Bamboo Shoots with Ground Pork the Japanese Way

Besides mushrooms, one of C and J's other favorite veggie to eat are bamboo shoots. I often prepare this dish for them when I want something fast and simple. This dish is adapted from a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Japanese Cuisine for Everyone (A Quick and Easy Cookbook).

Ingredients:
1 lb boiled bamboo shoots
1/2 lb ground pork
cooking oil

Sauce:
1.5 cup dashi stock
3 tablespoons mirin
1/4 cup soysauce
1 tablespoon sugar

Mirin is a sweet cooking rice wine that you can purchase in the Japanese section of your supermarket or at Japanese or most Asian supermarkets. Making dashi stock deserves a post in itself. But simply, you can make dashi stock by soaking an ounce of kelp (kombu) in 4 cups of water for an hour, bringing it to a boil and then removing the kelp from the water just as it starts to boil. Or you can do what I do, buy the instant tuna (bonito) dashi powder and follow the directions. It's much easier to buy already cooked (boiled) bamboo shoots in packages or cans, but you can get them fresh and prepare them by scoring them first, boiling them for 20 minutes, and then peeling them.

First cut the bamboo shoots into 1.5 inch chunks.

Stir-fry the ground pork in a bit of cooking oil until done, about five minutes. Remove the wok.

Put the sauce in the wok and bring to a boil. Add the pork and bamboo shoots and turn the heat down to low and continue simmering until most of the sauce is gone (about 10 minutes).

That's it! Simple, quick, and easy to make in bulk.

Foo-Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights

Two weeks ago, a couple of friends of mine came into town for a conference, and we had to schedule dinner together so that we could catch up and give them an opportunity to meet R. One of my friends, who I envy because while I'm busy at home raising three kids, she's summited Mount Rainier up north, and her tales of her conquest brought back all those years of hiking I use to do as a single and free student. But while she has Mt. Rainier, she tells me that there are no good ramen places in her metro, so I am glad I'm able to take her to Foo-Foo Tei to get her ramen kick.

Foo-Foo Tei was introduced to me by my cousin when I was in search of a ramen place in my area after my favorite one closed down. Her husband used to work together with the owner of the place and actually tried getting him to work for them to introduce Vietnamese pho' into the restaurant. Luckily they've decided to focus on Japanese because they've got something good going on there.

Most first-timers to Foo-Foo Tei like my friends alway point out that it's located in the strangest location. Driving to Foo-Foo Tei takes you down a street that has nothing but industrial and residential buildings, leading you to think that you've made a seriously wrong turn somewhere. The rent must be seriously low here. Once you get there, there is usually a long wait since the restaurant is quite small, but no worries because you can read the racks of manga inside the doorway while you're waiting. Luckily today since my buddies had to leave early, we had dinner at 4:45 pm, and there was hardly a soul there.

I usually order the seafood ramen in really spicy miso soup, but since I was sharing today with the kids, I ordered the plain, non-spicy Miso Ramen. It was still good, as I really like their delicious, creamy miso broth. The noodles were as slurpible as always, although I realize some people like their noodles al dente.

My friends both ordered the Pork and Miso Ramen, and they both really liked it. My friend from Washington said she'd be coming back here again when she's in the area.

The appetizers we ordered today were awesome. The fried tofu were a hit with my kids, and they ate most of it. These were fried and salted just perfectly and were so light.

My favorite of the whole dinner was the broiled squid. It was perfect in every way. Fresh, crunchy, just yummy.

After coming home from Foo-Foo Tei, I started going into my Japanese food binge. You can see that from my recent previous posts, can't you? By the way, they have a second branch in Monterey Park under a different owner, but from what I've read, that one is not as good as this original one.

Foo-Foo Tei is located at 15018 Clark Ave., Hacienda Heights, CA (626) 937-6585

Seaweed (Kelp) and Bean Sprout Salad

Having a bunch of mom friends who have to continuously come up with fresh ideas for their kids really help to keep the inspiration flowing. One of my friends made this dish one day for a playgroup gathering, and she got the recipe from her friend, so I don't know where this recipe originated, nor is this the original recipe because I just replicated it on taste alone. I'll probably play around more with the seasoning in the future.

The seaweed in this dish is kelp, commonly called konbu or kombu in Japanese, or haidai in Chinese. The ones I got are in the form of fresh, unsalted strands and are slightly crunchy in texture. You can purchase them dried also.

If you buy them fresh, you will need to rinse them many times to get rid of that slimy feel. Cut them into six inch strips. Remove the ends of the mung bean sprouts. Add both the bean sprouts to the marinade for at least an hour minimum, but I always do it overnight because the "spiciness" of the garlic really comes out and it lessens the sea smell of the seaweed. If you have kids who can't eat spice, you might prepare some of the seaweed omitting the garlic.

For 2/3 pounds of seaweed and 1/2 cup bean sprouts, you'll need for the marinade:

1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup sugar

It's a different taste than that of wakame salad. I've tried adding sesame oil to this once but it didn't taste right in this combination. My kids love this salad because they find it different, but it provides another source of calcium for them, which I love.

Japanese Chilled Tofu (Hiyayakko)

First off, I'd like to say that I am so thankful to be in a place where I can go out and voice my opinion at the polls without fear, to be able to live in a place where I can hobnob with all different types of people of all cultures and share in their wonderful foods, and to be able to embrace the differences and similarities that make each person unique.

As an example, I'm thinking back to a few years ago to the time when I went out with my cousin at Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights. We were a party of a Viet-Chinese and a Thai-Chinese sitting down for dinner with Chinese cousins at a Japanese restaurant and enjoying our conversation in English. That day, cousin-in-law let me try Japanese chilled tofu at Foo Foo Tei in Hacienda Heights. Immediately I thought that for the fours bucks I paid for a small cube of tofu, I could get me 16 times that much if I made it myself. Seemed easy enough to replicate, so I did.

Hiyayakko is more a summer dish that is common in Japan, but now our family of tofu lovers eat it throughout the year. It's basically a cube of cold silken tofu (usually) that can be topped with various items, but the most common toppings are green onions and katsuobushi. I also often top the tofu with whatever sprouts I can find (alfalfa, diakon), but I left it out this time because I didn't have any on hand. I also sometimes sprinkle sesame seed on the tofu.

The basic ingredients needed for this dish are:

4 oz cube of cold, silken (soft) tofu
1 tablespoon chopped green onion
1 tablespoon bonito flakes (katsuobushi)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce

I buy my tofu pre-packaged from Costco or 99 Ranch because it's so much easier than making it myself, and I can keep packages in the fridge on hand. The tofu in these packages sit in water. Just open them and drain the water. You can also buy tofu online. There are so many brands of tofu available. Just try different brands and see which on you like. If you can find it fresh or can make it yourself, go for it. Just pour the sesame oil and soy sauce on the tofu first, then add the green onions and lastly, the bonito flakes.

The flakes are actually dried fish shavings that are often sold at Asian supermarkets in packages. If they get wet, they will get soggy, so make sure you put these on last.

Happy Election Day for those of you in the States, and make sure you go vote. I'll be dragging my 5 month old, three year old, and five year old with me by myself to the polls this afternoon, so if I can do it, you can too.

I am submitting this dish to Regional Recipes, a blogging event created at Blazing Hot Wok to celebrate food from the different regions of the world. This month, Wandering Chopsticks is hosting the event to celebrate food from Japan. If you've got a recipe you'd like to submit, do so by November 15 by sending it to wanderingchopsticks(at)gmail(dot)com. Please check out Regional Recipes for the rules.

Beech Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce and Fruit Vinegar

While shopping at the San Gabriel Superstore, my mom told me she came across these ladies who were demonstrating how to cook these brown and white beech mushrooms. She tried a few and liked it, so she bought three packages home and showed me how those ladies prepared them.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but my mom told me that the prices on these were not cheap. But I was shopping at Arirang Supermarket in Garden Grove for Korean BBQ beef recently and saw that there were also demo ladies there selling beech mushrooms for $1.79 for a package of 100 grams (3.5 oz).. Much cheaper. I bought two packages there myself because C and J look at mushrooms the same way they look at candy. I would have bought extra for my mom but I didn't think they'd keep long, but I later found out that they will keep up to 30 days. Nice!

At first sight, I thought these looked like larger versions of enoki mushrooms, but after looking them up, I found that they are very different from enoki mushrooms. Brown beech mushroom (Buna shimeji) grow on beech trees in the wild, hence their name. These are prized and are popular in Japan. I thought they are quite pretty and are very clean looking. Here are the three ingredients that go into the sauce: fruit vinegar, oyster sauce, and black sesame oil.

Demo ladies told my mom that one can either boil the mushrooms in water for a minute, or steam them for 5 minutes. I always prefer to steam when I can because I don't like losing the nutrients in the water if I'm not going to drink it.

So here's how my mom prepared the mushrooms:

1. Wash and clean 3 packages (about 11 ounces total) of beech mushrooms.
2. Steam them for 5 minutes.
3. Remove the mushrooms and to them add:
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon black sesame oil
1 tablespoon fruit vinegar
4. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and serve either hot or cold.

When I ate the mushroom in the sauce, it was sweet and delicious with just that barely noticeable bitter taste. But that bitterness is the antioxidants at work! I actually preferred the cold leftovers the next day. When I prepared this myself the following week, I just used regular sesame oil and cider vinegar and the taste was pretty much the same.

If anyone has tried beech mushrooms in a different recipe and liked it, let me know because I do love these.