Reviews: Otafuku and Podunk! September 28, 2008

I finally got to go out today and spent the day exploring two new restaurants and shopping at Union Square with two of my friends, Ying Ying and Mou. It was a lot of fun and I liked both restaurants so I recommend them to you! I definitely want to visit these again. Too bad the weather was humid and rainy. We even walked through a street fair along Broadway but I didn’t bother taking my camera out in the rain.

We first went to Otafuku for a snack (breakfast for me.. it was 1pm). Otafuku specializes in Japanese street food and offers a very limited menu of yakisoba (seafood fried noodles), takoyaki (octopus balls – also in plain or cheese), okonomiyaki (pork, beef, shrimp, squid, corn w/ scallion), edamame, some drinks and some desserts. The food ranges from $3 to $8 excluding drinks and dessert.

Here’s Ying Ying enjoying her $1 iced barley tea on the one and only bench outside the restaurants. There isn’t any seating inside. Mou is inside ordering.

There is very little space inside and they don’t like you staying in the restaurant to wait. They make you wait outside once you’ve placed your order and paid. Here’s the dude filling the giant takoyaki pan with batter. You can see the okonomiyaki (savory pancakes with cabbage and meat) being fried in the front.

Close up of the dude putting the second layer of batter on top of the octopus filling. They later flip the balls over with a stick but I missed it. Crappy pic because it’s dark inside.

Here’s a half eaten picture of Combo B – 6 octopus takoyaki and 1 order of shrimip okonomiyaki. It takes 10 minutes for them to cook the pancake. Mou got his takoyaki much faster than us because those were made from the last batch. Everything was smothered in a tangy dark sauce, mayo and bonito (fish flakes). Yum. Combo B was $8. It was a filling snack.

After that we walked around the fair and shopped at 14th Street. By then it was around 4pm and we were dead tired so we walked all the way back to 5th St to have some tea.

We went to Podunk, a quaint little tea house run by a quaint little old lady. I loved the place, the small room was full of old fashioned memorabilia and had a mismatched assortment of picnic-y tables and chairs. Most seated only 2 people while there was a party of like 6 by the door when we entered. The place filled up quickly after that.

Counter where you place your order. There’s no wait service here, you order, pick up your things, bring it back and pay after you’re all done.

View of the rest of the room from our table by the counter.

I had the Nibbler Tea which was $16 for one person (different price if shared). It included cheddar crackers, apricots stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese, spiced cookies, mini scones, mini apples, clotted cream, apricot jam, and what I believe to be fig jam with herbs (not sure). The pot of tea was included and I went with the recommendation of apricot tea. Oh my goodness this was fun to eat. The jams and cream were absolutely delicious. And the tea was divine.. with sugar and cream as well as without.

Ying Ying had the Cream Tea which was maybe $12 or $14? I forget. Hers included scones, mixed berries, straberry and apricot jams, clotted cream and grapes. She also went with the recommend tea of ceylon (being poured in the background).

Picture of the tea with sugar, cream and lemons. Not pictured was Mou’s peppermint tea in a blue pot.

The teas are around $5 to $8 for a personal order if I remember correctly. They have a large tea menu with iced teas as well. Also several “teas” that include food and tea going up to $25. Everything isn’t cheap but since everything is hand made and presented so beautifully, it’s worth the experience. The owner is polite and doesn’t rush you at all to leave at all (though she did seem to get annoyed when she called an order out and the girl on the cellphone didn’t go pick it up). My order didn’t come with the chocolate truffle as mentioned in the menu so we asked about it and she said they ran out. So she let us choose any replacement! We got a pretty pink frosted cupcake. We also asked for more water in the teapots and she had no problems refilling them. The tables are first come first serve though so get there early if you don’t want to wait.. I think people usually stay for a long while once they’re there. I’m still craving some apricot tea.. and now I must buy my own cute little teapot. ^_^

Belated food post.. September 28, 2008

I haven’t posted in a while.. so sorry. But of course I’ve been eating a lot. So here are pictures of some foods I ate in the past week. I’m also sharing a recipe for chickpea bean mash that was learned from Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meals (made it for dinner right after watching the show too).

Cauliflower casserole – cauliflower, shrimp and bacon bits over bed of mashed potatoes and covered in mozzarella cheese as created by Mom.

Cindy came home, therefore we had lobster. That and the lobster was on sale. Boiled and eaten with melted butter. Ignore the intestines >.< they were removed before eating.. yeah I suck at food blogging.

Jalapeno corn bread with scallions and bacon. Not a success.. wished I had just made plain sweet corn bread. This had a bland pepper taste and wasn’t even spicy.

Madeleines again! Remember the horchata I made? All those leftover cinnamony almond grounds? Yeah, I put some in here. Used Eatyet’s recipe again and flavored with almond extract and a dash of orange extract. Came out crispy and great the first day, then put them in a bag and they went all soft and sticky. =( boo.

Chickpea mash – very yummy. Like warm hummus but with more texture.

Chickpea Mash
Recipe adapted from Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meals on Food Network.

Ingredients:
1 reg. size can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp tahini
2 tsp olive oil
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup chicken stock (or veg. stock if veg.)

Directions:
1. Roughly blend chickpeas in food processor or blender.
2. Heat oil in pot, add garlic, cook garlic for a bit but don’t let it burn.
3. Add chickpea mash to pot. Finish mashing with hand-held potato masher to desired consistency.
4. Add tahini and chicken stock and cook until some of the stock evaporates. Serve warm.

One last thing. Remember when I posted my mom’s recipe for char siu (Chinese bbq pork)? My cousin, Lisa, made it in her college dorm! Awesomeness. She said it came out good and her friends devoured it. Yay!! Here’s a picture of her results:

Horchata September 23, 2008

A glass of horchata in bright light.

I’ve always wanted to taste horchata ever since I read about it on some food blogs. Recently my special someone has been buying and drinking a lot of horchata since it’s readily available in supermarkets in California. So that made me look up a recipe and make some myself. He says his doesn’t even have nuts in it (since he’s allergic) so his is a probably a more Americanized version, basically cinnamon flavored rice milk. Horchata is like a cross between a rice milk and almond milk with cinnamon.

I found this recipe on The Food Section website and it looked promising. I followed the recipe pretty much completely except I used 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract because I don’t have vanilla beans. The result was a very refreshing, sweet drink to enjoy for the start of fall. =) I probably won’t be making this often even though I enjoy it because it uses so many almonds.. nuts are not cheap. I saved the dreads so maybe I can make something out of that. Any ideas? I also want to try making a drink out of store bought rice flour and an almond drink mix (sweetened and with milk powder). Hopefully it’ll taste the same.

Horchata in dim lighting.

Snickerdoodles!! September 20, 2008

Yum. One of my all time favorite cookies. So buttery and cinnamony! Mmm and fattening. I made them because I was bored and because my brother’s nose got hit with a frisbee. Thought cookies might cheer him up.

I used Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles recipe from allrecipes.com. The only things I changed was (1) I used 3/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening instead of half butter, half shortening and (2) I used 1 tsp cream of tartar and 1 tsp baking powder instead of 2 tsp tartar just because I don’t like the tartar taste. Cookies turned out great though my dad thinks they’re way too buttery. I ate five.. mmm.

That’s 4 dozen cookies for you!

Asian Fusion Coleslaw September 19, 2008

Got the recipe from Food to Live By. This is a really yummy and refreshing salad that my family has made twice already. It’s not mayo based but rather oil and vinegar and very full flavored. Here’s the recipe with my changes in parentheses.

Fusion Coleslaw
Serves 6 (4).

Ingredients:
2 cups shredded red cabbage (1 cup)
1 cup shredded Napa cabbage
2 large carrots, coarsely grated (1 carrot)
1/3 cup thin strips of scallion greens
1 jalapeno pepper, cut into slivers

3 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
3 Tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp Asian chili garlic sauce
1 Tbsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
Salt (optional)

1/2 cup honey-roasted peanuts (we crushed them)
1/2 cup raisins (we used golden and cranberries)
2 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:
1. Toss together all the vegetables.
2. Mix ingredients for dressing in glass jar and shake. Taste for seasoning and add salt or pepper to taste.
3. Pour dressing over salad and toss to combine. Add peanuts and raisins and toss again. Refrigerate the coleslaw, covered, to allow flavors to develop (2-4 hours). Serve coleslaw chilled garnished with sesame seeds (room temp is okay too).