Toki: A Japanese Experience?

I used to be in the Japanese food industry in the Philippines and eating at authentic Japanese restaurants was a past time of mine before. I even went to Japan alone just to taste and savor their authentic cuisine. Japanese cuisine is technically very simple. The only important aspect of the cuisine is the quality of ingredients which separates real Japanese restaurants to the Filipinized Japanese restaurants.

I often go to Aubergine if I get the chance, so often than not, I am always curious about the Japanese restaurant beside it. The exterior made the restaurant looked authentic and the feel that it gave was like that of Seryna in Little Tokyo. Anyhow, so one day, I called my neighbor *my neighbor loves Japanese food so asking her to try it gives a better value with the meal* and told her to eat here.

As we entered the restaurant, a breeze of Japanese ambience came in. I was happy especially that they had something like this in their hallway.



Moreover, the manager was a Japanese and there were Japanese customers so the place made me really comfortable already for an authentic Japanese restaurant.
We then started ordering. The key of knowing if a Japanese restaurant is really authentic here in Manila if they have the toro. And yes, they do have toro in the menu. However, I was then really disappointed when I asked the server if they ohtoro. The server then asked the chef or the cooks if they have one available, sadly, there was none. Then, I saw a toro steak in the menu. I then asked the server about it. The server said they have it. Then, I asked how come he said that there was no ohtoro awhile ago. I then asked it that was chutoro or ohtoro. Then he asked the chef or cooks again and returned saying that they are just the same! Oh Lord! Chutoro and ohtoro is never the same! Chutoro is the mid section of the belly and the ohtoro is the upper section of the belly. There is a clear distinction between their marbling and price! Because of that experience, I told to my neighbor that I think we are in a wrong restaurant now.  So, in the end, we just ordered a five kind sashimi and ordered some normal hot entries.



The sashimi was just ok. Other authentic Japanese restaurants have better deals like Seryna. It has better sashimi and presentation for the same price. Tsukiji, ofcourse, is still the best, but its price is also the highest.



Then, our pork sukiyaki came. It was just ok too. Nothing special. It was actually a little sweet. Moreover, if they were really an authentic restaurant, they would place a small burner on the table and let the pot cook on the burner in front of us.



Tempura came next. This is the least disappointing dish. The shrimp was of good quality and it was light and crunchy but hey, that is what you expect in an authentic Japanese restaurant. It better have good quality shrimp that has a clean taste and a good bite.



Lastly, Chicken teriyaki came. As expected, it was just ok. Skin should have been crispier. I like the vegetables though.



At the end of the day, I won't be going back again. I'd rather go eat somewhere else. Moreover, it has low value for money in my opinion.

Fried Chicken with Bacon and Mushroom Gravy

My mom bought a box of chicken *33 lbs* from a supplier the other day and we were defrosting it so that we can easily fit it in the freezer. As the whole box was thawing, I took two leg quarters for this dish. Moreover, I still have lots of bacon that I need to discard and I don't just wanna fry them up, that'll be boring, so it gave me this idea of making a bacon gravy.

So here is the line up *forgot to include some worcestershire in the picture*



First, make a seasoned flour. Get some flour and mix in the paprika, salt, pepper and garlic powder.



Dry your chicken with some paper towels then coat it with the seasoned flour.



Now, heat some oil. Make sure you have a thermometer in hand to heat it so that you fry the chicken at the right temperature, too hot will burn the skin and not cook the chicken, too cold and the chicken will absorb some water.



Deep-fry the chicken at 350F.



Remove them when they golden browned or when the sizzling of chicken is lower



Now, let's make the gravy, saute some bacon. We will use its fat for the roux.



Lots of fat there.



Then, add in some mushroom and give it a quick saute.



Then, add some flour and some chicken stock into it.



Add some worcestershire at the end of cooking and some salt.



Serve



Opinion

Some of the skin of the chicken was a little burnt. I can feel that burnt taste that is both bitter and annoying of some chicken. The gravy though was great. It had a strong robust flavor. The bacon and mushroom gave a strong savory flavor for the gravy.

The only problem of this dish for me was that the mushroom have been cut smaller. It should have been minced so that it can easily be eaten with the chicken. Since the mushroom were sliced, it was hard for me to eat the chicken with the mushroom. Moreover, butter could have helped a lot!

Moon Cake

Few weeks ago was the moon cake festival. We used to have this 'dice game' that is apparently invented here by the Chinese in Manila *according to my professor back in college*. You won't see any kind of dice game in mainland China during their moon cake festival.

I forgot about the lore of the moon cake, it was during my elementary days that my chinese teachers taught me about that. You can just google it and learn about it.

One of my mom's employees in China sent us a huge box of moon cakes instead of just a normal box of 4 for the moon cake festival. Tada!



Let's see what's inside!



Look at that, so many moon cakes! and there is a giant one right in the middle :))

Just so you know the size of the moon cakes, I took a picture of the box with my cellphone so that you get to see the comparison.



Huge right?

Opinion

To be honest, at first, I was a little hesitant eating this gift. I mean, sorry to say this, it came from China! There are many bad stories about their merchandises, more so if it is food! I don't want to have any kind of food poisoning and I rather avoid it than take my chances.

However, the grace of God came along with the sign of the packaging that says ISO! Oh yes, if it's ISO certified, it can never be wrong! So I took one out and ate it.

Taste was good, nothing special actually. It tasted normal. Texture was a little crumbly though. For me, a moon cake must have that stiff sticky texture. This one lacks that distinct texture that I was looking for. After opening a new one, we realized that it has different flavors. The second moon cake was better, at least for me, than the former one. Oh well, it has different flavors, so it is really hard to give my opinion for the whole package. :D

Chocolate Rice Pudding with Sabayon and Bacon *Champorado*

It took me awhile to make a new post because the internet at home was dead for some time. Anyhow, at least my net is up again and time to write about what I have made during this cold weather.

I wanted to make something appropriate with the cold weather for my snack in the afternoon. Then, I found some left over cocoa tablets in our pantry so I thought of making a chocolate rice pudding out of it – champorado



Making chocolate pudding was easy. First, get some sticky rice. *I also had some leftovers from making the mango sticky rice before* and cook it with some chocolate. Make sure it has more water because you want your chocolate rice pudding to be more watery than dry. Then add some sugar to it to balance the earthiness of the cocoa tablet.



Normally, this dish is served with some evaporated milk and some salted fish. My version is a bit different. I added some sabayon and some condensed milk with the evaporated milk. So, while the rice cooks with the cocoa tablets. Make the sabayon. Get some egg yolks and mix some condensed milk.



Cook it in a double boiler.



Cook until it has thickened and has a creamy consistency. Careful not the overcook the eggs unless you want some sort of ‘yema’ out of it.



After that, mix some condensed milk and evaporated milk.



Lastly, cook some bacon. Cook it until crisp.



Then serve, putting the rice first, then add some of the evaporated/condensed milk mixture at the side. Top it with some sabayon and a slice of bacon.



Opinion
There was a lot of going on with this dish. It was sweet, salty, savory and bitter. However, surprisingly, it went well. The earthiness of the cocoa tablet balanced well with the sweetness of the dish. In addition to that, the creaminess of the sabayon gave a richer flavor to it. The bacon gave a good saltiness to the dish and the texture was heavenly. As you bite the bacon with the chocolate rice pudding, there is a burst of crisp fat that will ooze out from the bacon. I must say, anything with bacon tastes really good.

One of the problems with this dish is the presentation. It lacked structure and color. Colors were dull, I thought the sabayon would give a good color but it didn’t. I think I should have placed something orange or green to make it look brighter or
something.

Lastly, I think the evaporated mix could have been better. Maybe adding some cream could have elevated this dish or I should have reduced it further to give it a thicker consistency.

Braised Pork Belly

When the weather is cold, people would normally make a heart-warming comforting soup to satisfy their day. I, on the other hand, would make something that is braised for that matter.

A few weeks ago, we all know the typhoon came and the weather was really cold. Because of that, I made a braised pork belly dish. It is easy, so often than not, you just throw everything into the pot and let it cook low and slow.

Here are the prepared ingredients.



First of all, pat dry the pork bellies then add some olive oil inside the pot. Season them. Sear them well. You would want to make a good crust out of that sear and good flavor.



Remove the pork bellies from the pot then add in the vegetables. These are carrots, potatoes, and shallots. Sweat them. Sweating is like sauteing. You want to likely cook the vegetables to release some of their flavors.



After sweating the vegetables, deglaze the pan with some red wine.



Return the pork bellies and vegetables. First place the pork bellies at the bottom of the pot, then put the vegetables on top of it. When that is done, add some herbs *in my case, thyme* some stock and some red wine vinegar.



Bring the whole pot to a boil, then cover it and simmer it. Simmer until cook. Braised dishes are better the next day so that the flavors get to infuse with the pork.



Opinion

It has a sharp taste. I have probably added too much red wine vinegar. However, it had a good balance of flavors with the vegetables. The only thing I didn't like about the dish was that the potatoes sucked. Texture was too starchy. I think I should have roasted it instead of adding it to the braise or I shouldn't had sweat it and should have seared it instead. But all in all, it was a good cold weather dish for me.

Yakiniku

Normally, when I take a photo of my cooking process and food in my house, the background is either our wolf stove or a black marble background. If the background is other wise, it means I am cooking in my sister's house which usually happens.

A few weeks ago, I was cleaning my chest freezer and found some left over short ribs inside the freezer. I wanted those to be devoured immediately so that my freezer will have more space in it. With that in mind, I called my sister and told her if we can have some yakiniku in her place; and she gladly said yes.

Yakiniku is a japanese dish meaning grilled meat. 'Yaki' - grilled, 'Niku' - meat. If you were to go to a yakiniku restaurant, they will offer a wide range variety of meat for you to grill and just dip it in their sauce and eat it with their rice. So often than not, the beef cut that many like is 'Karubi' or beef short ribs.

Beef short ribs is all about flavor. It is one of the most, if not the most, marbled part of the beef. You usually braise it but in our case, we cut it thinly then grill it. Grilling beef short ribs as is gives you this strong beef flavor even if the beef is very thin.

Anyhow, let's proceed. First, cook some rice. It better be japanese since we are making a japanese dish.



As the rice cooks, start making the sauce. First, you need to crush some garlic.



Then add mirin and japanese soy sauce *two parts mirin, 1 part japanese soy sauce* Lastly, add some gochujang. Gochujang is a spicy korean miso. You can easily buy this from korean stores. The packaging of this is usually made from a red plastic container.

When the rice is already donecooks, prepare the beef.



See the marbling of that meat? Yum! Oh, also, it is better if you buy at least a USDA choice grade meat for that so you can be assured of good marbling of the meat. USDA choice great meat are always available at Santis. In my case, since I am in the food industry, I bought a whole slab of short ribs from my supplier and trimmed it on my own. :D

When everything is prepared, time to grill some meat!



Eating yakiniku is all about eating it with other people. It is a ceremony where people get together and have a nice meal together. It is about catching up and tightening the bonds of people; camaraderie.



Lastly, eat yakiniku with some alcohol.



Weird thing about the alcohol we had is that it's korean. Well, to be honest, yakiniku has its roots from the korean. 'karubi' is the japanese translation of 'galbi', the korean counter part, and they usually it the 'galbi' with lettuce. :d

Pantry Setup: Organization

It has been a month since I have been maintaining this blog and I realized that I really need to organize my pantry to be more efficient in cooking and storing my ingredients.

I am the type of guy who is a little messy when it comes to storing things and keeping them organized. Since getting organized is more efficient and effective, I started organizing my cooking stuffs.



It's a disaster, I know. Normally, I scour for available pantry goods there like soy sauce, red wine, wine vinegar, oils etc.. before I cook so that I know what things I can cook. Seeing this mess inside the house, my mom bought me a nice shelf to organize my pantry goods and that was pretty nice of her.



Tada! My super organized pantry, far from the disaster one lolz. Finally, now I can plan ahead of time the food I want to cook :D