tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2021907540347744092012-02-16T16:43:25.036-08:00crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.comBlogger301100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-10820803403481239932010-02-21T16:03:00.000-08:002010-02-21T16:32:35.353-08:00

Abbreviated Entry! Just a note: that heart shaped one is supposed to be one of Oprah's favorite things. I think.Doesn't really belong in the category "dessert," but I'd rather not have a whole category for chocolates...

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-57587804918384966182010-02-21T15:56:00.000-08:002010-02-21T16:03:21.535-08:00

Abbreviated Entry!Swordfish Kebab, Salmon, Beef (focus on that delicious bone marrow)

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-51124659396935519082010-02-21T15:43:00.001-08:002010-02-21T15:55:48.676-08:00

Abbreviated entry!Heart followed by testicles.Taste:Heart: somewhat lean. Testicles: slightly fatty, strange and slight irony aftertaste. Not bad, but wouldn't go out of my way to have more.

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-47453960338917198662009-06-02T21:12:00.000-07:002009-06-02T22:01:59.338-07:00

For a brief overview on the restaurant, check out the Lamb Cheeks entry.Brains. This was our quest. This was our White Castle in the never-before told story: Chris and Maryann go to eat Brains. This was the end of our months of planning. A reward for our time spent in the biomedical sciences.The human brain has a neuron count of about 100 billion. What does this have to do with food? Well neurons

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-55888994651157209022009-04-16T13:29:00.000-07:002009-04-16T14:22:49.008-07:00

For a brief overview on the restaurant, check out the Lamb Cheeks entry.Sweetbreads. In the Hannibal story, Red Dragon, Lecter is discovered because he has sweetbreads written in an anatomy book. As wiki tells me, sweetbreads refer to two organs of the body, the pancreas and the thymus gland. There is a bit of debate whether pancreas can be considered a sweetbread. Thymus is undoubtedly so.Taste:

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-44554714141551921492009-04-16T12:53:00.000-07:002009-04-16T13:25:39.801-07:00

This is the first in an array of dishes I had at Kabab Cafe, a small little restaurant in Astoria. It's run by a dynamic fellow who engages you in conversation as he lists the days specials. I like the place. It isn't like any dining experience I've had--no menus, no whiny teenage waiters or snobby foodies grimacing at your poor choice in edibles. Instead, you find yourself in a conversation

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-58094057402029985502009-04-02T18:14:00.000-07:002009-04-02T20:12:31.679-07:00

Appropriate that I follow up that In-n-Out entry with its biggest contender: the Shack Shack Shackburger. The place is a chain of sorts: 3 locations in the Big Apple. I visited the Upper West Side location, a few blocks shy of the 72nd street 1 2 3.Now I'll be frank: this place isn't as good as In-n-Out. It's close. Very close. But it's a bit more expensive, and the taste just isn't quite up to

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-21073588430385859512008-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:002008-08-27T15:14:35.628-07:00

Oh hail king of burgers. I bow before your might, the glory of your patties, the joy of your special sauce, the freshness of your greens, the vivid shine of your reds, and the toasty bite of your perfect, beautiful buns.Straight from Socal we have the In-n-out burger. For those of you unfortunate cretins who don't know what In-n-Out is (blasphemer!), it's the fast food joint that makes all other

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-58822449860025346662008-07-20T16:49:00.000-07:002008-07-20T17:06:12.321-07:00

What's up with these countries and the shitholes of the body? Liver, intestine, kidney…the list goes on. The most common explanation I've heard (and I tend to agree) is that these cultures have only recently been able to not waste valuable protein sources like vital organs. Western cultures have an abundance of food not found in other countries, and given the "acquired taste" of some of these

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-52051985089238081362008-07-20T16:39:00.000-07:002008-07-20T16:42:19.230-07:00

Doesn't get much more straightforward than this. Congealed rice covered in ground peanuts. Taste: Imagine it and you've pretty much got it. Chewy, tasteless rice and yummy, sweet peanut powder. Reflections: Great dessert. Nice chew.

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-90311994779723453622008-07-20T16:36:00.000-07:002008-07-20T16:39:22.294-07:00

I'm only writing this one down because I saw it on food network and food network is awesome. They really are shaped like that, though the mussel has popped off its shell so it no longer resembles what it is in the wild (unlike "normal" clams, who tend to stick in their shells). Taste: The taste is virtually identical to that of your normal clam. The difference is in texture: where clams

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-48653771836643281542008-07-20T16:28:00.001-07:002008-07-20T16:36:14.941-07:00

Emphasis on the "whole." Everyone has had calamari before, but this is the first time I've ever had the whole squid—gooey guts, head, and all. What most people eat (calamari rings) comes from the area between the eyes and the tail fin. Here, the restaurant gave us the whole deal. Times six.Taste: Kinda like squid. I started eating from the back—the tail fin end. The first bite was nothing

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-2124081494482999902008-07-19T16:34:00.001-07:002008-07-19T22:24:27.690-07:00

Liver! Yay! If they ever run out of reasons to justify evolution, they can always fall back on the taste of related organs. Common ancestry by taste! Okay that was a stretch; I apologize to the scientists out there. Seriously though, there are remarkable similarities between the Chicken Liver Yakitori I had in Japan and the liver I'm talking about here. If you haven't read that entry, you

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-10580993143136095202008-07-19T15:38:00.000-07:002008-07-19T22:29:58.483-07:00

Move aside vacuum packed imported eel. The real shit is here. So if you've had eel, you've probably had the Japanese version—somewhat doused in teriyaki, sealed up in some plastic jig, and unsealed upon serving on top of rice (sushi or a don-type meal). The Taiwanese version is slightly different—steamed instead of panned (not quite sure on this, but the textures suggest so). Anyway, the tastes

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-42382710050055722202008-07-16T01:17:00.000-07:002008-07-19T16:46:19.915-07:00

Three words: rice hamburger buns. This is a Japanese chain that I happened upon in Taiwan. I guess the best way to describe it is to call it the lovechild between American backyard barbecues and traditional Asian flavors. Unfortunately, I did not get to try their flagship burger—the octopus patty—but I did try several others (pictures below). Oh and their mascot is a big octopus. Pretty damn

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-32449523374708492872008-07-14T00:17:00.000-07:002008-07-19T16:44:18.992-07:00

That’s Taiwanese in the phonetics up there. This here is supposed to be one of the classic Taiwanese dishes. Several ingredients here: eggs, starch, oysters (hidden in the egg), and a mysterious sweet orange sauce, probably of some relation to ketchup. Everything is fried together in one of those giant woks, sauce added after it’s all cooked to perfection. Think of it as an omelet. But with

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-26981519037699806432008-07-13T23:48:00.000-07:002008-07-19T16:45:25.284-07:00

Ah pig’s blood. We meet again. I remember fondly the last time I experienced you…around ten years ago, when a family friend thought I would enjoy a Pig’s Blood Cake (gelatinized pig’s blood). I did not enjoy it. I did not enjoy it at all. In fact I almost puked. So I face you again, friend pig’s blood, though you are less potent this time around. My grandparents tell me that this dish is made

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-5458926470620515442008-07-13T23:21:00.000-07:002008-07-16T02:12:17.408-07:00

Perfection on a platter. Three beautiful ingredients: mango, sweet condensed milk, and shaved ice. Pure genius. Taste: Good. Reflections: MORE. And for your viewing pleasure, here it is in two more vantage points:

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-49863442176499820512008-07-13T23:12:00.000-07:002008-07-19T16:42:11.703-07:00

There are very few chains in Japan. I think it’s a thing of Japanese culture—perfection takes precedence over ambition. Yoshinoya though, is a bit of an exception. For a cheap price (about three US dollars) you get a bowl of rice, sauced with something simple, covered in a meat of your choice. Shown above is Beef-Don. This sort of thing is probably the closest one can get to Japanese fast

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-16172137220053954352008-07-12T22:22:00.001-07:002008-07-14T00:17:56.505-07:00

I never knew there was an aversion toward eating cartilage and tendons until my friend’s girlfriend shirked in disgust when I pointed out tendons in the Chinese meatballs that we were eating. So this dish isn’t that big of a deal to me. I will say though, that I’ve never seen cartilage actually isolated and cooked separately before. Tendons yes, but cartilage no. In fact, isolated, the

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-12710914676243629222008-07-12T22:13:00.000-07:002008-07-12T22:31:44.071-07:00

One would think that the understandings in modern biology would put people off to organs like the liver, kidney, and intestines. Shit holes of the body. Then again, it also makes sense that all three organs (in my experience) are also the most aromatic. That’s the draw I suppose. The Yakitori (Japanese shish-kabob) shown here may not have its skewer, but rest assured, it is still very much

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-22160233043455301692008-07-11T00:30:00.000-07:002008-07-11T00:46:19.741-07:00

What is a gizzard you ask? Bird stomach! Trust me, it sounds nastier than it actually is. The fancy change in nomenclature actually makes some sense anatomically. As seed eaters, a conventional stomach just won’t suffice for your average feathered friend. Instead, birds ingest grit (rocks) along with their normal fare to aid in the breakdown of hard shells, and have evolved specially

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-79342850105794430372008-06-30T09:42:00.000-07:002008-07-11T00:30:30.950-07:00

Salmonella anybody? Yes, it’s raw. Very, very raw. Too raw even for salmonella. So raw that you can hear your chicken’s last clucks echoing from that not-too-distant kitchen. Cluck…cluck…cluck… This isn’t a dish to be enjoyed anywhere. To be perfectly honest with you, I would never eat such a thing in the States—food isn’t taken seriously enough back at home. Actually, I take that back:

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-32330482187253500872008-06-29T08:33:00.001-07:002008-06-29T20:12:15.129-07:00

I've never seen a more beautiful green ball. Mochi Cream is a Japanese chain that sells mochi balls of all sorts of flavors. The stores sell them direct from a freezer hidden someplace below the counter, and tell you pretty specifically not to eat them immediately, allowing 10 minutes for the mochi to defrost. It's quite a waiting period, staring at that delicious little ball, holding yourself

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-22218705496711141652008-06-29T08:07:00.000-07:002008-07-20T22:20:53.275-07:00

Ah yes. The mother of all Ramens. The real deal. Its descendents have been my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the past 4 and will be my sole sustenance next 4 years. Ok so you can't compare the actual Japanese ramen with the instant american kind. They're different enough to be considered different foods. Both of which though, are undeniably delicious. Well I take that back. Instant ramen is

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-18330774372521629642008-06-29T05:02:00.000-07:002008-06-30T09:02:51.168-07:00

Ok so I have to apologize for this picture. I was so eager to start eating that I forgot to snap a photo of the whole dish. What you would have seen were pieces of salmon, scallop, yellowtail, tuna, and fatty tuna sashimi artfully arranged over thinly sliced turnips and other green garnishes. Now this next picture is of a Chirashi type dish:Unfortunately, this picture suffers the same fault as

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-36982966406093037802008-06-28T08:53:00.000-07:002008-06-30T09:02:51.168-07:00

Yes you read that right. Apparently this place's trademark is Pea Mousse. What the hell were they thinking?Taste:Terrible. Unless you really like peas. Really, really, really like peas. So from what I gather they took a whole lot of peas, blended them into pulp, and folded that mixture in with heavy cream, and beated the shit out of the whole mixture to achieve a mousse. And I'll give them credit

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-24157812453447330122008-06-28T08:26:00.000-07:002008-06-30T09:05:16.467-07:00

It's beautiful! It's delicious! It's snail! This was served in a long slew of little dishes in a hotel near the hot springs around Mt. Fuji. The white stuff of course is salt. The rectangular object on the right is some sort of combination of tendons, shrimp, and congealed rice. The left of course, is fish.Taste:I'll begin with the snail, since it's the most extravagant of the three. A sweet

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-396491767959229812008-06-28T08:03:00.000-07:002008-06-30T09:02:51.170-07:00

So here's an interesting treat from the Hilton Narita in Tokyo. From left to right: Apple+Tomato Ice, Spinach+Grapefruit Ice, and Orange+Carrot Ice.This was an option in a rather eclectic breakfast buffet that tried quite hard to cater to both Japanese and Western tastes. I'm still not quite too sure who "Spinach+Grapefruit Ice" caters to, but I'm guessing it was a Japanese take on Western

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-202190754034774409.post-66833641288576588152008-06-16T14:02:00.000-07:002008-06-28T07:57:37.474-07:00

This cricket is hungry.But he doesn't look that way.He is hungry for novelty. Whatever might attract his eye. The foods appearing here aren't necessarily good foods, nor are they necessarily strange foods. These foods are stimulating: whatever attracts the eye.I think of it this way: food is a battle. The eyes find one's adversaries, and the tongue, the nose, the stomach do engage in

crickethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10848036434170163324noreply@blogger.com0