urbanfoodie

bellybound: Dry-fried Chicken Wings San Tung Restaurant A few...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:57:07 -1000

Dry-fried Chicken Wings

San Tung Restaurant

A few weeks ago Jeremy asked me to name my favorite chicken dish of all time. I rarely order chicken, so there were very few chicken dishes to choose from and not many were memorable. I told him that these dry-fried chicken wings from San Tung were it and I made it a priority to take him there when we got a chance. I don’t know how we haven’t eaten there together, as I regularly recommend this restaurant to people asking for SF food recommendations. These wings are amazing, and you’ll know what I’m talking about as soon as you take your first bite. The sauce is a little sweet and sticky, so be prepared to lick your fingers. A plate of 12 wings is $9.75.

San Tung Restaurant

1031 Irving Street San Francisco, CA (Inner Sunset)

Closed on Wednesdays

Menu

Other popular dishes: black bean noodles, shrimp and leek dumplings

When people ask what I miss about San Francisco, this comes to mind. San Tung is a gem!

karachi2delhi: Dosa anyone? I don’t reblog often...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:59:56 -1000

karachi2delhi:

Dosa anyone?

I don’t reblog often (enough?) here, but this looks awesome and delicious and omg why the heck is good south asian food so hard to find here in hawaii.

North Shore Shrimp Part 1 - Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck Lots...

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:56:00 -1000

North Shore Shrimp Part 1 - Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck

Lots of people drive over an hour from Town (i.e., Honolulu) to Oahu’s North Shore for the world famous surf (the Banzai Pipeline is thought to be one of the most awesome - and deadliest - surfing spots in the world), the snorkeling, and the sea turtle gawking. Being the type more likely to count eating among my adventurous activities, I was pumped about trying the shrimp trucks on the North Shore. There are a number of food trucks selling shrimp plates, usually with the choices of garlic, lemon, or spicy.

Giovanni’s is often thought of as the best, and it’s probably because it was one of the first to establish the long strip of the Kam Highway as a shrimp lover’s destination. You can find Giovanni’s trucks in Kahuku and Haleiwa.

From Wikipedia’s entry on North Shore Shrimp Trucks:

In 1993, Giovanni’s (now Giovanni’s Original White Shrimp Truck) started serving shrimp from a truck on the north shore. When it opened, the north shore was a sleepy place with wide expanses of beach that were little known outside of the surfing world. Over the years tourism along the north shore increased as did housing, enough to support an ever increasing number of shrimp trucks.

Most of the shrimp served from these trucks come from shrimp farms on the North Shore, which means that you can brag to all your friends about how you had “local seafood in Hawaii.” The plates follow the typical formula of most local-style fare: big serving of protein/meat/seafood with two scoops of rice, and in some cases you might even get a little side salad (forthcoming post on Fumi’s Shrimp Truck). Although the grindz don’t come cheap at $13, you know that shrimp is one of those foods that’s worth the extra cash in freshness and flavor. Giovanni’s shrimp lives up to the fresh test and earns a few more points when you bathe the side of white rice in buttery, shrimpy sauce and chunks of tender garlic. Extra super bonus points when you suck on the shrimp skin and get little nubs of garlic that have nestled in the crook of the shrimp’s curl. YUMMM…

Some protips: Bring cash, hand wipes (cause you know, you’re gonna be peeling these suckers unless you’re traveling with your over-involved mother), and breath mints/gum.

Along the way to Waimanalo Beach Park on Kalanianole Highway, a...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:02:00 -1000

Along the way to Waimanalo Beach Park on Kalanianole Highway, a family sells tamales out of their truck for $2 each (supposedly for a church fundraiser?) We’ve seen them on both Saturdays and Sundays, but get there early cause they sell out fast - because these tamales are AWESOME! Best Mexican food on the island.

This is what University of Hawaii’s dining services think...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:56:26 -1000

This is what University of Hawaii’s dining services think a Chicago-style hotdog is. Appalling and tragic.

wordsandsteel: pag-asaharibon: After completing my thesis on...

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 23:16:34 -1000

Empanada

wordsandsteel:

pag-asaharibon:

After completing my thesis on Filipino cuisine I wanted to look at the availablity to make the dishes. Here’s a short snippet of what I found in Lee Lee International Supermarket in Chandler. Some of the links lead to my posts for prior references or Jun-blog and Burnt Lumpia blogs for recipes.

I didn’t get to document Philippine aisle at all but my Mekong Supermarket post will make up for it. At Lee Lee I noticed the aisle is heavily dominated with rice stick noodles (for pancit), vinegar and banana sauce.

The most distinct Filipino sausage redolent of black pepper, vinegar, and garlic: Longganisa.

Tocino is Filipino sweet cured pork. Think ham, bacon, or char-siu. Tocino is pork, usually butt and shoulder, thinly sliced, sweetened and cured for a couple of days, and then pan-fried or grilled.

Bistek—which is just beef marinated in soy and kalamansi and then cooked with onions. Quite odd seeing it in frozen food form.

Dinuguan is blood stew. Meat and innards are simmered in vinegar and fresh blood. Yes, you heard right, fresh blood. Frozen Dinuguan does not sound appealing at all.

Lumpia are pastries of Chinese origin similar to fresh popiah or fried spring rolls popular in Southeast Asia. The recipe, both fried and fresh versions, was brought by the Chinese immigrants from the Fujian province of China to Southeast Asia and became popular where they settled in Indonesia and the Philippines. (source)

Spain and Mexico both have had quite the influence on Filipino cuisine via colonialism and the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade, and empanadas happen to be a tasty result of that Spanish/Mexican influence.

Chopped hot dogs are an ingredient in in Philippine-style spaghetti (Bolognese). They are also used in various other dishes (e.g. as a filling in an embutido, as sliced pieces of meat in tomato-based savories such as caldereta or menudo, etc. (source) Notice the extra red dye on the packaged dogs.

Filipino Tapa is thinly sliced beef that is cured and dried with salt, sugar, and other spices and then cooked in oil. In other words, Tapa is fried beef jerky. And, as seen in the picture above, Tapa is usually served for breakfast along with garlic fried rice and a fried egg or two. This breakfast trinity of fried foods is known as Tapsilog: TAP is from Tapa, SI is from sinangag (fried rice), and LOG is from itlog (egg).

The milkfish is an important seafood in Southeast Asia and some Pacific Islands. Because milkfish is notorious for being much bonier than other food fish, deboned milkfish, called “boneless bangus” (bangus is the local name) in the Philippines, has become popular in stores and markets.

Oh I’d love to read your thesis! Would you want to pass along?

Ditto on the thesis love!

One bite! (via Iron Chef Morimoto’s Four Rules for Eating...

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 11:45:33 -1000

One bite! (via Iron Chef Morimoto’s Four Rules for Eating Sushi (Like You Know What You’re Doing) || Jaunted)

americastestkitchen: Cook’s Tip of the Day: Oil and salt work together when marinating with garlic....

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 07:00:50 -1000

americastestkitchen: Cook’s Tip of the Day: Oil and salt work together when marinating with garlic....

The Famed Waiola Shave Ice Shave ice may look like a snow cone...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:56:00 -1000

The Famed Waiola Shave Ice

Shave ice may look like a snow cone (to the American kids) or maybe halo-halo (to the Filipino kids), but this is no ordinary mound of ice. Shave ice (don’t call it shaved with an -ed unless you want to out yourself as a non-local)’s texture is much lighter and airy, like taking a scoop out of a cloud. The texture and weight in your mouth is gentler than the freshest, powdery snow on a Midwestern morning. When topped with your choice of flavored syrups, condensed milk, mochi, adzuki beans, and/or ice cream, suddenly the ice cream man just got bested as the antidote to a hot day (of which there are many in Hawaii). Waiola’s (Moilili) shave ice is rumored to be the best in Town, with Aoki’s and Matsumoto’s duking out for the title just a few stores away from each other in Haleiwa up on the North Shore. I’ve only had Waiola’s and Aoki’s, and I think that Waiola’s holds up as my favorite so far. As you can see from the pictures above, their machine and their workers take no shortcuts in layering the delicate ice layers to make a compact yet still ethereal confection.

This past weekend, I went home to Chicago for the first time...

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 07:37:00 -1000

Shoyu up the wazoo

From Austin, MN to Hawaii...

This past weekend, I went home to Chicago for the first time since moving to Hawaii in late July. These are two pictures from Wal-Mart that I found myself showing to all my family members - Look all at all that soy sauce and canned meat! It’s like Hawaii holds all these memories of my childhood that I didn’t know existed for other people too.

Options at the University of Hawaii’s campus center dining...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:43:16 -1000

Options at the University of Hawaii’s campus center dining services: bibombop, mapo tofu bowl, katsu, loco moco, bentos, sushi, poke, SPAM musubi, meat Jun, mandoo…and so much more. Wow. Just wow.

Portland Day 1 cont: Schnitzelwich, more than a sandwich Pork...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:39:00 -1000

Portland Day 1 cont: Schnitzelwich, more than a sandwich

Pork had a lovely, gritty crunchiness but could have used more spice. The pork was nice and tender. Fresh ciabatta made for good structural integrity of the sandwich, crusty on the outside with a chewy middle. The horseradish sour cream lacked the one-two punch I was hoping for, but the sweet roasted red pepper and carmelized onion spread almost made up for it. Almost. Though this was the largest source of veggies I had all day, it was an overwhelming amount! All in all, good but not quite great.

Portland Day 1: Tabor Czech Food truck, 5th and Oak

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 10:37:09 -1000

Portland Day 1: Tabor Czech Food truck, 5th and Oak

On the Twin Cities Bucket List: Sunday Brunch at the Bachelor...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:18:00 -1000

On the Twin Cities Bucket List: Sunday Brunch at the Bachelor Farmer

There are less than three weeks left before I leave for Hawaii (with a short stop in Portland), and aside from the harried thoughts of all the packing/cleaning that I have to do, I’m preoccupied with the places I want to visit and things I want to eat before I leave the Twin Cities.

The Bachelor Farmer has been hailed as one of the best, newest editions to the TC dining scene, and I am thoroughly embarrassed that I haven’t checked it out yet. Mostly because the chef behind the restaurant’s Nordic-inspired fare, Paul Berglund, is the husband of one of my colleagues in the Psychology Department! Last month, I learned from their mailing list that TBF added Sunday brunch and Sunday supper. The Sundays I have left here are are dwindling, so I hope that I’ll be able to make it. Here’s the info on Sunday brunch and Sunday Supper from the special announcement email sent last month:

———————————————————————————-

Friends,

We’re excited to introduce Sundays at The Bachelor Farmer! We’re now serving Sunday brunch and a new format for dinner that we’re calling Sunday Supper.

Our Sunday brunch features Nordic interpretations of brunch favorites along with smørrebrød (a classic Nordic style of open-face sandwich), drinks by Marvel Bar’s Pip Hanson, and the pictured cart, which will pass through the dining room offering housemade pastries as well as Champagnes and sparkling wines by the glass.

Our new Sunday Supper is a set three-course menu consisting of a starter, family-style entrée, and dessert. The menu will change each week and provides our chefs with the opportunity to focus the kitchen’s full energy and talent on a single ambitious dish, such as a whole roasted bird or slow-cooked meat.

Because this Sunday is Father’s Day, we’re going to stock the brunch cart with cans of Hamm’s beer and offer them with our compliments through supper. What better way to toast Dad than with a cold Hamm’s?!

We’re excited about Sundays at The Bachelor Farmer and can’t wait to share this new tradition with all of you. For hours and menus, please visit our website. Lastly, please note that we are no longer taking reservations for Sundays; both brunch and supper will be first-come, first-served.

We hope to see you soon.

Our best,
Team TBF

Urbanfoodie & Friends Go Camping! A few weeks ago, a group...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 04:34:00 -1000

Father Hennepin State Park

Garlic rice on cast iron skillet

Orzo salad by OMK

Garlickly pico de gallo

Ed's smores-inspired Mocha Bacon Pancake

Homemade granola

Sunset on Lake Mille Lacs

Urbanfoodie & Friends Go Camping!

A few weeks ago, a group of friends and I went camping for the weekend at Father Hennepin State Park on Mille Lacs Lake (Yep, that’s “One Thousand Lakes Lake”), about 1.5 hours outside of the Twin Cities. None of us had been to that park before (and a few of us had never been camping ever!). We were pleasantly surprised with how much fun we were able to have, given how small the park is relative to other Minnesota State parks. The site’s main advantage is the beach/park, which includes a sand volleyball court, large grassy area perfect for whiffle ball, and a playground for the kiddos (and adults who want to act like kiddos). The hiking is pretty limited, so if that’s one of your main reasons for camping then I’d steer you somewhere else. But if your main goal is to hang out with some friends and/or do some fishing (there were many boats out there), then Father Hennepin is a great place to check out.

For me, camping is all about being outdoors and spending quality time with cherished people in your life….and camping cooking! Sure, you could go the whole weekend just eating grilled hot dogs and canned baked beans, with some s’mores thrown in for good measure. That’s just not how my homies and I roll (though, yes, we did eat some delicious hot dogs and canned baked beans as well). You can get as simple or elaborate as you want. One of my favorite camp-eating experiences is going with my research lab group, where my advisor brought marinated Korean pork bulgogi that we cooked over the camp fire and used to make ssam lettuce wraps and chigae. If you wanna get fancy with your camping experience, consider: how much prep do I want to do before hand? and what can I make that won’t go bad and get us all sick if kept in a cooler all weekend?

My friends and I split up who would be in charge of each meal for the weekend, which worked out great. With T being the Super Camp Master of the group, T and I supplied most of the cooking gear (cast iron skillets, gas stove, long handled spatula, cooking oil, percolator for making fresh brewed coffee-so necessary) and the rest of folks brought more supplies, utensils, and foodstuffs.

We’re all fans of eating, and the camping weekend was no disappointment. Some of the highlights are pictured above. I prepared some fried garlic in oil (see recipe at the end of this post) to make garlic-fried rice and eggs for a Filipino silog breakfast. The same garlic oil was used to dress some salad with fresh pico de gallo. Our friends contributed other delicious things like an orzo pasta salad, encased meats (including awesome sausage from local grocery store Sentyrz Market in Northeast), fruit salad, root vegetables steamed in foil wraps, orange-beet-goat cheese salad (with the beets roasted in foil in the campfire), and fruit/granola/yogurt parfaits for breakfast. One of my friends even extemporaneously came up with a campfire dessert inspired by our leftover s’mores ingredients: the Mocha-Bacon pancake, which was made up of crushed graham crackers, an egg, some Korean instant coffee which contains sugar and creamer, chocolate chunks, and topped with crispy fried bacon bits. Holy, moly! I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was damn good!

I’d say that we each probably put in a few hours of cooking prep work before the weekend, and it was totally worth it. We had a blast cooking and eating together, in between playing and relaxing in the great outdoors.

Recipe: Fried Garlic in Oil

This garlic oil takes a little bit of time to make ahead of time, and it’s worth every minute of tending to the slow cooked garlic, which ends up with a chewy, candy-like texture and a savory punch. You can make garlic-fried rice with the garlic chunks, two or more tablespoons of the garlic oil, day-old white rice, and salt. You can also use the garlic oil to cook up eggs over the camp stove or fire. Just add some of your choosing meat and you’ve got a Filipino silog (see my previous post on this breakfast of champions). Get creative - I added some of the garlic oil and garlic flakes to some pico de gallo to top a salad.

1. Chop up a head of garlic so that pieces are roughly equal in size, medium-to-finely chopped.

2. In a heavy skillet (cast iron works well because of the evenly retained heat), heat up approximately 1 cup of canola oil over low-medium heat. You’ll need enough oil to have the garlic fully submerged.

3. Once oil is shimmering, add garlic in an even layer around the pan. (You may want to test out the heat of the oil with a tiny bit of garlic first before dumping it all into the pan. If it’s too hot, that’s bad because the garlic will burn rather than slowly cook to infuse the oil with flavor).

4. Allow garlic to slowly cook until a medium golden brown, stirring periodically to prevent burning. This can 15 minutes or more. Keep a watchful eye over the cooking because two minutes too long and you’ll end up with bitter, burned garlic.

5. Once garlic is cooked, either strain the oil to separate the garlic or simply pour both garlic and oil into a glass or ceramic container. Let cool and then use to your heart’s desire! The garlic oil should keep for about a week.

"Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” - James Beard"

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:10:56 -1000

““Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” - James Beard” - (via...

TODAY, April 26, 2012! Dining Out for Life is a nation-wide...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:36:00 -1000

TODAY, April 26, 2012! Dining Out for Life is a nation-wide annual fundraiser that benefits AIDS service organizations. Participating restaurants donate a percentage of your check to a local organization. In 2011, the event raised over $198,000!! Over 180 restaurants are participating throughout the state of Minnesota. The DO4L website has been down all morning, for Twin Cities folks, here is a .pdf of participating Minneapolis-St. Paul establishments. For people outside of the TC, you’ll have to do some internet searching on your own :)

pbs-food: Source: VisualEconomics.com

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:09:29 -1000

pbs-food:

Source: VisualEconomics.com

Dago “The Works” style from Dusty’s in...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:44:00 -1000

Dago “The Works” style from Dusty’s in Northeast Minneapolis

Although I do not condone the fact that this sandwich is named after an ethnic slur, I have to admit that it is one damn tasty sandwich. Think of it as your standard American bar hamburger gone Italian-American. The homemade Italian sausage patty takes the place of beef and has a good chew that only ground pork + fat can accomplish. On top of that is a small mass of melted mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and onions that meld together, oozing out of the sandwich with each bite with a lava-like flow of greasy bliss. If the bun were toasted and the Italian sausage a little spicier (insert inappropriate joke here), that would make me not even think about the whole bigoted-sandwich/bar name thing. Okay, probably not, but at least it would reduce my cognitive dissonance just a little bit more.

Bonus: Caught some awesome live country music at the bar, too!

Promo: Yelp Drinks Monday, 4/9 to Sunday, 4/15

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 06:28:06 -1000

Promo: Yelp Drinks Monday, 4/9 to Sunday, 4/15: This promotion is going on next week, if drinking is...