i nom things.

We moved!

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 01:21:00 +0000

We interrupt your usual inomthings programming to announce that we've moved to a bigger, better roost!

Please change your bookmarks to:

http://blog.inomthings.com

See you at the new place! :-D

love, ila

All over the place.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Dad-in-law (or "Poppa," as I call him) had a birthday last week, so he took us out to a new-ish Izakaya in San Diego called Tajima 2. In case you were wondering, Tajima 1 is a ramen joint and Tajima 2 is a all-in-one-sushi-izakaya-ramen-joint.

They have two types of draft beer: Stella and Kirin, but they were out of Kirin (at 7PM on a Saturday night? hmmmm) so we shared a pitcher of ice cold Stella. Very floral compared to Japanese beers.

They have a ginormous menu that features a lot of fusion inspired small dishes, similar to that of Musha in Torrance. We stared at the menu for quite a while and couldn't decide what to order, so I took charge and ordered the Hirame (Fluke) Carpaccio. Fluke is one of my favorite sushi fish, so I was very excited about this. Unfortunately they doused it in olive oil and we couldn't taste much of the fish, so we got tired of it very quickly.

However the Spicy Albacore Roll was pretty good. Pretty much self explanatory - it's albacore, it's spicy, and it's wrapped in sushi rice. Nuff said.

Most of the dishes here are solid & good, but not stellar. (above, Agedashi Tofu)

Beef Tongue.

Spicy Chicken Wings (that weren't spicy).

The portions are rather small, so it's best to fill up space with big dishes like the Okonomiyaki or their famous ramen. It tasted good, but there's something *wrong* about noodles mixed into the batter Modan-style (sorry, the whole table comprised of Okonomiyaki elitists).

They also have menu items that you can coal grill over a shichirin at your table.
Beware though, because the grill items are ridiculously expensive.

Like the Ebi (shrimp)... That baby is $8.95!!! The shrimp was sweet and juicy, but the 5-pc Wagyu beef was most definitely not worth the $10.95 tag.

I LURVED the Eihire (skate wings). It's sweet and pleasantly fishy, like those dried cuttle fish strips you find in the liquor aisle at Asian markets. Goes perfectly well with beer!

But the question is: would I go back on my own? That's a big maybe.
Tajima 2 features a nice decor, filled with young people in their 20s and 30s, and pretty (and giddy) waitresses, but the menu is all over the place with no solid direction. It's more of a hip hang-out place than a nomming place, and personally, I enjoy nomming places more.

Tajima 2
4411 Mercury Street
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 278-5367

Red all over.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:12:00 +0000

Vegetarians, look away... 'Cause today's post is red all over.

Have you ever had *almost* raw beef? No? Well, you're missing out on a lot.

It's as close to evolution as humans will get. Why do you think we still have our canines intact? And our strong, clampy jaws? Why, to eat flesh, of course. While it's raw. And chewy.

End of story.

Ok not really.

Beef Tataki is one of Mom's "compromise" dish.

You see, Mom and us girls, we love fish. But Dad doesn't, especially if it's not deep fried in any way. So if we wanted something cool and refreshing for dinner, like Bonito Tataki, it never happened unless Dad was out with the boys or on a business trip. Unfortunately we couldn't wish Dad away every time we wanted something mesquite and garlicy, so she made Beef Tataki every once in a while, as a medium ground that we can all agree on.

Mom would salt and pepper a thick chunk of sirloin steak and let it sit for a several hours to let the flesh 'tighten,' and then pan sear it over a skillet, hot with olive oil. A juicy burning sizzzzzzzzzle, followed by the aroma of burning pepper would waft from the kitchen to the study room, and we would all squeal in delight.

After that quick heat torture, she would let that beast of a steak sit on the cutting board for a bit to let the juices 'settle', and carve away thick sashimi slices. She would then arrange the slices neatly over red onion slices and smother the tataki with scallions, grated garlic, and some special Mom's-secret-ponzu-sauce-shindig. That and a bowl of freshly steamed rice was a Japonistic carnivore's dream come true.

Mine's a bit different.

First, we use tri tip instead of sirloin because, well, that's what was on sale that day. And I didn't grate the garlic because I don't have enough stainless steel objects in my kitchen to rub my hands with (to get rid of the aftermath funk). But it's puh-retty frickin' good, if you ask me. And it's sooooo easy and effortless. I suggest you give it a try whenever you get a hold of juicy, fresh, cow flesh.

Beef Tataki - serves 4

1 lb tri tip steak

1/2 white onion, sliced thinly

4 cloves garlic, sliced

sea salt

fresh grounded pepper

olive oil

ponzu

scallions, chopped

toasted sesame seeds.

1. Salt and pepper the steak. About 1/2 a teaspoon of salt should be sufficient, and pepper it accordingly to your tastes. Let it sit in the fridge for 2-4 hours.

2. Pan sear. Don't know how to do it? Wiki it. When that's over with, let the steak sit while you work on the garlic oil.

3. Take your onion slices and submerge in ice cold water for 15 minutes. This will make it easier to palate. Shake dry in a colander and set aside.

4. Plate your beef tataki slices, and top with onions, then scallions.

5. In a small frying pan, pour in a healthy glob of olive oil and set the heat to medium. About 3-4 tbsp should be good. Throw in the garlic slices and let that infuse until the slices start to turn golden.

6. Now drizzle the hot oil over your onion-beef-platter, followed by a drizzle of ponzu (about 3-4 tablespoons).

7. Sprinkle some sesame seeds to taste and dig in. Here at inomthings HQ, we strongly recommend ice cold bubbly beer over red wine when you eat beef tataki.

Out and about.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:35:00 +0000

It's time for the Orange International Street Fair!!!

We had so much fun last year, so we had to go again. The turn out was much bigger, and moving around was so much more tedious. But that's a good thing!!! Most of the booths are here for charity fundraisers, raising money for school programs and church functions.

There is A LOT of beer - almost one for every region (Europe/Asia/Mexico), but the German Street (the fair is divided by streets) obviously has the most selections. We started with a Longboard Island Lager from Polynesian Street, then had some Stella at Swiss Street and finished with ice cold Kirin from Ginza Street. Even though most of the beers are available at Goats Hill Tavern, its much more exciting to booze it up under the sun.

There's also lots of food, all of which are cooked on site, so the whole perimeter of the fair is filled with the wonderful mesquite aroma of burnt meat.

We started from Swiss Street.

Brats.

Abelskivers (dough balls with jam).

It's not just food and booze at the fair. You can buy silly hats to honor your Viking heritage while guzzling down some pale ale!

Some how we landed to All American Street and had the obligatory corm.

Because really... Who says no to corm?

We had some soulvakia at the Greek Street because the Gyros booth had already closed up shop - but that's okay, the soulvakias were the best. Carcinogens are so good with cooling yogurt sauce!

We also had some teriyaki beef skewers from Ginza Street.

This ginormous booth is manned by students of the Orange Japanese School, who tediously flip and sauce the skewers. The sales from the Street Fair pays for all the expenses the school needs to go on for one year!!! Crazies.

Hopefully I can again next year :)

A winner!

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:55:00 +0000

Ever since I acquired that copy of Saveur's Burger Bible, it's been burger-palooza at the inomthings headquarters.

If we have any sort of ground meat in our fridge, it's automatically burger night. And each time, it's an experiment, so we eat a different burger. The first day, I made a Youshoku-ish (Japa-Euro fusion) burger with Mom's secret Hamburg steak sauce. And then the other day, I made a tuna melt with kewpie mayonnaise, with loads of spicy onions, covered in even spicier baby arugala, and monterey jack cheese. And then, I made a Korean burger that was like, spicy heaven on a bun.
With each burger Don would claim that is was "the bestest burger he's ever had," but this one just *might* be the one.

I mean, look at it. It's a crappy night-time photo, but still, it looks pretty frickin' delicious. And none of that french fry crap! I hate deep frying at home, so we roasted some shishito peppers and ate them with the burgers. The bitter-sweetness goes great with the spicy burger, but sometimes you chomp into the little 'bomb', or the unexpectedly spicy one, and that just makes everything more... exciting.
AND, it's an all-pork burger. That's different, non? With one person being kinda Korean and the other being kinda Japanese, it's inevitable for us to enjoy anything that has pork and kimchi in it. I folded in gochujang (Korean spicy bean paste), Don's favoritest condiment evar, into the meat, and tucked in a pat of butter to keep it moist in the center. We gave it a little nutty 'dimension' with a grana padano crisp, simply because that's our favorite cheese. And then we topped it with arugala because, let's face it, lettuce ain't gonna cut it when you spend this much time making a burger. It's gotta be something with a little bit of flair.
While I was making it, I could already sense its awesomeness from my very fingertips as I patted the patties. And when I was baking the patties, we could SMELL the awesomeness. Then we ate it, and it was all over. So yea, we're pretty much in love with this thing.

I can go on about how you should try it and all, but see for yourself. It's ridiculously easy as with all burger recipes (well, unless you're trying to make Keller's rossini burger or something, you're on your own on that). So do it. Nom it. Love it. Kthxbai.

Korean Burgers - serves 4

Patties
1 pound ground pork
1/2 small onion, grated
1 tbsp gochujang
1 tsp sesame oil
3 finger pinch of sea salt
ground pepper
4 pats of butter

Burger Fixin's
shaved grana padano (or parmesan cheese)
kimchi, squeezed of excess water
baby arugala
burger buns
Shishito peppers
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Combine all patty ingredients in a bowl (except for the butter), and mix well with your hands. Let rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
3. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and spoon 2 tablespoons of cheese (it might be a little hard with the big shaved chunks- it that case, eat the big pieces and try to scoop out the dust). Flatten into a even circle. Make four of these and bake for 10 minutes, until edges turn golden. Let cool and set aside (they'll continue to bake on their own).
4. Divide the patty meat into fours. Take a ball, and sneak in a pat of butter. Form into a patty, with a little dent in the middle. The dent will help prevent any unwanted rawness.
5. Set the oven to broil, and 'bake' patties in an aluminum foil covered baking pan for 8 minutes. Flip over and broil for 8 minutes, or until it starts to caramelize at the edges/sides. Remove from oven and set aside.
6. Toss cleaned shishito peppers with olive oil, salt and pepper. Throw it in the oven and let it broil for 5-6 minutes.
7. Assemble the burger. Do whatever it takes to keep it stable- but I did bun, crisp, patty, kimchi, arugala, then bun. Serve with a side of roasted shishito peppers.

Zun-zun-zun-zunda.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:44:00 +0000

I have my highs, I have my lows, the inbetweens, they're quite drastic. Sometimes I get super excited about something, the next second I will lose all interest in it.

Such is the case with edamame, or soybeans.

The beginning of the summer was beautiful: fresh baby soybeans in the market, with the fuzzies still on the pod, bruise free, and a strong vegetal aroma that rises with the steam when you're blanching the suckers: it's love.

Then the fresh ones are gone because of the short season (much like the fava beans - omg, don't even get me started on those), and you have to resort to frozen ones. Not that there's anything wrong with the frozen ones, oh no, they're perfectly fine, just not perfect. And you can't quite forget about the freshness that you fell in love with, so you cope with the frozen bags. Heck, you buy many bags of frozen edamame, thinking that that'll do the trick.

Nope. Nuh-uh. No.

So, the last resort. You're gonna try something different - say, make dessert out of this bland thing that would normally be throw into wok-hey hell with fried rice. Which is what I did.

Zunda Mochi is a regional dessert from Sendai, Japan.

In Japan, prefectures are broken up like states are in the US, and some prefectures are more proud of themselves than others (kinda like... a Texan VS a Oregonian. Or so I think.). They market everything that's regional as "gotouchi" or a "this area" item, and market it vigorously. Other examples gotouchi snacks would be Hiroshima/Osaka and okonomiyaki, Okinawa and saataa-andagi (donuts), or Nagasaki and castella cakes. Sendai is not as gaudy as the other prefectures, but they take their baby, the Zunda mochi seriously. You can find some variation of it at any gift shop/train station kiosk.

Zunda mochi are basically rice balls (mochi), served with a sauce of sweetened mashed edamame. Simple sweet at first, with a little hit of umami at the back-side of your tongue. Very rustic looking, no? (It also kinda looks like slimer from Ghostbusters.)

Some of you are probably weirded out by the concept of sweet edamame. Don't worry, it's fiiiiine! The Japanese are masters of the sweet-and-savory arts (HULLO, have you ever tried a mitarashi-dango before? HEAVEN!). You use a lot of edamame per person, so it's a great way to get rid of those frozen edamame - but it also makes you yearn more for the fresh ones. GAWD, these must be good with fresh edamame. Oye vey. Next summer, yes?

Zunda Mochi - serves 2

Zunda-an

1 cup defrosted frozen edamame

2 tbsp soy milk

2 tbsp sugar

1 pinch sea salt

Puree everything in a food processer until to desired pastiness. I kinda like to leave chunks cause they're more fun that way.

Mochi/Dango (rice balls)

Use your favorite dango powder!

There's mochi flour, shiratama flour, domyoji flour... Check out Just Hungry's dango recipe if you're clueless. Heck, you can even use cut-mochi left overs from New Years. Just give it a quick boil until soft.

When your dango's done, it's best to let it chill for 15-30 minutes in the fridge before tossing it with the zunda sauce and nomming. Serve with some dark roasted green tea.

Pretty easy right? Wait till you get to the eating part, that's even easier.

*****************

So, um, I blog for work too. It's called TEAcipes and it's part recipe blog (made with or for teas), part PR blog, part Japanese tea education site. Right now we're focusing heavily on Japanese greens because that's all we've got, but we'll eventually expand into other teas like Rooibos and Chinese teas! Be a friend and check it out, will ya? xoxo, ila

Lots of toothpicks.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:38:00 +0000

So, this kid turned 25 the other day.

...Which means 4 years of (legal) drunkness together, as well as 12 or 13 something years of being friends. First came Dave and Busters, then came Memphis Cafe, the Santa Ana Artwalk, Huntington Beach... But our most recent favorite is downtown Fullerton.

Drunk night in Fullerton is fun because, well, you get exposed to a very mixed population. You can find a nice established grown up (who knows what to order other than rum n' cokes and jagerbombs) getting sloshed, and across the street you can find a young student get some aged pu-erh tea while reading Wuthering Heights at a tea lounge, AND THEN down the block from that you'll find a hoppin' Mexican club that is amped with raging hormones and krunk music. They all flock to this little town to have fun, and manage to do it in harmony. It's a completely different world from Irvine, and I think that's what draws Jenn and I to this place so much. Plus, everything is within walking distance, so you can get some food, then desserts, and then get sloshed without driving around.

Which is exactly what we did on Jenn's birthday.

For dinner, Jenn wanted to do something 'different'. She was smitten with Riviera since our last visit (the summer cocktail debut night), with the whole concept, the vibe, the drinks, the funness of a hopping scene - so I suggested Lizarran, a Basque-type Tapas bar that opened last year.
It's part of this humongoid monster chain from Spain, and specialize in pinxtos - little finger foods that are served on top of a slice of baguette and jabbed with a toothpick. You can go up to the bar and point at one of the many offerings in the bar, which the bar attendant will graciously serve...

Or you can wait till the servers come out with a fresh platter of hot pinxtos and pick out what ever you feel like. Each one is $1.75, and they are counted by the toothpick - which you will disponse into the orange cup at your table. Natually, you end up with lots of toothpicks, which the server will count by hand at the end of your meal.

The pinxtos are really fun. Little bread slices are piled attractively with charcuterie like jamon serrano, chistorra (tastes like a slim jim!), chorizo, seafood, cheeses, and fruits.

There's waaaay too many to go over, but here are some favorites (in their unofficial names): Membrillo (quince paste) with Manchego, Jamon Serrano with Potato Chips and Olive Oil, Chistorra, Bacon-wrapped Dates, Tuna-stuffed Pimiento (bell pepper), Jamon Serrano Wrapped Frittata, some sort of ham and potatoes, and Seafood Salad stuffed Smoked Salmon. The bold ones were my favorites, the others are Don's.

We washed it all down with some sangria... It's refreshingly good and strong on the red wine (which we will find out the hard way later).

At Lizarran, they also serve other types of Tapas, with heavy emphasis on seafood.

The calamari (Calamares a la Andaluza) was fried to a perfect crisp, especially with the garlic mayo... YUM!

However, there are some misses. The Judias Verdes con Jamon Serrano (green beans with Serrano Ham) were very meh. Nothing home to write about. The Salto de Garbanzo con Pulpo (garbanzo beans with octopus) was very uninspiring - lots of beans with flecks of octopus, which were dry and rubbery. Octopus being one of my favorite seafoods, this was a disappointment.

The Paella Mixto with chicken and seafood was a whammy though - soooo yummy, especially where the rice burns and caramelizes into a crisp okoge (burnt rice in Japanese). It's a full frontal attack of flavors on your tongue, and a squeeze of lemon crisps the flavor up a bit. This one's a must.

Our reservation was at 7, and from 7:30 live music starts. After a little while, the place got packed with late night eaters who were getting ready for a night out in town. Very fun vibe indeed!

Afterwards, we walked on over to Frati Gelato for desserts. Their signature with mascarpone cheese, pistachio syrup, and pine nuts is pretty frickin' rad. I've tried their coffee, strawberry, and white peach before, but I haven't met a flavor that I didn't like. However, please note that most of the time I'm a little tipsy from drinking, and anything tastes good when you're drunk.

We polished off our gelatos and marched on over to the Continental Room for drinks.
Full, buzzed people can become belligerent and find everything and anything funny, especially when they are given full mobility on the streets of downtown Fullerton. We were spooked by a mannequin at the theatre props shop, and then point-and-laughed at a broken cocktail sign. We also some some GINORMOUS cockraches at the crosswalk, which, I swear were as big as a sparrows! Good times.

The Continental Room claims to be the oldest bar in Fullerton (since 1925), and has a nice retro feel to it, with red lights that can make anyone look like a sexy porn star, retro antiques all over the place, and cushy walls. They also have a stage where bands perform on weekend nights.

However, service is pretty bad and the security guards are overly protective of the invisible aisle that apparently runs along the booth. Kyle got escorted out for being in it for too long. Also, if you go out for a cigarette break, they won't let you back in because the bouncer is not very good at crowd control. That said, it gets packed in there really quickly. There are so many other options in the area, and there is no reason for you to get all riled up by the staff (unless you're there to see the band). Pffffft!

We ended up calling it a night before 12, because we were all getting a little tired and I in particular had a sulfite migraine sprouting up (the red wine in the sangria! dangit). We even had to cancel karaoke because of me. Sorry guys, maybe next time.

Anyways, if you're in town, make sure to drop by Fullerton. There's always something to do, and there's a hopping scene for everyone (scroll down below for other suggestions).

Lizarran Tapas Selectas
310 N Harbor Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 879-9009
http://www.lizarran-ca.com/

Frati Gelato
122 W Commonwealth Ave
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 871-1413
http://www.fratigelatocafe.com/

The Continental Room
115 W Santa Fe Ave
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 526-4529
http://www.myspace.com/thecontinentalroom

*****************************************

Other places to get your drink on in Fullerton:

If you're the Socal Rocker type... (plus, outdoor smoking patio!)
Slide Bar
122 E Commonwealth Ave
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 871-2233

If you're a Mexican Cantina goer...
Revolucion
205 N Harbor Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 871-6861

More into the artsy-ish club scene?
Plush Design Lab
207 N Harbor Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 738-5100

Irish Dive. 'nuff said.
Branagan's Irish Pub
213 N Harbor Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92832
(714) 447-3544

"I could eat another cow."

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:27:00 +0000

When most people think of Wagyu, they think of cows that indulge in daily massages amd beer baths, and the many $$$ signs that are associated with such primped cows. Me, on the other hand, have not-too good memories.
When I was a kid, during my summer visits to Japan, beef was not often put on the dinner table... Simply because cows are expensive in Japan (this was before Australian import beef became readily available). We ate a lot of fish that my Jiichan caught in the morning, or vegetables that came from Baachan's balcony garden. That and chickens.
So when my mom finally got tired of all the chicken and fish (and vegetables), she decided to splurge on a slab of Wagyu steak, which she prepared in her usual way - salt and pepper, slivers of garlic jammed inbetween muscle fibers - and it was SO fatty, none of us finished it. Turns out, because of our temporary lean diet, our palates became fat-repelling. Our family has become anti-Wagyu since then, and when the Wagyu craze finally hopped over to this side of the pond, we just shrugged it off, like how we shrugged off the Kawaii craze and the Tamagotchis (remember those?).

Fast forward 12 years, I am sitting in a restaurant, staring at a menu that is embedded with Wagyu dishes on every. single. page.

The Steakhouse in Torrance is a place I've heard of before - I've even read about it on Exile Kiss's blog - but never really cared for because it's, well, steak. I don't really eat steaks because of my busted jaw, and if I do have one, it has to be Mom and Dad's steak, tenderized with an Iron Maiden-esque device that shoots out 40 needles to make even the toughest steak delectably tender. AND I must have a bottle of Maggi with me (it's a Vietnamese thing).

But whining aside, I finally paid this quaint little steak house a visit for my close friend's birthday.
Good call, Birthday Girl... Because I actually enjoyed it very much.

You walk in, and the waiters immediately bring out some soft, warm bread. Sesame bread and a mini baguette, to be exact. Quite delicious, but I was also famished from the long drive to Torrance.

We also got some booze because it's a celebration, and no celebration is complete without a loudy gaudy person at the table (that would be me). The Steakhouse has a list of sommelier-recommended pairings, so after perusing that, Don and I decided to get a Red Rock Merlot (2006). It was... surprisingly jammy for a Merlot, and even the finicky non-winos were able to sip at it. One of our friends also got a Golden Monkey Beer from Victory Brewing, which is a very light, yeasty beer with floral notes. Kinda like a girly Hefeweizen.

We started with some Albacore Carpaccio and Maui Onion Salad with Tosazu Vinaigrette... Because if Don spots albacore on the menu, he must get it. No exceptions. It's nice to be able to eat albacore without garlic-and-ponzu-overload (a common little crime nowadays). Tosazu is a made with equal parts of vinegar, soy sauce, mirin, and dashi, and is more balanced and full-bodied than, say, a douse of ponzu sauce.

Duck with Apple Compote. We had to giggle when this dish came out, because it was itty-bitty. But then again, how much duck do you expect to get for 8 bucks? If you ignore the size, it's a very good dish, with the cold savory duck flavor melding well with sweet, sweet apples (it diminishes what little gaminess is left over).

Wagyu Sushi. Get it. That is all (it's frickin' good).

And on to the main: COWS.

Don and I split a 12oz Prime NY Strip. No split charge, so at $39 bucks, I think it's a steal. The meat is JUICY and SOFT and FRICKIN' DELICIOUS, and the simple vegetable sides are only there to enhance the beefiness. If this was served with mashed potatoes, I think I wouldn't have finished it because then it would've been too heavy.
Don polished it all off quickly and claimed that he could eat another cow. That's always a good sign, yes?

Everybody else ordered steaks too, and I'm not going to elaborate much on it... But I DO have to tell you that the steak sauce here is AWESOME. It's typically Japanese: grated onions, apples, in a soy-base. It's sweet and sour, tart and savory, all at the same time. This light sauce is what makes you eat more - cuts the grease from the meat and makes it just... Nomtastic.

If you're a high roller, you can order the A5 Wagyu steak for 60 bucks. But if you die from a coronary heart clog after finishing your steak, I can not be held accountable. Sorry.

With high-end steak chains that robs you with dry gross steaks popping up here and there, it hurts me to see places like The Steakhouse be empty on a Friday night. Everyone's so nice, the food is so good, and for once, I feel like I ate 20 bucks worth of good steak. I also really enjoyed being able to be loud and not care about others hearing me, but I understand how bad that is for a restaurant... So I'll grow up.
So please, give these guys a chance and EAT HERE. You won't regret it (I promise). Come on, they even have like five different kinds of toothpicks readied for you in the bathroom! You can't beat service like that!

Happy birthday Noba!

PLUS, the staff sings happy birthday for you. You know you like restaurants like that.

The Steak House
2933 Rolling Hills Rd.
Torrance, CA 90503
Tel: 310-891-2333
http://www.steakhousekobe.com/

Third time's the charm.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:05:00 +0000

So. I did it.

I really diiiiiiid it.

I finally made it to LudoBites!!!

Quick back story: I made my first ressie in June to celebrate me and Don's 3rd anniversary. Then I got sick and had to cancel my ressie. It took me a week to recover (turns out, my cold made a come back Blink 182 style and kicked my ass), and we had lunch at Marche Moderne instead.

The SECOND time, I was invited to a ginormous blogger bash towards the end of July, which I gladly accepted. I was soooooo excited... Until I ran over a screw and busted my tire. In fear of a tire explosion, I kicked and screamed and reluctantly declined my invite (I also had to change all four of my tires that weekend because it was that time of the year. Fail.)

I was thinking of giving up LudoBites this time around (it's a pop up restaurant that's only open for a limited time. Read up on the concept here on Nation's Restaurant News), since by the time August rolled around I had moved south of Irvine and the drive back from LA became grueling (and sleep inducing.) Plus, after two failed attempts and my friends having to cancel their reservations, I was starting to feel like there was this... Curse, of some sorts, latching on to me.

...BUT everybody tweets about the squid ink croque monsier! The foie gras tart! The foie gras CUPCAKE! And how they get to hang out with this rock star of a chef! Jealosy ensued, and it quickly became unbearable. I had to try just one more time, I had to.

So I did. 7 PM, Saturday.

I went to LA for work, with a good luck charm on hand (okay, it was a scholastic good luck charm that Don got me in college, but still... I was desparate), and the whole time I was counting the hours, the minutes, the very seconds to my ressie. After my work was done, we wiggled through the labyrinth that is LA and made it to BreadBar (in one piece!), where Ludobites was held, on time. Or so I thought. Turns out, I remembered the wrong reservation time and arrived an hour early! I totally blanked out from being nervous about this the whole day, but Krissy graciously let us in, saying that it was okay because another party canceled.

So, on to the food.

We started with something that sounded light: Hawaiian Tuna, Spicy White Chocolate, Grilled Peanuts Oil. Blood red tuna is actually pretty tasty with sweet chocolate and sesame-like flavors of the peanut oil, and the grilled baby peppers (shishitogarashi?) adds a nice mesquite touch. Japanese people approved!

We had some veggies too: Marinated Heirloom Tomato, Feta Mousse, Red Onions, Olive. It's pretty self explanatory - vinegary, salty, yummy goodness with a lace of fat from the light mousse - but fricking delicious.

And then something the Twittersphere won't shoosh about: Foie Gras Black Croque-Monsieur, Ham, Cherry, Amaretto. And, well, no wonder. This is fricking good. Smooth foie and ham, heat sealed with squid ink bread is good enough... But add the cherry-amaretto jelly and it is sublime. Crunch and mmmm, crunch and mmmm.

Something hearty for the boys: Poached Beef Tenderlon in Red Wine, Goat Cheese, Radish, Smoked Eggplants. Unfortunately I was a little meh about this, because I've been on a little beef overload as of late, but Twiggy loved it eggplants and all.

The Lacquered Pork Belly, Mustard Ice Cream, Vadouvan wowed us though. The outside of the pork belly was crispy like rib skins, with burnt sugars, but the inside was soft and juicy like a kakuni (Japanese stewed pork belly). The fluffy mustard ice cream was a delicious surprise, and surprisingly cooling. Plus, the frilly leaves had a great curry flavor, and who doesn't like curry?

"Pooooleeeeeentaaaaa!" is my favorite line in Bill Buford's Heat. It's also how I found out that this delicious corn goop doesn't only come in tubes from Albertson's. Chef Ludo's Creamy Polenta, Cantal Cheese , Oxtail Beef, Black Truffle is very, very rich in savoriness - I bet if you take out the polenta and put in ramen noodles, it'll still be good. Scoops of gooey polenta exposes shredded oxtail, and remotely reminds me of tamales. Twiggy, our resident carbs freak, was dying over this.

We ran into Jo and Noelle, fellow bloggers and tweeters, who had an earlier reservation that night. They told me that I HAD to get this new dish, and that I will my change my life. If the grown ups say so... Why not! So we ordered the Homemade Boudin Noir Terrine, Potatoe Puree, Mustard, Black Currants. Chef Ludo asked me if I knew what it was, just to be sure. I told him that I knew that it was something black and it came in terrine form, and he laughed. Oh my.

What came out is a dark mousse with a purple wine-y sauce, with smooth potato puree and green banana x passionfruit seed salad. One fearful bite, and it hits me instantly: ooooooh, pig's blood! The stuff in bun bo hue (Vietnamese spicy pork and beef noodle soup)! It wasn't so scary after that, and we enjoyed it very much. It's super good if you scrape the sauce with bread chunks.

We finished our meal with a Chocolate Cup Cake, Foie Gras Chantilly, Candied Bacon-Almonds, Maple Syrup. This was all over the blogosphere too, so I HAD to try it. Dense chocolate cake, piled on with rich foie cream Mrs. Beasleys style, and chunks of sugary bacon and nuts = weirdly yummy. I reckon this is similar to what a Foie Gras macaron from Pierre Herme would taste like - simply put, it's sugar-laced liver-ness. Twiggy was a bit irked by it, but I thought it was a nice finish to the meal.

I was sooooo nervous, that I couldn't talk much at first. But then when Chef Ludo made his rounds to say hi to his guests, Twiggy blurted out, "CAN WE TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU?!". Her defense: because I wouldn't ask myself (which is true). Then it was all down here from there: I couldn't stop talking, I blushed, I got drunk fast, and I even shamelessly asked for an autograph. But Chef Ludo and Krissy were very nice and welcoming, and we all had a grand time.

Too bad there's only a week left though... get your reservation while you can!

P.S.

As I was leaving, Krissy told me to be careful because, you know, with all that bad luck I've been having prior to the dinner. Which made the whole dining experience even more better... They care about their clients!

I really really really want to come back again before they close shop... We'll see what happens.

LudoBites at BreadBar

8718 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048
310.205.0124
www.ludolefebvre.com/ludo-bites/
Wed~Saturdays only

Awesome on a bun.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Yesterday I picked up a copy of this month's Saveur and nearly died... Because it's the burger bible for chrissakes!

Everything that you need to know about burgers, from toppings to the very patty, nicely written, with a bajillion photos for those who learn better with pictures! A very effective teaching tool for people with short attention spans, like myself.

Flipping through the pages, of course, gave me a honkering for a nice juicy burger. So I used some suggestions from Saveur to make a burger that Don just claimed to be the best burger he's ever had. Which means a lot, you know, because he eats a lot of burgers.

It took a good hour to make a complete burger, but we inhaled it in a manner of minutes. Still totally worth it. Yes, it's that good. And please don't point out the fact that I tend to inhale all food that is good.

Nutty x spicy x savory is the key to awesomeness in burger form. We didn't have any burger buns and improvised with sliced French bread, but it added a nice oomph of Euro-ness to the burger, combined with the secret mushroom sauce and parmesan crisp. Do yourself a little good and add a generous handful of baby arugala - it's kind of healthy, and gives a nice spicy edge. Again, awesome.

Mushroom Burger with Parmesan Crisp - makes 4

Patties

1 pound ground chunk, 80/20

1/2 small onion, grated

1 tablespoon capers

1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce

sea salt

ground pepper

4 pats of butter

Mushroom Sauce

1 small can of sliced mushrooms

2 tbsp Worchestire sauce

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp sake

Burger Fixin's

grated parmesan cheese

baby arugala

French bread

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Combine all patty ingredients in a bowl (except for the butter), and mix well with your hands. Let rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and spoon 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Flatten into a even circle. Make four of these and bake for 10 minutes. Let cool and sey aside.

4. Divide the patty meat into fours. Take a ball, and sneak in a pat of butter (it keeps it juicy!). Form into a patty, with a little dent in the middle.

5. Broil these in an aluminum foil covered baking pan for 7 minutes. Flip over and broil for another minute. Remove from oven and set aside.

6. Take the drippings/meat juice from the pan and pour into a small frying pan with sake, worchestire sauce, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil and add canned mushrooms, juice and all. Reduce until sauce-y.

7. Assemble the burger. Cover a slice of French bread with a big handful of baby arugala, place a patty, cover in sauce, and place a parmesan crisp on top. Nom with a fork and knife, or top with another slice of bread and go Micky-D style.

That's it for today!

helpless chicks.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:44:00 +0000

As some of you may already know, I'm half Japanese and Vietnamese. I'm fluent in both English and Japanese, but my Vietnamese - it's no bueno. Every time I try to say something in Vietnamese, someone in the room bursts into a laughter because I have such a harsh, convoluted gringo-jap accent.

And reading? Puh-lease. I just started to recognize meat types on the menu. And I'm way ahead of my two sisters (although Little One can do a hilarious imitation of a Vietnamese accent).

Now try to imagine what it's like to be a Vietnamese father, with three daughters who do not speak the language, stuck in a clusterf*ck of a restaurant in Little Saigon.

"DAAAAAAAAAADDY! I want coconut miiiiilk!"
"Daddy Daddy I don't want any pork blood in my soup!"

"Daddy I don't feel so good... I want rice soup. "

"Daddy can we eat dessert somewhere else, please?"

We peep like helpless chicks, mouth open, waiting for him to drop the worm into our gullets. Gawd, I feel bad for him as I type this. And a little embarassed, probably because we are age 24, 23, and 17, in that order. But this is what it was like at Brodard last night, at a good-bye dinner for my Dad and Little One.

Little One had her college orientation last week, but it was boring (it's Dad's third time to attend one, after all) so they ditched it to have a long vacation in SoCal. It was a fun week, but after days of playing and stuffing ourselves with greasy theme park foods, Dad was in dire need of good Vietnamese food.

When we go to a Vietnamese restaurant with Dad, we never tell him what we want. We tell him what we feel like eating, and he splurs something long and elaborate in Vietnamese to the waiter, half yelling because the acoustics in these restaurants are bad, and the food that the waiter brings out happens to be just what we needed.

For instance, last night, I was a little carsick (Dad still drives like he's in San Jose, regardless of where his current location is) and didn't feel like eating. And our conversation goes like this (forgive me for the mixture of English and Japanese - it's really how we converse):

"You okay? You look like shit. You want some Bun Bo Hue?"

"No, I want okayu (rice porridge). I want your okayu with abalone."
"They don't have that here. You can have some noodles. How about this? (Points at menu)"
"Okay."

And a few minutes later, the waiter placed a bowl of bun suong (Vermicelli with shrimp cake in freshly made pork broth accompanied with Asian herbs topped with crushed peanuts) in front of me: a very light pork broth, with round bun noodles, dry pork slices, and chunky shrimp cake, all hiding under a layer of scallions and cilantro. With a squeeze of lime and some torn-up pieces of mint, the dish was simple and delicious. All these familiar flavors (herby, porky, nutty) instantly made me feel better.

"Daddy, I want to eat banh mi (sandwich)," Twiggy said, "or pho."

"They don't serve pho here. And the banh mi here, it not very good. You want some banh xeo? We'll get that."

Then the waiter brought out a huge banh xeo (Pan-fried rice flour crepe flavored with coconut milk, filled with shrimps, sliced pork, onion, mung bean served with Asian greens and lime chili fish sauce). It stayed crispy around the edges, and the coconut-y flavor melded perfectly with the tart sweet chili sauce that accompanied the dish. Twiggy didn't know what the heck it was, but she enjoyed it very much regardless and polished it off her plate.

Dad, on the other hand, wasn't too happy about the tiny shrimps or the two pieces of sliced pork the crepe-like dish had.

"Man, I'm still full from Disneyland," Dad said. So he decided to split a bun thit nuong with Little One. On the menu, it is described as BBQ pork over vermicelli, Asian greens topped with crushed peanuts, shallot served with lime chili sauce.

"See, you take noodles, and some tsukemono (pickles), some vegetables, and some meat," he said, as he piled up a little of everything into smaller bowls. "And then you pour some sauce over and eat," and gave all of us little mini bowls of bun. Sweet, charred, carcinogen pork over cold noodles are delicious any time - I think of it like the Vietnamese's answer to hiyashi chuuka (Japanese cold ramen salad). The pickles and the lime sauce really brings it up a notch though.

"We have to get some nem nuong too," he said. "I told my friends that I was going to Brodard, and they told me to bring them back some. So it must be good."

Indeed, the nem nuong cuon is what Brodard is known for. Sweet pork meatballs, lettuce, fried eggroll skins, and a sliver of raw lemon grass are burrito'd up into see through salad rolls, and served with Brodard's signature garlic sauce. It's really delicious, and hard to mimic - a lot of people try to make it at home, but to no avail. Sometimes I find viewers who landed on this blog after googling "Brodard nem nuong sauce recipe".

Dad and Twiggy were eager to try this much buzzed dish, but Little One was skeptical. This salad roll with a long green tail, how could it possibly be the sole cause of the clusterf*ck of people waiting outside and around the restaurant?

"I only want half," she said, as she took a bite. She chewed a bit, and her eyes popped wide open. She took another bite, after dunking the roll into the secret garlic sauce. And another. And another. Then it was gone.

"Oops," she said, after she realized that she ate the other half she was supposed to give to Twiggy. "Sorry. But it was really good."

I was taking pictures of the food with the huge monster camera, which normally, Dad would disapprove (but let me get away with). This time, however, was a bit different.

"You like food, huh? You're such a weird kid," he said. "You know what? I'll take you somewhere that even you wouldn't know. Secret dessert place. You have to talk Vietnamese if you want to eat there."

So he drove us down a block to a dirty, DIRTY strip mall with parking issues (honks galore), to take us to a dessert place called Hien Khanh.

They specialize in che, or Vietnamese desserts. The system is organized chaos - part Wall Street, part Panda Express. There are lines, but it's full of pushy people, and you have to yell at the servers to get your order.

If you don't speak the language, I suppose you can grab a few items (like flan and yogurt) from their fridge in the back...

Or point at the samples.

Forgive me for the lack of words - I can't explain much because I don't know what the heck Dad ordered. I do know, however, that Dad ordered a lot of desserts. All of this (modeled by Little One) for $8.75!

None of the desserts are labeled, and the servers, well, English ain't their first language. You have to try to figure out what's-what, using your visual analysis skills - but be careful! The durian desserts and jackfruit desserts look awfully similar (thank god Dad caught that in time).

They have everything from weird goopy desserts, to classics that most Vietnamese restaurants carry - my favorite was the three-colored dessert with coconut milk, ice cubes, beans, and green jelly worms (pandan jelly?). The flan, I think, was not rich enough to be called Vietnamese (although the bitter caramel was perfect).

We took it back to Dad and Little One's hotel room, spread the goods on the floor, and pigged out Roman style. Classy.

At least I understood the language there, and was nomming with the people that makes everything, including food foraging, awesome.

Brodard
9892 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 530-1744

Hien Khanh
9784 Westminster Avenue
Garden Grove, CA 92844
(714) 537-5105

when the good gets negated by a 100.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 03:33:00 +0000

Every Wednesday is Don-cooks-dinner-day.

And when mon bebe mans the kitchen, he'll take something innocently healthy, like a piece of silken tofu, and negate all the good it has to offer by plopping into a bubbling vat of oil.

Shame, really. Because as bad it is for my aortic valves, fried tofu is frickin' delicious.

Did I say that it's ridiculously easy too?

Fried tofu - serves 2

1 block of silken tofu (14 oz)

1 knob of ginger, grated

2 stalks green onions, chopped

a huge handful of bonito flakes, preferably the large hana-gatsuo variety

soy sauce

oil

1. In a medium sauce pan (or home deep fryer), pour in globs and globs of oil so that you can deep fry your soul in it. Let it heat over medium. Throw in a piece of ginger - if it drops and bobs right back with a healthy ZZZZZZZZSH noise, it's good.

2. Plop tofu out of the container. Slice into halves, horizontally. Pat dry with a paper towel.

3. This is dangerous, but worth it (especially if you're not the one doing it). Gently place tofu into the oil and deep fry until golden.

4. Take tofu and cut into a 3x3 tic-tac-toe. Place mounds of scallions, grated ginger, bonito flakes, and drizzle soy sauce over. Oooh and aaah at the bonito flakes dancing in the steam, then devour with a can of ice-cold beer... Preferably Asahi.

It's basically a bastardized hiyayakko (cold tofu).

When you're done with the evil (yet delicious) fried tofu, try to have something healthy-ish for dessert.
Usually for dessert (okay, only during the winter), I melt a bit of Korean citron tea into hot water and drink it to prevent unwanted bacteria from invading my body... But sometimes it's too hot for citron tea. So I nom it.

I tell myself that I'm 'taking my vitamin C' and gloop a spoonful of this beautifully sticky mess-in-a-jar (or yuzucha, as the Japanese call it) over a little bit of ricotta cheese. It's bitter-sweet, in that good Flintstones vitamin kind of way. See, I'm taking my calcium too!

That's it for today. Have a good weekend!

dog days.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:12:00 +0000

Remember that tropical fruits rum I started last July?

Well - it's ready. And it's fricking delicious.

My Baachan used to make plum wine every summer, with a huge jar made especially for umeshu. She'd de-stem each green plum and wash it, pat it dry and throw it into the jar with some ice sugar (basicallly ginormous rock sugars), and cover it with 'white liquor', or shochu. She'd let it age for months, letting the sugar and plum juices waltz the alcohol down to a golden elixir of sweet deliciousness. She never had a recipe and tend to eyeball it, just like how she made her own bright red umeboshi pickles.

So, that said I don't really have a recipe either - everything is based on one 750 ml bottle of rum, and I added fruit to the infusion when I ever felt like it, or found something interesting. The result is a bright yellow liquor with noticeably dominant aromas of papaya and pear-like starfruit, and with a wee bit of bitterness from the lime peel. It's good, especially with some lemon lime soda. Anything works really, and I used Parrot Bay for this one (in my defense, this was before I met RumDood!!!), but if I were to do it again, I'd probably go with an Appleton Estate 15.

I do multiple infusions to make sure that everything is submerged... Otherwise you can have little microcosms of life in your booze, and that's bad. Sometimes if I have a really watery fruit (like nectarines and pears) I do multiple infusions of the same fruit. It makes it richer. If you want to use honey instead of sugar, that works too, but be sure too add about 1/4 cup more.

Tropical Fruit Rum with Papaya, Mango, Lime, Carambola

1 750 ml bottle of rum
1st infusion - 1 ripe carambola, 100g rock sugar (about a cup)
2nd infusion - 1 ripe mango, 1 ripe papaya, 2 inches lime peel

1. Sterilize a large mason jar with hot water.
2. Cut the ends off of your carambola (starfruit), and shave the tip off the ridges/star points. Cut into 4 portions and place into mason jar. Cover with sugar and pour all of the rum in, making sure that all of the flesh is submerged. Store in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks.
3. Remove carambola and add mango, papaya, and lime peel. Lid tightly, and store for another 4 weeks.
4. Remove the fruits and run it through a Brita filter (or cheesecloth if you want to be difficult) to remove cloudiness. Meanwhile, resterilize the mason jar. Pour filtered contents back in and store for at least 3 months before drinking.

Pretty easy, right? Now that your rum is ready, you can make delicious cocktails with it - like this one:

Basil Smash - one drink

1 part Tropical Rum
1 part lemon-lime soda
4 leaves sweet basil
1 lemon wedge

1. Tear apart basil leaves and place in glass (muddle if you like it strong).
2. Pour in some ice cubes, then the rum. Add lemon lime soda.
3. Squeeze in some lemon juice and chill.

This drink was PERFECT for the recent dog-day weather. Friday night, all I did was sip on this while I played video games. It was awesomely relaxing.

Saturday was even hotter, but I decided that I couldn't play video games all through the weekend and went to the fair with Twiggy.

We :LOVE: the OC fair... Because we're hillbilllies.

...Because the fair has an overabundance of BABIES!!!

More babies!

ANNNNND more babies!

...Because the county fair has a lot of silly things for your point-and-laugh pleasures.
Twigs aptly named these guys "Ku Klux Klan sheeps".

AND the fair has lots of booze. We tried some wine tasting - 2 tastes for 3 bucks! We had a Victor Hugo Malbec, a J.R. Storey Grenache, and some muscat dessert wines. Twiggy really enjoyed the Elysium from Quadi, which was a black muscat dessert wine - really, really sweet and juicy (and the cutesy heart label)- but that was about it. She still didn't get why her sister is ga-ga over booze.

Unfortunately the food wasn't as good as I remembered from last year - we had the Aussie battered potatoes, then shared a turkey leg and a corn dog. We were too stuffed to try any of the fried whitecastles/snickers/colas/shenanigans.

The OC fair is running till the 10th, so make sure to check it out!

down south.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:43:00 +0000

sorry for the krummy iphone pic :-\

This weekend, Mitsuwa Torrance & Costa Mesa are hosting a Kyushu (South Japan) Food Fair, with a strong emphasis on the Okinawan island fare.

Twigs and I stopped by the Torrance one on the way back from the California Gift Show. The Gift Show was pretty dead (very few exhibitors!), and after paying 12 bucks for parking, we were only there for an hour. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty crummy and needed some comfort food - so I pleaded Twiggy to stop eating pistachios in the carride back, and redirected her attention to something that was (supposedly) delicious but only available for a limited time: the Tatsunoya Ramen from Fukuoka.

Mitsuwa is known to host pop-up restaurants (which are gaining popularity in this less-than-stable world), particularly famous ramen shops from Japan. Tatsunoya hails from Fukuoka and is known for their signature tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen, but claims to be 'neither Hakata style or Kurume style (the original tonkotsu)' - rather, a mixture of both.

So we had the ramen... and WOW, it was frickin' delicious. The noodles are the straight, al dente type that's often seen in Hakata-style ramen, but the pork broth was so, so decandently rich. And the char-siu literally melts in your mouth - even Twiggy wanted more meat! So you have to go and try it, there' only here till Today.

After we finished the ramen, we checked out other things - like the flan cream puffs (they were delicious too - the Japanese has made sweetness control into an art form), saata andagi (Okinawan donut holes), and beniimo (Okinawan sweet potato) sweets. It seems that the they're some how trying to bring people into Okinawan tourism, because there were beautiful photos of their Naha beaches and Chinese-inspired temples everywhere. They even send you home with an Okinawa tour guide, which I read on the car ride back.

And reading this tour guide gave me a honkering for something else that was delicious Okinawan: somin champloo, or stir fried somen noodles. I had some at Chura-san, a bar in San Diego that my Dad-in-law frequents, and it was very good. It's more of a home-cooking dish, so it didn't make an apperance at the Okinawa fair. And by god, I had to have some, after all that Okinawa this! Okinawa that! promotion jabbed into my brain. So I made it for dinner.

Champloo means "mish mash" in the Okinawa dialect, and the champloo dish is exactly that. Traditionally, eggs, bitter melon, Okinawan tofu, green onions, basically anything and everything are mish mashed into a delicious stir fry. Add some somen noodles to the mix and voila! Somin Champloo. It's a gentle dish that's very easy to make, but you have to be fast! Like a ninja!

With that said, I am going to tell you that my version is FAR from the traditional prep, but it's got the important elements - it's basically a refrigerator clean up recipe (as you can see, I have an overabundance of frozen edamame). But try to use koh reh guu su - it gives your dish a nice amount of heat. If you don't have access to awamori liquor, chili-infused vodka or sake will do fine.

If you want to keep it hardcore and traditional, use lard in lieu of peanut oil. Obtain a piece of pork belly, set the fat on the pan and spread it around like butter. Other traditional substitutions would be: spam/canned tuna instead of anchovies, and nira chives instead of shallots.

Somin Champloo - serves 2

1 bunch somen

1/2 cup edamame

1 small shallot, chopped and finely minced

2 fillets anchovies, chopped

koh reh goo suu (chile infused awamori liquor - if you don't have any, use sake)

1 packet of katsuobushi flakes

a pinch of dried red chili, chopped into little rings

peanut oil

sea salt

1. Cook somen noodles according to instructions. Run it under cold water immediately and set aside.

2. Heat your large frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour in a glob of peanut oil (or, use lard!) and let that warm up.

3. Throw in dried red chili, shallots, and chopped anchovies, and a 3-finger pinch of sea salt and stir fry until shallots turn clear. Add edamame and stir fry to mix. Then give it a quick splash of koh reh guu su and let it simmer for a bit (until most of the liquid is gone).

4. Throw in somen and stir fry - but be careful! somen is sticky and tends to ball up. Toss your noodles with your cooking chopstick to mix. Continue until noodles are well coated.

5. Plate, and sprinkle generous amounts of bonito flakes. Watch the flakes dance, then let out an evil laughter and devour. Try to nom with a bottle of Orion beer.

Check out my koh reh guu su recipe if you're in the mood for a project!

Synaptic latex suits and spicy pork chops.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:51:00 +0000

That pretty much sums up last Saturday.

Every first Saturday of the month, all of the galleries and art studios open in the Santa Ana Artist's Village for a little night-time art fair called the Art Walk. Private artist studios are opened at the beautiful Santora Building. There is usually a *main* exhibition at the CSU Fullerton Grand Central Art Center, and another big collective at OCCCA. Jenn and I have visited the Art Walk several times, and each time we were introduced to gnarly artists like Basil Wolverton and Mark Mothersbaugh. It's really fun, and after you're done looking at artworks, you can hop on over to Proof Bar to get obliterated by stiff drinks.

Plus, there's a few eateries in the Artists' Village too: if you're into poetry readings you can get some vegetarian nosh at The Gypsy Den, but since Don decided to tag along, we had to go to an eatery that serves plenty of meat.

In comes Memphis.

When college was over and we became too old to join the Asian Invasion at Dave and Busters (that's what the bartenders call Thursdays because all of the UCI students would flock into D&Bs). When we found Memphis Cafe (the Costa Mesa flagship), we fell fell in love with their non-krunk-music DJ and stiff drinks, and quickly became regulars. Too many a times we I would be sitting on the curb outside of Memphis, sloshed, and the bartender would come out to ask Jenn if I was going to be okay. Then we grew out of the dance-and-lounge scene and hopped on over to the Detroit Bar, another Memphis Group location that was geared towards to indie rock crowd (where we fell in love with indie favorites Aushua and The Airborne Toxic Event.

I only started to eat at Memphis a year after we started drinking there, and was WOWed by the meatloaf. Since then, it's been one of my favorite 'American' cuisine restaurants.

Memphis Santora is the second addition to the Memphis Group. It's a 50ish themed restaurant with decor that is a cute mixture of mid-century and kitsch, and the menu boasts emphasis on soul food.

It was a nice day out, so we opted to stay inside... and started with drinks. Because we love the drinks here.

Jenn had the strawberry lemon drop, which is one of their signature drinks. It is ultimately girly and can be easily guzzled down by any booze-wuss. I had a glass of Urban Uco Malbec - last time I was here, I had it with the pork chops and it was awesome. Very blackberry-y.

I has a corm (bread).

This is why I am not a restaurant blogger: If I already like the item, I will always like it. Corn bread is a good example. It's crumbly, it's buttery' AND it has corn. Why would I not like it? Heck, I even like Souplantation corn bread, even though the corn kernels kind of scare me a bit. That said, Memphis's corn bread is pretty epic with butter.

Jenn told me to NOT let her order the meatloaf because she gets it all the time (it's THAT good). So she ordered this monster of a fried catfish with "hoppin’ john, collard greens, hush puppies roasted jalapeno, tartar sauce". I hate catfish, so I didn't even try... But the hush puppies were pretty good, although I felt like it was a bit of corn overkill after inhaling the preceding corn bread. The rice was good too, and reminded me of Wahoo's Fish Taco's rice. Jenn really liked the fish with the tartar sauce.

Don had the soul burger - ground angus chuck, chipotle aioli, pepper jack cheese, tomato, onion, pickle, house bbq sauce, shoestring fries. It was, to say the least, ginormous. He said that the burger itself was "okay", but the bbq sauce was delicious. He didn't even touch the chipotle aioli because he hates mayonnaise or anything that reminds him of it.

I had the spicy pork chops with jalapeno cheddar grits and green beans (sorry, it wasn't on the online menu). I had it last time and liked it, I had it this time I still liked it. The sauce is sweet but with a little bit of heat, and the jalapeno cheddar grits really really really good. Very comfort food. This time around the porkchop was little tough though.

We were going to order desserts, but our waitress disappeared on us. It took us a while to flag down the hostess to get our check, and since we didn't want to miss out on any exhibitions, we opted out. Oh well.

I was really excited to see the R. Crumb show...

But the exhibit at the OCCCA blew me away. Especially this weird latex display called Synapses totally creeped everyone out.

During the Artwalk the pieces were hanging from the ceiling, but during the show opening this Sunday (July 18th), real live people are going to be in these weird suits!

And I totally fell in love with this painting of an anteater. At $650, it's probably one of the most reasonable art pieces on premise... But I has no dinero for a painting of an anteater.

Can't wait till next month's Art Walk!

a guilt trip.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:31:00 +0000

"You don't even do chores anymore," he said.

It ticked me off a bit... But unfortunately, it's true.

I cook half as much as I did one year ago, and even then I resort to rescues and semi-homemade recipes because I'm too tired by the time I get home. The house is always messy because I work on weekends too, and laundry? Well, forget folding - I have an nice 'clean' pile on the bedroom floor which is now about the size of a beached walrus. Most days, I get home, plop on the sofa, and watch Netflix movies while chomping on some extreme Doritos with a glass of 2 buck chuck.

So, a bit of change is in order. I'm putting off laundry till tomorrow, and I can't really promise to put a halt on the Doritos (but I will :try: to decrease the consumption amount), but I certainly can throw something together so that he'll have a hot plate of food waiting for him. But to make sure that I won't strain myself too much from the get-go, I made something quick and easy.

It's tomato season, and the farmer's market's got a ton of them - ugly heirlooms, itty bitty sweet 100s, and my favorite - Momotaros. They're sooooo sweet, and the Japanese Grandma has a ton of organic ones. Normally, I would eat them as a chilled tomato salad, with some sliced red onions and homemade garlic dressing, but unfortunately they became too squishy for a salad because... Um, I haven't been cooking. So I threw them into pasta, along with some edamame because red is so cute with some green. Top this light pasta dish with some part-skim ricotta, and you'll have creamy goodness that won't make you bloated (like those darn Doritos).

Heirloom Tomato & Edamame Pasta - makes 2 servings

4 oz egg pasta

1/2 cup pancetta

1 medium shallot, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup edamame

2 small heirloom tomatos (Momotaro)

1/3 cup white wine (or sake, like I do)

10 basil leaves, chiffonade

Sea salt

Fresh ground pepper

1. Cook egg pasta according to package directions. We like it al dente!

2. Heat your frying pan over medium heat. Once it gets hot, throw in the pancetta and let it cook until the fat starts to ooze out and coat the pan. Then, throw in shallots and garlic and stir fry until shallots turn clear. Salt and pepper a bit.

3. Throw in tomatos, edamame and basil, and stir fry until well combined. Then splash in white wine/sake and scrape the bottom of the pan. Let most of the liquid evaporate until you have a thick sauce-y thing on the bottom of the pan.

4. Throw in pasta and toss with the tomato goo.

5. Plate, and top with a tablespoon of ricotta. Oggle at your dish, then mix everything into delicious chaos. Then nom.

To the rescue!

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:36:00 +0000

That Semi-Home Made Lady totally scares the bejeezus out of me.

...Probably because she looks like a witch. Oh, and her 'semi-homemade meals' are pretty effing gross.

But as much as I rip on that scary witch lady, sometimes even yours truly does a little semi-homemade (gasp!).

Maybe because I can't mimick that junky box mac n' cheese flavor if I make it from scratch... Maybe because my mom never allowed me to eat food-from-a-box as I was growing up, so I have to catch up on what I've missed. Maybe.

But admittedly, box mac n' cheese can get old after the first three bites. So we do a lot of 'rescues' around here.

'Rescues' are done with some 'good' ingredients, like real cheese and vegetables (re: not powdered). Here's how:

1. First, chop up some aromatic vegetables like onions and celery. Stir fry until caramelized with some olive oil. Add whatever spice you feel like - I usually use curry powder, paprika, and some powdered mustard. Just a pinch of each should suffice (okay, more like a teaspoon of curry powder).

2. Add some tomato paste to the stir fry, then deglaze with white wine, until most of the it has evaporated off. I used a voignier because that's all I had, which made a sweet and sour mac n' cheese. Yum.

3. Pour that deglazed goodness and mix in with your mac n' cheese.

4. Transfer to a mixing dish. Cover with some white cheddah' and some panko/parmesan mixture.

5. Bake until bubbly at top. Then nom.

Tadah! Instant cheese casserole. And it's quite delicious. Cronshay at the top, and kind of wholesome, and still retaining some of that junky cheese flavor.

What sort of 'rescues' do you do with junk food?

Corm, booze, and sunshine

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:02:00 +0000

July 4th was epic fun.

First, we went to the farmer's market to decide what to make for the upcoming BBQ. We dilly dallied, and played with the idea of a fruit salad...

... Until we saw THE CORM.

So we brought the corm home and slathered on some Japanese Summer Festival inspired spread. Soy sauce and minced garlic whipped into butter until creamy, slathered on to raw cobs, and then wrapped with two layers of husk for some smokey goodness.

And then we hauled it over to Kate's for the partay so that Josh (Kate's boy) can fire it up at the grill.

Roasted corm = smokey, garlicy, soy saucy summer goodness.

Blue skies, blue waters (a heated saltwater pool! Now that's hella bougie). It was pretty hot in inland Irvine, where Kate and Josh lives, so Twiggy and I (and Don) were basically going in and out of the pool throughout the afternoon.

Squeeeeeeeee.

While we were having fun splashing and swimming, poor Josh had to man the BBQ station to feed us PURE CARNAGE.

Jenn made ~~shrimps drowned in butter~~ garlic butter pepper shrimp.

We had plenty of desserts too.

Lots of booze and fun too. We had a healthy combination of margaritas, beers, and Disaronno Mist.

To enjoy a Disaronno Mist you will need:

Disaronno (or some sort of Amaretto)

Sierra Mist (or some sort of lemon-lime soda)

...and lots of ice

1) Fill a glass (in this case, the Red Cup) with ice.

2) Fill halfway with Disaronno.

3) Then fill the rest with Sierra Mist. Give it a whirl with a straw, then sip lazily under the sun.

Happy July 4th!

Chop Chop.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:47:00 +0000

Today I cooked a whole meal for the first time in weeks.

I made pork chops.

We cleared all the bills and paperwork from the table and made a nice place setting for dinner.

(If case you were wondering, we had curried pork chops with balsamic asian pears.)

It was kinda nice to sit down, and chit chat over real food.

Must try to do this more often.

Summer hits.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Don's mom gave me some figs two weeks ago, when we were down in San Diego for a wedding. Momma has a green thumb and grows a lot of things; these figs were only the first of her summer harvest.

I ended up coming back to the OC (and straight to work!) terribly, terribly sick, so I had Don unload all of our luggage for me. Which means he threw everything into the fridge, un-accordingly to my fridge organization guidelines.

This morning I stared at these now-ripe figs thinking, oh crap! I forgot about these. They somehow managed to creep out of their hiding, and to my dismay, much browner compared to what they were two weeks ago (and much squishier to the touch). My first reaction to the squish was simply ew, which was enough to scare me from eating these limited-time treasures raw. So what do I do?

Baking kills off [potential] bacteria, right? So I rolled them into my favorite scone recipe and made little fig rolls. Better safe than sorry, and plus, it was delicious!

Fig & Almond Rolls - makes 10 pastries

4 very ripe figs

2 tbsp brown sugar

honey

1 1/2 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 stick (6 tbsp) butter, cut into itty bitty chunks and kept cold
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
2 tsp lemon zest

2 tbsp sliced almonds
powdered sugar for dusting

1. Thinly slice figs and lay out flat in a dish. Sprinkle brown sugar over and drizzle with honey. Let rest for an hour.

2. Preheat oven to 425 F. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder into a bowl and whisk together with a fork.

3. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice and milk and let curdle. Set aside.

4. Throw in butter chunks, and using your hands, work the butter into the flour until corn-mealy. Leave some butter chunks here and there. Mix in almonds and lemon zest with a fork.

5. Pour in curdled milk and mix to combine (don't over mix!) - you will have a very stick batter. Flour your working surface and plop out your dough. Somehow, manage to flatten your dough out. Lay out slices of figs evenly, and then roll it up!

6. Slice your log (ideally, you can refrigerate this for 30 minutes so that it won't melt and stuff) into 10 slices. Plop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

7. Let it cool, and sprinkle some powdered sugar. Then nom!

Speaking of summer harvest, I just picked my first tomato(s) and cucumber. For some odd reason, my red lightning heirloom tomato has... no lightning (stripes) on it. The sweet 100s tomato was fricking delicious.

AAAAAND speaking of summer... In the OC, at least beachside where I'm at, summer means clear blue skies. Yep, we'll be having plenty of these.

Don felt bad that I was being cooped up in the house for so long, so he took me out to Laguna Beach for a brief out-day. It was fun, but I got tired real quick so we didn't stay for too long.

The ramen place with not-so-good ramen.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:03:00 +0000

I've been pretty sick for the last week or so. Everybody tells me that it's the wrath of the pork-kimchi that I always eat (goddamn media hype!) - which reminded me of an old haunt in Tustin that I used to go to a lot when I was a college student. So, here's a quickie post.

The place is called Kairaku-tei ('Happiness Place'), and among my friends we joke that it's 'the ramen place with not-so-good ramen'. Hey, I'm only being honest. But their non-ramen items are pretty good, and priced REALLY good. It's a hole-in-the-wall in old towne Tustin, and is in

a ghetto strip mall, next to a family discount outlet and a Mexican laundromat.

For six years I've eaten their combo A, which comprises of:

a mini salad with mystery 'Japanese dressing'

a mini shoyu ramen (I know I ripped on it, but it's okay in mini-size. Very bland, if you're used to Santouka or Shinsengumi stuff, and the noodles taste instant-y... But sometimes I get a honkering for its junkiness.)

and a mini pork kimchi bowl (or mini fried rice, or mini curry). All for under 10 bucks, including tax and tip!

Kairakutei got me into pork kimchi, and is responsible for my monthly pork intake. It's basically charsiu meat and kimchi, stirfried together and plopped on top of rice... but ooooh so good.

Don always gets the combo B, which a full sized shoyu ramen and a mini fried rice.

... Which he can only eat after he removes all the green peas with his ninja chopstick skills. A matter of seconds! The chow-han (fried rice) here is very simple, nothing fancy or mind blowing, but delicious nonetheless. This combo is less than 10 bucks, tax and tip included, too.

He also orders a side of chicken karaage with his combo ($4.95). Hands down, the BEST chicken karaage in the OC. Crisp, juicy, piping hot, and perfect with the mustard-mayo dipping sauce.

And... another reason why I come here. Their Annin Purin (Almond Pudding) is *the* shiznick.

More like almond panna cotta than pudding, but it's basically milky goodness that jiggles down your throat - SO good. I was still a little sick this day, and had most of my food boxed up, but I would never say NO to the annin purin. Never.

This is a mini-size, because they ran out of regular sizes (which happens a lot- people know how good this stuff is!) - which is usually 4.95. The recipe is top secret, and the chef-owner's wife makes it everyday herself.

Everybody has a restaurant that they go to, just because it's close to your house and decent. Well, this is mine.

Kairakutei
17292 McFadden Ave Ste L
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 368-0233

Quaff the summer.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 03:34:00 +0000

I am a sucker for sangria.

{Earl Grey Sangria}

I don't think I've ever met one that I didn't like.

{Peach Sangria via Memphis}

Okay, maybe one. The one from Cafe Tu Tu Tango I had last year was awfully chunky.

{Tempranillo Sangria via Old Vine Cafe }

But chunky sangria aside... I think that nothing screams summer like that light, happy combination of wine and fruits.
Especially stone fruits and white zin. Mmmm.

White nectarines, while they still have their crunch, is my favorite stone fruit. And the Beringer white zin? Call me a wine n00b, but that is still one of my faves. So it's only natural for me to wonder what the two would taste like together, non?

Well let me tell you. This stuff is good.

Not really what I was going for initially... But it's quite delicious. (I was initially planning to make a mille feuille, in the style of Mom, but I failed to realize that pie crust is not the same thing as puff pastry.)

It's light, like real sangria. A bit on the tart-sweet side, but the soy custard (another light addition!) will temper that into fluffy goodness. And the texture? Gooey and crispy, man, that's gold.

It's a lot of steps, but you'll forget all about it after you take a bite. Trust me.

Nectarine Sangria Tartlettes - makes about 10 little 4-inch diameter tartlettes

Candied Nectarines

using Michele Hume's wine syrup recipe

2 white nectarines

1 bottle of white zin

a cup of sugar

1 stick cinnamon

1. Core the nectarines, and thinly slice them.

2. Combine all ingredients into a medium pot and bring to a boil.

3. Lower to a simmer and let it be until 1/3 of the original volume. Take off of heat, and let cool.

4. Remove nectarine slices, and lay out flat on parchment sheet until ready for use.

Soy Custard

150 mL soy milk (I used SILK)

70g sugar

1 egg

25g flour, sifted

50 mL half and half

20g butter

1. Combine half and half and soy milk in a medium sized sauce pan, and bring to an almost-boil.

2. While you're waiting for that to happen, whip up the egg until white, and whisk in sugar until well combined. Then sift in flour, and beat until well combined.

3. Take a ladel full of the almost-boiling soy mixture, and pour into the egg mixture, and whisk in immediately. Repeat until all of the soy mixture is mixed in.

4. Pour the mixture back into the pot, and turn the heat on medium. Mix until it starts to get thick like, well, custard. Then bring the heat down to low and let it simmer for a minute, keep mixing. Turn off the heat and mix in butter.

5. Transfer to a bowl, and then saran wrap tight (meaning, no inch of the custard is to be exposed to air!). Let it cool until ready to use.

Finally, making the tartlettes:

1 frozen pie sheet

Candied Nectarines

Soy Custard

1. Using a round cookie cutter (or a wine glass, if you are equipment derived as I), punch out as many circles as you can.

2. Bake circles according to box directions.

3. Let it cool. Transfer soy custard into a pastry bag, equipped with the star nozzle. Pipe out custard onto the pie circles. Then top with candied nectarines.

4. Oggle at the beautiful piece of dessert you just made. Then om nom nom nom nom.

You will have an obscene amount of custard left over. You might choose to make more, but I have to tell you that they are awesome on top of fresh strawberries. AWESOME, I tell you.

A Cozy.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Fancy schmancy white-cloth-napkin places are nice too, with all those amuse bouches and waiters who are willing to clean up bread crumbs with their special bread crumb brushes... But I'm much more of a neighborhood bistro/trattoria kind of girl.

But you knew that already. And because you know that this OC chickie digs itty bitty cozy places, my love for the Old Vine Cafe shouldn't be a surprise either.

It is also pertinent for you to know that Old Vine Cafe is situated in a little mall that I call the feel good centre of Orange County. It happens to be one of my favorite places to be - the mall is called the CAMP, and it's where the hippies, organic manics, skaters, and vegans like to hang out. It's got everything that the alternative crowd needs: a raw food restaurant, an itty bitty art gallery, a tattoo parlor, organic clothing stores, a skater shop, a scuba center... the list goes on and on.

I interviewed the chef at Old Vine back in November, when I was still a foodblogging noob and didn't know squat about writing. Chef Mark McDonald was really nice and took the time to give fully elabored answers to my rather insipid questions. I've always liked Old Vine Cafe before, but since then I've been enamoured. Plus, the chef is really cute (I am a sucker for men who are passionate about their craft).

The food is whimsical, a delicious take on comfort foods, and always makes me cozy after the first couple bites. It's Californian with heavy Italian influence, which is I guess given, since Chef Mark studied a bit in Southern Italy. The ginormo beverage list is a survey of libations across the Euro-influenced world, like Spanish reds and Aussie whites, and a good chunk of craft beers. Service can be a bit off when it's busy, but in their defense, they only have room for one waiter (the owner and brother, Brandon, helps too). The space is simply put, gorgeous.

For starters, you can get a simple sangria made with Tempranillo - the wine is very berry-like to begin with, and none-too-fussy. It's a light and whimsical drink, and goes down like juice. But if that's not quite what you're looking for, just ask Brandon, for a little help. Don't worry, he won't bite.

When I go to Old Vine, I usually get small bites with some wine, like the burratta caprese and porcini mac n' cheese. But this time I finally gave in and tried their tasting menu. For 65 bones, a 4 course wine-paired dinner ain't bad at all - it's just that I only started to like wine in the recent months. I ordered the seasonal tasting menu (it changes periodically), but had the second course switched with that of the original tasting menu due to my allergies to zucchini.

The first course was Panko Crusted Goat Cheese, on a bed of Organic Mixed Greens with a Red Grapefruit Vinaigrette, paired with a 2007 Bottromagno Gravila from Puglia Italy. The grapefruit cut the grease of the fried cheese and eased my belly load, and it was delicious. I expected the goat cheese to be incredibly smelly and choking, something aking to feta overload, but this went down surprisingly easy. The Gravila was rather heavy-bodied for something that dry... I think I was happier eating the salad with the sangria. But that's just me.

Secondi: Handmade Fettuccini Pomodoro garnished with Aged Pecorino Romano Cheese (Paired with a 2005 Icardi Barbera D'Asti, Piedmonte Italy). This is an item that's always on the regular menu, but I never tried it for some odd reason. Good thing I had it tonight - this is some good pasta!!! Delicate fettucini tangled with creamy tomato sauce, paired with a light, berry-y red... Le sigh. This kind of food - unfussy yet refined and happiness inducing - is what Old Vine Cafe *is*.

But then the bad happened. I became full before my last savory course!!! Old Vine gives ginormous portions of wine, and it was taking up my belly space. So I plowed through and ate my

Certified All Natural Australian Lamb Chop, Sauteed Mustard Greens, Tortilla Espanola & a Peppercorn Monastrell Demi (Paired with a 2004 Portico del Castillo Monastrell, Yecla Spain). The lamb and the mustards were great (this is coming from a person who dislikes gamey meats), but I didn't like the tortilla - actually I thought that they were potatoes until I read the menu just now. The sauce was just a tad bit too salty for me, but the wine helped to temper it.

Dessert, and the sole reason why I chose the seasonal menu over the original tasting menu: Pear & Walnut Phyllo Dough Purse drizzled with Pear, Vin Santo Syrup & dusted with Powdered Sugar (Paired with a 2002 Agricoltori del Geografico Vin Santo Del Chianti). Very much like a baklava, only with pear and yummy, maple-y Vin Santo drizzled on top. It was a well organized madness of crispy, nutty, chewy, sticky, and sweet. The paired dessert wine tasted old, in a good way (does that even make sense?), and very much like dense plum wine.

From the get-go you knew that this was going to be more like a love letter than a restaurant review. I'm not a good critic, guilty as charged.

To me, eating is a loving process, and I don't really have the space in my brain to critique while I nom, get drunk, and chat with my friends. I savor the moment. And the Old Vine Cafe is really good at making that moment extra special.

Which is exactly why I chose it as the venue for a send-off dinner for my friend, Aaron, who's moving to NY for grad school. Aaron is one of my first foodblogging friends that I met at the Blanca dinner last August, and also one of the most politest, sweetest guy I've ever known. I suck at typing out emotions with sophistication, so here goes: AARON! I'm gonna miss you lots. Plus, you suck (for leaving us), but not really ('cause you DID IT!!!). You're gonna do fine, I'm sure, but you'll always have a place to nosh here. Love, ila.

Old Vine Cafe

http://oldvinecafe.com
2937 Bristol St. Suite A-102 (All the down, behind Bikram Yoga)
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-545-1411

He did it.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:10:00 +0000

HE did it. Not me.

HE gave in and bought a Nikon D90.

Squeeeeeeeee!

It's a beautiful camera, it really is. It's so ginormously bulky and heavy - as if the weight of camera gauges the weight of the photo you will be taking with it. Not whimsical like my toy cameras, not quick like my P&S. This is heavy, technical, and, well, tres cool.

That said, I seriously do not know what I'm doing with this hunk of fragile awesomeness. Don bought some itty bitty Nikkor lense, which some people tell me that they absolutely lurv it, some people tell me that they hate it. I don't know what to make of it because I'm not sure if I'm using it in the correct context.

Don seems to have a good grasp because he's the type to read the manual from start to finish before attempting to do anything with it. Me, on the other hand, I'm much more of the trial-and-error type. Which is, well, funny, because I'll be the one taking most of the pictures.

So bare with me through the first couple posts, as I teeter through the learning process. And while you're waiting, you can whip up & enjoy this easy-peasy dish that isn't half as fussy as this new camera of ours. In fact, this is so easy, and so quick, and relatively cheap, that I might as well call this dish the Ila Recession Special. Actually, scratch that - it sounds terribly, terribly unappetizing now that I typed it out.

I don't know what to call it, but Don calls it 'fancy tuna macaroni'. So for now, it shall be Fancy Tuna Macaroni.

Fancy Tuna Macaroni with Sundried Tomato, Basil, Parmesan - serves 2

4 oz dry macaroni

1 canned tuna, packed in water, drained

4 sundried tomatos in oil, patted dry, chopped up.

a clove of garlic

a handful of fresh basil, chopped into a thin chiffonade

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

white wine

olive oil

salt & pepper

1. Boil the macaroni according to al dente instructions.

2. Heat a glob of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Throw in minced garlic and let it cook until the aroma of the garlic fills your room.

3. Add tuna to that, as well as the basil, and stir fry with some fresh ground black pepper for abour 3-4 minutes.

4. Bring the heat up to high, and add a splash (~1/3 cup) of white wine, and deglaze. Scrape sides. Let it condense until it gets sauce.

5. Combine this tuna mixture, sundried tomatoes, macaroni, and parmesan cheese. Toss until well mixed. Sprinkle in some sea salt if you'd like.

6. Nom with a glass of crisp, dry white wine.

This is SO SoCal.

noreply@blogger.com (ila) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:28:00 +0000

I know that last week I told you that I'm on a diet, but I have to tell you something. I'm getting sucker into my wrap-everything-in-tortilla phase.

Which only can only mean one thing: delicious SoCal food.

To clarify, Asian + Mexican = SoCal. Or at least LA food.

I firmly, firmly believe that if you were a college student in the southern California and did not live at home, you have at least once attempted to make some sort of fusion Asian-Mexican dish.

Left over meat from Korean bbq? Burrito it. Mapo tofu from Chinese take out? Slap it on a tortilla with some cheese and press it with the George Foreman grill (because you are too poor and can not afford a real panini press). Lemongrass chicken from last night's Vietnamese dinner??? That shiz is GOLD with some lime juice and onion salsa.

That said, I've been eating the likes of Mapo Tofu Quesadillas (though I've been making my own filling because I find that restaurant ones are not spicy enough) and minced-up Galbi tacos since college. There's something so wrong and satisfying about this fusion... And just thinking about what my parents would say if they ever found me stuffing my face with one of these makes it that much mas delicioso.

There are a lot of combos that we eat, but tonight's recipe is hands down, a winner. It's three of our favorite foods, combined into one hot gooey mess: pork kimchi, bell pepper namul, and glorious, glorious cheese. The go chu jang gives it a pleasant amount of heat while the bell peppers add a cooling sweetness to the mix, and the sour kimchi balances everything with the cheese - it's seriously good.

Buta Kimchi Tacos (Pork Kimchi Tacos)

You need:

some Bell Pepper namul salad (recipe)

some warm Buta Kimchi (recipe)

flour tortillas

shredded 'Mexican blend' cheese

1. Warm a tortilla on a un-oiled, naked frying pan over medium heat. Wait 10 seconds and flip.

2. Sprinkle some cheese on one side. As the cheese starts to melt, pile on Buta Kimchi and namul salad.

3. Wrap it up.

4. Nom. And then make another.

Holynutsthatwastooeasy. Now get up and make yourself some good Korean(ish) tacos!