Month: September 2007

Mapo beans, anyone?

| Khursten Santos

Mapo beans?

I don’t know if there’s a Japanese dish like this, but I love mixing and matching vegetables with the staple Mapo recipe. One of my favorite Chinese/Japanese dish is Mapo tofu. I also love variations of it such as Mapo Nasu and particularly this one, Mapo Beans.

Cooking Mapo is rather easy as long as you have the right ingredients. There are two crucial ingredients for Mapo and that is Chili Bean Paste (Tou Ban Jan) and Chili Garlic sauce (the chinese kind, not the sweet chili sauce in the market). These two ingredients are easily available in groceries and won’t cost an arm and a leg to get. For those who are scared that these rot easily, rest assured that they’re good to store for a year or so in your fridge and you’ll be addicted to mapo that you’ll be shocked that you’re out of Tou Ban Jan and Chili Garlic sauce.

Anyway, on to the recipe!
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Takoyaki woes! TAT;;

| Khursten Santos

Kuya Chito's Takoyaki

This is almost like the real thing but not anything close to it yet. It is definitely a step further from your regular Samurai Balls, but not anything close to the real takoyaki. Found beside the Market!Market! Metro Gaisano’s grocery, Kuya Chito’s Takoyaki attempts to sell a Filipinized version of Takoyaki. It was a brave attempt, but not quite like it.

Wry!? Where did Kuya Chito’s path to Takoyaki fail? It was the empty airy inside and the rubbery almost gummy consistency outside. The gummy texture may have been due to the fact that the Takoyaki was overcooked. It was deep brown when we bought it, which was definitely strange for takoyaki (unless it’s brown due to the Tonkatsu sauce glaze). The inside was airy that it was like biting through a deflated baloon. I think they forget to pour some more of the batter after placing the vegetables. Or maybe there’s too much vegetables in it that there’s no more space for the flour. I am assuming that this Takoyaki stall is still at its earliest stages. One wherein they don’t know if they are cooking it right or not and they’re still studying which combination is done right. Meh. Major meh.

Fine, I do have a fault of eating it a little cold. But that’s no excuse. I’ve asked my mom to bring home some of Ngee Ann City’s Takopotchi. 3 hours after it was bought, the outside may not have been crispy anymore, but it wasn’t gummy and it still had a creamy inside. I’ve also brought home that elusive Takoyaki from that discreet Takoyaki stall in that shady grocery at the end of EDSA extension and it was far from gummy. So with those flavors as basis, I know this Takoyaki isn’t doing something right.

It’s quite unfortunate that I wasn’t there to buy it myself. I’ve seen the stall before but never bought one because I was in a rush. My mom just brought these home last night in hopes that I no longer need to keep on requesting her to get me those damn tasty Takoyakis from Ngee Ann City. But to our disappointment, these takoyakis were a failure.

I must say though that despite the texture, the takoyaki was still flavorful. From what you can taste on the inside, it still had that nice gooey almost cheesy flavor. They also topped it with some mayo (not a lot though, I had to add kewpie) and instead of katsuoboshi, they used something like pork floss.

Word of caution though, if you buy it in the stall and eat it right away, they will pour this hideous Chilli Sweet and Sour like sauce. ><;; Not good. Just stick with the mayo and the pork floss and you’ll be fine.

Natto crazy

| Khursten Santos

Sticky Natto

I finally managed to eat the highly mysterious natto. I’ve been curious about natto because weird foods always interest me. It’s like blue cheese. or durian. It’s pungent, stringy, and sticky. I have people who hate it. At the same time, I have friends who love it. So for the curious me, I struggled to wanting to live life not tasting, or tasting it as well.

In the end, it was an episode of Iron Chef (the Natto Battle) that convinced me to try this darn thing. Curse you Rokusaburo Michiba for making those yummy treats! I stopped by our usual Japanese grocer and finally bought myself a pack that had a happy family eating Natto. If they looked happy, then I might be happy when I start eating it… maybe. probably.

When I got home, I excitingly opened a pack to eat with my rice. It didn’t smell so bad. I think I’ve smelled far worse things. The pack had two packets in it. One is mustard (karashi) and the other is some shouyu-like broth. According to Iron Chef, the trick is stirring it round for 15 times. the thing is, I stirred it too fast and counted too slow that I overstirred my first natto. I placed some shouyu and and karashi after stirring and plopped it on top of my rice. The taste was… weird. At first it was okay. I kept on adding shouyu and it didn’t have any taste to begin with. It was sticky and gooey and weird in texture. In terms of texture, it was like eating with sticky phlegm in your mouth. It did partially have that cheesy flavor. If you don’t stir it well with the rice, you get to eat the natto itself. The natto itself tastes… fermented. I don’t know if you know what that tastes like, but yeah, it has that weird woody taste, as though it’s been grown in the ground. After that, I swore that natto may not be for me. But I have three packs to go… so I had to eat it. ><;;

The next day, I ate natto again for breakfast. This time, I did the Iron Chef advise, stir the thing 15 times. I also tried another website’s advise of placing shouyu and mayonnaise after stirring it. The texture was leaps different from my experience the night before. Wow. Now, this is the natto that people loved. The texture was more creamy and it slides down your mouth. It still has that fermented taste, but it’s strangely softer. Even when you eat the natto alone, it tastes great. Like seasoned cheese with that aged taste. It was elegant to the tongue, and if I didn’t have to go to work the next day, I’d eat it again.

So, natto is not so bad at all. You just have to know how to prepare it so that you can maximize the taste. I’ll try more natto combinations later. I love the shouyu mayonnaise combo best. Maybe I’ll spring onions this weekend. <3 Oh luffles to this lovely natto!