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Where to Find Two Yummy Desserts

If you need a great dessert recipe, you probably wouldn't look in a Chinese cookbook.

This would be a mistake if the book you skip over is "Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook" (Tuttle Publishing, $24.95.)

Chin includes a couple of wow desserts--Chocolate-Raspberry Wontons (at the top) and Five-Spice Chocolate Cake (above). Three more with promise are Asian Pear Tart, Banana-Walnut Wontons and Lychee and Ginger Sorbet. I can personally praise the first two, because I tasted them when Chin signed books and gave a cooking demo at Melissa's Produce.

I couldn't stop eating the wontons with their fresh raspberry sauce and Nutella inside (recipe below). Others liked the unexpected taste of five spice in the cake. 

The cookbook is about much more than sweets, though. It's Chin's tribute to her mother, Leeann Chin, who rose from a 50-cent an hour seamstress to become a successful caterer and then the power behind a restaurant chain.

Subtitled "101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother's Kitchen," the book is packed with warm memories and enticing recipes. Perhaps Chin has excelled because of her mother's strict coaching. "She was the toughest boss I ever had," she said. "She just wanted me to be the best." Leeann Chin died six years ago.

The recipes include classic dishes from her mother, favorites that Chin grew up with at the family home in Minneapolis, catering specialties and Chin's own creations. I don't know the source of the wontons. The spice cake came from a pastry chef friend.  

Chin eventually moved to Hollywood, where her mother joined her to form Double Happiness Catering. Chin retired from that business but has just started another catering company, Wok Star.

She's studied acting, done TV and knows how to present a glamour image. This is how she looked at a book launch party in Hollywood.

And here's how she looked as she signed books at Melissa's.

For her demo, Chin showed how to make potstickers and Firecracker Shrimp (above), which she says is "one of the easiest recipes in the book." Worked out with her mother, it's shrimp wrapped in spring roll wrappers, fried and served with a dip of mayo and Sriracha sauce. 

Wanting to add Korean flavor to their repertoire, they composed Spicy Beef Skewers (above). These were fabulous too.

Another hit was Chin's Chinese Chicken Salad (above). Also on the buffet were a soy ginger edamame salad and Sichuan beef. 

Chin's recipes are easy to follow, replete with cooking tips such as tenderizing beef with baking soda and water. 

As she said at the demo, "Chinese cooking can be difficult. I'm going to show you how to make it simple and easy."

CHOCOLATE-RASPBERRY WONTONS
From "Katie Chin's Everyday Chinese Cookbook"

Raspberry sauce:

4 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Wontons:

1/3 cup chopped fresh raspberries
2/3 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread such as Nutella
16 round dumpling wrappers
1 egg, lightly beaten
Oil for frying
Confectioner's sugar for garnish
Mint leaves for garnish

To make the sauce, place the 4 cups raspberries in a small saucepan. Crush the berries and add the water. Stir in the sugar and cornstarch and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and press through a strainer. Set aside.

For the wontons, fold the 1/3 cup chopped raspberries into the chocolate-hazelnut spread until combined. Lay a dumpling wrapper on a clean work surface and brush the edges with egg. Place 1 scant tablespoon of the chocolate-hazelnut raspberry mixture in the center, then fold the wrapper in half over the filling, pressing the edges firmly to seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.

In a wok or skillet, heat 2 to 3 inches of oil to 350 degrees. Deep-fry the wontons until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes, turning occasionally. Place on a paper towel-lined sheet pan to drain. Transfer to a platter and dust with confectioner's sugar, then drizzle with raspberry sauce. Garnish with mint leaves and serve immediately. 

Makes 8 servings.

Photos by Barbara Hansen

Origin Cafe's Creative Kosher Food

Great vibes and good food--that sums up Origin Cafe, the new kosher restaurant on Pico Boulevard.

Chef/owner Aaron Clayton (at the top) is dedicated to personally sourcing his ingredients so that what you taste is really fresh. 

Because it's a dairy restaurant, there's no meat, but you won't miss it because Clayton knows how to make fish really appeal. One example is his Moroccan salmon tacos with mango and harissa (above). 

And then there's seared halibut (above) with roasted asparagus, artichoke risotto and a roasted cherry tomato sauce that includes white wine infused with saffron.

This soup may look plain, but it's made with pea tendrils and asparagus. The only decoration is a swirl of olive oil on top.

Clayton fills artichoke ravioli with house-made ricotta and chopped artichokes (above). Roasted oyster mushrooms are on top along with pea tendrils and pistachio pesto.

From these dishes, you can tell that pea tendrils, asparagus and artichokes were in top form when he created this menu for Origin Cafe's inaugural dinner. 

However none of these appeared in roasted eggplant with a miso sesame oil glaze, finished with tahini and mint and served on a toasted baguette. 

Here is an heirloom cherry tomato salad with sliced watermelon radish and cubes of mozzarella. 

Dessert was bread pudding, which the cafe makes with remainders of the breads on hand, usually brioche, baguettes and 7-grain. Here, the pudding is topped with honey halvah ice cream.

Origin Cafe opened in May and by September was already on its third menu. This is how responsive Clayton is to seasonal and fresh ingredients. "It's amazing what you can do with high quality ingredients," he says. 

Serving only breakfast and lunch at first, the cafe now offers dinner Tuesday through Thursday. The dinners are prix fixe, priced at $30 for three courses and $40 for four. Above, he's with girlfriend Julie, who stepped in to help with the first night's dinner service.

The atmosphere is bright and contemporary, decorated with art work and photos by family and friends. A long menu of coffees and teas is written in chalk on a blackboard. 

The space is small, so the lanky (6'4") chef can easily leave the kitchen and circulate among the tables. Raised in Encino, he cooked in Tel Aviv and as a private chef before opening the cafe.  

Origin Cafe, 8532 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035. Tel: (424) 288-4682. Closed Saturdays. Click here for the cafe's Facebook page. 

Where to Get Authentic Turkish Food

The best food this side of Istanbul may well be in Southern California, not in a restaurant but at any event catered by Kuzine Foods.

The idea behind this brand new catering outfit is to introduce foods with true Turkish taste. Its founders are Eda Akarsu Smith of Aliso Viejo (above left) and Hülya Aksu Koseoglu of Irvine. Eda was born in Istanbul; Hülya grew up there. 

Eda is strong on classic cuisine. Hülya, above with her homemade labneh (thick yogurt), knows her way around traditional Turkish food--her mother had Turkish restaurants in Germany, then Istanbul. 

"We love cooking a lot," Eda said. "We decided to get together and turn it into a business."

They started impressively with a party for 100 at the Turkish consulate, honing their procedures before a "grand opening" some time in October. Since then, their catering gigs have included another party for 100. 

But let the food speak for itself. More than 20 dishes were spread out on the buffet when the catering team invited food journalists to taste and give feedback (all good).

Turkey is a paradise of freshly baked breads. Hülya captured that with scrumptious baked goods (above) including the yeast rolls poğaça and three types of açma, one of them her prize-winning Nutella-filled açma. 

At the right is çatal, a cookie-like bread flavored with mahlep. The black seeds on the breads are nigella.

The flat bread called pide (above) is popular during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. 

Little stuffed rolls are a fixture in Turkish bakeries. These had a choice of fillings, feta cheese and olive paste or feta with green onions and dill. 

Börek, made with yufka dough, which is thicker than filo, also came with two fillings--ground beef and potatoes or spinach and feta. 


This is çemen, a tangy, spicy spread of red pepper and tomato pastes, garlic, walnuts, olive oil, bread crumbs, cumin and red pepper flakes. It's hard to stop eating this, it's so good. 

Turkish cuisine is rich in salads and vegetable dishes such as piyaz, a white bean and onion salad served with meats; tabbouleh and the popular shepherd's salad with tomatoes, cucumber and onion (bottom right, above).

Still more were romano beans cut up and sauteed in olive oil with onion, garlic and tomatoes (above). Fresh beans from the pod had been cooked with olive oil, onion, garlic, tomatoes and a dash of sugar. "The key for Turkish cooking is a little bit of sugar," Eda said. 

Eggplant, a Turkish favorite, appeared as a salad, in a creamy mixture to use as a bed for kebabs and as imam bayildi (above), which means the imam fainted at a taste of something so delicious.

One version of imam bayildi included meat, the other was vegetarian. Both were cooked with olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, onions, bell pepper and tomato paste. 

Grape leaves were stuffed with rice, pine nuts and currants (above). A meat stuffing was wrapped in collard greens as well as grape leaves.  

This one-pot dish is Izmir köfte, named for a Turkish city. It's composed of meatballs and potatoes fried separately, then combined, topped with peppers and tomatoes and baked. 

There were also meats that had been grilled outside. Ground beef patties called izgara köfte are in front. The spherical patties behind them are Eda's Inegol köfte--ground beef seasoned according to her secret recipe. Behind these are kebabs of lamb and beef.

The three desserts were dates stuffed with almond butter, walnut baklava (above) and chicken pudding, or yalanci tav göğsü.

This famous Turkish pudding (above) is traditionally made with finely shredded chicken breast. Yalanci means fake, Eda said, so this was a chicken-less pudding but as thick and rich as the original, thanks partly to 20 minutes of beating. 

Kuzine is Turkish for a large oven in which many dishes can be cooked at the same time. Working out of a commercial kitchen, Kuzine Foods caters for small groups to a maximum of 150 and can supply vegetarian and vegan menus. 

Click here for their web page, which has contact information. Or email to info@kuzinefoods.com.

Tainan's A-Sha Sends a Chef to L.A.

Some of my favorite restaurants are so far away that I can only dream about eating in them again.

Like A-Sha. To get there I flew to Taipei and took a high-speed train to Tainan City in southern Taiwan. But A-Sha was worth the trip. You can read about that extraordinary meal by clicking here.

Recently, I ate A-Sha's food again. Not in a dream and this time not in Taiwan but in El Monte, only a few miles from home. 

Chef Chien-Hao Wu from A-Sha (at the top) flew in to prepare a 10-course lunch and give two cooking demonstrations at the Culture Center of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. 

Again, the food was extraordinary, although Chef Wu apologized for not being able to bring the ingredients from Taiwan. One exception was a bottle of vinegar (above) that he couldn't duplicate here.

We sat in typical Chinese fashion at tables of 10, sharing platters of food. First came a cold plate (above) that included chicken, mushrooms, cucumbers, fresh bamboo shoots, and sweet-tasting nuggets of ground pork and shrimp. 

Alongside this was a famous Tainan delicacy, charcoal-grilled mullet roe (above).

The crab seafood soup that came next was thick and slightly sweet (above). Another soup combined mushrooms and pig tendon.  

At A-Sha in Tainan, sticky rice is topped with crab. Click the link to my story about lunch there to see what that looks like. Here, Chef Wu substituted dried scallops and placed thick, chewy mushrooms on either side of the rice (above).    

The squid in this stir-fry had been cut so that at first glance it looked like baby corn. Sliced garlic and shredded vegetables came with it in a slightly sweet sauce (above). 

Braised cauliflower and red and yellow sweet peppers were followed by steamed fish with an ingredient that I hadn't seen before--preserved Taiwan seeds, sometimes called tree seeds (above).

Tiny and round, they added sharp sweet and salty contrast to the mild fish. The label (you can buy them here) says they're prepared with soy sauce, salt and sugar.  

In the cooking demo, Chef Wu fried yellow croaker, and we helped ourselves to servings of that from his work table (above).

A bowl of Asian fruits for dessert included cubes of egg, cut to resemble tofu (above).

Fresh fruits were accompanied by sweet and salty sour plum powder for dipping, the way they are served at A-Sha in Tainan.

This tangy seasoning, available in Chinese markets here, perks up the flavor of the fruit just as Mexican fruit stands add lime juice and chili powder to cut fruits and vegetables.

The lunch was the highlight of a program of awards to top quality Taiwanese restaurants in the Los Angeles area and Orange County. Click here to see the list.

Where to Eat Good Taiwanese Food

Need a new acronym? Then add OQR to your list. It's the one you'll need if you want to search out good Taiwanese food.

The letters stand for Overseas Quality Restaurant, an award given to restaurants in Los Angeles and Orange County that represent the best in Taiwanese food. To get the certificate, they're judged on everything from food to cleanliness. Four food professionals, whose identity is kept secret, review them. 

In existence for three years, the program is sponsored by the Overseas Community Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

This year's awards were presented at a ceremony and lunch in the Culture Center of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. The center is in El Monte.

The lunch was prepared by Chef Chien-Hao Wu of A-Sha restaurant in Tainan (above), who flew to Los Angeles for the event. 

Here are the honorees, in alphabetical order.

  1. Bodhi Veggie Cuisine, 3643 Rosemead Blvd., Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 569-9888.
  2. Chef Chen, 5408-B Walnut Ave., Irvine, CA 92604. (714) 878-3910.
  3. Duck House, 501 S. Atlantic Blvd., Monterey Park, CA 91754. (626) 284-3227.
  4. I-TEA Cafe, 15435 Jeffrey Road, #110, Irvine, CA 92618. (949) 551-4832.
  5. Kingchops Irvine, 15435 Jeffrey Road, #117, Irvine, CA 92618. (949) 303-5344.
  6. Monja Taiker, 8150 Garvey Ave., #101, Rosemead, CA 91770. (626) 839-3355.
  7. New Noodle King, 1265 E. Valley Blvd., Alhambra, CA 91801. (626) 281-4836.
  8. O'Shine Taiwanese Kitchen, 13834 Red Hill Ave., Tustin, CA 92780. (714) 852-3383.
  9. O'Taipei Cafe, 2430 Fullerton Road, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (626) 810-5558.
 10. Pine & Crane, 1521 Griffith Park Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026. (323) 668-1128.
 11. The Bleu House, 15840 Halliburton Road, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745. (626) 330-6767.
 12. Uncle Yu's Indian Theme Restaurant, 633 S. San Gabriel Blvd., #105, San Gabriel, CA 91776. (626) 287-0688. (Note: This is not an "Indian" restaurant but Taiwanese.)