Spam, Spam, Spam

We picked up this can of macadamia nuts from Takahashi recently.  It tastes like powdery Spam.  I haven't decided whether I liked it or not.

Cowabunga Creamery

Yesterday, I was in San Carlos with the Little Girl running a couple of errands before picking my Bro Jeff up from work.  After the Little Girl and I window shopped in the cold, cold, cold air, we hopped into a nice warm ice cream shop. 

I used to work in San Carlos for many years before motherhood called me away to bigger an better things.  I used to go to an ice cream shop called Scoops for my milkshake fix (a bad thing if you're lactose intolerant, yet so good).  I was surprised to see that the ice cream shop was still there, but renamed Cowabunga and had a cooler vibe than Scoops. 

I got a mini cup of plain chocolate ice cream and the Little Girl got a little cup of mini-M&M's (she doesn't do ice cream).  The chocolate ice cream was very good.  Cold (obviously) but not icy, and very creamy.  Maybe we'll stop by again, when it isn't so cold.

MoBowl

It seems like gourmet food trucks are popping up everywhere.  I've tried a few (will post about them in the future).  The most recent one I visited is MoBowl.  Basically, it's a donburi truck.  It comes by a couple of office parks near our home at least once a week.  One day, I decided to give them a try.

I 

I got the Peanut Pesto and the Yin Yang.  I really liked the Peanut Pesto, but Rick was just okay with the Yin Yang.  We both agreed that they needed to add more meat, otherwise, it was a pretty satisfying lunch. 

Tokyo 7-7

When we went to visit Rick's brother, Ted, and his family in LA, they took us to a little diner called Tokyo 7-7. It was in an tiny alley, squished next to a parking garage and a couple of dumpsters. You wouldn't be able to find it unless someone took you there. The interior was a little drab, but there were a bunch of autographed photos from celebreties on the walls. Three smiling Japanese ladies greeted us and fussed about to seat us because we had 2 little kids.


I ordered ginger beef and it was yummy. Rick had curry rice that was okay.

Ted and Yumiko had burgers, and Vince had udon.

Little Mi-chan had pancakes and bacon.

Everybody seemed to really enjoy their lunches, except for Emi-chan because she slept the whole time we were there.

It was a very nice, sweet place covered in wood paneling. As people came in, they were greeted by name by the ladies working there. The food was pretty filling and came fast. On top of that, it was CHEAP! Rick paid and it was just over $35 (without tip) for the 6 lunches. You can't beat that.

Homemade Cheese

So, a while ago I came across a kit for making cheese. Urban Chesecraft started the venture when they realized that people "way back when" didn't make cheese with all the complicated steps and equipment that are often required today. So, they set about figuring out how to make cheese the old-fashioned way. And, lo and behold, they figured it out! And now they're making boat loads of money off of their cheese-making kits (okay, so they're probably not making boat loads of money, but they were able to birth a business out of it). And as such, I got suckered in to buying a kit and giving it a try.

Wow. Was I surprised at how easy it was (or, at least, how easy it can be)! I bought the kit for making ricotta and/or mozzarella cheese. The kit yields about 10 batches of any combination of the two.

I started out making ricotta, since it seemed to be the easier of the two. And it was very easy. In the end, it tasted good, very fresh. But I didn't think it was all that special. But, then again, I'm not really a ricotta cheese snob, so somebody else may have a different opinion. We opted to use the ricotta in lasagne, which turned out pretty good.

Regardless of the cheese you make, they both start out looking like this.

Eventually, they start to look like this. The chunky stuff is the curds, the liquid is the whey. (Sorry, forgot to take a picture of the finished product!)

The Urban Cheesecraft people instill a lot of confidence in you by telling you that as long as the cheese is edible, it was a success. You basically can't mess it up. Phew! This means that even if you started out making mozzarella, you may not end up with it. But as long as you can eat it, it's still cheese, so don't worry. That was helpful in starting.

So, with that in mind, I also tried making the mozzarella. This was easier than I anticipated and took about an hour to finish. I followed the instructions and came out with a ball of very, very soft mozzarella. I took half of it and it worked well as a cheese spread on crackers. I took the other half of it and kept working it in the microwave until it turned into something more closely resembling mozzarella. It was fairly easy to manipulate/knead and it turned out pretty good. I also added some fresh basil leaves to this half which gave it some good flavor. Next time I would add the basil earlier to see if the flavors blend more. I might also consider adding some liquid smoke to give it a smoky mozzarella taste.

This is the curds from the mozarella (and, it is basically also what the ricotta looks like).

Once the whey is drained from the curds, you can start stretching it. This is also when I added the fresh basil.

Stretching some more eventually got me to some pretty decent mozzarella!

All in all, it was a pretty fun experiment. It'd be interesting to try it again and see how the cheese turns out. I also learned a lot about Little Miss Muffet (I had no idea what "curds and whey" were or why she would want to sit on a tuffet eating it). I still have some of the ingredients to make more, so I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

Ocean Sushi Deli

Is this a new place in San Francisco? San Jose J-town? San Mateo? Nope. It's a little deli/restaurant in Monterey.

A friend took us to Ocean Sushi Deli after a very nice afternoon at the aquarium. Usually, I don't equate homey, authentic Japanese food with Monterey (actually I wouldn't equate a lot of places even in San Francisco and San Mateo with authentic Japanese food either, but that's another story) but this place was pretty darn close.


It's a tiny place with long menus posted around the cashier. The menus were pretty extensive and impressive. They make a different kinds of Japanese food, from traditional home made dinners that mom would make (if your mom was from Japan and was an awesome cook) to more modern, fun food. There were items on the menu you wouldn't see even in Japanese restaurants in the City, like takoyaki (octopus balls) and HOMEMADE gyoza (potstickers)!!! Many places use frozen gyoza (or they taste like the frozen stuff). This place make them by hand.


I was very happy to see these. They're purin, Japanese-style flan. The one on the left is matcha (green tea) flavor, and the one on the right is...flan flavored. They were made from scratch and both were heavenly. I would go back just for the purin.

Boiled Egg

This is something really silly, but I'm so proud of myself, that I had to post this. I finally boiled an egg without the weird green tinge around the yolk!

Actually, this is the second time I succeeded, but then the yolk was so rubbery, it would have bounced if I threw it against the wall.