Akasaka

I introduced my mom to Akasaka for her birthday a couple months ago. She's a huge lover of sushi and my dad is a huge lover of food-that-doesn't-cost-a-lot-of-money-but-is-plentiful. That being said, Akasaka is a great combination of both! The chirashi bowl is the biggest seller. The very first time I went there, I thought I could eat an entire bowl by myself. It destroyed me. And then it destroyed me this time as well. Chirashi Bowl - 2, ChouDown - 0.

complimentary miso soup

complimentary salad/lettuce

chirashi bowl

fried shrimp heads for sweet shrimp included in chirashi

chicken karrage meal

grilled sama meal

agedashi tofu

unagi-don

complimentary ice cream with Hershey's syrup

All this for five people? We definitely over-ordered. The chirashi bowl may not look like much from my above-shot pictures, but that bowl is DEEP (there's a better picture from Yelp here). There must be ten slices of just salmon sashimi in it, along with tuna, yellowtail, albacore, spicy tuna, octopus salad, shrimp/crab salad, a sweet shrimp, a scallop, large fish roe, and uni. There are probably a few more items that I'm forgetting. Brother thought that the chicken and grilled fish would be smaller, appetizer sized portions. The waitress should have warned us before we got all this food! Fail.

The place gets super busy and packed, but you can call and make reservations ahead of time. I strongly suspect there is only one sushi chef and she has to work like a madwoman. When we first got there it was ok, but as the dinner hour went by it got more and more insane. At the end, it took us 20 minutes to get the check. Brother was enraged but since he was only rushing to get home so he could watch a streaming Starcraft 2 tournament, I wasn't too concerned.

Akasaka Restaurant
14926 Clark Ave, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

The Walking Dead S2E7 - Turkey Pot Pie

This post is long overdue, as The Walking Dead went on its mid-season hiatus on November 27th. What a ride it's been. The barn!!! I hope everyone has had a chance to catch up, as the show just keeps getting better and better. I'm impressed with what they've come up with so far, but know that there are plenty of plot points in the comics that will probably not make it to cable television (kids killing kids, zombie pedophilia, etc - I know, totally messed up, right?).

Since this episode was after Thanksgiving and I had copious amounts of turkey left over in the refrigerator, I made a turkey pot pie. This was the first time I tried making a pie and was pleased at the results actually! Umm except I didn't make the pie dough from scratch. I'm a bad cook.

Needless to say, I can't wait for the next season. Mark your calendars! February 12th hails the triumphant return. I can't wait to see what they have in store. If you haven't started watching, give it a go. The first season was only six episodes. The people I've gotten turned onto the show were at first hesitant because they didn't like blood/gore but there's really not all that much of it - the show is based more on the characters and their flaws and the way they handle the situations presented to them.

Turkey Pot Pie
serves 4

1 refrigerated Philsbury double crust pie
4 Tbps butter
1 cup onion, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 carrots, sliced into coins
2 Tbps dried parsley
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups turkey stock (or canned/homemade chicken stock)
3 medium white potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 cups cooked turkey, cubed
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 425F. Gently unroll one pie crust and smooth into the bottom of pie pan, pushing out all air bubbles. Trim any excess crust around the edges.

Place 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion, celery, carrots, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook about five minutes, or until softened. Stir in the broth. Bring mixture to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender but still firm, about 15-20 minutes.

In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the turkey and flour - it will be pasty. Add the milk, and heat through. Combine the turkey mixture into the vegetable mixture, and cook until thickened. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Gently unroll the top crust, and place on top of filling. Crimp edges underneath and press around the edges of the pie pan to seal. Cut off any excess crust. Make 4 slits (or cut out a couple shapes with cookie cutters) in the top crust to let out steam.

Place pie on top of a baking sheet to catch any filling drippings, in case of bubbling or overflow. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and continue baking for another 20 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011 - Molasses Spice Cookies #fbcookieswap

Hello handful of readers out there in the Internet universe. Sorry for the hiatus, as the first of December was my birthday (one year older, one year sadder) and then I had to make an emergency trip out to Boston. Boyfriend's mother passed away and we flew out immediately so he could be with family. After spending a week there, we arrived back in Los Angeles this past Saturday morning. While he has not returned to work yet, I started up again today ... and got a traffic ticket while driving to work. Needless to say, it's been a trying week.

However, I shall not shirk my duty in participating in my first ever #FBCookieSwap! Hosted by Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil and Julie at The Little Kitchen, it was a great virtual networking event with mouthwatering rewards. A ton of bloggers sign up, and are randomly matched by Lindsay and Julie. After receiving my matches, I send out a dozen cookies to each blogger. In return, I receive three one-dozen sets of cookies in the mail from other bloggers.

It's been really fun getting boxes in the mail, and not knowing what cookie deliciousness would be waiting within it. For my recipe, I fell back upon a recipe that I remember making when I was in high school and was just learning and experimenting with baking. I don't even remember where the recipe came from, but I remember it was a white paperback book with a picture of a chocolate chip cookie on the front. Specific huh?

I had copied the recipe onto a book of index cards ...

melted butter and molasses

rolling cookie dough balls in sugar

prepping to be baked

cookies baked soft and chewy

my individually packaged boxes

I received the following lovely bloggers to send a dozen cookies each out to:
Carroll Mohler (Vanilla Lemonade / twitter handle @CarrollVMohler)
Amanda Saad (an organic process / twitter handle @loveandnachos)
Madison Ginnett (Dessert Pocket / twitter handle @dessertpocket)
Cookies were rolled and baked while the winds raged outside. I live in the San Gabriel Valley and the winds were screechng at 80 miles per hour. The overhead fan on the stove was spinning of its own accord; it was super creepy. I'm glad the cookies came out nicely! And I cushioned the hell out of the packages with parchment paper too; when I received Susie's cookies, they came to me in a hundred pieces ... albeit a hundred delicious pieces.

Molasses Spice Cookies
makes about 2 dozen cookies

1.5 sticks unsalted butter, cut into large pieces
1/4 cup dark unsulphered molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in molasses and vanilla. In a medium bowl, sift flour with 1 cup sugar, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Whisk to combine.

Add beaten egg to cooled butter mixture and mix well with fork. Using a rubber spatula, fold flour mixture into butter mixture. Cover saucepan and refrigerate until firm enough to form balls, about 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 375F.

Put remaning 1/3 cup sugar into a small bowl. Scoop out walnut size pieces of dough and roll into 1 inch balls (I used a small ice cream scoop for uniform cookies). Toss dough balls in sugar to coat and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Leave out for 15 minutes to let the dough defrost a bit.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until centers are no longer raw. This is approximately 12 minutes for soft and chewy cookies, or 15 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool on cookies for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in airtight containers.

And of course, I received three dozen cookies in the mail as well! They were all varied and delicious. Boyfriend and I enjoyed them immensely with cups of tea and coffee. I can't wait to find the recipes for them so I can make them myself at home!

Monster Cookies from "Susie" (twitter handle @M_Olson1)

Brown Butter Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (!!!) from Christina (twitter handle @SwtLvndrBkeShpe)

Caramel Lace Cookies from Kate (twitter handle @KateSnapp)

Loved the idea of this! My friends were a bit apprehensive in the beginning ... "You mean total strangers are going to send you cookies? What if they're poisoned or you get salmonella?" ... but no worries, I ALWAYS made Boyfriend eat a cookie before me. And I waited five minutes too, just to make sure he wasn't keeling over or vomiting or foaming at the mouth. I know, I'm the best.

This was a great experience, and it's great to see the foodblogging coming together like this. I'm glad I was able to participate in the first ever Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and totally look forward to participating every year. If you want to participate next year also, you can sign up here. Join in, maybe we will end up sending cookies to each other in 2012!

Turkey Stock

Thanksgiving is over but the leftovers are still in full force. It gets a bit tiring eating the same things over and over again, but I'm Asian and things can't be thrown away in my house. When I was young, my mom even told me that for every grain of rice left in my bowl, there would be one acne/pock mark on my future husband's face. Did I want to have a hideous husband? No? Then eat every bit of that rice. I can't wait to pass this on to my kids. And for once, it's not just my mom being crazy! Pam of Daily Gluttony or Rants & Craves and Amy Tan of The Joy Luck Club has also mentioned it.

Seeing the carcass of a turkey being thrown away is wasteful as well. There are still little bits of meat left on it. All those bits have to be picked off, otherwise you are being wasteful and will go to hell. For real. And then you make turkey stock.

turkey and veggies to be simmered

stock after simmering for 2.5 hours

a hearty pot of jelly stock

After simmering and making the house smell delicious for 5 hours, I got about 10 cups of stock. And look how it turns into jelly! That's because the bones simmered so long that the cartilage breaks down and the marrow seeps out. Broth jelly is as flavorful as you can get. Also, I was wasteful in throwing the vegetables and simmered turkey meat away. But my parents had me eat them before and they're horribly bland, rubbery and tasteless after being simmered for 5 hours. I did save the carrots to feed my puppy.

Turkey Stock
makes 2-3 quarts

1 turkey carcass
2 stalks celery, quartered
1 large onion, quartered with skin on
2 carrots, quartered
6 sprigs thyme
1 tsp whole peppercorn
1 bay leaf

Combine all ingredients in a stock pot and cover with waterabout two inches of water (2-3 quarts depending on how big the stock pot is). Bring to a boil over high heat and skim the foam that rises to the surface. Lower heat to a med-low simmer and simmer 4-6 hours with the lid off, stirring once an hour.

Turn off the heat and let everything come to room temperature. Skim off any fat that comes to the surface (there should be about 1/2-1 cups worth, maybe a bit less). Strain stock well into another pot. Use within a few days, or freeze in individual containers.

ink. - Part 2

After the first time at ink., which ended up at the Kaiser Permanante on Sunset, I was a bit apprehensive about going back. Will I never get to eat at this elusive restaurant? Also, I was booking a reservation for the Saturday after Thanksgiving - what if he wasn't even there and was away spending time with his family? Of course, I didn't even consider the second part until I was sitting outside the restaurant waiting for the doors to open.

Luckily, I glimpsed Michael Voltaggio as soon as I walked in. Also, since we had the first reservations of the night (at 6pm), it was an opportune moment to choose where to sit - somewhere with a clear view of the kitchen AND good lighting. I'll also admit that I got totally fan-girl and asked the Chef for a picture, but it's too embarassing and I can't post it because I don't think I look that great. I'm grinning like an idiot in it though.

Since we had three courses last time we were here, we opted not to repeat them and focused on the other dishes. I love when I get to order food!

tea service

silverware service

bigeye tuna, parsnip-sesame cream, grapefruit, soy gel

beef tartare, horseradish, hearts of palm, sea bean chimichurri

brussels sprouts, pig ears, house-cured lardo, apple

lamb neck, chickpea poutine, yogurt curds, chive purée

octopus, cream of dehydrated potato, black olive oil, lemon

skate wing, mushroom oatmeal, matsutake, brown butter-mushroom broth

beef short rib, tamarind bbq, turnips, potato

pork cheeks, charcoal oil, macaroni and cheese, leeks

lamb loin, red curry, nante carrots baked in salt, fried and sticky rice

apple, crème caramel, burnt wood sabayon, walnut

peanut butter, milk chocolate, coconut, banana

What an amazing meal. I coincidentally ran into a friend, Rachel, at the bar while she was waiting to be seated and afterwards she said everything was delicious as well. The apple dessert was just as good as everyone raved it would be, although I really had wanted to try the grapefruit curd. By the time the meats rolled around at the end, we were stuffed to the brim. We only just managed to get dessert down. I wasn't a big fan of the brussel sprouts (too salty), the octopus (too bit tough) or the lamb loin (the heavy curry and coconut flavors just didn't work for me) but all the other dishes I'd eat over and over again. Especially that brown-butter mushroom broth with the skate wing - I know there mus tbe a ton of butter in it but I ended up eating the rest of the sauce with a spoon. There was oatmeal in it, so it's pretty healthy right? Fiber!

Can't wait to go back and try the grapefruit curd and squid spaghetti. Hopefully I can snag a seat when the omakase menu starts up. They had originally said a month after restaurant opening but as of the end of November, no omakase yet ...

ink.
8360 Melrose Ave, Ste 107, Los Angeles, CA 90069

Thanksgiving Part 3

Doesn't cranberry sauce cooking look so holiday-y? The sugar looks just like snow.

There is no Thanksgiving Part 2. We had a work potluck but the savages at my office totally tore into everything before I could even whip out a camera. It was utter chaos and destruction. So now we roll to Thanksgiving Part 3. I totally need to crash diet when this is all over. I discovered today on an only weight website that if I want extreme fat loss, I can only consume 920 calroies in a day. What?! That's only about 4.5 macarons!

Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day was prepared by yours truly. Me. By myself, watching a marathon of Disney movies on TV. For some reason, I really like watching Disney movies while I cook. Not the lame ones, like Air Bud, but the "animated masterpiece collection." I have a ton of them on VHS at my parent's house and I'm amassing quite a few on DVD as well. Luckily, they were playing on TV so while I cooked, I watched Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, and Snow White. Good times. Around 6pm everyone gathered to eat - and I realized that my high-top table from Crate & Barrel only has two bar stools to go with it. Thanksgiving dinner in front of the TV it is! We watched "30 Seconds or Less" while we ate. So cozy.

turkey brining 2 days ahead in the cooler - had to McGyver the fridge a bit to make everything fit inside

upskirt beauty shot of a brined and stuffed turkey - sexy

cider and sage brined turkey

carved turkey

homemade cranberry sauce - orange peel, apple cider, cinnamon

canned cranberry sauce - Oceanspray, jellied

mashed potatoes

creamed corn

Ms Cubbinsons stuffing with mushrooms, cooked separately

Ms Cubbinsons stuffing with mushrooms, from the turkey

curry roasted broccoli and cauliflower

smashed sweet potatoes, candied pecans, marshmallows (note to self: don't leave this in broiler unattended, as it results in the blown up marshmallow spillage on the bottom left corner)

sage gravy

papas rellenas, courtesy of Kavita

fried plantain chips, courtesy of Kavita

more sweet potatoes, courtesy of Brother

Japanese tamago, courtesy of Brother

fruit tart, courtesy of Kavita

pumpkin cream pie

bad picture of the table, but it was loaded

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! And no one got trampled or pepper sprayed at the Porter Ranch Walmart (or anywhere else) during the Black Friday sales. I had two friends at that Walmart and they reported that not only was a crazy woman (with her kids) pepper spraying people, there were also fist fights over the TV sales. USA! USA! USA!