Dreamy Breakfast Sandwich

Posted on May 23, 2013 by admin

Sauce – Pizza & Wine
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
3400 E Sky Harbor Blvd
Phoenix, AZ 85034

I found a dreamy, indulgent breakfast sandwich. In an airport. In a pizza joint. Who would have thunk? On a quick trip to visit a friend in the Phoenix area, I was on my way home and hungry for something. I didn’t want a cold sandwich, nor did I want a greasy burrito or taco. I spied a modern looking, clean joint across the way and wandered over. I spied a pizza oven and a pizza menu, and just as I was going to settle for pizza for breakfast, which is by no means a bad breakfast, I saw a breakfast sandwich menu. I of course chose the egg, cheese and bacon sandwich – bacon was calling my name.

When it was delivered, I was floored. The sandwich was huge! AND, it came with side of perfectly seasoned potatoes. A few words come to mind with this sandwich that shouldn’t with such savory and traditionally heavy ingredients – fluffy, airy and light. The brioche bun was so fresh and soft. The eggs were delicate and not greasy. The bacon as nice and chewy. I struck jackpot; I found a dreamy breakfast sandwich in an airport. Deliciousness in an airport? I’m still in shock.

Conclusion: Hungry for an amazing breakfast sandwich? Try Sauce. If I’m ever back in the area, I just might try the pizza, too.

Korean Meets Hawaiian

Posted on May 12, 2013 by admin

Harry’s Cafe
1101 Waimanu St
Honolulu, HI 96814
Neighborhood: Ala Moana
(808) 593-7798

On a whim and looking for good breakfast grinds away from downtown Waikiki area, we found ourselves in this a neighborhood where tourists are definitely not milling around. Only means one thing – as Hawaiians would say ono grinds!

Our kind server (I’ll call Korean Mama) seemed to have a Korean accent and there was kimchi fried rice available for order, so I suspected some good ol’ korean mom cooking brewing back there somehow. Naturally, I ask to try my own off menu combination of Loco Moco Fried Rice with KIMCHI FRIED RICE! Hubby chose the not often seen combination of Corned Beef Hash Loco Moco, a patty of corned beef hash with fried egg, rice and ono-licious gravy. Our Korean Mama upon noting my request of kimchi fried rice and allowing me to combine it with my loco moco, also offered us their kimchi stew of the day!

Look at this!! Just look at this. Do I need to say more? The kimchi fried rice had the right amount of tangy unctiousness from the kimchi juices and combining it with the gravy and oozy yolk of the fried egg made it even better. All kinds of sauces tangy, salty and savory and warm rice makes for a great Hawaiian breakfast. Only complaint here was that the mac salad was on the overcooked side and a little too mushy for my taste.

I was weary that the Corned Beef Hash Loco Moco would be too salty, but we were pleasantly surprised. The gravy here is more on the mild side, so it balances well with the salty corned beef hash.

Conclusion: Hawaiian food made with the feel of homemade love. Will head back!

Food Porn: Deep Fried Spam Musubi

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

Da Kitchen
925 Isenberg St
Honolulu, HI 96826
Neighborhood: Mo’ili’ili
(808) 957-0099

http://www.da-kitchen.com/

You’re welcome.

Upscale Katsu at Kimukatsu

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

Kimukastu
AQUA Waikiki Joy Hotel
320 Lewers St
Honolulu, HI 96815
Neighborhood: Waikiki
(808) 922-1129

http://www.kimukatsu.com

There was a part of my brain that somehow associated deep fried foods with cheap and lower “quality” food, but trying the tonkatsu (breaded deep fried pork) at Kimukatsu has reset that part of the brain. Tonkatsu can be fancy!

Nestled near downtown Waikiki, Kimukatsu produces some delicious well breaded and light tonkatsu and other katsu type dishes. We ordered the classic tonkatsu and kobe beef katsu. If you looked closely at the photo of the tonkatsu, you can see that there are actually many different layers of the pork, as if they’ve painstakenly shaved the meat layer by layer and put it back together to form the patty. Is that the key to airy feel when biting into the meat? The kobe katsu was also delicious to eat. It was more robust in flavor and also had a similar delicate crunchy breading. The refreshing salad on the side was the perfect accompaniment to balance out the hot in temperature katsu.

Conclusion: You haven’t had good katsu until Kimukatsu.

Noodle Discovery: Marukame Udon

Posted on May 10, 2013 by admin

Marukame Udon
2310 Kuhio Ave
Honolulu, HI 96815
Neighborhood: Waikiki
(808) 931-6000

Me? Sucker for fresh noodles? Uh, yea! So, when we stumbled across Marukame Udon and their reputation for fresh udon noodles, it was our first stop off our early flight that landed at 5:30 am. What better way to be welcomed to Honolulu than to have a hearty slurp worthy breakfast of fresh noodles.

Marukame is a cafeteria style restaurant, so you grab a tray and they take your order. Then you slide over to the tempura section. Boy was it difficult not to pick one of each offering. Offering a number of different options for noodles, hot or cold, hubby went with bukkake style and I went with ontama bukkake style udon. In other words, we had the same thing, but mine had a nice soft boiled egg with glorious golden oozy yolk. The broth was just enough to flavor the noodles and the crunchy tempura flakes and delicately chopped onions took it to another level. Tempura fried chicken was juicy and crunchy, and I like how each tempura option had a slightly different texture batter, though all delicate, super crunchy and did not fall off of its substrate.

Conclusion: I declare this to be a routine stop whenever in Honolulu!

Kushiage Paradise at Yu-Yu

Posted on May 2, 2013 by admin

Yu-Yu
4115 Spring Mountain Rd
Ste E101
Las Vegas, NV 89102
Neighborhood: Chinatown
(702) 220-4223

We’ve always been a fan of Ichiza, and now they have a sister restaurant Yu-Yu. Let’s call it Kushiage (Koo-shi-ah-geh) paradise, a deep fried world of fry any vegetable, fruit, or protein. Well, pretty much anything. Along with a very robust kushiage menu, there are entrees that are just as tasty, and I think they are smart to offer a different variety of entrees than what Ichiza offers so that there is no competition.

Here’s some deep fried food porn for ya. =)

Juicy Dumplings at Bund Shanghai

Posted on March 24, 2013 by admin

Bund Shanghai
3545 S Decatur Blvd Ste A
Las Vegas, NV 89103
Neighborhood: Chinatown
(702) 272-1777

The unexpected location of this restaurant surprised us. It’s nestled in between a gas station and other industrial looking stores. Weird location? Didn’t stop us from going. Noodles and dumplings are a major weakness of mine, so upon finding out that this new place served juicy pork dumplings/xiao long bao, we were there. Service was friendly for even American standards, and they even checked in on us a few times and asked why didn’t finish our onion pancakes (more on that later).

I was jonesing for some fresh soy milk, but they had ran out of it. Oh well, stick with good ol’ cleansing hot tea. On to the food!

1. Thick Fried Noodles – Chewy noodles, essence of wok hei and savory flavors of soy sauce. This seemed more like a Ameri-nese (a la Panda Express), but adding in some vinegar and hot sauce, we were happily slurping all the noodles.
2. Onion Pancakes – We enjoyed the overall crispiness, but what was lacking was more flaky layers. Concerned, they asked us why we did not finish the pancakes, we had to lie that we were too full to eat it, but truly, even if we were full, our gluttonous selves would have made room had it been more flaky.
3. Xiao Long Bao/Juicy Pork Dumplings – Clear, flavorful juice, thin chewy skin. Impressive for the Las Vegas area. As always, we must compare to famous Din Tai Fung, the skin wasn’t as thin an membranous and the volume of broth was less voluminous.

Conclusion: For the Las Vegas area, it’s not bad. Overall, it’s certainly not the best, but this will do for my XLB cravings.

9+ Layer Rice Cake (Savory)

Posted on March 13, 2013 by admin

9+ Layer Rice Cake (Savory)
Recipe

Spent another day with Grand Aunt learning how to make her famous steamed 9 layer rice cake (about 11-12 really). It has flavorful topping of pork, shrimp, mushrooms and onions on top with a delicate thin layers of glutinous rice cake. It’s a chewy and savory mouthful, and when combined with Aunt Cindy’s famous Nuoc Cham (a.k.a. Vietnamese dipping sauce). It combines savory, sweet, tangy and chewy all in one glorious bite. A meal great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I can attest to that because Grand Aunt gave me so much that I did have it for all 3 meals!

True to Grand Aunt’s style of cooking in bulk production… Here we go!

Equipment:
Blenders
Large Pans
BIG steamers (so big it fits a small child)
Large Wok (also fits a small child)

Ingredients for the rice layers:
9.5 lbs Glutinous Rice soaked for 10+ hours and rinsed halfway through soaking time
1 ladle full Onion Oil (for better savory flavor and smoother texture)
1/2 ladle Salt
Water

Ingredients for savory topping:
2.5 lb ground pork loin
2 lb shrimp
3 onions (drip dry)
1/2 lb red onion
1/2 lb mushroom
~1/4 lb garlic
Pepper
Chicken Bouillon
Salt
Cooking Wine
Sesame Oil
Oyster Sauce

Method for rice layers:

1. Blend glutinous rice until completely smooth/fine
2. Add water until texture on ladle looks like…

3. Season with onion oil and salt

4. Grease pans with onion oil and set into steamer

5. Pour even amounts of mixture into pan and steam for 10 minutes each layer until pan is filled
6. Rotate pans every so often to ensure even layers

Method for savory topping:

1. Food process shrimp, garlic and shallots together, so that the shrimp does not stick to each other
2. Food process mushrooms and onions individually

3. Stir fry shrimp mixture on high heat and season with salt, pepper and cooking wine. Set aside.
4. Stir fry pork and season with salt and cooking wine. Place in colander and set aside to drip off fat.
5. Stir fry onion and proceed to add in mushroom. At this point, okay to add more water to onion and mushroom if it seems dry. Add in cooked pork and shrimp. At the final seasoning stage, season with chicken bouillon, sesame oil, oyster sauce (~ 4 Tbs-ish?), pepper, and sugar. Set aside.

Final step: