More on Amochinmi’s Onomichi Ramen (阿藻珍味の尾道ラ一メン)

We bought more Onomichi ramen (尾道ラ一メン) from Amochinmi (阿藻珍味) in spring.  They came with different soup stock.  One was a light version of the regular shouyu soup – ‘Assari!’ – prepared with usukuchi shouyu (light soy sauce 薄味醤油) and half the amount of pork fat.  Another was a rich version – ‘Noukou kotteri!’ – made with kogashi shouyu (caramelized soy sauce焦がし醤油).  The third was ‘Tonkotsu’ (とんこつ), a white stock of pork bone and in this case enriched with small fish from Seto Inland Sea and oysters from Hiroshima prefecture.  All were very good.

Assari! ramen

Noukou kotteri! ramen

Tonkotsu ramen

We ate them with slices of home-made chashu, and sometimes with boiled gyuutan (beef tongue).  

ramen with beef tongue

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Amochinmi has introduced a number of cold ramen for the hot Japan summer.  The offerings include chilled lemon (冷やし檸檬ラーメン) and tomato ramen (冷やしトマトラーメン), cold ramen with sesame sauce (ごまだれ) and sweet vinegar sauce (甘酢だれ), and the spicy hot Hiroshima tsukeramen (広島流つけ麺).  Tsukeramen, originated from Hiroshima, is cold ramen eaten with a dipping sauce that has been spiced up with red hot chili pepper (唐辛子), nin’niku (garlic) and goma (sesame).  We are looking forward to trying all of them as soon as they are delivered.

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Besides Amochinmi, we tried a shio koji (塩麴) ramen made by Menno Shimizuya of Hida (飛騨), Gifu Prefecture (岐阜県).  

shio koji ramen

Shio koji, the fermented product of rice inoculated with a mould culture called aspergillus oryzae (the same starter for sake, soy sauce and miso), salt and water.  It has been the latest trendy food ingredient in Japan for its health benefits.  Firstly, it is a probiotic.  Secondly, it contains much less sodium than salt but just as much umami.  It is being used in place of salt for seasoning and pickling.  We have enjoyed karaage (deep fried chicken meat) and tsukemono (pickled vegetables eaten with rice) marinated with shio koji, so we were eager to try this shio koji ramen.  We were surprised that the soup gave us a thirst for the rest of the day.  I could not understand that since one benefit of shio koji was to reduce the sodium intake.  Out of curiosity, I read the nutritional information on the back of the soup packet and was shocked that it contained 2,515 mg of sodium, 10% over the recommended daily limit of 2,300 mg.  Incredible!!! 

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My not-so-precise recipe for making Japanese Chashu (チャ一シュ一):

Poaching liquid:  Put a cup of koikuchi shouyu (濃口醤油 dark soy sauce), mirin (みりん sweet cooking sake) and junmai sake (純米清酒 sake brewed without added alcohol) into a pot.  Heat up the liquid to a gentle boil.  Add sugar to your taste.  

Pork for Chashu:  The pork should have some fat.  Many people use kata rosu (肩口一ス shoulder roast) or bara (バラ pork belly).  I use both, and sometimes also sotomomo (そともも pork butt). 

Cooking the Chashu:  Make sure there is enough poaching liquid to cover the pork; add water if necessary.  Bring the liquid to a boil.  Add the pork.  Let the liquid returns to boiling.  Cover the pot and turn off the heat.  After 15 minutes, bring the liquid to a boil a second time.  Again, turn off the heat and leave the pork in the covered pot.  Repeat the process a couple of more times for a large piece of pork.    Slice the chashu thinly for ramen.  This quick recipe is very different from the usual ones that simmer the chashu for a long time until it is tender.    

Home made chashu

Save the poaching liquid:  The liquid keeps well if you refrigerate it after it cools down.  You can reuse it for making more chashu or braising other meat.  The liquid acquires more flavors from the meat with each use.  You can also reduce the liquid to make a thick sweet sauce similar to tare for yakitori and teriyaki.

One less place for Alsatian food in Toronto

Just last December, I wrote about our food experience at Elle m'a dit, the Alsatian restaurant on Baldwin Street in Toronto.  The place received rave reviews in the newspapers and on food sites.  So it was with consternation that I received the news of its closure from my friends (who shared dinner with us that evening).  They found out the hard way - thinking of dropping by for dinner when they were in the neighbourhood and found the place closed!

I still have fond memories of their hot casseroles on a cold December night but more particularly, the very delicious and unique tarte flambée.  I couldn't just let this go without finding out more.  There were indeed writeups in The Grid and Toronto Life - closing due to a family issue and hoping to reopen at another location in a year.  Well, I hope they do.  Bonne chance!

Cantonese "White-cut" Chicken 粵式白切鷄

My all time favourite Chinese dish is the “white cut chicken” (白切鷄), which comes in many guises, the popular HaiNan chicken being a variation on the same theme.  When I was in my twenties, my roommate and I could easily polish off a whole “white-cut” chicken between us.  Now, I still couldn’t pass the dish by; whenever I go to a new restaurant, if they offer it, I’ll try it to see if it meets the “standard”.

As the name suggests, it is actually a poached whole chicken, chopped up and reassembled, and served with ginger and scallions.  The chicken itself is not hard to make, it’s just difficult to perfect so that the chicken is thoroughly cooked but stays tender. That is not easy because of the anatomy of the chicken and the difficulty of having to cook white breast meat the same length of time as the dark thigh meat.  The true test of a well-made white-cut chicken is in the tenderness of the white meat and the ‘crispness’ of the skin.  There is also a technique to making the ginger-scallion sauce.   A friend of mine, Mr. Anonymous, has the method down pat.   I can vouch for that as I’ve tried his homemade edition - yes, he prepared a takeout special for me last time I visited the west coast!  He had picked up the method from talking to a few experienced chefs.  Here are his instructions:

1.     Cook with the best whole chicken one can get:

Whenever possible, buy a freshly killed, never before frozen, organic, free-range chicken, found in poultry shops that handle their own processing.  The perfect size is a bird between 2.5 and 3 pounds.  Chinese cochin, the so-called “yellow-feather chicken” (a misnomer as the feathers are actually bronze in color) is preferred because it is leaner and has more flavor; the meat is firmer and the bones harder. 

2.     Poaching the “Easy Way”:

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the whole chicken.  Add a couple of slices of ginger, a stalk of green onion and a teaspoon of “sha-ginger” powder (沙薑粉 more on this powder later).   When the water is boiling, hold the chicken by its neck or feet and dip it into the water in a slow up and down motion a few times to fill and refill its body cavity with hot water.  This brings the inside and outside of the chicken to the same temperature for even cooking.  The water at this point will be below boiling point, so bring the pot to a boil again.  Submerge the chicken, cover the pot, turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes.  Bring the water to a simmer, turn off the heat, and poach for another 15 minutes.  Take the chicken out to cool. 

3.     Alternatively, for the best results, poach with two pots and finish the cooking with a cold bath:

Fill two large pots with water.  Add a couple of slices of ginger, a stalk of green onion and a teaspoon of “sha-ginger” powder into each.  Bring both pots to a boil.  Hold the chicken by its neck and dip it into the first pot in a slow up and down motion a few times to fill and refill its body cavity with hot water.  Bring the water to a boil again.  Submerge the chicken, cover the pot, and turn off the heat.  After 15 minutes, move the chicken to the second pot of boiling water.  Again, submerge, turn off the heat and poach for another 15 minutes.  Violà, the poaching is done. 

While the chicken is being poached, prepare a large body of cold water with some ice cubes and season it with some “sha-ginger” powder.  Drop the poached chicken immediately into the cold water until its skin is cool.  The cold bath (過泠诃) stops the internal cooking, firms up the meat, and crisps the chicken skin.

(Optional step: Rub the chicken all over with some chicken fat from the pot to give it sheen.  For a healthier option, use sesame oil)

Note: a large chicken may have to be poached for another 15 minutes.  Exact cooking time depends on how much water in the pots, the size of chicken, etc., try it out and make appropriate adjustments.

4.     To make the classic Ginger-Scallion Dipping Sauce:

Grate a large piece of fresh ginger.  Chop finely a bunch of scallions.  Mix the ginger and scallions in a bowl.  Add a couple of teaspoons of “sha-ginger” powder and some salt.  “Sha-ginger” is the secret ingredient; it adds a unique aroma and complexity to the sauce.  To finish, pour very hot cooking oil over the mixture and mix it well.  

A few notes on making the sauce:

·       Chop the scallions and ginger by hand instead of using a food processor for better texture.

·       Be careful when pouring hot oil over the ginger-scallion mixture.  It will splatter and can be messy.

·       Another option is to add room temperature salad oil to the mixture and let it steep.  This method works but the sauce will be less aromatic and the scallions stay raw. 

·       Do not use microwave to make the sauce; the ginger and scallion will most likely be burnt.

·       For the brave ones, use rendered chicken fat in place of cooking oil.  Delicious!

·       The proportion of ginger and the white and green parts of scallions affects the color, texture and flavor of the sauce.  Adjust the amount to suit your taste. 

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Finish eating the white-cut chicken preferably on the day it is made.  Chicken spoils quickly even with refrigeration.  That is one reason why so many Chinese bbq delis and restaurants nowadays sell “kwei-fei chicken” (貴妃鷄) instead.  “Kwei-fei chicken” is white-cut chicken marinated in light colored spicy brine (白鹵水) for a savory flavor.  The brined chicken lasts longer.   

So, what on earth is 沙薑粉 (pronounced  Sha Jiang Fen)?

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  The Chinese name literally means “sand-ginger”, and according to Google, the spice name is Zedoary. It is a rhizome, ginger-like but not regular ginger, galangal or turmeric.  I have seen it only in powder form in the spice section of Chinese markets.  The Chinese use it for cooking certain chicken dishes besides white-cut chicken. 

Are fathers less special than mothers?

The only reason I asked that question was when I was researching Father's Day meals this past weekend, I found that some restaurants which had Mother's Day menus, don't necessarily do one for Father's Day.  Are fathers less special or are they less picky?  Since this is a food blog, I'm not going to debate that question.  Bottomline is, I had a hard time finding something for a Father's Day brunch in Toronto that is at least a little special.

I checked all the lists like Ten Best Sunday Brunch Places in T.O. but it seems that even restaurants on the same list had great variations in their customer reviews and prices.  I don't see any point in doling out $50 to eat eggs benedict at the King Edward, even if it is the King Edward.  And while there are some attractive deals out there like a $19.99 Sunday Brunch at the Hot House Cafe with live jazz, I worry about some of the comments made by customers and the overall mediocrity they imply.  There are of course plenty of good restaurants in Toronto we could have gone to but I finally picked Le Select because it is not only reputable but they are organized enough to put together a Father's Day menu.  When you really study it, it's a mish mash of its regular brunch menu with a few special items put together for the special day.  So how hard is it, really!  

We were invited to Le Select for dinner years ago and it was the expensive wine that stayed in my mind more than anything.  Seeing the place in broad daylight was quite different - it was in fact quite a charming bistro, reminiscent of the ambiance of the old Parisian restaurants.   When we were shown to our semi-circular booths, we were quite surprised to find ourselves surrounded by young fathers out with their babies, one of them barely a month old.  This is a far cry from our own parenting days when we would never think of taking our babies out to a bistro for Father's Day.  But this is downtown Toronto, in the midst of a condo boom with an influx of young well-off families.  So it was an eye-opener, a social and cultural experience worth the trip.  The food was good but the best one was the dish we didn't order - a two inch slab of French toast stuffed with apples and cranberries which we saw pass us by after we placed our order.  Next time...

I love the booths!

The seared scallops were excellent

This is an interesting ballotine of cornish hen - a lot of work!

Oeufs Forestiers - poached eggs on mushrooms with pollenta and roasted root vegetables - the eggs tasted great with the braised mushrooms

Albertan fillet "supplemeneted" with an egg and frites

Super moist chocolate cake outstarred by the intense passion fruit sorbet

Very smooth Creme Brulee 

The interesting descent to the kitchen

Why do some meals rate mediocre even though the food is good?

I got a coupon from Travelzoo - a $140 value for $69 at the Mix Bistro Bar at the Hyatt Regency on King West.  We had a good three course meal for two, glass of wine included - terrific deal!  But somehow, the dinner rated mediocre in my books (it has nothing to do with the company, I swear) and I'm asking myself "why"?  

Could it be because it was a "coupon dinner"?  Does that immediately discount it as not something special?  And why do these places sell coupons?  Do they not have enough business and why not?  So then you start thinking "what's wrong with this place?"

It was on the main floor of the Hyatt - Mix Bistro Bar, what an odd name anyway.  When we arrived there was a large crowd swirling about in the lobby, and the noise carried through into the restaurant, which is quite small, 10 tables at most.  It actually has a nice ceiling to floor bay window looking out onto the King West scene, which is quite a hub these days, being right next to the TIFF Light box.  We were given a window seat and it was great fun "watching the girls go by" from above.  The noise and the bright room likely detracted from the ambiance.  The fact that we had to have an early dinner because of a concert afterwards already made the dinner not a destination but a "stomach filler" and I think that also detracted from the "specialness" of the event.  And afterall, it's just a hotel bar, not a special restaurant where you have the expectation of good food just based on reputation.

Service was ambivalent and I suspect more from poor training than from attitude.  The waiter came back frequently and asked how the meal was.  But he didn't ask us what kind of red we prefer nor offered us pepper for our seafood salad or fish entree - many points deducted for that!  And yet, when we asked him to put an unfinished portion of pasta in a box, he came back a few minutes later with a piping hot box.  When I looked, he had added more seafood and melted cheese to the leftover - the takeout was hotter than the actual dinner served!  Now that was thoughtful and deserved a good tip.  

So there was really a lot at play when you think about it.  You would go to a special restaurant because you want to taste food prepared by a certain chef, you're already in the mindset to expect something special - therefore it is special.  Of course, high expectations can sometimes work in reverse. In this case though, low expectations didn't help either.

King West street scene -

Two different kinds of mounted police even!

and right next to TIFF 

Delicious calamari salad with heirloom tomatoes

Perfectly done arctic char on quinoa and sweet baby beets

Seafood pasta in an excellent spicy tomato sauce

Berries on a sorbet that actually tastes like mango