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I always wonder if I'm being too much of a geek when I pull out my camera and photograph my food before I eat it. Given the size of the camera that I reveal, I also wonder if they think I'm a food reviewer for a paper or something like that, instead of being a blogger. Sometimes the food is so pretty that I think for a moment that the food is too pretty to eat. That thought goes away once I have captured the food on the camera, and I happily enjoy the once-pretty food (which is why my food photographs are always "before" photographs and rarely ever "after" photos.)

The Spicy Tuna Tartar was marvelous: raw tuna, topped with avocado, salmon roe, black caviar and a quail egg was the perfect starter for the 48-piece sushi dinner which included sushi staples like King Crab, Hamachi (Yellowtail), Sake(Salmon), Ika (Squid), Hotate (Scallop), Hokkigai (Surf Clam), Maguro (tuna) and of course Uni (Sea Urchin).

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Sapporo is one of those cities that's dangerous for a foodie like me.

The main JR station is located in the center of town, with a huge mall located on top of it, as well as several department stores around it. The 6th floor is full of restaurants and dessert cafes, and most importantly, most of them don't close until 11 pm. A movie theater sits on the 7th floor of the JR station/mall. Sapporo Tower connected to the JR station rises 38 stories into the air to give a view of the entire city. At the top of the Tower is a tea cafe, as well as a lounge to just chill.

If Tokyo is the Japanese equivalent of New York, I'd say Sapporo is San Francisco with food competition restaurants. In Sapporo, there are a number of restaurants here that offer as-much-as-you-can-eat (fill-in-the-blank)-in 120 minutes.

After the harrowing journey to Sapporo, I found myself hungry, and unlike the malls in the United States, the restaurants in malls in Japan are actually pretty good so I stopped in at a restaurant called Molette -- their specialty is omelettes, but I ordered bacon spaghetti topped with green peppers, onions, basil, and japanese eggplant instead, as I dislike having omelettes for dinner. It was tasty, but also very greasy -- no doubt the spaghetti was stir-fried in the grease leftover from the bacon. It's also a place for desserts. If I had more time, more money I'd likely try many more things, but alas, both are a limited resource.

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A Kit Kat of this size would be death to me. It's a good thing that all the ingredients used in the construction of this enormously super-sized candy bar are British, else I would be tempted to try this at home. Britons have a larger variety of KitKat bars than we have in the States -- the gigantic bar pictured here is the chunky peanut butter variant of the KitKat family. I've heard that there's Dark Chocolate and Mint varieties of Kit Kat as well.

One of these days, I will try this recipe with US ingredients, and then I will explode from my gluttony. But at least I'll be happy.

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After hearing Norman's talk, I headed over to have dinner at Mama Lan's. It was six, and the restaurant was deserted. I felt like crab, and crab was what I got. I ordered the Vietnamese Stir-Fried Crab, a crab coated in red chili, lemon grass and ginger. They have many types of crab available at Mama Lan's, but because of my cold, I wanted some ginger.

More on my experiences at Mama Lan's after the jump.

Continue reading "Mama Lan's" »

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To combat the embarassment from eating elaborate cakes in public, the Japanese have come up with an innovative solution: by making cakes look like fast food. You know, for the men.

In this burger, the bun is spongy cake, the beef patty is chocolate cream and the pickles are kiwis.

I can sort of see this thing becoming popular in obesity-plagued America, if only for those who want to put on an air of eating better than sweets.

Treehugger: Trends in Japan: Sweets in Disguise

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Creme Brulee is one of those desserts that I've really only had in restaurants. Cool, creamy custard hidden underneath a caramelized crust. The Brulee part of the name refers to the caramelized sugar. It surprised me to learn that this restaurant dessert can be made easily at home (provided you have a kitchen torch).

It doesn't take very long to make, but it does involve a bit of pre-planning because you will need to refridgerate it for a couple of hours to set the custard.

Continue reading "How to Make Creme Brulee" »

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A nice change from the typical Pho house, Citronelle's Californian-Vietnamese dishes delight the senses with quality cuisine.

4/5

Continue reading "Review: Citronelle" »

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On rainy days, there are foods which are really comfortable. I'm going to share my recipe for one of my favorite rainy days foods: Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. My mother used to make this soup for us on cold chilly days. The traditional form of this is called niu ro mein or Braised Beef Tendon Noodle Soup. Since I don't eat beef anymore (with the exception of all natural, organic, no hormones and no antibiotics Fredsteak), I've had to adapt this recipe for my own personal preferences (namely the avoidance of beef). I would advise against using gluten meat substitutes in this recipe -- because the main cooking component it is boiling, gluten tends to not come out well. There are more complicated recipes, but since I'm a lazy cook, the faster and quicker I can make my food, the sooner I can enjoy it. If you've ever seen me cook, you know that I don't follow recipes exactly, and nor should you with this one (after all, it is written by me).

Continue reading "Vegetarian Beef Noodle Soup" »

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Oster 27 Ounce Citrus Juicer 3186

by Oster

My parents gave me the Oster Citrus Juicer when I went home for Christmas. I unpacked it this morning to make some freshly squeezed orange juice. It has a pulp separator and the pitcher is removable to make pouring easy. The motor is bi-directional to help maximize the juice extraction.

3 oranges will make a tall glass of orange juice and take about 5 minutes of juicing.

This is my second juicer (I have a larger one made by Braun), and it's great functionally, but I still feel drawn to the wonderfully designed Alessi Juicer.

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Years ago, I linked to the The Meatrix, an advocacy campaign against factory farming. Now, the Sierra Club has created True Cost of Food, a short animated film on sustainable food.

Some handy-dandy food sustainability links:

• The Eat Well Guide:A listing of places that support sustainability.
• Seafood Watch, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's list of seafood that is okay to eat and those to avoid.
• The Meatrix: Fight the Factory Farms (link to the Flash Movie).
• Krafted: How Kraft uses genetically engineering in their food products without consumer knowledge.
  
• Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass: How our eating habits are driving the Chilean Sea Bass to extinction.
  

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One of them turned out like the one pictured on the box, while the other one became a Gingerbread House that Jack Skellington would be proud of.

One of the pieces for the witch broke in the box, so the attempt was made to reattach the cane to the witch, which quickly became Hansel's head attached to the cane, and from there kwc quickly created a rather grim ending for Hansel and Gretel (and the Gretel next door).

Flickr Photoset: Gingerbread House of Horror

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The agent that causes mad cow disease, scrapie and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk may sometimes be spread through urine, Swiss researchers reported on Thursday. They found that, under certain conditions in mice, the deformed brain proteins known as prions that transmit the disease could be found in urine. "We tested whether chronic inflammatory kidney disorders would trigger excretion of prion infectivity into urine," Adriano Aguzzi of the University Hospital of Zurich and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

Scrapie-infected mice with kidney inflammation excreted prions in their urine, and these prions infected other mice with scrapie when injected, Aguzzi and colleagues found.

So we now have a new vector of transmission -- one which can potentially encompass all the cows that graze on a particular area.

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Continue reading "Restaurant Review: Sun Tofu" »

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I'm also taking suggestions on good sushi restaurants in the Palo Alto area. Has anyone eaten at Higashi West before?

Update: Apparently Higashi West is closed now.

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On Sunday, between 5pm and 9pm, they have the "Sunday Special", which is all you can eat sushi rolls for 17.95. There are about 20 different rolls to choose from, although for the most part, it can be categorized into a couple of subclasses: w/avocado, w/eel, w/ spicy sauce, deep fried and california roll variant.

As far as quality goes, a notch above Todai, but not as good as Masu. Pricing of the Sunday Special is fair for dinner, since $20 in other sushi restaurants doesn't go too far. Though arguably it becomes an issue of quality over quantity.

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You don't need to go to the East Bay for good Chicago style pizza anymore. When I first came to the Bay Area, I was introduced to Zachary's as the place to go for Chicago Style pizza. These last couple years living on the peninsula, I've tried other pizza places like Pizza Chicago and Windy City Pizza to fulfill my need for a deep dish pizza, neither of them really compare to Zachary's thick crust and tomato ladden goodness. I recently discoverd Patxi's Chicago Pizza hidden on Emerson Street in downtown Palo Alto. The interior of Patxi's is higher class than most pizza establishments (and several notches above Zachary's), and reminds me more of a fancy sports bar than a pizza place.

As for the pizza? The pizza is as good as Zachary's without the need to drive into Berkeley. And, unlike Zachary's, Patxi's does take credit cards.

Continue reading "Patxi's Pizza" »

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Every now and then, I want a bowl of steaming hot ramen noodles, particularly on cold, gray and rainy days. When that craving hits me, I head over to Castro Street in Mountain View for Maru Ichi's Kuro Ramen. I wasn't too impressed the first time I went there when it had just opened, thinking that Ryowa (just down the street) had better broth, but I gave them a second chance, and they did not disappoint. I think one of the changes they've made since the opening is in the fresh hand-pulled noodles.

Also, they have Ramen bentos -- so you have your ramen with a side of gyoza (potstickers) and/or california rolls.

Service is on the light side, and the last couple of times I've been there the restaurant has been packed with a line out the door (but at least you can watch the cooks make the fresh noodles)

Continue reading "Maru Ichi" »

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Probably one of my favorite Dim Sum places, it is located in Cupertino Village tucked behind a Ranch 99. They have a good variety of the standard fare of dim sum, and they constantly change their menu based on the season. There is a heavy use of seafood in their selections.

The dim sum service here is pretty good, meaning that the servers actually come by your table and stop, and are happy to show you what they have. Though their english descriptions can be vague ("seafood dumpling" springs to mind), there's only two carts westerners need to worry about: the one hawking the delicacies (chicken feet and other assorted animal parts) and the one carrying beef tripe.

Seating on Sundays can be nightmarish if you don't call ahead.

Continue reading "Joy Luck Place" »

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I thought it might be handy if I started jotting down some of my notes about some of the places that I've eaten in. This comes particularly in handy when one has a craving to fulfill.

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Continue reading "Hunan Garden" »

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Morning Foods (These might be eaten at other times, but for me, I associate it with breakfast)

• Chinese Donuts with sweet soy milk
• Rice Porridge, with sides of soy sauce cucumbers, pork sung, brown egg, sweet egg, broiled fish, eel, or preserved duck egg
  

• Braised Beef Noodle Soup
  This is one of my favorites that I can't eat anymore due to my avoidance of cow meat. A great cold-weather dish, I have many memories of coming home after a rainy day and finding heaven in the warm noodles and the spiciness of the broth.
• Imperial Spareribs (sometimes called Peking Spareribs)
  I don't remember how I came to discover the dish -- but I do remember my father always ordering this dish for me at Chinese restaurants enough times that I learned the name of the dish -"gin giu pai goo"

• Peking Duck
  One style uses pieces of bread, the other uses mushu wrappers. Either way, duck is the yummiest of all birds, even if a bit greasy.
• Steamed Crab
  

• Stir-Fried Rice With peas, carrots, green onion, and slices of chinese sausage
  
• Ba Zhang
  I have to use the Taiwanese name for this food item, since I've never heard it translated into English. Ba, I believe means Meat or Pork. This is a pyramid shaped rice bundle, wrapped in a bamboo leaf. The rice is glutinous (sticky) and mixed with shitake mushrooms, chestnuts, pieces of pork, bamboo and brine shrimp. (I used to pick out the brine shrimp when I was kid, I don't do that anymore).
• Pork Sung Sandwich
  Other kids had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as their favorite, but I preferred the Pork Sung sandwich as one of my favorite afterschool quickies. Two slices of white bread, a heaping spoonful of pork sung, and you were set.
• Curry Pork Horns
  Joli-jau. These little pastries are filled with spiced pork, onion and curry.
• Cha Su Bao
  Barbecue Pork Buns. Yummy. I like them steamed best.

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Located in Palo Alto, just off 101 at Embarcadero, Ming's caters to a largely non-Chinese clientele. There's no need to bring a chinese speaker with you, as the servers all know the chinese name as well as how to describe each of the treats in English. It's the only dim sum place I've been to in the Bay Area where they set out a fork along with a napkin and a pair of chopsticks. There is ample parking (although the parking lot is not as well thought out as it could be).

Continue reading "Ming's" »

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Fried bananas with honey make an excellent dessert.

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I discovered one of the weaknesses of blogspot today. It doesn't let me post in Japanese. Just saw some ducklings taking a walk around the apartment complex with their mother. Making Jambalaya for lunch today (using up the leftover rice from yesterday). My Jambalaya usually turns out more like a gumbo than jambalaya but this time I think I added enough rice to make it just right.

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Today is: Free Cone Day @ Ben and Jerry's.

Tomorrow is Free Scoop Night @ Baskin-Robbins.

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After church today, we went down to Jack London Square for lunch at Scott's Seafood. Good stuff, and their brunch entree comes with desert - choice of chocolate mousse (why is it pronounced like moose and not like mouse?) or lemon sorbet. I had the sorbet, and everyone else had the mousse, but someone said it tasted like jello chocolate pudding, which got me thinking... if you got the jello pudding and put it in a pastry tube and squeezed it out into a fancy glass, would it taste like mousse?

I just finished watching Rurouni Kenshin Episode 95 followed by the RK OVA, and now I'm way the hell depressed. I should just put myself out of my misery by following it up with End of Evangelion or Grave of the Fireflies... Everything I've got in the library is just really really ... sad. I need more happy anime. It's just that after spending countless hours watching RK, you really don't want the series to end and if they had left it open ended, one could always believe in a sequel series. I guess that's my way of saying that if you actually watch all 95 episodes of the RK TV series, stop there, and read the manga ending found in the Kenshin Kaden Artbook.

It's funny but the two quotes below from yesterday's entry is actually rather appropriate for RK.

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I was making dinner when it occurred to me that the phrase "cut through like a hot knife through butter" must be fairly modern in origin. My reasoning being that were it an old phrase, existing before refridgeration, the phrase would make no sense whatsoever, since butter at room temperature is fairly soft, and hot knives would pass only a little bit more quickly through butter than a cold knife. But, butter coming from a refridgerator like mine (which has been known to freeze sodas on occasion) is rock hard, and a hot knife (heated by hot water) cuts through it (thankfully) quite quickly.

One of my co-workers proposed this past weekend to his girlfriend of three years. He and I share the same birthday and the same birthyear, which makes him the same age as me, give or take a few hours. Anyways, he is ready for marriage, I am so not. It's not that I wouldn't be a good husband or a good father, it's just that, well, I'm simply not ready for it. And while there are certainly plenty of pros and cons to being married, it's a lifestyle that I just can't handle yet.

I've lived my life for 28 years, and in alot of ways, I'm still trying to figure out who I really am. A person isn't complete until they find the other part of themselves, and the other part can only be found in the presence of another person. Who I am when I'm around people is different from the person I am when I am alone. Who I am when I'm with a group of people is quite different from who I am when I'm amongst friends. All these different facets of my personality. Sometimes fluid, sometimes hard, constantly changing.

Shrek: "Ogres are like onions."

Donkey: "They stink?"

Shrek: "Yes... No!"

Donkey: "They make you cry?"

Shrek: "No!"

Donkey: "Oh... you leave them out in the sun, they get all brown and start spoutin' little white hairs."

Shrek: "No! Layers! Ogres have layers! You get it? We both have layers!"

Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody likes onions. You know what everybody likes? Parfaits."


From the movie Shrek

Now that I think about it, a lot of things are like ogres and onions. Think about things that make you cry, things that have layers that not everyone likes...

Posted by Michael Huang at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've cooked for the last two days in a row, nothing fancy, but it's different from eating out all the time. I go to the supermarket so seldomly that it always shocks me seeing the prices of certain groceries.

I got a wedding invitation in the mail today. Two of my co-workers are getting married to each other. They're really wonderful people and have been together for as long as I've known them, so I'm sure they'll be very happy together. Looks like I'll be shopping for a new suit soon.

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There's patriotism and then there's ridiculousness... I think this story about french fries counts as the latter.

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I made my travel arrangements for Chicago. I will go there and I will eat Pizza and Hot Dogs and then I will come back and be able to say 'that is not a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza'.

Someday I'm going to go to Philadelphia and eat at Morimoto's.

And one of these days I will see Europe.

But I've got a lifetime to do these things. What's the rush?

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I like to believe that things are never as bad as they seem. Somehow, smiling through troubling times seems to be a natural reaction for me. When I break things down to that which is truly important, I realize all the blessings in my life. Which is why I can't fathom how people can choose to end their lives. How is it that people decide that tomorrow isn't worth living for?

What brought all of this on? I read an article in the newspaper today about a French Chef who committed suicide, even though they gave him 3 stars.

I read a article once which said that people who share their lhoughts with others are happier... because those that don't tend to believe no one understands them and feels isolated. I have a feeling that's what happened to the French chef, as the friends and family said he seemed really distant for the past few weeks.

I can hear the rain falling outside. I love the sound of the falling rain. There's just something relaxing about hearing the steady rhythm of falling water droplets.

Can you believe it's almost March? As far as years go, it's been a bad first two months... but I'm hopeful for the future.

Posted by Michael Huang at 10:58 PM |