Culinary tour in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Taking a trip to Asia is truly a culinary tour. Here are some pictures of food from our trip to Japan, Taiwan and HongKong. There were days where I ate 5 times a day, and how I wish I had more space to consume all the delicious foods! I was so happy to introduce Michele to all the wonderful food Asia has to offer! From seafood, meats, noodles and deserts, tutti e delizioso! ( everything is delicious)

Pastries and sweets

The Japanese really have perfected French pastries and deserts. Macaroons are really the hot item in trendy areas like Ginza and Roppongi.

Typical Chinese desert, BBQ pork puff pastries and Chinese red bean semi-freddos

OH my LOVE for Mr. DONUT!!!

...and these are custom-made cupcakes especially ordered for our wedding party. Strawberries were in season, so sweet and delicious. Chinese deserts tend to be less sweet, so this cupcake was not as sugary or overtly topped with whipped cream. Just a light and yummy cupcake and fresh fruit!

Oodles of Noodles

One of the must-do items when visiting Japan is to explore all the different kinds of Ramen you can! It's such a Ramen paradise! This one is a miso and peanut soup base....

We ordered not one, but two bowls of these Dan-Dan noodles at DingTaiFeng...the noodles were made fresh and the sauce was delicately balanced

Only in Japan...

The best Shitake mushroom I ever had! Grilled, nigiri style, so meaty and juicy

Grilled toro. I was in heaven.

The perfect bite, part of our 250 USD dinner. Just two guests, 2 sushi masters and 7 other waitstaff serving us. Service in Japan is impeccable!

Burgers...not!! Earmuffs, Shibuya style

Truly Melts-in-your-mouth Black pork Katsu.

Asia's City, HongKong

The contrast of HongKong! One of the best sandwiches I had for lunch at Penninsula hotel, and a light and soothing porridge for breakfast....

Thai Curry Night with friends

I remember the first time I had a delicious Thai curry, was a summer in Berkeley. It was the first time I discovered pineapple and red duck curry, and I have not been able to top that wonderful Thai dining experience yet- eating a spicy fragrant red curry, while enjoying the summer Californian breeze, sitting on a second floor patio, surrounded by trees situated in a cute neighborhood.

A part of our Thanksgiving fun was to cook a remaining ( half ) duck, and since I happen to have some golden delicious pineapple in the fridge, I decided to invite some friends over and make red curry. While the poultry and grocery ingredients were fresh, I cheated and used a store-bought packett of red curry. This small packett of dense flavors made my life so much easier. Also, making one - pot dishes makes me so happy, because there's a lot less cleaning/washing to do....

Hsinmei and her hubby came over, and she baked fresh amaretto cookies. Yum!

Treats for Italian Class Festa

Congratulations to all of us who completed Italian due! What a great festa we had, with all sorts of deserts, ( biscotti, tiramisu, Italian torta) wines and munchies!

Last time Gaby and I made a tiramisu for the festa after Italian uno. This time, people from our Italian class suggested making a pasta, but I was worried that a cooled pasta or risotto dish would not be so great... Michele and I bounced some ideas off each other, whether to make a pasta or rice salad....then came a great idea, which is to bake some frittatas! The idea sparked inside me - I should make frittatas with pasta inside! Frittatas are baked omelets, Michele told me that his family would always use last night's leftover pasta for breakfast frittatas the next morning. I made them in small muffin tins, like mini quiches ( without the pie crust of course), so it's easy to serve. It's perfect as an appetizer or a brunch treat when entertaining. Here's the recipe for Linguine, Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto Frittatas ...

Linguine, Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto Frittatas

Serving Size: makes about 18 mini frittatas

Ingredients
1/2 pound linguine pasta
7 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
6 ounces diced prosciutto
5 ounces smoked mozzarella cheese, diced (1 cup diced)
1/2 cup grated Asiago cheese

1/4 cup of finely chopped chives
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Preparations:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Cook pasta until al dente, drain the pasta in a colander. While the pasta is still in the colander, use kitchen sheers to cut the linguine into smaller pieces. The pasta should measure about 3 cups.

Grease a muffin tin, and Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a blender combine the eggs, milk, and mascarpone cheese. Blend until well combined. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the cut pasta, prosciutto, mozzarella cheese, Asiago cheese, parsley, garlic, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir until the ingredients are combined.

Next, fill the muffin tin until both the pasta and the liquid reaches the top.

Bake until firm and cooked through, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool for at least 3 minutes before removing from the tin.

I hope everyone enjoyed the mini frittata, and I look forward to pushing through Italian tre!

Halloween pappardelle

Our first Hallowen in Texas.

Couple of blocks down our neighborhood, there are lots of folks dressed up roaming the streets, bar hopping. We prepared lots of candy, but Michele and I have been the only patrons....no trick-or treaters have came our way this weekend, and although we have had several Halloween costume ideas, none of them were actioned out. ( Just to throw out some of Michele's creative ideas: "Chunky Monkey", one of us would be chunky and the other be monkey, to pay our respect to Ben & Jerry....another was to dress up as Bobby Flay, wear an apron and have a blender of red sauce and another blender of green sauce) So it ended up just the two of us, enjoying a cozy relaxed Saturday night with some home cooking.

Our first Haloween in Texas, Italian pasta style.

Pappardelle ( thick egg pasta) with seasonal squashes, yellow squash and zucchini, combined with Italian sausages and red peppers...a colorful "fall" pasta for Halloween night.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, no casings
1 pound zucchini, julienned
1 pound summer squash, julienned
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 diced red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, plus sprigs, for garnish
Salt and pepper
1 pound fresh pappardelle

splash of any white wine

Preparations:

In a large stockpot over high heat, bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil.

In a large saute pan over medium high heat, cook 2 tablespoons of olive oil together with sausage. Cook until sausage is browned, about 6 minutes. Add zucchini, squash, onions, red pepper and 1/4 cup chopped basil and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until the squash has begun to caramelize. Season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of white wine.
Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until just al dente. Drain reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Pour cooked pasta and 1/2 cup pasta water into the saute pan with the rest of the ingredients. Toss and serve!

We like our pastas peppery, so we added a couple of extra tablespoons of fresh cracked pepper, just enough to make our lips slightly perk when slurping in this pasta.

For the main course, we had veal chops, just simple salt and pepper, seared quickly on both sides and then popped into the oven. It was such a delicious, tender, milky, veal.....

Reminiscing Portugal...making Cataplana

Two summers ago, Michele and I took a trip that became our most favorite - a two week adventure in Portugal. Portugal is such a gem - great wines, delicious seafood and pastries, a variety of beautiful beaches ( rocky cliffs and sandy ones), tile-covered houses, and gentle people. We spent most of our time in Lisbon and exploring Algarve and its beaches....and surprisingly, we found our love for Portuguese food, especially Cataplana, which is a savory stew. Of all the different Cataplanas we had, we enjoyed seafood and pork the most.

Me ( extremely tanned) with our very first Cataplana at a restaurant at Portimao

Tapas, Portuguese style, lots of seafood!

One of the posadas we stayed at...

This week, we decided to make amêijoas na cataplana, which is a clam, pork, sausage and bacon stew. Seafood and pork three ways! Making this dish would take us back to our wonderful trip we had in Portugal...the summer where we just went beach hunting, posada hopping, and ate lots of amazing food.

The recipe Michele worked on is inspired by Andrew McMeel's Cataplana, but of course, we made our own slight tweaks and added arborio rice....making a combination of Portuguese seafood and pork stew/ Risotto.....

Ingredients:

1 can (28-ounce) Italian diced tomatoes

tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 (1/4-inch-thick) slices bacon, cut into ¼-inch dice

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 chopped yellow bell pepper

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2 jalapenos, diced

4 ounces andouille sausage cut into ¼-inch

dice 8 ounces pork tenderloin cut into ¼-inch cut

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

3/4 cup of Arborio rice

2 pounds little neck clams, cleaned

ciabatta bread

Preparations:

There's a specific cataplana pot, but since we did not have one, we used a dutch oven instead.

In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle a piece of bacon. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the onion and red and yellow peppers and sauté, stirring, for 8 minutes, or until the vegetables are wilted and beginning to turn golden. Add the garlic and jalapeno, sauté for 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in the andouille and pork tenderloin and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Sprinkle with the paprika and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, tomatoes, and parsley and bring to a boil. Add 3/4 cup of arborio rice. Decrease the heat to low and cook, for 30 - 40 minutes, or until liquid is slightly reduced, the sauce becomes thick and the rice is cooked. Spoon half of the sauce into the cataplana; spoon the clams on top. Spoon the remaining sauce on top. Secure the cover in place.


In the meantime, slice ciabatta bread and toast it in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
Place the cataplana over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until the clams have opened. Bring the cataplana to the table and, using oven mitts, carefully remove the cover. Discard any clams that failed to open. Spoon the clams, risotto and rich sauce into warmed shallow bowls and serve at once with toasted ciabatta bread.

With the jalapenos cooked in the stew, this dish is really spicy... its delicious because you can taste all the layers of sausage, bacon, bell peppers, and clams.... all so yummy with a depths of savory!

birthday and cake, and carbonara

This is a first - got a lovely carrot cake for my birthday! loved it. I love, love carrot cake and it's so nice to have this instead of a heavy chocolate buttercream cake....( I feel less guilty while turning almost 30)

And believe it or not, we finished this entire cake by ourselves in 3 days

The day after my birthday, Michele made a yummy carbonara...

simply e delizioso

Homemade pizza

mmmm, PIZZAAAAAAA....but not completely homemade. Yes, we cheated. But who wouldn't, if you can buy 2 dollar pizza dough at Whole Foods? It just makes everything so much easier=)

The ingredients we used in our homemade pizza were:

- cherry tomatoes, slightly marinated in olive oil, salt and pepper

- mozzarella cheese

- fresh basil leaves

- prosciutto

and that's IT!

AND, I was most ecstatic to use my favorite Homer Simpson pizza cutter. There's a speaker built inside the cutter, and every time the cutter hits a surface, Homer speaks: ( and boy does Homer's voice make everyone smile)

"When the moon lites your eyes like a big pizza pie, that's amore..."
The most beautiful word in the English language, PIZZA".
"PIZZA, If it tastes good, it must be good for you!"

" Pizza meets the requirements of the 5 food groups. It even counts as a pie!"

Oh Homer, we love you.

Discovering Mofongo Relleno ( fried mashed plantains)

The first night we arrived to Puerto Rico, we discovered....

Mofongo Relleno de Camarones ( Mashed fried plantains with shrimp stuffing)

It's like this comforting, savory, plantainy deliciousness like no other!

Mofongo is mashed plantains with garlic, olive oil, and pork cracklings that are shaped into individual balls or molded with a mortar and pestle into a bowl to hold meat or fish. There are several versions of Mofongo, and when I tasted it, I was positive there was some kind of lard or pork fat inside that made it so deliciously tasty.

Here's a recipe for Mofongo Relleno with stuffed shrimp

We stayed on the east coast of Puerto Rico, mostly in Fajardo and spent some time in San Juan as well. We took a ferry to Vieques island and enjoyed the gorgeous beaches there.

fruit stand
Seafood stew with fried plantains

streets of old san juan
Blue beach at Vieques

Sunset at old san juan

Mussels, scallops in white wine and frites

We have to admit, although we are tired of watching Bobby Flay throw red and green things in a blender, he does showcase "fun" foods. Despite our complaints about Bobby Flay being a businessman vs an innovative chef, I have to admit that his throwdown for mussels and frites really made us want to cook it at home.

Thursday evening rolled by and I was having a bad day. Michele knows the best way to cheer me up is through food...so in order to stop me from buying a dozen of donuts, he suggested to cook mussels and frites for me the next evening for dinner.

We really love cooking and enjoying a completely relaxed Friday night at home. Michele wanted to be creative so he added scallops to the mussels, and we were in luck- the scallops looked gorgeous at the grocery store that day. We also wanted to add some veggies since we our vacation diet lacked vegetables, so he added yellow and orange peppers as well.

The challenge was making perfect frites. Our pot was overcrowded with sliced potatoes that it took too long to fry, so the frites tasted like it soaked up way too much vegetable oil. But I sprinkled the frites with some salt and cayenne pepper and it was delicious! I think I'm addicted to making homemade fries now!