Sunday, October 9, 2011

Flavors





I am a huge fan of compound butters. Fat is a great carrier of flavors and I love making different flavors of compound butters for the pantry. It is something that is so simple to make, yet can add a lot of flavors and moisture to any type of protein out there. It is a great flavor enhancer to have in the fridge.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Nostalgia



This dish was inspired by what i used to eat for breakfast while I was growing up in Thailand. The original dish that I had in Thailand were consisted of a bowl of rice porridge, 3 minute egg, ground pork, scallion and some Maggie sauce. The dish was a staple while growing up since it was so cheap to buy, but it was very filling as well.

The picture above is a 64*C poached egg with soba groats in a shitake broth, scallion and crispy shitake. It was on one of my nightly tasting menus, very simple and very delicious.

Been busy.




So I haven't post anything new on this blog for a while. I think that both Ben and I have been pretty busy with whatever we've got going on in our lives. I think that what I've realized is that having a blog isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. With that being said, I will try my best to keep the posts coming.

Thanks

Monday, June 6, 2011

Taco


Taco is a great creation in itself, I do not wish to make the taco better than what it already is, but I need to somehow crete one that is my own. So one day I was playing with the wheat starch dough and decided to fry it. The result was this super crispy and light shell. I decided I want to do my take on fish taco with tuna being the protein. I was also influenced by the familiar and fresh flavors of South East Asia. The end result was a Seared Tuna marinated in toast sesame dressing in a crispy wheat starch taco shell with pickled vegetables, a wedge of lime, and chili-garlic dip. The flavor combination worked well together and the finger food factor made it more fun to eat, I could eat like ten of these. I know seared tuna is way overdone in just about every restaurant, but it's what I had to work with at the time. This was just the "first draft" of the dish, next step is to experiment with different type of fish.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Out of Style?


Are Souffles officially out of style?
I was working a Chefs dinner recently and while brainstorming the final course we got to talking about Souffles. The Boss wanted the souffle as the final course to 'wow' the guest and have that amazing presentation factor. As Chefs we were all sort of burnt out on the fact of having to put this super sweet egg-white creation as the final course to our amazing tasting. We felt that souffles were awesome in the early nineties and to bring it back to finish this degustation would be a disservice...

Chefs are stubborn, there is no doubt about that. We'll keep something on a menu forever even though it doesn't sell only because we created it and we think its great. We also will refuse to put something on a menu because we think its lame even though it would sell like crazy. So I ask the question does anything ever really go 'out of style' in food? There is a reason things hang around for such a long time, if they're really really good is it even possible for them to go 'out of style'? Or is it all personal preference?

Friday, May 20, 2011

Nothing to say...





A lot of time I just look at pictures of composed dishes online or in a book without reading descriptions just so I can let my imagination go to work and allow the pictures inspire me. It's like being inspired by a painting, it's up to the viewer to fine the meaning.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Life in Bhutan

Where the hell is Bhutan you might ask? It's one of the last remaining kingdoms in the world. It is located between China and India near Nepal and Bangladesh. Called "one of the last Shangri-la's" it is nearly impossible to find much information about the country anywhere but from inside the country (a little ironic I know). Its been nearly three weeks in this gorgeous country and I wonder why more people don't know about it... Then I remember that there is only one airline that flies into Bhutan (their fleet consists of 2 planes), visas are difficult to get and extremely expensive ($200 per day for tourists), and it sits between two of the most populated countries in the world...

I came here to fulfill a dream of mine (to live and work in a different country) and to experience something new. Adjusting to life has been difficult, modern conveniences of home are almost non-existent here, save for a few TV's and the internet in certain areas. The new chapter in this life begins and I am ready to cook and eat my way through as much of Bhutan as possible and hopefully the rest of Asia in the future.

Food pictures and posts will follow soon. For now, landscape photos will have to suffice...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Homemade Pho


Thanks to my annual Asian grocery shopping trip, I was able to make Pho and it was delicious. ( sorry for blurry cellphone picture )

Friday, April 8, 2011

Mock Foods, Why?



So I went on my yearly pilgrimage to an Asian grocery store in Massachusetts earlier today. And as usual, I found a wide variety of goodies from fresh Asian produce to dried fish and chinese sausage. But I also found a couple of things that was quite interesting and confusing at the same time. There they were, next to the produce section, a wide varieties of vegetarian/vegan products. The ones that really caught my eyes were these "vegetarian kidneys and tripe. My immediate thought was "wow these are cool and weird, who would buy these?" Then I was confused because from what I've seen time and time again, vegetarian/vegan products are often made to mimic products from real animals. Why in the world would you want to turn vegetable protein into a tripe/kidneys looking thing. Are there actually vegetarians out there who wonders what tripe or kidneys tastes like? I mean I just don't get it, seriously. There is no way a piece of tofu will taste like veal kidneys, so why make it into the shape of kidneys? I mean "mock duck" doesn't taste like duck so why make it look like pieces of duck meat? Maybe one day I will see "Mock kidneys" or "Mock Tripe" on a menu at a vegetarian restaurant.... but hopefully not.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

New Reading Material


Due to my fondness of anything anything that has to do with dumplings, raviolis or other filled pasta/dough, I recently purchased a book called Asian Dumplings. The book is great because i think when most people hear "Asian Dumplings", they automatically think of things like Chinese dumplings and gyoza. But amongst your typical dumpling recipes, this book contains recipes for things like BBQ pork buns ( char siu bao ), Curry Puffs and Har Gow. The recipes are easy to follow, though some of the ingredients may take some researching to obtain. Overall, I am happy with this book and will be trying many recipes from it. And if you are obsessed with dumplings like I am, this is the book to get.

Monday, April 4, 2011

when the budget is tight, I hang out at bookstores.

So basically I found that when my budget is really tight, and I don't have money to spare on books that I want to buy, I just go and hang out at book stores. I really do love the fact that I can just grab my laptop and go hang out at a bookstore for a few hours on my day off. I usually find lots of inspiring recipes from browsing through cook book and whatever ideas pop up in my head I just type away on my laptop. It's a great way to save money and just relax and lose myself in the books. I'm actually at a book store right now...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Spring is here and Summer is near.

As the weather is getting warmer day by day in Vermont, I can't help but think about the fresh produce that will be available from local farms, hills of Vermont. I am really looking forward to picking wild fiddle heads and black berries and the gorgeous weather that accompanies new crops. So excited.

Moving Overseas.

Well I just hope that I will not regret the decision that I made on taking a pass on an opportunity to work in Bhutan. In my mind I am in a conflict between that fact that I just passed on an opportunity of a life time and the fact that I know I am not ready to make such a huge move yet. I just have to trust my instinct and say pass for right now. I hope that this decision will not come back to haunt me in the future.

P.S. Ben, good luck in Bhutan and I know you will do just fine.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Rice Rice Baby.

Whenever I had a meal with my family while I am in Thailand, I was reminded of how many of the western countries count on the gigantic portion of protein to be the main part of the meal. Here in Thailand, an 8 oz piece of steak would feed a family of four instead of just one family member. Like pretty much all of South East Asian Countries, we only serve proteins in bite-size pieces stir-fried with vegetables and some sort of aromatic herbs. The smaller pieces of proteins also encourages sharing, which is so important in many of the poorer Asian nations. Rice really is the focus here, perhaps it’s due to the fact that most of the dishes that we eat are spicy. The rice help disperse the heat so that our palate is not burnt out after just one bite. Rice is also considered to be sacred, there is even a rice deity that I used to pray to before each meal.
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