Food Adventures in San Diego

I've been in San Diego for several days for business but did my best to make the rounds of recommended eating places. My hotel is on Harbor Island, a not so convenient spot, so until my husband joined me 2 days ago I was stuck at the hotel, attended required functions with awful food. Why is hotel food so bad?? We had a big, fancy dinner Monday night but the salmon was so-so and this was the dinner for the Surgeon General of the United States! The worst was a lunch meeting where we were served ice cold pork tenderloin with ice cold noodles and lettuce on an ice cold plate. No flavor at that temperature. Dessert was watery creme brulee covered with chunks of pink grapefruit. Not a good combination at all. Breakfast at the hotel was fine for me since it was mostly provided at the conference, however I checked on breakfast for my husband for Thursday morning, knowing I would be busy at the conference. The only breakfast choice besides Starbucks was the buffet, $25.00 per person. Yikes! I figured he would drive around until he found a McDonald's, which is exactly what he did.
Tuesday night the Social Work group went out to The Boathouse and I was warned the food was no good. The waiter told us the flash-blackened ahi tuna was the best thing on the menu so I ordered that and it really was pretty tasty, had a nice wasabi-soy drizzle and some steamed vegetables and rice.
Things got better when Steve arrived with the rental car. Lunch at Cafe Coyote in Old Town was our first stop. Patio dining is the popular thing in sunny San Diego. We sat outside and enjoyed carnitas and pibil in banana leaves, but the best thing was their fresh tortillas. Women are making the dough, hand rolling the tortillas and grilling them right before they're brought to the table. For some reason these tortillas are chewy and flavorful, more so that the typical flour tortillas. Walking around Old Town was quite enjoyable.

Later in the evening we ventured out to the Blue Water Seafood, a restaurant featured on the Food Network, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives show. BW is known for having very fresh seafood, caught locally and delivered daily. I had the ceviche, perfect shrimp, crab, onions, cilantro, lime and lemon juice served with crunchy homemade tortilla chips from the El Indio restaurant next door. My fish tacos, one grilled ahi and the other grilled white sea bass were good, but not fantastic. Seems like they put so much cabbage and sauce the fish was hidden under it all. My husband's blackened white sea bass (local) was wonderful. We decided to come back the next night when my brother and his wife arrived and bring them. The next night we had ceviche again--so good-- and I tried the blackened white sea bass with salad and rice. Very fresh fish, succulent and well seasoned. My brother enjoyed his clam chowder and halibut dinner. Steve had a blackened sea bass sandwich which he devoured. I'm a BW fan now! I also plan to make ceviche as soon as I get back to Ft. Worth as well as my own version of fish tacos with the freshest fish I can get.

Ceviche

Blackened white sea bass plate

Fish tacos

BW was also half the price of the fancy tourist seafood restaurants down by Seaport Village and the hotel. I paid as much for my own dinner at The Boathouse as it cost for both of us at BW.
This morning we set out to explore Mission Beach, a really popular beach a few miles from our isolated Harbor Island hotel. I googled "best San Diego breakfast spot" and kept getting the name, Mission Cafe, so off we went to try it. Not a big place, just a nondescript cafe on Mission Drive, a few people waiting outside on the sidewalk. While we were waiting I started reading the menu and was amused to see the words, Mission Cafe, Conscientious Cuisine. What the heck does that mean? Then I spotted wait staff wearing t-shirts announcing on the back, "urban assault food for a revolutionary people" I'm still not sure what they mean but we each bought a t-shirt. People in Texas will scratch their heads and wonder.

The menu was titled, "Chino Latino Food" That was another new one for me but the items were things like huevos with verde sauce, papas, chorizo, etc, however there were many dishes with soy chorizo and tofu as well. It all sounded interesting and healthy. Google Mission Cafe, San Diego and look at their menu for more details. I had the huevos with verde sauce and was not sorry. A fresh tortilla was topped with well-seasoned black beans, fried eggs, chopped tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, onions, and the green tomatillo sauce. It was spicy and delicious. I looked over and saw another diner having the "Zen breakfast" and wished I could come back again and try it. The Zen Breakfast is a dish of egg whites, brown rice, grilled vegetables and braised tofu. I know that sounds weird but I think I would like it.
Mission Beach was so beautiful. A wide sidewalk on the ocean stretched out for miles and we saw a surfing class, people of all ages rollerblading past us, runners, bikers, walkers, and rental houses all facing the ocean. I could picture myself staying there sometime in the future.
We drove on to Ocean Beach and walked around a while, but it was not so nice, kind of seedy.
We met up with my brother and his wife, Shannon at their huge (32 ft.) luxury RV to plan the rest of the day. That RV has everything in it, just like a house--even a big TV set. Pretty cool.
We wanted them to see La Jolla, a beautiful park, wildlife, cliffs, flowers. Reminds me a lot of Carmel by the sea and the Monterey Peninsula, the area I grew up in. They enjoyed the seals, pelicans, ocean and so did we. Dinner was at Tioli's Crazy Burger, another DDD spot recommended for the unusual burgers. I had a Francais Burger (with Brie cheese), Steve had the blackened Cajun burger, Charles a Swiss burger, and Shannon had a crab cake burger.
Very good overall but not nearly as good as Fred's Texas Cafe in good old Ft. Worth!
Some things are just better in Texas.
I mentioned my planned shopping trip to the Mitsuwa Marketplace tomorrow and Charles immediately agreed to go. After all, he is half Japanese too! He really misses most Japanese food now since he is on the renal diet due to kidney problems. He can't have soy sauce, soy products and phosphorus or potassium. I am going to try to use my culinary skills to come up with some recipes for him. We already figured out he can eat white rice, eggs (not too many yolks) and noodles. I suggested tamgo yaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba, all modified to eliminate
the soy sauce. He wants me to create a renal friendly Japanese cookbook. Now that will be a challenge! If you know of any Japanese foods without too much sodium please let me know.
Back at the hotel my sweet husband suggested we have breakfast at another location of the Mission Cafe a couple miles from the hotel so I could try the Zen breakfast. Did I jump at the suggestion? Of course. Good thing we've walked miles and miles on this trip.....Zen Breakfast

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Japanese Festival Foods Presentation

I work at a federal prison for women when (when I'm not cooking!) and was asked to put on a cooking demonstration for the Asian Pacific Islander heritage month staff event. Since it took place in the prison I could not take photographs which is why I only have the cover sheet of the recipe handout to show you. Earlier in the week I went to the Grand Prairie personnel center and taught an origami class, so this has been a very hectic week.

I have been very busy testing various version of the Japanese festival foods I enjoyed during my trip to Japan. Of course I have made all these dishes many times during my life but I never wrote down the actual instructions and quantities and I wanted to make everything from scratch, not use bottled yakisoba or okonomiyaki sauce or the worst, bottle teriyaki sauce. So, my husband got a little tired of okonomiyaki and yakisoba dinners while I experimented, but we did enjoy our experiments on the patio with my new clay yakitori grill and the little charcoal grill I purchased to compare charcoal vs. gas grill flavor. Charcoal won, by the way. One day my son, John David, was the chef and had a blast making the yakitori on the little clay grill. Then recently, I was testing yakitori sauces on a weeknight. I was out on the back patio which is right outside my kitchen door, with a glass of wine, grilling the yakitori and enjoying the evening air when my husband wandered out. We sampled a bite of the chicken and I decided we'd just sit down, have our yakitori off the grill for dinner--hot and fresh. That was a great dinner!

The organizer told me there would up to 100 people coming to the event which was a "lunch and learn". The plan was to serve yakitori, rice, and salad as the main lunch and small samples of yakisoba and okinomiyaki after I demonstrated making them. I spent hours and hours the night before the event preparing all the ingredients, cutting chicken, making sauces, cutting up vegetables, and getting things organized. My plan was to have 3 stations set up with the main one for me to demonstrate the dishes during the presentation and then 2 other stations for volunteers to make both yakisoba and okonomiyaki while I was making it. This worked out very well. By the time I had finished speaking there were samples ready to serve all around the room.

During the presentation I spoke about my recent trip to Japan and the wonderful street foods.

The audience really seemed to enjoy hearing about the different foods served at Japanese festivals compared to the corn dogs and funnel cakes they are used to having at the State Fair of Texas. I was not expecting them to enjoy the okonomiyaki as much as they did, though.

I served it with cabbage, onions, pork, beef, chicken, bean sprouts and topped it with mayo, beni shoga, okonomiyaki sauce, and aonori. I forgot to put out the katsuobushi topping, but that may have been a little too strange for them anyway. So many people came back for more samples, asked questions about how to make the dishes, and simply thanked me for sharing these foods.
The yakisoba was also a big hit and they could see how easy it would be to make it at home.

My friends who attended want me to have a party at my house and re create the same dishes.

After this huge crowd, a dinner party for 20 seems pretty easy.

My next project is the cooking demonstration at the new Azle Farmer's Market, then the next day I'll be doing a cooking demonstration for the Fort Worth Japanese Society, making some takoyaki and other things.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Yakitori on the street

Yakitori Alley is what I called it. On the road under the raised railroad tracks was the alley full of little yakitori places. Businessmen in expensive suits sit around drinking beer and eating yakitori. At the little place we tried there was a man sitting on a table made from an old crate. We could not read a thing on the menu but managed to tell the woman cooking and waiting on tables that we wanted meat, not cartilage or gizzards. We got some really nice yakitori in the end and thoroughly enjoyed it in the open air alley.

Oh, I managed to talk Steve into going to the little Gindaco stand that Minako pointed out to me the last day. It was right by our hotel all along and I didn't even know it! Darn, I could have had takoyaki every day had I known. I order a few and enjoyed every bite.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Midori Sushi

Steve spotted Midori Sushi when he was out walking earlier in the week. He noticed it because there was a long line of people waiting to get in for lunch. Our concierge confirmed that it was a great place. On our last day we decided to have our final sushi meal. We got there early enough but when we left it was packed. I ordered an assortment and Steve ordered his favorites along with their "Californian Roll". This was the only time we saw sushi rolls like the ones in America at a Japanese sushi place. Usually the only rolls are thin rolls with a single ingredient, like tuna or cucumber.

The Californian Roll got a look from the woman sitting at the table next to us. She was an elderly woman, sitting alone, looking very intense and serious, keeping to herself, but when the roll was delivered she looked over and couldn't help but grin a little. We saw her look and tried to talk to her but she was shy. We had a good laugh watching her watch us eat the sushi.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Hotel Granvia Kyoto

As we left Kyoto we had to stop at Hotel Granvia to use a special coupon Minako received for buying the bullet train tickets to Kyoto. The Hotel Granvia is a beautiful hotel right in the Kyoto train station, a place I would like to stay at on our next trip to Japan. Turns out the coupon was for a special bento lunch.

As you can see, the bento box was lovely, with a section of chicken sukiyaki using the local chicken, a crispy fried shrimp and a scallop with tartar sauce, greens with a nice vinaigrette, a piece of grilled fish with miso sauce on a shiso leaf, pieces of chicken, picked cucumber, umeboshi (sour plum), and very fresh fruit.

Thanks Minako!

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 8: Soba in Kyoto

After several hours of touring Kyoto it was time for lunch. I suggested soba and Steve wasn't too enthusiastic, thinking soup would not satisfy his big appetite, but he went along with it. Minako spotted the restaurant and we stepped inside. Turns out this was a great choice. There was a man behind the counter we could see making fresh tempura for each order. I order the cold zaru soba lunch. Pictured below, it was perfectly cooked buckwheat noodles (soba), dipping sauce, a few pieces of crisp tempura, and scallions and diakon to add to the dipping sauce. I have never eaten such good soba before in my life. It was made fresh, no wonder. Now I'm a soba fanatic and have ordered special flour from Anson Mills called Nihachi Sobakai to make my own. There was just the right texture, chewy, nutty tasting, and perfect.

Steve's hot soba with tempura was also fantastic. I made him some tempura soba since we've been back and he loved it. I will definitely make it again with my fresh soba.

I regret I was too anxious to eat the delicious food that I didn't take a photo of my order.

I will write an entry about soba again when I make my own soon.

By the way, Kyoto was beautiful!

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 7: Toraji Ebuisu Korean Diner

Steve spotted this Korean grill restaurant the day before when he was out walking and we decided to try it. The Japanese call Korean BBQ, "yakiniku" (yaki means grilled and niku means meat) and have special tables for grilling tableside. We selected an assorted of meats, a selection of kimchee and got to work grilling. The meat is sliced thinly and cooks quickly over the coals.

There is a nice dipping sauce with a faint citrus flavor, like a ponzu sauce. The meat was marinated in a lighter than usual sauce (lighter than the one I use at home). The sizzling charred meat, dipped in the sauce, was absolutely delicious! I couldn't get over how good everything tasted cooked this way. The thin meats, some kalbi, both regular and premium(fatty) short ribs, some skirt steak, and filet mignon were so tender and juicy, hot and flavored perfectly. Eaten with the hot rice and kimchee I enjoyed every bite. This dinner cost 9,000 yen, though, not one of our bargain meals.

We also tried the chijimi, Korean style savory pancakes. Very tasty--something else I will try to make in the future.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 6: Yasukuni Shrine street food of Japan

Beautiful cherry blossoms and the Japanese have "cherry blossom viewing picnics" in parks around Japan. This is also a time when the street vendors set up stands near Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

Fish (Ayu) on a stick.

Good old fried chicken, but Japanese style (a little soy marinade)

After our trip back from Atami we had lunch at McDonald's and I am not ashamed to say we enjoyed it. I knew Steve was being a good sport eating rice and fish a couple times a day so a burger and fries was a welcome break for him. McDonald's in Tokyo is so busy there is a special worker who keeps traffic flowing in the dining area. She shouts out when a seat is available to keep the people in line from rushing in. We observed the Japanese eating much smaller portions of food that what you'd see in America. A small burger and coffee--no supersized giant drinks or fries.

On to Yasukuni Shrine and the street foods. We walked around for hours and came upon the street of food vendors. I was amazed to see the different types of street foods I had not seen when I lived in Japan years ago. There was grilled corn, yakitori, oden, squid on a stick, mochi on a stick, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, hiroshimayaki (okonomiyaki with yakisoba mixed in), takoyaki, Korean chijimi, fish on a stick, sweet potatoes, fried chicken, organ meat stew, edamame, cucumbers on a stick, and hot dogs on a stick.

I love Japanese street & festival food. I wish I could have tried everything but at least I have a picture in my mind of the various foods and I had Steve take some video footage for me.

I plan to re-create as much of it as I can in the coming months. I have already made yakisoba, yakitori, okonomiyaki, and takoyaki since I've been back.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 5: Atami

We took the train to Atami, a seaside city a couple hours south of Tokyo, known for natural mineral hot springs. I wanted Steve to experience a traditional Japanese inn, meaning sleep on the floor on tatami mats and have dinner and breakfast served in the room. We arrived in town and enjoyed browsing the little streets by the train station. It was much less crowded and different from the bustling environment we left in Tokyo.

We found a little cafe serving a typical variety of dishes. Steve ordered katsudon and I ordered ramen. Both were decent, satisfying and filling.

On to Hotel Suiyotei to check in. The hotel was interesting to say the least. Only one English speaking person and the hotel workers would panic if she wasn't around to answer our questions. We were escorted to our room after a tour of the hotel and all the hot spring areas.

I couldn't wait to try bathing in the hot springs but Steve was not at all inclined to bath with strangers (same sex), outdoors, and naked. First we had to get oriented to the area. The room was a typical tatami room with the low table, cushions to sit on, and a closet containing the futons to be brought out after dinner. Dinner was brought to the room by a kimono clad woman, who politely bowed, entered our room with tray after tray of food. It filled the entire table!

Steve doesn't look too excited, does he? The food consisted of a big boat of sashimi, a nabe of beef, shrimp, mushrooms, soba, chawan mushi, shellfish, tofu, pickles, miso soup, rice, fruit and more. Some things I couldn't identify at all. Overall it was just fair. The sashimi was not so fresh tasting and many of the items didn't appeal to us.

After dinner I dressed in my yukata (robe) and set out to try the hot springs. I went to the oceanside open air pools. I was a little anxious about the whole experience but I managed to just go for it--and it was a wonderful experience. I got to sit in the mineral hot springs overlooking the ocean in the cool night air, rocks, bubbling springs, beautiful plants, and just relax. There were a couple of other women there but they stayed in another section.

My cousin, Minako, had a good laugh when she saw Steve's wearing the yukata--the short sleeves and short length... Breakfast was much better than dinner. We were served the local fish, Aji, grilled. It was salty and flaky. We had miso soup, rice, tamagoyaki (omelet), local fish cake, pickled vegetables, the local special wasabi pickles, green salad?, and nori. I couldn't believe that Steve was sitting there in his yukata eating rice, seaweed, fish, and miso soup for breakfast and using chopsticks. Wish my mother could be around to see this.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 4: Conveyor Belt Sushi

I had good memories of a particular sushi restaurant Helen and I went to during our 2007 trip. The restaurant , "Edomae Sushi", has a counter around the middle of the restaurant and sushi chefs are busy making different types of sushi and placing it on a conveyor belt which passes in front of the seated diners. You simply choose a plate of sushi as it passes by, stack your plates as you finish each dish and pay according to a color coding system. Each plate has a different color rim corresponding to a price list posted on the wall. There is also a spigot right there at each spot with hot water for tea and instant green tea powder to make your own.

We watched as various plates passed in front of us and started selecting what looked good. There were some good ones, particularly the tuna trio, and some not so great. I mistakenly chose a natto sushi. Natto can best be described as rotten beans, but it's really fermented beans but I think they smell and taste rotten.

I guess we got spoiled at Sushi Dai because I just didn't think the sushi was so good here.

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 3: Takoyaki!!

Takoyaki??

I had seen an episode of Andrew Zimmern where he sampled takoyaki in Japan and made a note to try it if I happened to see any. Well, the day arrived when walking in the Harajuki area I spotted a big sign, Gindaco Takoyaki. I walked over to it and saw a photo of the little balls of batter with sauce on top, however the restaurant was not open yet. Later we came back and tried some.

Was it good? Well, Andrew Zimmern didn't like it much, nor did Steve, but I fell in love with takoyaki. It was a very, very hot (temperature-wise) ball of fried batter filled with pieces of very fresh cut up octopus and red ginger, topped with savory sauce and sprinkled with katsuobushi (dried bonito) and nori (seaweed) with a little mayo, of course. I don't know why I loved it so much but I did. In fact I ordered my own takoyaki pans when I returned from Japan and successfully made some and it was fantastic. One problem is finding good octopus, which I didn't, so I substituted pork just to try making it. Next time I'll try it with shrimp until I can get some good octopus. I guess I'm not the only takoyaki fan around. I saw a Facebook fan page called "Takoyaki Addicts".

Below is a video of the Gindaco cooks making it:

The first one shows the ingredients going into the takoyaki, batter, pieces of octopus, bits of tempura batter, sakura ebi, and scallions, then more batter is poured on top.

The next video shows how the balls are formed after the batter cooks enough to start shaping it.

If you want to try making takoyaki order a special pan from Amazon.com which comes with a good recipe. Good luck!

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Food Adventures in Japan: Part 2: Tsukiji Market

Tsukiji Fish Market Trip: We set the alarm for 4:45 AM (Tsukiji opens at 3:00 AM!) and got there around 6:00 AM. We went on a crazy walking tour of the entire inner market, dodging the many motorized vehicles and vendors with carts. The floor is wet and slippery and the activity is frenetic. Don't expect the feel welcomed in this area--it was about the only place in Japan where people didn't smile and act happy to see us.

It's the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world with 900 wholesale dealers in the inner market and streets full of kitchen supplies and more seafood products outside the market.

There are over 400 different types of seafood for sale at Tsukiji Fish Market. As you can imagine there are sushi restaurants all over Japan that rely on the fresh fish from Tsukiji, but the best sushi restaurants are right there at the market. I researched a little bit before our trip and found many references to a place called Sushi Dai, reportedly the "best sushi in the world".

The first challenge was finding it because it had no sign in English. I had printed out the sign and showed it to Steve and we started looking. Steve was the one to spot it first and we proceeded to get in line. Yes, at 7:30 AM there was a line to eat sushi. Not just a short line but a 3-4 hour wait line! The owner kept coming out to the line and telling us it was a 4 hour wait as if to discourage people from waiting. Several left but we didn't. By the way, most of the people in line were Japanese--not foreigners.

Can you see me in the line wearing the orange scarf? Yes, we waited 3 and a half hours to eat at Sushi Dai. When my Aunt Yasuko heard about this later she said, "That's stupid--just go somewhere else!" Hmmm, that sounds exactly like something my mother Tommie would have said. Once we got inside the very small 12 seat restaurant with barely any room for the woman serving tea to move around behind us, we were in for a real taste experience.

We ordered the "Omakase" (chef's choice), at 3,900 yen (about $40.00) a person and consisting of the best selections of the day. Our sushi chef was friendly, tried to talk to us in English a bit, mentioned Texas Rangers when he heard we were from Texas, that type of thing. We were served one piece of fish at a time right on the wooden ledge. The chef would tell us what it was, then advise us to use "no sauce" or "sauce" depending on each piece. In Japan they do not drown their sushi in wasabi mixed with soy sauce, rather the sushi chef puts wasabi on the sushi as appropriate and may brush a sauce on the piece of fish. With fish this fresh and tasty the idea of smothering it in heavy sauce and wasabi makes no sense.

We had: o-toro, red snapper, sea bream, uni, o-toro maki, anago, maguro, horse mackerel, spanish makerel, baby shrimp, clam, chu toro served with a delicious miso/fish soup and lots of green tea. Was it worth the wait? Yes! This really was the most amazing sushi I've ever eaten and Steve agreed. Every bite was a taste explosion in our mouths. We will go there again (maybe try to get there earlier though : )

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