Mitsuru Sushi & Grill

Elizabeth gives much better presents than I do. This is how things work. For Christmas I once gave her a guide book to Pasadena; she gave me a first edition of A Child's Christmas in Wales. One year for Valentine's Day she adopted an olive tree in Italy for me, as well as the oil that came from the tree. I think I gave her a used DVD of Captain Ron. Or maybe it was Hudson Hawk. I don't remember. You get the point.

For Valentine's Day this year she bought me a new camera. We picked it up on Saturday and I started thinking about places we could go for lunch so that I could not only take some inaugural food photos with my new camera but treat Elizabeth to a romantic lunch. We were on our way to Hooters when our friend Tracie sent a text that she would like to go down to Little Tokyo and buy some origami paper. She wanted to know if we felt like taking the train downtown with her. That sounded fun to us. 

It was 80 degrees and sunny down in Little Tokyo. People were everywhere. This was after 2 PM, but several restaurants had long lines waiting outside. Orochon Ramen, the restaurant whose hellfire "#2 Challenge" was recently featured on Man vs. Food, had more than 30 people congregated outside. We ducked into a bizarre yet fascinating bookstore. While the ladies fawned over books about training cats to use the toilet, I read a few pages of a book detailing how to survive an alien invasion of Earth, before moving on to The Ninja Handbook, the subtitle of which is "This Book Looks Forward to Killing You Soon." These are not things you find in the rare book room at Powell's.

We stumbled down 1st Street trying to decide what to eat. We passed Mitsuru Sushi & Grill. Despite the fact that seemingly every restaurant within three blocks was full of people, there was only one table occupied here. Obviously, this was where we needed to eat. In the window were plates of food covered in cellophane. I do not remember the last time I ate in a restaurant with that kind of an advertisement. It's possible I never have. (I try to adhere to Charles Kuralt's maxim never to eat in a restaurant with pictures of food on the menu. Technically, having plates of food in the window does not violate the rule of the law, although probably the spirit.)

We took a table underneath a big fish. Mitsuru can only be described as a coffee shop that also sells Japanese food. "This is the best restaurant ever," Elizabeth remarked. 

"Oh my God," Tracie said, "they have a Kool Aid machine. I'm getting some."

We were each given two menus: a handwritten page in a plastic sleeve listing several Japanese items, and a permanent, laminated menu, offering all the coffee shop classics: eggs, sausage, burgers, spaghetti and meatballs, etc. Elizabeth just wanted some sushi so she ordered a spicy tuna roll and a cucumber roll. Tracie opted for the teriyaki chicken and sushi. I decided on the teriyaki beef and tempura.

We were all given miso soup to start. It was good but not great. Tracie's food hit the table first, a pile of chicken glistening with a pool of sticky teriyaki sauce. It did not look very good. My food came next, in a box with the beef, tempura, rice, and potato salad. My beef looked worse than Tracie's chicken. Elizabeth's sushi arrived after a few minutes. It looked like she had made the best call. 

My tempura was very good. It was not any different from tempura I have had at dozens of other places, but that's not a bad thing. My beef, however, was terrible: dried out, flavorless beef tasting only of the much-too-sweet-and-salty sauce. I tried a piece of Tracie's chicken; it was also lousy. Maybe we should have gone to one of the restaurants that had, you know, customers, I thought to myself. 

The sushi was good. The spicy tuna roll was indeed spicy and the cucumber roll actually had wasabi in it. I have not seen that before but I loved it. I took a piece and smeared some additional wasabi on it, which was met with a look of slight disdain from my dining companions. Maybe it was a little too spicy, but it was still good.

The meal can only be described (charitably) as average. Certainly I will never be back, for many reasons. Yet another present of mine that did not live up to what Elizabeth gave me. The three of us took the train back up to Pasadena, enjoying the rest of the afternoon. For dinner that evening we all had bread and cheese and wine. That was a much better meal. 

The Bar at North Woods Inn

I was trying to think of a good place to go for lunch on a rainy afternoon. I considered the pub at Beckham Grill - I always love sitting by the fire on rainy days - but the last time I was there the Guinness was more disappointing than the current season of 24. (It's a sign of what's happened that last episode I was actually surprised when Jack killed two terrorists in the last minutes.)

Elizabeth and I had a couple errands to run, and found ourselves over on the East side of Pasadena, so we swung by my parents' house. My mom had the day off and we all decided to go to lunch. I contemplated Wood Ranch - a tri tip sandwich sounded good - but then I remembered my last few experiences there were very disappointing. (Not to mention my buddy Phil forgot that I gave it a negative review and showed it to the co-founder of Wood Ranch - "the definition of an awkward moment," as he put it.)

So I suggested North Woods Inn. My mom and I had eaten there a year earlier - only my second trip as an adult - and Elizabeth had never been there. I figured even if she didn't like it she would get a laugh out of the place. It was pouring when we arrived, a massive pool of water covering the courtyard outside the log cabin. But that made swinging open the big door and entering the North-Woods-cabin-themed restaurant more fun. 

They weren't seating people back in the dining rooms - there were less than ten customers - so we took a table in the bar area. I tried hard to think about the last time I sat here. Twenty years, perhaps? I remember meals there with my grandmother when I was a kid. My favorite thing was the hot dog, and cracking open the peanuts, which I never ate but loved to throw the shells on the floor (which is not only allowed but encouraged.)

The stained glass windows depicting rugged northern scenes are still there and I remembered my childhood favorite: a lone prospector panning in a river. I could look at these for hours. In the background the sounds of a piano were noticeable. I felt like a character in The Shooting of Dan McGrew.

Unfortunately, newer are the flatscreen TVs hung up all over the bar. I hate this. It's possible people come here to watch sports, although I can't imagine why, with The Boat right next door, a much better and more appropriate venue for watching a game. (Although I suppose I must admit I have never been to the North Woods; I guess it's conceivable that every cabin has four or five flatscreen TVs on the walls.)

While looking at the three menus (the old-school tabletop menu, the bar menu and the appetizer menu; "This is confusing," Elizabeth correctly stated) we decided just to get small plates and share. My mom ordered the two salads: North Woods' famous blue cheese and red cabbage salads. Elizabeth and I ordered the potato skins, chili cheese fries, and "cheese bread sliders." It was this latter item that intrigued/worried me. North Woods' cheese bread is legendary: cheese and garlic and butter in a massive pile on toast. Could this possibly mean they are serving slider patties on cheese bread? 

The first thing to hit the table were the chili cheese fries, a large platter of steak fries buried under a mound of chili and cheese. We each ate a few and felt full. Not a good sign with plenty more food to go, but this was heavy food. 

Next were the potato skins. We started laughing when the server put these down. I was expecting potato skins like you might get at a bar's happy hour: small pieces of potato with a smidge of toppings. These were eight potato halves, each the size of a large fist, with a mere of cheese topped with chives and crisp bacon. If this had been our only food, maybe the three of us could have finished it. Maybe. 

"We're gonna be eating leftovers tonight, right?" I asked.

When I was assured that we would be eating leftovers that night and possibly the next, I ordered myself a small blue cheese salad. (I didn't need more food, but since I knew we were going to be taking a lot with us, I felt like something cool and refreshing.) The waiter, whose first language was not English, brought me a bowl of blue cheese dressing. I was not upset with him; considering how unhealthy our food was, it was quite reasonable of him to assume I wanted a giant bowl of blue cheese salad dressing, possibly even to drink as soup.

"No," I said, "Ensalada." 

"Sorry," he said, and walked off laughing before quickly bringing me a salad.

And then came the cheese bread sliders. Not only were they served with homemade potato chips - "Excellent," I said, "I was just thinking this table could use more fried food" - but they oozed out bubbling cheese spread. I believe I gained three pounds simply by looking at them. I put a spoonful of my mom's red cabbage salad on one and took a bite. It was good but ridiculously rich. It made the chili cheese fries seem as light as cotton candy.

It did not take long for us to get full. I asked for a box to take home some food and the waiter brought me two. I filled them both. I don't remember the last time that happened. He asked if we wanted anything else. We most certainly did not.

I'm getting up from the table because I'm not able to finish all the food there is

Right behind me and equally full was the lady that's known as Liz.

Elizabeth and I took all the food with us (my mom did not want any of it) and reheated it at home over the next 36 hours. The chili cheese fries were worthless when reheated: they basically became mashed potatoes with a watery chili sauce. The potato skins were great when reheated in the oven, though. 

I needed to do something to the sliders to cut through the heaviness of the cheese bread, so I reheated them in the oven with some pepperoncinis and peppercorn A.1. sauce. This was a much better way to eat them: spicy and a little crunchy.

It was fun being back in the bar at North Woods, but to be honest, I don't see myself ever returning. The food wasn't anything special, and the atmosphere I remembered from my childhood is gone. I don't know if it's because of the flatscreen TVs or the fact that I can't suspend disbelief like I used to (no matter how neat it looks inside, I'm still aware there is not a wild frontier outside the front door, but rather a traffic-choked boulevard). But overall the experience was lacking the enjoyment I expected. From now on my cheese bread and burger cravings will be fulfilled by The Boat next door. 

Wine That Loves Pizza

Not too long ago, Elizabeth and I were at Cost Plus and came across a bottle of wine called "Wine That Loves Pizza."  While I admired the lack of pretension, I laughed once and moved on. But Elizabeth had heard good things about the wine and asked if I wanted to try it. I took a closer look. Besides being an attractive, sleek-looking bottle, the back label provided a crib sheet of sorts, listing why this wine pairs well with pizza. I would be lying if I didn't admit the price also caught my eye: it cost $3.97. 

Last night our friend Murph stopped by to have pizza with us. I cooked two mini pizzas from Trader Joe's - their Bella Napoli pepperoni pizza. I used to eat these frequently a few years ago and then, for no particular reason, I stopped. I returned to them a month ago and cannot understand why I ever stopped eating them: they are great. They come four to a pack and one makes a great snack or appetizer; a couple make a full meal. 

I also rolled out some fresh dough from Fresh & Easy and bisected several meatballs that were left over from the day before. I used Fresh & Easy pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and for the last couple minutes of cooking I added some chopped parsley. I had gone easy on the sauce and heavy on the cheese and the whole thing was good but a bit too bland, so I added several slugs of Louisiana hot sauce to my slices. 

I expected my first sip of the wine to be lousy, like the Charles Shaw I loathe. (A friend of mine told me that Two Buck Chuck is hit-or-miss and sometimes you will get a good bottle, but it's yet to happen for me.) But this was actually delicious. It's got very little depth (not terribly surprising for a $4 wine) but plenty of flavor, and not the too-sweet flavor of cheap wine. Most importantly, it indeed complemented the pizza. 

There are a few other varieties of this wine (Wine That Loves Roasted Chicken, Wine That Loves Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Wine That Loves Grilled Steak, etc.) I will definitely try the rest of them. 

Fast Food Review: McDonald's McNuggets with Sweet Chili Sauce

Just over a year ago I posted a letter I wrote to McDonald's, asking them - almost begging, really - to bring back Shanghai McNuggets, possibly my favorite fast food promotion ever. For those who aren't aware or don't remember, the McNuggets came in a box with an Asian-style design and served with teriyaki, hot mustard or sweet & sour sauces, the whole thing resplendent with chopsticks and a fortune cookie. It was, of course, too good to last.

McDonald's never responded to my letter. This did not surprise me: I have written many letters to fast food companies over the years (perhaps not the coolest thing I could admit about myself) asking them to bring back products and never once have I received anything more than a two sentence form email in reply. I once wrote a letter to Jack in the Box suggesting they bring back their chipotle chicken sandwich, pointing out that when they originally released it, chipotles were not as well known as they would later become and that the timing was right for a re-release. They never got back to me but just a few weeks later chipotle chicken sandwiches were back. There was no mention of me. (I suppose it could have been a coincidence.)

Being that it had been more than twenty years since Shanghai McNuggets disappeared and McDonald's wouldn't even respond to my suggestion that they bring them back, I accepted defeat on the matter, left only with the memory of these beautiful little jewels that flew too close to the sun.

So it was with a certain amount of surprise and no small amount of happiness that I came across an advertisement yesterday for McDonald's new sweet chili sauce for McNuggets. There was a tie-in with the Olympics that wasn't made too clear - there is a huge Asian population in Vancouver, but the connection is not mentioned by McDonald's as far as I can tell - but I did not care about the motives. While this isn't the teriyaki or hot mustard of the Shanghai McNuggets, it was close enough. Fair is foul and fowl is fair. 

I immediately emailed Elizabeth and told her I wanted these for dinner. I emailed three of my Asian friends ... well, okay, my only three Asian friends... and told them about my find. If it hadn't been raining last night I would have invited everyone over to my patio to eat McNuggets with sweet chili sauce and drink Tsingtao. But the weather was not cooperating, so as it was I just went through the drive-through, got my McNuggets, and returned home. (There was a tense moment when I asked the guy if they had the sweet chili sauce and he responded with a confused "What?" But I repeated myself and everything turned out okay.)

I laid the McNuggets out in front of me. It occurred to me that I should eat them with chopsticks. So I did. The sweet chili sauce was very good. It was a little too sweet on the front end - like their cloying sweet & sour sauce - but there was a surprising amount of heat that crept up after a few seconds. I have two bottles of sweet chili sauce in my fridge (I have two bottles of almost every condiment in my fridge): one from Fresh & Easy's label, and one called "Grama's sweet chili sauce" that I got at Whole Foods. This McDonald's sauce was as good as either of those. I even got a packet of hot mustard sauce out of a drawer and squirted a little onto one of the McNuggets to accompany the sweet chili; it was beautiful. 

I do not know how long this sauce will be around.  I wish it came with a fortune cookie. But I am happy with it. My friend Zach, my original partner in fast food adventures, is coming up from San Diego this week for Chinese New Year and we have already made plans for a repeat tasting.

Weekend Eats

SATURDAY LUNCH

Elizabeth and I were over at my parents' house Saturday so we got a couple tri-tips from Taylor's - one plain, and one with "Spicy Jezebel marinade."  I grilled them both and sliced them, ringing a plate of salad with the pieces. Elizabeth and I had the spicy, my parents were less daring and had the plain.

The spicy tri-tip was outstanding. I have literally cooked hundreds of Taylor's tri-tips over the years, and this was the best one I have ever had. I only put a simple vinaigrette on the salad and the meat juices mixed with it to form a nice dressing.

I almost never drink beer with lunch anymore, but the spicy steak was crying out for a nice dark ale. I wanted Deschutes Black Butte Porter, but the local liquor store stopped carrying it. Instead they have the Sierra Nevada Porter, so I got some of that - Sierra Nevada does not make a bad beer.

My cousin's wife is Chinese. The only thing she ever taught me to say in Chinese is Merry Christmas, however years ago for my birthday she gave me an engraved mug. She claimed it reads "Justin's beer mug," however it occurs to me that I've never actually verified that. It could very well read "Justin is an a**hole." Can anyone help me out with this one?

SATURDAY DINNER

Ralph's has king crab legs on sale for $7.99 a pound, so I got three pounds and decided to have a seafood feast. I also got a bag of frozen shrimp from Fresh & Easy and defrosted them in the fridge overnight. I prepared some clarified butter and also a honey mustard with some of the Sierra Nevada Porter - it was one of the best honey mustards I have ever had. (I am happy to give anyone the very simple recipe if they are a fan of honey mustard.)

Before grilling the shrimp I marinated them for about an hour in some barbecue sauce and vinegar. The crab legs were already cooked so I warmed them in the oven for just a few minutes while I was frying some french fries. 

The food was very good. Grilled shrimp is probably my favorite kind of shrimp - even more than fried, and that's saying something - and the crab, while not the best I've ever had, was still delicious. Especially dunked in butter. For dinner we had a funfetti cake and vanilla ice cream.

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

While I love bacon, sometimes the skimpy Oscar Mayer variety just won't cut it: I need something more substantial. Taylor's always has thick, meaty Amish bacon, so I purchased several slices of that in anticipation of making a big breakfast on Super Bowl Sunday. I fried the bacon while I threw together a frittata with diced ham, sliced green onions, and (a lot of) cheddar cheese. 

After cooking the frittata and slicing it into quarters,I topped mine with feta cheese and Taco Lita hot sauce. Elizabeth added avocado and sauteed mushrooms to hers. I think that looks disgusting, but I fully admit I am probably in the minority on this

SUPER BOWL SNACK

During the game, I cooked some "Krabcake Poppers" from Fresh & Easy - a "crab-flavored" seafood blend with a spicy dipping sauce. They weren't bad but I don't think I would recommend these to anyone. It would be easy and not too time-consuming to make these from scratch, which would be a lot better. 

SUNDAY DINNER

After the game, while watching two hours of "What Not To Wear" (hey, Elizabeth did not complain once while I was watching six straight hours of football programming on the HDTV; the least I could do was let her watch whatever she wanted after the game) I cooked some "Southern Fried Chicken Tenders" from Fresh & Easy. I have had the thinner version of these, the "escalopes," and also the nuggets, and liked them both. So it came as a surprise to me that this was the worst thing I have ever eaten from Fresh & Easy. They were soggy, bland, and bursting with chunks of fast. We did not eat much of them and I will never buy these again.