I Burned the Rice

02 Jul 2017 4 Comments

by scolgin in Cooking Tips, Observations Tags: , , , , , , ,

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I often burn the rice.

Burned rice

It’s an unfortunate habit I have. Here’s how it usually goes down:

I’m making sushi rice. My sushi rice preparation technique, adapted from a recipe by Nobu Matsuhisa, involves bringing the rice to a boil, cooking it for five minutes at a regular temperature, then blasting it even more briefly with high heat, and then turning it off and letting it steam for 15 minutes. Where I go astray is usually in the last step, where I turn the heat on high, and instead of waiting the minute it’s supposed to take, wander off to do something else. (For example, the idea for this post came as I was working on another post when I suddenly smelled the rice burning.) More

Forbidden Wings

18 Jun 2013 19 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , ,

It’s no secret that I think the chicken wing is the best part of the bird. I recently commented on an Asian chicken wing post on one of my favorite blogs, Attempts in Domesticity, that I heard they were engineering chickens with eight wings — spiderchickens! (A combination of humor and wishful thinking.)

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One of my favorite kinds of wings, along with original Buffalo wings and twice-fried Korean wings, are Chinese salt & pepper wings. I used to get them back in the day at cheap Chinese takeout counters — you know the kind, with the compartmentalized styrofoam take out boxes where you can choose between noodles or fried rice and two entrees for $5.99. More

The Curious Case of the Szechuan Peppercorn

25 Apr 2013 7 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, Pork, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , ,

One of the strangest culinary experiences I’ve ever had was more than a decade ago, when our friend from Szechuan, Guonan, invited us over for Szechuan hot pot.

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Among the more unusual items on the condiment plate that evening as we sat on the floor around a bubbling pot on the coffee table of her Marina del Rey apartment, gazing out at the twinkling lights of the boats in the harbor, was duck tongues. More

Make Your Own Pork Pops at Home

01 Mar 2013 6 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, Pork, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The other night I was drinking wine and eating monkfish liver with my culinary soulmate, Donnie, and lamenting about when odds-and-ends meat cuts become trendy and then are suddenly expensive.

Pork pops

Pork pops

Take the case of the aforementioned monkfish liver. It used to be the rare non-Japanese person who would try this odd delicacy at the sushi bar, and I could buy a whole softball-sized liver at the Japanese market for a few bucks. More