Back bay bike ride

Whew! So a friend and I kayak this back bay area of Newport Beach. We realized there was a bicycle trail and wanted to check it out. We went this morning and rode the whole bay - 10 miles. Bicycling on a stationary bike is way different than a real bike... I forgot about climbing hills. I've been riding on flat land and on the stationary bike which are really easy. This trail went all around the bay - it was really scenic since it goes around the bird sanctuary - we saw several cranes and little birds.

Took a few pics of the place. There are several trails that branch off - one goes from Newport Beach all the way close to where I live and it is an 80 mile ride. Getting alittle ambitious on that part. I think this 10 mile trail kinda kicked my butt - there were a couple of challenging hills, one I actually got off the bike and walked it up the hill.

The trail was easy to follow since we just had to look for the path markers.

This is the bay area - this is actually the hill area that was a tough climb.

Fat Bob

Anyway, after getting home from sushi I started all my baking projects. It didn't take as long as I thought I got to bed early - 5AM... just in time for a quick nap before I had to wake up at 7 for the Harley demo rides. This has been something I've really been looking forward to. Actually, it's something I look forward to every year, when given the opportunity to attend. Harley-Davidson comes out with the new year's motorcycle - this year - 2008, is the new Dyna Fat Bob. Whew! What a nice looking bike. At these demo rides, you get to test ride any bike you want - just sign up and fill out the waiver. You can spend all day riding each bike. It's a fantastic treat.

So being here without my bike, I've been missing out on all the rides that I could be going on. A friend of mine is thinking about getting the Fat Bob, so we went to the demo to ride. We were the first ones to sign up. She rode the Fat Bob with mid-controls (controls built in the middle of the bike) and I rode the Fat Bob with forward controls (controls that are built closer to the front of the bike). Kinda funny since she's mega tall and I'm really short - we should have rode opposite bikes... short legs, mid controls/ tall legs, forward controls... anyway, the forward controls was cool. I really need to grow about 2 more inches to touch the controls. I had to sit on the tank to reach the pedals - brakes and gears even with my heels on! This bike is a 1584cc engine... the largest engine in the whole Harley fleet, with the exception of the Screamin Eagle brand which is 1808cc. My bike is only a 1450cc... mine is fast but this one is way faster - just a little flick of the wrist and I was flying down the road at 70mph! I didn't even realize I was going that fast until I looked at the spedometer. Just imagine... with a 1450 engine, you can top out at 120mph... I wonder what you can top out at with a 1584cc? Wow.

It's such an awesome bike. Even I was tempted to take it home with me! With the drag bars - it just makes you want to take sharp turns and race... the pipes are cool, the color (I rode a blue one) is great and get this! You don't need a key (I'm always worried my key will fall out of the ignition and I'll be stranded). The newer bikes you turn the bike ignition on with the key then store it - and the bike still works! Also on all the 2008 models is a 6th gear. I wonder if that means you can go faster.

2008 Dyna Fat Bob with forward controls

Fat Bob with forward controls - demo ride

holiday lights, boat show and good eats

Whew! What a busy day. Started out with a nice kayak trip around the Newport Beach back bay bird santuary then lunch in Little Tokyo (downtown LA) at a kaiten (conveyor sushi bar).

Our plans had originally been for sushi bar hopping for dinner. We found 4 restaurants we wanted to check out since we had heard good reviews. By the time we got back to town from LA, it was dinner time (and rush hour traffic). We had reservations for the 2nd sushi bar... we had to skip the first sushi bar in order to keep the reservation. Next up, we went to a boat show in Newport Beach - the locals all decorate their boats with various lights and decorations for Christmas and drive around the bay. We went for this in addition to seeing the winning houses light displays along the promenade on Balboa Island. When we finished the looking at the lights, we went on to the 3rd sushi bar. And after this place - it was already midnight and we called it a night, forgoing the 4th place for a later date.

Wow, what a day... eating sushi for 9 hours. A few weeks ago, my friends had asked if I would make desserts for their Christmas party for 60 people. Jumping at the practice, I said yes... but with what time? Anyway, after getting home from sushi I started all my baking projects. It didn't take as long as I thought. I'm typing this up as the last of the projects are baking. I decided on 5 desserts - a struesel, white chocolate pound cake, red velvet cupcakes, rum cake and a sponge petit four.

coast guard update

So I went back to the Coast Guard with my birth certificate in hand - the state copy and hospital copy. I spoke to the same guy as the first time (I think he's the only one that works in that office)... and he STILL could not believe I have two middle names. If anyone can send abit of patience this way, it'd be highly appreciated. He even recommeded that I get my name changed legally in order to make things less complicated for government officials. Ok, whatever - at least my mom would be proud that I held my tongue. While that mess gets sorted out, all my other paper work is complete. I should find out more about the job next month since all training has been stopped for the remainder of the year.

another '07 goal

This has been a fairly good year. I made 3 goals for this year and all of them have been accomplished... well, kind of. One of my goals was to move to Austin, which did happen. I just didn't stay there as long as anticipated. The other two was the cross country bike ride and sushi school.

With those down, and still having a few more weeks of 2007, I thought to create a new goal. Ah yes, swimming lessons. Ok... with this cruiseline job, I figure I should learn how to swim. You know, just in case the boat sinks or I just want to jump ship. I think I might know how to swim - I do play in the pool alot but its really not being able to swim but the fear of what's in the water with me and not being able to touch the bottom. Mind games, I know... too many Jaws movies as a kid or an over abundance of watching Lake Placid or any other freaky water movie. I would like a refresher course of the basics just in case. At least, when I get more confident in the water I'll be able to do more water stuff that I've been wanting to try out but have been wary of. I hear Hawaii's got alot of stuff to offer and of course, all the water stuff I'd like to do.

So far, the lessons are going alright. I swallow and inhale quite a bit of chlorinated water. Cooties, I know! I'm not quite coordinated yet in keeping my head above water when breathing. Hopefully though with more practice the less water will be taken in. And the deep end... whew, I try to keep my mind pre-occupied since thinking about touching the bottom and can't is when I tend to get real nervous.

sushi school testimony

Sensei asked if I would write a testimony for the school. It's on the school website.

http://www.sushischool.net/testimonial.php

MMD

I'm trying to get an MMD card through the Coast Guard. It's a mandatory thing if I want to work on a boat. So I went to the office this morning and took all the requested paperwork with me as well as my drivers license, social security card and passport.

I'm having a little difficulty getting this card. Apparently, I am a suspect of identity theft. I don't get it. Do you ever wonder what some people are thinking? First off, I was wondering why this guy (I'm really trying to be polite here but I do have all sorts of other names for him) thinks I've stolen another person's identity... and secondly, it makes me wonder what my parents were thinking when they decided to name me. I am kinda lucky that I don't have some funky name but I wonder what they were thinking when they decided upon two middle names. Perhaps, they knew two middle names would confuse this one particular person.

So I have two middle names and it's the first time I've been hassled about having two. One is American and one is Japanese. Yes, I've had them since I was born. No, I'm not making it up. I really have two middle names. Granted, alot of forms only have one spot for one middle initial hence the reason why I have to choose which one I want to go by. Which means sometimes, I do not get a choice like on my driver's license. They put down the initial of my first middle name. My other documents have the other initial so not all my identification matches. My passport has the other middle name on it.

But I would think once you are verified by a government agency, you should be good to go. When I enlisted in the military I had to show all these documents to verify who I was, etc and they wrote down both middle names. When I got out of the military, I was given a veterans card which has both middle names.

So when I gave the coast guard guy my identification, he's not only doubting me but other government agencies. Apparently, he doesn't believe someone can have two middle names and wants to see my birth certificate with his own eyes. How would I be able to get a passport, a driver's license or even a valid social security number if my birth certificate is fake? So this adds a couple more weeks onto the wait time, which all I'm waiting for is the okay from the coast guard - the approval will result in the MMD card.

sushi for dinner

Been wanting to try out some sushi restaurants in the area. Went out to dinner with a friend of mine to a little hole in the wall place we found off of http://www.yelp.com/ It had some good reviews so in we went. I kinda liked the place... kinda traditional Japanese with a bit of Americanization in it. Good twist of things... we sat at the sushi bar and ordered off the specials. I think so far, this is the best sush restaurant I've been to in southern CA.

















Recommeded monkfish liver (ankimo) to my friend who had never tried it before and was willing to try anything. It's compared to foie gras - rich creamy yet light flavor topped with ponzu sauce (citrus sauce), momiji oroshi (horseradish red pepper) and green onions. It's often called foie gras of the ocean and getting popular in the States. She really liked the shiso leaf too... I think the translation is perilla leaf but although incorrect can kinda be called Japanese basil.
















When I saw this, I had to try it. It just caught my eye and I really like quail eggs - alot. It's called a shrimp boat...butterfly shrimp stuffed with kanikama (crab), topped with masago (smelt eggs), quail egg and green onion. Dipped in soy sauce - this was the bomb! It was my fav dish tonight.















Then we ordered a sashimi plate - only to check out the plate. It's a flower shaped ice mold. Thought it was really cool. Although the concept is correct, the cutting and plating was not so good. That ice mold though, yeah that's what sold me. This was tuna, red snapper and octopus on a bed of shredded daikon, shiso leaf and lemon. They had another ice mold of a boat for a larger order of sashimi. That would have been way cool to see but too much food. Perhaps next time.

We ordered some other stuff too but these were the ones that impressed tonight.

long beach sights

Thought I'd spend the day sight seeing since I haven't really done so since moving to California. I went to Long Beach and hung out at the aquarium and took a short walk around the village shopping area. The Aquarium of the Pacific is kinda nice. I had been here before several years ago when it first opened. Back then there were alot of jelly fish but this time there were only 3 cases, which was a little disappointing. They did have sea horses though as with the weedy and leafy sea dragons. I thought those were pretty cool looking.






leafy sea dragon - found off the Western coast of Australia. It's a relative of the sea horse family.











weedy sea dragon - also a sea horse relative. These are also found only off the coast of Australia.











sea horses












movie of a male sea horse giving birth - click on the play button





lion fish














porcupine fish













jelly fish












queen mary in the distance















that's me...

scratch tofu

Wow, I'm amazed that making tofu from scratch is so easy. Time consuming but very simple to make. Took me about 1 1/2 hrs to make a loaf. I'm sure though the time would have been the same, had I made more. But this was just an experiment. Last week I made tofu from a kit... the only difference is that this time I actually got soybeans and food processed them into liquid form then cooked and strained it. Other than that everything else was the same - yeah, even the flavor. Unbelieveable.

tofu

I've been wanting to learn how to make tofu from scratch for awhile. After seeing various kits, I decided to start my first scratch batch from a tofu kit - just to see how difficult the process is.
With this tofu kit - all the ingredients are in the box. I didn't have the correct tofu container but I thought any plastic container would do. Turned out great... I'm amazed at the flavor. Kinda reminds me of grits - flavor, not texture. It's really good and tastes so different from store bought tofu.

In the meantime, there's another tofu recipe. This is actually for real scratch - where you get the soy beans, macerate them into mush and all the rest of the stuff. That will be interesting to make.

oh oh - aimed a little low

This is so weird. I interviewed for the wrong job. I ended up taking a job with one of those original 6 interviews. All I wanted was a sushi maker job - to be alittle peon in the grand scheme of things. Roll sushi, make sashimi, nigiri, etc - gain speed, get more practice, something temporary - what better way than fast food sushi. I'd be easily replaceable when the cruiseline gives me to go ahead for training.

I was over-qualified as a sushi roller... so I had interviewed for a supervisor position - a floor manager to be in charge of a shift of the sushi roller people. Today was the first day of work. The guy I interviewed with is actually going to be my boss and I met his boss today - the Regional General Manager as well as the company trainer. Now, I was thinking this place is kinda nice - the Regional manager took time out of his busy schedule to welcome me into the company and I'll be trained by a guy thats only job is to train people for their position. Quite impressive. I figured they really want some good sushi people producing some really nice rolls. I mean, fast food sushi - who would have thought? Never heard of the company until the interview but hey, sushi is popular.

Uh, come to find out that position I interviewed for was not floor manager. The Regional general manager wouldn't have greeted me that way... and I wouldn't have a company trainer to train me had it only been for that shift leader position. The job interview was for store manager. Wow. They want to give me my own store! It's being built right now and will be ready to open come February. Man, those crazy Japanese accents! Floor manager, store manager - it's definately not the same thing. Can you say I aimed alittle low? The store is in Long Beach - a place that's got a really way cool aquarium. Well, if I had to live in Southern California, Long Beach is the place I'd want to live. This might be a toss up - cruise or Long Beach, I mean store manager. Pros and cons, the cruise is still in the lead. How do I back pedal out of this mess?

And I got another job offer - just for fun, like a side job. A friend of a friend of a friend has been looking for a sushi chef for their catering company. They make some really nice wedding cakes - the pictures are awesome. I wonder if they taste good... hmmm. Anyway, they want to expand in the sushi world - that might be alittle entertainment. We'll see. Options - there are getting to be several.

By the way, starting my medical tests for the cruise today... doing good so far.

couch potato - in the car

I have some good news. First off, that 7th interview - the one with the job I really wanted... they called me back for a 2nd interview. Got the job too. But being bummed out this past week about that job has made me realize, I could move on knowing that I didn't get it... and had begun making other plans.

Now that I got the job, I don't want it. Part of my decision in not taking the job is the commute. Been there 3 times already and feel like I'm wasting time driving back and forth. It's only 35 miles to Beverly Hills but it takes 2 hours to get there and 3 hours to get back home - in normal traffic. 5 hours in the car is abit much 5-6 days a week. That would almost be like a part-time job.

The other plan consists of a compromise. Whew! To say that, well... to those that know me, know I'm not very good at compromising and it is rare than I do. Maybe it's a sign of old age? (Oh oh, it's downhill from here on out.) I kinda miss the seasonal trail. I miss the change, adventure, meeting new people, checking out new places, etc. With the seasonal trail, I change companies every 4-5 months and had realized I needed to settle down with one company to show stability, think of the future, perhaps even job benefits like health insurance, medical and everything else I haven't had to worry about. Hence, the reason I decided to stop the seasonal trail and grow some roots. But I'm already bored and to think of staying in one area for years and years indefinately is a like a ball and chain - kinda makes me want to run.

So my goal was to settle down in order to focus on my sushi career. I'd be willing to do that for a few years but I haven't really found anything that has caught my eye - something to tie me here to LA. Then as part of my job hunt I saw a cruiseline job fair. I had planned on going then talked myself out of it. (I knew what would happen if offered a job.) But my roommate persuaded me in going - "look but don't sign ANYTHING," she said as I walked out the door.

So the compromise is... I'm returning to the seasonal trail on that cruise line. I was offered a job on the spot and it's a guaranteed sushi position (so I can be in the sushi world), travel and if I like it, remain within the same company for stability but still have all the change. It'll take about about 2 months to complete all the testing and medical stuff if all goes well. So it's kinda like a win-win situation. Let's hope so.

In the meantime, I've decided to take one of the job offers out of those original 6 to tide me over so to speak. I've been on more interviews since but knowing the job will be temporary, I'm not being as selective as I normally would.

On the cruise, I'll be returning to the 80-90 hour work week. This time though it'll be 7 days straight for 5 months. Never really done that before... I've worked many hours but I've always had a day off, a 6 day work week. We'll see how it goes. It's real tight quarters - 4 people per room. A small room with a gym locker to hold all our possessions (so I'll have to pack abit lighter!)

To the future! Changing as always...

interviews

I've been interviewing for sushi jobs since I finished school last week. I made sure to get a few interviews to practice on before I got an interview for the job I really want. 7 interviews... 6 of them practise since I get really nervous when I want something - and I got job offers from them all. That 7th one is the job I really wanted and haven't heard from. That kinda bums me out. Even with those 6 practise interviews, I still got super nervous and it didn't go so well. Strange thing though, since I knew I didn't want those 6 other jobs I wasn't nervous at all, which is probably why I got them.

Back to the real world. I kinda get tunnel vision when it comes to jobs so since I didn't get the one I wanted it really doesn't matter where I work. Maybe I'll pick from one that I got... Or go on more interviews. We'll see.

japanese cuisine and culture

Went to a Japanese cuisine and culture festival this afternoon. It was sponsored by the Japanese Restaurant Association and the California rice commission. Lots of food - noodles (somen, udon), nigiri, sashimi, sukiyaki, tempura, crepes, yakitori, even beer and sake tastings. It was kinda cool since I'd been wanting to eat sashimi the past couple of days.

One of the demonstrations was a bigeye tuna - it was 150lbs and it was cut up and served as sashimi. The guy was quick! It probably took him 15 minutes or less. Then he had his helpers cut it down into serving sizes.

I also saw sushi machines. You put the rice in the machine and one makes rolls and the other makes nigiri - and even puts it in plastic. I figure maybe for airplane food?







150# bigeye tuna

huge bowl of ikura (salmon roe) plated in rice bowls with shredded nori - like in scattered sushi.

sushi roll machine



















nigiri machine













nigiri finished product - packaged in plastic from the machine

finals

Today was finals. Along with the written we made 3 dishes each... a signature roll, appetizer and a combination plate of nigiri and tuna roll.



Signature roll - cheddar cheese, avocado, tomato concasse, crab, sesame leaf - tempura battered with plum and honey siracha sauce.












appetizer - mackeral bird nest croquette. In the croquette is mashed potato with shredded mackeral with panko crust, deep fried with a persimmon ginger dipping sauce.

I was so consume with ensuring my ingredients were fresh and all in season, I didn't realize my error until I started my testing - both dishes are fried.






combo plate - tekka roll (tuna roll) with halibut nigiri












Class: L-R
Cheuk, Jason, Jake, Sensei Andy (in black), Danny, Dai, Nick (asst chef instructor), Lorraine and I










Now graduated - with certificate

That was a quick 2 month course. I'm thinking I'll be staying in the LA area but still job hunting and open for options.

veggie nigiri

Today was vegetable nigiri day... after disecting the worms from the beltfish. Thankfully! I think everyone ate their veggie nigiri although some of the guys pan fried their beltfish and had that for lunch instead of raw.

L-R: kaiware (sprouts), eggplant with plum sauce, avocado, carrots, cucumber and soy beans, green onion with miso, roasted red pepper, asparagus.

it waved at me

Ok, so I grossed my classmates out again. It was unintentional - really. Today's assignment was a belt fish also known as a scabbard fish. We were cutting it down into filets, one classmate cut away one side and I cut the other filet but once I got the portion off, I noticed some dark looking round things in the meat and asked Sensei what they were. Uh, worms... oh yum... why is it I get the wormy fish? So I had to pick the worms out of the meat and prepare it for sushi. Most times, this fish is a cooked item but if tried as sushi, it has a distinctive flavor that some people (Sensei) likes. Me? Uh, I tried it last week and gave it away - the good thing is all the leftover sushi that we don't want, we give to Ouchi, the school office manager, who usually takes it home to his family. Oh... and if it's cooked more than likely you've eaten a worm. Good protein source, eh?

Last Friday we had an assignment on pompano nigiri. Pompano is this cute little fish - I think posted a pic of this fish skeleton... we deep fry the skeleton and eat it like chips. Anyway, everyone's assignment was complete and we were ready for lunch. (We all sit down together and eat like a family meal). As I looked down at my soon to be lunch, I saw this worm... it was standing up on end and waving at me. Literally, I'm not kidding. (Although it was a bit funny so see the color drain from my classmates faces). I guess I didn't do a very good job killing off all the worms - it's kind of a wormy fish. Sensei just told me to kill off the worm and eat the sushi anyway... needless to say, no one ate lunch that day - we all lost our appetites.

A few weeks ago, as we were doing our class assignment I had a worm crawling around on my plate. That time though, we all carved up the fish and put it in a big tray so I don't know who cleaned that fish but I ended up with it. It was a little baby worm - but the guys didn't eat their lunch that day either.

So far, there's been 3 worms found and yeah, guess who's been lucky to find all of them? It makes me wonder... if I am the only one to find worms in the fish, perhaps my classmates have eaten the worms unknowingly? I can't be the only one! Could I?

Out of my own evilness - I've posted Friday's lunch for you. By the time I got my camera the worm crawled down from the nigiri on the right and is in the middle of the two nigiri.

My friend... the worm.

jackfruit versus durian

I think jackfruits and durians are in the same family. They kinda look alike. Jackfruits are big pine coney things with tons of pokeys... and durians are little pine coney looking things with tons of pokeys.

Some of my classmates said in Vietnam, people put fences around the fruit trees. I thought maybe perhaps they were claiming the wild tree but they said no... the fence is suppose to protect people from dying. Ugh! Dying? When these fruits are ripe, they fall off the tree. Getting hit on the head by a pokey thing can surely cause brain damage, if not instant death. Ouch - that's gotta hurt a little! So when harvesting, people wear hardhats just to be sure they are protected.

I ate a jackfruit and thought it was delicious. People either love it or hate it. There's no in between. It stinks and in order to tell it's ripe, it stinks real bad. Real bad - like rotting onions. But if you like mango, peaches and bananas - that's what it tastes like (to me) if you ate all three fruits at the same time. Real yum, I think. Kinda like eating a ripe peach - texture wise.

Durians on the other hand. Well, I went to the Asian market and bought one thinking it was a jackfruit since it was huge. I usually see little durians... never big ones. So I got it, brought it home and read the tag... claiming it was a durian. Never had it before but had heard you either love it or hate it. These too stink REAL bad, when ripe. So I cut it open and ate it. This is like creamy egg custard like texture which is good. But the taste... yuck! To me, it was like eating a nice sweet banana and garlic - at the same time. Maybe it wasn't quite ripe yet? It was stinking up the kitchen... In some places in Southern Asia, durian is prohibited in public places because of the stink - to some people love it and other's, it totally offends the olfactory sense.

sushi - nigiri and box

It's been a few days since uploading pics of sushi. We've learned a couple types of fish and have been practising on cutting a whole fish down into usable pieces for sushi.







sushi - red snapper, sea bream, abalone, imitation crab



bottom row - box sushi with tuna, avocado and tobiko; egg nigiri (tamago)








box sushi - we make this kind of sushi in a box then cut it into squares. This one is tuna with wasabi mayonaise, kaiware (sprouts), tobiko, honey siracha sauce and siracha mayonaise.








sushi -

top row nigiri - tuna, albacore, salmon, scallop

bottom row - spicy tuna temaki (handroll), spicy tuna roll and scallop








oysters - one in a 1/2 shell with ponzu, chili radish and green onion; the other is a shooter with quail egg, siracha, green onion and lemon wedge










appetizer special - toro tartare. Toro is the best part of the bluefin tuna - it is the belly part of the fish. Tartare originates in Russia (Baltic states) and is a coursely ground, high quality beef mixed with salt, pepper and herbs, topped with an egg. In this case, the dish is fusion - substituting toro for the beef, garnished with green onions and topped with a quail egg and ponzu sauce.




nigiri - saba (mackeral), mussels, ama ebi (sweet shrimp) and aji (spanish mackeral)

a few days ago, i had a picture of an overgrown scallop liver. these two are normal sizes although different colors - one red, one brown. (See September 25, 2007 blog titled "nigiri").

Time is flying by! Graduation is next week - 8 more days of practice then the real world. I'm still unsure of future plans except to say I'll be in the sushi world. While prcrastinating on the job front, I do have a few ideas. I guess we'll both be finding out where the next home will be at approximately the same time... or stay in Southern California and become a beach bum. Hmmm, options.

disneyland

Whew! Still recovering alittle from the weekend. Last Friday, was mid-term day already. That means 2 more weeks until graduation... unbelieveable. Time is passing so quickly. Anyway, as a treat I went to Disneyland. It's only a few miles down the road from where I'm living and hear their fireworks display every night. I hadn't been there in a long long time - since I was a kid. Could it be almost 20 years ago? Wow. I'm old! Hehehehe. It was fun. There were alot of new rides I'd never been on before. Then there were a few rides, I'd been on before. Space mountain is a roller coaster in the dark. I'd been on it before but it had been fixed to take tighter turns, go faster and be darker.

There's this new concept called fast pass. You can only get one at a time but you get the ticket and don't have to wait in line as long. You just return at the time the ticket tells you and you maybe have to wait 10 minutes for the ride. I think the longest wait we had was 35 minutes without the fast pass, which isn't bad at all. It was a very nice day but tons of people - old people, young people, kids and tons more of kids being pushed in strollers. I got my toes ran over by strollers, stepped on, hair pulled... way too many people for me.

duck tongue

Tonight was an interesting dinner. Most of the classmates got together to hangout in Chinatown - this is a 'modern' one, located in a different town. If I didn't know it was Chinatown, I would have thought it a regular part of town with a few Chinese stores. It was all spread out and we actually had to drive to different areas.

Anyway, one of the classmates works in a Chinese restaurant and we've been wanting to try authentic Chinese food. Guess I'm willing to try almost anything once. We just picked a bunch of dishes that were recommended by our classmate. He did a pretty good job... one of the entree's was duck tongues - literally, with basil, black pepper and veggies. It was good. There were other duck tongue dishes but supposedly the tongues stink really bad and kinda ruins your appetite - basil reduces the smell so we went with that one.

I should have taken a picture for you for the proper visual. (hehehe) Oh and kinda raw chicken. It's called the House chicken special. It looks raw - the meaty part is real pale, the skin is on and looks raw as with the bones - the marrow is bright red. It really is cooked but on real low heat for a short period of time, air dried (I think) for a bit and returned to the low heat. Honestly, I had a hard time trying that one.

semi round fish

Still getting the hang of making the nigiri (rice balls). We get timed every day to get faster. Amazingly working with the nigiri - some of the classmates have forgotten how to roll sushi... they put too much rice in it and it doesn't close. So we get timed on our cucumber rolls as well. 8 nigiri in 2 minutes and 2 cucumber rolls in 2 minutes are the class goals. For me, the timing is not a problem butI still cut crooked... when you look at my rolls, they are more trapezoid shape. I think I just rush myself becuase when I'm not in a rush they turn out okay.

In the meantime, we're learning how to fabricate various fish. Today, we learned how to cut semi-round fish - like the red snapper and sea bream.

nigiri - shrimp (ebi), sardine, sea water eel (anago) and avocado eel roll

nigiri - sea bream (tai), red snapper, salmon skin temaki, sea water eel (anago), pike mackeral (samma)

food fest

Wow, what a weekend. We started with lunch on Friday at school and didn't stop eating all weekend. We had all decided to hangout after school and go for some sushi but our lunch was really good and everyone ate everything so we were quite full. We bumped the sushi time to dinner and in the meantime, we decided to explore nearby Chinatown and Olivera Street. Little did I know we were going to purchase various foods to try - alot of various foods. By the time dinner came around, we were even more full but went anyway. By the way, the sushi restaurant was quite disappointing.

Saturday started out with more food - lunch. Three of the classmates are Vietnamese and miss Vietnamese food so we went to Little Saigon and had some real pho. These guys are all buddies from Mississippi so they also have a southern accent which is great. We had some authentic pho then went on to explore all the shops and yes, we stopped at bakeries, markets, fruitstands - everything and got a taste of this and that. Whew! My belly was already full from lunch and you can imagine hanging out all day, how much stuff we ate. Those guys can really eat! Then of course, after all the snacks they were hungry for dinner. Then after dinner more snacks. We found a massage place too. I guess in Mississippi, the massage centers are real expensive so we all went for an hour massage for $20 each. Feeling better they were hungry again and we went to a cafe had some drinks and another dinner. By that time, my stomach really hurt and it was 11PM. Can you imagine eating for 11 hours straight? Holy smokes! But the foods we had were authentic Vietnamese and I got to try some new things - grilled goat, couple of different kinds of sea snails, banana flowers, jackfruit, beef tendons, tapioca starch cakes (similar to mochi), and somethings I've had before but this time around it was better tasting.

Today was alittle better as far as not gorging myself - I didn't hang with my classmates. My roommates returned from their vacation while I went to meet Iron Chef Morimoto. He made a few appetizers for everyone and just came out with his first cookbook.

Iron Chef Morimoto signing his new cookbook.

california culinary academy

With a loss for words, I had to take some time to ponder about this school and the what it means to the culinary world. There has been a great debate about the quality of education young chefs recieve here. It's one of the oldest schools on the West coast and up until a few years ago, had a solid reputation as one of the best in the nation especially with the pairing with Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. People had pride in this school and if you attended, it would distinguish you from other schools since employers sought out CCA graduates.

Let me start this day over with a frantic text message from a friend of mine. We are both CCA graduates and she had heard on the local news, CCA has a class action suit against them for fraud - increasing the price of this school with the promise of becoming a celebrity chef and lowering the learning standard.

With chefs becoming celebrities on television, the amount of students for culinary schools have doubled, tripled, quadrupled in the past 10 years. It's a booming business - a lot of people want to jump on the band wagon of being a superstar chef with the chance of being on television, having their own show or at least being extremely wealthy. To these people, good food is not really the issue - it's becoming famous or the income, that's their motivation. Then there are people who enjoy cooking and become chefs for that reason - make good food while hanging with friends, making people happy through their bellies. Personally, I think the latter people make better chefs and serve better quality food since their primary focus is food and the fame and income are a side effect.

Little do most people know the food service industry only has 2 classes - the poor and the incredibly wealthy, there is no middle ground. Only people that have been in the food industry know this... or have friends in the industry. You start out near the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up. After you put in about 10-15, 20 years, and get an executive chef position will you actually start making the income. The only time this education will help you is perhaps get you in the door and gives you a taste of everything from various food ethnicities, to computer skills, wine pairing and even a little management skills. To advance in these areas, one would have to be in the industry for experience which is the only way to excel.

Some of my classmates thought that by graduating from school, it would automatically put them in a management position. These were the people that had never been in food service before and believed the school recruiter. Others were there to get into the management position and of course, there were others that were recent high school graduates that didn't want to go to an academic college but to appease their parents, decided a vocational school would be sufficient.

People from all walks of life were in my class. Cooking has no age limit... the oldest classmate was in her mid-50's and the youngest ones just graduated high school. We had a good range of people in age and cookery skills - about half the class had prior restaurant experience. And for the most part everyone was eager to learn. It helped that our first instructor is a really good chef... Chef Glenn is also a great teacher and even went beyond teaching us what was in the textbook. It made our sister classes a bit jealous that we were making things not on the syllabus but we thoroughly enjoyed our first 6 weeks with him.

I really believe if you are motivated to learn, you will learn something so in essence, you get out what you put into it. I think most of my classmates were all really good and for the most part we all gleaned as much knowledge as we could. There were some students in our sister classes that still did not know how to boil water, make pasta or make a viniagrette salad dressing upon graduation. Granted, the entire time in school was not all good. Along with the good, there were some really bad instructors and even some instructors who were burned out but were sticking to teaching for a few more years until retirement and it is disappointing to have chef instructors like that.

As far as too many students - there were way too many classmates. Starting out, we had 32 students to 2 chefs... the main chef instructor and the assistant chef instructor. A huge ratio that only got larger when all the assistant chefs were laid off. Eventually, our class number dwindled down to 28 but that is still a large ratio especially when classes were suppose to be maxed out at 20.

Read the article yourself if you like. This is the link:
http://www.sfweekly.com/2007-06-06/news/burnt-chefs

I guess what really bothers me with the article and the current state of the school is that at the City College the culinary students attend school with a longer day, it's 32 times cheaper and the local restaurants would choose a City College graduate over a CCA graduate because of their retained knowledge, reliability, etc. Even when I was attending CCA in 2005, alot of my classmates had a difficult time attaining a job because prior students gave the school a bad reputation by not showing up for work, embellishing their resume and lacking ethics. It also does not help the school's image by firing the two executive chefs. The school President when I attended is no longer there either. I knew there were a lot of disgruntled students, which have made the newspapers and local television news but now it seems, there are alot more angry students out there that I thought. At least some of the instructors were honest with us... my three favorite ones were very upfront Chefs Glenn, Holly and Jason - they informed us from day one that we'd be overworked, underpaid and under appreciated but to be a chef, one has to really be passionate about the food. That the quality and reputation of this school was slowly going downhill due to the corporate buy-out and we should glean all we can from all our chefs because in a few years the school and our diplomas will not mean much in the food industry... it looks like they were correct. Corporations are in the culinary field as a means of capitalization - cram future chefs into a school and extort as much money from them as possible.

The following link was cited in the SF weekly article. I thought to look it up and see what comments are posted about CCA. This is the link: http://www.yelp.com/ in the search, type in california culinary academy in san francisco, california. While some of these critiques are valid, there is something called common sense that would make you questions yourself if you really want to attend this school.

If you ask, did I waste my time attending CCA, I would answer no. I think it was well worth the time and I learned alot. But if you ask if I wasted a lot of cash, my answer would definately be yes - the schooling is way overpriced for the quality of education and the sister schools in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon are almost half the cost. The admissions counselor didn't even want to talk to me until I told him I was already approved for a student loan. Warning signals should have sounded in my head but my reasoning in attending school in San Francisco versus Austin or Portland, is with the farmland and ocean in proximity, students would get the best of both worlds learning about farm and ocean fresh ingredients. Plus the fact that San Francisco is an international city where diversity thrives, it would be a melting pot of ethnicities and international ingredients. With these thought all in mind, I reasoned that was the difference in pricing and it would be a better quality education and school.

gender controversy

Went on a tour with my class to the fish and vegetable market this morning. It was interesting to see the same fish at each market but some were better quality and some had better prices. We were told if we ever do purchase straight from the fish market, to get the freshest since it's local- watch the budget but stay locally fresh.

At the vegetable market, the age old controversy came up about gender - I'll just say innie's and outie's... on vegetables. We were speaking primarily about eggplants. Some say there aren't any genders because it takes both to make the flower which later turns into a fruit (eggplants are technically a fruit although it's prepared like a vegetable). Others say, there are genders and you can tell by looking at the bottom of the eggplant which one is female or male.

I really have no idea but do notice some eggplants have more seeds than others and the supposed physical difference. When picked young, eggplants have a little bit of seeds... or if picked mature, there are of course more seeds. Some mature eggplants have more seeds than others. The seeds are what make them bitter tasting so the less seeds, the better tasting the eggplant - and if you follow the gender rule - the males contain less seeds. So if you are shopping and don't want to waste your buck on the bitter ones, just look at the bottom where the flower was attached and figure out which one is male and purchase it.

Or you can plead ignorance (or just not care) purchase any eggplant, cut it up and soak it in salt. The salt will draw out the bitterness and will result in a sweeter tasting eggplant/ meal. Or you can just purchase the heavy one - heavy ones mean more veggie portion and less seeds.




Supposedly you can tell genders on any eggplant although these are a bit difficult.













American eggplant are the easiest to tell because of their size. These are a little bit better to tell the gender, if you decide to do so.

Can you tell the difference?





I got these pictures off of the internet - flickr. The bottom pictures is a little easier to tell which is which. If you decide to do some homework or research yourself I've been informed that the eggplant bottoms that look like belly buttons are females - they are indented and round whereas the males are not dented, most times smooth and look more like a slash or scar.

Good luck to those that care about eggplant genders.

uni

Today's class was way cool. We all had a chance to dissect a sea urchin (uni)... it was better than a biology class! Taking a pair of scissors, we had to cut out the mouth in order to break it open. There's a lot of teeth too. Amaze me! It's a good thing they only feed on seaweed.

sorry folks...kinda graphic but I thought the sea urchin mouth was really cool. We cut it out in order to get to the eggs. And wear gloves because the spikes leach their dye and it gets all over the place - can't be making purple nigiri.

sea urchin - it's a spendy dish but tasty. The yellowish brown goop is the only portion you eat out of the sea urchin... it's the eggs. There are 5 egg pouches per creature.

you can have any type of nigiri as long as it's squid... we have different types of cutting skills but all the nigiri on this platter is squid... except for the cucumber and the orange stuff is tobiko (flying fish roe) mixed with strips of squid.

nigiri platter - tuna, sea urchin, halibut and pompano

the famous fish chips I was telling you about yesterday. dried, deep fried and seasoned... they are crispy crunchy just like a chip. almost everyone in class likes them. almost.

nigiri

Yesterday was the first day of second session. We still have 7 students - same ones so we're all familiar with each other. This session is only focused on sushi making - this is the class everyone has been waiting for and will be judged on our timing, skills and accuracy.

Our first task was to make nigiri - rice balls. We spent all day yesterday learning how to make a rice ball. It's a bit more technical than I thought. We have 8 steps to follow and when you're rushed, you forget the steps or better yet, mix up the steps.

Our class goal is to make 8 nigiri in 2 minutes. Yes, we're timed and today I only made 6 which most of them fell apart - not good at all. Some of my classmates made 5 and 7 but they were too big. So far, none of us has made a perfect rice ball - size, weight, looks. Takes practice.

We're also learning how to filet various sea foods. Yesterday was a review on how to filet salmon and tuna and how to cut it into sushi/ sashimi form. Today we dissected pomano (cute little fish), scallop and squid. Amazingly, the scallop had a huge liver - almost the size of my hand. I've never seen such a little creature have such a large liver before. So I asked if it was natural... thinking maybe the scallops were bred for their liver - like foie gras. Nope... that huge liver was normal - in season liver. Wow. Then we learned how to make bone chips - literally. We air dried the pomano skeleton then deep fried it, seasoned it and made good eats... like a potato chip -salty and crispy.

scallop liver - some are brown like this one, others are red

scallop liver dynamite

sushi - pomano, scallop (2 kinds - nigiri and in seaweed), shrimp

stuffed squid sushi

squid tempura roll