Misasa

There is a place I love to go for Japanese "fast food" that I want to tell you about. In the Mitsuwa Japanese market at the corner of Venice and Centinela, there is a little food court with noodle shops and other little places. My favorite spot there is Misasa. It's at the back in the corner and it serves up lots of great meals like katsu and broiled fishes. My favorite is the grilled mackerel pictured here. You can also see my boyfriend's meal in the background.. he likes to get the salmon. You get a TON of food with all the little accouterments like tofu, pickles, miso soup, etc. It's a delicious, healthy, cheap, and authentic meal.

Misasa (in the Mitsuwa Food Court)
3760 Centinela Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90066

Awesome Tuna Tartare Salad

I just polished off this great salad that i brought into work using the tuna tartares from the previous post. I didn't want to have just tuna on rice because it would be a lot of fat, carbs, and cals. So, I took some arugula, dressed it with a little bit of rice wine vinegar and sesame oil. Then I added a small portion of Japanese rice and some of each kind of tuna tartares. I then chopped up a whole tomato and added that in and put a little more of the vinegar on those. Then I topped the whole thing with edamame, sesame seeds, and scallions. Yummy!!

Tuna Tartare Two Ways

I love tuna tartare. If I see it on a restaurant menu I pretty much have to order it, even if it's in an Italian restaurant (true story). Tuna tartare is pretty much just raw tuna cut up really small and blended with a dressing and maybe some other finely chopped ingredients. It's usually served with some kind of fried chip to dip with. Just like many other delicious treats I order in a restaurant, I often never think to try to recreate these dishes at home. If my cooking classes have taught me anything, it's that I can make well-known but intimidating things like quiches, souffles and pretty much anything I want at home. It's not rocket surgery!

So, when I found myself with two 6 oz ahi tuna steaks I thought I'd try something new. For the first tartare I basically made Japanese spicy tuna like you would find in a maki roll or on brown rice as a spicy tuna bowl. For the second, I threw together a sauce using a few ideas from some different recipes and working with what I had in the house. You can pretty much do whatever you want if you mix some kind of fat, an acid, and maybe some sweetness and a little extra flavoring, herb, or spice. Asian flavors work really well for this. Ready?

Spicy Tuna Roll Tartare

• 6 oz raw ahi tuna, cut into 1/8 inch cubes


• 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise (I use my homemade mayo, it's fabulous)


• 2 teaspoons Siracha hot sauce


• Scallions for garnish

1. Mix the mayo and hot sauce together well.


2. Mix the sauce with the tuna. Sprinkle with scallions and enjoy!

Tuna Tartare 2

• 6 oz raw ahi tuna, cut into 1/8 inch cubes


• 2 teaspoons lime juice


• 1.5 teaspoons sesame oil


• 1 teaspoon soy sauce


• .5 teaspoon mirin


• Little bit of grated fresh ginger to taste


• Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

1. Mix together everything but the tuna.


2. Combine the sauce with the tuna. Garnish with sesame seeds and enjoy!

Daikokuya's yummy yummy pork bowl

I've been posting a lot of quick reviews on Yelp.. so my apologies for the lack of restaurant reviews here. I usually just post here if something is very good and leave the mediocre reviews for Yelp.

Anyway, I decided last night as I took a bite of leftover pork bowl that it was in personal top 10 list of the best things I have ever eaten.

I am talking about the Shredded Pork Bowl at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo. They actually specialize in Ramen. The most popular meal there would be a big bowl of Ramen with a "side" rice bowl with shredded pork, chicken teriyaki, tuna sashimi, or other items. But, I love the pork so much that I just get the meal-sized portion and skip the ramen.

For $7.50 you get an amazing small cabbage salad dressed with a magically delicious creamy dressing, oh, and some miso soup. Then .. dum da dum.. enter the pork bowl. It's bit sized pieces of fatty pork belly and cooked onions covered in an amazing sauce. This sits on perfect Japanese rice and is topped with a bunch of sliced scallions, pickled ginger, and a sprinkling of nori (toasted seaweed). It's heavenly. It's also a great deal because I always take half of it home.

You can find Daikokya on one of the main drags in Little Tokyo, East First Street. There are a ton of Ramen shops on that street, most of them empty, but you will always see a crowd waiting outside of Daikokuya. The wait is never long though, and I don't mind sitting at the bar..I've never actually gotten a table. This place is great comfort food on a weekend afternoon..

They also have a location in Costa Mesa and they will be opening one in Monterey Park. Check it out, they even have their own Youtube channel.

Daikokuya
327 E. 1st Street
Los Angeles, CA

Royal/T

The other day while perusing LAWeekly.com I learned about a Japanophile cafe/gallery/shop right in Culver City. So yesterday, after visiting my client in the same area, I checked out Royal/T. It's like a Harajuku lovers' dream come true! Beautiful art, super cute items in the shop, a minimalist but gorgeous cafe with waitresses in Japanese maid costumes. They also serve what looks like an awesome high tea which I will definatly be back to try. Check out the photos (all taken with my iPhone):

Royal/T

8910 Washington Blvd.

Culver City, CA 90232

310-559-6300

http://www.royal-t.org/

M Cafe de Chaya

M Cafe de Chaya is a macrobiotic restaurant in Culver City and is part of the Chaya family of restaurants in Los Angeles. I've been there a couple of times now and both times I have gotten the brown rice sushi and it is great. Everything else looks good there so I'd recommend you check it out even though I haven't tried too much of the food there. They are basically vegan plus fish there, so no meat, dairy, or eggs. I tasted the Seitan Katsu Bowl, my first foray into Seitan which is a meat substitute made with wheat gluten, and it tasted like meat! They've got some lovely bento boxes (my weakness) available to-go, as well as a nice assortment of baked goods along with healthy sandwiches and salads. Check it out!

M Cafe de Chaya
9343 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
http://www.mcafedechaya.com/

I finally signed up for sushi classes!!!

Some of you who know me are aware that one of the reasons I originally moved to Los Angeles was to attend sushi school. Alas, I sold out and took a job and abandoned my dream. But I have decided that even if I am not going to do the intensive 12-week course, I am going to do two Saturday classes. This Saturday will be the Basic class and next Saturday will be the Advanced class.
I'll be taking the classes at the California Sushi Academy.
Wish me luck!

Garlic Shrimp with Spinach and Shiitake

Although someone recently told me that I am too young to be reading Prevention magazine, it is nonetheless one of my favorite magazines. One of the great things about it is the recipes. I tried this one last week and it was a winner:

Garlic Shrimp with Spinach and Shiitake

Makes 4 servings, 200 calories each

• 2 T reduced sodium soy sauce


• 2 T sherry or 1 T rice wine vinegar (I used Shaoxing Cooking Wine)


• 1 t packed brown sugar


• 2 1/2 t toasted sesame oil


• 1/2 lb fresh shiitake mushroom caps, sliced 1/4 inch thick


• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined


• 4 cloves garlic, minced (I crushed mine with a garlic press)


• 1 T finely shopped fresh ginger


• 9 oz baby spinach leaves

1. Whisk together the soy sauce, sherry, and sugar in a small bowl.


2. Heat oil in a wok or large nonstick skillet over high medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and stir-fry 2 minutes. Add shrimp, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry 1 minute. Add spinach and soy mixture and continue stir-frying until spinach has just wilted (shrimp will be cooked), about 1 minute.
3. Serving recommendation: serve with brown Basmati or Jasmine rice and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Buddha's Belly 3X

There is a new restaurant near the Pier / Promenade area of Santa Monica that we really like. It's called Buddha's Belly. We like it so much that we've been there for dinner three times in the past two weeks. The other reason for this is that there simply aren't very many good restaurants in that area. And, since we're in that area so often, this is pretty much the default now when we're there and we're hungry.

It's a pan-Asian restaurant with good atmosphere and best of all a very nice combination of Thai, Chinese, Japanese, and California flavors sprinkled throughout the dishes. Plus, it is very reasonably priced, so you could go there any time you feel like it. The only downside is on Saturday night we showed up with five people and the wait was about forty minutes. They're just not set up for groups. But, if you have up to four peeps, you should easily get a nice booth near the window and be happy. Oh, and they have a bar so you could just wait there and have a few : )

Here are some of the dishes we've tried:

Appetizers:
Albacore and Avocado Spring Roll
This thing rocks!! It just melts in your mouth and has a great combination of flavors.

Chilled Vietnamese Rolls
I had to try these since I love these kinds of rolls so much. They were good. The fried onions added a nice touch. The two sauces that came with it were very good.

Salads:
Spicy Thai Beef Salad
Good, the beef was delicious, not a ton of it. Maybe a few too many onions but overall quite tasty.

Vegan Tofu Salad
Tasty, I would have liked some more "stuff" in it. Good if you're not super hungry or as a side-dish.

Rice and Noodles:
Roasted Garlic Fried Rice
Woah.. awesome! Plenty of cloves of roasted garlic in a Chinese-style fried rice. Great side-dish.

Singapore Seafood Noodles
These are squid-ink (purple), kind of thick, vermicelli noodles with plenty of seafood, and the right touch of heat. You could really tastes the five-spice powder in here, and I'm totally into that right now so I loved it.

Yakisoba (w/beef)
These are good if you like Chines lo-mein, because that's what it reminded me off. I'm not nuts about lo-mein in general.

Spicy Peanut Noodles
I didn't like these, although my boyfriend gobbled them up. I thought it was way too peanut-y.

Thai Green Curry Chicken and Jasmine Rice
This should really be listed under Entrees because it's a square meal. You get a bowl of white meat chicken in a delicious coconut curry sauce with lightly cooked fresh veggies such as Japanese eggplant (which is a fave of mine) and others. Generous side of Jasmine rice (not too fragrant though). Great. My boyfriend loved this dish.

Buddha's Belly
205 Broadway
Santa Monica, CA
310-458-2500

also at:
7475 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
323-931-8588

Squid with Ginger and Scallions

I just whipped up an awesome rice bowl for lunch so I thought I would throw it up here for you folks. It was inspired by a dish I used to get all the time in Boston's Chinatown eatery, a less-then fancy food court with cheap but amazing food that I believe has now closed. Anywho... the main idea with this dish is that the scallions and ginger are not just flavorings, they are almost like the veggies in the meal. That is, instead of chopping everything up into tiny little pieces, there are generous, large slices of both the ginger and scallion. Of course, if you're not super akin to either of these things I suppose you could chop things up small, or just don't make it at all. : )

Squid with Ginger and Scallions
Serves 1

• 1 cup cleaned squid pieces (rings and tentacles, frozen is fine)
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 t white miso paste
• 1 t corn starch
• 1/2 t tamari (thick soy sauce, or use 1 t of regular)
• 1 t mirin
  
• 2 scallions
• 1 inch of fresh ginger
• 1 serving of cooked rice
• toasted sesame seeds (optional)

1. Heat up a pan on medium heat with a little bit of veggie oil or spray.
2. If using frozen squid, throw it in now and let it cook for about 5 minutes. If using fresh squid, hold off.
3. Mix the water, miso paste, corn starch, tamari and mirin in a small bowl until smooth.
4. Slice the ginger and scallions.
5. Throw the ginger and scallions in the pan and now the fresh squid if that's what you used.
6. Cook everything almost through on medium to high heat.
7. Give the sauce a final stir and then throw it in, stir fry until the sauce comes to a boil, then turn it down to low for a minute.
8. You're ready to eat! Serve it over hot Japanese rice sprinkled with the sesame seeds.

Fried mahi mahi, cold soba noodles, and Japanese mushrooms

This Japanse-inspired meal was so tasty, I forgot I was giving up meat on a Friday during lent. I've made separate posts for the individual recipes:

• Mahi mahi fried in panko breadcrumbs
• Cold soba noodles
• Steamed Japanese mushrooms

Make one.. or all of them. : )

Cold Soba Noodles = easy and delicious

When I was in Japan I ate a ton of these. I only recently realized how easy they are to make. The important thing is to get the soup base and other accoutrements.. the noodles on their own are kind of boring. The items you could leave out are the dried seaweed (that WOULD be on top of the noodles if I had it in the house) and wasabi (the green spicy paste you get with sushi). So, let's get to it!

Cold Soba Noodles
3-servings

• 4 oz dried soba noodles. These are thin, brown noodles made from buckwheat.


• About 1/3 cup per person of bottled soba noodle soup base(or you can make this on your own but I swear you don't need to.)


• 2 scallions


• optional: wasabi


• optional: Nori (dried seaweed) for garnish

1. There are some special ways of cooking soba. Some recipes say you should keep putting cold water into the boiling water as it cooks. I haven't found this to add any particular benefit. I think the most important thing is to keep your eye on the noodles and don't cook them too long (5 minutes is plenty). They should be al dente. So, boil some water, cook the noodles, then run them under cold water in a colander.


2. Pour the 1/3 cup of the soup broth in a little bowl for each person.


3. Cut up about 1/2 scallion and squeeze a little bit of wasabi out for each person.


4. Serve the cold noodles sprinkled with seaweed, if you have it.


5. How to eat: mix scallions and wasabi to taste in your bowl of broth. Grab each bit of noodles with your chop sticks, dip and swirl in the broth, then eat.

Simply Steamed Japanese Mushrooms

Ok, I think I found my second and third favorite mushrooms. (Don't ask my what my #1 is.) These Japanese mushrooms are tiny, tender, and super cute. I made them as a side dish to the fish and noodles on Friday. You may need to pick these up at the Japanese market. That's where I got 'em.

The first kind are beech mushrooms (above). These, as well as the enoki mushrooms (below) can be cooked in a lot of different ways. They can be simmered in a sauce with other veggies and some meat or even pasta. They're small but all mushrooms hold up very well. I've had enoki tempura that was amazing. In this case, I just chose to lightly steam them to go with the delicate flavor of the fish.

All you need to do is cut the stumps from both kinds of mushrooms. Although there are lots of little ones in each package they are really all growing from the same root. So, cut this off because it doesn't soften up enough to eat it even when it's cooked.


Once they're all steamed, let them dry a bit on some paper towels. Then serve them up!

Mahi Mahi fried in Panko breadcrumbs

I made such a delicious meal on Friday that what I'm going to do is create three separate postings for the three simple dishes I made. First off! I was craving my mom's fried fish so I decided to make some with a Japanese spin. The Japanese part of the dish are the breadcrumbs. These are big flaky crumbs the Japanese use to coat lots of different cutlets, croquettes and other tasty fried goodies. The good thing about this dish is that you can get everything you need at Trader Joe's, no need to hit up the Japanese market, and you don't need to go shopping that day because the fish is frozen. I got both the frozen mahi mahi and the breadcrumbs at TJ's.


Mahi Mahi fried in Panko Breadcrumbs
3-4 servings

• 1 1lb mahi mahi filets
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil like canola (not olive)
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Put the panko breadcrumbs on a dinner plate. Grate the zest from the lemon into the pile and then add generous amounts of salt and pepper. Mix it all up.
2. On another plate, place the beaten egg.
3. Heat up the oil over medium heat in a frying pan.
4. Dip the fish into the egg, then coat with the breadcrumbs. Don't be shy, it's OK to press some in if it's not sticking.
5. Fry up the fish about 5 minutes or so on each side, depending on how think the fillets are.
6. When the fillets are cooked, scoop them out onto a brown paper bag to sop up a little oil, if you wish.
7. You're done! Serve with lemon wedges.

The Long-Awaited Japanese Restaurant Pick: Miyako Ocean Park

Yes, kids, that's right. I haven't posted about Japanese restaurants on here, have I? Why? mainly laziness. But also because I actually don't go to very many.. but I do go to the same one practically every week: Miyako on Ocean Park Blvd in Santa Monica (full address below).

Where do I begin? They have a good variety of not just sushi, but other Japanese fare as well. My boyfriend James always gets the same thing: A Beef Bento box and a Rainbow roll. I can't blame him. The bento boxes are HUGE, tasty, and come with:

- Beef or chicken in a tasty sauce
- Rice
- Salad
- Cooked been sprouts in a delicious tasty sesame dressing
- Edamame
- Sushi or Tempura (the veggie tempura is killer here!)

This isn't a fancy place.. but the quality is good except the beef or chicken in the Bento can sometimes be a little fatty for my taste. But overall, the good quality and good price makes for a winner. What do I get, you might ask? Sometimes I get the bento, but I often get a California salad. It's basically everything in a California roll in generous portions served on a bed of lettuce. Light but satisfying. I also get many of the different sushi rolls including eel, and some of their specials like the Sexy Roll. The Sexy Roll has no rice.. it's fish wrapped in cucumber with a delicious dressing (all of thir dressings are great here). Oh, and vegetable tempura is AWWWSOME.

There you have it.. delicious food that is almost downright cheap. Most of the items I've had are so good that I haven't made it on to others that look just as tasty. The staff are so friendly and remind me of being right back in Japan. So, you simply must go.

GozEyemas!

Miyako
2829 Ocean Park Blvd
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 396-5588

Back from Japan!!

A couple of weeks ago my boyfriend and I returned from a 10-day trip to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka in Japan. As for food.. where do I start?? I guess I'll start by saying that eating out isn't nearly as expensive as they say. There is a very wide range of restaurants to suit any budget. Sushi can be downright cheap. Easily available are sushi, noodles, and a variety of Tonkatsi (pork, beef or croquet cutlets coated in crunchy breadcrumbs). I loved the cold Soba buckwheat noodles and the dipping sauce that comes with them. I'm going to try to make them at home. These are the most popular and most affordable items but there are also plenty of shabu-shabu, curry, and Italian, French, etc restaurants. The real traditional and fancy restaurants are Kaiseki. These places serve 8-12 very small courses and is the most formal and traditional Japanese dining. We did eat at one of these places. The presentation of food was just beautiful (photo above).

We flew Singapore airlines and it was awesome! For each flight, we got two delicious, gourmet meals. I am talking delicately cooked flounder, seafood rice, eggs with hollandaise, and delicious Japanese vegetables. The flight attendants were beautiful and the safety record is one of the best in the industry, so I would definitely recommend flying with them. (Not to mention the fabulous personal entertainment system. You can play video games with anyone else on the plane! Our 2-player tetris certainly helped the eleven-hour flight go a little faster)

We visited the famous Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. I didn't realize how HUGE tuna can be (check out the photo to the left). There is an auction at 5:30 in the morning for the best tuna. The rest of the market has so many kinds of fresh fish, they seem to go on forever.

There were a ton of restaurants and food shops everywhere. I was surprised at how many sweet shops and bakeries there were. I tried some of their traditional sweets, many of which are thin glutinous cakes with various fillings like red bean or green tea pastes. The locals snatch them up like hot cakes! Picture beautiful people dressed impeccably and strolling into stylish shops and purchasing beautifully packaged sweets all day long. That's what it's like. There are also many bakeries with more Western cakes and breads.

Oh, and the Bento boxes!! Ever since I received a book from my dad about the Bento boxes sold at train stations in Japan, I've wanted to experience them for myself. And I finally did! Each box is created using ingredients from the local area. Sometimes it's beef or eel or whatever the speciality might be.

We also splurged on a semi-private traditional tea ceremony at a very old town house in Kyoto. The very nice young lady who hosted us was dressed in a traditional kimono. She walked us through the ancient and very meaningful steps of the tea ceremony. I had no idea that virtually every part of it, from the height of the ceiling and doorway to the way you hold the cup is based on the four principles of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. It was a wonderful experience.

When we returned from the trip, I immediately took out all my cook books and started to plan my next trip to the Japanese market. I'd love to be able to recreate some of the items we tried. I'll let you know what comes out of it!