Chinese takeout and Salmon

My gosh, it's two of my favorite things...fish and Chinese food! Well, I made the kind of Chinese food that bores me (to be honest), but everyone is more familiar with :-/. If I were to make the kind of stuff I REALLY like to eat (and look at), no one would know what the hell it is, for the most part! And there lies the rub: I want to make things that are new, or at least, not as "recognizeable" right off the bat? One of these days, I will think, screw it, and make some REALLY funky stuff. I get bored easily and I need to challenge myself more. Mind you, I will never get bored of making fish, but I need some weirdness ;-). It's essential to my "mental health", haha!!

Da Kitchen

Mom and I went to Da Kitchen for lunch today. This is the first one on Oahu, where we live, but there are two on Maui. I've read the glowing reviews before, but nothing could prepare me for the monstrous portions! I guess you could classify this type of food as "haute platelunch". Platelunches have always been a mainstay here, usually consisting of artery clogging goodness... maybe some kind of meat, scoops of rice, and macaroni salad (with or without gravy). Well, the prices here seemed a wee but high, until you noticed that every entree could serve a family of four. I ordered Mahi Mahi Tempura with rice and macaroni salad, and mom ordered Chicken Katsu (Japanese style fried, breaded cutlet) with gravy, rice, and mac salad. What arrived at our table was a mountain of food. I mean, it was almost embarrassing. We had enough leftovers for dinner. I will be going back, in part, because I want to try the famous fried Spam Musubi (fried Spam sandwiched between rice, wrapped in seaweed, and breaded and fried in Panko ;-).

Quesadillas and Taquitos

I was asked to do something for Dolls House and Miniature Scene, so since I was on a little Mexican kick, I did a how-to on Tamales. But I thought I'd make a couple more things, so here's a Quesadilla and some Taquitos. There was actually a bowl of Guacamole with the Taquitos, but I threw it away because it looked like a bowl of snot.

Happy Father's Day

To my daddy and all the other daddys out there ;-)

Arctic Char and oysters....and trying to get the text right is driving me nuts!!

I hope this works, damnit!!

Tamales and fish heads

Well, I'm still not quite feeling 100% "normal" (is there such a thing!?), due to extreme anemia, lethargy, and overall fartiness, so my blogging has been lackluster, and most of my time has been consumed with trying to fill orders and crank out the goods, while staying conscious. BUT, I am getting better, really! I'm continuing with the Mexican theme, hence the Tamales, and satisfying my penchant for the grotesque with bloody fish heads.


Making these fish heads reminded me of hanging out with my Chinese grandpa. He was a hardcore fisherman (he ate stuff right out of the ocean, no prep or cooking required), and throughout my early teens, we were attached at the hip. Well, with him and all his fishing buddies, that is. He used to make these crabbing nets. They were round, with the net in the middle, and strings to attach fish heads as bait, and a long string to pull them back in. We would go down to the canal, toss the nets into the water, then wait until the crabs went for the bloody heads. With a quick yank of the string, they were ours and into the bucket they went. He cooked me everything we caught, and it was pure heaven. Fried fish eyes? HELL YES!! The back of the crab with all that greenish stuff?? Still my favorite part- you can keep the legs and everything else. I also went with him and his buddies to "lay net" in the ocean, which entailed a group of guys swimming out with a giant net. They would lay the net, which covered a wide expanse, then, a day or so later, we would go back and pull in the haul. Lobsters, lots of fish, crabs....all kinds of goodies! One day, I asked my grandpa why they ocassionally slapped the surface of the water. He told me that they were doing that to chase away the Hammerhead and Tiger Sharks. WHAT???????? I climbed into the giant inner tube where they held the big net and refused to swim along side them ever again. Thinking back, this didn't make any sense. Wouldn't making all that commotion ATTRACT the sharks as opposed to scare them off??? I never found out, but my gramps was notorious for saying things to freak people out. In fact, for the longest time, I believed that he ate chicken shit as a child, like he told me (among other things).

When my parents bought him a proper fishing boat, I still went out with him, even though I was miserable. I would start out all gung ho, then gradually wilt under the weight of extreme nausea and exhaust fumes from the engine. He would kill the engine when we were out far enough, and just sit there, with the boat going up and down. I would hang off the side of the boat, barfing profusely. Maybe this was like "chum" for the fish? EEEEW!!!!!! Anyway, my grandpa was a real character, a maverick, a rebel, and a one of a kind. He taught me to eat things most people would turn their noses up at, and I love him for that ;-).

My first Lasagna?!

It seems a little odd, but I've never made Lasagna before. Maybe because I didn't relish the thought of making all those layers?? But a customer asked me to make some, so I did, one for her and one to list. This set was actually supposed to include TWO servings, but I can't find the other one!!! It vanished into thin air! I tore the place apart and it is just.....gone. Very weird. I am used to dropping things like pieces of fruit and never finding it (maybe months later) because they're so small, but a plate of Lasagna? WTF!!

Tacos

I am craving Mexican food, which doesn't happen too often...so I made tacos :-D

This is just ducky.

More meat. I had some roast duck yesterday in Chinatown so I made roasted duck. Not Chinese style (Peking!), which I love the best, but a regular one, straight up. Mom and I went to eat at a little hole in the wall because I told her that I wanted to learn to love innards. Erm....this is going to take awhile :-/. I felt like I was nibbling on something I shouldn't have been. Like a corpse!! I started with a Chinese porridge that contained stomach, pancreas, and various other tidbits. I can eat chicken hearts and gizzards, but this shit was INTENSE. Please, Andrew Zimmern, my new true love (sorry Anthony), give me strength!!!