How fresher can you get? It is organtic too. I bought this from the Grocery store so I could make lettuce wraps. It was packaged in a plastic container. Each leaf was perfect with no tears or darken edges.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Living Lettuce
How fresher can you get? It is organtic too. I bought this from the Grocery store so I could make lettuce wraps. It was packaged in a plastic container. Each leaf was perfect with no tears or darken edges.
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Aji-Ichi Japanese Restaurant
April 7, 2006
Friday night we went to a Japanese Restaurant called Aji-Ichi. I didn’t want to drive far since I had a pounding headache that had not gone away from the night before. We looked online and found a restaurant called Aji-Ichi. The satisfying delicious meal turned out to be a good distraction for my head pain.
The restaurant was located along a row of other restaurant of various cuisine so you could have your pick of your craving.
It looks like the restaurant was run by “real” Japanese. Well at least it seemed that way from the accents and the cooking taste.
For appetizer we had a spicy hamachi roll. They decortated it with pea sprouts which was a nice touch. Also we got takuwan and pickled cabbage for a little treat and our meals came with miso soup and salad. The salad had some really interesting dressing of onion, bonito, and mayo, those are the ingredients that I could make out with my taste buds.
I ordered what I usually order in a good Japanese restaurant. Usually I get fish; mackerel or saba. This time they had Mackerel on the menu. It was a nice fillet of fish and the bones were removed. I love the fish, it has a mild taste and texture somewhat similar to sea bass and butterfish. It was pretty authentically prepared as it was grilled, seasoned lightly and served with grated daikon.
David had the combination shrimp tempura and sashimi. Now you can tell a good Japanese restaurant from their tempura. Out of a 10 point scale this was a 7. Very good in the taste and it was the right mix of panko and batter, but they haven’t mastered the consistent batter application as it was clumped to one side.
The rice was perfectly cooked. Some day I’ll own one of those fancy Japanese rice cooker with fuzzy logic. Those dream machines cost over 100 bucks.
The restaurant didn’t have fancy décor and it seemed to be a neighborhood type of place as the owners knew a handful of people as they walked in. The food was pretty darn close to authentic Japanese and the price was really nice. Our bill was less than 30 dollars.
Special Bonus: They had Passion-Orange-Guava Juice!
Spicy Hamachi Sushi
Fish (Mackerel)
Combo: Tempura and Sashimi
Friday night we went to a Japanese Restaurant called Aji-Ichi. I didn’t want to drive far since I had a pounding headache that had not gone away from the night before. We looked online and found a restaurant called Aji-Ichi. The satisfying delicious meal turned out to be a good distraction for my head pain.
The restaurant was located along a row of other restaurant of various cuisine so you could have your pick of your craving.
It looks like the restaurant was run by “real” Japanese. Well at least it seemed that way from the accents and the cooking taste.
For appetizer we had a spicy hamachi roll. They decortated it with pea sprouts which was a nice touch. Also we got takuwan and pickled cabbage for a little treat and our meals came with miso soup and salad. The salad had some really interesting dressing of onion, bonito, and mayo, those are the ingredients that I could make out with my taste buds.
I ordered what I usually order in a good Japanese restaurant. Usually I get fish; mackerel or saba. This time they had Mackerel on the menu. It was a nice fillet of fish and the bones were removed. I love the fish, it has a mild taste and texture somewhat similar to sea bass and butterfish. It was pretty authentically prepared as it was grilled, seasoned lightly and served with grated daikon.
David had the combination shrimp tempura and sashimi. Now you can tell a good Japanese restaurant from their tempura. Out of a 10 point scale this was a 7. Very good in the taste and it was the right mix of panko and batter, but they haven’t mastered the consistent batter application as it was clumped to one side.
The rice was perfectly cooked. Some day I’ll own one of those fancy Japanese rice cooker with fuzzy logic. Those dream machines cost over 100 bucks.
The restaurant didn’t have fancy décor and it seemed to be a neighborhood type of place as the owners knew a handful of people as they walked in. The food was pretty darn close to authentic Japanese and the price was really nice. Our bill was less than 30 dollars.
Special Bonus: They had Passion-Orange-Guava Juice!
Spicy Hamachi Sushi
Fish (Mackerel)
Combo: Tempura and Sashimi
Friday, April 07, 2006
Houlihans, Holiday Inn (San Bruno,CA)
April 6, 2006
Right to left: Quesadilla, Lettuce wraps and Ribs.
Houlihans is another American food joint with typical array of pasta and meats prepared with salt and seasoning and grease. I had a headache so I really didn’t feel like going far at all to get something to eat. So we went down stairs to Houlihans.
The lettuce wraps were the best thing although the sauce on the chicken was a very sweet and thick sauce. Aside from that, it was a nice mixture of pineapple and water chestnuts and chicken. The iceberg was cold and crisp.
The ribs were okay, not great. The quesadilla was alright too. All these foods I guess would be good if we were drinking beer. . .but we weren’t.
Oh there was some redneck in the bar area staring at me when we walking in and out. So disgusting a sight, I stuck my tongue out at him as we left.
Right to left: Quesadilla, Lettuce wraps and Ribs.
Houlihans is another American food joint with typical array of pasta and meats prepared with salt and seasoning and grease. I had a headache so I really didn’t feel like going far at all to get something to eat. So we went down stairs to Houlihans.
The lettuce wraps were the best thing although the sauce on the chicken was a very sweet and thick sauce. Aside from that, it was a nice mixture of pineapple and water chestnuts and chicken. The iceberg was cold and crisp.
The ribs were okay, not great. The quesadilla was alright too. All these foods I guess would be good if we were drinking beer. . .but we weren’t.
Oh there was some redneck in the bar area staring at me when we walking in and out. So disgusting a sight, I stuck my tongue out at him as we left.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Pomegranate - Berkeley, CA
April 6, 2006
On my first night in I felt pretty away and it was a good day so we drove out to Berkeley to get some dinner. We drove and found a restaurant along university avenue called Pomegranate.
It was an okay meal. We had Spanakopita for an appetizer. It was stuffed more than usual and was very tasty. Though I think I would have preferred smaller pieces. Nice warm pita bread was brought out at the beginning.
I ordered the Musaka which is a lamb and eggplant casserole with marinara sauce. This was incredibly salty that I could not finish the whole thing.
David’s dish was a lot better. Meat kabobs had some odd spice on it. The best was the rice. It was light and flavored with somekind of seasoned oil. The side vegetable were good.
Spanakopita
Musaka
Kabbob
On my first night in I felt pretty away and it was a good day so we drove out to Berkeley to get some dinner. We drove and found a restaurant along university avenue called Pomegranate.
It was an okay meal. We had Spanakopita for an appetizer. It was stuffed more than usual and was very tasty. Though I think I would have preferred smaller pieces. Nice warm pita bread was brought out at the beginning.
I ordered the Musaka which is a lamb and eggplant casserole with marinara sauce. This was incredibly salty that I could not finish the whole thing.
David’s dish was a lot better. Meat kabobs had some odd spice on it. The best was the rice. It was light and flavored with somekind of seasoned oil. The side vegetable were good.
Spanakopita
Musaka
Kabbob
Mac n' Cheese
I'm eating up the foods in the pantry which leads me to cook a lot of plain food. My fresh produce intake is lacking. However, I made this yummy mac n'cheese which turned out better than I though. I just sautéed onions in butter until soft. Then added 1 Tb. spoon of floor and made a rue with the left over half and half. I added regular cheddar and parmesan (grated and shredded). I think the parmesan is why it tasted good. Also using the “ready cut spaghetti” shape made it mix well. After mixing the macaroni inside, I sprinkled breadcrumbs on top and toasted them in the broiler. I was too lazy to bake the whole thing. I didn’t put enough salt on it seemed so I salted it with garlic sea salt.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory
We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch the other day. Man that place is popular. It was a Thursday at 1pm and we still had to wait to be seated. It’s located near a mall so it's a nice place to go after/before shopping.
Something to keep us going was a sourdough roll and honey rye(?) bread. It was nice and warm when it came to our table.
The menu is your basic American spread from burgers, salads, to pasta and pizza. The appetizers sounded a lot more interesting, so we ordered 3 appetizers: Firecracker salmon rolls, sweet-corn tamale cakes, fire-roasted fresh artichoke.
The firecracker salmon rolls were the best! It was salmon rolled up in spinach and fried in the shape of firecrackers. Crispy on the outside like good lumpia (a Filipino dish) and served with sweet/sour sort of sauce. It was served with red cabbage coleslaw dressed in your basic oriental dressing. I could’ve had twice as much and eaten that as a lunch.
The corn tamale cakes tasted as I expected and were good. However I should have thought before ordering if it would mix with the other appetizers, which it didn’t. Separately I think it would have been a better choice. The presentation however was quite pretty.
The fire-roasted artichokes were unique. Not something you usually see on a menu. The garlic dip was an aioli (fancy word for mayo) which was tasty. The artichokes were cooked through and “fire roasted” meaning chared, and then dressed with a balsamic dressing. I’ve never had balsamic on artichokes before but that was a good combo. The only thing most restaurant do when serving artichokes is they overcook them to a mushy stage rather than al dente. I guess this is because someone yanking a artichoke leaf from their mouth to get the meat off the leaf looks a little primitive. If the artichokes weren’t over cooked this would have been a perfect dish as I would be more than willing to sacrifice eating appearance for good food any day!
Our server was pretty attentive. I think she came to check on us like 5 times. Also she brought out hot towels and lemon after eatting the artichokes.
Something to keep us going was a sourdough roll and honey rye(?) bread. It was nice and warm when it came to our table.
The menu is your basic American spread from burgers, salads, to pasta and pizza. The appetizers sounded a lot more interesting, so we ordered 3 appetizers: Firecracker salmon rolls, sweet-corn tamale cakes, fire-roasted fresh artichoke.
The firecracker salmon rolls were the best! It was salmon rolled up in spinach and fried in the shape of firecrackers. Crispy on the outside like good lumpia (a Filipino dish) and served with sweet/sour sort of sauce. It was served with red cabbage coleslaw dressed in your basic oriental dressing. I could’ve had twice as much and eaten that as a lunch.
The corn tamale cakes tasted as I expected and were good. However I should have thought before ordering if it would mix with the other appetizers, which it didn’t. Separately I think it would have been a better choice. The presentation however was quite pretty.
The fire-roasted artichokes were unique. Not something you usually see on a menu. The garlic dip was an aioli (fancy word for mayo) which was tasty. The artichokes were cooked through and “fire roasted” meaning chared, and then dressed with a balsamic dressing. I’ve never had balsamic on artichokes before but that was a good combo. The only thing most restaurant do when serving artichokes is they overcook them to a mushy stage rather than al dente. I guess this is because someone yanking a artichoke leaf from their mouth to get the meat off the leaf looks a little primitive. If the artichokes weren’t over cooked this would have been a perfect dish as I would be more than willing to sacrifice eating appearance for good food any day!
Our server was pretty attentive. I think she came to check on us like 5 times. Also she brought out hot towels and lemon after eatting the artichokes.
Saturday Lunch at Japanica
Japanica is a Japanese restaurant located on the south side of Milwaukee. I always thought they had the best prices and decent Japanese food, which by default makes them the best Japanese restaurant in Milwaukee. Their service and food is pretty consistent. However, David said last time he was there with his mother the service was lousy.
The restaurant is run by Chinese people it seems. Our waiter this time had a real bad accent and his speech was garbled. But service was still okay.
Today we had the lunch special. 3 rolls for 9 bucks. Hey that’s pretty good. Also the rolls were pretty good and there were 6 pieces to each roll. We were pretty stuffed after that. We got the following rolls; eel and cucumber, salmon skin and avocado, spicy tuna, spicy crab, spicy salmon, and shrimp and asparagus. The shrimp and asparagus roll was a little bland though. The rice was a little sweeter than I expected. Actually when I make my own sushi I make the rice sweet but restaurants usually don’t season the rice in the same way. The lunch comes with soup and a salad. The rolls were obviously not rolled by a master sushi chef as they were a bit messy on the ends. But hey I’m not complaining, I just know the difference and for 9 bucks it still was a good meal.
Salmon Dinner Entree
David's Comment: "This looks good (GRUNT)".
Here's just a basic salmon dinner I made one night. Serverd over Orzo pasta (rice shaped ). I think I simply pan fried the salmon in some olive oil and seasoned to taste. I made a salad with mandarin oranges, grapes and used Pietro's salad dressing and some balsalmic vinegar because it goes well with the fruits.