Mapo Dofu (麻婆豆腐) at Szechwan Restaurant CHEN in Tokyo

In Mr. A’s opinion, the Mapo Dofu (麻婆豆腐) at Szechwan Restaurant CHEN was superb.

The dofu dish came with a bowl of steamed rice and small plates of Szechwan pickle slices and mahogany-colored honey and sesame glazed walnuts.  Captivated by the spicy fragrant aroma and red hot look of the dish, Mr. A sampled it  immediately.  He was pleased with the complex flavor of the sauce, which was made with doubanjiang (豆瓣醬) and small amounts of sweet sauce, chili paste, fermented black beans, red chili oil and Szechwan peppercorn oil.  Fine Szechwan peppercorn flakes were sprinkled over the dish as the final touch.  There was plenty of “ma 麻” (the numbing effect from Szechwan peppercorn) and “la 辣” (spicy heat from doubanjiang and chili) to stimulate his taste buds without overwhelming them.  The mild dofu and sweet minced pork formed a perfect stage for the intense sauce.  Mr. A was hooked by the spicy, salty and umami flavors that filled his mouth.  These flavors came together in harmony and showed off the depth and dimensions of the Mapo Dofu dish.  He ate spoon after spoon until it was all gone.  Indeed, the Mapo Dofu at Szechwan Restaurant CHEN was superb.

 
That the Mapo Dofu is so good at Szechwan Restaurant CHEN is expected as the restaurant is named after the famous Chinese Iron Chef, Chen Kin’ichi (陳建一), whose signature dish is Mapo Dofu.  Chef Chen does not cook at the restaurant.  The executive chef is Komoda Kinya (菰田欣也) who began his career in 1988 in another Chen restaurant.  Szechwan Restaurant CHEN is at the Cerulean Tower in Shibuya, Tokyo.  It also has branches in Nagoya and Takamatsu.

    

Hoi An Street Food Tour

Our last morning in Hoi An, the tour company surprised us with a food tour of Hoi An with Australian food "guru" Neville Dean.  Neville had retired to Vietnam and learned the good stuff about Vietnamese food in the years that he had been there.  He had made friends with the locals and provided us tourists with an "insider" view of street food.  

How do I rate his tour?  The tour was a lot of fun and Neville Dean was a good presenter although it felt a little weird listening to an Australian accent give us the lowdown on Vietnamese food.  He had an excellent rapport with the vendors and definitely showed us some excellent sources, including the best Pho we have ever had.  He guaranteed that he had checked all his vendors, that the food we ate was "safe".  In a way, he enabled us to try street food without having to run the risk of getting bad food, so for that we were thankful.   What I'd found missing was the inherent cultural background behind some of the foods and customs - not something a foreigner could learn in a few years even if he could learn the names of all the foods and dishes.   In North America, there would have been protests of cultural misappropriation...

It was an early start to the day with a breakfast drink at this roadside stall, loaded with fresh fruit and in a non-tourist area of Hoi An. 

Fruit shake with crispy coconut in side to give the shake a distinct crunch.

Tofu dessert, basically Chinese origin

According to Neville, the white bits of paper under the tables would tell how popular the place was - the more there were, the better the food because the bits of paper were actually the bills.

The best black sesame paste dessert (also Chinese in origin)

The best coconut and coffee ice cream - and no, you are not supposed to be eating ice on the street but if you were with Neville Dean, it was okay because he guaranteed the cleanliness of his vendors.

The vendor showing us the bottom of the ice maker

Snails - no no's, because of possible parasites - Neville Dean would not recommend us even trying it

BBQ pork - apparently there was milk in the marinade

The best Pho ever at this restaurant

 The best Banh Mi prepared by Banh Mi Queen - crunchy baguette with Vietnamese mint

We had what looked very much like a tasting menu at a restaurant - this was still breakfast, slowly turning into lunch

Most of these looked quite familiar since we had been eating our way down the country.

Vegan too - although we didn't try anything here

The street food tour finally wound up in a touristy family restaurant in old town - and we were served another tasting menu, with Neville Dean explaining every little bite on each of the dishes.  By this time, we had been on the street for over 4 hours, our focus was waning as was our attention span...

Vietnamese new year treats

The only thing I remembered was this most memorable spring roll, made with an unusual rice paper that looked like it was doillie - the holes made the texture crunchy but soft

Iced Vietnamese coffee - just what we needed

tequila?

You would notice by now how we had started from eating standing beside a street vendor to gradually moving into a gentrified restaurant with a table cloth, and finishing with a drink that tasted like tequila...

Hoi An Cooking Class

How was the Hoi An Cooking Class different from the one in Hanoi?  It was held on the second floor of a restaurant that's built specifically to show off how different Vietnamese foods were made.  It was run by the renowned chef Ms. Vy, author of the book "Taste Vietnam".  Before the class, we were taken to market as in the other classes but we were also walked through the main floor of the restaurant where there was a live demonstration at each station of different kinds of foods.  At some stations, for example, the pancakes station, we even got to try flipping the rice pancakes from the steamer onto the basket stand.  It was quite fun!

Morning Glory - we had this tasty vegetable at every meal we had in Hoi An, including lunch!  We hardly ever see greens at North American Vietnamese restaurants, but this is one veggie that is constant at all the Vietnamese cities, more so in the south than in the north.

Trying out different spices

Demonstrating how a green onion splicing tool works resulted in instant purchases!

Back at the restaurant, we dropped by different stations to see how different foods were made.  These were steamers for different kinds of foods.

Trying at cutting flat noodles

There is a trick to lifting the pancake out of the steamer with a chopstick

And flipping it onto the basket

Machine spewing out fine vermicelli noodles

Bright airy professional classroom with mirror right above the instructor

Spring rolls:  the secret to not soaking your dried rice paper when making spring rolls - use a wet towel to moisten it instead

line up your ingredients

Roll it up and it's ready to eat!

Grilled pork marinade (9 ingredients: fish sauce, salt, orange sugar, garlic, chilli sauce, green fresh lemon leaf, 5 spice, lemongrass, sesame oil)

Banh Xeo:  crispy fried pancake, a little like an omelette

Add your salad on top

Roll it up and dip in sauce to eat - it's very delicious again because of the contrast in textures between the pancake and salad!

Mango salad (green mango is supposed to be good for sleep) - easy to make

Perfect with the grilled pork which we had for lunch - don't forget to add a generous sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds on top!

Woodinville Herbfarm restaurant

After living in the Northwest for 28 years, we decided it was time to try this unique dining experience that is just around the corner. The current theme of The Herbfarm is The Chambers of the Sea:

Prior to dinner, we were allowed a tour of their wine cellar. There are 26,000 bottles that were tracked by Excel spreadsheet. On one of the walls was a framed shirt that was worn by Julia Child in one of her TV shows, together with her TIME magazine cover.

It was slightly raining, and in deference to the non-Northwesterners, Carrie the owner did not lead us on a tour of their herb garden - which would have been delightful. Instead she did a show-and-tell with cut herbs, allowing them to be passed around, sniffed, rubbed and savored.

We were seated at a European style communal table for eight. We were impressed that our name was displayed in a small silver frame. There was a guitarist providing dinner music for almost the whole four hours.

The kitchen was open - so we could see the chefs doing the plating. I did not see any steam or deep frying, or other heavy duty kitchen activities; that was probably done at the back out of sight.

The first course was Shorely (if you can read the menu). Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture until afterwards - so here are the detritus - rectangular dish contained scallop, the round dish the grilled oyster, and the martini glass the clams.

The non-alcoholic drink menu was designed to match the food courses. I'll have to admit - it wasn't as good as the wine choices. The one I liked best was the Leaves of Grass.

The next course was the Tuna Caper - the tuna tartare was exceptional. The pickled unripe strawberries went well to cut the richness of the tuna.

At this point, we went outside to visit with Borage and Basil, the two truffle pigs-in-training. At least I hope they will become truffle hunters, and are not fated to be the prosciutto I saw hanging in the wine cellar. I believe they are pot bellied pigs. We were issued a small bucket with leftover greens, and (Purina?) pig chow. Basil was shy and Borage was, well, a pig, and ate all the food. He wagged his (non)-curly tail like a dog when he saw food coming!

Then we came back and they served us Twice Halibut. This was the least memorable dish. The halibut bones were cooked into a broth, served over beans, pea flowers and lovage, with a fried turnip. The halibut collar meat was mixed with potato and lovage and deep fried into a croquette. The broth was not at all fishy, but did not taste like halibut. Nor did the croquette. Maybe halibut is too mild a fish for this treatment.

Next was Spotted Prawn served with a side pot of prawn butter for the pumpernickel bread. It was really rich, even I could not handle too much of the butter!

The next course was Duet of Salmon - with both Copper River Sockeye and Copper River King, being Copper River salmon season. We asked them how they managed to get the King, as we could only get the Sockeye at the grocery stores. We were told they have an agreement with some fishermen who would bring them their special catch. Both salmon were excellent, with the mushrooms. The sauce was a touch too sweet for my taste - fortunately they were dribbled around the edge.

Next was Caviar Bar - Salmon roe, Paddlefish eggs and Uni on a miniscule waffle. Being used to the uni on the sushi, there was not enough, plus the soppressata that was under the uni overpowered it. Just a so-so dish.

The next dish was Quince and Ewe - all elements worked perfectly. The quince "caviar" was better than the previous real caviar dish, and the cattail jelly was unusual and though mild tasting, went well with the dish. I don't remember what he said the shell was made of - it might have been a very thin cheese deep fried while laid over a clam shell to give it the structure and shape - but it was very good.

Next was Rhubarb Poke - I have rarely had rhubarb so I couldn't assess what really good rhubarb should taste like. The ice cream was good, and the meringue had nori powder which was unusual but not unpleasant.

At this point we got to choose our tea or coffee to go with dessert. I selected the non-caffeine Herbfarm Smart Tea, consisting of lavender, rosemary and peppermint, infused in a coffee press. Hubby chose Sakuma Oolong. My tea choice came with a note - WARNING: COMES WITH AN IQ QUIZ!  See below.

I worked at it and the meal must have re-directed my blood flow away from my brain. I did not solve it; I should at least have gotten the one with the matches! When the wait staff brought my tea, she also brought the solution. Solution at the end...

The dessert was excellent!!! Particularly the Wild Ginger White Chocolate - one of the woman at my table was able to convince the waitress to bring her a doggie bag of extra white chocolate - she and her husband were staying at the Willows Lodge Herbfarm suite - I think that factored into her favoritism treatment (!)

All in all, a very enjoyable experience, and quite unlike any other restaurants we had been to. After all where else can you go feed the pigs in the middle of the meal?

In closing one of the other themes that I am interested in (and have to wait till the wallet recovers) is the Mycologist's Dream - slated for later this year. Will keep you all posted.

Smart tea solution: