Restaurant Widow

10 Things You Probably Don't Care if You Know or Not

I don't spend a lot of time lurking around, leaving comments on other people's websites.  I feel a little guilty saying that, but it's true.  I think this is why I am never tagged for memes.  Which is fine, because the pressure of responding to them is just too much for lazy Lisa.  Doing it of my own free will is, of course, a breeze.   So, here are 10 things about me which not a lot of people know:

1.  I had my first encounter with an Ice Cream Truck at the age of 15.  Growing up in the country, I had no idea such a thing even existed.  Needless to say, my friends thought this was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard of.

2.  It is my plan to become a well-paid and popular, if quirky, writer one of these days.  One the reasons for this is that I love wearing pajamas.  My main motivating factor, upon waking, and besides making money, is to get to a point of the day where I can once again be wearing pajamas.  It is my plan to show up at book signings in pajamas, hence the quirky part.  They will be nice pajamas, of course, I have a vast and thorough pajama collection.  I  once met a news writer who told me his infatuation with writing began once he heard writers could (and frequently did) drink all the time.  I, on the other hand, am excited to get paid to sit in my pajamas drinking coffee all day and holding a revolving selection of sleeping cats.

3.  My mother was one of those urban legends to have a pressure cooker explode in her kitchen.  This was very traumatic for me when I was little, and to this day I view the pressure cooker with nothing but fear and trepidation.

4.  My first culinary specialty was Sloppy Joe's.  I saw this as an opportunity to showcase my amazing improvisation skills by lining up the contents of the spice rack and adding each one with a dash and a flourish.    I've often wondered, as an adult, if they were any good or not.  As a 9-year-old, they were heaven.

5.  My first real food epiphany came from the Japanese Steakhouse.  It was there that I learned that stir-frying is one of the best ways to prepare food, and it was there I learned to love onions, zucchini, mushrooms and mung bean sprouts. 

6.  My father's family has the definitive Amish recipe for apple butter in Central Ohio, and we own 2 enormous copper-lined cauldrons for making it.

7.  I hate cilantro.

8.  As a child, I was allergic/intolerant to the following products:  chocolate, eggs, tomatoes, citric acid, citrus fruits, artificial colors and artificial flavoring.  Failure to eat within these guidelines resulted in what I like to call "Allergy Head," whereby I was even more pallid then usual, highlighted by dark circles under my eyes.  I looked like a shiny, skinny panda bear.  You can imagine what a hoot my birthday parties were.  Oh, wait, I didn't have any. 

9.  I have sliced roughly a million bananas for dehydrating purposes.  For about a 4 year period when I was a child, my mother dehydrated anything that would sit still for 24-36 hours.  I had one childhood friend who refused to spend anymore nights at my house if it meant getting up at 7 on Saturday morning and slicing 80 pounds of bananas before we were allowed to play dress-up.

10.  I was such a beer snob (after turning 21, of course!) that I reached the age of 24 before ever tasting an average domestic beer such as Bud Light.  This does not, of course, include sips of Coors stolen from the plastic cups of my parent's sailing buddies as a child.  Back then, Coors was as exotic as Saison is now, and known only to sophisticated, Colorado types.

So there you have it.  Now we're Best Friends.

Weiland's Goes Organic

Weiland's now has a large selection of organic produce, and they are planning to add more.  While shopping yesterday, the manager pointed me to their suggestion box and asked for any hints or ideas for other organic items they could offer.  With Whole Foods in the marketplace now, it's important to remember to also support our local independent markets - what few there are.  I know I'm guilty of it, too, because Whole Foods has the size and resources to house their staggering produce offerings, but if you live nearby Weiland's, stop in to support their new organic produce section.  And while you're at it, buy one of their amazing Amish chickens for dinner!  (here's a cooking suggestion)

Kihachi, Revisted

It was my friends Sam and Ryan's birthday recently, and for a month beforehand we could discuss nothing but our celebration thereof - an omakase at Kihachi.  Going to Kihachi with Sam is big fun, because Chef Mike Kimura thinks Sam is great; we even got to hold some of Chef's personal knives, handmade for him in Japan - all foodie types and chef wannabees love holding big, sharp knives, just for your information.  I have previously described Kihachi in greater detail, so this will only be a description of our dinner.  As usual, any terms which might not be familiar will be asterisked and defined at the end of the post.

There were 9 of us, all lined up at the counter, note the army of Sapporos:

   

First up, bamboo shoots and giant squid (I think more of the cuttlefish variety than the used-to-be-folklore sort) with sancho*-spiced miso* sauce:

 

Next came a large plate of small and delicious things.  I have to admit here that some of these flavors are still a little "Japanese" for me; no matter how I try, I haven't been able to truly enjoy sea vegetable (kelp) yet.  Pictured, starting in the lower left with the duck breast and ending with the little basket in the middle of the plate, are:  Sake-braised duck breast; monkfish liver with ponzu* and (at this point, I feel I should mention that I just thought I lost my notes, especially sad because I had Chef Kimura's handwritten menu, and just tore through the house like mini-tornado, only to resign - my favorite searching for lost item tactic - and sit back down to write, when I looked over and under a few books on my desk: viola!  but I digress.) radish and a little Japanese green onion (fun fact - Japanese green onion, unlike their similar-looking cousins scallions, do not form a bulbous head); whole fried freshwater shrimp (still my favorite; I could eat these like fried); kelp roll tied with kanpyo*; sea eel rolled with cucumber topped with wasabi mayo (yum); marinated baby octopus (another one of those things I think are cute and fun to eat, but just not my favorite flavor.  Fortunately, Husband loves them.); marinated herring roe topped with bonito* flakes - a fund texture, which Husband described as "fish flavored pop rocks," I personally love the texture of small roe, the way they pop and disappear.  It's fun eating.  The last item on the plate is the small basket of ginkgo nuts roasted in salt, which Chef Kimura says are great with beer (we all agreed):

 

Egg Custard Soup (Chawanmushi): last time, this was a standout when prepared with soft cod roe.  Here, a more accessible (to American palates) egg custard was a standout for everyone.  The seemingly small bowl of custard revealed shrimp, chicken, spinach, shitake mushrooms, mitsuba* stems, fish cake and ginkgo nuts beneath.  I will have to learn to make this dish, which at first seems strange, being an egg custard in fish stock (dashi), but its soul-soothing savory properties cannot be denied.  It is the perfect winter dish:

Below, Chef peels a root of fresh wasabi:

And grates it:

Next up, Sashimi plate, from left to right, Japanese red snapper, Yellowfin toro, Hamachi (yellowtail), and Uni (sea urchin), along with fresh wasabi.  My first sea urchin experience; although the texture is a little odd, the taste is pleasantly briny.  Of course, all of the other fish is excellent - perfectly fresh and expertly sliced.  I am still amazed by the enzymatic powers of real wasabi - the way it melts the sashimi slices is truly amazing.  Eating sashimi at Kihachi makes you realize why one fell in love with it in the first place, and it puts all other sashimi I have eaten in Columbus to shame.  Truly, Kimura keeps his standards high time after time:

House made tofu was next.  Almost an American pot-roast style dish, featuring the housemade tofu croquette in a ginger broth containing shitake and nameko mushrooms, carrots, green ginkgo nuts and burdock.  If all vegetarian food tasted this good, I might actually be within half a light year of becoming a vegetarian.  More than merely a sum of its parts, this dish provided interest bite after bite, and the housemade tofu was pleasing and mild:

Did you think we were almost finished!  Silly you!  We haven't even had the grilled plate yet!  Starting from left to right, horse mackerel (my favorite), fatty and rich, I think horse mackerel might be my new favorite fish; king crab, which was, I think, basted with a little mirin while grilling, which perfectly matched the natural sweetness of crab (no drawn butter necessary); sea (pike) eel two ways - the first covered with spice powder, and the second had a liquid baste; tasty housemade pickles cleansed and refreshed the palate:

Fried Items are next!  Shrimp and shitake mushrooms are chopped together and fried in Kihachi's perfect tempura batter and served with fried asparagus stalks.  It might be completely American of me, and I might be showing a lack of sophistication here, but I love love love tempura.  I think ever parent in America should learn this method of frying for serving vegetables to their petulant children.  Have you ever seen tempura-battered broccoli?  Who would refuse that?  What makes tempura so special?  The batter is kept ice-cold which increases the viscosity of the batter, ensuring a better adherence to the vegetable; the batter is only lightly mixed to discourage gluten development, keeping the finished batter light and airy:

Sushi Roll:  Tuna otoro with wasabi and scallion; again, this is so much better than any other tuna roll I have ever encountered, and I can't quite explain the difference.  The nori* wrapper was delicious and did not remain in one unpleasant dried piece in the mouth; the tuna was minced; it was just perfect.  I could happily eat this for lunch everyday:

Okay, we're finally finished, gallons of Sapporo and cups of sake later (it's traditional to consume beer or sake with dinner in Japan - not water), with dessert.  Fresh wasabi and sake sorbet with marinated sweet black bean, from Jeni of Jeni's Ice Creams.  Chef Kimura told us he was inspired by the menu at the Burgundy Room Dublin, where he saw and tried some of Jeni's Ice Cream.  "Who's this Jeni?" he demanded, and called her up.  She arrived on the day the Japanese knife makers were in town and left with a bottle of sake and a piece of fresh wasabi.  This would make a refreshing intermezzo in the midst of a rich dinner, and made the perfect ending to our epic feast.  Probably not eveyone's idea of sorbet, as it packed a punch accented with tiny flecks of cayenne, but patient eaters noticed the sake smoothed out the spice.

I continue to think Kihachi is one of the best restaurants in Columbus.  I am at this point, convinced it is the best restaurant.  The only thing which could possibly make it better would be to include some kind of giant chocolate nonsense at the end of the meal.  And that is the Mid Western American inside me I can't deny; strangely, when I eat a rich meal filled with western food (western hemisphere, not cowboy ribeyes), I don't typically crave sweets after.  Something about the austere and clean nature of Japanese food, unencumbered by loads of fat and cream-based sauces makes me want to spoil myself in chocolate.  Alas, I am totally pedestrian after all.

Thanks for the wonderful meal, Chef Kimura.

Info:  Kihachi  2667 Federated Blvd  Dublin, OH (20 minute drive from downtown)  614.764.9040

Glossary of Terms:

Sancho:  the slightly spicy, yet fruity berry husk of the Japanese prickly ash bush.  This plant is related to the bush that also provide Sezchuan peppers.

Miso:  fermented soy bean paste which has a deeply savory quality.

Kanpyo no umani:  dried gourd strips

Ponzu: Sweet citrus (yuzu) flavored sauce with soy and rice vinegar

Bonito:  Dried bonito fish, usually shaved.  Used to flavor stocks

Mitsuba:  A mild and fragrant herb, meaning "3 leaves," because each stem is topped with 2 leaves.  Related to celery and parsley, and similar, but deeper, in flavor.

Nori:  Dried seaweed; traditionally used to wrap sushi rolls.  The idea of the nori being on the inside, and the rice on the outside, was actually invented in the United States and in Japan is referred to - sometimes derogatorily - as an "inside out" or "California" roll.

Of related interest:

Tuna with White Beans and Other Good Things

 

This is what I get for months of unbridled cream sauce and bread consumption: a trip down tuna lane.  Good, Italian oil-packed tuna, of course.  I was  recently informed about this hilarious website where the horror of old Weight Watcher recipe cards is revealed.  I think I will take this yummy salad over gelatinous mushroom and Green bean salad any day.  This salad makes a nice lunch; I won't wax lyrical about its health benefits, which should be obvious.  I'm not a diet website, after all, but I like to offer some ideas for anyone who, like me, kicked off a winter of eating with a vat of foie gras terrine and never stopped.  You don't have to cook this at all if you don't want to, but you might want to leave out the garlic.  This lunch literally takes less than 10 minutes to make and is great cold or room temperature.  Giardiniera are (sometimes spicy) pickled vegetables, usually containing a pleasing mix of peppers, carrots and cauliflower.  I love to keep a jar on hand to add to sandwiches or salads.  And yes, believe me, I am well aware of the fact that tomatoes are months aways from being in season.  Sometimes a salad just needs a little red, okay?

Tuna with White Beans - serves 2

Cooking spray

1 clove garlic, mashed

1 can white beans, drained and lightly rinsed

1 can good quality, oil-packed tuna, drained (seriously, forget the kiss brand and give in.  Genova is only about 75 cents more a can, and you'll never look back)

2 tbsp capers, rinsed

1 avocado, cubed

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

1/4 cup giardiniera or other pickles, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil pressed with lemons (or good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice)

salt and pepper

In a small sauce pan, heat the cooking spray over medium-low heat and gently warm the garlic for about 2 minutes, just to take the bite out.  Add the white beans, tuna and capers and stir until warmed through but not really hot.  Place on plates and cover with avocado, tomatoes and giardiniera.  Drizzle with lemon oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.