Cheese Cheese and more Cheese!

One of my greatest weaknesses are cheeses and happily one friday afternoon visited the cheese shop to get a couple of matured varieties. My favorites are stiltons and picodon.

Raw Vegan Food at California

Leaf Cuisine Cafe in Los Angeles Culver City that serves Raw Vegan Food
website : www.leafcuisine.com

After spending time in Central America in April where there is hardly any vegan food, I was delighted to be eating vegetarian food again, a great little raw food outlet, Leaf Cafe serves decent portions, it feels like a regular good cafe with none of that foo foo fashion types which you see at other raw food restaurants. The raw food portions were large and rather filling. Me and my friends shared a few dishes. The smoothies filled us up immediately and we took takeways after that. There were a few disappointing dishes like the chilled soups each of us had, just lacked the flavors and more like blended vegetable pulp. Overall most of the dishes were pretty good and decent.




Raw California Maki, my favorite dish at the cafe with intense flavors. Fillings of Nuts, tomato, carrots and wakame seaweed. Yummy



Raw-torilla with nut cream, a little disappointed with this, perhaps some redesigning of the recipe. Basically cabbage with nuts, sprouts and avocado slices arranged together, it is more like a salad than a torilla.




Raw-lasagne with rich avocado, sprouts and dehydrated tomatos, I was already filled up with the rest of my dishes, but was delicious and I had doggy bagged it for breakfast.

Celebrated my Birthday at Kazu Sumi Yaki

Yakitori for my Birthday Dinner... again

Today's the day, I am officially old, according to my insurance company who just switch me to the next age category and upped my premiums.

For the third time in a row, I ended up having my birthday at my yakitori place.

Me and the makankakis went for yakitori at Kazu Sumi Yaki Restaurant located at Cuppage Plaza.

MakanKaki No.1 is suppose to do the review for the restaurant. (BIG HINT)

Kazu became one of my favorite yakitori place after my first yakitori place, Ahodori closed. It was Ahodori which introduced me to the world of chicken spare parts yakitori and raw chicken sashimi liver.

For a yakitori place, Kazu prices are pretty reasonable, a skewer cost from $1.50-$5 depending on what you ordered. Ahodori use to charge me $7-15 for a skewer of meat.

We ordered a few of my favorite chicken parts like liver, gizzard, skin, although my favorite Hatsu (heart) and a few other stuff wasn't on the menu. Its Monday apparently they don't stock up on the popular stuff. The vegetable sticks were pretty decent, we had the red shishito, japanese okra (tiny little fingers), japanese shiitake (in season), eggplant and few other stuff.

Kaki No.3 and me were tempted at the Mastutake mushrooms which cost $22 per mushroom, but decided that even on my special day, we really refuse to pay for such a ripoff item.

One of the pet grips about the place, is the chef tends to forget my special request, use shio (salt) or tare (sweet sauce) sparingly. Kazu tends to over salt the yakitori and the tare isn't as fantastic as Ahodori. The sauce tends to overpower the meat and vegetable sticks and you can't taste your food after it has been overdipped by a thick sugary saltish sauce.

The dessert was pretty good, we ordered most of the stuff on the menu, including the homemade icecream.

The total bill came to $300+ for 4 person. We ordered a few expensive ripoff stuff like the bluefin tuna belly ($15 per tiny slice), its was not fresh, badly cut with bad vein-y portion.

The average I usually spend at Kazu is around $30 to $40(with drinks).

Tiny incident:
The overexcited MakanKaki No.1 was told off by the Matire-D for taking photos of the menu. There is an unwritten law that there is no photography of menus in most establishments for whatever obvious reason.

To the Kakis: Thanks for dinner y'all!
Always great to have good company

Sunday Brunch at Whitebait and Kale

Once a year, we get to call a day in the calendar , Our Day.
It's an obligatory celebration of the day that we shoot right out of our mother's uterus.

And yes, October 1st is mine.
I own it, along with 100 billion other people in China.

The family decided that they should celebrate my birthday on Sunday and I got to pick where I wanna go.

We went to Whitebait and Kale at Camden Medical for sunday brunch. They had a month-long organic promotion . Since I am into organic stuff these days , thought we might try it out.

I ordered the pita bread and various spread for starters ; for mains, organic chicken breast with quinoa and pomegrante sauce . The rest of the family had their free-range egg and 'organic pork sausage & beans, typical breakfast fare, along with 2 tiny pieces of muffin.

After 1 month of low salt diet, the meal at Whitebait and Kale tasted extremely saltish, and I had to drown myself with water and soda.

The brunch was pricey, average per pax was $30-40 per person.
I ordered a cappucino that cost $9.45 with taxes.
It came along with a tiny biscotti and a fancy wooden board cupholder.

Probably won't go back again

Slow Food Singapore #80 : Au Petite Salut

Slow Food Convivium Society
Singapore Tasting Event #80
at Au Petit Salut
Held on 22 Sept 2007

The Menu


Amuse Bouche
Fresh abalone consomme
created by Jason Wong


Accompanied by Gonet Champagne Grand Cru Special Brut


First Entree
Char-grilled baby octopus salad with balsamic vinegar
created by Karl Dobler


Accompanied by Meursault, Domaine Dubois 2004


Second Entree
Braised crispy pork trotter, Sauteed potatoes and wild mushrooms
created by Philippe Nouzillat



Accompanied by Fixin 2003, Domaine Durand
(No Photos)

Main Course
Braised beef cheeks in red wine, Parsnip mash and carrots
created by Patrick Heuberer


Accompanied by Gevrey Chambertin Belair 2004, Taupenot-Merme
(no photos)

Dessert
Frozen valrhona praline parfait with coconut dacquoise, pear sultanas salsa
created by Francois Mermilliod


Accompanied by Grain de Malice Provins Valais


The dishes that replaced the red meat items on the menu
Sea Bream


Duck Confit



The Chefs

Slow Food Singapore #78 Oso Restaurant

Slow Food Convivium Society(Singapore)
Tasting Event # 78
at
Oso Restaurant
on
Saturday 21 July 2007

The Menu
~~~~~~~~~

Starter
Daily made “burrata” cheese from Puglia filled with tomato coulis


Accompanied by Aloi Lageder, Pinot Bianco 2006. Alto Adige


First Course
Carnaroli quality rice in risotto style with prawns tomato and orange zest



Accompanied by Aloi Lageder, Merlot 2004. Alto Adige


The Main
8 hours slowly cooked lamb rack
Served with roast potato, onion and chestnut
Accompanied by La Gerla, Brunello di Montalcino 2001, Toscany


Alternate replacement Main Grilled Fish and Roast Beef


The Cheese
Mixed cheese platter with raisin, apple and red radish
Accompanied by Capannelle, Chianti Classico Riserva 2001, Toscany


The Dessert
Warm mascarpone cake with lemon served with raspberries and its own sauce
Accompanied by Chateau Vari, 2000, Monbazillac


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Other Photos


Chef Diego and Owner



The People