G's 30th!

George recently turned 30 this past week--another blessed year, older, wider, and wiser! =p hooray!!  We've had many blessings to be thankful for this year.  A friend's recent untimely death and my sister's sudden seizure reaffirms for me to be thankful everyday for another day, and to concentrate on the blessings that we do have.

So while we're still relatively young, still have all of our teeth, health, body parts..etc..we're going to celebrate!

Gift first! I couldn't wait to give it to him--the new 15" Apple macbook pro with retina display laptop!  I think I was more excited than he was..=D

In our fat ass style, I took George to a 20 course traditional Japanese dinner and made him a home-made birthday card with some well wishes from his friends in CA!

It's his birthday but he doesn't really drink but I will!  This house made plum wine was too hard to pass up!

We had a 3 1/2 hour dinner..from 6-9:30..insane..

Really good quality fish and lots of house specialities and traditional dishes from Japan which I can't remember names of...

fatty tuna, sweet shrimp, giant prawns, sake clams, lobster miso soup..fatty tuna to name a few...

Beef tatake, reallllllyyyyyyyyy good sashimi, housemade tofu with uni and wasabi, poached fish in broth

A type of female fish from Japan with pickled eggplant, fish poached in tofu skin in dashi sauce..

George painting his fish with soy sauce b/c apparently soy sauce is not supposed to touch the rice..OooooOoo..didn't know that..

ooh man, this plate was .... interesting..

cold liver, cold fish jelly cubes...cold conch poached in dashi in its own shell (actually pretty yummy!!) , a cold candied whole egg yolk, cold poached intestines...not the japanese food i'm used to but very fun to try new things!

Lobster claw tempura =)  I want more!!! Those were succulent, crispy, juicy little suckers!! Raw lobster sashimi, grilled oyster with red miso paste

Happy birthday happy eating face =)

chicken shabu shabu that later became a porridge complete with a quail egg! OoOooh!

3 hours later, the the sky has darkened and we're full to the seams, here comes the dessert!!! The creamiest and lightest most decadent green tea brulee I've had.  Hands down--the best of my adult creme brulee eating career.  So good that we actually ate the creme (and the entire thing) instead of just eating the burnt sugared parts!!  The black sesame icecream with sake plum was super yums too!

The restaurant staff signed George's bday card and gave him a coupon for a free sashimi next time.

Back at our apartment, I gave him his card!

 George's home made bday card/collage...Thank you to everyone who contributed! =D

Next up we head home to S.F for labor day weekend to visit my sister and to celebrate with friends and family.

Happy eating and safe travels everyone!

Fatty McFat Pork Belly in my Fatty Fat Belly-The Trilogy

Hello blog =) I've missed you!  August is flying by so fast, I can't believe summer is almost over!  My goodness!

George and I made these fat ass dishes about a month ago and I'm so excited to finally have time to post it!  So, you know my food philosophy, if I die in ten years due to high cholesterol and most likely a heart attack, SO BE IT!  I can't live a deprived life without fat!  Braised, fried, stewed..pork belly is a damn piece of delicious fat!

We went to a ramen place where they served pork buns.  So inspired, George and I bought 3 slabs of fattty pork belly to make some of our own.  NOTE: I don't get home til pretty late on weekdays so the preparation and eating had to be spread out into 3 long agonizing days.

So lets get cooking so we can make THIZZ!:

DAY 1:

1) Left slab: Crispy Skin Chinese Roasted Pork Belly

We've made this at home several times and it's super simple! Dust five spice powder only on the meat side of the pork belly.  No real measurements--put as much as you like.

Key to crispy skin: the skin has to be DRY!  Some people leave this slab of meat in the fridge for 3-5 days.  The dryer the skin, the puffier and crispier it will get in the oven.

Pat the skin to ensure maximum dryness

2) Middle + Right Slab: Marinated using David Chang's famous Momofuku NYC eatery recipe and cookbook by the same name.  If you google it, you're going to find a LOT of variations of his recipe and bloggers discussing cooking temperatures.  I'll let you decide which way you want to cook it.

1/2 cup salt + 1/2 cup sugar mixture rubbed all over the pork belly.

Put the slabs a ziplock bag and rub the mixture all over the pork belly.

TADA! Done--in the fridge to marinate.

The crispy roast pork will sit in the fridge to dry out til DAY 3.

DAY 2: 

I literally sat at work day dreaming about my pork belly dishes...and every time I thought about eating it, a grin would involuntarily spread across my face.  I'm giddy now just re-thinking about it.

So, Day 2, Momofuku slabs going into the oven.  They need to be baked and then refrigerated for easier cutting after all the fat has cooled and hardened.

Ready for the oven!

After it's cooked, resist the temptation to eat it, cut it, lick it...

you will burn your tongue =(.  Fridgerate!

For me this meant waiting til the next day since it was already bed time =(

DAY 3:

IT'S HERE!!! 

Crispy chinese roast pork in the oven!  DONE!

Momofuku's pork belly chilled, cut into pieces, AND then GRILLED to heat up! DONE!

I made quick pickled cucumbers to cut through the grease.

We bought store bought chinese buns and just quickly steamed them.  OMG i'm so ready to eat!!!

DEVOUR!  Hoisin sauce, siracha sauce, cucumbers, two kinds of pork belly.  Life does taste this good!

 

I promised myself, I'm gonna take the stairs more.....

Ca Nuong--Roasted Catfish

Roasted whole catfish is one of my many favorite vietnamese dishes, and one of the healthiest.  This dish uses very little oil, catfish's high in omega-3 fatty acids, and it's eaten with lots of veggies. 

The problem is, the way I love it cooked is with the whole catfish DEEP FRIED so the skin's crispy and the fish is juicy on the inside.  It's also one of my mom's time saving tricks.  You go to the asian supermarket, buy two catfish, have them clean, gut, and deep fry 'em for you.  Then you walk out with two parchment wrapped fish bouquets smelling like fried goodness.  Then you go home, top them off with roasted peanuts and scallion oil and crunch and munch away on the crispy skin.  THAT's how I like my Ca Nuong--fast, fried, and delicious.  Fish skin should always be crispy in my (and George's) book. 

But since our seafood section of the asian market only cleans and doesn't deep fry, I have to roast the damn thing in the oven.  All around bOooOs from George because there was no crispy fried skin and it was a healthier meal.  But it was still so good!

The end product:

Ca Nuong topped with scallion oil and roasted peanuts.  Hats off to whoever discovered the combo of fish, green onions and peanuts, wrapped in rice paper, dipped in spicy fish sauce.  GENIUS!

Step 1: Get your catfish cleaned and gutted at the supermarket.  Some places will also clean off the black skin for you, some won't.

Step 1a: My super market didn't so I took an extra step at home.  To clean off the black gook on the skin (which gives the fish a fishier smell and taste AND will prevent your fish from getting a gorgeous brown color), dunk it for 1 minute in boiling water.  Then take it out and scrape off the black gook w/ a brillow pad.  I used a butter knife..which left knife marks on my fish =(.  Don't do that...=/

I cleaned some black off but it could have been cleaner.  Anyways, HUNGRY.

Step 2: Rub your fish down ..heheheh. 

On the skin, rub about 1/8 cup of honey per fish.  This will get you that delicious brown roasted color and crispy skin (not as crispy as deep frying =( but whatever!)

Then rub on olive oil, salt, pepper, minced ginger, a couple swigs of fish sauce mixture on the outside + inside of the fish.  Some people also use minced lemongrass.  I should have been more generous with my seasonings.

Step 2a: Marinade for a few hours or over night..I baked it right away.  Too hungry!

ALSO: I should have done this --make 3 slits just barely through the skin of your fish on both sides.  This relievs the tension on the skin when you roast at high temperature  so the skin crisps up instead of tearing like mine did. 

Step 3: Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  If you fridgerated your fish to marinate, take it out and let it come to room temperature.  Then pop it in the oven.

For a 3lb fish, it's about 40 mins.  My fish was a lot smaller, around 1.5 lbs, so roast for about 15 mins.

During the last 5 mins, turn it up to BROIL for a crispy golden color.  Make sure you watch the fish so it doens't burn!

(

(Looks creepy i know...but it'll taste good! Promise!)

Step 4: Meanwhile, make your Nuoc Mam Cham dipping sauce.  If you need a recipe, The Ravenous Couple (recipe)--one of my go to blogs for Viet food has a great one.  I just went by taste to make my sauce.

* 1 cup of hot water
* 4 tablespoons of sugar
* juice of about 1 whole lime
* 6-8 cut thai chile peppers (I like it spicy!!)
* 5 cloves of minced garlic (I like it garlicky!)
* 1/4 cup fish sauce.
* Adjust to taste. It should be sweet, with a small hint of sour (and if you prefer, a kick of garlic and spicyness!)
* some people also add pickled carrots & daikon (recipe)

Step 5: Toast your peanuts.  Watch 'em and move them around, these suckers burn FAST!

Step 5: I like lots of peanuts and scallion oil on my fish.  I chopped up about two bunches of green onions , then add olive oil to the height in the picture.  Let it soak in lowwww heat then remove off heat once the onions have slightly wilted.  We don't want the green onions to turn brown.

Step 6:  Once the catfish's done, top it off with scallions in oil, and tons of roasted peantus.

I'm ghetto so I lined my table with old Washington Posts for easy breezy clean up!  Fish sauce is NO joke if you get it on your table!

My ginormo roll--some veggies, some fish, lots of skin, lots of peanuts and green onions.  Now dip baby dippppppppp ! Let me see that ca nuong roll =D

It was good but not greeaaat--I must get a deep fryer!

Beat the Heat!!

BAH!  This weather is madness! It's like walking around in a sauna, with hot sticky icky humid 102 degree air blowing at your face all day and night, evvuuurrryyyday--THEN out of nowhere, crazy lighting thunderstorms!  I form puddles of sweat just standing still!  I said I'm going to enjoy everything the east coast has to offer while I'm here so...ok..here goes another hot summer!

So to stay cool, aside from staying indoors at work all day long (yuck) for the FREE AC (yay!), I sneak out for the occasional happy hour drinks to keep me cool and fuzzzyyy =)  Especially $5 mango mojitos!

Lets be serious, I go to happy hour for the cheap-o food.  Sometimes I just order water.  I'm a bartender's worst nightmare. 

Ducking into every other store for free ac to cool off is the best!! And a little fro' yo from Red Mango topped with mochi and mango chunks hits the spot!

Aaah, I'm a weirdo and always seem to want hot soup in crazy hot weather.  Back in CA, we used to do hot pot dinners in 100 degree heat and just have fans blasting at our faces while we dunked raw meats and veggies into boiling spicy broth.  It's a good ol' time sweating everything out!  Plus, it's liiikkeee  excercising while you eat..right?

So last friday we went to Toki Underground for ramen..in an "up and coming" area of H street--which is kinda like the Tenderloin area in S.F..so you have to lock your car door and watch your back!  It has a great dive, hipster vibe.  We parked illegally in an Autozone parking lot and went in search of Toki Underground.

First of all, it's not underground.  Second, neither the address or the restaurant name is visible.  Its only identification is this dinky door, with thisss symbol and the entrance is next to a crowded bar! 

I really like the feel of the place.  It sits on top of a bar, low lighting, cute little trinkets, literally a hole in the wall!

mmmm...yums.  Apple soda

Already makes me smile--a giant fatty bowl of broth, al dente noodles, with runny egg yolks, rolled up crunchy veggies, tender stewed pork, and seaweed! I'm gidddy!  I love comfort food.

Eat, sweat, eat, sweat

4 stars, 387 Reviews on Yelp.  If I didn't know any better, I'd say this place was something special, a gem find.  It's great for D.C's standard which really only has a handful of good ramen places, not including places out in Maryland.  The broth's really flavorful, fatty-- that nice murky brown that can only come from stewing fatty pieces of pork all day long!  I'm defintely coming back here to try other stuff.  I also want to try Sakuramen --another well known ramen place in D.C.  But having eaten at some pretty good ramen places in CA and NYC, D.C's still got a bit to go to compete!

 OH in case you were wondering what kind of bi-polar weather we're dealing with--> watch the video.  102 heat, then crazy storms!!! BAH!  (please excuse the dramatic narration and curse words..I was TOO excited!)