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Name: neener
School: USC Marshall School of Business
Status: Employed...finally
E-mail: Click here!
Reason for blogging: I'm incredibly self-absorbed. |
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I'm listening to...
::"Stay Beautiful," The Last Goodnight
::"Spaceman," The Killers
::"Green Light," John Legend
::"Superstar," Lupe Fiasco
I'm watching...
::24
::The Office
I'm reading...
::Taiwan, A Political History, by Denny Roy
::The Devil and Miss Prym, by Paulo Coehlo
I've just seen...
::Slumdog Millionaire
::I Love You, Man
::The Reader
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Asian Fusion That I Can Stand Behind... ...and will stand an hour in line for.
Recently, Dubya granted my birthday wish by chasing down the oh-so-popular Kogi BBQ Taco Truck with me one afternoon.
Although I still consider myself to be young, I do manifest maturity in several ways: for example, I am extremely good at being the curmudgeon. I'd been interested in this Kogi phenomenon for a while now, but the idea of having to wait in line for food was extremely disagreeable, as anyone who has gone to dim sum with me can attest. In general, I refuse to eat anywhere that requires me to wait more than half an hour, let alone an hour (you know who you are, snooty French brunch place in Berkeley!). My time is precious, so your food had better be frickin' amazing if I'm going to have to wait for it. Especially if you're going to make me STAND the entire time.
Another concern of mine when I try new places arises whenever food is "Asian-influenced." As someone of Asian descent, it can sometimes be hard to judge Asian-y foods without using authenticity as a criterion. But nowadays, I can deal with Asian-influenced food as long as it's advertised as such. If you try to pass off your Asian food as "authentic" when any Asian person can tell you that it's not, then that really annoys me. I could name a chain whose name starts with two initials and ends with the possessive of a Mandarin last name that rhymes with "fang," but I will not.
Anyway, as it turned out, the wait wasn't that bad. It may have been the 90F plus heat, but for whatever reason, no one was waiting when we arrived, and so we got first place in line when the taco truck arrived.
 
Dubya and I decided to try the kimchi quesadilla, the black jack quesadilla (one of the day's specials), the korean short rib taco, and the spicy pork taco. The black jack quesadilla was the bomb. I normally prefer kalbi over spicy pork any day, but their spicy pork was really delicious and flavorful, without the spiciness completely overpowering the meat. The salsas and whatever other crack they must sprinkle on this food totally took these dishes over the edge.
So, to conclude, the food from the Kogi Taco Truck is extremely satisfying, and the culinary cultural combination results in truly delicious food. Delicious enough that I would definitely wait an hour to try it again.
But no more. This old lady's got her limits.Labels: food
Burgers on the Brain. I thought this was an interesting read from yesterday's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/dining/01burg.html.Labels: food
It's the Magical Fruit. I'm talking about beans. But they don't always make you "toot," which is a good thing in my opinion.
As a kid, I stuck to more Asian-y beans, like green beans, mung beans, soybeans, adzuki beans, etc. That's because I pretty much ate what my mom cooked. My legume horizons broadened considerably in college, when I was forced to eat dorm food every day, and soon I grew to appreciate all those other beans I had ignored for the first 18 years of my life. Since college, I have eaten beans many times, but never actually cooked them. Until now! I hereby present my first attempt at cooking beans!!!
White Beans with Sobrasada and Manchego
Actually, my bean cooking experiment was inspired by José Andrés's Made In Spain episode which featured sobrasada, a Mallorcan sausage made from black pigs. I bought some sobrasada from a Spanish market but needed to find more than one way to cook it (he only covered one recipe on the show). I turned to the good ol' Internet for some help and found a recipe from a Spanish blogger. The recipe called for a can of beans. And normally, being the lazy person that I am, I would have purchased a can of white beans. However, I couldn't help but notice the array of white beans in my local grocer's bulk foods area each time I stopped by to get some Israeli couscous (a recent obsession of mine). I was tempted. Very tempted. So I caved in and bought some Great Northerns and actually cooked them for this recipe.
Up Close and Personal
Look at the red oil oozing out of the sausage...
One of the reasons I had always avoided cooking beans was because of the time it involved (you have to soak them overnight, then you have to cook them for at least an hour, blah blah blah), but it turns out that cooking beans is very low maintenance! You pretty much "set it and forget it," which is awesome. I was even able to catch up on a couple episodes of Firefly while I waited for them to cook.
At the end of the day, I'm pretty proud of myself for learning how to cook a new food (even though it wasn't very complicated), and I highly recommend cooking your own beans to everyone! It's super easy, and you get a very filling and comforting result.Labels: food
I *Heart* Offal. Last week's Top Chef Masters' elimination challenge was to cook street food featuring offal for people at Universal Citywalk, which apparently is a representation of "middle America," whatever that means. The key proteins that the chefs had to work with were heart, tongue, tripe, and pig ears.
Right before the commercial break, they had a text-in contest where contestants just have to text their answer to this question: "Which of these offal choices is the most awful? Ear, tongue, stomach, or heart?"
My immediate response was, "I don't understand your question!" I grew up eating offal (Taiwanese people pretty much eat every part of the animal), and I think it's offal-ly DELICIOUS. Pig ears = crunchy goodness! Hearts = yummy in my tummy! Tripe = chewy fun! Mmmm...makes me want to go home and have Mom make me some chicken hearts.Labels: food, tv
More of the Same...But Better. On the way back from work, I decided to stop by Berkeley Bowl West, the recently-opened, long-awaited second branch of Berkeley Bowl, a very popular market in the area that boasts a stunningly great variety of produce.
I have never enjoyed the Berkeley Bowl shopping experience. Yes, their produce is awesome. I love their bulk grains and pasta section. I love the fact that I can buy almond meal for my pâte sucrée when I'm feeling too lazy to do all the blanching and processing. However, it is crowded, and the people who shop there are really annoying. They are self-righteous, inconsiderate, pointy-elbowed, and just terrible. I don't think they are always like this...I think that something about this market just turns people into aggressive douchebags. Thus it was with extreme caution that I approached this second branch.
My first impression as I walked toward it was that the market was gynormous and that it had a really sleek look (thanks to architect Kava Massih). When I walked in, I was once again impressed with the size of the place. Because it's so large, the aisles are nice and wide, which I assume was designed to reduce the shopping cart traffic jams that are common at the original BB. The organic section is larger than the one at the original BB, and they carry more variety of produce. For example, I noticed right away that they had more potato varieties. So far, so good.
As I was looking at some strawberries, I got bumped by a shopping cart. I turned to look behind me...perhaps there were two carts trying to go down the aisle at the same time? Silly me. Of course that wasn't the case. The guy had had plenty of space (about two feet separated his cart from the shelves). He merely elected to steer into me. Of course, he offered no apology. Typical BB behavior.
I unluckily finished my shopping at the same time that everyone started lining up for the cashiers, so I had to stand in line for a bit. I've been well trained for insanely long lines at the original BB, so I was cool with that. The person in front of me was a typical original BB customer: earth-loving (reusable bags in hand), animal-loving (vegetarian products), and human-unfriendly (only acknowledging my existence to glare at me as I reached near her stuff to grab a divider for the conveyor belt).
All in all, I give Berkeley Bowl West a thumbs up. It's a little more sterile than the first in terms of character, but it's bigger, prettier, and with more parking: enough pros to keep my fury at bay while I deal with the self-centered customers I have come to know and intensely dislike.Labels: food
Exploration Leads to Discoveries, Good and Bad. Let's start with the bad first. On Monday, I had to get my car serviced. Since I have a new job, I had to go to the dealership in Vallejo to get my maintenance done. Mind you, I have never been in Vallejo. Ever. And as I drove from Vallejo to my office, I discovered that some of the worst drivers in the world can be found on the stretch of Route 29 that lies between Vallejo and Napa during weekday afternoons. I'm serious. I have ranted in the past on the illogical driving that I used to witness daily while commuting on the 580, but this was different. During my 30-minute drive on that short stretch of Route 29, I was too busy trying not to get into an accident in my loaner car to look inside the cars surrounding me, so I can only assume that every car was occupied by a drunk driver on his or her cell phone. That is the only way I can explain the dangerous swerving and unexpected speed changes that I was forced to navigate. What is wrong with these people?! If luck is in on my side, I will never, never have to drive there again.
On the other hand, Saturday was a good day. I went to the Ferry Building in San Francisco to get some fruits and veggies at the farmers' market that is open every Saturday. After purchasing my vitamin supplies for the week from the various booths outdoors, I was walked into the building and passed by some dude at a table selling something called a bomboloni. What is a bomboloni? It kinda looked like a fritter with some granulated sugar on the outside. My sister and I decided to be adventurous and try it. Based on the dude's suggestion, we chose a custard-filled one and decided to pair it with some coffee from Blue Bottle (I had the iced coffee---delicious!!!).
 
The verdict: This custard-filled donut-like pastry is good and would have probably been better when fresh versus being half-crushed in my purse for an hour. It comes with a variety of fillings, including Nutella, but because of the texture of the pastry, I imagine that the custard kind would be the best one.
My lesson for the week: Sometimes it pays to try new things...sometimes it doesn't. But you know what? You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have---wait, that sounds familiar...Labels: food
So This Is Love. Being unemployed can suck. There's that pesky "money" thing. But as I've said in previous posts, it gives you a lot of time. And if you have some savings, you can do something you usually can't do when you're employed: travel.
And that is how I ended up driving a little Citroën Picasso smelling of cigarette smoke (unfortunately, the only automatic that the car rental company had) through the Basque countryside with YJ and LT, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do when I see a road sign with a picture of a headlight and a question mark. (I'm still not sure, so if anyone can enlighten me, please do.)
After a misstep or two, we arrived at our destination: Axpe, described by some as a hamlet and by many as "the middle of nowhere." Surrounded by rolling green hills and with snow-capped mountains as a nice backdrop sat a small town square with a church in the center. Some structures that looked like farmhouses dotted the landscape here and there, but for the most part, all we could see was green. Here, in this humble-looking destination, is where I ended up falling in love...as I ate one of the best meals of my life.
At Extebarri, a Spanish asador, Victor Arguinzoniz has taken grilling to another level. Every morning, he and his sous-chef make their own charcoal from a variety of woods, and they come up with creative ways to cook foods you normally don't associate with a grill. A slab of beef? Sure, they cook beef. And since this is Spain, if you want some grilled baby octopus, you can get that too.
But would you ever expect to order caviar? Smoked butter? And how about some baby eels? Ah, the marvelous baby eels. The baby eels are the one "must have" dish at Extebarri, when they're available. Sous-chef Lennox told us the romantic story about how the eels are born in the Sargasso Sea, way out by the Caribbean, and travel all the way around the world to Europe. They are caught by the light of the moon, and then he started talking about a waterfall (I think they keep them there once they are caught?), but by then my mind was wandering as I imagined ingesting them. All romance aside, they are just plain good. The texture may be like spaghetti, but they're so full of flavor and simply delicious.
Our meal ended up being 4 hours long, and we had a wide variety of dishes, from meats like chorizo and chuleta to seafood like giant palomar shrimp and oysters. As we neared the end of the meal, I was feeling incredibly full and unable to eat anymore. And then they brought out dessert, a smoked milk ice cream with a berry sauce, and just like magic, I found space in my stomach again.
The food at Extebarri is the epitome of my favorite kind of food: unpretentious, cooked perfectly, and prepared and seasoned so that you can savor the taste of the main ingredient. Oh, Extebarri, I love you.Labels: food, places, travel
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When I learn a new word, I'll put it here so you can learn too!
EBITAS (noun):
Abbreviation for "Earnings Before Income Tax, Amortization, and SGARA." Next week, find out what SGARA is.
Click here for previous "new words." |
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