Tonkatsu Curry

My Youngest is enamored with all things Japanese, and asked for curry. Instead of making my typical curry with veggies and meat, I decided to make an all veggie curry with tonkatsu (panko-breaded pan-fried pork chops).

Tonkatsu couldn't be easier - salt and pepper the pork, coat in panko crumbs, and pan-fry.

Serve with white rice and boxed curry, and you've got a quick dinner that even your picky teenager will love.

Side note: I keep thinking of making curry from scratch, but the Japanese lady I work with says "Why? Too hard. Use box." And since I think she's secretly a ninja, I'm following her advice.

Kaito Sushi in Encinitas

It's been a while since I've done a restaurant post, and what better way to bring it back than with Kaito Sushi in Encinitas? We've been there three times, and each time, we sat at the bar, and didn't order anything, just let the itamae (sushi chef) serve us what he thought was best. This is Edo-style sushi, ie. the real deal.

I'm going to (mostly) shut up and let the pictures do the talking:

Raw scallop, cooked scallop:

Aji:

Ono "carpaccio":

Eel tempura with fried eel spine: (I could eat fried eel spines like popcorn.)

Bluefin:

Skipjack:

Needlefish: (Completely unknown texture to me - crunchy, almost. Amazing.)

Tuna with garlic oil:

Fried oyster:

Tuna:

Toro:

Unknown fish topped with grated rock salt: (I want that salt!)

Halibut:

Clam:

Anago (salt-water eel):

Spanish mackerel:

Spanish mackerel skeleton, fried:

Fried smelt with shisito peppers and butternut squash:

Giant clam:

Baby octopus:

These guys know their sushi. It is hands-down the best I've had in San Diego. If you're in the area, please go, you won't be disappointed. (And you can follow them on Twitter for daily updates on their offerings.)

Kaito Sushi
130-A N. El Camino Real
Encinitas, CA 92024
(760) 634-2746

Japanese Curry with Ghost Chiles

Have you heard of ghost chiles? I've also seen them called bhut jolokia and naga jolokia. They're hot. Really hot. Hottest pepper in the world. They come in at about 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale, or 3-10 times hotter than a habañero.

I was lucky enough to get a sample package of fresh ones (only dried have been available until now) from Marx Foods*. I opened the package, and was immediately assaulted by their fragrance - they even smelled hot. I was a little apprehensive - what could I possibly do with a chile that's so strong? Well, first off, I gave a few away to coworkers. (None of the Americans wanted any, so they went to Mexicans, a Laotian, and a Korean.)

I realized I hadn't made Japanese curry in a while, and that sounded like a good (and easy) place to start. Armed with my package of S&B Golden Curry (mild), I chose the smallest pepper in the package.

Aw, how cute. What wasn't so cute was that I could find only one glove. So my knife hand went gloveless. While mincing, a piece of chile touched a cut on my hand. Ow. Burn. Ow. Yikes! Experiencing firsthand what this little monster chile could do, I decided to only use half of it in the curry. I used about 1.3 pounds of pork, and an equal amount of veggies (carrot, celery, green pepper, onion). So 2.5 pounds of stuff, with a piece of chile the size of my fingernail.

And you know what? It was good. Really good. Ghost chiles have an awesome flavor. I could've even added the other half of the chile, and it wouldn't have been too hot. (Husband called this a "3" on the hotness scale.) Maybe it's because it was simmered for a while, maybe because it sat overnight, but the heat definitely mellowed out.

So, experiment #1 with ghost chiles complete and successful. I wonder what's next...

*The chiles were provided free of charge from Marx Foods. I didn't promise to blog about them, and they didn't ask me to.

Wasabi Sushi, Vista CA

I don't do restaurant reviews very often, but for Wasabi Sushi, I feel I must.

The owner and sushi chef is Andy, a very likable and friendly guy. His wife Sarah waits tables. There are about 8 tables, the sushi bar seats about 8-10, and they've got a big screen TV tuned to the hottest sporting event.

But, on to the food.

First, the 911 Roll. I think you can see why.

Next up, the Ceviche Tostada.

Here we have an eel hand roll. Best I've ever had. Andy also makes a mean salmon skin roll.

Toro. Like butta.

Sawagani, little river crabs, quickly fried and served with a ponzu-soy sauce. Crunchy little bugs. Better than popcorn.

My husband had a live octopus one time. I've seen the video, and would post it, but you don't need to hear the drunken audio that accompanies it. So until I find a way to post video while killing the audio, you'll just have to imagine pieces of just-chopped octopus crawling around on a plate.

Aside from all the awesome sushi (OMG, try the white tuna!), they also have the typical teriyaki plate offerings, as well as an awesome clam miso soup, and an udon soup that looks delicious but that I have yet to try.

Wasabi Sushi
1688 Melrose Drive, Ste. 212
Vista, CA 92081
(760) 727-8090

Sun Flour Bagel, Carlsbad CA

The other day I had the pleasure of visiting Sun Flour Bagel, at 6955 El Camino Real in Carlsbad (in the Vons shopping center, across from the post office). My iFriend hifisamurai had contacted me, wondering if I’d like to post a review of the shop. I jumped at the chance, because I had been there once before, and enjoyed what I had.

Sun Flour Bagel will celebrate their four year anniversary in June, and I'm kicking myself for missing their first 3.5 years. Besides the regular bagel shop offerings, they have Japanese pastries on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. The rush starts at 11am, and they usually sell out by noon. So if you want to get your hands on some of these goodies, get there early!

Sun Flour Bagel has a loyal Japanese clientele for the pastries, and a loyal American clientele for the bagels, but the owner, Mr. Numata, is looking to bridge the gap, and get more Americans to try the Japanese pastries. And so they should, for these are delicious, and most likely different from anything you've ever tasted.

I asked about the bread, and what makes it special. Mr. Numata told me (with help from his employee Sayoko as translator) that the Japanese have the perception that good = soft, and hard = bad. He had me squeeze a loaf of his bread – this is definitely not Wonderbread, people. It’s pillowy and squishy and airy, the softest, lightest bread I’ve ever seen. Mr. Numata said that he doesn’t know how to make the typical “hard” American bread, but that it did take him some time to get the recipe right for his Japanese bread, due to the ingredients available here. He said a lot of the texture has to do with the water – American water is hard (i.e. full of minerals), while Japanese water is soft – and also that the flour must be high in gluten to get the proper texture.

All the sweet buns (or pan, which means bread in Japanese) are made with this bread dough, are sweet but not too sweet, and are stuffed with various fillings. Japanese pastries are typically much less sweet than American baked goods, but Mr. Numata adds a little more sugar than is traditional to his pastries, to better fit the American palate. I tried the green tea cream and red bean pan, and the custard cream pan. Both were delicious.

Green Tea (Matcha) and Red Bean (Adzuki) Pan

Custard Cream Pan

I also sampled the croquette pan, consisting of potato and vegetable croquettes, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, and tucked into a bun with cabbage. The bread crumbs for the croquettes are made from the loaves of Japanese bread, grated while still fresh. Sayoko told me that the crumbs don’t work as well if they’re dried or flaked very small, because they absorb too much oil when fried.

Croquette Pan

But my favorite hands down has to be the curry pan– a light bread shell, filled with a mildly spicy curry (don’t think Indian curry, folks, this is Japanese all the way), and fried until golden. Fried, but not greasy in the slightest. And they reheat very well in a 350 degree oven. So stock up if you can.

 

 Curry Pan

Also on offer is the yakisoba pan - yakisoba and cabbage in a bun, topped with shredded pickled ginger.

Yakisoba Pan

And for more sweets, try a melon pan or a red bean pan. I didn't taste either one, but a coworker said "that's some good stuff".

Melon Pan

 Red Bean (Adzuki) Pan

There's also the cream cheese French toast pan, made from the thickly sliced bread, with a layer of jam in the middle.

 Cream cheese French toast

And finally, the sausage cheese pan, which made me think of a grown-up version of pigs in a blanket.

 Sausage Cheese Pan

All of the pastries run from $1.75 to $2.80 - a better deal cannot be found in La Costa!

There are sandwiches available, including the special tonkatsu sandwich, which isn’t on the menu, and is made to order. Call it on the “secret menu”, if you wish.

And, just to prove to you all that they serve typical bagel shop goodies, here are some menu shots:

Bottom line: If you find yourself in Carlsbad, stop by Sun Flour Bagel. Whether you get a bagel or a pastry, it's money well spent, and your taste buds will thank you.

Note: I was not compensated monetarily for this review; however, all the goods in the pictures were provided to me free of charge by Sun Flour Bagel (and subsequently shared with my happy and grateful coworkers).

Sansai Ramen

A while back, we went to Chopstix in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood of San Diego because Youngest had a ramen craving, and I'm trying to wean her off of the $0.20 a bag MSG-laden crap from the grocery store. I had sansai ramen for the first time, and loved it.

A few weeks later, I was at Mitsuwa market, and spotted a bag of sansai vegetables. I thought, why not make my own sansai ramen? So I picked up the bag o' veggies, some fresh ramen noodles, and a package of fish cake.

Slice and fry up the fish cake (you can't see it in the picture, unfortunately), heat the veggies, cook the noodles, make the broth. There. You now have ramen. Yeah, I cheated and used the packet of concentrated broth that came with the noodles. But it was MSG-free. So there.

Yakisoba

Youngest wanted yakisoba. I had never made it before, so I did a quick search, and found that the big bottle of Bulldog sauce in my fridge would work perfectly.

I cooked the soba noodles that I just purchased 48 hours ago (hint, foreshadowing), then rinsed them in cold water.

I stir-fried up some chicken, removed it to a plate, then stir-fried chopped bok choy stems, minced garlic and ginger, followed by some absolutely gorgeous brown beech mushrooms, and finally the bok choy leaves. Isn't it pretty?
















The mushrooms were as local as you can get, grown right here in San Marcos at the Hokto Kinoko facility. Check out their cool shrooms! They're seriously delicious.

To assemble, I heated up a little more oil really hot. Added the wet noodles, a bunch of Bulldog sauce, a little soy sauce, and (of course) some Sriracha. Stir and toss, stir and toss. I was aiming for a little crispiness to the noodles, like you get with fried rice. (Unfortunately, that wasn't happening.) I added back the chicken and vegetables, along with a handful of bean sprouts. More stirring and tossing until everything was heated through.
















Topped with sliced pickled ginger and chopped up nori. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to chop up nori? Even my ceramic knife had problems.)






























Youngest said it was good, she plans on bringing the leftovers to school for lunch, her only complaint was that the noodles broke easily and she couldn't use chopsticks. I thought there was something off about the noodles as well, not just the breakiness, but also in their flavor. Hubby was super-impressed with the dish (he especially loved the mushrooms)....except for the noodles.

Maybe they were old? You'd think not, since I just purchased them (but dummy me didn't check for an expiration date). Maybe they were inferior? Don't think so, I picked the mid-price-range ones from Marukai market.

This was one of those happy-sad dinners - happy that I was able to cook something so delicious, but sad that it was tainted by crappy noodles. I'm definitely going to try again, I think with udon, but Hubby says I should just cook the chicken/veggies/sauce and put it over rice. We'll see.