Off I go!

Kobe, Japan 2008
One of my favorite vacation photos I ever took.

I never intended my bon voyage post was going to be like this. I'm off to China for a month! For the past month I thought I was leaving on the 10th of August. When I woke up this morning and talked to my dad he kindly inform me that my ass got the departure date wrong. Yes, I'll be leaving on the 10th, as in boarding the plane at midnight August 10th! Nothing was packed and there was still a few toiletry items I need to get. Luckily, I realize this in the morning. The race was on to pack a whole month worth of clothing and necessities. This hiccup really screwed up my schedule. I was planning to move the blog from Blogger to Wordpress tonight and I had 2 posts that were almost ready to go live. Unfortunately, all that will have to wait until I come back.

I don't know how I could messed up the departure date. I'm blaming this on the fact that I'm really excited about the trip! Yup, yup, yup. That's what happen. I will be spending most of my time in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and its surrounding cities. The last time I was in China was 10years ago. I was 16 and had long blond permed hair. I look like a poodle.

I wish this post could be longer, but off I go! Not sure how good Twitter access will be in China, but I'll try my best to tweet as much as I could. Follow me @friedwontons4u. See you in a month!

Meal Ticket

THE GOOD WORD Vol. 4

If you didn't catch my tweet on Twitter last Friday about being feature on Philadelphia City Paper's food blog Meal Ticket, well I'm here to spread my excitement and happiness to you now. Please check it out!

Mr. Drew Lazor, associate editor at Philadelphia City Paper and co-editor of “Meal Ticket", also interviewed me a few months back on the Feb/Mar 2009 issue of Theme Magazine's article Gastroporn . If you are a Top Chef Masters fan, Mr. Lazor writes a great review of each episode every Thursday.

Thank you everyone who has been so supportive of this blog. I never expected much from it when I first started it, but I have met so many wonderful people who are as passionate about food as I am through it. I've been working on a new look and moving the blog to Wordpress, so expect to see a new layout in a few days.

Champagne Wishes and Pineapple Dreams

Pineapple sorbet gets boozed up.

I remember the first ice cream maker I bought was a dinky Panasonic BH-941P. It ran on two lithium batteries and made about 2 cups of ice cream per batch. It was slow and you had to freeze the whole machine in the freezer as it turned the mixture. I did not have much success with it, so when my friend bought me a Cuisinart ice cream maker for my birthday this year, I envision myself making bathtubs of ice cream. That was not the case. I had failures, after failures, after failures. One probable cause (well, maybe the biggest one) was that I was making ice cream in the middle of the night, like at 12am or 1am. Those are dangerous culinary hours for my brain. I'm either half asleep or insanely awake and filled with "brilliant" ideas. Who needs directions! Ice cream bowl need to be freeze for at least 24hrs? Blah! 12hrs is enough! Oh, it can only hold 4 cups and not 4.5 cups of content? So what! Lets add mint leaves into green tea ice cream! Who cares if it taste like green toothpaste. *Sigh* I might have not cared when I was making it, but I sure as hell did when I woke up the next morning. One flavor I tried in vain on making again and again was cantaloupe.


Cantaloupe Ice Cream TAKE 1
If your ice ream maker states it could only hold up to 4 cups of liquid, don't try to be a smartass and sneak in 1/2 cup more.


Cantaloupe Ice Cream TAKE 2
Always freeze your ice cream maker bowl as directed. Soupy ice cream is not attractive nor is it tasty.

I needed to get serious. No more putting my own special touches on ice cream recipes when I haven't even master the basic yet, and NO MORE LATE NIGHT ICE CREAM MAKING. I needed help too, and David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop" came to my rescue. From custard to non-custard based ice creams, to granitas and sorbets, The Perfect Scoop does a great job at covering basic flavors and adventurous ones as well. Pages and pages of recipes like Aztec Hot Chocolate Ice Cream, Lemon Speculoos Ice Cream, Saffron Ice Cream, and even Rice Gelato. Yet, the one that really got my attention was Pineapple Champagne Sorbet. I love everything and anything that has pineapple flavoring.


The texture was light, but not the flavor.


The book also suggest serving it in goblets with a splash of bubbly.

Did it turn out to be the perfect scoop? Not exactly. It was pretty close, and with all the ice cream failures I've been having, almost definitely did count. The only problem was the consistency. It had an airy texture to it. Maybe that's how it's suppose to be? Not sure, but it was good none the less. It tasted like I was biting into a pineapple...a very fluffy one.



Pineapple Champagne Sorbet
(From David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop)

Ingredients:
2 cups/500 ml puree of pineapple, peeled and cored (about 1/2 of a pineapple)
6 tbps/75 g of sugar
1/2 cup/125 ml of Champagnes or sparkling wine

Directions:
Cut the pineapple into chunks and puree in a blender with the sugar until smooth.

Stir in the Champagne.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

ChefAMe

Smoked Mussels with Paprika Mustard Oil.

Most of the time when I tell people I've tried chicken sashimi before the responses are usually "What the...", "Why?", and the popular "Ewww!" Never have I thought "Congrats, you've won free dinner for your weird culinary experience." and that is exactly what happen. Last Monday was the 3rd ChefAMe dinner. They had a contest via Twitter a few days before the event and asked followers to tweet the strangest food they've eaten. I was very excited to have won, because I actually was thinking about buying tickets the same day the contest was announce. So what is ChefAMe? Their website explains it best on what it's is all about.

"ChefAMe is an open mic night for local chefs — an open kitchen night to be exact. Instead of opening a restaurant, we decided that we’d go another route. We found an amazing local restaurant willing to open their kitchen one night a week so that local talent — our friends and friends of friends — could not only try their hand at a commercial kitchen but offer up their delicious food to a restaurant full of people."

Not only does the event showcase local talents, but it's also for a good cause. The 3rd installment of ChefAMe benefited Lutheran Child and Family Services. On to the food!


Roasted Asparagus Salad with Pickled Red Onion, Fresh Orange, and Pine Nut Crusted Goat Cheese

The night started off with an "amuse bouche" of Smoked Mussels with Paprika Mustard Oil as shown in the very first picture. French for "mouth amuser" the "amuse bouche" was a great tease indeed and had me looking forward to the first course, Roasted Asparagus Salad with Pine Nut Crusted Goat Cheese. The goat cheese was definitely the star of the plate.


Seared Jumbo Scallop with Roasted Eggplant Bruschetta and Aged Balsamic Vinegar


Wild Mushroom Crepe with Tarragon Creme Fraiche

The second course was a Seared Jumbo Scallop follow by a Mushroom Crepe. The scallop was plump and juicy. The creme fraiche sauce was a nice tangy companion to the savory crepe. As the food continue to slowly arrive one by one, what I notice was the portions of each dish. The chefs didn't try to stuff your stomach with each course and leaving you exhausted when the next one came. Each dish prep you for the next one and left you satisfy enough until the next one was served.


Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloin


Skirt Steak


Blueberry Crumble Tart with Buttermilk Ice Cream and Lemon Curd Sauce

As the sun slowly set, the flavors of the courses intensify. Although there were a few rich flavor elements (the goat cheese and the creame fraiche) in the first 4 courses, most of the dishes were light. For the last 3 courses, the flavors were more bold and it started with the fourth course of Spice Crusted Pork Tenderloin. A tender Skirt Steak followed and the night ended with a Blueberry Crumble Tart with Buttermilk Ice Cream.

ChefAMe is definitely something I would attend again. Not only was the food amazing, but so were the people there. I sat in a long table by the window and shared some great conversations with other attendees. ChefAMe not only showcased local talents, but it really spotlighted Philadelphia's great food scene. The 4th ChefAMe will be held on July 27th. For more info on ChefAMe and its upcoming event, please visit their site at www.chefame.com and you can follow them on Twitter @ChefAMe

Hooray For Rainy Days

Thin slices of beef sizzling away. The first step of Kansia style sukiyaki.

Last Thursday was one of those days where the rain never seem to end and I didn't mind one bit of it. It was the perfect lazy stay at home weather, order a pizza from Papa John's, watch some past seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD, and call it a night. Instead, I only had one thing on my mind. Sukiyaki. I don't remember the first time I had sukiyaki, but I do remember where. It was at Sagami in New Jersey. Sagami is my go-to, always reliable, and never let me down Japanese restaurant. Its decor is not sleek and modern. You won't find any cutesy fruity martinis, the restaurant is BYO, and there are no "crazy rolls" or "volcano rolls" or rolls that look insanely big and all tend to taste the same after a while. Don't get me wrong, I love a good momo saki and a dragon or rainbow roll every now and then, but sometimes you just want food that you know won't disappoint. For me, Sagami's sukiyaki is one of those dishes.


My overflown pot of beef comfort goodness

As much as I love the one at Sagami's, I realized I never made it myself before. I don't know why I never did and now I wish I had cooked it sooner. There's hardly any prep work involve and the only special equipment you really need is a butane burner. So what is sukiyaki? It's a type of one pot or hot pot Japanese dish. Other types of popular one pot Japanese dishes you might heard of includes oden and shabu shabu. Like many hot pot dishes, it's mostly eaten in the winter. Awwww...nothing like warming up to a pot of steaming goodness as you patiently wait with your chopstick for your food to be cook right in front of you. It's the ultimate food porn tease!

Sukiyaki mostly contains thin slices of beef, melted beef fat, yakitofu (slightly grilled tofu), nappa cabbage, shitaki mushroom, shirataki noodles, and leeks. As for the sauce, it's usually a mixture of water, soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. There are two different ways of preparing sukiyaki. One is Kansai (Osaka and its surrounding region) style and the other is the Kanto (Tokyo and its surrounding region) style. Ingredients in the sukiyaki also slightly varies from region to region. With Kansai style, the thin slices of beef is seared first in the pot over the butane burner. Sugar is then added to the beef, follow by the sauce, and lastly the vegetables. With Kanto style, the sauce plus the sugar is added first and then follow by the beef and vegetables.


Sugar is added to seared beef in the second step of Kansai style sukiyaki.

When searching for a sukiyaki recipe, I knew where to looked instantly. Just Hungry! Just like I turn to Sagami for my go-to Japanese food fix, Just Hungry is the equivalent of that when it comes to searching for Japanese recipe. For more info on sukiyaki please direct your hungry eyes towards Just Hungry's Classic Sukiyaki, The Quintessential Japanese Beef Hot Pot, post.

For my version of sukiyaki, I decided to omit beef fat for...ummmmm...healthy diet reasons? Oh who am I kidding. I didn't use it because I didn't have any around. I bet it would have only made the dish better if I did. I also used regular and not grilled tofu, omitted leeks simply because I didn't have any around, and added carrots, scallion, enoki mushrooms, and onions into the mix. I decided to cooked mines Kansai style.



Kansai Style Sukiyaki
(Adapted from Just Hungry)

Ingredients:
1/2lb to 3/4lb of sukiyaki "cut" beef or well marbled thin slices of sirloin
(I was able to find sukiyaki cut beef at a Korean supermarket)
2 scallions
1/2 of a medium carrot
1 small onion
A hand full of enoki mushrooms
6 pieces of fresh shitaki mushrooms
1 small or 1/2 of a medium napa cabbage
1/2 package of firm silken tofu
Flat white noodles or udon noodles
Shirataki noodles
(Do not use the Tofu Shirataki Noodles, but rather use the black or white yam noodle type of shirataki.

Sauce or Broth:
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of sake
1/4 cup of mirin
1/4 cup of sugar

Equipment:
Butane burner
A flat cast iron pot or a frying pan with high sides.

Directions:
Prep your vegetables first.
Cut scallions into 1 inch long pieces.
Slice the carrot thinly with a mandolin slicer into 1 1/2 wide pieces.
Half a small onion and cut into medium slices.
Chop the steams off the shitakis and cut the roots of the enoki mushrooms.
Cut the napa cabbage into 1 inch pieces.
Cut the tofu into chunks.
Cook the udon noodles, rinse it with cold water, and set aside.
Blanch the shirataki noodles for a few seconds and set aside.

Leaving out the sugar, combine the rest of the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.

Turn on your butane burner to medium high and set your cast iron pan or deep frying pan on top. I used a deep frying pan.

Drizzle a few drops of oil and add in the thin slices of sukiyaki cut beef. Brown the beef on both sides and when that is done, add in the sugar.

Coat the beef with the sugar for a minute and then add in your sauce mix.

Keeping the flame on medium high, add your vegetables and the shirataki noodles, but not the udon noodles, when the sauce begins to simmer.

Turn down the flame and let it slowly simmer. Once the vegetables are cooked through it's time to eat! Just pick out whatever you like.

Sukiyaki is usually serve along a bowl of rice. Remember to equipped your guest with long chopsticks or forks and a small ladle for the tofu.

Add the udon noodles towards the end or mid-way of the meal.




Noodles completes the last step of sukiyaki.

Have you ever had sukiyaki before? What's your favorite one pot dish to cook and eat?