… a work in progress

I’m starting to realize the people who work at Teavana in the Cherry Creek mall have no clue what they are doing. Starbucks seems to have a better training program. This was my third visit to the store, in the past I’ve bought some Jasmine Pearl and Green Teas. On my most recent visit I stopped in the store to pickup a nice new glass teapot which I’ve been waiting for them to get back in stock. The glass teapot was very nice, I love it. It’s very delicate and made in China but its quality is equal to that of the French made Bodum teapots. It’s very delicate however, I hope that I don’t drop it. To go with the new teapot I wanted to get their “blooming” tea called Rose of Suzhou. First the person who worked there didn’t know what the components to this tea were. Well first it’s Marigold, Jasmine, Amaranth and White Tea and second it’s disgusting. Tastes like soy sauce soaked water. I’ve had this same tea that I ordered from Dean And Deluca once and it was so gentle tasting and even more beautiful. Oh well, what a waste of $36 and 4oz of tea. After paying for the teapot and the loose teas I inquired about some Pu-Erh, some good Pu-Erh, the kind that comes in a cake and you break off. The sales person directed me to an ornamental Pu-Erh, not something you would actually drink. hmm, oh well. I don’t know much about tea either, no expert here, but did learn Teavana really isn’t a place for Tea Lovers. In addition I ordered a Jamine Oolong to-go and they didn’t start making it until the sales person thanked me for coming in and I had to remind them I had a to-go order.

When I was in San Diego, I did discover once a really fine establishment with passionate employees. The place in near La Jolla and called Infusions of Tea which is located at 8750 Genesee Ave Suite 285 next to BookStar, Starbucks and PF Changs. Infusions of Tea is setup like a bar with a bartender and all the loose teas behind the bar. I highly recommend this place if you are in the La Jolla/UTC area.

So I suppose I’m still looking for a good tea shop in Denver, I can’t drive up to Boulder every time I want a goo tea experience. I guess since I’ll be here for a little longer I’ll keep looking. Oh and speaking of Boulder a good article from the New York Times on Boulder.

I’m in San Diego right now for my dad’s birthday. I flew in last night to surprise him, and boy was he surprised. Today was spent troubleshooting computer problems for m parents. A PC that boots into the BSOD and sometimes doesn’t power up. CMOS was weird, a drive was making a noise and power supply sometimes didn’t run. Could be so many problems. Worked on another PC running Windows 98 with no CD burner. The Windows 98 PC which was running a Pentium II and a 4 GB drive was running pretty fast for that they needed it for. I stole the CD burner from the BSOD PC which is a newer P4 and installed it on the Win98 PC. Downloaded a free CD burner software and showed them how to backup some simple stuff. They had a brand new PC to replace the Win98 system and we set that up, with a nice new 20″ widescreen monitor. Tomorrow I need to transfer all the data from the two PCs to the brand new system, should go well.

Tonight we had Sushi Ota, so good! Here are some bad pics from my phone. Towards the end of the night I stopped taking photos. These are in the reverse order that I ate them.

Crab Head Soup

Tempura - Na No Hana, Shitake, Ebi

Crab Duh!

Sashimi - Shima Aji, Hobo, Japanese Tai, Japanese Blue Fin Toro

Crab wrapped in Cucumber, Tuna Meatballs. Both in Miso Sauce

My recipe for a roasted tomato pasta, a light “sauceless” version. I make this all the time and it’s usually pretty consistent so I thought I’d write it up. It’s really really hard to mess this up, the most important is cooking the pasta perfectly and seasoning to taste. Taste throughout the process. Cooking the other items and bit longer or shorter doesn’t mess things up too much.The roasted tomatoes give it an intense flavor. I typically do not measure things when I cook, below are my estimates. This serves 2-4 people.

What you’ll need:

• 1/4 Pound Roasted Tomatoes In Olive Oil (I buy mine in the deli at Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver)
• 1 Ripe Tomato - Diced
• 4-5 Slices Of Good Bacon - Diced
• 1/2 Pound (about 1/2 a package) of good spaghetti. I personally like Sclafani or Barilla.
• 1/4 Cup Chicken Stock
• 2-3 Cloves of Garlic - Fine Chopped
• Italian Parsley - Fine Chopped
• Red Pepper Flakes - Pinch
• Sea Salt - To Taste
• Black Pepper - To Taste
• Olive Oil
• Optional: 1 Zucchini Julienne or some Asparagus. 1/2 Freshly Squeezed Lemon, Freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• **All of the above are estimates, more tomato, roasted tomato or bacon won’t hurt it, it’ll just be more hearty**

1. Prep all of the veggies beforehand, makes it easier.
2. Start cooking the pasta, remove and drain approx 1 minute before al dente
3. While the pasta is cooking on a med-hi heat cook up that bacon. Remove from heat right when it starts to get crispy. Paper towel dry.
4. About 3 minutes before the pasta is ready heat up a saute pan on medium to medium-hi heat. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and some red pepper flakes. A good pinch will do, add more if you like things spicy. Cook that red pepper flakes for about 30 seconds to release the flavor.
5. Add the garlic and cook for 15-30 seconds making sure not to burn it.
6. Add the diced ripe tomato. You can now also add the optional julienne zucchini or asparagus. Cook for about 1 minute on medium hi heat.
7. Add the roasted tomatoes. At time I also add the salt and pepper.
8. When the pasta is almost al dente, add the drained pasta to the saute pan and stir.
9. Mix well and add the chicken stock and season again with salt to taste.
10. Add the Italian parsley and diced bacon at the end. Optional lemon juice can be added.
11. Toss everything on a high heat for about 1 minute and serve.
12. Grated Parmigiano Reggiano can be added at the end.

NOTES: For a vegetarian version the bacon can be omitted and the chicken stock can be substituted with pasta water. Multigrain spaghetti never seems to work, I don’t recommend. It always seems to have a weird “grainyness” to dishes. Penne pasta works with this as well. An anchovy or two can be added at step 5 to give the dish an even more intense flavor.

Jamie Oliver has a new TV show in the US called Jamie At Home on the Food Network. I’ve already purchased this show from Amazon UK and am waiting for its arrival. The show coincides with his new book “Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life“

Link To Jamie At Home Video Clip on Telegraph.co.uk

Link To The Whole Article on Telegraph.co.uk

Upcoming Episodes On The Food Network:

Peppers & Chilies AIR TIMES:

Mushrooms AIR TIMES:

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail on my Flickr account from Schmap.com that two of my photos had been “shortlisted” for the 2008 London City Guide. This was such an unexpected e-mail, I didn’t think anyone was paying attention to my photos. I completed the photo release for them to use the photos in the guide and to properly credit me. After this process I went into my Flickr account and optimized some of the tags and keywords. Since the optimizations I’ve noticed a larger number of photo views. Well after a few weeks of waiting my photos seems to have been approved for the 2008 London Guide. How exciting for me, I never expected to have my photos shown anywhere outside of my own photo album. It’s not the cover of National Geographic Travel but I’m happy.

In the summer of 2007 I met up with my sister and her husband in Europe for a vacation. They had already been traveling for a few weeks on a tour and I met them at the end of their tour in Amsterdam. We wandered together for the next few weeks in the Netherlands, France, UK and Ireland. The first photo was taken near Borough Market at the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum. I remember taking the photo because it was so colorful and the picture on the tin was interesting. The second photo is of a restaurant that the hotel had recommended and turn out to be the best Indian food experience to date. The place was called Memories of India and we went to the South Kensington location on Gloucester Road. Here are the two photos that were chosen for Schmap’s 2008 London City Guide and the corresponding links.

Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum: Colorful Lipton Tea Tin

Memories of India: Indian Restaurant

Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum
http://www.schmap.com/london/sights_southbank/p=2298/i=2298_4.jpg

Memories of India
http://www.schmap.com/london/restaurants_indian/p=331117/i=331117.jpg

Wow, never thought Jamie Oliver or other high profile TV chefs would ever show up on Iron Chef. I suppose Rachel Ray and Giada have duked it out, but that seemed more like a friendly battle of two TV cooks. And in the original Japanese show Bobby Flay went against Morimoto then did a rematch show after his loss. So today I happened upon the Food Network because there was a show on Pink’s Hot Dogs, which was great because I just went there for the first time a couple of weeks ago. After the show on Pink’s I noticed a showdown between Jamie Oliver and Mario Batali. I had to see this since I usually follow most of the shows Jamie Oliver is involved in. I own all of the foreign UK DVD’s such as Pukka Tukka, Jamie’s Kitchen and Jamie’s School Dinners. I assume this new battle is a promotion for his new TV show in the US television market for Jamie at Home. I rarely watch Iron Chef these days, it’s just not as intense as the Japanese version and the dubbed over voices were funny. Plus, the Iron Chef America host is lame, Chairman Kaga was a better character and played by a real actor. I do however enjoy commentary by Alton Brown and some of the guest judges. So the Jamie Oliver vs. Mario Batali match was alright, nothing too exciting. The secret ingredient was live Cobia, a fish I’ve never tried. Well Jamie lost to my disappointment, but it seemed like a good match. I bring this whole thing up because the Food Network picked up a new Jamie Oliver show, Jamie At Home. I’m excited for a new Jamie Oliver TV show but I’ve cheated and I ordered it last night from Amazon UK. Thanks for Region Free DVD players.

Some links to Jamie Oliver:

Food Network Listing For Iron Chef: Oliver vs Batali

http://www.jamieoliver.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver

Jamie Oliver Article On Telgraph.co.uk

I made Jasmine Rice for the first time ever. This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I have always loved and cooked short grain Japanese style rice.  Anyhow, it was good with the chicken I marinated the other night. Finally uploaded all of my recent photos from Thanksgiving, my two weeks in Southern California which included New Years and Christmas.

My ATT Wireless internet connection seems to be happy, I have a fairly fast connection. This weekend though I plan to hook up a Hi Gain directional antenna and access point from work across the street and point it to my loft. I hope that I get a good signal and I can cancel the ATT wireless service. I’ll update on the installation.

So I’ve been in California away from the cold Colorado weather to visit with family. My cousin is visiting from overseas and it is his first visit to America. It’s been an interesting trip for him, would have made a great movie or short film about his experience in the USA. So this trip is really all about showing my cousin from Japan a great time.

He had many ideas about America, most of which were not true or exaggerated. Or it’s possibly Californians are different from the rest of the US. But one funny stereotype he has about Americans were that we all have ice cream in our freezer. Well everyone we asked and every freezer we checked had some ice cream.

Wandered around La Jolla the first day which was Friday. Got to see some things I have not seen since I lived in San Diego, like the tide pools and sea lions. The next morning my cousin and I drove up to Claremont to pick up my Erika and Michael. My cousin Masamichi had his first experience with real Mexican food (I think it was called Brendan’s). People had brought their own pots to pick up Menudo and were lined up for the Huevos Rancheros. I suppose this is not real Mexican food, but closer than the stuff served in Japan. After breakfast we drove up to Las Vegas for one night. We stayed in the Paris hotel but spent a lot of time downtown at the Golden Nugget, Plaza and California. I guess there are a lot of Hawaiians that go to the California hotel. We gambled a little, I played some craps and video poker while everyone else hit the slots. After a few plays at craps I dropped some money on “YO Eleven!” A 15 to 1 payout and won. Nothing really funny that I recall happened in Vegas but on the drive up the traffic was horrible. It was so bad and so slow a guy jumped out of the car he was riding in, ran to a construction porta-potty in the freeway median and afterwards ran to catch up with the car.

Back in Claremont with my sister on Monday we wandered around LA, hitting up Pink’s hotdogs, K-Town, UCLA, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and stopped in Sawtelle. Driving consumes most of the time in LA so we head home for a Christmas eve dinner of steak at the only place where we could get a reservatio, Cask and Cleaver in Rancho Cucamonga. Christmas in Chino Hills was great, always great to see family. Pics will be updated below and on Flickr.

Post Christmas was a typical American event, shopping at the mall, looking for good deals and eating a “Hot Dog On A Stick”. My cousin has never seen a Pretzel or Mongolian BBQ, which seemed really strange to me. Afterwards we drove back down to San Diego we stopped by Tofu House for some Korean Soon Du Boo Chigae, which also my cousin has never seen.

Today was an easy day, Balboa Park and Old Town. It was Masamichi’s first time to have a Margarita, and it was a good one from Coyote Cafe. We are off to deep sea fishing tomorrow with H&M landing near Point Loma.

Update: I’ve changed my schedule and airline ticket and have decided to spend New Years (the biggest Japanese holiday) with family.  I’ve added an additional 4 days which is fine, it’s snowing and cold in Denver anyhow.

Met up with Youn and his family today for lunch at a Korean restaurant near H-Mart. I guess this place (I call it this place because I don’t know the name) specializes in Korean soups.  Nothing is written in English, which I feel is a good sign for good food. I had a soup I’ve never had before, a soup which the name eludes me. It’s basically a beef stock soup, maybe ox tail with kim chee, soy bean sprouts and some meat. And no, it wasn’t a Kim Chee Chigae but it seems sorta close.  It was tasty, and cheap to boot. Their son Jason is getting big, and still a very calm baby. I should have taken some photos. Afterwards we went to H-Mart where it was incredibly busy. I mean really busy, no more shopping carts or baskets to go around. I picked up some freshly made Kim Chee and Satsuma Oranges. They got some ingredients for Shabu Shabu.

I must be bored, I’m sitting at a Starbucks blogging this when I realized that Tony is working across the street. After this I’m gonna stop by his shop and say hi.