Spaghetti with asari (clams), shirauo (little white fish) and arugula at Pizzeria Matsuhisa in Denenchofu, Tokyo. Someday, I will open a wafu (Japanese-style) pasta shop in Oakland.

Drunken noodles at SriPraPhai in Woodside, Queens. From Umamiventure #4 in 2007. The savory hot sweetness of the dish still hovers in my memory.

Photo by Irwin Chen.

Happy February, everyone!

Umamimart turns 5 years old this month, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate NOODLES! We’re all fans of noodles here, and there are pages and pages worth of posts, since 2007 (!), dedicated to the almighty noodle on Umamimart.

The column name “Great UM Noodletown” is an homage to one of my favorite late-night spots in NYC Chinatown called Great NY Noodletown. With roasted birds dangling from the windows, I had many a meals there–both solitary and rowdy–all on the dirt cheap, with slices of oranges always for dessert. Thank you, Great NY Noodletown. You hold a special place in my heart.

To start off the column with a big bang, I give to you Misoya, a ramen chain from Japan that has made its way to Santa Clara, CA. The first U.S. outpost opened in the East Village, NYC (looks like the owner of Totto brought it over). It’s right around the corner from Ippudo, a mega-popular ramen joint, but I hope it’s holding its ground there regardless. Personally, I think Ippudo is garbage and I absolutely cannot believe there are still lines to get in. I mean $15 for a bowl of ramen in a techno-club setting?? No thank you. Yamahomo bitched about it when it first opened. We have not been back since.

Anyhow, here’s Misoya, set in a strip mall right across the street from a hospital in sunny Santa Clara, CA. Welcome to the sprawling suburban nightmare that is my childhood. But you know I love it!

I think it’s hilarious that the South Bay Area (San Jose, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Mt. View) has all the awesome Asian eateries, rather than SF proper. [Sorta like having to go to boondocks Queens from Manhattan]. I have to say that it’s testament to the fact that the audience in the South Bay just has higher standards for Asian food. I’ll get a lashing for saying that, of course. But it’s true!!! Dim sum, Viet, sushi. Alright, I admit, the East Bay has superb Korean and Thai though.

Miso. Soul. Japan. Holla!

Don’t you dare seat yourself, asshole.

I always come early enough so there’s never a line. You get a view into the kitchen from the counter.

Hungry. The bowl of rice is FREE! Carbs with a side of carbs, please!

Misoya is known for… wait for it… their MISO ramen.

The miso broth here is komemiso, which is a Hokkaido-style, darker blend with a hint of spice. They put a dollop of the komemiso on top.

Soup is deep and hearty.

Grease bubbles are muy importante.

Noodles are bouncy and squiggly, just how I like.

It is imperative that you order the cha-shu pork ramen. I ordered the regular ramen once, thinking that it would come with the standard two slices. WRONG. That was a sad, sad day.

They boast that this cha-shu is special because of the way it is grilled over an open flame. It is the fattiest piece of pork you will have for the week, but well worth it.

Now this puzzled me: the fried potatoes in my ramen.

This must be a Hokkaido thing? The Tokyo-girl (ok, Saitama) in me shuddered a little bit.

The gyoza were chive-y pork bombs. I peeped a guy in the kitchen making them from scratch.

Delightful!

So I didn’t finish my potato, but did pretty well otherwise.

The ramen was $11, gyoza $4. Not bad!

The ramen at Misoya is a damn fine bowl of noodles. While I will refrain from using declarative statements like “Best in the Bay”, I will say that this is the CLOSEST you will get to the ramen you will find in Japan. This means: hearty, heavy, greasy broth, which is all the rage in Tokyo. Not surprising that Misoya was started in Chiba, which is where I had a great bowl of ramen at Tonikaku, on my last trip.

Washi calls most ramen he has here generally as “California Ramen”. This means an assari (light), clean, broth. Most ramen broths you find in the Bay Area are definitely light and seemingly “healthy”, California-esque. Don’t get me wrong, I like an assari, salt-based broth, but I have to say that my go-to has always been miso.

Misoya is located right across from Orenchi, which is always packed for some reason. Skip the line and just walk across the street! I am happy to have found a great miso ramen, even if I have to drive 45 minutes for it.

I’ll be writing about noodles all month! All year! Forever! Comment below if you have a noodle spot you love. And thank you for supporting Umamimart all these years!

*Nahoko Morimoto is a Tokyo-based photographer. Her work has been featured in Brutus and Vogue Japan.

One of my favorite restaurants is Kajitsu, as I’ve written a couple of awesome reviews about the place. Chef Nishihara is simply a genius. His creativity and flavoring, using only vegetables (it’s a vegan/shojin restaurant), is just amazing.

I saw an article in last week’s Times Magazine, where Mark Bittman cooked with Chef Nishihara. I was blown away. He made vegan Worcestershire sauce. I’ve made sauces before, from molé to demi-glace to simple dashi. But who knew Worcestershire sauce could be home made??!!

I had to do it. But the original recipe is too much, so I cut corners here and there.

Here is my adaptation.

Soak a piece of kombu (about 6 inch) and 3 large (6 small) dried shiitake mushroom in a cup of water overnight.

They are reconstituted the next morning.

Cut 1 large onion, 4 carrots, 1 stalk of celery, and piece of ginger into small pieces.

Prepare spices:

1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 bay leaves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon sansho peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns or green peppercorns
1 tablespoon ground, dried sage
1 tablespoon soybean powder (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ small dried hot red chili

Original recipe says to use fresh tomato, but I bought canned tomato, since the quality of tomato in this season isn’t that great anyways. Puree 3 lbs tomato.

Strain the tomatoes into a large pot.

You don’t want seeds to be in the sauce.

Make dashi. Here I cut corners. Put re-hydrated kombu into 8 cups of water, and simmer for 1 hour (instead of 2).

Add 2 cups of vegetable trimmings. Simmer for one more hour (again, instead of two). The more variety of vegetables, the better.

After two hours of simmering kombu and vegetable together, the stock is now done.

Strain:

8 cups of water is boiled down to barely 3 cups.

For tomato base, add vegetables, and thinly sliced re-hydrated mushroom, and simmer for about an hour.

Add all the spices and simmer for 10 minutes. As soon as you dump all the spices in the sauce, you will smell Worcestershire sauce. This is amazing.

Blend this mixture, then put everything back into the pot.

From here on, the process was a bit hectic, and I don’t have all the pics.

Pour 1 cup of red wine into the kombu/vegetable dashi. Boil for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook down pureed tomato base for another 10 minutes.

Pour 1/3 of tomato base into dashi/red wine through strainer. Cook another 10 minutes. And here you have homemade Worcestershire sauce. Color is a lot lighter than store bought kind. The flavor is a lot softer, but you definitely taste Worcestershire sauce.

This recipe made two kinds of sauce, one thin (above), and the other thick (below). In the remaining tomato base, add 1 grated apple, and cook for another 10 minutes. You now have a thick sauce. The recipe didn’t call for it, but I blended it to make it extra smooth. Adding an apple changed the flavor drastically, and it’s awesome.

It was a great experience, especially knowing that you don’t question the ingredients of the sauce. But I don’t think I will make this again, looking at all the mess I created…

I made oven-baked tonkatsu, and this sauce is not your typical Worcestershire sauce, but quite addictive. I also made panko-crusted mahi-mahi last night, and used the sauce (one bite with thin sauce, the other bite thick sauce), and it was very good.

Chef Nishihara is a genius. I haven’t tasted chef’s sauce, but a big difference he told me would be that he saves all the vegetable trimmings (carrots, cabbage, onion, turnips, leeks) and make a large batch of dashi, with kombu. I think the depth of his dashi is far more intense than what we can make at home though.

Good experience nonetheless.

This is my new favorite winter cocktail to drink in our neck of the woods, so I named it after our neighborhood, Skylonda. I just soak some cinnamon sticks in a jar of bourbon for a few days which gives it a nice spice. Then to the bourbon, I add a few drops of bitters and a splash of dry vermouth in one of Umamimart Shop’s lovely Yarai cocktail mixing glasses.

By Kenji Miura

Shiokara is a fantastic savory condiment to your favorite glass of shochu. This particular shiokara is made with surume ika (Japanese Common Squid or Pacific Flying Squid).

INGREDIENTS
5 fresh squid
2 tbsp salt

METHOD

1. Clean the squid. (Here’s how via Kyoto Foodie)

2. Cut the legs and ears (the triangular portion of the squid) off of the main portion of the squid. Peel the skin off.

3. You may set aside the main body portion for sashimi.

4. The legs and ears will be added to the shiokara mixture. Cut these into 1-1.5 inch long pieces. Clean off any slimy film that you may encounter.

5. Mix salt and the brown innards (liver/digestive gland) of the squid together for the shiokara mixture, into a pasty consistency. I sometimes replace the salt with anchovies, which is a good alternative.

6. Add the squid leg and ear pieces to the mixture.

7. Keep in air tight container for 24 hours in the refrigerator.

Eat within 36 hours after coming out of the fridge.

To enjoy shiokara, add shichimi spice or yama wasabi (mountain wasabi, shown in the photo). I am a Hokkaido native, so I am especially fond of yama wasabi, which is used for seasonings and marinades. Yama wasabi is also a great condiment to roast beef, similar to horseradish.

Black olives are also a nice pairing to shiokara.

*Kenji Miura is a professional photographer based in Tokyo.

**Article translated from Japanese to English by Yoko Kumano.

Let’s face it, mid-winter is almost upon us and there is not a ground hog is sight. It is getting downright tundra cold out there and Mother Nature is sure to unleash a deep freeze. Some say one should think of a warm place like a tropical island when winter’s freeze is cutting through your bones. Others hope a St. Bernard will come dashing around the bend with a neck barrel full of warming brandy. Well I like to imagine a warm place that combines the heat and brandy; I mentally revisit my annual mid-summer pilgrimage to sizzling hot New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail where I order a Vieux Carré cocktail upon arrival at the Carousel Bar.

Le Vieux Carré (pronounced view-kar-ray) is the French term for “Old Square” and is another name for the Crescent City’s iconic French Quarter. Walter Bergeron, the head bartender at the Hotel Monteleone’s bar, created the drink in 1938 as homage to New Orleans’ most celebrated district. The Monteleone’s hotel bar would later become the Carousel Bar with its famous rotating bar. The Monteleone, one of the French Quarter’s grand hotels, is also fittingly Tales of the Cocktail central and the Vieux Carré is still served as the house cocktail.

The Vieux Carré cocktail is a perfect example of a well-balanced mix of diverse spirits and bitters. French cognac, American rye whisky, and Italian sweet vermouth share the stage as base spirits. The monastically produced Bénédictine liqueur brings sweetness to the drink to offset the boozy trifecta. The bitters round out the mixture by cutting the sweetness and bonding the spirits.

Classic Vieux Carré
¾ oz cognac
¾ oz rye whisky
¾ oz sweet vermouth
¼ oz Bénédictine
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Dash of Angostura bitters
Lemon peel

Tools: Mixing glass, bar spoon, Hawthorne strainer, jigger, Swiss peeler

Method: Combine bitters and liquors in a mixing glass, add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a double rocks glass over ice and garnish with a lemon peel.

Still not warm enough for you? Take the recipe above and head south of the Tropic of Cancer to Guyana, the land of many waters and home of Demerara rum. In a recent night on the town, I was lucky enough to encounter a marvelous rum version of the Vieux Carré while dining at New York’s legendary Monkey Bar. The origins of the rum variation are hazy like that night but one of my fellow diners did order one at Julie Reiner’s Flatiron Lounge and was so thrilled with the libation that he began to spread the gospel. I was sold after one sip. The Rum Vieux Carré I ordered at Monkey Bar was made with El Dorado 12 Year Old Demerara rum in lieu of cognac. All of the other ingredients: spirits, bitters, and proportions remained true to Bergeron’s original, however it was served up and not on the rocks which makes for an elegant presentation.

El Dorado translates to City of Gold in Spanish and this liquid gold is an underrated treasure. El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum is produced by Demerara Distillers and is composed of rum from nine different stills ranging from copper still, wooden Coffey, and double wooden pots. Once thoroughly blended, the rum is aged in old bourbon oak casks. The end product is the lovely amber colored aged rum with the flavor of honey, toffee, fruit, and spice taking center stage with dry and smooth finish.

I used Sazarac 6 Year-old Straight Rye Whisky (90 proof) and a subdued sweet vermouth like Dolin Rouge to keep the focus on the El Dorado. A bold vermouth such as Carpano Antica or Cocchi Vermouth di Torino may overwhelm the other base spirits. Sazarac’s peppery taste compliment El Dorado’s complex flavors and add extra punch to the drink. The lemon twist at the end adds the right amount of citrus oils and brings out some of the El Dorado’s fruit.

Rum Vieux Carré
¾ oz El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum
¾ oz Sazarac 6 Year Old Straight Rye whisky
¾ oz Dolin Rouge sweet vermouth
¼ oz Bénédictine liqueur
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Dash of Angostura bitters
Lemon peel

Tools: Mixing glass, bar spoon, julep strainer, jigger, Swiss peeler, Manhattan glass

Method: Combine bitters and liquors in a mixing glass, add ice and stir until well chilled. Strain the mixture into a frosted Manhattan glass and garnish with a lemon peel.

So when you are stuck out in the freezing cold this winter try to imagine that St. Bernard bringing you a barrel-aged Rum Vieux Carré and then get to a reputable cocktail bar and order one! Keep warm mes amis.

*Photo by Vanessa Bahmani. 

**Got a cocktail question? Reach Fredo on twitter @loungerati, email me at fredo(at)loungerati(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below!

***Fredo Ceraso is the editor-at-large of the lounge lifestyle blog Loungerati.com. He is head cocktailian and a co-producer of The Salon parties. Fredo is a member of the USBG New York chapter and rolls drinks at many Lounge, Swing, Jazz Age, & Burlesque events in New York City.

The other day at my local Asian market — which is usually not very well equipped since importing food from Asia to an unsignificant little island kingdom like Denmark is incredibly pricey — I found these bags of grains. And I remembered the many crazy versions of rice I often came across when living in Tokyo. Blue, green, dotted in all colours, with grains, with beans, with nuts, anything you’d be sane enough to drop in a rice cooker.

Japanese consumers are obsessed with the terms “fresh” and “new”. In supermarkets and konbinis in Japan products are constantly being introduced, killed-off or moved around in the store to create the impression of variation and new experiences every time you enter the shop = more consumption, more shopping.

Shibuya: A normal day of skanky shopping.

As fellow Umamimart writer Yoko has mentioned several times in her Japanify coloum, new flavours of a well known product are introduced constantly, and quite often those flavours are more a gimmick than a real addition to its brand. Like Green Tea Coca Cola, Vanilla Licorice Beer or Mango Pudding Kit Kat. They may not taste super good, but they invoke a sensation in the consumer’s brain and a quick 10 second reminder of its brand in the surrounding cacophony of other brands across the globe. It’s all about staying afloat in people’s minds, no matter the cost.

Caramel Corn candy bags – why just one corn flavour when we can have six? Strawberry Corn, Tomato Corn, Peanut Corn, Green Tea Corn, Almond Corn and Vanilla Corn.

Japan makes you buy stuff — and that’s exactly what many urban Japanese do: work/eat/shop/sleep (wait hold on, they barely sleep since their work schedule is so intense. And also there’s very little sex involved — the Japanese are so over relationship fornication according to many recent studies. Many young, urban Japanese past their 20′s prefer to stay living at home with their parents and then spend their salary on fun with friends, foreign travels, izakaya dinners and shopping. And the shops know that.
Which means whenever you find yourself on a first class seat to Tokyo, make sure you brought lots of empty suitcases to bring back your new junk.

Tokyo, 2008: Psyched out Anders high on a mixture of sugary green tea ice cream overdose and Tokyu Hands toy department shopping frenzy:

“Look, Yoko — I’m shopppiiing! How about this bed? Should I buy it? Does it fold for the plane ride? What do you think, Yoko? Oh those sheets over there are lovely, I’ll take two of those! Wow, check out those Muji designer bunny slippers! Do you think they come in white male sizes?”

Yoko: “Get me out of here”.


Chopped baby bunny meat burger. Kidding. Sort of, I think.

But sometimes this crazed up variation shopping machine isn’t so bad. It’s actually quite exciting now and then. And I really really miss this energy and creativity among the brands in Danish supermarkets. Every five years there MIGHT be introduced a new flavour of a classic chocolate bar here, but it  will probably be “Almond” or “Soft Toffee” or something generic, really thought-over and well-tested with consumers. Yawn, you say? I agree. Then again, Red-Bean-Paste-Whole-Grain-Spearmint Kit Kat probably wouldn’t sell truckloads here. However, a little craziness now and then would be fun here in Denmark.

Back to the rice mix:

Super cute package.

It says げんきなこくもつ which best can be translated as “happy, vigouris richness”. Which is exactly what it brings to your plain, white boring rice.

Danish ingredient list stuck on the back by the import company lists the ingredients:

This is 15 kinds of rice/grain mix: Gluten rice, black rice, corn, red beans,, barley, buckwheat, pearl barley, black soy beans, black seseame, white sesame, brown rice, white sorghum, gluten foxtail millet, gluten millet and amarand grains.

WOW! That’s a whole lotta grainz.

Sounds like something the organic crazies here in Copenhagen would happily sprinkle on their tofu ice cream.

It says this bag goes with 500g rice which is exactly 4 cups.

Many Western people claim that rice doesn’t really taste of anything and it’s all the same. Well, not quite.

The world of Japanese rice is an abundant cornicopia of brands that offer thousands of different textures, subtle flavours and qualities.

My latest disappointment in my fellow Danes was last week when I went to the Kung Fu Izakaya Bar in Copenhagen. A Japanese izakaya-inspired place with wooden interiors and cozy lighting. All was good until we sat down and the starter miso soup with a bowl of Indian basmati rice was placed in front of me. SHOCK HORROR! You can NOT serve Indian rice in a Japanese izakaya, it’s like serving expensive salmon nigiri sushi with ketchup on the side (something that will send you straight to hell). Needless to say the rest of the dishes were also an abomination and we left hardly having touched the food.

This is my preferred rice at the moment. Hitomebore rice, a middle grain sort which is developed in Japan but grown in the US. I used to buy cheaper brands at the Asian market, but this is so much better. It’s about $23 for a bag of 2.5 kg which is probably a little pricey for American or Japanese standards.

The owner of my local Asian market told me yesterday that their container from Japan was finally delivered after being held back for two months in customs since there are only 3 freight companies in Denmark that scan for radiation contamination (supposedly everything from Japan is scanned before crossing the border to the EU. Hmm I didn’t know that, but I guess it makes sense).

So again, back to the rice:

I put 4 cups of rice in my rice cooker bowl. Wash gently 4-5 times until the water is somewhat clear.

Pour out all water, add approx 4 cups of new fresh water and let it soak for 10 minutes.

Put in the bag of happy, vigorious richness and mix around.

Place the cooking bowl in the rice cooker and start cooking.

While we wait for the vigorious rice, I want to show you the best Christmas present I got this year: A “Famous Views of Edo” week calendar from Taschen, painted by one of the most famous uki-e painters Hiroshige (1797 – 1858).

Edo was the old name for present day Tokyo and the paintings in the calendar show the nature around the old capital, the life of its inhabitants and the many incredibly scenes from a world long gone.

What must a foreigner have thought when coming to Japan the first time back in this age? Everything must have been so aesthetic, so beautiful — and yet so raw. A hard-knock life.

Ok, so this is the amount of Mondays we have to endure throughout 2012. Doesn’t look like a lot actually:

And speaking again of shopping:  If you’ve fallen in love with this too, you can purchase it online here at Taschen for cheap since the year’s begun now.

Yay, the rice is done. What a difference such a little grain filled bag can make. The rice has a nutty smell and a creamy brown/white colour, and is full of exciting new flavours among is grains.

It tastes great. It’s not a super intrusive attack on the traditional rice, more like a fun variation and a nutty boost.

Happy winter rice time from Skankynavia.

*Nahoko Morimoto is a Tokyo-based photographer. Her work has been featured in Brutus and Vogue Japan.