Swish-Swish/Shabu Shabu...

Growing up taking Korean language lessons, I vaguely recall a section on animals and the sounds that they make.

I remember the silliness of it all, especially since here in America a cow goes "moooo", a cat goes "meow" and a dog goes "ruff ruff" or "bark bark". In hangul (Korean language) a cow goes "um-muuuu", a cat goes "ya-ong" and a dog goes "meong meong". I'm serious.

Actually, what I should say is that it was silly for a young boy barely a decade old to hear a different culture's translation of animal sounds when the ones you know make more absolute sense.

That brings me to shabu shabu. According to the wiki, shabu shabu directly translates to "swish swish", due to the splashy sound meat and vegetables make in the boiling broth component of this cuisine when a person moves the food back and forth.

I'm only aware of traditional shabu shabu offered at Nakato and other variations can be attained at multiple Asian-centric restaurants around town but my belly set on Shabu King in Duluth after Chloe Morris from chowdownatlanta.com let me in the know.

We started with an order of their steamed kimchi mandu (dumplings) which are handmade by their waitresses who also doubled as our shabu guides and cooks that day. The dumplings had a mixture of scallion, kimchi and dang-myeon noodles all chopped finely and delicately hand-formed together with flour wraps into a tasty fat morsel.

As for the shabu, it should be noted that the broth that they use is real savory and spicier than the traditional Japanese version which tends to be more toned down in flavor and anchored by dashi.

My wife, sister and I went with their $29.99 for two and an additional order of sliced ribeye since there were three of us.

When your order comes, they place a pot of broth in the middle of your table on a gas burner and bring it to a boil. They then dump a plate of assorted raw vegetables into it such as enoki and regular button mushrooms, onion and a mixture of luscious greens such as watercress and what I think were radish sprouts.

Once the veggies boil down a bit, they then instruct you to start "swishing" the slices of beef into the broth and eat once it is cooked to your desire of doneness. They also give you a little saucer of soy sauce with a glob of fake wasabi to dip your beef into for a little zing.

Once all remnants of the soup have been finished, they add a serving of house-made udon noodles to the pot and instruct you to eat after a few minutes of cooking.

Then once you are done with the noodles, on the final stroke of gastronomical genius they add a plate of cooked rice, finely minced carrots, onions, garlic stems and a raw egg and cook it up in the same shabu shabu pot with any remaining broth. Delicious.

Now that I think about it a bit more, if you say "shabu shabu" real fast it sounds real swishy.

My Bounty from Hop City Craft Beer & Wine

All right boys let's get a group shot. Old Rasputin play nice.. Hitachino, quit trying to hog the shot. Ok Scrimshaw you're a bit out of the frame. Tighten up a bit. All right everyone, ready? One, two, three cheese!

The new beer and wine store Hop City Craft Beer & Wine on the Westside seems to have most of my favorite beers. I also picked up a few intriguing ones that I've never had.

Here's a little biographical timeline on where and when I had some of these beers pictured above..

Old Rasputin - Deep Chocolate Stout from Northern California first tried at Brickstore Pub in downtown Decatur about 5 years ago or so. I really enjoy this one but only 1 or 2 glasses of it in a sitting.

Hitachino - I love most all of their varietals outside of their one finished in cedar casks. I first had this Japanese brand a couple of years ago while soaking in some sun on P'cheen's patio.

Scrimshaw Pilsner - I first tried this last summer in San Francisco while noshing on some wonderful bivalves at Hog Island Oyster Company in the Ferry Building. Light, slightly citrusy and a perfect complement to some chilled oysters on the half shell.

Beamish - I love stouts. Beamish is reminiscent of a Guinness with less nitrogen. I first tried this at The Porter in Little Five Points and fell in love. I have been buying this at the Buford Highway Farmers Market but now it can be found at Hop City.

Sapporo Reserve - Another delightful Japanese beer that I first had at Sushi House Hayakawa a while ago. Throw back a few of these with some friends at the bar while Hayakawa-san broadens your sushi horizons.

Old Speckled Hen - An English Ale that I first had while devouring the infamous Spotted Pig burger in NYC. This is a burger beer. It's the brew that I crave when tearing into some greasy ground beef and crunchy french fries. Not sure if they still do but Father's Office in Los Angeles had this on tap last time I popped in there for one of their burgers.

Disappearing Atlanta...

Anthony Bourdain did an episode last season on his show No Reservations where he profiled a handful of New York restaurants that have been forgotten about and may exude a touch of to a whole lot of "dated-ness" to them.

The episode was titled Disappearing Manhattan and after watching it again recently, it got me thinking about restaurants here that may feel like they are "disappearing" to us.

Now before I present you with my short list, please be clear that this in no way implies that these restaurants are on their way out or are hurting for business. As a matter of fact, I've been to some fairly recently and as far as I can tell meals have been more than satisfactory and business seems to be doing just fine.

I think as a lot of time passes and we're no longer bombarded by food media and/or PR, we just simply forget about them.

But then one day, we may return and the menu hasn't kept up with current dining trends and the food and decor are exactly as we left it. But that's what they may be about - to stay classic, exactly as you remember and reliable to their base of loyal patrons that may not feel your sentiment to keep up with all those passing trends.

So here is my list.

1) Alfredo's - Italian restaurant off of Cheshire Bridge Road that has been here longer than I have (me - circa 1991, them - 1974) and seems to be doing strong. Mainstay classics such as chicken and eggplant parmesan and lasagna dressed heavily with cheese and marinara and served in huge portions. Still busy after all these years, and staff are old school Italian. Come to think of it, almost everything on Cheshire Bridge Road can qualify to be on this list (think Colonnade, Hong Kong Harbor).

2) Little Szechuan - Chinese restaurant offering Sichuan/Szechuan style cooking but now tastes more Cantonese compared to the much heralded Tasty China in Marietta. LS used to be on every food lover's weekly rotation back in the day but I don't hear too much about it other than from loyalists every now and then. I haven't been in ages but that's b/c I work a lot closer to Tasty China and it's, well, tasty.

3) Mary Mac's Tea Room - With the advent of Atlanta vying to be an international player and the rise of excellent southern fusion restaurants, old regional classics such as Mary Mac's are becoming less primary destination places for a more cosmopolitan population and young implants. Don't get me wrong though, I still see the dining room packed out at lunch and for Sunday supper.

4) Cho Sun Ok - This might be the only original Korean restaurant still running since I've been dining on Buford Highway since '91 (anyone remember Garam? Seoul Garden?). From what I recall, they took over an old dilapidated Pizza Hut and transformed it into an equally dilapidated traditional Korean restaurant with barbecue cooked on your own mini tableside fire pit. Still some of the best traditional style bbq for that area and my preference over Hae Woon Dae.

5) Chops - One of several of Atlanta's steakhouses that still feels like a social club for cigar chomping masters of the universe. Low lighting, splashy looking raw bar downstairs and even has a cigar lounge only open to private membership. I've wined and dined in all areas of this restaurant including the private lounge on a friend's pass and the old guard, male-friendly feel of the environment is only amplified by Sinatra and Dean Martin blaring over the speakers on every visit.

6) Manuel's Tavern and Highland Tap - Two pubs that have been here longer than I have and looks like they are not going anywhere anytime soon. The former on the southern fringe of the popular Virginia Highland neighborhood as it fades into Inman Park. It's known as a popular hang out for local politicos and the walls here will tell you more about Atlanta's history than your local library. The latter located more centrally in VA Highland, modeled after early Americana speakeasies where street level stairs will lead you downward to a dark denizen of martinis, steaks and jumbo lump crab cakes.

7) Harold's BBQ - I don't know too much about this barbecue spot near the Federal prison here in Atlanta. I finally went last winter as the link will show. But from what I researched, this place had a little spell of being one of the most popular barbecue places in Atlanta. And then purportedly, consistency dropped and popularity with the die-hard bbq enthusiasts subsequently waned. These days I hardly ever hear Harold's mentioned in the top popular bbq destinations, but the place is still around and to me makes some of the best Brunswick Stew in town.

What other places here in Atlanta do you feel are disappearing? I would love to hear them.

Izakaya=Place of Sake=Place of Fun. Hai!

Editor's Note: I have been given this nice morsel of clarification from a knowledgeable reader versed in Nippon dining and customs - "..the 'sake' in izakaya refers to any kind of alcohol rather than what we call sake specifically, so [izakaya]'s broadly defined as an on-site drinking place....people actually call sake nihon-shu, which means, "japanese alcohol".."

Thanks for the clarification!

A couple of months ago, word swept in like a Nor'easterly about a new izakaya about to open from the guys over at Haru Ichiban in Duluth, GA. Ever since then I sat patiently and watched my local food-related cyber news boards and twitter feeds waiting for my more embedded industry friends to drop the good news.

Then a couple of Sundays ago at a gluttonous Taiwanese luncheon, one of the industry friends told us that Shoya Izakaya has been open since the 20th and that it is good.

My friends and I managed to wrangle about 8 adventurous souls for an outing there this past Saturday evening which included Holeman & Finch's former chef Adam Biderman who will sadly be leaving us to return to his Lousiana roots. Can't blame him, home is home after all.

Instantly upon arriving at Shoya, you can just feel the positive Asian pub energy. It reminded me of ones I use to frequent while leaving in New York. We were ushered into one of their private tatami rooms due to the packed out restaurant mainly full with Japanese ex-pats. Ok, good sign!

Izakaya does mean place of sake so let's just say that an amount in the vicinity of a lot to copious was consumed. That also includes multiple large bottles of various Japanese beers, glasses of shochu cocktails and pitchers of Sapporo served in simple Japanese ceramic pitchers.

What initially impressed me the most was that our initial onslaught of orders were brought out in the natural sequence of traditional izakaya. What does that mean? Well it can be broken down by this article which I will also attempt to interlace in my recap below with some of our food orders from Saturday night.

"Raw fresh fish" or sashimi... Sashimi deluxe and oysters (kaki). All fresh and tasty and a nice presentation.

"Something grilled.." or yakimono. In the case below, gyu tan (beef tongue), grilled ika maru-yaki (squid) and asparagus wrapped with bacon. The kushiyaki was real good but I prefer Yakitori Jinbei's version of these skewers as they have imparted yummy flavors of binchō-tan charcoal. These are gas grilled. The ika was a bit mealy for my taste as well. I think this was cooked a tad too long.

"Something steamed" or mushimono... Steamed ankimo (monkfish liver) in ponzu sauce. Foie gras of the sea, definitely..

"Something simmered" or nimono... Buta Kakuni (simmered pork bellies). These sell themselves. More please.

"Something fried" or agemono... Okonomiyaki and renkon (lotus root) chips. The chips disappeared faster than I could get some togarashi sprinkled on these and the okonomiyaki was yum yum.

"A vinegar or dressed dish" or sunomono. In our case we had beef ponzu ae which is sort of a rare beef salad with greens and ponzu dressing and tako sunomono (octopus salad)

"The traditional sequence then ends with rice (gohan), pickles (tsukemono).." We chose a dish of zaru soba and a small bowl containing a medley of oshinko pickles which included pickled hakurei turnips! Both of these were refreshing and a perfect end to the overall solid meal that we had (although, we did do a spicy zosui rice dish (not pictured) which was very similar to a light Korean kimchi stew with rice added to it. This was yum in a strange Japanese-version-of-Korean-food sort of way).

Bellies were satisfied and buzzes abound. Our party for 8 in the tatami room was in a festive mood all night. In the end, 34-37 food items (not including booze) from the menu had been ordered and our server did not miss one single thing and brought it all in a timely fashion.

Just like my recent Abattoir experience, this is another restaurant that seems to have those potential opening jitters steadied by experienced hands.

New bonds were forged and everyone was jovially brought together by the commonality of enjoying great food in a refreshing environment.

I will go back again and again and again and again...

Panko-Breaded Fried Chicken Sandwiches

Who doesn't like a good fried chicken sandwich? Actually, to me anything involving fried chicken sounds pretty good. Although for health reasons, I don't generally eat that much of it. But when I do have it, it's up there as a good example of classic comfort food.

I have been thinking about a recipe for a fried chicken sandwich for a while now with a little twist on it all to make it up of ingredients that I really love. The first part in preparing it is a nod to my upbringing here in the South. And then I finish off the recipe utilizing cooking techniques and ingredients which points to my love for Japanese and Korean food.

Step 1 - To get started I first tenderized a bunch of boneless chicken breasts. And per Watershed's Scott Peacock fried chicken recipe, I brined the chicken first in cold salted water for 8-10 hours and then buttermilk for another 8-10 hours. The purpose of this step is twofold - to tenderize the chicken some more and to add a bit of flavor using the buttermilk.

Step 2 - Drain & discard the buttermilk from the chicken using a rack.

Step 3 - Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dredge the chicken in potato starch (or all purpose flour can be used). Then shake off the excess and lightly coat all the chicken in an egg mixture.

Step 4 - I then cover all the chicken breasts in a layer of Japanese panko crumbs which will adhere to the film of egg mixture. I particularly like using panko over regular bread crumbs for that extra crispiness.

Step 5 - They are now ready to be cooked. Bring about half a quart of peanut oil to 350 degrees and drop two pieces of chicken breast in at a time. These should cook for about 5-6 minutes turning once to ensure cooking evenness. They are pretty much done when the chicken has taken on a nice golden brown color.

Step 6 - Remove the chicken from the oil and drain for a few minutes on absorbent paper or paper towels.

Step 7 - At this point, they are ready to be made into your favorite style of sandwich. In my particular case, I enjoy them with mayonnaise and between two pieces of Korean white bread that can be found at places such as Bakery Cafe Maum or White Windmill. I just like the taste and chewiness of Korean bread over any other for these sandwiches.

An added flavor or texture touch would be to add slice tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce and pickles. Funny enough, I don't like to do all three at the same time but that's just me. I've also messed around with greener greens but don't like the bitterness the more vitamin-enriched ones tend to have over iceberg lettuce.

I won't lie to you. These sandwiches were pretty tasty.

Ingredients:
- Boneless Chicken Breasts
- Water, salt for first stage of brine
- Buttermilk for second stage of brine
- 2 eggs, beaten
- Potato starch or all purpose flour
- Japanese panko
- Salt and pepper for taste
- Peanut oil for frying

For sandwiches:
- White bread (preferably Korean brand)
- Mayonnaise (optional)
- Tomatoes (optional)
- Iceberg lettuce (optional)
- Pickles (optional)

Abattoir - First Impressions (and introducing guest photographer, my wife)...

I don't usually feel the need to have to go to a new restaurant right when they first open. You know - service and food kinks and the potential for overall disorganization.

However, I felt comfortable in the able James Beard award winning hands of the Bacchanalia/Floataway/Quinones people so wifey and I had dinner at their latest venture Abattoir this past weekend.

The word Abattoir is French for slaughterhouse which alludes to their "nose-to-tail" dining offerings such as offal. But fear not if that makes you squeamish, most of the menu still is pretty standard dining fare (albeit above average standards) and it was all executed pretty well on our visit - including the squiggly bits.

The restaurant space itself is very tasteful and has a lasting modern yet classic look to it. The dining room and bar area are roomy and spacious with lots of seating. I like dining at restaurant bars and theirs beckons for future visits.

For starters we had Pickled Georgia White Shrimp with fennel, dill, and onions served in a jar. This was yum.

Additionally, we ordered an appetizer of Lambs Tongue with Pea Sprouts and Ossau Iraty (sheep's milk cheese). I've never had lamb's tongue but I have had pork and beef tongue. This tasted a bit musty to me and like the undesirable gristle that you discard from a steak. Nothing against the way they executed it though.

Lastly in our trio of starters we had their House Salted Cod with Oven Roasted Tomatoes and Capers which I don't have any pictures of but it too was tasty. Salty and well balanced with roasted tomatoes and briny little capers.

Later on with the entrees, we got an order of Corned Lambs Kidneys and Cornichons. I liked this dish, J didn't (she doesn't particularly care for offal). However, I did not like the cornichon pairing and thought that the kidneys could have stand well on their own or with something other than cornichons. I just can't see them as anything other than cheapie rubbery pickles.

The star entree that night was their Poached Gulf Red Snapper topped with fennel and peppers that J ordered. Ohhhh man this was good. Tender, flaky and nicely assembled with all the other ingredients.

I should mention that I also really enjoyed all the brothy sauces that this dish, the cod and the lamb kidneys were served in. They were all sop-worthy for their wonderful bread that they give you at the beginning of the meal.

I happen to be craving a burger that evening so I got their burger with ground pork and beef served with a delicious side of pomme frites. This was a solid burger and incidentally probably the cleanest one I have had in a while.

I mean this was probably the Alice Waters of burgers due to its clean ingredients and freshness of taste which happen to be devoid of any grease whatsoever. I would eat it again, but probably not order it again as I tend to enjoy the greasier griddle versions slathered with mustard and onions. I know, color me common.

The pomme frites were also pretty good and something I would order again, as it is a item that can be ordered separately on the menu. They stayed crunchy until their very collective demise into my welcoming belly.

Overall, Abattoir was pretty solid for only being open since this past Thursday. I'm sure I will go again and it will probably just get better and better.

Book Plug 3 - The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi from Samurai to Supermarket

(image from BarnesandNoble.com)

I haven't done one of these food book reviews since Jean Anthelme Brillat Savarin's excellent The Physiology of Taste, so here goes.

I just finished author Trevor Corson's splendid The Zen of Fish and what a good read. Mr. Corson spent a lot of time researching the history and origins of sushi and also the customary approach to eating it according to Japanese tradition.

He also extensively researched the facts surrounding the more popular or exotic cuts of fish here in America and abroad in Japan. Let me tell you that his discoveries on our favorite aquatic species to nosh on are quite eye-opening.

He also interlaced a story about the time he spent observing a group of students and teachers at the California Sushi Academy focusing mainly on an eager young American girl named Kate who went in with no experience except an appreciation and passion for sushi.

If you pick up the book and want to put faces to the students and teachers he writes about, watch this podcast Mr. Corson put together here.

Some notable statements from the book:

About 1200 years ago, soy sauce was discovered as a by-product of miso

Japanese society has shunned the thought of women as sushi chefs and proclaimed that their hands are too warm to handle the delicateness of raw fish. In reality, this pretty much is bullsh*t and attributed to sexism (according to the book). In fact, one group did a study and found that women generally have colder hands then men.

You know those mounds of ribbony radish and minty leaves of shiso served with sashimi? You're suppose to eat that. It's a sashimi salad. In some places, the radish julienne is prepared by hand which is a lot of work and the purpose of them are two-fold - a) to inhibit bacteria and b) to aid in digestion.

Most salmon that we have at our favorite local sushi bar is farmed. Naturally, farmed salmon have a pale color and not that orange flesh color that we associate to salmon. In the wild, salmon feed on krill which in turn feeds primarily on red algae.

That pigmentation from the red algae is what is absorbed into wild salmon flesh imparting that orange color. So salmon farmers have to add pigment to the feed in order to achieve that color replicated in the wild otherwise people wouldn't eat white salmon.

A lot of the sushi that we eat that is "flown in fresh from Japan that morning" is actually frozen in below 70 degree temperature to preserve freshness but mainly to kill off any high probability of parasites. According to the book, a lot of chefs can't tell the difference between fish that has been frozen and not frozen.

Most sushi items are better eaten after the flesh/meat has rested for a period of time (days even) depending on the type of fish. Exceptions are shellfish such as clams, abalone, squid and eel which are excellent when eaten as fresh as possible. Just like in beef, fresh meat will soon go through rigor mortis and stiffen and also tend to have less flavor not allowing the natural umami come to formation.

Did you know a McDonald's Big Mac contains MSG (from the book)? As a matter of fact (not from the book), a lot of our favorite snack (potato chips for instance), prepared food, and food product items have contained it for a while. Look for an ingredient called hydrolyzed protein if the label doesn't outright profess to use MSG.

(image from chikfila.com)