A Broad Reference

338 12th St
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 893-8136
Category: Vietnamese
Neighborhood: Oakland Chinatown
3 star rating

Have been here twice now, first on a date and then with a group of friends.
Food is definitely solid performance.
broiled green mussels and the beef salad are fast becoming favorites.
Ordered the 7 courses of beef which is a lot of meat and very delicious. The first 3 courses come raw- tartare, and some you have to cook it either in hot vinegar or over a littlle hibatchi grill, so it can get a little splattery when you lash on the slabs of butter. next 3 were little dolma style minced meat in lot leaves, char broiled sausage wrapped in caulfat, and a burger with aromatic herbs and mushrooms. I was so full I couldn't eat the thick and creamy beef rice soup (delicious re-heated the next day).
The crispy oven roasted catfish comes with green onions, lettuce leaves, mint, basil and other herbs, cucumbers, pickled carrots bean sprouts. They even give you a little dish of hot water to dunk your rice paper to make spring rolls. The anchovy fish sauce is a sublime accent.

Other good choices are the clay pot, and the cubed beef steak.

Posted by Misty at 05:10 PM | Permalink

This weekend I made some sausage rolls as requested by a dear friend. They're the easiest snacky-doodle to make.

All you need is sausages (any flavor- your choice) sheets of flaky pastry and a pair of scissors.
Cut the flaky pastry sheet into 4 inch wide by 11 inch long strips. Cut the sausage casing open and place meat on the long edge of the strip. Roll into tube with seam on the bottom. Snip the rolls into half, then quarters then eighths. Slit the tops to allow steam to escape. Bake at 400oF for 18 minutes or till golden. Serve warm.

Posted by Misty at 01:58 PM | Permalink

Ever since I packed up my house and transferred the most important items to Gwynie's place, there's been a huge stack of chocolate waiting to be used. Ok it was waiting to be used before that but since I hadn't consolidated all the chocolate, I didn't know how much of it I really had... which is a lot! Today I decided to make a version of Clothilde's Chocolate Chili Mini-bites to use up some of that chocolate. Normally I use chipotle chilies in Adobo sauce, where the garlicky smoky flavor adds a subtle hint to the chocolate that leaves people reaching for another to try and identify the elusive taste. I'm all out of chipotle chilies, so I used a couple of tablespoons of the scotch bonnet apricot chutney I made a while back and boy does it have a kick to it. I think in the next version I'll do half chipotle pepper powder and and half scotch bonnet pepper chutney.

I liked the flavor the fruit added, but I don't want it to be too fruit forward, it's more about the chocolate and the smokey heat.

I won't reproduce the recipe since Clothilde has a pretty comprehensive version. However, I did halve the amounts coz I don't need 72 mini-bites! I use a paper piping cone to get the mixture into the cupcake liners. I also shortened the baking time by 1 1/2 minutes because I like them to be more wetly chocolate and they just keep cooking after I whip em out of the oven. For fun you can glaze them with a pepper jelly, but they're easier to handle plain.
Enjoy!

Posted by Misty at 10:16 AM | Permalink

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb_and_mutton
# Ram (also called a tup) — a male sheep.
# Ewe — a female sheep
# Mutton — an older female sheep (sometimes goat meat )
# Wether — a castrated male sheep.
# Hoggett (or Hoggatt) — no longer a lamb, but not yet mutton. ie having no more than two permanent incisors in wear
# Teg — a sheep in its second year.
# Lamb — a young sheep, under 12 months of age which does not have any permanent incisor teeth in wear, generally unweaned
* Slink — a very young lamb.
* Baby lamb — a milk-fed lamb between six and eight weeks old
* Spring lamb — a milk-fed lamb, usually three to five months old, born in late winter or early spring and sold usually before July 1st
* Sucker lambs — an unweaned lamb — includes young milk-fed lambs as well as slightly older lambs up to about 7 months of age which are also still dependent on their mothers for milk
* Old-season lamb — a lamb a year old or more.
* Yearling lamb — a young sheep between 12 and 24 months old.
* Salt marsh lamb— the meat of sheep which graze on salt marsh in coastal estuaries that are washed by the tides and support a range of salt-tolerant grasses and herbs such as samphire, sparta grass, sorrel and sea lavender.

Posted by Misty at 06:01 AM | Permalink

I found a great recipe for a turkish leg of lamb. It was delicious but really ended up being a lot of meat. Perfect when you're entertaining eight, less practical when it's just me and Gwynie. The highlite of the dish was the tomato based gravy, with deep notes of cinnamon, allspice and cumin. With that in mind I decided to riff a stew based on the same ingredients and see how it turned out.

Ingredients
* 1 onion chopped, abut 1 1/2 cups
* 1 pound lamb stew meat
* 1 pound lamb neck bones
* 1 pound lamb shanks
* 2 cans peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
* 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (omitted due to allergy concerns)
* 4 tablespoons chopped parsley
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1/2 teaspoon allspice
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* --cayenne pepper to taste
* 1 cup stock (lamb or beef)
* 2 cloves garlic
* 2 bay leaves

Instructions
Roast lamb pieces and onion in a roasting pan @375 for about 15-25 minutes, till browned. Place meat, onion, tomato and other ingredients in slow cooker. De-glaze pan with water or stock and add to cooker, top with stock. Simmer till stew has a glossy red sheen and meat is falling off the bone ~4-6 hours. Serve with parsley garnish, rice and cucumber salad. Let me know how yours turns out.

Posted by Misty at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How the Omnivore's 100 Works:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.

2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.

3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

4) Optional: Post a comment at Very Good Taste, linking to your results.

81/100 My Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison [Idaho's finest shot by my best friend's step-Dad]

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros [Mexico City, my mom's favorit]

4. Steak tartare [Larkcreek]

5. Crocodile [Oz, tasted like chicken]

6. Black pudding [Portugal, my Dad's favorite]

7. Cheese fondue [England, Emma White's Birthday 1990]

8. Carp

9. Borscht [Not a fan]

10. Baba ghanoush [My mom makes it]

11. Calamari [hmm can't remember my first time, favorite place is Keelong Nite Market]

12. Pho [Saigon Bistro Concord, with the meat on the side- otherwise it cooks too fast and gets tough]

13. PB&J sandwich [yuck]

14. Aloo gobi [yum]

15. Hot dog from a street cart [Manhattan, New York- would not try again due to allergies]

16. Epoisses [supplied by Kate and Scott our Foodie friends]

17. Black truffle [must be more than just scraps- I want a meal!]

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns [My cousin Eric once ate 11 in one sitting- the family legend circulating currently has him at 20+]

20. Pistachio ice cream [Devon House Ice cream is ready nuh still]

21. Heirloom tomatoes [I went to UC Santa Cruz]

22. Fresh wild berries [my favorite are olalaberries]

23. Foie gras [yumm]

24. Rice and beans [Jamaica of course]

25. Brawn or head cheese [Vietnamese bahn mi]

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper [Spicy, hot, hot, HOT!]

27. Dulce de leche [Mexico]

28. Oysters [Hog Island & Marshall's Store]

29. Baklava [Nancy's mom made the best]

30. Bagna cauda [Don Canestro's New Year's Eve family tradition]

31. Wasabi peas [transcendental]

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl [San Francisco]

33. Salted lassi [our Hindi next door neighbors in JA]

34. Sauerkraut [urk]

35. Root beer float [I normally like anything with ice cream, but root beer just tastes like toothpaste]

36. Cognac with a fat cigar [Smoking is bad for your health]

37. Clotted Cream Tea [My grandma's high tea in Nottingham England]

38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O [I don't remember]

39. Gumbo [New Orleans of course]

40. Oxtail [Kingston Jamaica]

41. Curried goat [and manish water, Kingston Jamaica]

42. Whole insects [mealworm chocolate cake is the closest I got, I couldn't do the ant pizza]

43. Phaal [Call me a wimp]

44. Goat's milk [Scrummy in cheese & yogurt, but urgh in milk & ice cream]

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more [Highland Park Yes!]

46. Fugu [Had the chance in Taiwan but couldn't do it- conditions were just too dodgy]

47. Chicken tikka masala [England]

48. Eel [San Francisco]

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut [Donuts on Friday @ JGI]

50. Sea urchin [Tsukiji Tokyo Fish Market, Japan]

51. Prickly pear [Baja California Sur, Mexcio]

52. Umeboshi [Tokyo, Japan]

53. Abalone [Sea Ranch, California]

54. Paneer [not a huge fan]

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal [like crack as a child, now....]

56. Spaetzle [Hamburg, Germany]

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine [Whistler, Vancouver]

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores [Girl Scout Camp, Oakland Hills]

62. Sweetbreads [When did I not eat them?]

63. Kaolin [Bangkok, Thailand; Thank Goodness for industrial strength OTC Thai medication]

64. Currywurst [dunno what this is?]

65. Durian [A fruit so pungent they evacuated the building for fear of gas leaks in the lab]

66. Frogs’ legs [Chiang Mai, Thailand- crispy fried with basil leaves, garlic and hot peppers]

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake [Cafe du Monde, New Orleans; Churros Manola, Costa Rica; Orange County State Fair, California]

68. Haggis [Edinburgh, Scotland]

69. Fried plantain [Kingston, Jamaica]

70. Chitterlings or andouillette [Kaoshung, Taiwan]

71. Gazpacho [home made]

72. Caviar and blini [Moscow, USSR yeah back in the day]

73. Louche absinthe [Does Hangar One experimental batch count?]

74. Gjetost or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu [Keelung, Taiwan]

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail [Keelung Nite Market]

79. Lapsang Souchong [Muzha, Taiwan]

80. Bellini

81. Tom Yum [Bangkok, Thailand]

82. Eggs Benedict [Walnut Street Cafe, Santa Cruz]

83. Pocky [Ranch 99, El Cerrito]

84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu

85. Kobe beef [wowowowowow, Kyoto kaiseki]

86. Hare [MUST try this]

87. Goulash [does mom's count?]

88. Flowers [too many times to count]

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam [food of Olympic champions, small developing islands & good for natural disasters/emergencies]

92. Soft shell crab [It's like crack I tell you]

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish [Mississippi]

95. Mole poblano [Mexico City]

96. Bagel and lox [Manhattan, New York]

97. Lobster Thermidor [Ocho Rios, Jamaica]

98. Polenta [A non-event]

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee [by the gallon]

100. Snake

Posted by Misty at 04:13 AM | Permalink