Spring Break 2009: Sunday night JJ's Run!

At 10:30 Sunday night, my friends Chris and Haley, as well as myself headed to our favorite Hong Kong style cafe in Monterey park: JJ's.

They are pretty much always open; to my knowledge they close for about 3 hours-from 4Am to 7AM.

We got there by 11: just in time to order from their special 11PM-4AM menu.

We had some pork and preserved egg congee: rice porridge. Like everything I have ever had at JJ's, it was delicious. The pork was all at the bottom, but once we stirred that up it was a perfect porridge. Just the thing to put meat on one's bones.

With the porridge came some chow fun. Now, all of JJ's noodle dishes are just wonderful: they come out in something like 2 minutes after ordering, steaming, blisteringly hot from the pan. I do prefer the chow fun with beef, but the order above was good as well. The chow fun (the thick noodles) have the nice elasticity that I crave from a chow fun.

Haley ordered her personal favorite: the fried rice with seafood and smelt roe. A heaping pile of rice, it contains scallops, shrimp, egg and all sorts of other greasy deliciousness.

Haley, like a champ, wasted no time in digging in.

And no trip to JJ's would be complete without some milk tea: tea with condensed milk. Nom nom nom!

Spring Break 2009: Sunday Dinner

My family loves cooking; I thought I would show you what a typical Sunday dinner at our house looks like.

We started off with some Iberian shepherds cheese; a hard sheeps milk cheese, traditionally served with a type of cherry jam.

My Dad and I had been to the farmers market earlier, where we bought some golden beets (above). They would be roasted.

In an intriguing turn, there was a man selling salads with flowers in them at the same farmers market. It turned out to be delicious; some of the freshest, crispest salad greens I have ever had. Plus, flowers!

For the main course, my Mom whipped together a pasta with roasted tomatoes and asparagus. A little bit of olive oil, and we had a perfect spring pasta.

Spring Break 2009: Paella at the beach

Spring Break 2009: My farewell to Des Moines

Spring Rolls with Shrimp

Vietnamese Coffee

Pho Ha Dao: Pho with beef tendon, brisket, meatballs and beef eye round. I ordered the beef raw, and on the side (below)

Dinner: Namaste Indian

REALLY spicy peppers stuffed with lentils. Too hot to eat.

A dosa that must have been 18 inches long. A dosa is a crepe like thing, filled with potatoes and lentils. Along side was served sabmhar, a soup, and a ginger chutney.

Interior shot of the dosa. Note how crispy it is.

Onion kulcha: naan stuffed with onions and banked in a tandoori oven, and then smushes down.

Lamb vindaloo. Very yummy.

Spring Break! WOOOOO

Time flies, doesn't it?

This Saturday, I will fly back to the sunny climes of Southern California, to absorb sun and companionship. Never fear, however, dear readers: I have these exciting items on my itinerary!
Restaurants:
-Excellent dim sum place
-Excellent HK style cafe
-Sushi!
-Fish taco place!
-Chez Panisse (WOO WOO)

And also, less we forget that I also love to cook, I will be working on the following culinary projects:
-Building my own smoker
-Making a paella on the beach (twice!)
-Grilling outdoors! Like a man!

Some thoughts on dining and companionship

Overall, I would say I approve of Europe. It was a lot of fun; I saw incredible places, tasted excellent food, but most importantly I shared incredible experiences with two good friends. That is what I wanted to talk about in this post: not what was the best part of Europe culinarily, but rather some thoughts on what makes food good.

All the best food in the world means nothing if you do not enjoy the people with whom you are eating. In Europe, I had the fortune of dining with two old friends with whom I have shared many meals. Even with them though, I always felt myself wishing that (and still do, when eating a great meal) some other people could join me- my friends from home, my parents or others. I would always prefer to have a take-out burger with a good friend than Alinea alone.

That is why I am looking forward to Spring Break- catching up with old friends. The rest, as they say, is gravy.

Europe: Denmark

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NOTE: This is part of an ongoing series of articles concerning my Europe trip. See below for links to the previous articles:

Overview

Barcelona

More Barcelona

Zaragoza: Part 1

Zaragoza: Part 2 (Tapas!)

Zaragoza: Videos

San Sebastian (Pinxtos)

Pays Basque: Part 1

Pays Basque: Part 2

Bordeaux

Berlin

Denmark

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And thus we left the Germanic confines of Berlin and hit the rails for the 7 hour ride over to Copenhagen, for the last stop on our pan European tour. It was a bit bittersweet, getting onto my last European train, knowing that my Eurail pass had served its purpose. However, I was defintely ready to go home; I was tired, smelly and pretty full.

However, the poignancy of the moment was shoved aside when I opened up sack containing the bagel I had bought before I departed in Berlin. I know what you may be thinking. That bagel? In a food blog? Was it really that good?

Yes.

Let me explain about this bagel sandwich. It was a wheat bagel with brie, arugula and cherry jam. Was it amazingly good? Yes. Yes it was. The brie was really good brie, the bagel had great chew, it was everything I wanted.

Dinner wasn't bad either. I do love a good lamb shank, and the one above, while unbelievably expensive, was what I wanted after a long day of travel. It was served in a sauce that was really, quite good. Probably better than the shank, honestly. I was a tidge disappointed when I pulled some of the meat off and the bone popped right out: I prefer to gnaw on them, much like a cavemen. It gets me in touch with my primitive, ape-like self.

Never one to pass up desert, I could not resist ordering the desert tapas platter. I think it was meant to be shared. I did not share. I wrote down everything, so here is a bulleted list:

• Panna cotta
• Chocolate fudge cake
• Creme caramel
• Chocolate Mousse
• "chocolate ball"
  
• Cookie (I kid you not; this is what it said under the description)
• Passion fruit sorbet
• A selection of mousses (in the middle)

Honestly, most of the stuff was emminently forgettable. The standouts were the passion fruit sorbet, which was perfect. It was incredibly fruity and smooth, and just had the tiniest ice granules that gave it character.

Above, you can see the selection of mousses which inhabited the center of the plate. They were OK.

All in all, I will be honest: Copenhagen's restaurants did not thrill me. I thought the food was overpriced and the quality mediocre at best. The same, however, could not be said for their bakeries. While expensive, the gooey, creamy and chocolately pastries they served up are among the best I have ever had.

Also, the bakeries are adorned with golden pretzels.

This was a custard croissant. Nothing special, but really good. It was merely a decoy for the real star..

...The cranberry muffin. Oh. My. God. Best muffin I have EVER had. Ever ever. The cranberries were tart, the top crispy and the middle was SO gooey. I think you can see it a little bit in the photo above. This muffin was an epiphany.

That day, we took a 15 minute rail trip to a small, typically Danish town called Roskilde, which holds the distinction of being the burial site of the Danish royal family as well as having one of the best museums I have ever been to: the Viking Ship Museum.

Also, they had a penchant for filling chocolate balls with creme.

See? I said they did!

After walking to the museum, we were awed by the ships. Not only do they have the remains of 5 ancient ships which sunk off the coast, they also have an ACTIVE VIKING SHIPYARD. They made a ship which they sailed around Ireland. In addition to that one, they have a large variety of smaller ships on which they take school children for daylong jaunts.

Kyle had been raving about the street hot dogs of Denmark for a long time; in Roskilde we sampled one for lunch. It was good, but the lack of a table made eating it, with its variety of toppings, quite challenging. However, it was a very good hot dog. Not the best, but good. It had a really great casing, which just "popped" with every bite.

This was a pastry. I honestly don't remember anything about it.

The next day we went to Carlsberg breweries for a tour. At the end, we found a completely empty tasting room. The two extremely kind bartenders plied with an amazing array of beers- my two companions sampled at least 10 types each. I was saving room for lunch, which we thought would be smorbrod; the open faced sandwiches which are Denmark's main culinary distinction.

Unfortunately, the place where we wanted to go was competely booked, and we had to settle for another place. I got a meatball smorsbrod and a beef tartar smorsbrod; they were OK. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled.

However, it was all worth it for that night. I had long been craving a "street waffle"- my term for a waffle from the street vendors of Europe. Something about their batter made these waffles unlike anything I have had in the states. The batter produced thick, meaty waffles. And the outsides almost tasted like there was caramelized sugar there.

So on my last night, Kyle and I walked up to a waffle vendor. I ordered a nutella and banana waffle. He started to prepare one that was already made. I interrrupted him, and asked for him to make one special. He hesitated, but under my insistent eyes made one.

Delicious.

And thus, I left Europe.