HEY THE ______ ING CHEF DIDN'T WASH HIS HANDS MAN!

I recently went to lunch at a local restaurant, a well to do dive, a place where everybody knows your name. If you were a murderer on the lamb it's a place you wouldn't want to be at, because..... well you can smell the coffee on this one.

Anyhow, I'm sitting at the bar having a mug of cold Heineken, but my bladder was telling me, "Hey shit head, I gotta empty out." So I'm like okay bladder, let's go empty out. As I stood bleeding my bladder at the urinal, I noticed the chef walk into a stall and light up a cigarette. There's only one reason why someone lights up a cig in the restroom. He's taking a dump. But me for some reason after I was done, I had to go back in the restroom to get something I thought fell out of my pocket. So I'm back in there and the chef was coming out of the stall, he looks at me and smiles and walks right out. What?! Is this a Seinfeld episode? The guy no doubt was taking a crap. Long story short, I went back to the bar, and asked the bartender, "Hey did the order for the wings go through?" He's like "Yeah Ron, in fact ah.. it's coming out in a second, you want extra Ranch?"

Hmmm, I had to think of an exit strategy, quick Ron think! Okay I got it, "Hey dude, I gotta run, here's a twenty and a couple more that should cover the tab. Give those wings to someone in the restaurant or eat it for you and the staff, take that new mug of Heineken and give it to someone coming in that's hot and thirsty." He looks at me like nothing, no big deal, "Okay man, have a good one Ron."

Until next time

Ron

MEAT JUN AT MAUI FOOD STYLE

I was feeling hungry, but I was tired of the same old foods in Lahaina. Didn't want any mainland bistro crap. Didn't want a loco moco from L&L. Hmmm, I got it! I'll catch the bus to Lahaina Square and eat beef chow fun at No. 1 Chinese BBQ, yeah that's the ticket!!!!

Did I go to No.1 BBQ? Yes I did, well I walked through the parking lot only to notice there were like 3 families with 4-5 people each, and one weird looking homeless guy. Didn't want to get asked for money, or didn't want to converse with some guy from who knows where, sorry wasn't in the mood, all  wanted to do was scarf a plate of beef chow fun. 

Hell with this, that guy's going to bug me, I can see it. What's this next door an open sign is bright red calling me to check it out. And I did, it was the new guys that took the spot where Zushi Japanese Foods was located. Art the owner waved me inside. "Hey come inside don't look through the window." Alright, I'm inside. I noticed the photos of the food on the wall looked really good.

So Art told me he and his wife has been opened for over a year, why did I wait this long to sample this Korean influenced diner? My family members go there occasionally and have good things to say about it. I just explained that I was busy or something, sad excuse considering I live only a mile away. 

"So we can make a plate with anything you see on the menu, and you get a choice of white or brown rice, and four sides." I looked at the sides, and I saw seaweed salad, cucumber kimchi, kimchi cabbage, and mac salad. "I'll take those four, those sides I was just contemplating, and I want the Meat Jun."

The thing I like about this place is that Art and his wife cooks the food fresh, and the portions are more than generous, I mean if I was married I could have shared that meat jun plate, but I'm not so it was all for MEEEEEE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! I AIN'T SHARING THIS PLATE BABY!!!! Art even brought me the plate to the table, that was good service. The meat jun was tender, and it was tasty, not like teriyaki, some people make meat jun and it tastes like teriyaki, too sweet. And it was cut into larger than bite sized pieces, you could finger pick it, or just stab it with your fork, or chopsticks, it was sliced so you didn't need to bring any knives. The sides of veggies was excellent too, the kimchi cabbage rocked, with hints of shrimp inside, this was an awesome evening of mopping up a Korean style plate. 

MEAT JUN @ MAUI FOOD STYLE

Waiting for my grinez, to eat, and then watch Netflix!

   

HAMBURGER WITH TOFU SKILLET

In that 12" skillet you got hanging in the kitchen can be used for something simple but delicious. 

Take a pound of lean ground beef, some chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes, some soy sauce, a little vinegar, and some tomato sauce with some cubes of tofu, you got yourself a meal for 2 to 3 people.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. of lean ground beef

8 oz. of cubed firm tofu

2 tbsp. cooking oil

1/2 cup chopped onions

8 oz. sliced cherry tomatoes

2 smashed garlic cloves

2 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

2 cups of low sodium tomato sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat up skillet over medium high heat, add in cooking oil, when hot, add in garlic and onions, and cherry tomatoes, cook for about 2 minutes.

2. Add in ground beef and brown, about 7 minutes.

3. Add in soy sauce, vinegar and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add in tomato sauce and cook for about 3 minutes, then add in the tofu and cook for about 3 minutes until heated well through.

Serve with any starch or veggie you desire.

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SNICKER DOODLES TIME

It is Christmas time 2015, and we here in the office knows what this means, it means our friend and sister Jaime will be stopping by with some of her famous, delicious Snicker Doodles and other awesome cookies!

Me and a Ziplock bag of Jaime's Snicker Doodles, and there was another bag by the way.

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Me on the left Jaime on right

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The video of me eating a Snicker Doodle

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Life is good with friends like Jaime around, always thinking of others during the Holidays, those cookies were killer, so tasty, all we needed was some cold milk, or even some vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm goooood!

          

© 2015

BACON WRAPPED CHICKEN BREAST WITH CHEF KRYSTLE COOK

Back by popular demand, Chef Krystle Cook doing her thing, making a Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breast, totally Yay Yay! Enjoy the video.

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THE PORTERHOUSE STEAK

Let's talk about the good cuts of beef, it's been a while since we've discussed beef basics, so let's delve into the Porterhouse steak. This steak is basically a T-Bone with more tenderloin meat, that really soft textured meat that's smaller than the bigger side.

If you look at the picture above, the meat on the left side of the t shaped bone is the tenderloin meat, because the Porterhouse and T-Bone comes from the short loin portion of the steer. The T-Bone comes from the front portion of this section while the Porterhouse comes from the rear section. The T-Bone doesn't have as much meat mass in the tenderloin portion of the t shaped bone. The large portion would be your strip steak or New Yorker.

Cooking Methods:

1. Grilling over hot coals. Basic salt and pepper is good enough. Or other seasoned salts. Best cooked medium rare or rare. Overcooked it becomes too tough.

2. Broiler with the flames on top would be just the reverse of grilling, this would be done inside an oven, great for rainy days when you can't grill outdoors.

3. Pan Seared in a stainless steel pan with little oil. (However, the bone may prohibit the steak for sitting flat on the hot pan, leaving some portions of the steak near the bone to look pale, with no crust being developed.)

Happy cooking until next time

Chef Ron :)

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BEHIND THE WOK CRISP GAUGEE MEIN & KIMCHI PORK

My nephew and his family was in town from California, so I asked my sister if I could use her kitchen to cook for them, and of course whoever showed up. I got to the market at 5:15 HST, and bought all of the ingredients to make some Crisp Gaugee Mein, and some Kimchi Pork.

In this video you will see me cooking up some square bunched up noodles, you maybe asking what kind of noodles are they? Well they are from a company called S&S Saimin, and those are saimin noodles (frozen) and fried in vegetable oil.

CAKE NOODLES

These fried squares will be cut in half, and placed on the bottom of a platter, and topped with some stir fried chicken and veggies with some chicken stock, flavored with sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper and thickened with a cornstarch slurry.

In the next video clip you will see in action, the crisp gaugee being deep fried in a flat bottom carbon steel wok.

CRISP GAUGEE

The video clip below is some pork slices being infused with some store bought Kimchi Cabbage, I got the mild flavored in case anybody couldn't handle the heat.

KIMCHI PORK

I ended up with 30 pieces of Gaugee, with the ground beef filling having about 3/4 of a pound extra. With plenty of leftovers to feed at least four average eating foodies.

Until next time

Ron Sambrano 

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