Tastebudding

Claws

Simply — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:20:26 +0000

Wow…

That’s what I have to say about this place. It was my first time going to a place like this, and I think I’d definitely go back! We actually had planned to go to The Boiling Crab, but when we were told it was going to be a 45 minute wait two times, even after waiting 30 minutes before asking again, we decided to go to the less popular Claws in Garden Grove on Brookhurst and Pavilion Way.

I’m so very glad that we did. The atmosphere was much more mellow, lighting was brighter, and overall a more pleasant place to be.

I came with my sisters and a few friends, so with the 8 of us there, we decided to do split checks to make things simpler. My sisters and I shared a 3-pound bag of shrimp–that’s a pound for each of us!

It was delicious with the little lime and salt/pepper dipping sauce. They give you a little container of salt and pepper, and a big bowl of fresh cut limes so that you can squeeze the juice into your salt/pepper.

The only bad part is that you are forced to wear this ridiculous looking bib…

But yeah, it’s a great place, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

Be forewarned though because your fingers will be stained with the smell of shrimp! Ah the price we pay for good seafood…

~Simply

Bedded Salmon 2

Musashi — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:18:40 +0000

Here’s another variation of the dish. There’s some thinly sliced, crispy-fried potato slices on the spinach, and an herb cream cheese spread in between the potato and salmon. It was finished off with some tomatoes, and, of course, the asparagus.

A richer way to enjoy this dish!

Baked BBQ Chicken

Musashi — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:42:41 +0000

A bunch of chicken and baby crimini mushrooms with some barbecue sauce, plum sauce, brown mustard, fresh garlic, salt, and white pepper, baked while covered in foil at 350 degrees, uncovered, and then baked again for a little while longer, to give it some color.

Just the right amount of rice to sop up all the juice!

Turned out to be a great finger licker, and the mushrooms were profound!

Shopping

Musashi — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:38:45 +0000

We went to one of our favorite, local, Asian markets to pick up a few things and do a little browsing. They have a profound variety of tremendously interesting things, so we took some photos with our iphones.

Fish roe, salted and fresh fish fillets, and other goodness from the sea makes for great color.

Here’s a sampling of several of the other things available.

Arroz con Pollo

Musashi — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:48:59 +0000

This was a quick cuban-style chicken and rice (arroz con pollo) made with ingredients on hand. Turmeric powder was substituted for annato powder (Bijol), and the rice was Japanese pearl instead of arborio. Obviously, we didn’t have pimientos (cherry peppers) or peas, but made up for it with a little veggie melange. And, we didn’t forget the beer.

The texture of the rice was awesome!

The pearl rice helped the whole dish cook much faster than it would have with the arborio rice.

It turned out delicious.

Bagel Melt

Musashi — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:04:54 +0000

We made some tuna with red onions, green onions and celery all finely chopped with a chiffonade of basil, and then mixed with some mayonnaise. The mixture was spread out over a water bagel, topped with cheese and baked at 350 degrees fahrenheit until the bottom was crispy and the cheese was melted.

Decorative and delicious!

By the way, the deviled egg was topped with a crisp cheese cracker that was created from the flotsam of the oven melting.

Meat…the way it’s done.

Musashi — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:35:02 +0000

Here’s the simplest, fastest and tastiest way we’ve found to season steaks (This method has been around for a while). We’ll give a step by step for this one. First, get some steaks.

Some decent marbling.

Second, heavily salt them, both sides. I mean heavily. We use sea salt and leave it out for about 20 minutes for three quarter inch steaks. If you use table salt, cut down the time. Also, adjust the time according to the thickness, the thinner the steak, the shorter the time.

Salt is also under the steaks.

Third, wash off all the salt and pat dry. Cook the steaks your favorite way. We sauted ours in a little olive oil till they got a small crust on each side. They’re still rare to medium rare.

Nice searing!

Last, let rest, slice and enjoy!

If you look closely, you can see the marbling just beginning to melt.

By the way, here’s the slightly rare one.

Ultra tender!

Sausage Sliders

Musashi — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:42:24 +0000

Didn’t feel like “cooking”, so we took some kielbasa, sliced it and fried it up in a little bit of olive oil. We then quickly sauted some onions, red peppers, celery and yellow squash in the left over drippins’, reintroduced the kielbasa and tossed them all together. Here’s how it turned out:

It's steaming...promise.

In the mean time, we baked up some biscuits. After they were done, we sliced them in half and came up with this:

Sriracha goes with anything!

How did it taste?

Going...

...going...

...gone!

Bedded Salmon

Musashi — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:42:58 +0000

Took some spinach, onions, green peppers, garlic, salt and pepper, cooked it all up with some olive oil, and lightly spread it down on a plate. We cooked some salmon, and placed it on top of that. Then we took cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and green peppers, tossed it with a little fire and such, and poured it on top of the salmon. Worked pretty well.

Nice, fresh ingredients...and it looked so good, we had to take a bite!

Quick Appetizer

Musashi — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:40:41 +0000

We took a scrumpcious piece of ahi and coated it with furikake to make a nice little seared tuna appetizer.

Melts in your mouth.

It rests on a bed of…guess…