Eat Drink Style The Comfort Zone Part I

This morning I woke up to the sound of my alarm on full blast. It was some 50 cent song that immediately got me aggravated and prompted me to bring the gavel down on it, like Gallagher on a watermelon. As I shut my eyes again, another sound was audible -- the satisfying sound of rain patting the ground and at the same time, giving my car a well-needed wash.

If I was still in elementary school, I knew a good day would be ahead of me. Almost all play, and NO school work. Indoor recess. Pure bliss. Fast-forward another 15 years, and like most of us, we have to deal with the drudgery of work. It’s rainy days that make me miss all the comfort food we had in our younger days. My favorite was the generic 3-for-a-dollar Mac n’ Cheese. How can one forget the rock hard elbow pasta that can dent walls with a single toss, artificial/instant cheese that probably could’ve gotten you high, and the smell of freshly grounded CARDBOARD. Mmmm. No, this isn’t Velveeta – it’s too cheap to be Kraft or Velveeta. Only the privileged got that brand, but I still love my parents regardless.

As soon as I got off work, I headed down to the market with Mac n’ Cheese on my mind. I know a lot of people love it Southern style – baked in the oven with a field of bread crumbs over it. Not me. I love it cheesy and creamy. This is my first time making it. Please let me know if you have any ideas for improving this comfort food. I first melted some butter and added flour to make a roux. I then added some whole milk and let it boil. I added a block of mild cheddar cheese and a few slices of provolone (thanks to Gary!). Salt and pepper to taste. Add a few scoops of cheese on the macaroni and mix it up. Garnish with parsley, pepper and a little hot sauce. Enjoy.

Eat Drink Style Saigon Flavor - The Triad of SGV Pho

When I heard about the Golden Deli fire a while back, I had to drive over to Main/Mission to see for myself. My dad actually CALLED me to inform me of this tragedy, but reassured me that Golden Deli had lucked out. Turns out that everything to the right of Golden Deli had been burned down, including 7-11, a laundromat, a Chinese DVD store ironically named Firelink and a random gift shop that sells those ugly head visors you see Chinese people sporting these days. Sure enough, the God of Pho, extinguished the fire before it could burn down what San Gabriel Valley hails as the Shrine of Pho. Much like pizza and sushi in LA, the discussion of the Best Pho in the San Gabriel Valley can turn into a sour riot - with people overturning cars and vandalising property. In my opinion, I put Golden Deli #1. Here's my review on my top three places in SGV.

For those that are fans of Golden Deli, you probably know that Vietnam House right across the street is owned by a relative. But they also have another sister restaurant, Saigon Flavor on Valley/Del Mar. Woohoo! I've been to Vietnam House and tasted no difference in the pho - it was perfect.

Although some people may turn to Vietnam House and Saigon Flavor as an alternative to waiting the usual 20 minutes at Golden Deli, they will soon find that you can't beat around the bush. People know the quality of all three of these restaurants.

Before going to the Banksy art exhibition in the warehouse district of LA, I headed over to Saigon Flavor for the quelling of a severe hangover. Pho is really the best solution to a hangover. The flavoring of the soup wakes you up and makes you smile. I parked right in front and found myself writing my name on a clipboard. Crap, there were 6 other parties in front of me. Eventually I got called and got put at a table for six. I felt bad and told the server that I wouldn't mind waiting for a single table. She put me there anyway. Embarrassed by the fact that I occupied a sixth of the table, I quickly ordered my usual Pho Chin Nam (well-done brisket) and a side order of two egg rolls. Glancing at the menu, I noticed that it was exactly the same as GD and VH's. Quality-assured. 10 minutes later, my piping hot bowl of goodness arrived. I eventually swapped seats with a party of 4.

Cha Gio (Egg Rolls)
Hands down the best Vietnamese egg rolls I've ever eaten. These were like taquitos! Much bigger than the ones served at GD. GD/VH/SF all serve 5 egg rolls per order, unlike the usual 4 at other restaurants. How do they make their skin so flaky/crispy?! 2 egg rolls $1.60 with no fixings. I think it's $5.95 for 5 egg rolls.

Pho Chin Nam (Well-done Brisket)
The reason I love Golden Deli is because of their soup quality. Look at the deep brown color in the broth. It's a result of a longer browning process with the bones and the addition of browned onions. The soup is clear and never fatty. Of course, there is the magic of MSG. Compared to other Vietnamese restaurants, I don't feel as thirsty after eating GD's pho.

Pho Chin Nam (Well-done Brisket)
GD really gives you a decent portion of beef. Sometimes I have to take them out of the bowl and set them aside. They get in the way of the noodles!

Again, here's the link to my three favorite pho restaurants in San Gabriel Valley. Thanks for reading.

Saigon Flavor
208 E. Valley Blvd.
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 572-6036

Eat Drink Style One Block of Fish -- Two Delicious Meals

With places like Sasabune and Yabu in the Sawtelle area, one doesn’t have to travel far for melt-in-your-mouth sushi. But you’ll find yourself driving to the ATM quite frequently. It’s a fact, good sushi isn’t cheap and neither are those aforementioned places. So do what I do when you’re checking account is in double digits. Go buy your own block of fish!

After checking out all the Japanese markets on Sawtelle and Mitsuwa on Centinela, I found my tuna block. I think I spent about $12. I thought about going to Ralph’s, but I had been warned by my friends to go to a Japanese market instead. It is said that the fish meat is injected with food coloring to feign freshness. Terrible.


Here’s my seared tuna salad. Cut the block in half and dipped it in sesame seeds with a little salt. Sear both sides for about 2 minutes on medium heat until an 1/8 of an inch is browned. Slice up some green onions (curly style) and make your own marinade. You can use Angelo Pietro’s fantastic dressing or just conjure up a soy sauce/vinegar/sugar/sesame oil dressing in a matter of seconds.


The remaining half of the block requires no cooking. Just sashimi it with a few radish sprouts. Instead of using plain sauce, I like to microplane garlic and ginger and mix it in with the soy sauce. I had it this way in Hong Kong and haven't eaten sushi any other way.


For a side dish I like to eat cold tofu with soy sauce, furikake, bonito flakes and sesame oil. And also a cold wakame (seaweed) salad which consists of salt, sugar, vinegar, white pepper and sesame seeds. Enjoy.

Eat Drink Style Breakfast of Champions

Who would’ve thought that tortilla chips scrambled with egg, salsa and cheese could be such a day-starting meal - only Eat Well in West Hollywood. I first had this delightful dish back at my old agency’s cafeteria and found it to be just as unique as the Peruvian saltado dish (meat, tomatoes, onions and FRIES sautéed in soy sauce). Ever since then, chilaquiles are the first thing I look for at any Mexican restaurant, but it’s also quite hard to find. If you know of any other places that serve up chilaquiles, please inform me. For $6.75, Eat Well serves a generous portion of chilaquiles with rice and beans. Don’t feel like trying this, you’ll find your typical diner fare plus an extended breakfast menu that ends at 3 pm. Have fun coloring/drawing on their paper mats while you wait.

Eat Drink Style "5 Things to Eat Before You Die" Meme

I'm being tagged by the Le Creuset-Braising Stacey of Just Braise. It's funny, because only last week I was watching a National Geographic Special about global methods of legal punishment. In America, we have switched from the electric chair to lethal injections. I remember this episode quite clearly - a man was being put to death for murdering a woman in Texas. His last meal? Tex-mex tacos. And I thought to myself, that's it? This is the hardest thing for any foodblogger/epicurean to pin down. Here's my top 5 list of things to eat.

One - Black & White Truffles
These beautiful underground morsels of heaven come from France and Italy. They are found by specially-trained pigs and dogs and average a good $90 for a 1/2 lb. Pigs are no longer used for locating truffles because pigs, like humans, also enjoy eating truffles - the strong odor of the truffle is unappealing to dogs. My first experience with truffles was at Alan Wong's in Hawaii. It was at that restaurant that I decided I wanted to work part-time in a restaurant. During my time at the restaurant, I was eating good portions of truffles every week. To the point, that I got SICK OF THEM. Even the finest things in life can lose its value when overdone. You can put truffles on anything and it'll taste good. My recent dinner included the use of fine white truffle oil from France, that my catering boss had given to me - excellent and rich. What would I eat these with? It wouldn't matter - tacos, pizza, asian food.

Two - Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs Please
Since I'm going to die anyway, my cholesterol level really has no significance anymore. That brings me to the King of Cholesterol - eggs! I wouldn't have them served up in a giant skillet like the photo above, but I would probably want a good 50 egg whites and 25 yolks. Remember Denny's "Grand Slam" special? A combination of four different things including eggs, sausage, bacon, toast and something else. Anyway, when I was a kid, I used to make my own version of the "Grand Slam" - only with eggs though. I would eat up 4 sunny-side-up eggs in less than 2 minutes. I still love eggs to this day and my doctor can tell. Hard-boiled, scrambled, over easy - yes please!

Three - Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai Soup Noodles
I didn't start up my Noodle Whore site for nothing. I LOVE NOODLES! I eat some variation of noodles at least 4 times a week. I still have yet to try making Thai Boat noodles, Cha Shu ramen and Pho. Food in the San Gabriel Valley is so cheap anyway, it's almost not worth it to go and buy the ingredients. $4.25 a bowl? Very nice!


Four - Everything Anthony Bourdain Has Eaten
A few years ago, I refused to eat seafood and animal offals. Then I picked up his book, Kitchen Confidential, and watched his show, No Reservations. He inspired me. His mentality is that you haven't lived until you've tried everything. Also, if things are on a menu, there is an audience craving it. If you can't eat it, then it wouldn't BE ON THE MENU. Now, I have no fear in trying anything at a sushi restaurant, eating animal innards, etc. My wish is to follow his footsteps in his international travels and try everything he has.

Five - Café Mom & Eating with Friends
I put this last because it's the most important. If I don't live to eat truffles by the case, 50-egg omelettes, Asian soup noodles, or eat Bourdain-style, it's ok. You wouldn't be where you are now if you didn't have good parents and friends. Your parents feed you only the best. Most of us will take things for granted, but we'll appreciate them later on. Although we as foodbloggers/epicureans enjoy eating food, we use dining as a means of connection with friends, family and loved ones. Sure my mom's chicken corn soup or oxtail soup would never make it on the French Laundry menu, but it's food that is made with thought. And that can't be replicated. I don't mean to be sappy, but it's true. My last and most important meal would be with family and friends. If you get a chance, read Daily Gluttony's thoughts on family and food.

Thanks for reading.

Tagging...

Oishii Eats
Colleen Cuisine
Best of LA
Immaeatchu
Gastrologica
Foodie Universe
Elmomonster
Pirikara
Tuna Toast

Eat Drink Style Thursdays with J, M & J - Miso Chilean Seabass Recipe & Seared Scallops

When I had first met J, she was barely starting her new hobby, wine-collecting. I usually drink anything in front of me, and for a while, I was drinking crap wine like $2 Buck Chuck because I didn't know any better. I even cooked with it. But it wasn't till I met her friend MM that I started to appreciate wine more as an art/craft than a source for alcoholic debauchery.

J: "You've gotta meet my friend MM. He's teaching me about wine."
Me: "Sure. I'll drink anything! Save me from the wrath of the $2 Buck Chuck."

In no time, J accumulated a collection of wine in her beautiful Danby Wine Cooler. I eventually met MM and learned a wealth about wine. The most interesting thing to me was that a good wine didn't have to reach the 3-digit bracket. He showed me delectables wines as low as $6 (3-bottles of $2 Buck Chuck).

Me: "Hey do you know how to pair wine with food?"
MM: "Sure, I can try."
Me: "Awesome. Hey, random question. If I hold on to a bottle of $2 Buck Chuck for 10 years, will the value of it increase? Say, to $20?"
MM: *weird look*

As an aspiring caterer, it is essential to possess the lore of wine. If you're serving up haute cuisine, the last thing a client wants to see is the same bottle of wine 3-4 times. You'd be fired instantly and resort to working in the kitchens of Applebee's or Olive Garden - stuck in front of the fry-o-lator for the rest of your life making sampler plates of mozzy sticks, wings and jalapeno poppers. I'd rather die.

We decided to start doing dinners with J, MM and MM's gf, JK. I had spoken to MM earlier about pairing a 3-course dinner. I could tell he was stoked because he immediately took for the wine store the same day we talked. He purchased 3 bottles of wine/champagne for my 3-course dinner, but ended up serving 2-courses. Seafood City, a Filipino market, didn't have clams to sell. What kind of seafood market refuses to sell clams??? Here's what we had:

Goat Cheese, St. Andre Brie/Camembert & Duck Liver Pate
We started off with a selection J bought from The Cheesestore of Silverlake with some mini toastettes. We had discovered these after one of many wine tastings at Silverlake Wine. We just had whatever wine I had lying around with this. Great selection by J.

Seared Scallops with Rosé Beurre Blanc
For the appetizer, I seared some large scallops with salt & pepper in some olive oil and butter till they were light brown on both sides. About 3-4 minutes per side and medium-high heat. I reduced some Rosé with shallots and vinegar and added cream, butter and sugar to the beurre blanc. A beurre blanc means 'white butter' and is traditionally made with butter, shallots, vinegar and white wine. The wine can be substituted with any sweet wine and the vinegar can be substituted with lemon. The scallops tasted buttery and were cooked perfectly. The butteriness was balanced off by the sharp and sweet taste of the beurre blanc. I served some microgreens on top to give a slightly bitter crunch. MM served a 2004 Carl Schmitt-Wagner Longuicher Maximiner Herrenberg Riesling Kabinett with this. Wonderful pairing.

Miso Chilean Seabass with Truffle Oil, Yuzu-Flavored Edamame and King Mushrooms
I steeped the Chilean seabass fillets for 3 days in a mixture of mirin, miso paste and sugar. I boiled the three components together and added them into a ziplock with the fish once it had cooled completely. Before broiling the Seabass, I sauteed some edamame beans and king mushrooms and seasoned it with soy sauce, rice wine and yuzu juice. I set the fish on top of the edamame and king mushrooms and lightly drizzled some French Truffle oil my catering boss had given me. Excellent stuff. The fish tasted great w/ the Truffle oil, but I had added way too many beans to the dish. According to the guests, it took some "work" to eat the beans. MM served a 2004 Dönnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Riesling Spätlese with this.

Overall, it was a great night, ending with more wine-drinking and a few episodes of Reno 911. Thanks again to MM & JK for great wine and company. Stay tuned for the next "Thursdays with J, M & J" dinner. Thanks for reading.

Eat Drink Style Dumplings: Bite-sized gifts.

Whether it be wontons, siu mai dim sum, soupy dumplings (shao loong bao), the dumpling in any form proves to be an easy and pleasant snack. And I think everyone should learn how to make it from scratch because you never know who will be knocking on your door with fork and knife in hand. If you’ve ever been to a Chinese market, you’ll see that there are just as many types of frozen dumplings as there are frozen pizzas at Ralph’s. My favorite is pork, shrimp, leek and mushroom. Sorry, but I can't provide you with the exact recipe because I'm an eyeballer. Ok here we go.

Start out with one pound of ground pork. The ‘generic’ ground pork is quite fatty and produces great flavor. I usually won’t use the ‘generic’ ground pork when cooking other Chinese dishes and go for the pork tenderloin or shoulder and have it ground by the butcher. It’s all preference. Add salt, white pepper, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil over the meat and pour a little bit of Chinese rice wine. (I think it’s the same as dry sherry wine.) Then add 2 egg whites and tapioca/corn starch for viscidity within the mixture. No GARLIC in my recipe. Garlic overpowers the other ingredients. While those marry, start prepping the other ingredients.


Chop the following into very fine pieces: shrimp, leeks and ear wood mushrooms. Leeks are basically gigantic green onions and are great with dumplings because of the texture. They are thicker and have a strong onion taste to it.


Ear wood mushrooms, aka Black Fungus, add a perfect bite as well. This is also used in Vietnamese egg rolls (Cha Gio). Ear woods are sold in a hydrated form. Simply place them in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes to rehydrate them; hot water if you’re in a hurry.


I like my dumpling filling to have an equal balance. As you can see, there’s a good amount of pink, green/white and black. Too much meat isn’t good. You should be able to smell the soy sauce and sesame oil after you’ve mixed everything. VERY IMPORTANT: take a test drive. Slap a small slab in a frying pan and make a patty, or wrap one in a dumpling skin and boil it. It’s better to go lighter on taste then over-salt the whole mixture.


Here’s how I boil my dumplings. Once the water is boiling on high heat, add the dumplings and boil them with the cover on. Once they start swimming around, remove the cover and lower the heat to medium-low for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and re-cover the dumplings for 2-3 minutes. Go!

For pot stickers, heat up the pan on medium and fry the dumplings for about 3-4 minutes, or until a light brown. Flip them over and pour in a 1/4” of water (or chicken broth for more flavor) and cover them for about 10 minutes. Once the water evaporates, they’ll start to brown after 5 minutes. Go!

For the dipping sauce, I like to use soy sauce, sugar, sriracha with seeds (thai chili sauce), rice vinegar and sesame oil. But soy sauce and sesame oil is perfectly fine. Enjoy.