Short Ribs with a side of...

Every imaginable pickled vegetable you can think of! That sums up one of my most favorite Korean restaurants called "Korea House." No joke, if you are hungry and you have about $15 in your pocket, you should go to this establishment and plan on eating your next meal in 2 days. The amount of food that this place gives you is absolutely amazing. It's nothing short of a buffet (and ironically they have an all you can eat lunch buffet as well). All have to do is order one entree and then begins the non-stop extravaganza of goodness!



My personal choice of entree is a salted mackerel similar to saba shioyaki in a Japanese restaurant. I'd estimate the fat content of a cooked mackerel to be equivalent to a stick of butter. The fish oozes with fatty goodness when it hits your lips and is absolutely amazing right down to the salty, crispy skin. 2nd, but not too far behind is the treasured short rib also known as kal bi. I have always hated getting my hands dirty while I'm eating, but the meat on these short ribs is too good to pass up. The soft cartilage around the bones and the tender, juicy beefy meat is FANTASTIC. Man, I love food.



Now for a few details on the side dishes... as I said before, a dozen little plates come out with your entree and boy, are they amazing! My favorite dishes include a roasted seaweed, pickled cucumbers, bean sprouts in sesame oil, and a peculiar white jello flavored with seaweed and sesame oil. Tack on a couple bowls of rice, and I'd call it a nite, a very very full nite!

Korea House, Santa Clara, California

Price of Heavenly Bliss = $44.00 a Pound

In my 22 years of life, I have made an effort to experience the world using one of my favorite senses, TASTE. As you can imagine, that means I've had the chance to eat a whole lot of food! I love all types of food, but there are definitely very specific items that stick out in my mind that have left an amazing lasting impression upon me. It's those special foods that trigger absolute happiness in my life, so I've decided to spread the happiness and share my experiences with you. And so begins a trail of posts that will chronicle some of my favorite foods I've had the pleasure of devouring!

There are so many foods I could begin with, but I figure that there's no wrong in starting the journey with a story about chocolate. When I was 16, I got my first retail job inside of Macy's Downtown San Francisco location. Tucked in between the food court and homewares section was the Neuhaus Chocolatier counter where I would remain in employment for a whopping 3 months. The counter was small and carried about 30-40 different varieties of dark chocolate, milk chocolate, marzipans, liquers, and whatever else you could think of. Each piece was imported from Belgium and made from amazingly fresh ingredients that had very short shelf lives.






This was the kind of fancy schmancy chocolate shop that was boutiquish and served as the sole supplier of gifts (which I gift wrapped and tied up with a pretty bow) for hopeful boyfriends on their first dates. If I wasn't an employee there, there wasn't a chance I'd ever be caught dead buying chocolate from this joint. $44 a pound on chocolate wasn't exactly my cup of tea at 16 years old. On the contrary, I did work at the shop and in order to become proficient in selling, I'd need to establish some product knowledge by the tried and true method of, you guessed it... SAMPLING!



In the span of three months that I was there, I tried everything I could get my grubby little paws on. Hands down, my favorite piece of chocolate from the collection was called the Caprice. Heavenly bliss being sold at $44 a pound meant that my little escape from the real world came out to about $2.50 for one piece of chocolate. The $2.50 was well worth it though. It began with a slightly bitter dark chocolate shell with a thin layer of toffee nougatine on the inside. The nougatine had the texture of rock candy with the flavor of perfectly browned caramel. The very inner core of the chocolate was the moneymaker. Underneath the chocolate nougatine shell, there was the most amazing fresh cream. The cream was extremely buttery and creamy with a hint of vanilla. Put it all together, and you get Neuhaus' Caprice, an amazing combination of all that is good in this world. If you ever get yourself to a Neuhaus, you must try this "to-die-for" piece of chocolate!

All in a day's work...

When I was in school, people always asked me the age old question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" I never had a sureshot answer, but I knew for sure that whatever I got into, would have to have some relationship with food. Flash forward to June 2007 and here I am, a bacheolor of science, food science to be exact and on top of that, I work for Fortune Magazine's #13 Best Place to Work in the US. Where is that you ask? The answer is the Nugget Market, based out of Davis, CA.

#13 Best Company To Work For

Though I may be a slightly biased opinion, I'll have to admit that shopping at the Nugget is an amazing food experience. Any supermarket that you can have your choice of 400 specialty cheeses, amazing handmade danishes and croissants as well as conventional toilet paper and cheerios is not a bad place to be. It's the best of both worlds; Super Walmart meets Whole Foods Market is how I like to describe it.

My stint in the deli was just supposed to be a summer time gig, which then turned into a part time gig while I was a student, which then became my full time job. I've been in the kitchen for just about 2 years now and I am absolutely loving it. I've learned so much about food and my tastebuds have definitely become accustomed to good food. I'm a self-proclaimed sandwich queen, salsa queen, cookie baker, and soon to be master of vinaigrettes. Sure, the titles may sound cheesily stupid, but when food is on brain as it is with me, they sound amazing. Every single day at work is grueling and strenuous, but it's worth my time since I get to play with food all day. I also get to work in the bakery from time to time, and here are some of my prized projects...





Here are my Top 5 Favorite items that I get to make every week:

1) Roasted Tomato Pesto
2) Italian Combination Sandwich (Prosciutto, Italian Dry Salami, Soppressata, Ham, Swiss Cheese)
3) Roasted Tomato Pasilla Salsa
4) Tropical Salsa (Mangos, Papayas, Jicama, Bell Pepper, Onions, Habanero, Cilantro)
5) Quiche

Come on by the store in Davis if you ever get a chance and experience a slice of heaven in the form of a sandwich!