Steve Shasta Legendary Foodie

can you talk to us about differences in color of white tuna? i've had it super white, some pictures show it pinker. is one better? does this affect taste? why is one pink and one white?

white tuna is almost wholly farmed. it is very unusual to find wild white tuna in a restaurant.

the style of farming (including diet, environment) can have a slight change in the general color of the meat... but what i really think is that in any fish, depending on which cut the chef is serving from makes the biggest difference. behind the cheek (the belly) is usually fattier (you actually see the sinews) and paler. as you progress back towards the tail the meat has more musculature and less sinewy bands of fat and is generally darker. in and around the ribs is generally darker too.

super white and sinewy is usually the most expensive, but it's all a matter of taste. i tend to like more "medium" cuts of fish as they tend to have the best of both worlds.

lol @ waving rice gif

http://www.riceball-omsb.com/img/logo.gif

aww it doesn't wave when I post it like that

it's waving at me!

ok tehresa... there's something else at play that i did not think about. non-jp sushi bars will serve "super white tuna" which is actually escolar. escolar contains the same substance as found in Olean/Olestra and in not so gentle terms, may cause a bit of the poopy-pants. this fish is snow white and ultra-fatty and I would avoid eating it in either raw or cooked state. it is considered a junk fish in japan, only used for bait but some non-jp sushi bars will serve it.

will it def be labeled as 'super white tuna' or just as white tuna? like, for example, i've often wondered if, when ordering a white tuna/scallion roll, they really use white tuna, or if they use some substitution fish because they think if it's in a roll you won't notice it's not the real thing.

that all depends on the chef. IM me with the name/loc of restaurant pls.

oh i didn't have anywhere specific in mind (i have not even eated sushi yet here!), just a general question.

steve,

i had an unusual roll the other day that the chef made for me. it was clam and something else soft. could it have been sea urchin? i was always told sea urchin tasted like a zit, and this was not salty or zit-like at all. any ideas what the other seafood might have been (it was def not fish).

also my newest addiction is AMBERJACK. what do you think of that fish?

vahid

local sea urchin from socal tastes sweet, salty with a bit of rose-petal. i've never eaten a zit so compare that? also, you should ask your chef and not me what he put in your roll lol.

i don't really eat rolls. rice is one of the cheapest foods on the planet. most sushi rolls are 60-80% rice with the scraps of fish that you can't serve as nigiri and sashimi stuffed in and usually disguised with massive quantities of sauce or mayo so you can't tell how long they've been sitting around and then charge you $5-12 a pop.

amberjack is good. if it's firm, you say "pichi pichi". i caught some really good amberjack when i went fishing last month and we dominated it in a serious way.

i had some amazing peruvian ceviche with sea urchin. it tastes like the sea. really. not a zit. it should taste fresh and oceany but not fishy and gross.

amberjack sounds like a beer.

where did you catch the amberjack, steve?

peruvian sea urchin is firmer, smaller and a little bit more bitter than SoCal sea urchin. <3 4 all time.

we caught amberjack around here:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.957999,79.013672&ie=UTF8&ll=26.228759,127.362442&spn=0.151523,0.308647&z=12

♥♥♥♥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruh0TJJopn8

steve shasta if someone told you that you could only have sushi, blue jeans or baseball in your life, which would you choose

or boredoms

or wakeboarding

that youtube skit is from 2002? maybe 2001? by the comedians named Rahmens. They made about 30 of them, not sure why that is the most reposted.

- sushi is actually not my favorite food, it's just the one that people ask me the most about.
- jeans are kinda peripheral to what i do for a living.
- baseball is america's pastime, can't think of a nicer way to relax than watching a game.
- boredoms were a great band, they debuted their "Super-" material on my radio show and I saw their last cohesive show as a proper band so they shaped a lot of my mid-late 90s music listening.
- but wakeboarding is my real passsion, just pure unadulterated shredding and shralping of freshwater wakes and ramps. just one thousand percent ecstacy multiplied by one millionth of a percent awesome.

Congrats on not having your job move out of the City, Steve.

ok but steve what is the most integral to your personal brand???

thx mw, we need to have drinks at uva. also was shocked to see bar crudo reloc'd to divis while i was gone wtf!

i have my own brand of wakeboarding clothing.

can u wakeboard with jeans on

or is it dangerous?

catching fish in his teeth for nigiri l8r

yes, wakeboarding nigiri brand is dangerous.

xpost. talk a lot

i thought contigo was just fine (beautiful interiors) but i have no desire to go back

no really, do u just eat at restaurants all the time. i don't get it, how, why

http://www.gamequarter.be/forum/images/smilies/emot-iiam.gif

eat at restaurants, eat/cook at home, eat/cook at other people's houses.

basically be fat.

eat other peopl

yo SS have you ever been to ibiza in new haven

never been to new haven. drove thru once at night. sorry dawg.

dyao, tell me about teh best stocking tea in HK. i went to this place called Tai Hing that was supposed to be good, but I know there's better...

he's woken up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988

hmm what do you think about their menu

http://ibizanewhaven.com/menus.htm

I have heard the best stocking tea place in HK is in yuen long which is about an hour, hour and a half outside the city proper. have never been but I plan to go soon.

jax: TRAINSPOTTING

looks good dyao. i like that they mix up northern/catalan spanish in their menu, it's really pan-spanish despite the funny name.

Dude the bacalao in particular sounds insane. @ $58 I'd def spring for the degustacion. what was your exp like?

I have never been! I'm hoping I can eat there when I go back to the states for the summer.

How often do you get out across the bay (?):

my cousin-in-law (?) recommended this place to me, if you're craving western-europe:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunday_driver/sets/72157600220192965/

haha I'll keep that in mind next time I go (I've only been once)

I went to that place in yuen long and took this for you:

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/P4113770.jpg

pretty good but at the end of the day it's just black tea + evaporated milk!

yeah, "vietnamese coffee" is just coffee + evaporated milk. pretty ace tho

eh... i think there are many subtle differences wrt both actually.

for hkmt: the blend of black tea leafs (many places use different blends of as many as 7 different teas), the "stocking" filtration, and for cold teas whethter the ice cubes are made from water or from the tea itself (no dilution).

for viet ca phe: it's all about the coffee (chicory, like cafe du mond in new orleans), not evaporated but condensed milk, and i use one of those cheapo antiquated metal devices [ http://www.yowazzup.com/coffee/images/vietnamese-drip-coffee.jpg ] which is paperless so like a french press you get more of the soft oils in the coffee which paper filters absorb. you can dial in the density of the grounds that the water will drip through, and of course the type of grind too.

that said, thank you so much dyao! how long does it take to get there from central metro HK?

I had the cold milk tea and the hot one, the cold one used water ice cubes iirc and came with sugar already. both were pretty good.

(also viet ca phe usually uses robusta beans instead of arabica)

it takes about...hmm...45 minutes, and then you need to take a light rail to the stop (hung shui ku) which will be an additional 20 minutes....

I have not... do you prefer that to the frustratingly inconsistent L'Ardoise (sp?)

I like L'Ardoise but their menu is a little too shallow and too static and Bistro St. Geermain, though co-owned by the guy who once had my favorite French resto in SF, is depressingly mundane and mediocre. The couple that run Bistro Central Parc are sweet and most of the food is good, though some dishes are better than others. It's just a walkable local restaurant, but it's fun and I'm glad it's there.

Also:

"Lady Za Za: Meanwhile, in this week's upcoming pizzeria news, we have Sharon Ardiana opening up her second pizza spot. The chef/owner of Glen Park's Gialina (2842 Diamond St.) is looking to roll out Ragazza this fall in the old Metro Cafe (311 Divisadero St.).

Ardiana, who was in L.A. buying a fancy-pants oven and doing research at the lauded Pizzeria Mozza, says Neapolitan-style pies will remain the focus.

As for the spirit, since Gialina was dedicated to Ardiana's grandmother, Ragazza - Italian for "girl" - will be an ode to female chefs everywhere."

(sorry to interrupt you guys)

anyway according to this article there's another really reputedly great milk tea place in wan chai which is a hop skip and a jump away from central, much closer

haven't been though

Steve, intereseted in hearing opinions about any of the places I ate on my recent trip to SF:

Turtle Tower
Golden Star
Toyose
Katana-ya
Dottie's
Lers Ros
Brenda's
Papalote
La Cornetta
Schmidt's
Los Jarritos

Favorite things I ate were the schnitzel at Schmidt's, the pork shoulder at Lers Ros, and the kimchi fried rice with egg/ wings at Toyose.

― mizzell, Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:37 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I came back and ate at a lot of these places again. New places:

Outerlands
Gochi (Cupertino)
Ippuko (Berkeley)
Cordon Bleu

of those 4, I've only eaten at Cordon Bleu which is a total dive but an all time fave. that meat gravy (kinda like bun rieu sauce?) is insane. that's a real crowd pleaser for the under $8 options.

Gochi I was curious about at one point but none of my JP friends in the south bay are fans of it so we'd always hit other spots.

yeah, it was amusing watching the lady work at cordon bleu, pulling meat out from under different parts of the counter and on to frill or into the fryer. it was delicious and huge portions.

Everything I had at Gochi was good, even the pizzas which I was wary of.

Speaking of which, remind me to have you review the menu when Masu Izakaya opens.

This place was pretty good (to my untrained palette) but closed within like four months of its opening.

went to outerlands like once a week before i left sf. suuuuuper simple menu, which basically works because there is bread involved in nearly everything and the bread there is always fresh and tasty

Y'all need to get off your asses and get to Benu. Fuck an Outsidelands.

Steve I think I've asked this before, but I am asking again in case the answer has changed since last time: best (price not really an object) sushi place in the bay area?

Best no-nonsense JP-style sushi bars:

SF: Ino
East Bay: Uzen
Peninsula: Sakae
South Bay: Sushi Tomi
North Bay: Hana

having coffee with rene redzepi at philz. Corey lee and Jeremy fox are talking stoneware.

philz makes you shitz

tell me about 'tuna bone'

you use a "kozara" (soy sauce saucer) and scrape out the marrow of the bigger ribs and it's kinda like a light fluffy tuna pate. you have to buy a lot of tuna in order to get a rib from a supplier so it's a bit more unusual unless it's a high volume or high price sushi bar.

thanks for the backstory. friend of mine claims a place on st marks has it and he 'knows the guy' so anticipating a trip this week or next.

wow tuna bone sounds cool

haha, i don't think that's the best translation into english, maybe tuna rib marrow is more apt?

yeah that makes more sense. i dont even know if i've even had fish bone marrow before, had fish liver for the first time the other day + enjoyed it tho

ankimo (monkfish liver) is pretty great. first time i had it was w/shasta

Yeah, it's awfully tasty

monkfish is the ugliest damn fish on the planet fwiw.

shasta in

monkfish liver is the liver i had! is that the only one ppl eat? had never heard of it before i saw it on the menu

(wasnt at a japanese restaurant tho, it was british)

himo (or kimo) of many fish are eaten, ankimo and muragai no himo are probably the 2 most common at sushi bars, you can get chicken livers at any deece yakitori. Duck liver is pretty dope, blowfish liver is toxic and you eat = you die.

anyways i went to costco at lunch and bought 10 jars of nutella for $31.45... good deal!

goodness!

muragai = mirugai, clearly i need an editor wtf.

sounds like a filling lunch

don't judge me

you're "nuts"! (nutella)

are you saying I'm nuts because my eyes are hazel? (nutella is made from hazelnuts)

haha

i picked up some AMAZING gianduia when i was in italy last year, got some jars where there were whole hazelnuts in it... dahroool.