Eating in a box

We're in Japan taking a much needed vacation there's so much to see and so much great food it's hard to know where to start. One of my "must visits" on this trip was the Tsukiji Fish Market. You have to wake up pretty early in the morning to get in and watch the fish auction. I am not such an eager early bird, so we woke up and walked around the Tsukiji area to visit the various vendors and of course get a lot of good food.  Neither of us know much Japanese, but everyone we met here was super friendly and went out of their way to help give us directions or get us where we were trying to go. I highly recommend checking this place out if you're in the area. Of course there's lots of fish. They do sell to normal people here. The auctions are usually for the restaurants that buy giant whole tuna. They are in the process of moving the Auction market away from the consumer markets, so if you're planning on coming here for the big morning auction mak...

While here in Fiji my wife and I decided to take a half day class at the Flavours of Fiji cooking school . It is located just outside of where we were staying at Denarau island it was a easy hop over from our hotel to the industrial estate. The cooking facility was pretty impressive, they had cooking stoves setup for up to 16 people (one instructor 15 students). It was a large hall that had two primary vents in the ceiling and two massive AC units to help keep things cool (towards the end when we had our curries going it did get a bit hot). Our host Ethee start off showing us the best way to pick between drinking and cooking coconuts. Ethee explained that you want young green coconuts (that you must pick off the trees) that don't actually slosh around when shaken (meaning there's no air space in the nut so it was full of jelly and water). Alternatively for cooking you want a brown coconut with plenty of flesh (just fallen off the tree would be good). Next Ethee w...

I've been on a fish streak lately. I've been trying to stick with lean protein and simple sides that can be quickly prepared after work. They didn't have any cod at the grocery store so the closest thing I could find was " Pink Ling " sold in fillets. It's a bottom dwelling "eel like" fish. Apparently related to the "Assfish" (sorry I couldn't resist when I found that I had to work it in somehow), the fillet was pretty thin and the resulting dish was large flakey meat. The meat has a little more elasticity similar to eel  than say a cod that usually easily flakes apart. 3 tbsp brown sugar, 3 tbsp miso, and 2 tbsp mirin. When you mix it you want a "watery paste", you want it a little runny, too solid and you get too much salt concentration, too watery and it won't stick to the fish. There are quite a few variations of the same theme that I've used in the past. I've used honey instead of the brown sugar, a...

Our first port of call was Warnemunde, Germany. Warnemunde is a beach resort destination on the northern tip of Germany. It's usually only active during the summer season and considered a very popular surf destination. The beaches were very full of tourists both German and foreign alike. Warnemunde is also a fishing village. There were "food trucks" lined up one after another with their own smokers full of herring, cod and salmon selling both sandwiches, smoked and fresh fish. We stopped at a small local bar to order lunch. We started with a Warnemunde fish stew, tomato based with chunks of herring. The soup was a thicker "tomato soup and grilled cheese" type of tomato soup with various vegetables. Despite my best warnings my wife wanted to try the Eel in Aspic. It was served with skillet fried potatoes. My best description is "pickled eel in gelatin". Not my cup of tea (or jar), the fish had plenty of bones (the big center bone was the ...

Found this perfect recipe on one of the blogs I follow Serious Eats . It's a one skillet dish, I made a few modifications to end up with the nutritional facts I list below. I think constraining myself to 300 calories a box has been an interesting challenge in balancing flavor and textures and cutting corners on unnecessary calories. Here's the original Recipe , I've so few modifications I'm only posting my notes. First I went with six ounce pieces of cod which really was fine for one portion I cut the sesame oil in half to finish the dish rather and spritzed the pan with my  misto olive oil sprayer to quickly sauté the garlic and ginger (I was using a non-stick pan too). Sesame oil seems to be too fragrant to compete with garlic and ginger. I also opted to use Chinese Michu rather than the Japanese Mirin. Mirin tends to be a little sweeter, they didn't specify so I picked based on preference. Finally a note: watch the cooking time 5-7 mins depends on the...

Our last full day in NYC. I had my obligatory I (heart) NYC t-shirt, seen a broadway show and ate at some cool places. So our last day in was reserved for meeting with friends and one last bit of walking around.  We made it to Grand Central station which is an amazing place, there was even a very ethnic food court located downstairs. Very hustle bustle I need to print out that picture and hang it in my office. We were originally going to meet my wife's friend at a brunch location, but it had a 45 min wait which we weren't up for and I took the opportunity to suggested Brasserie Les Halle that we passed on the way. I had to explain to my wife Les Halle was where the "tall guy on the travel channel goes around the world eating and swearing a lot use to work." the light of recognition hit her eyes. (we're both big fans of Anthony Bourdain). Of course Les Halle's executive chef is no longer Anthony Bourdain but Carlos Llaguno. We opted for the classic f...