Roman-Style Chicken

So after a couple days of eating rice, I got a little tired.  I wanted to mix things up and try out an Italian recipe from Giada De Laurentiis, who is turning out to be my favorite and most reliable Food Network chefs.  I've found her recipes to be pretty simple and tasty to boot.  I'm pretty picky about the food I cook and especially about the food I post about.  So you better bet that if I've gone to the effort to make a recipe and even post about, then it should be something you might like.

I don't know how chef's always say you can substitute prosciutto for bacon.  Bacon has a smokiness which I would find distracting in most dishes that call for prosciutto.  I try to make as few substitutions as possible.

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Ikko

After a very long and exhausting morning/afternoon of smiling, posing, chit chatting, and sweltering in the heat, Dumpling Man, some friends, and I headed out for some fun and entertainment at the center of all that is hip, cool, and Asian in the OC...Diamond Jamboree!  For those of you unfamiliar with Irvine, you should know that there are quite a few Asians that live there and around the area.  Combined with all the young Asians from UCI, well you have quite a large population of Asian-Americans that need to be entertained and fed in a way that only a new and modern plaza packed with shops and restaurants skewed toward satisfying the Asian "flava" can fulfill.  Dumpling Man is the target consumer for a place like Diamond Jamboree.  He loves Asian things, he loves new things, he loves clean things.  Diamond Jamboree is all these things.

Wow, I've totally digressed, because we didn't even eat at Diamond Jamboree!  We just sang and boozed it up at the karaoke lounge there, which is pretty nice I might add.  Afterward, it was just Dumpling Man, Quack Man T, The Mom, The Germanphobian (aka CMac Attack), and I who were left standing to chug down all the beer Turtle TWu had over-ordered for us before he had to hike it back to LA.  Let's just say that all the champagne from earlier in the day did not sit well with all the beer Dumpling Man and Quack Man T ended up drinking.

None of us were that hungry, but we somehow ended up at Ikko for dinner, which is not really a place you go after a day of drinking.   I would consider Ikko to be one of the best restaurants in the OC for sushi and modern Japanese fare and the price point certainly speaks to that.  The Germaphobian ditched us for cooler friends, so the four of us were left to peruse the menu, but we couldn't decide and opted for the 6 course + dessert $80 omakase.

Shrimp & Crab Ceviche yuzu tomato sorbet, white fish
The dinner started off strong with this AMAZING trio of flavors.  The ceviche was bright from the fresh seafood and tangy from the very interesting yuzu tomato sorbet.  It was lovely.  The white fish was salty with also some citrus hints and served cold.  The fried greens gave some textural contrast.  My words are falling short on how kickin' I thought this dish was.

Sashimi amberjack, sea bass, whelk clam
This was another WOWSER.  First of all, the pieces of fish were huge and soo fresh.  The meat was sweet with that fresh ocean flavor.   My favorite was the whelk clam which had that firm chewy/crunchy texture you expect from giant clam.  It was sweet and salty.  I loved it.  The sea bass and amberjack were equally impressive.

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Tori Soboro

This is definitely one of my go-to recipes for a quick easy dinner and it is easily one of Dumpling Man's favorite foods.  I like it, but he LOVES it.  You can substitute the chicken for turkey and it tastes just the same or even better.  I would avoid using ground chicken breast since it can be pretty dry.

Tori Soboro adapted from toirokitchen.com
Serves 2-4

1lb.  ground chicken (may substitute with ground turkey)

4 tbsp dashi stock, optional

3 tbsp sake

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp ground ginger
Sliced scallion, nori, egg for garnish

1.  In a pan, brown the ground chicken.
2.  Add the sake, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar and combine over medium-heat.  Stir frequently so that the ground chicken makes nice even crumbles.
3.  If it looks dry, add the dashi stock.  You can substitute for chicken stock or water.
4.  When the liquid in the pot is reduced down to very low (15-20 minutes after), add the ground ginger and continue to cook for another few minutes.  
5.  Serve over white rice.
6.  Garnish with thinly sliced egg, green onions, dried nori.

Seriously, an instant and delicious dinner!

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Little Big Burger

Since moving to Portland, I've had the strangest cravings for an In 'N Out burger.  It's only strange because I never crave In 'N Out.  I probably eat In 'N Out on only one occasion, on my way to Las Vegas.  I think I'm probably craving it because I know I can't have it.  In an attempt to find a delicious burger, we stopped at Little Big Burger after walking to the restaurant we actually wanted to eat at and found it closed.

The menu is simple enough, very In 'N Out-esque

Rootbeer Float tillamook vanilla ice cream, barq's rootbeer
I'm not a huge fan of rootbeer but I like ice cream, so I agreed to trying this out.  It tasted like a rootbeer float.  Enough said.

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Little Bird

It's always nice to already have some friends when you move to a new city.  Big Spoon and The Gunner are just a few of my fellow Portlandians.  We kicked off my first weekend in the new city at Little Bird, a relatively new French restaurant in Portland.  Ordering wine turned out to be a huge ordeal after the waiter, out of obligation, halfheartedly asked if we were above 21.  Of course we all said yes, but The Gunner and Dumpling Man had to make some jokes which resulted in the waiter actually carding us.  Dumpling Man being the genius he is did not bring his wallet that night.  So after some crafty use of the internet with multiple iPhones, he was able to prove that he was in fact who he said he was, and as old as he said he was.  The manager for the evening had to approve such non traditional identification before we were served.  I can't even remember if the wine was worth all that.


Oysters daily selection
 I've really grown to appreciate the taste of these briny little fellas.  I used to think these tasted like one big fishy gulp of the ocean, but now I taste salinity tempered by fleshy sweetness.  A squeeze of lemon seems to cut any fishiness while adding another dimension of brightness to an already fresh bite.

Roasted Bone Marrow black olive & citrus tapenade
I think Cut ruined bone marrow for me.  Everywhere I go, the bone marrow simply cannot compare.  The bone marrow here was good, but not the best.  I'm not a huge fan of olive tapenade, but they made good use of it here to jazz up the fattiness of the bone marrow.  My other complaint, which applies to most bone marrow dishes, is that they never give you enough of the toasted baguette.  They expect you to consume ALL that fat with just 3 measly slices of bread.

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Clay-Pot Miso Chicken

So after a most disastrous attempt to make my own Japanese curry, I felt pretty down and discouraged.  But along came David Chang to make things right in my world.  I've had good luck with some other David Chang recipes from his Momofuku cookbook, which I have decided to purchase instead of continuing to leach his recipes from random internet sites.  I've never eaten at Momofuku, but I have heard such great things and all his recipes look fun and interesting.

So I actually got the recipe from a once great and active fellow food blogger.  She decided to do one recipe in the Momofuku cookbook everyday until she cooked everything in the book.  Since she finished, her blog has now become defunct.

Sorry I don't have many pictures of how I got here, but I'll probably make this again and update it.

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Masu Sushi

Ok here is more of the same (Japanese), but at least it's not in the South Bay.  It's pretty much impossible to find good sushi in Portland.   Every place is just "meh" and I think most people would agree.  Masu just might make the cut for decent sushi by my standards.

Tsukemono
Complements of the house.  The pickled vegetables were not very pickley.  It was pretty toned down.  I like my tsukemono to pack a little more punch.  The added octopus was nice because they were quite tender, with just a touch of chew. 

Fennel and Dungeness Crab Sunomono carrot and mango
The crab was too watery, like it hadn't been defrosted approrpriately.  The pickled veggies were more of the same blandness.  I liked the fresh bite of the fennel.

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Inaba

Ok, so I feel like I've been blogging a lot about Japanese food in the South Bay.  So far, I have yet to be disappointed.  Inaba is home to some solid soba and udon dishes.  The menu had many choices, but I like to go with dinner sets when I can.  It's headache enough to choose a restaurant to go to for dinner, and sometimes, by the time you get there, you're just too overwhelmed to figure out what you want to eat.  Dinner sets or omakase are a good way to go during those moments.  Japanese people are so smart!!

Special Tempura Dinner Course appetizer, miso soup, sashimi, tempura, egg custard, rice, mini soba
This was Smooth Obturator's choice.  It was pretty filling.

This was a sort of sesame tofu.  It had all the texture of a firm tofu, but the taste of sesame instead of soybeans.  It was innovative and different, bordering on weird.

Your standard salad.

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Niwattori

What is Niwatori?  Smooth Obturator called it a "chicken place," so that probably explains why I never jumped at the chance to eat here.  Chicken is definitely not something I get excited for.  I rarely order chicken when I dine at fancy restaurants, because I feel like chicken is just so ordinary.  I woudln't want to eat anything at a restaurant that I could eat at home.

DonBon was in town for some business so he called up his cousins, myself and Smooth Obturator to see if we were free for dinner.  I figured if I was going to drive an hour to get to the South Bay that we might as well eat around there too.  Finally, I relented and agreed to go to the "chicken place" since my brother said it was quite special.  They're specialty is Jidori chicken, which to this day I'm still not quite sure what that means.

Asazuke lightly pickled vegetables
After making all our selections, we noticed a dearth of greenery.  I just love pickled vegetables.  I can eat them plain, but of course they taste best eaten with rice and meat.  Yum!  These were more on the salty pickled side (as opposed to sour or sweet) but had some bite to it with thin slivers of ginger that were pickled too.

Cold Chawanmushi chilled egg custard, shrimp, crab meat
I was quite impressed with this, mostly because it was pretty chilly!  But it was very smooth with decent sized chunks of fresh sweet shrimp and crab.  I really liked the jelly stuff on top which was probably some congealed broth or sauce of sorts.  It added a bit of sweet soy taste.

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WP24

You know that saying, "It's all about who you know"?  It's not just a statement for the job seekers, business whores, and budding actors/musicians/artists of this world.  For the last few years, I have been to some nice restaurants for FREE because I roll with King Arthur and his entourage.  It's a difficult status to attain, but I have managed to maintain a firm position within this "inner circle" of eaters and intellects (my euphemisms for gluttons and nerds).  Being an outsider, I feel that one has to prove one's worth to join The King's possy.  Of course, you better like to eat, and you better be damn amusing.  The King does not employ any jesters in his court for this very reason!

This was probably my last gratis dinner with The King and his crew, Teety, Soprano Man, and Chops (previously known as Ms. Chatty Cathy).  The Pouter had more important people to dine with that evening (who could be more important than The King?), and The Attending, let's just say we've gone our separate ways.  One for good and the other for evil.  Haha...jk?

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn Toast sweet ginger chili sauce
Compliments of the chef, this was the first of 2 amuse bouche to kick start the evening.  We were all sooo hungry by this point.  Shrimp and crispy!

Curried Seafood Turnover
These were sorta like seafood empanadas.  I didn't think they were as tasty as the shrimp toasts.  

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Feng Mao Mutton Kebab

Who knew there were Chinese people in Ktown?!  I surely did not, but slowly I have come across a few native Koreans who grew up in China or vice versa.  I've had my fare share of Chinese-Korean food, mostly in the form of jja jiang myun at Dragon Restaurant.  For some reason, another popular Chinese-Korean dish is sweet and sour pork.  I can't really understand why, since it tastes like Americanized Chinese food.  Anyways, I digress, since I'm here to talk about a whole different food experience when it comes to the genre of Chinese-Korean cuisine, namely mutton!

Mutton?  No, that's not dog meat, but rather sheep.  Apparently lamb is meat of a sheep in its first year, while mutton is adult sheep.  At Feng Mao, they specialize in grilled meat skewers, varying from mutton, of course, to chicken, beef, and all sorts of offal.

Ban Chan
What Korean meal would be complete without some side dishes?  The offering wasn't very extensive here and I was really craving something to vary up the taste of grilled meats in my mouth.

Gye Gran Jjim egg custard soup
Pretty standard.

Gun Bae or Gan Bay?  Who cares?  Drink up!

Skewered Meat mutton, chicken, beef, kidney, heart
Some reviews recommended 10 skewers per person.  Sounds like a lot right?  I can't remember how many I ate, but it's like eating popcorn, you just pop 'em in your mouth and before you know they're all gone!  I don't think I ate quite as many as 10, but I'm damn sure The Bottomless Pit had his fair share.

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The Mission

For our last meal in San Diego, we decided to brunch it up at The Mission.  What's up with brunch places always having some crazy wait?  Why does everyone love brunch soooooo darn much?!  It's just breakfast, but at lunch time.  For some crazy reason, people get way too excited about eggs and pancakes at noontime.  I like brunch, but I don't love it.

CMac Attack kicked off the meal by ordering a caramel machiatto or latte.  The nice waiter brought her a freshly made hot drink, with a smiley face made in the foam.  CMac Attack kindly conveyed her disappointment in the error since she wanted a cold drink.  The waiter surprisingly brought her another drink, cold, but with a sad face this time.  Haha!

House Quesadilla Grilled chicken, cheese, tomatoes, cilantro, salsa cruda, green onions and sour cream served with Mission black beans 
CMac Attack did what she did best, attack!!!!  Haha, jk.  I think she enjoyed this dish.

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Extraordinary Desserts

No trip to San Diego is complete without a visit to Extraordinary Desserts, especially if you've never been before.  It is the "go-to" spot for some of the prettiest cakes and desserts.  After many years since opening this 2nd location near Downtown San Diego, the place still has a busy line out the door with a long wait on the weekends.  I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of cakes in general, but this is a fun place to take friends here for their first time experience.  You can't deny the awe-inspiring effect a large display of cakes and desserts has on people as they walk through the door.

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Bencotto

Since we were staying in the Gaslamp district of Downtown San Diego, we decided to check out Little Italy, which was fairly close by.  Who doesn't like pasta?!

Fiori di Zucca Ripieni lightly fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta and smoked mozarella
I've never actually tried zucchini blossoms before, but who knew a flower could be so tasty?  I guess anything that's fried and breaded will be delicious, but the creamy mixture of cheeses used to stuff this little guys made for a winning combination.  The side servings of sun dried tomatoes added great contrast of flavor.

Burrata burrata cheese, shaved fennel and celery salad in lemon vinaigrette
The other members of the party didn't seem too enthusiastic with this choice of appetizer (no chimes of agreement or "ooo that looks goood"), but since our first choice (fried saffron risotto balls) were out, I quickly threw this one in as the replacement.  After everyone had their first tastes, the praises came raining down.  I suspect some did not know what burrata was or that fennel could be so crunchy and refreshing? 

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Lucha Libre

A few weeks ago, the high school crew (+ The Toothbrush Sharer) and I celebrated Dubabo's birthday in sunny San Diego.  Much to my surprise, after too many years post-graduation, were all still good friends.  Most of them still hang out regularly (DJ SuCha, HemaSh, CMac Attack, etc) but I'm just too far and too busy to hike it down to the OC to hang out most of the time.  But when I do get to meet up, it's like time never really passed.  It's just good times through and through which makes me really happy.

HemaSh lived in San Diego for 3 years so she pretty much served as our trusty guide.  She suggested Lucha Libre for lunch.  It's a pretty funny little joint with pictures of lucha libre fighters all over the walls that serves fancied up tacos, burritos, etc.

They even have a special golden booth that get's table side service and a special fight bell to ring to call the waiter.  We were sad we couldn't sit here since it was already reserved.  We just ordered at the counter and found some regular seats.

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Sen Nari Sushi

I had always been meaning to check out the foodie scene in South Bay (ie Torrance, Gardena, etc).  Perhaps "foodie" is an overstatement, but there are a fare number of highly rated Japanese restaurants in the area that both Smooth Obturator and Nancy Rheeeee have recommended at one time or another.  So I took it upon myself to brave the traffic and meet up with Me So Hairy! in his neck of the woods.  I've been told time and time again that the best way to experience sushi is omakase, which leaves the selection to the chef.  That way, you are getting the freshest and best selection of sushi.  Most times, I've been asked what I do not like to eat.  Here, they just started serving us, so I ended up getting things I don't normally eat.

Very very special 
That was the response when we asked our sushi chef what it was he was serving us.  It looked and tasted like monkfish liver, foie gras of the sea, as some may describe it.  Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don't.  It really depends on how fishy it tastes and smells.  This one was on the fishier side, but I am no expert and maybe monkfish liver will always be fishy.  It tasted like it was drizzled with some ponzu which helped to mask the fishiness.

Seared Bonito
The fish was just lightly seared on the exterior and retained its rare meaty texture within.  There was only a light drizzle of ponzu.  The added finely chopped ginger and scallions on top brought out some nice flavor to the fish and cut the fishiness of the bonito which apparently is in the mackerel family.

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Nanbankan

I meet up with Big Willie for the first time in a long time.  It's amazing how you can live just minutes away from someone and still never see them.  We go way back, back to the days when were wild and free.  Now were just a pair of old tame retired senior citizens, retreating to our respective niches in life.  Me? Obviously it's with food.  For him, its anything that involves a paddle and water. 

Big Willie suggested Nanbankan, which used to be a very frequent haunt of his.  It was nice to not have to think about or look up places to eat.  Sometimes it's just a more relaxing experience when you're just told when and where to be.  It's even better when the place is supposed to be good, so you don't expect disappointment from wasted stomach real estate.

Nanbankan serves up your standard yakitori fare.  I'm slowly expanding my horizons when it comes to this genre of Japanese food and find that Nanbankan is far superior to Honda-Ya in Downtown.  The vibe is certainly different, being a little more posh, modern, and quiet.  Honda-Ya is better for big groups of friends and late night eating and drinking.

Veggies
These were great to munch on before the real food came.  It was also nice as a palate cleanser in between dishes.

Miso sauce
Of course I was dipping the veggies in this wonderful miso sauce.  It was sharply salty, but soothingly sweet at the same time.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
The asparagus had the right amount of crunch and tenderness.  The bacon added some good smokey salt.
Beef Tongue
It was tender and juicy and charred well.

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4th of July

Obviously this is a month delayed, but I took the pictures so I might as well blog about them =)

I think it is now an established H.o.P. tradition to celebrate the 4th of July at Smooth Obturator and Triple T's pad by the beach since you can see multiple fireworks shows from the neighboring cities.  I think last year we did steak, but this year my brother wanted to do ribs and bbq chicken.

The rubs were prepped with a dry rub and then smoked for a couple hours on the grill.

They came out quite tender, smokey, and delicious.
 

The chicken was very well prepared since they soaked in brine for a full night before being rubbed in two different dry rubs, one home made and one store bought.  I actually preferred the store bought one, but I can't remember why.  Either way, it was the brining that made all the difference.  The meat was just sooooo darn juicy!  You think just throwing some dark meat on the grill is the key to good bbq chicken, but now I know the secret!  BRINE BRINE BRINE!

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Random Chiang Mai Eats

Chiang Mai was really where I got my street food on, and maybe that's how I got typhoid, but that's another topic for another day.  Our hotel was right next to the Night Bazaar where they had stall after stall of cheap goods, t-shirts, knick knacks, and in short, JUNK.  After many years of traveling I have finally learned to resist the lure of shiny pretty junk.  I will admit there were some cute things I lingered upon and contemplated buying, but the better part of me said "NO, no to junk!"  Anyways, Dumpling Man and I tried to zoom past all the junk to find the food.  We found this amazing and very clean food court.  Average price for anything was $1!

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Random Bangkok Eats

If you ever go to Bangkok, you HAVE to go to the Siam Paragon Mall.  You may say to yourself, why would I want to fly thousands of miles to go shopping?  This is true, some of you world travelers look down your nose at people who "waste" time and money to do all the things they could easily do in their home countries.  However, the Siam Paragon is more than just a mall with expensive high end stores and a movie theater no less.  It houses the LARGEST, and that is probably the biggest understatement of the century, foodcourt I have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The following pictures really do the place no justice, but the foodcourt literally occupies an entire floor of this mall.  It's endless stalls of food as far as the eye can see in ALL directions.  I'm sad I did not know about the foodcourt here or I would have penciled in a culinary tour of this place and skipped the hotel breakfast.  Alas, I could only look, wonder, and regret.  I managed to squeeze in some boba and sausage.

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Huen Phen

Now to resume my culinary tales through Thailand...


After Bangkok, we headed north to Chiang Mail.  Chiang Mai differs from Bangkok on many levels.  First of all, the weather is considerable cooler and drier, dry in that the humidity is less, but it rained a whole lot more.  Secondly, the hustle and bustle is toned down quite a bit.  Chiang Mai seemed like a more controlled chaos.  And lastly, food in the north is much more different than anything I've had on the rest of my Thailand trip.

Khao Soi
Khao soi is a "Burmese-influenced...soup-like dish made with deep-fried crispy egg noodles, pickled cabbage, shallots, lime, ground chillies fried in oil, and meat in a curry-like sauce containing coconut milk."   I've had khao soi before not really knowing what it is and I thought it was weird and so I didn't really appreciate the rich spicy flavors.  This time around, I grew quite fond of all the differing textures from the fried noodles, soft egg noodles, bits of shallots and pickled mustard greens and the varying levels of intense flavor, the heat, the creaminess, the spice.   The portion at Huen Phen was pretty paltry, but it was enough to judge quality.  This was certainly better than the street food version I had.

Kanom Jeen Naam Ngeow
I never had this dish until I came to Chiang Mai, but it seems to be almost as popular and representative of Northen Thai cuisin as khao soi.  It consists of hand made rice noodles served in a pork-tomato based curry soup.  This version had plenty of blood cubes, which I did not enjoy, and ended up pushing to the side.  While khao soi was dominated by a coconutty curry taste, this was marked by a deep tomato flavor which I liked a lot.

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Seongbukdong

The Pouter knows whats up when it comes to food.  She was the one who recommended Seoul Garden to me and I have loved that place ever since.  So when she raved about Seongbukdong, I knew it had to be good.  What is this strange sounding place, you may ask?  Well Seongbukdong specializes in galbijim or Korean braised short ribs.  I am happy to say I was NOT disappointed, and neither were my friends, Nancy Rheeeeeee, LoMa Linda, and Big Head Talks A Lot.


Brown Rice
I just had to include this picture of what they call brown rice.  Anybody would tell you that this rice is purple!

Banchan 
Pretty standard fare.

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