Wedding Food!

Since wedding food stereotypically gets a bad rap, I naturally worried about the food at my wedding. I was so surprised when I took my first bite of my wedding dinner and it was actually delicious. Another bite of juicy mango chicken, and another of crispy-skinned pork bao confirmed that this was a fantastic wedding dinner. In addition to salads, misoyaki butterfish, and mango chicken, we also had two carving stations: a whole roasted pig which was carved for Chinese pork bao, and prime rib.

I didn't take any pictures of my meal (*gasp!*), but thankfully Brad's mom did! That's her artfully arranged plate above. Scroll down to see more wedding pics.

Our wedding favors were two chocolate dipped shortbread cookies

from Honolulu Cookie Company

We fed each other cupcakes from Hokulani Bakery. Then I fed myself some more!

Yakbap

Our friends Mike and Michelle gave us some yakbap! According to Mike, it's a Korean celebratory dish made with sweet sticky rice, brown sugar, and other goodies. It is absolutely heavenly. The richness of the coconut milk combined with the nuttiness of the sesame oil makes for a satisfying dessert. The sticky rice is so soft and fluffy, it melts on your tongue.

In Mike and Michelle's version of yakbap above, they included dried cherries from Trader Joes. Here is the recipe from Mike's uncle.

Yakbap

Cook: 5 cups of mochi rice.
Mix in well: 1/4 cup sesame oil while rice is still hot (less if you like)
Add: 12 oz. dark brown sugar (adjust to your taste)
Optional: a) 1 cup coconut milk b) prunes c) pine nuts d) cooked chessnuts
Form: into rectangular pans to 1.5" thick
Bake: 40 min @ 350F (check earlier to make sure the edges don't get hard)

Let cool, then cut with a plastic knife.

Our First Hanukkah Dinner!

Last Saturday was my first attempt at a Hanukkah dinner. Here's what was on the menu:

Truffle Pate, herb cheese, asian pear and crackers from Trader Joes

Pot Roast with caramelized onion and roasted carrots

Challah Bread from Trader Joes, served with cultured butter

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with thinly sliced onions

Potato Latkes with sour cream, apple sauce and chives (recipe courtesy of Brad's mom)

Peeling and grating all of those potatoes was the toughest part. I made the pot roast a day ahead so that the flavors could develop overnight. The brussel sprouts were roasted with just olive oil, pepper and salt. I bought them on the stem from Trader Joes, and it took a big knife to hack them all off. I felt like Indiana Jones.

The meal was a success! For dessert we had pumpkin ice cream and a raspberry tart that Ron and Fran brought. Delicious!

Potato Latkes

4 large potatoes

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tbsp flour or matzah meal

lots of grated onion (1-2 small ones)

Peel or wash the potatoes and grate on a medium grater. Pour off half of the liquid. Add beaten eggs and rest of ingredients. Fry on both sides. Serve hot with applesauce and sour cream.

Notes: Put the onions in first; it keeps the potatoes from turning. Also, soak the potatoes in water if you peel them.

Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good

Brad and I heard an episode of Good Food on KCRW and they were talking about a pumpkin recipe called "Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good". Once we heard the words cream, cheese, bacon and pumpkin, we knew we had to try it. As expected, this was a spectacular dish. You can either serve it in the pumpkin (everyone spoons out their servings), or you can serve it cut up. We substituted sausage for bacon, and used Gruyere for the cheese.

We served the pumpkin with a side dish of brussel sprouts with cranberries, walnuts and bacon. Click here for the recipe.

Ingredients

1 pumpkin, 2½–3 lbs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ lb stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into ½-inch chunks
¼ lb cheese, such as Gruyère, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into ½-inch chunks
2–4 garlic cloves (to taste), split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped
4 slices bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped (my addition)
About ¼ cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions (my addition)
1 Tablespoon minced fresh thyme (my addition)
About 1/3 cup heavy cream
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Ruth Reichl's Sort-Of-Pad-Thai Noodles

I love Ruth Reichl's writing. She sprinkles recipes throughout her autobiographical books, which makes them all the more fun to read. In one of her books, she had a recipe for sweet, spicy noodles. She said it was sort of like pad thai, but better. I made it the other night for Brad and we agreed it was indeed better than the original! It is very simple to make.

Here is the recipe:

http://www.ruthreichl.com/2010/08/sharp-sweet-spicy-noodles.html

Mastros, Beverly Hills

You know that commercial where a couple go to a fancy schmancy restaurant and are served tiny portions of food? They have to have a second dinner at home because they were still hungry after dinner!

When I was at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant a while back, I felt like I was in that commercial. I ordered a mushroom soup and they brought out a pitcher the size of a coffee creamer and then poured the tiny amount of soup into my amusingly large soup bowl.

If you spend the same amount of money at Mastro's, however, you will eat like a sumo wrestler. We went here for a friend's birthday party and we got the private room with a window overlooking the kitchen. We ordered the rib eye (split), oysters on the shell, and all the trimmings (including lobster mashed potatoes, green beans, brussel sprouts, and shishito peppers). The lobster mashed potatoes definitely lived up to the hype. Every bite I took contained a meaty, buttery piece of lobster.

By the end of the meal, I was uncomfortably full. Everybody had leftovers, and our steak was just as good the next day!

Mastros

Helena's Hawaiian Food, Honolulu

This was my first time trying Helena's Hawaiian Food in Honolulu, and I fell in love with the place. I prefer Helena's to Ono's; Helena's is less salty, and I love their combos and side. We got take out to take to the beach. If you don't feel like paying for admission to a tourist-y luau, this is the place to come for authentic Hawaiian food. If you're not sure how much to get, just ask the waiter or cashier and he or she will set you up with the perfect amount of food!

(front to back) poi, chicken long rice, lomi lomi salmon

(front to back) squid laulau, ahi poke with opihi, lau lau, short ribs

haupia coconut dessert in the back

Patrick's Road House, Santa Monica

The Jessica Burrito

Brad raves about Patrick's Road House every time we drive past it on PCH. It's one of his favorite after-surf spots to refuel. The other weekend on our way up to Malibu, I finally got to taste it for myself. We got a breakfast croissant sandwich and the Jessica burrito (not on the menu), both with sides of fruit. The croissant sandwich was my favorite--the bread was perfectly flaky and toasted. Inside of it was an egg, avocado, tomato and bacon. The restaurant itself is so cozy and has a great "home-like" feel to it. They just opened for dinner as well, so I can't wait to come back.

Breakfast croissant sandwich

Oatmeal Two Ways

Brad made "oatmeal, two ways" as a midnight snack for us the other night. The first way is with brown sugar and cinnamon. The second way is with soy sauce, furikake and a fried egg on top. Don't knock it until you try it!