Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce

Who knew making your own tomato sauce could be so easy and tasty!  When I bought Mario Batali's cookbook, Molto Italiano, I was excited to get down and dirty with some of his recipes.  But first, I'd have to make my own sauce.  I was surprised at how such few basic ingredients could make a subtle yet tasty difference to your everyday pasta.  All you need are carrots, onions, garlic, canned whole tomatoes, olive oil, and thyme.  I found it strange that thyme was the herb of choice instead of something basil.

I've always heard about San Marzano tomatoes, but I never quite understood what made them so special.

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Du Kuh Bee

Aside from dumplings, Portland is also lacking good Korean food.  I'm sure nothing compares to LA's Koreatown except Korea itself.  It's amazing how Korean food used to be something so foreign and weird tasting to something I really love.  I guess it's cuz I have a penchant for stinky things and Korean food is full of that.  Anyways, Du Kuh Bee isn't a true Korean place, but rather a Korean-Chinese place, maybe?  I'm not sure.  They are known for these delicious fresh hand pulled noodles.  I've never seen anything like that in any Korean restaurant.  But then they serve kimchi and galbi.  And then they have mapo tofu and fried rice.  Go figure.  Du Kuh Bee is seriously like one little Korean family running a little kitchen.  Service is on the slow side because dad pulls the noodles and mom does everything else.  Don't go if you're starving.

Kimchi
Nom nom nom

Dumplings
Pretty standard.

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Din Tai Fung (Seattle)

Portland is a nice place to live.  The people are nice.  There's not much traffic.  Most everything you want is here sans tax (there's a Target and/or Trader Joe's every which way you turn!).  The very obvious thing it is lacking is great Asian food, especially good dumplings.  Lucky for us, the world famous Din Tai Fung has opened up a new outpost!........................in Seattle. 

Now we don't have to fly to get our dumpling fix!  We need only drive 2.5 hours one way, so that we can wait another 1 hour for a table, and then fight the food coma back to Portland another 2.5 hours, while maintaining a keen watch out for cops trying to stick you with a speeding ticket for going over 65mph.  No joke.  Who would attempt such a ridiculous trip?  On a whim no less?  Well, that would be Dumpling Man and his trusty sidekick, moi. 

The restaurant is located in Bellevue, which seems to be a pretty posh area of Seattle.  Din Tai Fung is in the top level of a new, modern, non-Asian, non-ethnic, All-American shopping complex with a Nordstroms, Crate & Barrel, and PF Chang's.  It's on the same floor as Lucky Strike.  Yes folks, you can bowl and get your dumpling on at the same time!

It seems like they've spared no expense at this outpost of DTF.  It's a striking contrast to the cramped quarters of DTF in Taiwan.  This one is sprawling with high ceilings and modern finishings.  It's easily double the size of the 2nd Arcadia location and even has a private room with an all glass wall and door.

The stand out feature of this location is the full stock bar where you can wait for your table or even eat.

And of course, the droves of hispanics industriously working the dumpling line.

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Picca

Oh Picca, why did you have to disappoint me so?  I had such high hopes for this place.  Blogger after blogger extoled the culinary accomplishments of the modern Peruvian fare here.  It was top on my list of "to-try" LA restaurants.  I even recommended this restaurant to my Triple F and Running Man during their visit down here, solely based on the reviews of all the bloggers.  Running Man was sorely unimpressed.  Triple F being more sunshine than dark cloud, was slightly more positive, but wasn't really crazy about the place.

Finally, I managed to get a group together for a visit.  Teety, Soprano Man, The Face Puncher, Quack Man T, and myself gathered for fun filled dinner.  We didn't really know what to order and in what quantity.  So out of our laziness, we opted for the omakase.  Maybe that wasn't the best decision.

Causa Sushi scallops, mentaiko
I would say this was probably one of the best dishes of the night.  I loved the take on "sushi."  Instead of rice, the proteins were sitting on top of little well seasoned potato cakes.  The scallops were fresh with just a bit of deliciousness fishiness from the roe.

Toro Ceviche leche de tigre
This was just the start of the leche de tigre overload in the omakase.  That stuff is incredibly tart.  A little bit goes a long way but some dishes were overwhelmed with them.  I can't even recall if the toro had that signature butteriness since there was just so much sauce.

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Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Dumpling Man likes his curries, specifically Thai yellow curries.  I'm not such a fan, but I'll eat it.  It's just a bit too creamy and sweet, but that's exactly how Dumpling Man likes it.  I prefer Vietnamese curry instead which is more fragrant from lemongrass and ginger and saltier from a good helping of fish sauce.  So my curry somehow walks the middle road, and as a result is never sweet enough for Dumpling Man.

I've made this before but with the lemongrass cut into short stalks.  This recipe from Ravenous Couple called for finely sliced lemongrass.  If you've cooked lemongrass before, you'll know that it is not something that softens as you cook.  So, all that lemongrass ended up being lost in the sauce and into my bowl and it was not fun to chew on.  Next time, I'm keeping the lemongrass in stalks so they can be fished out at the end.

Your basics.  I found these mini cans of coconut milk.  Perfect for making a serving of curry like this.  For most recipes, a mini can like this may short change you on the called for amount of coconut milk, but I'd rather have a less coconutty curry than half a can of coconut milk that will slowly mold in the back corner of my fridge.  I randomly picked this curry powder.  It's pretty darn spicy.

First you gotta marinate your meat.  I like to keep my meat in semi-large pieces so that they end up being fall apart tender after a while.  Unfortunately, it takes longer to cook that way.

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101 Noodle Express (Lu Wei Ju)

We all know Irvine is missing a solid dumpling and noodle house.  A&J makes a decent attempt, but it still leaves a big void.  I mean, if I knew how to make awesome dumplings, I would totally open up a joint in Irvine because I knew it would win big.  I'm talking lines out the door folks!!  Let's step outside my imagination for now, and talk about Irvine's newest dumpling and noodle house, 101 Noodle Express.

101 Noodle Express' original location in Alhambra has been on the SGV dumpling scene for a long time.  Unfortunately, Dumpling Man and I were not particularly impressed with anything there when we tried it many moons ago.  Somehow, transplanting the restaurant to Irvine has changed my opinion.  Maybe because there's just not many options in Irvine when it comes to noodles and dumplings.

Cold Mix of Cucumbers
We all know I love a good pickled vegetable, and cucumbers are no exception.  These were a tad on the sugary side but it was refreshing for a warm summer lunch. 

De Zhou Chicken
Apparently this dish is quite special at 101 Noodle Express.  De Zhou chicken is a special dish from the Shandong region of China.  The bird is first deep fried before it is braised in spices, soy sauce, and sugar.  The dish here was served cold with a soy dipping sauce.  It was pretty darn flavorful and moist.  Surely something I would order again.

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Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins

I don't know what inspired me to suddenly try this recipe.  I'd been in a chocolate chip cookie mode, but I just got the inspiration to finally see what all the hype was behind the "donut muffin."  I guess it's muffin that tastes like a cake donut.  How is that possible?!?! 

It seems like a pretty basic cake/muffin recipe with all your basics: flour, leavening agents, sugar, eggs, milk, etc.

I'm wondering if I should invest in a nice stand mixer, but my handy dandy hand mixer, which I've had since college and is probably the only kitchen item I've kept since that period of time, has yet to fail me.  That's gotta count for something.  Maybe I'll put it on the registry and hope someone gets it for me?  I mean, Dumpling Man and me...

The recipe calls to alternate mixing the dry ingredients and milk to the creamed butter/egg mixture.

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Galbijjim

So after discovering the deliciousness of galbijjim at Seongbukdong, I had Korean savory fall-off-the-bone tender meat on my mind.  It was never anything I thought I could recreate at home.  The Pouter and I discussed that a pressure cooker was probably involved in making such a culinary treasure.  But I actually came across a pretty manageable recipe on Manngchi.com.  So off to H Mart I went.  Yes, there is an H Mart in Portland!

I bought a family pack of short ribs because it was on sale.  The other half is in my freezer waiting for some inspiration.

There was a WHOLE LOT OF FAT that I had to trim off the meat.  Some pieces were mutilated because they were soo fatty, so after all the trimming, there wasn't much left but a big bone and some meat dangling off.

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Mom's Steak Salad

You won't usually hear me say things like, "Oh my mom makes the best..." or when I'm at a restaurant you won't hear me say "Oh my mom's version is better."  My mom isn't that kind of mom.  The type of mom who loves to be in the kitchen, perfecting recipes that have been handed down generation after generation.  That's not to say I didn't eat home cooked meals every night and liked it.  Every night my mom cooked, and I usually enjoyed the things she made.  But now that we're all grown up, it turns out my mom cooked purely out of necessity and not out of passion.  She's actually pretty lazy when it comes to cooking.  Still though, there are a handful things my mom made that have just stuck with me all these years as things that I just love to eat.  Her steak salad is one of those things.

It's totally simple, but to me it's delicious.  She would take leftover rib-eye steak, cut it up, stir fry it with some oyster sauce and throw it on top of a salad with a really simple vinaigrette.  Eaten with a side of rice, makes for a complete meal.  I think I just love the idea of meaty flavorful slices of beef mixed into a refreshing salad.  I love the Thai beef salad, yam neua.

Here I just take a cut of flank steak, sliced up into strips, marinate it in some oyster sauce and garlic.


Then, I stir fry it on very high heat with some onions and extra oyster sauce.  It's important to get some good color on the meat without overcooking it.

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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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