Saturday Silliness

Man, this daylight savings thing really fools you..... when evening finally arrives you think well, it's still pretty early, and wham..... it nine pm!

Today was a beautiful day, and we decided to drive up to Gardena, and do some shopping at Marukai, and of course grab some lunch (a later post). Because we were a bit early, the Missus suggested that we stop by the Torrance Saturday Farmers Market, which used to be a favorite of ours when we lived in LA.

 By the crowds it was apparent that a lot of folks had the same idea.

We picked up a few things, but something caught our eye on the way out.......

It was probably the largest Daikon I've ever seen. The Missus rationalized buying one of these since we'd need some daikon oroshi (grated daikon) for the Karei Karaage I was going to make. Of course this would probably make a ton of oroshi.... so I'll have to come up with something else.....

It's hard to gauge the size of the daikon in the photo, so I decided to compare it against Frankie.... who apparently thought this large creature was his new brother, or something like that.

Playing with my food - more fun with Maguro Tartar:

We liked the maguro we saw at Marukai, and picked up a block, and of course much like my previous post on Maguro Tartar, the Missus wanted something a bit different. So with all the same ingredients, I came up with two more appetizers. You can see my recipe in this post. I built the dishes after getting all my mise together, and built the first one before mixing in the cucumber, tomato, and avocado into the tartar. I grabbed a really old, and kinda tacky glass and built it up layer by layer. A dab of wasabi paste was spread on the bottom, followed by cucumber, tomato, avocado, followed by the maguro mixture.

I had coated the rim of the glass with a mixture of Korean Chili powder and sea salt, and topped the whole thing off with sliced scallions and sesame seeds. A couple of slices of avocado dipped in chili powder finished it off. The Missus made some Strawberry-Peach Sangria, and had that with the meal.

The second item was some slices of cucumber topped with a dollop of tuna tartar. At this point I had mixed in the avocado, tomato, and added some sesame oil.

The Missus actually preferred this.

Anyway, there you go..... we hope everyone is having a great weekend. I think it's time to eat....

Hey, I think Sammy's just asked to see the wine list! "Can anyone get some service around here!"

Comments

[stephen]

Hi Kirk,
Great post. I got a beautiful piece of yellowtail at Henry's that was previously frozen. I'm gonna try a couple of your recipes with it.

[Dennis]

Wow, soon as I get less busy I want to start trying out a few of your recipes! My grandmother had a use for all the parts of a daikon including the leaf. Wish I were more curious about learning about them back then..

[Tammy]

Way to compare that Daikon...lol

You know, I always thought your dogs act more like human than dogs.

[Carol]

Haha, loved the post! Boy that daikon was huge. I was just at Marukai SD yesterday and was looking at some of the tuna. Now I wish I would have bought some.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Nice to see Sammie and Frankie showing up again in a post.

Tuna looks tasty too.

[Lynnea]

So adorable! looks like some haute cuisine you've made there.

[kat]

with all that daikon, you can also do takuan. oroshi on soba, in tempura sauce, endless uses!

[Kirk]

Hi Stephen - I think these dishes are best when using sushi grade fish, but please let me know how everything turned out.

Hi Dennis - If the leaves are fresh, we sometimes stir fry them. I enjoy the slight bitterness.

Hi Tammy - Unfortunately, we tend to treat them like humans sometimes...

Hi Carol - If you want good maguro, please check out Catalina Offshore.

Hi Ed - I'm glad you enjoyed seeing Da' Boyz.

Hi Lynnea - Actually, it's just Poke recycled.

Hi Kat - Thanks for the suggestions!

[Fat Fudge]

I live within a couple miles of the Torrance Farmers Market and go every Saturday. I see those huge daikons and am always tempted to buy one since they're so cheap and look so good. I asked the vendor if it could be stored outside the refrigerator, since there's not much space in my fridge, but he said "no". I'm a single person and even though I'm a huge vegetable eater, I'd have a problem trying to polish off one of those suckers by myself!

[Kirk]

Hi FF - We actually left the daikon-nasaurus out overnight and it did fine. You are lucky to live close to the TFM, we used to drive forty miles each way on almost every Saturday to shop when we lived in LA.