Gourmet Food Fair at Mitsuwa

This is a test. If this post is weird, it's because I'm trying out the Blogger app on my iPad. I'm already unhappy because I can't write a caption or align the pictures. But it's way better than trying to use the Blogger website on Safari on the iPad like I tried to in Australia.  That was a disaster. I couldn't even get the pictures on.

Today was my third day of summer vacation. We got out of school earlier than usual because we started three weeks earlier last August. This summer vacation is much appreciated!

Luckily, the Torrance Mitsuwa (how do I add a hyperlink?) (maybe I should read the directions) is having one of their gourmet food fairs this weekend, so for the first time I get to go on the first day!

The ramen shop for this fair is called Kamome Shokudo, or Kamome Diner. The chef is from Kesenuma, one of the towns in Northeast Japan that was destroyed during the earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The style of ramen is called Kesenuma Ushio Aji, which is chicken soup that is mixed with a seafood tare/sauce.  I didn't know there was a Kesenuma-style ramen, but I'm glad he's sharing it with us!

I arrived a little after 11 am and there were about 6 people in line ahead of me. There were four menu choices: ramen with egg, ramen without egg, sesame salmon bowl, and an extra egg as a topping. The sesame salmon bowl was raw salmon, not cooked (I asked so I could tell you!).  

When I ordered, I was number 19. They were serving numbers 2 and 3 when I ordered. It took about 20 minutes to get my bowl.  Their mic wasn't working very well, so we were hovering so we could hear our numbers being called.  You could see Chiba-san (the man on the poster) come out every once in a while to check on things.

As you can see, I ordered the ramen with the egg. I LOVE hanjyuku/half-cooked egg. This egg was a little over done, but it was still delicious. The soup was so light colored and clear. The toppings were nori, menma/bamboo shoots, green onions, two squares of chashu, and a naruto kamaboko/fish cake.  (My iPad just tried to auto text "kamaboko" to "Kama book."  What's a Kama book?!)

I'm very sensitive to fishy smells, but the fish oil they've added to this was not stinky. It gave it a light fish aroma and flavor. It's not like the ramen at Jinya (will post a link later from my laptop) or the ramen from the last gourmet fair, where the fish smell and taste made the soup inedible for me. This one was light and clean tasting. The salt flavor wasn't too strong either. 

The noodles went with the soup perfectly. They were medium curly and they were shorter than other noodles because I could get them all in one slurp. (Normally I have to bite the noodle off, which I think is against ramen eating etiquette.)  They were also perfectly cooked for me, which means they were a little bit hard. 

The chashu was moist and flavorful.  I wish there was more than the 2 little thin slices, but what can you do.  I could have eaten another bowl easily, but I went around the corner to get shave ice at Get Shaved afterwards, so I didn't.  That, and it was starting to get crowded.  I wish I could come early like this when they have the Hokkaido fair. Boo, work. 

These were some of the other food stalls at the food fair. They always have a kani inari booth, the inari sushi (brown footballs) with crab on top. This was the first time I noticed that these were supposedly from Matsue in Shimane, which was near where I lived when I lived in Japan. I had no idea they were famous for crab. I didn't get any because I'm pretty sure the crab was frozen. 

By the way, I must have got ramen on my phone or something because all the pictures I took after I ate are fuzzy. Sorry. (It doesn't help that the pictures are cut in half, either.) (You can click on the picture to see the whole thing.  I might have to upload them all again from my laptop.  Boo, Blogger app!)

They had these folded dorayaki, which are pancakes filled with things like, in this case, azuki bean, custard, sesame paste, or matcha. I thought I got a picture of the pancakes on the griddle, but I didn't.   They were all the same exact size.  I bought some for Grandma who used to eat dorayaki all the time, but when I told her what it was, she said she didn't know what dorayaki is.  It's those little things that make me realize how old she's getting.

They were also making these things called obanyaki, which looked like they were making imagawayaki, but instead of pancake batter on the outside, it was the thin crispy coating like on a tai yaki.  Or, it's like a cake ice cream cone on the outside.  It was a little confusing because there was a sign that said sweet pumpkin, but the only ones they were selling were custard and azuki. I didn't need more azuki since I bought the makidora.  

This was the thing I wanted to see because on the website, they show the Tops box, but didn't say what it was. They were cakes (frozen ones): chocolate roll, another flavor that I can't read because my lens was dirty, and salted cheese cake. I was going to get a salted cheese cake, but I realized I bought the makidora AND I had strawberry pavlovas at home already so I didn't get it. 

These were some marinated seafood things. The woman kept covering it so I couldn't get a good look at it. I'm pretty sure there was mentaiko in there and some squid. 

The longest line was for the ikameshi/squid rice filled croquettes. 

They were also selling what looked like shoyu covered mochi on a stick, but I don't know if that was what it was because I don't remember what it was and I can't read my picture. I never realized how much I use my pictures to remember what things were.  I'm old too. Haha. 

The signs say: tako ten/octopus, kikurage ten/mushroom, ebi ten/shrimp, mayokare/mayonnaise curry, tako shoga/octopus ginger, ika gobo/squid burdock, mentai cheese/cod roe and cheese, tako negi/octopus scallion, and ebi tama negi/shrimp onion. After seeing mentai cheese and curry mayo, I got grossed out and didn't want to know what these were. (And I just noticed after typing all that that there are English names under each one.) (Kikurage is called Judas-ear. It's also called cloud ear.)

These were there too. Oyaki. They looked like chashu bao, but they had pumpkin/eggplant/apple, mushroom and vegetable, or azuki inside. 

They also had vanilla soft cream, but the milk was American, which wasn't that exciting. I mean, it was a Japanese gourmet fair.  It was the same line as the croquettes so I couldn't get a picture of the sign.

The makidora had this lovely message on the label, and Grandma and Kobe did an appropriate photobomb.

(Ugh, I'll have to ask Marc to borrow his keyboard. Typing on the iPad is horrible.)

Nikuman-ya

I forgot to take a picture of the cross-section.

Inside the Marukai Pacific on Redondo Beach Blvd., there is a stall in the food court called Nikuman-ya.  The sign is not in English, but it's the very first stall when you walk in the food court, when you enter from the front of the store.

Nikuman-ya used to be a food truck called Happy Cup Ramen.  I went to it, but for some reason I can't find a post on it.  Eventually the truck closed and they started selling nikuman at the Marukai Pacific, where Yuka bought some and brought it to Grandma.  They were really good, so we went to get more, but they were closed for renovations.  They're open again!

Nikuman are like chashu bao (and manapua in Hawaii), steamed pork buns with a white, fluffy outside and meat on the inside.  Instead of chashu, however, these nikuman are filled with ground pork, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms.  They are sometimes juicy, sometimes not, and are very fresh.  They're on the larger side as well, about three inches across.  They're very flavorful and are a great snack.

The only bad thing is that they are kind of expensive.  They're three for $11.50 or five for $17.50.  That's compared to Chinatown, where you can probably get a dozen for $11.50, or a convenience store in Japan (they're sold everywhere) for a hundred yen.  But when you consider that they're handmade and they're very tasty, I think it's worth it.

Today I went to pick some up (I eat them for breakfast during the week), and they were having gyoza day.  I saw the giant GYOZA sign, but the two men were also furiously making the gyoza behind the counter.  On Saturday and Sunday, they have a special gyoza set meal that comes with rice and something else.  Sorry, I meant to take a picture of that sign but I forgot.  I just got the gyoza by themselves, which are available every day.  I think the choice was between pork and chicken.  I ordered pork.

It took about seven minutes to prepare my order.  Guess what?  They're really good!  You can see in the picture that they got the bottoms nice and crispy.  The filling was juicy and well-balanced.  It was not too garlicky, and there was a nice amount of vegetables.  I really liked them.  I pretty much devoured them while I was sitting in my car in the parking lot.  Well, I also hadn't eaten all day and I was starving.  But they were really delicious.  They would be so good with beer.

The gyoza are only available on Saturday and Sunday.

Rustic Canyon Burger

I had issues with the olives.  I kept dropping the pits on the floor.

The interior of the restaurant. We were a little early.

Weihenstephaner Hefe-weissbier

Susie and I were going to a special KCRW Up Close event where Elvis Mitchell interviewed the executive producers of Game of Thrones, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.  We didn't have to be there until later, so we went to Rustic Canyon to try their burger, which we heard was good on one of the many Best Burgers in LA lists.  We read about it a while ago, so I couldn't say exactly which one.

[The menu posted online does not currently have the burger listed, so you might want to call ahead to make sure they have the burger.]

We arrived when they opened at 5:30 pm, so we were the only ones in the restaurant for a bit.  Everyone who worked there was very attentive and nice.  They kind of had to be.  We were the only customers.  They offered complimentary filtered or sparkling water -- they have the Natura water system like House of Prime Rib does, which I love.  That water tastes so good.

Golden, toasty bun

No skimping on the aioli

I ordered a hefe-weissen and Susie had a fancy cocktail called Sage Advice, which had Hayman's Royal Dock Navy Strength gin, meyer lemon, wildflower honey, and sage.  She liked it.  I liked mine.

[If you want to know more about Navy Strength gin, there's this New York Times article that mentions it.  I like gin.]

We both ordered the burger, medium.  It had sharp cheddar, onion fondue, remoulade, and house pickles.  We both added a fried egg on top.  There were fries on the side.  It was $18.

So this burger was OK.  It had too much going on.  Between the pickles and the remoulade sauce dripping everywhere, you couldn't really taste the beef or the cheese.  The bun was nice and crisp at the beginning, but was soggy as time went on.  I suppose adding the extra egg didn't help the messiness, but the yolk did help to mellow out the pickles, although they were still very strong.

I loved the fries, though.  They were nice and crispy.  I thought they had just the right amount of salt.  Susie thought they were too salty.  They were good, especially with the side of aioli.  I love dipping fries in aioli.  They even brought me another little container full of it.

Afterwards, we headed over to the Ann and Jerry Ross Theater at New Roads School in Santa Monica.      We were told to go early because parking was limited and I had will-call tickets.  And then they started late, so we waited a long time to go in and sit down.  That's a pretty fancy theater for a high school.

The Game of Thrones Q&A with D.B. Weiss and David Benioff was interesting, although I had heard a lot of the information before on one of their recent cast chats online when Season 3 started.  Susie, Alex, and I read the entire Song of Ice and Fire series for our Books and Beer Club, so we know what's going to happen in the show, unless these guys change it.  That's part of the fun for me at least.  How they will show the things in the books and what they will change.

The author, George R. R. Martin, has told the two producers who is on the Iron Throne at the end.  Of course someone asked about it.  I always hope when they are asked that question, they will accidentally slip and give something away, but they're probably under the threat of death if they reveal the information.  Elvis Mitchell got them drunk before too, but they didn't tell.  I'm just glad someone knows because I don't think GRRM is ever going to sit down and finish writing.  He goes to too many fan conventions.

The Pie Hole

The Pie Hole Menu

Today I took Grandma to the cemetery.  On the way home, I asked her if it was OK to go to The Pie Hole in Downtown LA, a place I've been meaning to go to, but haven't had the chance.  (OK, that's not true.  Once I went over there intending to go to The Pie Hole, but I got sidetracked at the Little Tokyo Sanrio store and completely forgot about the pie.)

The Pie Hole is in the Arts District, which is a few blocks away from Little Tokyo.  It's right across the street from Wurstküche, a beer and sausage spot that we went to when it first opened.  (I don't have a post on it because some of us got sick after eating there.  I couldn't write the post and look at the photos without feeling unwell.)

Today's sweet pies were banana cream, double crust apple, maple custard, Mexican chocolate, and Earl grey. The savory pies were chicken and cornbread, mac and cheese, spinach and mushroom, and spring crostada.  They also had a chocolate caramel and sea salt crostada, a raspberry zinger pocket pie, a rhubarb crumble mini pie, and "minier" pies in lemon meringue, coconut blueberry, and cheesecake.  I was disappointed because I saw on Twitter that they had a Thai iced tea pie and I wanted to try it, but they didn't have it today.

The dining room (I was trying to capture the pretty dark blue color, but you can't really tell.)

The ordering counter (from the dining room)

The main reason I came here was because they had maple custard pie.  I've been wanting a maple cream pie ever since we went to New England last summer.  I thought, oh we're in Maine.  We can drive over to Vermont and try this maple cream pie since we're there.  Except I didn't know that there was a mountain range in between me and the pie and it would have been a 6 hour detour through New Hampshire to get the pie.  No.

The maple cream pie is actually at I Heart Pies, but I'm kind of nervous about ordering it because I'm afraid they'll deliver it when I'm not home.  And I can't get it delivered to Grandma's because she won't open the door anymore because Kobe barks.

So, Pie Hole.

It's in the Arts District, so be prepared for nice people with lots of tattoos and piercings.  And murals.  And industrial chic.

Maple custard

Mexican chocolate

Maple custard custard

We got there around 11:30 am, so they had almost just opened.  There were two people eating and one woman who ordered to go like me.  I knew I wanted the maple custard and I ordered a slice of Mexican chocolate for Ryan.  I asked about the Thai iced tea flavor.  The girl at the register said they hadn't had it in a few weeks, but the Earl grey pie was really nice.  I passed.  I wanted Thai iced tea.  I love Thai iced tea.  Condensed milk...

It's kind of shocking, but it was $6 per slice.  That seemed really expensive to me.  And the slices were on the small side.  I really need to look at price tags before I buy things.

But I had driven all the way over there so I went ahead and got them.

The maple custard was really good.  It had a brulée-like top and a thick, crimped edge crust.  The custard was smooth and silky and smelled nice.  The maple wasn't overpowering, but it was there.  The custard had just the right amount of sweetness.  At first I wasn't too impressed with the crust, which to me is the most important part of the pie.  The bottom of the pie was a little chewy, but when I reached the thick edges and the crimping, it was flaky and had a nutty taste.  It made the last few bites extremely enjoyable.

I snuck a teeny bite of Ryan's Mexican chocolate pie.  It had a graham cracker crust and a very dense, pudding like chocolate filling.  It was pretty intensely chocolate, with the spiciness from cinnamon that makes it Mexican chocolate.  I had to be careful because the whipped cream had coffee in it.  I didn't want to be up all night for a sneaking a bite of pie.

I guess when you consider the high quality of the pie and how much time they saved me from having to make a pie myself, it's worth $6 a slice.  I just wish it was a little bit bigger.  I'd go back.  That double crust apple looked nice.  Yay, pie!

The Goonies House!!!

When we were making plans to go to Portland, Marc mentioned that he wanted to visit Astoria.  Immediately I had a flashback.  One-Eyed Willie.  Sloth.  Pinchers of Power.  TRUFFLE SHUFFLE.  Astoria is where The Goonies was filmed.  I swear that Ryan and I have watched The Goonies a hundred times.  Google.  OMG, you can go visit the Goon Docks.  It is a real house.

Astoria was a two hour drive from Portland, and the best way to get there involved going through Washington.  Two states in one day!

There's a little placard right under the US flag that says "The Goon Docks."

We arrived in Astoria and headed straight to the Goonies house.  It has its own Yelp page if you need the address.  You park at the bottom of a graveled driveway and there is a sign asking you to walk up.  That's when it really hit me that I was walking up to someone's house, a private residence, to take a picture with my shirt up.  And I realized how weird I am.

It's one of the first houses.  Except for the sound of some very loud sea lions by the ocean, it was super quiet and there were no other people.  I took my picture of the house...

Truffle Shuffle!

...And then my picture doing the Truffle Shuffle.  There was no stump to stand on, but it was close enough.  And then Marc put a dollar into the grey donation box.  I wondered what they did with the money, but then I decided that they deserved SOMETHING for putting up with a bunch of weirdos standing in front of their house taking pictures with their shirts up.

How many kids did they throw in to find out that this was true?

After that, we headed down to a wharf like area called Pier 39 which, like San Francisco's Pier 39, had a rather large number of noisy sea lions hanging out.  There wasn't much to see besides this gem of a sign.  We headed back to Portland.  I was going to miss my flight.

Back to Portland

Lord help me.

A "Mexican" restaurant that serves tater tots?

These are called "cinnamon crustos."  Yes, really.

And yet, as you can see, we had one more stop to make.  Marc decided to get his revenge on me for making him eat lobster in Maine by taking me to Taco Time.  Taco Time is where he goes with his friend Jon when they are together in Seattle.  It is a regional chain.  This branch was inside the Westfield shopping center in Vancouver, Washington.

I ordered something called a chicken crisp burrito.  It looked like a taquito that was stuffed with Leia's cat food.  Carribean Club with Chicken and Cheese, to be exact.  (LOL.  The "human grade" line on the cat food page helps me prove my point.)  The crisp burrito had mushed chicken and a white liquid I assumed was cheese.  I decided I would get a combo.  I wasn't quite sure what that meant.  Apparently tater tots go with crisp burritos.  Marc ordered a beef casita burrito (Sunday's daily special) and cinnamon crustos.  An educated, grown adult should never utter the words "cinnamon crustos."

Add this to the things I wish I didn't eat list.  Because I got a bad stomach ache at the airport and my stomach was making weird noises all the way to LAX.  I felt so sorry for the girl sitting next to me on the plane.

Maxxxxxx!

Marc sort of made up for Taco Time because while I was running in the airport to print my boarding pass and get to my gate, he stopped to take this picture of the MAX at the station at the airport.  I needed to take a picture of the train, but I kept missing it.  But he went the extra mile so that I could bring you this photo.  Luckily, the train was much nicer than my parents' psycho cat.

Thanks for the great weekend, PDX!  You're much better than Eugene.  I'll be back!

Salt and Straw

Earlier in the day.

After all the fun at Apizza Scholls, our final stop on our Saturday eating marathon was Salt and Straw, an ice cream shop on NW 23rd Ave.  We actually walked by it earlier in the day, but we didn't stop because we were still full from the donuts and Pine State.  When we went back at night, we wished we had.

[I read about Salt and Straw on Chowhound, which led me to this Endo Edibles blog post, which as I am now re-reading, visited some of the places that we did.  I didn't even notice.  I was so ice cream focused.  The ice cream is at the end of the post.]

The line for Salt and Straw was out the door and around the corner.  It was 9:30 PM.  Keep in mind that we had just waited almost two hours to eat pizza.  More waiting for food?!  Hopefully this would be worth the wait too.

[I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the line.  It would have made a nice contrast to the almost empty picture I took earlier.  I think I was just tired of waiting by then and I didn't care.]

We ended up waiting about half an hour.  The workers were really smart because as we got closer, the scoopers who were done serving the customers ahead of us would come into the line and ask which ice creams we wanted to sample.  They would bring us samples in line, so by the time you got to the front, you already knew what you wanted.  I'd say that Humphry Slocombe, Bi-Rite, and Mr. and Mrs. need to do this too, but Salt and Straw had like 8 people scooping, and my San Francisco loves only have two or three usually.

While we were waiting, I noticed that Salt and Straw had been on Unique Sweets.  I've probably seen that episode too, but I don't remember.

Salt and Straw flavors

I don't think I'd pay $8 for a milkshake.

The flavors tonight were: sea salt and caramel ribbons, almond brittle with salted ganache, Double Fold vanilla, Freckled Woodblock chocolate, chocolate gooey brownie, Orbequina olive oil, coffee and bourbon, cinnamon snickerdoodle, strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper, pear with blue cheese, lotus seed matcha, Meadow marmalade and peaches, pad Thai iced tea, Dragonfly chai, and Brew Dr. Kombucha sorbet.  

I wasn't going to touch that Kombucha flavor with a ten foot pole.

I tried the sea salt and caramel ribbons, cinnamon snickerdoodle, pad Thai iced tea, and Dragonfly chai. I love cinnamon, but I've always found that ice creams with cinnamon have an odd, mealy texture.  Bi-Rite's snickerdoodle has it, and so did Salt and Straw's snickerdoodle, as well as the Dragonfly chai.  The flavors were nice, but not the texture.

Now, the pad Thai iced tea.  You think, weird, right?  I'm not sure what made it pad Thai, but it was orange Thai iced tea ice cream with a kind of light grey colored caramel-like ribbon stirred through it.  It was actually good, but I can't handle caffeine, and Thai iced tea at night would have been very bad.  I was worried about the tiny spoonful that I did eat.

Sea salt and caramel ribbons

So I went with the sea salt with caramel ribbons and so did Marc.  And for the second time tonight, I found something that I would be willing to wait in line for.  Wow.  That was some gooooood ice cream.  It was creamy and smooth and tasted SO fresh.  It didn't leave a greasy film on your tongue.  It SMELLED fresh.  I hate to say it, but if you could measure happiness via flavor, I think that Oregon cows just might be happier than California cows.

The best part was the caramel ribbon.  Salted caramel ice cream is nice, but this caramel ribbon ice cream was beautiful.  You could eat the creamy ice cream and get bursts of buttery caramel.  It was like butterfat garnished with butterfat.  So nice.  Please someone in California copy this flavor so I don't have to fly to PDX to get it!

Actually, the best part is that Salt and Straw on NW 23rd Ave. opens at 7 AM.  You could eat that beautiful ice cream for breakfast.  Heaven.