Earlier this week I just purchased some of Trader Joe’s Strawberry Kefir drink.  The taste is similar to yogurt and the consistency is like a melted milkshake.  The health benefits of drinking Kefir is widely known and often quoted.  I like drinking it because it tastes good and I like the idea of getting some extra protein without having to cook something.  On a side note, Kefir is supposedly easier to digest than milk for people that have lactose intolerance issues.  I personally can’t consume milk of any kind and I don’t have any problems with Trader Joe’s Kefir.  If you like yogurt I’d give it a try, I’m definitely going to buy this one again.  I have a pretty good suspicion that Japa will like this one too.

You can also make your own Kefir buy purchasing the starter culture and leaving your milk out on the counter.  I’d rather buy mine than worry about leaving the milk out too long.

Kefir making bloggers:

The fermented milk wonder drink

Also this blogger that makes Kefir for her um, dogs…pretty normal…

Kefir Rocks!

The New Yorker has a great article about Gordon Ramsey opening a restaurant in New York City.  I personally think he’s pretty funny in Hell’s Kichen and Ramsey’s Kichen Nightmares.  Check out the article and tell me what you think!

While browsing my local liquor store today, I took the opportunity to get Hyphy.  Since the news of Mac Dre’s protege getting shot, I’ve been thinking a lot about(not really) the Hyphy movement and what it means to me(nothing.) 

I smuggled the can of Grapple(that’s a combination of Grape and Apple for you neophytes) flavored beverage home and began to admire the neon green glow of the intoxicating beverage.  I took a long sip from my specially designed wine tasting glass. Hmm, the taste is like a cold, carbonated Dimetapp.  Yum

What about the effects?  Well, I don’t feel the rush of energy like most drinks such as RedBull or Rockstarr.  I do feel extra fidgety and slightly nervous but that might attributed to my usual temperament.

Cnet has a good interview with Homaro Cantu, owner and chef of Chicago’s Moto Restaurant.  Cantu focuses on molecular gastronomy stuff, and has become one of the leading chefs in this arena.

Cantu also beat Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America by a slim margin.  Apparently he used lasers and liquid nitrogen in that battle.

I’m kind of divided about this - i mean, on one hand, it is very interesting and cool, and some stuff does look artistic.  Plus, I love food, and I love computers - what is there not to like about this stuff?

But on the other hand, do i really need to eat my menu?  do i need to see pictures of what my food is trying to emulate on the food itself (for example, on iron chef cantu made sushi rolls wrapped with paper that had sushi rolls printed on it)?, does my soup really have to change temperatures while I eat it?  These features don’t make the food more tasty, just more visually appealing and neat.

Oh well, I can’t really talk because I haven’t actually been to one of these places yet.  In any case, check out the interview with Cantu here, and be sure to take a look at these great pics that Cnet took.

We went to Morton’s in SF after the Warriors game on Friday.  The place is conveniently located right next to Union Square.  Actually, ‘convenient’ and union square are somewhat misleading - parking is kind of a mess, and it’s relatively hard to get around through traffic.

In any case, it was late so we just did valet.  Interestingly, since the place was almost closed the valet charged me $12 to park the car on the curb right in front of me.  The guy basically went back and forth to parallel park about 5 times - and that was $12.  sweet.

If you’ve ever been to morton’s, you know their big deal is brining the ‘menu’ over for you to look at.  This is basically a cart with big pieces of meat saran wrapped to plates.  Servers work in teams, and our server went through a script pointing out the different pieces of meat, as well as a piece of tuna.  He also held up a whole lobster, live - but just barely - that was sitting on the top of the cart.

We got the porterhouse for 2, the idea being that we can get both a filet and NY with the  porterhouse.  We also ordered oysters to start with and some wild mushrooms (unremarkable).

For wine, we got a stag’s leap artemis.  Morton’s has a very impressive wine menu, and the stag’s was one of the few wines I had heard anything about.  They have a sommelier come over with the wine and do a fancy serving and stuff.

The oysters were good.  They were served with freshly grated horseradish and cocktail on a bed of ice.  Just typical half-shell presentation.

The porterhouse was huge.  They offered to divide it for us, and did a nice quick job, leaving only a bit of meat on the bone.  The server also separated the filet from the strip, and identified them for us.

The meat was excellent.  The seasoning was subtle, but it complemented the meat well.  The crust on the outside of the meat was nicely done, keeping the inside of the meat juicy.  In terms of temperature, we asked for medium rare and were told this would be pink all the way through.  You can see the coloring in this pic.  It was perfectly done for my tastes - and the server checked in on us to make sure it was how we wanted it.  I love bloody, and I think if you’re going to have bloody meat, Morton’s is the perfect place.

The porterhouse for 2 is big ,by the way.  I eat a lot, and I could barely finish my portion.  For $100, it’s not a great deal - but I think it does give you an excellent piece of meat that allows you to taste different cuts.

All in all, it was a great meal.  The service was nearly perfect.  The food was very good.  The price was high, but acceptable considering the service and ambience.  One thing I noticed is that these chains sometimes lose their touch when they expand - not so with Morton’s.  I’ve been to the one in Hawaii as well, and it seems like they’re pretty consistent with their service.

The title of this post pretty much sums it up. One of the best things about Hawaii is the food. It’s responsible for most of my excessive weight, and it’s one of the primary things I look forward to when I come back home for vacation. Hawaii has the best assortment of fresh local fish, and it’s such a treat to go to a fine dining restaurant in Hawaii that maximizes use of fresh local seafood and ingredients.

I’ve been to Hoku’s Restaurant in the Kahala Resort (formerly the Kahala Hilton and the Kahala Mandarin Hotel) several times in the past and have always enjoyed my meals. Its menu manages to showcase the freshness of local ingredients in a clever way. Hoku’s also has one of the more unique beginnings to a mea — you get a bread basket and a spread of creme fresh with raw ahi and a bit of horseradish. So you get a light fresh, slightly spicy tasting dip with bits of raw ahi in it. It might sound gross, but trust me, it’s delicious.

Anyhow, in late 2006, Hoku’s underwent renovations to both its interior and its menu. This is the first time that I’ve been back since the renovation. Although I couldn’t really tell any substantive difference in the interior decor (the tables were still fairly close, the color palatte was nearly the same save the new yellow dishware and annoying stemless wine glasses doubling as water glasses, and there was still no private dining room), I could definitely tell the difference in the menu. It was much more expensive than I remembered, and unfortunately, the food was definitely underwhelming.

The tableside view is still gorgeous. You look out onto well manicured lawns, white accent furniture, and the ocean. The Kahala obviously has this whole thing set up for that perfect wedding moment. You also immediately realize how posh this place is. This is the hotel where Japdamus saw O.J. as a little kid and where several celebrities/noted people stay while on Oahu.

So you’re totally primed to have a leisurely, relaxing dinner. They start you off with an amuse bouche of strawberry-watermelon soup with raspberry yogurt (at least that’s what the server told us. I overheard her tell another table that the yogurt was creme fresh, so who knows which is right). I thought it was okay, definitely light and very fruity. You could really taste the watermelon, but it was more of the weak, artificial watermelony taste that you’d get from Bubblelicious gum flavors. Not a deep summertime sort of flavor. One of the people at the table grimaced, and most everyone left the soup unfinished. Now, I was willing to let this go because it’s wintertime and fruit’s just tough to come by, but if you’re going to do an amuse bouche, then just do something that doesn’t solely rely on out of season fruits. You are a place that’s known for seafood, after all.

So we decided to do the signature Hoku’s dish: the seafood tower. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from that name. It’s a mountain of finely crushed ice, and they artistically arrange a lobster tail, oysters, crab legs, crab claws, shrimp, clams, mussels, differentt ypes of sashimi, and edible seaweed on it. You get seven different dipping sauces — ponzu, Hawaiian chili pepper water, ume/shiso water, mustard/horseradish, wasabi, cocktail, and something else. This is interestingly considered a “special” even though the waiter said it was their signature dish. It was refreshing and luxurious. The lobster tail was a bit overdone, in my opinion, but everything else was perfectly prepared. You got enough of the sea in every damn bite and got a great sampler. A small tower can easily feed four people for an appetizer. This is probably the best value for your dollar purchase (though it’s $68 for a small tower) at Hoku’s. And it’s got one of the best presentations.

In the past, I’d seen Japadamus order the ahi musubi here, and it always looked great. He got two large musubi with succulent chunks of ahi lightly tossed with a seasame oil marinade and the outside of the rice was grilled yakitori style so it was crisp. I dreamed of it for over a year, and I was so excited to see it on the revised menu. The revised menu had it prepared two ways: fried and grilled. I’m actually not really certain which is which because one was just like I remembered it — crispy rice on the outside, softer rice ont he inside. the other was this weird ass thing that was shaped to resemble a chicken drumstick or perhaps a pork chop, which is even odder b/c it’s a riceball stuffed with tuna. Wtf. anyhow, that drumstick was basted in waht tasted like a teriyaki sauce but the rice didn’t seem to be grilled or fried. it just seemed like they took a bunch of rice fromt he cooker, shaped it, and threw it down on the plate. which one of these do you think is the fried and which is the grilled? or ?

Tough to tell, huh? Anyhow, this was the second best dish of the evening, but I was sort of iffy about it being $19 for this and me only really enjoying the non-lamb chop one.

Okay, so I was really looking forward to my entree. I dont’ know why exactly in retrospect because I ordered the special: steamed moi with steamed Asian veggies and steamed Jasmine rice. It’s very simple, but I remembered that Hoku’s had excelled in steamed dishes int he past. And I was always full and enjoyed the wayt hat the subtle marinade highlighted the flesh of the fish. As a personal note, I really hate whole fish for some reason. I think it’s a lot of work and you dont’ really get much more flavor as opposed to getting a nice fillet cut. But the server didnt’ mention that, and I’d have large moi in the past. So I was a bit surprised to see this: It looks tasty enough, but it was maybe 6-7 inches worth of actual flesh and man you had to work well for your flesh. there were lots of smaller bones and i kept on getting errant scales while eating, so overall, I definitely had to work for my meal. The flesh was delicate and whatnot, but it wasn’t really anything spectacular at al,so I was pretty disappointed.

I decided to console myself with dessert. I ordered … just cake (really, it’s called “… just cake” You have to enjoy a dessert with ellipses in dish’s title). It was an orange sponge cake with seasonal berries and fresh cream. It was good, but it wasn’t really $10 good either. I’d say a slice of Napoleon’s Bakery orange sponge cake would be equally satisfying, which is really a damning statement you’d know if you’ve ever had Napoleon’s Bakery baked goods.

I suppose the main reason I’m panning Hoku’s is b/c it’s been so great in the past that it’s with really high expectations and a hungry stomach that I went there expecting to recreate some of the magical times of past. But instead, we were left with okay food and a tab taht ended up being about $110/head without tip.  I feel like here are several other fine dining restaurants in Hawaii that will give you equal satisfaction for less money or more sataisfaction for the same amount.  It’s with a heavy heart that I recommend you try someplace besides Hoku’s.

a Sansei Trip report.

While traveling through Hawaii I stopped by the famous(?) seafood restaurant Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar in the Waikiki Marriott Resort and Hotel.  This restaurant is one of many creations of DK Kodama a local restaurateur and proprietor of Hiroshi, D.K Steak House and Vino.

I visited Hiroshi two years ago and absolutely loved my meal.  I definitely recommend visiting the place if you’ve never been there.  Back to Sansei.  So admittedly my guests and I pulled a “Hawaii time” [a.k.a CP time a.k.a  Filipino time] and came to our reservation 15 minutes late.  The restaurant said no problem and placed us in what had to be the worst table in the restaurant.  A quaint four-top around the corner from the main dining room.  We collected the menus and ordered waters once we sat down.  Quickly my party and I began to notice an unpleasant order in the area.  We weren’t sure if it was mildew or body odor but something was definitely off.  I saw a door for something a few feet away so my hypothesis was that their probably was a moldy mop behind that door.  So we politely asked the waiter if we could be reseated somewhere else.  He said ok, and politely showed us to another table.  Before leaving our new table he added a parting dagger:

Are you guys from here?

Uh, yeah

Well that smell was the ocean, when there is a southern swell, Waikiki smells like that [This is after previously saying that he didn’t smell anything.]  Its called the Ocean.

Oh, ok

Give me a break, the ocean!?!  Um, our new table was 6 feet away from the old table and it didn’t smell like that.  Maybe the Mauka winds were also blowing the smell through the old table or maybe there was an A’ Ala Park stowaway hiding under our table.  I guess any excuse that cites implicit knowledge of Hawaii will suffice. Waiters in Hawaii, please don’t play the I’m more local than you card with me.  Looks are deceiving.  So back to the food.

We decided to do the meal freestyle which meant we just ordered random dishes at random times and ate them in no particular order.  Here are the items we ordered with my notes attached:

Japanese Calamari Salad- Deep friend calamari served in a wonton wrapper bowl on top of mixed greens.  Can’t go wrong with fried calamari right?  True, the calamari’s were lightly breaded and tossed with what I assumed to be Sweet Thai Chili Sauce mixed with vinegar and more mild red chili.  The calamari were pretty good.  The wonton bowl cried for help, it was drenched in oil which caused it to get soft and mushy.  The greens were fresh but so dry.  They looked like they were straight out of those mixed lettuce bags.  Possibly prewashed sometime last week somewhere in the mainland.  I think a little acidic vinaigrette tossed with the greens would have contrasted nicely with the ubersweetness of the squid.

Sansei Special Roll-  I’m still trying to figure out what was special about this.  True, you don’t see furukake on sushi all the time, but you certainly see spicy imitation crab salad, avocado and cucumber[the menu said cilantro also but I didn’t see it] made into sushi. The roll was served on a pool of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce.  I think the combination worked ok.  It tasted like your standard California Roll in my opinion.

Caterpillar Roll-  Unagi maki sushi roll covered with avocado and tobiko, served on top Unagi sauce.  What’s not to like?

Matsuhisa Style Butterfish-  Sake and shio miso marinated butterfish fillet; lightly grilled.  WOW, this dish was amazing!  From the title of the dish my guess is they cribbed the recipe from the Nobu cookbook.  Well, fuck it!  its good.

Sashimi Plate -Salmon, Tuna, Octopus, Surf Clam, Hamachi and Ebi(Sweet shrimp)-  Pretty standard, all the fish was very fresh.  The tuna pieces were kind of pake but what can you do?

Panko crusted Ahi Sashimi Sushi Roll- Tuna wrapped in spinach leaves, wrapped in nori then battered with panko and deep fried.  Served on top of what the menu described as soy-wasabi butter sauce.  First off I loved this dish.  The combination of flavors was amazing.  The sauce was definitely a big part of it.  I’m going to have to call the secret ingredient as being beef demi glace.  Although they don’t say, I’m going to have to call there was a definite beef/gravy going on in there.  I really liked it.

Rock-Shrimp Dynamite- Deep fried shrimp covered in a sweet Thai chili sauce and served in a wonton bowl on top of greens.  First since I was experiencing deja-vu, I was afraid that someone might have changed the programing of the Matrix, but then I realized this was the same preparation as the Japanese Calamari Salad[see above.]  Comments on Yelp about this dish leads me to believe its also a recipe appropriated from the genius of Nobu.  Only in Hawaii I think it would be ok for a restaurant to blatantly use a recipe from another restaurant.

Overall I think the restaurant is good.  Our new waiter was capable, friendly and yes, he did fit my previous sushi waiter paradigm.  I think the restaurant should try to stray from the comfortable embrace of Sweet Thai Chili Sauce but other than that, the food was good.  I personally would have tried to create a menu more diverse than something that could [and might] be recreated at a chain restaurant like TGI Friday’s.  I also noticed as the night progressed the bar began to fill out.  It might be interesting to visit the restaurant eat and get drunk.  I’m sure a lot of the fried food would go well with some beers.

I didn’t have my camera with me during this trip so the photos are all gathered from the web. 

Coming to a Chili’s near you, Tilapia!

IS is just me, or is it hard for any Hawaii native to eat Tilapia?  Maybe its too many memories of catching fish at Moanalua Gardens.  You’d throw anything into the water and watch these fish gobble it up: spit, leaves, Anything!

Frank Bruni of The New York Times did an excellent review of Robert’s Steakhouse.  In case you’re not familiar with this establishment, its located inside the Penthouse Executive Club in Manhattan.  Ok, so you may be asking What did the New York Times Say?  Well, from my read the New York Times gave their nod to the meld of strippers and high-class steaks.  Maybe Jeffery Chodorow should get better entertainment.

Some coverage of the review by other bloggers:

BRUNI/CHODOROW: REDUX

Bruni Goes to the Penthouse Club to Eat The Meat

The Changing, er, Face of Dining

The Creepy Misogyny of NYT Restaurant Critic Frank Bruni

New York Times: The math club president in the cheerleaders’ locker room +

I love how some of these New York types are actually appalled that the New York Times decided to include this article in the newspaper rather than the magazine.  Guess what guys?  I’m going to call that this article will be one of the most emailed articles this entire week.  Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Photo by Robert Presutti for The New York Times

In more sushi backlash news, the chicago times posits the question, ‘are noodles the new sushi?”

An interesting question - but this article really isn’t out to make a point, it just provides some helpful links to some noodle places in the Chicago area (not so much help to us on the west coast.)

Personally, I don’t think you can really compare the two.  Noodles, in my opinion, are more of an everyday food.  Something you can indulge in late at night, for a cheap lunch, or even for a (unhealthy) breakfast.  Sushi on the other hand is more of a calculated meal that you must be in the mood for.  Also, for the best sushi places, a seat at the bar means that you need to plan ahead a bit too.

 And most people will have no qualms about experimenting with different ramen dishes at home.  These can be purchased everywhere - elaborate ramen packets are available at high end japanese restaurants, while the infamous top ramen is available probably within a 100 yard radius of where you are right now.

Here are some of my noodle favorites in the area (in no particular order):

• Ryowa - A hole in the wall on Villa street off of Castro.  They have basic ramen, as well as some fried chicken and gyoza appetizers.
• Maruichi - A castro mainstay, Maruichi is well known for it’s great ramen and home made noodles.  You can actually see them making the noodles if you go there during the day.  Very similar to Ryowa - but this place is usually a bit more crowded.
• Tokushima Ramen - Hidden in the Mitsuwa shopping complex, you’ll recognize this place by the line that most likely leads out the door.  Tokushima is very popular, especially in weekends when the Mitsuwa crowd really spills over.  The owner of Tokushima used to be an uni dealer before opening up this place - a great guy. 
• Pho Hoa - the dennys of vietnamese cuisine.  Open late, cheap, quick, efficient service with a bare minimum of small talk (you’ll most likely get your pho within 5 minutes of ordering).  Love the spring rolls, and of course the pho.  The drinks (non alcoholic) are interesting as well.

Frank Bruni offers an interesting review of Kobe Club, Jeffrey Chodorow’s latest New York effort, in the February 7th edition of the NY Times.  You may remember Chodorow from ‘The Restaurant,’ he was the financier who frequently butted heads with Rocco, and later sent him packing.

Kobe Club’s menu is centered around Kobe beef, a Japanese delicacy.  Kobe, the product of cows massaged with beer among other extravagancies, is very expensive, as Bruni notes, and dishes of the meat can approach $300.

Bruni also remarks on Kobe Club’s odd, haunting decor - 2,000 samurai swords, dangled blade-down, above diners, and intrusive leather seats.

The review?  Bruni butchers Kobe Club with a zero star (poor to satisfactory) review, along with jabs regarding Chodorow’s recent restaurant failures, gimmicky restaurant concepts, and overpriced food.

Surely Bruni is just making a point with a zero star review - no restaurant save this KFC/Tacobell truly warrants no stars.

And while it sound interesting, it is hard to imagine that a restaurant centered around Kobe beef could be that fulfilling - especially at the price point mentioned by Bruni.  With steaks seasoned with basic salt and pepper, the menu seems basic.

I haven’t tried Kobe Club of course - I’m stuck here in the rainy west coast.  But check out their site, and if you’ve been give some insight - is Bruni right?  or does Kobe have some redeeming value?

Unlike the other contributors to Japadamus, I live in the greater Los Angeles area, otherwise known as “SoCal” or “the Southland” (if you watch local TV news). Hating on Los Angeles is a very easy task, and most inhabitants derive some pleasure in doing so. Plus, you get all kinds of national stereotypes about how superificial, expensive, vapid, polarized, and stupid Los Angeles and its residents are. When I moved here about five years ago, I did so with some expectations that life would be an odd combination of L.A. Story and Boyz n the Hood.

Okay, I do hate a lot of things about L.A. Traffic is annoying. Trendy stuff is ridiculously overpriced. The average Los Angelino has a body fat percentage that is lower than the average % of humidity in the desert. You need a car. Pedestrians are total dicks. I could go on and on.

But, in my time here, I’ve really begun to appreciate the variety that Los Angeles offers, and nobody really talks about it. So anyhow, here are some thoughts on what’s good here. It’s also a decent list of things to consider visiting if you’re in L.A.

• The food! You’ll be hard pressed to find any other city that has such a broad array of different cuisines and often for fairly cheap. Now, if you want a really gourmet $100+ meal, you might do better on average in San Francisco, but if you want to casually eat out with friends, nothing beats the restaurants in L.A. Mexican, Ethiopian, Japanese, authentic Chinese, Korean, Thai, Persian, Indian, etc. A quick scan of Chowhound’s Los Angeles Area board can give you a good idea about the tons of cheap, good ethnic food you’ll ge here. Also, one of my big complaints about