The Incredible Eddible Egg..plant

Common Eggplant

I used to think that I was not a big fan of eggplant.  I used to think that I did not like the taste and that eggplant was one of those vegetables that only vegetarians and hippies ate.  Like most things I did not like to eat it was only I had never experienced them prepared well.  It was not until I shared a meal at a Chinese restaurant that I experienced eggplant in a way that I not only liked, but loved.  The dish was simply Japanese eggplant stir-fried with the "chef's special sauce".  I tried the dish if only for curiosity sake and my life has not been the same since.  While the sauce of the dish was a large portion, I fell in love with eggplant itself.  It was soft and almost creamy with an earthy flavor to it and non of the bitterness that I usually thought accompanied eggplant.

So what exactly is an eggplant?  The eggplant, also known as an aubergine, is a fruit (technically a berry) that is consumed like a vegetable that comes from a plant originating in India.  The eggplant has been known to Asia for over two millennia and been cultivated in China since 500 B.C.  Arabs and Persians introduced it to Africa before the middle ages and it was from there that the eggplant was brought to Italy around the 14th century.  The first varieties of eggplant were so bitter that Europeans initially thought it caused insanity and kept it mainly for its ornamental purposes.  Only after years of cultivation and selective breeding has the eggplant improved in flavor.

Japanese, white and common Western Eggplants

 

There are multiple varieties of eggplants.

There are many different varieties of eggplant with Asian and western being the most commonly available.  Asian varieties are either long and thin or round with skin colors ranging from creamy white to deep purple.  Western eggplants, the more common one in the US, are shaped like a like a big pear with shiny lavender to purple-black skin.  The eggplant grows on a three foot high plant that bears purple-blue flowers.  The yellowish flesh of the eggplant is dense and spongy with a bland flavor that absorbs other flavors well.  Eggplants contain small brown seeds that are edible. The skin is also edible, but can be quite bitter in certain varieties.  Younger and smaller eggplants have less seeds and tend to have skin that is more tender and less bitter.

Eggplant flower

In order to choose a good eggplant look for one that is plump, firm, and heavy. It should be free of blemishes with smooth shiny skin.  Fruits with wrinkled or spotted skin are likely to be old and bitter tasting.  Press the skin lightly to check for ripeness.  If the imprint remains, then the fruit is ready.  Asian eggplants tend to softer than western ones.  Eggplants are available all year long, but their peak season is during the late summer. 

Now that you know what an eggplant is and how to pick one, what do you do with it?  Eggplants are wonderfully versatile and lend themselves to all manner of dishes and cooking methods.  Eggplant can be grilled, baked,stuffed, au gratin, purred, steamed, fried, or sauteed.  It is delicious hot or cold and makes a wonderful addition to any dish or serve as the main ingredient.  Eggplant plays a pivotal role in Asian and Mediterranean cuisines where it is often paired with tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil.  Some of the more commonly known eggplant dishes are moussaka, ratatouille, baba ganoush and eggplant Parmesan.

Eggplant Hors D'oeuvres

Stuffed Eggplant

Whole Eggplant Being Grilled

Moussaka

Roasted Eggplant

When preparing your eggplant is is important to keep in mind that the flesh of the fruit quickly discolors when cut.  Cooking it soon after it is cut or sprinkling it with lemon juice will help avoid that.  If the eggplant is large sprinkling the pieces  with salt and letting it sit for at least thirty minutes will help draw out some of the moisture from it as well as some of the bitterness.  This process also helps to keep the eggplant from absorbing too much oil during the cooking process.  Soaking the fruit in water will also draw out some of the bitterness as well as peeling it since most of the bitterness is concentrated just under the skin. 

Sliced Eggplant Being "Salted"

Eggplant bruises easily so it should be handled carefully.  It is also sensitive to temperature fluctuations.  Fresh eggplants should be stored in a perforated plastic bag in the refrigerator where they will keep for about a week.

Hopefully this post inspires someone who has not had or has not prepared eggplant to get adventurous with this versatile fruit/vegetable.  Not only is it delicious, it is good for you.  So get out there and try the incredible, edible, eggplant!

Hokkaido Sushi

   Who here does not like sushi? Speak up now.  Well, just know that if you don't like sushi, we can't be friends.  That and stop reading now because if you have not guessed already, this post is about a sushi place.  Now that THOSE people have left, the rest of us can get down to business.  Today I am writing about Hokkaido Sushi located on Bellaire Blvd. in Houston's Chinatown.

 

   Hokkaido has two things going for it.  One, it is really close to where I live, so it is convenient. OK, that is great for me, but what about you guys?  Well, the other and more important thing it has going for it is that Hokkaido provides good sushi for a very affordable price.  I don't want to use the word cheap because that just too many bad connotations, especially referencing sushi.  Like I said, Hokkaido has good sushi.  I can't in good conscience call it great, but it is tasty.  It will more than do the job if you have a hankering for sushi but don't want to break the bank at one the pricier places in town.

   So once you enter the establishment you grab a menu and seat yourself.  Technically there are two menus.  One is laminated sheet with all the appetizers and other Japanese treats as well as sushi combos and specials.

The other is a sheet of paper where you order sashimi or sushi ala carte.  After you make your decisions you walk up to the a counter where you place your order and pay.

   While you wait you can help yourself to a bowl of complimentary miso soup.  The soup itself is quite good.  It was nice and hot and was accompanied by fresh sliced green onions.  The miso served as a great palette cleanser in preparation for our meal.

   My wife ordered a tempura roll as well as a light Philadelphia roll.  I ordered a spicy tuna roll along with sushi combo A which included salmon, tuna, red snapper, egg, smelt roe, surf clam, shrimp and a California roll.  We both had an order of the seaweed salad and shared an order of ika shogayaki (ginger squid Japanese style).

   We both started with the seaweed salad.  It was just the right amount of salad (maybe a cup to a cup and half) to serve as an appetizer.  It was crisp and sweet and dressed with sesame seeds and sesame seed oil which complimented the sweetness of the seaweed quite nicely with its toasty flavor.  It was done just right so as to not be greasy or oily. 

The sushi itself was very appetizing.  The fish was cut thickly.  It tasted fresh and flavorful.  The rice had the sweetness you would expect from sushi rice and it held together quite nicely.  Nothing spoils sushi like badly made rice that isn't sticky and fall apart.  My wife was quite found of the tempura roll saying how she enjoyed the crunch.  My personal favorite is the tuna.  Both the spicy tuna roll and the piece from the combo satisfied my tuna craving.  If I had one issue with any of it, it would be that I kind of expected the spicy tuna roll to have more of a kick.

Front left to right: Philly Roll, Tempura Roll. Back: Spicy Tuna Roll

Sushi Combo A

Last is the squid.  The squid had a great flavor.  Even though the sauce was primarily soy sauce, you could really taste the ginger.  It was obvious they did not skimp.  The squid itself had a good texture.  It was chewy, but not gummy.  It had the right amount of give.  Only negative about this dish was that a little of the cuttlebone was left in the tube of the squid.  Other than that it was quite an enjoyable dish.

   So for anyone who considers themselves a sushi lover, I would recommend Hokkaido Sushi as a good place to eat.  At the beginning of this post I said that this place was not great and I stand by that.  Hokkaido is a great everyday sushi place, but there are certainly better places to go to get sushi.  The thing is, at those places you are going to pay a premium.

 

Kim Son Restaurant

Apparently this particular restaurant has several locations.  I am talking about the one found on 10603 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX.  Now that we have cleared that up, let me start with my introduction to this nifty place. I must note that this is actually my second trip to this fine eatery.  A co-worker and friend of mine invited me to go out to the Asian part of town and explore the food markets and grocery stores then have dinner with her.  I readily agreed.  As I am a foodie and a chef, exploring where other cultures get their food is right up my alley. (I did major in anthropology in college after all.)  So after a day of staring at huge durian fruit and marveling at the low price of outstanding produce we went to dinner.

At first glance this looked like a typical Chinese buffet type place.  Oh how wrong I was.  You see, there were quite a few differences in this buffet.  First of all were the dishes.  Sure you could find a nice assortment of things you might find at any other buffet, such as spring rolls with peanut sauce and pepper beef.  Ah, but don't be fooled.  There were other things such as sauteed duck's feet or cold chicken.  My favorite was the Vietnamese fried omelete.  but I will get to that later.  The other difference was that this was a hot pot restaurant.  This was really the main thrust of the place.

Another snazzy little addition to the place was a little side station where you could get things like roasted duck with steamed buns, soups and fried pancakes.  I love me some roasted duck.  They had some of the more typical soups such as won ton and sweet and sour. 

This was my first introduction to hot pot eating.  The twist to hot pot restaurants is that there is a butane burner placed on each table.  When you are seated, the waiter brings a pot that is split down the middle and contains spicy broth on one side and normal broth on the other.  Now, besides having the "normal" cooked selections in the buffet, there was one section of the buffet that provided you with raw ingredients for your hot pot.  The ingredients ranged from the straight forward shrimp, beef, leafy greens or rice noodles to the more unusual beef stomach lining and kidney and fish and pork balls.  NO, it is not what you think.  They were balls of fish and pork that were steamed. 

So after you pick out what you want to put in your broth, you go back to the table and cook it in the boiling broth.  While this cooks you enjoy the other things the buffet has to offer.  Like I said earlier, one of my favorite things was the fried Vietnamese omelete.  Essentially, this is an omelete that has been folded over, is crispy and has bean sprouts and other goodies in the middle.  You then wrap the omelete in a lettuce leaf and dip in a spicy dipping sauce before eating.  Another memorable dish I ate was the sauteed duck's feet.  They were quite tender, if a little bony. 

So once our soup was done, we all dug in.  Some of the things I chose to put in there were the stomach lining, kidney, and different type of balls. Some of them were unlabeled, but I chose to be a little adventurous.  In reality after everyone adds their ingredients they get all mixed up and it is a free for all.    So you might get a little of everything and not everything you put in.

After dinner they had many dessert options such as fruit and pastries.  My favorite was by far the ice cream.  Yeah, they had chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, but what made the ice cream so special and good, was the green tea ice cream.  Very light and refreshing.  Also available was another dessert.  Now I don't know what it was called or what it was made of since I did not initially get it.  The item was a ball of something that looked like goo and was held in liquid.  When it was dug into with a spoon, it did not break apart easily.  Everyone at the table had a taste including myself.  Well, it was an experience.  The taste was fine.  But the texture... oh the texture.  It felt like a snot ball for lack of a better descriptor.  Yikes.  It was soft and squishy with something rough and slightly crunchy mixed in.  I was surprised at how the texture made me dislike it so much. 

Overall this was a good time out.  I enjoyed the food and I like the making your own soup aspect of it.  I recommend that you go out and try a hot pot restaurant at some point and time.