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Eater
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Eater
Yes, You Should Make Your Own Shaved Ice at Home This Summer
Every year I look forward to shaved ice season (which, if I'm being honest, is almost year round in Los Angeles). In my household, I grew up having Thai shaved ice, or wan yen, whenever the days got too hot. The crunchy ice was topped with Hale's Blue Boy syrup (the sala or snake fruit flavor is my favorite), condensed milk, green strands of pandan jelly, and a mixture of canned toddy palm seeds and grass jelly. It feels like every culture has their own take on the dish: there's fluffy Korean bingsoo topped with fresh fruit, Japanese kakigori paired with sweet red beans, Filipino halo-halo that doubles as a shaved ice dish and ice cream sundae, and Mexican raspados showered with Tajín — to name a few. And not only is the frozen treat universal, it can also be easily made and customized at home. Here's how to do it. When it comes to making shaved ice at home, it doesn't necessarily matter whether you use a manual shaver or an electric one. 'I like everything manual in the restaurant because it corresponds to the ethos of what we do,' says Junya Yamasaki, the chef behind Yess restaurant in Los Angeles. Yamasaki serves two different types of kakigori for dessert made using an industrial, crank-powered shaver. 'I even drive a manual car,' he laughs, 'but [for ice shavers] I don't think there's a difference.' At Wailua Shave Ice, which has locations in Portland, Oregon, and on Kauai, an electric shaver is necessary for crowds. 'We started with a hand-crank,' explains co-founder Cory Arashiro, 'but even with our electric ones I can barely keep up.' However, Arashiro acknowledges that if you're making shaved ice at home — and not in a rush to fulfill demand — either version works. 'I would say, just make sure that your ice is shaved finely,' she says. 'To get our type of texture, you'd want to shave it finely, not mash it or grate it.' The electric shaver will ultimately be faster in prepping your ice, but it's hard to deny the charm of a crank version, too. Yamasaki imports ice from Japan for the kakigori at Yess, something he acknowledges is a bit ironic because the rest of the menu at the restaurant focuses on local ingredients. 'We use premium ice from our Japanese supplier,' he explains. Although you may not want to go that fancy of a route, Yamasaki recommends sourcing special ice from commercially available cocktail ice — just look for ice that is crystal clear. At Lumi Dessert Cafe, which has two locations in Washington state, shaved ice is made with a proprietary frozen flavored milk blend. 'We pour [the liquid base] into our machine and it freezes on the barrel,' says Nessa Choi, the manager at Lumi's Redmond location. 'I think you can replicate the same effect at home as long as you have a good mixture for the base.' For Choi, it's important to not just use regular ice from a cube tray if you want your shaved ice to last longer rather than melt right away. 'If you use regular ice, it melts very fast and doesn't hold toppings very well,' Choi explains. Instead, try freezing water or a sweetened milk mixture in quart containers and shave them through whatever type of shaved ice machine you have. You can sweeten the milk mixture with condensed milk or honey, or flavor it with ingredients like tea, cocoa powder, fresh or frozen fruit, and extract. 'Toppings are the fun part,' Yamasaki says. 'At home, you can just go crazy.' At Yess, Yamasaki serves one kakigori that feels very traditionally Japanese. There are fresh and macerated strawberries, chewy mochi balls, and a glaze of condensed milk. His other kakigori is more experimental, with dates, an Irish coffee syrup, and whipped cream — perfect for someone interested in both dessert and coffee after dinner. At Wailua, the shaved ice syrups are made with fresh fruit juice and cane sugar. Their signature topping, however, is the haupia foam — a whipped coconut milk topping. 'What we really grew up with is snowcap, which is condensed milk,' Arashiro says. 'From there, just run with it.' Other traditional Hawaiian toppings include coconut flakes, mochi, and li hing mui, or pickled plum powder. At Wailua, you can also add sweets like Oreos, a Nutella drizzle, and marshmallows. For homemade shaved ice, Choi always recommends fresh fruit — but if you don't have access to fruit, jams would work well too. 'You can also do a caramel version with caramel sauce, crushed Lotus Biscoff cookies, and bananas,' she says. Really, the ice becomes a vehicle for the toppings, so anything can go. 'Just don't get carried away; be cohesive,' Arashiro says. 'The best part is at the end, when you smush everything down and get to drink it.'
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The perfect summer corn fritter to welcome you back to downtown L.A. restaurants
Returning to downtown L.A. restaurants after the curfew. The spirituality of red Fanta. 'The most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' And a Crunchwrap Supreme plot twist. I'm Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week's Tasting Notes. I was happily eating a light lunch of poached chicken with an array of radishes, tarragon mayonnaise and buttered milk bread toast dusted with sea salt when our friendly and attentive waiter, just four days on the job, walked up holding a plate of sunshine: three beautifully fried corn fritters with flash-fried basil, a wedge of lime and a mound of salt for dipping. There was a dish of chile sauce too, but the corn's sweetness, salt and herbs were all I needed on the day before the official start of summer. I was at chef Giles Clark's Cafe 2001 with the editor of L.A. Times Food, Daniel Hernandez, and every table in the place was filled. The cafe's big brother restaurant, Yess, from chef Junya Yamasaki, was boarded up at the front entrance facing 7th Street — the dinner-only spot closed during the recent downtown L.A. curfew — but we saw activity in the kitchen when we peeked through the glass blocks on the side of the restaurant and were hopeful that Yess would reopen that night. As columnist Jenn Harris wrote this week, the seven-night curfew left downtown L.A. streets empty: 'All along 2nd Street, the windows and doors were hidden behind plywood. ... The frequently bustling Japanese Village Plaza, where shoppers dine at a revolving sushi bar and stop for cheese-filled corn dogs, was desolate.' Now there are tentative signs of recovery. 'Hours after the curfew was lifted Tuesday, downtown started to show signs of coming to life again,' Harris wrote. 'Just before 7 p.m., a line began to form at Daikokuya in Little Tokyo ... known as much for the perpetual wait as it is for its steaming bowls of tonkotsu ramen. It was a hopeful sight.' Yet, as Harris also reported, Kato, the three-time No. 1 restaurant on the L.A. Times 101 list, whose chef, Jon Yao, was named the best chef in California at this week's James Beard Awards, 'was still looking at a 70% drop in reservations for the upcoming week' after the curfew's end. 'The direct impact of the media's portrayal of DTLA being unsafe, which it is not, has impacted Kato,' Ryan Bailey, a partner in the restaurant told Harris. Certainly downtown is frequently portrayed, 'as a sometimes dodgy place to live and work.' But 'despite myriad challenges,' reported real estate specialist Roger Vincent this week, 'downtown L.A. is staging a comeback. ... Occupancy in downtown apartments has remained about 90% for more than a year ... slightly higher than the level before the pandemic. ... In fact, the downtown population has more than tripled since 2000, reflecting a dynamic shift in the city center's character toward a 24-hour lifestyle.' On Tuesday night, I met reporter Stephanie Breijo at Hama Sushi, another Little Tokyo spot where the wait is usually lengthy, and was able to get a spot at the sushi bar by arriving before 6 p.m. The place quickly filled up behind us. Though some were at Hama to support downtown, many came to pay their respects to the memory of recently deceased owner Tsutomu Iyama. Breijo will be reporting on the life and legacy of Iyama in the coming days, but on Tuesday night the longtime staff was on top of its game, serving affordable but excellent sushi, without gimmicks as Iyama intended. Two days later I was at Cafe 2001, which has become one of my favorite — and most useful — restaurants in the city, open all day and into the evening on weekends. In our recent brunch guide, I wrote about Clark's red-wine-poached egg, my partner, John, swears by Clark's caponata, and deputy food editor Betty Hallock loves 'his versions of a quintessential yoshoku icon, the Japanese potato salad ... [sometimes] kabocha pumpkin and puntarelle with blood orange and fermented chiles [or] a verdant pea and potato salad with lemon-y pea tendrils.' But my current favorite Clark dish? Those light and crisp corn fritters. They were the perfect welcome back downtown gift after a tense week of closed restaurants. 'I've ... had customers come in and tell me, 'The American dream doesn't exist anymore.'' That's Evelin Gomez, a juice bar worker at the Carson location of Vallarta Supermarket, speaking with reporter Lauren Ng. Ng checked social media accounts and conducted interviews with people in grocery stores and restaurants founded by immigrants and the children of immigrants about what they are witnessing with the recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement actions in Southern California. The independent-minded Casa Vega owner Christy Vega, who supported Rick Caruso over Karen Bass for mayor in the most recent election, 'has been an outspoken critic of ICE,' Ng wrote. 'I protested in honor of my Mexican immigrant father, Rafael Evaristo Vega, and the very people Casa Vega was built on since 1956,' Vega wrote on Instagram of her attendance at a 'No Kings' protest. 'I will always remember my roots and ALWAYS fight for the voiceless immigrant community.' Some restaurateurs, as Stephanie Breijo reported, have been coordinating grocery handouts and deliveries for those fearing being swept up in ICE raids. 'We understand the feelings that are happening in our community right now, even if we are legal,' said Xochitl Flores-Marcial, a partner in Boyle Heights' X'tiosu with its chef-founders, Felipe and Ignacio Santiago. 'Even if we have documents, that doesn't exempt us from the danger that so many people are facing right now and in our culture.' Meanwhile, assistant food editor Danielle Dorsey, put together a guide to 15 different food fundraisers and events to support those affected by ICE actions. Many are happening this weekend. The young and ambitious staff at Vin Folk — with two alums of Aitor Zabala's Somni leading the team of chef-servers — charmed columnist Jenn Harris during her visits to the Hermosa Beach restaurant created by chefs Kevin de los Santos and Katya Shastova. 'The dining room crackles with the hopeful, earnest energy of a start-up company, ripe with possibility,' she writes in her restaurant review published this week. 'And with food that has all the technique and precision of a tasting menu restaurant with less of the fuss, it is without a doubt the most exciting place to eat in the South Bay in recent memory.' Some of the dishes she highlights: a savory tart that could be 'a love child of mussels in escabeche and pot pie'; headcheese toast, 'a loose interpretation of the patty melt at Langer's Deli'; pritto, 'a take on Taiwanese popcorn chicken'; 'exceptionally tender' beef tongue, 'an homage to Shastova's childhood in rural southern Russia,' and a risotto-style interpretation of Singapore chili crab. Vin Folk is also nurturing a new generation of chefs and restaurateurs: 'Staff are trained in multiple positions, both in and out of the kitchen,' Harris writes. 'Everyone helps with prep, then De los Santos and Shastova [place] members in positions where they may be strongest.' 'We are teaching them,' Shastova tells Harris. 'You go through everything because we believe it's important to learn every single detail of the restaurant if you want to have your own one day.' In her latest Grocery Goblin dispatch, correspondent Vanessa Anderson examines why strawberry red Fanta — 'known as Fanta nam daeng, or 'Fanta red water'' — is seen in so many Thai shrines or spirit houses, many of which are set up at local grocery stores and restaurants. 'Much like those on this earthly plane, the way to a spirit's heart is through his or her stomach,' Anderson reports. 'In the past when we would do offerings to ghosts, it would be an offering of blood,' Pip Paganelli at Thai dessert shop Banh Kanom Thai, tells Anderson, who concludes that 'the bubbly strawberry nectar has since replaced animal sacrifice.' Paganelli, Anderson adds, also posits that red Fanta's 'sickly sweetness ... is beloved by ghosts because of just that. Most spirits have a sweet tooth.' The anniversary none of our social media feeds or TV news anchors will let us forget this week is the release 50 years ago of Steven Spielberg's 'eating machine' blockbuster 'Jaws.' But columnist Gustavo Arellano has another anniversary on this mind this week — the debut 20 years ago of Taco Bell's Crunchwrap Supreme. 'The item has become essential for American consumers who like their Mexican food cheap and gimmicky,' he wrote this week, 'which is to say, basically everyone (birria ramen, anybody?)' The plot twist is that Arellano, author of 'Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,' had never actually eaten a Crunchwrap Supreme until this month. And when he finally did try it? Let's just say it lacked the crunch he was looking for. I'll let you read his column to find out why he prefers the bean-and-cheese burritos and Del Taco. Bonus: Arellano references Jenn Harris' 2015 story and recipe for a homemade Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme, to be enjoyed in the comfort of your home, without the 'bad playlists, scratchy paper napkins and fluorescent lighting' of a fast food restaurant. I think hers would have the crunch Arellano seeks.
Los Angeles Times
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Japanese potato salad, but make it spring green
Yoshoku — the category of Japanese versions of American and European dishes — has its roots in 19th century Tokyo, when internationalism was the cultural currency of the Meiji era. By 1900, tonkatsu pork cutlet (progenitor of the katsu sando) had been invented at a restaurant called Rengatei in the ultra-modern Ginza district, which also gave rise to omurice (a phonetic portmanteau of omelet and rice). Nearly 150 years (and millions of convenience-store egg salad sandwiches) later, yoshoku is indelibly part of Japanese cuisine, bolstered by craft-driven tradition and steeped in comfort-food nostalgia: curry rice, croquettes and hambagu steak forever. At Café 2001 — the back-door cafe attached to Japanese restaurant Yess in downtown's Arts District — chef Giles Clark puts his own spin on his yoshoku-esque specials, inspired by what's at L.A.'s farmers markets and in his refrigerator. His versions of a quintessential yoshoku icon, the Japanese potato salad, include kabocha pumpkin and puntarelle with blood orange and fermented chiles and more recently a verdant pea and potato salad with lemon-y pea tendrils. It's a springtime explosion of flavors and textures in a monochromatic hue of vibrant green. Clark, who moved from London to Los Angeles several years ago to help Junya Yamasaki open Yess, says he arrived at his pea-and-potato salad by happenstance. 'Oh, crumbs. It's no different from anyone making a salad at home,' he says. 'You have a quick rummage around the fridge and throw something together under time pressure. 'One thing I'd say, at the end of the time I lived in Japan, I kind of accidentally went to an old-fashioned yoshoku restaurant. ... It sort of caught me off guard a bit. It was fun to see. That's been on my mind a lot.' Japanese potato salad is itself a reinvention of a reinvention, based on the Olivier salad named after a French Belgian chef, Lucien Olivier, who ran a restaurant called Hermitage that was all the rage in 1860s Moscow. It morphed into what's known as Russian salad (a zakuski staple) with diced potatoes, carrots, pickles and sometimes meat or vegetables or fruit such as ham, peas, onions or apples. Japanese potato salad's most important and unique distinction is its texture: The potatoes are mashed, so that the salad is almost creamy (and the potatoes and dressing almost meld), studded with the crunch of fresh or pickled vegetables. Clark's pea-and-potato salad does right by the texture, a mix of chunky sauteed-pea-and-onion puree the consistency of pesto, smashed yellow potatoes, and fresh (raw) peas and white onion too. It's just creamy enough — 'it's nice for using chopsticks,' Clark notes. The salad gets its gentle seasoning partially from kombu, which is added to the water for boiling potatoes. 'In England there's a seasonal spring potato called Jersey Royals,' Clark says. 'They're grown near the sea and actually fertilized with seaweed.' He also mentions saving the peels and roasting them in parchment with kombu. One note about Clark's potato salad is he doesn't use mayonnaise — the peas and onions sauteed in olive oil are pureed enough to act as the binder. The effect is a light, refreshing potato salad that gets some pop from a grating of fresh horseradish — and from its color. You won't miss the mayo. Here's Clark's recipe for potato-pea salad, plus a few more spring pea recipes. Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts' insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they're dining right now. Potato salad has become an essential dish in Japanese home cooking. It's also a regular izakaya and yoshoku restaurant dish, notes chef Giles Clark, from cheap and cheerful to high end. Clark says potato salad can also be used as a satisfying way to celebrate the season. To keep this light, he eschews the mayonnaise at his downtown restaurant Café 2001. 'Good mayo is divine but also envelopes all. This salad should be vibrant like the color and the moment of early spring.' This also can be used to make fried croquettes. It's also great on toast (in that case, the bread smeared with a little Kewpie mayo). Get the recipe. Cook time: 45 minutes, plus 30 minutes cooling time. Serves 4 to 8. Wide tagliatelle noodles replace spaghetti in this spring-y version of carbonara. The creamy, silky sauce made with eggs and Parmigiano-Reggiano blankets noodles, peas and prosciutto. Former L.A. Times cooking editor Genevieve Ko says you could use shelled fresh peas from the farmers market but recounts this maxim from Fergus Henderson, the chef of the legendary St. John restaurant in London: 'A wise old chef once told me: Wait till peas are in season, then use frozen.'Get the recipe. Cook time: 20 minutes. Serves 2 to 4. You can use pretty much any kind of fish — skinless salmon, cod, halibut or other white fish fillets or even high-quality canned fish — in this easy weeknight dinner recipe. Curry powder is a great substitute if you don't have coriander and cumin. No mint? Try any soft herb — cilantro or flat-leaf parsley or dill — for the the recipe. Cook time: 50 minutes. Serves 4. Cookbook author Sonoko Sakai folds blanched peas into cooked short-grain rice for these fun, simple onigiri rice balls. Once the rice balls are formed, they're wrapped in sheets of nori. When it comes to onigiri fillings, you can go traditional — umeboshi (pickled plum), seasoned bonito flakes or grilled salmon — or the recipe. Cook time: 10 minutes. Makes 4 onigiri.
