Dining Club is Back!! Sumiya!

For this month I had the ambition to bring the dining club back! I missed my lovely old roomies and I love going to new food places so this was a good excuse. Plus, maybe now I'll update my blog AT LEAST once a month! This time I chose to go to Sumiya in Sumiya, which is known for its yakitori style japanese food... they even give you a big bowl of cabbage with ponzu sauce to start off so you can eat veggies with the rest of your meal!

We ordered a number of things- the second set menu with tori soup (translated bird or chicken soup) which had chicken meatballs, kalbi don, 2 tsukune (chicken meatball) skewers, 2 negima (green onion and chicken) skewers, and 2 butabara (pork belly) skewers. We also ordered a gyutan (beef tongue) skewer, a tri-seaweed salad with yuzu miso dressing, a yakitori don, and a peach and oolong tea panna cotta to round out our meal.

I liked the soup, which I loved that we were all comfortable sharing a few sips out of the bowl haha, since it had depth of flavor and the meatballs were melt in your mouth delicious. I also liked the negima skewers which were simple but the meat was nice and tender. The pork belly was a bit on the fatty and salty side, but still good for a small piece. The seaweed salad and the dressing was delicious- perfect to offset some of the fatty items! *Sorry about the lack of pictures- I was eager to eat and they turned out blurry... maybe I need to upgrade to an iPhone 4 :P

Unfortunately, I thought I was going to love the kalbi don and gyutan, but both were a bit disappointing. The kalbi was nothing like what korean kalbi is... it actually tasted more like liver that was marinated which was quite odd. The gyutan was not the thin, chewy, grilled deliciousness I've had elsewhere, but small ball- like pieces that were chewier and not as flavorful as others I've had. I thought the donburis (rice bowls) were a bit disappointing due to being on the bland side. They looked great with the half cooked egg to mix, but there just wasn't that much taste... maybe the yakitori sauce on there didn't have that much flavor... and finally the panna cotta- that to be honest was something I would recommend highly against. It was too rich to be a panna cotta with overpowering tea taste that did not mesh well. It was not light and gelatine-y but much more like a heavy custard or cream dish that was not very sweet or well flavored. It was a disappointing end to the meal, but I did get frozen yogurt at Yumi Yogurt right close by to make up for it!

Wow it's been a while

I knew that I had put off blogging even though I took food pictures everywhere... but I just now figured out it's been 2 months! I need to get back on the ball!
I'm thinking about starting another food project, maybe a bento project to see if that's something that I could do someday... I'll have to give it some thought but it's always nice to have a goal or project to keep me motivated and steering me in a direction I want to head in!

On a different tangent, I am aiming to start up the dining club again so that the girls and I can check out a new place at least once a month and spend time together! Those I will force myself to blog about!

What happened in the last 2 months...
-Tonight we went to eat at Premier Pizza, at which I got a HUGE slice of creamy chicken pizza (recommended by the guy who looked like the store manager) and small salad. Jeremy got a pepperoni pizza slice and a BBQ chicken. The creamy chicken was actually too creamy since I don't care that much for cream sauces- I prefer a lighter tomato, so I had a bit of mine and I had a bit of the BBQ chicken (quite good). The pizza is good- I'd go back!
- At the beginnning to mid May we went on a cruise to Alaska with some friends on the Norwegian Pearl. Overall my opinion is that the food quality was better than Carnival, but variety day to day in the buffet was subpar. Also, no 24 hour pizza (their pizza was mehhhh) or soft serve??
-Right after the cruise, I went to Austin for work. We had some good margaritas and queso at Guero's, good ribs and bread at County Line, and some good Salt Lick brisket at the airport. I will say though that I was quite meat, tex mex, and BBQed out when I got back!

I think those are the highlights from the last month... I promise to be better about this! It's like following my life since my life revolves around food!

Cupcake Battle: Sprinkles vs Kara's

The perfect opportunity arose to have a Cupcake Showdown between Sprinkles cupcakes and Kara's Cupcakes! They were the double chocolate with sprinkle cupcakes from each place, so we had a side by side taste test after dinner. The picture may not do it justice, but the Kara's cupcake on the left was quite a bt smaller than the Sprinkles one- not sure what the price difference was.

My opinion to be honest is that they were pretty similar as far as cake portion, but as an overall experience, I preferred Sprinkles. The cake portion as I said was fairly similar, but I think I preferred the Kara's one a TINY bit more- there was a lasting flavor that I enjoyed after I had swallowed my bite. The frosting however, I liked the Sprinkles one better. It was a little denser and creamier compared to the light fluffy one on Kara's. I think Kara's cupcake has a very large layer of frosting because it's so light (as you can see from the cut cupcake picture). I'm not a huge frosting person to begin with, so I liked that the Sprinkles cupcake had a much higher cake to frosting ratio in one bite. Both cupcakes were moist, quite tasty, and not too sweet- bottom line I'd eat both :)

I made Jeremy do the taste test too and he actually was the exact opposite of me. He liked the Sprinkles cake and Kara's frosting- he didn't really hesitate on it either! Again, to each their own! Of course, he doesn't discriminate when it comes to eating chocolate or chocolate cake :)

Also, our work bake off round 2 is coming up next week... I haven't decided what to make for it or if I'll submit something, so I'll have to think about it. The categories are: pies, cakes, cookies, and bars. If anybody has ideas or suggestions, feel free to let me know!

April Foods

There have been a number of food adventures already in April (Coconuts Carribbean food may have been end of March...) that I thought I'd share!

1) Coconuts Carribbean Restaurant in Palo Alto- We went to celebrate our friend Robbie's new job, which has been his dream as long as he can remember! Several of our friends had been there before and had rave reviews and for cheaper than Mantra Restaurant, at which we were there for Happy Hour drinks prior to dinner. We ordered the plantain/chickpea cakes with guacamole appetizer that our friend was raving about. They were in essence mashed and fried plantains and chickpeas that were battered and fried served with guacamole. I didn't think it was all that great enough to order again, but to each their own!

The main dish that I ordered on the other hand was delicious. I went for the traditional dish of jerk chicken, since that's what they're known for! It was deliciously cooked- moist and very flavorful but not overpoweringly spicy. It was served with delicious fried plantains that were sweet as could be, rice cooked with red beans that were fantastically flavorful, and assorted vegetables that were good but slightly oily for me. I was very glad to see vegetables though :)

Jeremy got the jerk salmon so of course I tried some of that as well. Again, very flavorful but it didn't completely take over the salmon, and it was cooked to perfection. I could have done without the tartar sauce type sauce on top since I'm not a mayo fan, but others seemed to like it. Their mashed potatoes were mighty delicious, but you can tell they had a lot of butter to make it that good. Finally the green beans that came with the salmon was good too- thankfully not too mushy! Overall, I would definitely come again for the main meal!

2) Kung Fu Taco Truck- Some people at work arranged for the Kung Fu Taco Truck to come down from San Francisco so I decided to give it a try. It is a fusion of mexican and chinese food, which a lot of people were skeptical about, but since the Korean/Mexican fusion taco truck is so popular in LA, this seemed pretty normal to me. There were 5 choices: chicken with asian marinade, steak with asian marinade, mushu veggies, roast duck, and char shiu. After much debate, I decided to go for the steak, duck, and veggie tacos. My favorite was the roast duck because the flavors were pretty much like peking duck, just with a tortilla not a bun or thin wrap. The mango salsa went fantastically with the duck that was a little fattier but oh so flavorful. They were all different so it's hard to pick a second place since the other two were both good as well. The steak wasn't too different from a normal taco, just a little sweeter because of the marinade. It also had a carrot salsa type dollop on top which was a bit different. The only bad thing about it was that I had a very chewy and fatty piece of meat that I had to spit out. The mushu veggies taco was very flavorful and tasted just like mushu which I love. The only bad thing about this one was that it was quite juicy from the vegetables and sauce that it was really messy to eat. I would definitely eat at this taco truck again and I want to try all of the other kinds too!

3) I decided to make homemade honey nut granola since I had thought about it for a while and have started cutting out processed foods. Plus, it's a lot cheaper when you make it at home and you can control what and how much sweetness goes into the product. I don't think I had enough liquid because it didn't come out as cluster-y as I wanted, but the flavor was good. I may have added a little too much healthy stuff like flax seed which takes away a bit of the sweetness. With that said, I feel like it's healthier, because I put in thick rolled oats, sliced almonds, flax seed, and sesame seed mixed together with just vegetable oil, honey, and vanilla. It was very easy and I would definitely make it again, although it's dangerous since I keep munching on it at work! Maybe next time I'll make granola bars- thanks All Recipes!

4) Bibimbap- We went to Cupertino Village for korean food since several of us were in the mood for some dolsot bibimbap. I had been to the restaurant in Cupertino Village before, but I had only had the tofu soup before so I ventured out for the bibimbap. As usual, I thought the side dishes were great, even though there were a few items that were a little strange to our non-Asian friends. Now for the main course... when it first came out, I was a bit surprised because it is definitely smaller in size than other restaurants in the area, but it was good. It was awesomely crispy on the bottom already so you could start mixing pretty quickly. It wasn't too greasy either which I appreciated, but I thought the vegetables could have used a little more flavor and I could have used a little more meat since the pieces were very small and just floating on top in a thin layer. With that said, I still took part of it home, since I didn't need to eat the whole bowl plus the side dishes just for lunch!

Diane's bday cake and homemade cinnamon rolls

Wednesday was our beloved pastor's wife's birthday and so I volunteered to make a homemade chocolate cake for her. I hardly make homemade cakes since box mixes are so easy and so tasty, but I decided to go all out for this woman that is ever so faithful in making us meals and delicious goodies each week! I found a recipe online titled "BEST MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE"- who can see that and not try it? So I made it with Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder and it was soooooo delicious. Everybody absolutely loved it and it was so easy! Why would I keep buying boxed cakes with preservatives and junk like high fructose corn syrup if this is just a tad more effort? I think I am committing to buy much fewer, if any, boxed mixes that contain junk. Trader Joe's or Whole Foods may be an exception if the ingredient list is acceptable :)

Then today, we had our friends the Ls over for brunch. We hadn't seen them in a while so I wanted to make something different. I finally attempted homemade cinnamon rolls (along with buttermilk pancakes). First off, I love our bread machine! It just makes so many things easier and fills our hearts with love (and tummies with carbs). I found a recipe on AllRecipes for a "Cinnabon Clone" which it wasn't quite, but that may have been my fault. I think I left them in the oven for a bit too long while I was cooking other stuff so they were a bit crispier than desired on the inside- but the inside was soft and gooey! I'm sure Cinnabon puts a LOT more butter and sugar in their innards though! I think I thinned out the icing a bit too much also. Otherwise, the flavor was good and our guests enjoyed them as well! By the way, I tried the floss cutting method and it really works great- just use some dental floss and slice up that rolled up log in no time without squishing the whole roll!

Five Finger Shoes!

This has absolutely nothing to do with food, but I thought I'd share my new acquired possession- five finger shoes! They're a little weird at first- think toe sock shoes... the concept is that you can run, hike, walk, etc as if you're barefoot but with the protection you need from sharp or dangerous objects. It takes a bit of getting used to, and putting them on isn't as quick as normal shoes, but they seem nice.

I went for a run in them and going on gravel for a train run was a big mistake since I could feel every pebble under my feet- on the pavement was fine though. My calves were sore the next day, I guess I do run differently even though I'm not purposely changing my form!

My co-worker went hiking in hers, as well as paddle boating, and absolutely loved them. She still needs to go running in them to provide that verdict.

Ramen ALMOST 2 days in a row

So I almost had ramen 2 days in a row (not a horrible thing if it had happened by any means) at new places- Orenchi Ramen and Dohatsuten.

I went to Orenchi ramen yesterday for lunch with a few coworkers of mine that I hadn't seen in a while- thanks Lucy for introducing us to the place and for organizing! The ramen was really good. I got the house "Orenchi" ramen which is a tonkotsu ramen. What made it unique was the thicker, chewier noodles which I really liked and thought was delicious. I don't like soft, soggy noodles at all, so it was fresh and "al dente" if you can use the same terminology for asian noodles as well. The broth was tasty and had depth in flavor, but was a bit salty... not that it stopped me from sipping almost all of it! I'm also not a big egg person, but this egg was perfectly soft boiled and looked gorgeous when it was bitten into. I still didn't eat all of it, but it was quite delicious. They offer tonkotsu, shio, and shoyu ramen (along with a few appetizers) I believe but that's it- they again prove my point that it takes being good at a few things and doing them well, as opposed to offering a lot of things but being mediocre in them.

Then tonight for dinner, my old roomie Christina and I had an impromptu shopping and dinner outing. We decided to go to Dohatsuten in Palo Alto. They are a izakaya type restaurant which means small plates that usually go well with sake or other types of alcohol. They also offer ramen and clay pots, so Christina got the Dohatsuten ramen with a small shiro maguro don, and I got the chashu and kimchee clay pot. I will definitely have to go back to try the ramen, but my thought was to try the clay pot since I could take it home if I didn't eat it all since I wasn't that hungry... but of course I ate it all! I'm still holding/rubbing my tummy regretting how much I ate, but it was tasty. The soy saucy flavor was a bit too strong, but you have got to love the crispy rice bits which they have a lot of! I also didn't like that there was soy sauce on the rice under the shiro maguro- the customer should be able to adjust the flavor themselves instead of having already soy sauced rice. Other than that, I'm excited to go back and try the ramen!