MIXOLOGY 101 VIDEO SHOOT w. Barbara Cobey n DA FOODIE BOODIES

Barbara Cobey Mixology 101 
Da Foodie Boodies

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Barbara Cobey prepares her garnishes

Barbara Cobey sets up for her video shoot for Da Foodie Boodies Mixolgoy 101 segment. She arrived on Hawaiian time, which is a few minutes past 10 am, no worries, it's all good. I get on the cell, my LG G2, she answers her phone and tells me she's right around the corner. And in minutes, here she is in a sporty Mercedes coup, 2 door, sexy car, sexy lady, she's ready to kick it. I help her with all of her mixology equipment and ingredients. Inside, Sascha Bauml and Susan Welck are getting ready with our two ladies as guests to sit at the table during the shoot, and possibly learn something about mixology. Julie and Andrea are waiting.

Once inside, the girls start to talk, in awe of all of the bottles of spirit, tasty liqueurs, and all of that sweet fruits and citrus, like strawberries, black berries, cherries, lemons, limes, and oranges. Once Barbara starts slicing, the studio is filled with fruits in the air. Good stuff.

Barbara takes her mixology profession seriously, her movements at the demo table was flawless, impeccable, she's smooth as butter or silk, take your pick. She's to mixology like what Oprah is to talk shows, well…I hope that makes a point. You get the picture.

Julie and Andrea start to ask questions non stop, "What can I do with that? How can I substitute this? Wow, you set that orange peel on fire!" It was interesting, as each pretty mixed drink was demonstrated, and Julie and Andrea shared each glass to sample, slowly they both started to loosen up. Hey we have something here! This is a new thing, it's interesting, it's a happening segment.

"I had no idea all of this was going to take place," said Julie. "This is awesome, I learned some cool drinks today." Andrea was more vocal, "I love it… I love these drinks, hey do you have any tequila?" Sorry Andrea, should have brought your own Cuervo Gold.

Barbara ran through a few drinks, very simple stuff, but it's the way she did all of those drinks, shaken or stirred, nothing was blended. Blenders are for amateurs. Ha ha.

Some of the drinks she demonstrated were

Siren's Song- Bombay Sapphire, Hypnotic, Fresh Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup.

Mojito- Mint Leaves, Simple Syrup, Fresh Lime Juice, Rum, Ice

Manhattan- VO, Sweet Vermouth, Ice.

Brandied Cherries- Sweet Cherries Pitted, Sugar, Fresh Lemon Juice, Cinnamon, Fresh Grated Nutmeg, Vanilla Extract, Brandy, Water.

Pele's Pyre- Vodka, Dark Cream De Cacao, Godiva Dark, Chile Syrup, Ice.

Chile Syrup- Boiling Water, Powdered Cayenne Pepper, Sugar.

Kir Royale- Chamagne, Creme De Casis, Lemon Spiral Garnish.

Kir Imperial- Champagne, Chambord, Fresh Blackberry for Garnish.

Smash- Spirit, Fresh Lemon Sour, Bitters, Ice.

Stay tuned for the video to be uploaded on to Youtube and Da Foodie Boodies website, as well as on Akaku TV on Maui.

Barbara Cobey

Copyright 2013 Da Foodie Boodies

THE COMBO PLATE LUNCH

The Combo Plate Lunch.
Whenever a patron walks up to a plate lunch counter and asks the pretty girl working there, "Can I get a beef and seafood combo?" What he's asking for is possibly any meat or beef entree with another entree that's a shrimp, scallops, lobster, clam, squid or fish. And Hawaii's plate lunch culture keeps on banging in the bucks!

As plate lunches have evolved from very simple ones, with 2 scoops of rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad, and the meats or fish. Don't be surprised if you see more upscale plate lunch presentations as culinary trained chefs start to delve in plate lunches. It's common to see mahi mahi sautéed with a wine and cream sauce with capers, or some succulent Duroc pork chops with a teriyaki glaze, and a gourmet looking bean salad in lieu of my favorite mayonnaise based mac salad.

Combos are perfect for those that want different flavors and textures. If you feel like eating pork and beef you can get it. If you want seafood and chicken, you can get it, the combos offers the plate luncher another option. I've ordered a loco moco combo once with chicken katsu, the girl looked at me funny because a loco moco is a totally filling meal, I got charged a little extra but that's okay, as long as it's good…locals don't complain.

This plate comes with a large scoop of rice instead of 2

chicken kalua combo

Another plate with chicken and kalua

Korean BBQ style comob

Meat Jun Kalbi Beef

Kalua & Katsu combo w. Brown Rice

Savory, umami, sweet and sour, the flavors from Hawaii's Plate Lunch Culture makes it one of a kind. The large chain restaurants that were created in Hawaii can be found in many places outside of Hawaii. L&L, is one restaurant that is franchised and going global. Plate lunches are becoming mainstream, there's even high end restaurants serving some plate lunch style entrees, and rightfully so, because it's simple and if done right very delicious or ono. The easy cooking, one pot meals like beef stew, or beef curry, or pork adobo. Roasted chicken Chinese style, if there's no duck is good. The ethnic styles are so inviting, the smells, aromas that fill the air when you drive or walk up to a very good quality counter, and sometimes the grungiest of dives are the ones to eat at, for some reason those are the ones with the good food. Weird, strange but it is true. The old buildings with mom and pop written all over it, the faded Coke signs, the hours of operations are 6 am to 3 pm, closed on Sundays so the pops can go fishing, yes those are the places to go and eat..though fading away. If you see a long line of people standing in line in the warm Hawaiian sun, the trash cans look slimy, the screen windows loose, the food must be good.

copyright 2013

www.chefsambrano.wordpress.com

A FILIPINO INFLUENCE W. FRIENDS ON MAUI, THE TOP CULINARY BUSINESS STARS

It Is The Cuisine That's On The Rise
One day a few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to be in the company of Chef Mark Ellman, a friend that has visions unlike anyone so far on the island of Maui, who has a team behind him to make food, great food and people come together.

"Sheldon's going to bring local and Filipino style foods to Wailea," said Mark. "Stay tuned." What Mark's team actually did was bank on something very unique. Think major league baseball. You have a great pitcher that's young, and a local talent. He plays in a city with a great organization, and wins a World Series. And after that win, he is a free agent and pitches for a cross town team, and becomes the center piece of that organization. Okay, I'll get to the this right now.

Me and Mark at his house one day eating and talking shop

Sheldon Simeon was the executive chef at Star Noodle, a company that's a branch of  the Old Lahaina Luau. And any businessman worth his salt knows that Michael Moore and company created a mega multimillion dollar business with the Old Lahaina Luau, along with restaurants Aloha Mixed Plate and Leoda's. Sheldon was that winning pitcher. He put himself on the map being one of the finalists on Top Chef Seattle on Bravo.

Now Sheldon puts on a new logo, his very own brand with the backing of a genius in local business, Mark Ellman. "It's great Ron, it's totally great, being a part of this… I can't put this into words, everything Mark touches man…it turns to gold," said Sheldon on our recent video shoot in Mala Wailea. "I'm so excited."

One day I had dinner with Mark and his lovely wife Judy, and Mark cooked us some great pasta, and a no flour torte. At the dinner, we talked, "I'll travel to get ideas Ron," Mark says. He leaves the table, wipes his mouth with a napkin, "You want another beer Ron?" of course I can't say no. Judy hands me a cold bottle of beer, and Mark and I head to his large flat screen computer, where he starts to show me what he looks at when it comes to food. And he searches and searches, like a madman looking for that pot of gold. "There's a lot of stuff out there, lots."

Well that dinner made sense in what he was talking about because seemingly, and in reality really, he got what he was waiting for, a chance to show off a cuisine that's on the rise, that's very popular around the globe, just not in your face like Japanese sushi joints, or Indian curry houses, most Filipino joints are hole in the walls, and quite frankly, the foods are less presentable because it's all mushy braises really…and I'm Filipino so I know. But when Sheldon was on national television, things took a turn for the better. It put Michael Moore's team on the map, and of course now Sheldon's in Mark's camp, and they are ready to hit the culinary trails blazing! I mean Blazing with a capital B. Mark sent me this link, and go check it out, Mark's team pulls no punches, when they are ready to launch, they launch, and in some way, they're like, "Here we are, you didn't think it huh? But look what we are doing!!! Try, just try to top that!" Mark's team flat out succeeds, and I don' think this concept will fail. 

The New Restaurant is called MIGRANT http://migrantmaui.com/

Chef Sheldon being miked up for his video shoot in Mala at Wailea, associate producer Sascha Bauml does the work.

Chef Sheldon has a sense of humor, WWE Culinary, hey if you ain't got Tude, stay at home junior, this is the big leagues, only the strong survive. Great sense of humor.

The ingredients for Chef Sheldon's Pancit Canton a Filipino noodle dish, think Chinese chow mein, it's hinted by patis (fish sauce). If you love Vietnamese and Thai foods and haven't delved into Filipino food at all, you need to trek to Migrant opening soon.

Blurred by action, Chef is ready to slice up high quality pork for his Classic Pork Adobo and his more fancy style of Pork Adobo.

As Chef sliced, he was telling me, "Ron I'm beat man, only 2 hours sleep last night, I had to do the fund raiser for the typhoon victims in the Philippines, I am tired."

But Chef's a warrior, a trooper, he has a family, with another one on the way. Personally, some chefs would call it off, make some excuse like "Sorry can't do it, I feel sick." But Chef Sheldon is an all-pro.

Chef plating his classic Pork Adobo in a bowl with local style white sticky rice and tomatoes.

The bowl presentation is simple, that's how we Filipinos eat, simple.

 

However, this piece of tender pork makes a fancy fine dine Pork Adobo,

 "It's a different take on pork adobo for the restaurant."

Now for those of you who are not Filipino, adobo be it chicken or pork, is a main dish on many a family table for dinner or lunch. The tangy sauce infused with the natural juices of the meats make it a simple and a delicious meal. And if Italians love pastas, Filipinos love noodles as well, and we love pancit. Chef Sheldon made his, and he actually blew my mind, he made his almost to the T as how my father made his. All of the ingredients and the way he sautéed all of the proteins up, and adding broth, and letting the noodles soak up all the sauce it was a dish I haven't had for a long time. You see, the more you mess with foods, the less appealing it is. Now I've seen Mark Ellman cook at his home, and it's just simple with love put into it, and Sheldon does it the same way. It's going to be a major league success mark my words.

Chef letting me taste the adobo sauce, as we say here in Hawaii

"Da Buggaz ONO!"

Simple Pancit Canton, sorry Sheldon I shook the bowl, all the protein went to the bottom, but man it was ONO! 

So to all of you foodies that want some great local style foods with a Filipino twist, Mark Ellman and Company, with Chef Sheldon will put this type of cuisine on the map. It will be something talked about for some time to come.

"What makes this gig even more special is working with great people that care from the top down, with Shep Gordon and Mark, it's just totally awesome!"

-Chef Sheldon Simeon

copyright 2013

PLATE LUNCH SERIES FALL 2013 #22 KAKAAKO KITCHEN

KAKAAKO KITCHEN 
1200 Ala Moana Blvd.
Honolulu, HI 96814
808-596-7488
www.kakaakokitchen.com

Casual
Not too expensive at all
Local Foods
Credit Cards OK
Good For Groups
Take Out OK
No Reservations
Open M-Sunday.

All you foodies out there that want to eat local food head to Kakaako Kitchen on Oahu, and thanks to all the help Yelp Foodies out there for all the nice pics.

WARNING I AM NOT USING ANY OF THESE PICTURES TO MAKE A PROFIT.

The Beef Stew & Mahi Plate

Like I always say, if you are hungry, and want something good

locals in Hawaii know what to combine baby! Beef and Mahi

Oooo what a combo. I could have a double portion but

I don't want to come across like some hog.

Katsu Curry

YAY! Look at this baby, a nice golden Chicken Katsu Curry

a dish worth savoring, this must be a mini, where the hell is the

macaroni salad? Maybe a kids menu one?

No matter, I'd devour this thing in seconds!!!!

CRISP CHICKEN W. SWEET CHILI SAUCE

Okay this guy ordered a plate with greens instead

of macaroni salad, I'll run with that, we all

need some cruciferous, but hey there's nothing 

like macaroni and creamy mayonnaise man!

GARLIC CHICKEN PLATE

Garlic Chicken Plate for the garlic lovers out there, I love

garlic, nothing bad to say about it, unless it does give

you bad breath.

FRIED CHICKEN W. BACON GRAVY

Oh big time Yay Yay! You love fatty stuff?

Man this is fat heaven, fried chicken with bacon gravy,

and look upper right hand corner, macaroni salad!

FURUKAKE TEMPURA CATFISH

Catfish? Well at least the head's off and no whiskers to deal

with, but when it's battered with tempura batter with furukake

deep fried, man, I'll give it as many thumbs up as I can..and

that's only 2, why? I only got two thumbs dude!

SPINACH CALAMARI SALAD

I love squid. Nuff said!

And I also love Eva Mendes in Training Day, nice _____!

Local Breakfast

This is a nicely done plate of eggs with sausage, nice.

Loco Moco!

I love the cooked eggs, nothing pretty, over medium

and looking good. Man you can cut that hamburger

steak with a fork, that brown gravy is totally good looking!

Sex? or Food? Tough question here. Hmmm.

Ono (Wahoo) Fish

Now I love Wahoo a.k.a. Ono in Hawaiian waters, but

c'mon guys, what's with the veggies? Gimmee some rice

and creamy macaroni salad.. we locals need that

mayonnaise fix we can only get with mac salad!

JUST A GREAT LOOKING PLATE LUNCH

Mmmm, mmmm. MMMMMM!!!!

NUFF SAID!

KALBI & TERI CHICKEN PLATE

C'mon!!!! Okay, let me take a deep breath..what

is all this healthy eating all about? Kalbi Ribs, and Teri Chicken

but no Macaroni Salad?…..I'm I'm beside myself!!!

Lilikoi Cheesecake

You have to end your meal with dessert Junior, are you some 

weirdo? Huh? What right minded kid will eat all that 

ono food, and not eat dessert?

Alright, if you want what locals in Hawaii eat, go to Kakaako KItchen when you're in Honolulu, right on Ala Moana Blvd. Heading to Waikiki? it's on the way, now leave me ALONE!!!!! I GOTTA WORK TOMORROW STOP BUGGIN ME!!!!

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COPYRIGHT 2013

www.chefsambrano.wordpress.com

chefsambrano@gmail.com

PLATE LUNCH FALL SERIES 2013 #21 KOREAN STYLE

KOREAN STYLE
In my last post I talked about meat jun, a favorite of many locals, that marinated Korean beef that is dredged in flour and dipped in eggs, and fried, almost like a teriyaki that's breaded. In this post, I'll delve in Korean food in Honolulu, and thanks to Yelp. Com, (all is Yelp's), and I am not profiting from doing this post but just to share what foods are popular here in Hawaii. And Korean style is very huge.

Different regions of Korea makes their foods differently, one region close to the sea will use more seafood, squid, shrimp, fish, octopus, and use ingredients pertinent for those dishes. Some people are close to spices hence their foods will be enhanced with more bite. Other regions will feature more salty or sweeter dishes. In Hawaii it seems we are divided, I myself can go with the hot and spicy kimchi style dishes as well as the sweet kalbi style BBQ.

One thing the Koreans are well known for is their pickled spicy vegetables, from crisp cabbage, onions, soy, beans, cucumbers, and root vegetables. Go into most Korean digs and you'll find an assortment of side veggie dishes that would make a serious vegan go nuts. My friend Brutus goes to a local Korean food counter and orders a plate of side veggies because he's a vegetarian and avid surfer who needs good foods, good clean foods and Korean veggies are pretty clean for the body, though some chefs still use msg, if you request non msg you'll be catered to most of the time.

Here are some foods from Ja Gal Chi Restaurant 1334 Young St. Set 106, Honolulu, HI 96814. Ph: 808-593-8830

Spicy Pork Bulgogi

Spicy Pork Ribs

Bi Bim Kook Soo, this is a popular Korean

cold noodle dish, drizzled with a spicy, hot and

sweet sauce.

Spicy Raw Crab

Meat Soon Doboo a popular Korean soup

Top Homemade Mandoo, fried Korean dumplings,

with Mandoo Sauce for dipping on bottom pic.

Kimchi Spicy Pork

If you like spicy as I do and pork?

Yes baby this is Da Dish!

Braised Kalbi

Instead of grilling the beef short ribs

it is braised tender

Big Kalbi

The short ribs are not cut into 4 thin

bone cuts but rather one bone and longer

in depth also known as the English Cut, 

the cuts we see for BBQ is the Flanken Cut

when the cuts are thin with the 4 bone together

Spicy Tofu Soon Du Bu

Basically it is a spicy tofu stew

Fish Jun

Like Meat Jun only with fish..duh!

A Ginseng & Chicken & Rice Soup

Oyster Jun

Bibim Nae Myun (Cold Noodles)

Purple Rice

"Is this what Hendrix would have ordered?"

Cut & Peeled Potato Banchan

Banchan (Bahn Chahn) means small dishes

I hope you uninitiated that are wondering what we eat in Hawaii will now kind of get the idea of what we eat, and you'll have to click on the Older Posts button to see more of what we eat.

Take care, God Bless and don't be a lazy S.O.B., get off your ass and get to work so you can go to Jan Gal Chi Restaurant in Honolulu, Hawaii or some other good Korean eatery where you live.

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Copyright 2013

www.chefsambrano.wordpress.com

chefsambrano@gmail.com