Happy Sumo Food Journal

2011-09-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Los Ojos - Jemez Springs, NM

On the same trip to NM (see below), I tried another recommendation in Jemez Springs. There's not much to JS, I think there were maybe only two or three places to eat in the entire town.

After perusing the menu, I settled on the green chile and cheese tamales. I first had these at El Cholo in Los Angeles. At El Cholo, many years ago, they were fantastic. These, on the other hand, were mediocre. They were pretty much tasteless, as were the beans, and the rice was hard. And the sliced from a can olives...please. This meal was worse than the Mexican restaurant in Biloxi, and that's pretty bad.

My eating companions didn't fare much better. Sheryl ordered chicken nachos, which came sans chicken, and melted cheese-like sauce, much like the kind you get out of the dispenser at 7-11. Inconceivable! And unforgivable.

All in all, a disappointing culinary trip to NM.

Overall rating - 1.5 sumos.

2011-09-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Sugar's - Embudo, New Mexico

Wow, I can't believe it's been over 2.5 years since I last posted. Well, now it's time to get going again, although I'm afraid it's not going to be in chronological order. Anyhow, giddyup!

Sugar's came to my attention through www.roadfood.com. I was on my way to NM so decided to give it a try. It's a completely out of the way place, on Highway 68 between Taos and Espanola.

One of their signature dishes is the brisket burrito. Brisket, green chile and cheese. For those of you unfamiliar with "New Mexico style" cuisine, most everything revolves around NM grown and roasted green chile.

So how was it, you ask? Disappointing...compared to my gold standard, the green chile burrito at J&S in Montebello, CA, this wasn't even in the ballpark, not even the same sport. Honestly I really wanted to like this place, but the food just didn't measure up.

Overall rating - 2 sumos.

2008-12-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

LE GRENIER - London, UK

This French restuarant was recommended by a London based coworker. It offers only a three-course fixe prix dinner. They have a list of apps, entrees and dessert and you can pick and choose what you want.

I had the soup of the day - onion soup, entree of the day - halibut and sorbet for dessert. The soup was very good, lots of cheese and not too salty which seems to be the norm whenever I've had onion soup.

The entree was good, halibut with potatoes and fresh vegetables. But I could not get over how much butter was used in the dish. It was so rich. I thought I was back in Mississippi, except that this food was prepared infinitely better!

After all that rich food, the sorbet was a welcome finish. The cost? 31.50 pounds, about $62 dollars. Cost aside, the food was very good. However, considering cost, it was just good. Then again, given the "normal" prices I saw for meals in London, this was not expensive at all.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

2008-12-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

MALMAISON ROOM SERVICE - London, UK

I only order room service when it's on the company's dime. I stayed at this hotel during the "work" portion of my trip. For a starter I had the greeen salad with walnuts and blue cheese dressing. It was super rich and very tasty.

My entree was steak frites with garlic butter. Mmm, butter.

And....I had an extra order of frites. They must have been fried in tallow 'cause they were gooood! The Europeans certainly know how to make tasty frites.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

2008-12-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

JELLIED EELS - Harrod's Department Store

I first heard of this on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods show on the Travel Channel. So of course I had to see for myself.
Yes, they looked exactly like you imagined. Chopped up bits of eel suspended in clear gelatin. I actually read that historically eels were quite abundant in the Thames and were a common food source.

Where these particular eels hailed from I have no idea. Did I try them? Um, no I did not. If they had lime flavored jellied eels on the other hand...

2008-12-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

FOX INN - Broadwell, Glouchestershire - UK

I found this restaurant in Rick Steve's guidebook. I was staying nearby in another village called Stow-on-the-Wold. This was a picture perfect area in the Cotswolds.

There are walking paths throughout the area and the restaurant was about a 1 mile walk past small farms and cottages. It was summertime and still light out around 8 when I stopped for dinner. After my not so good luck with fish and chips in the UK I tried the daily special - Roast beef.

It was 7.95 pounds. In 2007 the exchange rate was around 2 pounds to the dollar, so this cost me about 16 USD. Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, green beans and the ubiquitous peas. Looks great, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, the beef was way overdone for my taste. I don't know if it was a British custom or not, but my experience with British food was underwhelming. I did have some good meals on my visit, but at French and Italian restaurants.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

2008-12-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

THE GEORGE INN - Lacock, Wiltshire - UK

Yes, it's been over a year since the last post. Was waiting for my fellow contributors....so anyways let's start with my trip to the UK. Just south of Bath, the unfortunately named village of Lacock.

I stopped here for lunch on my way to see Stonehenge. Now Stonehenge has its own amazingly interesting history. Being a big fan of Spinal Tap just adds extra flavor to seeing it! But back to the food. This being my first trip to the UK I just had to try the fish and chips. Well let me tell you...it's better in the States. I tried it three times in three different restaurants. This was the last time. It was the best of the three.

After that I stopped wasting my meals and tried other dishes....to mixed success. What you see below was the typical fish and chips and accompanying peas. I've never seen quite a pea-happy food culture as the Brits. To each his own I suppose.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

2007-10-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

MAMMY'S CUPBOARD - Natchez, MS

You can't miss this place. It's on the east side of Highway 61 just south of Natchez. They have daily specials, along with sandwiches and salads. But the main draw is their homemade desserts.

I went with the daily special, which on Fridays is chicken pot pie, with a 'layered salad' and cornbread. I have never come across a layered salad before. Apparently it's a regional dish, consisting of iceberg lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, peas, bacon, and cheddar cheese in a mayonnaise-based dressing.
The chicken pot pie was good. You can tell they used plenty of butter in the crust. Along with the well dressed salad I probably got six months worth of my daily recommended saturated fat intake in one meal!
But I couldn't stop there...may as well go whole hog. I got a slice of the lemon icebox pie. Again, you'll never complain about portion sizes here. The slice was big enough for two. I ended up taking half to go to eat later. It was very good, rich and lemony.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

2007-10-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

LAEL'S - Vicksburg, MS

Finally, finally, the southern cooking I've been searching for the entire three months that I was in Mississippi! Lael's is a takeout only, meat and sides lunch and dinner place located in a shopping center just southwest of I-20 and Halls Ferry Rd.

If you're familiar with the takeout style bento places in Hawaii, then you'll see the similarities at Lael's. The menu is on the wall, step up to the steam table and pick out what you want.

I had a hard time picking between the fried chicken and the ribs. I could have gotten a combo, but I was on a diet :-) !

The owner was a wonderful woman who did all of the cooking from scratch. There was no place like this in Biloxi, and believe me, I tried my damnedest to find one.

I ended up getting the ribs, with rice, mixed greens (turnip, mustard and collard), potato salad and cornbread. I think the entire meal was $6.99. These ribs were so good - meaty, moist, perfectly cooked. They put The Shed to shame.

Since there were no tables to sit down at, I drove a short distance to a park overlooking the Mississippi River and enjoyed my feast. This was the single best meal I ate the entire time I was here. Please patronize this restaurant if you ever happen to be in the area.
M-Sat 1100-800. Sun 1100-500. 601 629-4335

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

2007-10-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

DEW DROP INN - Mobile, AL

This is a casual diner known for their hot dogs and cheeseburgers, which singer Jimmy Buffett, who was a Mobile native, credits with starting his love for burgers.

Although they had typical southern dishes and daily specials, like fried catfish, I decided to try a couple of chili dogs with a side of cole slaw.

If you look at the picture below, you can kind of make out the type of chili they use. It's a very dry, crumbly type that I've never come across before.

I actually didn't care for it very much. They say that ex-Mobile-ers come from miles around to get their hot dog fix. I grew up on chili dogs from Tommy's and Pink's. Maybe it's just what one is used to, but the chili dogs from the Dew Drop Inn were, as Jules would say, "ain't in the same league, ain't even the same sport" as my favorites.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

2007-10-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

EL SALTILLO - Biloxi, MS

As Yuki's was supposed to be the "best" Japanese restaurant in the area, El Saltillo was said to be the "best" Mexican restaurant in the greater Mississippi coast region. Kind of like saying that February is the best month in hell.

Someone ordered the enchiladas. Now doesn't this look like one of those $0.99 Banquet frozen dinners?

I ordered the carnitas. Now one thing I could never complain about was the portion size in the deep south. You certainly get plenty of food for your money. What you don't get, on the other hand, is flavor. The carnitas were just barely spiced, the wrong cut of pork was used, and it didn't have the crispy outside, tender inside of really well prepared carnitas.

And I thought the Mexican restaurants in Denver sucked (which they do).

Overall rating - 2 sumos

2007-10-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

YUKI'S - Biloxi, MS

Now who'd have thought that you could get sushi in the deep south...not me. Then again, with a military base nearby you can usually find a variety of ethnic foods to serve the hungry population when they get tired of chow hall SOS.

Maria was an expat Samoan from Hawaii who worked on base. "Is there anywhere to get local grinds around here" I asked? Not bloody likely, but she said that there was a sushi place nearby. I skeptically asked if it was any good. "It's okay" she said. That was pretty much the theme the entire time I was down here. The vast majority of places were "okay," no more, no less.

At that point I knew I was tempting the food gods, but I had to try some sushi. I ordered the tempura/teriyaki dinner, plus two pieces each of salmon and yellowtail. The sushi was not bad, nice big pieces and flavorful. As for the dinner….hmmm, where to start? The tempura shrimp was about five parts batter to one part shrimp, like the kind you used to get at Far East, not that that's a bad thing. But to paraphrase Vince Vega, "I just got back from Tokyo." Tempura should be ethereal, like gossamer. It should dissolve as it hits your tongue. This batter was way too heavy.

But here's the topper, they served long-grain rice with dinner! Everybody knows that long-grain is Chinese rice and medium-grain is Japanese rice! What country is this? I could not have been more shocked if the sushi chef was wearing a Klan outfit. I guess I won't be eating any more Japanese food until I'm back home.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

2007-08-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

ACME OYSTER HOUSE - New Orleans

Not all restaurants have reopened post-Katrina, even though it's been almost two years now. I read that Anthony Bourdain ate here after Katrina, so we went to check it out.

Lisa and I split a dozen oysters. This was only the second time that I have had raw oysters. They were okay, definitely fresh, but they were a little gritty. I wonder if it had to do with where they were harvested, or with the preparation. I first time I had oysters, at Emeril's in Vegas, they weren't gritty at all.

For my main course I had the crawfish etoufee. I was not impressed. I think they used minute rice in the dish. I've never had etoufee before, but it's supposed to be more spicy than gumbo. I thought it was just okay.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

2007-08-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

CAFE DU MONDE - New Orleans

So I find myself stuck in Biloxi, Mississippi for three months, just west of the "Redneck Riviera." The food on base at Keesler is not fit for humans, so weekends and many weeknights find us checking out the eateries in the local and surrounding areas. The first weekend found us in New Orleans, since I had never been there before and I figured this was the most likely place for quality food. First stop, the Cafe Du Monde for their famous beignets and chicory coffee.

How was it? Well, drop dough in hot oil and top with enough powdered sugar to shoot a Scarface sequel...and it was pretty good. Of course, if I came here towards the end of my stay, after eating fried food for three months straight, and I may well have had a different opinion.

I ordered the regular black coffee, instead of the cafe au lait, because I wanted to see how much the added chicory added/detracted from the flavor of the brewed coffee. It wasn't that great. In fact, it was fairly bitter, which may have to do more with the quality of the bean and length of time the coffee had been sitting around.

Overall rating - 2.5 sumos

2007-07-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

THE SHED - Ocean Springs, MS

The Shed is known amongst the locals as being one of the best BBQ places in the area. It's just north of interstate 10, but you'd think you were in the deepest south as the restaurant is in a wooded area and you imagine hearing banjo music.

I ordered the ribs/chicken combo, with cole slaw and potato salad as sides. Both meats were overcooked, especially the ribs. The sides were average, nothing more. I don't know if we caught them on an off-night (it was a Saturday), but if this was the best bbq in the area, then I truly feel sorry for the local residents.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

2007-07-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

YOSHINO SUSHI - Tokyo

This restaurant is located in Nihonbashi. The owner's son and my cousin's husband went to school together. With that kind of connection, I made this the celebratory last meal of my trip.

This area is fairly quiet at night, and the restaurant only stayed open until 9:30. Usually that's plenty late for me, but my friend had a full night planned. This was a great way to start. Got the omakase, or Chef's choice. These are just pictures of my plates. They brought us one per person, so we had six plates between the two of us!

The specialty at Yoshino is baby clam sushi. It was really good. Very tender and flavorful. The food just kept coming and coming. I don't know if this was the norm, or if we got special treatment. That's what I'm thinking. We had so much food I was stuffed, and I never get full on just sushi and sashimi.

Below from left to right is: top - salmon eggs, tamago (egg), squid, bonito, middle - flounder, maguro (tuna) , toro (fatty tuna), hamachi (yellowtail), bottom - tekkamaki, hamachi, ebi (shrimp), and unagi (eel).

I don't remember how much it cost. Another friend joined us and I think we had a total of three beers. With all that food and the beers I think it was around $80, a bargain considering everything we got.

Overall rating - 4 sumos

2007-07-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

TSUKIJI FISH MARKET - Tokyo

I couldn't go all the way to Japan without visiting the famous Tsukiji fish market. Apparently one used to be able to view the fresh tuna auction, which takes place at 5:30 am. I understand that tourists aren't allowed to view the auction anymore.

That makes sense to me. The first thing I thought when I got there was that the entire market should be off limits to tourists. It's a place of work, and I did not feel comfortable wandering through there. With such narrow passages, even though I tried to be conscious of the workers, there just isn't enough room to keep from getting in their way.

I tried to get up early, but I didn't get there until 7:00 am. By then, the activity was winding down. I can't imagine how busy it must be earlier in the day.

2007-07-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

UNKNOWN - Kyoto

I went to this restaurant on the way back from Kiyomizu Temple. It's either on Kiyomizu-zaka or Chawan-zaka. I was starving. I should have eaten before I went to the temple. That's my problem when I'm sightseeing. I want to see as much as I can and often end up eating at odd hours wherever I happen to be.

Anyhow, the prices were right and I needed some good old japanese comfort food.

I got the omelet with fried rice inside, with "ketchup sauce."

900 yen, about $7.50 US. I think it was the cheapest meal I had in Japan. I don't know if it was because I was starving, but this really hit the spot. Nothing like fried rice and eggs!

Overall rating - 3 sumos

2007-07-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

OMEN - Kyoto

This restaurant was recommended by my guidebook for its vegetable udon. It's located right off Shijo-dori in central Kyoto, on Gokomachi. It's amazing that right off this busy street, you step into another world, like you've just walked into a country inn.

They did not have an english menu, and luckily for me, there was a sole employee would could speak english, which was light years more advanced than my japanese.

I used to love udon as a kid, but haven't eaten it in years. Here they serve it deconstructed, you take the udon noodles and dip them in the sauce, accompanied by vegetables. It was good, for udon, but it was just udon, you know? A bit bland.

I knew that wasn't going to fill me up, so I ordered tempura also. I thought it would be a side dish, but it cost the same as a regular meal. The tempura was very good. I think each dish was about $11, so the total bill was $22.

Overall rating - 3 sumos

2007-07-28T10:24:00.001-07:00

KYUSHU JANGARA RAMEN - Tokyo

This is a chain of ramen shops. We went to the one in the Omotesando shopping district, near the Harajuku station. Apparently, there are multiple styles of ramen. Who knew? I grew up on the dried kind, four for a buck in the soup aisle.

I believe this one specializes in Hakata-style, pork bone broth, which produces a rich, dense, flavorful base. Not at all like the powdered stuff that comes in the supermarket ramen. My friend took me here. He's an expat from LA who has lived in Tokyo for about five years now.

If I ever had a picture in my head of a typical ramen shop in Tokyo, it would have looked exactly like this. That's something I love about traveling, you walk into a place like this and you get a snapshot of the culture in a meal.

They have an english menu. We got the 1A, kind of like getting a burger with everything. I think it was 980 yen, about $8.30 US. As you can see, it's cash only, something I found more often than not in most of the restaurants here.

They have all kinds of options, for example you can order an extra serving of noodles for a marginal cost (usually 90 or 100 yen) - less than a buck. Yep, that's what we did. As soon as they brought our bowls out, we ordered up another serving of noodles. You can also order extra broth if you run out.

There's all kinds of condiments on the counter for you to dress up your ramen. I added garlic and pickled ginger to mine. That's seasoned "spicy" cod roe submerged at 3 o'clock in the bowl. I'm not quite sure how they make it spicy, and I don't really want to know. Definitely an acquired taste...and texture.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

2007-07-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

AJI NO MIYAGAWA - Tokyo

This restaurant is located in the basement of the Daimaru department store, next to the Tokyo train station. We came here for lunch because it was near the office. There were a ton of restaurants here, so we just picked one and went inside.

As you can see from the picture, the menu was all Japanese. So we had to go to Plan B - point at the plastic food models in the front display case.

This being my second meal in Japan, I had to get the tempura lunch. It was damn good. The tempura batter was very light, almost ethereal. This is how all tempura should be. The bowl in the upper right of the photo below was chawanmushi, or egg custard. Now this was another first for me. I didn't realize that this was a savory dish, not a sweet custard. Thinking it was, I saved it for last. The custard is opaque, and has bits of meat, seafood and whatnot suspended in the custard. I bit into something that had an extremely fishy taste - tasted like Long Beach. I think it may have been an eyeball. I'll never know, and that's probably a good thing.

Overall rating - 3.5 sumos

2007-07-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

KATSU TOKI SUSHI DAI - Tokyo

This is not the same Sushi Dai restaurant that is inside the Tsukiji fish market. This restaurant, however, is very close to Tsukiji. I'm hoping that someone who reads this can identify the exact location for me. We were taken here by a coworker who works at our Tokyo office, and I have no idea where we were, other than it was close to the market.

This was the first sushi I tried, on my first trip to Japan. So we went all out. We got the omakase, or Chef's choice. I tried stuff I never order, like Uni (Sea Urchin). I figured if it didn't taste good here, I'll never order it anywhere else. Our first dish were these tiny, whole shrimps. They tasted very clean, "of the sea" as they say.

The deal here was that you could get another piece of something you really liked, or you could get the uni. I tried the uni, and I was underwhelmed. Given the cost, I wouldn't try it again unless I find myself back in Japan.

We had a piece of tuna, that the chef very barely seared with a blowtorch. It was the best piece of tuna I've ever had, ever. At this point, in all my eating experiences, it may have been the single tastiest piece of food I have ever eaten. Yeah, it was that good.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how much this meal cost. We had just flown into Tokyo the night before, and had gone into the office the next day and did not get a chance to get to an ATM. Being typical tourists, we assumed that we could pay with a credit card. Not bloody likely. So our Tokyo coworker ended up paying.

Overall rating - 4.5 Sumos, near perfection.

2007-04-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Roach Coach - Akihabara District, Tokyo

Check it out, a roach coach selling doner kebab in Japan! Doner is a Turkish gyro, and I ate these all the time when I was stationed in Germany. I wish I had tried one here, but we had just finished eating lunch at an all-you-can-eat curry buffet and I was stuffed! Next time....

2007-04-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

CHI-CHAN - Hiroshima, Japan

Okonomiyaki is kind of like chop suey on a crepe. It's a common working-class style dish and you can find restaurants where you can either cook it yourself, or where it's made to order. This restaurant is located in Hiroshima's Okonomi-mura, 3-3 Nakamachi, which consists of two floors of stalls selling the same thing, okonomiyaki.

I ordered the special, which included a mix of cabbage, noodles, bean sprouts, shrimp and squid, topped with a fried egg. I had thought that the dished was topped with a flourish of mayo, which would have made it better, but at this place, the only optional topping was a brown sauce, which was kind of like a watery tonkatsu sauce.

It cost 1050 yen, or about $9, certainly one of the cheapest meals I had in Japan. In the picture above, I've already eaten one-quarter, with one-quarter on my plate and another half still on the grill. It was a lot of food, but it wasn't to my taste. I'm not a big bean sprouts fan. I would probably not try this again, but am now able to check this dish off on my list of dishes to try.

Overall rating - 2 sumos

2007-04-21T16:07:00.000-07:00

CATHAY AIRLINES - 1st class dinner

I'm including this because I never fly first class, unless work is paying for it, and who am I to deviate from policy? This flight was from Hong Kong to Tokyo. You're actually handed a menu and get to choose what you want....on an airplane, what a concept! From the top of the photo we have "mugwort soba noodles," "salmon tataki," bread and "honey roasted carrot with orange segment and black olives." No, I have no idea what mugwort has to do with soba noodles.

For an entree, I chose the "Grilled fish fillet with bean curd skin, japanese rice and mixed japanese vegetables." I figured since I was on my way to Japan, I should prepare myself gastronomically.

The dessert course was cheese and fresh seasonal fruit, plus these cool, tiny little Haagen-Dazs ice cream cups. Somehow I didn't get a picture of those, I guess I ate them too quickly.

Overall rating - 3 sumos