One of the things that I lke doing is just looking over what I've got laying around and figuring what I can make out of it. So, recently, I've been playing around with my herb garden again. This time around, I've got the standard basil, oregano, sage, and thyme going. But I've added some peppermint and lavender to the mix. And of course, these two are the ones that are growing the best. So, I was doing a little trimming to the plants, and ended up with a bunch of peppermint and lavender that was too nice to just throw out. So, inspiration hits. Cook the stuff down in water to draw out the flavor and then add some sugar to make a syrup out of it. Perfect stuff for mixed drinks or even for starting a sauce or dressing out of. I was grilling over at my friend's place the other day, and I brought over a pitcher of mojito, made with more of the fresh mint, but also sweetened with the mint-lavender syrup. Stuff was awesome. Just a nice, mellow flavor that gave the drink a nice undertone.
The other thing that I was fiddling around was with a basil oil type of sauce. So, add a bunch of basil, some salt and pepper, some lemon juice, some mustard powder, and olive oil to a blender. Awesome. Light, sort of like pesto, sort of like a vinagrette, a little depth, a little tangy. The stuff would have gone great over some greens, as a dipping sauce for some warm, crusty bread, or as a sauce for pasta. Where I went with it was a little out there. Dipping sauce for king crab. It was pretty good stuff. I think that this new sauce could also go well with things like scallops or shrimp. We'll see if it makes the rotation in the kitchen.
Now, the most interesting thing that I've done in the kitchen lately was rediscover fresh ginger. Classic Chinese cooking uses a base of soy, garlic, and ginger as a starting point. And it's only been very recently that I've decided that I needed to learn to use ginger. It certainly adds a nice flavor to Asian-style marinades. But where I've neglected it until recently is with actually creating some tasty beverages. Making a nice ginger syrup is pretty easy. Cut up some ginger, and cook down the flavors. Strain out the ginger (you can really cook it down twice, I think, and get good flavor out of it) and cook down the liquid with some sugar to make your syrup. Again, great for mixed drinks, serving over ice cream, using as a start of a sauce, etc. But an even easier thing is to take the ginger water, without any sugar added to it, and using it as the water for lemonade. Basically, any can of frozen, lemonade concentrate will turn into a phenomenal drink if you use ginger water instead of normal water. You get this great ginger flavor that adds some body to the drink and then gives you that fun, spicy, peppery aftertaste that makes you want to drink more. And for those of you who need some alcohol in your summer drinks, some vodka and a sprig of mint makes this a really good hard lemonade.
Really, that's been the new and interesting happening in my kitchen. There are still a few restaurant reviews that need to be written. We'll get to them soon, I hope.
-foodgeek
Friday, July 07, 2006
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Restaurant Review: Nobu - All Cheers From the Stands
Okay. Nobu Matsushisa is a Japanese dude who makes good food. He has over a dozen restaurants around the world, including Nobu 57 in NY, and other Nobu restaurants in places like London, Milan, Tokyo, South Beach and Aspen. I happened to find my way to Nobu Malibu a few weeks ago when I was off at a conference in Long Beach. Now Nobu is one of those places where the food often doesn't live up to the hype. And really, Nobu isn't known for it's sushi, but rather it's Japanese food that uses international ingredients. The idea is classic, really. Start with a base of knowledge, and then add whatever is local, fresh, and good. Of course, with the world made smaller, and more things available, you can get a lot of non-local ingredients that are still fresh and good. So, going in, I had high expectations for Nobu because of the hype.
And, happily, the food lived up to the hype.
The first thing that I did was call to try to book a table for myself. No go. But, I figured that if I could get there, I could finagle my way into a table by turning on the charm, and/or threatening people with bodily harm. But, no need for either. When I go there, the tables were all still full, but there were a couple spots at the sushi bar, which is really where I wanted to sit, anyway. I prefer to see the guys who handle my food in action. Plus, it takes a lot of the service issues out of the equation. I'd get to interact with the chef, and get much of the food directly from him right when it's made. No point risking my meal to a lousy server.
And ambiance was a little noisy. A lot of people were there to see and be seen. I was there for the food. But the ambiance wasn't bad. It was a little noisy, the tables weren't exactly private. It felt a little cramped. But the place was clean, looked modern and not too ostentatious, and the energy was a good energy. It has a bit of a feel of a normal family restaurant, which sort of puts you in a mood where you wouldn't normally expect gourmet food. But, that didn't shake me. I was there for the food.
The first thing that I noticed was that these guys all worked fast and worked clean. The entire area behind the bar was spotless. Lots of running water all over the place, and everything stayed clean. The sous-chefs all worked fast behind the scenes, doing things like making the sushi rice, grating wasabi, and chopping tuna tartare. There was no yelling. Everything was calm and under control, but moved quickly. This had promise.
So, I sat down, and was looking over the menu, and made some small talk with the people around me. I got a couple recommendations from them, and found out that the jackfish was very good. I tucked that away in my mind, and considered just going off and ordering a bunch of sushi. But, I figured that would be a little boring. Instead, I took the safe route, and went with the omakase, or the chef's tasting menu. Basically, when you go with the omakase, the chefs will take a little extra pride in crafting a meal for you. You're trusting them to make a memorable experience for you. And they usually deliver.
Nobu has three tiers of omakase, each of which had the same amount of food, but had different quality food (like having foie gras or caviar for the highest tier, and not as many frills for the lower tiers). Naturally, I figured that if I was going to drop $80, I may as well drop $120. So, I went deep with the omakase. My chef for the night was Katsu, who I found out is from Tokyo originally, but has been in the states for 10 years. He asked me if there was anything that I didn't like. I told him that I trusted him completely. I figured that whatever he could throw at me, I'd eat. And that choice left no regrets.
So, Katsu opened me up with a trio of cold openers. One was a very nice oyster on a half-shell, topped with a little yuzu juice. Very fresh, very tasty. The next that I went with was the tuna tartare, served in a martini glass. I found it to be chopped a little too finely, but it was in a very nice ponzu sauce, and topped with scallions and osetra caviar, which was a nice touch. I personally prefer tartare to be a little chunky and have a little body, but some prefer the smooth, finely chopped texture, so no harm, no foul. The final cold opener was something that was new to me - monkfish livers. It's considered to be the foie gras of the sea. You steam the liver, and then cut it into little cubes. It has this wonderful, rich, creamy texture, much like foie gras does. And all this without force feeding ducks and geese (not that I really care about force feeding animals - I just care about eating tasty things). The monkfish livers that I got were served in a small glass, in ponzu. It was a new experience, and one that I do want to repeat at some point. But, strangely, what stole the show for me was the Japanese mountain peach that garnished the plate. It was a small, deep red fruit that looks like a berry (or maybe a lychee relative), and tasted incredible. It was sweet, slightly tart, very juicy, and had a small pit in the middle. This has become probably my favorite fruit. I could just sit around and eat these things by the bowlful.
So, I polished off the cold opener, and the next course that came over the bar from Katsu was Japanese snapper, that was pretty incredible - a little texture, but very smooth flesh. A few sashimi slices were served, each with a crunchy garlic chip and some micro greens on top. The place was surrounded by yuzu juice and some Hawaiian grey salt. It all came together in a wonderful way that tasted fresh, a little tangy, and a little salty (in a very mysterious way - natural sea salt can actually be pretty complex tasting stuff. As an aside, the next time you're tasting chocolate, try it with a couple different types of fancy salts - it'll be awesome).
While I was eating the snapper course, Katsu placed a large, live prawn on a plate on top of the bar. I figured that it was for me, eventually. I was curious to see how it was going to be prepared. I didn't have to wait long to see. He started preparing a sea urchin sauce, by taking a few pieces of sea urchin in a bowl with what looked like a little soy and a little lemon, and mixing it up a little bit. He split the prawn length wise, and poured the sea urchin sauce on top of the open prawn. The prawn then went on top of a small grill and was cooked just until done. The flesh was sweet and just tasted fresh. The sea urchin sauce on top was excellent (I'm a huge fan of uni). All in all, an excellent course.
After this, we started in on the hot courses. The first that came was a very clever sweet and sour king crab dish that had ponzu as the sauce base. The crab was topped with shredded, fried leeks, and dressed with a little gold leaf. The king crab was naturally sweet, and tasted wonderful in the sauce. I enjoy king crab, but it's become something that I have a hard time being wowed by. Sort of like lobster or shrimp. It's just that the quality of stuff that we can get is so high that I can do quite well with it. But what surprised me was the garnish. The fried leeks were a distinct upgrade to onion straws that you get at a lot of places. They had a similar feel, but were a little sweeter, and didn't seem as oily. If I can figure it out, fried leeks will become a regular addition to my kitchen.
Now, the next dish was Kobe-style beef (I believe that it was actually from New Zealand), which was served teriyaki, topped with sauteed onions and micro greens. This dish was sort of the opposite of the last one, in that I was absolutely wowed by the beef, but underwhelmed by the garnish. I think that the beef was only a sirloin cut, but it was incredibly tender. It was cooked perfectly medium rare, and the sauce served to accompany the dish and did not overwhelm it. The onions were sweet and tasted alright, but it could have been a more inspired garnish (particularly after I was wowed by the fried leeks). But the beef carried the day, and it made me actually believe that $15/oz. may have been worth it for this stuff.
After the two hot dishes, we moved back to the raw dishes, with a sushi course. Katsu opened me up with two pieces of the sweet egg. Normally, it's served as a slice of egg on top of sushi rice. I like the Nobu way better, which was just two large blocks of the egg. It tasted cold, smooth, sweet, and eggy. Again, I could just eat this stuff by the plate. But there was more exotic sushi to be had. The first piece that Katsu offered me was a piece of Spanish mackerel, followed by a piece of jackfish, and a piece of seared toro, or fatty tuna, that was seared with a blowtorch. Then we went away from fish and I was given a piece of giant clam and a piece of live octopus. All of this was truly excellent. Possibly the best sushi that I've ever eaten.
It was all fresh, and tasted great. I have to say that the jackfish and Spanish mackerel were both memorable, and will be had again in the future. I've had toro before, and I've never bought into the hype. I actually prefer just normal tuna to the fatty stuff. But for those who dig it, Nobu offers the raw toro, as well as the toro seared with the blow torch. You get a different mouthfeel in each, which is a little different than many places.
So, after the sushi course, the closer was a large bowl of seafood soup, which contained a couple large shrimp, a couple large scallops, some pieces of fish, some shitake mushrooms, and a very nice broth (bonito, I believe). The soup was excellent, as the fresh seafood were very tasty, but the broth was just as memorable. I'm used to soup as an opener (which is common in American restaurants, as well as in Chinese dining), but this soup was a very nice way to close up before dessert.
And dessert was incredible. A huge platter, with a rich, creamy (and yet, somehow very light) vanilla panna cotta with fresh berries, half of a passion fruit, some grapes, and also three delectable egg rolls (think of a very thin crepe, cooked until just about crispy, and then rolled up into a tube so that it's sort of crispy and crunchy) filled with a yuzu cream, sort of like a very light Asian-style cannoli. All of it was excellent, and would be stuff that I would get again.
All in all, the whole experience was just fun. Lots of great food, lots of new things to try. One thing that I didn't mention was the fresh wasabi. Now, I didn't really add it to any of the food, since I just went with how the chef intended it to taste (which was quite good). But fresh wasabi is different from the stuff that you normally get in sushi places out here. It's a little lighter, not as strong, and actually has a light, sweet, almost floral flavor to it. It's darned good.
Looking back, I wish that I would have had some of the flavored sake or some of the Nobu cocktails to open up dinner. I don't think that I would've been able to drink much after dessert, but trying some of their libations before I got down to
business would have been good. And from what I read afterwards, I probably should have gotten the creme brulee sampler in addition to my dessert. Apparently they make a green tea creme brulee that's a standout.
But, all in all, I think that I actually got decent value for my omakase. I think that if I had ordered all of that food a la carte, it would have ran something like $180 or so. But, it was still a good amount to drop on a meal. And I really can't wait to do it again.
-foodgeek
Rating: 3.5 stars (it has a little too casual of a feel to really give the 4 stars, but the food is excellent)
Nobu Malibu, (310) 317-9140. 3835 Crosscreek Rd., Malibu, CA 90265.
5:45pm - 10pm (11pm on Friday and Saturday).
Omakase - $80, $100, or $120.
Sushi - $5.50 and up per order
Entrees - $18 and up
Expect to spend at least $45 per person, though the omakase comes highly recommended.
And, happily, the food lived up to the hype.
The first thing that I did was call to try to book a table for myself. No go. But, I figured that if I could get there, I could finagle my way into a table by turning on the charm, and/or threatening people with bodily harm. But, no need for either. When I go there, the tables were all still full, but there were a couple spots at the sushi bar, which is really where I wanted to sit, anyway. I prefer to see the guys who handle my food in action. Plus, it takes a lot of the service issues out of the equation. I'd get to interact with the chef, and get much of the food directly from him right when it's made. No point risking my meal to a lousy server.
And ambiance was a little noisy. A lot of people were there to see and be seen. I was there for the food. But the ambiance wasn't bad. It was a little noisy, the tables weren't exactly private. It felt a little cramped. But the place was clean, looked modern and not too ostentatious, and the energy was a good energy. It has a bit of a feel of a normal family restaurant, which sort of puts you in a mood where you wouldn't normally expect gourmet food. But, that didn't shake me. I was there for the food.
The first thing that I noticed was that these guys all worked fast and worked clean. The entire area behind the bar was spotless. Lots of running water all over the place, and everything stayed clean. The sous-chefs all worked fast behind the scenes, doing things like making the sushi rice, grating wasabi, and chopping tuna tartare. There was no yelling. Everything was calm and under control, but moved quickly. This had promise.
So, I sat down, and was looking over the menu, and made some small talk with the people around me. I got a couple recommendations from them, and found out that the jackfish was very good. I tucked that away in my mind, and considered just going off and ordering a bunch of sushi. But, I figured that would be a little boring. Instead, I took the safe route, and went with the omakase, or the chef's tasting menu. Basically, when you go with the omakase, the chefs will take a little extra pride in crafting a meal for you. You're trusting them to make a memorable experience for you. And they usually deliver.
Nobu has three tiers of omakase, each of which had the same amount of food, but had different quality food (like having foie gras or caviar for the highest tier, and not as many frills for the lower tiers). Naturally, I figured that if I was going to drop $80, I may as well drop $120. So, I went deep with the omakase. My chef for the night was Katsu, who I found out is from Tokyo originally, but has been in the states for 10 years. He asked me if there was anything that I didn't like. I told him that I trusted him completely. I figured that whatever he could throw at me, I'd eat. And that choice left no regrets.
So, Katsu opened me up with a trio of cold openers. One was a very nice oyster on a half-shell, topped with a little yuzu juice. Very fresh, very tasty. The next that I went with was the tuna tartare, served in a martini glass. I found it to be chopped a little too finely, but it was in a very nice ponzu sauce, and topped with scallions and osetra caviar, which was a nice touch. I personally prefer tartare to be a little chunky and have a little body, but some prefer the smooth, finely chopped texture, so no harm, no foul. The final cold opener was something that was new to me - monkfish livers. It's considered to be the foie gras of the sea. You steam the liver, and then cut it into little cubes. It has this wonderful, rich, creamy texture, much like foie gras does. And all this without force feeding ducks and geese (not that I really care about force feeding animals - I just care about eating tasty things). The monkfish livers that I got were served in a small glass, in ponzu. It was a new experience, and one that I do want to repeat at some point. But, strangely, what stole the show for me was the Japanese mountain peach that garnished the plate. It was a small, deep red fruit that looks like a berry (or maybe a lychee relative), and tasted incredible. It was sweet, slightly tart, very juicy, and had a small pit in the middle. This has become probably my favorite fruit. I could just sit around and eat these things by the bowlful.
So, I polished off the cold opener, and the next course that came over the bar from Katsu was Japanese snapper, that was pretty incredible - a little texture, but very smooth flesh. A few sashimi slices were served, each with a crunchy garlic chip and some micro greens on top. The place was surrounded by yuzu juice and some Hawaiian grey salt. It all came together in a wonderful way that tasted fresh, a little tangy, and a little salty (in a very mysterious way - natural sea salt can actually be pretty complex tasting stuff. As an aside, the next time you're tasting chocolate, try it with a couple different types of fancy salts - it'll be awesome).
While I was eating the snapper course, Katsu placed a large, live prawn on a plate on top of the bar. I figured that it was for me, eventually. I was curious to see how it was going to be prepared. I didn't have to wait long to see. He started preparing a sea urchin sauce, by taking a few pieces of sea urchin in a bowl with what looked like a little soy and a little lemon, and mixing it up a little bit. He split the prawn length wise, and poured the sea urchin sauce on top of the open prawn. The prawn then went on top of a small grill and was cooked just until done. The flesh was sweet and just tasted fresh. The sea urchin sauce on top was excellent (I'm a huge fan of uni). All in all, an excellent course.
After this, we started in on the hot courses. The first that came was a very clever sweet and sour king crab dish that had ponzu as the sauce base. The crab was topped with shredded, fried leeks, and dressed with a little gold leaf. The king crab was naturally sweet, and tasted wonderful in the sauce. I enjoy king crab, but it's become something that I have a hard time being wowed by. Sort of like lobster or shrimp. It's just that the quality of stuff that we can get is so high that I can do quite well with it. But what surprised me was the garnish. The fried leeks were a distinct upgrade to onion straws that you get at a lot of places. They had a similar feel, but were a little sweeter, and didn't seem as oily. If I can figure it out, fried leeks will become a regular addition to my kitchen.
Now, the next dish was Kobe-style beef (I believe that it was actually from New Zealand), which was served teriyaki, topped with sauteed onions and micro greens. This dish was sort of the opposite of the last one, in that I was absolutely wowed by the beef, but underwhelmed by the garnish. I think that the beef was only a sirloin cut, but it was incredibly tender. It was cooked perfectly medium rare, and the sauce served to accompany the dish and did not overwhelm it. The onions were sweet and tasted alright, but it could have been a more inspired garnish (particularly after I was wowed by the fried leeks). But the beef carried the day, and it made me actually believe that $15/oz. may have been worth it for this stuff.
After the two hot dishes, we moved back to the raw dishes, with a sushi course. Katsu opened me up with two pieces of the sweet egg. Normally, it's served as a slice of egg on top of sushi rice. I like the Nobu way better, which was just two large blocks of the egg. It tasted cold, smooth, sweet, and eggy. Again, I could just eat this stuff by the plate. But there was more exotic sushi to be had. The first piece that Katsu offered me was a piece of Spanish mackerel, followed by a piece of jackfish, and a piece of seared toro, or fatty tuna, that was seared with a blowtorch. Then we went away from fish and I was given a piece of giant clam and a piece of live octopus. All of this was truly excellent. Possibly the best sushi that I've ever eaten.
It was all fresh, and tasted great. I have to say that the jackfish and Spanish mackerel were both memorable, and will be had again in the future. I've had toro before, and I've never bought into the hype. I actually prefer just normal tuna to the fatty stuff. But for those who dig it, Nobu offers the raw toro, as well as the toro seared with the blow torch. You get a different mouthfeel in each, which is a little different than many places.
So, after the sushi course, the closer was a large bowl of seafood soup, which contained a couple large shrimp, a couple large scallops, some pieces of fish, some shitake mushrooms, and a very nice broth (bonito, I believe). The soup was excellent, as the fresh seafood were very tasty, but the broth was just as memorable. I'm used to soup as an opener (which is common in American restaurants, as well as in Chinese dining), but this soup was a very nice way to close up before dessert.
And dessert was incredible. A huge platter, with a rich, creamy (and yet, somehow very light) vanilla panna cotta with fresh berries, half of a passion fruit, some grapes, and also three delectable egg rolls (think of a very thin crepe, cooked until just about crispy, and then rolled up into a tube so that it's sort of crispy and crunchy) filled with a yuzu cream, sort of like a very light Asian-style cannoli. All of it was excellent, and would be stuff that I would get again.
All in all, the whole experience was just fun. Lots of great food, lots of new things to try. One thing that I didn't mention was the fresh wasabi. Now, I didn't really add it to any of the food, since I just went with how the chef intended it to taste (which was quite good). But fresh wasabi is different from the stuff that you normally get in sushi places out here. It's a little lighter, not as strong, and actually has a light, sweet, almost floral flavor to it. It's darned good.
Looking back, I wish that I would have had some of the flavored sake or some of the Nobu cocktails to open up dinner. I don't think that I would've been able to drink much after dessert, but trying some of their libations before I got down to
business would have been good. And from what I read afterwards, I probably should have gotten the creme brulee sampler in addition to my dessert. Apparently they make a green tea creme brulee that's a standout.
But, all in all, I think that I actually got decent value for my omakase. I think that if I had ordered all of that food a la carte, it would have ran something like $180 or so. But, it was still a good amount to drop on a meal. And I really can't wait to do it again.
-foodgeek
Rating: 3.5 stars (it has a little too casual of a feel to really give the 4 stars, but the food is excellent)
Nobu Malibu, (310) 317-9140. 3835 Crosscreek Rd., Malibu, CA 90265.
5:45pm - 10pm (11pm on Friday and Saturday).
Omakase - $80, $100, or $120.
Sushi - $5.50 and up per order
Entrees - $18 and up
Expect to spend at least $45 per person, though the omakase comes highly recommended.
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