Maffles!

While on my annual pilgrimage back to the land of my birth (the island of Hawai'i) over Christmas I had the great good fortune to stumble upon the latest in local hybrid Eastern-Western baking concepts, the maffle.  Maffle mix seems is basically just sweetened mochi flour with maybe some leavening in it--add milk, egg, and oil and you get a very thick batter, really more of a dough.

The recipe calls for piecing out the dough and rolling each chunk in sugar before throwing it in a waffle iron, which results in something that's crunchy and caramelized on the outside, and chewy and glutinous on the inside.  And delicious all the way around.

Dominic Ansel gets all the credit for the cronut, and I have to confess a few years ago I made a savory waffle with chickpea flour and called it the fawafel and felt very proud of myself.  But maffles are truly a yummy stroke of genius.  I bought a package back from Hawai'i with me (and one to give to my neighbors) but I will definitely be asking mom to send more.

Kissaten Jin Bento

Growing up in Hawai'i, and spending my junior year of college in Japan, mean that no cuisine is closer to my heart than Japanese food is.  I'm super fortunate that one of the many cultish ramen joints in NYC, Jin Ramen, is relatively nearby, but even more fortunate that Jin recently spun off a next-door place, called "Kissaten Jin," that does bentos and donburi and soba.  ("Kissaten" means "coffee shop" or "cafe" in Japanese, which is what the place is during the day...but they get cooking in the evening.)

And while the lines out the door often dissuade me from the cultish ramen, Kissaten Jin almost always has a seat free for a hungry fan of Japanese comfort food.

What's better than a beautifully presented, tidily compartmentalized meal with a little bite of this and that, and some sticky rice and miso soup to go with?

Not much, that's what.

I'm Delicious

At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s annual Sakura Matsuri, reminding myself of my love of almost all things Japanese.  I figure it’s close enough to a food photo, it counts.

Tai-yaki Celebration

It would be immensely hard for me to pick a favorite restaurant in this great city, or a favorite recipe that I make.  My tastes ebb and change with the seasons and moods and other factors.

However, if someone asked me to pick a favorite street for food in New York City, that I could do easily.  The stretch of East 9th between 2nd and 3rd has long been home to a vast and diverse array of Japanese eat-and-drink-eries that have a special place in my heart.

Sobaya for noodles, Decibel for sake, Hasaki for sushi, Village Yokocho for izakaya food...all, surprisingly, part of a mini-empire owned by a guy named Bon Yagi, and close to a number of my other favorite Japanese places, and the source of many happy food memories.

Which are now joined by a new one as Otafuku, the venerable, tiny, takoyaki stand on 9th Street has expanded to larger, fancier digs and added taiyaki capabilities as well!

Taiyaki is, like many Japanese things, easy and difficult to explain at the same time.  It’s basically a baked, stuffed waffle or donut, dough cooked around something sweet (bean paste, custard, chocolate...), and shaped like a sea bream, or tai. 

Why a fish?  Well, there’s a homophone in Japanese between “tai” the fish, and “medetai,” which means to celebrate.  And these yummy pastries, which you find in Japan at fairs and what-not, are wonderful--served warm from the taiyaki iron, they always make me happy.  Not that run-of-the-mill non-fish-shaped donuts don’t make me happy, but the fish-ness of them is an added bonus.

So, anyway, I was in the neighborhood today and I finally stopped by and got myself a taiyaki as a treat.  And instantly I was a junior in college again, in Kyoto for my year abroad, and every day full of new things to explore and experience.  Not all of them as sweet as taiyaki, but still.  A memory worth celebrating.