Ramen Cravings

Some people have ice cream cravings, and some french fries. When I want something bad, it tends to be fried chicken. I'm not sure why. Something about the crunchy, salty, fatty fried skin and juicy bite of chicken leg sends me swooning. 

Growing up, my dad dipped his fried chicken (and pretty much everything else) into ketchup. I do this now too, a learned habit, I suppose. I'm noticing both my kids now are adopting the same eccentric food habits. Like those food magazine interviews of celebrities asking what's in their fridge - mine (a girl can dream!) would be a bottle of Heinz's 57 Ketchup. Anyhoo....

For the past month, I've been having a new craving - Ramen Noodles. This obsession came after I ate at Samurai located in the same building as Uwajimaya in the ID district for the first time about a month ago. I had read many reviews on this place prior to going there. Folks just raved on and on about the ramen bar, claiming it was the BEST ramen in Seattle and comparing its authenticity to a good bowl of ramen in Japan. Of course, I had to try it...

OMG.

I've gone in to Samurai four times over the past month and have now ordered the same bowl of ramen three of the four times. When I like something, I tend to not only be a repeat customer, but a repeat orderer. It's a sure thing and I like to know what I'm getting. Boring maybe, routine, ok ... I just like what I like - especially when it is GOOD! A bit of advice if you're trying to get there at lunch time - go before 11:15 a.m. Trust me - the line out the door typically begins around 11: 15 am. And the place is dime store small, so be prepared to knock knees with the other hungry patrons at the tables next to you. No need to be shy, the ramen is worth it.

The bowl I'm crazy about is called Tampopo. Based on the Tampopo movie with the same name, a ramen western about a woman in Tokyo who achieved to make the best bowl of ramen and recruited two guys to help her. A funny and weirdly charming movie.

There is absolutely nothing funny about the movie's namesake ramen served at Samurai , it's serious business. Seriously tantalizing. Sliced melt-in-your-mouth, chunky pork slices, soy sauce marinated hard boiled egg, tender bamboo shoots, tasty naruto, papery thin roasted seaweed, and green onions are the condiments. 

But the real heroes are the shoyou based soup and the noodles. Geez louise, where did they get those noodles?! Firm, robust, chewy, and just the perfect al dente-ness. Couple those perfect noodles with that briny, complex flavored soup and you have an authentic bowl of ramen.... at least in these parts. About that broth - tasting it made me think of grandma's home soup - the kind she used to boil for hours and hours. 

Tasted like home. Ya.... I could bathe in it, Samurai's soup is that good. Enough said.

A preview hint of things to come... my ramen obsession must now be cultivated at home as I can't keep driving almost 40 minutes to get my ramen hit every week. Plus, the bowls of ramen aren't cheap. If this keeps up, I might need to ask for a job there. Except once they figure out my real intentions and see that I'm always hovering over the soup pot - they'll banish me to the dish washing. 

Looks like I'll need to Tampopo it and try and make a decent imitation at home. Wish me luck, folks. I've thrown down the gauntlet to myself this week. Let's see what I come up with...

Cake and Cast Iron

It would take a lot to bump off my all-time favorite dessert, Creme Brulee. I baked a cake two nights ago that has well, seriously distracted me ... Lemon Yogurt Cake.


This is a dessert that made it worth having my fingers grated along side the lemon rinds. Ya, that good. I think it was the double glaze of fresh squeezed lemon juice and sugar that hit it outside of the ball park. Tart, tangy and satisfying.

The real deal. So much that I perused my other cook books to compare recipes. A research assignment that went on all morning.

My Tharan watched me running around in this heightened state and said with a knowing smirk, "Ya know - you're a little weird." I wish he knew what it was like to be enthralled with food. Its not just the eating, cooking, reading, but to make the dish right ... and then perfect it. Does anyone hear me out there? Can I get a hell-yea?

Lemon Yogurt Cake
from barefoot contessa at home - Ina Garten

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 t grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 t pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

for the glaze
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 2 1/2-inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, one cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cook in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Cast Iron Dreams




I am baking Maple Baked Beans right now as I type this. Being a parent helps in the area of multi-task-oriented-statedness... yea, just what I said. The glazed stew has been brewing in my friend Keith's borrowed Le Creuset dutch oven for four hours - two more hours to go.

Never made baked beans before, such a shame. Come on now, I grew up in a family of four generations of Asian women all living in the same household. No baked beans, no Wonder Bread, not a Ding Dong in sight. I grew up with salted fish & steamed pork, salted duck eggs (more on this in later postings, I promise) and every kind of greens stir fried.

Delicious and still ... here's to the lone ronin and breaking out of family molds. Organic maple syrup, thick-cut smoked bacon... it smells like Texas all up in here.

Speaking of Le Creuset, I want the dutch oven. I want it bad. Santa came and got me a Le Creuset frying pan this year and I am grateful. So grateful, don't get me wrong ... but it's been my dream to have the cobalt blue big dutch oven (at only $400 retail). I have hijacked my friend's for the past 2 -3 months (lost count) and must return it soon. Uh huh, soon..