Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Mo’ Mochi Please

In the olden days, the Japanese made mochi only during special holidays as a gift to the gods. Chinese folks would make it for wedding ceremonies or romantic holidays as a tribute to old tales of lost lovers. Fugetsu-Do in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo currently makes mochi to put in my belly while miraculously adding inches to it too. As the mulit-tasker, mochi is one of my food loves.

I wouldn't call it candy; I'd put it along the same vein as baked goods. I used to only be bedazzled by the ice cream mochi sold in your local supermarket's frozen section but now I am pretty serious about it. I still love the ice cream ones but I do very much appreciate the traditional rice cake and filling types – maybe it's my mature, ahem, taste buds now (I do like bittersweet chocolate since we are on the topic).

Fugetsu-Do has been around for ages (like since 1903 to be exact) and they are actually the mochi topping providers for Pinkberry, Yogurtland, or one of those famous places (I want to say the former). I just heard of this place recently through a friend and I love it. They have so many varieties and some unique flavors that are worth trying. Here is a play by play because you should know sooner than later:


Come on! And if peanut butter doesn't appeal to you, I'm sorry about your troubled childhood.




My mom kinda scolded me saying something along the lines of "you'd even buy chocolate mochi?!" She quickly quieted herself after a bite. It is surprisingly tasty for you traditionalists. For those with a more American palette, you'll eat this up... literally.





It is still Saran-wrapped because I wanted to keep my family's claws off them. Heh... the light colored one is a strawberry flavored white bean with a touch of chocolate. It is their signature flavor and rightfully so.





It's pretty yah? It's a white bean mango mochi. The mango flavor is very subtle. Nothing to go crazy over.



The green thing kinda looks like Slimer from Ghostbusters :) Different texture though! He's more tender and powdery from the peanut powder on the outside and he's packed with red bean (great for you somehow as a Chinese mom would tell you). The pink mochi in the background is like the mango too in that it's packed with white bean and nice to look at. The flavor is very mild if you are looking for something... how shall we say... boring?




One of my other favorites - baked potato mochi. It's not your traditional rice cake type. The texture is very unique and powdery. It becomes a sticky mess but it somehow pieces back together in your mouth as the bread it initially resembled.


They are 3 other baked varieties but most of the rice cake mochi come in either red or white bean for your choosing. They also have some without any filling, just lots of good dough. Your call but don't pass this up!

Fugetsu-Do Confectioners

315 East First Street

Los Angeles, CA 90012

They ship them too if you are too lazy to make the trek :) Get 'em for Valentine's Day! And Easter and Halloween and Christmas... oh, and Columbus Day.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Nobu Matsuhisa = Genius

It's so good, I like, cry. Not to quote Paris Hilton and all, but the best sushi / Japanese food I have ever had came from this man.

So I remember reading People magazine and thinking how ridiculous it was that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie spent 4+ hours dining at a restaurant for their anniversary or something. It was probably just a PR play to show that their magic was still there right? Yeah, no. After dining at Nobu Malibu, I can see how anyone (with deep pockets) can EASILY spend so much time at one restaurant... eating and eating and eating. Bragelina must have been at Nobu or Matsuhisa because those places are just exquisite.

Tucked away in the hills, Nobu Malibu is neither pretentious or shi shi. It is fancy - don't get me wrong - but in a classy way. The music isn't blaring loud like some of the other obnoxious places in Hollywood. The waiter (great guy Kevin who's been there since only October '09) is down-to-earth, friendly, and straight-up knowledgeable about everything sushi-related. Did you know that all their waiters go through intense training courses on the fish and menu?? I have never had such great service at a high-end place, hands down. This guy paced our dishes so that we were never overwhelmed. He ordered our dishes so that there was a balance between light and heavy, savory and salty, fish and beef, and any other yin yang that I missed because I was hypnotized by the food.

I had more "hot" or cooked dishes at this place than I did at Matsuhisa, but everything I had came out beautifully and magnificent...

<-- Big Eye Tuna on Miso Chip (Cold Dish) - Coolness on top of sweet, crispy chip = win







Tiradito (Cold Dish) - White fish in ponzu/lemon juice with kick of Peruvian sauce ramps up your appetite with the punch of tartness from this dish -->


<-- Yellowtail Sashimi (Cold Dish) - Every fine Japanese restaurant has their
own version of this now, but did you know Nobu was the mastermind behind this dish?


Spicy Tuna Crispy Rice Lettuce Cup (off the menu) - Did I not
say it was artistic? -->

<-- Tempura King Crab in Jalapeno Ponzu Sauce (Daily Special) - Very meaty and succulent!






California Roll Nobu has a rice plant in
Japan that
makes rice JUST for him... that's pretty gangster, and makes for the best CA Roll I've ever eaten - definitely nothing like the Costco sushi roll trays, hah!-->



<-- Beef "Toban" Yaki (Hot Dish) - Brought out on a hot plate, it
sizzles with a fragrant butter sauce that is enough to make Paula Dean blush and will put you in pure meat sin...


Tempura King Crab Roll (Off the Menu) - I just wanted to show how meaty this crab roll was. Nobu definitely does not skimp on the good stuff -->



And lastly, 3.5 hours later after the kitchen is closed and the staff starts to clean up, I get to the best part... DESSERT! With a short selection, it is a fairly easy decision - well at least until the waiter goes on to describe the DNA of each dessert, then things get a little complicated. So being the problem-solver that I am, I requested an Omakase of dessert that well... I polished off myself because my buddy lacked a sweet tooth. Luckily for him, I have two rows of sweet teeth.


The dessert omakase included a hazelnut cookie ice cream sandwich complete with a duo of caramel and vanilla ice cream. The cookie was soft and easy to inhale, which I did. The spring rolls was dark chocolate and white chocolate, and came with three sauces--strawberry, chocolate, and caramel. This was ok but I am generally not a fried egg roll fan (I'm a spring-er). The shiso crepe stopped me in the middle of my conversation. I had a moment where everything else in front of me faded away and my mind went numb while my taste buds went into overdrive. How can a green pocket of warm caramel and caramelized banana be so delicious?! The mint crepe was soft and comforting, and just made me want to eat more. As full as I was, I scarfed them both down because this goodness was not to be missed. I am generally no crepe girl (yeah weird right? guess I am more of a guy), but their's was a little thicker and more substantial... a little airy. It was almost a light, spongy bread but not? Not to mention, pairing it with the vanilla ice cream just made it great. I would easily opt for this dessert over ANY chocolate souffle and that is a pretty bold statement guys. Did I mention the vanilla ice cream sat on top of a crunchy meringue? What a nice surprise! I thought I finally found a flaw at Nobu in that they had served me old freezer-burnt ice cream. No, I just got punked. It was actually another texture surprise hidden under good stuff. And lastly, the strawberry ice cream. I'll admit, my "mature" taste buds have taken me away from fruit flavors which include the aforementioned but I was so ever surprised that this tasted like an actual strawberry. It was not the fake Quik Strawberry Milk powder ice cream, it was the bite of an actual strawberry in season. Just slightly tart and refreshing, cooled as it just came out of the fridge. Amazing, Nobu, amazing.

This is such a great Japanese restaurant that the only one that trumps it is Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills, and that is only because I had more of his sushi dishes and all those were just mind-boggling good. Really really ridiculously good.

Nobu Malibu
3835 Cross Creek Road #18A
Malibu, CA 90265

Nobu Hollywood
903 N. La Cienega Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90046

Matsuhisa
129 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Ice Queen

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream... well, I just eat it. LOTs of it.

When I was a kid, I loved rainbow sherbet. You know the ones that come in a rectangle square box from Thrifty's where the colors are meshed into each other? (Man, I don't know how those paper boxes every lasted. They got so mushy by the end of their freezer career!) When I was 5 years old or so, my mom had given me the OK to eat ice cream after lunch - probably because I spent another day being the best kid EVER. She was tired so she left it up to me to scoop my own bowl of dairy confection goodness while she napped. With a little spoon for my little hands and a frozen box of ice cream, I slowly chipped away at the rainbow ice and transferred it into my bowl. It was the first time I got to control my sugar portions, and with my mom asleep, it was the perfect time to capitalize on an opportunity o' greed. Scoop... scoop... scoop... I was so focused on my growing ice cream pile, I failed to realize that it had already been 30 minutes later. In life's greatest irony, my mom woke up and saw me with my huge mammoth of ice cream and immediately decreased my load by half. Epic fail.

A bit long-winded but that began my love for ice cream. What isn't there to like really? It's sweet, creamy, and slowly melts so you can enjoy all aspects of it. Or it's still sweet and creamy but you bite through it so fast that your teeth turns cold and you're caught in an immediate brain freeze - what a rush!

20+ years later, I am still the ice queen I once was. I tried to boycott store-bought ice cream 2 years ago because I was extremely upset by the incredible shrinking ice cream boxes - I couldn't believe that Dreyers Ice Cream boxes kept shrinking as their prices kept soaring. I know we're in a midst of a tough economy but I don't like being bamboozled. Don't just sneak in a smaller box and expect me not to notice! Seriously! Dreyers was smart though. They countered my boycott by teasing me with Dreyers Limited Edition Flavors. If these flavors were only going to be on shelves for only so long, I will have to try it as a true ice cream lover before it go-goes. Sigh... ice cream undefeated, me 0. Here is a short recap of the Limited Edition flavors that I just so happen to have on-hand...












  • Egg Nog - I get it every year during the holidays; it's better than drinking!
  • Vanilla Sandwich - If you love ice cream sandwiches, then you'll like this. Not only that, but it's almost like Cookies and Cream 2.0. There are so many cookies pieces and they're so much bigger at that. Bigger is better! (Greedy confessions of a fat kid by the way.)
  • Hot Cocoa - If you dig marshmallow texture; I don't but I like that this takes me closer to Serendipity's Frozen Hot Chocolate.
  • Mud Pie - It sounds good but it could use a bolder coffee flavor, especially given how delicious coffee ice cream just is.
Other noteworthy Dreyers Limited Editions not pictured:
  • Apple Pie a la Mode - Saw it once, got it, and never regretted it! The caramelized apple pieces with graham cracker crust interwoven throughout the box - amazing!
  • Pumpkin Pie - Do you like Thanksgiving? Then get it!
You are brilliant Dreyer's. Not only do I keep gaining weight but I continue throwing money your way with your constant inventions. What great marketers...