Mutant Coconut
February 15th, 2007 by ktula
What i saw at the 99 Ranch grocery store on January 27th. Gelatinous mutant coconut….yummy!
(camera: Sony Ericsson K608i)
Archive for the 'Food/Wine' Category
My favorite dog
January 5th, 2007 by ktula
Nathan’s Famous hot dog is hands down my favorite hot dog. Nathan’s Famous is the sponsor of the yearly Fourth of July International Hot Dog eating contest, which for the past six years, has been won by this eating machine Takeru Kobayashi of Japan. I first experienced Nathan’s hot dog when i was traveling to Baltimore to work a few years ago. Slightly longer and narrower than most of the hot dogs, the taste and the texture is amazing. Especially when the skin of the hot dog is grilled just to the right crispiness, it’s really like a slice of heaven. I have not found a better hot dog since then, though the spicy hot dog i had at a few other airports was a close second.
There is a Nathan’s Famous restaurant at Concourse C of the Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Everytime i took a departing flight out of BWI, i would get two hot dogs. Concourse C used to serve Northwest Airlines but in recent years, it was moved to Concourse D and has remained there since. What did that meant to me? Since i was traveling mostly on Northwest Airlines to BWI, it meant i was missing out on my favorite hot dog, since Concourse C and Concourse D were not connected. Imagine my utter disappointment when i realized that Northwest Airlines was no longer located in the same concourse as Nathan’s Famous. So what i did was i would go through the security to get to Concourse C, even though my boarding pass clearly indicated it was for Concourse D. Of course, i had to explain to the TSA guys that i was going to Nathan’s for my hot dogs. After grabbing four hot dogs, i would get out of Concourse C and go through the security checkpoint again, to Concourse D.
Nathan’s Famous hot dog seems to be just an East Coast thing. I couldn’t seem to find any Nathan’s Famous hot dog in the state of Washington. Supposedly, some Costco warehouses are supposed to be carrying them, but so far i have not found them in any Costcos around here. At one point, i was seriously considering ordering from its website but the price, especially the shipping and handling cost pretty much snuffed out my craving. On the Nathan’s website, 3-pack hot dogs (6 hot dogs in each pack) sells for $14.99 and the 2nd day USPS delivery costs a whopping $38.55. That means each hot dog will cost me almost $3. Fortunately, i discovered a location in the Seattle area that carries my favorite dog. At the Lincoln Square movie theater in Bellevue, each Nathan’s hot dog (including the bun of course) goes for $3.50. Now you know which movie theater i will go to whenever i want to watch something on the big screen 
Related posts
The best sausages in North America
August 8th, 2006 by ktula
If you are heading to the Granville Island market in Vancouver, the Oyama Sausage Company is one store you don’t want to miss.
Related posts
Clam digging on July 4th
July 7th, 2006 by ktula
What better way to celebrate the July 4th than a successful clam digging trip to the southern Puget Sound, right? Ever since my one and only successful clam digging trip more than 3 years ago, i had not had much success digging clams around the Puget Sound area.
There are many things to check when planning for a clam digging trip:
- A valid shell fishing license from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
- A location known to have abundant clams. I found this recommended Clam and Oyster beaches (PDF) to be really helpful in determining locations with abundance of clams.
- A very recent Marine Biotoxin Bulletin from the Washington State Department of Health for the health advisory in the target location. This is probably one of the most important things to check for. You don’t want to be eating clams full of PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poison), ASP (Amnesic Shellfish Poison, aka Domoic Acid) or Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
- The tide predictions for the location. Unless you plan to dig for clams in your scuba diving gear, it is best to arrive at the location when the tide is low.
- Bring the necessary clam digging tools: shovel, bucket and knee-high rubber boots (i learned the hard lesson clam digging in my sandals). Every clam digger must have his own bucket for his catch.
- Clam digging is a rather dirty and messy affair, bring some extra clothing and a few gallons of water to wash the sand/mud off your body.
- A cooler of some sort to store the clams. I bought a $3 styrofoam cooler from the nearby Safeway and it worked pretty well.
So armed with our freshly printed shell-fishing license for the 2006-2007 season, Janet and i left Seattle before 7 o’clock in the morning. I estimated that it was going to take us less than 2 hours to reach the Oakland Bay Recreation Tidelands, just in time for the first low tide of the day. I wanted to make it back home around noon so that i could watch the Germany-Italy semi-final match of the World Cup. The clam digging area is located just northeast of the Bayshore Golf Club, a few miles northest of Shelton.
The drive there was quite uneventful. Surprisingly, there was not much traffic at all on I-5. I had expected a huge sign for the Bayshore Golf Club after i drove past Shelton. I was wrong. I must have driven past the location by at least 5 miles. We probably wasted 30 minutes trying to locate the golf club. Thanks to the indispensable Google Maps that i installed on my phone, we were able to figure out our way back to the tideland.
The Oakland Bay Recreation Area has its own parking lot and when we were there, there was a portable toilet in the parking lot. There appeared to be two paths to the tideland. We should have taken the path to the right of the sign.
That was me looking clean and fresh prior to getting down and dirty.
I thought i had everything ready for clam digging. On stepping onto the muddy tideland, we realized that our sandals were really not suited for the extremely sticky mud. Our sandals would get stuck in the mud constantly. I took a tumble and fell into the mud when one of my sandals was completely embedded.
But it was all worth it. The first clam that i dug out appeared to be either a Horse or Macoma clam. It was squirting water when i dug it out of the mud. Most of the clams - either Manila or Native Littleneck clams - we found were in area with mixture of gravel and mud. It took a lot of effort in the beginning just to find some clams. After we relocated to another part of the beach, which is directly accessible using the path to the right of the sign which i mentioned earlier, we struck gold. Clams were everywhere, even on the surface! By the time we were done, we had about 70 clams total, and it only took us about one and a half hours.
I found a good way to get rid of the mud on the clams by spraying them with my garden hose. After that, the clams were soaked in salty water to encourage them to expel the mud contained within them. For a while, the water would get cloudy immediately after it was replaced. I found that there were at least 10 clams that were full of nothing but mud!
Before and after - being cooked that is.
Related posts
Life of a Pig
April 11th, 2006 by ktula
Tamara Murphy, chef and owner of Brasa, will be having a 8- to 12-course dinner on April 20th using four of the pigs she is helping to raise. Unfortunately, i most likely won’t be able to go because the earliest i can come back from San Jose that night is 2130. If you are interested, you can read about the progress of the pigs here.
Related posts
The best pho in Seattle
March 2nd, 2006 by ktula
Pho Cyclo cafe has the best pho in Seattle, bar none. The first thing you will notice about the pho at Pho Cyclo cafe is that it is loaded with meat, even for the smaller one of the two available sizes. The beef is not paper-thin like other pho restaurants (Than Brothers Pho is a good example), and it always tastes fresh. In addition to a plate full of basil leaves, bean sprouts, slices of jalapeno peppers and pickled onion, every fragrant bowl of pho is served with a ginger-based hot sauce in a sauce dish that is unique to Pho Cyclo cafe.
If i am in town, i normally go to Pho Cyclo cafe (the 1st Ave location) at least once a week and i usually order #11 Pho Tai Bo Vien with tripe plus extra meat balls. No, not these Rocky Mountain oysters
but ground beef made into bouncy beef balls stuffed with peppercorns.
Related posts
Salami
January 26th, 2006 by ktula
The first time i saw salami, that must have been years ago, i was disgusted by the sight of the casing full of uncooked pork. I am not sure what happened two years ago when i started eating these thinly sliced pieces of heaven. The more i eat, the more i like it. I especially like to pair it with red wine. I am normally not a red wine drinker but salami matches really well with red wine.
The last few evenings, i have been treating myself with more than 10 different kinds of salami and a bottle of the 2001 Villa Antinori Toscana. Here the list of amazing salamis that i have been eating: spicy wild boar salami, German summer sausage, Holstein salami, pepper salami, Milano salami, Genoa salami, lamb salami, spicy buffalo salami, Verona salami and Prosciutto salami. My favorites are the Milano, Genoa and Verona salamis.
Related posts
Nata de coco
October 31st, 2005 by ktula
I have been eating this stuff for the last few years whenever i get myself a bubble tea. Because i am not really a big fan of the tapioca pearls in the tea, i usually substitute that with nata de coco. I didn’t have any clue about what nata de coco is until now. Gaurang and Meng-Hua got me a jar of nata de coco when they found out that i was trying to make it. I bought a pack of agar agar hoping that i could make that at home. Even though i reduced the amount of water needed by half, the texture of the final product was nowhere near the real thing.
I did a wikipedia search on nata de coco and found that it is actually a by product of coconut. It is made by the bacterial fermentation of coconut water and the process appears to be pretty tedious. It only costs me about a buck for a jar of nata de coco - i ain’t making it at home, that’s for sure.