HUMP!

Hey there citizens! Hows spring treating you? Everyone thawing out OK?

I'm gonna do something new here on this bloggie, so bear with me.

If you've grown suspicious from the title of this post & you're wondering if I'm gonna give you too much information about some aspect of my personal life that you don't want to know about, rest assured there will be no such unveiling tonight. The only "Hump" in this post is the name of the restaurant that DH & I went to the other evening.

And I'm gonna give you a review of it whether you like it or not, because I'm still floating from the sheer bliss of the experience.

First of all I must give props to a friend who graciously provided Josh & I with the opportunity to experience this lovely restaurant in all of it's splendor & my fantastic sisters in law & Tom who held down the fort while went off to act like adults for the evening.

I assure you, this was harder than I thought it would be, as every couple seconds I wanted to scream at all my fellow train riders, like an idiot, "BEHOLD ME....I AM AL......and I'm an ADULT, YO!!!!.....I'm FREEEEEEEeeeee!" whilst swinging carelessly from round train handle bars to handle bars & that would just ruin the whole delightful facade of being an adult individual, wouldn't it?

So here's my first restaurant review, don't worry fellas at the rate that I eat out, these reviews will be coming out as often as I give birth (Occasionally but not too infrequently to forget all together) I took pics w/ DH's Iphone & as the sun went down the dim light didn't make for very good shots so sorry bout that.

Well now on w/ the show ..........The Hump, is a LA style sushi restaurant located near Tokyo eki, with it's sister resturant of the same name in Santa Monica

First off, the decor was great, modern, classy & chic. Our booth had a full window view of the Imperial palace moat & grounds. And I was desperately trying to control my instinctive desire to grove like a lunatic to the happy-making but odd combo of gospel/trance music in the background.

We started off with cocktails. And DH insisted we try something so he got a tequila based cocktail called "Teqtonic" never heard of it, I got a vodka/cointreau based cocktail called "Balalaika". Personally I liked his better. (Should've gone w/ my instincts & gone w/ Tequila?)

KAMPAIIIII (this is right before I start raving to the empty restaurant about how ...."I'm a GROWN UP, on a DATE!" like a moron who is obviously not grown up nor on a date)

I went ahead & ordered the Chef's Choice 8 course set. And my DH, being slightly less adventurous with seafood, choose out his own course individually.(with a little help from me!)

Mr. Husband's edamame was nearly enough for me to ask for a nama beer to go with it, but I decided to save my stomach for the goodness to come.
My starter was a sora-mame & prawn salad with a delicate sesame dressing. Along with a very unique tasting sea snail (I forgot the name). It tasted salty & somewhat bitter but the texture was very soft & palatable and the broth in the shell was quite a pleasant little kick. Kinda hard to describe really.

Mr. Husband ordered his own sushi plates one plate of hon-maguro (black tuna) & one plate of this Bluefin tuna Otoro. (fatty belly cut of bluefin tuna) Bluefin is considered to be the KING of tuna, And if you've never tasted otoro, let me just say there's only one way to describe it....Sushi-gasm! (FOR REAL!!! TOTAL SUSHI-GASM!)

Imagine, if you will, the softest creamiest sushi with white fat marbled into it & around the edges that melts like butter in your mouth. MELTS!! There's practically no way to chew it because it just disolves like cream. Stop me already I could go on about this forever!

2 seconds before OTORO-GASM!!

Here's my sashimi plate. Maguro, ika & red sea bream. First impressions.....fresh wasabi is most obviously fantastic & mind-blasting (or should I say, nose blasting?). I still don't care for squid, there is no unpleasentness in the taste but the texture is just too muddy for me.

Here's his salad course, mix of grilled veggies: baby corn, mastutake mushroom, paprika, okra & shishito peper with a very light cheese dressing that I just couldn't place but it was something blue....lighter than Roquefort or Gorgonzola. It was creamy & delicate. Surprisingly my mushroom hating man-of-love tried the matsutake & found that it's meatier taste was a not entirely unpleasant.

My salad was awesome. Mixed greens with chicken & tiny squid (see them laying on the potato like it's a little pillow, awww!) they were grilled I think, and were surprisingly good. And the French mustard & balsamic vinegar dressing is something that I'm going to try at home for sure.

I had some tempura with a few veggies, one of which was baby artichoke heart. I LOVED IT, bitter but just really right up my alley. Te fish was wrapped in some kind of wrap or batter & sandwiched in with a sweetish soft egg-like batter filling as well. This was the most mysterious thing I ate, I wish I would've asked what kind of fish it was & what the filling was made of, I assume it was made with a fish stock as well.

DH had a seared Kobe beef sashimi with a daikon oroshi/ponzu dressing. This too was fantastic (though I was only rationed 1 slice) the goma sprinkled on the beef & the yuzu in the dressing was the clincher as far as I was concerned.

The picture is a bit fuzzy but this was the much loved spicy tuna roll & California roll. Sadly my only California roll involved a lame food-court experience in Texas (not to be repeated EVER!) but this California roll was positively overflowing with soft & creamy goodness -- everything from the avocado to the crab meat to the tarako & the mayo garnishing it was a win-win situation for me.

DH quite obviously lost his mind right about the time this spicy tuna roll came to the table (along with his 2nd Tequila cocktail & my Champagne.) According to my sister in law this is basic "spicy tuna roll" in LA but it was all new too me. The maguro-tataki was spicy enough & wonderfully creamy and with little bits of tempura it had a crunch that made it all the more fun. The slivers of dried red pepper garnishing it are supposedly the norm with spicy tuna rolls. Gee....how would I know, I'm just a little gaijin. We went ahead & ordered another plate of these babies.

And finally my sushi, at last! From right to left: Dashi-maki, ikura (come to mama) ebi, akagai (blood clam, whatta name and looking suspiciously like a part of the reproductive system...eh-hum), hamachi (yellowtail), I dunno what the white one was?? Sea bream?, chutoro & otoro. By this time I'm like, holding back the tears of joy & quietly yet earnestly singing "I LOVE JAPAN".

Not a very good picture at all of the most awesome miso ever with a huge chunk of some kind of fish (again...sorry, couldn't place it) it was steaming hot, just like it should be...too hot to drink right from the start. Someone give the miso guy in the back a huge hug for me. Wonderful wonderful!

Lastly there was my dessert of sakura cheese cake. I loved how this was not very sweet at all, so you could taste a very subtle floral taste of what I assume was sakura blossom water? Maybe not, but I like to imagine it was something baby pink & delicate. Look at that strategically placed sakura petal.

Dinner ended with two hot cups of ocha & much nodding & silly smiles of satisfaction which continued all the way home as you can see.

Awww, as you can see Mr. Daddy is busy checking in with home base to make sure all the tyrants are under control & getting into their tyrant PJ's. And I tell you my friendly friend as Gene Kelly says:

WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE!!

What's UP?

Hey ho, strangers! I've been busy as can be with my sisters in law & little niece visiting from LA. And before that my long lost friend visiting from Aussie-land. As you can imagine I've turned on all 3 burners full blast & have pretended that laundry is simply a bad re-occuring dream (that will soon burst out of my closet like some kind of stinky alien child with no form)

I've found myself making more Japanese food than I've made in a long time. I've realized that Japanese food is not particularly complicated or interesting to make, it just seems so basic, you know? But I do enjoy having a lot of great ingredients at my fingertips to put all the "authentic" touches to the meal. I'll tell you one thing though, there's nothing like having your fridge stuffed with a never ending supply of kimchi, umeboshi & pickles.

I don't think I'll be getting to post any recipes but I may throw up (doesn't sound right, does it?) a few pics from our visit when I get the chance. ENJOY yourself on this fine spring day, mate!

Going to the Airport.....
Off to the Zoo!
Night 2# Kimchi Nabe

Ohh--laa-laaa!
Cousins Charlotte & Ban-tan

Miss Erika-the-berika

Some one made it painfully obvious that I had forgotten to make a "birthday post" for my Little Miss #5! Come on now, really......that's just awful. (Sigh) How could I do that.

So, these are some pics of my littlest 3 year old girl. I thought of how best to describe her personality but thought I'd better not. Let's just say say she's a January girl in serious control of her world. Everything about her from when she was little was about doing it on her own.

After an active #4, her calm, organized & efficient manner is a life-saver (no really, it's a REAL life saver!!) Getting dressed, doing school, helping with chores, things I usually had to "pull teeth" to teach my other kids she would figure it out & would scarcely consider it work.

To be honest I find it easier to talk to her like an adult than a kid. Of course in spite of the oftentimes controlling & bossy future as a power-monger-CEO-lady there is a "girly girl" who believes she is a princess (though she's gonna probably be the one scooping up her prince onto her steed). And strangely, as assertive as she is she's hopelessly shy and I have to bribe her to interact with strangers. ("I'll only let you pay for the item if you'll say thank you to the clerk after you get the change")

As I write she's reported a water spill by her little brother & told me "it's OK, I'll mop it up", (she did) she's gone through her school books to find one of her favorite ones & asked me to choose which page I want her to do. And launched into a monologue about why if she was Joseph she would've probably gotten thrown into a pit too (I pretty sure she would've actually) I betcha Joseph was a Capricorn.

I really do love this little lady & pray to God she'll grow up to find a man strong enough to handle her. :)

10 days
8 months

1 1/2 years
1 & 8 mo.

2 1/2

2 & 9 mo.
3 years old.

Over the Moon!

I'm not going to try to play this one cool because the truth is I'm totally "out of my gourd" happy about it. Thanks to those handsome, strong, January mates of mine (that's in the Aussie sence of the word, Ok?) DH & I were able to take a day off.

A whole day!



FOR REAL!

I'm not even gonna explain why this makes me so happy on so many levels. Several reasons, 1) the last time we had a day off it was 6 months ago, 2) I wasn't quite able to make it to a certain Seminar that I had wanted to go to, 3) I really, really wanted to get out of the house! 4) I haven't NOT cooked a meal ever day for I don't know how long.

So, to be honest, I don't really care if you don't want to hear about my boring day, because the fact that it was boring is proof of it's sucessfulness. I'm gonna go ahead & tell you anyway.

There was some serious yakiniku eats at Akamon with "Karubi-beef-gasms". (you have no idea how good that was!) an hour at the library picking up a MASSIVE stack of english cookbooks (French Bistro, Italian home, Greek & Japanese Buddhist etc...) could the day get any better? Apparently! A trip to the Onsen with all the frills including getting snowed on in a steaming hot outdoor bath. Grabbed a set of new espresso cups at a 2nd hand store & ended with a cute little sundae & espresso at a totally bizzare looking resturant taking hysterical pictures of my DH which I will not be posting.

Back home there seems to have been no tramatic pranks, bodily fluid catastrophes or that tragic "Trash Mom's stuff" routine. And frankly, I'm too happy to look around & find out what mightv'e gone wrong. So, Cheers to you guys for a really great freezing day. And I'm going to have to end my post here, because I really have no words!


(Sigh)



PS. Don't think I won't actually USE those cookbook, because I will! Nya ha ha!

Berry-Berry Yummy Cobbler

Dear Sister that I love,

This post is for you! You know who you are, because you're the only one whose trying to click on that picture to enlarge it & then make it your wallpaper. You're also the only sister that's capapble of doing this:

to a raspberry cobbler.

So, I hope you don't mind if I share your secret with the world. Because simple things in life that make you cozy your knees up under your massive sweater while you swivel around on Daddy's big chair & giggle with our cornball brothers, while slooooooowly enjoying this cobbler -- should not be kept secret. Besides, the more people who we can pass the word to, the greater the chance of you walking into some stranger's home & having them shove a massive cake pan of crispy/gooey warm fruity goodness under your nose for you to cherish. Can't argue with those kinda odds.

So here we go:
I know you're partial to raspberries but since we happened to get mutant strawberries for very cheap & frozen blueberries (non-mutent, I think) we'll go with that. Chopping them up just seemed like the right thing to do. Since I think a "whole strawberry" would just be too much "gooo" for me.
I got myself 4 cups of fruit. I didn't forget to rinse the frozen blueberries since the last time I didn't they turned my muffins positively greenish black with all the icy blueberry juice surrounding them.

Now, since you know I ain't a rocket scientist & I don't do this from scratch, lemmie just give you the specs on the "drys": 1 1/4 cup of flour, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt.

I gave them a little whisking around because it also made me feel good. And this is a "feel good" kinda snack. (truth: Erika wouldn't leave me alone unless I gave her something "useful" to do)

Now since you're preheating your oven to 175c anyway, throw in 1/2 c or 1 stick or 113 grams of butter into a 9" cake pan or casserole dish.

Look, I know you're thinking, "Butter, Margarine, same thing!"

To that I say, "SILENCE or VIOLENCE"!

If you've gone as far to get a 380Y bag of raspberries, go over to the dairy section & get a 370Y block of butter. After all, this is cobbler!

Give it a few minutes in the oven & swirl the butter around a bit. Not because it needs it as much as it's sort of a little game I play to see how close I can get it to the edge of the pan without spilling it........yeah, that's the kinda game you'd play too isn't it?

Your wets: 1 cup of milk & 1 tsp of either almond essence or vanilla essence! Let's walk on the wild side & use almond. I know you wanna! Could it possibly get any easier? Just pour it into the dry & blend till just combined. I know you're not the type to over-mix but still I have to warn you anyway. Tough cobbler is just not romantic in the slightest bit.

And now for the fun part! (as if up until now you haven't just been a blasty-blast) The part where I pour with my left hand & simultaneously take pictures with my right hand & try to do it artistically at the same time. Whatever that means.....I think it means, just plop that batter in there already.

Now take a moment to observe. See the ring of butter around the edge?

I think it's time for a "moment".

That sweet sister, is sheer goodness & love in a cake pan. I tell you things just don't get any better.

Well, now............I think they just did. Things got much much better!

There's nothing like a massive pile of berries plopped on top of your batter of goodness. And no, you may not snitch more than 5 pieces of fruit. Stop it already! I think I could've stood to spread it out more evenly but I have a certain fondness to the crusty edge so I kept it to the middle & pressed it down into the batter a bit.

Let's just have another moment shall we?

.................
.................
........be still my beating heart!

Now it's time to put our baby in the oven. Surprisingly long cooking time (50-55 minutes) gives you plenty of time to clean up, change into your jammies or go get yourself an ice-cream to top it with. You thought I forgot that? NEVER!!

Now, let's see how things went.

Well now, if that doesn't just beat all. The edge should be browned crispy and the cobbler gets softer & softer as you get nearer to the center it may be somewhat soft or gooey looking. So, there you have it. If you've got any shread of sanity (of course you do) you'll do as I say & consume this after it's cooled down for about 10 min & top it with ice cream.

Well, that's it, sister! You know that bite there has your name on it. The one where the ice cream is melting down the side of the cobbler & is silently begging you to save it before it all melts away!

I love you & when you come by this way, there will most certainly be a healthy bowl of this "berry good cobbler" waiting for you.

Mucho love,

Your silly big sister

PS. I'll bet this cobbler would be just as good with any juicy fruit, mango, kiwi, peach, nectarines or even apple.

Quick Tuna Pasta

If there is one word I love to hear in a recipe's title, it's the word "QUICK"!

For "quick" is most often the only thing I have time for. The good news is this beautifully glistening pasta sauce is among the fastest 3 pasta meals I know how to make. (and by meals, I'm not talking about something that comes in a can or plastic package from the store) So, lend me your metaphorical ear & we will throw it together.

I must warn you, I've always had a bit of a a paranoia about posting pasta recipes. There's a lot of mystique surrounding the method for making "perfect" pastas & I sure wouldn't want to bust anyone's bubble about the "proper"" way of doing things. So let me just say this recipe is a 100% "Al'-wings-it-big-time-pasta-QUICK-recipe-of-science"! OK? Soooo, now that your mind is at ease, run to the kitchen NOW!!! Not a moment to loose!

Here's what we need:

400 g. of canned tuna (how many cans that is you'll have to figure out yourself, I use about 3-4)
600-800 g. canned tomatoes (again, I use 3 2oog cans)
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
a bottle of E.V. olive oil
5 sprigs of fresh rosemary from the back yard (or 1 tsp of dried)
2-3 sprigs of fresh basil (or 1/2 tsp dried, personally I just skip the basil if it's not fresh)
2 dried peppers
sugar
salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese to top & basil
700g-1 kg pasta noodles

Now grab a heavy bottom pot for the sauce & a large pot for the noodles, QUICK, go to work, you need about 1 hr flat starting from 5 minutes ago so PANIC! (just kidding, we never panic in the kitchen).

Fill the large pot with water & throw in 2 handfuls of salt till you're pretty sure it tastes like the ocean. Dump the canned tomatoes into the saucepan & bring them to a boil then lower the heat & simmer. You'll need to simmer the tomatoes till they are about 1/2 the amount you started with. It'll take about 40 min.

Meanwhile peel & slice the garlic, slice the dried peppers & wash & chop the rosemary. Put them all in about 1/4-1/3 c of olive oil in a small skillet. Leave them to soak while you chop up the onion & open & drain the canned tuna.

Saute the garlic/olive oil mixture on low till the edges of the garlic are just starting to brown then add the onions & saute for another few minutes till they're translucent. Shut the heat off. Add a little salt & pepper to taste.

Now you'll probably have a bit of a window of time here if you've timed it right. So twiddle your thumbs, run around naked (yeah, you didn't think I knew about that did you?) or restore order to the chaos that has just ensued from you deserting your kids for a full 15 minutes. Most likely though you'll just have time to throw together a salad & dressing or what have you.

If your tomatoes are starting to look thicker & more like "sauce" & less like "tin tomatoes" then chuck in the garlic & onion oil & add a little sugar. "Little" is of course open to interpretation. I usually add about 2 tbsp. You just want to offset the acid not turn your pasta into ketchup. Let the sauce simmer for a few more minutes before adding the tuna. Don't over mix the tuna. I like a few chunks not a mass of blended tuna business, you know what I mean? You also might want to throw in a few more tbsp of olive oil. Because as we all know the secret to any yummy pasta is the oil.

By this time the water should be boiling & you should be counting down to dinner. So boil your pasta al dente. And if your in a real hurry forget the pasta plate, just strain the pasta & dump it straight onto the hot sauce (key: the sauce should still be very hot) into the sauce pan. Toss till you've got an even sauce/noodle ratio & sprinkle with Parmesan & serve to the hungry masses IMMEDIATELY!

TA-DA!!! There you go!
I don't mean to be a finicky whiny cook, but since you've lent me your ear I'm gonna go ahead & "whisper-breathe" into it. I firmly believe that timing is everything when you cook. The pleasantness of a meal is increased at least 50% if you serve the food HOT HOT HOT!! So be prepared to man your station till the last possible second. Better yet, have people already there with their plates. They'll thank you for it. A tip, if you have a ceramic pasta dish, place it in a pre-heated (NOT RUNNING) oven for a few minutes while you're waiting for the pasta to finish cooking. Keep the sauce hot till the last minute.

I can't aptly express my disappointment at the times I made a fantastic pasta too early & then waited 15 minutes because people were not ready to come to the table yet & watching TIME turn it into overdone bloated sad pasta fiasco. Or worse yet making it on time & then having it get cold because you didn't come. So be a pal & come to dinner on time! (eh-hum!) That is all, thanks for the ear.


Happy Hunting!

Japanese Foodie Fails

I really love spotting gems of food "fails". I'm somehow still shocked by the combination of foods they come up with. I don't often snap a pics of them but every once in awhile there's something too ridiculously "Japanese" to pass up. So here are a few I've snapped here & there. Have any good ones, send them to me & I'll be happy to postm'.

Yes, you read it right, it's a "Pita-Mac" with karage, (deep-batter fried chicken) teriyaki sauce, with renkon (lotus root) and lettuce. This was the big Christmas "Surprise item" (Go figure!)

How can one not act like little foolish gaijins with these "ill proportioned" giant karinto!! I'm just not sure I could walk down the street with a clear conscious munching on one of these. Ewwww!

I'm trying to think of something stunning to say, but really......I'm still just snickering like a pre-schooler about these.
Bluefin Tuna Otoro. I squeezed into a curious crowd watching a guy buy this slice of tuna for 45,000Y, it was about the size of the palm of my hand. Only in Japan!
What everyone needs at the end of a long day. Yakisoba donut.
Follow that with a tuna tomato donut & you're all set.

Sitting on a rock eating..........

My Dad emailed me this picture. It's a long standing joke in our family. Dating back to when the kids (primarily, I) whine about what we're going to eat & the daddy suggests we sit on a rock & eat hard boiled eggs.

Well, Dad, with our ever growing family, I think you've found the perfect solution for our exciting family picnic fare........





Now that, dear friend, is "Boiled egg surprise!!" Really now, who wouldn't want a shrink-wrapped-sausage-log of boiled egg? I'm telling you, this pic just encapsulates the spirit of the shockingly fearless and occasionally hilarious inventiveness of the Japanese. I bet they even made a reeeeeeally long egg cutter to cut the thing.

Exploding Carrot Surprise!

No, this is not a new recipe for you. To be honest if a recipe has the word "surprise" in it, you should do two things:

1) laugh sadly, with one hand pointing to the offensive recipe & the other covering your brow, as you shake your head sadly in, shame.

2) Make a special "note-to-self" to NEVER make it.

I vote that the word "surprise" be stricken forever from recipes. If there is one thing you do NOT need in your meal it's a "surprise"! Believe me!

I have digressed quickly.

So one evening I'm patting myself on the back feeling like a real pro whipping up this yummy whiskey glazed carrots recipe. I made it once following the recipe & this time I decided to just wing it. Of course everything was going great guns until I got to the whiskey part. The truth is I have a tendency to use " too much of a good thing" when it comes to alcohol in the cooking, if you know what I mean. And in my vigor to quickly whip up the final touches on this meal I liberally doused my butter/brown sugar mix with whiskey and gave the frying pan a massive shake. (anyone who has the tendancy to act like their frying pan is a Chinese wok will know what I mean)

I know what you're thinking, "I can tell you what's going to happen next". I'm betting somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it was going to happen too. But I was expecting a sort of cute little blue flame. You know the kind you get when you light the Absinthe soaked sugar cube on fire. "Awww, look it's a fire." But I ended up with something a bit bigger.

A burst of flame shot up all the way up into the exhaust & ignited the already greased soak exhaust cover. Thankfully it only consumed the cover & put itself out in a few seconds. I swear.......someone should have taken a picture of me at that very moment, it would have been classic.

You know how my hair looks when I wake up in the morning? Or when I'm standing there at a soccer game trying to look cool but my hair has an agenda of it's own (to make me looks like I was electrocuted) or when I'm trying to talk to you about something really dear to my heart & your trying to not notice the aura/fuzz of life bursting forth from my brow. Well, not my brow, but near my brow? Come one you know what I'm talking about? I'm sure there's a name for it and I'm sure it's not complementary. Well, anyway, for once my hair matched the scenario perfectly. For 2 seconds I was the cover girl for Kitchen Hazard Magazine, AGAIN!. My exhaust ended up looking like this.

It was actually quite interesting. BUT........instead of snickering about it like a pubescent pyro, I shall do the mature thing & tell you to BEWARE! Yes, beware of the use of whiskey or other alcohol in your cooking! AMEN?

As for the carrots themselves, they were unharmed and were quickly devoured by my 6 hungry munchers. And that's pretty much the end of the story.


PS. On a totally different note. I'd like to give a shout out for variations/suggestions & "pssssh....I could do better than that" comments on my recipes. There are two readers who often give me suggestions or other recipes to try. One is Aussie, the other is in Aussie. (could this be a pattern?) I LOVE THIS BEHAVIOR!! If you do it different, lemmie know please. I am a vacuum for cooking knowledge from which there is no escape. This is not a blog to celebrate culinary sucess (quite obviously) but to share what I've tried & how it went). So hope to see you round!


Thank you!!