Trip to Washington D.C….Dinner at Corduroy

I came to Washington D.C. on a weekend 3-day trip last a couple of weeks ago. Motoko, who used to be a colleague of mine at Toshiba-EMI and now lives in D.C., came to meet me at the airport. It was so great to see her again!


From the airport, we took Metro to the city central. We had a tea break at a local café. Very cute place.


For dinner, we had a reservation at a place called, Corduroy. This restaurant is inside of a small in (very old building) in a seemingly very unlikely area for a stylish shop or eatery. But once we walked inside of the building, it was beautifully modern and had the very warm ambience. Really nice looking place!

We met up with two girlfriends of Motoko’s and four of us had a really fun dinner together. We learned from our waiter that the executive chef of Corduroy has a Japanese wife and he has visited Japan for culinary research before. So, the menu reflects his such background. I saw some Japanese ingredients and preparations in the descriptions.


Noriko’s Shiso Salad. I ordered it because I was so intrigued by the name of the dish. Noriko is the name of chef’s wife. The dish brought in front of me was not exactly what I expected. It was a rather rustic presentation of basically cabbage salad with a little amount of shiso and wakame seaweed. Very homey dish and the flavor was also homey and good. It went well with 2008 Hermann J. Wiemer, Dry Riesling (Finger Lakes, New York). One of the friends ordered gobo (burdock) soup, which had more modern “restaurant” presentation. It had a nice creamy flavor.


My main course was Broken Arrow Ranch Antelope with Chestnut Puree. It was served medium-rare. The meat is from Texas. The meat was really good and had a nice juicy flavor. It was almost as lean as buffalo. I enjoyed the dish very much.


The desserts shined! We ordered 4 kinds and shared them. There were tart tatin, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate tart, and bread pudding. I normally don’t eat big amount of dessert, but this time I kept going! Very nice ending.

Trip to Washington D.C.

I've been too busy past days to update my blog.

Just returned from DC a couple of days ago, and now I'm going back to Japan today!

DC was a lot of fun...I will post pictures from the trip after I get to Tokyo.

Jjigae in Koreatown

I've been in a mood for jjigae (Korean soup) lately.

Seafood Sundubu jjigae at Seonbukdong on 6th St is really outstanding. I've had their Samgyetang also and it's also very nice. Jason and I have come here a few times and we really love this place. It's a good place for a "hangover cure" visit especially since they don't serve alcohol or allow byob. This restaurant is an authentic 韓国食堂 (Korean diner) to me. Jason had breaised mackerel. It was also a very interesting dish with fermented vegetables inside. He loved it.

The other night, we ordered budae jjigae ("military" soup), which is a popular "junk" style jjigae with ramen, spam, sausage, etc., at Chunju Han-il Kwan (also on 6th St.). I'm not particularly a big fan of budae jjigae in general but I got kind of excited that they had it in the menu and it seemed to be a very popular item in the restaurant. I think their version had very "fermented" (pickled) flavors from the aged kimchi and it was different from what I had experienced before. Their seafood pajeong (pancake) came in a sizzling skillet and quite nice.

Bottarga & Green Tea Onigiri

Another decadent bottarga lunch. This time, I made Bottarga & Green Tea Onigiri (rice balls).

I first made half & half (brown and white) rice with my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". Then, I added grated bottarga and green tea leaves (toasted in a pan beforehand) to the rice. The aroma was really nice.

The mixed rice was made into onigiri (rice balls) and we just wrapped each with nori (roasted seaweed) to enjoy. I also served some sliced bottarga with sliced radish (they are really nice together). I wish I could have this lunch every day!

Side dish was simple steam-fry komatsuna (Japanese spinach) with eryingi mushrooms. It was coked with my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". I drizzled a little amount of donabe-smoked soy sauce to finish again.

Fabulous lunch.

Happy donabe life.

Sunday Afternoon Gourmet Birthday Party

We were invited to a birthday party for our dear friend last Sunday.

She invited about 30 guests. Most of us were hard-core wine lovers. We all brought wines and the lineup was so amazing. There were many magnum bottles, too.

1993 Vilmart, Champagne brut "Coeur de Cuvee" (magnum size) was extraordinary.

Rinaldi, Cavallotto, Aldo Conterno...all in big formats. Heavenly.

For those special wines, special food was the most appropriate. We got Chef Gary Menes in the kitchen! Yaaay. He's one of the most talented chefs I know in LA. Gary and Wesley did an amazing job with all the dishes. I wish I could have taken pictures of all the food. I can't remember how many slices of jiggly pork belly I ate. The picture is beef tri-tip, which was finished in the special outdoor oven.

It was a beautiful birthday party and we all had a blast!

Penne with Bottarga, and donabe steam-fry peashoot

I've been waiting, but bottarga (cured mullet roe) has yet become a mainstream in LA food scene. You occasionally find in dishes at some Italian restaurants, but it's still hard to find at local stores. So, I think I will have to wait until Eataly LA opens next year... When I eat bottarga, I want to really taste it. The other night, I had cannellini beans with bottarga at Pecorino Restaurant in Brentwood. It was a good dish and I understand that they can't give you generous shaving of bottarga for what they charge. It made me crave for bottarga so much. I wanted to chew on it and savor it.

And, luckily, here's my special bottarga I got from my friend.

I used the entire log (half package) of it for our pasta lunch for 2. Once penne was cooked, I tossed the pasta with olive oil and grated bottarga. To finish, the pasta was topped with more sliced bottarga, ao-nori (Japanese seaweed powder), and Japanese herb mixture (asatsuki, mitsuba, and shiso). I was in heaven!

Side dish was simple donabe steam-fried peashoot, which was made with my tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san". Peashoot was steam-fried with shallot and garlic, then seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little drizzle of my homemade donabe-smoked soy sauce.

Happy donabe life.

Cooking class report...Spring Donabe Dishes

Last Saturday, I hosted a donabe & Japanese cooking class.

The theme was "Sprind Donabe Dishes".

3 out of 4 dishes were made with different kinds of donabe.

I'm wearing my new Korean apron, which I bought in Seoul.

Asparagus "Karashi su-miso ae" (tossed in white miso, Japanese mustard, and vinegar sauce)

Steam-fry lotus root in caramelized oyster sauce and black vinegar sauce was made with tagine-style donabe, "Fukkura-san".

Smoked salmon and broccolini chirashi-sushi in a double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san". It was a healthy brown rice version with purple yam vinegar. The inner layer of colorful radishes gave the nice crunch.

Chicken and gobo "tamago-toji" in a light-weight classic-style donabe, "Yu Kizeto". Ground chicken and burdock root were simmered in dashi-base broth and finished with mitsuba herbs and eggs.

The dishes went wonderfully with Taltarni Brut Rose "Tache".

I always have a great time at our cooking class. Our guests are always great and their smiles make me so happy.

Happy spring.

Happy donabe life.

Korean udon and Japanese udon

One day in Koreatown.

The other day, I had lunch at Myung Dong Kyoja, which is a LA branch of a popular restaurant in Seoul. We ordered the same dishes as I had in Seoul...Mandu (pork and vegetables steamed dumplings) and kalguksu (Korean-style hand-cut udon-like noodles). Both were good and very similar to what I remember from their Seoul location. But, I tasted both LA versions of kimchi and mandu were extremely garlicky!! I had to brush teeth more than a few times after I came home, but I could still taste the garlic in my mouth until the next day.

Last Saturday, after shopping at Torrance Farmers Market, we stopped by at Ichimi Ann Bamboo Garden for lunch. It's a Japanese soba and udon restaurant. Tiny place with a self-order counter and a few tables.

I had cold tororo & mozuku udon (grated mountain yam, slimy seaweed, and quail egg). Jaosn had chicken udon in hot broth. My broth had the mild vinegary flavor, which was refreshing. Very rustic and nice quick lunch.