First dinner of December

In thanks of having my wife and I over for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at their house – we invited Lara’s co-worker and her hubby (Meghan and Isaiah) and another co-worker (Jen) over to our house for a Monday night feast. Five courses were plated, one being the pork-belly that I’ve previously posted on here. Conversations were light-hearted as the four of us with Hawaii ties tried to introduce Jen to “local-pidgin-talk” from the 808.

Wild Arugula with tomatoes two ways (Broiled with shaved Parmesan and sea salt with butter-balsamic reduction, and a tomato compote with white truffle oil, shallots, and lemon-mustard vinaigrette):

I had somthing simliar to this at Bouchon a while back ad it got me thinking to make it myself. A Croque Madame is basically an open-face ham and cheese sandwich. Japanese pillow bread is lightly toasted and then i freid some nice thik-cut ham. on top is a poached egg and a classc mornay sauce coats it all. Yum:

Lamb is a favorite meat of mine. Whenever I suggest it, I’m met with looks of disbelief. I love to grill, and now that it’s chilly outside it’s a great time to throw on a few racks of whole-mustard coated lamb and serve it with a Cabernet-shallot reduction and fried shallots that were used to flavor the reduction were then flambeed in vodka. I served it with a side of Asparagus-Gai Lan; known as ‘Aspiration’ with black truffle drizzle and finishing salt:

Desert is not one of my fortes. In fact, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and try to abstain from baking as much as possible. I find many deserts to be too rich or sweet and not the way I ever like to end a meal. Lara has been perfecting her bread-pudding recipe and made a croissant bread-pudding with chocolate chunks. I helped out by making a bourbon cream sauce with fried peach sections:

Finally, some tattoos!

Since I have yet to blog about my job, I will post a few of the latest pieces I’ve done. It’s been very slow, and most of my large pieces are taking a break to get their money right. In the meantime, we have the following:

Latest dishes…

Andrea Tomita, and her husband Darren were over to the house last night after losing touch with her for years. We used to be child labor together when I was growing up in Hawaii and somehow the mystery that Facebook is brought us all together for a night of cooking. We ate several dishes and drank (thanks for the wine guys!) into the wee hours and I have two dishes to share out of the seven we made:

Kurobuta pork belly, braised in miso, soy, ginger with crackling:

Short ribs braised in red wine, garlic, super special ingredients to make you strong like bull over a bed of white truffled potatoes and caramelized campari tomato and pearl onions:

Birthday shoes!

Okay, it’s been a few weeks and I have a bunch of pics to throw up. Anyone that knows me realizes my lust for the Nike Air Force One – and because I have yet to post about this (and the shoes ARE mentioned in the title of this blog) I will make more of an effort to catalog them as time goes on.

Firstly I will post some new women’s highs that the wifey bought me for the birthday. Pink and anthracite mighty goodness on my feet! It’s been a while since I’ve had new shoes – with the economy in shambles; it’s tough to justify spending shoe money right now but these were too sick to pass up…

Misoyaki Butterfish

It’s been a while since we had it, so I decided to whip this up after finding some black cod and red miso paste at International Market here in Vegas. I soak it overnight in sake, miso and sugar before grilling it outside. They also had enoki mushrooms, which I’ve always loved to grill in butter in foil with sea salt and pepper. Just some garlic egg white fried rice to finish it off:

Muffuletta – The Ultimate Sandwich

Although the BLT has a special place in my heart, it’s the muffuletta that has made the biggest impact on me as a sandwich. This feast, and by feast I mean that literally – is just a gift to man. Comprising of tapenade (kalamata olives, green olives, garlic, shallots, dijon, worcestershire, tabasco, lemon, other secret ingredients…) layered on select meats (prosciutto, salami, capicolla, parma, sopressata, pancetta) and cheeses (provolone, havarti, mozzarella) until the bread (i like rosemary potato or something similarly hearty) barely supports the massively layered ingredients. This sucker weighs in pretty heavy and only a section will feed an army. Pics are in order of construction:

Shibuya!

I’ve been patiently waiting for the opportunity to try this restaurant in the MGM for some time now. Being from Hawaii, LOVING Japanese food, having been to Japan and tried REAL Japanese food and finding horrible Japanese food in Vegas – well, its been a while…

The ambiance is interesting here. There are no long hallways to be seated, you go straight from a hostess right to a table; which are fairly close together. Behind the massive sushi bar is an elaborate light-box display / some sort of LCD unit. It’s beautiful and hard not to be entranced. There is mood music, sort of trip-hop / acid-jazz blends – nothing too ostentatious.

Our party included my wife, Lara and my mom, Tallie. On to the food…

Our first dish was the Kobe beef tataki (Red Onions, Lemon Tamari Soy and Tarragon Oil):

A seaweed tasting came next – something clean for the palate – great flavors, nice to taste the fresh ocean flavors again (Seasoned Chuka, Mixed Tosaka, Sweet Hijiki, Red Shibazuke):

Being a huge fan of oysters, these were a definite must for anyone who enjoys them (Kushi Shogazu Jelly, Kumamoto Orange Ponzu, Kushi Tobiko Yuzu, Sake and Quail Egg Shooter):

A selection of sushi was placed – great quality oh-toro (very fatty tuna) and extremely fresh ikura (my favorite!) complemented the mirugai (giant clam) and tamago (egg omelet). Lara ordered the Mifune roll which comprised of deep fried soft shell crab, daikon katsura, scallions and a spicy aioli. We got started on the platter as sson as it arrived that I barely remembered to take a picture until it was half gone:

By this time we were all getting pretty full. Japanese food is always strangely filling. Because of this, we forged ahead and ignoring all instinct had our last two dishes – both very rich and totally indulgent

First we had the Kurobuta Pork Crisp (Braised Black Pork in Brick Leaf Seared Tofu and Nihon Glaze):

Lastly we barely made it through the braisied Kobe beef short rib with seared Foie Gras in a spicy citrus soy base:

Two gentlemen had desert next to us when we were just finishing our last courses. As good as it looked, there was no way any of us had room for anything else. Excellent service and a huge sake selection complemented the great meal; I’m already looking forward to trying their seven course “Land and Sea” menu with sake for each course next time!

Black Truffled Eggs

Usually I will go with arugula, but in this case I saw mini romaine lettuce and had to try it as the base for this dish. The dressing is a very acidic lemon, white balsamic, dijon (and other secret ingredients) that allows the richness of the soft boiled egg, when cut, to dress and contrast the creamy texture. After boiling and cooling the egg, the black truffle oil is mixed into the yolky center and then topped with thin black truffle slices and finally good parmiggiano that is toasted with a brulee torch. Cracked fresh black pepper and finishing salts are a must before serving.

Hello world!

Okay, why am I blogging? That is the question I am now seeking to answer by officially jumping on this thing this morning. Is it boredom? Do I think I’m interesting (or more so than the average non-blogger)?

Not sure. All i know is that after keeping up with the blogs of several others on wordpress, I thought I would share what I am/do and hope to accomplish the following:

1) Keep in touch with those close to me.

2) Make new friends with similar interests.

3) Make new friends with interests foreign to me and possibly learn something new; leading to those things becoming a collection of new hobbies (like i need to collect more hobbies)…

So off we go.

Oh, you can contact me at ben@110976.com, or view my business webpage via www.110976.com!

Canaletto

Okay, so I’ve been here dozens of times. Before I moved to Vegas, Canalettto was pretty much the first stop off the plane; stumbling in for some quality, quick and fresh Italian food off a five hour plane ride filled with degenerate gamblers and nothing but airline food destined for emergency room visits. You can usually get seated right away, and it’s smack right in the middle of the Venetian’s water-way area – a nice place to people watch and catch your bearings before being totally submerged in the opulence that is Las Vegas. It’s also affordable and isn’t heavily populated with tweenies or crazy drunken folks.

Calamari with grilled polenta - one of the best in Vegas! The portion is smaller than it used to be, but still good bang for the buck. Only Piero's in Vegas has better stuff.

Caprese salad

Carpaccio

Pizza fresca - Thin-crust pizza with fresh tomato, mozzarella, olives and basil; drizzled with Calabrian peperoncino sauce

Seppie Nere - Risotto of shrimp, scallops and fresh Mediterranean cuttlefish with black ink. Sure, it looks strange, but that squid ink just adds a light musty truffle taste - fantastic!

Fish Picatta

Saw some great fresh Cod at the store on the way home last night. Cod has this wonderful fresh, light oily texture when its cooked correctly (Is there nothing worse than overcooked fish?). I usually go with, but opted to leave out the shallots and garlic this time. Instead I pan fryed the fish after a light salt, pepper and flour dusting and then added the lemon, capers, a hint of dijon white truffle oil. Some blanched Haricot Verts are always a pleasant addition to any meal.

Salmon 3 Ways

Got to love salmon. It has such a different taste than most fish, the color and texture – when fresh and not farm-raised pairs itself so well with so many things. I like to let the flavor ofthe fish speak for itself when once of twice a year I can find the good stuff – much like this Copper River breed that you can find seasonally.

The first preparation requires a puff pastry base, and the salmon topping includes fresh sea salt, shallots, lemon, dill, capers and white balsamic. Topped with fresh tarragon, cracked black pepper and finishing salts.

I love cooking when you can utilize all of the animal when cooking. After leaving a tiny sheet of felsh on the skin, I fried it until crispy and wrapped pickled ume (japanese pickled plum) and sushi rice in taosted nori (japanese seaweed).

After soaking the salmon in sake (Otokoyoma) for about an hour (too long and the fish gets too tough and chewy) I double battered in with egg and fine panko (japanese breadcrumbs) and deep-fried. Lemon garnish adds to the super clean taste of the fish and the sake.

Lastly, salmon filets were grilled and served with a mustard-dill mayo and minted sake fried potatoes (using the last of the sake marinade for the deep-fried salmon).

Veal cheeks, spicy edamame, soup…

Our friends Joseph, Jim, and his wife Jana joined us for dinner Sunday night in celebration of me acquiring some fresh veal cheeks from my local butcher.

Spicy fried edamame (garlic, shallots, peanut oil, sesame oil, oyster sauce, shoyu, chili oil) started us of – these are as simple to make as they are addictive!

A new twist on a classic – eggs benedict in a salad form. Frisee, radish, edamame and red onions get a mustard, white balsamic dressing which in contrast to the thick and rich benedict sauce that is drizzled over a poached egg and fried thick-cut slice of pancetta.

Celery root and leek soup accompanied by clementine, tarragon, shallot and mustard toasts.

Grilled eggplant underneath syrah spicy shrimp.

Veal cheek in a soy-merlot reduction with mini bok-choy, smashed skin-on yukon golds and foie gras.

Dinner with Nick & Jen

On the way home from work I get a text (I hate texting – can’t folks just call?) from nick to see if we want to go out on a Friday night. Times are tough and tattooing is slow, so we decided to just eat in. Picked up a few basics at the store and rummaged in the fridge to come up with the following:

My fascination with Foie Gras never ends. Here its on a bed of macerated cherry-blackcurrant-vodka reduction. Served with Yukon Golds in a bit of sugar-truffle sauce. Going a bit extreme – I gave our three dogs the rendered fat on their kibble from the Foie Gras to their mutual delight.

Saw some humongous shrimp at the store and fried these in a garlic-shallot-caper spicy sauce on fresh arugula.

Good old trusty salmon in a black-bean-ginger-sesame glaze with red-salt grilled eggplant and garlic white fried-rice with peas.