>foie gras bonbon, ice plant salad, cassis caramel at Beast, Portland

The most delicious (or off-putting?) part of dining at Beast is that it feels like being invited to a small private banquet of a distant cousin. The small dining room/kitchen, all in one room, has only two communal tables, one seating twice as many as the other, for a total of only 20+ diners. You talk to the other diners at the table, all of whom you've just met, of course. It's a somewhat casual setting, despite its reputation as a "special occasion" restaurant, and yours truly showed up in jeans and tattered, (tattering, I guess) shirt fitting a dinner at a distant cousin's. No Portlanders seemed to mind.

(I wasn't going to take photos. These are taken with my phone.)

Menu substitutions are "politely declined." Everyone is served identical courses at the same time. This assembly line approach is smart indeed. Good food is prepared more efficiently at a more reasonable price compared to most higher end prix fixe tasting menus.

Their menu changes every day, so... here's the entire meal presented to me on July 8th, 2009.

curried carrot veloute
nasturtium and summer herb salsa verde
fried shallots
syncline underwood mountain vineyard gruner veltliner-2008

charcuterie plate:
foie-gras bonbon, sauternes gelée
steak tartare & quail egg toast
pork, pork liver, sour cherry & pistachio pâte
chicken liver mousse, pickled shallot
cor cellars columbia view sauvignon blanc-2008

baguette, fennel and sweet onion stuffed carlton farm's pork loin
local sour cherry demi glace
romano beans
syncline celilo vineyard pinot noir-2007

strawberry, arugula & ice plant salad
banyuls vinaigrette, marcona almonds & shaved sheep's cheese
strohmeier schilchersekt-nv

-selection of steve's cheese-
anise & fleur de sel shortbread
local honey, figs & candied hazelnuts
cor cellars celilo veneyard alba-2008

currant brown butter tarts
vanilla bean ice cream
cassis caramel
texier o pale viognier-2007

Go with low expectations. Don't expect first class techniques. Expect first class ingredients. Be prepared to be charmed. I was.

>マグロの目玉, or guess what the heck this delicacy is, series #1

>colossal rice noodles

Is chewy the next crunchy?
The texture of tapioca bubble tea boba pearls?

What's the maximum diameter allowed for rice dough products to be classified under "noodles"?

"New year cake," Shanghai nian gao, 年糕, and Korean garaetuck, 가래떡, are chewed year-round. They certainly look like noodles. Just really, really, fat.

Roasted, stewed, sauteed, steamed.
Cut into coins and fried, made into soup.

What would you do with them?

>"cow yuck," thrice-cooked pork belly pot roast, 扣肉/釦肉

Memorial weekend. Are you BBQing?
If the weather doesn't cooperate, how about a little fatty pork belly pot roast?
Perhaps try a popular Hakka (客家) version on a bed of mustard greens?

Here's a simple 2-step recipe, which omits the first step some recipes recommend (hence "thrice-cooked");
1) boil the pork belly first,
2) then fry it,
3) then steam or braise it.
... then lay the slices on a plate atop prepared veggies.

Or, if you are like me who's not that ambitious, culinarily speaking, you should look for it in Chinese restaurants. The name of this dish is 梅菜釦肉 or 梅菜扣肉.

梅 (plum) 菜 (vegetable) 釦 (ring) 肉 (meat)

Mandarin: méi cài kòu ròu (mei2 cai4 kou4 rou4) (this pretty lady cooks with perfectly manicured nails)
Cantonese: muy choy kau yuk (mui4 choi3 kau3 yuk6) (noisy fun)
Hakka: (tk Hakka 梅菜) kiu nyuk

English translation? Good luck! It ranges anywhere from "Chinese bacon hotpot simmered with reconstituted salted plum leaves" to "pulled pork fat claypot stew with preserved vegetables." Pulled, because the character 釦 meaning "button" or "gold rim" is substituted by 扣 which originally means to "knock" or "pull." Alternatively, since this is a pork dish and you happen to hate beef, try uttering this appropriate sentiment, "cow yuck," which does seem to get understood most of the time.

And knock away.








First thumbnail image courtesy of Beifan.com

>Singapore Sling, motley guises

Feeling a bit nostalgic about a cornball tropical island. It was my island once, and I wonder if it was actually cool back then when I lived there in the late 70's and 80's. I can't actually remember drinking anything called Singapore Sling (being a good kid, yes I was allowed a taste of any alcoholic beverage of my own choosing,) but sure, I think the cocktail does capture the island's spirit, in a cool retro way. I did revisit the revamped metropolis in the 90's (pictured right at Raffles Hotel where the famous cocktail was actually invented) but I'm afraid things were changing rather fast, even then. In any case, Imagine yourself on a sultry evening, sitting on a period stool, dressed in thin floral batik, watching the palm trees sway in the monsoon wind. What's the "correct" recipe? (Pictured top left, courtesy of Christ tell, is a proper Raffles serving.) Well, who cares which version of this drink you are holding in your hand? The true Singapore Sling is an elusive idea anyway...

>sake (酒) bars in Korea, makkoli (막걸리) bars in Japan

So sweet.

We are used to seeing these rival countries bicker with each other. Nowadays, something is definitely up. Young Japanese and Koreans are, gingerly, discovering each other. They are, for one, discovering each other's drinks.

Sake bars (사케바) are becoming increasingly popular in South Korea, and makkoli bars (マッコリバー) are becoming increasingly popular in Japan.

Never mind that these are mostly apples and oranges. Well, apples and one crab apple? Okay, rice and rice, but makkoli refers to just one kind of liquor, unfiltered, cloudy, sweet, sour, mild, comparable to nigorizake (濁り酒) but with a lot less alcohol and almost too many flavors. "Sake" pretty much refers to all Japanese....um, sake, well beyond the scope of this single entry.

>green soup with roots and flowers, Ubuntu Napa

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

-William Blake

Microcosmic. Alchemic.

When I beheld this plate (pictured right) mom ordered at Ubuntu, I searched for the right words. You must surely remember your childhood days when you thought, fleetingly, you could live on air, water, and flowers. You mean you never did?

Cool pureed soup of escarole & roscoe's asparagus
-spring roots & flowers, black garlic coulis, nettle ice
(Here's the "before" picture which shows a big mound of nettle ice)

Flowers don't last, and they are not meant to last. Forget the philistine concept of fashioning them onto a dinner plate. It seems a sacrilege to try to preserve the moment by snapping a picture of them. With modern technology at our (a novice's, in my case) hands, that's exactly what we are doing. Constant, futile attempts to root infinity in the palm of our hands. And what else, really, can we be doing?

Some prefer nettles, and so do I.

>tree ring cake, Baumkuchen

Running out of good birthday or anniversary cake ideas? Not approving theme cakes' current trend toward way too much colored frosting?

Baumkuchen, "tree cake", is a non-seasonal cake that does not drown in too much icing and food coloring, that could also be a more elegant alternative to bûche de Noël, come the winter holiday season. (Kransekake, resembling a tree, sounds interesting, too, but it doesn't come with fine baked-in growth rings.)

Secure a Baumkuchen, then admire its resemblance to a large log's cross-section. Count from the "bark," label your significant years with small flags attached to toothpicks. Alternatively, place a row of candles along the circle that represents the year you want to celebrate.

What could be a more delicious intro to a discussion on dendrochronology?

Can't find a Baumkuchen baker who does the old-fashioned labor-intensive spit-baking? You may be able to find a company that makes it with specialized automated equipment. A business idea for you talented bakers out there?

I could definitely use a slice with my tea here.

>nurunuru/nuranura-textured yam paste, tororo とろろ

When little baby birds thrust their open beaks straight up in the air, eyes closed and mouths fully open, they are expecting some regurgitated goo to drop from their parents' beaks.

Not sure how this relates to slippery, viscous goo meant for adult human consumption. The strange fact is, slimy texture (likened to... puke ... and various body fluids...) is precisely what some people crave and relish. How can I possibly put a positive spin on it after that observation? Explore slime advocates' Jungian psyche? Oooh... primordial goo...

Better known examples of this texture are stringy natto with mucus threads (糸ひき納豆) and raw eggs with rice (卵かけご飯).

The featured dish today is tororogohan,とろろご飯, yam paste-topped rice. The glutinous paste is made from certain kinds of yam (山芋, 自然薯, 長芋) roots, grated into tororo (とろろ). This dish is surprisingly common in home cooking, but it flies under the radar. Grated yam is also used on udon (とろろうどん) and soba (とろろそば).

Gross? Too gluey? Go for "crunchy" then, (paripari ぱりぱり, sakusaku さくさく, zakuzaku ざくざく), and stay away from anything nurunuru ぬるぬる or nuranura ぬらぬら.

>웰빙 "wellbing","luxual","slowbie" fast food, Kraze burger

The "well-being" or "wellbing" (웰빙) movement is an enormous economic and cultural trend in South Korea. When it's applied to food, the core idea is to opt for healthful, fresh, organic (유기농) choices and enjoy them in style and leisure whenever possible. Meat, vegetables, fruit, candy, rice cakes, you name it. (American beef? No thanks!)

A few English-sounding words seem especially well-suited to this "wellbing" concept. For example, 럭셜 "luxual," 슬로비 "slowbie," as in, "That slowbie looks amazingly luxual savoring his wellbing Kraze burger (크라제버거)!"

Kraze Burger, Korea's confident answer to MOS burger (モスバーガー), may not be the undisputed king of wellbeing burgers, however. Any number of humble regional burgers might welcome the chance to vie for that title.

Contestant #1... from Jeju, 30cm, HERB BURGER... and contestant #2...

>gnudi di ricotta di pecora, nude ravioli with sheep's milk cheese

Who can object to generous portions of homey comfort food? Gnudi, no less. Meaning "nude" in a Tuscan dialect, I'm told, pronounced "nudie". Nude, because it's unrobed of its usual pasta covering.

Made famous at Spotted Pig (served with brown butter and sage, pictured right), gnudi at Mia Dona is served with truffle butter sauce, mushrooms, crispy speck and sage (pictured below). It was early in the evening at Mia Dona, but it was still odd to see the rail car-narrow room partially empty. Recession, I know. The long hall is divided up smartly into three distinct spaces, however, and the inner and middle sections were actually all seated, so it didn't look as desolate as my photo might suggest.

(photos also courtesy of roboppy, MidtownLunch)

>Roditis and Negoska wine, dashed Άνθος τ' όνειρό µου

Michael Psilakis, formerly of Onera ("Dreams", Όνειρα) on the Upper West Side, has been offering diners a somewhat unfamiliar concept of high-end Greek fare in the form of Anthos ("Flower", Άνθος) in Midtown West.

I had high hopes for this Greek restaurant, since I adore Greek food. In summary, it is sad to report that food here is no more special than the more reasonably priced casual fare at its cozy (Italian) sister restaurant Mia Dona. However, you'll be all right as long as you remember that "Greek fine dining" is still an oxymoron. Also, be prepared not to be disappointed if they've run out of the braised lamb shank.

And my choice of wine soured the meal as well. I am really not a picky drinker, but the Greek wines, Roditis/Moschifilero, Skouras, Peleponnese, 2007, "bright wine distinguished by its floral characteristics," and Negoska, Angels peak, Macedonia 2006, "rose wine with undertones of strawberry," were downright... awful.

>bánh mì sandwich, cleaned up and ready for recession

Warning: for you foodie people in the know, there's nothing new here. This is
1) a public service announcement mostly for the poor folks on the East Coast
2) recession food idea #1
***
Have you ever declined something potentially good precisely because it was too cheap?

For instance, you've looked down your nose at humble bánh mì/bánh mỳ sandwiches because they cost a mere 2 bucks?

Hygiene issues? Have you ever read a headline, "Man dies from bahn mi poisoning"?

When your wallet feels light, you'd still rather do a Subway sandwich? (Bleh.) You poor souls, please do try Lee's Sandwiches. It's a chain, a sanitized and modernized version of mom-and-pop-hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese shops.

Mind you, these are not as good as the real mom-and-pop-hole-in-the-wall stuff, some of which taste as good as anything anywhere costing ten times more. Still, a sandwich here is at least as good as one from Togo's at half the price.

Pictures are from a light dinner at Lee's in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. Read the numbers on the receipt. (Cream puffs are on another receipt, not pictured. And please excuse my bite. I had to try my dessert first.)

I don't feel poor yet (knocking on that wooden table!) but there's something wonderfully satisfying about a good cheap meal.

>kebab кебаб and meatballs тефтели

I am surprised by the paucity of online Russian-English food glossary, in Cyrillic.

Since you enjoyed my foray into the menu of CHEBURECHNAYA (ЧЕБУРЕЧНАЯ), I will contribute just a few more items. The restaurant menu, by the way, comes with a handy calorie guide next to each dish, which I've added here as well, just for fun.

Meatballs Тефтели 452.5
Chicken breast Куриная грудка 232.5
(Lamb) Lulya kebab Люля кебаб 340.2
Lamb chops Баранина отбивная 399.7
Lamb testicles Бараньи яички 260
Veal feet soup Хаш 336.2
Veal heart Телячье сердце 263.7
Beef sweetbread Говяжья железа 245.2
Home-made sausage (not Колбаса) Домашняя сосиска 428.7
Lamb fat Бараний жир 664.5

Too many calories? Black tea (черный чай) and green tea (зеленый чай) are both listed as having 0 calories. Ура!

>(Tamil Nadu) idli vs. (Czech) knedlík

Last weekend, I was invited to Fremont, California, to a cozy home of relatively recent Indian immigrants. Realizing that it was one of those little apartments so immaculate you would be truly ashamed of not taking your shoes off, I fretted having chosen to wear ensemble high heels. If I knew I would be treading in bare feet, I'd have worn something else... (yes, it's silly, but just try being me. I know, you wouldn't want to.)

On their buffet table were too-pretty-to-eat little jewels of Indian snacks, samosas and chaats.

The hosts later brought out something somewhat unexpected at a Hindi-speaking home. Idlis. Oooh. I had forgotten about idlis.

My first experience of Indian food was Tamil, since Singaporean Indians are mostly from Tamil Nadu, South India. Ellapugazhum Iraivanukee (as the Oscar winner Allah Rakha Rahman exclaimed at the Awards), Tamil sambar/sambhar and rasam are delicious.

An idli or idly is a Tamil staple. At first glance, they resemble perfectly round sugar cookies. Then you realize these are not desserts. Soft spongy bland cakes made of lentil and rice flour, you place a couple of these in a bowl and add gravy and chutneys of your own choosing.

***
Jump to another continent, to another country I love, Czech Republic.

Tamil spongy bread's texture is strangely reminiscent of Czech dumplings. Not as pretty, perhaps, and bigger than idlis, I never got tired of dousing gravy on my doughy (potato) dumplings in Prague. Gloppy mess or not, knedlíki, too, were delicious.

***
There are other steamed cakes, of course. What are your favorites?

>sambal terasi with Rijsttafel

Too bad the Clinton visit to Asia is mostly seen through the lens of the traditional media, where the world revolves around (is boxed in by??) terribly important issues such as nuclear proliferation, climate change, trade agreements, fight against terrorism and world peace.

It's not a bad thing that I often see Indonesia through the sentimental lens of memory. I can trigger it somewhat instantly with Bengawan solo, for instance.

I spent most of my teenage years in Singapore and its surrounding countries. Indonesia was a short hop across the straits. When soulful chants wafted from mosques, it mattered very little to me what religion the sounds signified. I was moved by their lyrical charm, just as I was with Gregorian or Tibetan chants. (I'm thankful my parents have never been religious.)

***
And of course, who would forget the tantalizing aroma of spices accompanied by red-hot equatorial heat?

The most unforgettable pungency is that of terasi ("trassi"), dried shrimp paste, equivalent to Malaysian blacan/belacan. That and hot "cili" peppers.

If I want a shortcut to these flavors, bottled sambal terasi does the trick, I was later told in America. Just a tiny spoonful, it improves the flavor of any dish, a kind Chinese-Indonesian lady told me; yes, try it in Dutch Rijsttafel dishes.

Alas, I have never been able to reproduce the feel of a grand tropical Rijsttafel feast. Even at Indonesian restaurants here. Perhaps you can't simply bottle the essence of a place and time.

In any case, I can still say, aku cinta kamu, Indonesia.

>dollar store vegetables at ショップ99, ローソンストア100

Think convenience store meets dollar store meets corner grocery store.

Deep in the midst of Japan's recession, a new species of コンビニ (konbini)/コンビニ屋 (konbiniya) is fast emerging.

Watch these stores grow. Shop 99 (ショップ99) and Lawson Store 100 (ローソンストア100).

Truly a one-stop shopping just around the corner, no cars are needed, a bike suffices. More often, your own feet.

And cheap, cheap, cheap! It's as if the neighborhood 7-Eleven (セブン-イレブン), FamilyMart (ファミリーマート) or Circle K (サークルKサンクス) was only carrying dollar items and stocked chock-full with carrots, mushrooms, salad greens and cabbage (one combination pack pictured here -->) each costing 99 yen (comparable to $1) plus tax.

ショップ99 and ローソンストア100 are doing just that. They are competing for the attention of the world-renowned frugal Japanese customers. Sounds like more regular convenience stores will be converting to the dollar, I mean 100円, store model.

***
I ain't tradin' turnips with nobody.
-- Lov Bensey, Tobacco Road

>chebureki чебуреки and samcy самсы

This kosher Uzbek restaurant in Rego Park doesn't really want you to know its name. Why else would they call it CHEBURECHNAYA (ЧЕБУРЕЧНАЯ)? "You speak our language, or else..."

This mouthful could be a test to see if we can handle their macabre menu. Yes, to see if we are indeed serious about veal feet soup ("hash", хаш) and lamb testicles (бараньи яички). Unfazed, we just might ponder lamb heart (баранье сердце) or veal heart (телячье сердце). Can we stomach fried beef brains (жаренные говяжьи мозги)? Wash all that down with some Tarhun (Тархун) flavored with woodruff? Or we might prefer a bit of Dushes (Дюшес)?

It's not as scary as it first seems, and it's good to find out that lagman ("ramen"/"拉麺", лагман) and morkovcha (морковка) are as reassuring as hot pea soup (гороховый суп) and borscht (борщ).

(Their menu doesn't seem to like the letter "u"; pumpkin is sometimes spelled "pampkin" and mushroom becomes "mashroom".)

Assorted dumplings, chebureki (чебуреки) and samcy (самсы) "dough products", are filled with meat, vegetables, potatoes or ... ribs.

Time to open a bottle or two of Zhigulevskoe (Жигулевское) beer or Borxhomi (Боржоми), and partake of trubochki (трубочки), kholodets (холодец), achikchuk (ачикчук) , matbuha (матбуха, or Hebrew מטבוחה), kartoshka (картошка a.k.a. potato), or of course, pelmeni (пельмени). Chak chak (чак чак) or lavz (лавз) for dessert.

This is serious stuff. No mere bacon sausage, if you know what I mean.

>cold-smoked toro, mousseron, sauce gribiche, vadouvan...

The pleasant setting at Michelin-awarded (2 stars) Meadowood Napa Valley in St. Helena, complete with croquet-players in white, took me back to childhood idyll on mom and dad's golf courses. It was no Per Se, however. The restaurant was more comparable to Redd, at twice the price.

I believe I enjoyed myself a little too much - I apologize for forgetting to document this chef's tasting menu. I'll just let the pictures do the talking. As you can see, I didn't have a steady hand at the end of the meal.

The portion of the otoro dish was marginally more ample than the mere sliver left on the plate may suggest.

>plaa khem ปลาเค็ม vs. narezushi なれずし

Natto (なっと) does have a lot in common with crème fraîche and yogurt, no?

Think fermentation.

So do rakfisk and stinky tofu.

So do plaa khem (or plakem, ปลาเค็ม, pictured left) and narezushi (なれずし/熟れ鮨/熟れ寿司, pictured right), which are both salt-cured fish. It's a specialty of Shiga (滋賀県) where it's called funazushi, 鮒寿司(ふなずし).

I vaguely remember hearing about some decades-old slimy honnarezushi (本なれ寿司) going for a fortune at an auction. Apparently they never go bad, (unrefrigerated?), and more ancient the better. After years of fermentation, they'd end up resembling, you got it, yogurt.

Make that really really stinky yogurt.