The Third Cleveland Asian Festival is This Weekend!

Hard to believe that a full year has passed since we played with a diverse selection of Asian food at the second Cleveland Asian Festival. The third installment will commence this Saturday, May 19 at Payne Avenue, E. 27 to E. 30th Streets, Cleveland. In addition to regular Asiatown parking, free parking (with free shuttle service to the party) will be available at the CSU Lots on E. 24th Street and other nearby locations and will be clearly marked. The Festival is open both Saturday and Sunday (May 19 and 20) from 11am to 7pm each day. There is no admission charge, but you are asked to leave your pets at home. The Festival Facebook page is here.

Many tasty delicacies will be available for purchase throughout the weekend. Just to get your mouth watering a little, below is a re-run of my report from last year's party. Hope to see you there!

On Saturday, May 21, 2011, Bob and I partook of the second Cleveland Asian Festival. Spanning a full two days in its second year, the festival offered many attractions other than the food, including a Lolly the Trolley tour of Asiatown, kids' activities, crafts, non-food vendors, and cultural performances. I came mostly for the food, centered around this outdoor food court set up in the Asia Plaza parking lot:

We arrived just before noon, and photographed most of the food vendors before partaking. The choices weren't easy to make, and we left around 5pm completely sated.

This freshly BBQ'd chicken skewer was one of last bites we actually ate, but one of the most succulent.

It was a delight having not one, but two Filipino food booths at the festival. We didn't sample any food from Ono Turo-Turo, but our friend Stuart did and he said it was fabulous.

We enjoyed our plate from the Laotion table. The spring roll was hot and crisp and the papaya salad spicy and redolent of fish sauce.

Is there anything so sublime as freshly grilled pig (with lots of skin, at our request)! The side sauce added a uniquely Filipino perspective to the simply grilled meat. These guys said they might consider opening a Cleveland-area restaurant; we hope that they do and we'll be first in line to try it!

Map of Thailand had these "demo" plates at the ready:











The following goodies were served up by Pearl of the Orient:

We were most impressed with Otani's portable sushi station, designed to keep the sushi safe despite temps in the 80s.

The following is from Koko Bakery - Cleveland's leading Asian bakery and my preferred source of bubble tea. Happily, they were offering Taro Bubble Tea, which is my favorite! No photo of it; we were too thirsty.

We took an assortment of potstickers home from Koko's stand, and enjoyed them for dinner:

Next to Li Wah's table, its sister restaurant East 30th Street Cafe offered an eclectic selection ranging from spring rolls to pizza! The restaurant serves dim sum at all hours, sushi, pizza, and other Asian and fusion items.

Li Wah's offerings

Udupi, located in Parma Heights Ohio, has been on our "to try" list for some time, but we've just never gotten there. Our loss - until today!

In addition to the steam table items, Udupi offered made-to-order Dosa, or stuffed crepes - this was one of  the highlights of our culinary tour this afternoon. First, batter is poured on the grill:

The batter is then shaped and flattened:

As the crepe crisps, a potato-and-pea based filling is deposited in the center:

The finished Dosa is served with two dipping sauces - one spicy with chili, the white one creamy with yogurt and garlic. 

We seem to have been won over by Indian flavors on this particular day - Jaipur Junction, of North Royalton Ohio, has also been on the "must try" list, and we were glad that we finally did:

Basmati Rice


Butter Chicken




Samosa


Potato Cakes - Tava Tikki


Chick Pea Curry


Cold Chick Pea Salad

The smells of the foregoing tormented us - which to choose?

Chick Pea Curry over Tava Tikki, topped with two Chutneys - the made-from-scratch potato cake held up beautifully under the wet toppings and still crunched; a perfect contrast with the creamy chick peas and savory  toppings. 

Har Gow and Shao Mai Dumplings

This next item was a free sample shared by one of my favorite Asiatown haunts, Korean restaurant Ha Ahn. 

Bibimbob from Ha Ahn

I snapped this dessert item (rice flour balls stuffed with bean paste and rolled in sesame) on the table to the right of Ha Ahn, which I am told was Asia Foods (re-located last year to Asian Town Center at 3820 Superior Avenue). They looked scrumptious!

These next photos aren't of food, but of the Home Depot booth, which provided the cutest mini-aprons to the little ones, and treated them to a lesson in crafting!

And here is a look at the children's fun zone - I believe that a wristband purchased for a nominal fee provided all-you-can-play access for the minis:

These sculptures celebrating the Year of the Rabbit lined East 30th Street:



My favorite sculpture:




Chris Nguyen of Superior Pho Narrates Our Trolley Tour of Asiatown


Mame Daiko Performs Japanese Drumming

The third edition of the Festival will take place May 19 & 20, 2012, for the Year of the Dragon. As a Dragon myself (the most auspicious sign of the Asian Zodiac), I hope to be able to attend again next year. We enjoyed a day full of great food and fun, playing with too many choices from the Cleveland-area Asian food community, and immersing ourselves for a few hours in Asian culture. The Cleveland Asian Festival is highly recommended for fun playing with food and a nice splash of culture.

More Fun With Japanese-Style Food

Inspired partly by the film Jiro Dreams of Sushi and our fabulous Japanese repast at Cleveland's Ginko (recounted here), partly by an excess of rapidly aging eggs left over from our Passover festivities, and finally by a timely post by my favorite Japanese food blogger, Hiroyuki, on several eggy subjects, including Ougon Chahan (Golden Fried Rice)/黄金炒飯（チャーハン）- we recently had fun playing with food in a few variations on these themes.

First, the "Golden Fried Rice." This is a little misnamed (in English, anyway) because it isn't fried rice at all in the way we usually think of it - pre-cooked rice that is fried with solids, then accented with liquid. Here, the precooked rice is soaked in egg before it is pan-cooked, yielding a completely different type of dish.

We began with a package of smoked Pacific salmon and our fabulous Breychak Farm bacon.

Render the bacon fat, then scoop out the bacon bits and saute some chopped veggies in the fat:

In the meantime, some previously cooked rice soaks up Miller Farm eggs:

First the rice is added to the pan and stirred until the eggs just begin to set, then the salmon, then the bacon bits are added back to the pan, together with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil:

Top with chopped scallions and serve with your choice of hot sauce (we used Sriracha):

Our second round of play inverted this recipe into the more familiar Omurice, or rice omelet, depicted in the film Tampopo.  In an eggy double-dip, we used the leftover Ougon Chahan as the filling:

After the omelet is folded over in the pan, it is slid onto the plate such that the seam is on the bottom. After slicing a line through the top of the eggs, a fine line of ketchup is applied in a zig-zag.

Oops - ketchup squeeze bottle fail. But you get the idea. And yes, it was delicious!

And speaking of the Passover leftovers - the very last one was a quart of chicken soup. Here, it is re-purposed Tampopo-style with fresh vegetables, together with pork dumplings I made for a dinner club meeting in February and packaged Chinese noodles from the freezer:

Fun playing with Asian-style food - a perfect warm up for the Cleveland Asian Festival which will occur this weekend in Cleveland's Asiatown! More on that will follow shortly.

Fun Playing With Jiro's Sushi Movie and A Ginko Dinner

About 2 weeks ago, our friend and fellow blogger Tom instigated a "Movie and A Dinner" evening. Jiro Dreams of Sushi would be playing at the Cleveland Cinematheque, and where better to go after the film for dinner than Dante Bocuzzi's Ginko, located down a flight of steps from Restaurant Dante in Tremont? Getting a reservation at the tiny Ginko that night proved almost as difficult as getting a seat at Sukiyabashi Jiro, Jiro's 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant, also located down a flight of stairs, in a Tokyo subway station. Our intrepid group waited for Ginko seats at the beautiful cocktail bar in Restaurant Dante, but Tom had to leave before we finally made it to the sushi counter. 

If you love food-centric movies, you will probably like this film (which is now playing in Cleveland at the Capitol Theater in Gordon Square). The movie chronicles the life and career of the 85-year-old sushi master and world's first 3-star Michelin Sushi Chef, and his two sons. Like it's Japanese cousin, Tampopo, Jiro Dreams of Sushi will leave you craving exquisite Japanese food - in this case, sushi. We were grateful that Ginko was worth the wait!

Boiled Squid  Appetizer Special   

Ginko is a small space, consisting mostly of sushi bar, with a few small tables around the perimeter and two larger tables, where Shabu Shabu is offered, in addition to the sushi menu. Interestingly, we began with appetizers, despite Jiro's explanation in the film that serving any course other than sushi detracts from the sushi, so he does not offer such diversions. Still, if we had any doubts that Ginko was serving authentic Japanese food, our tiptoe through the appetizers dispelled them immediately. I was expecting slices of larger squid rather than the small whole specimens served. I confess, it tasted strongly of the ocean, not in a bad way, but still feeling like an acquired (or more accurately, a "to-be acquired") taste to my palate, though the creamy dipping sauce definitely helped. Despite exquisite ingredients expertly prepared - this is probably a dish that I wouldn't order again. But I'm glad that I tried it. 

My reactions to the appetizers ordered by my dining companions were similar. Steve got octopus cups that had been tenderized and melted in the mouth (and which summoned up images of octopus served by Jiro, after a 45 minute vigorous massage), but still tasted a little too much of the ocean for me. Adventurous eater Edsel's giant clam slices had been alive mere moments before they became slices, and even he urged the application of soy sauce, which evened out the intense brininess with a different kind of salty flavor. Edsel's marvelous photos of these dishes, and the other items he and Steve enjoyed can be seen here. The freshness and quality of the ingredients and preparation were fabulous, but I can't say that I longed for a second bite of either. Again, though, I'm grateful for the opportunity to taste these things, and wouldn't hesitate to try different "specials" even if they sounded outside my comfort zone.  

Jumbo Shrimp Tempura Roll: Shrimp, Asparagus, Tobiko

Our next plate of two menu items both featured local asparagus. The shrimp in this roll was as good as or better than most of the shrimp we ate on our Gulf Coast trip this winter, and again benefited from expert preparation.

Asparagus Roll

This simple item reflected the beauty of a seasonable vegetable paired with quality sushi rice. Our palates were now completely primed for fish.

Seared Salmon Belly Nigiri and Tamago (Japanese Omelet) Nigiri

This plate contained our next two orders. The Tamago had played a featured role in the film, where an apprentice made over 200 trays of the delicacy before getting it "right" enough for his master. My mouth was watering to try Ginko's version, which was a few degrees too cold, but otherwise egg-and-rice perfection, with the vinegar in the rice playing off of a distinctive sweetness that had been added to the eggs. 

The seared salmon belly was recommended by our server, and tasted as rich as Copper River salmon we've eaten in the past. Every bite made me sigh with pleasure - this, we had learned earlier in the evening, is how great sushi should affect one.

Ginko Roll: Tuna, Salmon, Hamachi, Avocado, (hold the Cucumber), Kaiware, Romaine Lettuce, Daikon, Tobiko

My first thought on biting into the Ginko Roll was that the wrapper was a little stale. Then I realized - it wasn't soy paper or any other wrapper - it was thinly sliced daikon radish! Since radish is not my favorite flavor anyway, I enjoyed the next bite without the extra wrapper (nori had been placed below the daikon) and was rewarded with tastes and textures worthy of the masterwork I'd just seen at the cinema. It takes great skill to combine three types of fish in one sushi roll without muddling the flavors, and the sushi chefs at Ginko are indeed expert. Taishi Noma, who was born in Kyoto, Japan, is head sushi chef and he prepared the appetizers and nigiri. One of his assistants, also a sushi pro, made the rolls. 

This meal, together with a bottle of Pellegrino water, totaled out to just below $55 for two of us (including tax), and we were too stuffed to even consider dessert. Jiro Dreams of Sushi and Ginko made for a stimulating and delicious pair. If you fancy Japanese food, then even after the movie leaves town, you will have fun playing  with the sushi and Japanese delights at Ginko. 

Fun Playing with Pizza and More at Crostatas

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the discussion flared up in the office again: people saying that they like Crostatas Pizzeria in Highland Heights Ohio, but "it's just so expensive for what you get." I continue to respectfully disagree, and offer the following in evidence. Crostatas features pizzas made in the Neapolitan style, with a thin crust.

All of the pizzas are presented cut into 8 small slices.

Pizza Alba: San Marzano Tomatoes, Capocollo, Arugula, Fresh Egg, Grana Padana and EVOO, $14. 

This delicious pie fed my dining companion and myself, with two slices left over. As you can see, the crust was thin, with chew rather than crunch, and just the right amount of char on the bottom - a perfect crust. The fresh, runny egg complimented the salty capocollo, with arugula offering a slightly spicy contrast. The cheese brought it all together. And at $7 a person for lunch - what's not to like?

A few weeks later, I finally got my husband to join me for lunch at Crostatas, and he enjoyed it so much that we went back for another shortly after. 

We began with hot peppers stuffed with house-made sausage, served with house-made tomato sauce and house-made breadstick. 

The dish was simply magnificent. The peppers had just enough spice to play off of the mild tomato sauce, but not so much as to outshine the sausage, which truly starred. So much more than the sum of its parts - the preparation enhanced each element on the plate. I don't think I've ever enjoyed the texture and mouthfeel of peppers so much before, without a hint of wateriness or stringiness. At $7, I could easily make a lunch of this if I didn't have someone to share it with!

Basic margharita pizza - $11.50 for 8 slices and worth every penny! 

The pizza consisted of a thin, chewy crust with just a bit of char on its belly, topped judiciously with tasty tomato sauce and cheese. Again, there were leftovers for the next day's lunch. 

Our next visit began with Arancini. Risotto is formed into a ball and stuffed with a meaty ragu, peas, and parmigiano, then breaded and fried, and served on a bed of marinara sauce with a sprinkling of cheese. This generous portion, which again could have been an entree for a single person, was $6.

The only flaw in this dish, for me, was the frozen peas. Otherwise, we deemed it plate licking good.

For our Entree, we shared a Pizza Salsiccia: San Marzano Tomatoes, Mozzarella, Italian Sausage and EVOO, our most expensive item yet at $14.50.

The sausage, probably the same as that which had previously stuffed our hot peppers, melted in the mouth. The crust seemed like it had been made by different hands - it was a bit crispier and to my taste, maybe should have come out of the oven a few seconds sooner. But this pizza still ran circles around any lunch pizza available on the East Side of Cleveland.

I agree with my office-mates that Crostatas is not always the cheapest date in town. But the quality is certainly in line with pricing - quality of ingredients (most are imported from Italy; the Berkshire Hog featured on the specials sheet the day the last photos above were taken is from Chardon, Ohio) and quality of preparation. For my money, when I'm hankering for pizza at lunchtime, Crostatas remains my first choice on Cleveland's East Side, and the appetizers recently sampled also rate honorable mentions. (I do have a second option at dinner, Marotta's in Cleveland Heights, which is more New York than Neapolitan style, and which I enjoy as much as Crostatas.) Case closed.

Crostatas Pizzeria
558 Bishop Road
Highland Heights, OH 44143
(440) 449-7800
Closed Sunday

Fun Breaking A Food Taboo

Most people who know me well know that I don't care for mushrooms. Though I'm not allergic to them, I've never liked them, and I'll usually pick them out if they are in something I'm eating. The only B Spot burger I haven't actually tasted is the Shroomage, which is topped with Portobello (though there are a couple of new burgers on the menu as of about 2 weeks ago that I haven't tried yet - more to come on that soon). 

Shroomage consumed by a dining companion at B Spot,  February 5, 2010.

In recent years, as I try to eliminate or minimize food taboos as much as possible, I've embraced the fabulous umami and deep flavor that mushrooms can give to food. Tree ear mushroom slivers, when included in Chinese dishes, actually go down pretty well now, and I've cleaned the plate of silky mushroom soup served by AMP 150's Ellis Cooley and Jeff Jarrett a couple of times. But there is still something about mushrooms that just doesn't work for me. They absolutely disgust me raw - I can't handle them at all, not even to wash or chop them. Likewise, pieces of mushroom do not make me hungry, even when fully cooked.

So it must have been the Leprechauns at work on St. Patrick's day at the North Union Farmers' Market. Bob and I had already discussed a fish and Kasha Varnishkes dinner. We were chatting with Charlie at the Ohio Honey Co. booth when inspiration struck. Killbuck Valley Mushrooms has always had the stand next to Ohio Honey at the Winter Market, but we never stop there for obvious reasons. 

Kasha Varnishkes is often made with mushrooms, but my mother never made it that way and neither do I. As we stood a few short feet from the mushroom stand, it hit me that adding some mushroom to the pan would seriously up the umami factor in the final dish. We've heard so many wonderful things about Killbuck Valley's product, so, as long as Bob was willing to wash and cut them (and eat them, since I'd pick my pieces out), I was game to try it!

Shittakes from Killbuck Valley Mushrooms

I'm pretty sure these were the first raw mushrooms to enter our house in the 15+ years we've lived here. I asked Bob to cut them in large enough pieces that they'd be easy to pick out.

While I prepped the Kasha Varnkishes, Bob treated these lovely Blue Marlin steaks from BayLobsters Fish Market to salt, pepper and EVOO, and started the grill.

Kasha Varnishkes begins with caramelizing onions in your choice of fat. For meat meals, schmaltz is traditional; my mom used cooking oil or onion flavored Nyafat (which no longer exists). For a dairy meal (or parve protein, meaning neither meat nor dairy, such as fish), butter is the winning choice. So, onions luxuriated in  a mixture of ghee (clarified butter) and Hartzler roll butter (with some Kosher salt) for about 20 minutes, then came out of the pan. Next, the kasha groats, which had been soaking up a beaten egg, went into the pan to seal the egg onto the groats. After emptying the pan and applying more butter (and a bit of peanut oil), I pushed the mushrooms in. Two minutes later, I flipped them around, then gave them another two minutes, salt and fresh ground black pepper. I marveled at the intensely mushroomy aroma, then added a little more oil, and returned the kasha and onions to the pan.   

The next step is to add hot water or stock. My mother tended towards plain water, but I wanted to infuse some additional flavor, so I made a quick vegetable stock of water, salt and pepper, a large oven-dried garden tomato, and broccoli (which I blanched, then removed to use as our vegetable side dish). Once the tomato rehydrated and broke down, I dumped the liquid into the pan, stirred, lowered the heat and put a lid on it. Fifteen minutes later, the pan received 8 ounces of small bowtie pasta that had been cooked al dente and drained. After some additional stirring to combine all of the ingredients, dinner was served:

The Blue Marlin steaks were pristine and grilled up fabulously. We also had fun playing with Hake filet  from BayLobsters with our left-over Kasha Varnishkes for Sunday dinner. 

Bob reports that the actual mushroom meat tasted wonderful, with a woodiness he loved. While I still can't get myself to want to eat the mushrooms themselves, I definitely appreciated what they added to the dish. This is a perfect example of not letting your food taboos get in the way of experimenting and enjoying twists on your usual flavors. Mushrooms, anyone?