Alan Wong's Honolulu

Alan Wong's
1857 S King St
3rd Fl
Honolulu, HI 96826
(808) 949-2526
http://www.alanwongs.com/

On our next to last night in Honolulu this fall, Mr. FST was feeling the affects of our travel in his tummy and we begged off a family dinner. After some quality snooze time, D awoke feeling much restored and we high tailed it over to Alan Wong's for a late supper.

 

Martinis made from Pau Maui pineapple vodka. NOT pineapple infused or flavored vodka, but a vodka tasting vodka made from pineapples grown on Maui. The pineapple flavor dissipates during the process of distillation. Available, sadly, only in Hawaii.  

Alan Wong is one of Hawaii's premier chefs. Along with 11 others (Sam Choy, Roger Dikon, Mark Ellman, Amy Ferguson Ota, Beverly Gannon, Jean-Marie Josselin, George Mavrothalassitis, Peter Merriman, Philippe Padovani, Gary Strehl, Roy Yamaguchi) he is one of the co-founders of a food movement called Hawaii Regional Cuisine.  Hawaii Regional Cuisine is characterized by a fusion of many ethnic cuisines including Japanese, Fillippino, Chinese, American, Korean, Polynesian, and Portuguese sourced from agriculture imported from around the world but grown in Hawaii. The basis of this regional cuisine was taking the common hotel cuisine of the tourist industry the islands rely on heavily as part of their economy and elevate it using these multi-ethnic approaches and regionally sourced produce.

I have had the pleasure of dining in Alan Wong's unassuming room several times during my annual trips to O'ahu.  But this is the first time I have been in several years.  Typically, dining with my Hawaii based family, we eat more family friendly food at lower price points and without all the fancy. Zippy's, Maguro-Ya, Du Vin, Izakaya Nonbei, CPK when the boys were younger, etc.

Appetizers.

 

Salads.

 

5 Course Menu Prix Fixe.

 

And a long list of specials for the evening.

 

D started with the Ohini Shooter.  Local Limpet in Spicy Tomato Water, Fennel Basil Ume Shiso Essences.  One is supposed to down the entire shot in one gulp to experience the holistic flavor sensation. While it was fun to eat, he was meh about the flavors.

 

We sat at the chef's table, which is really just the bar overlooking the kitchen. They do kind of  make much ado about sitting at the chef's table, and while I enjoy watching the cooks work I was glad you could order a la carte as opposed to having the tasting menu be your only choice.

 

I also love watching the expediting. For some reason, one of my favorite things to watch is the wiping of the plate's edge before walking a dish onto the floor.

 

I started with one of the evening's specials.  Mochi crusted unagi with quail's egg and BBQ sauce. How do I start here? Flavor profile or portion size? Big, big, very big flavors here.  The BBQ sauce basically drowned out the taste of egg, which is a shame because they are so beautiful. I was really wanting to taste egg yolk soaking the mochi crust, but the BBQ sauce effectively hegemonized anything subtle about this dish. And size wise, this was enough appetizer for three people. I could only eat 1.5/3.  They asked me if I wanted it wrapped to go, and sadly I didn't think it was worthy of coming home (hotel) with me.

 

After his shooter, D ordered the special soup, on the menu just for Thanksgiving. Turkey and bacon chowder.  Our wonderful server told us it tastes just like turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, it did it did.

 

While it definitely tasted good, it was a low brow taste of goodness.  There was nothing subtle about this dish, it hit you over the head like a bowl of Campbell's Chunky Soup.  The flavor reminded me precisely of the filling in a Swanson's Chicken Pot Pie. As a child on the rare occasions Mom and Dad went out in the evening, Mom would leave Swanson's Chicken Pot Pies for the babysitter to pop in the oven. This tasted exactly like that.

 

For an entree with barely room left in my tummy after my gut bomb of an appetizer, I was served a beautiful pan steamed opakapaka with shrimp pork hash, truffle nage, gingered vegetables, tapioca pearls. Bok choy added a bright green pop to a round flavored dish, with a few truffle shavings in evidence if not really big in the flavor.  Opakapaka was beautifully fresh, moist, yielding, with the tapioca pearls underneath adding a lusciousness texturally.  This was the most successful combination I tasted all night.

 

D ordered beautiful scallops for his main and was.not.happy.  Red barley miso, eggplant, Tokyo turnips and breakfast radishes.  Texturally, he said it reminded him of baby food *gasp* because all the textures were soft, the veggies resembling a ratatouille flavor and texture wise. And strangely, he said it was so much food it made him feel weird. Granted, it was a pricey dish. But the scallops were huge. really huge.

 

I did love the carb options for each dish on the menu. I tried the barley, quinoa and eda mame mixture instead of rice and it was beautiful. Some crunch, al dente whole grains, a little Maui onion.  What a lovely option for the health and flavor conscientious. Other options were white or brown rice, and mashed potatoes.

 

Chocolate covered macadamia nuts, Wong's signature goodbye offering.

I reflected that evening upon the universally rave reviews of Wong's, and the disparity of our experience. Service was really beyond compare. I would like to carry our server in my pocket as my personal restaurant valet, he struck the prefect balance between professional and personable.  High quality elements in the dishes. Ingredients are locally sourced for the most part, and Wong has been approaching ingredients this way long before the slow food trend hit headlines and home cooking practices, when exotically imported ingredients were still desireable. I applaud Wong and his peers for making the best use of the bounty offered by the islands, supporting the economy and the health of our planet long before Leo drove a Prius and we discussed using solar paneling to go off the grid at cocktail parties. What was lacking for me was something profoundly important in a meal of this stature, subtlety & finesse.  To me, this is fine dining for people who love the Cheesecake Factory. Behemoth flavors and equally massive portions. This was not a bad meal, it was an experience meant to dazzle the above average diner. It just missed my mark by, oh, I don't know, 22.5%? That's still a solid C+.

Birthday Omakase at R23

R23

923 E 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 687-7178

Wednesday was D's birthday, and in true food loving form we decided to have a mid-week night on the town.  Neighborhoods and names were bandied around like gossip about B-list actresses in the offices of TMZ. What do we feel like eating? Do we want to have to drive? How much are we willing to spend on a taxi? Do we feel like eating red meat at place x? Can we even get a reservation at place y?

Ultimately, in a very busy week we decided to stay close to home, and not having eaten at R23 in forevers, we decided to ignore internet rumors that their food is no longer "what it used to be", and try omakase in the ex-railroad loading dock located somewhere beneath the nether regions of Little Tokyo. Truly an odd duck location, our taxi driver refused to drop us off until he could indeed verify there was an open business in their alley.

Informed over the telephone that the restaurant only offers omakase at a table, we played cowboy and asked for it at the sushi bar anyway. Our chef, while not loquacious, was extremely hospitable and attentive.

We tried two sakes from the cold menu. Wakatake first, a mild sake, not sweet and not dry. Very pleasant.

Second, we sipped at Otokoyama. Also characterized as mild, D liked the flavor of this less expensive Junmai sake better than the more refined Junmai Daiginjo. It seemed to have a little more flavor, a touch floral with that slight hint of melon I always swoon for.

 

The room was still beautiful but the much ballyhoo'd corrugated paper chairs (Frank Gehry or no, they are memorable) are starting to look a little the worse for wear. Still comfy though.

 

In her 2002 review, Empress S. Irene notes that what earns R23 their two stars are the hot kitchen constructed items on the menu rather than the sushi, which she calls, "good, but not remarkable".  I have eaten some wonderful sushi here in the past, and am in the mood for raw fish so that's the direction we head. But not before being tempted by salmon dumplings, the quality and flavor of which have me wanting to head back to R23 stat for an entire meal of small non-sushi dishes.

 

Steamed salmon dumplings in soup, they are called on the menu. Succulent silky dumplings around meaty clumps of salmon sitting in a dark clear broth flavored with smoke.  The broth bowled me over. The smokiness was a perfect counterpoint to that standard salmon flavor. Heavenly dish.

 

Before the omakase games begin, our chef asks us about preferences, allergies, dislikes, etc.  We both have pretty open minds and palates, and I warn him only against raw shrimp. It bugs me. Our sashimi platter arrives first.

 

The most unusual item on the platter, and my favorite, is a squid roll. A long slice of raw squid wrapped around a tiny bit of cucumber (not enough to dominate the delicate flavor of the raw squid), shiso leaf and nori, topped with tobiko. The wonderful verdant flavor of the shiso pops forward, the nori and tobiko follow, the mouthfeel of the squid being the last to leave the palate.

 

Not unexpected but delicious nonetheless, snapper rolled into pretty little circles. We are advised against dipping this in soy. It melts in my mouth, I barely have to chew.

 

Tako.  This has been prepped by brushing a little vinegar and oil across the slices, barely perceptable.  I like how chewy it is on the very outside of the slices, being more stereotypically raw texture toward the middle of each slice. No shoyu.

 

D has come around to the yellowtail. He used to really dislike my favorite sushi item, hamachi. But last night he enjoyed it very much and now declares it one of his favorites.  This we can dip, and I use the shoyu sparingly.

 

Spicy goodness. A few posts ago I was complaining that my tako poke at Ono Hawaiian foods on Oahu was not spicy enough despite the fact that I asked for it spicy. This chef could teach those Hawaiian folk a thing or two about spicy. At some point D was unable to eat anymore, I finished every last morsel.  Since eating Ludo Lefebvre's raw scallop appetizer, I have been on a raw scallop tear. The spices here definitely overpowered the flavor of the scallop, although the texture was still beautifully glossy and just short of firm. Some people advise against eating spicy anything in a Japanese restaurant, reasoning that the spices can cover up poor or less than fresh quality fish. However, I saw the chef make this dish from the wonderfully fresh looking scallops right in front of my face in the cold box. Just saying.

 

First sushi. Albacore with onions and ponzu. No surprises here.  Great tasting, and the portions of rice he uses to support the fish are quite small.  I understand from somewhere (and I cannot seem to find the source this morning) that how much rice a chef uses under the fish is subject to trend, and the use of two fingers worth of rice is quite out of vogue.  The construction here has about the same amount of rice as my pinkie finger, and my hands are small-medium sized for a woman.

 

The salmon presentation. On the upper right you see seared salmon sushi, not for dipping in shoyu.  It was seared ever so slightly. The entire piece of fish retained the soft droop of raw salmon, rather than the stiffness you see with a cooked piece of salmon. The outside was just barely warmed, it seemed. The flavor was wonderful, salmon with something slightly savory that must have been used prior to searing. The salmon to the left was just classic salmon sushi, please dip in shoyu if you like.

 

Three tunas. To the front left is a piece of very fresh maguro, and immediately to its right is toro. I rarely order toro, it's usually so pricey and there are always a million other things I want to try when eating sushi. It was so delicious, I understand why it has such a following.

 

The third tuna he called a "cured" tuna.  Cured using shoyu, sake and vinegar, the texture of this is quite meaty, firmer than even the maguro although sliced more thinly. An unusual preparation, I have never seen it. The chef told us very few sushi restaurants offer this on the menu. If you see it, I highly suggest giving it a shot. It's offered at Sushi Ran in Sausalito, Sushi Sushi in Beverly Hills, and supposedly at Kiriko on Olympic although it is not on their menu.

 

I cannot remember what this was and I did not write it down. It was not mackerel. It was something I haven't seen, or maybe didn't recognize. At the time, I thought perhaps it is replacing a more common sushi fish that is currently over-fished. Nevermind, it was very nice. On the meaty side texturally, served with a little ponzu.

At this point chef asks us if we are still hungry, if so he can make us an eel roll. An eel roll after all this wonderfulness seemed so anticlimactic. And we were full, so we declined.

 

The staff sent D out a beautiful birthday mochi plate. Vanilla and coffee mochi of very nice quality. Not the same quality of the mochi I ate in Tokyo, but wonderful nonetheless.

 

With very top notch service (I cannot remember having had better anywhere), delicious food (being introduced to something new always makes me happy), and the warm inviting environment I have to conclude that R23 is indeed still living up to my expectations.

Happy birthday, D. And here's to another year.

The Furious Seasons The Capshuns Meredith Meyer Chase Frank at Artwalk DTLA 12/09

ISGOODMUSIC/EVFA/SWEET HEAT PR PRESENT
The Garden Party
Junglerush - 542 s. Alameda St., LA 90013

9:30 The Furious Seasons
10:20 The Capshuns
11:10 Meredith Meyer
12mid Chase Frank (solo acoustic)

Email me at foodshethought at gmail dot com to get in on the guest list.  I have 5 open spots!

B is the Best.

Barbie is not only one of my best friends, she is also one of my favorite cooks.  In any emergency, in doubt or simply in need of inspiration her ideas and approaches to cooking will never fail me as a somewhat undergifted home cook.   During our nearly daily early morning chit chats she was mentioning the other day making chile verde for dinner (a meal in her regular winter rotation), and I decide I finally have to try this. Having guests in town the weekend of the Eat My Blog bake sale, I think it will be fantastic if I can prep it for my crock pot Thursday evening, turn pot to "Low" Friday morning and come home from a long day of working and driving to good friends and an already cooked meal. And fantastic it was.

We started with about 3.5 lbs pork loin, and D trimmed it within an inch of its life.

 

D rubbed it thoroughly with salt, pepper, oregano, ancho chile powder and cumin.

 

Make sure all sides of the meat are well rubbed.

 

Start the process by browning all sides in a non-stick pan.

 

Don't forget to answer text messages, Twitter and FB as needed.

Next, deglaze pan with chicken or veg stock, add pork to crockpot with the deglazing liquid, a roughly chopped jalapeno, lots of split garlic cloves, a chopped onion, and 4 of those small cans of green chile sauce. Cover the lot with broth, I used chicken.  Jeff from Rosso Wine Shop asked for the recipe. See below. Changes I made are bolded.

Chile Verde

2 pounds of boneless pork 3.5 lbs

1 Large Can of Green Chile Sauce 4 small cans

8 cloves of garlic-chopped 12 cloves

Olive oil

1 Small Poblano Chile-chopped 1 large Jalapeno

1 large white or yellow onion chopped

Chile powder Ancho chile powder

Oregano

Salt pepper

Cut pork into 3-4 inch cubes.  (rubbed loin whole, uncubed) Season liberally with salt, pepper, oregano and chile powder.  Add olive oil to barely coat the bottom of a non-stick sauté pan and when the pan is hot add the pork and ½ the onions.  Brown meat (I add even more chile powder if needed-until the pork is speckled with red) and onions for about 10 minutes.  Add meat to crock pot and deglaze the pan with veg or chicken stock.  Add deglazed bits to the crock pot. Add green sauce, garlic, poblano or jalapeno and more stock (if needed) to barely cover the meat. 

Cook forever. (cooked for 1 hour in high, 10 hours on low)

I make bowls of black beans, cilantro, cotija cheese, and I serve with homemade style corn tortillas (green chile-Mi Abuelita brand) and flour tortillas.

Monica taught me to warm the tortillas wrapped in a damp kitchen towel microwaved for about 2 minutes.  This keeps them really soft and amazingly fresh.

Love B

Spicy deliciousness, served just the way B suggested with black beans, avocado, cotija cheese, cilantro and green onions on large plates and in big bowls.

Cut to...6:30 AM Saturday morning.  Scene: driving through Echo Park and DTLA in a state of abject depression over macaron failure of epic proportions.  Looking for an open bakery of excellent to stellar stature in which to buy a couple dozen artful pastries for Eat My Blog bake sale to erroneously label with my blog name and url.  B and I plot my options. Pan dulce? Donuts? Cheese danish? I think of The Red Lobster's cheese biscuits which are empirically the best item coming out of their kitchens. We discuss. As I drive maniacally toward Echo Park's own recently less ghettoized Von's on Alvarado, she searches recipe databases for possible biscuit recipes.  We seize on this one from Gourmet magazine, and bastardize it with jalapenos and bacon. 

Gourmet. September, 2004. RIP.

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal (preferably stone-ground; not coarse)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 oz extra-sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated (2 cups)
3 tablespoons finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
3 scallions, finely chopped
1 1/3 cups well-shaken buttermilk

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 450°F. Butter 1 large baking sheet.

Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in cheeses and scallions with a wooden spoon, then add buttermilk and stir until just combined.

Drop dough in 8 equal mounds about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool to warm, about 10 minutes, then cut in half horizontally.

 

I doubled the recipe, and wow did this seem like a lot of cheese.  B and I agreed that nothing is made worse by bacon, and yes that is Jimmy Dean pre-cooked bacon in a box on my kitchen counter. In the background is my archaic Braun food processor with a couple giant jalapenos diced into tiny pieces.

 

Cornmeal and flour. Next time I might try a smaller flour:cornmeal ratio, just to make the gluten intolerant people happy. That, and I love cornmeal.

 

The Braun handles the bacon easily.

 

Drop biscuits make life beautiful.

 

Each one filled the palm of my not-too-large hands nicely.

 

My house, for the second day in a row, smelled of savory goodness.

 

Enfin. Something worthy of selling at the Eat My Blog bake sale.  Three dozen of them in less than an hour.

 

With a couple to spare for K & I to eat for lunch Saturday afternoon with leftover pork chile verde.

 

Thanks, B.