Fermenting things - chili sauce

Currently I am quite obsessed with fermenting. Some will say,that this is obvious due to my job (duh), but I don't mean using alcoholic products. Here I mean lactose-fermentation, salt curing, vinegar curing, pickling and so on.

And I don't really do enough in my eyes.

Yesterday I have seen Fresno peppers and cherry peppers, when I did my grocery shopping. I bought them both. I did my own siracha a couple of weeks ago, but the 200ml bottle is almost finished. This time I will do more, and with mixed peppers, for a more nuanced character (well, one cannot really complain about my siracha... It was plenty of characterful, spicy and funky. But more is better, isn't it?).

The process is simple: cut chiles into small pieces (you can use your food processor, if you have one - I don't). I took the better part of membrane and seeds out, as I wanted to taste a bit more than only fire... You can leave them in (some are even using insane hot habaneros, which are surprisingly often available here in the Middle East).

Then you can put them in a jar. Last time I used a foodsaver bag and vacuumed sealed the chilis. This is not necessary, however you have to be prepared, that mold can spread if you don't vacuum there. In a lot of forums, they tend to advise just to discard the upper part of the produce which is moldy. But I am not that far yet.

You should however not "100%" vacuum the food (e.g. in a commercial chamber sealer) - as botulinum is spreading in anaerobic environments. And this critter is about the most toxic microorganism around...

Anyway this time I put the chiles into a Kilner jar. I added the salt (use sea salt or rock salt which isn't fluorined) 3.5% of the weight, added two coves of garlic; and muddled everything. Yeah, a wooden muddled was about the right tool for this.

Then I sealed it with my nifty foodsaver jar attachment and put it on the counter.

Don't screw the jar-ring tight, as at a certain point the CO2 out of the fermentation will need some space. 

I will ferment it around 1 week.

After it is fermented, I will blend it and probably will cook it with the addition of vinegar. Point is, that it would be perfectly fine to keep it as it is... But cooking makes it more "siracha'like". If you don't heat it up, it will be healthier, though, as lacto-bacillus is very supportive for your ingestion-system as it is for your immune system.

I will decide in a couple of days...

The Fish & Chips Room

Short dinner and I took the opportunity to try the Fish & Chips room, which is only 5 minutes walk from my work place.

They have an abundance of menu choices [usually not a great sign]. From fried stuff, over to baked potatoes, over to pizza.
I took the middle approach - on one hand, I am not a big fan of fish outside of a Japanese restaurant or fine dining restaurant [so no fish for me] - on the other hand I was not really up for pizza from a British inspired place.

Hence I had:

• Onion rings
• Fried chicken steak
• Pickled onions [as side dish]
• Backed potato with butter
• and a Coke [there were not really great options of alcoholfree drinks - besides of "fresh" juices.

The waiting time was very long. I haven't used my watch, but I assume, that it was at least 15 to 20 minutes. Given that this is no gourmet food, this is long...

After the waiting time, everything came within 2 minutes and very soon I understood, that I have over-ordered.

First point I realized was, that everything was fried in the same better. Sometimes this was ok, sometimes not..

The fried onions were quite crispy - however also greasy. Not the most greasy onions I have ever encountered - but definitely a bit too greasy for my taste. Overall though they had a quite satisfying taste - though came in a giant portion. So big, that I could not finish them - so big, that I had actually a pretty bad conscience of wasting food.

The fried chicken steak was another rather big portion - however as main course it was about right. It didn't "felt" as greasy as the onion rings, but after a couple of minutes eating, the batter on the underside of the breast became soggy, and it was no fun to eat. The overall flavor was rather below average. Ok, I would say, but definitely not a highlight. They served some remoulade sauce with it, which was obviously from a bought jar.
One issue especially with the chicken fried steak: the batter tasted "fishy". Not as much that I would give it back [not fishy as old fish] - but it tasted, as they would batter fish in the same "pot" as they would batter the chicken - not so good.

The pickled onion [as side dish] was a joke: Ok - the dish cost only 2 Dhs [or so], but these were 4 or 5 pearl onions [the very small ones]. I expected at least some English pickled onions in malt vinegar - not to speak from house-pickled onions. But this dish, was a big no-no.

The baked potato tasted... quite old. Yeah - I know a baked potato had to be prepared [well it doesn't have to, if you are using the microwave technique] - but anyway - it wasn't great as well - though it was at least good - it was smothered with butter - and was rather a potato mash in a baked potato - I was happy, that I didn't ordered the one with cheese - as this seemed even for me far beyond any calorie intake, I would find adequate...

I paid around AED 80.00. This is not expensive, given, that the portions are huge. However I wouldn't consider it value for money either, as the quality wasn't really there.

One point to the service and overall comfort: they didn't seem to have really a sequence of service - I was "welcomed" with a menu and ordered while sitting down... kinda weird. While I was waiting, the waitress came just once with the drinks... and while I was eating [and after that] nobody asked me, how it was...

The room itself had a lot of flies, which were annoying. Not to the point, I would call it infested - but definitely close to it. And the restaurant didn't looked dirty on the first spot, but also was far away of being hygienically clean. The bench seating was also pretty uncomfortable and needed definitely an upholstery.

WOW or MEH:                  Meh
Ambiance:                           3
Value for Money [1-10]:     3
Deliciousness [1-10]:           4
Staff Helpfulness [1-10]:     3
Going back:                         maybe
Overall Score:                      3

Chinese chicken cabbage rolls with tofu

One of my all-time favorites dishes of German cuisine are Kohlrouladen - cabbage roulades.

These are minced meat farce [my mother always used beef] stuffed leaves of white cabbage braised and served nicely browned. They are really tasty.

Anyway - I wanted to do something new - and looked for an Asian dish - and I found several references for Chinese cabbage rolls.

Usually the Chinese variation, is just poached in broth. And instead of making a farce with egg and breadcrumbs they use tofu.

So I minced my chicken with my knives [more work - but the irregular and larger meet pieces are much better than the meat mash], added soya sauce, sautéed brunois of garlic, scallions, carrot, mushrooms and also added it to the mix and besides of seasoning [salt, pepper and some homemade Chinese 5 spice], I also added tofu. Mixed everything properly up and voilà.

I blanched the whole head of cabbage, to get easier the leaves off - and I shaved off the middle rib of the cabbage leaves, to make it easier to roll. Then I filled the leaves with the farce.

Instead of using butcher twine [which is quite a pain], I rolled them into cling film, and made a bonbon out of it [and knotted together the twirled ends of the cling film].
Then I put them into my sous vide hacked rice cooker and poached them for 1.5 hours at 63ºC.
After that I put them into a ice water bath to chill them down fast.

Momofuku Ko's Ginger Scallion sauce
via Tastespotting blog

Off course - if you like to have something tasting really great, you need to utilize the Maillard reaction (which normal people would call browning] - hence you would need to undress the cabbage rolls out of  their cling film sleeve, dry them [don't throw the liquid - put it into your sauce, it is tasty], and fry them in a smoking pan with peanut oil [or any other heat stable oil like corn oil].

Cut one open to try; delicious!

As a dish, I thought to serve it on fragrant rice, with slightly thickened miso sauce and David Changs scallion ginger sauce.

Do you need sous vide here? No definitely not, but it makes live easier - you don't have to watch over it, that it doesn't start to boil.
Well - the recipe is a go. let me see, if I will be able to make the whole dish, without eating one after the other delicious roll...

Sharpening knives

Last week I bought 2 Japanese sharpening wet-stones at Dean Fujiya Japanese supermarket. And I was beyond believe, how much I had to drop on them [you will not find one stone below AED 220!!!].


Bought a combi stone - 220 / 1000 [this is the grain fineness] and one around 6000.

My long serving Wusthof Trident Santoku

Yes my Ken Onion knife is that pretty!!!

Why? Because I have great knives, one Wüsthof GrandPrix Santoku knife and one Ken Onion by Shun chef knife. But over the time, the knives really suffered - and looking on the blades, they looked more like serrated knives, than normal chef knives.

The Ken Onion knife was also quite disappointing, when it comes to the blade strength. The steel of the blade edge looks really soft, much softer than the German knife - even after only a couple of months, it had a lot of grooves and dents...

Yes - it is still a beauty - and if sharpened properly, one of the sharpest things around.

Inspiration was the amazing youtube video of Chefsteps. Love these videos:

Well - in the video, they just took 10 minutes to sharpen a knife [even with reshaping the tip] - in reality, I needed a bit longer... for both knives I needed 2.5 freaking hours, to get them perfectly sharp.

But now I am proud again, on my jewels in the kitchen. I even tried the neat trick of shaving some hair of my arm with the my Santoku and it worked without problem!

In future, I will use much more often my new sharpening stones, that my knives are never getting in such a bad shape ever again.

And: while the stones were expensive: to buy a new knife is much more expensive: My Santoku is no more produced [in absolutely the same configuration] - however similar knives would cost definitely AED 700 and more... and the Ken Onion by Shun sets you back also more than AED 600 [and it is for the moment no more longer available - bought it at Barrel & Crate - but they don't have this exact knife anymore].

So my advise: Sharpen your knives yourself with a wet stone. Yes, it will take time, and it is definitely quite a mess [I didn't mentioned, that the whole kitchen floor was wet, due to the consistent wettening of the stone - my better part freaked out, when she came home and saw the mess]. But it is so worth it. My knives cut now better than when they were new. And: if I see my German knife, which is already older than 10 years, I think, that I can keep my two main knives for the rest of my life. I just love this idea!

Mooyha burger, can it score?

This is a pretty new opening... Maximum a couple of weeks operating.

The staff welcomed me very enthusiastic... Maybe a bit contrived mirth, but who am I to judge.

The place isn't the Ibn Battuta mall and is clean, features bright colors like red and yellow, which is accompanied by wood textures.

There are two big chalkboards on the wall, but it seems, that is more for the show than for daily specials.

Overall a quite pleasant interior.

I got a pager, to notice, when the order is ready, but it didn't took long and it was my food was served. While this might be not the standard (they we not busy at all), I value the effort; very good.

My order: mooyah burger, sweet potato fries and lemonade. I paid AED 61.00.

By the way: they have coca cola products (nice).

The fries:

Johnnie Rockets: please come here and try! Other than your miserable examples of fries, these sweet potato sticks are awesome! Crispy and spiced outside and creamy inside. Hell yeah!

The burger:

I've ordered the tomato on the side... And it came in a small bowl on the side. Finally someone who understands me.

The burger has a double patty. Nobody asked me for the doneness, but it came medium well. Juicy and nice. While they say on the trayliner that they have different cheeses, mine was by default American (cheese imitation). My own fault, but someone could have told me...

There were also caramelized onions on the burger (great but a bit too wet), salad (didn't hold up against the patties) and pickles (average). Overall a darn tasty burger, which was a bit messy, though.

The lemonade:

This was of the kind: stir powder into water. Not really great... You could even taste the secondary sweeteners (something like aspartame). It was not revolting, but also not good at all. They offer though one free refill!

Lets get to the ratings:

Yay or meh: yay. I will definitely come back. Not driving extra down like this time. But the venue is directly besides the cinema. So coming a bit earlier and munch a good mooya burger is better,Nathan the overpriced cinema snacks.

Restaurant comfort: 6- but only due to noisy Tagalog chatting. Even in a fast food place, I really don't like to hear staff conversation!

Food and Beverages: 7 - the burger is good. Not not as good as JR, ShakeSh., or Elevation Burger

Service: 7 - very friendly and helpful. At times a bit too noisy.

Value for money: 7

Overall: 6.5

I would drive to venues like Shake Shack or even Johnnie Rockets. But Mooyah burger is not such a place. Yes the burger is good, and they had the best fries yet in my reviews. But there is a little bit missing for real greatness. But well... Like mentioned, definitely advisable before a movie...

Döner Kebab... In Dubai... at German Döner Kebab

This was my idea... Really!

A couple of years ago I told a,couple of friends, that German Döner would be an instant hit in the UAE. It's so obvious: people like here comfort food, sloppy food, Middle Eastern cuisine, sandwiches... And a "döner" is everything and more...

My concept was, to team up with a Turkish-German "imbiss" and replicate it here with their help and some of their 'cooks'.

Then, a couple of months ago I have seen the first 'coming soon' ads. When I have seen, that they finally opened, I wanted to be here... I had to come here... And here I am!

The restaurant

Common guys, in Germany this kind of restaurants are more cafeterias... Often little bit more than a white tiled hole in a wall. Here it is like an ultra modern bistro... Very nice, with free wifi... Black, orange, white with ambiance lighting. Wonderful and strange at the same time. This would be in Germany the Döner Kebab for hipsters...

The service

I wanted to have a beef döner... beef and lamb is usually the way to go. Chicken is for whimsies! However beef was sold out, so I had to go for poultry.

Most servers are African (again strange... what is wrong with Turks?). They are confident, but not exactly service oriented. And don't have the appeal of Ali of 'Döner an der Ecke'.

Though.., also no complains here.

Der döner

I have to say... This döner is pretty kick ass. It is that good. 97% from the best Döners in Germany. The bread is a good Turkish fluffy flatbread, nicely toasted. The composition is really great. Tasty - tasty - tasty. Much better than the British-Indian concepts... Take this, UK!

They have also German potato salad which doesn't really make sense... It is a Turkish concept, remember (you would not expect a truly German dish in a Chinese German restaurant, would you? It wouldn't be so far off, if they would also offer other German popular dishes like currywurst. But they don't... So it is weird).

Drinks are pretty standard: coke product (bravo, I don't like Pepsi), but no refill (sad)- Snapple products, which again doesn't really fit... 

But

And this is a big but: they took away the ordering and customizing experience. You can order at the cashier, and gives the order to the kitchen. In Germany it is so different. I guess part of the popularity of this dish and its venues is, that the German Turks implemented long before Cold Stone Creamery or other similar concepts the theater of food preparation.

You come to Ali (or Murat) - most of the time, he knows you and chit chats already some small talk. He knows your order... off course... But even if you are a first timer, you order at the guy with the big knife (or electric round cutter) and he will assist you for our dream döner. Salad, cabbage, onions, yoghurt garlic sauce, tomatoes, spicy chili sauce, chili flakes... Everything is in front of you and is heaped onto the sandwich as soon as he asks, and you confirm. It is like "build your dream döner"- and this is truly wonderful.

Unfortunately this stylish outpost just ripped away this essential experience from us.

Yay or Meh: definitely yay!

Restaurant comfort: 7 (in comparison to German venues it would be a 10- letting their counterparts on a 3 or 4)

Food and beverage: 8.5 

Service: 6

Value for money: 6

Overall: 7

Proper Döner Kebab bonus: 10

Lack of friendly snotty Ali: -10

Verdict: 

Döner alone is superlative to anything here in Dubai. Yes I would even say, it would be quite with the top 10 of Döner sandwiches in Germany. BUT, due to the unique concept in GER, you almost always have your perfect burger there... Like lots of garlic? Your friend at the spit puts more garlic sauce on... Like it spicy? He put some extra spicy sauce on the bottom and/or adds some chili flakes on top. Don't like tomato or like more onions? You get it. And here all German döners are outplaying the Dubai counterpart.

If you don't know it from Germany you won't miss it and you will celebrate the glorious sandwich. If you know it, you will miss it. A lot!

Still, it is a very pleasant place to go... A bit hard to find...

They seem to be on hard work with several franchises, which is a good thing. But they really should consider to put the assembly back to the front, where it should be...

 

 

Dean Fujiya Japanese Cafe and Restaurant

I love to go Dean Fujiya Supermarket near Lamcy Plaza. This minuscule supermarket has a surprisingly great selection of Japanese produce as well as kitchen tools (I fell in love with a classic super heavy, traditionally one sided cut Japanese chef knife, the back thick as someones ring finger) and other Japanese food related stuff. I bought there two authentic Japanese teas for work.

And a  couple of meters besides, they built a restaurant, which they promoted keenly.
So I thought, it cannot be so wrong to give it a try.

The looks are a bit rough. Super bright light, almost clumsy counter which seems not at all sensible, black unrelated furniture, plastic flowers on the table -there was no interior designer at work for this restaurant. The waiting stuff, two Filipinas offered me the menu- a folder with plastic wrapped pages. Seems that the guys didn't put a particular concept in place.

I've ordered agedashi dofu, a sushi selection and cold soba noodles with grated radish. I've also ordered a melon calpis to drink and additional I've informed the waitress that I don't like seafood/shellfish/octopus...

My calpis came after 3 minutes. Very sweet but refreshing (and yes, as I am shopping in their mart, I know, that it is laden with artificial flavors... but sometimes it happens that I don't care - I won't offer it myself, but I don't judge, as long as the offering person don't give me, we are offering only the best speech) it was delicious as refreshing.
The agedashi dofu came hot on the table. The silken tofu was pretty average, the whole dish was slightly undersalted and it wasn't crispy at all. Overall it was though successful, especially, if you haven't previously experienced a better execution.

The sushi took a bit longer. I still got cuttlefish sushi [annoying, why exactly do I state, that I don't like seafood, when I still get some]... but I have to say, the salmon, tuna and hamachi nigiri were excellent, no, it was superlative - I didn't ate better sushi at 5 star hotels - even not at Zuma or Nobu! The quality of the produce was amazing and the still slightly warm rice [it was ever so slightly warm] was to die for! The tamago was very big and very rough looking. The taste reminded me more on traditional scrambled eggs and not the superfine Japanese omelette. It tasted though very good. Overall all the pieces of the dish lacked uniformity and refinement but made it up with flavor and produce freshness.
And, it came with a bowl of two pieces of cooked salmon in a creamy [maybe sesame?] sauce. First of all I thought that this was odd. And then I tried the salmon - cold! But the next impression was mind boggling. The salmon was dense and very meaty - only a very little bit salmony [fishy sounds bad]. I never encountered this dish, but it was absolutely stunning. Horay!

I got then cold soba noodles- unfortunately crowned with two tempura shrimps and slices of fishcake [didn't I mention, that I don't like seafood???]. The sauce was again a bit on the underseasoned side. Overall I think, it could be better, if they presented the soba on a plate not a bowl and have a separate bowl for dipping instead of drowning the noodles in the sauce. The whole dish was ok, but didn't blew me away.

And that wraps it up. If you are going there, make sure, that it is in a group, where everyone, likes something. I was really annoyed, that I especially pointed out, that I don't eat shellfish/seafood, and still got it on the plate - the only thing they replaced was one prawn nigiri - but then forgot my preference, even in the same dish!

The atmosphere? You better like to prefer Filipino soapy songs and staff which is singing with it. The place looks quite clean, but you mustn't be in search for something fancy.

Overall I think, it missed its mark. It is almost there, to be a insiders' tip. The sushi is absolutely great and they have items, which are offbeat and interesting. I can even forgive them the lack of style, the kitschy music and singing waitresses. The only thing, which is not good is the service. Yes, the waitress are nice, but they didn't even reacted, when they've seen, that I put the cuddlefish nigiri and the shrimp tempura demonstrative beside. They didn't asked, if everything is alright. At one time, when I ate the cold soba, the more silent waitress pointed with her finger on my bowl and on the carafe and told me, that 'should' pour the sauce into the bowl [I already did].

Don't get me wrong. I don't look for highclass_blow_my_ass_service. I am realistic here. But I am looking for a kinda sensible service, which looks for feedback and respond to the customers actions.
I also look for service, which knows the menu and can explain their guests, which is the difference, if the guest seem not to fully get the menu.

I paid around AED 130 for the meal, which would have been very good value for money, if I could eat everything! But while I loved nigiris and the drink, and also liked most of the other stuff, I just felt, that there was something elementary missing.

Yay or meh: very mixed.

Restaurant comfort: 3 

Service: 3

Food and beverages: 7 (nigiri alone a 10!!! But the slightly undersalted other dishes brings it down)

Value for money: 8 (mixed bag again - I put 1 out of 5 nigiri down, the tempura shrimps, which seems to be the difference to the next dish which was AED 10 cheaper etc. - my rating is based on the fact, that you eat everything)

Overall: 4

Verdict: They have takeout and delivery - I am prone to order the next time a ton of sushi [by piece, I am not again so naive and ask them to replace something] and pick it up to nibble at home. This would make my home to Dubai's best sushi bar [well I don't have a bar, but you get the drift]!

They are not yet there. Not at all! They really have to up the ante, if they don't want to have an underperforming restaurant with an expensive real Japanese chef [or they might loose him to one hotel].