Hash It Up a Notch

I usually cook on Sundays for the week (hence the name of my blog). Last Sunday, I sauteed some tilapea fillets with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and put them into a Tupperware. Per usual, I bought a good assortment of vegetables to eat with the fish: potatoes, green beans, carrots and onions. Every day this week so far, my dinner plate has looked like this: One Tilapea fillet, a couple of small roasted potatoes and a side of green beans.

Last night, I decided to try something a little different. I was bored with the usual, and I had finished the green beans anyway. So I made a hash of the Tilapea, potatoes, carrots, onions and scallions. Same ingredients, different presentation. I ate it with a side of ketchup mixed with Tabasco (possibly my favorite condiment) and it was delicious, satisfying and something new.

Healthy, Hearty and Hot

I love this Lentil Chili with Cumin and Green Onions. It couldn't be easier to make, and it's full of fiber and incredibly low in fat. A few shakes of Tabasco and a dollop of plain, non-fat yogurt on top make it even better. I highly recommend you try this!

Thaitalian Cooking Duet Review

I know, I know...you're thinking, "Thaitalian? WTF kind of cuisine is that?" But before you turn away in confusion, consider this: There is a Thai Italian Chamber of Commerce, an Italian-Thai development company, and a Muay Thai Italian Championship. So really, the concept is really not as weird as you think it is.

My friends spent last Friday evening at Thaitalian Cooking Duet in Old Town Pasadena. I've passed this place several times in recent months, and it always stirs thoughts of two kids playing with food with one saying, "Hey, you got your thai noodles in my Italian pasta!" and the other replying, "No, you got YOUR Italian pasta in my Thai noodles!" then some narrator gregariously announcing, "Thaitalian - Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together!"

Surprisingly enough, the announcer guy would actually be right. We started off with some cocktails, which were really very good. Tawny had the Lava Guava, a tall drink of wonderful made with Absolut Vanilla, Peach Schnapps,Maibu, Midori, guava juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, grenadine, sweet and sour. Steve had his usual martini, with a twist, which he proclaimed was excellent. I had a glass of a good pinot noir.

We decided to split a few things, since thaitalian's overwhelmingly large menu left all of us a little stressed on what to choose. Everything sounded good. We shared the chicken satay, which was tender, moist and came with a tasty peanut sauce, as well as the thaitalian cups. The filo cups were filled with shrimp, chicken and various spices and served with a crunchy cucumber salad. Very tasty.

Next up was the Spicy Thai Beef Salad, a standard on many Thai restaurant menus. The only difference was that this version contained about 12-15 corkscrew pasta pieces. It didn't really add or take anything away from the salad, which was excellent. The beef was perfectly cooked, and the dressing was spicy and not too heavy.

Finally, we split the Yellow Curry Chicken Pizza. Yes, there is a little bit of mozzarella on this, but it really goes well with the mild curry. The chicken chunks were moist and juicy and they did not overdo the cheese or curry - it really was just right.

All in all, not a profound dining experience, but a very good meal in a nice atmosphere for a reasonable price. The three of us ate until we were full, and each had two drinks. The total, including a generous tip, was $40 per person. I will definitely go back here again.

And the Winner Is...

Well, Menu for Hope 4 is officially over, and the winner of the NapaStyle Salt Box is Sarah L Hartman! Sarah, if you are reading this, send me an email or post a comment here and I will send you your prize ASAP! Thanks for participating!

This year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $91, 188.00!?!?! That is a good $20K over last year. Though I didn't win the prizes I bid on, it was a great experience taking part in this event. Thanks so much to Chez Pim for creating Menu for Hope, and for organizing it year after year.

Mojito's Restaurant and Rum Bar Review

Back when this place was called Xiomorra, my sister and I used to go to the cheaper, more casual sister restaurant, Cafe Atlantic, located in the back room. We'd sit at the bar, have a cheap bottle of wine and split some empanadas and a salad.

Now called Mojito's, the owners, menu, atmosphere and dueling sisterhood (it's all one space now) had changed. I've avoided going to this place, mainly due to the name. Calling a Cuban restaurant "Mojito's" is about as classy as calling a Mexican restaurant "Margaritaville." Images of drunken college students and bad Latin music come to mind. But, after exhausting all other Pasadena possibilities last Saturday night, we settled on Mojito's.

According to the website, there is no corkage fee for the first two bottles of wine, so we happily brought one. The waiter told us that there is, in fact, a $10 corkage fee, but because the website hasn't been updated to reflect the change, he would honor the free corkage. So it was a good start to what turned out to be a lovely dining experience.

We were brought a generous serving of crispy, flattened, buttery Cuban bread with a side of black bean puree for dipping. It was delicious, and I think I could have been happy with just the bottle of wine and the bread. We split an order of the empanadas, which were light and crispy (think wonton skins vs. pastry) and very tasty with the side of avocado sauce and tomato salad it came with.

For entrees, my friend had the Pan Seared Organic Chicken Breast over Coconut Rice in a ancho chile jus. It was excellent: crispy on the outside, juicy and moist on the inside. I had the Churrasco Nicaraguense, which is a Nicaraguan skirt steak served medium rare with Porcini mushrooms, wild Mexican black corn and garlic mashed potatoes, which was divine! The meat was cooked medium rare (my request) and was incredibly tender and flavorful, and the Mexican black corn was earthy and slightly sweet. I really loved this dish.

I'm glad that we gave Mojito's a chance, because I can honestly say it will probably become a regular place for me after this great experience. The service was outstanding, the atmosphere warm and inviting, and the prices are very reasonable. Oh, and in case you are wondering about the Mojitos at Mojito's, my friend had one before dinner and gave it a thumbs up.

And no, I do not work for or know anyone who works for Mojito's. Don't be so cynical, people!

Floods, Firemen and Food for Thought

2008 is not exactly starting off on a high note. I'm still nursing a cold from New Year's Eve, I got laid off from my job and my apartment flooded on Friday night during the heavy rains. Apparently the main drain between my patio and the street was clogged, so my patio transformed itself into a pool, which then leaked into my living room and bedroom. My dad came over with a snake to try and unclog the patio drain (we didn't know at the time that the issue was further down the pipe), then the fire department arrived to assess the situation.

They quickly got to work, filling buckets with water (OK, I have no buckets, so they used my kitchen trash can, plus my good soup pot) and dumping it out over the fence. Another fireman went down to the street and started working on opening the main hatch to let the water out, while others moved my furniture out of harm's way and put plastic bags under the couches and bookshelves in my living room. By 1:30 a.m., the water on the patio had drained and the guys packed up to go help others in need that night. My dad, soaked from head to toe from standing out in the pouring rain for 40 minutes, also left to go back home (thanks for coming over, Papa!!).

I have to say that I was entirely impressed with the firefighters. I mean, they went out of their way to make sure my living room furniture didn't get wet, and they gave me lots of recommendations on what to do in the aftermath. I had to do something to show my thanks, so I spent the next afternoon baking some cookies for the guys of Pasadena Engine Co. 31.

I used Deb's recipe for peanut butter cookies, though I used just milk chocolate chips and left out the peanut butter ones, and didn't coat them with sugar. They were absolutely divine, let me tell you. Rich and almost creamy and super peanutty. I also made a batch of Ultimate Brownies, which were also a success. They are a cross between fudge and a really gooey brownie.

I packed them up and dropped them off with a note to the guys at the station. They were pleasantly surprised and very grateful for the cookies/brownies. Single girl/hot firefighter thoughts aside, it was a real pleasure for me to give it to them.

In the end, everything worked out: I get all new carpeting installed next week, courtesy of my landlord. My job was going nowhere thanks to bad management and I needed a reason to become a full-time, freelancer, so that is what I'm doing. And I only get sick once a year, so I shouldn't complain. I guess life has a way of working itself out in strange ways...

This is How We Do It

Every New Year's day (or a day close to that - our schedules are somewhat crazy so this year we did it on the 5th), my mom and dad put together a traditional Japanese feast to celebrate the new year. Most Japanese celebrate this way, though the food varies depending on personal taste and region. Here is a breakdown of what we had this year:

Everyone gets a little flower at their place setting. My mom is a wizard with table settings.

This year, we had many of our traditional favorites the parents' house, including yellowtail, tuna, and something new this year - sea bass from New Zealand. All of these are served sashimi-style.

We also had a Japanese dish of cooked chicken, peas, carrots and tarot root, all flavored with a mild sauce and a few lemon rinds. This was served room temperature, though you can eat it hot or cold as well.

Of course we had cold sake. You must, MUST drink sake for a Japanese New Year's meal.

This is my mom's famous shimesaba. Basically it's raw mackerel that is marinated in seaweed and some flavorings. We all look forward to this every year.

This vegetable side dish is a combination of a root vegetable (name escapes me at the moment) and carrots, all marinated in a slightly spicy sauce.

This is al dente green beans with a miso paste (my mom makes the paste with some miso, I believe a bit of sugar, and a few other ingredients).

Everyone got a little foil envelope, and inside were some mushrooms, Japanese sweet potato, shrimp and salmon and a very light and flavorful broth. Delicious!

After the meal, the sake-drinking continued for quite a while. Ake-mashite-omedetou-gozaimasu, everyone!

A Spin on Giada's Light Menu

Yesterday I saw a delicious, light dish on Giada's "Everyday Italian" show that inspired me to create my own version. I had almost all the ingredients she used, except for one. Giada's dish was sauteed Tilapea with braised radicchio and white beans. I had orange roughy (close enough), white beans, shallots, lemon and fish stock but lacked the radicchio. I did, however, have a bag of mixed collard greens, which I figured would work just as well.

I followed the recipe for the radicchio and beans to the tee with the exception of substituting the radicchio with the greens. It worked beautifully. I also opted to coat my orange roughy in Panko breadcrumbs (available at most grocery stores in the International section; also available at Trader Joe's) instead of dredging it in flour as Giada does. I simply salted and peppered the raw fish, rolled it around in the Panko, and pan fried with a few tablespoons of olive oil. And instead of making her lemon vinaigrette, I just squirted a bit of fresh lemon over the cooked fish.

The result? A fresh, light, healthy and easy supper.

Incanto, San Francisco

For the long New Year's weekend, I went to my favorite city, San Francisco. Mostly I was there to see my bro-in-law's big New Year's Eve show at the Bill Graham Civic, but of course I never turn down the opportunity to spend an extra few days with my SF-based friends and eat at a few of the city's best restaurants. On this trip, we decided to try Incanto, the restaurant run by non other than the Next Iron Chef contestant, Chris Cosentino.

I started off with a Taste of Italy wine flight - a real bargain at $19. I love that the restaurant puts little labels with the name of the wine on each glass, which are easily removable so you can remember which wines you had later. All were excellent. Also great was the housemade foccacia bread - loaded with herbs - that is served before the meal.

We started off with the beef heart tartar. Cosentino is well known for his love of weird animal parts (see his lips and assholes t-shirts here), so this was a perfect way to start. The tartar was very good - fresh, livery and very rich.

We also shared the fresh sardine appetizer. I enjoyed the sardines a great deal, but couldn't understand the salad beneath it. It was some sort of shaved greens, but the texture of the greens was that of thinly sliced wood. We chewed and chewed and it refused to break down, and the taste was bitter. Maybe as a garnish, but why serve this as a salad?

For my entree, I had a stinging nettle pasta with chicken confit and ricotta insalata in a chicken broth. It was very good, though I'm not sure that the chicken was actually a confit. It was more like chicken that had been braised in chicken broth. Regardless, the flavors were perfect.

My friend had the gnocchi with crispy breadcrumbs. I can't remember what the sauce was, but it was excellent. Rich, creamy with a nice crunch from the breadcrumbs.

My sister had the parpadelle with meat ragu, which was also very good. All in all, we liked the food at Incanto, but didn't looooooooove it. The service was good, not great; the atmosphere was very nice. I was hoping to be a little more wowed by the experience, given Cosentino's reputation, but unfortunately it just didn't happen that night. Other SF eating that I forgot to take pictures of:

*Yang Sing for dim sum. In a word, scrumptious.

*Il Borgo for Italian. This little Hayes Valley restaurant was one of my favorites when I lived in the 'hood several years ago, and I'm happy to see it's still there and thriving. The pastas are handmade and rustic. I had the lasgnaetta, which was my favorite back in the day and still tastes as good as I remember. Cheap, good wine, great service.

*Zazie for brunch. No wonder this place is always packed. Creative brunch dishes, fast and friendly service. My egg benedict with eggplant and spicy tomato sauce was perfect.

Random question of the day: If you are already ordering a large pizza, why on earth would you need garlic breadsticks with Ranch dipping sauce or cinasticks with frosting? Carb overload.