Basta Pasta's Tobiki and Shiso Spaghetti

Basta Pasta is a very interesting restaurant in that it is a Japanese restaurant that specializes in Italian cuisine. When you walk in you pass the open kitchen where you see all Japanese cooks. Some of their dishes are more traditional Italian, like the fettuccine in a Bolognese sauce or spaghetti with proscuitto and parmesan, which are all very tasty, but their outstanding dishes are the ones that integrate Japanese flavors and flair with old Italian recipes. My favorites are the spaghetti with tobiko and shiso, the linguine with uni and basil in pink sauce, and the spaghetti with shitake mushrooms, basil, mozzarella cheese, and fresh tomato sauce. Another exceptional dish is the bow tie pasta with salmon, sugarsnap peas in tomato and tarragon grain mustard cream sauce. I like that you can order a half portion of pasta to accompany your entree but I can finish an appetizer and a full serving of pasta plus an entree. But that's me, I'm a pig. If you haven't been to Basta Pasta you have to go. The Japanese style of cooking, attention to detail, and code of honor (if they make a bad pasta dish I think the head chef has to drown himself in the pasta water) make for a yummy Italian experience.

Basta Pasta's Spaghetti with Shiso and Tobiko
My rendition of course!

16 fl oz. of clam juice
2 garlic cloves, sliced
Thin spaghetti, enough for two
15 leaves of shiso, chiffonade
6 big spoonfuls of tobiko
salt and pepper
olive oil

1. Boil pasta in heavily salted water *thats the trick to tasty pasta.
2. Boil clam juice with garlic slices. Add olive oil to the water. When pasta is half way cooked, remove and boil in clam juice until al dente.
3. Remove pasta and toss with tobiko and shiso chiffonade. Add a little bit of clam juice broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve while hot.

Basta Pasta
37 W. 17th street
New York, NY 10011
(212)366-0888

Pickles Pack a Perfect Punch

Salty and sour are two of my favorites taste profiles. That's why pickles are so perfect. I can't do without them in my burgers and I love them on the side with my sandwiches. Making your own at home is so easy you'll never buy store bought again. It only takes 2 days to a week to brine. Along with salty and sour I added some of my other favorite flavors: garlic, dill (fresh and seeds), mustard seeds, and chili flakes. The pickles have a nice garlicky and spicy kick to them.

Perfect Pickles
makes 1 jar

1/2 quart of boiled, cooled to room temperature water
1/2 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 tablespoon dill seeds
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, sliced
half a bunch of dill, slightly chopped
5 persian cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise

1. Mix water, salt and vinegar together.
2. Place all of the spices into the bottom of the jar with half of the dill.
3. Pack the cucumbers into the jar and add the rest of the dill.
4. Cover the cucumbers with the brining liquid until the jar is filled.
5. Leave out in room temperature for one day and then transfer into the refrigerator.
6. Pickles are ready to eat anywhere from 2 days to a week depending on how sour and salty you like them.

Bad Bad

I am a very very bad blogger. I apologize. I am sorry. I cook and I go out to eat and I never take pictures. Most of the time, ok all of the time, I'm hungry like an animal and I can't wait to devour my food so I don't take pictures. And I know all of you readers love to see pictures because really what's better then food porn? I put up this blog not because I love to style my food and tease other people with it. I started this blog because really I just love to eat. I love to eat and that's why I cook. And sometimes I get so excited about it I want to shout it out to the whole world.

Yesterday I went to Hyo Dong Gak for some Korean chinese food. I had some delicious jjam bong (spicy seafood noodle soup), ja jang myun (noodles in brown sauce), and ggan pun gi (fried chicken in garlic and chili pepper sauce) except we had it with beef and squid. Hyo Dong Gak is my favorite place for korean chinese food. The noodles here have a nice toothy texture, the seafood noodle soup full of seafood, and the fried chicken or beef or squid crispy and crunchy.
I highly recommend coming during lunch time for their lunch menu.

Just the other day I had xiao long bao (chinese soup dumplings). I love the vinegar and ginger sauce.

Tonight I went to this awesome underground undiscovered Japanese restaurant that serves home style cooking. It's omakase only so there's no menu. Tsukushi is the name of the restaurant but if you weren't looking for it you would never find it. The door and awning are so obscure that it looks like some side door where workers take out garbage. Once you walk in, you enter what seems like an underground secret cove. Almost everyone eating is Japanese and they all stare at you when you come in like you had just interrupted their cult meeting. For a second they look at you like "how did you find out about this place", but only for a second because they go right back to concentrating on their food. The room reminded me of my grandmother's house. It was warm and inviting. The floor had cheap carpeting and the walls were made out of wood paneling and none of their table wear matched. I felt like I was in some little old japanese grandmother's basement eating the home cooking she made with love. Some of the stellar plates were the fatty pork with macaroni salad, the sashimi plate with uni, the braised tripe and turnip, and the miso cod. I would definitely go again. I feel like there's more to discover about this place but since it was my first time they didn't want to indulge all of their secrets. Not quite yet atleast.

Hyo Dong Gak
51 W 35th St, New York 10001
Btwn 5th & 6th Ave
(212) 695-7167‎

Tsukushi
31 East 41st Street
by 2nd Ave
(212) 599-8888

My New Morning Addiction

My new breakfast addiction is a bowl of thick and creamy Fage yogurt with blueberries and a drizzle of chestnut honey.

My Favorite Japanese Places

What are your top three favorite cuisines?

Mine are:
1. Japanese food
2. Vietnamese food
3. and Everything Else!



Here is a list of some of my all time favorite Japanese restaurants (in no specific order): You know the food is good when it makes you dance in your seat! All these restaurants leave a smile on my face even after the meal is over.

1. Yakitori Totto
251 W 55th St
New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 245-4555
This is the best yakitori place in nyc. The prices are a bit higher then some places but the quality of the ingredients and the care and detail that is put into the food makes a big difference in the taste. Come with an open mind and order all of the weirdest things on the menu. If you are lucky they will have it all because the best parts run out fast. Go with the chicken neck, gizzard, liver, heart, tail, butt, and soft knee bone. Also don't miss the Kobe beef tongue, but eat it while its hot when its the most tender with a squirt of lemon. The steak is good too, actually everything is good! I also like the deep fried soft fish cake. Oh and don't forget to order the apricot kernel tofu. Get one for each person. Don't share it. It's that good!

2. Hagi's Sake Bar
152 W 49th St
(between 7th Ave & Avenue Of The Americas)
New York, NY 10019 (212) 764-8549
Hagi's is my favorite izakaya bar. It's a great place to go have an cold mug of beer, order some small plates, watch some baseball on the tv and just hang out and have fun. All of the specials are always good. The chicken yakitori is moist and flavorful. And you can't go wrong with ordering the hamachi kama. I also love the salad with the fried little fishies and crunchy radish.

3. Sasabune
401 E 73rd St
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212) 249-8583
Sasabune is omakase heaven. It's a no frills type of place. You won't even find a menu or a dessert listing here because they don't have one. You walk in and amazing sushi and sashimi starts coming to your table. Just trust the chef because he will take you on this amazing jouney of various fishes and all of the utmost freshness. Each experience is a little different. My favorite is the tuna fish roll that comes towards the end and the semi cooked butterfish? (well whatever it was, it was delicious). The last time I went he served us this amazingly fresh ikura, unlike any ikura I have ever had. I swear it is like sex on a plate.

I am a Winner!

The wedding cake project was actually a competition between the three of us in the kitchen. Winner gets $100! I'm so excited because I won! Woohoo! Here are all three cakes in the window of our shop.

Holy Smokes

Holy smokes! Saveur magazine did a whole spread on watermelon! In the September issue you'll find spicy, sweet, savory recipes from around the globe that use watermelon and also a collage of all the different varieties. I love watermelon! Nothing reminds me more of summertime then biting into a slice of icy cold, juicy and crunchy watermelon and letting all the juices run down my face! In the magazine you'll see a bunch of varieties that we don't get in the local supermarkets here. I hardly even see watermelon with seeds anymore. The names that they come up with for some of the varieties are awesome: starbrite, extazy, jubilee, stars 'n' stripes, moon and stars, and cream of sasakatchewan.

You Make My Heart Smelt

The first time I ever had smelt was at this small spanish tapas place called Las Ramblas. I was smitten at first bite! I forgot who said it, maybe Bourdain? But he said any cook can make an everyday ordinary fish like salmon or cod taste good. Throw on some sauce and it will taste good. But a really good cook will work with an oilier type of fish, cook it simply, and it will taste delicious. I think we the consumers are so accustomed to our fish tasting like nothing. Actually fish should taste like fish, like the ocean, like the type of waters it is from. Smelt bones get soft when they are fried so you don't have to remove them. It's so fun just shoving the whole thing in my mouth. I'm a pig. Simply dredge each fish into some flour seasoned with salt and pepper and fry it up!

Banana Smoothie

I have to admit to you all. I do most of my eating at my computer desk. And I have to confess that my computer desk is a mess! That picture where I'm using my zagat as a coaster, that's because the book was there and there was no more room for my bowl. My life gets hectic. But everyday I make myself a banana smoothie that calms me down and offers me serenity amongst the chaos.

P.S. bananas keep me regular! woohoo!

Banana Smoothie for the Soul
1 very ripe banana ( I wait for my bananas to get overripe and then I chop them up and throw them in the freezer so I can make frosty smoothies all the time!)
3/4 cup of orange juice
1/4 cup yogurt
squirt of honey
-Buzz everything together with a blender.

Wedding Cake

The slow kitchen season is upon us. Since our kitchen is extra slow these days we all decided to do wedding cakes. The last time I made a wedding cake was years ago and I was still in culinary school. I figured this was a good opportunity to try all the techniques and ideas that I have swirling around my head. I should have kept it simple but I figured since I don't get to do wedding cakes too often I should try everything. I had so much fun! I want to do another one! I call my cake "Luxury and Decadence" because it's all about pearls, lace, and Chanel. Now that I'm looking at the final product I would change some things here and there. I love the hand piped lace work on the top tier but I could do without the lines of pearls or maybe make them smaller. I think it's too heavy and bulky looking for the delicate lace. I love the quilting and beads on the middle tier. The bottom tier is okay. The draped curtains, dangling pearls, and piped shells was fun to do. Personally I think it makes the cake look a little too traditional but the effects are impressive.

Work in Progress

Hot

You know it's hot in the kitchen when you drink 8 cups of water in one shift and you only pee once.


With all the ovens on and the refrigerators, freezers, and lowboys eminating more heat and whisking pastry cream over the stove that already has all the burners on full blast with hot soup steaming in your face on the left side and steak searing on the right side and having to run the days deliveries up and down the steps into the basement (50 lb bags of sugar and flour, cases of eggs, crates of cream, cases of butter, frozen cases of whole chicken to name the least) ...the kitchen gets pretty damn HOT! I couldn't take it anymore. Beads of sweat were dripping down my back and front. My pants were getting weighed down and dragging on the floor because of the sweat from my legs and my butt! You know it's hot when your butt sweats. Should I talk about the mustache of sweat that I get over my upper lip? I had to take off my chefs coat and roll up my pants to work. It's hot.