Ode to Seattle :: U-U-U-U-DUB!

It pays to have friends in high places. My dear dear friend, Sarah J recently gave this tiny 'ol blog a shout out in the Seattlest's Countdown to 2011: Top 10 Best Local Baking Resources in Seattle.  Hey, thanks girlfriend! I may not actually be the best and I most certainly am no longer local, but cooking knows no borders...or something.

I love Seattle. I enjoyed every minute of my 4 years there at U-Dub. The rain didn't really get me down, I enjoyed the granola-ness of the city and I made some amazing friends and memories. What I didn't make while I was in college, was food. I was going to share some pictures of food I made in college, but I don't have a single one. I may have once baked a cake, but it was probably store bought. Cooking for me in college meant heating up Mini Beef Tacos from Trader Joe's and spooning on cheese and salsa verde. For the Oscars and Super Bowl, my roommates and I would each make something totally unhealthy, but totally delicious...but that was twice a year at most. They were called Gluttonfests by the way. The only time I ate well was when my money bags sister came into town. Ahhh, those were the days.

But this doesn't mean that I don't know a thing or two about good food in Seattle. So, in honor of Seattle and Sarah J, here is my Top 10 Best Restaurants in Seattle (according to college me and in no particular order):

10a. Gorditos: Gorditos in Greenwood was, for awhile, a once a week trip for me and my friends. The burritos are delicious and according to them, healthy. This probably does not apply to the Grande, which is marketed as a "a burrito the size of a baby". They used to run ads in the college paper of someone holding a baby up next to a Grande. They were right, it was indeed the size of a baby. The Grande is delicious and for college students, a very good deal, as it will feed you for at least 2 days. I only know 1 person to eat one in one sitting and it wasn't pretty. I miss the food. I do not miss the parking lot.

10b. Mango Chicken Curry from Cedars: I do believe that this was my first food obsession upon moving to Seattle. When people came to visit, I always took them to Cedars and I always ordered the Mango Curry with a Mango Lassi. Mango overload? I think not. Oddly enough, I lived down the street from Cedars senior year and never once ate there. Stupid me.

9. Pink Frosting Cookies from the Haggett Hall Cafeteria and the HUB: What happens when you give a 17-year old a plastic card pre-loaded with $800 to be spent solely on food for 10-weeks? A whole lot of unhealthiness. The food in the cafeteria got old, quick but the pink frosting cookies never did. They were rare, either because they sold out or weren't an everyday item, which probably made them even more delicious in my mind. I had to cut back on my cookie consumption when I learned that UW gave you the leftover cash on your Husky card at the end of the quarter. I used that leftover money to buy some shoes. Smart me.

8. Sourdough Jacks, Oreo Milkshakes and the 2 Tacos for 99 cents Deal at Jack and Box: Don't judge. I am not at all embarrassed to tell you that I love Jack in the Box. When I moved to New York, I used to talk my coworkers' ears off about how great it was/is. Being a college student, I frequented the Jack in the Box on the Ave quite a bit. I have a special place in my heart for that location because it is where I first met Sarah J! Sort of. Actually, I think what happened was that I was at a party and decided to do a Jack run and then while waiting to order in the drive through, I mentioned that I wish they served breakfast at night. Then a strange voice from heaven (or the backseat of car) told me that they did. I responded with "Shut up. I will punch you in the face." And then we became friends. They do in fact serve breakfast all day, but I never punched Sarah in the face. She's got one comin'.

7. Spumoni at The Old Spagetti Factory: Another place that is more sentimental than quality grubbin'. Once a month for about 3 1/2 years, my 2 good friends and I would go out to dinner at The Old Spagetti Factory downtown and caught up on the latest gossip. When I think of college, this is one of the things I miss most. Sitting in a replica train car in the middle of an Italian restaurant talking about how your roommate sucks and who's hooking up with who and who else was pissed about it.

6. Burger Master: Most people at UW will tell you that Dick's is the best burger in town. Dick's is fine, but Burger Master is really where it's at. Juicy and messy with a delicious thousand island sauce. I'd like to give an honorable mention to the Whiskey River BBQ burger at Red Robin's.

5. Plain + Cinnamon Sugar Donuts from Daily Dozen in Pike's Place: I LOVE PIKES PLACE MARKET. I love it. The smell of the water, the bearded hot flying fish dudes, those weird fruit logs everyone sells, cheap flowers and of course, Daily Dozen. I just learned 30 seconds ago that this place is called Daily Dozen. I always called it "the donut place in Pike's Place Market" but people always know what you're talking about. Piping hot and fresh mini-donuts in a brown paper bag. I don't have anything clever to say about them - they're just very tasty.

4. Cedar Plank Sockeye Salmon and Chocolate Molten Cake from Cutters Bayhouse: Hey look! A fancy restaurant! My sister and I love Cutters. I made reservations here every time she came to town. We loved it so much that I had my family graduation dinner here. We are most likely not welcome back as someone got overly ambitious with his drinks throughout the night. I'm not naming names.

(It was my dad.)

3. The Firecracker from Tubs and Subs: Ahhh, Tubs and Subs. Not to be confused with S.U.B.S (another sandwich shop) on the Ave or Tubs (a rent by the hour jacuzzi/sex hut), just off the Ave. Since I had a car, I was able to discover the delicious subs at Tubs in Lake City. I love just about any sandwich that comes with a dipping sauce, which makes the Firecracker a natural favorite of mine. It comes with a side of warm BBQ sauce and apparently, people like it so much that there's a picture of it on the internet. Kind of creepy location, but totally worth it.

2. Thai Tom: Hot, fresh and spicy. Anything you get here is delicious, but be careful with their 5 star spice ratings - they mean business.

1. Soy Chai Steel Cut Oatmeal from Portage Bay Cafe: Thank you Seattle, for introducing me to brunch. I may have really developed my brunching skills after college in San Francisco, but Seattle, you really set the bar high with Portage Bay Cafe. Everything on their menu is good but I have never had anything more addicting than the Soy Chai Oatmeal. The first time I had it, I ate my friend's leftovers after polishing off my eggs benedict. I just couldn't stop spooning it into my mouth. I'm sure she really appreciated that.

Pho Ga :: The Inaugural Bowl

Ever since I watched the video above, I've been craving Pho. There is a pretty good Vietnamese restaurant in my neighborhood but since I've been cooking and blogging so much these days, why not give it a try at home? I googled a couple of recipes and decided that this Wandering Chopsticks post was a good jumping off point. I emailed my mom the recipe and she gave it the thumbs up with a few tips of her own. She suggested using fewer spices and concentrate on the ginger and garlic since those go so well with chicken. 

This being Japan, I of course had to make a few compromises. First, no whole chicken. Usually, you make the broth from a whole chicken. The bones are the most important part but most cuts of chicken are deboned in Japanese grocery stores. I managed to find 2 large chicken thighs with the bones still in and used those with a couple extra drumettes. In the end, this didn't turn out to be a deal breaker but the broth wasn't as deep as I had hoped for. Blammo begged to differ. He enjoyed the soup very much. I myself liked the chicken the best. 

Ingredients

1 whole onion, halved 

2 inch nob of ginger 

1/2 a head of garlic, smashed 

8 cloves 

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamom pods

2 pieces of star anise 

1 whole chicken or a suitable amalgamation of pieces, as mentioned above 

2 teaspoons of salt

2 teaspoons of fish sauce

1 large piece of rock candy (or 3 tsp of brown sugar) 

1 package of Banh Pho (wide flat rice noodles)

bean sprouts

cilantro

lime wedges

chopped green onions

thai basil

sliced hot chilis 

Sriracha Sauce

Hoisin Sauce 

1. Char, roast or dry pan fry all the ingredients in red. The point of this is to bring out the flavors of each seasoning element. Keeping the broth clear is an important part of making Pho Ga. You don't want to have to worry about biting into a big chunk of star anise or clove. My mom suggested straining the broth through a fine sieve before serving, but that just seemed a little too much work for me. Also, I don't own a fine sieve. (Do you?) So, I got all MacGruber in the kitchen and whipped up my own little spice contraption.

E voila! I cut open a jasmine tea bag, poured out the tea leaves, replaced them with the pho spices and tied it back up. Worked like a charm. Removing the spices was a breeze and I didn't have too much debris floating around my broth. 

2. Wash the chicken and place it in a large soup pot. Add 2 tsp of salt and the charred flavorings. Cover with water. Bring the pot to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for an hour. Turn off the heat and let the soup cool. Then refrigerate overnight. 

3. The next day, skim all the solidified fat off the surface. I am sparing you a photo of this step. It is a little gross, but very necessary. 

4. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred the meat off the bones. I suggest using your hands. Again, it's a little gross, but very necessary. I like big meaty pieces but you can make yours whatever size you want. 

5. Set the meat aside in a bowl and add the bones back to the broth. 

6. Bring the broth back up to a boil and simmer for another hour. If you have a slotted spoon, occasionally skim as much floating spice and chicken bits out of the broth as possible. 

7. Season the broth with fish sauce and sugar. Traditionally, the broth is sweetened with rock sugar but brown sugar will work as well. You can also add carrots to the broth from the very beginning and the natural sweetness from the carrots will do the trick. 

8. Boil the noodles and add them to a large bowl. Top the noodles with pieces of chicken, cilantro, green onions and bean sprouts. Ladle the hot pho broth over the chicken until everything is covered. 

And that's that! Homemade chicken pho. Don't be intimidated. I was at first, because pho is something I usually only have at restaurants that specialize in it. But this was just as easy as making good old chicken noodle soup just with different spices and flavorings. I'd say the toughest part is getting all the ingredients, but if you're in the U.S., you won't have a problem at all. If I recall, they sell Vietnamese noodles in the Asian sections of Whole Foods and other grocery stores.

Tokyo Five Foot Runner :: Week 4

Milestones galore this week! I logged in 20 miles total, the most ever in a week with the help of a 7 mile long run yesterday, the longest I'd ever run in one day. Nike+ informed me just now (via a creepy video of Olympic marathoner Paula Radcliffe) that yesterday was also my fastest 10K. A nice accomplishment considering I'm not setting any time goals. So how do I feel today? Pretty good actually. I'm really surprised I'm not sorer but that's a good sign. Though mentally, I felt great after completing 7 miles yesterday, physically I was a mess. The moment I stopped running I was hit with the most intense hunger pangs I've ever experienced and my ankles, hips and calves screamed "YOUCH!" all night long. I got home and quickly ordered half a rotisserie chicken, a salad and shoestring fries for delivery. I really should have ordered the whole bird.

 This meal reminded me of when I lived with my sister in Russian Hill. This chicken was good because I had just burned 700 calories and rotisserie chicken is hard to find in Tokyo. But my sis and I used to get Peruvian chicken and fries for dinner at Il Pollaio. I got very fat that year, but I was also very happy. Have I mentioned that I miss my sista?

So what else fueled my record breaking week?

More latkes with a side of Hokkaido sausages. In Japan, if something comes from Hokkaido, the island north of the main island, it is special. Notably, dairy products and beer. (Sapporo beer is named after the capital of Hokkaido) 

 The week started off with some delicious Vietnamese Curry and bread, which I can't get enough of these days. 

My 3 weekly obsessions this week: this donburi (rice bowl) from a local bento shop for lunch. It's mushroom flavored rice with ramen toppings. Look how ooey gooey that egg is! My favorite. 

Obsession #2 and #3 sort of go together. #2 is Gravo ice cream bars from my local conbini (Japanese word for convenience store). These taste exactly like Snickers ice cream bars except it's on a stick and has oreo cookie chunks in it. Can't go wrong there. Obsession #3 - eating food in bed right before I go to sleep. I devoured this Gravo about 1am. And I forgot to mention that I ate the last piece of my rotisserie chicken at 2:30am after falling asleep for an hour. I am the vision of beauty and health right now. 

 I did manage to put something healthy in my body this week. The weather in Tokyo has been unusually warm for November/December, so Blamward (credit to sjohnston for coining that hybrid nickname) and I read in Shinjuku Gyoen while soaking up some Vitamin D. The maple leaves were so vibrant this weekend and the old men with big cameras were out in full force capturing the change in seasons. There are two places we inevitably end up at after going to this park. Go Go Curry or a juice shop called ピーまん (Piman).  Blamward loves his green vegetable Mixed Jumbo (it tastes...healthy), while I prefer the Fruits Jumbo.

Japan at its best. 

Tokyo Midtown :: Designed to Blow Your Mind

If you're ever in Tokyo, I highly recommend stopping by Tokyo Midtown. You will most likely make your way to the Roppongi neighborhood to check out Roppongi Hills. Tokyo Midtown isn't that far away and in my opinion, there's a lot more to see and do here. First of all, it's where I take bread classes at ABC Cooking Studio. On the weekends, ABC offers 1-day English cooking lessons where you can learn how to make some Japanese dishes but they're only offered at the Tokyo Midtown location. Second, Tokyo Midtown is a great place to pick up not-cheesy souvenirs. It's a design nerd's wet dream and they're always hosting interesting art and design exhibits on the premises.  

Their annual Design Touch event took place last month and I took a few pictures of one of the cooler displays. Basically, a computer takes a picture of you and prints your silhouette on black adhesive sticky tape. Sponsored by Epson, the idea was to have people put their shadows up on a wall with a message about what they cared most about in the world, such as the environment or community. It was a really cute idea, even though most people ignored the whole social message angle. 

Currently running at Tokyo Midtown is their holiday light show. Oh man. It is BONKERS. Most Japanese people don't even celebrate Christmas, but boy do they love holiday decorations. And this being Japan, they took the original idea, flipped it on it's head and made it bigger, over the top and totally fun.  A few weeks ago, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I turned the corner and saw the incredible light show taking place. The garden lights run every night until December 26th from 5pm - 11:00pm. Here is a description of their concept:

In a large grassy space of around 2,000 square meters, 250,000 blue and white LED lights represent the vastness of space and the night sky.


I don't know what the vastness of space has to do with Christmas, but I don't care! It's gorgeous! People, there's dry ice and fake shooting stars! Pictures really don't do it justice. And the holiday cheer doesn't stop there. There are Scandinavian Christmas shops, red "cracker" streamers draping from the ceiling and lights everywhere. Perhaps you won't be in Tokyo this holiday season, so here's a little preview of what you're missing:  

Infinite box of lights that will make you feel like you're in a Madonna video. 

 Happy Holidays!

Potato Latkes and Chunky Holiday Apples :: Happy Hannukah!

Today while I was running, I was thinking about what I would eat for dinner. I ran the fridge inventory through my head and realized that I didn't really have much to work with tonight. Some old potatoes, onions, creme fraiche, kimchi and eggs. Oh and some leftover apples from yesterday's muffins. At first, it looked like it was going to be a take-out night. But then it hit me - Hanukkah! A few hours earlier, I had just seen a friend's blog post about the festival of lights (it's so early this year!) and as it turns out, I just so happen to have all the ingredients needed to make potato latkes. Bonus: I could try to make some sort of applesauce substitute. How resourceful. This got me very excited and the next few miles were a breeze. I mentioned a few days ago that nothing fuels my desire to exercise more than guilt, but a close second would be knowing that I can eat whatever the heck I want because I just burned a butt load of calories. It's a vicious cycle, but it works for me.

I cook the same way I bake. I like to map everything out with pen and paper and measure out all my ingredients before starting any of the cooking. But I was so excited about the latkes tonight, that I just skimmed at a few recipes on my iPhone on the train ride home and gave it a go. It was quite liberating! Here's my recipe as best I can remember:

Ingredients


3 medium sized potatoes, grated  
1 medium sized onion, thinly sliced and quartered 
1 beaten egg
3 TB potato starch flour or just regular flour 
salt + pepper 

1. Place the grated potatoes in a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes. I have no idea why you do this, but I remember seeing it on a few of the recipes online. I assume it has something to do with making the potatoes ready for crisping.

2. Dump the water and put the potatoes in a dry bowl covered with a towel. Gather the corners of the towel together and squeeze all the excess water out of the potatoes. Water and oil are not friends and if you don't want to be dodging splattered oil during the frying stages, make sure you put some muscle into wringing out the towel. If you save the excess water in a bowl and let it sit for a few minutes, the starch from the potatoes will sink to the bottom. You can fish this out and add it back to your potato mixture. It will naturally thicken up your batter and make shaping your pancakes a little easier. I happen to have potato starch flour on hand, so I used that instead.

3. With your hands, mix the sliced onions and potato starch into the potato hash. Add the egg and mix well. Salt and pepper the batter well.

4. Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil (I used grape seed which is really neutral in taste. Good 'ole veggie oil will do fine too.) in a large skillet on high heat. Spoon some of the potato mixture into the pan and try to form a compact circle. You can probably fit 2 or 3 per batch. After about 3 minutes, turn the heat down to medium low. Flip the pancakes after a few minutes, turning the heat back up to medium high. Cook for another 3-4 minutes or until both sides are nicely browned.

The size of the pancakes are up to you, but I found that the smaller ones are easier to manage. Continue to add oil in between batches.

5. Lightly salt and pepper the pancakes right after you remove them from the skillet.

Traditionally, latkes are eaten with applesauce and sour cream. I was really tempted to squirt some ketchup on these Burger King style, but I refrained. I didn't have applesauce or sour cream, but I did have an apple and creme fraiche. So, I made a quick little chunky apple...thing (jam? chutney? compote?) and it tasted great. Sort of like apple pie filling.

If you're not making these for a traditional Hanukkah meal, try adding in other veggies like carrots, zucchini or green onions. Just be sure to wring out as much water out of all the veggies you use before mixing.

Ingredients for Chunky Holiday Apples 


1 apple, diced into chunks (I used a Fuji...as I am in Japan)
1 tsp cinnamon 
2 TB butter
3 TB apple juice (for some odd reason, we just so happen to have 1 pear juice box in the fridge)

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium high heat. Add the the rest of the ingredients, coating the apples with the liquid. Once the liquid starts to bubble, turn down the heat and simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins :: Healthy + Homey

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I'm on a bit of a baking roll. I am seriously tearing it up in the kitchen right now. Just as I've worked in my nightly jogs around the city, I've also worked in adequate kitchen time each night to experiment with new recipes.

Lately, I've been wanting to cook/bake things that are healthy and autumn-y. This recipe for whole wheat apple muffins satisfies both those cravings. They are also an ode to the inevitable Washington victory during this weekend's Apple Cup. (Woof!) They also remind me of home, which is bittersweet, I guess. My mom is a wonderful cook. She can whip up some amazing things in the kitchen, but she's not a baker. I'm still not sure if it's because she doesn't like to do it or if she doesn't want us to eat junk - only the lady herself can answer that question. Anyways, we are lucky enough to have a home surrounded by apple trees, so we are never short on apples. My mom was constantly handing out giant grocery bags to neighbors, guests, my gymnastics coaches...basically everyone we came in contact with just to get rid of them. One summer, my mom decided to bake some apple muffins with these homegrown apples and they were delicious. Of course, the mix came out of a box, but since we added in fresh chunks of apples they tasted 100% homemade to me.

Fast forward to tonight. I may not have grown these apples myself, but I did make the batter from scratch. I hope one day, my mom and I will make a batch with her apples and my batter. That would be stupendous. 

Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

1 cup (115g) whole wheat flour
1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 TB cinnamon

1. Sift the dry ingredients above in a bowl and set aside. Preheat the oven to 450F. 

1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (99) granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup (226g) buttermilk

2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped

1/4 cup walnuts

2. Cream the butter for about 5 minutes on medium speed. Add in the sugar and beat until fluffy and light. 

3. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom. This is especially important if you are using a stand mixer. There will be a lot of unmixed butter at the bottom. 

4. Slowly pour in the buttermilk while mixing the batter with a rubber spatula. Just until incorporated. Don't over mix. 

5. Fold in the sifted dried ingredients until half mixed. Then add the apples and fold until there are no flour streaks. 

6. Fill lined muffin tins to the top. Because of the apple chunks, you'll need to tap the pan on a hard surface a few times to get rid of air bubbles. Sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped walnuts on the top of each muffin. 

7. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 400F and bake for another 10 minutes. The muffins are finished when a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the muffin. 

Cool and enjoy. 

Parchment Paper Cupcake/Muffin Liners

I've been seeing these around on some blogs (and of course, Martha) and I think they're pretty swell. They look rustic, kind of like a muffin bouquet. They also make eating crumbly muffins a much easier and cleaner affair. They're very easy to make if you have parchment paper lying around. I've been pretty obsessed with parchment paper ever since Jacques Torres on PBS told me it was a must have item in the kitchen. You can make sturdy pastry bags, they give cakes a smooth finish and you can make muffin liners out of them! 

What you need: 

parchment paper

2 cups about the same diameter as your muffin tin that fit into each other, or if you have 2 trays of the same sized muffin cups, that will work too. 

1. Cut out large square sheets that are about 2 inches wider than your cup. 

2. Turn one of your cups upside down and place 1 square sheet of parchment paper on top.  Slowly press the other glass over the paper, pushing the sides down against the upside down glass. Twist the glasses back and forth to give the creases a good press. 

If you can understand my instructions, then it's really easy. Just place these in your muffin tin and fill just as you would a store bought liner. Just be careful not to get too much batter on the pointy corners that stick up. The batter will burn in the oven. 

Bow...down...to Washing-ton. 

French Onion Soup :: The Easiest Soup You'll Ever Make

It's winter. The weather kind of sucks. You miss home. What's the cure? Soup. Everyone likes soup. I like soup. Do you like soup? Well, you'll definitely like this soup.

French Onion Soup. Sounds fancy and complicated, no? Actually, no - it is not complicated at all. There are less than 5 ingredients, fewer than 5 steps and since you're just probably just going to eat this soup at home in your college sweats with your boo, you don't need to fuss over broiling the cheese and bread in that ramekin you probably don't own. The soup does take a bit of time, but you don't need to slave over the pot the whole time. May I suggest watching this in your downtime? Or you could start watching The Wire. (Oh who am I kidding, any pop culture nerd worthy of their snark has already watched the entire season by now!)

Ingredients

5 large onions, white or yellow - your call
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
4 cups of beef broth/stock (you can use chicken or veggie too, but I prefer beef)
salt
pepper

Optional Ingredients 

a crusty baguette, french or sourdough sound nice
gruyere cheese

1. Chop the onions. You'll want semi-small pieces so try cutting the onions in half, slicing, then halving the slices. This is probably the hardest part - be prepared to tear up. 

2. Heat a large soup pot on medium heat and melt the butter until it's completely melted and starting to foam. Add all the onions and coat with the butter. Salt and pepper the onions lightly. Cook the onions for at least 45 minutes on medium low heat, stirring occasionally. The onions will slowly caramelize. 

 3. Add the soup broth/stock to the onions. If you're feeling really sassy, you can deglaze the pan with a little red wine before adding the stock. And if you're felling even sassier, you could also add in a piece of star anise or cloves for some flavor. It's not necessary, but I took this cue from the way pho broth is made and if it works for pho, it can work here too, right?

Turn the heat to high to bring the soup to a boil, then simmer for another 45 minutes. The longer you simmer, the deeper the flavor. I was really hungry, so I simmered the soup for 30 minutes and it was still very delicious.

4. Your soup is done, but of course you could toast up some bread and melt gruyere cheese on top. What I really wish I'd done was made a grilled gruyere cheese sandwich to eat on the side of the french onion soup. Why don't you try it out for me and tell me how it goes?