Dumpling

So in completion of the all asian cuisine weekend, we drove up to arcadia
and got dumplings at the Din Tai Fung Dumpling House

I'm not entirely sure what we got, because the waitress kept saying that
they were out of things and making substitutions. Seems like it was at least
one of the following:
Juicy Pork Dumplings (10pc/order)
Shrimp/Pork Shumai (10pc/order)
Shrimp/Pork Wonton Soup (8 wontons in broth)
Red Bean Bun (2pc/order)

Doesn't sound like much, but you can't just inhale these things. Handy
instructions were printed on chopstick wrapper:
1) Pour vinegar into the small saucer with the ginger
2) Gently lift one dumpling and dip it into the ginger vinegar.
3) Place it on your spoon
4) Take a nibble on the dumpling skin and sip the juice
5) Drizzle some vinegar and ginger slices on top of the dumpling
6) Now enjoy it!

These sound nice and friendly, but you must understand that the place is
overrun with Type-A asian ladies, and they're very directive about it. For
example, the hostess at the front calling out the raffle ticket numbers they
use for reserving seats ("Number 4! Number 4! Number 4! Party of two! Number
4!")

Anyway, it was tasty and filling, and we got out of there for under 40
bucks.

Update: I'd forgotten a couple notable points. One, when you put in your
reservation, they give you a quarter-size clipboard with your order
paperwork. Bureaucracy at its finest. Not many eating establishments give
you the chance to order well before you're seated, much less in
carbonless-transfer triplicate. Shock. Awe.

The second was the serious panache shown by our server as she smashed an
insect crawling next to our paperwork. Granted, it was a flying insect, and
they had the front doors open, so I'm not suggesting they don't keep a
hygenic place of business, but surely there's something cinematic about
watching your waitress obliterate pesky vermin against the onion-skin
carbonless paper (now only in duplicate, as one copy had been forwarded to
the kitchen department) of your order. Seriously, this should be the average
dystopian sci-fi nerd's wet dream.

Mitsuwa

Ok, so strictly speaking, Mitsuwa is a grocery store. A grocery store with a
food court.

So we made the trek to Costa Mesa this afternoon to grab lunch, which in my
description I'm most likely to butcher. Bear with me.

I got the Kaika Don (beef, egg, onion, rice), which came with some odd
little pickled something or other (well, they taste good anyhow), hiyayakko
(tofu with bonito and green onion) and miso.

Amanda got the Tempura (something) Soba. Cold soba noodles with traditional
broth and a few pieces of vegetable tempura.

So mine was pretty good, as it's kind of hard to screw such things up.
Amanda's soba was tasty (although she mixed a little wasabi in with the
broth, which detracts from things for me. wasabi just makes stuff taste like
wasabi. not really a good seasoning in my book.) but the tempura was
reportedly pretty lousy. Either they didn't have the oil hot enough, or they
let it go too long (thus negating any outward steam pressure keeping the oil
at bay. End result: greeeeeeeeezy.)

Only other complaint is that amanda kept stealing my pickly things, but you
can hardly blame a place for that.

At some point, I'll make a Mitsuwa II post going more in detail regarding
navigating the place, especially my experiences from the grocery side of
things. It'll be big fun, I promise.

Ichiban

Went to Ichiban last night, a nipponese restaurant closer to the place than
say, Wasabi or Tommy's

The food is good, but we typically get more for less at Tommy's. Let me see
if I can recount:

1 Super Cal Roll (california eel roll)
2 orders Tuna Sashimi
2 salmon skin rolls
1 negi hamachi roll
1 spicy hamachi cut roll
4 pieces albacore nigiri
2 pieces salmon nigiri
1 order of gyoza.

This was just over $70.

But if you're on the north side of orange county, it might be one of your
better choices. (although Hana Sushi in downtown fullerton deserves the most
business in my opinion. The owner is, dare I say, a righteous dude.
(Bueller? Bueller?) Hey, I should go there soon just so I can write it up. I
sure hope they're still in business)

Frittata 2: Electric Boogaloo

Alright, so I tried a frittata again tonight. Worked pretty well in my
opinion, but I was too busy cooking to document.

2 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium shallot, diced

Saute these guys for a bit.

6 medium mushrooms, sliced

Throw them in once the garlic and shallot mix is starting to soften.

1 small stalk broccoli, chopped into about 1/4" pieces

Throw them in once the mushrooms soften and start to take on some color.

(it wasn't softening up so quick, so I cracked open an ale, poured about a
quarter of it in there, and covered it and let things steam a bit.)

Whisk up about 8 eggs to get some air in them, and add them in. Throw in 1/3
cup of freshly shredded cheddar cheese. Stir thoroughly.

Cook on medium high until the top is starting to get the hint of firmness,
but still somewhat runny.

Throw it under the broiler for about 4-5 minutes.

Dump a cup and a half of cheese on top, and broil for another minute or so.

Pull it and let it rest a minute or so.

Fin.

Wasabi: Universal City Walk

So this is a little out of my area, and I wasn't expecting much as I tend to
think of Universal City Walk as little more than the average mall. (My
inclination for most mall-based-restaurants is to think of them with about
as much esteem as Orange Julius or Hot-Dog-On-A-Stick. It's stereotyping,
sure, but any mall-located place needs to shake itself of food court stigma
in my mind. Your mileage may vary.)

We ordered:
Appetizer:
Seared Garlic Tuna Sashimi - I read this as Tuna Tataki. The sauce wasn't
bad, but I quickly discarded the crispy garlic garnish after the first tase.
Bitter. Awful. I wasn't terribly excited by their maguro. It wasn't bad
specifically: it didn't taste old or nasty, I've just had better.

The girl:
She ordered the Wasabi Chef Special: Maguro, Hamachi and Salmon Nigiri, with
a spicy tuna hand roll. She let me taste the Maguro and the Hamachi. As
before, the maguro wasn't that exciting, but the hamachi was pretty tasty.

Me:
I got the Unagi Donburi (spelled Unagi Domburi in the menu. I'm pretty darn
white, so I've got little ground to stand on, but Domburi with an 'M'?
That's a new one on me.) and a salmon-skin cut roll.

The Unagi in my mind could've gone a bit further, but I tend to like my eel
on the firm side, and slimy bits are a bit off-putting. It was served in a
box on rice with some indescribable pickled things (it was yellow, it was
clearly pickled, and hey, I already confessed that I am pretty darn white.
Give me some credit for not letting such things dissuade me from eating
them) and a thinly-sliced pickled (I suspect rice vinegar at play) cucumber
salad.

But, I will say the salmon-skin roll was easily the best I'd ever had. I
split it with the girl because it was darn good, and she'd had some doubts
that the special would be enough to stave off her stomach's grumbling's.
Crisp texture, with a slightly smokey flavor (that it'd actually had a fair
shot at some serious dry heat) If our regular sushi haunt managed the same,
we'd be there more often. Good stuff, I tells you.

Note of curiousity: Each of our entree's came with a salad and miso. Miso
isn't such a big deal, but the dressing on the salad appeared to have
contained a fair amount of mayonnaise. Normally, this would've sent the girl
to push it away without question, but after I snagged the tomato wedge,
heroically taking as much dressing as I could, I think her hunger got the
best of her and she tried it anyway. Gentle reader, you must understand the
aversion the girl holds towards mayonnaise. We're not talking oil and water,
We're talking hypochondriac meets anthrax. Not only did she try it, she
exclaimed that she liked it by the end. I've got no certainty that mayo was
even involved, but the hurdling of even the visual obstacle is pretty darn
impressive.

Add my shock to the current list that includes her slowly growing
appreciation for mushrooms (we're up to sauteed, with the early venture into
raw white button mushrooms on salad. Awe, I tells you, awe.)

Souffle

That's right, I put down my crackpipe for a minute and said "Hey, what
allegedly near-impossible dish have I never tried making before?"

So after scanning one of the books Amanda got me for Valentine's Day, it was
decided: Cheese Souffle.



Actually, the real story was that I wanted to stay around the house this
weekend and as a trade off, I asked Amanda what she would like, so this was
her idea, really.

This is from the Alton Brown "I'm just here for more food" recipe.

I plated this pretty simply, with a small salad (romaine, mushrooms,
avacado, parmesan, a shiitake/sesame vinegrette and a nice crouton)



5 years of watching Good Eats pays off?

-transiit

Rutabegorz

So we went to lunch at Rutabegorz the other day.

Small. Cozy, in fact. Been around since the dawn of dirt, as far as things
that substitute "Z" for "S" in the name go.

Amanda got the 1/2 Salami Sandwich (Cotto Salami and Cheddar on squaw bread
(normally comes with tomato as well) and a cup of Cockie Leeky soup. They
fouled up her order, and brought the Chicken Tortilla soup instead. After a
brief inquiry, they brought the Cockie Leeky, so she got to sneak a taste of
both. She seemed to like the Chicken Tortilla better, but was otherwise
happy with the place (especially the pineapple smoothie with orange juice
and the almond joy cookie bar for later)

I got the garlic chicken sandwich, which was basically garlic chicken and
melted cheese, with tomato and avacado on a baguette. Good stuff, though the
garlic chicken was bordering on the too-strong-even-for-my-tastes. Might try
it on the garlic chicken salad that it seems to have originated with.

Stats:
Got out of there for under 30 bones, but we splurged a bit.
They're very vegetarian-friendly, so if nothing else, be sure to think of
this place when you're hanging out with your veggie friends (or self)

Valentine's Day, 2006

Alright, so nothing new and original here. For the big romantic valentine
day meal, we ended up going to one of our regular haunts: Tommy's Sushi.

Granted, we don't go there with the same regularity that we used to since we
moved to the far north end of the county, but we typically make the drive at
least every couple months, and always make sure to show up to the New Year's
Eve
all-you-can-eat-we're-blowing-out-all-of-our-inventory-because-we-plan-on-being-closed-for-the-first-week-of-January
(whew, try saying that out loud) extravaganza (our designated line-sitter
finally made it first in line this year after several years of taking second
place. Granted, he did so by showing up at 9:30am (doors open at 5:00pm),
perhaps we should start springing for his meal (we showed up around 3:30).

But, sorry Tommy, we actually tried going another place first that happened
to be closer (even knowing that we don't like it as much). When they turned
out to have a wait that was surely longer than driving to Tustin and getting
through that wait, we turned tail and ran.

Without going into various sordid recollections of various years past, there
isn't a lot to say about the place. Really good, fresh fish with an ambiance
reminiscent of Bladerunner. As someone that's never been off-continent, I'd
swear the place belongs behind some vaguely-marked door in a Tokyo
marketplace than republican-clad Orange County.

Still no scoring system, so here's another group o' stats:

Typically, we spend about 50 bones for the two of us. That breaks down into
our usual order:
2 spicy tuna cut rolls
2 tuna and avacado cut rolls
1 salmon skin cut roll (split between us)
1 yellowtail (hamachi) and onion cut roll (split between us)
1 order of tuna sashimi (7 pieces, we split that too)
1 order of gyoza (dumplings similar to potstickers, split between us)
1 order of albacore nigiri (2 pieces)
1 order of salmon nigiri (2 pieces)
and occassionally, we'll split another cut roll, often California Eel Roll,
Soft Shell Crab Roll (sometimes known as Spider roll due to all the legs and
whatnot )

(for what it's worth, try to make it to the new year's eve extravaganza
sometime. all-you-can-eat sushi, champagne (not good champagne, but
still...), $25/person. We often do much experimentation then as they lay it
out buffet-style. The only downside is that they don't really identify
things so well, so it's hard to order it ever again)

Sit-down table service. Things get pretty busy on weekend nights, and they
don't take reservations, so if you must, try to sneak in close to opening
time (5pm).

Go a few times, and you'll learn to spot Tommy, the owner. He always says
hello when we stop by. It doesn't translate to discounts or anything, but
how many restaurants do you go to that the owner recognizes you? (cue Cheers
theme song)

Things to watch out for:
-Check out the photos in the entryway. They've been a bit better behaved
lately, but you might note that some of the happy diners depicted are not
only holding up the California License plate with the approximation of
"Tommy's Sushi", but occassionally an um...adult....toy.

-Keep an eye out for when the chefs at the bar start doling out the special
white sauce. I've only spotted it once, so I'm not entirely keen on the
details, but they've got a collection of wooden statues of men wearing
barrels on the shelves behind them. As I've heard it (and as best as I can
tell), they take the barrels off and grate daikon radish over the
anatomically-correct statuettes onto the sushi. I've heard they only do it
for one of their specials, but I can't recall which.

-Hey, while you're at it, keep an eye on the chefs anyhow. They tend to get
a bit inebriated every night, and occassionally they start getting onery. I
once witnessed them dealing with an inexperienced customer that asked what
the wasabi was by responding "green tea ice cream" and offering the
inqusitor a bowlful. Don't get me wrong, they aren't mean-spirited, but it
was humorous.

California Fish Grill

Hey, in a possibly short-lived effort to force feed some content into this
thing, I'm going to stop the monthly chronicle of "Here's what I made" and
throw in some "Here's where I eat" to go along with it.

Got lunch today at the California Fish Grill with Amanda. Been there a
couple times in the past with some cow-orkers, but this was the first time
she'd eaten there.

Lesson #1: I remember now why I almost never eat breakfast. Eating the Fish
and Scallops Fryer Combo less than an hour after waking is a sure way to not
wanting to eat again the rest of the day. Tasty, but I've felt stuffed all
stinkin' day.

Lesson #2: Be careful about how you sell a place. I'd made some rather grand
overtures about how much Amanda would like the seared ahi because in a past
trip, a cow-orker had ordered it, the appearance was the way one might
expect seared ahi to look: Like a steak cooked rare. Alas, it came out
medium. She still seemed to like it, although we're going to have to be more
specific next time about A) If the menu warns "Served Rare", serve it rare.
B) Do not include any complimentary cole slaw (she's got a phenomenal
aversion to mayonnaise, anything with mayonnaise, anything on the same plate
with anything that might've ever been served with mayonnaise, etc. I don't
get it, but I don't push it.)

So, a decent lunch, and we'll probably be back with some regularity.

And until I get around to perfecting an objective scoring system, here's
some basic stats:
1: Cajun-spiced seared ahi
2: Fish and Scallops Fryer combo
3: Side order of fried shrimp
4: two regular soft drinks
= about $27.

It isn't full-on table service. You order up front, find a table and they
bring your food to you.

They have a limited selection of ales and wines available as well as a soda
drink cell.

-transiit

Tuna Casserole

Didn't measure anything, so I won't even pretend I did.

-Egg Noodles (about 8oz)
-Tuna (1 7.06oz pouch)
-Grated sharp chedder
-Grated mild chedder
-butter
-flour
-milk
-salt
-onion powder
-garlic powder
-cayenne
-black pepper
-panko

Cook Noodles. Drain.

Dump noodles into buttered casserole dish. Add tuna. Mix. Sprinkle some
cayenne and cheese on top.

Make a roux with the butter and flour. Add milk. Season with salt, cayenne
and black pepper. Take off heat, mix in more cheese.

Spoon sauce over tuna/noodle mix. Add more cheese. Mix all together.

Top with panko and some butter. Into a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Done.