As a featured publisher of Foodbuzz, Foodbuzz often sends me emails about their "Tastemaker Program," where they send free food samples to bloggers in exchange for honest feedback (and a blog post or two). Since I was trying to get back on the blog wagon and increase the frequency of my posts, I excitedly signed up for products from three companies: (1) Ghiradelli, (2) Kikkoman, and (3) Sargento. I actually purchase products from this companies on a regular basis (especially Kikkoman), so I was pretty confident I knew what I was dealing with. I enlisted my mother-in-law to be my wing-man (or wing-woman) and partner-in-crime (or partner-in-tasting). We tasted five products: (1) extra dark chocolate, (2) chocolate squares with roasted almonds and sea salt, (3) ginger-soy karage coating for fried poultry or fish, (4) muenster cheese, and (5) swiss cheese.
First, as to the chocolates, both my mother-in-law and I shared the same sentiments. The bitter extra dark chocolate had a rich and potent cacao bean flavor. Because we prefer milk chocolate, we enjoyed the lighter and milkier chocolate squares with the ethereal flecks sea salt and mini shards of almond. The salt intensified the richness of the chocolate, and the crunch from the almonds gave the creamy candies nice texture.
We will definitely purchase the sea salt-flavored Ghiradelli squares in the future, when this stash runs out. (The stash may or may not have already run out. Okay, who am I kidding, the stash already ran out the day I received it!)
Unfortunately, the disappointment of bunch was the Kikkoman karaage coating. Throughout my life, the only soy sauce product my family has used is Kikkoman. I honestly believe their soy sauce is the best Asian sauce on American shelves. It is dark, slightly transparent, and rich in luscious umami flavor. The burnt caramel-colored and liquid ebony sauce is painstakingly distilled and beautiful to behold. Therefore, based on my experience with their soy sauce, I was expecting the same for the karaage coating.
To its merit, this karaage mix makes cooking fried karaage chicken very easy. The box says it is ready in five minutes, and it truly is. All you need to do is empty the seasoned flour in your own bag (no bag is provided) and dredge some chicken or fish pieces in it. The coating did an awesome job of keeping the chicken juicy, ultra-moist, and flavorful on its own. However, I was really-really-really put off by the taste. They overdid it with the ginger flavor, so much that it reminded me of Pine Sol or household cleaning chemicals.
My mother-in-law agreed with my assessment.
Finally, as for the Sargento cheese, Foodbuzz asked us to compare sliced Sargento natural cheese
with processed cheese. So I purchased my favorite brand of processed cheese and Sargento's muenster and swiss.
I toasted a few "everything" bagels (with onions, rye seeds, sesame seeds, and more), placed a slice of each kind of cheese on the bagels, and then microwaved the cheese for 30 seconds in the microwave. I wanted to see whether the cheese could stand up to the powerful flavors of the bagel.
My mom-in-law and I were pleasantly surprised. We thought the cheese was "delicioso" on the bagels (I also fried some eggs for the bagels) and particularly liked the sharp twang from the swiss. It goes without saying that Sargento's natural cheese beat out the radioactive orange, high sodium processed cheese (although I do admit that I love that salty and perfectly meltable orange stuff, just as I love cheese in can and cheez whiz).
All in all, I'd say my mother-in-law and I had a pretty fun time bonding over our opinions about these new products, and would now buy a few of those products for ourselves on a regular basis. Have you tried these items? What do you think of them? And yes, you can now call me a "sell out."
Some of us associate the oddest, most humorous memories with certain foods. Pizza is one of those foods for me.
Example: May 28, 2004. AMC Theatres on Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, California.
I remember it clearly. It was opening night of the blockbluster disaster flick, Day After Tomorrow. That evening, the silver screen audience was principally populated with residents from the nearby nursing home and the moviegoers were abuzz with excitement. Before the movie began, we excitedly watched the previews when I suddenly heard my beau whisper loudly into my ear.
"What is that smell?"
I faintly detected an oniony odor wafting in my direction.
Upon looking up, about two to three rows ahead, I saw a feisty gray-haired woman with her head buried in an open Styrofoam take-out container. I surreptitiously craned my neck upward and peered over her shoulder to view the contents of the container. I was amused to see that her container was heaped to the brim with a mottled orange ball of stringy chow mein noodles and sweet and sour chicken that was so radioactively red, it looked like the molten tip of a branding iron. Awe-struck and secretly jealous, I chuckled softly and feigned exasperation. "She has some guts," I muttered to my beau.
I then heard a rustling commotion and using my peripheral vision, I spotted a cluster of eager seniors huddled over a popped-open lid of a large cardboard Costco pizza box. Not to be outdone, they had snuck a whole pizza into a movie theater! Now those folks had guts to the N-th degree! In my heart, I immediately bowed in deference to them. If any human was worth worshiping, it was these cheapsters! I vowed to myself that one day, I would sneak an entire pizza box into a packed theater. And let me tell you, that day, will be the pinnacle of my achievement as a human being!
The moral of the story, is that one should have no shame when it comes to eating pizza. One of my favorite places for "shameless pizza eating" in the City of San Francisco, is Pizzeria Delfina. They serve pies there that are guaranteed to leave even the hardiest, most-resilient of adults in a garlic-induced stupor.
Pizzeria Delfina specializes in authentic Italian pizza: the kind with blistered, charred, and crackly edges and a supple interior. The kind with melted blobs of mozzarella and crushed tomatoes reeking of freshness. The kind that will make you wanna bring a whole pie into a movie theater! The pies of note at Pizzeria Delfina, are the classic Margherita and two, off-the-menu specials: (1) the Purgatorio and (2) the Gricia.
The Purgatorio is a traditional pie slathered with a spicy, tingly hot tomato sauce base which the chefs spike with red pepper flakes and layer with Romano cheese. The shavings of Romano will melt away on your tongue like salty flakes of snow and provide the perfect counterbalance to the entire pizza pie. However, the best part of the pizza is not the cheese, but the oozing and gooey sunny-side eggs, that spill forth on the pizza face.
The Gricia is made with guanciale (apparently, pig jowl) and panna cheese. This pizza is decorated with wispy tendrils of spring scallions and topped with a puddle of warm cream poured directly within the concentric circle of crust. The entire pie is sprinkled with crushed black peppercorns, which provide a spicy contrast to the creamy pie.
And hey, I would be willing to risk shame and ostracization in a movie theater for these fellas'! (I am an exhibitionist, what can I say.)
What do you call someone who waits in line for more than two hours for lunch-time sushi?
Dumb as a rock?
Pretty close. The answer is "me." I am the punchline.
If you don't get the joke, after reading this post, you will.
At the beginning of this year, my husband and I noticed an explosion of Facebook activity about this new lunch place in the Financial District dubbed "Sushiritto." We had never heard of it, but around 20 of our friends did, and they touted it as the next big thing to hit San Francisco. However, none of these friends had personally tried the food there. Pretty much, they just saw long lines there and wistfully tweeted pictures of the line and something to the effect of, "Must be good! I want some!"
Since I was gainfully on maternity leave at the time, my husband decided that if anyone had a few hours to spare to wait in line, I did. Plus, I have told you before how my husband feels about long lines at eating establishments. So he dropped me off to pick up lunch there while he went to go run some errands in the City with our newborn in tow.
I would like to say this was the "wait of the century," but that would be a gross understatement. I am sure you know how long lines at amusement parks are. At the half hour mark, you are losing steam, but you believe you can keep going. By the time one hour has passed, you are too invested to leave the line. At that point, you convince yourself that "the worst part of the wait is over." At the one and a half hour mark, you tell yourself, "Oh what the heck, I already wasted my day, I might as well continue waiting." And as I waited in line, that is what I told myself. And like lines at the U.S. Post Office, it literally did not move an inch.
Given the pace of the movement of the line, I have no idea how I ended up at the front, but more than two hours later, I did. And since I was starving, half-conscious, and wholly belligerent, I ordered four of the items on the five item menu: the Three Amigos, Latin Ninja, Mamacita, and Crispy Ebi rolls.
As I checked out, the cashier rang up the total as ~$40. At first, I suffered a quick bout of sticker-shock, but because I had waited over two hours for those lil' mutha-effers, I made myself believe that it would be worth it. As I paid for the meal, my husband rushed in with our crying newborn and furiously asked, "What took you so long?" I shoved the rolls in his arms and stormed off to the car.
With a crying baby in the background, we gulped down the rolls in the car (I was so hungry, I could not be bothered to chew and there is no real seating area to eat at in Sushiritto, as it is just a take-out place). At that point, I woefully realized I could not taste a difference between Sushiritto's rolls and Americanized rolls from any ole' sushi joint. Basically, the rolls were like California rolls with one or two extra bells and whistles. Not even like a California roll on steroids, but like a California roll on a GNC herbal supplement. At one point, I tasted something that reminded me of Thai curry (I believe the mango in the Latin Ninja or the plantain and Sriracha combination in the Crispy Ebi roll), but I was too angered by the fact that I had waited two hours to even care.
To quickly recap our meal, we ordered the "Three Amigos" roll, which is sizeable sushi roll made with tuna, salmon, hamachi hiramasa (Japanese amberjack yellowtail fish), avocado, yuzu tobiko (fish roe seasoned with yuzu citrus), asparagus, cucumber, shaved red radish, scallions, and wasabi mayonnaise. Apparently, the "three" friends, are the three different types of fish.
We also ordered the "Latin Ninja" roll, which was made with salmon, mango, avocado, asparagus, daikon radish, Meyer lemon, pickled red onion, cilantro, scallions, and a ginger serrano sauce. The punchy cilantro leaves, the creamy mango and avocado elements, and the fiery serrano oils brought a punch of Latin flair to the Japanese roll.
The third roll we ordered, was the Mamacita Roll, which was made of tuna, Japanese gourd, Shiitake mushrooms, avocado, cucumber, scallions, daikon radish, tobiko (fish roe), crumbled rice chips, and Mexican kabayaki sauce.
Finally, we also ordered the Crispy Ebi, which sounded to be the most innovative roll of the four. The Crispy Ebi was made of tempura shrimp, melted pepperjack cheese, shredded crab, plantain, avocado, cucumber, and Sriracha crema sauce.
Now that you are at the end of this post, I am sure you are thinking, "Gee, I sense bitterness." Honestly, the rolls were pretty good and had it not been for the wait, I would have had liked this place much more. Indeed, my husband (who did not wait in line) went back with his brother and sister-in-law! Check out his sister-in-law's take on Sushiritto here. Also, the menu has undergone a dramatic overhaul and I heard that the lines have died down too, so if you are around the area, you might check it out.
Well, I can't say that I didn't learn a valuable lesson from this ordeal. Sushiritto helped me to realize that there is great value in having a "quicky" every now and then. "Quicky" meaning "quick lunch," that is.
There are several things I love about San Diego. First, is Kirk from Mmm-Yoso!! He is classy, friendly, very sweet, and the best "O.G." food blogger of the blogosphere.
And a very distant second San Diego love for me, are the fish tacos. I believe that San Diego is the type of city that you could go anywhere and get an awesome fish taco. A fancy restaurant? Guaranteed. A food truck? Absolutely. A gas station? Okay, yes, even that too. Honestly, you could look in a random bucket on the street and find a delicious fish taco just waiting to be eaten.
Several years ago, I passed through San Diego while on a business trip. (Although I did say I was behind on posting, I am hoping you didn't notice the "several years ago" part.) Since Kirk was out of town on a vacation to Southeast Asia, I decided to spend some time with my second fiddle in San Diego, the San Diego fish taco, and hit up a place featured on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives ("Triple D"), the Blue Water Seafood Market and Grille. (Side Note: Although a lot of people think Guy is obnoxious middle-aged douche bag desperately trying to act young and cool, he reminds me a lot of my high school English teacher, so I actually find him quite endearing. Hey, give him points for trying!)
Since a meal in San Diego without a fish taco is like a game of checkers without the black (and red) pieces, I had to order the fish tacos, which, as Triple D indicated, came with a grilled fillet of fish dressed with a marinade of canned chipotle peppers, garlic, butter, and oregano. The grilled tortilla base was spackled with melted cheddar cheese, and loaded with the fish, an ample mound of shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, minced red onions, scallion ringlets, and a squiggle of sour cream. I had ordered the "halibut" version of the taco, and true to the claims of Triple D, the fish was firm, flaky, and fresh ("Triple F").
While the fish taco at Blue Water wasn't necessary the best I have had, it was fresh. Indeed, you could tell that it would be fresh when you entered the restaurant/market to see a seafood case stocked with fish (caught just that day) being displayed on crushed ice. If I am ever back in San Diego, the Blue Water is definitely worth a repeat visit, but this time, with Kirk!
Also, as a big side note, my in-laws (my husband's family) have just started up a food blog! Go visit! It is Piqqy Piggy!
Yes. that is not a typo. This is a post regarding events from 2009, not 2011! But better late than never, right? Err... Okay, maybe not.
I never intended to take such an extended hiatus from blogging. Unfortunately, the "hiatus" happened "organically," after I started a new job, purchased a new house, and had beautiful baby boy. (Life comes at us quickly, I must admit!) Before I knew it, a one week hiatus morphed into an ugly and unbearably long two year hiatus, and it was easier for me to treat the blog as an "out of sight, out of mind"-type thing. Also, I was further dissuaded from blogging because I was trying to hide from the embarrassment of failing to regularly update my blog and from losing the rights to the passionateeater.com domain name. Yes, it is now a spammy Viagra site. *Sad face.*
When I recently came across food pictures I had taken at two events in 2009, I suddenly thought about all of the wonderful friends I made through blogging and the fantastic opportunities that I had because of my blog. Although it felt liberating not to blog during my lengthy hiatus, I realized I missed the camaraderie and the inspiration that came along with being a food blogger. And I thought, "I might as well start blogging again!" My unrealistic spontaneity is back... Hopefully, in a good way.
Just like I tried to surreptitiously return an entire set of overdue library books when I was high school (thinking I would not get caught and fined), here are many-many pictures of two food-heavy events that I attended on the same day, Cochon 555 (an event courtesy of Foodbuzz where big name chefs gather and compete to see who can most creatively and deliciously prepare a pig) and East West Eats (a fundraising dinner for Asian-American journalists). And I just so happened to meet two of my idols at East West Eats: Martin Yan and Ben from Cooking with the Single Guy!
Although I was able to meet huge culinary superstars at Cochon 555, including Nate Appleman (while he was still in SF), and dined on fantastical food items such as pork sushi rolls, nests of hand spun sugar, fragrant pork blood and chocolate sausage (Italian cotechino) topped with a warm apricot on a bed of braised lentils, and crisp and airy chicharrónes, I think I liked East West Eats a little better. There, Martin Yan did two enthusiastic and informative cooking presentations and we dined on mouthwatering Asian and Asian-fusion classics, such as Korean tacos with nori and marinated bulgogi, dense crab cakes with a sweet tamarind dressing, fresh Vietnamese spring rolls, and ahi tuna tartare.
Unfortunately, since it has been almost two years since I took these pictures, so I might not able to describe these events (or the food) very well. Okay, I am not even gonna try! But please check out these links for delicious descriptions of that grand evening of June 14, 2009.
- Official Cochon 555 Site
- The Bunrabs' Scrumptious Take on Cochon 555
- SF Eater's Experience at Cochon 555
- AAJA's Official Blog Post on East West Eats
- Single Guy Chef's Amazing Account of Our Evening at East West Eats
Photos from Cochon 555
Photos of East West Eats
Whew, a lotta pictures, not a lotta words! But, lots of love! Hope to be posting again soon.
