Zuni Chicken and Bread Salad

This is such an iconic dish and everyone who has a food blog has already chronicled this, but for me, this was a special undertaking. Maybe it was the cozy lighting and the crisp January air outside, but my first experience at Zuni Cafe, consisting of the Olive oil fettunta (yum!), House-cured anchovies, Caesar salad, Zuni Chicken and Bread Salad and the Red Hawk Cheese (Cowgirl Creamery) was culinary magic for me. Needless to say, it left an deep impression on me. I learned how the best ingredients with artful, sometimes painstaking, preparation makes all the difference. It made me a better cook, for sure.

My friend who I shared the experience with bought me Judy Rodgers' book, the Zuni Cafe Cookbook, and I'm extremely grateful. (Being from Hawaii, it is a little difficult to cook many recipes from this book since we don't have the same sources for ingredients, but it's a very interesting read for any cook.)

I made the chicken and bread salad for a small dinner party, along with a minestrone and the barefoot contessa's deeply chocolate gelato and giada's hazelnut gelato. Here are my pics:













The toasted bread with scallions and currants -- I used LaBrea's Roasted Garlic Loaf. You can find dried currants at Foodland's R. Field or at Whole Foods.













Chicken (before turning over, the skin did end up sticking to the pan even though I preheated it!) The chicken was Mary's from Whole Foods.













Salad dressed, waiting for the chicken













My guests really enjoyed this, and I was extremely glad I was able to share a bit of Zuni with them. I also appreciate Judy Rodgers for writing her cookbook, in such a didactic and detailed way, so home cooks like me can relive our memories at Zuni. The recipe is also online here.

Our Macaroons in Paris

Here's a quick pic of the macaroons we got from Laduree, a little bit of a snobby yet gorgeous patisserie/cafe on the Champs Elysees. I believe we tried Lemon, Cassis, Strawberry, Rose Petal, Pistachio and Chocolate. We haven't had a chance to try making different flavored macaroons, since making our chocolate ones last year. Hopefully soon...

Little Oven

One of our favorite places, possibly in this world, is Little Oven, on King Street map. We've been visiting Joyce Harada and enjoying her homey, yummy and beautiful desserts for a couple of years now. Truly, as others have written, Little Oven IS little, and very easy to miss. Look for the shop with the warm orange glow and funky modern light fixture, just past the old Fro-yo bar and parking is in the back, turn right on Kaheka and right again. The hours are W-Sat 7pm-midnight, but you may want to go a little bit later, around 7:30 or 8, as they don't always open right on time. I've been meaning to do a post on Little Oven for so long, but never had the opportunity to take good pictures. We finally brought our camera the other night, expecting the usual casual and relaxed atmosphere probably seeing the same ol' people, but we were greeted by what seemed like a barage of patrons, most of whom we'd never seen before! Little Oven was recently featured in Metromix, a local entertainment guide, and so now the secret's out!

We had the Irish Apple Cake and Irish Tipsy Cake, both $6.50. The Apple cake was like an apple pie but with a biscuit-like crust. Joyce makes some of the most satisfying pastry, from tarts to cobblers to pies. Anything she does with fresh fruit is also lovely. The Tipsy cake was a strawberry layer cake with some sort of liquor between the cake, strawberries and cream, very light and tasty.

Irish Apple Cake, $6.50














Irish Tipsy Cake, $6.50













We can also attest to mostly all of Little Oven's homemade sorbets and ice milks. Strawberry sorbet and ice milk, and the banana ice milk are particularly good, bursting with fresh fruit flavor. In addition to the frozen desserts, we are also huge fans of the lilikoi pavlova, calamansi tart and the mixed berry and peach cobblers.

What is most compelling about Joyce's desserts is that she makes everything herself, you can almost taste the love that goes into it. Some of her desserts have become comfort food for us, they have a simplicity to them that just grows on you. On holidays and at different times of year, she creates special desserts and prix fixe menus. You really can't visit just once.

Little Oven had become such a special place for us that we asked Joyce to make our wedding cake. She created a beautiful cake for us, an amazing lilikoi cake! She is truly talented, and has a whole host of cakes at her website.

Our wedding cake:

Croissant Tour of Honolulu #1

Croissants never meant much to me, one way or another. They were a banal staple at conferences where refreshments were served. Here in Hawaii we are used to the Costco variety, soft, somewhat flaky, somewhat buttery croissants, similar to the bun stand-ins in a croissant-wich. I actually love the occasional croissant sandwich, especially how the sandwich is never dry because of the buttery, flaky exterior. What I'm getting to is, croissants now mean a great deal to me. On a non-descript 'rue' in Paris, we visited a VERY small bakery named Poilane. World-famous, this bakery was not crowded or glitzy. It paled in comparison to any of the other large boulangeries with famous culinary namesakes. The croissant I was lucky enough to eat was life-changing, unlike any croissant that had crossed my path!

Flaky is an understatement when talking about this croissant. I have actually tried making croissants, in Hawaii sans a marble slab or air conditioning. On a positive note, I ended up with some homely crescent shaped biscuits. The Poilane creations looked like any other in France, but it was so crisp in its top layers, incredibly flaky, tender and beautifully layered on the inside, butter hardening the flat bottom into a crust. I was sure I would never be content with any other croissant after this, and so far it has been true.
















Sometimes I visit Poilane via Google Earth, that's how powerful a memory it was for me! I always dream of visiting France again, recreating meals and sifting through our photos. I was lucky enough to have a wonderful croissant this weekend that had Han and I trekking to a few more bakeries to give some Hawaii bakeries a real look. The croissant that has given me hope was from Town, in Kaimuki. What a wonderful croissant, ultra crisp and flaky, soft and gorgeous on the inside! My hope was being restored. We bought a croissant and pain au chocolat at Bakery Boulangerie on King Street. We headed to Manoa to try Fendu Boulangerie and Bakery Manoa's offerings.

These are our findings:













Town croissant - wow! Ultra-flaky, crisp, most like the Poilane croissant! Very satisfying weekend breakfast moment.













Bakery Boulangerie - really good, tasty croissant. Not quite as crisp as I like, but it was tender and flaky. We loved the apricot/peach glaze and sliced almonds. The pain au chocolat, also very good! Nice dark chocolate interior!













Bakery Manoa's (shown left) was a disapointment. It was "alright" having a somewhat flaky exterior but a more dense, bready interior. It also had a slighty chemical taste to the croissant.

Fendu was out of croissants, so we got their chocolate croissant (shown right). The pastry was quite nice, somewhat crisp, quite flaky and buttery! We were not very happy with the chocolate, the chocolate tasted of low quality and there was too much chocolate for our tastes.

We definitely want to do more croissant taste-testing! Pass along any noteworthy suggestions.

Hale Vietnam

I haven't visited this "hale" on 12th Ave for many years. A couple we were meeting suggested it and pho sounded great. The ambiance was unchanged, although it did seem a bit more colorful. On a rainy Wednesday night, it was busy with people constantly at the door waiting for tables. That explains why the moment we sat down the waitress asked for our order and then two minutes later and then again two minutes later. We finally made our selections, Garden Delight Roll, Large Beef/Flank/Brisket/Tripe Pho, Lemongrass Chicken; our friends ordered Peanut Curry and Vegetarian Crispy Noodles.

We shared an appetizer, the Garden Delight. It was pretty tasty and it LOOKS like there's meat inside! It was filled with lettuce, basil and some sort of garlicky filling. Pretty tasty.













I got the pho and it was pretty good, although not the best. One of the best I've had is from Cuu Long 2 and Han likes Pho Baci (both in Chinatown).













According to Han, the Lemongrass Chicken was pretty good especially with the tasty bits of fried garlic. It had really subtle lemongrass flavor; he was hoping for a stronger lemongrass taste.













Our friend who ordered the Peanut Curry said it was "awesome" and really enjoyed it. It reminded him of a Thai penang curry.













Vegetarian Crispy Noodles, not a hit with our friend who ordered it. She liked that the noodles were fluffy but the sauce was also too subtle, not enough flavor.













Overall, I remember Hale Vietnam being better in the past, but it's still a Vietnamese restaurant that you can enjoy more than a bowl of pho. It's a neighborhood establishment with a lively ambiance, the perfect place to gather with friends.

Indian Food Cravings

On our amazing honeymoon to Europe, we were lucky enough to visit London and partake of the fabulous Indian food there. We like Cafe Maharani in Honolulu, but the Indian food we had in London took the cuisine to another level for us. We visited the fabled Brick Lane and were actually a little turned off by the salesmen luring us into their restaurant with free drinks or 15% discounts. It was dizzying choosing from "Best Curry of 2007" or "Best Chef 2008," every restaurant had a claim to fame. Nonetheless, we had an amazing meal there. Our personal favorite, though, was a chain restaurant just a few steps from our hotel in the Earl's Court area, Masala Zone. It was very warm, trendy and had such wonderful food! We filled out our comment card and asked if they could please open up a restaurant in Hawaii!!

I've had a sort of love affair with things Indian, stemming from a few Indian movies I've seen. Han too has begun to appreciate Indian food and culture more too since we've been together. So, he recently created a wonderful Indian meal for me. We enjoyed Indian Ginger Chicken, Tomato Dal Soup, Cucumber Raita, Vegetable Biryani with Naan from Maharani. Hope you enjoy the pictures and get to grab some Indian food soon.













Vegetable Biryani













Tomato Dal Soup













Indian Ginger Chicken













Our Spread!!

Panini Love #1

We love our new panini press. Here are some of Han's great panini shots! We tried the Tuscan style chicken sandwiches with our press--awesome--as well as some spontaneous ones with onion marmalade, roasted garlic jam, tapenade, roasted peppers (not all together). We also added a salad caprese for good measure.