Smoked Salmon and Turkey Formaggio Penne

I miss Asian Western pasta dishes so I went to my nearby grocery store to grab simple ingredients to make this dish. It's really easy and the bulk of the cooking time is cooking the pasta as the meats are already smoked and ready to consume.

I'm really starting to like this pasta sauce which is called Formaggio. It consists of Tomato, Ricotta, Parmigiano, and Reggiano. It resembles the Rose sauce which is a mixture of Red Tomato and Alfredo sauces.

I always love Smoked Salmon with my pasta and I was still craving the Smoked Turkey drumstick from Disneyland and was so glad they had it in my nearby grocery store.

 

Ingredients:

1 Smoked Turkey Drumstick
Slices of Smoked Salmon
Pasta of your choice (used Penne pasta)
Dried Parsley
Sauce of your choice (used Formaggio)

Tips to cooking pasta:

• add some salt in the water
• ensure ratio of pasta to water is at least 1 to 1.5, you want to be boiling pasta not cooking/braising it
• add some cooking oil in the water as well
• most importantly, taste couple noodles before fully straining it to ensure it's cooked exactly to your liking as the timing on the pasta packages are not always accurate

Happy Holidays starts with a perfect Rib Roast meal!

I recently bought a 6 lb Rib Roast from my nearby grocery store to start the first but many more coming festive dinners! I'm pretty content with the results on this one, it's very simple. Here's what I did!

Ingredients:

~ 6 lb Rib Roast
Coarse Salt
Coarse Pepper
Italian Seasoning (Thyme, Garlic, Onion, Rosemary, Oregano, Basil, Sage)
Sticks of fresh Thyme
Cooking Oil (used Avocado oil)

Instructions:

Bringing roast to room temperature is key!

1) Bring your rib roast to room temperature to ensure even cooking (at least 1 - 2 hours prior)
2) Pat the rib roast really well to remove any moisture (use lots of paper towels!)
3) Season generously on all sides of the rib roast with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning

Season generously!

4) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F
5) Coat roasting or grill pan with cooking oil and throw in fresh sticks of Thyme and allow it to preheat in the oven as well

6) Once oven is preheated to 450 degrees F, place rib roast fat side down to sear for ~ 20 min

Fat side down!

7) After 20 min has elapsed, turn down oven to 300 degrees F and flip the rib roast so it's fat side up now and let it roast for 1.5 - 2 hours for medium rare.
*Be sure to use a meat thermometer and adjust accordingly on cooking preference (135 F for medium rare, 150 F for medium, 160 F for well done)
8) Once the temperature has reached to your desired cooking level, take it out and let it to rest with an aluminum foil lightly wrapped on top of the roast for another 20-25 minutes before cutting it else all the juices will just spill out and not stick to the meat!

9) And enjoy! Happy Holidays and may your rib roast dinner be victorious!

Drizzle some Worcestershire sauce for more flavor!

*Many recipes call for roasting the majority of the roast at 350 F but I find that it shrinks the meat too much and renders it dryer/less moist. The lower the temperature, the less shrinking your rib roast will face. I found 300 F to be a great temperature in terms of results/time required. If you really have a lot of spare time, suggest going down to 250 F.

Sweet Taiyaki (Japanese fish-shaped cake) and Kasutera (Sponge Cake Mini Balls) !

Taiyaki literally means "baked Sea Bream". In Japan, the Sea Bream or in Japanese it's referred to as "Ma Dai" is prized for its flavor and is often served during New Year's and other festive events such as weddings. I got the opportunuity to have fresh Sea Bream sashimi and it was really delicious. Reminded me of the Amberjack Tuna for its buttery but yet really clean fresh taste. But this post isn't about the actual fish but the dessert!

Taiyaki is a Japanese fish-shaped cake that usually has some fillings inserted. The most common is the red bean paste filling from sweetened Azuki beans but you could also have custard, chocolate, cheese, or sweet potato. It's made with some kind of waffle or pancake batter and is poured into very detailed molds. I ended up getting the custard one as we recently had Azuki red beans in our Dorayaki (Click Here for the Details)!

They also had another popular pastry called Kasutera which basically were sponge cake shaped into tiny balls.

You can kind of think of it as a lighter, fluffier, and most likely healthier version of a Boston Cream donut. What do you think? Let me know!

The place we went to was called Kasuteira Taiyaki. We just randomly came across it and it was found near the entrance of a subway station called  Tsuruhashi in Osaka.

Name: Kasuteira Taiyaki
Location: Tsuruhashi station
Google Maps: Click Here

Store Front

Hello Fishies

Insertion of Red Beans

Sea Bream!

Inside Custard!

Kasutera- Sponge Cake balls

Delicious Domestic Beef and Weird Stuff Grilled and in a Stew!

We were walking around the Dontonbori area which is a very food centric area in Osaka for a place to grab lunch. After browsing around many shops, we decided on this place! Unfortunately I don't know what the place is called but I took a picture in front of the restaurant for reference! I also captured the approximate location of where it is.

Store Front

 This place served Wagyu/Domestic (black cattle) beef to grill and it was super fatty and delicious. Keep in mind that because it's so fatty that you don't need to grill the beef for too long or you'll overcook/waste them! They used some coal I believe as the heat source for the grill. I tend to prefer beef to be cooked medium-rare. 

Mmmm...reasonable set

Domestic Beef Set

Weird Cuts Set (intestine, stomach, heart, ???)

Tasty Morsels

 We also got a stew with random pieces of meat that aren't commonly eaten in the United States. We probably got stomach, intestine, throat, and crotch? I saw penis on the menu but hopefully we didn't order that hahaha. I'm very glad that I kept an open mind about it because the stew was mindbogglingly amazing. Full of flavor and had a very rich taste to it but at the same time not overpowering to my palate and relatively clean taste. Only minor inconvenience I had was that people are permitted to smoke inside. I'm not a smoker nor enjoy the smell of it as it tends to give me a headache so aside from that, everything about this place was perfect!

Stew of Weird but Super Tasty Stuff

Stew after the flavors are all Fused In

Epic Stew!

This place is worth a try! Let me know if you have been here before!

Google Maps: Click Here

Dorayaki - Red Bean Pancake Sandwich!

I was referred by a local Japanese friend that there's a place in the Ueno district of Tokyo that serves great Dorayaki so I thought I'd check it out on a recent visit to Japan!

Dorayaki is a red bean pancake which has two small pancake-like patties stuffed with sweetened Azuki red bean paste. The current shape of how Dorayaki is made was invented in 1914 in the same area! Talk about going to its origins!

For all those people that love Japanese manga and anime, there's a popular character named Doraemon who loves Dorayaki and falls for any trap involving them every time!

Have you had one before? If not, here's just the place to get one for only 180 YEN (slightly more than $1 USD).

Name: Ueno Usagi-Ya
Google Maps: Click Here
Website: Click Here
 

Store Front

om nom nom!

Yummy Deluxe Chirashi-don near Tsukiji Fish Market

We were pressed for time so we didn't get the opportunity to try Sushi-Dai as the lineup was a bit too long to wait but it's okay there are lots of other dining options in the area. The best bets are to go to places that have some lineup but not too long so you don't waste too much time just for a place to eat. Luckily after constantly browsing through the Tsukiji Fish market area we found a place! It's called Sushi Zan Mai. Yes it's not one of a kind as it has over 30+ locations in Tokyo but I want to primarily go to places that locals go to and a ton of locals eat here.

As you may or may not have noticed but the Bluefin Tuna is a highly prized fish in Japan and this place just so happened to have bought the most expensive Bluefin Tuna for 2014 which usually gives good fortunes for the year on the restaurant/owner that owns that title for the year and from the looks of it, they are doing pretty well this year based on the popularity of their many locations I passed by throughout Tokyo. It's not the very best cuts of fish but for the prices and quality presented to us, it's a pretty good deal.

For those that don't know what a Chirashi is, it's simple a bowl with rice at the bottom with various kinds of seasonal fish served on top.

Name: Sushi Zan Mai
Website: Click Here
Google Maps: Click Here

Where is the place to get your Chirashi fixing? Let me know!

Chefs hard at work

Miso Soup

Kanpachi and Abalone Sushi

Chirashi-don!

Delicious A La Carte Korean BBQ

I usually have been going to all you can eat (AYCE) places to get my Korean BBQ cravings but I thought I'd change it up on my recent visit to LA which is known for their huge Korea town. The place I went to had a huge crowd outside with a ton of Koreans so this should be good/legit. I had to wait close to an hour to get seated here but I'd say it was worth it but of course I would try to beat the rush hours to avoid waiting this long for my meal going forward.

This is an A La Carte Korean BBQ where they specialize in premium quality cuts of meat (mainly Beef and Pork) and the servers do all the cooking for you. Be warned though that Korean BBQ don't usually have the best ventilation systems so avoid wearing nice or clothes that are extremely absorbent to smoke from the grilling of meats/fats.

Store Front

Name: Kang Hodong Baekjeong
Yelp: Click Here!
Google Maps: Click Here!

Prime Rib Eye

Marinated Pork Collar

I decided to try one Beef and one Pork cut which were the Prime Rib Eye and Marinated Pork Collar respectively. When it comes to grilling there's just something magical with Beef that I don't quite get with Pork. Aside from the price difference, the Prime Rib Eye simply tasted amazing and better than the Pork Collar. It was so marbling and flavorful because it was a Prime grade.

I didn't know that there was an actual authentic way of eating Korean BBQ or if it is just nice marketing on their part but these were the steps to eating Korean BBQ.

1) Mix their Baek Jeong Secret House sauce with Wasabi
2) Consume lettuce salad with Baek Jeong Secret House sauce
3) Grab the veggie salad with Baek Jeong Secret House sauce and eat with the grilled meat
4) And repeat!

Have you tried this place before? Know a place that's better? Let me know!

As always, don't like food, LOVE IT!! Cheers!

How to eat Authentic Korean Style

Flavor Enhancers

Steamed Egg

Medium Rare Prime Rib Eye

Marinated Pork Collar

Indirectly Grilled Eggs