Never made it before, never tasted better!

Growing up, my parents frequently had shrimp and used "daikon", which is a huge white turnip... however, I've never used these ingredients myself (yeah, I don't really cook shellfish)... It was a fun day though. Here's the finished products! Both dishes were inspired by Top Chef episodes (Anita Lo's Daikon Scallop and some season 3 Shrimp/Miso bacon dish)

Shrimp marinated in Mirin/Soy/Spicy stuff/Sour stuff/Oil/Garlic/Ginger... lightly sauteed in butter
Red/Yellow/Italian/Jalapeno pepper "relish"
Spicy soy/chili aioli
Miso/sugar glazed bacon

From 10/31 Cooking!

Unfortunately, I didn't have a squirt bottle to plate the aioli a lot better and I didn't portion the relish well I guess... but it was delicious. Damn.

Daikon (looks kinda like steak eh? intended!) braised in redwine/stock
Watercress salad tossed with lemon/soy/shallot/yummy hit of acid
Panko battered Beet/Yam/Shallot ... crispy and delicious.

From 10/31 Cooking!

I scooped out a hole underneath the daikon to put a gently poached egg yolk with bacon and meat flavors, but I got lazy and my parents and neighbors got hungry. I also wasn't able to take the stock and reduce it to make a cream sauce which would have made the plate look much better (white on black! cool).

I love these new plates!

Inspired by Ultimate Girls =)

Sweet potato latkes. Engage!

Going out to the farmer's market to make my own version.







Very very disappointed...Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the time to julienne the vegetables thinner so they would curl on top of the sweet potato cake. Oh well. Next time. Looks hideous. No time to plate. Other plates getting cold...




Pork Medallions served over a Parsnip puree / red wine reduction + rosemary seasoned stock / Sweet potato+yukon gold fritter on top. Plans failed so threw random shit together.

In the Market for a Professional Chef's Knife

Thinking of getting a Misono UX10 because that's what Hung uses.
Also thinking about getting another Global... because it was so light and well balanced.
Hmm.
Chef Anthony suggested Misono as well and a place called Korin in NYC which sells high quality chef knives... awesome.

Well I guess I'm going to take a trip up to NYC to purchase a Misono UX10 (After feeling it out first of course). Should be interesting.

Top Chef Season 6

Some good stuff on episode 3 (Yeah it was aired a few months ago). Braised WHOLE SLAB bacon? But treated as Pork Belly... godlike.
Then the pair of FAIL girls... PASTA SALAD??? That's it? Wow. Terrible.
The winner's circle ... all of the sudden in the loser's bracket. Holy pissed off. HAHAHA Tom Colicchio hiding his laughter. "IT WAS A BAD ANSWER, IT WAS A BAD IDEA, IT WAS A BAD DISH" hahaha

Currently getting Top Chef Masters. Looks exciting.

August 26th-ish First Visit to the CIA!

(Yeah I realize that this is being posted 2 months after...)

Of course I'm talking about the CIA that actually matters... The Culinary Institute of America haha. Just kidding, I'm sure the Canadian-Indian Atheists is a very important institution as well...

Anyway, it was amazing being at a place where I've only heard of on television or read about in books by famous chefs (namely Anthony Bourdain).

We got a nice reservation at A. Escoffier restaurant and had an awesome lunch there.

Here's some pictures of the entrees. The presentations were amazing, but a few items on each plate may or may not have been up to the high standards of taste I set in my mind. Oh, and their menu changes as the seasons go... so I have no idea what these dishes were titled (the menu was in french with english subtitles) and I can't really remember exactly what ingredients were in what, but I'll try to remember.

Roast Lamb with Polenta and a Ratatouille?:
Lamb was average but the sauce was really tasty... I think it had hints of nutmeg and orange in it.


Grilled Chilean Seabass (? I think? or Halibut) served in a light broth with vegetables
Dad's dish. Sort of boring.


Duck Confit with some sauce/bok choy, mushrooms and wild rice
My Mom's dish. Very tender duck and delicious sauce


Filet Mignon with jus and compound butter with a mushroom flan
The flan was amazing. Fluffy and full of flavor.


Raspberry Sorbet with Chocolate Cupcake...
Deliciously sweet... awesome presentation


Flan with Biscotti and Coffe flavored sauce
Awesome.

Inspired to create my first "blog"

After having my resume redone by Robert Mandelberg, CPRW in Eatontown, NJ (He's awesome!), he suggested that I make myself a web presence with my food. So, here I am.

Places that I gotta visit for CONSUMPTION!
Le Bernardin - Eric Ripert
Les Halles - Anthony Bourdain
The French Laundry - Thomas Keller

Going to post all those old photos from facebook of things I've cooked from a long time ago onto here. Fun? I guess.