Home Cooking 1.1

Location: At the house
Topic: Sashimi Dinner

After surfing, me and the family picked up some fish from a Japanese market in Oceanside. The fish was maguro (tuna) ans salmon. Also we had picked up a nice sized tentacle of octopus. Preparing this dinner was fun because my brother had gotten a sashimi knife from Japan from a co-worker. So here it is.

Busting out some tuna sashimi

The tuna was very tender but was nothing close to toro. The salmon was salmon (as you can tell I'm not much of a fan). The tako (octopus) was actually quite tender and was not too chewy as you find in some Japanese restaurants.

More Sashimi

Even more sashimi. The sashimi was accompanied by freshly grated wasabi root which was quite expensive for a little piece.

Also sake was served with dinner.

This had to be one of my favorite dinners by far due to the simple and traditional flavors. Fish, wasabi, and shoyu.

Home Cooking 1.0

Location: Home

Often, when my brother comes home to visit during the weekends, we try to culminate our collection of culinary skills to bust out a delicious dinner. My brother was my initial inspiration to go into the culinary field. He would often have both of us try various recipes to experiment. While he was in Berkeley, he would take us out to many local restaurants that were both "homey" and exquisite.
 

Vegetables? I guess so.



The following dinner took place last year in 2010.



Ribeyes from Costco with a simple rub of salt, pepper, cayenne, sugar, cumin, and other stuff.



Buttermilk Cornbread. This recipe is perfect since the bread turns out very light yet it is still creamy and velvety.



The ribeyes on the grill. Grilled perfectly to rare. Just how it should be.

 All this lobster meat was quite overwhelming for four meat eaters.





Simply Cooked lobster via steamed



I dished out some homemade cream puffs also. It was made with the traditional choux paste. Crisp on the outside and moist flakyness in the interior.

The cream puffs were filled with a simple lemon pastry cream and dusted with powdered sugar. These were pretty decent. The lemon pastry cream was a substantial filling but I still personally prefer ice cream :)

Best Bakery in the World?

Location: Bouchon Bakery, Yountville

During my past two trips to Napa, it was necessary that we go and try Bouchon Bakery since well, Thomas Keller owns it! The first trip, me and my brother just had some bread and thats about it. By the second trip came around I already had a grip on what I should really get. By the way, during the second trip, Bouchon was filled and we had ordered every type of macaron that day and some other pastries and bread. When we were about to check out Chef Keller walked in and picked up a baguette and he had his cup of joe. Being in his presence made me wobbly at the knees. For the fellow foodies who recognize him, I am sorry for not having a photo...I was in shock.

Seasonal Blueberry Macaron. I believe the brown ones in the back were chocolate and cappuchino or expresso.

Pistachio Macaron

Strawberry Macaron. A little too sweet.

The Blueberry Macaron was my favorite of the day. The exterior had a nice crisp to a transition of soft gooeyness and cream. Literally one of the best snack desserts ever. Chef Keller's pastry chefs did well with this recipe.

Seasonal Blackberry Tart

Simple glazed bread pudding

Brioche

Bouchon Bakery is reputable for its breads that it serves at its associated restaurants but I beleive that it is the Macarons that make this bakery the best in the world.

The Beginning

Since I don't have any new material yet, I will be posting and reviewing some of my past food experiences within the past few years. The first post will be a culinary review of my family reunion at Napa, California. Note: for any other food lovers, this is one of the BEST places in California that I have been to so far. So here it is...

  This was the sample of the most exquisite Jamon Iberico. As seen in the picture, this was 99.99 per pound. Although it was thirteen bucks for a couple of slices, it was totally worth it. The cured pork simply melted in the mouth. It was not too salty and the natural pork flavor was not overpowered. The best part of this was the little strip of fat. The fat was rich and creamy with a hint of pork flavor.  

This is of the beatutiful Napa countryside.

This was a piece of tuna that we got for one of the family dinners. Althought there were some stringy part towards the end of the loin, the majority of it was tender and melt-in-your mouth consistency.



Oysters from Tomales Bay oysters. A slight presursor to Hog Island.





This is by far the best ginger beers in the world! It does'nt have such a bite to it as Reeds's. Its very sweet but it has a true ginger flavor.



My uncle in Hawaii got me hooked on this stuff. This is just one of the numerous brands. It's so good I can drink it like water.