Showing posts with label japanese food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label japanese food. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Takeouts in LA: Wagyu Bento from IMA and Yazawa (Beverly Hills)

I meant to be blogging more when the lockdown happened, but well, it was hard to find motivation! But now I'd like to highlight some of my favorite takeouts that I've had over the past few months. I hope you guys are all getting takeout and supporting local restaurants when you can!

I've been ordering a lot of bento boxes, and two of my favorites came from sister restaurants IMA and Yazawa in Beverly Hills (the restaurants are right next to each other and pickup for takeout is at the same spot). Both of them are wagyu specialists that import their meat straight from Japan. Yazawa focuses on yakiniku while IMA does sukiyaki and shabu shabu. IMA is the only U.S. branch of Imafuku, which has a Michelin star in Japan.
Untitled

Friday, July 5, 2019

Cocktails and Izakaya Fare at HATCH Yakitori + Bar (Downtown LA)

I recently visited HATCH Yakitori + Bar, which is located inside the new retail and restaurant space in downtown LA, The Bloc. In addition to checking out this restaurant for the first time, it was also my first time visiting The Bloc, which is a pretty cool open-air plaza with more restaurants coming. The Bloc has pretty cheap parking up to 3 hours with validation, which is really nice for downtown! For 3 hours parking is $4 with validation. The parking alone would entice me to go back to HATCH, but let's get on with the food.

HATCH obviously serves yakitori, but they also have other izakaya style food and a seasonal specials menu. They had a seared wagyu nigiri special which I just had to get.
Hatch Yakitori
They seared it tableside and it was so good, our favorite of the night, for sure.
Hatch Yakitori
Among the other specials that was another luxurious item: Alaskan king crab legs!
Hatch Yakitori

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Bokksu: a Japanese Omiyage Subscription Box for the Food Lovers

We all know that when it comes to snacks, both in packaging and flavors, Japan has got it down. Well, now we can all try all these famous Japanese snacks with a new subscription box, Bokksu!

Bokksu is a subscription box of Japanese omiyage (snacks). Each month's box is themed and filled with a nice selection of goodies and they also have an online market so you can buy more of the ones you like. I tried one month's box for free back in July, which was citrus-themed.
Bokksu
The citrus box has a couple of orange pound cakes, yuzu green tea from Satsumarche, lemon-flavored Tokyo Rusk biscuits, jelly, a Meiji chocolate orange biscuits, handmade yuzu candy, and more. Here's the full list.
Bokksu
The subscription box pricing ranges from $33-39 per month depending on how much you pay in advance (paying for 12 boxes all at once gives you the cheapest price). Each box contains 20-25 snacks.
There's also a cheaper box with 10-14 snacks for $22-25 per box.

You can check out what's inside the December's "Snow Festival" box here, I'm quite excited about it!

I love Japanese snacks and I think this subscription box would make a nice gift for all the food and snack lovers in your life! (Or me, you can always gift it to me).

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Hojoko, A New Izakaya in Boston, MA

When the owner of O Ya, Tim Cushman, opened up Hojoko, everyone was naturally excited about the new izakaya in the Fenway Kenmore neighborhood. The large restaurant is located inside the Verb Hotel and has a cool funky vibe. They also play anime movies on the back screen!

Hojoko
Food-wise, Hojoko is good, but the menu can be hit-or-miss, not for the flavors necessarily, but for the price.

One of the items I would recommend ordering is the Torched uni, soy, olive oil, shiso, parsley, nori butter, toast ($14)
Hojoko
They gave a good amount of the creamy uni, though the star of the dish is the umami-packed nori butter. You don't want to give that up even after you're done with the toast! This is definitely one of their more unique and creative dishes.

Funky chicken ramen (rich chicken broth, soy egg, menma, robata-grilled koji chicken). This used to be $9 which was a great deal but they've raised the price to $12 last time I returned.
Hojoko
It was still a lovely bowl of ramen, though, especially if you're looking for something lighter than the usual, rich tonkotsu broth. And I do love the grilled chicken that it came with.

Hojoko's cocktail list is a fun one, though. There are Asian inspired drinks like the Chiyoda G&T (Beefeater gin, ponzu, avocado oil, tonic, black sesame, $12)
Hojoko

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Learning to Make Okonomiyaki! (Recipe)

No, I'm not talking about going to Gaja and putting the batter on the grill, but actually making okonomiyaki from scratch! It's one of the many classes that Yoko Issasi teaches in her Japanese Foodstory class. Each of her small group class takes place in a small studio downtown, around a large wooden table that she outfitted herself.


OKONOMIYAKI RECIPE
First, you have to make the flour mix, which is:
1 cup or 4 oz of weak flour, can be substituted by cake flour
1 cup dashi stock, and ..
1/2 cup yamaimo (slimy yam)
If you've never had yamaimo .. it's a yam like you've never had. When you grate the yam, you will get a bowl of slimy stuff!
In a large bowl, put weak (or cake) flour with dashi stock. Whisk well until smooth, then add grated yamaimo and mix well.

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