September 2006 – Page 2

Mid-Week Meal – Katsu Don

September 13, 2006 mmm-yoso Cooking, Recipes

You know, I got an email last night over a remark in my post on Yoshino’s about how deceptively hard it is to make good Katsu Don. Basically, the email called my remark silly, and "called me out." Though I usually will ignore Emails, this time I went to the freezer, and started to defrost some Chicken Breasts.

Tonight we had Chicken Katsu Don. I wish I took a better photo:

2 Fried Breaded Pork Cutlets(Tonkatsu) or Chicken Cutlets(Chicken Katsu)
1 Onion Sliced lengthwise into wedges
3 Eggs lightly beaten(don’t over-beat, the eggs will become "stiff")
Cooked Rice
1/2 Cup Water
2 Tb Sake
2 Tb Sugar
3 Tb Mirin
3 Tb Soy Sauce
1/4 tsp Instant Dashi

1 – Pour water into a small pot and bring to a boil(note: The Missus enjoys alot of sauce on Her Katsu Don, so I usually double the sauce recipe), and add Sake, Sugar, Mirin, and Soy sauce. Stir to dissolve sugar. When the Donburi sauce returns to a boil, remove from heat and add Instant Dashi(do not boil), and stir to dissolve.

2 – Slice Cutlets crosswise into bite sized pieces

3 – Fill two good sized Donburi(bowls) with hot rice.

4 – Pour 1/2 the sauce into a small-medium sized frying pan(make sure you have a lid), or even better, an oyako-nabe pan(these are pans especially made for making Donburi dishes – I don’t have one). Over medium heat, bring sauce to a simmer. Add 1/2 of the onions, and briefly simmer. Place one of the sliced cutlets into the pan on top of the onions and sauce. Pour 1/2 of the beaten egg in a circular motion around the cutlet. Cover and let simmer for 20-45 seconds.

5 – Uncover the pan and remove from heat. At this point I fold some of the egg, onions, and sauce over the cutlets. And transfer to the Donburi bowl, covering the rice. Make sure you get all of the "good stuff".

Top with benishoga, green onions, nori, furikake, string beans, or whatever…….

Repeat with second cutlet.

The verdict? The Missus thought the sauce was good, as well as the egg. The texture of the chicken was okay, though She wants me to brine the chicken before cooking to create a dense texture. The Katsu was a bit too salty, so I’ll have to cut back on the salt next time.

Simple stuff, really(I could’ve used even more egg)……the cutlet shouldn’t be saturated and mushy, the egg shouldn’t be stiff, and the sauce should have enough of a salty-soy-sweet taste to flavor the rice.

Tomorrow it’s another restaurant!

Yoshino’s

September 12, 2006 mmm-yoso Japanese Restaurants

I have a very special place in my heart for those Mom-and-Pop, American-Japanese restaurants, what many people I know call "Teriyaki-Tempura joints". Growing up in Hawaii, a special occasion would mean a meal of either Chinese (what I call Hawaii-style Chinese), or a trip to either Wisteria Restaurant or Suehiro Restaurant, both now sadly gone.

Yoshino’s on Washington street is one of those simple "old-school" Japanese restaurants.

I used to have quick dinners at Yoshino’s when I first did some consulting work in San Diego in the late ’90’s, and we used to eat here once in a while when we first moved to San Diego. A few years ago, the restaurant changed hands, we paid a visit, and the food didn’t seem to be the same, and we had never returned. Yoshino’s just kind of dropped off the radar so to speak. The storefront is so unassuming, that you don’t give it a second glance. I must drive past Yoshino’s at least 6 times a week, and I still paid the restaurant little or no attention.

Until recently. One of my regular inexpensive Teriyaki-Tempura-Rice Fix lunch stops; Teriyaki Cowboy had closed, and an Email from Claudine, mentioning Yoshino’s jogged my memory. And so I thought, why not?

As you can tell by the interior, this restaurant is no thrills and no frills. Sometimes the best food is found in places like these.

A daily special is offered for lunch Tuesdays thru Fridays. The price is not bad, $6.45. I’d say the best of the specials is the Sesame Chicken(Tempura-style – Wednesday lunch special):

The meal comes with a generic iceberg lettuce salad, rice, and miso soup. The miso soup is really not bad for what is usually included in these types of lunch specials, though a bit light on the miso, and salty. The chicken is satisfying, two slices of white meat chicken, coated with tempura type batter, deep fried, brushed with a mildly sweet teriyaki sauce, and finally sprinkled with sesame seeds. As someone very dear to my heart says; "hey, if it’s fried right, it’s got to be pretty good, right?"

Crunchy, salty, fried, slightly sweet……………say no more!

There are other dishes offered for lunch. Here’s the Katsu Don($6.95):

On the good side, the pork cutlet(Tonkatsu) was very moist. On the bad side, everything was too moist, the Tonkatsu and egg was over saturated with the sauce, leaving not one bit of crunchy goodness. Think of over saturated Chicken Parmigiana…why bother breading? The sauce was decent, maybe a bit on the sweet side, with not enough soy, though many people enjoy it that way. The portion size was good, with enough rice and sauce. Though it seems very easy, a good KatsuDon isn’t that easy to make. This also came with the standard miso soup.

One day, I had to try the Teriyaki Chicken(Tuesday lunch special – $6.45):

Not a good move on my part. First off the chicken wasn’t caramelized at all, and had a gummy texture, and though I enjoyed the teriyaki sauce on the sesame chicken, here it didn’t add enough flavor to the dish. In this case the sauce was really wimpy. I’ll stick with the Sesame Chicken.

Just for the heck of it, here’s the ala carte Tempura($5.95):

Didn’t care for the vegetables, zucchini and carrot???? The batter was too thick and not crunchy enough for me, but it wasn’t bad as a whole, I’ve had much worse priced much higher….

Though I still haven’t been back for Dinner, Yoshino’s provides me with a good "rice fix" for lunch, and the prices are very reasonable. Here’s something I noticed, and found interesting, all the Servers are very nice, and are also Japanese, but I have yet to see any Japanese, or anyone of Japanese ancestry in Yoshino’s(except me). But maybe they’re coming for dinner???

Some notes on Yoshino’s: There is inadequate parking for the businesses served, as with everything else in the area. Yoshino’s is closed on Mondays.

Yoshino’s
1790 W Washington St
San Diego, CA 92103

Lunch: Tues-Fri
Dinner: Tues-Sun

Thanks for the reminder Claudine!

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 2

September 10, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Niu Rou Mian

***This location of Chin’s has closed

After a very surprising and pretty good meal at Chin’s, we returned several more times. Here’s a compendium of some items we’ve recently eaten that were not included in the first post. These items are from the Chinese Breakfast menu pictured right. During one of our meals we saw 2 Navy Officers enter the restaurant, stopping dead at the entryway, looking at each other totally flummoxed…..not your usual Holiday Inn restaurant, I guess. They were shown a table and given the Lunch/Dinner Menu which has a few items that are on the breakfast menu, but in larger “meal-sized” portions. So several meals later, and we’ve done some damage with regards to the menu.

Five Spice Beef($4.95):

Wonderful sweet-salty-five spiced flavor. The beef is thinly sliced, and neither too soft, nor too tough. Additional sauce is placed over the meat for extra flavor and moisture. One of my favorite items on the menu.

ShaoBing Youtiao($2.95):

Shall we say a double-carb special? The Youtiao was quite good, if not a bit on the over-fried and oily side. Still some of the best we’ve had in San Diego, the Missus was yearning for some Jook(rice porridge) which is not served. Most people were having the Youtiao with Dou Jiang(Soy Milk).

ShaoBing($1.50):

The Shaobing was a bit too dry for the Missus, but a few slices of 5 Spice Beef fixed things up.

Pickled Mustard Greens and Shredded Pork Noodle Soup($6.95):

This soup was quite good, the light broth had some excellent flavor, the slightly bitter greens(made inhouse) added character, and the pork strings were soft and tender with decent pork flavor. we really don’t care for the hard spaghetti-like noodles at Chin’s, but this soup is on my “list”.

Pickled Mustard Greens Steamed Bun($2.95):

A steamed bun with the pickled mustard greens. Here is a view of the filling.

I enjoyed the sweet-bitter flavor of these, the Missus wasn’t quite as impressed.

Fried Bread($2.95):

No big deal, and a bit on the oily side. Too light in the middle, and not as flavorful as the version at Kingswood.

Sorry about the following photos, we don’t always get seats with optimal lighting.

Wined Chicken($4.95):

Not bad, the chicken doesn’t have quite enough of the cured texture I enjoy, though the marinade did have a decent salty-wine flavor. Doesn’t hold a candle to the Beef or Smoked Fish.

Of course we had to try the Niu Rou Mein(Beef Noodle Soup – $6.95):

Again we don’t really care for the noodles. The Beef was nicely flavored and soft. The broth left something to be desired, nice and beefy, but lacking the depth of flavor from various herbs and spices. We enjoy the version at Shanghai City more – better noodles, better broth, and if you have it on weekend mornings 2 bucks cheaper.

Steamed Hua Juan(Flower Roll – $2.95):

Best eaten with some beef, or soup. Very routine.

The classic Ci Fan Tuan($2.95) with Rousong(Pork Sung/Meat Floss):

Now this was an interesting dish. I’m not a fan of Pork Sung(Rousong) anyway. Rousong, and Zhacai(Spicy Pickled Vegetable) was rolled in glutinous rice, and steamed. A very traditional Shanghainese breakfast item. This was on the dry side, with not enough Zhacai to make a difference in flavor. Perhaps someone who enjoys Rousong will enjoy this more than we do.

After some contemplation, I think what I’ll do in a brief post in the future is to go over the menu, and list which item is which. Then, you can do the Captain Jack trick. On a recent visit to Ba Ren, Jack looked over my post, and associated the various dishes with items on the Chinese Placard by location and counting characters. When the Server arrived for His order, he grabbed the placard and pointed to the dish He wanted, totally freaking Her out! So I guess if we list various dishes and associate them with items on the menu, you can grab the Chinese menu, and have some fun…….

Chinese Breakfast served from 11am to 230pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Just a reminder

September 9, 2006 mmm-yoso Festivals & Events

Just a quick reminder for those interested. The San Diego Korean Festival runs through Sunday(that’s tomorrow – Sept 10th), from 10am through 9pm. Engineer Road between Convoy St, and Mercury St is blocked off. We dropped by for a short while this afternoon, during that "dead period" between 4 and 5 pm.

There are about 6 food booths, including one from Min Sok Chon. Most of the food looked pretty routine, Mandoo and such. We only had time to try out something from this booth.

I was told that they were affiliated with some temple……..

Anyway, we quickly had a Chive Pancake:

Actually quite good, strong onion flavor, with a sneaky spicy punch.

So if you have time be sure to drop by.

FYI – cause I know you’ve been waiting for this!

Zion Market has this on sale.

Yes, it’s Bondegi, otherwise known as Silkworm Larvae. And only 99 cents a can, for a limited time. I’ll post about a recent run-in I had with a gang(flock? swarm?) of bondegi in the near future.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Happy Meal

September 7, 2006 mmm-yoso Korean Restaurants

No, it’s not a joke, this Korean Food "booth" in the Food Court at Zion Market is really called Happy Meal…..automatically puts a smile on your face doesn’t it?

Happy Meal came recommended by Denver, based on price and portion size, and Cathy, based on the same value criteria, plus She mentioned they used to give out little "toys" when they first opened up. So one evening a few weeks back, I had done some shopping at Zion Market, and my stomach and I decided to have a "Happy Meal". The prices at Happy Meal are very reasonable, and come with a good selection of panchan.

The best was the seasoned squid on the bottom of the photo above. Here’s more.

Overall, a nice, though pretty routine selection.

All this, along with a bowl of fairly bland seaweed soup, comes with your meal. Which in this case was the Bulgogi Box($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

I had wanted to order the Spicy Pork, but "no pork today…" A pretty large portion of Bulgogi, rice, a green salad with sesame dressing, and 2 mandoo(Korean Dumplings), along with the panchan made for quite a large amount of food for $7.99. The mandoo tasted like packaged frozen stuff, and the salad was pretty much routine. The Bulgogi was quite mild in flavor, and the thin slices of potato and onions mixed in with the beef, almost reminded me of a stir fry. Not great, but well worth the price.

The usual drill at Happy Meal, is to place your order at the counter, pay, and have a seat. The counter person will first bring you your panchan, soup, and drink; than later drop off your main course. This can be a major factor during a busy lunch hour, as I found out on my next visit. Even though it was quite early for lunch (1115am), every table except one(which after ordering and paying I occupied), with plastic number cards on them. Very few customers actually had food in front of them, and I really felt for the Young Lady working the counter, both taking orders and serving each table twice. I shoulda brought a book, it took me 30 minutes to get my food, which started with the usual panchan and soup:

Do you notice something about the panchan? Check out the portion size…..

The Young Lady explained that they accidentally gave me panchan for two, but that was okay since I had to wait so long.

The Japchae(cellophane noodles) tasted really good, everything else was pretty routine, though the radish("Mu") kimchi tasted a bit too sour and off. Still this was quite a bit of food, and I still hadn’t gotten to my main course. Which was the Dolsot BiBimBap($6.99/lunch, $7.99/dinner).

The sizzling Stone Bowl(Dolsot) was brought to my table along with a squeeze bottle of Gochujang, I let the bowl sit for a minute to develop the wonderful crust, and dug in. The toppings were pretty routine, fernbrake, ginger, bean sprouts, minced meat, all topped with the perfect egg. Sorry, not the best photo I’ve ever taken, so let me mix it up for you….

I really enjoy the various textures of the crusted rice, the veggies, and so forth. The flavor wasn’t anything special and none of this is going to stand the culinary world on it’s ear, but you really get what you pay for(In this case $6.99) at Happy Meal. This ain’t no lousy same chicken with a different sauce food court garbage. So after my Happy Meal, with the happy panchan mistake, I was looking for a cool dark place to lie down. Happy, happy, me………

Some Notes: As I mentioned, service may be on the slow side during peak hours. I didn’t notice any difference, except price between lunch and dinner. The food and portion sizes are an excellent value, especially lunch.

Happy Meal
4611 Mercury St
San Diego, CA 92111

Thanks for the recommendation Denver and Cathy!

Home Made Tofu

September 6, 2006 mmm-yoso Cooking

For some reason, about a month ago, I became obsessed with trying to make tofu at home. When I mentioned this to the Missus, she just asked me, "Why"? Good question, I really didn’t know why. So I looked over a few tofu making recipes in books I own, and looked over some online resources like this one. They were all a bit different, and many of the recipes used vinegar, and or lemon juice, which I decided not to use.

So basically the recipe had three ingredients, soy beans, nigari, and water.

Nigari is the coagulating agent used to make tofu. Nigari (literally "bitter" in Japanese) is mainly Magnesium Chloride and a few other minerals. I purchased the bottle of Nigari, and the Organic Soybeans from Nijiya, and had them sitting around for a few weeks. Finally, one weekend afternoon I decided to finally try and make tofu.

I first placed 2 cups of soybeans in a bowl and completely covered with water. I soaked the bean overnight in the frig.

The next morning I brought a pot of water to a boil, and drained the soybeans. I poured 3/4 f a cups into the blender and covered with 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and blended into a finely. I poured this slurry into a pot, and repeated the process until I had processed all the soy beans.

I brought the pot to a boil, than reduced to a simmer stirring constantly. I let this liquid simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. After 20 minutes I strained this liquid through a cheesecloth lined colander.

I drained the cheesecloth and set aside the pulp, also known as Okara, the very nutritious pulp. The Missus enjoyed a simple stir fry of okara and green onions. What remained was the soy milk.

I divided the soy milk into two portions; half for tofu, the other half for the Missus’s drinking pleasure. I poured the tofu potion into a pot, and brought it up to about 160 degrees F, and removed it from the heat. Because I wanted a rather firm tofu I added 4 teaspoons of Nigari while stirring the soy milk. I than stirred the soy milk in a figure 8 pattern briefly, covered the pot and let sit for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes were up, I checked for "curd-age", and ended up adding another 2 teaspoons nigari, and covered the pot for another 5 minutes. Satisfied with the amount of curds, using a soup ladle, I strained the liquid through a cheesecloth lined colander(I don’t have a tofu box).

I folded the cheesecloth over the curds, and placed some weights on the curds, and let the whey drain out for 15 minutes. Because I enjoy my tofu cold, and placed the tofu "dome" in a container of water, and chilled for an hour. After which I enjoyed the fruits of my labor.

I found that I enjoyed the extra "beany" flavor of the home made tofu, while the Missus enjoyed a glass of soy milk on ice. Though I don’t know if I’ll do this again in the future, it was a fun exercise. I’ve gained a measure of appreciation for that humble block of tofu…..

Chin’s Seafood and Grill – Part 1

September 4, 2006 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Xiao Long Bao

***This location of Chin’s has closed

Recently, the Missus and I had brunch at a restaurant located adjacent to the Holiday Inn Select in Miramar Road.

Though it’s not quite what you may have in mind. The Restaurant is names Chin’s Seafood and Grill.

And yet, that still may not have you very interested, since there are 10 other locations of Chin’s Szechuan in the greater San Diego area, and most of the Chinese dishes served are very Westernized. As you enter the generic ‘B’ list hotel lounge-restaurant area, you’d still feel as if you haven’t come to the right place for Chinese Food. Though if you take a quick glance around the room you’ll notice that more than ninety percent of the customers are Chinese, and anyone who is not are accompanied by Chinese customers.

One quick look at the menu, will tell you why.

For brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 230 pm, Chin’s has a special Chinese menu. Unfortunately, there is no English version of this menu. Some of the items are available on the regular menu, and I’ll try to indicate what those items are when possible. The prices reflect the special menu prices, not regular menu prices.

The Missus looked over the menu with a smile on Her face. She told me, that there are dishes on the menu that She has only heard off, and never tried, as well as some of Her favorites. The Missus started checking off items on the menu card, and the really nice Server came by to verify. As She and the Missus spoke in Mandarin, I thought She reminded me of someone…..I mentioned this, and the Missus says, “I think she reminds of my Mom.” And yes, she indeed had that friendly, sincere element about her. I had the Missus inquire about the style of food served here, and the Lady said a combination of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, basically Eastern Chinese(aka Shanghainese).

Soon enough the food started arriving.

As is almost routine, we started off with the Suzhou-style Smoked Fish($4.95):

The Missus said that this version, with the rather intense 5 spice and sweet flavor was fairly close to what She grew up eating, though maybe a bit mildly flavored. When we got home and looked over the map of Jiangsu, we were both surprised at how “close” Suzhou was to Shandong province(it’s all relative), which explained why Her Grandmother made this often while growing up. As usual this isn’t a “smoked” fish, it just appears to be so. This fish is first marinated; usually in a soy sauce, wine, and salt mixture. The fish slices are than deep fried in oil; and finally marinated again in a 5 spice and sugar mixture to “cure”. You could eat all the small bones on these slices.

Jiaxing Braised Duck(Chin’s Roasted Cold Duck – $4.95)

Almost like a duck version of the above. Quite tasty, nice duck flavor, but not nearly as flavorful as the fish. But still a pretty good cold duck dish.

Zhenjiang Style Pork(Chin’s Cured Pork – $4.95)

This was probably the “hit” of the meal. Neither the Missus, nor I had ever seen this before. The dish was a sum of tasty parts. The pork was cooked and shredded, and had a nice mild flavor. It was topped with a thick layer of aspic, much like what creates the broth for Xiao Long Bao. A really nice and mild, but not weak flavor. Here’s a better photo of a piece, and no, it’s not pork fat…..

Here’s a little secret……we took most of this home, and made a pot of rice. We scooped the rice steaming hot into a bowl a placed a few pieces of pork on top of the rice and let the aspic melt all over the rice….delici-yoso!!!

Shao Bing with Braised Beef($2.95)

I really enjoyed this version of Niu Rou Shao Bing; really crisp bread, flavorful thin slices of 5 spice beef, scallions, and a bit of Hoisin made for a a very well flavored and texturally interesting treat. The Missus though the Shao-Bing was too thin, and the amount of beef was on the skimpy side. And yet, I thought; “who cares about Banh Mi; give me this….”

Taiwanese Style Glutinous Rice($3.95)

This scoop of glutinous rice was mixed with chunks of pork and shredded dried shrimp(yum). A nice bit of “spicy ketchup” was added. Though the rice was a bit on the dry side, this was certainly not lacking in flavor. Not bad, but I think we’ll go in a different direction next time.

The Flakey Turnip Strip “Cake”(Shanghai Pastry – $3.95)

The Missus said that she has had better. I thought these were very moist, and the texture was very nice, but we’ve had better elsewhere. The taste was almost “buttery”.

Taiwanese Style Won Ton Soup($4.95)

Okay, our Server came by and told us we were ordering too “many dry items” and needed some soup. So we asked for a recommendation, and this was it. Really bland and uninspired.

No need for this……

Nanxiang Style Xiao Long Bao($5.95). Now if you know me; you can imagine how excited I was over these……

But these were not very good, at least for what I look for in XLB. I don’t know how they make the Xiao Long Bao in the city of Nanxiang, but if I were to make a guess based on this, I’d say it was with very thick wrappers and barely a scant amount of “soup”. We’ll take a pass on these…..

So, with full bellies, and being very satisfied, we left Chin’s, only to return. And in fact, the Missus noticed that I was tasting the food based on “SGV” standards, which is a good sign…..

Part 2 coming soon – some old “favorites” and some new……

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Chin’s
9355 Kearny Mesa Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126

858-536-2300

Odds and Ends

September 3, 2006 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

"New" Tajima Restaurant?

I was driving up Mercury Street and noticed a "new" restaurant, so I turned into the strip mall, and was shocked. The sign said Tajima, which is a quite popular Japanese Restaurant residing just a few blocks away.

The sign fronting the restaurant says "Open", but of course, the restaurant was not. I drove a few blocks away to the "Old" Tajima, and it was still open. So I dunno……

The location is 4411 Mercury St, San Diego, 92111.

2006 San Diego Korean Festival

I was reading a local Asian publication, when this flyer fell out:

I know I’ve been lax about posting upcoming festivals and events, so I though I’d just mention this. It’s taking place on Sat-Sun, September 9th and 10th. The location is Engineer Road.

Click on the photo to enlarge. Sorry I just took a photo of the flyer on our frig, nothing fancy here.

Emily’s Back!

I know many of you enjoy EmilyK’s food blog What’s for Lunch. It’s good to know that She was just on Holiday, and is back posting. Welcome back Emily.

The Question of the Day

September 1, 2006 mmm-yoso yoso-silly

Is…Would you buy this duck????

Parts Missing? What does that mean…like the meat? Or maybe like the Missus says, "perhaps something more precious?" Gulp! And even worse retaining water!!!!

Well it looks like a duck, but I think it’s too late to hear what it sounds like, and I don’t think we’ll be able to see it walk soon. And if it did, I’d be afraid…very afraid.

I really think that there is a better way of labeling this. And I really feel for the poor fellow. After all, I started thinking about parts of me that are missing…I had a piece of my ankle chopped off while being packed on a bike while I was a youngster, 3 discs from my back…..well let’s stop there; I already qualify for this label, lucky thing I’m not a duck, eh?

Happy Labor Day weekend!