Japan 2017 - Sushi Dai

There are good things, there are great things, and then there are things that belong to a class of their own.

Food is no exception. There's just food that transcends the medium from nourishment to that of an art. Hong Kong showed it with Kau Kee's curry beef brisket noodles and Yat Lok's roast goose.

We've been looking forward to similar experiences since.

Tsukiji's Sushi Dai has been a must-visit on our mental list for a very long time. Chalk it up to documentaries like Jiro Dreams of Sushi (which we can probably never justify spending a good chunk of one's monthly salary on).

Anyway, we arrived in Osaka the night before, and took the shinkansen to Tokyo to meet our friends. They were flat out from travelling, but my girlfriend and I decided that we would power through the heavy rain and stick to the plan by heading for Tsukiji Market at three in the morning for sushi.

Was it worth the (three-hour) wait in the cold? Maybe. I can't really tell in hindsight. It is, however, the best sushi I've ever had by light-years.

I guess there's a lot of weird expectations our generation has about Japan. We grew up absorbing its cultural exports, and in a strange way we've probably subconsciously romanticized the idea that it's our foster country of sorts. Sushi, I suppose, was thus a fitting proper start to a nine-day adventure - and we knew we had to have it from the source.

Chutoro (Fatty Tuna)

Tai (Sea Bream)

Hotate (Scallop)

Akami (Lean Tuna)

Maki

Kinmedai (Golden Eye Snapper)

Taichiuo (Cutlass  Fish)

Ikura (Salmon Roe)

Sanma (Saury)

Bonus Piece: Chutoro (again), because this costs a lot in Manila.

Sushi Dai
Address: 5 Chome-2-1 Tsukiji, 中央区 Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
Damage: Omakase Menu | JPY 4,000 (PHP 2,0000 | USD 39 | AUD 51)

Notes
Eat with your hands. Do as the locals do. The chef is a friendly fellow and, to our surprise, it seems that he has met his fair share of Filipinos as well.

Queue up early. If we had to do it again, we'd probably be there by 2:30am. Tsukiji is an interesting place. Bring snacks, if you need that energy boost.

Sushi Daiwa, which is literally next door, is run by the same family. Their queue is much shorter, but I'd still recommend getting there early.

Beef and Ale Stew

There's something about the rainy season that makes people gravitate towards heartier dishes. Whether it's braving the increasingly common floods on the way home from work or just wanting to cook something passive on a cold weekend day, one can't go wrong with this dish.

Ingredients
700g beef short ribs, cut into small chunks
a few tablespoons of flour
1/4 bar of butter
2 large onions, cut into quarters
2 whole pieces of garlic, crushed and peeled
200g tomato paste
1 bottle of preferred beer
half a liter of water, or substitute with another bottle of beer
1 beef bouillon cube
2 large potatoes, cut into eights
2 - 3 carrots, cubed
Worcestershire sauce

In a large bowl, coat the beef with flour.

On a large pot, melt the butter in medium heat. Add the beef in batches, ensuring that they are lightly seared. Once the beef's surface start to turn brown, immediately remove from the pot and place on a separate plate to allow it to rest.

Back to the large pot, add the garlic followed by the onions and cook slightly. Add the potatoes and carrots, and cook for about 2 - 3 minutes.

Add the beef, ensuring that the contents are mixed equally. After 2 to 3 minutes, add the beer into the pot. Bubbles may form from the carbonation, which will eventually settle after a few minutes.

Bring to high heat, then carefully pour in the water (but avoid filling to the brim) followed by the beef bouillon. Add the Worcestershire sauce to taste - I probably used a third of the bottle in this batch. Finally, add the tomato paste into the stew and bring to a boil.

Once the stew starts boiling, reduce to low heat to avoid overflowing. Cover the pot but leave a small gap to allow evaporation. Cook for another 1.5 - 2 hours until beef is tender, then serve.

Enjoy!

Shakshuka

Rhetorical question - is it weird that my latest post after a long drought of updates is a recipe?

Whatever.

This is a recipe for shakshuka, a North African dish that I've been meaning to cook for a long time. Hearty and warm, it's excellent for cold, rainy nights. It's excellent for any time of the day, really.

Ingredients
2 whole pieces of garlic, minced
2 onions, sliced thinly
700 - 1,000g of crushed tomatoes
2 green bell peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon of chili garlic (or your spice of choice)
6 eggs
200g of button mushrooms (optional)
salt

Heat oil on a large, flat pan. Add garlic and allow them to brown slightly. Toss in the onions, cook until onions are slightly sweet then add the bell peppers.

Once the bell peppers are slightly cooked, add the button mushrooms. Cook for 1 minute, then add the chili garlic. Stir well for another minute, then add the crushed tomatoes and bring to a simmer on low to medium heat.

After the water has slightly reduced, add salt to taste and continue stirring. Crack the eggs over the surface area of the stew, allowing the simmering tomatoes to gently cook then. If not using a cast iron pan, distribute the heat manually by moving the flame under each egg to slowly cook them. Add salt as desired.

Once raw egg whites are no longer visible (or is minimal), turn off the flame and cover the pan. Ideally, the yolks should remain runny.

Portion on plates, then serve with toast.

Enjoy!

2015 So Far - July

Quezon City has always been one of the better parts of Metro Manila.

While it can't quite seem to be on par with Taguig's and Makati's central business districts (and the latter's equally noticable poverty problem), Quezon City manages to have something to offer to everyone - from Cubao X's hipster (if that's still a term) hangouts to Maginhawa's quiet food havens (which I'd talk about for the foreseeable future), there's always something for the world-weary masses who call the capital their home.

If there's one thing Quezon City seemingly has a monopoly on, it's probably the countless pockets of greenery that serve as secret places one can stumble upon if they look hard enough. One such place is the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, a sizeable nature reserve deep within the heart of the metro. It is conveniently located just before the Quezon Memorial Circle's rotunda, and is very easy to miss as the general area looks the same from the outside - full of trees and is generally a breath of fresh air compared to the noisy smoke-filled roads virtually everywhere else.

Getting to the park is simple enough. The most accessible route is to take the MRT to Quezon Avenue Station. From there, take a jeep to UP, Fairview or anything that heads for the City Hall or Quezon Memorial Circle. It's very easy to miss the park's entrance - we found that the best way to find it is to have the driver drop you off at the last pedestrian overpass before you enter the rotunda. That should place the park entrance just across the road.

Besides being a wildlife preserve, the park serves as a rescue shelter for confiscated and injured animals.

Yarr!

There is more to the park than one realizes - birds of prey are their main attractions, crowned by no less than the haribon (which turns out to be much larger than I have ever expected). Civets, bobcats and different reptiles are on display as well and while there are some other animals kept in restricted areas, the parts that are open to the public aren't very shabby for the eight-peso entrance fee.

The park is much more spacious than meets the eye. It's a popular spot of photo walks and field trips and it's also not unusual to come across folks who are painting amongst families having a quick picnic in the park's man-made lagoon.

After a few hours in the park, a visit to Maginhawa (which was just fifteen minutes away) was pretty much inevitable. The first stop was Artsy Cafe, a quirky spot that was deceptively dainty with its dollhouse-like furniture and light fixtures. For some magical reason, they served t-bone steaks and lengua (or oxtongue which happens to be a personal weakness) so we got those.

We heard that a cat cafe opened up in the vicinity recently. We did manage to find it - unfortunately it was packed because it was a weekend. Luckily, we found Wicked Kitchen (which was housed in the same building) whose s'mores have been making a lot of noise on my Instagram feed lately.

I've been posting a ton of food pictures over the last few weeks. I'm still trying to gain a bit of weight since that delightful hospital stay a month ago. As it turns out, it's quite possible to lose fifteen or so pounds in a couple of weeks.

Tenka at Greenbelt is my new favorite hotpot place and has contributed the weight gain efforts. They have a ton of options (like sea cucumbers and whole shiitake mushrooms) that are very hard to find in eat-all-you-can quantities which makes a revisit an easy decision.

Philly cheesesteaks are undoubtedly less healthy options and we found a shop that sells them on Amorsolo Street (near Chino Roces) in Makati. They also had an old American carnie favorite - deep fried Oreos - and we just had to try those (while we were still young enough to fight off the nasty side effects of a terrible diet).

And then there's katsu, everyone's old mainstay. This one's at Katsu Sora in Trinoma's garden floor. It's decent, but I like Yabu a wee bit more.

My birthday's coming up. I'm turning twenty-seven in a few days. It's a strange thought. I'm hoping to get my priorities straight soon-ish, but that's something for another day.

Later!

Homemade Italian-Style Spaghetti

Ingredients:
half clove of garlic, crushed and diced
1 white onion, halved and diced
1 large can (24 pieces) of vienna sausages, sliced into quarters
1 large can (approx. 850 grams) of peeled tomatoes
a handful of basil, chopped
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
lots of pepper (to taste)
250 grams of angelhair pasta

There's a saying in cooking pasta about the fact that it's all in the sauce. Or so they say.

This is the first time I've done one of these (and it's been a while since I cooked something fancier than eggs), so bear with me. I got the idea from my Romanian colleague who happens to have a knack for cooking. The nice thing about cooking is that it isn't an exact science (like baking), so adjustments can be made here and there.

Heat some oil. Saute the garlic for a few seconds, and add the white onion shortly afterwards.

Once garlic has turned into a very light shade of brown, add the vienna sausages. Cook them very quickly (for around a minute). Make sure that everything is mixed constantly as we don't want the garlic to get burned and we want the onions to be caramelized to add some sweetness and bite to the dish.

Add the tomatoes. Canned tomatoes are often already pre-packed with tomato sauce, so I didn't have to worry about adding anything else to thicken it. As everything slowly simmers to a boil, we might notice that the tomatoes start to break down, turning into a nice sauce. Mix in the basil just before it comes to a boil. Add pepper and sugar to taste and cook for around five to ten more minutes.

Serve over pasta, cooked al dente. Remember to add a lot of salt to the water to bring out the taste of the pasta.

Enjoy!

Homemade Hotpot

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. minced garlic
hotpot mix (prawn balls, dimsum, squid rolls and veggie balls - sold separately or prepackaged)
crab sticks
bok choy
enoki mushrooms (optional)
Tom Yum paste
soy sauce
chili garlic

Note: This recipe is from the dad, with my comments in italics.

Fill a pot up to a little less than three quarters full of water. Bring to a simmer and add two chicken cubes and a couple tablespoons of minced garlic. As an alternative (and I've tried this before), the chicken cubes could be substituted with chicken bones, preferably the back portions of the chicken. Just chop them up and toss them in the broth before turning on the stove - and add a little salt.

Add two tablespoons of Tom Yum paste for that extra kick.

Once it starts to boil, add in the hotpot mix.

After full boil, add the vegetables. Once the vegatables are cooked (or half cooked - your call), add the crab sticks on top before switching off the stove.

Serve hot with soy sauce and chili garlic as the dip.

Enjoy!

Peach and Blueberry Compote

Ingredients:
825 grams canned peaches, drained, cubed
425 grams canned blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
2 small pieces of ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons calamansi juice
a pinch of salt

Compote is fruit, usually berries, cooked or preserved in sugary syrup. Sadly, fresh berries are rare and cost a lot of money in Manila, so I had to use canned fruit for this one.

Strain the syrup from the blueberries, but don't completely drain it. The juice would serve well as the syrup for the compote.

In a large pot over medium heat, add the peaches and mix in the blueberries. Add the sugar, calamansi juice and ginger then mix evenly while adding a pinch of salt.

Bring to a boil while stirring every couple of minutes or so. Once the mixture boils, cook for ten to fifteen minutes, then let it cool.

I stored mine in a glass jar, and was served over vanilla ice cream the following day.

Enjoy!

Hummus for Hobos

Reminds me of Zohan. Sadly.

Open a can of garbanzos and strain. Set aside a fourth of the liquid.

Mash the garbanzos using a mortar and pestle (or a food processor if you can afford one). Add the liquid, mix well then set aside.

Crush one to two tablespoons of sesame seeds in the mortar and pestle, then mix it into the garbanzos. Or add them into the food processor (again, if you can afford one).

Roll a lemon (protip: to maximize the juice) and cut in half.

On a teflon pan, saute four diced garlic gloves in two tablespoons of olive oil until browned. Add the garbanzos mixture and cook for one minute. Add the lemon juice and cook for five to seven minutes.

Place on a plate, create a well using a spoon. Add olive oil in the center.

Serve warm with pita, or in my case, Fita.

Quick Fake Carbonara

So we always seem so have some form of pasta stashed away in the refrigerator but never any sauce. I guess that's a good thing because it allows me to whip up (read: MacGyver) sauces with whatever things are on hand whenever I need a quick bite.

I cheated a bit on this one and had someone else grill the chicken breasts for me (because I don't trust myself with poultry yet). I asked them to just season it with salt and pepper for about an hour before grilling. Slice it into thick strips once cooked.

For the sauce, it's just a matter of cooking a can of cream of mushroom soup - which typically means heating the soup for around five to ten minutes. Usually, the instructions say that the soup to milk ratio is 1:1, but since I didn't want it to be too runny, I only used a fourth of the usual amount of milk.

Once the soup is heated, add the chicken strips. Season with generous amounts of pepper, allow it to cook for five more minutes, then serve.

Please note that this is nowhere near real carbonara in terms of taste (or quality), but it's relatively quick and easy to make.

I suppose adding some toasted bacon would be nice, so that's worth a shot for those who have it.

Strawberries and Chocolate

Me: Ma, may dessert diyan sa ref.
Mum: O, san galing to? Pwede ka nang mag-asawa.
Me: Ayaw mo yata e.
Mum: Wag kang makulit.

So somehow we ended up with around five kilos of strawberries (don't ask). I like strawberries, but I'll be damned if someone could eat a lot of those - and I think they spoil pretty quickly or something.

Anyway, I also happened to have a pack of chocolate chips stashed away (again, don't ask) so I thought this would be a neat idea (albeit not original, obviously).

Melting chocolate was not as straightforward as I thought. Something horrible happens to it when it gets into contact with water (and direct contact with heat would burn it), so a double boiler would be the best bet.

I don't have that, so I filled one of those cooking pots with water (around a quarter full). I placed a pyrex bowl inside and heated the pot, which in turn would heat the bowl.

I added the chocolate chips into the bowl, and once they were melted, I took the bowl out and proceeded to coat the strawberries with chocolate.

Refrigerate (at which point the chocolate would harden like those used for ice cream coatings), then serve.

This would obviously be way more awesome if I had better chocolate in stock (like a Hershey's dark chocolate bar or something), but what the heck.

As a side note, only around two kilos of strawberries left. Gah!

Beer Batter

Prepare lots of paper towels. For the love of all that is holy, do not skip this step.

In a bowl, mix beer and flour in one-to-one ratio. Add a dash of salt, and black pepper if desired.

Mix well. As a general rule (according to the interwebz), the batter should have the consistency of  thick gloss paint. I have no idea what that means, but I think a smart guess should do.

Let the batter sit for about half an hour.

Prepare the things to be fried. Prepared Vienna sausages, onions and apples for this batch. The apples turned out to be surprisingly good. I didn't have bananas, potatoes, carrots or cream dory so give that a shot.

Heat the oil until hot enough.

Dip each piece in flour, then in the batter. Toss into the oil and deep-fry. Once the batter looks cooked (see picture for reference), take it out, allow the oil to drain and place onto the paper towels.

Repeat as much as possible.

Enjoy. Oh, and eat something healthy for the next few days.

Credits to the River Cottage guy for the last minute consistency tip.

Tuna Pesto (For the Lazy)

Why? Because I was sick of reheating food after coming home from work. And the microwave broke down.

Please note that this isn't the healthiest version of pesto around (because fresh basil is always better), but it's quick and easy to prepare.

For the pasta, just follow the instructions on the packaging. Typically, just prepare some water until it boils. Add a handful of salt and around two tablespoons of cooking oil. Dump the pasta and cook for around ten to twelve minutes, or until al dente.

For the pesto, I used a can of tuna flakes in oil (whose brand should be obvious). Drain half the oil and mash the bigger flakes. Add the tuna to a heated cooking pan and wait until it sizzles.

As an alternative, one could drain all the oil and replace it with olive oil. It's pretty expensive though, so I haven't tried that yet.

I used Filippo Berio's bottled pesto for this one, mainly because it's the first thing I saw at the grocery that was decently priced (at a little over a hundred pesos). Add three spoons of pesto to the tuna. Mix well for around three to five minutes and it should be ready to go. This is good for around a quarter kilo's worth of pasta, give or take.

Later!

Mug Cake Sorcery

In a mug, mix two tablespoons of flour, one tablespoon of pure cacao and two tablespoons of sugar.

Mix well.

Add one teaspoon of oil, two tablespoons of milk, a splash of vanilla (or in my case, almond extract) and one egg.

Mix until it has the consistency of batter.

Add some cherries, chocolate chips, nuts or whatever.

Microwave for ninety-five seconds.

Place the cake onto a plate, or eat straight from the mug. Add ice cream to make things fancy.

Enjoy.

Inspiration from this blog. The finer points are courtesy of this YouTube vid.