Shibuya

Cross-Posted from Calgary is Awesome.

Just off the corner of 16 Ave and 4 St NE there is a little strip mall. On the outside, it may seem a little sketchy (especially at night because the signs aren't lighting up properly), but with Bubblemania and Shibuya open as late as 2 AM on weekends, it is a popular hangout for all the insomniacs (particularly Asian ones) in the city.

A couple weeks ago my family and I went for supper at Shibuya (at a respectable hour), which, compared to its exterior, is a surprisingly brightly lit and modernly decorated place. Like the popular Globefish, Shibuya is an izakaya, which I've referred to before as "Japanese tapas", meaning that they specialize in small dishes to share over a few cups of sake as opposed to just sushi (which would explain part of the reason why they're open so late). I've heard that they make a good ramen too, but as you'll see below, we unfortunately didn't leave enough room in our stomachs to try it.


We started our meal off with this gorgeous green salad and miso soup - most of the hot dishes also come with a small pile of greens on the plate.


For Shibuya's tuna tataki, thick, meaty slabs of fish are lightly seared before they are placed in a pool of chili oil and thinly-sliced red onion, then topped with fried garlic. The bold flavours from all the different toppings give the usually mild-tasting tuna a whole new character.

  
We did order the standard sushi and sashimi combos, which came with a nice variety of fresh tasting fish and other ingredients.


The small dish of soft shell crab was practically inhaled by my family, who likes the taste of crab but hates the hassle that usually goes with shelling them.


Oyster motoyaki, which is basically baked oyster topped with a mayo-based sauce, is one of my sister's favourite dishes. It was good, but a little too heavy for me.


The highlight of the night for me was probably the clams cooked in wine. The dish is quite light, and the wine based broth is flavoured with garlic, scallions and seaweed. Delicious.

Shibuya also has a sizable selection of grilled fish, such as cod, mackerel and even salmon cheek. We had the mackerel, which was grilled quite nicely - a crisp, lightly-salted outer shell with tender, flaky insides. A lot of the fried dishes come with a citrusy ponzu shoyu with grated daikon and chopped scallions for dipping. The tanginess of the sauce goes really well with all the seafood and is a nice twist on the usual soy sauce.

The service at Shibuya was pleasant and efficient. It felt like the kitchen was doing each order at a time, so though the initial wait was a little long, but then all our food came quite quickly. This also means that once you put your order in, that's it! If you have a hankering for anything else, your order will have to wait its turn in line.

Overall, I had a positive experience at Shibuya and would definitely go back - whether it's for lunch, dinner, or a random late-night Japanese fix.

Shibuya
449 16 Ave NE
Calgary AB T2E 1K3
(403) 277-8823
Open Mon-Thu 11 AM-11 PM, Fri 11 AM-2 AM, Sat 5 PM-2 AM, Sun 5 PM-11 PM.

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The Coup

Cross-posted from Calgary is Awesome.

I've actually eaten out a lot more in the past month than it appears, but unfortunately I found that all-you-can-eat environments (especially ones where waiters come by and keep piling meat on your plate faster than you can eat it) are not especially conducive to photography and therefore are not very conducive to being blogged about.

So it's nice for my stomach and for the blog to sit down to a slower meal.

Usually The Coup is buzzing with activity on Friday nights, and most people can probably down a couple drinks and appetizers at Meet, the lounge owned by the same people next door, before they finally get a table in the tiny restaurant. With the weather being the way it has been the past few weeks, however, I'm guessing most people would rather stay in their cozy homes than go out and do battle with Mother Nature and panicked drivers just for some food, so Tiffany and I were lucky enough to only have a short wait (well, she waited... I strolled in just in time) on Friday.

The first time I went to The Coup earlier this year with my friend Stephen. We'd shared the Cajun Tempeh Sticks ($5.50) which were a touch too salty and came with a dijon-maple sauce that was too heavy-handed on the mustard. He got the Upstream Burger ($14), which did not look like what I'd expected a "burger" to look, but he seemed to like it. Originally he'd offered to split his yam fries with me, knowing how much I like them but then when the food came there were only five or six limp, oven-roasted yam fries on the plate. He still offered me one and it was ok... I did like how baking the thick cut fries instead of frying them really brought out the flavour of the yams, but I still think I like the yam fries at Broken City better. I got the War and Peas Soba Noodle Salad ($12), which really hit the spot - lots of vegetables, a light ginger dressing, and garnished with a nice big pea shoot which gave the salad a very fresh taste.

Although I would've liked to have the salad again, and the Peanut Satay ($10.50) also caught my eye, with the snow blowing outside and the mercury down to negative double-digits, I was in the mood for something warm. I finally settled on the Falafel Quesadilla ($12) and for the side I chose soup, which on that night was vegan Potato-Parsnip.


The soup was just lightly blended, so it was creamy with a little bit of grit from the starchy potatoes and parsnips. The combination of the spices that they used as well as the distinct flavour of the parsnips themselves gave the soup a nice little zip.

The tortilla was stuffed with falafel, hummus, crunchy cabbage and carrots and salty pickles, olives and banana peppers before being grilled to a pleasant crisp. I loved all the different flavours and textures, and I especially liked the creamy, cool, garlicky tzatziki.


I was definitely eyeing Tiffany's Dragon Bowl ($14.50, photo at top of entry), which she seemed to really like. Again, a mix of sauteed and raw vegetables as well as grilled tofu piled on top of brown basmati or quinoa (she chose the former) with your choice of four sauces (she chose sesame nori).

Tiffany had been out for happy hour before meeting me for dinner so she was stuffed, but I still had room for dessert.


The vegan chocolate torte ($6.50) was rich and decadent, pairing very well with the sweet berry compote that was served on the side. A lovely way to cap off the meal :)

The Coup
924 17 Ave SW
Calgary AB T2T 0A2
(403) 541-1041
Open Tues-Thu 11:30 AM-3 PM, 5-10 PM; Fri 11:30 AM-3 PM, 5-11 PM; Sat 9 AM-3 PM, 5-11 PM; Sun 9 AM-3 PM, 5-9 PM. Closed Mondays. Restaurant does not take reservations.

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Dietetics Link Dump (and a non-food photo)

I had no patients at work today, so I spent the day exploring some nutrition/dietetics resources and getting really excited about some of the information that's out there. Most of the links below are geared toward professionals (Sorry... most of you...) but I hope those of you who are only here for the food will find some of the stuff interesting anyway. Here's what I've been reading today:

I'm writing an article on some "off-beat" nutrition-related resolutions for my clinic's January newsletter. One of my tips is to buy new dinnerware, based on Brian Wansink's research that shows that we tend to serve ourselves larger portions when we have larger plates, bowls and even serving spoons. Going through his site and his blog again is really motivating me to hurry up and finish The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so I can get into Mindless Eating and Marketing Nutrition.

As a fairly new dietitian, I always feel like there's room for improvement when it comes to my counselling skills. Sometimes being the only dietitian on staff is tough as there is no one to observe and/or bounce ideas off of. So I was happy to find that in this month's Dietitians of Canada Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiovascular Network SCOPE Notes, they had a link to Molly Kellogg's website. Molly is both a registered dietitian and licensed clinical social worker whose practice mostly focuses on working with other health professionals to improve their practice. She has a whole list of counselling tips on her website and I'm seriously considering getting her workbooks.

Also in this month's SCOPE notes:
Interactive DRI for Health Professionals - Yoni pointed out that this doesn't really have an application because people eat food, not nutrients, but I do like how all the numbers are there for say, meal planning (I think this is why it's for health professionals), and clicking on each vitamin or mineral will take you to a corresponding factsheet which does include food sources.

AdvancingIn is a Canadian website that offers free, online continuing education programs for healthcare professionals in a variety of fields. Of interest to dietitians right now are probably the diabetes, endocrinology and cardiovascular health portals, and there's an obesity portal in the works by the Canadian Obesity Network and mdBriefcase (another free Canadian online cont-ed website).

Last but certainly not least, the DC publication Practice is now in blog format, meaning that it is now accessible to non-DC members as well. (I have removed the original link as I have been asked to not promote the "members only" publication to non-DC members) The latest article, Beyond Nutritionism - An Invitation to Critical Dietetics Dialogue really resonates with me as it is a declaration that we as a profession are moving beyond limiting ourselves to reductionist science for our knowledge base. We recognize that food is more than just a vehicle for nutrients and that it and nutrition impact a variety of disciplines. I'd strongly encourage all dietitians to read the Ryerson Critical Dietetics Declaration (part of the article), join the dialogue and become a signatory. (The deadline has been extended to Monday, December 14....even further! Non-members can email Dr. Jacqui Gingras, Assistant Professor at the School of Nutrition at Ryerson University, where it all started, at jgingras AT ryerson DOT ca for more information.) I'm truly excited for this growth in our profession and hope it's a step towards making dietitians truly the most trusted source for nutrition information.

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Tiramisu Verrines

I have two stories about this recipe I want to share with you. Fellow food blog fans - have you ever stopped and thought about all the food blogs you read and love and realized that you've never tried a recipe that they've shared or a restaurant that they've reviewed? Looking back, I've used Deb (Smitten Kitchen)'s recipes quite a few times, tried a couple recipes from Orangette, a few from 101 Cookbooks, and some from lesser-known blogs. But Gluten-Free Girl (and the Chef)? Backseat Gourmet? Patent and the Pantry? Does this sound like a New Year's resolution a-brewing? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

Anyway, so here I had an occasion where I wanted to make some tiramisu and coincidentally the only recipe under my "tiramisu" tag on Google Reader was this one by David Lebovitz. David Lebovitz worked for a long time as the pastry chef at the famous Chez Panisse and has written many cookbooks, most of them dessert/pastry-related, including The Perfect Scoop, which is an entire book dedicated to recipes for ice creams and sorbets. David has lived in Paris since 2002, so I find more often than not, he likes to share his favourite shops, restaurants and nuances of French and European culture than recipes on his blog. I guess that's probably why I've never tried one of his recipes - because I never thought of his blog as one that is "recipe-oriented", and also because pastries and French cooking are both intimidating things, whether it's the steps involved or the ingredients I need to acquire, non? But now after making the little individual tiramisus, I can happily say that I've crossed off another blog on my Reader from which I've tried a recipe, and I think maybe I will eventually try a couple more.


So that first story really came about because I didn't really want to tell this second story, but then I found out Not Eating Out in New York is giving away Mad Hungry: Feeding Men & Boys, which is a cookbook with recipes and strategies for feeding those in our lives who carry the Y-chromosome. Upon closer examination I think Cathy is looking more for hearty, filling recipes that can fill even the most seemingly bottomless pit of a stomach, but I tend to feed men for more selfish reasons, and if you've known a guy's favourite dessert since the day you met him...

Other reasons why this recipe is dude-worthy:

1) It was created by a dude... who likes other dudes. (Well, ok, maybe just one dude, by the name of Romain.)

2) There's booze in it. Mixed with caffeine.


3) There's protein in it to help you build muscle. Literally.


But then I gave up.


4) Most guys hate to admit it, but I think they like chocolate as much as girls do. (I got this bar for just $1.99 at Superstore! Oh Loblaws and your purchasing power/economies of scale... it is a very acidic chocolate though; not very high-quality.) And cheese... guys like cheese.

  



5) It's actually surprisingly easy to make!

Tiramisu Verrines
Adapted from David Lebovitz
Makes 6 servings

• 125 mL (½ cup) espresso, at room temperature
  
• 30 mL (2 tbsp) dark rum
  
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) cognac
  
• 2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 90 g/105 mL (7 tbsp) sugar, divided
  
• 250 g/250 mL (1 cup) mascarpone
  
• 12 ladyfingers (9 cm/3½" or 70 g/3 oz)
  
• 30 g (1 oz) bittersweet chocolate
  
• Unsweetened cocoa powder and instant espresso or coffee powder, for serving

1. Mix together the espresso, rum, and cognac. The mixture should taste strongly of alcohol. If not, add more until it does. (That flavour will tone down when mixed with the other ingredients, but feel free to adjust to taste.)
   
2. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they begin to get stiff. Beat in half of the sugar (45 g, or 3½ tbsp) until stiff. Scrape the egg whites into a small bowl.
   
3. In the same bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until stiff and light-coloured, about three minutes. (If using a standing electric mixer, you may need to stop and scrape down the sides.) By hand, beat in the mascarpone with a spatula or whisk, until lump-free.
   
4. Fold in half of the beaten egg whites, then the remaining half, just until fully incorporated.
   
5. Put a heaping soup spoon, of the mascarpone cream into each vessel. It is tempting to be greedy here, but don't! Remember to save a fair amount to layer on top of the ladyfingers.
   
6. Submerge each ladyfinger in the espresso mixture for 5-10 seconds, until completely, utterly soaked. (Dried ladyfingers will take longer to saturate than softer ones.) Break the ladyfinger in half to be sure; they should be dripping wet, and can't be saturated enough. Layer them over the mascarpone cream in each vessel. Use two ladyfingers per.
   
7. Grate a generous amount of chocolate over each. You may chop the chocolate instead if you want a bit of texture in your tiramisu.
   
8. Top with remaining mascarpone cream, cover, and refrigerate at least four hours, but preferably overnight.
   
9. Right before serving, shake powdered cocoa and instant espresso/coffee generously on top.

Nutrition Info (per serving): 331 calories, 17 g fat (10 g saturated), 149 mg cholesterol, 31 g carbohydrates (1 g fibre, 17 g sugar), 9 g protein, 127 mg sodium. A good source of vitamin B₁₂.

  

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Red Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Sweet Spices

Thanks to the internet and food blogging, we literally have recipes for any course and any cuisine that we can ever imagine right at our fingertips. Who needs print recipes? Sure, cookbooks and magazines tempt us with their gorgeous photography, but without the glossy, colourful pages, newspapers just can't compete... for the most part.

It doesn't take much to get me excited about something, so when I saw the word "Lentil" splashed across the front page of the Real Life section of the Herald one fine Wednesday a month ago, I knew I had to take a closer look. Did you know that red lentils are actually whole lentils that have been hulled, which is why they turn mushy when they're cooked? Learn something new everyday...

The original recipe for the Red Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Sweet Spices calls for 6 tbsp (almost ½ cup) of butter and 6 cups of broth - that's quite a bit of fat and sodium for a soup that supposedly only serves 4-6! I figured you don't need 3 tbsp of butter just to get some spices fragrant (and probably not to sweat a large onion, really) and even though my mom stocks regular stock at home (ha!) You can cut down the sodium by using two parts water and one part broth. If you are so inclined, you can try cutting the butter down even further, using light coconut milk, and/or using low-sodium broth mixed with water.


You won't be sacrificing any flavour because this soup is just all about the aromatics (onion, garlic, ginger) and spices. Money-saving tip: A bottle of McCormick's cardamom costs $8+ at Superstore, but you can get a bag of it for about $3 if you go a couple aisles down into the ethnic foods section.

  


If you are someone who is spice-averse, don't worry, this soup doesn't pack any heat other than temperature! The coconut milk mellows out all the flavours so the spices are just a nice little tingle. I'm sure you can pair the soup with a salad dressed in a tart vinaigrette for a complete meal, but I've been bringing mine to work served with an old friend. (3 out of 3 health practitioners agree - low-sodium Triscuits still taste nice and salty!)

Red Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk and Sweet Spices
Adapted from the Calgary Herald
Makes about 2 L.

• 60 mL (4 tbsp) unsalted butter or margarine, divided
  
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
  
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
  
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) grated fresh ginger
  
• 5 mL (1 tsp) turmeric
  
• 500 mL (2 cups) vegetable or chicken stock (low-sodium ok)
  
• 1 L (4 cups) water
  
• 375 mL (1½ cups) red lentils, picked over for stones and chaff
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) ground cardamom
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) ground cinnamon
  
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) ground cloves
  
• Pinch of nutmeg
  
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) black pepper, freshly ground
  
• 300 mL (1¼ cups) coconut milk (light ok)

1. In a large pot, melt 3 tbsp of butter over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is translucent. Turn the heat down to medium, and add the garlic and ginger. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is lightly browned and very soft. Stir in the turmeric.
   
2. Add the stock and the lentils. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 15-25 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and falling apart. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
   
3. Melt the remaining butter in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, bay leaves and pepper. Stir until they are fragrant, about a minute.
   
4. Pour the butter and spices into the soup. Add the coconut milk, and stir well. Cook for about 15 minutes to blend the flavours. Adjust the seasoning.

Nutrition Info (per cup): 261 calories, 13 g fat (11 g saturated), 15 mg cholesterol, 26 g carbohydrate (5 g fibre, 1 g sugar), 11 g protein, 103 mg sodium. An excellent source of folate, copper and manganese. A good source of thiamin (vitamin B₁), potassium and zinc.

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Yummy Yellow Layer Cake with "Fail" Frosting

Two of my cousins had their birthday toward the end of November and so our family celebrated them both together at our house with a delicious and gluttonous hot pot dinner. Instead of giving them real presents, I offered to do what I thought I did best, which was to bake them a treat. One cousin requested banana bread, which didn't turn out because I was too focused on making it "healthy" (I folded in ½ cup of flaxseed to my whole wheat, applesauce-instead-of-oil banana bread and the batter was dry, dry, dry... adding an extra banana at the end helped, but the bread still tasted bland and the last banana was distributed unevenly - Sorry Kevin!) So that left my other cousin, Joyce, to decide what sort of cake we were going to have...

Yellow? Chocolate? Cheese? Carrot? Coconut? A combination of the above? Originally she chose carrot, because it's "healthy" (*cough* No, it's not *cough*) but then jokingly asked what yellow cake was - was it like the sponge cake that you get at dim sum (馬拉糕)?

No, silly, this is yellow cake.


The cake itself was delicious, as Deb promised and it's nice to know that I can make one without Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. I'd started baking later than I would've liked so when it was time to layer the cake everyone had already gathered around and was eager to nibble at the scraps as I smoothed out the top of the bottom layer. Everyone agreed that it reminded them of another "Chinese" sponge cake - the kind you get wrapped in parchment paper at Chinese bakeries (紙包蛋糕).

The frosting, however, was another story.

If you go back far enough in the blog, you will see that frosting is the bane of my existence. If I'm not mucking up a recipe here, then I'm being sloppy with my cake/cookie decorating there. This time it was no different.

Maybe I would've been successful if I'd just stuck with Deb's chocolate icing recipe, but Joyce had wanted something "lighter" so I figured cream cheese, sour cream and butter were out of the question, and we don't have any metal mixing bowls so I couldn't try any 7-minute frosting.

I'm sure I would've been successful at the recipe if I'd had, say, separated my eggs properly, beaten them to stiffer peaks or heated the syrup to the appropriate temperature. But I somehow managed to not do all of those things and of course, the frosting turned into a runny, marshmallow-flavoured mess. With a little time in the freezer it didn't thicken into a more frosting-like consistency, but still as I was trying to frost the cake, the frosting kept running off the cake and onto the side of the plate. I couldn't even cover my mistakes with sprinkles because I found out the hard way that my siblings like them on their ice cream!

I'm sure all of you will have better luck (and skill, and patience) and that the recipe will turn out for you... one day I will CONQUER THE BEAST!

But really, it didn't matter because the cake was still indulgent and delicious.

Yummy Yellow Layer Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Makes two 9" round layers (each 2" tall), one 9 × 13" rectangular pan, two 8" squares or 22-24 cupcakes (adjust cooking time accordingly).

• 1.03 L (4 cups + 2 tbsp) cake flour (not self-rising)
  
• 7 mL (1½ tsp) baking soda
  
• 5 mL (1 tsp) salt
  
• 250 mL (1 cup, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  
• 500 mL (2 cups) sugar
  
• 10 mL (2 tsp) vanilla extract
  
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 500 mL (2 cups) buttermilk, well-shaken

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up. Or, if you have silicone cake pans, use those instead, but butter and flour always help.)
   
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated.
   
3. Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter or tap it on the side several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

White Mountain Frosting Adapted from All Recipes Makes 4 cups

• 750 mL (3 cups) sugar
  
• 250 mL (1 cup) water
  
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) cream of tartar
  
• 3 egg whites
  
• 1 pinch salt
  
• 5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla extract

1. Combine sugar, water and cream of tartar in saucepan. Cook until candy thermometer reaches 115°C (238°F) or until syrup spins a long thread when dripped from a spoon.
   
2. Beat egg whites until stiff. Pour a think, slow stream of the syrup into egg whites, beating constantly until frosting stands in peaks. Stir in salt and vanilla to taste.
   

Nutrition Info (for 1/14 of both recipes, which gives a 2" slice of cake with ~3 tbsp frosting): 584 calories, 14 g fat (9 g saturated), 98 mg cholesterol, 105 g carbohydrates (74 g sugar, 1 g fibre), 8 g protein, 385 mg sodium. An excellent source of folate and vitamin K. A good source of iron and selenium. (The recipe is probably a source of these things because of a wonderful thing called enrichment.)

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