mmm-yoso!!!

Saturday Stuffs: Gifts from a fellow blogger, we needed a new cleaver, almost impulse buys from Thuan Phat, and recently consumed......

Gifts from a fellow food blogger:

During our lunch at Moby Dick (insert punch line), fellow food blogger Canine Cologne, "CC" to me, generously gave us a goody bag of swag......

I gotta say....this was some really yummy stuff. The Missus really loved the smoked mussels and the tuna!

Thanks as always for your generosity CC, it's always a pleasure seeing you!

We said we needed a new cleaver......

Actually, the Missus mentioned this to my MIL. So when the D's visited, guess what we got? Well, not one...but three cleavers from China! Thanks to MrD Sr.

One daily use, lighter weight...a medium weight, and one that's super heavy and perfect for chopping up bones among other things. We really appreciate the gifts!

The brand is Wang Ma Zi which is one of those "time honored brands". Really good knives, the Missus loves the everyday cleaver, which I got good and sharp.

Someone asked me how I keep my knives sharp....so sharp that PeterL was kind of afraid to use them. A sharp knife cuts cleanly and is safer to use than a dull one that slips around. I have a Smith Abrasives Tri Hone that I really like along with a steel and a whetstone I've had for decades.

Recently seen at Thuan Phat:

The Missus has taken to shopping at Thuan Phat.....well, at least every once in a while. She likes thevariety; the place is much less "pungent" then Vien Dong was, and we do find items that catch our interest once in a while, helping to make the sometimes mundane task of shopping a bit more fun. I recently used up the last of the palm sugar we brought back from Cambodia, so I needed to restock. It had been so long since I last shopped for the stuff that I was surprised to find jars with tablespoon sized disks of palm sugar available. For those that have wrestled with the large blocks/discs of hard as rock palm sugar, this stuff is great. A drop of water and 10-15 seconds in the microwave and it becomes very soft.

There were a couple of items that caught my eye during shopping. Even though I have no use for it, this was almost irresistible.

First, I wondered if it really smelled like durian.....of course I'm not going to be dumb enough to open it in the store! Can you imagine....or worse, what if I spilled it? Gives new meaning to "clean-up in aisle five". Still, if your coffee smells kind of odd next time.....

Recently Consumed:

I saw some nice watercress at the Linda Vista Farmer's Market and thought it had been a while since I made Luang Prabang Salad (Nyam Salat). That's basically why I needed the palm sugar.

Even though I hadn't made it in a while, it turned out well....the Missus got a kick out of the presentation. It's kind of an inside joke with us.

We' ve found that taking sometime to make your meal look a little more....well, pretty enhances the meal...even Sun Brand Cold Noodles......

The lemongrass chicken at Yum Cha Cafe is $3.99 for a half chicken and it's probably the best BBQ item they have. It does tend to dry out, so buy it intact and cut it up at home.

Funny thing is...the Missus is starting to text me photos of Her breakfasts when I'm at work......

 

Monday Meanderings

Yes, I've been hacked:

My email that is. Sorry to say that I think everyone on my contact list was sent high volume spam from my email address. I've hopefully corrected that. On the good side; it was really nice hearing from folks I hadn't heard from in a while. I just wish it was under better (and legit) circumstances. My apologies.

Meet my latest "toy":

For some reason I actually opened up and looked over the monthly adds for Marukai. I noticed that various Shichirin were on sale for the whole month. I decided that we needed a bit of an upgrade from our little Hida Konro. The one selling for forty bucks was a bit too large....

 
So I went with the one on sale for just under twenty bucks.

 

 

 

Marukai also has Binchotan on sale this month.... just be aware that the label says it's made in  Myanmar. I know some folks are sensitive to that. I also thought that there were US trade sanctions against imports from Myanmar.... but maybe I'm wrong?

 

 And just because I needed to include some food photos:

I'm including photos of our New Years Eve dinner(s). You know where, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holiday Bowl 2008-Tailgating and a football game

mmm-yoso!!! is the food blog you are reading.  Today, Cathy is writing about what she (and 100 of her closest friends) ate in the parking lot of Qualcomm stadium before and after a football game at the end of 2008.

Hi.  We do this every  year .  The Holiday Bowl 2008 football game  is now a distant memory, and it was another good one(Oregon beat Oklahoma).  However, the pre-and post game activities are why The Mister and I attend every year.   It is a sort of 'American Tradition', the tailgate...a group of friends decide on a prearranged spot in the parking lot near the football stadium, claim that area, backing into the parking stalls, but not fully, so that tables can be placed in the aisle formed by the back to back car trunks.  Food is brought and placed upon those tables...

The day starts out at about 6 a.m. for us.  Actually, it started the week before Christmas, when rib roasts were on sale at Albertson's for $3.77/lb.  We bought about 24 pounds of roast this year.

This is a very simple recipe, which you can easily remember: GOP: garlic, oregano, paprika. (as binders: olive oil, salt and pepper...you shouldn't have to remember those.)

 

Make a paste.

 

Heat the oven to 500°. 

Coat the roast(s) with the paste.

Put the roast(s) in the oven.

Drop the temp to 350°

20 minutes per pound (remove from oven when inner temp is 135°-it will continue cooking)

In the meantime, 6 pounds of white bread rolls are made fresh.

Then we drive to Qualcomm, park in our section (where nobody remembers our names, but do know us as the "garlic beef couple"), "Hello, Merry Christmas !" and "did you bring the beef?" are standard salutations.

Along with some mutterings about "sorry about the University of Michigan this year"...blah blah

We  set up our two  tables, started slicing the beef and soon everyone else begins to show up and filled up the parking spots and then spaces on more set up tables...

 

 Sangria, salads, chips, crackers, all kinds of dips, chicken in every form imaginable, sandwiches, cookies, pies, cakes, home made fudge...9 tables placed end to end, filled with food.

This one guy always brings his infamous 7 layer Mexican dip, topped with alfalfa sprouts.

He calls it a "hairy Mexican".

Yes,  ladies, he is single.

 

One of the other "regular" dishes we have is a very large, still warm, freshly smoked turkey-smoked about 9 hours overnight.  It is stuffed with a wonderful rice pilaf.

 

Always the turkey is accompanied by those sweet potatoes topped with the Betty Crocker canned coconut pecan frosting I told you about as a Thanksgiving side dish.  Yes, I got that recipe here, from some wonderful old friends. More than 15 years ago, when you bought frosting in powdered form and that was mixed with the sweet potato 'juices'.  This is how I know those sweet potatoes taste good hot or cold.

Before the 5 p.m. kickoff, we head to the stadium, watch opening ceremonies. 

(yes we do have an excellent block of seats)

 
 

 

We then watch the football game. With about 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, some of us head back out to the parking lot, set up the tables, along with a camp stove, put out leftovers...  

  

Set up cups for instant coffee, hot cider, various add-ins. 

We wait for the parking lot to clear so we can all head home.

Another year of food, fun and a football game.  With friends.  

Food at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, while attending National Finals Rodeo

mmm-yoso!!! is a blog about food that Kirk, ed (from Yuma), Cathy and a few others eat and experience.   You too get to vicariously enjoy our meals.  Hope you enjoy this episode about a couple of days in Cathy's life.

Hi.  I do this every year.  Two Girls driving from San Diego to Vegas, so we we can watch the lovely, athletic cowboys compete in the National Finals Rodeo, as we have for many  many many years now.  

This year, we stayed at the Red Rock Casino Hotel, a bit West of The Strip, near Summerlin. 

  

The hotel is a bit more "modern"  in decor than its "sister" Spa Hotel  but nice and feels safe for a single female traveler.

 

 

The linens and interior decor are of much higher quality than you get at regular hotels.  

Down quilts and pillows and 500 thread count sheets...the 42 inch flat screen.

As well as the 13 inch tv over the bath tub.

 

ANYHOW, for reasons we won't go into right now, Ms. T could not eat any meals with me and since she drove, I was stuck with "hotel food" for the two day duration of my stay.  I walked the whole place, comparing prices.                   

        


  The Bowling Alley area (Red Rock Lanes) had the best prices, but not a huge selection.  (Burgers, chili, fries, combinations thereof and whole pizzas.)

The Sports Book area had a chalkboard special of 8 Buffalo wings for $5, so I got those to take to my room.  Good, nothing extraordinary.

I did manage to get what I wanted for breakfast the next day by getting room service.  The European breakfast, with lots of tasty fresh fruit (the blueberries were wonderful!), some Brie and three different cured meats (salami, ham and roast beef), two croissants (which did not taste as though they were baked in house, as they seemed to be at Green Valley Ranch in prior years), fresh coffee, real cream and grapefruit juice (served in that hourglass pitcher you see top right of the tray).  $24 plus tip, tax and a room service fee...

  

 There are pools here, not open because of the weather.

Supposedly the restaurant by the water is even better.  If I come back in the summer, I'll let you know. 

 

We went to the Rodeo, Day 5 (of 10) and during the Opening ceremonies, this lovely long maned and tailed horse accompanied our flag.

The cowboys saluted the attendees.   

 

Quite a few records were broken.

It was one of the better NFR nights I have attended. 

When we got back, I was hungry and had planned my meal.  I had scoured the menus of all the restaurants in the hotel and the 24 hour Grand Cafe had what I wanted.

This Tuscan salad, made with roasted chicken, thick crispy applewood smoked bacon, shaved Parmesan Reggiano, topped with a mustard vinaigrette and served with a hot baguette.

This set me back $12 and was so worth it.  There was roasted chicken served only on two other places on any menus in this building,everyplace else had 'grilled chicken breast" on their menus and I figured this would be fresher and tastier and it was. 

I awoke early Tuesday morning to this view of the red rocks outside my window but had enough time to run down to the Grand Cafe for an almond bear claw and coffee (~$5)

 

This pastry was fresh made and filled with marzipan and *really* good.

Then we drove back to San Diego and the real world.

But we have tickets for next year's Rodeo already ordered.

Red Rock Casino Hotel

11011 Charleston Las Vegas website

By Request: Kimlan's "Chinese Spaghetti Sauce"

You all are always full of surprises, that's probably why we love you all so much. On any given post, I never know what might catch the fancy of the wonderful folks who read mmm-yoso!!! This little bottle to my right is a good example. I happened to have mentioned it in one of my shopping posts, and was asked several times if I bought it. Of course this aroused my curiosity. After all, just what is "Chinese Spaghetti Sauce?"

And so I bought a bottle on one of my trips to 99 Ranch Market. I wasn't paying attention, and didn't realize that it was $3.09 a bottle!

I was surprised at the Missus's reaction when I returned home and displayed the bottle. Instead of the expected "what are you wasting money on now", I received a "hey, you might like this". I guess you all aren't the only ones full of surprises.

Speaking of surprises....about a week later I decided to finally try out the sauce. And when I grabbed the bottle it was almost empty!! The Missus had been using it to top Her jook, and as a topping for rice. Realizing that my window of opportunity had suddenly gotten much smaller, I dug through our cabinets looking for some pasta...and found some capellini. Which I cooked up, and topped with a conservative amount of the sauce (I heeded a warning from the Missus, "a little will go a long way....") along with some green onions and cilantro.

From the first bite I understood why the Missus enjoyed this. The flavor was 5 spice and bean paste heavy, and most of all, S-A-L-T-Y. The mystery meat consisted of five spice tofu and "Kaufu", which is wheat gluten. The flavor is very Chinese, and you'd never mistake his for your good old bottle of Ragu. A little does go a long way.......

I thought it was okay.....but I think a little phrase the Missus uttered to me the other day is much more telling. "Don't forget to buy a bottle of the Chinese Spaghetti Sauce the next time you go to 99 Ranch Market!"

Take that, Ragu!

Saturday "Stuffs"

Here are a few follow-ups of places (new and old) from our rotation.

We finally made it back to El Salvador Pupuseria y Restaurante on a weekend and had a chance to try the "weekend soups". There are two Salvadoran Beef soups features on the weekend.

The Sopa De Res(Sabado y Domingo - $6.95):

A nice rich semi clear broth, featured squash, yuca, a huge hunk of cabbage, and beef still on the bones. This soup tasted very "clean"  and soothing, with bay and cilantro overtones, though the meat was rather tough.

I ordered the Sopa De Pata($6.95):

This soup was a direct opposite of the other soup. Thick and tomato based, with bay and black pepper flavor. There was a reason this soup was so thick. You see this is a "gelatin" lovers dream. There was really no "meat", just bone and lots of gelatin - which I happened to enjoy. as with the previous soup, there was a piece of squash, yuca, and cabbage. There was one item in each soup that we didn't enjoy; the piece of corn was really tough, and almost broke my teeth! These soups are served with Salvadoran Tortillas, which were just like pupusas without filling. A very filling meal.

Of course we've been going back to Da' Kitchen. Here's the Chicken Cutlet I had today:

It was the "triple-decker" Chicken Katsu, with a brown gravy, topped with mushrooms and onions. I bought it with "all rice" today; and there were 3 scoops of rice, with one scoop hidden underneath! Delici-yoso!!! (And the Missus finished a whole Fish Tempura Plate by herself!).

Finally, I guess there comes a time that we all have to face our fears. This year the Missus wanted one of these(but I'll be the one using it):

Yep, that's a Pressure Cooker; for some reason I'm terrified of pressure cookers, and have never used one in my life. I've got those stories of exploding pressure cookers, although I've been assured that newer models are extremely safe. So we'll soon see how I handle the "pressure".

Dum-te-de-dum-de-dum-dum..Under Pressure....

Jin Patisserie

On Friday afternoon I received a call:

"Hello"
"Oh my God"
"Hello"
"Oh my God"
"Whats wrong?"
"It's so beautiful!"

It turned out the Missus had gotten this in the mail:

A pretty silk box. So what was in it?

I had heard of Jin Patisserie from Kristy's wonderful blog Best of LA, and in this case she's right! I had ordered the 15 pieces of Chocolate in a Silk Box, but received 20, and I'm not complaining!

My photo's really don't do these chocolates justice, they really are works of art:

The flavors included in this box are: Lemon Grass, Sea Salt Caramel, Jasmine, Black Roasted Sesame, Lychee, Earl Grey Feuilletine, Mango Kalamansi, Passionfruit, The des Concubine, Red Caramel Clove, Mango Basil, Cinnamon, The du Hammum, Lavender, and Ginger.

The price? $42, not cheap, but oh, so beautiful to look at!

I think I'd better let the Missus eat her candy now. It'll take a while, she's just a nibbler with these types of candies, and really knows how to appreciate them.

So if you want your own little 1x1 piece of heavenly rich and subtly flavored chocolate; you can order from the Jin Patisserie website, or visit them at:

Jin Patisserie
1202 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, Ca. 90291

Ain't it amazing what we learn from Blogs?

Thanks Kristy!

Yoso-Generous Reid!

Overall it has been a pretty good day, first I finally got my new car - oh, the smell of a new car, one of my favorites, right alongside garlic, a new book, and others.....

Than I get home and there's a box waiting for me....from Amazon, great! But wait, I didn't order anything from Amazon recently; so what the heck is this! So I gingerly open the box; Heck No! I ripped the darn thing apart, and there laying pristine in the bottom of the box is this:

I had asked Reid from 'Ono Kine Grindz for a recommendation for reading material on Singaporean food after reading all of his "Live from Singapore" posts. He had recommended Shiok by Terry Tan, so I added it to my list at Amazon. In fact I was going to order this next month (I allow myself an Amazon order every other month). Well now thanks to Reid, I can order something else. Just paging through Shiok is in itself an education for me, and the pictures are wonderful - almost as good as Reid's photo's!

Thank You Reid, for being so generous! First you graciously allow me to grill you, than you get me a book - Me no understand, but I thank you anyway!

It's been a good day, first I get the smell of a new car. Then I get to smell a new book. Let me go fry some garlic now, so I can complete the set! It doesn't get much better than this.....

yoso-greedy:Eastman Outdoors Big Kahuna Burner

I had a package waiting this afternoon; no it wasn't the Baklava from Jo, it was the Eastman Big Kahuna Burner that I ordered from Amazon.

I'd been waiting for this for a while. It's basically a heavy duty wok ring. Supposedly able to handle up to 50 lbs, and heat up to 55,000 BTU's, I'd be able to finally cook using high heat, perfect for Chinese cooking and other stir fry dishes. In other words the "I can't get the wok hot enough" excuse wouldn't "fly" anymore.

So I opened the box and uh-oh, the dreaded words "assembly required", along with an instruction manual; this was big trouble. So I read the instructions, and amazingly, I put it together in about 15 minutes. And guess what? No leftover pieces! I hooked up the propane and did the "soap test", then turned the control valve on both the Big Kahuna and propane on and lit it and - KA-BOOM!!! Just kidding! It lit up and I cranked it up, and my god it was hot, I could feel it 15 feet away! I was still surprised that a notorious "brok-chanic" like me could actually do this so quickly. So my initial impression? Very sturdy, easy assembly, good price ($49.95 + free delivery), and hot as heck. Too bad we already had dinner; the virgin stir-fry would have to wait. But this is the 4th of July weekend, so I'm sure I can come up with something.........

yoso-greedy: Camerons Stovetop Smoker

I had a parcel meeting me at the door this evening, turned out to be a delivery from Amazon; my Camerons Stovetop Smoker that I ordered 2 weeks ago:

This is the handy dandy kitchen gadget that is often seen on Emeril and other shows - it was on sale for $34.99 at Amazon, with free shipping I thought why not. Not much in the box, just the smoker, a drip tray, and a wire rack, oh wait; it's the New and Improved Non-stick wire rack!.....got to make sure I got this right! Also, included were four little containers labeled, Alder, Cherry, Mesquite, etc....  So I open the Alder, and there lay a little pile of sawdust, smelled like sawdust, felt like sawdust, I didn't taste it, but I'm sure it was going to taste like sawdust. Where was the magic? This is going to give us the "succulent flavors of wood smoking"? There's no way that this is going to work! By this time my OCD kicked in and I just HAD to make something, anything. So we jumped in the car and sped off to Costco to buy some salmon (no sense in using anything too expensive).

Back home, salmon in hand, I trimmed off both end cuts and seasoned the middle piece with sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I placed a little pile of "Alder" (at least that's what the container said) sawdust in the middle of the smoker base (sort of like I was going to try and start a fire with two sticks - my confidence was waning). Covered the drip pan with aluminum foil and placed that over the "wood chips" (in the most loose definition of the word chips!), and set the wire rack on top of the drip pan, covered and was ready to roll! I turned on the burner, set the smoker on top, than opened up the instruction book! Hey, I'm a guy, what can I say...... I noticed a bit of smoke leaking out so wrapped some foil around it, and caught a whiff, and damn if it didn't smell like real "smoking smoke"! Well now that I had the little "Cooking Guide" opened, I realized my first mistake; I should have left the cover of the smoker two-thirds of the way open until wisps of smoke appear, than cover the smoker. Uh-oh, I missed the "wisps" step, would this ruin the salmon?....No Salmon Salad! No Salmon Gravy!, Salmon Hash! No Salmon Ala King! Ooops sorry too much Christmas Story....

After about 25 minutes later I checked on the salmon, and it looked a sort of "gloppy", so I replaced the cover and left for about 7 minutes more. At this point the salmon was starting to flake(sort of like me.....how appropriate), so I decided this was enough and removed it from the heat. At this point the salmon still had sort of a poached look:

So I tasted a piece, damn if it didn't taste pretty darn good! So it's smoked salmon and bagels tomorrow! Visions of smoked corn, smoked clams, smoked duck, and smoked tri-tip danced in my head!

So I guess this piece of equipment is pretty "idiot proof", it seems that if you (unlike me, but it still turned out) follow instructions this is pretty fool proof. Easy and fast. The only things that I need to do next time is to season a little more generously and follow the instructions for starting the cooking process.

So what did I do with the rest of the salmon? I just did a "quick and dirty" togarashi rub and seared and fried under high heat: