Wordless Wednesday: Tokyo baumkuchen バウムクーヘン

Tokyo vending machines

I *love* Tokyo.  This is a food city.  I would just wander around, then look for a small restaurant with the longest line, inevitably leading to deliciousness.

Tokyo also has beverage vending machines everywhere.  Not surprising, given that it's about 96% humidity and pretty damn warm this time of year.  It's gotta be a public health issue to keep folks hydrated.  And what fun, most of the things in the machines are unrecognizable to an ex-pat Canuck.

The vending machines are tucked into all kinds of weird corners.  Check these ones out, on the driveway to a parking garage.



The vending machines are filled with all kinds of crazy things. What to try first?  How about this milk tea:



A nice, refreshing tea.  Cool and sweet, but not American-style super-sweet.

Or soymilk tea.



Richer in flavour, more like a mild version of chai, but still very refreshing.

Then there was this H2O drink.



Don't be fooled. This is not water. I bought it when hot, sweaty and exhausted, and guzzled it thinking I had purchased water. It was some mild fruity thing. But try as I might, I did not find this refreshing. Dehydrated as I was, I drank half of it, and dumped the rest. That mild fruity flavour was revolting.

But, you know, weird stuff in vending machines?  Neat.

영양탕 - Korean dog soup

I was fortunate to have work send me to Korea recently.  I wish I had had time to take more pictures of the many tasty things that came across my plate while I was there.  But I couldn't give up the chance to try a Korean dish famous the world over - Bosintang.  Korean dog meat soup.

I don't speak Korean, so finding such a place was challenging.  Though illegal on the mainland, on Jeju Island (where I was staying), dogmeat is legal.  I approached the English-speaking concierge in my hotel, and asked:

"Can you recommend a restaurant where I can try dog?"

"What for?"  She looked aghast.

"I'd like to try dog meat."

"What?!?"

At this point, I was concerned.  Had I been had?  I had been told dogmeat was reasonably common in Korea, but given her reaction, I was a tad concerned that I had been misinformed.

She paused.  "Foreigners *never* ask for dogmeat."  She paused again.  "One of my coworkers really likes dog.  I'll call him to find out where the best place is."

She spent some time on the phone and returned.  She wrote out 3 notes in Korean, one was instructions for the cabbie for where to go.  One was a note for the restaurant, telling them what I wanted.  The final note was for the cabbie to help me return.

"I've tried dog soup."  she said.  "The meat smells bad."

"Hmmm." I said.  "I'd like to try it."

"You're very brave."

I don't know about that last part, but I'm certainly curious - and when will I have a chance to try this again?  I don't expect to be in Korea often, if ever again.  So this was my chance.  And off I went.

The restaurant I found was very small, on a narrow side street.  I took pictures of the sign and the menu so I could later confirm that I had, indeed, eaten at the right place.



Inside, there was a raised area with low tables, and a bunch of shoes near the entrance.  I removed my shoes, and followed the waiter in to sit at a low table.



I showed the waiter my note, and he pointed to the sign on the wall, so he could indicate the price.  The dog soup is the third one down on the left.  8000 Korean won (₩) - or about $8.



My Korean colleagues confirmed that this was the right dish.  The characters:

영양탕

translate to:

yeongyangtang or "nutritious soup", one of many euphemisms for dog soup listed on the Wikipedia.  This is when the only word of English passed from my waiter's mouth.  "Beeruh?"

Yes, yes I think having a beer during this excursion was more than appropriate, and indeed all of the other tables were also consuming beer with their soup.  The beer was a brand I had not seen before, labeled in English as "Cass Fresh".

As with many Korean meals, they loaded the table up with many condiments.  Naturally, there was kimchi, the fermented, spiced cabbage dish.



A spiced cucumber/zucchini like critter.



Dried, salted anchovies.  These were excellent, if a little spiky.  They poke into your mouth in a rather unpleasant way when chewing them.  I think they'd be quite nice if gently stewed (though that might take out some of the nice saltiness).



Red dragon sauce?  Maybe.



And a small bowl with what looked like serrano peppers with onion slices.



I sat alone with these dishes, nursing my beer, and trying pretty hard to ignore the older Korean gentleman at the table next to me that were staring at me.  Clearly, they were as surprised as the concierge, to see a 6' 3" white guy, about to dine on dog.

After about 15 minutes, an older woman emerged, carrying a screaming hot ceramic pot.  She scowled at me, as she set it in front of me.  It was boiling vigorously as she set in front of me.  And it smelled heavenly.



Look at that!



The broth was a bright, spicy flavour.  I had assumed there was tomato in there from the colour, but there was no tomato flavour.  Rich, bright and quite spicy.  The greens were pretty sturdy, but quite delicious, (and I always enjoy discovering new greens).  This is a very hearty soup.  But you haven't read this far to hear about the broth...

I hate when people compare one meat to another.  "It's like chicken."  No it's not.  Duck is not like chicken.  Turkey is not like chicken.  But if you are going to explain what a meat is like, I suppose the easiest way to do it is to compare it to meats people know.

Dog meat is *extremely* fatty.  Not quite as fatty as pork belly, but close.  And the texture of the meat is very beeflike.  The cuts reminded me of cuts of brisket.  But the flavour was more like mutton or lamb.  Very gamy, but not unpleasantly so.  The first few bites of meat, I put the whole thing in my mouth, but I very quickly found the fat off-putting, and pulled the large chunks of fat off.



I later read that Koreans prize the fat and the skin.  I confess, I didn't.  The meat was really flavourful, and really nice, but the fat was too much for my Canadian palate.

I really liked this soup, and found myself wondering how well dog would stand up on the barbecue, with the fat properly rendered (this is how my mind works, I'm afraid).

I'm glad I went out to try this soup, but I was embarrassed when I left that I didn't finish it.  They brought me an enormous bowl, and I simply couldn't finish it.  I finished the meat (though not the fat) - I think it's near a sin to waste meat.  But I left a fair amount of broth and greens on the bottom of my bowl.  I looked over, and was relieved to see that some of the other folks in the restaurant also were leaving some food in their bowl.

This wasn't the best meal I had in Korea, but it was by far the most memorable.

Korean rice beverage

In Korea, I discovered some interesting things in the vending machine.  First, it appears Jolt Cola's Gatorade's campaign of world domination has been successful:



Second, Koreans have all kinds of exciting beverages.  Try this one, canned sikhye, according to Dr. Ricky:



Mild flavoured, it tastes a lot like Thai sticky rice.  One would assume, then, that it is sweetened with palm sugar.  It's a lot less sweet than many American vending machine beverages.  It's really quite tasty.  Not something to relieve the heat and humidity of a June day in Korea, but it really is quite nice.

It might take me a while to get used to the chunks on bottom, though.

Oh, and it's 116,000 calories.



Yum.

A lazy Saturday calls for...

This is actually a lazy Tuesday. We spent Tuesday afternoon hiking around the Chateau Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies with Bbq Jr. While he soaked his pants and socks, what a trooper, he was delighted to hike a couple miles around the lake. At the end of our hike, we stopped in the Chateau for a nice lunch.

Mrs. Dude had an Avalanche, described as "Espresso, Baileys, Frangelico and whatever else gets caught in its path." We were able to procure the recipe, and share it here:

1 oz fresh brewed espresso
½ oz Baileys
½ oz Frangelico
½ oz white crème de cacao
2 oz cream

Shake with ice, strain into glass, add whipped cream and chocolate chunks. Serve.



Doesn't that look tasty?

Butterfly wings

This past weekend we were in San Francisco for a brief getaway. Our most memorable meal of the weekend was at The House. (sorry, no photos - I'm still not that guy who takes photos in the restaurant). An Asian-inspired seafood place in a tiny little space, across from one of the best bookstores I've ever seen (picked up a copy of Hervé This' Molecular Gastronomy there) and near several peeler bars and a live-sex club, The House was filled with an eclectic mix of young fashionistas and older, bearded academics.

We started with their seared day-boat scallops, perfectly cooked (it looked like they had seared the edges, in addition to the tops and bottoms), sitting in a delicious sauce, and with sprouts piled high on each scallop. Delicious.

Then I ordered their special, miso-glazed cod on spinach, with some sort of Japanese roll of seaweed, sushi rice and some spiced vegetable or other. I could barely hear the waitress in this place, so I'm not sure what was in it, but this cod with sushi roll was out of this world delicious.

But the cod is not why I'm posting about this meal. Mrs. Dude ordered the mushroom rice with grilled prawns. When they brought the dish to the table and set it down in front of her, we immediately noticed that it was covered with little insect wings, flapping slowly up and down. The effect was more than a little disconcerting, but mesmerizing. This was one of the few times I could hear our waitress clearly: "Those are butterfly wings.". She laughed. "Actually, those are bonito flakes. The heat from the rice is making them wave." Well, they continued to wave for a good ten minutes while Mrs. Dude devoured the dish. Visually enthralling, and exceptionally tasty to boot.

The bill at the end of the night? 1 glass of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 main courses, 2 desserts and we got out of there for $110. Score.

We'll be returning to The House the next time we're in San Francisco.

Santa Ynez Wine Tastings

Wine with bbq? Hell, yes. And living in California, wine is abundant and inexpensive. We took a quick trip to the Santa Barbara wine region a few weeks ago, and had a fantastic time sampling the local wines.

The Santa Barbara wine region was made famous in the movie Sideways a few years ago, and most online resources focus on doing the same tour as done in the movie. We weren't really interested in visiting famous wineries as we were in visiting excellent wineries. We stayed in Santa Maria, an hour north of Santa Barbara, and explored the Santa Ynez wineries from there. I'll point out a few of our favourites. Most places charge $10-20 per person to taste 4-6 wines, and most of them give you a wine glass. Some of the glasses are even nice (though not all, See Parker, Fess).

Firestone. This was our favourite inexpensive winery. Several solid, good tasting wines, for a decent price. We visited Firestone on the same day we went to Fess Parker, which was much more disappointing. Fess Parker is a famous large production winery. Their cute little glasses that come with the tasting have a little etching on them that looks rather like a turd (but apparently is supposed to be a beaverskin cap). Anyway, Fess Parker sells solid wines at exotic prices. Hit Firestone instead, for good, inexpensive wine.

Foxen was one of our favourites. They had many wines we liked, including a fortified dessert wine (called Mission Accomplished). Simple grounds, with two different buildings for tastings, their staff was super-friendly, and gave our two-year old a temporary tattoo which he talked about for the next 2 days.

Bridlewood certainly had the nicest grounds. When you drive into the vineyard, you drive under a canopy of trees that makes you feel like you're in New England, not in the deserts of southern California. Nice touch. The wines here were very good, particularly their syrahs. I could have happily taken several of their syrahs home with us.

Zaca Mesa was good fun as well. They had an enormous chessboard out front (with pieces the size of my son), which provided 20 minutes of good fun for us. The wines here were really innovative and fun, using several types of grapes we'd never heard of before. Roussanne? What's a Roussanne?

And finally, our absolute favourite, Kenneth Volk. The photo at the top was taken in the back of his tasting room. Every wine we tried here was interesting and tasty on several levels. They were complex and delicious, with long and interesting finishes. And we tried a *lot* of different wines here. We were so enthralled, that for the first time, we joined a wine club and look forward to receiving many more of their wines. Tasty, complex and delicious. These were world-class wines.

We'll be visiting this area again.