French Cafe for the Young at Heart: French 75 Bistro January 30, 2008

As a kid, I always hated getting stuck in the “kid’s table” at parties. You remember those tables, don’t you?  They were the ones in the dark corner where your parents stick you in with other smelly kids while they and other grown-ups indulged in good conversation and way better food than what we kids got.  While sitting on a cheap plastic chair and enduring annoying brats pulling my pigtails from each direction, I promised myself that I too will sit at the grown-ups’ table someday and enjoy a party with dignity.

Twenty-some years later, equipped with maturity (although questionable at times) and a bank account (if you can call it that), I now had the luxury to seat myself at a grown-up’s table with my grown-up friends.

The table we grown-ups selected tonight was in French 75 Bistro, a little French restaurant tucked away in the lobby of an office building in Burbank. We sat ourselves at the (fake) candle-lit bar and ordered fancy champagnes and cocktails, along with fancy appetizers. As I took a sip of Pomegranate Kir (a bubbly with pomegranate juice … yum), I realized that I had finally made it. I was not a kid anymore! I was da shit, ya’ll!  I was all GROWN UP! Hooray!

Then, on the way to the ladies room located in the back of the restaurant, all my beliefs came to a shatter. On the other side of the bar was a REAL French restaurant – an elegant, sophisticated, upper-class dining room where they served dishes like Filet au Roquefort and “Luxe,” (filet mignon and lobster beignet with béarnaise sauce) to people dressed up in fancy dresses – a far cry from the order of happy hour French Fries we were sharing at the bar. Here, in a pair of beat up jeans and raggedy sweater, I was once again back in the dark corner of the room.  I never felt more like a kid. 

But when I returned to the table and looked at my friends, I realized that this was where I belonged — at the kids’ table — and there was nowhere else I’d rather be. We were crazy, loud, playful, happy, carefree and completely childlike, and I loved everything about it. Maybe I’ll never become one those elegant, sophisticated, mature women that I always wanted to be, but that’s okay because the kid’s table is where the real fun is.

Check out what the kids ordered: 

Lobster Bisque with Sweet Paprika Cream

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Dungeness Crab Cake with Corn-Pepper Sauté, Spicy Provencale Aioli

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Spicy Tuna Tartare with Avocado, Crispy Sesame Wafers, Chile Sauce

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‘Bistro Burger’ — 8 oz. Ground Angus Sirloin on Toasted Brioche Bun with French Secret Sauce and Roquefort, Cheddar or Gruyere Applewood Smoked Bacon upon request

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Crepe

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Bread Pudding

 

French 75 Bistro
3400 W. Olive Avenue, Burbank, CA 91505
★★★★☆

A Guilt-Free Cookbook: The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger January 29, 2008

 

As much as I love to cook and bake, you’ll be surprised to see how little cookbooks I own. Cookbooks, for me, are serious business and I don’t take them lightly. Before a book can secure a coveted spot on my lovely Ikea bookshelf, it must undergo an extensive selection process. And although the criteria I set are fairly simple and straightforward, it’s surprising to learn how many books actually make the cut.

I know that we’re not suppose to judge a book by its cover but screw it, I do. The book must, above all, capture my attention immediately, or I won’t even open it. If the cover is not attractive, how good can the recipes inside be? Cookbooks are about food, and I savor food and books with my eyes first.

I’m not too critical about the amount of photographs inside though. Believe it or not, some of my all-time favorite cookbooks have absolutely no pictures in them. For me, the written words are as delicious, or even more decadent, than pretty glossies. Well-chosen words tell a beautiful story, recreate a special experience, and paint a colorful flavor in my mind. And that is a real treat.

Last but not least, I need to feel the love. The book must have passion, pride, inspiration, a defined point of view, and yes, love. It must also be something that has a tremendous meaning to the author. I don’t look at cookbooks solely as a source of good recipes but also as a dialogue between two people who love and respect food very much.

 

 

My latest cookbook acquisition is Ellie Krieger’s The Food You Crave, which focuses on recreating food we love and crave, only healthier. My ritual when I first bring home the baby is to sit down with a cup of tea, go through the book from cover to cover and mark all the recipes that I would like to try with little stickies. By the time I finished skimming through the book, I had marked more than 30 recipes! Everything in this book is fabulous, using fresh and healthy ingredients. I cannot wait to try Grilled Zucchini Roll-Ups with Herbs adn Cheese (pictured above), Crab Salad in Crisp Wonton Cups, and Portobello Panini with Gorgonzola and Sun-Dried Tomatoes!  How delicious, healthy and satisfying do these sound?  I really appreciate the fact that Krieger, a registered dietitian, included nutrition information on each dish too.

 

 

Well, speaking of healthy and satisfying, I prepared this huge bowl of salad for dinner tonight (serves 2 as dinner, 4 as appetizers). This did not come from Krieger’s book, but it was inspired by a couple of recipes she created that used some of the same ingredients. This is a combination of savory smoked salmon, tangy goat cheese, meaty sautéed Portobello and Shitake mushrooms, creamy cannelloni beans, red onion slices, capers and a vinaigrette dressing on a bed of baby spinach. I bought each ingredient with an intention of creating couple dishes, but I got lazy so I decided to throw everything in a bowl and call it a salad. Despite the sloppy exterior, the salad was absolutely divine, healthy and complete guilt free.

The Food You Crave

By Ellie Krieger

★★★★★

Her Food Network show, Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, is pretty darn amazing too! 

Best Sushi during Hibernation: Kobe Sushi January 28, 2008

I blame everything on the rain –  the traffic (which takes an hour to travel mere three miles); decrease in productivity (cold weather makes me absolutely lazy), unexplainable hunger (well, maybe that’s everyday for me)… everything. Thanks to the weeklong rain-fest in Los Angeles, I consumed extra 50 cups of hot chocolate (just to stay warm and cozy), spent extra few bucks on takeouts for dinner (who wants to go grocery shopping in pouring rain?), and spent the entire weekend in my pajamas (I can’t remember when was the last time I took shower … sorry, too much info there). It was a total unproductive, completely useless weekend for me.
What kept me alive was this lovely and friendly (and virtually unknown) Kobe sushi restaurant that I can dash to and bring food to go. Without this place, I would have just stayed in bed and starved to death. I had absolutely no desire to stand in the kitchen to cook, or put on clothes to go out to eat, so the takeout was the only option to keep myself adequately nourished as I hibernated like a bear in winter snow. 
Here’s what I brought home and enjoyed at a comfort of my own home as I listened to the rain drop from the window: saba (mackerel), salmon, yellowtail and ika (squid) sushi, and a spicy yellowtail hand roll (The usual. I’m a creature of habit). I’m not a huge fan of their rolls (say no to mayonnaise!) but the nigiris are simply amazing. Although noone seems to embrace this tiny, cozy place hidden in a corner shopping center as much as I do (maybe people just can’t find the place?), trust me when I say that it offers one of the best sushis around.

Okay, time to go back to bed now.

Kobe Sushi
22984 Ventura Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
★★★★☆

A Sweet Culinary Playground: Green Tea Cake January 13, 2008

One thing I regret to this day is not visiting Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki when I was in Paris a few years ago, to experience his famous Matcha Opera Cake, or any of his world-renowned green-tea inspired desserts for that matter. Ever since I read about him about five years ago in a Japanese fashion magazine, I’ve been smitten by his creativity and the ability to incorporate traditional Japanese ingredients such as matcha (green tea) and yuzu (citrus fruit) into authentic French pastries, and I’ve been inspired to include something similar to my own baking repertoire.
The thing that kept me from making any matcha desserts until now, however, was my inability to locate green tea powder, which is the key component of these desserts. I had tried several Japanese grocery stores in the past but all I could find were “green ice tea mix,” which already included sugar. And when I finally did find them, they were too expensive for me to afford. Then, when I was making my regular rounds to Teavana the other day, I ran into one that was reasonably priced at $16 an once so I snatched up a couple for my pantry. Now fully equipped, I was eagerly ready to enter the Franco-Japanese culinary melting pot.
While visiting Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit a few months back, I encountered this amazing recipe for Green Tea, Lavender, and Honey Cupcake Bombe. I had since filed it away in my baking “to do” folder hoping to someday bring it to life, and I was able to finally wipe off the dust and put this recipe to work! I thought about making the full-blown version of the bombe at first, but after contemplating I decided to just try the green tea cake recipe for more simple dessert.

Would you like a cake to go with my butter?

I recommend this recipe to anyone who is interested in making a dense, moist, oh-so-heavenly matcha cupcake or a sheet cake as I did here. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of butter and sugar that went into this beautiful pistachio-colored batter but you will realize when you take a first bite that all the fat and calories are worth it.  And because it is rich, a small slice will satisfy your sweet tooth. One mistake I made was mixing the matcha power with the dry ingredients when the recipe called to dissolve the powder with milk and incorporate it into the wet ingredients.  Oops (but the end result still came out perfect, thank goodness).

Look how beautiful the batter looks!

My initial plan was to sandwich the sweet red bean (azuki) paste between two heart-shaped cake, but the cake was already pretty thick so I settled on placing azuki on the side, and finished off by sprinkling powered sugar on top. I matched the cake with steaming Japanese green tea, of course!

I really like the simplicity of this dessert. Keeping everything beautiful yet clean and simple allow the flavors to take center stage, which is what makes Japanese and French desserts truly timeless.

New Year, New Challenge: Bibimbap January 11, 2008

Look! I spent all day in the kitchen preparing this beautiful Bibimbap for dinner! Okay, I’m lying. These vegetables and marinated pork belly came in plastic containers, courtesy of a neighborhood Korean mega store. God bless them.
Although Korean cuisine tops as one of my all-time favorites (I would say my favorites are ① Japanese, ② Korean, and ③ Italian, in that order), I know nothing about how to prepare any of the dishes. The pungent spices used in Korean dishes are so mysterious to my taste buds that I can never decipher what is what. The fermented soybean pastes aisle at a store alone has rows and rows of selections (which makes my head spin) so I can imagine the complexity, depth and uniqueness of each of ingredient.
Learning a thing or two about how to cook Korean food definitely sits on top of my culinary “to do” list for 2008. I grew up eating Kimchi and Gulgogi but our family never made them at home so I’ve decided that I’m going to be the first one in the family to make my own kimchi! I found a kimchi recipe in a Japanese lifestyle magazine called Esse (I would say it’s a Japanse equivalent of Real Simple), and although it’s not Korean, I trust this recipe will deliver an authentic result. I’ll keep you posted : - )

Delicious Present: Pan-Fried Gyozas January 9, 2008

I still can’t believe Christmas is over. I mean, we spend many months preparing for the big day – shopping for gifts, writing cards, and arranging travel – and bam! it’s over. Just like that. And why is it that even though Christmas falls on the exact same day, every single year, and we still manage to get blindsided by how quickly the day arrives, especially when you’re not prepared? It makes me feel like the end result, although festive and heart warming, doesn’t match up to all the headaches and hard work you had to endure to get there.
There are some things, however, that are worth all the effort because the end result is so wonderful. To me, gyoza-making is one of those special exceptions where every ounce of effort is rewarded in every bite you take afterward.
These Japanese gyozas are so delicious that I willingly mix the cold ground beef with chopped napa cabbage and scallions with my own hands in the freezing kitchen and patiently wrap gazillions of these little dumplings (and make pretty creases). I even welcome the mindless, repetitious work (I actually find it enjoyable, which explains my knitting addiction) so making gyozas serve as somewhat of a therapy for me.

Traditional gyozas call for nira (chives) for filling but I usually substitute it by adding napa cabbage and scallions because they’re readily available. I personally like nira so much better and the cabbage and the scallions could not adequately replace the deep flavor of nira, but they still provide great texture to the gyoza.
Unlike the recipe that calls for dashi (fish stock), seaweed bits, flour or cornstarch, and any other special ingredients, our family recipe is quite simple. We just add finely chopped vegetables (water squeezed out) and ground beef together, and flavor the mixture with salt and pepper (preferably white), sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. I sometime omit garlic because I like packing leftovers for lunch the following day and I don’t want to be socially unacceptable with the garlic breath.  I just add it to my dipping sauce made by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili oil.

When all the gyozas are filled and wrapped, move them to a hot skillet and pan fry them with oil first. When the meat mixture is cooked (about 7 minutes on medium heat), crank up the heat to high and pour 1/2 cup of water and close the lid until the water completely vaporizes. This allows dumplings to steam, giving them the perfectly crunchy and moist texture. Just be careful not to put too much water, or you’ll end up with soggy gyozas.

What you get at the end of your patience and hard work are lovely presents wrapped beautifully in gyoza wrapper. These, for me, are so much better than gifts I find under the Christmas tree.

Flavor of Home: Spicy Albacore Hand Rolls January 8, 2008

I had been away from home for the last few days and although I’d been fed pretty well during that time, my body was craving for something home-y, particularly something with soy sauce in it (I’m so Japanese). I remembered that I still had a piece of albacore that my boyfriend caught in a freezer so I decided to make spicy albacore hand rolls for dinner. It was perfect because the preparation was quick and simple, and it certainly satisfied my soy sauce and steamed rice cravings!
I absolutely adore mayonnaise and I put a dollop of the smooth, tangy mayo on pretty much anything but there’s one place even the heavenly spread is off limit and that is in a spicy fish mix. Many sushi restaurants prepare spicy tuna and other rolls by adding mayo to the fish mixture, and while it provides the rich creaminess to the overall texture, I find that the distinct flavor of the fish that makes the rolls so delicious gets lost in it. I even think it’s the restaurants’ ploy to disguise the flavor of the fish that are past the expiration date or close to going bad (I’m just saying). I think there are so many other ways to heighten the flavor of the mixture without jeopardizing its integrity.
I made mine by mixing finely chopped scallions, grated garlic and ginger, sesame oil, chili oil (ra yu), a dash of soy sauce and a bit of miso paste with chopped albacore. I smashed the albacore and incorporated all the ingredients by using the face of a knife. The chili oil should give enough heat but if you can handle more, a several squirts of Sriracha should do the job. My boyfriend is the one who recently introduced me to the idea of putting miso in it and it certainly stuck with me.
I made sushi rice by adding sweet rice vinegar to steamed rice and I wrapped the rice and the albacore with seaweed for a homemade sushi roll.

It sure is nice to be home : - )

Happy New Year! Traditional Japanese Osechi Ryori January 2, 2008

I go back and forth about the idea of making New Year’s resolutions. A part of me (about 95% of me) thinks it’s pretty lame. Come on, what makes me believe that I’m going to finally overcome something that I could not do or stay committed for the last 364 days, simply because it’s the first of January? On the other hand, the optimistic part of me (which admittedly rarely peaks its head) likes the whole ritualistic aspect of starting the year fresh. So I compromised and decided to make a “To Do Checklist” for 2008 instead. Those are more realistic, action-oriented, hopefully obtainable goals, and none of the “I’m-going-to-lose-50 lbs.-by-April” crap.

1. Knit a cable knit bag.
2. Pack my own lunch as frequently as possible.
3. Visit 10 new restaurants.
4. Never go to sleep angry and tell loved ones how much I love them every day.
5. Start Etsy business.

Easy enough? We’ll just have to see (sorry, they weren’t really food related except for two)!

Well, here’s a New Year’s ritual that I can 100% appreciate – oshechi ryori. The first picture on top is from last year (New Year’s 2007), courtesy of my boyfriend’s family who prepared this beautiful boxed edible art for us. The rest are courtesy of my mother who slaved away in the kitchen the last two days to bring her family the Japanese New Year tradition this year.  Thank you, mom!  I love you! 

Nimono — one of my favorite dishes of all time!

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Burdock (gobo) Kinpira

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Takosu (octopus marinated in vinegar .. yum) and tazunoko (herring roe .. eeewww)
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Mashed yam and chest nuts

Happy New Year, everyone! May 2008 bring good health, happiness and friendship to you and your loved ones .. and of course, good food!