Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m a sushi chef. Far from it. But it’s definitely a fun party food. You can make it with very inexpensive and cheap ingredients. I used shrimp, egg, and cucumber here. You can use canned tuna, imitation crab, anything you want. It’s fun to make when people choose their own ingredients, and, if you have enough mats,  they can even roll it themselves.

Ingredients:

1 cup of sushi rice
3 sheets of nori/seaweed sheets
0.25 cucumber
1 egg
6 cooked de-veined shrimp shrimp.
(any other fillings you might like)
sesame seeds or roe for garnish

1. Cook the sushi rice and season with rice vinegar. If you don’t have rice vinegar, mix together ~1/8 cup of vinegar with half a teaspoon of sugar and mix until the sugar dissolves. Mix with cooked rice to flavor. Wait for rice to cool to room temperature.

2. Scoop some rice and spread flat on nori, which should be on top of your bamboo mat. Leave about a centimeter on top and bottom ends of the nori.

3. Place one of each filling ingredient on the inside and roll up the nori one time. Make sure to roll it up and squeeze tightly before continuing to roll. After each roll, squeeze the sushi mat tightly to make sure the fillings stay in place.

4. Take a sharp knife and cut into bite-sized pieces (or just eat it as the whole roll? haha)

Like I mentioned before, ingredients can be substituted for what you like. I tried experimenting and came out with different rolls that were just perfect and cool enough for some really hot weather.

To have the rice on the outside and the nori on the inside, simply place the rice directly on the sushi mat and then put the nori on top. If you want to try this, I’d suggest wrapping your mat in plastic wrap so you don’t have a nightmare cleaning the mat after.

Life is busy, and I’ve actually picked up another personal project. It’s been busy with this new project since it involves a lot of Twitter translations…but the problem is that the people I’m translating are in Japan…13 hours away. Imagine some sleepless nights/mornings…

Back to this blog’s main interests though…Food!

When I saw these on Tastespotting, they stayed on my mind, and, one day, I just took a chance one day and “popped” the question.

The question of whether or not I could make a matcha version of course. And I did!

The recipe from Bakerella is fairly simple, but I made notes for how I might personally change the recipe if I did it again.

Recipe
Ingredients
1 box of cake mix (+ whatever ingredients they tell you to use in the mix)
1 can of cream cheese frosting (I made mine from scratch)
Matcha tea powder
Chocolate

Steps
1. Prepare the cake mix according to the instructions on the packaging. If you want matcha cake, add a couple tablespoons into the powder (while it’s dry!) until you get a thoroughly green color before adding the other ingredients.

2. As the cake bakes, take your frosting and also add several heaping tablespoons of matcha powder. Mix/cream until thoroughly green.

3. Wait until the cake cools before crumbling into tiny pieces and mixing with the cream cheese frosting.

4. Form into balls slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball and refrigerate/freeze for several hours.

5. Melt your chocolate and roll the ball in the chocolate. Place the ball on a piece of wax paper. Repeat for how many balls you make (probably ~50). Chill again or freeze.

For these, you have to make sure that they are very cold before you eat/serve them. Otherwise they just end up tasting like frosting, and you can’t taste the matcha. I guess another option would be to just use less frosting. I think I would’ve halved it so it would’ve been less dense.

Otherwise, these are fun to make and eat. They also make really nice gifts that are easy to pack for big events or for individual people.

This time around, I visited Real Seafood Company for lunch and The Earle for dinner. Unfortunately, my (mediocre) photos only came out for RSC since it was too dark in the Earle for me to photograph, especially since I make it a policy to not use my camera’s flash.

Both places were fairly decent considering their prices. My meals at both restaurants were three courses each. Since lunch is $12 and dinner is $25, some friends and I decided to go to RSC for lunch since their dinner and lunch menus were exactly the same.

I think I was pleasantly excited when I saw these door handles…a restaurant that uses giant seahorse as doorhandles HAS to be awesome to some degree right?

This is the menu offered at RSC.

(click for a larger version)

Matt and Jessica got the gazpacho, Alex got the New England clam chowder, and I got the Manhattan seafood chowder.

Apparently the gazpacho wasn’t particularly impressive (despite me liking the plating). It seemed like it was just a relatively chunky salsa with a dab of sour cream and a giant cucumber slice.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with my Manhattan seafood chowder either. It was decent, but much of the seafood had been overcooked (what happens when you cook in bulk, I suppose). I found myself chewing for awhile just to bite into the clam chunks, and the shrimp was entirely overcooked. I found myself wishing that I had gotten the New England chowder instead.

For the second course, the girls (aka, me and Jessica) got the Shrimp St. Tropez. Both Matt and Alex got the BBQ salmon. I stuck with shrimp because the idea of BBQ on salmon repelled me a little. In my mind, if salmon is fresh, it shouldn’t need something as strong as BBQ sauce. Especially orange BBQ sauce (which I unfortunately don’t have a photo of).

Well, back to the shrimp. The shrimp was good. Very good. They were cooked perfectly and the sauce actually reminded me of some sweeter Thai curries. It also complimented the rice very well with a good amount of tangy-ness from the tomatoes and richness from the cream in the sauce. The beans seemed slightly undercooked, but the broccoli was perfectly done.

The dessert was nothing particularly special. I opted for a raspberry sorbet (and so did everyone else). The sorbet was done well, but it didn’t particularly stand out.

Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures from the Earle. It was however, an excellent restaurant. I started out with the Potage Dauphinois, which was absolutely amazing. Despite the fact that I normally don’t drink cream soups, the potage amazed me. Although it was thick, it wasn’t so thick that it sat in your stomach as you made your way through the other courses.

Next, I got the salmon wrapped in puff pastry accompanied with basil cream sauce. This was also very well done, although the salmon was perhaps cooked half a minute to a minute too long for my tastes. I also got a taste of the duck and whitefish dishes, which were incredible. The duck was extremely tender and had managed to absorb the flavor of the fruits and wines, and the whitefish was, in a a few words, elegant fish and chips (without the chips). The whitefish itself was not fresh. I have to give kudos to the chef for managing to mask most of it though, since I only tasted the fishy odor intially.

Dessert was creme brulee. And…well, how do you go wrong with creme brulee?? I think I would’ve taken up on my friend, Gabby’s, tip. If it was a few degrees warmer, it would’ve been an absolutely wonderful creme brulee.

This time around, Restaurant Week was a bit pricey, but I think both restaurants were very worth it, considering how it was a three course meal both times with very good service.

What are you best (or worst) Restaurant Week stories? Bad service? Botched order? Do share, please!

Almost.

I got this recipe off of Lifehack because the mere idea of making bread usually terrifies me, but this recipe made it seem so ridiculously easy that only an idiot could mess it up.

Wait. Did I say only an idiot could mess it up?

That’s funny…because I messed it up. OTL

My funny story with this ciabatta was that I ought to learn how to read packaging labels. The recipe called for 0.25 tsp of dry yeast. I poured in 7 grams. In case you didn’t realize…7g>0.25 teaspoon.

I didn’t realize my mistake until I poured it all into the warm water and decided to read the package. Unfortunately, I had no way of remedying this since I was in a rush to get to work, so I just dumped everything together and followed the instructions before running out. I was a bit worried that I’d have some sort of giant white monster in my hands, but to my surprise, although the dough had grown, it wasn’t anything close to monstrous. After baking, the bread was actually fine, but had a bit of a yeasty beer flavor.

Since then, I’ve tried experimenting with the recipe a bit, making tastier adjustments to add flavor.

Recipe
Ingredients

• 4 cups of all purpose flour (I think substituting whole wheat flour would work fine too)
• 2 cups of warm water (not boiling! You should be able to put your hand in without scalding yourself)
• 0.5 teaspoon of yeast
• 1 tsp of salt

Method
1. Mix the yeast and warm water in a large bowl.
2. Add flour and salt to water/yeast mixture. Mix well.
3. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it sit for about 8-12 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 400F/204C. Dust baking sheet liberally with flour.
5. Pour batter onto the baking sheet and top with favorite dried herbs. Bake for 25 minutes to 30 minutes and until the top of the bread browns.

I tried making a few modifications to the recipe, and that was adding about 2 tablespoons of oil (olive oil for those who have it?) and leaving out 2 tablespoons of water. I think that might make your bread more fragrant and it doesn’t make it more soggy.

I also found that the baking time might not be quite enough. I’m sure this varies from oven to oven though, so I might bake it for 30-35 minutes. Even if you happen to under bake the bread a little, I’ve found that after slicing it and toasting it, it’s still decent. I still have to find a way to make it less sticky though…any suggestions?

Man Lee, being the observant friend she is, realized that I like food quite a bit. So she arranged for us to stop by Gyu-kaku, a Japanese barbecue grill.

The interior was decorated quite nicely. I might’ve mentioned a few times that I like eating in bright places, and at first glance, the interior of this Gyu-kaku might not have seemed particularly bright. The restaurant, however, had a bunch of hanging lights directly above the tables so nobody was eating in the dark.

I also really really liked the furniture although I’m not the biggest fan of sitting in cushioned booths.

And, at each table, there was, surprise, surprise, a grill.

Now, on to the more food-related things.

Man Lee and I both started out with a seaweed soup.

It wasn’t the best soup in the world…I think you could liken it to msg mixed with hot water, some seaweed, and a splash of sesame oil. Something anybody could make. If I had known this was the seaweed soup, I would’ve gotten miso instead…

Next was the salad.

Your generic Japanese restaurant salad. It was definitely nicer than the msg-wakame soup though…

Man Lee and I both got the same orders for the beef as well. Unfortunately…I can’t remember what it was. -ducks the rotting vegetables being thrown-

The beef on the bottom, by far, was the better of the two dishes. Taste wise, it was marinated better. The meat itself was also probably fattier than the previous dish. In terms of freshness, all the ingredients for all the courses were very fresh. If you’re worried about freshness, then there’s always the option of grilling it longer to make sure it cooks through.

Man Lee says that, when she went to Gyu-kaku previously, she had seen some actual flames leap up from the grill. Being the pyro people that we are, both of us were secretly hoping for our own fire show, but got none. Alas, all we got was delicious grilled meat…

We finally shared a green-tea crepe cake with a side of vanilla ice cream.

It was, in two words, “freaking delicious”. I can imagine how much work it was to cook each crepe individually, then layer the green tea cream in between. A major plus was that this cake was still warm when it got to us, and it went perfectly with the vanilla ice cream. It was also an excellent finishing touch to the meal.

Service was also very good. The atmosphere inside is very relaxed and casual, although the employees try to maintain a Japanese atmosphere by occasionally greeting customers in Japanese.

Man Lee also took me on a run in Little Italy and Chinatown. We stopped by Ferrera’s, and the only thing I have to prove it is a snagged napkin.

Ferrera’s known for their cannoli. I personally liked their mousse cakes more. Their presentation (none of which you can see here…) is very pretty and cute, and their prices are relatively decent considering how they’re an old established patisserie.

Seeing these backlogged photos just reminds me how food is better nearly everywhere else…something Man Lee especially missed, her being the city girl.

To be honest though, I have no excuse to offer for the past 2 weeks of inactivity, but I do have an excuse for the inactivity before that. And the excuse is that -drumroll- I graduated! I am officially a University of Michigan alumni after 3 years of snow and occasionally some sunshine.

The ceremony was wild because President Obama, yes, that’s right, THE President of the US of A was the Commencement speaker. Regardless of mine, his, and your political views, it was a pretty darn exciting. I was only five rows of chairs away from him and my friend joked about how he could probably spit and sweat on us with a good wind.

And, speaking of wind, the weather that morning was terrible. My parents and friends had fought their way into the Michigan Football Stadium at around 6 in the morning and I had also been at the field at around 6 in the morning–all to get close-up seats. I think everyone thought it was worth it though. After all, how often do you get to see a sitting president up close?

After the graduation ceremony, my parents and I flew to NYC to visit my grandmother. And I think we can all agree that NYC=good food. I hadn’t had such good Chinese food for so long…so this post will be me going on and on about xiao long bao, or the Shanghai-nese soup bun at Joe’s Shanghai, a restaurant in Flushing, and some other random good food that my aunt took us to.

Joe’s Shanghai is located in Flushing, one of NYC’s outlying boroughs (I think that’s what they call it). I think the majority of people there are Asian, and there are plenty of Asian markets and stores in any given area. Flushing even has their own Chinatown right next door to Manhattan’s Chinatown.

The restaurant is primarily known for their soup buns, otherwise known as xiao long bao. For those unfamiliar with one of the most delicious things in the world, xiao long bao is a steamed bun a little larger than a ping pong ball. Inside is some pork and occasionally crab roe along with a savory thick broth. Eating can be difficult if you accidentally puncture the thin skin and the soup leaks out, which is why it’s normally eaten with a soup spoon.

Some rules for eating xiao long bao.

1. Eat them hot. There should be steam rising from the steamer.

2. Don’t use a fork. I repeat, DON’T use a fork. Even if you don’t know how to use chopsticks, resort to using two spoons if you must or the tongs, but DO NOT use a fork. The point of eating the xiao long bao is for the rich soup inside. If it leaks a lot…well, then it just becomes a bao/bun.

3. Be careful not to scald yourself. This means don’t drop the entire thing in your mouth because you’ll only feel a burning sensation. I normally bit off a tiny portion of the bun wrap and let some of the steam out before sipping some of the soup and seeing if it’s a good temperature. Some people like to add a bit of vinegar into the soup, and this is a nice option, but I normally drop a large amount of shredded ginger and pour the entire bun in.

4. Despite me saying how it’s dangerous to puncture the skin of the bun, it happens all the time (as seen below). At Joe’s Shanghai, they roll out the dough so that it’s extremely soft and thin, so punctures are a normal occurrence. Don’t feel like you’ve broken a law if it happens.

On a side note, the service here can be extremely bad. They automatically tack on a tip and think that people will still come back, which is kind of true. Their food, to an extent, makes up for the sour-faced waiters and crashing plates and steamers, but if you’re looking for excellent service, this place is really not the place to be. Good food, yes, good service, no.

On another note entirely, my aunt took us to another restaurant in Douglaston. I haven’t had these flat rice noodles and a malay steamed cake for ages…

Well, one, it isn’t that exotic. Natto is just fermented soybeans. And two, honestly, I’ve had more smelly things (like certain cheeses and tofu), so natto is just another ordinary side dish for rice. For more information, here’s a Wiki article.

I came to the conclusion after trying buying it for the first time the other day.

Natto is seriously healthy fast food (as ironic and contradictory as that sounds).

Most people eat it on rice with a raw egg and some scallions. I decided to add some slices of cucumber and nori along with the scallions, but left out the egg.

You want your rice to be nice and hot and fresh. Ideally, it should’ve just come out of the rice pot.

And then mix and enjoy! You’ll have to be careful when eating because of the thin strands of slime. You might wonder if you have something hanging out of your mouth, and it’s probably natto strands, but hey, it’s fine to eat like a kid once in awhile!

Natto

Bento are so easy to make and make pretty! I think half the time, people make bentos just for the fun of decorating and then enjoying some food.

This is a really simple bento I made. It consists of a multi-grain rice (donated by my roommate haha), lap chong (Chinese-style dried sausage), a vegan beancurd wrap and napa cabbage.

The rice is on a bed of boiled napa cabbage and topped with fried onion and garlic. On top is the dried sausage.

The vegan beancurd wrap has a variety of vegetables inside. It has fried tofu, carrots, dried wood ear fungus and mushrooms. I won’t claim credit for making this since it was packed by my parents long for when I came here. It keeps fairly well in the freezer since this was months after I came back to Michigan.

The beancurd is on a bed of napa cabbage and roasted laver.

Even though a lot of people have the nifty bento boxes that are specifically made for packing lunches. But bento boxes can really be any sort of containers. The container I have here is reused one from a restaurant. The container holding the wrap is something I picked up from an event.

Most importantly, make sure that if you’re going to microwave it that the containers are microwave-safe! You don’t want chemicals leaking into your food…

This includes chip dip.

Yogurt provides a really healthy alternative, especially when it comes to making chip dip. Even though most people seem to associate yogurt with desserts, it’s actually excellent as a savory ingredient too.

This is a super casual recipe. My chip dip was only with dill this time around, but if you add spaghetti and hot sauce, it takes up a salsa-like taste. Since chip dip’s so versatile, it makes a really easy and healthy snack! If you don’t like the tart flavor of the yogurt, I tried creaming and mixing in some cream cheese, which really helps thicken the texture too.

It’s as guilt-free as it comes…

These little crabs (the body of the crab is about the size of a penny) were from Pacific Mall in Toronto. My cousin got these for me as a snack since I told her that Ann Arbor was, in many ways, like a “village”.

It’s just a cute little snack that are incredibly…exotic, for lack of a better term.

Texture-wise and taste-wise, it’s almost like eating caramel corn. There are tiny little pieces of puffed rice and I think the entire thing was dehydrated and rolled in caramel or something. They’re fun to eat if you aren’t squeamish and realizing that you just crunched down on a tiny crab…