Showing posts with label scallops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scallops. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Bella Luna, a Vibrant Neighborhood Restaurant in Jamaica Plain (Boston, MA)

I don't go to Jamaica Plain much, but I should, as JP actually has some great places to eat. Bella Luna and The Milky Way is one of those places. It's a neighborhood restaurant that's popular with a diverse set of locals. It serves great food and solid drinks, it has live music, and its connection to the community is apparent.

For starters, I know this jicama salad with avocado doesn't look like much, but I really loved this seasonal item and hope they bring it back! It was very refreshing.
Bella Luna
The seared scallops with grapefruit were also very nicely cooked, honestly better than what I had expecting from a casual neighborhood restaurant!
Bella Luna

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Ocean's Table Delivers Fresh Seafood Direct from the Fishermen to Your Door

If you're the type to enjoy cooking your own recipes and want to get sustainable, local products but don't have the time to go shop, try Ocean's Table. This service brings fresh seafood directly from the fishermen shipped to your door. They work with fishermen and vessel captains from Gloucester in Massachusetts. Their facility is located right on Gloucester Harbor, where they will meet the captains to get the seafood, fillet and prepare the seafood and ship them.

I recently got a box to review, and it was filled with scallops, red fish, halibut, and more. There are different packages you can choose from on their website.
Oceans Table
Each package was labeled with the port they're harvested at, the vessel name and the name of the captain.
Oceans Table

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Citrus Lee: French Cuisine in Surabaya (Indonesia)

High end Western cuisine in Surabaya, Indonesia is few and far between and I'm usually pretty skeptical about trying them. Some of my cousins have been talking about a fairly new French place called Citrus Lee, and it looked pretty good. Turns out the chef is a regular at my mom's restaurant, Kogyo, so we decided to go there for my birthday dinner.

The menu at Citrus Lee comes as a set (when he didn't do set menus, some people would make a reservation and come to eat salads - it was all about showing off that you dined here) of three or four courses. The prices vary depending on your choice of main course and you can go as low as a three course chicken dinner for Rp.175,000 (US$19-20) - not bad compared to US prices! But it does go up to about $80 for 3 courses with a lobster entree. With the amuse bouche, palate cleanser, and all, it ended up being a substantial amount of food and a pretty good value.

First came a trio of seafood-centric amuse bouches: smoked salmon, scallop, etc

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Although it's a French restaurant, Citrus Lee incorporates a lot of Chinese flavors. It isn't quite fusion but probably just enough to cater more to the Asian palate.
For my first course I chose the Tiger Prawns with Leek-Potato Bacon Prawn Cream Bisque Soup Infused with Shaoxing (a traditional Chinese rice wine)
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The foie gras addition is expensive compared to the US, though. The seared duck foie gras with apricot vanilla puree and star anise costs an extra Rp.265,000 (about $30) - oh well, it had to travel farther to Indonesia.
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It was a good sized piece of foie gras and nicely done. I was missing foie gras and was glad I could have a good version for my birthday in Surabaya! This was also the first time my mom tried seared foie gras - and she liked it!


Sauteed Wild Mushroom Brule with Brown Butter and Beets-Orange Wedges
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Wild mushrooms are one of the things I miss when I'm in Indonesia, and this was the first time I encountered them here. Turns out he gets them from a small local island, and they were wonderful.

A shot glass of juice and a bowl of granita as palate cleansers follow between courses.

For the entree, my brother ordered the Pan-Roasted Angus Tenderloin with Chinese Aromatic Spices and Bordelaise-Shaoshing Sauce
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Tender, medium rare pieces.

My mom's order: Crispy Duck Margaret Confit with homemade preserved orange navel with duck-bacon spiced dressing
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The duck in Indonesia is decidedly leaner and gamier than  in the US, so I thought the confit is not quite as fatty as what I'm used to - expectedly so and it was still good.

Marinated oven-roasted seabass with sesame-miso and black truffle-infused soy-corn coulis
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Indonesians tend to fry their fishes whole, so the flaky texture of a roasted seabass is a nice break - but really, I ordered this to get a whiff of truffles.

Roasted lamb rack marinated in green curry, garlic mint butter with layu-spices mint chutney
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Tender lamb rack, flavorful "curry" sauce. This was a great dish.

Pan-seared Jumbo Scallops with miso mustard sauce and sauteed Chanterelle mushrooms
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Another thing I tend to miss in Indonesia: scallops. I'm talking jumbo scallops. I mean, sure we have scallops at street stalls but they tend to be tiny. The scallops at Citrus Lee are the ones I miss, and they were seared nicely.IMG_6000

The chef at Citrus Lee is Hendry Sedjahtera whose parents own a Chinese restaurant in a neighboring city, Malang. Hendry studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked at a few restaurants there before opening Citrus Lee in 2009.

The desserts at Citrus Lee are all made by his younger brother in Malang and shipped here. A family of chefs who work together! The dessert menu is pretty small here. With the tasting menu you get a choice of two flavors of creme brulee and another item that I can't remember right now ... There's also a flourless chocolate cake and some specials, but they cost extra.
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Happy birthday to me!

IMG_5991 Psst, so at Citrus Lee they serve mini mochis after your dessert as a palate cleanser. Guess who makes these mochis? Yup, my family's shop, Mochiko! So of course we loved this course, hehe. We made them miniature-sized and not as sweet as the ones we normally sell, though.

Since there's no in-house pastry chef, there's no house-made amuse bouche. They gave out Valrhona chocolates instead, which are perfectly fine by me.

I wonder how many people were scared to try Citrus Lee because, like my family, they keep hearing about how expensive it is. Well, it can definitely get expensive depending on what you order (like kobe beef), but you can actually have a great meal and be full with one of the less expensive set menus - especially after all the amuse bouche and palate cleansers. There aren't many French restaurants in Surabaya (actually, I think there may only be two), so Surabaya people, why not be adventurous and give it a try?

Citrus Lee 
Jl. Kutai No.12
Surabaya, Indonesia 60241
031-561-5192

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Recipe: Sautéed Day Boat Scallops, Pea, Risotto (Chef Neal Fraser)

At Los Angeles Magazine's "In the Kitchen" event held at the Snyder Diamond showroom, Chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD shared his recipe for sautéed day boat scallops, served with risotto and English pea sauce.
(Save the date for Nov 10, where Loteria Grill's Chef Jimmy Shaw will do a cooking demonstration. Details here.)

Sautéed Day Boat Scallops
Risotto, midnight moon, English peas

by Chef Neal Fraser (Grace, BLD) - serves 4 people
Day Boat Scallop

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Recipe: Scallops Arabesque (Chef John Sedlar, Rivera)

A few weeks ago, Los Angeles Magazine held a culinary demonstration at the Santa Monica Snyder Diamond showroom with Chef John Sedlar of Rivera Restaurant. We tasted the Casino cocktail by one of Rivera's bartender, watched and learned as chef Sedlar and his executive chef Kevin made two dishes for us: Scallops Arabesque and Torta Xocolata.

Since I haven't had time to write a full post on it yet, in the meantime I will give you the recipe for Chef Sedlar's Scallops Arabesque! Enjoy!
Scallops Arabesque
by Chef John Sedlar (Rivera)

Eggplant Puree
2 Italian eggplant
2 whole roasted garlic
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Cut eggplant in half, score, season with salt and pepper and pour olive oil over the flesh. Roast in 300 degree oven until soft, about an hour. Once eggplant is fully cooked remove skin and put cooked eggplant in a food processor, add the garlic and puree together. Add additional salt and pepper to taste if desire.

Ras El Hanout Sauce
2 cups chicken stock
5 tbsp Vadouvan*
1 1/2 oz cold butter, cubed
salt to taste

Place chicken stock and vadouvan in sauce pan. Over low heat reduce to sauce consistency. Add salt and cold butter cubes stirring constantly.

*Vadouvan is a blend of spices and the recipe may vary for each person/chef. To get an idea, here's one recipe from Epicurious. Or you can buy it (from Amazon or wherever): Vadouvan, Ground.


Preserved Lemons
4 lemon
3 cups sugar
1 cup salt

Juice lemons and remove pith. Bring salt water to a boil and cook lemons for 5 minutes. Repeat process 3-4 times using new salt water each time. Dry lemons and place in pan. Cover with sugar and salt mixture, wrap container and store in refrigerator for 5-7 days. After 5-7 days remove lemon from container and rinse off. Cut lemon into small cubes and store in olive oil.

Sea Scallops
18 large sea scallops
1/2 cup grapeseed oil

Serve

Heat all components and keep warm on the stovetop. Season the scallops with sea salt. Over high heat fill a large saute pan with the grapeseed oil.

Once the oil is almost smoking, gently place the scallops in the pan. Once the scallops have a dark golden sear, turn the scallops and finish cooking on the other side until preferred doneness. If you enjoy your scallops cooked over medium-medium well, place the pan in the oven for about 6 minutes. Spoon a line of eggplant puree onto the center of your dish, creating a bed for the scallops. Place three scallops per plate and top with the ras el hanout (vadouvan) sauce. Finally top the scallops with about 1/2 tsp of the preserved lemons. Sprinkle with Ras el Hanout.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Sushi Katsu-Ya Encino- where sushi seems an afterthought

I met up with some friends at the Katsu-ya in Encino a few nights ago. While I've been at the Katsuya in Brentwood, I haven't been to the other ones so this Encino trip is a first. It is a decidedly different atmosphere than the Brentwood robata bar (although they are both loud).

We ordered some standard sushi dishes, along with their specials of the day. All in all, I thought the sushi was ... so so. Maybe because we were not sitting at the sushi bar? The yellowtail and salmon nigiri sushi were okay, but nothing special. The special dishes however (the cooked and marinated sashimi plates) were amazing and very unique/creative.

The first of those was the seared foie gras with scallops (the scallops are hidden underneath the foie gras). This was a very good dish. Not the best foie gras ever, but interesting and definitely flavorful.

Next was the scallops and kiwi with yuzu vinaigrette. Who would've thought of putting scallops and kiwi together? I guess they did :) and the size even fit perfectly too. The kiwi goes very well with the freshness of the scallop sashimi, and the yuzu adds an excellent touch.Then there was the garlic albacore with black truffles. They come and shave the black truffles tableside. Garlic albacore was standard, good marinated albacore. The black truffles were aromatic and a really great addition.

Also, not pictured (camera was giving me trouble at that point) was the baked eggplant. This eggplant dish was really really good! It had a unique flavour that we all went ga-ga for. The baked eggplant was stuffed with albacore and other various yumminess.

We also had the lobster dynamite, baked with mushroom. Very good lobster dish. I was not too crazy with the mushrooms, but all in all still quite tasty. We had the green tea tiramisu for dessert. Really liked the taste, and the cream was excellent. The only down side was that in certain parts there were no ladyfingers and just cream, so we couldn't really eat it.


Sushi Katsu-Ya in Encino
16542 Ventura Blvd.
Encino,CA 91436
818.788.2396

Katsu-Ya on Urbanspoon

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