#topchef Archives

The Sheldon Trifecta (Maui Eats Part 2)

By threejamigos | March 19, 2018 | Comments 2 comments

Are you a fan of Top Chef?

For those of you who are, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph.

For those of you who aren’t…shame on you! Just kidding. Hubby and I love this show and have been watching it religiously since it first came on the air. Taking advantage of the popularity of reality TV land competition, Bravo came up with a show pitting cooks against each other. Think of it as Survivor for Chefs. Thirteen Chefs battle it out for weeks until “there can be only one”.

Every week a new cooking challenge results in the elimination of one of the chefs by a panel of judges. The judges include Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons and a rotation of guest chefs. They and the guest chefs are all rock stars in the culinary world.

The Real Hunger Games

This isn’t your cook me something yummy and may the best dish win. This is, make me a Michelin meal out of ingredients you find in a gasoline station mini-mart or the office vending machine.

My favorite episode is restaurant wars. They divide into teams, come up with a concept, build a dining space to match the concept and menu, and boom make it happen on a limited budget of both time and money. Needless to say, it’s quite entertaining.

One of my all-time favorite contestants is Sheldon Simeon from Hawaii. Sheldon is the classic island boy, laid back, and cooks straight from the heart. His grandmother served as his inspiration. His food roots, Asian/Filipino/Hawaiian home cooking with a twist that elevates simple to sublime. I jumped on Team Sheldon early and was totally bummed when he did not win. He went home to the islands back to Star Noodle on Maui.

So, of course, it became my mission on this trip to eat at there.

Put Star Noodle on your Maui bucket list.

The food is delicious, it is down-home comfort food that starts with impeccable ingredients and finishes with a contemporary flair. The chicken wings were sweet, salty, spicy, crispy, and light. The garlic noodles are simple but packed with flavor. If you like pork belly…get the Pinoy version of Bacon & Eggs, sizzling chunks of pure porky goodness with a perfectly cooked 6-minute egg that oozes over the pork, yum. Elvis would be jealous.

The malasadas, come to the table as little pillowy bites of sweetness accompanied by chocolate and caramel sauces. If Leonard’s malasadas had hipster kids, these would be it. Ironically I thought the ramen was just ok, but then again I’m from Cali y’all where good ramen can be found everywhere.

Halfway between Kaanapali and the Maui Airport, sits Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop. It’s across from the beach off of Honoapi’ilani Hwy (try to say that 10 times real fast) in an unassuming strip, if you blink, you will miss it. On my way to a Henry Kapono and Friends concert, I made a pitstop at Leoda’s. I chose the banana cream pie, Island Lime Pie, and 2 savory hand pies.

Bananas for Banana Cream Pie

The standout was the banana cream pie. Yum. The hand pies had too much crust and not enough filling. I LOVE crust so this was surprising me, wishing for a bit more filling. I kept the banana cream pie to share with the birthday girl.

So there we were Pam, Randi, and me sitting on the lanai overlooking the beach, eating pie, fresh mangoes, and papayas, sipping on our morning coffee-paradise found.

Checked out Henry of Cecilio & Kapono. One of the best-known musical duets from the islands, folk meets island music. While my friends were dining at Roy’s I was enjoying the music of Henry Kapono which immediately transported me back in time to my first visit to the islands.

On the way to the airport…because I can never get enough island grindz, we stopped at Tin Roof. We were fifth in line before the joint opened. Might have been first if we hadn’t stopped for gas..just sayin’. Tin Roof is Sheldon’s casual eatery, actually, it’s strictly take-out. There is a bench in front but that’s where everyone sits waiting to get in. Life’s 1st world island problems…

The star of Tin Roof is the bowls. Poke’, Pork Belly, Mochiko Chicken. You can choose to have the mains with rice or garlic noodles. I liked the poke bowl the best. The food here is fresh and flavorful, broke da mouth not the bank good. He has these vegan-like dessert Pono Pies that for me were just meh. I’d rather head out for shaved ice at Ululani’s instead.

All I can say is so many places to eat, so little time….my review of Sheldon’s eats was totally objective and professional…I am not at all starstruck and I offer proof.

HOLY JUMPING CATFISH, SHELDON WAS AT TIN ROOF!!!! So I asked to take one photo, yeah..I’m a groupie.

Food Porn (Kristen Kish Cooking)

By threejamigos | December 3, 2017 | Comments 0 Comment

I recently received Top Chef Winner Kristen Kish’s beautiful book, Kristen Kish Cooking: Recipes and Techniques from Blogging for Books. Right off the bat I am going to say I am torn. It is a DROP DEAD GORGEOUS book and I am in love with it…but from afar. This is like that “out of my league” guy I was never going to get and if he ever spoke to me, I would have sounded like a babbling idiot…intimidated by his awesomeness.
My first run through of the book, I literally drooled over every dish. All I could think was has she opened a restaurant yet? If so, where is it? I’m making reservations. Actually making one of her creations seemed daunting.
Each plate is a work of art, each plate reminds why she is a chef and I am a home cook with kids, a dog and a job that will pay for a visit to wherever she ends up creating her beautiful food. Her presentation is stunning simplicity that belies the complexity and thought she puts into each dish. Each recipe is accompanied by a story from her life or how the recipe came about. I loved reading these little vignettes. Her description and use of a variety of techniques in each recipe will no doubt make anyone a better cook.
The second time I picked up the book I knew I had to gather up the guts to pick a couple of things to try, after all I needed to review the book. The book is divided first by snacks, salads, sweets and by protein-meat or from the sea. Each recipe contains liners on what techniques are used in the recipe and ingredients in one column and directions in the inner column. Very well organized.
Confession, I looked for the easiest recipe I could try. A dish that didn’t require special ingredients or a multi-step process to make.
I decided on her Sour Cream Cake, Pecan, Malted Milk Creme Fraiche, baking is in my comfort zone. The batter was fairly straight forward, I have a 8-inch round cake pan and amazingly I also had the malted milk powder.
Things were going smoothly…right up until I put the batter in the pan. Hmm, it’s a lot of batter, it’s pretty dense, maybe it doesn’t rise that much.
WRONG. Though I knew better I wanted to follow the directions explicitly. Halfway through baking the batter oozed over the sides of the pan like the BLOB and dropped onto the floor of my oven. I quickly shoved some foil underneath, a little smoke but at least the smoke alarm didn’t go off, catastrophe partially averted.
I e-mailed Kristen and she was great. She recommended a springform pan or extending the walls of my pan with a parchment collar. Mine took well over an hour and was still undercooked in the center. The edge was delicious, the cake was buttery and tender. She texted me again after making the cake for her family. Hers took 49 minutes to bake and she used a deep 8 inch springform. Definitely going to try this again.

I tried a second time using a 9 inch springform and to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks I extended the sides with parchment. In my haste I used butter that was still cold, I thought I could get by. WRONG AGAIN. Mea culpa. Ugh, the cake came out a little dense. It required around 50 minutes to bake despite the larger pan.

Note to self and everyone, use a pan with at least 3 inch sides or taller and room temp butter! No shortcuts.

I will try again as the third time is always a charm. I think I would use light brown sugar instead of dark for a milder flavor. I love the nuttiness and the crunch of the pecans and the hit of salt in the topping.

Whew.

I then tried her recipe for Cavatelli, Corn, Roasted Tomato, Thai Basil.

Full disclosure. I CHEATED.

I bought pasta instead of making the cavatelli. The sauce was easy to prepare and delicious. I love the roasted tomatoes and charred corn and the creaminess of the sauce. Much like a carbonara, egg yolks and hard cheese (Romano) are stirred together and hot pasta is added to the mixture which creates a silky lovely sauce. I added a splash of the pasta water to thin it just a bit. Yummy. The Thai basil added color contrast to the dish but just a hint of flavor. I hope it’s not blasphemous but I think I would add a bit of bacon or pancetta next time..yummy

I was about to try her recipe for egg pudding but for 8 eggs (4 servings) it calls for 10 tablespoons of butter, some creme fraiche and a brown butter drizzle on top. Luckily, within the directions I could only account for 7 tablespoons of butter, I’m ok with not using the remaining 3 tablespoons. Decided to save this for a day when I work out first.

There are recipes I am definitely going to try. Even a couple that look pretty involved but sound deliciously worth making. Roasted chicken thighs and Labneh (but first gotta get those Calabrian chilis), Braised Potatoes with Pancetta and Comte, the Potato Puree with Chicken Skin Crisps and the Hamachi, Sweet Onion, Bacon, Miso and Potato are on my bucket list. Until then I will keep her book on my coffee table to salivate over and enjoy.