Detours of a south east asian prairie girl

Been a little sick and busy lately but finally feeling like I’m back in the summer game. To celebrate my 9th anniversary with E, the best chum a girl could ever have, is a trip through pastoral roads on our trusty two wheels. Cycle-camping on Gabriola, baby! More to come. Here’s a pic of the gorgeous shore formations right next to our campsite by the sea:

A few nights ago, I had a girls’ night out at this little joint called Toshi Sushi. Located at Main and 16th in Vancouver, it’s small and reknowned not just for the truly Japanese food, but for its long lineups. It doesn’t take reservations and is opened only for dinner. So tough to get in, but my goodness, was the wait ever more than worth it!

Here’s a pic of Hama Kama, which is Hamachi cheeks. Very crispy outside, very soft inside:

Delish! I would say that the food is extremely well seasoned. That is, the flavours are very clean and not overpowered by soy sauce or other condiments. You can taste tofu the way tofu is supposed to be, for example. The black cod was as silky as it can be. Uni, unagi, aji, all so good. Yumm!

Just finished reading two awesome books about life in the culinary underbelly: Heat and The Fourth Star. The former is about life as a cook in Mario Batali’s Babbo in New York, written by a journalist who spent a year working there. The latter is from a writer who spent a year at Daniel Boulud’s Daniel in New York; as a fly-on-the-wall, she documented what life was like at Daniel as the famed chef and his staff rigorously tried to get the highest 4 star designation from the New York Times.

Both are delicious reads and showed impeccable insight into the minds and hearts of cooks and servers that few people outside get to see. Not to mention the sweat and hardships that these dedicated workhorses go through day in and day out, making the kind of high-end food and giving diners the kind of exquisite experience that they themselves could never afford.

If anyone needs a reminder of what discipline and dedication is and the confusion and fright that they go through when they are in the weeds, these books will do the job just right. And even for those not in the industry, these are gripping tension-filled yet fun and funny reads. And for those of you pastry cooks in Vancouver who are interested, Thomas Haas himself is mentioned quite a bit in The Fourth Star, since he was the Executive Pastry Chef at Daniel during the reporting, heh heh heh.

On my day off, I try to make things as easy as possible for myself. At least for lunch. So many other things to do! Besides, I really ate too much last night at Rime. Had the pan-seared halloumi cheese, a hefty fall-off-the-bone braised lamb shank with Turkish spices and 2 desserts of caramelized figs with cream cheese mousse and fragrant syrup-soaked butter cookies. Mmmmmm.

So today, a little lunch will do. Grilled cheese sandwiches, how much more rustic can you get? These ones are made with hearty Tuscan bread, provolone and swiss cheeses, nicely marbled rosemary prosciutto cotto and apple slices. All bought easily from the grocery shop up the street, the lovely and extremely crowded Santa Barbara Market. Oih, my tummy’s feeling it, heh.

Something fun to try, which TV Alter Ego are you? Check out: http://www.tvalterego.com/tvalterego/.

I did the one for Grey’s Anatomy, and came up Meredith Grey, urgggh. Seriously? Seriously? Seriously. So. Not. Meredith Grey. You readers out there, seriously? Me? Meredith Grey?

A picture of futuristic Shanghai taken by mom at night. She’s back!

The first pastry chef I ever had gave me two sage pieces of advice:
(1) Always taste what you make, every step of the way if possible. How do you know what you’re giving your customers if you don’t? Mistakes happen and the sooner you find out, the better chance to fix them.
(2) Throughout your life in the kitchen, people will show you how to do things. Problem is, everyone does things a little differently and they are all convinced that they are right. Your lesson is to pick each one apart and find something for yourself. You have to think for yourself. To which he tapped his index finger to his head and repeated, think for yourself.

My answers so far to his advice:
(1) I nearly always taste what I make. Maybe 10% of the time I don’t for whatever reason, but I mostly do and yes, I have found mistakes that way.
(2) So true. Thanks goodness, I love to study. I ask why and how. Theory. Causes and Effects. They are my crutches to pick apart certain techniques or ways of doing things. They help you decide why you do something this way this time and another way another time.

I have so many things to learn! There are many many skills I don’t yet know. My techniques and processes could use so much improvement! Sometimes I get so tired working day to day and I need other distractions. Sometimes I get inspired and take out lots of books from the library on pastry and baking and read them vigorously.

It’s a lifelong lesson, thankfully, and unlike reading books on Java, CORBA, the bleeding edge technologies, chip programming, killer apps and the like, this time, I am actually interested.