Hello, Panda!

We were finally able to make it out to Marukai's today! All hail to ethnic food markets! These lovely stores brings all of those hard-to-find items from overseas right to our kitchen counters. This place was no exception. Not only were there all kinds of food items you can think of from Japan and other parts of Asia but there's also tons of housewares, clothing, healthcare items, furniture and decors galore! Thanks to Cheryl, bearer of all good food info in the Southland, for guiding us there.

First thing's first...the store in Gardena is membership only. If you live in the area and see yourself going there often, I would opt for the $10 annual membership. If you don't live in the area and don't know how often you'll be there, you can do the $1 month trial membership. Check out their website for their other locations which are nonmembership. Back to Gardena...I loved everything about this store, including the food court. I pictured it to be bigger when she was telling us about it but the portions from the Korean/Hawaiian vendor made up for the lack in size of the space. I kind of felt like I was in a Trader's Joe's, with the huge logs of wood erected for the entrance of the store, as well as the tight and neatly organized aisles with people pushing shopping carts that are smaller than ones you would see in Western markets.

My favorite part of these markets is the fresh fish section. Being a native Northern Cali who lived relatively close to the ocean, and privy to abundant catch-of-the-day fish, I value being so close to fresh seafood these days. Being a Japanese market, of course they had all kinds of different slices of seafood for sashimi and other products to make sushi. I was tempted to get a package of grilled unagi but I was too scared of eating it all in one sitting, considering the sizes that were offered were almost as long as my forearm. I could have spent hours there. If I could eat Japanese food every day of my life, I would be in absolute heaven.

And yes, I did find one of my favorite snacks from my childhood - Hello Panda. This completely topped off our visit.

Another market that would be comparable is Uwajimaya's in Seattle. For those with difficulty pronouncing Japanese words and names, let's try it together: "U-wa-ji-may-a." The main complex is in the International District with smaller stores scattered all over Washington. Apparently, they just recently finished building a whole load of apartments on top of the market complex. It would be too dangerous for me to live there. I'd be in the food court so often, I'd opt for an apartment with no kitchen! Not only is the market huge, there are also attached boutiques selling a vast supply of books, stationary, housewares, clothing, kitchenwares, glasses and whatever else you could think of. During our visit, we were greated by roasted chestnuts that a vendor was making near the entrance. For those who want to check the place out, you get validated parking in their lot so long as you make a purchase. The first 2 hours are free with a $10+ purchase. Check out their website for recipes, as well as the link to Amazon.com to purchase any of their products - EXCUSE ME! That's a great example of enterprising at it's finest.

Make Me Wanna Halal: Makkah Halal Tandoori

Makkah Halal Tandoori
401 S. Vermont Ave (4th and Vermont)
Wilshire Center/Koreatown, Los Angeles

Following this android's recent discovery of a short trek by foot from his place of employment (where he moonlights as a human being) to the busy intersection of 3rd and Vermont, a whole world of lunchtime opportunities has opened up. After brifly considering the Sizzler salad bar, this android stumbles on a predominantly Korean minimall (which is the rule in the part of town). What caught my eye was a sign saying "CUISINE OF INDIA" and what sold me was another sign reading "LUNCH BUFFET."

I was so there.

Makkah has a lunchtime, 10-course, all-you-can-eat buffet for $8.95 which is more than worth it. I piled my (first) plate with a salad, saffron rice, nice, crisp naan flatbread, tandoori chicken marsala, some beef-type stew item and a vegetable soup of some sort. There was another hotplate with some cooked vegetables but unfortunately it had been depleted by the time I arrived. Tandoori means northern Indian food, and Halal refers to a certain kind of meat as dictated by Islamic custom (sort of like a Muslim version of Jewish kosher...and I still wonder why they keep fighting...oh well...). The Koreatown location isn't so unusual, considering the Islamic Center of Southern California mosque is conveniently located across the street (next to the aforementioned Sizzler).

To cut a long story short (and to keep from usurping this food blog which I was graciously invited to contribute to (thanks J & G), that tandoori chicken marsala was the most flavorful chicken-related dish I've had since TiGeorge's Hatian restaurant. That and some more pieces of naan occupied my second plate. (4/5 out of 5)

Korean Sushi vs Japanese Sushi

The closest place to get sushi with decent prices near our house is Shogun, aka Slogun. Sorry folks, no website to reference. It's definitely one of the most interesting places to have a meal. The service is super slow, thus the nickname. It's even more slow when they're not busy. The best place to be seated is the bar since you'll get food faster that way. The irony of it all is that the place is always super busy come dinner time. The majority of people who go there know that the place is notorious for their service. My roommates and I wanted to go there one night so I decided to make reservations, knowing that we'd wait for a few minutes anyway. (The longest we'd ever waited there was about an hour. Don't ask me why we did that.) We get there, and I still had to haggle to get a table even when our name was on their reservation list. The food is decent. We always order their monkey brains dish which consists of tempura fried mushrooms stuffed with spicy tuny and topped with teriyaki sauce, I think. It's that nice mix of spicy, crunchy and sweet goodness that goes down warm in your throat. Another roll we always get is the Sunset roll which I think contains unagi on top and I can't remember what's in the roll. That comes with teriyaki sauce on top, as well so that roll gets done like it was never even ordered. According to my dearest, this place is owned by Koreans. Not being around Koreans my whole life, I can't tell the difference until we went to a Japanese owned sushi restaurant in Seattle.

Ototo's is a Japanese restaurant situated in the Queen Anne area of Seattle. Thanks to my friend, Dominique, who decided to pick that neighborhood to live in. The food and total dining experience was stupendous! It was just as crowded as Slogun but the service was uncomparable. The executive chef was definitely Japanese and proudly had his certificate from Le Cordon Bleu hung in the dining area. It won great praises from Citysearch.com in 2002 & 2003 and continues to strive for great customer satisfaction. Dom, Joe and I conveniently sat the bar and watched the chefs churn our sushi rolls and sushi one by one. We were even given a taste of some kind of sashimi creation one of the chefs decided to make after we were seated. We started with the unagi spring rolls


courtesty of www.ototosushi.com

and the tuna poke. Everything was as fresh as can be. We skipped the sushi and sashimi since we were more interested in their rolls. But if anyone else goes there, let me know what the otoro is like. Since I've started reading Anthony Bourdain's "A Cook's Tour," I've wanted to try otoro. For those who don't know, it's the fattiest part of the tuna's belly, which also makes it one of the most tastey. Dom, being the salmon loving, Seattle native that she is, ordered the Salmon Deluxe roll, I went for the futomaki and Joe ordered the Spider Roll with soft-shell crab, cucumber, avocado and smelt roe. The latter also happened to be the most popular for the evening since we saw so many come off the cutting board of the sushi chef working in front of us. The salmon was nice and buttery and the Spider Roll had great texture and flavor. Since soft shell crab is so limited in our part of the woods, I like ordering it whenever I get a chance. We topped our food euphoria with the Green Tea Tiramisu.


courtesy of www.ototosushi.com

It was fine but was definitely missing the liquore. It needed that little kick, maybe some amarretto, even a little caramel liquore. It was a nice little calming dessert after all the flavors we had tasted that evening so maybe having it without the liquore was a good thing.

The art of the food was definitely highlighted more so at Ototo's in comparison to that at Slogun's. I'd prefer going to a place like Ototo's, where the food is respected more, than to a place where the focus is on the food gaining profit.

Wahooooo!

Ate at Wahoo's Tacos for the first time tonight. I've always been curious about this chain. I can't remember which taco chain my friend Les, always raves about in terms of their fish tacos. I wasn't overly excited by the ones I had tonight. It wasn't Taco Bell or Dell Taco! I can't take any more of that stuff from all the crap we ate when we were at USF. LA is the only place I've seen this chain so it's probably a native. It had that whole Baja CA appeal when I walked in. The walls were plastered with beach-like decor. I don't recall seeing any Wahoo tacos on the east side of town so this leads me to think that they're all probably just on the Westside. I can't wait to start working on the eastside. There are so many more authentic places to eat over there. In a town with so many diverse ethnicities, who needs to go to high-end fusion restaurants all the time when you can get the real thing for cheaper? Down with the Zagat tour, I say!