Weird Wednesday #20

One of my favorite treats is a coke with Mountain Berry Skittles. On a whim I decided to try the new chocolate skittles, even though I thought they looked gross. Chocolate Skittles? Am I the only skittles fan who thinks this sounds weird? The name Skittles on the package was enough to get me to try them though, and........



THEY WERE DISGUSTING

I think I'll stick with Mountain Berry.

Friday Field Trip #1

Welcome to our Friday Field Trip. A (semi)weekly tour of a Sushiboy haunt.

This week is the Holy Sushi Shrine. Home of my first sushi experience. Tanpopo.

Like most people, I was convinced that I would h-a-t-e sushi. Tanpopo changed my mind.
Tanpopo sits innocently in a corner strip mall in Logan Utah but walking in the door will transport you to Japan. Japanese Magazines, in which read from the back (our back anyway) and turn the pages left to right, wait to be browsed on the waiting area table. Imported Pocky, Japanese snacks and knick-knacks hover close to the cash register. White paper lanterns with caligraphied black kanji adorn the ceiling. Japanese paintings decorate the walls. Wood framed paper dividers divide up sections of the dining area. In the far end of the restaurant, traditional dining rooms with bamboo framed paper walls and short tables. The food is served with traditional dinnerware (western style silverware is available on request) and, for the most part, traditional food is served. They have a lot more than sushi, and it is all delicious. The restaurant is cozy, some would say a little cramped, but from what I can tell that is authentic too. This is Tanpopo, home to my first sushi experience.

I've always been a fan of Japanese culture, I liked the art, entertainment and most of the food that this fine country has to offer. But the idea of sushi made my skin crawl and I wanted nothing to do with it. At first, I (mistakenly) thought Sushi was raw fish. Yuck. Then my friend Daniell (fake name, but the same friend we have international night dinners with) told me sushi referred to vinegared rice not raw fish. I despise vinegar. I eventually gave into her persistent sushi campaign, and I decided I should try sushi, on the condition that there would be no raw fish. So one evening we decided to have me take the plunge at Tanpopo.

Un•for•get•ta•ble (ŭn'fər-gĕt'ə-bəl) adj.
Earning a permanent place in the memory; memorable: an unforgettable experience.

I remember being surprised when the plate of sushi was set in front of me. It was the most beautiful plate of food ever served to me, and it didn't smell strongly of vinegar (like I was expecting). I bent down closely, it didn't even smell faintly of vinegar, some of it was even deep fried. I tried one of the deep fried (tempura) pieces first. I didn't hate sushi, in fact I really liked it. Almost loved it. Wow. The rice had a sweet and sour taste to it. Unlike Chinese sweet and sour, this is not a strong flavor it is very light. The rice is the perfect canvas to set off the rest of the ingredients. The Dragon (tempura) roll was warm, crispy, flavorful and visually striking. A far cry from the wet, cold, slimy food I imagined I would be choking down. I polished off my plate. I knew I was wrong about sushi and it wasn't long until I ate some of the raw variety too. That was even better. Each time I tried sushi I liked it more. Now it's become an obsession.

The Japanese word, tanpopo, means: Dandelion. It doesn't really jive with the restaurant, until I imagine why an American would name a restaurant Dandelion. I imagine a middle aged woman, who loves the color yellow, serving down home comfort food, (maybe with a sophisticated flare). Tanpopo is pretty much the Japanese equal to my imagined American restaurant (minus the yelow decor). So, whenever I visit Logan Utah, I have to stop by for one of the famous Sushi Happy Hours, or All You Can Eat Sushi Nights. It's then that I relive that happy moment when I discovered sushi.

I hope you all enjoyed our field trip. Please post any remarks or questions in the comments section. I hope you join us for our field trip next week when we visit Sushiboy's house.

Hot Dog!

Hot dogs have gone gourmet. There is the salmon hot dog that will run you about $3.50, which sounds pretty good. But when you spend $25 on one hot dog and suck it down with a $250 bottle of wine? Well that is taking things a bit far, don't you think?

Fabulous Cakes

The kids had their birthdays over the summer. I'm happy to report we made it through the birthday's and the requisite parties in one piece.

Here are some gratuitous cake pics.

This was Cakes' cake. Bon decorated this fabulous cake. Superwoman was going to help, but some unforeseen things came up the evening before the b-day party. So not only did Bon help Superwoman out of a jam, she also decorated this entire cake by herself! Why? Cause she's Bon and she's cool like that. Thanks Bon, Cakes loved it.

Superwoman did this next cake for Cookie Monster. Cookie monster is a huge fan of Scooby Doo. So this cake was another home run. Superwoman did an awesome job on it. The cakes looked great. The kids had fun. Thank goodness we're done!

International Night

Hey! Guess what? Its my 50th post! And the topic for the post this evening? SUSHI! (yummy yummy!)

A while back some friends of ours suggested we have International Nights. With the idea of us homecooking an entire ethnic meal, then enjoying it together. The first was a French night, where I learned of the delights of the cheese course. Last week we did a Japanese iteration. So Superwoman and I did the cooking.

At this point I would normally bore you to death with an in depth dissection of the entire meal. But due to the fact we were cooking for 6 adults and 5 kids. I was concentrating on moving the food, and not getting pictures of each dish.

I thought we had a nice menu, which spanned many of our favorite Japanese dishes. To lead things off, we served gyoza, which is one of Superwoman's favorites. Gyoza (often called potstickers) originated in China and hopped the pond to become popular in Japan. (The gyoza is located on the far left of the table)

Next up, Soba soup with tempura vegetables. Soba noodles are similar to angel hair pasta. Deep fried vegetables (that's right Japanese food is yummy) add a lot of depth and flavor to the soup.

Ton-Katsu is essentially a deep fried pork chop. (Japanse food is delicious!) First the pork is pounded out to tenderize it, then it is seasoned with a rub. After that the process is very similar to cooking fried chicken, a flour dredge, an egg wash and then into the Panko. Panko is Japanese bread crumbs. (The Ton-Katsu is on the lower left end of the table)

Sushi (located on the plate on the bottom right of the table) was served throughout the meal, as fast as I could get it out. I did a few different types of rolls, the favorite of the night was the Bacon, Avocado and Tomato roll. (and you thought you didn't like sushi) Well this post is already well too long so I'll wrap this up. (ha ha)

Desert was banana's tempura, which is similar to banana's foster in a few ways, and ginger flavored ice cream. The next international night we will be doing Indian food. I can't wait for curry!

So much for not boring you with the details. I have a hard time stopping once I get on a roll. (ha ha another sushi pun)

BLT's

From a culinary standpoint, I love summer, especially late summer when the gardens come on. Tonight we had great beafsteak tomato, perfect for a BLT. We didn't have any lettuce, but the bacon and tomato sandwiches were divine. I love summer food. If I could just get rid of my stinkin' allergies it would be my favorite season.

R&R makes me tense

So I've mentioned I think Rachael Ray has about ten shows too many over on the Food Network. I don't hate her, but I'm sick of seeing her. Obviously I'm not the only one, as this hardly scientific poll shows us. (at the time I took it she was ahead with 25% of the vote)

Word is she has a talk show that will be airing this fall. Hopefully this will put a big enough hit on her schedule that she'll have to drop about 5 of her Food Network shows. But, knowing her, she'll drink about 6 more pots of coffee a day, and add another show there too. :P I'm so sick of her. I've got an idea, howaboutz the Food Network puts a few shows about cooking during primetime? Instead travelling and shopping with the-over-caffinated-gidget-lady.

Zen Sushi

I was Sushi Surfing and ran across this article, Zen Sushi. This article was really intriguing to me. The style of sushi that Megumi serves is the same style I go for when I prepare sushi, cooked fish and ingredients found in home cooking. I also try to gear the sushi I prepare to a more american audience by using: bacon, beef, chicken and sometimes replacing the nori with lettuce. It was nice to see that I wasn't off in left field with my improvised/fusion style of sushi making, and that japanese transplants offer some very similar styles.

Salmon Kebob

I've making a lot of sushi lately and I have started making my own recipes. Tonight I made up my first non-sushi recipe, Salmon Kebobs. (As seen before cooking, to the right)

I made up my own marinade recipe. It had a Coca Cola base, with Jalapeno and other spices and aromatics in it. It turned out pretty well, (I was afraid I was going to ruin the salmon) but it was a little understated. Next time I make it I have a few things in mind to give the salmon a little more punch.

I also put bacon on the kebob which really livened the salmon and vegetables up! I added a rice ball with chow mien noodles (those are sticking out sides for effect), and we had grilled squash and zucchini from the garden. I think that it turned out really well. I give myself 3 1/2 stars!