya in San Jose, since it's in a private residence... But boy, those lucky few who get to dine there, this is the best izakaya experience once can find... This week will be all about the delicious treats I had this Friday evening at Izakaya S&T.

My Kick-off post sets the stage for how the food at this izakaya goes one step beyond the typical. Even the edamame here was exotic - an heirloom variety I have never had before called 'Cha-mame' or 'Brown peas'.


Although I had forgotten about this one Oishinbo episode for a long, long time, as I was doing some research of this mysterious chamame for this post, I remembered an episode about how an old beer hall manager was about too get fired for serving his VIP client rotten edamame. The protagonist, Yamaoka-san, saves the day by rudely interjecting that the VIP doesn't deserve to eat the brown edamame peas, since the sincerity of the beer hall manager would be wasted on the VIP. It turns out that the edamame was actually the rare and precious chamame. Yes, that's right! The same chamame I had on Friday!

I'm so bummed that I didn't think to check if the chamame actually had brown peas, since I eat my edamame savagely by popping the peas right into my mouth. I've since discovered that it is not the peas themselves but the thin skin covering the seeds that is brown in chamame. Next time, I will make sure to eat my edamame the polite and civilized way - popping the peas out onto a plate, then picking up individual peas via chopsticks...

Although the texture is the same between regular edamame and chamame, the flavors are nothing alike. Chamame have a distinct nuttiness that is lacking in regular edamame as well as a subtle sweetness in the backdrop. As the nutty scent traveled through my nasal cavity with each bite, the fresh, greeness of edamame spread in my mouth. This surely was nothing like any other edamame I have ever had!

I've got a whole lot more exciting dishes to report this week, all with the same spirit of going 'one-step further', so stay tuned!

Gooey Sticky Number 3: Mekabu

Since I've already featured okra and natto, it's pretty clear that I am a fan of the savory goo. The sticky texture is so very pleasurable for me, and I love the feeling of slimy goo coating my mouth with each bite. There are three other gooey, sticky things I love. I'll tell you one of them today, and let's see if any of you can guess what the other savory gooey things I love are!

As a fan of the goo, I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that I learned about how delicious mekabu is only recently. Although I'd known about mekabu, I'd never tried it in its pure form - straight up gunkan-style.


I've been stopping by Sushi Yoshi in Newark fairly regularly on a semi-weekly basis these days, partly because I am so hooked on this mekabu gunkan-maki (battleship roll, named after its resemblance to a battleship).

Mekabu, a specific part of a type of seaweed, is not only sticky but also it has a wonderful chewiness to it. The scent of the ocean is condensed into its meat, releasing aromatic brine with each bite. Set against a backdrop of vinegared sushi rice and fragrant toasted nori, mekabu works perfectly to bring a fresh breeze from the ocean in the middle of Silicon Valley.

At Sushi Yoshi, mekabu appears in gunkan-maki alongside various partners who also contribute goo. The one pictured has okra with it. I've also had it with yamaimo. Both okra and yamaimo provide a new texture to mekabu that would otherwise lack the crunch while complimenting each other with more goo. As my mouth fills with slime, I am reminded of how unique the ingredient is and the simple method of preparation brings out a whole new realm of deliciousness. I'm not sure if other cultures appreciate this natural slime, but the Japanese (well, some of us) have cultivated goo as a distinct culinary pleasure. Interestingly, all of the slime I love come from plants, whether they are beans, vegetables, or seaweed...

And boy, do I love those lusciously slimy plants!

PS:There is a hint in this post as to what one of the other savory sticky gooey is!

Not risotto this time: Chao Vit (Duck Porridge)

I've heard the Bear Cubs and the Papa Bear talk about 'chao vit' or 'duck porridge' here and there for quite a while now. Although it seemed to be a Vietnamese breakfast/lunch dish, I really knew nothing about it until this weekend. What I had in mind was more like a Far-East Asian porridge of rice in soup with maybe some pieces of duck floating about... So, imagine my surprise when I got this:


A bowl of porridge and a plate of duck! This is more like 'vit va chao' (duck and porridge) rather than 'chao vit' (duck porridge - the adjective comes after the noun in Vietnamese). The duck plate wasn't a wimpy serving either - it was easily a quarter of a duck per person - skin, bone, meat and all.


The duck was succulent and juicy, although I prefer the skin to be crispy on the outside rather than soft all around. The simplicity of the preparation reminded me of ban-ban-ji (oh, Shan, when you come back from Davis, you'll have to help me edit how to spell this), the Chinese chicken dish of steamed chicken with sesame paste sauce. Surprisingly for such a simple steamed dish, I didn't notice any of the gamey smell that can be associated with duck. My first thought was that the duck must've been steamed in sake with ginger - but that would be too Japanese and not Vietnamese enough. Honestly, I have no idea how they managed to deliver delicately delicious flavors of a bird condensed without being gamey or stinky.

The porride was also nothing like what I had gotten used to having when I have 'porridge'. The rice grains maintained its texture and strength throughout the dining experience - it didn't get all mushy and gushy like the porridges I've had before (including at this 'porridge' place in Milpitas that the Papa Bear preactically begged me to go - it was so bad I complained about it for days afterwards!). The amazing thing is that the grains maintained an almost couscous-like texture while absorbing the duck-powered broth nicely. The broth was flavorful without being heavy and delicate without being weak - indeed a very Asian soup. Despite the broth being supplemented with rice for more substance, it didn't deviate from the 'delicately delicious'-theme of Asian cuisine, particularly highlighted by this duck porridge, that leave you wanting just a few more bites...

Location note:
My duck porridge was from the only duck porridge place in the food court at the Grand Century Mall in San Jose. They have a free-standing store outside of the mall as well, but rumor has it that the one in the food court is better than the free-standing restaurant. The Papa Bear says that duck porridge isn't that unusual and is frequently found in many Vietnamese restaurants, but that this one at the Mall is the good one, favored by his family.

My Funny Breakfast

For the past few weeks, I've had the same thing for breakfast. And it's something not typically eaten for the first meal of the day. I wonder if there is anyone else in the world who eats this for breakfast...

Can you guess what I might be eating?


Yup, it's naeng myun (or neng myun, depending on who's spelling it). And no, I don't put any toppings on it aside from the sliced hot peppers. I add vinegar to the broth, chop some peppers, and slurp, slurp, slurp to happiness.

While naeng myun usually comes with all sorts of trimmings, I prefer mine simple in the spirit of Japanese 'kake-soba'. Kake-soba, which literally translates to 'poured-over noodles', is the simplest form of noodles served - noodles in broth with no toppings to deviate from the broth and the noodles. The simplicity seems rather typically Japanese to me, and despite all my Americanization, I must be truly Japanese in culinary taste because I love my kake-naeng myun! The fact that I prefer naeng myun over soba as my kake-noodle must be my Americanized, multicultural influence.

Guess what I am having for breakfast this morning?! Yup, that's right! Kake-naeng myun!

Can this be true- East Bay Dim Sum?!

I always say that I live in a culinary desert, but is it really true? Once in a while, I am reminded that my assertions are not necessarily right. Tri-Valley Seafood Restaurant was one of those surprising and happy discoveries.


We had dim sum there this past weekend, and I have to say, this place rivals ABC or any of the other semi-exciting South Bay dim sum spots. Semi-exciting is key, and for exciting dim sum spots, check out my post here!

Surprisingly, the dim sum at the Tri-Valley Seafood Restaurant in the 'culinary desert of the Far-East Bay' was delicious. Everything about it was satisfactory with the blunt yet friendly service I've come to expect at dim sum joints, reminding me that the Far-East Bay wasn't too far from the South Bay. The seafood was fresh, the dumplings turned over quickly, and although variety was limited (no chicken feet!) and I actually had to write down my order to get all of my favorite dishes (I can't speak Chinese, but I can write Japanese enough to find a common ground) - like the ubiquitous tofu-skin roll you see in the picture here, everything that landed on our table was genuinely tasty.

Although nothing really stood out as being spectacular, nothing really stood out as being bad. As surprisng as this might sound, this is a high praise for the area I live and especially for a dim sum place, this is no easy feat. I am very happy to see that there is a stable dim sum spot just a few minutes away from my house. ...or do you think it's just that my standards are 'laxing?!

Cooking for Scientists

I've always said - never trust a scientist who cannot cook. The processes involved in the lab and in the kitchen are so amazingly similar, it's difficult to fathom that someone who is adept at one cannot do the other. Of course, interest, exposure, and practice are key to both experimental science and cooking, but those scientists who say they love to eat, yet claim no skills in the kitchen - I'm not so sure about them. For example, take my friends, Anne and Jutta - both are excellent scientists who are very skilled cooks.

My beloved scientist-boss had us over for a party this past Saturday night, and boy, was it full of epicurean debauchery to prove my point! She had created a gorgeous buffet of delicious offerings - veggie and chicken enchiladas and poached salmon with a bean & corn relish. She also served crab cakes that were really made out of crab (unlike many restaurant versions that are more like bread crumb cakes with a dash of crab). Everything was spectacular, so much so that my friend's wife was genuinely surprised by how my boss manages everything from her high-powered lab leadership position to producing delicious, healthy meals. The veggie enchiladas had a strong flavorful mushroom scent to them and the texture contrast of the cheese filling and the full-bodied mushrooms was absolutely delicious. With my appetite, I'm sure it's not difficult to imagine how I was the last one to finish eating and how I had seconds of each dish...


The evening showcased one of the greatest thing about the lab I work in now - how international our group is. We've got Chinese, Japanese, Australian, German citizens in the generally foreign-unfriendly environment of the Big Lab. In addition, we had fellow scientists from Norway and Belgium. Jutta brought a little bit of German spirit to the party with her delicate German Black Forest Chocolate Cake. The balance of cream, sugar, and the fruity sourness of the cherries highlighted her skills as baker!


We also had a Belgian beer tasting as the entertainment for the evening!


To contribute a little taste of Japan, I made some modified California rolls with canned crab in avocado-wasabi-mayonnaise and cucumber slices. I figured out that making the inside-out rolls with rice on the outside wasn't so difficult, so I made a bunch of black and white rolls. Luckily, one of the Bear Cubs and Anne was on hand to help me with the rolling!

The evening was absolutely wonderful and the perfect way to spend a Saturday night after a rather stressful week. I was so very stressed out on Friday night that I had one of my worst cases of road rage... Poor Anne, who was a prisoner in my car, now joins the exclusive membership of people who live to tell stories of why not to catch me when I am stressed out... But now, I'm rejuvenated and ready to take on the new work week! Oh, please, please, please, let my experiments work this week!!!

PS:
Yeh, the title of this post is a knock-off of Cooking for Engineers...

This is not tempura

Well, my first attempt at crispy, tasty tempura at home didn't quite go as planned... I think deviated too much from the original recipe on this one...

I knew that the trick to crispy & tasty tempura was the drastic temperature difference between the batter and the oil, so I used ice water to thin my egg (1:6 ratio of egg to water), and added 2 cups of flour. My mistake was that I didn't follow the recipe exactly here - I forgot that the US cup was approximately 20% larger than the Japanese cup and I was following a Japanese recipe... Sniff. I also thought I'd be 'healthy' (yes, healthy tempura is an oxymoron) and I used WHOLE-WHEAT flour instead of regular flour. The result was...



not so crispy.

The crust was too glutenous and my fear for deep-frying got the best of me - the oil wasn't hot enough... Next time, I'll fry in hotter oil and use less flour for sure. And screw the 'healthy' tempura. I'll buy tempura flour at the Japanese grocery store! However, this was a good start and the deep-fried whatevers - they surely weren't tempura - was just as good as some of the (bad) Japanese restaurants around here. Oh well. Better luck and skills next time!

What fueled me through the Half

I'd heard so much about Tadich Grill's cioppino from various people, including my running buddy, Jutta. Jutta has Gourmet-credibility, since she's an excellent cook herself and appreciates the finer things in life - like good wine and good chocolate. So when we found ourselves in San Francisco this past Saturday, Tadich Grill was a natural choice for us.

Anne and another buddy, Rich, joined us for the dinner along with Jutta's family and friends, which made our party quite large. The plus side to being a big group at Tadich Grill is that you get a nice cozy booth that's more like a small room than a booth to yourselves. This booth situation is a mixed blessing because they don't have too many of them and you end up waiting for quite a bit.

Luckily, Tadich Grill has a very inviting and humongous bar, where over half of the restaurant is bar seating. The bartenders have white coats on that make them look like pharmacists, and the big bar itself reminded me of a soda fountain bar behind pharmacies from back in the days. At the same time, the restaurant has a very old-school feel of classy New Orleans air - in the same line as Brennan's and other such notables that look and feel historically classy.

It took me no time to decide what I wanted once we sat down. I didn't even consider any of the other option on the menu and went for the cioppino.


The cioppino was everything I wanted it to be and more. Big chunks of fish, shrimp, clams, and whatever else was in there swam happily in a spice-and-herb-powered broth. Soupier than most stews but chunkier than most soups, the cioppino satisfied. I actually think this is what many US and Japanese restaurants serve as 'bouillabaisse', which is another favorite soupy stew or stewy soup of mine.

The bread was also very, very tasty and the butter was sweet and delicious. I get so upset when 'nice' restaurants have bad, tasteless butter. American butter, in general, is not very good, but at least at restaurants that serve good food, I expect butter with some flavor. A funny conversation ensued when I commented how the butter was very good at Tadich Grill. Rich responded, "Ah, butter is butter - how good can it be?" Two seconds later, he retracted his statement, saying, "Hm. The butter is quite good." Ha!

Tadich Grill's bread, butter, and soup must've been a good pre-race choice, since I was able to get up at the crack of dawn to run in some nasty foggy weather for nearly two hours! Goodness, was that really just this past Sunday?

Check out this craziness!

Wow, a rice bomb, ticking towards explosion in my microwave!

I had to take a picture of it, since I'd never seen this before, even though I've been microwaving saran-wrapped rice for who knows how long. So now what I wonder is - was this always happening and I was just not seeing it? Or was something different about this batch of saran-wrapped rice that turned it into a balloon?

Where my calorie-deficit went

I rewarded myself quite a bit this past Sunday after the half-marathon. With the wonderful gift of 1000+ calories burnt in the morning, I was surely ready to celebrate!

Unfortunately, I had to go to work right after I got home, but there, I saw Anne, who was also spending her Sunday afternoon stuck at work. So, on my way home, I gave Anne a quick call to tempt her into sharing a bottle of champagne (or, Sparkling Wine, I should say) and quality time on my front porch. We spent a lovely afternoon, chit-chatting and sipping my favorite drink (yes, more so than sake).

Shortly after polishing off the bottle, my half-marathon buddy, Jutta, had us (the Papa Bear, the Bear Cubs, and me) over for some delicious, smooth, creamy, and amazingly satisfying cheese fondue dinner.


It was sooooo good, I kept dipping...



and dipping...



and dipping.


I swear, this was so much better than any other cheese fondue I've ever had. Not one lump in the cheese, not one impurity to disrupt the harmony of the cheesy ambrosia and the wholesome bread. Cheese and bread - a delicious match made in heaven - the creamy satisfaction of the cheese finding strength and substance in its partner. I ate myself into a delirium, aided by the flowing white wine that completed the trinity of luxurious dinner.

Goodness, it was a satisfying dinner, worthy of every calorie I burnt during the half-marathon!

Congrats, Jutta and Arik, on completing your first half-marathon, and thanks so much for dinner, Jutta and Stefan!

PS:
For those of you NOT reading this during meal times, check out my blister from the Half-marathon here. Nasty, huh? The Papa Bear was complaining about his blister until he saw my King of Blisters. It's got so much liquid in it right now that with every step I take, I feel some swish-swoosh inside the blister. Yuck!!!

Some new obsessions

Oh, my, I am so addicted to this Japanese Haiku Blog business, I spent all of Friday night staying home and writing haiku. It has this absolutely wonderful Response-poem function, where clever poets take your backbone poem and respond to your haiku with clever new renditions. This is amazing fun, I tell you. For those of you who can read Japanese, definitely go check out this Haiku Blog site. It is totally a hoot.

I'm also contemplating whether or not I want to go the CSA (community supported agriculture) way or not. I totally agree with the concept and I would be more than happy to contribute if it were not for one thing - weekday ruts. I work long hours during the week and the thought of having a foreign, unfamiliar vegetable I have to figure out how to cook is daunting to say the least. I checked out some CSA websites to see what I would get around this time of the year and saw things like turnips and beets. Turnips? Beets? What the heck would I do with those on a weeknight when I need to be on autopilot to get dinner made and eaten?! Oh, CSA. I need a predominantly Asian veggie CSA...

I ran a half marathon in SF this weekend. I wonder what tasty goods I can eat tonight to make up for the calorie deficit!

Sugar cookies and holidays

As I prepare for the onslaught of Holiday events coming up - Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Years - it still continues to amaze me what a big part sugar cookies play in the American festivities. I was never a big fan of sugar cookies, and I started my relationship with sugar cookies on the wrong foot. I remember in Kindergarten when my BFF (who is no longer around - ah, that last F is so hard to fulfill) said she didn't want a decorated Xmas sugar cookie to our teacher - she was reprimanded with time-out and a 'what-an-ungrateful-child' label that lasted the entire academic year...


Sugar cookies are a whole lot more fun to make than to eat. I LOVE decorating them!! My friend from work, Anne (not to be confused with my buddy, Anne, who made me the wonderful pasties a while back) had a bunch of us over for a fun-filled afternoon of Halloween festivities. We carved pumpkins, decorated sugar cookies, and had a lovely time full of jovial fun.

You see the white and orange cat (yes, darn it, it is a cat!) in the picture above? It was much better in real life. It actually looked so good, I almost took a picture of it one its own. Heck, it looked so good I almost ate it! You see the picture of the colorful polka-dotted moon? Yeh, somebody at the party thought one of the Bear Cubs (9 + 4 yrs in age) did it - the truth? I made it...

Controversial Natto

Natto is a controversy. Many Japanese people claim breakfast is not breakfast without natto while others proclaim these beans as pure evil that would destroy any fine morning. I happen to LOOOOOVE natto and eat it regularly, while my sister opposes to its presence around her.


Natto is basically fermented soy beans and we usually eat it with mustard and a really strong dashi-based sauce. This one that the Papa Bear brought home this past week was an outlier and came with daikon gratings instead of mustard. Whatever sauce it comes with, I stir it into the beans and stir and beat and stir and beat and stir and beat and stir and beat and stir and beat until it looks like this:


The more I stir and beat, the more deliciously gooey it gets. This bubbling goo is the best part of natto, so I beat the heck out of my natto. The slime is full of fermented umami, complex saltiness, delicate bubbles that pop as the goo slides around in my mouth, and that primordial satisfaction of licking gooey things.


This stuff is so gooey and so deliciously satisfying! I don't get how anyone could oppose to it, but that is how all things controversial are. The power of natto - makes the two camps go "How could they?"


Interestingly, I don't care a whole lot for the beans themselves. I'm more into the goo than in the beans, so I like my small bean or pre-chopped (hikiwari) style natto better. And you know what? I added natto into tuna salad recently and it was a big hit at a pot-luck party!

Gochiso-sama, Gochi!

Japanese meals start with "Itadakimasu" (literal translation: "I am graciously accepting this") and end with "Gochisousamadeshita" ("It was a wonderful feast"). Goshisou alone is also the word for epicurean delights in general, and the word originally contained meanings of thanking the host for running around to collect the best ingredients to prepare the finest meal. In general, "Gochisousamadeshita" should only be shortened to "Gochisousama", and I remember being scolded as a child when I tried to get away with "Gochi". So when I heard of a new Japanese 'fusion tapas' restaurant opening in Cupertino named Gochi, I was a little bit skeptical as to what to expect. But when I found out that Gochi was headed by the ex-head chef of Tanto, I knew it would be a worthwhile izakaya.

Last Saturday, a bunch of us made the trek down to Cupertino. Gochi is conveniently located next to a karaoke place we like to frequent, so we spent some time at Gamba Karaoke for a pre-dinner vocal workout. Karaoke before dinner - how reminiscent of my teenage days in Japan!

With hungry appetites, we walked into Gochi to find a very pleasant dining room with a tatami seats with hori-gotatsu (where you can put your feet under the table, even though it looks like tatami seating). They'd obviously put quite a bit of effort and thought into the design of the dining room. It was welcoming with warm tones and bright with light wood paneling. I noticed some not-so-nice regular table seating by the bathroom for two-person seating - I'll be calling ahead to specify that I don't want those tables!

The drink menu at Gochi is far more extensive than many other Japanese restaurants. There's soju (shochu), distilled alcohol made from potatoes, in addition to the usual sake and beer offerings. Three of us polished off two of these $70 soju bottles, or I should say the two bottles finished us off! The dinner menu offered a dizzying array of dishes that all sounded very good. Some of the old favorites from Tanto were there along with totally new creations.


I never thought I'd find namako-su in the Bay Area, but this sea cucumber (namako) slices in ponzu sauce was delicious. My grandfather used to love this, and boy, does it go dangerously well with my soju! Gochi's ponzu was very good without being too tangy or edgy. It was a calm, nourishing sourness that highlighted the flavors of the ocean from the seaweed and the namako.


This anago-meshi was a very good deal with a huge claypot of rice for ~$12. The anago wasn't quite the quality of anago one would find at a sushi restaurant, but nonetheless, the seasoning on the anago and the rice made this dish definitely worth trying. I noticed they had several other kinds of claypot rice dishes, so I'll likely get something else.


This fried eggplant was stuffed with shrimp and dressed in a sweet, soy-sauce caramel. It reminded me of Daigaku Imo (College Potato), the Japanified Chinese treat of sweet potatoes fried and coated with hardened sugar syrup (which we call 'ame' or candy). Since everything else was savory, the combination of the sweet and savory flavors in my mouth was pleasurably exciting.


And since I am becoming more and more like my grandfather these days, I had to get this satoimo (taro-like potato) dish. These sticky, gooey potatoes are naturally bite-size and they absorb the soup they get cooked in so very well. Each bite sends umami-powered savory dashi into my mouth followed by the stickiness of the potato bringing with it a delicate sweetness of the potato flesh. The bonito flakes (the wood-shaving like strips) was a little over-powering, so I ate around the bonito flakes.

Overall, Gochi was a solid performer. I'd ranked in the Top Five izakayas in the Bay Area. It reminded me very much of Tanto when it was still at the old Santa Clara location. The decor might be too fancy for the Japanese (oyaji) businessmen crowd that use to fill the tables at the Santa Clara location, but in exchange, I'm sure they'll pick up some more non-Japanese clientele. Prices were good as an izakaya with each dish ranging between $5 and $15. They are a very welcome addition to the family of izakayas... speaking of which, I am thinking about organizing a Battle of the Izakaya in the Dim Sum battle format. Contenders will be Tanto (Saratoga), Saizo, Yumeya, Gochi. Let me know if you're interested!

www.gochifusiontapas.com
19980 Homestead Rd
Cupertino, CA 95014
(408) 725-0542

Youthful Gyoza at Hana

Another Halloween has come and gone and I didn't get around to uploading the ninjyas. Oh well. Maybe next year...

Today is a post about my favorite quick meal - boiled (ex-frozen) dumplings from Gyoza no Hana in San Jose! These are so easy and so yummy, they make for perfect weekend brunches or even weekday breakfasts when I don't blog in the morning.



Literally, all you have to do is dump them into boiling water, wait for the water to come to a boil, add 10 oz of cold water, let it come back to a boil, add another 10 oz of cold water and when the water comes back to a boil, the gyoza are done! They skin never rips (except for the one time the Papa Bear tried to make them) and the skin is deliciously smooth and thick without being doughy. The pork dumplings ooze with piping hot juice (much more than the XLB from Koi Palace!) and the vegetable dumplings provide an array of textures as mushrooms, thin bean noodles, Japanese cabbage, and other goodies chopped into nanoscale bits fall apart loosely in my mouth.


Hana provides dipping sauces, but I prefer to eat my dumplings with ponzu and a super hot red pepper. I can literally eat these in the dozens. I love the feeling of the dough slipping around on my tongue and how it resists my bite with just enough texture to be pleasurable. I much prefer my dumplings boiled over fried for this exact reason. Boiled dumplings have that luscious, smooth skin that we all lust after as we get older and start losing that elastic youth in our skin. I can totally understand those May-December relationships after enjoying my boiled dumpling meal!