Gastronomy Blog by Cathy Chaplin

Recipe

05 Feb 2018

Tết 2018: Not Your Grandma’s Bánh Chưng (Recipe Perfected Edition)

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With the Year of the Dog around the corner, my friends and I (the newly anointed Bánh Chưng Collective) gathered this past weekend to make bánh chưng. For those who are unfamiliar with the tradition, bánh chưng are banana leaf-wrapped sticky rice parcels filled with pork belly and mung beans that are an essential part of Tết (Vietnamese New Year).

After five years of trial and error (check out our highlight reel: 2013, 2015, 2017), ~~The Collective~~ Chef Diep Tran truly perfected the recipe. Compared to years past, our ingredients were streamlined and our techniques refined. I’d venture to call us a well-oiled bánh chưng-making machine.

The sweet scent of shallots sautéing in butter wafted through the air as The Astronomer, June, and I pulled up to the Eagle Rock compound, the site of this year’s festivities.

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Restaurant Review

02 Feb 2018

Ichima Sushi – Pasadena

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Sometime last year, before L.A. Weekly became shady AF, I read an article in its online pages about an under-the-radar sushi spot in Pasadena. In the post “Pasadena’s Best Restaurants, According to Salazar’s Chef,” Chef Jonathan Aviles shared that the restaurant had “a little small and outdated interior, but once you sit down and start to take it all in, you’re in for a treat.” I instantly bookmarked the spot.

My mind must’ve been mush at that very moment because instead of bookmarking Gin Sushi on Colorado Boulevard, the Chef’s recommended spot, I bookmarked Ichima Sushi in Hastings Ranch. Doh.

Which brings me to Ichima, a fluorescent-lit beacon of unremarkable sushi settled in an East Pasadena strip mall. When The Astronomer and I stopped in for a late weeknight dinner in December, the restaurant was so busy that we waited 20 minutes for a table. Chef-driven hype or not, Ichima is definitely loved by its regulars.

To start, a bowl each of hot miso soup that was standard and satisfying.

The Astronomer and I shared a variety of a la carte nigiri, as well as “Sushi Combo C” ($16.50). The pre-set platter included pieces of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, crab, albacore, shrimp, octopus, tamago, and eel sushi, plus a spicy tuna roll.

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Restaurant Review

26 Jan 2018

Cassia – Los Angeles (Santa Monica)

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It shouldn’t have taken me this long to dine at Cassia considering my enthusiasm for Vietnamese foodways and Chef Bryant Ng’s talent, but alas, here we are two-plus years post-opening and I’m just getting to it.

Inspired by the restaurant’s recent appearance on KCET’s Migrant Kitchen, I gathered a group of my favorite girls (Diep, Tien, and Minh) for a lovely weeknight dinner.

Cassia, which is named after the Vietnamese cinnamon tree, opened in the summer of 2015. Previously, Chef Ng owned and operated the now-closed Spice Table in Little Tokyo (see: lunch, brunch, dinner).

We left the ordering up to Diep—she has the meanest palate around and this was her second visit to the restaurant. She selected a parade of dishes—a bit of this and a bit of that from each of the menu’s various sections.

From the “Chilled Seafood Bar,” we delighted in the Vietnamese “Sunbathing” Prawns ($24), head- and tail-on shrimp brushed in a spicy sauce that stained our fingers.

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