Category Archives: Food

Cooking Food

Marukai and the Magic Mandoline

August 29, 2009 – 8:34 PM

Should I move to Japan?

I finally made it over to Marukai Daiso on the way back from dropping my parents off a the airport today. The Marukai complex has three shops: Marukai Market, a Japanese grocery store which I discovered has the most amazing instant udon noodles in a bowl for 87 cents; Marukai Living, which is sort of like Target; and Marukai Daiso, which is like the best dollar store in the entire world (my daughter came away with a Barbie like doll, with higher quality hair than the spider-web like material used in the Mattel Barbies, for $1.65. And they had bowls and other tableware that looked suspiciously Crate-and-Barrel-like for, yes, $1.65.). I hyperlink Daiso only because it is really worth making a trip if you have party favor needs for a birthday party, need plastic storage containers, or happen to be in the market for an afro wig. They pretty much have everything, addressing needs ranging from fake nail appliques to Hello Kitty toilet seat covers.

But the real score I got today was from Marukai Living. I used to have the MIU Stainless-Steel Professional Mandoline Slicer, which, despite its fancy name, carrying case and price tag (retail value: $119.99), delivered only on being stainless steel. It included a set of instructions warning me to be careful of the ultra-sharp blade, but in reality, I would have been at greater risk with a butter knife. Needless to say, it did a poor job of making perfectly even slices, and required quite a bit of elbow grease to get things cut. It didn’t handle things with tougher outer skins like bell peppers, eggplant or tomatoes well at all.

Cue “Dreamweaver” music. I spotted at Marukai Living the simple plastic mandoline pictured here. No fancy carrying case, but clearly a very sharp blade. On the back, and adjustable knob that allows you to vary the thickness of the slices. I recalled reading reviews of slicers and hearing that the simple Japanese varieties were the best. Eager to test it, I went home and tried a variety of veggies: cabbage — no problem. Red bell pepper — it sliced so easily I wasn’t even sure the slicing was happening. Then I tried making paper-thin slices of scallion. I used a back-and-forth motion, akin to the type you would use if you were gently painting a watercolor onto paper — and with equal (non) effort. Unbelievable. With no effort, beautiful even slices were flying off of the blade. I was consciously careful to avoid adding even slices of fingertip to the salad.

So run out to an Asian market and find yourself a Japanese mandoline slicer. $16 bucks later you’ll want to chuck out all the expensive stuff you registered for at Williams-Sonoma.

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Food Uncategorized

Phew

September 8, 2008 – 8:39 PM

Have you ever had a day that felt like a movie? The kind where at any moment, you could burst into song with choreography and colors seem uncannily vivid? (And not the kind of movie that I typically live, which would be a low-resolution film docu-drama comprised of 10,000 hours of me sitting in front of a computer monitor.) I had one of those days today. It was probably 70% of the excitement level of what is pictured to the right: when we had Sleeping Beauty show up at my daughter’s birthday party, and kids’ mouths just fell open when she walked through the door. I’m talking A-list-princess-starstruck, like these kids just couldn’t believe it — I guess the comparable for me would be if Conan O’Brien suddenly appeared at my door, because I think he’s so funny it would suddenly make me completely un-funny and I wouldn’t know what to say and would kick myself later after thinking of all the funny things I could have said and come to think of it would be a pretty bad experience. Anyway, it wasn’t like that. But it was 70% of the way there.

It started off with a pretty good night’s sleep…and successful completion of work-related tasks I won’t go into. So I felt really giddy all day, like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life after he comes back from his, uh, hallucinations and goes around hugging people and giving them money (or do other people give him money? Hey…the movie is better). And strangely, when I picked up the kids from school, they seemed to sense this mom-doesn’t-seem-crazy-today vibe and were happy and laughing…and after school, because I no longer had this hanging over my head nor had to log onto my computer as soon as I got home, I actually played games with them and interacted with them for the first time in, well, forever, and it was fun. I even put a jazz CD on while I was doing the dishes after dinner, and it was strangely pleasurable, clearing up the kitchen. So maybe I have developed some kind of chemical imbalance in my brain.

Anyway, I also brought a cute little gadget with me to work today. It’s a tea pot with an infuser like the one I’ve linked to here except that the one I bought came from a Chinese grocery store and cost $5.99. I’ve been a fan of drinking green teas lately, particularly the ones with loose tea leaves that unfold when infused into enormous leaves like some kind of magic ’80s toy, with the idea that somehow the anti-oxidants are going to eventually turn me into a 20-year-old. They’re really messy if you don’t have a removable infuser. Plus, with these types of tea leaves (available at your local Asian grocery, but in my case, purchased from Taiwan) you can re-use the tea leaves a few times — probably somewhere around three. I think my new little teapot added to the excitement of the day. And maybe there were hallucinogens in the tea.

 

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Food Travel

San Francisco and the DNC

August 25, 2008 – 8:53 PM

Did you happen to watch the first night of the Democratic National Convention? I’m not super interested in politics, and even less interested in discussing them, but — wow. Since when did the DNC become as effective a tear-jerker as a chick flick? I was teary when Jimmy Carter was interviewed. I was teary during the Ted Kennedy tribute video (and when Maria Shriver was teary). I was teary during the Michelle Obama video, her brother Craig’s introduction, and I outright bawled when Michelle Obama gave her speech. What an awesome woman! Anyway, whatever your political leanings, the Dems put on a great show. Afterward, a commentator said he felt Michelle Obama missed an opportunity — this was her chance to describe what Barack was like at home, and what he was like as a regular guy. Frankly, I don’t really care. I mean, I’m happy that he seems to be a decent guy, but I’m not going to be living with him. I’m more interested in what his plans are for the country, his approach to solving problems and his ability to execute. But enough about politics — on to the important stuff: food!

So I spent the weekend in San Francisco, and WOW and double wow! Let me just begin by telling you how depressing it is to have to leave a place where the food court fare is of equal or higher quality than the priciest restaurants in San Diego. I went to the food court at the Westfield in Union Square (I think they call it “Restaurants under the dome” or something like that, but it’s really a food court). I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it was. I don’t even like to use the word awesome. But here are a few pictures. Look closely. Remember, this is a food court at a mall.

 

My husband got a delicious moules meuniere and the kids and I had Thai food. Speaking of Thai food, we also stumbled upon King of Thai Noodle House, in Union Square at Powell and O’Farrell. It’s been a long time since I’ve had good Thai, so I was really really excited to have extraordinary Thai. I had the Pad See Ew, and it was exactly what I wanted, cooked to perfection. It’s a no-nonsense kind of place — like the good Chinese restaurants with the bad decor — but you know it’s good if it’s packed with Chinese people. Anyway, this was the best Thai I’ve had in a looong time. King of Thai indeed! Apparently it is also the first Thai restaurant in San Francisco. That might just be restaurant propaganda though.

We also went to Pizzeria Delfina in the Mission District for the most amazing pizza (I’ve lived in NYC and had NY pizza; Chicago with Chicago pizza and New Haven with Sally’s and Pepe’s — but I think this is the best pie ever). I had a prosciutto and arugula pizza which defied expectations. It inspired me to make a potato salad at home with argulua — potatoes, extra virgin olive oil, fried bread crumbs and arugula — yum!

Another highlight was Katana-Ya, a Japanese restaurant on Geary. The chef there is a ramen master — apparently real ramen requires years of training to produce the ultimate ramen noodle — and it didn’t disappoint. I had the ramen in miso soup with the fried chicken pieces and wanted more.

Ok, back to the Mission District. We wolfed down an ice cream while we were there, at the Bi-Rite Creamery, a wonderful place where you get two scoops of ice cream when you order a single. The flavors are as funky as the Mission District, with Balsamic Strawberry and Salted Caramel being my favorite. And the ice cream is creamy. There’s a long line.

You will be shocked to discover that with all this eating and my sedentary lifestyle I am very out of shape. I am so out of shape that my abs and thighs hurt after walking around the city in order to eat.

I also hit the only place in the world where the dollar isn’t weak , H&M;. I went to Zara as well, where I scored a trench for $25! One of the world’s greatest mysteries is why every city doesn’t have an H&M; and Zara.

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Food

Lemonaise

July 25, 2008 – 7:08 PM

Sometimes I just want to eat mayonnaise. Not just any mayonnaise — I like regular mayo well enough, as an accompaniment to a sandwich, or a seafood cocktail — but this mayo from the Ojai Cook — called Lemonaise — is so good that I want to eat it on its own. Ok, I confess — I did eat it on its own. Tonight, in fact. Off a knife. In front of my kids. I put it out as an accompaniment to a poached salmon, but really, it was all about the Lemonaise. It’s similar to the mayo you get in France — and I think just as good as the mayo my mother-in-law, who used to run a cooking school in France (Why does that have such a nice ring to it? Better than, for instance, “…run a cooking school in Germany?”). Anyway, it’s tangy, it’s creamy, and it’s got mustard seeds in it. It’s sooo good. It’s so good that you’ll see the link I have it going to on this page has it sold out. And one of the reviewers says the only thing she doesn’t like about it is that she has to have it shipped.

One of the benefits of living in California is that I can actually find it at my local grocery store (Henry’s Marketplace — I love that place so much it makes me want to cry). I hoard it too — I always make sure I have at least two spare, because once I really wanted some and they were (gasp) out of stock.

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Food Gardening Health

My cup of tea

May 25, 2008 – 2:57 PM

Maybe I’m a little slow on the uptake, but though I always knew that tea was made of dried leaves, it really didn’t hit me til recently that they’re really just dried leaves. I guess I had always assumed that something special had to be done to them…why else would you pay money for a bunch of dried leaves? A co-worker of mine who is a bit of a tea freak went to a tea tasting in San Francisco Chinatown, walking out with several $30 bags of tea. What was so special about these teas was that they were whole leaves — so when you pour boiling water over them, the leaves reconstitute and open up (unlike the shredded bits of leaves you get in standard tea bags). He said that leaves that do that actually haven’t been dried for very long, and thus are lower in caffeine. I haven’t verified that claim — just putting it out there.

As you may have noticed I’m a little obsessive about efficiency (this drives my apparent zeal for things like recycling, composting and energy conservation, but refer to my previous post for the real story). I get a lot of dried lavender blooms and fallen-off rose petals in my garden. Mostly I throw them into my makeshift compost pile, or chuck them around the garden for slow decomposition, but I’m always looking for new things to do with garden refuse. So I decided to try making my own tea.

My criteria:

  • It shouldn’t kill me. Before gathering dried leaves for tea-making, I looked online to make sure there were like things on the market (e.g., other people had tried them, hadn’t died, and thought well enough of it to market it to a broader audience).
  • It shouldn’t taste disgusting. I also looked online for combos of leaves that, as in the first bullet point, people tried and liked enough to keep making.

I have a little teapot with a strainer for tea leaves, so I didn’t have to bother with sewing tea bags or anything of the sort. So far I’ve made a couple of teas:

  • Lemon verbena. This one gave off a really lemony smell, and was very light. It was a little lemony for my liking, but hey, it was free and didn’t kill me.
  • French lavender and rose petals. This one tasted like it smelled. I added honey a little bit of cream to it, but I think I went a little too heavy on the lavender.
  • Ginger. This didn’t come from my garden, but I plopped a chunk of raw ginger root into boiling water and added a bit of sugar — this was delicious. It was a little spicy, and really soothing.

I put in approximately 1 teaspoon dried leaves for every cup that I brewed. My conclusion: you can definitely make your own tea. Do a little research before dropping the leaves into your pot (hemlock, for instance, might be a bad choice), but for the most part, there’s nothing to it. Of course there are always leaves not readily available to you that are worth buying from tea manufacturers, but it is another way to use up the stuff in your garden.

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Food Popular Travel

All food, all the time

April 30, 2008 – 5:36 PM

I just got back from a business trip to Colombia. You will be pleased to know that because of the constant attention of four bodyguards, a bullet-proof car, and an approximate net worth of $50, I was not kidnapped. I was, however, fed, gargantuan proportions of food, approximately six times a day, with an average of four desserts per sitting (I do not exaggerate). To the right you can see a photo of what was an appetizer…that came before the appetizer that came before the main courses followed by the four desserts. By the end of the trip, I was simply too fat to be kidnapped — no kidnapper could possibly afford to keep me alive given my new nutritional requirements. One of my most enjoyable experiences included shopping for handbags at a mall while accompanied by bodyguards. I believe the appropriate word for that is “weird”.

While we were there we had lots of delicious local fruits and vegetables, which were purportedly pesticide-free. They also appeared not to be genetic mutants, which was a nice change. When I got back a few friends and I got together, and the Oprah-watchers among us brought up a recipe for a pesticide cleanser. See here for the recipe. Apparently this is for people who don’t want to be slowly killed by pesticides, yet are also unwilling to pay for organic fruit (I sometimes fall into this camp). I was concerned that the vinegar would make the fruit taste disgusting, but a friend of mine tested it and said it was just fine…the only downer was that she had to plan 10 minutes ahead before serving fruit.
So, spray away! I plan to make the concoction sometime in the near future (you can get the grapefruit seed extract from health food stores and the usual suspects). If you make it, let me know how it goes! Then again, do you really want to live into your hundreds?

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Food

Using up left-over chicken

October 8, 2007 – 10:15 PM

I always seem to have chicken left over. Is it just me? Do people hate my chicken? I digress. The point is, I always have some of it around, and the efficient side of me wants to have something innovative to do with it (to digress some more, apparently a few restaurants in Hong Kong have started charging people for the food that they leave on their plates at all you can eat restaurants. I guess they have so much garbage there that they don’t know what to do with it — so it’s one of the ways they’re trying to reduce garbage. I guess they didn’t grow up with my mom — let’s just say that if you did you would never leave food on your plate.). My husband doesn’t like leftovers, so I have to do some food alchemy so that he can’t detect the left-over-ness of it.

I’ve done salads (shred it up, toss it into a salad; or put it together with some mayo and celery and — viola, chicken salad) and casseroles with varying success, but the best ways I’ve found to use it are in fajitas (again, using a shredded version of the chicken) and — my new favorite method — in tortilla soup. In case you don’t know how to make it (or at least don’t know how to do it the way I do, which I am sure is an abomination of the proper way to do it), here’s what I do:

  • Shred up the chicken.
  • Heat up some chicken stock; salt / pepper to taste.
  • Chop up some tomatoes, avocado and cilantro. Distribute some of each into however many bowls you will be serving.
  • Get some tortilla strips (or you can make some, which is pretty easy, and which I used to do, but since the theme of this blog is laziness in this case we’ll assume you buy them).
  • Once the stock is hot, ladle it over the bowls that contain the chicken et al. Throw in some corn if you’d like. I’ve also put in some shredded cheese before, but it’s up to you.
  • That’s it!

Tomorrow I start my hip hop dance class. I watched some hip hop videos online tonight and am realizing that I should be very, very scared. Apparently, you have to have abs and cardiovascular fitness in order to do this for more than 2 minutes. The class is for an hour (which, by the way, is sixty minutes). I may not post tomorrow — I may be at the hospital.

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Food

What are we having for dinner?

October 3, 2007 – 1:42 PM

The first thing that I usually think of when I walk through the door after work is what I should make for dinner (lest we end up eating what’s pictured to the right here). I love to cook, but cooking is a lot more fun when 1) you have a lot of time, 2) there isn’t anyone holding onto your ankles, and 3) when you haven’t just come home from work.

I’m trying to get better about planning. So I’ve planned my meals for the next week. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas too, so you at least won’t have to think of things to make. Being a mom is also like running a restaurant that’s open every day, and if you don’t have enough variety your customers complain. Or refuse to eat. Or repurpose the food as clothing, for instance.

Here’s what we’re having this coming week (I try to go to the grocery store on Wednesdays because I hate the weekend crowds):

  • Meat lasagna
  • Chicken curry with rice and carrots
  • Grilled steak with broccoli, carrots and mashed potatoes (ooh, carrots back to back — oh well)
  • Salmon with lemon, fennel and tarragon; asparagus, cous cous
  • Pasta with tomato sauce (a veggie dinner, since we’re getting a babysitter this evening who is vegetarian — I’m going out to eat!)
  • Steak fajitas (using up the leftover steak)

I usually also buy one prepared meal, in case I get really lazy and don’t want to cook dinner. This week, someone else is actually feeding us on Sunday, so I have one less meal to make. Trader Joe’s has some great prepared meals, but it’s kind of far away so I rarely go there. The Costco Kirkland brand meat lasagna is also incredibly good — I get more compliments on that than when I make my own. Happy eating!

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