Journal Article #15: Japanese Sushi Video

I know!! We only need 14 Journal Entries.. but after Douglas' presentation on Japanese food yesterday, I totally remembered a really funny video on Japanese cuisine that I did three years ago for a communications class. Linked is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNKacfGafEc

enjoy!
p.s.- let me know if the video doesn't work :)

p.s.s.- Also, when I made this video, it was only my 2nd month working at a sushi restaurant so that's why i didn't know that the "unknown fish" was albacore... but ever since then, I have had 3 years of Japanese restaurant experience so I definitely know all my types of fish and different types of food -- also been to Japan and had to live like a Japanese for 3 weeks. Although I am very familiar with Chinese and Korean cuisine, I have more knowledge of Japanese cuisine than Chinese cuisine(s).

Journal Article #14: A Cricket & A Fly.

I ate a bug in class today. O.M.G.!!!!!! Wait, maybe it was an insect. Well actually, it was a cricket- a deep fried, spicy, and crunchy cricket. This is actually not the first time that I ate an insect. I distinctly remember working at my restaurant and I walked to the back of the kitchen. I saw a fly and I tried dodging it by quickly moving to the side. Little did I know, I forgot to close my mouth. So when I was dodging the fly, my mouth was actually open and the fly decided to “dodge” me so it won’t hit me and we dodged the same exact location and it flew straight into my throat. I then ran to the waitress station next to the kitchen and I tried coughing the fly out of my throat. I was coughing so hard and so many times and I could definitely imagine the customers being able to hear me coughing loudly. The fly loved the back of my throat and would not leave despite my heavy coughing. I decided that I did not want the customers to think I was really sick and serving them food so I decided to try to “drink” or swallow the fly down my throat with some iced tea. As I am drinking the cold ice tea, I feel the tea moving down my esophagus but for some reason, I still felt a big fly in my throat. I kept gulping down cold ice tea until I felt that the fly was dead. At least the fly would be dead in my throat and not alive and could fly out of my mouth while I was talking to customers. I had a “fly in my throat” feeling for the entire night and that really sucked. So eating a cricket was not the first time I ate a bug or insect- swallowing a flying fly was.

Word count: 321

Journal Article #13: My Thoughts on Vegetarianism.

My thoughts on vegetarianism are that it is probably the healthiest food and diet choice in the world. If you can imagine that everybody was vegetarian, there would probably be no heart attacks or people with high cholesterol or high blood pressure. The world would probably be at least 95% more healthy than it currently is. There would not be any multibillion dollar fast food chains in this world that are making their money off from killing people. There would probably not be any pandemic diseases relating to creatures that we could have possibly eaten. Such as there would be no such thing as SARS or the swine flu. If the world was vegetarian, then the world would probably be more green. Green plants would mean healthier air and healthier food. The current global warming situation would not have happened as early as now. If the world was vegetarian, there would not be 100 chickens living under one roof and their sole purpose is to be killed and eaten by humans. Animals would be able to run freely and there would not be horrible living conditions for animals that humans eat. If the world was vegetarian, there would be no restaurant being blamed for unsanitary cooking of meats or restaurants being blamed for food poisoning because of bad food practices. Most vegetables can be eaten raw or cooked so there would be any sicknesses derived from food unless the vegetable or fruit was poisonous in the first place. I think the world would be a much happier and healthier place if everybody was vegetarian. But, currently for me and probably 90% of the world, it is too hard to give up on meat… it is already too late.

word count: 288

Journal Article #12: The Most Disgusting Food Ever.

The most disgusting food ever. The most disgusting food EVER, in my opinion, is cooked salmon. The texture, the flavor, and the odor makes me want to gag whenever I taste it. I don’t know when was the first time I started hating cooked salmon because as a little kid, I remember eating it all the time in my household. I think when I was in highschool, my dad kept cooking salmon fish heads and I would have to eat it at least 3 times a week. I then started analyzing the cooked salmon. The texture on the fish is a bit dry, but the meat on the fish was oily, and the fishy smell of the cooked salmon made it so repulsive I would gag at the sight of it on the dinner table. Sometimes, it would be so bad that I would sit down and only eat three bites of dinner and then leave and not eat for the rest of the night. When I moved away to go to college, I never had to encounter cooked salmon anymore. (Which that is a HUGE relief) I tried cooked salmon again last summer, when my girlfriend bought home some curry cooked salmon. I couldn’t smell or recognize the cooked salmon because of the curry so I tried eating some. Sadly, the fishy smell after it entered my mouth and the texture of the fish pulled on my memories about cooked salmon and I started throwing up before I could even swallow the cooked salmon. It was quite disappointing because I would have thought that the curry would cover the smell and taste of everything on the fish because curry is a strong spice, but it did not do anything in the end. Hopefully, I can learn to enjoy cooked salmon again in the future.

P.S.- I love raw salmon sashimi. It is my favorite. I just can't eat it cooked- it's too repulsive. and that is the weirdest thing ever....

Words: 305.

Journal Article #11: Food in Japan

When I travelled to Japan for three weeks, I was so not accustomed to how amazing their food was. Their cuisine was somewhat, Italian and French influenced. I remember I went to a very expensive French café that served $15 coffees with a small sandwich. I also remembered I went to a very expensive European influenced desert place that served $15+ pieces of cakes that were amazingly decorated. I couldn’t eat expensive food throughout my trip in Japan, so I opted for breakfast from 7-11. Surprisingly, their 7-11 foods were always fresh and restocked every 6-8 hours because it would be sold out when it was displayed. I always bought a natto maki and ikura and spam o-nigiris for breakfast to make sure I had enough food. These little snack items were only $2 dollars each and they were so nutritiously healthy and delicious tasting. I also went to a lot of different types of Japanese cuisine that were not sushi. For example, I tried monjayaki, okonomayaki, yaki tori, izakaya, ramen, and yaki tori places. All of those different types of Japanese cuisine were amazing and they all were different and similar. There was a lot of grilled cooking in Japanese cuisines. The manners at the dinner table were also quite different in Japan compared to America. In Japan, you have to, may I stress, HAVE TO, say “ita-taki-mas” before you eat. Also, slurping noodles when eating ramen are a MUST to tell the chef and the cooks that the ramen tastes delicious. There are so many different cuisines in Japan that I haven’t tried and I will probably be going back to Japan for a longer period of time the next time I visit my friends there. Happy eating!! -_-V

word count: 288


P.S.- Attached are some food images from Japan. I love the ramen one!

Journal Article #10: Blowfish

In our class, you asked if anybody would try the seafood, blowfish, or the Japanese name it goes by, fugu. A few people raised their hands. I was one of those students. You may ask why I would try it? The blowfish is so deadly that if not prepared correctly, one might die from the poison called tetrodotoxin. The one main reasons of why I would try blowfish is because I love seafood. That might not be a good answer to many, but the blowfish is a rare seafood delicacy that is really expensive and really unique. I love trying new and exciting foods, even if it means the cost of my life. Only a couple of chefs have the license to prepare the blowfish around the world, meaning it is hard to find a restaurant serving this type of fish. Also, you can have bragging rights if you do try this rare delicacy. (Not that the bragging rights are on the top of my list of reasons of why I would want to eat it!) But my last reason for wanting to try this fish is that I heard that it tastes really good. Why wouldn’t you want to try food that tastes good? I would love to. And given that it is really hard to pass the exam to cook and serve fugu, I feel that I can trust my life on my fugu chef and his skillful technique when he is preparing the blowfish for me to devour.

word count: 251

Journal Article #9: Food Diary for 1Day

This is my food diary for one day. I will tell you what I ate and why I ate it. In the morning, I woke up really early at 8AM and I decided I was really hungry. I opened the refrigerator and there was nothing to eat that I can just microwave or spend a lot of time cooking. I decided to open the freezer compartment and I realize, I can microwave the $1 television meal from Banquet. I was, sort of, craving pasta and meatballs so I decided to microwave it while I was walking my dog. The breakfast meal itself, wasn’t quite so satisfying. For some reason it tasted a little bit sour to me? Maybe I did not stir or microwave it correctly. Eating about 75% of it, I decided to throw it away because I did not want a stomachache at work. I end up driving to work and while I am working, I started snacking on some mix nuts and beef jerky. The beef jerky was left over from eating it in class the day before. The mix nuts were bought by some other interns that are working with me. I snack a little and by 2PM, I end up at BJ’s in Oakridge Mall to have lunch. I was still craving pasta because the breakfast meal definitely did not fulfill my pasta cravings. I decided to go for spaghetti with roasted chicken and tomato sauce. I didn’t realize that it was 1700 calories and I specifically remembered in my other nutrition classes that females are only supposed to have 2000-2500 calories a day. I freak out for a little bit and I was debating if I should continue with ordering what I had in mind. I decided, f*** it, I am a skinny Asian girl and I can use a bit of calories. Given that I lost about 10 lbs in the 7 months because I didn’t eat enough and I didn’t have time to eat, I told myself my body has the extra calories to spare. I was pretty satisfied with my lunch and by the time I went home at 5PM, I fell asleep until 11:30PM. I woke up and I remember I promised my girlfriend I would have dinner with her once she came home from work so I decided to cook 3 cups of rice (the leftover rice will be good in the rice cooker for about 1-2 days) and to make guacamole. For the guacamole, I used two fresh guacamoles, 1/4th of a whole white onion, and a pinch of kosher salt and grinded and chopped it in the Cuisinart blender for about 30-45 seconds. I also opened up a bag of tortilla chips and a can of black bean dace. The black bean dace was to accompany the rice, while the tortilla chips were for the guacamole. For my late dinner, I ate a little bit of both with my girlfriend when she came home because I knew I couldn’t have that many calories and I would gain weight if I ate a lot at night.

word count: 505

Journal Article #8: A Lesson Well Learned.

Why I would eat taboo things and not feel ashamed for doing so. I love chicken hearts, gizzards, liver, tongue, blood, tripe, eyeballs, and a whole bunch of other intestines, organs, and body parts from all different kinds of animals. Why waste a perfectly tasty meal when all that scares you is the name of the food you are eating? This is a lesson I learned when I was little. I traveled to Missouri to my uncle’s place when I was really young and I tried something very rare and illegal. I was sitting in my uncle’s restaurant and they were cooking soup. Remember, I LOVE SOUP. So I ask them what the soup is and they said it was turtle soup. Not those tiny little turtles you can buy as pets. It was a huge turtle that they had accidently caught while fishing. I then remember seeing a dead turtle in the morning coming into the back of the restaurant. The first thing that I thought of was “EW!” I’m not going to drink or eat turtle soup. Back in San Francisco, you cannot eat turtle or drink turtle soup from so I thought it was completely weird. I went back to my uncle’s home that evening and they brought home soup. I did not think they would bring home or feed me the turtle soup that they cooked in the restaurant. I drank a bowl and I thought to myself, this is really yummy. Little did I know it was the turtle soup. My cousin then starting laughing because she said that it was turtle soup, the one I said “EW!” I then realized, I shouldn’t hate food for what it might be made of or from, but hate it if it doesn’t taste good to me. It was a lesson well learned.

word count: 305

Journal Article #7: My MOST FAVORITE Tomato, Beef, & Mushroom Soup.

My most favorite dish to cook is tomato, beef, and mushroom soup. This soup/dish is very versatile because it can accompany any carbohydrates that I would like with it. I usually pair this by itself, with rice, or with macaroni or any pasta that I have. Tomato is my most favorite fruit, or vegetable, as some people might call it. I love the sour and sweet taste that it gives. It is the most refreshing and delightful fruit. It is amazing paired with ground beef, which for the ground beef I would season it with salt, sugar, rice alcohol, soy sauce, sesame oil, fine white pepper, and some cornstarch. I would then add big chunks of portabella mushrooms to the soup too. Because I sauté about 1-2 pounds of ground beef first before I put anything in the pot, the beef becomes very flavorful so I add the tomatoes and mushrooms to sauté all the ingredients and bring the flavors together. After everything cooks together for less than 5 minutes, I add about 8 cups of water and bring it to a boil for about 20 to 25 minutes. After 20 to 25 minutes of boiling, all the flavors from the beef, tomatoes, and mushrooms come out into the soup and it tastes amazing by itself or with rice or pasta. If I add pasta to the soup, I would add a little bit of garlic chili sauce to make it a little bit spicy. If I decide to add it to rice, I would add little bits of red Thai chilies, to make the soup pop. If I decide to drink it on its own, which I usually do, it will just taste amazing by itself and I won’t add anything to the soup. If you want the exact recipe, just comment below! And happy cooking to everybody!

word count: 295

P.S.- add green onions in bowl if desired for some refreshing greens!

Journal Article #6: My Weirdest Food Experience EVER.

My weirdest experience with food was when I went to a Mediterranean restaurant with a close friend. It was my first time in an actual Mediterranean restaurant serving Mediterranean food. My close friend had gone to a Mediterranean restaurant before, but only once. When we arrived, got seated, and got the menu, we had no idea what to order. It was all so foreign to me. There weren’t very many pictures the food and the food’s name on it or next to it. It didn’t help that all the words on the menu were unrecognizable to me. The waiter came by and we asked him what he would recommend to us. He wasn’t too helpful because he recommended five items on the menu but he didn’t describe the dish too well either. His English was a little bit hard to understand and I just ended up picking the first thing he recommended to me. When my friend and I got our food, I had no idea how to eat it. It was a plate full of random splabs of food that did not come with rice. I used my fork to try each and every thing on the plate to see what the flavors were. My friend told me quietly that she thinks that I should eat it with the bread that was given as the appetizer. I tried looking around the restaurant to observe and see how people were eating the food because observation of how other people eat would teach me, somewhat, how I should eat the food. It did not help because everybody had different dishes and they were all eating differently. I ended up just using the bread to hold all the different things on the plate and eat it with my hands because it tasted the best like that. It was the weirdest food and restaurant experience ever--- not knowing how to eat the food that was in front of me.

word count: 326

Journal Article #5: My Dog & My Food.

Human food and my dog. Two things I love in this world are food and dogs. But these are the two things that cannot go together. I will never give my dog human food that I will or have eaten. My dog will never be able to eat what I love without dying or getting really sick. Three things that I can easily think of that my baby puppy can never eat but I love are chocolate, mushrooms, and berries. I have to admit though, being the not so tidy and clean person that I should be, I have left mini chocolates pieces and chocolate mocha coffees in my car with my dog. Thinking that my baby would never be naughty and chew or eat anything my car, he has on several occasions already, eaten all the chocolate stuff in my car. The first time, I seriously freaked out and wondered why I was so dumb to leave my chocolates in my car. My girlfriend quickly tells me to feed him a spoonful of hydrogen peroxide. She researched and heard from a couple of friends that a spoonful of hydrogen peroxide is safe for dogs and will help them throw up whatever is in their stomach. I quickly let my baby lick a spoonful of hydrogen peroxide and quicker than you know it, he threw up everything in his stomach. With no side effects, that is my choice of a solution when he eats something that he should not have. I have more than a few stories to tell about my baby puppy and human foods that one journal entry would not be enough to tell them all. But hopefully, you would comment below if you have a story to share too!

word count: 293

P.S.- my dog is too cute!

Journal Article #4: Food Addiction.

I have a food addiction. I suppose all addicts would be too scared to come out and say straight up, “I have an addiction”. But this addiction is different. It is a food addiction. An addiction that has made me spend a load of money on this certain “thing”. This “thing” comes in a variety of ways, textures, and flavors. In order to fulfill my cravings, I constantly “Yelp” for new restaurants and cuisines to see what I am missing on. My cravings for food can come early in the morning when I wake up, in the middle of the day when I am bored, or late at night when I am craving for random food. I have even given in to my addiction after I had a meal to eat some more when I am full. Why this mind blowing experience of eating would feed my addiction to food? The answer is both physical and psychological. My body combines all the different senses together-- from smelling, to feeling and touching, to seeing, and to tasting. It all starts out with looking at the food. It is like a piece of art. I just want to keep staring. And then you see the textures of the food and you imagine how it would feel in your mouth. And then the aromas hit your nose and you start salivating because of how you imagine it would taste. You finally taste it and it is like an orgasmic feeling in your mouth. That is why I have a food addiction. Food is beyond “it’s just to keep me alive.” It is artistically beautiful and an amazing experience that must be continuously felt and fed.

word count: 282

Journal Article #3: Spicy Town

Last Sunday night, I visited a new restaurant called Spicy Town in Fremont. My girlfriend wanted to bring me to Spicy Town to try their spicy food which she said it was amazingly good. When we parked and was looking at the outside menu, we found out that they were serving all you can eat hotpot style for only $18.99. It was really cold on Sunday night so we decided to try the all you can eat hotpot because it was so cheap and it would keep us warm. I was very open minded about this restaurant because this restaurant was specifically for spicy food. I love hotpot and spicy soup bases, so I imagined it should be really good. The only restaurant that I can recommend for amazing spicy hotpot was Little Sheep Mongolian hotpot because their soup base is so good that you do not need any extra dipping sauces. When our orders came, we realized that they were very small portioned. It was a good thing because you do not want to waste food at an all you can eat place. The soup base was very spicy but other than that, not very flavorful. It was not comparable at all to Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot. My ratings for this restaurant is that I would go again because it is good for the $19 dollars but if you I can spend more money like in the $60+ range, then I would rather go to Little Sheep Mongolian Hotpot.

word count: 250

Journal Article #2: Supersize Me

Supersize Me, a documentary by Morgan Spurlock, was first played at my highschool in a physical education class during junior year. After watching two hours of this documentary, I finally stopped eating fast food. Actually, it wasn’t all that hard for me to give up eating fast food. My parents were very healthy and cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for my brother and me almost every single day of the year for almost 15 years of my life. Soda wasn’t an option as a drink in my house. My house barely carried any juices or milk too. My mom dedicated two hours after her 8 hour work shift to prepare and cook a three course meal and home cooked soup for the whole family every night. Fast food was the very last resort of food when my parents could not cook. When we travelled to Reno or a random place once every year, they would allow us to eat fast food when we stopped at a pit stop to fill up gas or to take a break from driving. When I gave up eating fast food seven years ago, it didn’t seem like I was giving up on anything because it wasn’t part of my diet anyways. When people ask me how I can give up on such a delicious thing, I can’t really remember what was so delicious about it? The greasiness? Or the unhealthiness? Whenever I try snacking on one fry or one nugget now (I have only made this an exception once or twice because I was starving and there are no other possible way of actually eating a real meal), I get seriously nauseous and I usually have the feeling of purging out that fry from McDonalds or whatever fast food place that fry was from. I wish the world can see how unhealthy and disgusting fast food is because eating it is adding %$^#^ to your body.

word count: 322

Journal Article #1: No Reservations

Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations is a show that I am in love with and will endlessly watch it on hours at end. I have watched all the seasons and almost every single episode. Anthony Bourdain travels to many different parts of the world and tries the food that is native to that region. He skips the food made for tourists’ appetites and goes straight to what is popular with the actual people of the communities. The most interesting countries that Bourdain have traveled to are the Asian countries like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, and Vietnam. I have enjoyed watching these episodes because I love eating Asian food too. The vibrant, distinct flavors from various countries are completely different from each other. Bourdain isn’t afraid to try foods that seem taboo to Americans, such as intestines, stomachs, livers, hearts, and other animal parts not traditional to American cuisine. His taste palette is not selective and it is similar to my food palette too because it relates to how I view my food. I love trying new dishes and cuisines, even if it is not an Asian cuisine. His show makes me want to travel to different countries of the world to try food native to their lands. Also, Bourdain’s skeptical and sarcastic attitude about the places, people, and culture of the country he is traveling to makes it a very entertaining show. His “realness” allows his audience to identify and connect with him while he is traveling and showing his audience around the country.

word count: 254

FOOD JOURNAL!

So, I have decided to be eco-friendly and post all my food culture (NUFS144) journal articles into here. (jk. im ALWAYS eco-friendly ;D)

Actually, I found this video really interesting. It is a 13 year old girl who has the power and guts to silence the world in 5 minutes. If you don't believe that she will silence you for 5 minutes about our world dying and how we are wasting food, then please click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYZeXIN1cZA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Someone we can all learn from because her words are powerful and wise.

If you decide that this video is interesting or any of the above (or below) posts are interesting, feel free to comment & please do so :) ill be really happy!! :)

<3 estherbaby.