Recipes

May 29, 2009 Restaurant

Cantina La Mexicana

Updated Post

We first visited Cantina La Mexicana back in October when one of our Texan friends recommended this place to us. Our initial impressions were quite positive. We have since visited this restaurant quite frequently - almost once a month, if not more.

Some background, first . . .

The restaurant is called Cantina La Mexicana. The take out counter next door is called Taqueria La Mexicana. I believe the food comes out of the same kitchen, and therefore both taste equally good. The great benefit of the Cantina is that it has a liquor license, and therefore you can order Coronas ($4), margaritas ($7-$9) or sangrias ($6) to your heart's content.

What have we learned from eating there so often?

Over all, the food is excellent, and you won't go wrong in ordering most things. If you ever ask them which meat they recommend, they will almost always say "the beef." It's true - the beef is really good. They use Brandt beef, which is naturally raised, antibiotic-free beef raised by a single family owned business that serves high end restaurants, such as Grill 23. I don't even like beef that much, but I always order beef whenever I have a choice.

One of our favorite dishes is the Gorditas Mixtas ($7.95) little cornbread "tarts" topped with avocado, marinated shrimp, and meat (pork, chicken, or beef). Ha ha, my favorite gordita is actually the shrimp one . . although the beef is good too. I like the shrimp one because the addition of sour cream makes that gordita more moist. I rectify this issue for the chicken and beef gorditas by dumping a ton of the excellent free salsa on top. Yum!

Another all time favorite is the Chiles Rellenos ($3.75) with beef, of course. I am by no means an expert on Mexican food, but these are the best chiles rellenos I've had in Boston.

My third favorite, Coctel a la Campechana ($8.95), is a cold ceviche-like dish served in a martini glass. It consisted of Maine shrimp, calamari, crabmeat, and chunks of avocado tossed with a citrus dressing over avocado crema. Sorry, no picture of this.

This is definitely a place off the beaten path that's worth checking out! You can go there on your way to Target in Somerville or Costco in Everett next time.

May 28, 2009 Boston

Favorite Eats in the Boston/Cambridge area

Recently, a friend asked for a recommendation for a good restaurant in which to celebrate his anniversary with his girlfriend. Naturally, being a foodie, I sent him a list of my favorite restaurants, based largely on food and atmosphere, of course. 🙂

Craigie on Main (formerly Craigie Street Bistrot)
Excellent French-inspired food. If you want to splurge, you should do the chef's tasting menu, which is where you get to enjoy Tony Maws "at his best." Make sure to call ahead to confirm that they are offering it that night. They often don't offer the Chef's Tasting on Friday nights.

Oleana
This is probably the best Mediterranean restaurant in Boston. It consistently makes top-ten lists for Boston food. I personally love their food because it's creative, healthy, and really flavorful. Try the Deviled Eggs with Tuna & Black Olives or the Whipped Feta with Sweet & Hot Peppers.

Prezza
This is our favorite restaurant in the North End. Really good food and nice romantic atmosphere. The menu changes frequently depending on what's in season.

Monica's Ristorante
Another excellent Italian restaurant in the North End - our former favorite before we discovered Prezza.

Oishii
Probably one of the best sushi restaurants in Boston, but be willing to pay for it! There's a swanky one in the South End (more expensive) and also a traditional one in Chestnut Hill. Food is creatively made, sushi is extremely fresh, and the everything is really tasty.

Bergamot
This new restaurant on the Somerville/Cambridge border has excellent food that's inspired by ingredients that are fresh, local, and seasonal. Keith Pooler is an incredible chef and changes up the menu very frequently. The service is exceptionally good here, and the bar is also fantastic.

Hungry Mother
This East Cambridge Southern restaurant (with French influences) serves up flavorful and perfectly executed food every single time. Every dish I've ever tried here has been incredibly good. It's a super popular restaurant, so book early!

Restaurants with excellent food with reasonable prices

Gran Gusto
This is a really good Italian restaurant off the beaten path in north Cambridge. They have one of the best and most authentic thin crust pizzas.

Mu Que Ca
Really good Brazilian style coastal seafood . They specialize in moquecas, which is a dish consisting of seafood and vegetables cooked in a clay pot. Really delicious. This restaurant is small, inexpensive, and very popular. I don't think you can make a reservation, so you often have to wait.

Hungry Mother
Southern American food with a French influence. This restaurant is wildly popular and serves up quality food at decent prices. The ambiance is festive (if not a bit loud). The food is excellent.

Garden at the Cellar
This local restaurant focuses on fresh, local ingredients and has the best French fries I've ever had anywhere (rosemary truffle fries). The food is delicious here, and the prices are reasonable. It's a great value for the quality of the food.

Steak
If you like steak, Bryan's favorite place in Boston is Grill 23, partly because they have more interesting options (like Kobe beef!). Smith & Wollensky, Ruth's Chris, or Capital Grille are all pretty solid choices as well.

May 25, 2009 Dessert

Ice Monster

Shaved ice is a classic Taiwanese dessert in the summer. One of the best known places in Taipei is called Ice Monster.

For around $5-$6, you get a HUGE bowl of shaved ice with your choice of toppings. I heard the mango one was incredible (with chunks of sweet, fresh mango on top). I did not hear of this until after I had visited Ice Monster, so I did not order that dish. If I ever go again, I would definitely try it. The Taipei Times has an interesting article here that talks about how the owner, under the pressure of difficult business and tough financial times, developed the mango shaved ice that shot business off the ground.

Anyway, I didn't try the mango. Instead, I ordered the mochi shaced ice.

It was still incredible! It had mochi balls of all different shapes and sizes, and even a huge flat mochi pancake on top. The dish also had sweet red bean topping (azuki) and condensed milk. It was really good! The various mochis had subtly different texture and flavors, so it was fun to try them all. Some were really chewy ("Q" in Taiwanese), while others were softer and sweeter. Over all, they complemented the azuki and condensed milk perfectly. The portion size is generous, and I shared one with my mom. We could have easily shared with a third person.

Ice Monster is located at 15 Yongkang street. Right off of Ding Tai Fung (original), not too far from other good places to eat. Apparently, one of the famous beef noodle restaurants is also on this street. The original Ding Tai Fung is also nearby.

Ice Monster
15 Yong Kang St., Da'an
hours: 11am-11pm

May 24, 2009 Taiwan

Aoba (Chin Yeh)

My mom told me that Aoba ("Chinyeh" in Chinese) was better than Shin Yeh, which everyone on the web seems to rave about. Shin Yeh is a large chain, and recently opened a nice classy outpost on the top of Taipei 101. Since my relatives all said Aoba was better, we went there instead.

The food was definitely solid, but we were not blown away. The 3 cup chicken (pictured above) was tasty, and better than any version we'd ever had in Boston.

The Taiwanese lumpia (pictured below) was interesting, but not that yummy. I think I liked the one I had at a Singapore food stall better.

I loved the rice noodle soup (only $3!). It was tasty with strong umami without being too salty, and it was satisfying to eat.

It reminded Bryan of those rice noodle ramen packages that they sell.

Finally, we ordered the special, sauteed livers. I'm not a fan of liver, so I didn't like it that much. Bryan only thought it was OK.

All in all, it's a nice place to try some traditional Taiwanese food, but if you think your stomach can handle it, you can probably get just as good food on the street for a lot less money.

May 23, 2009 Recipe

Yonghe Soy Bean Milk / Sheraton Taipei

When we were in Taiwan, we had breakfast included at our hotel every morning. Actually, the breakfast at the Sheraton Taipei is pretty good. Here is a picture below of a typical breakfast. It was a buffet, and I typically would get congee with a bunch of sides (chili bamboo shoots, pickled cucumbers, gluten, fermented tofu) and of course topped with a good heaping of pork sung.

There was also you tiao (fried oil stick) with soy bean milk (not pictured), which we sometimes had.

As a result of the included breakfast, we did not get a chance to venture out and eat Taiwanese street breakfast until the last day!

And oh, how good it was! And cheap! Why didn't we come earlier???

We walked down the street that the Sheraton was on (ZhongXiao East Rd) away from Taipei Main Station for about 15 minutes. We then went to this hole in the wall traditional Taiwanese breakfast place.

Yummmm . . it was so good. This is everything we ordered.

Dan pi is an egg burrito of sorts. The freshly handmade pancake is cooked with a fried egg and then rolled up. It was delicious here, and probably cost around $1. In fact, most items cost around $1 or less. I think the entire meal was less than $5.

Pictured below is a shaobing youtiao. Essentially, it is a fried dough stick inside a sesame pastry. You dip the "sandwich" into the sweet soy milk (kind of like a French Dip).

Salty soy milk is fresh soy milk that had curdled due to the addition of vinegar. The remaining product looks a bit like very soft tofu in soup. Salty soy milk typically includes chopped up "you tiao" (yes, the fried dough sticks from before), za tsai (chopped pickled mustard greens), scallions, and hot oil. If the soy milk is not good quality thick soy milk, the salty soy milk won't curdle as thickly.

The soy milk here was excellent, and the salty soy milk was nice and thickly tofu-like.

If you go to Taiwan, I would definitely recommend you have traditional Taiwanese breakfast at least once!

May 22, 2009 Japan

Sometaro

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese dish that I seldom see in the US. I first learned about it when I spent a summer in Japan working at Hitachi Chemical. A family I had met invited me over to their house. They had a special Okonomiyaki-making griddle on which they made these large, pancake-like patties.

The base of an okonomiyaki is flour, eggs, grated yam, and shredded cabbage. The ingredients are mixed together and then cooked on a flat griddle. Oftentimes, the flattened pancake is topped with a savoury and sweet brown sauce (okonomiyaki sauce), and mayonnaise. You can order ones with meat, veggies, seafood, or various other combinations.

We went to a delicious okonomiyaki restaurant titled "Sometaro" with my Japanese friend and her family while in Asakusa, a popular tourist area.

We started with a refreshing salad made from a certain type of green that you never see in the US. It's got a pungent, peppery taste, sort of like arugula. This salad was just a simple mixture of the local greens, bonito flakes, and a light dressing. It was delicious.

The waitress then brought over several okonomiyakis. You can see the striped mayonnaise in the picture. It was very tasty.

Finally, we enjoyed some really good oven-steamed wild mushrooms. It seems like they take fresh mushrooms and butter and wrap the whole thing in foil. Then, they"bake" the wrapped mushrooms in the oven. Very fragrant, flavorful, and a perfect way to end the meal.

May 21, 2009 Chinese

Microwave Steam Fish (Chilean Sea Bass)

Don't you love steamed fish at Chinese restaurants? I don't have a steamer, but you can easily steam fish in the microwave! It's surprisingly good and super easy.

I've used Chilean Sea Bass in this case (purchased from Whole Foods Market, who only sells MSC certified sustainable Chilean Sea Bass).

Lay the filets out in a microwave safe bowl. Cover with sliced ginger, scallions, and fermented black bean sauce (see picture below for approximate amounts).
Cover and cook on high. I find that 5-7 minutes is enough to cook the Chilean sea bass. Be careful when removing the cover. The steam coming out is very hot!

Add soy sauce to taste and serve!

May 20, 2009 Chinese

Daikon Pork bone soup

I was in Chinatown the other day buying ground pork when I noticed pork neck bones in the counter. They were *really* cheap - I think the package in the picture below was a little over $1. I had a hunch that the neck bones could be used for soup, so I bought a daikon and also some cilantro.

In order to get a clear broth, it's important to quickly boil the bones for a few minutes and then dump the water out. The initial boiling releases blood bits and other unsightly particles that would appear in your soup later. Rinse the bones with some water to make sure all particles have been washed off.

Next, put the quick-boiled bones back into some more clean water (I put in enough to cover the bones). Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes. Add sliced daikon to the mix and let simmer for another 45 minutes or so. (This is all very flexible. When I did this one night after dinner and, honestly, I didn't really keep track of time. This type of soup can only taste better if it simmers longer, I think).

Finally, salt to taste and serve with cilantro garnish (optional). You can also refrigerate the soup overnight. This intensifies the flavor a bit. Plus, you have the added bonus being able to scrape off any fat off the top, thus making it a really healthy soup.

I think pork neck bones vary a lot in fat. The first time I made this soup, I hardly scraped off any fat. The next time, I scraped off this much fat!

Ewwwww!!!

So, if your bones look fatty - do not fear! You can always scrape off the fat if you refrigerate the soup overnight.

Enjoy the flavorful, virtually fat-free, healthy soup!

May 18, 2009 Chinese

Super Easy Pan Fried Vermicelli

This is one of those dishes that is super easy to make, takes almost no time, and is pretty tasty and cheap.

I made this with what I had on hand, so it's a bit simple. You can definitely add more vegetables, or meat too if you want. It's a really flexible dish.

If you do add meat, I would slice the meat into thin strips, marinate in soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil, and a little rice wine for at least 5-10 minutes)

Soak shitake mushrooms in hot water for about 10 minutes (or until soft). Soak the rice vermicelli in water (or soften according to the instructions on the package). Slice up the mushrooms. You can also chop the other vegetables you want to add. I had celery on hand. Carrots would work well too.

Heat the wok with vegetable oil (~ 1 T) until the oil is hot. Saute mushrooms in oil.

Add veggies (in my case, just celery) and stir fry until soft.

Add vermicelli.

Stir around until well mixed. Add a few table spoons of Chinese BBQ sauce (Sa-Tsa). Stir around until well mixed.

Enjoy! You can eat with hot sauce for a nice spicy touch.

May 15, 2009 Taiwan

Formosa (In the Howard Plaza Hotel)

Formosa restaurant is at the basement of the Howard Plaza Hotel near Ren-Ai Road. I think it's a popular place for people to take their relatives since there are large banquet style tables and they serve a lot of authentic and solid Taiwanese food.

It's like eating night market food in a clean, banquet style atmosphere and paying a premium for that privilege.

My entire family (myself included!) thought that the food was really good. Here's some pictures of the dishes we had:

Stewed Pork belly. This is quintessential Taiwanese, and they made it well here. Yum.

I'd never had these local greens before, but they were good. They curled at the ends, not unlike fiddleheads.

Three-cup chicken. Another Taiwanese classic. This is a super fragrant dish where bone-in chicken pieces are stewed with soy sauce, sugar, wine, and basil.

I had never had this before - some sort of flavored crab rice. It was good.

I love how all these Taiwanese restaurants give you peanut-powder covered mochi balls as a free dessert after the meal. I absolutely love these balls. I might try to make some soon. I'll definitely post my experiments in that arena if I go there. 🙂

Over all, this was a solid, Taiwanese restaurant that is great for large family gatherings. The service was fast, and the food was very good.

Formosa Restaurant
No. 160 Ren Ai Rd Sec 3
Taipei 106 Taiwan

May 14, 2009 California

Southern California Favorites

A friend of mine is going to California for a wedding and asked me for food recommendations in Southern California. We go to California at least once a year since Bryan is a native Californian. However, most of our eating is centered in Orange County, since that is where his family lives.I don't claim to be anywhere close to an expert on Southern California's best eats. However, I would like to share with you some of our favorite places. I can attest that these places are excellent. Peking Restaurant
8566 Westminster Blvd
Westminster, CA

Excellent Northern style Chinese food - I would definitely order the homemade noodles, the niu ro jia bing (beef slices rolled in a scallion pancake with hoisin sauce and cilantro - incredible! -- see picture above), pan fried dumplings, and boiled dumplings. It's cheap, delicious, and totally authentic. Be prepared to wait if you go on a weekend during lunch.Ding Tai Fung
1108 South Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia,California
91007

If you read this blog, you probably know that this is one of my all time favorite restaurants. Even though it's a 45 minute drive from Bryan's home, we drive there almost every time we are in California. My favorites are the vegetable pork dumplings and the soup dumplings. Be prepared to wait no matter when you go. The last time we went, they had expanded and had taken over another space within walking distance of the original restaurant. We went to this other space and didn't have to wait.

Sushi Gen
422 E 2nd St (Little Tokyo)
Los Angeles, CA
I actually have not been to this restaurant in Little Tokyo, but it's widely regarded as one of the best and freshest sushi places for a reasonable price. My mom told me that all the Taiwanese people know about this place. I definitely want to try it the next time I go to LA!

In & Out
All over Southern California
This hamburger place is classic - with everything made from scratch and to order. Order off the "sceret" menu by asking for a "two by two" burger (2 patties / 2 buns) and "animal style" (with grilled onions and special sauce). I really love the burgers here, and the prices are cheap too.

Tea Station

11688 South St #101
Artesia, CA 90701

(562) 860-7089

This tea shop totally reminds me of Taiwan. Not only does it serve excellent tea (Ten Ren brand plus many others), it serves a host of Taiwanese late night eats, such as noodle soups, tea eggs, popcorn chicken, tofu, and Taiwanese sausages. The ambiance is relaxed, friendly, and nice. When we were in California, we came here almost every night to sip tea, enjoy snacks, and play board games.

Happy Nest (Formerly Little Bean)

18902 Norwalk Blvd
Artesia, CA 90701

(562) 860-8843

This is also another fun Taiwanese place that serves shaved ice, boba tea, and Taiwanese snacks, similar to Tea Station. The store is brightly lit with fluorescent lights. I have not been here too many times, so unfortunately I can't comment as extensively on the menu. Everything I've had there has been good, and it appears to get excellent reviews on various food sites.

Above I've listed our favorite haunts. We've tried other restaurants only once, such as celebrity chef Tom Colicchio's Craft or various other ethnic restaurants (e.g., Peruvian, Italian, Szechuan, and Japanese places). However, we are really not that familiar with the LA foodie scene. I would welcome other suggestions for great places to eat so I can try them the next time we are out there!

May 1, 2009 Taiwanese

Shilin Night Market - Food Pictures!

Duck Tongue

Insects? Snails? Barnacles?

"Frog Eggs"

Fresh Fruit

April 23, 2009 Taiwan

Celestial Restaurant - Peking Duck

"Best Pecking Duck I've ever had in my life" - Bryan Che

Seriously, the Peking duck at Celestial Restaurant was phenomenal. It's located upstairs of the Royal Inn Taipei on the second floor. The prices are quite reasonable (we paid around $40 for a 3-course duck meal and we did not even come close to finishing the food).

After bringing out the whole duck for show, they take it back into the kitchen, slice it up, and then bring out the golden, crispy skins. The freshly made pancakes were amazing. They were warm, chewy, and just the right thickness. We made little Peking duck "roll-ups" with duck skin, scallions, and hoisin sauce.

Next, the rest of the duck meat came out. Wow, the rolls made with duck skin plus duck meat was even tastier, in my opinion. The flavors of the fresh scallions, hoisin sauce, tender meat, and crispy skin came together in a perfect harmony of flavors.

Wow.

Bryan ate eight rolls (!)

As part of the three course meal, we also got a light stir fry consisting of bean sprouts and small pieces of duck meat. It was good, refreshing, and solid, but nothing extraordinary.

Finally, at the end of the meal, we got a big bowl of glass noodle soup made with the duck bones. The soup was flavorful and warm. We were so full at that point, however, we probably did not enjoy it as much as we would have enjoyed it had we had it first.

All in all, an excellent meal and a great value. According to my guide book , it's the "best value Beijing duck in Taipei" ((The Rough Guide to Taiwan page 126).

Oh - I forgot to mention that we ordered a small appetizer that's pretty well known there: blanched celery in a sweet mustard sauce. It's surprising good. The pungent kick of wasabi is tempered by the sweetness of the sauce. It's quite an interesting mix, and combined with the crunch of the celery, actually works pretty well.

Celestial Restaurant
3/F, 1 Nanjing West Road
Taipei, Taiwan

April 23, 2009 Chinese

Din Tai Fung (Taipei)

I love Ding Tai Fung. It's one of my favorite restaurants, period.

Pictured above is my favorite dumpling: the meat and vegetable dumpling. As you can see, it's mostly vegetable, which I love! It's not greasy at all. It's moist and flavorful on the inside and it's got that AWESOME skin on the outside . . . sooo good (can you tell that I love this restaurant???)

We ate at this restaurant three times during our four day stay in Taiwan since I love this restaurant so much. Perfectly kneaded skin; small, delicate xiao-long baos (soup dumplings) whose skins miraculously don't break even though they are filled with hot, juicy soup.

Heavenly eating experience. I would eat there every day if I could.

Prices are quite reasonable too. Dinner cost about $20 for three people - and we were really stuffed!

We went to several different locations. It's worth trying out the original one just because the ambiance seems more authentic. There is a newer one in the basement of Sogo, but it's just a bit more upscale, and thus you lose a little bit of the character.

In both places, you can watch the guys make the dumplings:

Even their other non-dumpling dishes are very good. We tried their hong-yo chao shou (hot oil wontons), Fried rice, Wonton soup, and Hot & Sour soup [yes, I know these sound like American style Chinese dishes, but honestly, we ordered them based on recommendations from our Taiwanese relatives!]. Although these other dishes were pretty good, I probably wouldn't order them again when I could just order more dumplings instead!

Be prepared to wait almost anytime you go. Our wait times varied between 10 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the time of day. I think it's virtually impossible to show up and not have to wait.

Bryan thought that he couldn't tell the difference between the one in Taipei and the one in California (Arcadia). I'm not sure I'm convinced of that, but I will say that the one in Taiwan is AWESOME!

Original restaurant:
194 Xin Yi Road, Section 2
Taipei 106 Taiwan

April 23, 2009 Tokyo

Maisen (Tonkatsu)

Maisen is one of the most famous tonkatsu restaurants in Tokyo. Tonkatsu is breaded portk cutlet, typically eaten with shredded cabbage and a sweet, dark tangy sauce. Maisen has interesting architecture because the building used to be a bath house pre-WWII.

The restaurant is famous for its black pork, which supposedly comes from China and has a sweet, intense flavor. Interestingly enough, the waiter did not recommend that we order the black pork (it was more expensive), and instead just suggested that we get the normal pork set menu.

That still set us back $30 a person!

Our pork cutlets were delicious. tender, and juicy. These were perfectly fried and paired perfectly with the tangy dipping sauce. A high pile of perfectly shredded cabbage on the side completed the meal. Yum. Typically I don't finish an entire chunk of meat, but I couldn't stop eating this one, and I ate the whole thing.

This restaurant is definitely worth checking out. It is a bit hard to find (we wandered a bit), but it's not too far from Harajuku. It's actually off of a side street near Ometesando Hills, and the closest subway stop is the Ometesando Hills stop.

April 23, 2009 Japan

Kyubey (Kyubei)

No doubt the most incredible sushi I have ever had in my entire life.

Kyubei is a sushi restaurant in between Ginza and Shimbashi. A Wall Street Journal article in January of 2008 named it as one of the ten best restaurants in Asia. They have a rule that a sushi chef can serve no more than 6 people. The restaurant consists of multiple floors. Each floor contains just one sushi bar with ~ 12 seats and 2 sushi chefs. So, even though the restaurant is actually large, the ambiance is very intimate.

We ordered the omakase, which basically means the chef makes for you whatever he wants. Be prepared to spend around $200 per person. If you don't want to spend that much, they do have a menu. However, even the cheapest meal, which is 15 pieces of nigiri, will still run you around $120.

He started us out with some light, white fish (I think he said it was related to halibut, but I actually can't remember). He gave us a ponzu dipping sauce.

We told our sushi chef that we liked toro (fatty tuna). He proceeded to prepare for us piece after piece of perfectly formed sushi. The fish was extraordinarily fresh (Tsujiki fish market is less than a 10 minute walk away); the sushi was cut with exceptional skill; and each nigiri was perfectly formed.
(He's cutting toro here - mmmmmm . . )

Putting wasabi in your soy sauce is a no-no. Instead, for nigiri, you are supposed to just rely on the wasabi inside the nigiri because the sushi chef has already put in the perfect amount of wasabi. The only time you use the wasabi that they give you is when you eat sashimi. You are supposed to put a dab of wasabi on the fish slice, fold the slice in half with the wasabi on the inside, dip the folded sashimi in the clear soy sauce, and then eat.

My favorite piece was a lightly seared toro nigiri sushi shown below. It seemed to melt in my mouth with the most decadent flavors. Yummmmm . . . I love good toro.

I'd never had uni (sea urchin) sushi before. The closest I came to having it was trying a bit of a friend's uni in Boston. I thought it was stinky that time, and decided that I did not like uni.

This uni was sweet, fresh, and had absolutely no off flavors. It was actually quite good. Creamy, sweet, and light. According to another Wall Street Journal article about this restaurant, Kyubei actually invented this particular type of uni sushi (putting uni on top of rice rolled in seaweed).

We also had these unagi (eel) rolls, which were tasty.

A mackerel-like fish.

The weirdest part of the evening was when he pulled out two live shrimp, beheaded them, and then took their tails to make the ebi (sweet shrimp) nigiri that you see below.

The grossest part was that the flesh was still quivering a bit while on the rice. It really grossed me out, and I chewed mine really fast to make sure it did not quiver in my mouth. The taste was sweet, and not a bit fishy at all. However, I was so distracted about the meat thumping in my mouth that I don't think I really enjoyed this piece that much.

Over all, we had an incredible meal here. The ambiance is intimate. You get almost personal service from a very experienced sushi chef (they all have to train 12 years before they can come out and make sushi for customers!) The food is unbelievable.

I won't forget this meal soon, and if I ever go back to Japan, I will visit another one of these amazing sushi places (there are still so many to try!)

More articles about Kyubei can be found here and here

April 23, 2009 Recipe

Mushroom Soup

Here is a simple recipe for a surprisingly flavorful, healthy and light soup. Bryan's parents were in Taiwan last year. While they traveled across the eastern side of Taiwan during a tour, they stopped at a small local restaurant. At the end of the meal, the waitress brought out a pot to the table and essentially cooked a whole variety of wild mushrooms in water with some tomatoes, scallions, salt and pepper.

Bryan's parents thought the soup was surprisingly flavorful, light, and delicious. His mom decided to try it out at home with random mushrooms from the supermarket, and the results were great!

After seeing her over Christmas break (and watching them make the soup once), I decided to try it myself as well. I went to a local Korean market and picked up about 7 types of mushrooms. I'm not sure I can even name all of them, but some examples would be shitake, enoki, portabella, hen-of-the-woods, oyster, white button mushroom.

I chopped up the tomatoes, scallions and mushrooms. I then put them into a pot of water, brought the water to a boil, and then let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I'm not sure how long you need to cook it - it's possible that less or more is fine too. I would just taste it periodically.

Finally, add salt and pepper to taste. There's no chicken broth or any animal products in this meal. The mushrooms add a surprising amount of umami flavor, and the soup is flavorful, light, healthy, and satisfying at the same time.

It's a great summer soup, especially with the farmer's markets now starting!

April 23, 2009 Japan

Suzuran (すずらん)

I just came back from an incredible trip to Asia (Japan and Taiwan), and I have lots of great food posts I plan on writing over the next few weeks.

One of the first places we visited was Suzuran, a popular ramen place in Shibuya.

Apparently this place is really popular because their broths are deeply flavorful and they make their own noodles. Unlike many other ramen places, you have the option of choosing the fat, pappardelle-like chewy noodles. Suzuran sells tsukumen, which is dipping ramen. Instead of serving everything in one bowl, the noodles are served separately (see picture above) from the soup. You then dip the noodles into the soup and eat it, not unlike soba.

The ambiance here is great. The small bar only holds around 13 people. You sit around the bar and order your noodles. Right when you enter, all the cooks yell out a loud greeting, "Irrashaimase!" When a customer finished her bowl of noodles, she yelled "gotirasama deshita!" and all the cooks yelled back something I couldn't quite understand. It was quite entertaining.

The place feels very authentic. The menu is only in Japanese, and the cooks don't really speak English. I used my broken Japanese to ask the cook to translate the menu. In the end, all he could tell me was that I could choose between soy sauce based broth or miso, and that the toppings were items such as char siu and wontons (I kind of wonder whether he thought we were Chinese and just picked the Chinese sounding toppings for us).

Bryan ordered soy based broth with wontons. I basically told the cook to make me his most famous dish. I received a miso-based broth with these stewed pork slices on top of the noodles. It was not until afterwards, which doing additional research, that I found out that I had eaten Kagoshima style pork belly (buta kakuni).

The noodles were fresh, chewy and delicious. The soup was very flavorful, although I found it a bit salty for my tastes. I typically don't eat much ramen, so it's hard for me to give it a fair review. Honestly, I have no idea how it compares to other ramen across Japan. I can tell you that the freshly made noodles were really good and the soup was satisfying to the soul.

If you like ramen, you should definitely check out this place. If nothing else, the experience of sitting at the bar watching the chefs make noodles and watching all the interactions between the customers and the cooks is worth it.

One note - it was a bit confusing to find this place. It probably did not help that we went on a dark, rainy evening; we didn't have a map; all we had were some directions written by someone on chowhound. It's not too far from the Shibuya JR station. See here for the directions that we used. Supposedly this place often has a long line outside of it. I guess we were lucky since it was a dark rainy weeknight.

March 17, 2009 Misc

3D Cookie Cutters

These are really cute. I am so tempted to buy them!

February 16, 2009 Cambridge

Shabu Square - update CLOSED

Bryan and I decided to try out Shabu Square, the new shabu restuarant in Harvard Square this past Saturday (coincidentally, it was Valentine's Day). Here is the quick summary of my opinion:

Prices: For Harvard Square, reasonable - $10 for a vegetarian shabu order and $16 for a "surf & turf" shabu shabu order. There is a minimum $10/per person requirement.

Ambiance: Nice. The space was completely renovated for this restaurant, so everything is nice and new. It has the ambiance of a Japanese restaurant - clean, simple, and sort of bamboo-y.

Quality: so-so. The vegetables were fine, but the seafood was lower quality. The scallops had no sweetness. In fact, they hardly had any flavor. The beef was fine, but nothing to write home about. They did not have some of the fancier cuts of meat we have seen at other shabu places. They also have a limited number of broth options: Spicy Chinese, Tom Yum, Korean Kim chee, and miso. We tried Spicy Chinese ($3), which was spicy but did not have much deep flavor. We also tried the plain chicken broth (free). In terms of food quality, it is definitely a step lower than the other shabu places we've tried (Shabu-Zen, Kaze, Little Q). [my absolute favorite hot pot place is Little Q, especially the mala spicy broth. SOOO GOOOOD! Too bad it's so far away in Quincy!]

Other comments: We ordered a funny appetizer, mostly because it sounded so strange. It was salmon sashimi rolled inside roti (Malaysian bread) with spicy mayo.

In theory it sounded interesting, but the taste was actually quite average. The roti was deep fried and quite greasy. Since the restaurant did not have a sushi bar, we started to suspect that they just used their hot pot salmon meat and chose not to cook it. Fortunately, neither of us got sick, so I'm going to assume that the fish was fine.

No alcohol, which might be a big negative for some people.

This place is almost like an Asian fusion restaurant run by Chinese people. On top of the shabu menu, they also have pho, Thai dishes (like pad thai and the like), Japanese noodles, etc.

Conclusion: I like having a shabu place in Harvard Square since we can just walk to this restaurant. It is a nice, healthy option in Harvard Square for a decent price. I understand that it's more expensive to run a restaurant in Harvard Square, so I appreciate their efforts to keep the prices reasonable. Just remember, you do get what you pay for. Bryan decided that, if he were to come again, he'd probably just order the beef shabu since the seafood was underwhelming. I would probably stick with the vegetarian shabu.

As a side point, recently my brother in law bought filet mignon from Costco and sliced it up for a hot pot that we were having at my sister's birthday party. It was sooooo good! Yes, he had to slice the meat himself, but the texture of filet mignon cannot be beat. Now that I've had filet mignon at a hot pot, it's hard for me to go back to eating normal hot pot meat. This is why I would probably order the vegetarian option at Shabu Square.

February 16, 2009 Recipe

Lychee Martini

Bryan made one for me the other night, and it's pretty good! Here is the recipe:

1 ½ oz SOHO brand Lychee Liqueur
1 oz vodka (we use Grey Goose)
Splash of lychee juice (from the can)
2 lychees (from a can)

We typically keep our vodka and the liqueur in the freezer (they stay liquid!) so there's no need to shake the drink in a traditional cocktail shaker.

If you like a bit of tartness in your cocktails, you may want to consider adding a splash of lime juice as well. We didn't have any around, but next time we may try that as well.

November 18, 2008 Chinese

Korean Style Spinach salad

This simple, healthy, and tasty spinach dish can be eaten either hot or cold. It works well as a side in many Asian cuisines, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. It is a versatile dish, and can easily be tailored for any of these cuisines by the addition of certain ingredients.

1) First, cook the spinach. You can either blanch it very quickly or steam it very quickly.

You want to make sure that you cook it quickly! I typically steam for about 10-15 seconds (until the leaves wilt) and then I remove the leaves and quickly rinse with cold water to stop further cooking. I do this in small batches.

You don't want to overcook the spinach because it loses its bright green color and becomes overly mushy.

If you blanch, I would only blanch for 5 seconds.

2) Next, try to squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible. I typically take a handful of spinach at a time and squeeze it into a ball, as shown in the picture below.

3) Once most of the water has been squeezed out, I chop up the spinach using a pair scissors.

4) Finally, add salt, sesame oil, and garlic powder (or minced fresh garlic) to taste. Optionally, you can add soy sauce, sesame seeds, hot pepper flakes, or other cuisine-specific spices.

Serve warm or cold. Enjoy!

November 16, 2008 Noodles

Ro Geng Mian (Ba Genh) - Pork, Bamboo, and Mushroom Noodle Soup

One of Bryan's favorite Taiwanese dishes is the pork noodle soup shown above. This very common Taiwanese dish is called "Ba Genh" in Taiwanese, or "Ro Geng Mian" in Mandarin, and consists of pork and fish paste nuggets in a thick soup flavored with black vinegar (or Worcestershire sauce), white pepper, mushrooms, and lots of cilantro.

This recipe is adapted from Taiwanese Homestyle Cooking by members of NATWA

Ingredients

6-10 dried mushroom pieces

½ lb pork butt or shoulder (can also use ground pork)

½ cup sliced bamboo shoots

½ lb prepared fish paste

6 cups water

2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

------------------------------------

Marinade

1 T soy sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 t salt
1 T sesame oil
------------------------------

Soup flavoring

1 T minced garlic

½ t sesame oil

¼ t white pepper (can add more to taste)

1 ½ T Worcestershire sauce

½ cup cilantro (coarsely chopped)

------------------------------

Mix 4T cornstarch with 4 T water and mix to form a milky liquid.

click image to see larger image

Preparation

Wash 6-10 dried mushrooms and soak in hot water until soft (about 10 minutes). Slice to desired size.
Drain and rinse ½ cup of sliced bamboo shoots.

1) Cut up about ½ lb of pork butt into ½ inch pieces.

2) Mix the pork together in a bowl with the marinade and marinate for at least 2 hours.

After marinating, mix the pork with the fish paste (available in the freezer sections of a lot of Asian grocery stores. I have bought this both at Super 88 and also at C-Mart).

Combine in a pot the water (6 cups), salt (2 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Bring the pot to a boil. Form a ~1 inch "nugget" with a piece of pork and some fish paste and drop it into the boiling water.

Boil until all the pork nuggets are floating. The soup will look a little something like this:

At this point, you can do one of two things. If you want the thick soup by itself, stir the thickener into the soup and bring to a boil. You can then add the soup flavoring agents. Feel free too adjust the flavors to taste. Serve with chopped cilantro on top.

Alternatively, you can boil some noodles and add it to the soup. I used fresh noodles (purchased from the refrigerator section of Asian supermarkets). Because fresh noodles give off a lot of starch, I was able omit the thickening agent since the soup was already pretty thick once I added the noodles.

Final product with noodles!

November 16, 2008 Cambridge

Wisteria {NOW CLOSED}

UPDATE: Now CLOSED - replaced by Unique Dumpling in the same location. The Super 88 Allston location is still open

Wisteria is a Taiwanese restaurant that had been on Newbury Street for as long as I can remember. I think the first time I went there was in 1994 (!). Less than a year ago the restaurant closed its Newbury Street restaurant and opened up two restaurants - one at the Super88 Food Court and the other one in East Cambridge on Cambridge Street.

Initially I was really excited that Wisteria was finally moving to Cambridge. We always liked going there whenever we were on Newbury Street. They were one of the earliest Taiwanese restaurants in the Boston area (before Taiwan Cafe, Mulan, and Jo Jo Taipei opened). It was fun getting traditional Taiwanese dishes such as Three cup chicken, rice sausage, and peanut rice drink.

When it opened at Super88, the waits at that restaurant were super long, and yet we kept ordering food there. It was my favorite stall at Super88. I loved getting the pork and chive dumplings, sauteed veggies, and other Taiwanese specialties. I absolutely couldn't wait for the East Cambridge one to open, since that one would be even closer to my home.

The East Cambridge location finally opened last fall. We've probably been there a total of 5 times since it opened. I think the restaurant is a mixed bag. Some dishes are excellent. For example, I love the egg pancake and the Taiwanese style congee. Other dishes, such as the crispy seafood and oyster pancake, were greasy and bland.

I still really want to love the restaurant, since it would be so exciting to have a really yummy Taiwanese restaurant near my home. I will still continue to try it and figure out which dishes are my favorites. Any one have any suggestions?

I also heard that Mulan has been improving a lot, and it quite good now. Jo Jo Taipei has also been getting rave reviews. One of these days I'll have to do a full fledged Taiwanese food review.

We'll see - the elusive search for amazing Taiwanese food continues . . .

*Update*

We went back to Mulan last week, and this time asked our server (who I think is the owner) to recommend their best dishes. We ended up ordering the House special beef noodle soup, the handmade dumplings (boiled and pan fried), and a lamb stir fry dish (sorry, can't remember!). They also threw in twin lobsters (sauteed with ginger and scallions) for free since we ordered over $35.

This was definitely one of our best meals at Mulan. Even though it was still not amazing (especially compared to restaurants in California or Asia), it was still enjoyable. The House special beef noodle soup was tasty, and the handmade dumplings were pretty good too. The "guo tia" (pan-fried dumplings) are the the long-shaped kind, which I like. I also really liked the lamb stir fry dish.

As a side note, they do have some fun exotic drinks. They sell a whole variety of boba drinks, and they also sell a sentimental favorite of mine - peanut rice milk ("mi jiang" in mandarin, "bi lieng" in Taiwanese) - hot or iced!

October 11, 2008 Vegan

Kiwiberry (passion popper)

Has anyone every tried a kiwiberry? I saw them at Whole Foods the other day. Having never heard of it, I thought it would be fun to try a new fruit.

They are really good! Kiwiberries are like miniature kiwis with a smooth skin (so you can just pop the whole thing in your mouth). About the size of a grape, they are more flavorful than kiwis - they are sweeter and also more tart at the same time.

I thought they were really addictive. According to the website of the one farm that sells this particular variety of kiwiberries (called "Passion Poppers"), "[t]hey are unequaled in taste, blended flavors of super sweet kiwi and exotic melon."

The flavor is definitely unique - sweet, tart, and refreshing at the same time.

Here's another picture to give you a perspective on their size:

If you are interested in trying some, you probably should go to the market soon. They have a very short harvest season (like ~ 4 weeks during the fall between Sept 20 to ~ October 20).

October 10, 2008 Asian

Bulgogi

This is an "award winning" crowd favorite that I often make for large groups of people (It won 2nd place for "best entree" at a church cook-off). I got this recipe from my brother-in-law, who is Korean-American. 🙂

Ingredients

½ cup soy sauce
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon minced ginger
3 tablespoon minced garlic
½ pear, mashed (preferably Asian pear, but any ripe pear will do)
2 medium sized onions, sliced
3 tablespoon sesame oil
12 oz thinly sliced bulgogi beef

Marinade
Mix together the soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, pear, and onions.

Mix the marinade with the sliced beef, making sure all the beef is exposed to the sauce. Let marinade for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight (in the refrigerator, of course).

The next morning, add sesame oil to the mixture, stir, and let the mixture sit for a little longer - preferably at least 30 minutes. Finally, grill the marinated meat and serve. You can also cook on a stovetop grill or pan as well. Enjoy!

October 9, 2008 Restaurant

Taqueria La Mexicana

One of our Texan friends raves about this place in Union Square, so we finally decided to go there for dinner on the way to Target last night.

On our way in, we noticed all these accolades: "Best of Boston 2000: Burrito; Best of Boston 2000 and 2005: Affordable Mexican."

Wow. We both thought the food was really good, and cheap too! Most of the appetizers and entrees were between $6-$9, with a few bigger platters costing $10-$12, and the most expensive mixed grill platter costing $16.

We ordered four dishes - three appetizers and one side (although it was a pretty big side).

Coctel a la Campechana ($8.95)
This cold ceviche-like dish came in a martini glass. It consisted of Maine shrimp, calamari, and crabmeat tossed with a citrus dressing over avocado crema. It was also tossed with fresh pieces of avocado. The dish was fresh, bright, and perfectly seasoned. Very refreshing.

Gorditas Mixtas ($7.95)
These were little cornbread "tarts" topped with avocado, marinated shrimp (and possibly other shellfish), and meat (pork, chicken, or beef). This was one of my favorite dishes. The tarts were fun to eat (I love anything corn, btw), and the mix of seafood, meat, avocado, and other flavors (tomato? lemon? I'm not even sure), was really good.

Chiles Rellenos ($3.75)
This is a poblano pepper stuffed with meat and covered with cheese and baked. For $3.75 it was an amazing bargain. Again, a happy burst of flavors - it was really good. You would think it might feel greasy, but it was not greasy at all. In fact, it felt pretty healthy, if you can believe that.

Guacamole ($5.95)
Their guacamole is different from what I usually see - the avocados are not mashed up. Instead, it resembles an avocado salad, with fresh cut pieces of avocados mixed with tomatoes, cilantro, and possibly lemon juice. It was a refreshing change from the ordinary, and of course, everything was fresh and delicious.

The ambiance is also quite pleasant. They recently opened up the new Cantina in July. This is an expanded dining area with a huge bar and plenty of seating. The waitstaff was very friendly, and the atmosphere was festive.

We're both really excited that we've found another cheap and tasty option not too far from our home. Seldom do I go to a restaurant, order 4 dishes, and genuinely *really* enjoy every single dish. We can't wait to go back and try more items on their menu.

October 9, 2008 Appetizer

Easy Homemade Hummus & Pita Chips

I made hummus at home for the first time last night. It was so easy and relatively expensive! This is what I did:

1 can garbanzo beans (chick peas)

⅓ cup tahini (sesame paste)
juice of 1 lemon
½ cup water
⅓ cup olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
salt to taste

Prep
1) Rinse the canned beans with some water and drain
2) Stir up the tahini (since it will most likely have separated into oil + sesame paste) before adding it to the food processor
3) peal and mash the garlic cloves

Process
Throw everything into the food processor and mix for about 1-2 minutes. Check the consistency after about a minute. You can add water to thin it out, or add some plain yogurt to make it more creamy.

Taste the hummus and adjust the flavors accordingly. Add some salt to enhance the flavor. Some people like to add extra lemon juice to make it more tart, and some people like to add lots of extra garlic cloves to kick up the flavor. Another idea, if you don't like the spicy kick of raw garlic, is to roast the garlic in the oven beforehand and then adding the roasted garlic.

When you are happy with the consistency and taste, scoop it out and enjoy!

Once you have the basics down, you can be creative and add whatever flavors suit your fancy. Some examples I've seen: mint, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, and black pepper.

Homemade Pita Chips
One has to have pita chips to eat with the hummus, right? This is also another really easy, fast, and healthy snack food that you can make.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut up pita bread (plain works best, although whole wheat works OK too) into chip size pieces. Spread in one layer (preferably) onto a baking sheet. Spray both sides of the pita slices with olive oil. I use a hand-pumped oil spritzer so I can pick the type of oil I use, but you can probably use a commercial product like PAM. Sprinkle a small amount of salt over the chips, and then bake for 10 minutes.

Perfect, warm and crispy pita chips at a fraction of the cost of store bought chips.

Enjoy!

October 6, 2008 Beef

Wagyu Beef - the Kobe of America

It was Bryan's birthday today (Monday). As part of a weekend birthday celebration, we bought Wagyu beef at a local market called Savenor's and opened up a nice bottle of wine (2003 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve) for dinner on Sunday evening.

Wagyu beef prices range from $40 a pound to hundreds of dollars a pound. The pieces we got were relatively reasonable, at $40 a pound. You can see that these steaks have less marbling than certain pictures I've seen online, which may account for the lower price.

Some interesting facts about Wagyu beef. Wagyu beef comes from a breed of cows that originated from Japan. Called Kobe beef in Japan, the breed was exported to the US in 1992 under a trade agreement between the US and Japan. All "Kobe" beef outside of Japan is called Wagyu beef.

Wagyu beef is heavily marbled with fat that is very evenly distributed throughout the meat. Although Wagyu cows are already genetically predisposed towards marbled muscle, Wagyu breeders promote additional marbling by feeding the cows a diet of grains, beer, and sake and regularly massaging the cows.

Surprisingly, Wagyu beef is actually relatively healthy because its fat has an unusually high amount of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid. In fact, Wagyu beef has a 2:1 ratio of monounsaturated fat to saturated fat. Indeed, even the saturated fat in Wagyu beef is better. 40% of the saturated fat in Wagyu beef is stearic acid, a fatty acid known to have little impact on blood cholesterol levels. Finally, Wagyu beef has higher amounts of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acid than normal beef.

The best way to enjoy a Wagyu steak is to simply grill the steak, preferably rare or medium rare. There is no need for marinades, steak sauces, etc. because the meat itself is so flavorful.

Ideally, the steak is at room temperature before cooking, although it can also be grilled straight from the refrigerator.

I typically rub olive oil on both sides of the steaks and season with freshly ground black pepper, white pepper, and a little bit of salt.

I heat my cast-iron pan until it is quite hot, and then I sear the steak for about 3-4 minutes on one side, and about 2-3 minutes on the other side. This particular piece of steak was about 1 inch thick and was starting at room temperature. Add a minute or so if you are cooking a steak straight out of the refrigerator. Additionally, if your steak is thinner, cut down the time significantly. Ideally, I would recommend trying to get a steak that is at least 1 inch thick.

After grilling, let the steak rest for a minute or so before serving.

The steak was absolutely delicious, although it created so much smoke in the house that we had to open the windows for about 5-6 hours to get the smell of steak out of our condo.

As discussed earlier, we enjoyed this with 2003 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. Since the wine is still a bit young, we found that decanting it for about 2 hours was perfect. I also steamed some snap peas in the microwave (3 minutes) and tossed it with some oyster sauce, soy sauce, and salt. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

All in all, an excellent meal.

Happy Birthday Bryan!

June 28, 2008 Fish

Pescatore

I had read a very positive Boston Globe article about this restaurant in Ball Square (Somerville) awhile back, and have been meaning to try it for awhile. I finally had a chance to go tonight. I called at around 5 PM and was able to make a 7:30 PM reservation with no problems. We were also able to find metered street parking pretty easily.

Our over all impression? Pretty good, although we're not sure if we'd come back again.

Why? Honestly? We kept comparing each dish with similar ones from Basta Pasta and continued to judge the ones from Pescatore inferior. Granted, you can't completely compare the two restaurants. Pescatore is full service, sells wine, accepts credit card, and has much better ambiance. However, the food is clearly several steps below Basta Pasta. I will describe each dish we ordered below:

Arancini ($5.95)
These are deep fried arborio rice balls filled with cheese and accompanied by a tomato dipping. The arancini balls here were pleasantly crunchy on the outside, but had bland flavor inside. The cheese flavor was not very noticeable, and the peas inside did not add much. If Basta Pasta's arancini was an "A," these would be C+.

Crab Cakes ($11.95)
Again (this will begin to seem like a theme), "not bad," but also, as one member of our party said, "not the best I've ever had, although there are some nice big chunks of crabmeat."

Fusilli Amalfi ($16.95)
The reviewer from the Boston Globe strongly recommended this dish, stating that "it was so good it made our eyes roll." This dish was actually pretty good. Clearly these chefs specialize in seafood, and all the seafood was perfectly cooked - nothing was rubbery or overcooked. The homemade fusilli was pleasantly chewy (although still a few steps inferior to the homemade fusilli at Basta Pasta), and the broccoli rabe, scallops, shrimp, lobster, and shrimp in a white wine, garlic and oil sauce created a very nice blend of flavors. This was probably my favorite dish.

Gnocci Sorrentino ($12.95)
The homemade gnocci came in a ceramic bowl covered with cheese and tomato sauce. Basta Pasta actually does not sell gnocci dishes, so I cannot make that comparison. I thought this dish was OK (I like the one at Il Panino better), and Bryan said he liked it.

Cioppino
This Italian seafood stew was one of the specials of the day, and we ordered it. Like I had mentioned before, these people know how to cook seafood. Generally, I don't like fully cooked tuna because it is tough and flavorless. The tuna in this dish was extremely fresh (Catch of the Day). It had good flavor and a perfect, soft texture. The remaining seafood also were cooked perfectly. The sauce was good, and we enjoyed this dish.

Chicken Marsala ($14.95)
This was probably the worse dish we had, which further emphasizes the point that these people know how to cook seafood. The chicken was overcooked and was a bit dry and tough. The Marsala sauce had virtually no sugar nor cream, which made it taste differently from most Marsala sauces we've tried. The small dumplings that came with the meal were mediocre at best. We couldn't help but keep talking about how good the chicken marsala at Basta Pasta was, and how Reno (the cook at Basta Pasta), really knows how to cook a perfect chicken breast. As one member of our party says, "there's no one that can cook chicken like Reno does. I'm not sure how it does it." There was no comparison here.

Tiramisu ($5.95)
The tiramisu was actually excellent - layers of lady fingers soaked in a nice, dark espresso + rum mixture with light marscapone cheese in between. I even said at the end of dessert, "that was the best part of the meal." We all agreed that the dessert was really good.

To reiterate what I said before, the food here is quite good, and they definitely know how to cook seafood. The ambiance is also very nice. However, the over all general talent of the chef is still inferior to Reno's (of Basta Pasta) and those in North End. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a reasonably priced restaurant (most of our entrees ranged between $12 - $17), a nice ambiance, good food, wine, and seafood, this is not a bad option.

June 14, 2008 Cambridge

Gran Gusto

I stumbled upon the name of this restaurant while looking for a kid-friendly place to take my college friends (who have 2 kids). We ended up going to Antico Forno in the North End with my friends since it was recommended as a great place in the North End for kids. While doing my research, I also learned that Antico Forno makes an excellent authentic neapolitan pizza. However, every time someone mentioned this fact, another person would pipe in saying that Gran Gusto had better neapolitan pizza. After reading this time after time, I decided I had to go to Gran Gusto to try this amazing pizza.

Gran Gusto is located in North Cambridge in the old Tartufo site, and has only been open for about 9 months. The owner is originally from Naples, and thus his food (like his pizza), is distinctly Neapolitan.

The service at this restaurant was excellent. The waiter was an older man who was clearly knowledgeable about the menu. He was kind, attentive, and friendly at the same time. He convinced us to try the special appetizer - (stracchino?) a creamy, very fresh Italian cheese that they fly over from Italy every so often. It has a texture somewhere between cream cheese and fresh mozarella. It was very rich and creamy (apparently 50% milkfat!) but interesting to try.

I ordered the Margherita pizza ($12), and Bryan ordered the fresh pasta dish ($17). The pizza crust was excellent - super thin and crispy and light. It was definitely well made, and one of the best thin-crusts in Boston. The flavors of the toppings were light, balanced, and flavorful. I would not have minded more tomatoes on the pizza. Maybe next time I'll try ordering a saucier/juicier pizza.

Bryan thoroughly enjoyed his pasta dish. The texture of the fresh pasta was chewy, and the sauce was well made. In fact, Bryan just told me he went back to Gran Gusto last week (by himself) and had pasta again.

All in all, we were quite pleased with the discovery of yet another delicious Italian restaurant so close to home. Best yet, this restaurant is a little off the beaten path and is also sort of still undiscovered. We went on a Friday night at 7 PM, and had no problems getting a table. They also have a lovely courtyard full of outdoor seating. It looks like a great place to have dinner on a warm, summer evening.

June 14, 2008 Back Bay

Parish Cafe

Bryan and I went to Parish Cafe for lunch on Easter Sunday. It had actually been years since we visited this place, so we were not sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. The creative sandwiches are really good, and for Newbury Street, the prices are quite reasonable.

I ordered "The Alternative"($10.25), which is described as a sandwich containing "fresh tuna salad tossed with diced onions and a roasted red pepper mayonnaise. Served on toasted Tuscan
wheat triangles, topped with melted Monterey jack cheese and applewood smoked bacon." The presentation was sharp, the mix of flavors perfect (yumm, bacon), and the texture of the toasted triangles made the sandwich special. I really enjoyed the sandwich.

Unfortunately, it's been awhile since we went, and I can't remember what Bryan ordered. I do remember that we both left the restaurant thinking that the food was yummy, and that we would definitely come back.

I also remember looking on their wall and seeing that they had won Best of Boston "best sandwich" for many years in a row, but it all of a sudden stopped several years ago. It made me wonder what competing sandwich company came along and stole the glory - High Rise perhaps? Darwins? Flour?

October 12, 2007 North End

Prezza

Note: an updated post from 2009 on this restaurant has been written here.

We went to Prezza on Sunday evening as part of Bryan's birthday weekend celebration. We wanted to go on Saturday, but it was impossible to get a reservation at a decent time. Clearly, this place is popular.

I chose this restaurant for several reasons. First, it consistently had very positive reviews from various forums, websites, etc. Second, it was a classy, high-end restaurant - appropriate for a birthday celebration. Third, they make fresh pasta, which is very important for Bryan, since he absolutely LOVES fresh pasta. Finally, it had been recommended to me by a friend who used to live in the North End. This is the same person who had recommended Monica's, now one of our favorite North End restaurants.

Prezza did not disappoint. The waitstaff was very professional and knowledgeable. He recommended an excellent French wine (E. Guigal Hermitage 1990) to go with our meal and also was very attentive.

Since Bryan loves pasta so much, we decided to order 2 appetizers and 4 appetizer portion pastas. For appetizers, we ordered the butternut squash arancini with lobster, brown butter, and sage; and the spicy mussels in tomato fennel stew with chorizo polenta. Both were excellent. The arancini was lightly fried and was paired with a fragrant sauce. The spicy tomato fennel sauce was deeply fragrant and flavorful, and the mussels were fresh and tasty [though still not as good as the mussels we freshly picked from the ocean in Maine and grilled at our campsite right after].

We ordered four pasta dishes to try: the pumpkin ravioli with lobster, marscapone, brown butter, and sage; potato gnocchi with mushroom, rabbit, marscapone, and parmesean; corn raviolini tossed with toasted corn, pancetta, rock shrimp, white wine, and butter; and tagliatalli a la Bolognese.

We both agreed that the corn raviolini was fabulous. The mixture of flavors between the sweet corn, salty pancetta, shrimp, wine, and butter was beautiful. I even said that if we went back again, I would just order a plate of corn raviolinis and a glass of wine and be very content. The gnocchi was also very good. I typically don't like freshly made gnocchi because it is often too mushy and soft. I like my gnocchi with a bit of chewiness. The gnocchi here had excellent texture - just the right amount of bounce ("kwew" in Taiwanese). Bryan also really liked the Bolognese. It was much lighter than the Bolognese we are used to at Basta Pasta, but the flavors were nice and the pasta had good texture. The pumpkin ravioli was good, although the flavor was similar to the arancini that we'd ordered as an appetizer. Although we both liked it, we thought it probably ranked 4th out of the pastas that we had ordered.

Over all, an excellent meal. I would definitely recommend trying this place. They accept reservations on OpenTable and also over the phone. They got a Zagat's food rating of 27, which is pretty high. Next time we go, maybe we'll try some of the meat dishes. Although, I'm really tempted to just order the corn raviolini's and call it a day. 🙂

October 12, 2007 Boston

Grill 23

Bryan recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal that talked about how steak houses age their steaks. Ever since then, he's had a craving for really good steak. Well, we went to Grill 23 as part of his 30th birthday weekend celebration in Boston in past weekend.

I'm not much of a steak eater, so unfortunately I cannot offer as good of a review as someone who knows a lot more about steak. However, I'll try to give the opinions of everyone at the table.

Bryan ordered the kobe cap steak, one of the most expensive items on the menu ($59 for 10 oz steak without sides). One friend ordered the "Berkeley" which is a 16oz Dry-Aged Ribeye and comes with a twice baked potato and creamed spinach with bacon and cheese. Another friend ordered the Steak au poivre, and I ordered the filet mignon.

In fact, the restaurant was very accommodating to my needs. I told the waiter that I did not eat a lot of meat, and asked whether he had any recommendations. He told me he would sell me half of the "twin filet mignon" dish, which typically has two 4-oz filet mignons. I was very pleased. Doesn't the USDA or someone say we should only be eating 4 oz of meat with each meal?

We also ordered some sides - truffled "tater tots" and mushroom ragout. Although I don't love steak houses, I had this great memory of incredible side dishes that I'd ordered at Craftsteak in Las Vegas (MGM Grand). We had ordered this deliciously flavorful mushroom side dish (an assortment of roasted wild, exotic mushrooms - including hen-of-the-woods) and also the most incredible sweet corn side dish. I was anticipating something just as yummy here.

In general, all agreed that the steak was very high quality - well aged with good, solid flavor. The kobe cap steak was well marbled, and according to Bryan, it was really good. I thought my filet mignon was a bit flavorless, but then people say that filet mignon isn't that tasty. My friend's steak au poivre was flavorful, and the Berkeley was quite good as well.

Over all, the steak was good, but we were disappointed in other ways. Two people (in our party of four) had ordered medium rare steaks and had received medium to medium-well steaks. Half of Bryan's kobe capsteak was well done. The restaurant happily offered to re-cook the steaks, and both people who had returned the steaks thought that the second properly cooked batch tasted much better.

I was a bit disappointed with the sides. The tater tots were OK, but honestly, I think the tater tots and the truffle French Fries at Garden at the Cellar are so much better (and about half the price). The mushroom ragout was nothing more than sauteed button mushrooms with a bit of oil and salt. My visions of exotic mushrooms from Craftsteak quickly disappeared when the stir fried white mushrooms appeared on the table. Both sides tasted pretty ordinary.

People say this is probably the best steak place in Boston. If that's true, then Boston has a long way to go before catching up with the quality of steakhouses in bigger cities.

October 11, 2007 Cambridge

Craigie Street Bistrot (now Craigie on Main)

We went to Craigie Street Bistrot for our anniversary dinner.

Craigie Street Bistrot is tucked away in a residential area about a 5-10 minute walk outside of Harvard Square. The chef, Tony Maws, has won countless awards, including America's top 10 new chefs by Food and Wine Magazine and also Best of Boston 2007 for General Excellence.

The food is French by cuisine, but the ingredients are all local, New England, fresh produce - at least for most of the year (winter is sometimes a bit tough). Every morning Tony collaborates with local farmers and picks out the best organic produce and meat for that day. He then designs the menus based on his picks. The menu changes every day, and is usually printed out right before the restaurant opens at 5 PM.

We decided to try the Chef's Tasting Menu for our anniversary. This is essentially a chef's whim type of tasting. "Tony will cook whatever he wants for you!" It's a 7-course meal plus another 3 courses of desserts. There's basically a regular version and a vegetarian version. We both ordered the regular version (both people at the table have to order the same tasting menu).

The food was absolutely fabulous. Tony Maws is an excellent cook. I won't go into detail describing each dish, because that would take forever (see below for the menu of what we ate). Suffice it to say - it's definitely worth trying the tasting at least once. This is a chance to try the best of what a chef can do - he is truly at the peak of his creativity. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Even though French cuisine is not my favorite, Craigie Street Bistrot is probably one of my favorite restaurants in Boston.

The Chef's Tasting Menu is not cheap. Ours was $115 a person plus the cost of wine. If you want to experience Tony's creativity for a little less money, you can try the Chef's Whim, which is available Wednesday and Sunday evenings after 9 PM. For either $39.99 (4 courses) or $55 (6 courses) a person, Tony Maws will cook a spontaneous meal for you. I've never personally tried this, but it sounds like a lot of fun and I definitely want to try it in the future!

There's also the prix fixe deal, which is $36 for a three course meal. It is available Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday; and after 9:00 pm Friday and Saturday. Bryan and I have tried this once. Although it was fine, it did not compare to the complexity and flavor of the other dishes that he makes.

CHEF'S TASTING MENU

Assiette of Kona Kampachi Sashimi
melon, peanuts, green olives, salmon roe, ginger-chile vinaigrette

Salad of Farm Fresh Tomatoes and House Cured Anchovies
lovage vinaigrette, mizuna, salt-cured foie gras

Squid and Vegetable noodles
squid ink-dash sauce, trout roe

Slow-Cooked Farm Fresh Egg
summer succotash, Spanish octopus, chorizo sauce

Roasted Red Chile-Marinated Kampachi Kama

Roasted Beef Bone Marrow
smoked beef tongue confit

CSB Boudin Noir Stuffed Vermont Organic Quail
summer vegetables, smoked farro, black trumpet mushroom puree

Tea-infused Panna Cottas
rooibos, jasmine

Warm Sweet White Corn Grits
local blackberries, poached peach puree, anise hyssop ice cream

Market Fruits Crisp
walnut topping, buttermilk ice cream

Chille Mariposa Plum Soup
yogurt sorbet

October 10, 2007 Recipe

Sushi Candy

I was inspired by various foodblogs to make some sushi candy last night.

I made rice crispy treats according to the recipe on the Rice Krispies Cereal box. While the marshmallow rice mixture was still hot, I took half of the mixture and individually shaped the nigiri rice pieces. I then took the other half, flattened it onto a cutting board, and used a small cleaned out tomato paste can to cut out discs.

I bought Odense brand marzipan at Shaw's Supermarket ($7 a tube).

I mixed various portions with food coloring and then shaped the ebi, sake, maguro, and tamago pieces. I used a knife to "paint" on a chocolate ribbon for the tamago (egg) sushi.

I also made a green strip out of marzipan as the nori for the maki pieces. The wasabi is also marzipan.

I found marzipan to be pretty easy to use and pretty tasty with the rice crispies. I had seen versions of this dish online that used Swedish fish and fruit roll ups. The idea of eating rice crispies with fruit roll ups or gummies did not appeal to me, so I decided to try this instead.

Yum!

September 21, 2007 Restaurant

Berryline Frozen Yogurt

Berryline is another Pinkberry-esque frozen yogurt place that just opened in Harvard Square this past weekend. It is located on Arrow Street, right off of Mass Ave in Harvard Square. I went there last night with people from my small group to try it out.

The place is owned and run by two biochemical engineering graduate (or ex-graduate?) students. The outside of the store is painted with whimsical colorful designs that make the place seem fun, casual, and inviting. Likewise, the two owners were very friendly, fun, and hospitable. The cafe sells coffee, fancy espresso based drinks, and frozen yogurt with toppings such as fruit, cereal, granola, and nuts. They plan on offering fresh fruit smoothies soon too.

Supposedly these two guys have spent the last year perfecting their recipe for frozen yogurt. When we went they had two flavors - original (which is essentially just simple yogurt flavor) and acai, which is a berry-like fruit from Brazil that has been quite popular lately with health nuts. The owner told me that the frozen yogurt was essentially fat free. Their goal is to offer healthy food, which is why they don't have boba. Instead, they plan to focus on fresh fruit smoothies, frozen yogurt, and coffee drinks.

We ordered the original flavor with pineapple topping. I thought the taste was pretty good. It had the fresh, tangy taste of yogurt. It was creamier (less icy) than the Pinkberry type yogurt. After eating many spoonfuls of the yogurt, I felt that it was a tad too sweet, and it was less enjoyable at the end. I was trying to remember what my last homemade batch had tasted like, and which one I liked better.

The owners were very friendly. We sat outside eating our frozen yogurt for quite some time. After about an hour, the owners came out and asked whether we wanted decaf lattes on the house. Bryan took them up on the offer and actually requested a caffeinated double shot latte. They happily obliged. They were eager for Bryan's feedback. He said that it was pretty good. They replied by saying, "please be honest with your feedback, cuz we want to make it better if it's not that good." He responded again by affirming that it's pretty good.

Berryline buys their coffee from a roaster in Hopkinton. Apparently the coffee that they receive has typically just been freshly roasted only a few days ago.

Anyway, we enjoyed our experience at Berryline and look forward to seeing what other new products they have to offer. They seem pretty open to suggestions. In fact, they said the number one request they've had so far is mochi topping. "We're working on that one" they say.

It looks like this place could be an awesome addition to all the other cool ice cream/dessert places in Harvard Square. Truly, you can never have enough ice cream places! So, if you happen to be in Harvard Square, you should definitely check out Berryline.

September 16, 2007 Dessert

"Pinkberry" Yogurt Recipe

I thought I'd try several recipes to see if I could make a good cup of frozen yogurt in the style of Pinkberry frozen yogurt.

Recipe 1
2 ½ cup Trader Joe's Greek-style yogurt (nonfat)
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Stir together all the ingredients and refrigerate for 1 hour. Then freeze in a commercial ice cream machine for about 30 minutes.

I tried this the other day and I thought it was way to sweet. I had already cut the sugar down from the original recipe. However, I could barely stand to eat it - it was so sweet. The texture was quite creamy, which is unlike the icy texture of Pinkberry style yogurt. The yogurt also does not freeze well. After sitting overnight in the freezer, it became quite hard - definitely too hard to scoop. It would have made a better popsicle.

Recipe 2
2 ½ cups 2% fat Trader Joe's Greek style yogurt
⅓ cup 2% milk
½ cup sugar
⅔ cup half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Freeze in a commercial ice cream maker for about 30 minutes.

I tried this recipe last night and it got pretty good reviews from my friends. This recipe comes closer to achieving the icy texture of Pinkberry style soft serve yogurt, since it contains more water from the half and half and milk. I like the sugar level here much better as well. The frozen yogurt was light, refreshing, tangy (but not too sour), and slightly sweet. Because I served this immediately after making it, I was not able to check out its freezing capabilities. I'm guessing that it would become even harder, since it has more water content and still not enough fat. Nevertheless, if you plan on eating it within a few hours, it should have pretty good texture.

Recipe 3
1 quart Trader Joe's Lowfat Organic Yogurt
3 x 2.13 oz Yang Le Duo (yogurt drink)

I have not gotten around to this one yet because I need to buy the yogurt drink. I may be less inclined now since I really like Recipe 2. I'll update this blog entry if I ever make the third one.

August 20, 2007 Porter Square

Cafe Mami

Porter Square is the closest thing that Boston has to a Japantown. A single building on Mass Ave houses a Japanese grocery store (Kotobukiya), a Japanese gift shop, a Japanese costume shop, a Japanese bakery, a boba tea shop, a sit-down sushi restaurant (Bluefin), and several casual food stalls specializing in various sorts of Japanese food (curry, ramen, and sushi, just to name a few).

We tried Cafe Mami on Friday night. Cafe Mami is tiny - it has a bar area that seats about 4 people and then two larger tables that fit 4-6 people each. That's it. Oftentimes, they will seat two parties at each of the tables.

The food at Cafe Mami was cheap and good. For a mere $8, you get a salad, miso soup, and an entree. Cafe Mami specializes in rice dishes, and sells familiar dishes such as katsudon, yakidon, and curry.

Bryan ordered the curry with beef and a fried egg on top (sunny side up) and I ordered the yakidon. Yakidon is a soy-based marinated beef that slightly reminds me of Korean BBQ. I thought the flavor of my yakidon was perfect - both sweet and salty in a perfect way that makes the dish horribly addictive. In fact, the flavor of my dish was so addictive that I ended up eating more than I had planned (in other words, I finished the entire dish).

Bryan's curry was also yummy. Accordingly to our friends, who go there often, the hamburger curry with the special tomato sauce is really good. The deep fried chicken tenders are also supposed to be amazing. The place really feels authentic, like you're sitting in a little Japanese food stall in Tokyo.

Apparently the place is very popular and it's often difficult to score seating. I guess we were lucky - we arrived early on a Friday night (around 6:15 PM) and didn't have to wait for a seat.

Over all, I thought this place was great. If you're in Porter Square, check this place out for yummy, satisfying, home-cooked and cheap Japanese food. YUM.

August 20, 2007 Recipe

Cold Asian Cucumber Salad

We have gotten a lot of cucumbers from our farm share lately. Here is a nice cool summer salad that you can make with the cucumbers.

Step 1: Cut cucumbers into ~ 3 inch pieces.

Step 2: Smash the cucumber with the side of a heavy cleaver. It may be easier to smash if you cut the cucumbers halfway down the center first.

Step 3: Add salt (about 1 teaspoon) and let the cucumbers sit for at least 20 minutes to let the water out (osmosis).

Step 4: Pour out the cucumber juices that have collected at the bottom of the bowl. Squeeze the cucumbers with your hands, add more salt, and let it sit for another 10 minutes or so.

Step 5: Squeeze the cucumbers again and remove as much water as possible.

Step 6: Add sesame oil, soy sauce, finely chopped or pressed garlic, sugar, and dried red pepper flakes to taste. I usually use about 1 garlic clove, a teaspoon of sesame oil, a teaspoon of soy sauce, and ½ teaspoon of sugar. This is quite subjective, and feel free to play around with the amounts to taste.

Enjoy!