best chocolate souffle.ever.

Last night was Italian night:

Mangia Mangia in Albany, just a few blocks away from the hectic place that we call our jobs, was such a welcome sight for two hungry girls just off of work.

The bread was accompanied by a garlic sauce, followed by minestrone.
For my entree I finally decided on the fettuccine with smoked salmon with spinach and prosciutto smothered in a creamy white wine sauce.


Not going to lie, the waiter reminded me of professor Friedrich in the movie version of Little Women.  There was another waiter who recognized us as his cashiers when he comes to the store every so often with his wife.  


Dinner was perfectly topped off with their amazing chocolate souffle.  It was absolutely perfect.  Warm with molten chocolate...still thinking about it.

best mushroom recipe

Back in February, we cashier girls had a night out at Ozumo on Broadway.  Amongst dishes of age dashi tofu and pork belly gyoza was the jidori: pan roasted, free-range half chicken, served with seasonal mushrooms, roasted yama imo and negi butter.

A few weeks later, we tried to recreate the dish.  Using fresh shitake mushrooms, all that was needed was a pack of nameko, a little ponzu sauce--and butter.  

Ponzu Shitake and nameko mushrooms 

-slice shitatke mushrooms, remove and slice stems 

-separate namekos 

-heat a frying pan or wok, add butter or oil

-fry up the mushrooms, constantly stirring 

-when the mushrooms are cooked through, add ponzu sauce

-finish with a little lemon juice and pepper

While you could make your own ponzu sauce, a bottled version works just as well.

Berkeley brunch and coffee favorites

Tuesday brunch with the girls at La Note on Shattuck:

-Brioche french toast with lavender honey

-Pain perdu au chocolat

-Lemon gingerbread pancakes with poached pears and blueberries

Image: http://thevegetarianfoodie.com/2011/03/02/la-note/

Followed up with thrift clothes shopping and coffee at Sacks on College--my second favorite coffee place in the East Bay.  

Apparently I have a lot more work to do for my feature writing class.  I need to take a week from work and just hole up for a few days researching, outlining, writing and editing.  Nowadays I don't want to do anything when I get home--eating and sleeping is all.  My instructor said to go beyond my personal experience...my two days behind the fish counter.  I like reporting and interviewing--as long as I have time to prepare and actually have the time to research.  Only working half of a day on Friday, thank goodness.  

tell that to my frying pan

Like Rapunzel in Tangled, my kitchen is equipped with a handy frying pan--or was, until my parents took it on a camping trip from which it was not to return.  So it was absolutely necessary to find a replacement.  Got a cheap 8-inch pan and put it to the test:

1.5 lb chicken thigh fillets--marinated in a dash of soy sauce, sriracha sauce, salt, pepper and a little lemon juice and then pan fried.

Chop some roma tomatoes and the chicken into cubes, mix with basil and eat on a baguette or over polenta.  It was quite good accompanied by a Barefoot cabernet sauvignon, finished off with strawberries dipped in whipped cream.

Song of the day: Dasha's cover of Jessie J's Domino.  

slow sunday

Yesterday was Saturday--the worst day of the work week.  Haven't had a Saturday off since...September. The gloomy weather this week seems to have put customers in a general weird mood too.  That being said, it was nice to follow up a hectic work day/week with a cup of black soybean tea.  It smells like red bean soup but is definitely more palatable--and you can eat the beans after they've been steeped.

For this lazy Sunday, I have Dia Frampton's cover of Colbie Caillat's Bubbly on repeat.

Totally unrelated to food, but this video is pretty ingenious:  Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

Thinking of making egg noodles with crab meat, parsley and lemon zest again sometime this week...

feature clip

This is me acting as an investigative journalist for my feature writing class--

Feeling like a complete amateur in an apron free of the stains of a seasoned fish cutter, I met the eyes of a cold, dead King salmon.  Having just finished dismembering a crustacean for someone else's dinner, I debated whether I was in the mood for lunch anymore.  

Before my uncle gave me a job as a cashier at this Japanese fish market, I never understood the appeal of raw fish.  My request to pop over to the fish department on my day off was met with bemusement.  I was assured that I would not find my experience at all to my tastes.  Why would a girl who won’t eat raw fish want to hang out with a rowdy bunch of boys covered in scales, wielding knives?

...

fish days part 2

“How are you with a cleaver?” Blankly, I stare back at Phil: as a sporadic vegetarian with no experience prepping seafood of any kind, the answer is obvious.  My second day behind the fish counter started at 8:35.  A large tray of Santa Barbara uni (sea urchin roe) was the first challenge to tackle: separating the individual roe and blotting them with a paper towel before repackaging them into .2-pound packs.  These mustard colored pieces look like tongues and have the consistency of miso paste. 

Soon after I got a lesson in shucking oysters—Miagi oysters from Tomales Bay.  Use a towel as a buffer in case the tool punches through the shell, start from the back end and twist the shucking knife to loosen the shell.  It took a few tries and some shards of shell down the front of my sweatshirt before I got the hang of puncturing the shells which lift with a satisfying pop like opening a soda can. 

Prawn time.  I learned to slit the backs just enough to expose the tract to be removed—submerging the prawn while scooping out the guts makes for a cleaner process.  The day continued with more dismembering—whole crabs from Eureka that arrived neatly stacked and packed on ice.  Don’t stack the crabs flat on their backs, nor standing vertical.  Angling the crabs in the case at a slight angle prevents the juices from draining out.  

When choosing a crab, test its weight—a dense feel is better than a light body that could be dry due to cracks.  Two deliveries had arrived within five minutes of each other, it was lunchtime and there was a crowd of customers waiting to be served.  “Just follow me,” said Phil, launching right into the next lesson.  Wedging a thumb between the base of the top shell and the body makes it easy to separate, keeping the butter contained as well.  The gills slip off easily; a twist should remove the tail end and mouthpieces.  Rinse or spray with water to thoroughly clean the inside.  “Speed is key,” as I quickly learned.  After pulling the legs and claws off, the pieces are ready to be cracked.  The body is then cleaved in two halves that are each separated into thirds for more easy access to the meat inside. 

During the lunch rush I occupied myself by doing dishes and packing yuzu topiko.  Styrofoam boxes filled with iced sides of salmon kept arriving along with frozen packs of ikura, another shipment of black cod and a 30-pound side of tuna.  After some more scaling, one of the guys looked me over, concluding, “You’re not dirty enough, go roll around in some fish.”  No thanks, I’d like to keep my apron clean for a little while longer.