April 17, 2010
Today Janice, Nancy, and I embarked on the spicy ramen challenge at Orochon. We had to finish an enormous bowl of ramen in 30 minutes. The noodles were totally do-able but the broth felt like a cat was clawing up my throat. The broth had what had to be a cup of raw jalapenos and every spoonful had mounds of red pepper.
janice, before
nancy, before
we tried to counter the spice by ordering cucumbers and rice. I think they helped quite a bit.
the results: failure. all three of us, failures
saehee, after
nancy, after
janice, after
the aftermath: janice’s ears were on fire, I started shaking, and nancy threw up.
we immediately went out for frozen yogurt which i think is probably the only reason i’m not in the throws of pain right now. remarkably, I feel fine. actually, i’m pretty hungry.
March 22, 2010
food is like flower arranging for my grandmother
my grandmother’s meticulous cooking notes–curiously written in Japanese
rolling the egg! my favorite part!
the set-up
My grandmother is a stunning human being. What will it take for me to acquire these sort of cooking skills??! I thought I was fairly detail oriented when it came to food but my grandmother is just of another caliber.
Ever since her arrival she’s been promising to teach me how to make futomaki, which I believe translates to “fat rolls”. haha. fat rolls.
We went to the Japanese market today to buy ingredients for my tutorial where we quite literally wrestled at the cashier trying to both pay for the groceries. She is frighteningly strong for an 80 year old. There was hair pulling and I have scratches on my arms. It was embarrassing and hilarious and totally typical of our family. She later said that she only let me pay because she was scared she was going to pull my hair out if we continued any longer.
I’m going to warn you now, I am going to sentimentalize the hell out of this experience–learning how to roll futomaki with my grandmother will likely be one of my favorite food experiences ever. I was photo documenting as I always do and she kept asking if I didn’t need to write down notes. I responded that the photos were like my cooking notes and that my blog was like her incredibly detailed cooking notebooks (pictured above) and I became pleasurably aware of our generational differences.
Everything that my grandmother cooks has such a great deal of precision to it. The cucumber has to be brined until it bends without breaking. The egg has to be sieved twice to avoid unattractive white lines running through it (she calls this the “ear of the egg”). The mushrooms have to be boiled until perfectly glossy and the liquid completely absorbed. The greener side of the avocado has to be facing inwards towards the center of the roll. The radish sprouts have to be fuller at both ends so that they look like flowers when the rolls are cut.
I always considered futomaki to be a lesser variety of sushi because it contains no raw fish but I will never make that mistake again! So much work goes into each roll! We also made what my grandmother called a Western style salad-a roll, which was basically an inside out California roll.
Cooking with my grandmother confirms my firm belief that food should be beautiful–that the eye eats as much as the mouth. She makes me feel romantic about food. Details matter to me. It’s nice to learn from someone who feels the same. As we were doing the final plate arrangement she turned the plate from every angle and said to me that well made food has to look good from every side and we put our faces right up to the plate and studied our work almost scientifically. Amazing. I want everything in life to be done with that much careful precision and consideration.
January 26, 2010
Lately Nancy and I have been talking about this mysterious positive energy that seems to be floating near us. It feels fragile and precious and somewhat difficult to describe, except that tonight sort of summed it up for me. Last minute and kind of out of nowhere I had an itch to cook dinner for my friends–something warm and cozy and carby. Lan, Nancy, and Sam were kind enough to scratch this itch and we all ate udon, broccoli and vegan meatball, and yuzu salad together, crammed into my tiny kitchen with soup bowls in our laps. It felt impromptu and unusually easy. While we were eating I marveled at how amazing it was that I met Nancy during a certain part of my life, Lan in another, and Sam in another and we were all sitting together, eating, talking. It’s strange and wonderful that we’ve converged in this way. I feel grateful for this.
Afterwards we went to Scoops and Nancy bought me ice cream. Also grateful for this.
November 7, 2009
yellowtail sashimi with jalapenos and ponzu
ika maru
chicken salad
yellowtail collar
salmon tataki
October 11, 2009
I ate stewed kabocha squash the other day at Honda-Ya and thought I’d try my hand at replicating the dish. Surprisingly easy. My mother says kabocha is amazingly healthy, but then again she says this about many things. I’m inclined to believe her in this case though and even if it weren’t true it really wouldn’t matter. Also, I like that the rind is edible. Eating rind makes me feel kind of monstrous in the best way possible.
Stewed Kabocha Squash
1 pound kabocha squash thoroughly washed and cubed, rinds still on
1 cup fish instant dashi
1/4 cup mirin
3 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 pieces of dried seaweed
* to make vegan, replace fish dashi with soy sauce and instead of 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, use 5 tablespoons
1. place the cut up squash in a large pan, rind side down
2. in a separate bowl mix all other ingredients
3. pour the sauce ingredients over the squash and bring to a boil over high heat
4. once the mixture has reached a boil, cover it and boil for about 15 minutes (on until fork tender depending on the size of your kabocha cubes)over medium heat
5. refrigerate until cold and serve with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds
August 20, 2009
sashimi bowl
takoyaki
synchronized eating
steamed crab shumai
chicken salad with mayo cod roe dressing
seared tuna with ponzu
zaru tofu
ika sashimi
When asked what cuisine I couldn’t live without, my answer comes out pretty readily. It’s Japanese. I mean, Spanish is pretty exciting, French is wonderful, Vietnamese is my idea of comfort food. But when it comes down to it, if not for Japanese food, there would be a great big gaping black hole of culinary misery in my life.
What I find really great about Japanese food is that there is a duality about Japanese cuisine–the elegant minimalist side most obviously embodied by sushi and sashimi, which is probably what it most popular. Whoever first decided that fish can be eaten raw, well that person is just miraculous.
But just as wonderful is that Japanese food also includes saucy fatty gluttonous foods that often include all sorts of mayo, deep frying, and big flavors. I’m not sure but I think a lot of Japanese bar food may have developed with the onset of Westernization (think: mayo).
And also presentation: Japanese food is just so beautiful to look at. Japanese sweets are unbelievable. I can hardly eat them, they’re so delicately made.
That’s not true. I can eat them.
When I was in Japan last Winter we saw these tiny candies (the size of a pinky toenail) with really detailed faces painted on each one.
My family loves Honda- Ya because we can get both sides of Japanese food at once.
We always order takoyaki there, which I think can be qualified as Japanese street food) are these doughy balls of octopus and bonito flakes. I have fond memories of going on a road trip in Japan with my mother’s side of the family and stopping at the Japanese equivalent of a truck stop and ordering takoyaki from a street vendor and passing around the styrofoam plate around the car.
My mother always orders the chicken salad at Honda-Ya, which is okay but I think the mayo cod dressing is a little heavy on the mayo for my taste.
Sashimi, of any kind: always good.
Anything with ponzu sauce I will inhale.
Not pictured:
bitter melon, bacon, and stir fried tofu
tanuki udon
side note: it looks as if I may be going to Japan this coming Winter! It’s my grandmother’s 80th birthday and to celebrate she wants to take a trip to Japan with all her daughters and their daughters. no boys allowed. We’re still trying to decide between Vietnam and Japan. I might be rooting for Vietnam since I’ve never been.
Honda Ya
556 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92780
714.832.0081
December 1, 2008
local wild mushrooms with gnocchi with plum wine sauce
seafood trio carpaccio-scallop, ahi, tuna
shoyu ginger salmon
blue crab cake
chicken lemongrass dumplings
spicy agedashi tofu
ahi tuna shimi
I’ve been meaning to take Saeyoung to this restaurant since I went with my parents when I first moved to Los Angeles. And as I am living off of student loans, I’ve been doing some babysitting and saving all the money for Saeyoung’s Thanksgiving visit. The money was well spent. on food. It might be of some interest to note that the other parties of two surrounding Saeyoung and me ordered three dishes-we ordered 9. In general, everything was excellent. The seafood carpaccio was served chilled, which felt really great after eating the saltier dishes, good palate cleanser. I wouldn’t recommend the chicken dumplings-they were more or less just dumplings. I also wouldn’t recommend the blue crab cake because it was on the salty side. I think the winner of the night may have been the spicy agedashi tofu. They make the tofu in-house and the broth was flavored with jalapenos. We were craving rice to mix in the leftover broth. I also recommend the gnocchi. I was a little skeptical about Japanese style gnocchi, especially with the plum wine sauce but I really wanted the wild mushrooms. It was pretty delicious though. The gnocchi were thumb sized and a little denser than their Italian counterparts. I was sad that this was our last dish and was too full to eat all of it.
Ronin Izakaya
359 N. La Cienega blvd
West Hollywood, 90048
November 26, 2008
hiyashi ramen
miso ramen with bbq pork
beef and tomato ramen
My family and I went out for ramen today and we all had conflicting opinions. I ordered the Hiyashi ramen, which is what I always get because ramen broth tends to be too salty for me. Again, hiyashi did not fail me. Doc got a the beef and tomato ramen with a tomato soup base-completely a new idea for us. It wasn’t bad. Saeyoung got the miso ramen and it was too salty. Plus the pork was mostly boiled fat. Overall, the ramen was passable, though probably not some place i will frequent.
September 20, 2008
One of my first meals since moving to Los Angeles, my family and I went to Ronin upon reading a review-though I can’t remember from where. The idea was upscale izakaya, kind of Euro-Japanese. The restaurant was small, sterile-in that black pebble, minimalist way. We ordered the New York steak skewers with blue cheese, somen checca, ginger shoyu salmon, taco shimi, crispy chicken and jumbo scallops. The crispy chicken was somewhat forgettable, though it came highly recommended. My parents liked the somen checca, though that seemed too much like something anyone could replicate at home for me to rave about-though it was quite good. The taco shimi was interesting and probably my favorite, but certainly not for those who are opposed to fusion-y inclined foods. I liked it though, so there. The corn salsa on the scallops was especially excellent.
On the atmosphere side of things, Ronin projects Japanese movies on their wall. My family felt divided about this. While it is an excellent distraction, the film they were showing that night was a little violent/bloody for my appetite.
I wouldn’t go here for a casual weekday dinner, it’s a bit pricey for that but still surprisingly reasonable. Our party of three ate to satisfaction for under $80.
Also, it is worth mentioning that they generously gave us a free dessert for being first time customers. We ordered the flan with the yuzu granita and then they brought us the chocolate bar with the mint milkshake.
359 N. La Cienega Blvd
West Hollywood, Ca 90048
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