youkinorn2

Coming to Osaka. Any cool shit going on I shouldn't miss? Or restaurants/bars I shouldn't miss? Traveling alone, so anywhere people might be interested in striking up a conversation would be cool, but obviously not expected.

 I've been to Osaka before and have been to Nara, Kyoto, and Arashiyama. Koya-san worth checking out for a day trip? Anywhere else?

Coming back to Japan for a solo trip next month. I'll be in Tokyo April 14-18. Staying in south Shibuya/north Daikanyama. Give me some good stuff to eat (especially stuff I can't get in New York) and bars I can go to by myself where people might be nice to my gaijin ass.

What onsen should I go to in Hakone if I don't want to stay overnight? Or is that a waste.

It's my third time in Tokyo, so I've done a lot of the touristy stuff, but any noteworthy stuff going on I should check out?

Also, give me Kanazawa thoughts if you have them. And Osaka. And maybe Okayama (going to Naoshima and staying overnight). And wherever else I might go around central Japan with a JR pass having already spent some time in Kyoto and Nara.

And if anyone is around and wants to hang out and grab some food/drinks, let me know. 

            #9891            

 

Good looking out, man. You still in Texas?

Yo. Coming to Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto in November with some friends. We've all been to Japan before, so not worried about how to get around/other touristy type stuff, but definitely looking for suggestions for shit to do and places to eat. Anything we definitely shouldn't miss?

hey remember that time I was a child and got in a stupid argument with jmatsu? pretty tight.

Yo youinkorn, you have a vac pack machine? I want to seal liquids but the cheapest chamber vac is like 600

 

Nah, I don't even have a foodsaver bargain sort of vacuum sealer...would like one and one of the little home circulators that are popular now, though.

 

Haven't used a chamber vac since I was working in a kitchen. 600 seems cheap for one, though, what kind are you looking at?

 

You should call into Cooking Issues and see what they have to say about options for vaccing liquid (excellent podcast, if you've never listened)...I think you can do small amounts with the cheap machines, but could be wrong.

 

http://www.heritageradionetwork.com/programs/51-Cooking-Issues

Vitamix will heat things up through friction heat after a few minutes. Thermomix can go on (indefinitely?) without heating up. Was just curious mostly because through experience Vitamix will blitz a puree or powder something extremely quickly, making me wonder why the Relae book would call for a thermo for a blitz job

 

I've processed/pureed some things in a vitamix that seemed to heat up pretty quickly, and also some things that took a while to get really smooth (last time I made celery root puree it took forever and I have no idea why). 

 

If the stuff the things they were putting in the blender weren't heat-sensitive at all, I bet the thermomix homies threw them some money to highlight their products. 

 

Do you know how it manages to keep things from heating up? 

 

I'm on the Thermomix website right now and it is real fucking bizarre, haha.

 

 

@youkinorn - that breakfast looks great and simple. how did you make the sausage gravy?

 

p.s. always thought your username was 'unicorn' 

 

Thanks, dude. 

 

For the gravy, I cooked the chopped up bacon slowly until it was crisp. Took it out of the pan and saved all the fat that rendered out. Browned the sausage and took it out with a slotted spoon so that all the fat stayed in the pan. Added the bacon fat back and then added some flour to make a roux (just eye-balled it...maybe 2/3 of a cup or a little more?), and let that cook for a minute or so...got a little color, but still very blonde. Then added a bunch of milk, most of a quart, while whisking hard so that it didn't clump up.

 

Then I added the sausage back in, some sweet smoked paprika, a splash of maple syrup (1/4 to 1/2 an ounce, maybe), a bunch of black pepper, and some hot sauce. And salt. 

 

Everyone loves biscuits and gravy, and even making the biscuits from scratch, it takes less than an hour.

A few things from the past couple weeks. Been traveling for work and working 12 hour days when I'm home, so haven't had a whole lot of time to be in the kitchen. In case you were wondering, food in Cape Town isn't excellent.

 

trout with preserved red mustard greens, peas, endive kimchee, celery, and cornbread (sort of like a savory spongecake, actually). Served this with a beurre monté made with an intense reduced texas bbq brisket stock instead of water, but poured it after I took the photo.

 

I made biscuits and sausage gravy and soft scrambled eggs one morning for everyone at the editing house we've been working with the past couple weeks. Gravy is pink from smoked paprika and tobasco. Crispy bacon on top.

 

Went morel hunting outside of Austin on Sunday. Found a handful. These are some on an omelette I made myself for breakfast this morning. Probably one of the most satisfying plates of food I've ever made.

 

am I crazy, or does this recipe you guys are talking about (http://imgur.com/wa9aBED,K2lAwNq#0) not even tell you what to do with the tea?

Anyone have any idea on how to make a green tea reduction/sauce for duck?

 

I had it at Atera. The menu just list the dish as "Duck, Green Tea, Cucurbita Morschata"

 

A cook at work suggested making a mother sauce like a veloute or bechamel, steeping green tea in it, blitzing it with a little bit of parsley for color then pushing it through a sieve.

 

From what I remember of the sauce though, it was fairly liquid and the texture didn't really suggest the usage of flour or cream.

 

Thanks.

 

I know this is way late, but if you want a very pure green tea flavor, I'd go with straight matcha and sheer in some xanthan for body. That way you don't get the fat from an oil or fat emulsion...and I assume you wouldn't want the floury flavors from a roux-thickened sauce, anyway. Not sure how the particles from the matcha would react...the xanthan could stabilize the suspension, or it could do something weird and bad—not sure, but a hydrocolloid would be what I'd try first. 

 

When we make purees at work we use a vitamix and it works fine, especially since the vegetables are usually warm as is.

 

what I've heard/experience that if a vitamix runs for 3+ mins it heats up the contents of the container.

 

I just bought the Relae cookbook and the vast majority of the time when it requires something to blended it calls for a Thermomix, was just wondering if someone can confirm that either one works since it takes very little time to puree something smooth anyways. I know the thermomix doesn't heat up when blending since I've ran it for like 8 minutes straight before

 

Vitapreps start heating up the contents pretty quickly in my experience. I'm not familar with the Thermomix—I thought it was just for cooking things while blending, but can it also keep things cool?

Yeah, I've done miso cured yolks like that, as well. Smeared them on big slabs of roasted cauliflower with fig jam. People loved it.

It'd be cool if you included more recipes/more in depth posts about the actual cooking process involved. As usual, great stuff

 

Recipes are tough for me since I'm usually cooking at home and sort of improvising, but I've been meaning to keep better track and start documenting stuff a bit better. I'll make my next post heavier on the technical information. Maybe try to do a whole meal where everything is weighed and recorded.

 

In the meantime, I suggest curing some egg yolks for anyone who is vaguely interested in preserving foods or shit that tastes awesome on pretty much everything. I basically follow the process in this link, but grind a handful of katsuobushi flakes up with the salt and sugar: http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/cured-egg-yolks

 

And a very genuine thanks for the kind words.

Some shitty tumblr-compressed images of some food from the past couple months.

 

As always, more info and stuff at tongueandtooth.tumblr.com

 

mesquite, mastic, and thyme smoked carrots with marrow bordelaise, cured egg yolk, hazelnuts, carrot tops

 

huitlacoche spoon bread with avocado, black trumpet mushrooms, black radish, egg, and blood orange and maple gastrique.

 

churros

 

citrus salad with watercress, idiazabal, walnuts, shallots, and molasses vinaigrette

Feast of the Seven Fishes for some friends:

 

shrimp and sardine soup dumplings

 

branzino, salsify, daikon, hon shimeji, parsley purée

 

51C salmon, butternut squash, salmon skin, yuzu, molasses

 

bay scallops, sunchoke purée, celery, green apple, brown butter

 

clam bechamel, cured egg yolk, black pepper

 

snapper

 

 

http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com/

Your fingers were that fucked up from jalapenos? Must have really mild skin on your hands or really hot jalapenos.

 

One time when I was still cooking professionally, I was slicing serranos to pickle and then went to pee without washing my hands first...that's a mistake you only make once.

 

 

red snapper

 

http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com/

that is terrifying and awesome.

 

Tomato terrine. Set the tomatoes in a cucumber and tomato water gel. Horseradish cream in the middle. Served it with a fermented hatch chile and green curry paste, raw almonds, and fresh herbs.

 

Only photo that made it out of four courses I cooked for some friends the other night. 

 

 http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com

bagel, lox, chive cream cheese, mollet egg.

 

http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com/

How'd you plate the salsa verde in that pattern?

 

dabbed it on with a brush.

cold corn and almond soup, buttermilk poached shrimp, Old Bay

 

trumpet mushroom crudo, salsa verde, mushroom gastrique

 

clam, pepperoni, and corn miso mazemen

 

trout, polenta, corn gravy, allium (garlic scapes, garlic, shallot), thai chile

 

http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com/

 

Soft boiled egg, roasted poblano and buttermilk purée, crimini and chanterelle mushrooms.

 

http://tongueandtooth.tumblr.com/