Last year, for Valentine’s Day, I took Chris out for dinner at Zenkichi in Brooklyn. I read about the restaurant and thought it would be a fun experience (the layout is booth after private booth with little shades that you draw while you’re eating. You ring a buzzer to let your server know that you’re ready for your next course and the server comes by, draws your blinds, serves you the next course, pulls down the blinds, and then lets you enjoy your meal with your guests) The restaurant has two floors and can also accommodate larger parties (when I walked upstairs, I noticed parties of 4 to 6). We went with the tasting menu for the evening. The waitress started by bringing out miso soup:
Then came Zenkichi’s raw plate (tuna, oysters, sea urchin atop freshly made tofu):
The sea urchin and tofu was my favorite out of the bunch. The tofu was very silky and flavorful and the sea urchin added an interesting texture to the smooth tofu.
Next came a large Smoked Tako & Shimeji Mushroom Salad in a beautifully lacquered bowl:
I didn’t like the salad because the arugula overpowered the mushrooms, but the presentation was very beautiful.
My favorite dish of the night was the cod milt:
What is cod milt, do you wonder? It’s semen from the cod (which we didn’t know until I googled it when we got home). The texture is very creamy and custard-like and the light frying added a very delicious crunch. The milt was also topped with a little sea salt and very delicious – we couldn’t get enough!
Our next dish was black cod with miso:
A similar preparation to Nobu’s and equally delicious.
The waitress also brought out this preparation of cod:
The cod was in a light broth but extremely tough and overcooked. We both preferred the black cod with miso preparation of the fish.
Our last savory dish was freshwater eel:
The eel was lightly topped with soy sauce and very delicous.
For dessert, our waitress brought out a little cake and some pink and green mochi:
And truffles:
The meal was enjoyable and the atmosphere was very cool, but the food was not as delicious as I would have hoped. I’m not sure if Zenkichi has an a la carte menu, but if they do, I would go back for their raw plate as well as their cod milt (only available in the winter time).
By
grace.g.yang
· December 28, 2009
Under:
My Life David and I are back in North Carolina to spend the holidays with my mom. We’ve already been to two parties and we hosted one. Two more to go (New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day). Here are some pictures from our visit!
My mom bought a cute stuffed duck at a local store to place on our steps:
And since I love taking goofy pictures and my family does as well, here’s a great picture of us being silly:
How have your holidays been? Any plans for New Years Eve?
Sakagura is one of my favorite restaurants in the city. It used to be a hidden gem (the restaurant is located inside the basement of an office building in midtown) but word spread like wildfire because every time I go these days, the place is packed. The restaurant serves little dishes that are made to share so you can try a lot on the menu without stuffing yourself. My mom is also a big fan of the restaurant because of one particular dish – the jidori shioyaki (grilled organic free range chicken served with sea salt and yuzu citrus pepper):
The chicken is very tender and tastes amazingly delicious with the yuzu citrus pepper. My mom’s been to the restaurant 4 or 5 times and each time we visit, this is our must order dish.
On our last visit, we ordered the ayu shioyaki (grilled whole sweetfish sprinkled with salt, imported from Japan):
My mom and aunt said it tasted like the fish they used to eat when they were growing up in Taiwan; I found the fish to be too boney and couldn’t get any enjoyment from the meat (David and I were too busy trying to find meat between the bones we were picking out of our mouthes!)
We also ordered the eel:
Delicious sea urchin:
Fried tofu in a very delicate mushroom broth:
And warm sake:
The restaurant is a very wonderful place to bring guests (when John and Angie visited last spring, I took them to the restaurant and they absolutely loved it, except for the eggplant dish I ordered). It’s a little difficult to get reservations for the restaurant online, but try calling in and they might be able to seat you. Be sure to try their bathrooms, too; they have heated seats just like the ones at Morimoto!
A little while back, I went to Brooklyn for someone’s birthday party at Full Circle Bar. Before we headed to the Brooklyn Taco Truck, a bunch of us stopped by Caracas Arepa Bar for a quick bite to eat. There’s another location in the East Village (next to 
We had 6 people in our party and everyone ordered some arepas, but I wanted to try the sampler:
The “la popular” sample comes with three of their most popular arepas: La de Pabellón (shredded beef, black beans, white salty cheese and sweet plantains), which is their most traditional arepa because they made on their Throwdown with Bobby Flay when they thought they were filming a show to teach people how to make arepas, Reina Pepiada (chunky chicken and avocado mix salad) – Lou’s favorite, and La Mulata (grilled white cheese with jalapeños, sautéed red peppers, fried sweet plantains and black beans). My favorite was the La de Pabellón; it’s a little heavy, so a perfect food for after a couple of beers. The plantains balance out the saltiness from the shredded beef and cheese and they also add a creamy texture to the crunchy fried arepa. The wait wasn’t bad for 6 people (around 10 minutes on a busy Saturday night) and the food came out rather quickly. Definitely worth a try if you’re in the East Village or Brooklyn!
Over Thanksgiving, my mom came to visit and we had a couple of parties with some of our friends. One of the easiest and most fun parties to have is a dumpling making party; there’s very little prep work before the party and everyone has to help out if they plan on eating. Instead of shopping the day after Thanksgiving, we invited our friends over to make dumplings, play Settlers of Catan, and hang out. The dumpling filling can vary based on what ingredients are available at the grocery store (or what’s available in your garden). We used to have epic dumpling making parties in Champaign and I would always have to go to the back yard to cut the chives for the dumplings, but my mom mixed it up with this party – instead of using chives, she used green onions. I was a little skeptical about the green onions, but as usual, my mom is always right – this recipe is delicious and you will definitely want to try this.
Chinese Dumplings
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground pork
10 stems finely chopped green onions
1 bag Shepard’s Purse vegetables (frozen food aisle in a Chinese grocery store)
3 eggs
2 large tablespoons of fresh ginger
10 Chinese mushrooms
Dumpling wrappers (refrigerated section in a Chinese grocery store)
In a large bowl, combine the 2 pounds of ground pork and 10 stems of chopped green onions:
Then add your 3 eggs:
Open a bag of Shepard’s purse vegetables:
Squeeze out the excess juice and chop off the fibrous stems:
Chop up the shepard’s purse vegetables and add it to the bowl:
Finely chop up 2 large tablespoons of fresh ginger and add it to the mix:
Soak some Chinese mushrooms in water (save the water for later):
And chop the mushrooms up after they’ve softened a bit:
Mushrooms and ginger:
Combine all of the ingredients and use your hands to mix everything together:
To make the dumplings juicier and more flavorful, add the mushroom water to the filling. Now is also a good time to add about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon of salt. Our dumpling operation:
Now that the dumpling filling is complete, invite friends over to help you wrap them! We invited Dorren and his wife, Diane, over to wrap dumplings. Dorren, as you may know from my other posts, is a developer I work with and is possibly the nicest guy ever. He brings me fruit everyday at 4pm, bought me a tripod because I said I didn’t have anyone to hold my video camera for me while I was cooking, and lent me and David his car when we wanted to go to Costco. Dorren and Diane are also expert dumpling wrappers – all of their dumplings were uniform in size and shape and they were all stuffed to the brim!
Dorren, Diane, my mom, and me (in matching sweaters!):
Dorren might have been making fun of my dumpling wrapping skills (or lack thereof):
Sealing a dumpling with a little water:
Success! One dumpling from David:
Dorren carefully assembling a dumpling:
The uniform dumplings I was telling you about:
Some more dumplings:
Dorren, hard at work, even though the food was on the table!:
My mom prepared the dumplings two ways: fried (potstickers) and boiled. To make fried dumplings, oil a pan and set the dumplings on the pan (you can do this with fresh or frozen dumplings):
After the dumplings get a nice crust (about 3 minutes on a medium heat if they’re fresh, about 5 if they’re frozen), pour water over the dumplings so they’re about 1/2 covered:
Cover the pan until the majority of the water has been absorbed by the dumplings. The water helps the pork filling cook – don’t worry, the dumplings come out really well! Look at these fried potstickers:
To boil them, cook them the way you would cook pasta – these also came out really well:
And because my mom can’t throw a party with just one dish, here are some other things she prepared:
All of us before dinner:
After dinner, we played Chinese card games and Settlers of Catan:
And also enjoyed Chinese cake AND chocolate covered cookies and biscuits that Dorren and Diane brought over. The party was a ton of fun and a great way to spend a Friday night!
We had ANOTHER dumpling party while my mom was here – this time, we invited one of my dad’s friends from Taiwan. Pearl went to UIUC just like me and David and now lives and works in NYC. She brought her friend, Julie, and we had a great time making dumplings as well:
My mom is teaching everyone how to make them (Ariel likes to make empanada style dumplings):
All of us hard at work:
David contributed by making a couple dumplings as well:
All of us before feasting on dumplings:
Two great parties and both very easy to prepare for – try having a dumpling making party and let me know how it goes!
