A and I will be taking off to Canada tomorrow. We want to take this time to wish everyone a happy and safe holidays. As 2006 winds down to a close, we reflect back on the personal, political, international, and sometimes scandalous events of 2006 and remember that though we can not change the events of the past, we can effect the events of the future. 2007 will be a new start, open to all sorts of opportunities and possibilities. May you achieve your dreams and aspirations in the upcoming new year.

Happy Holidays. See you in 2007!

I'm taking advantage of the the 2-week holiday company shutdown to catch-up on blog posting because to be absolutely honest, the number of posts has been next to zero. *sheepish* As I looked through the archives of photos for inspiration, the photos from our trip to Japan brought back fond memories of the different sights, sounds, and tastes we experienced.

Unagi Dinner

Shinkansen: Kyoto --> Tokyo

Hiding from the Camera

Okonomiyaki

Making of piping hot delicious Ramens

Order in Nature

Delicious Breakfast

Beautiful Golden Pavilion

Dessert

Rooftop

Black Sesame Pudding

Most Complicated Toilet I've Ever Met

Philosopher's Walk

Time to go Home

Please excuse the lateness and scarcity in posts. A and I, no longer so recently, changed jobs and were dealing with the resulting upheavals in our life. Things have finally begun to settle down. We hope to resusitate Sweet & Savory and continue on our merry way. :)

I returned to Japan but this time with A in tow for my sabbatical. We were determined to explore Kyoto for a glimpse into old Japan, followed by a visit to Tokyo, to see modern Japan.

As Frommer's had warned us, it was difficult to find many destinations. Even native Japanese often needed to ask for directions. Many of the less touristy areas or smaller streets did not have signs labeled in English and as neither A nor I can read or speak Japanese, we were at a distinct disadvantage. On the first day, I sprained my ankle during a 2-hour trek in the rain looking for a confectionary store only to find that the store was closed!! We did eventually learn to utilize a combination of the maps in the multiple travel guides we brought, the maps at the subways, and the various other maps placed around the city to minimize the time we spent aimlessly lost.

On account of being hopelessly disoriented most of the time, we were very grateful for this clearly marked street sign, which was right where we emerged from the subway on the third day of our stay in Kyoto. Due to this good fortune, we were able to find, in record time, the ryokan that we'd reserved for the night! If only we were so lucky for the rest of our trip! :P

After a quick check-in, we were shown to our room, located on the first floor, with a beautiful garden right outside our sliding glass doors. As we sat there soaking in the serenity and calm that surrounded us, the weariness of urban life already forgotten, the head maid brought in a tray of frothy green matcha, hojicha, and slightly cinnamony sweets for us to enjoy.

When the head maid returned to retrieve the used tea cups, and to leave us a fresh pot of hojicha, she motioned to us that the yukatas neatly folded in the closet were meant for us to wear after we had taken our in-room hot bath. The bathing facilities were different from what is customarily found in the U.S. but we had read enough travels guides figure out how to use it. The hot bath was fabulous, so hot and soothing for all our aching muscles and tired feet. After I had become sufficiently prune-ish, it was time to climb out and put on the yukata. Mine came with two sashes, a wide red one and a narrow purple one, each long enough to wrap several times around my waist. A and I pondered a while as to how to tie them. Since there were no instructions given, we came up with our own technique. Stylish, no?

At 7 pm, the service of the very impressive kaiseki dinner began.

Aperitif Shokuzen-Shu
Shirozake
Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the little cup of cold crisp sake.

First Appetizer Sakizuke
clam, crab, nanohana (rape blossom buds), udo (Japanese edible wild plants), glehnia littoralis, baby flying fish, vinegar with sesame seed.

Very light delicate fresh flavors.

Since A is allergic to shellfish, he was served what we believed to be fava bean tofu.

Sashimi Dishes Mukouzuke
sea beam, tuna, japanese needlefish, paste laver, stem of young perilla, japanese white radish, carrot

I especially enjoyed the sea beam and tuna. The needlefish was very fresh but much chewier than what I like.

Simmered Dishes Nimono-Wan
paste of white flesh with mugwort, greenling, konoko (dried konowata before fermenting), urui, carrot, kinome

A light broth, a medley of light well-blended flavors, with several unidentified items.

Second Appetizer Hassun
ark shell and horsetail seasoned with vinegar and miso, sea beam roe in jelly, prawn coated with powdered dried mullet roe, dressed kogomi with walnut, grilled japanese icefish with yolk, baby octopus, young peach

This was the most exciting dish of the meal with its many exotic ingredients and a personal favorite. The baby octopus took some courage to eat but I found it quite delicious and not at all chewy. The young peach was surprisingly sweet and soft and fuzz-free. (I still don't know what a kogome is and googling it turned up links to an anime call Inuyasha which had absolutely nothing to do with food.)

Grilled Fish Yaki-Zakana
grilled trout with konomo, broad beans

Delicious grilled fresh trout!

Dishes in the Middle Oshinogi
sekihan (made from glutinous rice and some non-glutinous rice steamed with azuki beans), octopus

This was my least favorite dish as I am prejudiced against azuki beans, especially the ones with their shells on and this dish had LOTS of azuki beans with shells. A wasn't able to eat the octupus so his dish had two Japanese icefish as replacement. Unfortunately A is prejudiced against sakura leaves so both of us were prepositioned to dislike this dish. Perhaps this dish would have had a better chance of succeess with people who weren't so set against azuki beans and sakura leaves.

Steamed Dish Mushi-Mono
shark's fin, tofu, yuba (delicate soybean milk skin), brussel sprout, sticky soy sauce, ginger

This dish was similar to a toned down and less cornstarch-filled version of the Chinese shark fin soup. The portion of shark fin in the bowl was HUGE!

Simmered Dish Takiawase
bamboo shoot, Matsubara's red rockfish, wakame, japanese butterbur, kinome

The bamboo shoots were spectacular. I was told it was bamboo season in Japan so we were just in time to taste fresh bamboo shoots. In the U.S., bamboo shoots usually come pre-packaged out of cans. Even during bamboo season, when you are able to buy them at the asian market, they just don't seem to taste as fresh or as tender. Also of particular interest were the butterbur as they looked like celery and tasted lighter and not nearly as stringy or full of fiber as a celery.

Deep Fried Dish Age-Mono
fried anglerfish, small sweet green pepper, salt, lemon

The fried anglerfish was hot and crisp on the outside while sweet and soft on the inside.

Soup Tome-Wan
aka-miso soup with fu, shiitake mushroom, japanese homewort, rapeseed

Rice Gohan
rice mixed with bamboo shoot, kinomo

Pickles Kou-No-Mono
cucumber, nanohana, japanese white radish, and sea tangle

The rice, soup, and pickles all came together on one tray. Again, loved the bamboo.

Dessert Mizu-Mono
melon, strawberry, mango jelly

The conclusion to our extravagant meal was this fruit plate. I don't recall ever having melons so sweet! If you look carefully on upper left hand side of the bowl, you can see the dish is made to look like there is a tiny figurine trying to climb up the side of the dish to get to the food.

The kaiseiki dinner was impressive not only in the abundance, variety, and presentation of the food, but the care that went into the preparation and delicate flavors it was able to showcase. No wonder freshness and eating according to what is in season is of such high importance in Japanese cuisine. Serving inferior produce would be easily recognized. Though of a different cuisine, I could not help but notice the similarities between this meal and the one I had at French Laundry. Both leave the diner feeling like they are participants of an impressive theatrical production.

Full, happily satiatied, and relaxed, we drifted off to sleep on a surprisingly comfortable futon.

My company sent me to Tsuruoka, Japan for a business trip. The long work hours (at least 12 hours daily) and the language barrier intensified the stress brought on by the tight schedule. But no matter how bad the situation was and how late we had to work, I could always look forward to the food.

As you can see, there were only three or four mochi left when we took the picture. And not long after the picture was taken, these survivor mochi joined their fellow mochi in our stomachs. It is a good thing A and I are going to Japan next week as there are so many different types of mochi in Japan we have yet to try. Before I left Japan, I recall seeing some edamame mochi that I am quite anxious to have the pleasure of making their acquaintence.

Sunday went something like this:

12:30 am - J lets A know she's flying home the next day. She was feeling worn out from her business trip, and demanded a surprise to cheer her up.

12:34 am - A scratches his head and wonders what would instill an sufficient amount of warmth and fuzziness, in the form of a dessert (which if you haven't noticed, is about all he makes).

1:07 am - Still brainstorming, A opens the fridge to the sight of six zucchini sitting on a shelf (there had been a big sale at the market this week, and A loves to stock up, almost more than he loves dessert).

1:11 am - A's lightbulb goes off, and he looks no further than Clotilde's pairing of chocolate with his secret ingredient of choice.

1:16 am - A sleeps (he does sleep).

11:00 am - A wakes (it would have been earlier, but he likes sleep too.. so, it goes dessert, then stocking up, then sleep).

12:00 pm - Voila!

With J on a business trip in Japan, I had the kitchen all to myself! This is not to say that J doesn't usually share, but more that it seemed to be fitting to make something special. I decided to make a variety of snacks for my sweet-toothed coworkers. On the menu were (left to right, top to bottom) russian tea cakes, chocolate covered brown butter blondies, chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and chocolate filling, and mendiants.

Russian Tea Cakes, aka Mexican Wedding Cookies, aka Snowballs, aka ..., were a common request amongst my coworkers. I made a batch for them about a year or so ago, and they have been asking for another batch ever since. So, I finally decided to oblige them. There are as many recipes for these little treats as there are aliases, but I used the one from Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking.

Next up were the chocolate-covered brown butter blondies, which I adapted from a recipe I picked up while visiting the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory last April (adapted recipe included below). Not being a great fan of milk chocolate, I did not have the six ounces that the recipe asked for. Instead, I improvised by mixing some bittersweet Michel Cluizel with some Toblerone milk chocolate candy. This substitution complemented both texture and taste, as the bits of almond nougat in the Toblerone were chewy and agreed well with the buttery caramel flavors in the blondie layer.

Next, I made a recipe that I had previously found on someone's blog when I was searching for a cupcake idea for Nancy's birthday last Februray. The blog owner Chris proclaimed it to be the "World's Best Cupcakes". I wanted to see if the cupcakes could live up to their name. I made the cake and filling batters by hand, since I was cautious of overworking them. The assembled cupcakes went into the oven, where the cream cheese and chocolate chip filling melted and melded into the ooey gooey centers of the final product.

The cupcakes were definitely different from others I've had so far, mainly in the fact that it has a filled center instead of a homogeneous batter, both with and without chunky ingredients mixed in. I haven't gotten any word back on my coworkers' tastings, so the verdict is still out on whether these are really the world's best cupcakes. In any case, I've linked the recipe above, so you can try them out for yourselves. And if you know of a recipe for tastier cupcakes, please do share it with me!

Finally, mendiants! Mendiants are essentially tempered chocolate disks embedded with various nuts and dried fruits. For the chocolate, I once again used bittersweet Michel Cluizel. For the nuts, I toasted hazelnuts, slivered almonds, pecan halves, and pine nuts, to really bring out the nutty aromas. For the dried fruits, I used apricots, black cherries, figs, and cranberries. Arranged together, the ingredients made quite an impressive array!

Chocolate-Covered Brown Butter Blondies
adapted from a recipe by Scharffen Berger

• 1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• pinch salt
• 1 large egg
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3.5 oz bar Toblerone milk chocolate candy, broken into chunks
• 25 pecan halves, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350°F and position a rack in the center. Butter a 9" x 9" baking pan and set aside. Place the brown sugar in a large heat-proof bowl and set aside.

In a small pot over low heat, melt the butter. Tilt the pan every now and then and watch the butter carefully — it will first sizzle, then the solids will separate from the fat, before finally turning a light nutty brown color while developing a nutty, toasty aroma. Right when the browning begins (after about five minutes), remove the pan from heat and pour the butter over the brown sugar. Add the salt and stir (the mixture may appear greasy, but this is normal).

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour and gently mix until just combined.

Turn the batter and spread it (it will be sticky) into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is shiny and a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean, about ten to twelve minutes.

Immediately distribute the chocolate pieces on top of the warm blondie layer. Return the pan to the oven for one to two minutes, just enough time to allow the chocolate to soften. With a small offset spatula, spread the melted chocolate in an even layer. Arrange the pecan halves in five rows of five. Let cool completely.

Cut into 25 pieces, one pecan half per piece. Store in a tightly covered container for up to one week.

Creamy chocolate ganache infused with the comforting flavor of caramel — exactly what we had in mind when we found out about this month's dairy-themed SHF hosted by Spittoon Extra. I know they may seem like nothing special, but as much as we work with chocolate in other creations, this is the first time we've actually attempted truffles. Happy to say they were delicious and the addition of a scant pinch of sea salt definitely helped to intensify the caramel flavor.

This post is very late in its appearance, for in our busy lives, we have been neglecting our blog. We originally dined at Restaurant LuLu at the end of last July, and here are our tasting notes.

After our "snack" at Boulette's Larder, we had a 12 o'clock reservation at Restaurant LuLu for lunch. The outside of Restaurant LuLu is minimalistic with only splashes of color on the windows, but the inside was festive, airy, and imparted the sense of spaciousness with the open kitchen area and the high ceiling.

The bar area showcased the large quantity of alcohol for your imbibing pleasure. We solemnly debated the possibility of ordering some alcohol but decided it was perhaps a wee bit early in the day to start partying.

To start, we ordered a cheese and fruit to share. It arrived with three different types of cheese, a couple slices of walnut bread, some fig jam, and a cluster of champagne grapes. By overwhelming consensus (3 out of 3), the Brillat-Savarin, an extra rich and creamy cow's milk cheese, was a hit. None of us were previously fans of blue cheese but the Windsor Blue from New Zealand, a very mild pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese, was surprisingly tasty. It paired very well with fig jam, neither the pungunt blue nor the sweet jam overwhelmed the other. Lastly, we had the Humbolt Fog, made by Cypress Grove Chevre located in nearby Humbolt County. How cool is that?!

I also ordered the fennel sausage and fig pizza with tapenade and sage. The combination of sausage and tapenade made it a little too salty, and the presence of figs was necessary to counter this. Most people I've met seem to have strong feelings about figs — either they love the sweet, soft texture with the fun crunchy seeds or they hate it and think it taste like mush. I am of the I-love-figs camp so the pieces of fig on each slice of pizza were greatly appreciated. But admittedly, I did wish the fig pieces were bigger.

A really hit the jackpot when he ordered the roasted leg of lamb with red onion marmalade, arugula and tapenade on sun-dried tomato levain bread. The lamb was done perfectly, full of flavor and fairly moist. I'd never had red onion marmalade before and was actually a little intrepid at first, expecting to taste a nasty combination of cloying sweetness and acrid onion flavor but was pleasantly surprised.

My brother had the grilled salmon with chopped egg, capers and watercress on ciabatta with a side of potatoes. The picture doesn't do the sandwich justice as 90% of the sandwich is blocked by a massive mound of potato salad! The idea of chopped eggs with the salmon was new to all of us, but both my brother and A professed to be big fans the moment they tasted it. The eggs added a creaminess to the still warm salmon, making this sandwich a kind of healthy gourmet salmon melt.

We polished off our delicious entrees, forgetting to save room for dessert (actually, in a way we'd already had dessert earlier that morning with Boulette's beignets). We so enjoyed our experience at LuLu that we ventured to try their sister restaurant Zibibbo the following month. And in writing up this post, I've decided a return visit to LuLu is overdue!

Inspired by the banana wheat germ pancakes that we always order from Stacks, I decided one morning to whip up my own banana pancake breakfast. For the batter, I used the Arrowhead Mills buckwheat mix without deviation from their instructions. Having made these pancakes several times before, sans banana, I knew that the batter would cook up to fairly fluffy pancakes. So, I sliced the banana into thick slices, about half a banana per six-inch pancake. When the bananas just caramelized, I stacked the finished pancakes three tall, as with a full stack order at Stacks. A few slices of pan-griddled canadian bacon and a light drizzle of maple syrup completed this delicious breakfast!

Today is January 1st, the first day of this new year as well as the first birthday of Sweet & Savory. We wanted to throw a tiny celebration for our tiny corner of the blog world. Unfortunately, we ran into a little problem with the cake. Our favorite patisserie, Fleur de Cocoa was CLOSED! A little quick thinking and a trip to our local grocery store produced this improvised birthday cake. It may not be the prettiest cake, but with the Scharrfenberger Brut sparkling wine, it fit our needs just fine. So Happy Birthday Sweet & Savory!

A and I went off to Tahoe for some relaxation and snowboarding during this holiday season so not much post about food I'm afraid. But we wanted to take this time to reflect on what an eventful year 2005 has been to the terrible tsunami in south east asia, to discovering saint benoit yogurt and going to French Laundry, to participitaing in Is-My-Blog-Burning, to learning how to compromise, and to starting rock-climbing. This year had its share of ups and downs but it's slowly winding down to a close. The new year will be a brand new start with promises of new flavors, new discoveries, and new places to see. So to everyone, we want to wish you a safe, healthy, and happy 2006. :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving and then promptly got sick! But to help cure our nasty cold, we went for some nice big bowls of savory Japanese ramen with our good friends Joy and Mike.

The menu was posted on the wall for easy viewing by all. We agonized over all the possible choices and narrowed it down to two (to share of course)!

I picked the pork-flavored ramen with roasted pork while A picked the soy sauce flavored ramen with bean sprouts. Both bowls were satisfyingly delicious. The pork flavored ramen with slices of roasted pork was very rich and savory with just a hint of ginger from the bright red slivers of ginger added to the soup. The soy sauce flavored ramen with bean sprouts did not have as complex soup flavor as the pork flavored ramen with roasted pork but still very rich. A enjoyed the bite in the noodles and the abundance of bean sprouts but felt the soup was a little too salty from too much soy sauce, but I thought it was fine.

We slurped and munched our way to an empty bowl. Well, mostly empty. :) All done!

What I used to help finish preparing for Thanksgiving dinner! I needed TWO of these things.

Mojito for One

• 12 fresh mint leaves
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 oz. Bacardi Limon rum
• 1 oz. fresh lime juice
• club soda
• crushed ice

Place the mint leaves in a tall glass and crush the leaves with the sugar to release their oil. Add the Bacardi Limon and lime juice and mix. Top off with club soda and ice. Smile and savor. :)