Fish Heads In My Sack Lunch

A few weeks ago, my 6-year-old told me she didn't want to take onigiri in her sack lunch for her field trip.  I suspected that this day would come, but I had to ask just the same.

"Why don't you want to take onigiri?"

"Just 'cuz." I could tell she didn't want to tell me something. Upon further pressing, it became clear that she really wanted Uncrustables for her sack lunch. Being the lazy mama that I am, I was pretty easily persuaded that this was the way to go. If you don't know, Uncrustables are frozen, pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts removed. You throw one in your kid's lunch in the morning, and by lunch time, it is thawed and ready to eat.

I have to admit, as much as I should have against this processed food product, they're pretty darn good. And convenient.

This exchange reminded me of my own homemade lunches my mom would pack when I attended school in the U.S. It was always a demoralizing experience for me. My mom never packed PB&Js. Never. Nope. I got the pleasure of opening up my lunch to onigiri, dried whole fish, and seaweed. Also some type of vegetable or fruit. But that wasn't the problem. It was the onigiri, dried whole fish, and seaweed. The moment I opened my lunch, my mortification would begin.

"Ewww. What stinks?"

"Ewww. What IS that?"

"Ewww." "Ewww." "Ewww."

Now, some 20 or, er, 30 years after the fact, here is the answer to your questions. Here is onigiri:

Onigiri is a ball of rice, seasoned one way or another, often filled with something, and often wrapped in dried laver/dried seaweed. In my case, my mom seasoned the onigiri with salt, and either filled it with roasted fish or umeboshi. (Umeboshi is a salt-preserved plum-type fruit.) It was always wrapped generously with dried seaweed, and always shaped liked his photo--a triangle. I loved them and I still do, but I hated finding these little treasures in my lunch just for the attention it attracted.

Dried fish. My mom, despite the fact that we lived in Northern Utah, and Japanese food items were scarce, somehow always had a plentiful supply of these little guys. They are called niboshi, and are usually used to make soup stock, but my mom was truly a non-cook, so she gave them to us as highly nutrition snacks.

They are slightly bitter, slightly salty, somewhat fishy, and I liked these just fine as a kid, but hated finding them in my lunch.

Despite my feelings about these Japanese lunches, my mom never stopped making them, and I always dreaded opening my lunch with my friends. I later found out that my friends actually looked forward to seeing what was in my lunch because they were so interesting. In hindsight, I think I should have shared some of what was in there, but I was too embarrassed to bring too much out into the open.

Years later, when I would come home to visit, my mom would often send me off with a sack lunch of onigiri, dried fish, seaweed, and veggies and fruit when it was time for me to leave. I loved these and, as an adult, I was always happy to show off the goods. After I married, my husband also grew to look forward to these onigiri lunches we would take with us when we left her home.

I wonder now if my kids will also feel some embarrassment at some point about having a different lunch from everyone else's. I also wonder, however, given that we live in a much more global community, if they will fit right in. Well, either way, I'm happy to make onigiri, but absolutely not above throwing an Uncrustable into a sack and calling it lunch.

Dinner and a Sushi Movie

We had reason to celebrate, and there was a movie Jake was interested in, so we indulged. Jiro Dreams of Sushi was in town. If you like food, and you particularly like seafood, I highly recommend it. It's a documentary about an 85-year old man whose tiny sushi shop in Tokyo has three Michelin stars. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The movie left us craving sushi, of course, so we opted for Sushi Den.

We had eaten here before, and as you can see, it is on my list of recommended places to eat in this town. While I always thought that this is definitely a cut above most other sushi joints in Denver, I never was super-super impressed. I always felt the menu looked a lot like every other sushi place in town. However, I know that the fish at Sushi Den is as fresh as it gets here, so that's why we chose it tonight.

So, here is what I learned tonight. When going to Sushi Den, definitely, absolutely order off of the Today's Special menu. In fact, you can't go wrong if you order exclusively off of it. Not too long ago, Jake and I overheard an obnoxious conversation in which the guy stated that one should never order the daily special because that's where they get rid of the stuff that's going to go bad. Not so in this case.

The Special menu at Sushi Den is full of fresh, seasonal, and unique items. We were seated at the sushi bar, where we were served by a nice, young, yet knowledgeable chef. We decided to order a handful of sushi items off of the special menu, a few of our regular favorites off of the regular menu, and sample one of the several ramens offered on the special menu. We had seared scallops, smoked monkfish liver (ankimo), oysters on the half-shell, seared mackerel, uni (sea urchin), and yellowtail. Our favorites, by far were the scallops and the ankimo. The ramen was filling and delicious--I had a basic miso ramen, while Jake had a luxurious and generous lobster wonton ramen. The chef informed us that the broth for the lobster ramen was made completely from fish stock--no pork, chicken, or other kind of stock. It was very, very good.

Later, we realized that we hadn't ordered any of the standard sushi fare, such as tuna. In fact, most of what we had were foods that were newer to our palates. In particular, ankimo and uni are seafoods that we only recently discovered were delicious. That discovery has led us to try things that we would have never considered putting in our mouths a decade ago. During dinner, as I watched the many California rolls and other creative combination rolls leave the sushi bar, I felt bad for those people who were missing out on the stuff we were eating.

Tonight, I was super-super impressed. All because we ordered almost exclusively off the Today's Special menu.

So here's my message today:

1. Order off of the Today's Special menu when you are at a top-notch place like Sushi Den.
2. Be adventurous. Order the weird stuff. You'll be surprised--whoever decided monkfish liver was food was a friggin' genius!
3. Call me if you need a double date for sushi night.

Discovery

I don't normally shop at Whole Foods. I have a plethora of reasons for this, but today I found myself thinking that this was the best option for what I needed to get. (It turned out that I was wrong. I'm totally annoyed, but that's not the point of this blog entry.) All was not lost, however, because I made an awesome discovery.

As I was getting ready to walk away from the dairy case in disappointing defeat, I noticed a woman taking some time choosing a flavor of a certain yogurt. I peeked to see what it was, and it was a brand I hadn't noticed before. Jake and I are recent converts to Greek yogurt, and I checked to see if it was Greek. It wasn't, and I, again, almost walked away. Then a manager walked by, instructing a stockboy to make sure he stuffed the Noosa yogurt section as full as he could because they went fast. That really peaked my interest. I picked a smaller sized tub of the mango flavor and checked the ingredients. Local. Real active cultures. On sale for $2, 8-oz/2-serving tub. So I bought it just to see.

When I got home, I grabbed a spoon and gave it a little taste. AMAZING. It was more like eating dessert rather than yogurt. Smooth, creamy, not too tart, but still perfectly tart. Not too sweet. Surely, this is full of fat and calories. To my delight, 130 calories per serving. Granted, the usual yogurt serving size is 6 ounces, not 4 ounces. But I'll take a 4-ounce serving of this over any other yogurt, hands down.








So, being the considerate wife that I am, I put the lid back on and waited for Jake to come home. I made him taste it. If you know Jake, you know that if he decides he's going to eat something, he's going to eat it. I had to take it from him and claim my portion. Here's the result.








If you haven't already, go and try this. They have interesting flavors. I think one was pomegranate-rhubarb. I may find myself in Whole Foods again soon.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pho Friday (In case you can't think of anything else to do that night.)

I have updated my restaurant list (to the left). If you keep up with it, you will see that I have added two Vietnamese restaurants to it:  Pho 95 and New Saigon.

Now, you have to understand that I am no expert in Vietnamese cuisine. In fact, until a couple of years ago, if you mentioned Vietnamese food to me, I might have responded by saying, "barf!" So cultured, I know! The truth is, I didn't have the stomach for the fish sauce. It totally disagreed with me, and even now, I'm still a bit wary of it. But I have changed my ways. A dear friend of mine introduced me to pho (a million thanks, Aerie!), and it's been on my mind ever since. Since the intro to pho, I've even braved trying other dishes and have liked them. Fresh spring rolls, crispy fried spring rolls, cold noodle bowls, and et cetera. I think, though, that pho remains my favorite. There's just something that satisfies all the culinary senses--hot, fragrant broth, smooth rice noodles, bright and sour lime, and fresh, crisp sprouts and herbs.

This same friend introduced me to Pho 95 at SouthGlenn (Arapahoe and University). My understanding is that this is their second store, their main restaurant is on Federal. Service here is friendly, staff is knowledgeable, and dishes are excellent. Oh, and inexpensive. This place has been busy every time I've been here. Jake and I usually end up ordering either the #17 pho (brisket and tripe) or the grilled pork noodle bowl.

New Saigon (630 S. Federal Blvd.) is also excellent, but more of a general Vietnamese cuisine than a pho joint. We have only been here once because, well, we've got small kids and Federal is not so close to where we live. But that's the only reason why we haven't gone. Spring rolls come on a plate loaded with vegetables with which to wrap them, and even their smoothies are to-die-for. The day that we were there, the resaurant was completely full--people waiting for a table, and people ordering these smoothies to go. Super busy. If you eat there, you will understand why.

So, two new restaurants worth checking out. I'm hoping to try some more new (to me) restaurants in the near future, so watch for that.

As a side note, I will grace you all with my pho-making experience. I found a recipe for making pho at home. It is not difficult at all. Just time-consuming--it is, after all, a rich, flavorful stock. It was awesome. The only wrench in the whole process was when it was time to pour in the fish sauce. Wow. It was like liquid death. In case you don't know, fish sauce is quite fragrant. Pungent. Actually, quite frankly, it reeks like death. And it didn't help that I was pregnant at the time. The lesson here is, if you're dabbling in making your own Vietnamese cuisine, and you have a finely-tuned olfactory sense, back off of the fish sauce until you know what you're in for!

Traditional Japanese for Busy Folks: Kinpira Gobo

It's been a busy year. But then again, when is life not busy? As it turns out, that is the beauty of this little recipe. I made it for the first time a few weeks ago and I was pleasantly surprised to find out how quick and easy this is. This dish is actually one of my grandmother's signature sides. Or used to be--she tells me she doesn't cook any more. Maybe I can make it for her when I visit in a few months.

Here's a little background, in case you are not familiar with the main ingredient, burdock root (gobo in Japanese). It is a very loooong and skinny root vegetable with an earthy flavor and crisp, fibrous texture.

It needs to be prepared in order to eat--I would very much recommend that one not bite off and eat a raw, unprepared chunk.  Preparing usually involves allowing it to soak in cold water or cold water and vinegar for 10 minutes or so.

Gobo is also valued for some of its medicinal qualities. Among other things, it helps to draw impurities out of the body and helps with, er, regularity.

But really, it is a yummy vegetable and here is a delicious recipe that showcases it. Please keep in mind that I live at high altitude (mile-high, to be exact) so I've adapted all my recipes accordingly. Also adapted to my personal taste, which is impeccable.

Kinpira Gobo (Simmered Stir-Fried Burdock Root)

Ingredients

2 stalks of burdock root

1 medium carrot

2 small red chiles or dash dried red pepper flakes or dash cayenne pepper

roasted sesame seeds

   Flavoring

1/2 cup dashi stock (other stocks such as chicken stock will also work, but dashi is best)

3 T. soy sauce

2 T. mirin

up to 1 T. sugar (personal taste)

1. Prepare the vegetables. Peel (use a potato peeler) and cut the burdock root into a fine julienne, about 2 inches long, and allow to soak in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain and then rinse and drain as much excess water as you can. 

Cut the carrot into a fine julienne, about 2 inches long.

If using fresh red chile, finely slice, crosswise.

  



2. Combine Flavorings ingredients in small bowl or measuring cup.

3. Heat fry pan to medium high and add 1 T. vegetable oil. Add burdock root and stir for about a minute. Add carrots and stir until oil has coated all vegetables. Add red chiles/chile flake/cayenne pepper and stir.

4. Pour in Flavorings mixture and stir continually until the liquid is gone. Remove from heat, plate, and sprinkle with roasted sesame seeds. Enjoy hot, room temperature, or cold. Great as leftovers, especially in a bento.

Maybe at this point you're wondering where you can get (a) burdock root and (b) dashi stock. I purchase a lot of my Asian ingredients at either Pacific Mercantile downtown or H-Mart in Aurora (Parker and Yale). Pacific Mercantile is a Japanese grocery store and H-Mart is a Korean grocery that carries a lot of Japanese goods. You can also purchase powdered dashi at regular grocery stores such as King Soopers or Safeway. (Just mix with water.) If you're inclined to make your own dashi from scratch, you will need to get those ingredients from one of the Asian stores (if you're in the Denver area, that is).

Sorry, no recipe for dashi from scratch at this time. Gotta run. I'm having a busy year.

The Best Deal in Town: 5280

The best food deals in town ended yesterday, and fortunately, Jake and I were able to take advantage of them twice. I am referring, of course, to Denver Restaurant Week, when the best restaurants in town offer dinners for two for $52.80. (http://www.denver.org/denverrestaurant/) This is an amazing deal if you know the fare at many of these restaurants. Jake and I have easily spent around $100 per person for dinner at some of these places, so $26.40 per person if phenomenal. What I love about the 5280 special is that you get a pretty darn good sampling of what the place has to offer--dinners are usually 3 or more courses.

This year, we hit The Oceanaire and Zengo. We had been to Oceanaire before, so we knew what to expect. It was, of course delicious. We had a crab cake slider, their awesome Caesar salad, Tombo tuna steak, trout generously stuffed with crab and shrimp, and chocolate mousse and key lime pie for dessert. The Oceanaire is also known for their bacon-and-tabasco hash browns, so we ordered that as an extra side. Delicious.

Last week, we went to Zengo, a new restaurant in town--one of the Richard Sandoval restaurants (Tamayo, Sandia, etc.) This one is a fusion of Mexican and Japanese influences. To some of you, this may sound a little iffy, but I can tell you, after having lived in Albuquerque for two years, that the mix of Mexican with Japanese cuisine is an awesome fusion of flavors. Anyhow, we weren't disappointed with Zengo. Jake ordered a spicy yellowtail roll as his first course. Usually, we steer clear of the fancy schmancy rolls, especially if they are labelled as spicy because they tend to be loaded with mayo and cream cheese and who knows what else. This one was delightfully different. None of that filler stuff. Just straight yellowtail and spice, with a generous smattering of green roe on top. We also had steak and tofu as well as dessert in our dinner selections. All delicious.

And all for $52.80. If you have never taken advantage of this, please do next year. You would be a fool to miss out!

Just as a side note, other restaurants we have been to in past years: Panzano and Bistro Vendome.

New Addition: Den Deli

You may have noticed a new addition to my top restaurant list. Den Deli. It is the newest addition to the "Den" trilogy. (Sushi Den, Izakaya Den, and Den Deli.) Thanks to my good friend Julie J. who informed me of its existence and also recommended it.

It's a casual place where you can get steaming bowls of noodles, such as ramen and udon, as well as ready-made deli-style foods to go (or dine-in), such as salads and bentos. They also make fresh Japanese-influenced sandwiches. Seafood and other Japanese grocery items are also available for purchase.

Jake and I took the kids there a couple of weeks ago. Jake ordered the ramen, I ordered the miso ramen, and we ordered one of the udons for the kids to share. Let me just preface my comments with this: it is extremely difficult to find real, Japanese restaurant ramen in this country, particularly if you don't live on the West coast. We were thrilled to find it here, finally. And they did a pretty darn good job of it, too. The kids' udon was quite delicious, also.

We also tried the hijiki salad and shumai (Chinese-style meat-filled dumplings) from the deli case. Both good, even though the hijiki salad was not to my liking. (It's a 'shroom thing. It was made with a shiitake base, and you know me and my thing with 'shrooms.)

Let's see if I can remember what else Den Deli offered: sushi, o-nigiri (balls of rice, wrapped in seaweed and filled with either salmon or pickles), Japanese potato salad, other salads, edamame, miso grilled cod, and Sushi Den's famous banana cream pie.

I highly recommend it. www.dendeli.net (the site is not up as of this writing, but soon to come)