Monthly Archives: November 2008

Recently I saw the 23rd entry into the James Bond franchise, Quantum of Solace. As a big James Bond fan I have been looking forward to this movie for quite some time now, and with the amazing success of Casino Royal and the reboot to a more realistic, darker, grittier Bond, QoS has some pretty big shoes to fill. Sadly, this film is like an awkward teenager wearing a suit that’s not tailored and is one size too big. You know that there is potential there, but something’s just not right.
I wouldn’t go as far to say this is the worst Bond movie. I can think of a few Bond films that I think are worse. People will be satisfied with the film; I don’t think anyone will be storming out of the theaters proclaiming it a POS. For those with high expectations though, you will be disappointed. The action is there with just about every kind of chase scene you can imagine. It is a high energy thrill ride that doesn’t let up. It was lacking those quiet scenes in Casino Royal that balanced the frenetic action sequences. The movie gave the impression that Bond was in just nonstop trouble. From the Bahamas to Austria in scene, he didn’t even have a chance to change his clothes.
One of the bigger disappointments was the lack of dialogue. This feeling of light dialog could just be a result of how much action there was, but it felt like Craig wasn’t talking that much, or interacting with anyone. The moments of dialogue that were present just seemed to be used as a reminder for the audience of what just happened, or what is coming up. It felt like writers were trying to inject un-needed mystery into the antagonist’s plans.
One of the best parts of Casino Royal was the relationship between Bond and Veysper. She was the perfect foil to Bond’s character, she was his equal. Sadly that kind of strength that was saw in the previous film is gone, replaced by the standard Bond Girl character from the Brosnan era of films. Camille, played by Olga Kurylenko, is not the damsel in distress, but she is also not an equal either. More of the two dimensional character we have seen before. The lack of her presence on screen, and lines is even worse, especially when I felt that M had a larger role in this film then she did, but judging by the previous films she was in I am not surprised. There seemed to be no connection between Bond and Camille more like strangers at a bus stop who just happened to have caught the same bus.
There is a disconnect in the direction the franchise is taking and the story of this film. It is as if they were writing a Brosnan or Dalton era James Bond script and then just tried fit it into a more down to Earth story. There is always this leap of faith one has to take with Bond films, to believe their fictional world exists that is close enough to ours, but has some farfetched ideas in it. With older movies it was easy to make those leaps; the villains were crazy enough or evil enough that they seemed plausible. With this film the leap I was expecting to make was a small one, but it turned out to be just as large as older bond films. That is where the disconnect comes from, the expectation that is going to continue down the same road as the previous film is just knocked out of the park. Instead of going down that road it feels like this one is trying to turn around in the other direction. Things that I was glad that changed in the franchise have returned. Lets us hope that the next film is as great as Casino Royal.

If only the movie were as as bad ass as how Bond Looks in this picture

Now for something slightly different. Recently I have been showing off dishes I have been cooking at home recently, and although that all fun and good I originally created this site to talk about restaurants and food that I have eaten. Theres been a lot of food and less of the restaurants. Usually I forget to take pictures, and recently due to the recent news in the economy I have been trying to conserve money, which means fewer restaurants.

Today though, I thought I would talk about a restaurant that I think is one of those hidden gems in San Francisco. It’s a place I found in August, and up until October I would visit at least every week. It’s a Japanese place, that feels very Japanese. I’m not talking about the touristy kind of atmosphere that one sees in Japantown, or some of the other Japanese restaurants anywhere in the country, the Benihana look. Its the kind of place that makes me feel like I’m back in Tokyo, slightly cramped, but cozy, filled with the personality of the owners. A place that stays true to its own style of Japanese food, and hasn’t fallen to the urge to conform to what Americans think Japanese food is. When you eat hear it makes you feel good. The place I’m talking about is called Halu.

Located on 8th ave, and Celment. It is in a diverse neighborhood with many different cuisines. Halu is unlike the typical Japanese place one would eat it, for one it doesn’t serve sushi. This is one of the biggest pet peeves I have about Japanese restaurants here, but that deserves another post all its own. So you maybe asking yourself if this place doesn’t serve sushi what does it serve? Good question and for those who have never herd of prepare to fall in love. What they serve here is yakitori (grilled meat on a stick) and kushi katsu (deep fried meat on a stick). For people who have had kebabs this is very similar to that although much smaller sizes. They do server other foods here like ramen, but their speciallity is yakitori. If you want ramen go to someplace that specializes in it like tampopo, or katanaya, or even genki ramen. Come to Halu for delicious grilled meats.

Their menu of various yakitori is impressive. Usually one would only see chicken with green onions if any Japanese restaurant carried it, but Halu has over 20 different items (i am going by memory on this so i could be wrong). I haven’t seen this many items on a yakitori menu since I was in Japan. There are several different parts of the chicken available; thighs, wings, gizzards, hearts, liver. One thing that is sadly missing on that is kawa, or chicken skin (perhaps the most delicious yakitori ever invented). There are different pork, beef, seafood, and veggie varieties available too. There is an option of either a special sweet sauce they coat the items in, or no sauce but a little bit of salt. Both options are very tasty, but I personally prefer the sauce. It brings me back to the taste I had in Japan. Another important point is that they use a yakitori grill, which is specially designed maximum cooking of the meat and no cooking of the skewer. This lends to the unique taste of yakitori.

Although the menu for kushi katsu is slightly smaller, it is by no means an indication of quality. Kushi katsu has a similar coating to another Japanese staple tonkatsu. The katsu here is served with a katsu sauce and an aioli. One of my favorite items they have is a stuffed mushroom. Although its kind of like a time bomb of super hot mushroomly goodness.

One of the best parts of coming here is doing it with a group of friends. Since the yakitori and kushi katsu is made for lots of people. The beer and the other alcoholic drinks here are pretty cheap running at around $4.50 per drink. Here’s a tip skip the beer and sake first and go for the shochu drinks you’ll be in for a surprise. They are made with an alcohol similar in vodka in strength and composistion, but it is very smooth and its very hard to taste it how they mixed it.

I know I have made a lot of compairisons to Japan when I talk about this place, but is the only other reference that is close, its that good. Although I don’t think this place would stand up in a place like Tokyo, where you can get yakitori anywhere near a subway station that just as good, or in many cases better, it is orders of magnitude better then any place available in San Francisco. I am happy that they have chosen not to put sushi on the menu, which I think would ruin the whole appeal of this place. There are perhaps a handful restaurants in San Francisco that can claim the same thing. I was really conflicted with writing this post, I love this place dearly, and want to see it prosper, but I also don’t to wait for a table. If this place get really popular and I have a feeling it will, its going to be difficult to get a spot here. With that aside I think everyone who has only had sushi, or those who have been to Japan, or are from there and want a taste of home, a break from the bad Japanes food, or an amazing new experince, Halu is the place for you.

Okay so here are some posts I have been meaning to put up but was too busy to actually post. This is another one of those staples that I usually make, especially when I don’t have a lot of time. Tuesday’s are long days and I don’t usually get home till 9:00. People think pasta sauces are hard to make by hand and thats far from true, pasta from scratch though, could be a challenge. This is a simple pasta sauce made with only six ingredients, minus the salt, pepper, and olive oil. I usually use beef for this sauce, but this time I decided to go with Itallian sausage, it adds a great flavor to the dish. The only problem is that it is harder to brake up into really small pieces like ground beef.

I made a lot of Japanese food this night, or should I say the regular amount. This number of dishes is what I usually prepared when it was my night to cook at my old place. Usually I would prepare two or three side dishes and one or two main dishes. On that night I made tamagoyaki, kimpura, a tofu mushroom dish, and ebi chili (chili prawns).

Tamagoyaki is basically a square rolled omelet. It is usually egg, soy sauce, dashi (japanese fish stock), and some sugar. It is possible to put items in like crab, or maybe even some veggies, but I usually see it done plain. If you have gone to a sushi place and ordered egg sushi, not fish eggs, this is probably what you got minus the rice and seaweed. For me, this is by far one of the most difficult dishes to do correctly in Japanese cooking. The problem lies in how your supposed to layer the eggs. There is a special pan that you use that is rectangular in shape. You pour a little bit of the mixture into the pan let it cook and then begin to roll. You need to repeat this step several times to get enough layers going. The biggest problem I have with this is how long the eggs need to cook. Sometimes I end up with a little bit of raw egg, or maybe even more then that. My first attempt at this about two years ago actually turned out pretty good, but I seem to have gone down hill since then. This is one of my better attempts recently. Usually it becomes all deformed looking with breaks in the omelet everywhere.

Kimpura, another side dish is basically carrots and gobo (burdock root). Thinly sliced and then fried with a little bit of soy sauce, mirin, and some red pepper flakes. Its one of the simplest dishes to make and hard to mess up. The biggest thing is cutting the carrots and gobo, which can take some time if your not use to it. There are of course tools available to make cutting them simpler.

The next dish was something I randomly put together. I was trying to simulate a dish I had at one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in the San Francisco. I came kind of close in the sauce at least, but the tofu didn’t turn out as expected. I think i fired it too much with too much oil. It became like tofu-age (deep fried tofu).

The meal was okay minus the tofu dish, which i felt was bland and the thickness of the tofu didn’t work, partially why I think the dish was so bland.

Just thought I’d show off a new snack I found at Japantown a couple weeks ago. Its bacon flavored! There are bacon flavored potato chips in the US too, but I’ve always found Japanese food packaging interesting. Also the taste isn’t half bad either. Usually when you have bacon flavored products its got a really strong artificial bacon taste to it, you know like those bacon flavored soy chips you put on a salad. However, these chips had more of a pepper bacon taste, or maybe its a bacon grease taste, not exactly like what your expecting. It tasted good, but they seemed too heavy on the pallet for me. At least it was too heavy for a 3:00am programming snack.