Nagatani Family in LA

Late last month, Yasuhiro and Isako, the 8th generation siblings of Nagatani family (the donabe producer from Iga, Japan) came to LA for the first time!

We wanted them to experience something very LA. So, on the first night, we took them to Salazar for Mexican dinner. We enjoyed many different dishes in the patio dining.


Sunday morning was farmers market in Hollywood. We had fresh west coast oysters for breakfast.


Luckily, Dodgers had a home game, and they won against Chicago Cubs 1 - 0!


Another night, we went to Otium for dinner. Tim and the team created special donabe courses for us! One of the cold appetizers was A5 wagyu beef sushi, caviar, and shima-aji tartare, served in donabe steamer, Mushi Nabe. It was so gorgeous. Then, smoked BBQ eel, seaweed, and avocado, made in donabe smoker, Ibushi Gin, was so aromatic and the eel was very meaty and wonderful.


We had many other wonderful dishes, too.


Then, a big donabe rice cooker, Kamado-san, was brought to the table. Chef Tim opened the lid and it was a big rice dish with grilled squid, shiitake mushrooms, negi, and confit of egg yolks!


Tamari sauce was drizzled over the rice and the contents were mixed throughly.


The dish was ready!
It was so perfect and oishii!


Thank you so much for the wonderful donabe dinner, Chef Tim and Otium team!

Happy donabe life.

Summer nights at Otium

Hiramasa ssam wrap, served in donabe

The other night, I got together with Akiko, who just recently came back to LA after a little over a year in Tokyo. We celebrated her return at Otium in Downtown. Yes, t's one of my favorite restaurants in LA. We enjoyed different dishes off the menu.

Amberjack. Corn agnolotti and lobster nage and shaved black truffles from Australia.


Endive.


Octopus. Cuttlefish.


Bucatini. Lamb.

Over different wines, we enjoyed every dish so much (There were a couple more dishes but I forgot to take photos). Every time I'm at Otium, the experience is so special.


Another night in the same week, I was back at Otium with Evan, Jeanna, and Jason (my husband). Evan and Jeanna were visiting from New York, as Evan had some photo shoot in So. Cal. I requested Chef Tim to do a special donabe omakase dinner for us.


Hamachi, coriander, avocado, lemon, dill.


Hiram's, romaine, Korean chili, shishito, ponzu, served in our donabe steamer, Mushi Nabe. Once the lid was removed, water was poured through the steam grate, then the cold smoke started to come out. I had no idea there was dry ice underneath. What a creative presentation to serve a cold dish in the donabe steamer!


Little gem, heirloom tomato, purslane, pita, sumac. Burrata tart, tomato, basil, curry, truffle.


First donabe smoker, Ibushi Gin dish was Smoked ham, melon, shishito, charred onion, arugula.


Bucatini, crab, buckwheat, scallion, lime. Cuttlefish, hearts of palm, button mushroom, chile, thai basil.


Cajun octopus, hushpuppy, corn, pickled green tomato, were served in tagine-style donabe, Fukkura-san. Then, Iga-yaki grill, Yaki Yaki San was brought with sizzling Pork belly, fried egg, ponzu, rice cake, with extra rice on the side.


The second smoked dish of Duck, leeks, apricot, black sesame, cashew, in donabe smoker, Ibushi Gin.


Ice cream sundae. St-Honore, coffee, salted caramel, hazelnut.


Mignardises were all served in different donabe lids. How creative!

Wow, every dish was so unique and so wonderful. I'm constantly amazed by what Chef Tim and the team offer...and their donabe creations are so amazing! I feel so honored that our donabe are used in so many different and creative ways by such talented chefs.


And, the other day, I had another wonderful lunch there. Here's such an unique dish made with donabe steamer, Mushi Nabe! Lightly smoked and steamed fish on the top layer, then the steam grate was removed. Inside was a stew of hamagiri clams, scallops, etc. Amazing!

Happy donabe life.

Kumamoto Relief Event and Dinner at Paley

Last weekent, at my friends beautiful shop, Tortoise General Store in Venice, there was a charity sales event to support the Kumamoto earthquake recovery efforts. I had a pleasure to be part of the event along with other local vendors and artisans to sell products to raise fund for Kumamoto relief.

I made matcha onigiri (green tea rice balls) topped with pickled cherry blossom flowers (recipe from my DONABE Cookbook). This is the same onigiri as I made at the Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom festival) in DC last month and was very popular. So, I wanted LA people to taste these rice balls, too. I started prepping a night before and woke up very early in the morning to make 110 onigiri! Of course, all were made in my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san"! Rice made in Kamado-san taste just so special and it makes really delicious onigiri. I used nice Uji matcha (green tea powder) from Kyoto and plum-flavored "Amabito no moshio" seaweed salt from Hiroshima, and Sakura no Shiozuke (pickled cherry blossoms) from Okayama, and put tons of love from me!


My husband, Jason, who was finally back from work travels joined me to help the event.


There were also Chef Kuniko's dan dan mein, Chef Shiho's matcha ice cream bonbons, Chef Yuko's graham crackers, and arts and crafts from many other artists/ vendors. Kuniko's dan dan mein was so delicious!

The event lasted two days (I joined Sunday), and about $6,500 was raised! All the proceeds will be donated to Kumamoto earthquake relief fund. I had a great time and am thankful to everybody who came to support Kumamoto!


After working full day (and spending all afternoon under the sun at the shop's patio), I was pretty tired and also hungry for a nice dinner. We had a reservation at Paley, a brand new stylish restaurant in Hollywood. We started with seafood plateau, which made a wonderful start of the night.


Butter lettuce and English peas salad. Beef tartare (seasoned with miso and gochujang). Both were so fresh and tasty. I loved the flavor combination of tartare and grapefruit.


Since my body needed a lot of energy, for my main course, I had dry-aged Manhattan steak. It was perfectly cooked to rare and the flavor was so rich in umami and delicious! The winner dish of the night.


Dessert was dark chocolate cremeux tart with yuzu gelee and blood orange compote. Very nice.

I really enjoyed the dinner and look forward to coming back again. I would love to try their brunch next time, too.

It was a wonderful day and I felt so fulfilled!

Happy donabe life.