Eddie Lin doesn’t call his dining high-end or low-end, but rather deep-end, which is a statement to the unusual cuisines he seeks out. He looks for ‘extreme-cuisine’. This video, which was a segment on ABC7, describes his philosophy. Not for the squeamish! Keep watching until the end, where Eddie talks about the weirdest thing he’s ever eaten, which definitely made my stomach churn.
I’m happy to be able to share this video, which I think perfectly encapsulates the Six Taste spirit. Allie and Georgia developed a series of there videos that quickly became a YouTube hit. Shortly after the McNuggetini video below was placed online, the charismatic duo was featured in the Huffington Post and the NYTimes. Now there are talks of the girls getting their own show on the Food Network.
This video encompasses style, fun, food adventure, entertainment, and an IT factor that cannot quite be described. Here at Six Taste, we’ve discussed several times in developing a video series similar to what is shown below. I find the video endlessly entertaining and it really shows how fun food can be.
Now, if only we could find two charismatic, camera friendly hosts…
The first time I ate abalone, I was extremely skeptical. I mean, these things live their lives attached to rocks eating kelp, and they are essential giant snails. However, my dad, being the genius cook that he is, and with advice from other abalone hunters, developed a method to cooking it that makes it pretty delicious.
But, the first step to catching your own food is cleaning it, which can be a pretty long process.
Keeping your abalone in salt water ensures that the abalone die a slow death. Killing them quickly often makes their muscles tense up, making the meat hard. The more they die relaxed, the less tenderizing you have to do later.
Next, you have to take your abalone iron and pop the meat out of its shell, without breaking the meat.
The next step is to remove the guts from the shell. You can go through the guts later, and you might find a pearl.
After, you’re left with a beautiful, albeit a little foul smelling, shell. Some people turn the shell into jewelry. My dad keeps the shells in his garden as a sort of disturbing “abalone graveyard.”
The next step would be to thoroughly wash the crap (figuratively and literally) off the abalone. No doubt there might be some residual kelp, rocks, or whatever.
I’ve been told you should also remove the black portion of the abalone, because it is slightly toxic. This confuses me, because I was also told that it is the most delicious part. Nevertheless, I opt to cut or scrub it all off.
After it’s all nice and clean, slice them up into little thin pieces.
You can also tenderize each individual pieces. Abalone can be tough, so it’s important to tenderize the abalone at one point in time, whether you choose to do it right after you finish washes and cutting off the black portion, or if you want to do it at the individual piece level.
Now comes the delicious part: We prepare it like Tonkatsu or any breaded item. Cover it with flower, then egg, and then panko breadcrumbs. We prefer two combinations of breadcrumbs; one with regular panko, and the other a mix of coconut and panko.
Then, we lightly fry each piece in peanut oil for just a few minutes until golden brown. The result is golden melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.
Finally, we dip each piece into some sweet chili sauce, or some grated daikon and soy sauce.
The result is a delicious, hard-earned meal. Food never tastes better than when you’re involved in the process from hunting, to cleaning, to cooking!
Abalone Hunting basically involves risking your life to pry 7″ snails off of a rock at 4:00am. Sounds fun, right? To be honest, it kind of is. Until I went abalone hunting for my first time, I don’t think I truly appreciated what it’s like to catch your own food, clean it (okay dad, so I didn’t clean it, but I watched), tenderize it, cook it, and then eat it.
This is my second year in a row traveling up along the Northern coast of California with my family in order to catch some delicious abalone. It’s a way to get away from the rush of Los Angeles, and just relax with nothing else to do but hunt some abalone, and read a good book. With all these rules, why do people do it? Because it’s actually delicious, and it’s fun to enjoy stuffing yourself with something for $60 per pound.
Surprised abalone costs so much? The 3 per person limit is one cause of the high price, but it’s also very difficult to get outside of an abalone farm. The following is the process for hunting for abalone.
You wake up about an hour before low tide. This could be anywhere from 4:00am-6:00am. You have to slip into a skin tight wetsuit to keep warm. And by skin-tight, I mean you look like a penguin waddling around while you try to keep from bursting the seams of your suit (okay so I’ve put on a couple pounds). Armed with an abalone iron (to pry from the rocks), a bag to put the abalone, flotation devices, weight system, and more, you climb down cliffs in order to find the best rocks with shelves underneath, where the abalone like to hide.
As you attempt to not crack your head open while walking on the seaweed covered rocks, you have to plug your noise to avoid the thick musty smell of festering plant life.
Inching into the freezing cold water, you can then find rocks where you have to blindly reach underneath to find the shelves in order to feel for the distinctive abalone shell. Meanwhile, it’s very common for you to reach under and grab something soft and squishy instead. On a good day, it’s just a sea cucumber.
If you’re really adventurous, you can dive down under water to find the deeper shelves, where the bigger abalone lie. While you continue to search for your limit of 3 abalone, seaweed wraps around your legs like living tentacles while your breath escapes your mouth billowing like clouds.
When you find an abalone that you think is bigger than 7″, you have to find the small crevice in the back of the shell, where you must shove your abalone iron in and try and pop that abalone off the rock. This is no easy task. Some of these suckers latch onto these rocks like Amy Winehouse to a bottle of jack.
If you succeed on popping them off the rocks, and it’s about 7″, you place it in your bag, and try and find 2 more.
After you’re done you have to lug your 3 abalone, plus all your tools, plus the water weight back up the hill, after you bag and tag each one in accordance to regulation.
Then begins the real fun…preparing it for eating. Stay-tuned for Part II.
Yesterday, Alex and I met our friends Will, David, and Candice from Artemis Clover Photo. After a thrilling game of mini-golf, we ate at Kabuki Restaurant for a sushi dinner
Hole-In-One on the 18th Hole!
We got a variety of rolls, and I was enjoying the conversation so much that I didn’t really get a chance to take pictures. The ikura sushi was pretty standard…nothing to rave about.
Ikura (Salmon Roe)
However, the garlic roll is an interesting point of discussion. A really unique mix of flavors, and definitely a flavor profile different from traditional Japanese food. There was a hint of mint in this roll, and the garlic chip added an intense flavor that sat at the top of your palate. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good thing. The garlic overpowered the sushi. My first bite wasn’t that bad, and I thought it was interesting…but the second bite was just not that great.
I used to be the kind of sushi eater in which I most enjoyed the ones that strayed away from traditional Japanese flavors, but I’ve learned to love the kind that simply showcases the fish through simple, clean flavors…even the Tuna sushi had too many frills on it for me to truly enjoy.
During our dinner, our friend Will mentioned a YouTube video that I thought would be great to showcase here. If you haven’t seen this yet, you’re in for a treat.
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