Spicy Chicken Sandwich and (not)homebrew blonde ale

Had a bit of a brewing day last Saturday in which I brought some friends over and we bottled one batch, made another batch , and probably drank 1/4 of a previous batch of homebrew beer.

To get ready for this I threw together some light sandwiches. i used pan seared chicken with a dash of hot sauce, greens, a light italian cheese and a bit of mustard on the top. For bread we tried both baguette and English muffins, with the winner being the former. The sandwiches were great. I was especially happy with the balance between the ingredients, rather than being overwhelming each ingredient melded with the rest. Also I was happy with the versatility of the dish, I could easily substitute any one of the ingredients, for instance a different cheese, out for something else and have a new, tasty, easy dish.

The pairing was also nice. I was drinking a homebrewed session ale, light, hoppy, with a nice cistrus cascade hop flavor to it. The light bitterness worked well against the mild spice in the sandwich and the greens. We also tried a Brooklyn Lager against the sandwich. The sandwich highlighted the complexities in the malt, which was quite nice, and the foods spice provided a linkage to the spicy hops in the beer. On the whole, I would say the Brooklyn lager was the more skillful pairing, bringing out more of the flavors in the food and the beer, but also adding some heft to the meal. On the other hand the homebrew was solid, and kept the feel of the meal quite light, which might be preferable. Overall an excellent culinary experience.

-Eric

T.Y. Harbor

I decided to try out T.Y. Harbor last week. The place is on Tennozu Isle, is "contemporary American", and they have their own beer. I was expecting some really fine food, but on the whole I was somewhat disappointed. Not painfully disappointed, but the food and the beer were fairly blah-, especially for the price. The view was quite nice though, and the service was fine.


I see this alot with "branded" restaurant chains. These companies use classic business strategy: standardize a core product in this case a core menu,  then modify the brand with a different name, different decorations, nice location, and other "branding" elements. All industries do this, from cars ( create a standard car, modify frame, seats etc) to accounting firms. In the food industry what this leads to is generally bland food at a high price. Of course it does not have to be this way, but the trend is for companies to pay more attention to "branding" elements rather than actual food quality.

I tried the seasonal, wheat, pale ale, amber, and dark. They were all drinkable, and probably quite accessible but lacked the depth that I am used to. The wheat was the best, the PA was a bit ugly. Food wise the bread, cesar salad, seared shrimp, pizza, and wings. None of it was unpalatable or poorly made, but it was all just standard and uninteresting. If I want that Ill make it myself.

Baird & spicy pizza

Today on the blog I pair a few beers from Baird Brewing with a spicy pizza. The phenomenon of how spice and beer interact has really intrigued me ever since I had some great mexican and a bottle of 90min IPA. So after getting some great hot sauce from a friend back in the states I promptly decided to use it on some pizza.

Beer and pizza are a fantastic match up for many reasons. First off roasted malt and pizza have similar flavors, baked bread, a slight sweetness. Then you have the spices in the pizza playing with the hops in the beer. Finally pizza can get a bit heavy, and beer is happy to wash away those heavy flavors with its carbonation. This is not complicated, most college students already know this simply by instinct.

My thinking was that I would try two beers from Baird Brewing. Their flagship, Rising Sun Pale Ale and a favorite Angry Boy Brown Ale. American brown ales are usually thought of as a good counterpart to pizza and I figured that since it was a fairly light pizza (just cheese, and a light sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, and mushrooms) the Pale Ale might also work well (BA Review). I also thought that the hot sauce would be fairly mild and work well with the bitterness, especially in the brown ale.

Unfortunately, the hot sauce was really far too hot. The heat was tasty, and not without depth, however it was a bit much for the beers. To be honest I am not sure if anything could have paired with hot sauce this hot, maybe a very malty and very bitter DIPA. What I ended up with was two beers who's subtitles were washed out by the heat. Oh well, lesson learned next time less hot sauce.

Celis White vs Hoegaarden

Todays post Celis White versus Hoegaarden. Both belgian wit beers, both made by the same man, both available in Tokyo. Paired with a green salad and the lemon dressing on the right ( olive oil, white vinegar, lime, spices). The verdict Hoegaarden is a very light white beer, which would be a great bridge beer, unoffensive but with slightly more character than your average macro beer. I think i got a whif of macro lager in it as well, perhaps thats the influence of ABInbev on the recipe. Celis White deeper color, aroma, and flavor. The flavor is subtle, but is like a lime, in a dusty room filled with wheat. Both went well with the salad, not overpowering the light veggies, forming a weak link with the citrus flavor, and clearing off the flavor of the dressing. I really enjoy comparing beers, very illuminating.

Apple Hop & Bulgogi

Part I
There is a relatively unknown brewery here in Japan called Minamishinsyu Beer. They are actually not half bad, but nothing special. However, a few months ago they made a beer called Apple Hop that won some awards and a number of us in Tokyo are digging. Its fermented with apples and basically tastes like apple cider, only less sweet, dryer, and with a bit of a pale ale taste to it. Also they change the Apples used every month or so and I had a couple in my fridge, so I got to thinking, what kind of dinner could I do with this. Immediately I thought of a recipe for Korean BBQ or Bulgogi which uses apples in the marinade, and decided to give it a try. I used the following recipe for the marinate and its going as I type. So I will see how the pairing works out in a bit:

meat

apple (grated)
apple Hop Beer
ginger (grated)
garlic (grated)
green onion (grated)
korean pepper
sesame oil
mirin

Part II

My little grill did not let me down, and the meat was grilled successfully. I was expecting a flavor link between the Apple Hop/ shredded apple/ apple hop marinade. Unfortunately, and probably because I was only able to marinade it for a hour and a half the connection was rather weak and mostly lost in the other flavors of the dish. However, the meat did get quite 『まるやか』、as they say, or roughly translated rounded in taste, so juicy a little sweet, that type of flavor. It was more subtle than I was expecting but satisfying in a delicious way. So much so that it gathered a crowd in from the unusually strong rain, and someone bought more meat to grill on my little fire hazard bombe. Then out of the blue a friend from the area shows up, having a just few hours before learned he is to be a father. Much celebration and good beer, including a great bottle of Bons Voeus from Dupont ensued. For a review check my BA profile and click on the beer. All and all a surprising but rewarding night. Congratulations to the soon to be father! Cheers!

-Eric

Frijoles + Dead Guy

2010/10/17 Update
Tragically Frijolles has stopped serving anything decent to drink with their delicious tacos no Rouge no Koedo. When I asked the owner gave me some BS about switching suppliers. You can now only get Carlsberg draft with your tacos. The disappointment of this change has prompted me to find a new favorite restaurant in the area.


Original Post
There was a palatable static in the air. An unspoken message passing back and forth between the customers lining up outside Frijoles, the small Azabujuban restaurant, for lunch. The message was simple, “tacos!”.

For those who have not had a chance to dine there yet. Frijoles is a hip mexican lunch type place. The menu consists of Tacos, Burritos, Fajita Burritos, and Salad. From there you choose between grilled chicken, carnitas, steak, and vegetarian as your meal moves down the line, finally choosing from the usual assortment of salsas and toppings. The prices are in the 1000 Yen range, and its well worth it. The carnitas is juicy, the steak is well marinated, and the salsas are reasonable approximations of what one might get closer to the border in the states, making it worth a bit of a detour to get there.

As if that was not enough, the restaurant also stocks macro pilsner beers, which get destroyed by any kind of spice, but a beer from both Rouge and Koedo brewing. The Rouge Dead Guy Ale is a great pairing, and really shows what beer can do with food. Its a Mailbock beer, a lighter version of the dark lager bock with a more substantial hop presence. After the first bite of mexican deliciousness the dark, caramel flavors in the beer join hands with the meat and do a little flavor dance. While this frivolity is going on the hot salsa attacks and, backed up by the bitter hops, makes a delicious assault on the tongue, bringing out the flavor in the heat. Finally, the heat is repelled by the sweet malt and the carbonation cleans off the palate, leaving you excited for more. All this for a mere 600 Yen extra.

It is great to see a bit more variety of quality mexican in Tokyo, and even better when it has a few great beers to pair with. Hopefully the chain will be expanding soon, you can check out their website here and their Facebook page for more information.

2 temaki and 3 beers

Last night I was feeling like some fish. I was expecting the pairing to be quite difficult, envisioning my dinning parter saying "やっぱりお寿司には日本酒だね”　or some thing to that effect. But in actually the paring was much easier for a couple of reasons. First temaki, unlike sushi is wrapped in seaweed, and I used brown rice, as opposed to the sickly looking white variety. Both of these factors added some robustness to the dish. For the fillings we had two kinds, one with Tuna and wasabi, and one with Katsuo, negi, and ginger. So in hind sight temaki was a great choice because it is more complex in flavor and because its less fussy, more fun than regular sushi,

The surprising winner pairing of the night was the Anchor Steam Beer. None of the pairings were bad but the Weihenstephan (A german weissbier) added some sweetness to the dish that seemed out of place, and the Yona Yona was delicious but to heavy for the dish. The steam beer was light enough to match the impact of the temaki, had some of the same nutty, earthy flavors present in the temakis rice and seaweed, and a low bitterness to cut through its slight fat and spiciness. All and all a thoroughly satisfying dinner. Next time Id like to try some different combinations of fish and topics paired with some of the good Japanese rice beers, such as Miyama blond.

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Temaki Sushi ( for 2)

1. Make rice ( 1 cup of brown rice with 2 cups of water worked for me)

2. Cut up fillings ( Look to classic sushi combinations for inspiration, or go with what looks freshest at the store)

3. Mix rice with vinegar mixture (Roughly 1 cup vinegar 1/4 cup sugar or honey or something sweet)

3. Spread rice on seaweed (best place to put it is in the section which will become the innermost section when rolled up, easier tried then explained)

4. Add other ingredients on top of rice

5. Wrap up into a cone and eat (mmmm)

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Grilled salmon and Moinette

Last nights dinner with a friend near Ikebukuro, Grilled Salmon with a salad of assorted greens. Paired the dish with Moinette from Dupont. Got the idea from the inspiring and useful book The Brewmasters Table by Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery.


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Salmon

1. Buy good looking salmon
2. Rub Salmon with salt and pepper
3. Grill lightly

Salad

1. Buy good looking green vegetables
2. Combine Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar at roughly 3/1 ratio
3. Add dressing (2) to salad (1)

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Of course, for the Salmon I would suggest rock salt, freshly ground pepper, and a wedge of lemon squeezed over before and after cooking. Maybe some paprika? For the salad I would add some spices such as salt, pepper, basil, oregano, paprika, perhaps some mustard and a dash of brown sugar.But feel free to ignore these directions is they detract from the simplicy of the dish for you. Or better yet play around with it and come up with your own additions. Thats what cooking is about.

My ranty suggestions. First, when buying ingredients trust your senses. Iceberg lettuce has virtually no smell and is vaguely greenish white ball. Thus its going to taste like that. Don't buy it. On the other hand that deep green spinach or those bizarre greens with crazy smells? Those are gonna taste interesting and make for a tasty meal. Second, whenever possible make stuff yourself. Making olive oil is out of the reach of most of us, but thats ok because it already has only a few ingredients. On the other hand, store bought marinades, salad dressings, are full of all sorts of scientific ingredients that are designed to keep "food" tasting exactly the same for ever, shallow and fake. So just make a quick dressing. It will taste better, save you money, and ultimately make you feel better.