More Ramen

Chashu ramen with spicy miso.

Stamina ramen.

Typical Dennis.

Girls with designer bags eating ramen. Ohyoufancyhuh?

Kohryu
891 Baker St. Suite B-21
Costa Mesa, CA 9212

My 'Illustrated' Beef Tataki Recipe

Happy Thanksgiving! To kick off the holidays, I'm excited to share my submitted illustration to They Draw and Cook. Let's hope the 'W!'

The final version.

The original illustration.

Sanrio 50th Anniversary

Last Saturday, I finally caught the Small Gift L.A. extravaganza to celebrate Sanrio's 50th Anniversary. Now that everyone and their mom has posted pictures of the event throughout the week... it's my turn with captioned commentary. Ahem!

The most literal form of idolatry. Also, the most gaudy P.O.S. I've ever seen.

Kozyndan's contribution was easily the most creative. Audrey Kawasaki's was typical.

Kawaii-girl portrait x Sanrio theme x 2 = Easy money. I can't knock it. Sanrio made millions off a simple cat drawing.

Eric Joyner is my hero. His compositions are so iconic. And he still managed to included the signature donut.

Fun event, but much smaller than I expected. I was way too old for the ferris wheel, anyway.

Carmen and Trisha enjoying hot bowls of ramen after a long weekend of festivities.

Kinchans Ramen

2119 Sawtelle Blvd.

Santa Monica, CA 90025

Junko Mizuno & Mizna Wada Art Exhibits

FLORA DELIRIUM 4

FLORA DELIRIUM 1

Last Saturday, Nucleus opened two new exhibits featuring Japanese female artists - Junko Mizuno and Mizna Wada. The show runs until December 6th. These are two of my favorites from Junko Mizuno.

Hot Pastrami Pink

Ravaged.

It's like a fantasy. It's like a beautiful woman that you can't stop thinking about. She calls you in the middle of work, tells you how lonely she is, and describes to you what she's wearing. You hang up the phone dumbfounded. You try desperately to focus on your work, but mental glimpses of her keep invading your thoughts. Your throat dries and you grow slightly feverish. Weakly, you struggle to finish your work and you hurry home. And when you finally find her sprawled out, you assertively grab her and drag her to the most private of spaces. Then you violently rip off the layers, and proceed to have your way with her like an insatiable fiend...

... So is the same with Hot Pastrami Dip. Very hot, indeed.

Brent's Delicatessen & Restaurant
19565 Parthenia St. Northridge, CA 91324
2799 Townsgate Rd. Westlake, CA 91361

Korean-Chinese Noodle House

Jajangmyeon.

Jampong.

Om nom nom nom nom...

Last night, my friend - Jason said that he felt like Korean-Chinese noodles. I had a confused look on my face while I performed the Yelp search. And after a bit of scouting, my party ended up at yet another hole-in-the-wall called Young Pung. One-dollar signs will do that to you.

Anyway, the small 10-booth restaurant was filled with hungry Koreans who were unapologetically packing their faces into their bowls and slurping their sauce-covered noodles. It was a good sign of things to come, but it was a bit agonizing to watch others eat for 15 minutes. As the whole restaurant cleared out at the same time, we took the largest booth available for the elbow room.

Not to go against the grain, my friends ordered the black bean jajangmyeon, and I ordered the spicy seafood jampong. My noodles were soft and chewy without being soggy. The hot, spicy broth was light without being too watery. All the while, I enjoyed my assortment of shrimp, scallop, sea cucumber, mushrooms, and cabbage. On a cold night such as this one, these noodles are a good alternative to soon dubu.

I assume that Korean-Chinese eateries such as these take influence from more northern regions of China, where wheat noodles are more common. As someone with southern roots, I'll admit to not eating wheat noodles much. But I'll be sure to widen my noodle palette.

Young Pung

9922 Garden Grove Blvd.

Garden Grove, CA 92842

My Beef Tataki Recipe

These days, I don't cook much. But I'm gonna be illustrating my old beef tataki recipe from college for They Draw and Cook. Wish me luck.

Ingredients

1 lb. of sirloin steak about 1-inch thick

chopped green onion

sesame seeds

soy sauce

lemon juice

olive oil

pepper

Steps

rub olive oil onto steak.

rub pepper and sesame seeds onto steak.

heat pan on medium-high heat and add olive oil.

sear each side of steak for 2.5 minutes for medium-rare.

rest steak on cutting board for 5 minutes.

cut steak into thin slices and plate.

drizzle soy sauce and lemon juice.

top with green onion.

Frugal Feast

Random late-night banquet. Not the best, but still godsend.

Quan Hen aka "Pinklight"

14092 Magnolia St.

Westminster, CA 92683