Kabuki Mon

KoKo and I have been best friends since elementary school. His family owns this really good Yakiniku restaurant in Tokyo and I usually make it a point to stop in and grab lunch or dinner there when I'm in town.

Kabukimon - Highly Recommended
1-19-10 Higashigaoka,
Meguroku, Tokyo 152-0021
Japan
+81 3-3418-5989

So 2 weeks ago, when I landed in Tokyo on business, I told my colleague that he was in luck and that tonight we'd dine like kings.
I called up the restaurant for a reservation and darted over.

We were greeted by KoKo's mother and 'lil brother.
We got to our seats and pretty much ordered the menu. What an unbelievable meal.
Kagoshima Kuroge Wagyu A5 all through the night.
When the meat is prepared properyly and you cook it with the hottest charcoals you can find, meat just tastes so damn good.

Gyozas from a Van

I was walking through the streets of Tokyo around 6pm with a colleague of mine and we spotted a van selling gyozas (potstickers).
Much like how a New Yorker would stop and grab a hotdog, we asked for a dozen Gyozas to go and waited patiently for the little suckers to get nicely browned on one side.

To tell you the truth, these were some mighty fine Gyozas.
Pork, Cabbage and Chives... Kinda the holy trinity in Gyoza fillers.
(if only it had shrimp... it would have knocked it out of the park for me)

Beer Room @ Whole Foods on Bowery

A co-worker of mine has been touting the Beer Room at Whole Foods in the Bowery for sometime. So on Friday we both headed there after work. He has been there several times before and kept talking up the selection.

When I got there I was like a kid in a candy store. They selections from all over the world, and more than several domestic craft brands. I have been craving Houblon Chouffe for sometime and was unable to find it at other local beer stores. They had it, so I picked it up.

Since going to the DogFish Head brewery this fall, I have become a huge fan. So I picked up their 90 minute IPA, a bottle of the 120 Minute IPA, and surprise...surprise they had the red & white. I have only heard about it from friends and learned more at the brewery. The bottle reads: "Malt beverage brewed with coriander & orange peel with pinot noir juice concentrate added with 11% aged in pinot noir barrels and 89% aged on oak barrel staves." Now being a big fan of Pinot, even before the movie SIDEWAYS, I had to pick this one up too. Before I knew it I was lugging a heavy bag of beer all the way home to Westchester. And for the selection I would gladly do it again.

Other things to mention about the Beer Room. They currently will sell you carafes of a handful of beer they offer on tap. The Beer Room is also looking to provide home brew kits so Beer Enthusiasts can brew at home, this is suppose to happen soon. I would have provided a few more names of beers they carry, but what fun would that be. Push back from your computer NOW and head there, you won't be disappointed.

Spotted: Daniel @ Rock Center

Daniel Boulud was spotted in Rock Center last week, promoting DGBG Kitchen & Bar. He was cooking sausage, hamburgers, and giving out a fruit parfet to those on the event list. Feast ( a new NBC website) was coordinating the underground event. Unfortunately my friends and I were not on the "list", but were able to pick up a DGBG t-shirt with the phrase "Eat More Sausage". Don't worry Daniel, we got that covered!!!

Happy Chinese New Year

Had some friends visiting the new house for Chinese New Years and we ended up going to my fave Chinese place in the area Petite Soo Chow. Great times and as usual we ordered a ridiculously delicious feast, albeit a wee bit too much though we finished most of it and still saved room for homemade ice cream.


















Our Menu (apologies, my pingyin sucks)

• Shao hong gwa (sweet, spicy pickles)
• Fu chee fay pyen (spicy tripe)
• Xiao Long Bow (soup dumplings)
• Vegetable Dumpling
• Shen jian bow (fried doughy pork dumplings)
• Joe chai huh ze (crispy dumpling with leeks, eggs, and noodles)
• Chow dou meow (stir fried snow pea tips)
• Beefs, leeks, and bean curd
• Oh wa zhen (Oyster omelet with sweet sauce)
• Lobster with garlic and ginger sauce over crispy noodles
• Some type of Tofu, mushroom concoction
  

Swan Oyster Depot – Athos’ Review

Swan Oyster Depot
1517 Polk St
San Francisco 94109
Btwn California & Sacramento St
415-673-1101

When I consulted the Dudes on where to go before going to San Francisco, Aramis told me one of his favorite places in the world is Swan Oyster Depot. With a reply like that, I made it a point to go there. The first night, I had two people with me. We went there, and it was closed. Blast!

A couple days later, and I went there in the afternoon. Located in the Nob Hill neighborhood, this place has been around since 1912. It was raining a lot, but it didn’t stop people from lining up outside to get in. The place resembled an old diner where you sit at the counter. Just a long and narrow hall is really all the restaurant is. I think I read there are only 18 stools to sit on. The first four seats were a group of guys that were experimenting different dishes as the person behind the counter made suggestions. I asked them what they were eating and their thoughts and made mental notes what to try before a seat opened up. The couple in line next to me were also foodies who struck up conversation. I was summoned and took a seat on the bar stool in between people and began firing off what I wanted and asked for suggestions. The first guy attending to me wasn’t too friendly, but it may be because it was loud, he had a thick accent, and I was asking him to repeat a lot. After that, every other guy rocked. We joked, talked about places, and, of course, food. I ate so much that the guys there were proud of me. Now then, here’s what I ate (to the best of my memory) and my reviews:

What’s nice is there are oyster crackers every couple feet on the bar along with horseradish, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Clam chowder – It was good, but I wanted it thicker. The freshness made you feel like you can taste the ocean.

Sourdough bread – It’s San Fran, so of course you get some. It was just normal, but it was nice to have to sop up the chowder, oil, etc. from the different dishes.

Oysters & clams – I wish I can give more info, but the accented guy wasn’t clear, and I already had him repeat at least 3 times. These were from different regions. I never really use cocktail sauce, but this was actually pretty good if you need to use it. Also, I’ll admit that I’m not sure what are good oysters & clams to not-as good ones. I know bad, and these definitely weren’t.

Sardines filleted in olive oil, capers, and chopped red onion – The coolest guy behind the counter made this, and he made a lot of conversation. He suggested these, and they were quite delicious. They were good on the sourdough bread. Later he came by and sliced scallops for me and just added it to the dish for free.

Scallops – Very light, tender, and delicate. The taste was mild, especially compared to the sardines, capers, etc. that shared the dish.

Seafood salad – This was the second best dish thing of the meal. This was sick, just insanely good. There was lettuce on the bottom, but I think that was for decoration. They asked if I wanted the dressing on or the side, so I asked for the side. The dressing was incredibly tasty, but I didn’t try it until the end. The salad stood so well on its own. I don’t remember all the ingredients, but it had large shrimp, crab, and more. The Dungeness crab is so, so sweet and adds to the whole dish. I wish I remember what else the salad consisted of, but trust me, you HAVE to get it.

And finally, smoked salmon on sourdough bread. O. M. G. This dish was so good that at the end of the meal, my pants were bursting, but I still asked for another order since I didn’t know when I’d be back. It was so good that I kicked a puppy, slapped a priest, and talked dirty to a nun. The salmon is sliced and prepared in front of you. It goes on sliced sourdough bread. Done. That’s it. It’s also accompanied with a dish of olive oil, capers, and chopped red onion which went perfectly with each other. Typing this is killing me, making me wish I had the entire smoked salmon in front of me.

In two words: delicious and fresh. Very fresh. Cool guys, bare bones, in a small place that delivers up great, fresh, delicious seafood. They know what they’re doing, and it shows that they love it, too. When they were closing up, they simply took an empty pitcher of beer, filled it up with soapy water, and just threw it around and scrubbed with a brush. Just a no-nonsense place. $100 for everything. I thought it would be less, but you’re on the honor system, and I haven’t had seafood this good in a long time. As California’s Governator says: I’ll be back.

Ham-Bah-Gah

The Japanese love incorporating foreign words into their vocabulary.
And burgers are no exception.
Ham-Bah-Gah = Hamburger

If you were to poll 100 people randomly off the streets of Tokyo, I'd fare to say 75 of them would say their favorite fast food hamburger joint is "Mos Burger".
I never had one so I stopped in for a burger yesterday.
Below is picture of their "Double Mos Burger".

I gotta hand it to the Japanese. For less than $5 , they made a really delicious burger. And it actually came out looking really similar to their print ads as well. Something you could never find in the States.

The patties definitely have eggs, milk and breadcrumbs in them. They're super soft and fluffy, and the buns are fluffy just like the patty. There's also a huge slice of a beefsteak tomato wedged in there... which actually had flavor. And the accompanying onion sauce and mayo made for the "toro-toro" (aka Gooey) texture the Japanese love so much.
The burgers are cooked to order, so it took 6 whole minutes.



One other extremely shocking fact was that everything in the burger is meticulously logged and traceable to it's roots. The veggies were advertised in the store saying they were from a specific farm from a specific prefecture.
The meat is also categorized from the processing plant and logged accordingly.

McDonald's on the other hand... Not quite.
Great menu below. Can't wait to get my hands on more Mos Burgers.

Simple Spanish Cooking at Home

After the spectacular New Year's food at our friends Cindy and Brian, we had to repay the favor. So, we had them over and I decided to make some more Spanish inspired food, though the wife told me I had to make pasta since that's what I usually do best. Any who, we had a great time and the food came out pretty damn good. Thanks to Porthos and our buddy D'Artagnan as they helped me with food timings; an issue I generally have with more than 4 courses...the key is cook everything but the proteins first and re-warm in a 200 degree oven at the end f0r 5-10 minutes. Saves you time and ensures everyone gets warm food at the end.

Smoked Salmon, Yogurt, and Truffle Honey
I've made this before, but I've tweaked it and I have it pretty on right now. Keys here are to use the best fatty smoked salmon you can buy, use full fat yogurt and letting it sit at room temp (cold yogurt does not taste great here), season with salt and pepper which pumps up the yogurt and salmon flavor, and don't be afraid to add loads of truffle honey. Sweet, creamy, smoky, earthy and fatty...

Ingredients
Smoked Salmon (1 package for 16 montaditos)
Sliced Baguette
Room Temp Full Fat Greek Yogurt
White Truffle Honey (maybe you could get away with regular honey and truffle oil?)
Sherry Vinegar
Salt and Pepper

1) Add yogurt to the bread, salt and pepper, and a dash of vinegar - maybe 1/2 tsp or less
2) Drape piece of salmon and drizzle with truffle honey


Salad with Dried Fruits
This definitely isn't Spanish, but it's really really fun to eat. Big flavors and textures - crunchy, bitter from the arugula, sweet with the fruits, and bright vinegary dressing.

Ingredients
6 handfuls of wild arugula / mixed greens
1/4 cup each of dried dates, dried apricots, dried pineapple, dried papaya diced
1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts
1/4 cup crushed almonds
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper

1) Combine vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper
2) Dump the fruits in to let sit. Right before serving dump the rest of the ingredients and combine well.


Patatas Bravas
I love this dish and it's done so poorly in most NYC Spanish restaurants. I've tweaked this recipe as well and I think I got it nailed down now. Keys: use yukon gold potatoes - much more flavor than yellow potatoes; bake them first, then crisp them in the pan; make your own bravas and alioli sauce. Spicy, crunchy, creamy, and garlicky...pretty f;n awesome.

Ingredients
6 Yukon gold potatoes - salt, pepper, oiled
Bravas sauce:
5 cups crushed jersey fresh tomatoes
2 tbsp Chipotle powder
2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar
Honey
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Alioli:
1 garlic
1 egg
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp Sherry Vinegar

1) Use a fork to poke holes all over the potatoes and place in a 400F oven. Cook for 45 minutes and remove.
2) Make bravas sauce. Cook 3 tbsp olive oil over medium heat and add chipotle pepper. After 15-30 seconds (you'll smell the chipotle perfume the air), add the crushed tomatos.
3) Make alioli. Add garlic to food processor, pinch salt/pepper, and 3 tbsp olive oil. Puree until all the garlic is minced. Add the rest of the olive oil slowly and continue blending. Eventually it'll become a thick yellow mayonnaise. Add vinegar, taste and adjust if necessary.
4) Cut up the potatoes in chunks and crisp up the potatoes in a pan, then drizzle with the bravas and alioli making sure each potato get some of each sauce.

Clams in Cava
Made a similar dish before and it's still delicious. Make sure to get extra bread to sop up the sauce.







Spaghetti with Mussels and Chorizo
bonus dish steamed Snapper
I wanted to rock chorizo and mussels figuring it would go great with spaghetti. It was pretty delicious, but this is probably the last time I use Barilla pasta. I don't get the same texture I like with De Cecco or Colavita even.

Ingredients
1 pound washed and cleaned mussels
5 cloves garlic minced
1 sweet onion diced
2 chorizo links sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 2.4 pound red snapper cleaned, scaled
Cup Cava - Spanish sparkling wine
Bunch Parsley sliced
1/4 cup clam juice
1 tbsp butter
1 pound spaghetti
5 cups crushed jersey fresh tomatoes
Extra virgin olive oil

1) Boil some water and salt it heavily
2) Cook chorizo in olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes and remove chorizo and leave the chorizo oil behind in a wok.
3) Cut the fish three times across the side. Salt and pepper inside and outside of the fish. Add parsley inside.
4) In another sautee pan, sautee garlic and onions in olive oil until softened - 5 minutes.
5) Add mussels and add cava - enough to steam them open. After 3-5 minutes, remove the clams (make sure to remove as soon as they open more than 50%) and add the juice and solids to the wok.
6) Add fish in the wok, clam juice (bottled), and tomatoes and set over high heat. After liquids start boiling set over medium heat, cover, and cook for 10-15 minutes. Check frequently to make sure fish is cooked nicely. When finished remove the fish, add sauce on top of the fish, and cover.
7) As the fish is cooking, drop the pasta in the water. Cook for 7-8 minutes - 1 minute under from the package instructions.
8) Timing should be to remove the fish first; then the pasta should finish right there after. Add butter and the pasta to the wok. Add mussels and chorizo and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Serve immediately and drizzle with olive oil. Add fresh parsley to the top and add cracked pepper
9) Serve the fish and drizzle with olive oil. Buen Provecho!

Kefi - Revisit

Stopped by Kefi for a second look with the wife before we checked out Avatar: IMAX 3D. As usual the food was pretty damn good and a great value. I've been to this dude's restaurants 3 times this year and I'm definitely going to be coming back for more...

Our Menu

Crispy Calamari ***
tyganito kalamari
Started off the meal with a big time WTF moment. Tender flavorful calamari with a light as a cloud crispy coating. Even the fried lemon slice tasted delicious. First time for me for fried chickpeas, but they totally worked.

Roasted Lemon Chicken, Potato, Garlic, Dill **
kotopoulo sto fourno, patates
Chicken was flavorful and moist, but the killer thing was this gravy that was rich and bright at the same time. Really delicious stuff here.

Anthos - Review

Intro
Anthos - Highly Recommended
36 W 52nd St, New York NY 10019
Btwn 5th & 6th Ave
Phone: (212) 582-6900

Huge fan of Kefi Michael Psilakis's casual Greek eatery, so it felt natural to check out Anthos his upscale Greek joint. Never could conceive Greek food done in an upscale manner, but he totally does it well. Pretty plating and great combinations of flavors. Overall, I give the restaurant an 89/100.

Our Menu

Lobster Bisque Amuse **
Creamy bisque with big lobster flavors. Nice way to start off the meal, but this reminds me more of french food than anything Greek related.

Raw Mezze ***
pickled sardine (apple, red cabbage, oregano); escolar (pickled mushroom, scallion aioli, mustard seed); salmon (celery root, smoked feta, dill, crispy shallot)
WTF textures and flavors. I've never heard of Greek food serving raw seafood, but this will rival any Italian crudo or Scandinavian gravlax. Great combination of textures and flavors - sweet, sour, and everything was very bright.


Greek Salad *
farmhouse vegetable, feta cheese, red wine vinaigrette
Good, but nothing remarkable and almost a let down at a place like this. Only thing that stood out was the olive oil and the cheese.

Seared Diver Scallop **
celeriac soup, cranberry caviar, brown butter
Direct contrast to the scallop at Jaleo - this was perfectly cooked. Beautifully seared on the outside and nice and medium rare on the inside. Flavor was heavenly with brown butter, creamy celeriac, and sweet/tart cranberries.

Smoked Octopus **
baby fennel, lemon confit, marinated mushrooms
Very smoky octopus that had a nice crispy exterior and soft interior. The lemon confit and marinated mushrooms provided some awesome contrast of flavors. I actually liked the ones at Kefi better, but Mr Risotto preferred these.

Sheep Milk Ricotta Dumpling **
peekytoe crab, wild spinach, leek, feta
Pretty confusing as this is a Greek restaurant that is knocking the gnocchi texture out of the park. Insanely light, soft, and fluffy with some fun combo's with the crab and feta. Sauce was a tad heavy in my opinion but still a great dish.

Rabbit Manti ***
vlahotiri cheese, dill, rabbit consomme
A complete WTF moment as this ravioli is much better than most raviolo served at top notch Italian restaurants. HUUUUGE rabbit flavor in the consomme and the filling. A big pet peeve of mine is having ravioli fillings either being pretty dry or not existent - e.g. A Voce Columbus. Not here my fellow dudes and dudettes, the ravioli is exploding with juiciness and it's filled nicely.


Cod Kourkouti **
mustard yogurt, cockle clam, grapefruit, tarragon vinaigrette
Surprising and delicious - the cod was fried like fish and chips. Crispy exterior and tender flavor cod. The combo with the grapefruit and mustard yogurt was a nice surprise. The most surprising was the cous cous. Usually, that's something to ignore for me, but here each individual grain had unique texture and the flavor was really out of control good.

Poached Seckel Pear ***
thassos sable, chocolate cream, olive ice cream, sandemans rainwater madeira
A complete WTF dessert. The pear was incredibly soft and flavorful, but mixed with the chocolate and the olive ice cream - this was to die for. And yes, olive ice cream - salty and tasting like olives and dairy which would seem odd, but perfectly paired with the sweet pear. I've noticed they're into having some salinity in their desserts which I'm a big fan of.

Lemon Cotton Candy and Petit Fors **
Huge lemon flavor in the cotton candy - perfect texture and more lemony than sweet. Pretty great stuff. The chocolate petit fors was good, but nothing to differentiate from the many places in NY.

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way


































Overall Restaurant Experience (89/100)

• Food (9.0/10) – Never thought I would enjoy elevated Greek food this much, but I 100% do. Beautiful plating, but more importantly delicious food that was pretty surprising. Still shocked about them rocking awesome Italian dishes.
  
• Service (8.4/10) – Servers was pretty good. Food came out a quick pace and the servers were friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. Only issue I had was Mr. Risotto had bones in his fish dish - no issues with ours though.
  
• Atmosphere (8.0/10) – All white walls and heavily starched table cloths and napkins. Place was half empty. Filled with a much older crowd - average age was upper 40's and we were definitely the youngest. Kinda like Babbo where it's an upscale restaurant, but they're playing some rock music. Felt less stuffy than Babbo though. Got reservations and were seated immediately.
  
• Price (9.0) – Spectacular deal for the quality - 4 courses for 65; not including the free stuff with the amuse and cotton candy.
  

Closing Comments
Food was great here and I would definitely be down to come back; though I'm more into Kefi due to the quality, price, and more relaxed atmosphere.

Small Soda at Loews Lincoln Center

I usually never buy drinks at the movie theater, but my wife was thirsty so I figured a small wouldn't be so bad. First of all the small drink was $4.50 after paying $18 a head for Avatar IMAX 3d, but on top this was no eff'n small. This thing was a monster maybe 20 oz's. So stupid...

That’s It’s World’s Largest Torta Cubana

That's It
2699 Mission Street(between 22nd St & 23rd St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 285-9833

Watch the first 1:40 of this video:



Here I am in Washington, D.C. and memories of where I was less than a week ago are making me smile. As 30 inches of snow come down right now and blanket the area, I’m reviewing pictures of sunny California. One of the places I visited when I was in San Francisco is by recommendation of my hero, Anthony Bourdain: That’s It. I wasn’t going to go there, but Yelp had a lot of good reviews on this monstrous torta. (A torta is a Mexican sandwich where the bread is actually called a torta, but they make sandwiches from it, so the whole sandwich is called a torta. If that makes sense.) I thought the size of the torta would be just a novelty. That’s It is a liquor store/convenient store/deli counter. This place is part Middle Eastern and part Mexican. Located in The Mission, the Latino part of San Francisco, this establishment is located on the corner where one side is painted with a mural, taquerias surround it, lowrider oldies drive by, and an ambience in the neighborhood that wouldn’t attract tourists but some place that locals would enjoy.

When I walked in, immediately the sounds of Arabic language in a high-pitched transistor radio-type speaker emits from the TV above the entrance where the person that runs the store is watching. The very small counter on the right with an even smaller grill is ready to cook this behemoth. There was an Asian man at the counter already devouring the famed Cubana. He was so into it that he didn’t realize he had a bunch of it stuck to his face. I order my sandwich and watch as Isabela throws ingredient after ingredient on the grill. “Is ALL of this going into my sandwich, or did someone place a carry-out order?” As she builds my sandwich, oh yeah, she makes everything fit. What’s in That’s It’s Cubana torta? We’re talking:

bistek milanesa (breaded steak)
ham
chorizo
2 eggs
hot dog
bacon
Mexican cheese
avocado
jalapeño
tomato
sour cream
mayonnaise

She sets it on a plate and sets it on front of me with a smile. The counter has hot sauce and some napkins with a sign, in San Franciscan style that reads, “Remember, napkins come from trees.” The torta is already cut in half, and I dig in. What I thought was just a novelty actually works. With the hot dog and everything else in here, it’s easy to imagine how it could just be okay. When you bite into it, it all makes sense. I take another bite, and another, and soon I realize that I have a bunch of it on my face as well. I didn’t care. I was on a mission on The Mission. This was too good. Sorry trees, I used up a lot of napkins. After a while, the plate was clean. Done. Gone. Nothing else. I was even thinking of ordering another, but I knew there was a day of eating ahead of me. This was just breakfast – and what a breakfast it was. Especially for $10.

If interested, watch more of Anthony Bourdain at That’s It here, but forward to 7:45:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p6b6NDJS8A

Auntie Anne's

I find myself at the terminal of Newark Liberty International Airport again and thought to myself what American food do I want to stuff my face with before leaving to Japan for 2 weeks.
A Nathan's Hot Dog wrapped in pretzel dough sounded pretty darn good.

I think I could have sucked down 5 of these badboys.
So good! 

Making Dashi at Home

Today, we have some pretty good alternatives from actually making the Konbu (Kelp) Stock first, then the Katsuo (Bonito) Stock and then mixing it in together to create the Awase (Bonito + Kelp) Dashi.

Below is a simple 4 step process in making really good Dashi at home.

1. Fill a large stock pot with water. NY tap is not the best for making Dashi so if you have a Brita or any charcoal filtration devise, use it (this will at least take out some of the minerals in the water). You ideally want soft water for this.

2. Throw in a Bag of Dashi and crank the heat up to HI.

3. When you start to see a simmer, cut the heat and let it steep for 40 minutes.

4. After 40 min, remove the bag and you are done. You can let it cool and refrigerate it, or throw it in your ice cube tray and freeze them so you have little dashi ice cubes at your disposal anytime.


There's a new brand available in the States called Matsumaeya. I've seen it in NY and NJ at the larger Japanese run supermarkets. They are an Osaka company that specializes in a special Konbu called "Ma-Konbu". It has the highest Umami potential out of all the konbu in Japan so it's really the best bang for your buck.

I threw in Shiitake mushroom stems in there as well. Every little bit helps.

Steamed Red Snapper

I've been wanting to play around with fish lately... (probably due to all the Eric Ripert this Eric Ripert that in the food scene)
And Red Snappers are a beautiful fish to start with. It's not too oily, not too flaky, and has great color when cooked so it's kind of like the very first omelette you ever made. It comes out an omelette, but like all things simple, it's the hardest thing to perfect.


I picked up a 20oz Red Snapper at my local fish monger and asked them to gut, gill and scale the fish.
I later chopped off the head and left the rest in tact.

I had some Dashi reserved in my fridge, so decided that would be my steaming liquid.
I julienned about 1 oz of fresh ginger root (skin removed). Chopped up 2 scallions into 2 inch segments and laid half of it creating somewhat of a bed for the fish to lay on top.
I seasoned the fish lightly with salt and cut slits through the body.


Laid the fish down and layered the rest of the ginger and scallions on top.
Drizzled some peanut oil and 1t of soy sauce on the fish and added 1 cup of scolding dashi.
[It's critical you add heated dashi because if it's cold, you are not steaming but lightly poaching and you really don't achieve the same texture in the fish as you would steaming]
I then covered and cranked the burner on high to make sure I created a steaming pot immediately.
Once the steam started to shoot out the top, I lowered the flame to medium and left it steaming for 7 to 8 minutes.

I then cut off the heat, opened the lid and examined the fish's tenderness. I didn't have a thermometer on me, but you would have wanted something like 135 to 140 through the thickest portion of the fish.
I may have left the fish in 1 minute too long... but like I said earlier with the omelette. It's an omelette, but just not the best omelette out there.


Transfer to a plate, spoon excess jus and enjoy warm.

Steaming fish at home is incredibly easy, amazingly delicious and totally guilt-free / healthy.

J's Bento

At times, I will wake up particularly early, or stay up late to make my wife's Bento Lunch.
Tonight was one of those nights.
I was playing around with recipes for an upcoming event, and while the kitchen was already in full use, I thought I'd put something together for the wife.

We have crisped pork belly pieces, pickled cucumber, umeboshi, semi-hard boiled egg, shio konbu, scallions all on top of red snapper steamed rice (tai-meshi).

Hope she likes it.

Harrison Ford love Kirin Beer

I just love seeing American movie stars sell out in foreign country commercials.
Can you imagine Hollywood folk doing that here in the states today?

Nice Han... taking a page from Lando's playbook.

Bolognese

After an inspirational meal at Babbo not too long ago, I felt the urge to make a batch of Bolognese at home.

Key ingredients : veal, guanciale, parm reg cheese and celery. As long as you don't skimp on these quality ingredients, I think it should turn out pretty darn good.
Very easy and very satisfying.

Recipe :
Guanciale
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Garlic
Ground Veal
Tomato Paste
Red Wine
Canned Whole Tomatoes (broken up)
Basil
Thyme
Parmegiano Reggiano Cheese
Milk