…and more chicken parts.

Miss T and I had been wanting to try out Ippuku, a new izakaya in Berkeley, ever since we saw the construction signs go up for it. Earlier this month we had a chance to try it out.

An izakaya is a Japanese eatery akin to a pub or tapas bar. As such, Ippuku doesn’t have a sushi bar and doesn’t serve teriyaki. What they do serve is dozens of shochu and sake and just about every edible part of a chicken.

What we tried, from worst (in my opinion) to best:

Nankotsu (Breast Cartilage). Pictured up above. Grilled skewers of chicken breast cartilage served with spices and lemon. Despite knowing that the cartilage was the main part of this appetizer I just couldn’t bring myself to crunch up and swallow any of the vaguely triangular pieces of connective tissue. I ended up eating what little meat there was available and unceremoniously disposed of the cartilage. Miss T, on the other hand, liked it. Next time, she gets the whole order.

Bonjiri (Tail). Grilled skewers of chicken tails (butts) served with spices and lemon. Some folks love the “pope’s nose” and prize it as the best part of the chicken. I do not. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I would have liked them a bit more on the crispy side.

Bacon-wrapped Mochi. Grilled skewers of mochi wrapped with bacon. I’m not typically a fan of mochi—too chewy—but I’m definitely a fan of this. Must be the bacon. Miss T is a mochi fan, though, so she gave this higher marks.

Jidori Gyoza. Chicken gyoza dressed with scallions and chili oil. Outside: Crunchy on the bottom and chewy on the sides. Inside: Moist, well-seasoned chicken filling. With the scallions and chili oil drizzled on top, these gyoza were delicious.

Kawa (Skin). Grilled skewers of chicken skin served with spices and lemon. Each skewer is adorned with folded ribbons of luxuriously fatty chicken skin. The exposed edges get smoky-crunchy and the folded inner portions remain silky and chewy. Totally delicious and probably really bad for your circulatory system.

Tori Yukke (Raw Chicken). Chopped raw chicken tossed with spices and radish sprouts, topped with raw quail egg, sesame, and scallions. My favorite of the evening. I was surprised—not that I liked it, but how much I liked it. Mixed with radish sprouts and scallions, the dish has a slight spiciness to it, but the overwhelming flavor of it is chicken. Really fresh, really good chicken. Excellent.

Overall, Miss T and I enjoyed Ippuku and will drop in again sometime to try some of their other unique dishes. The prices are on the high side, though, so our next visit will have to be after payday or the next time I hit a lottery jackpot.

More pics at maxpixpix on Picasa.

…at Fat Face (’natch).

Located in a light commercial zone behind a flooring shop, Fat Face may be the anchor for a mini gourmet ghetto (along with Let Them Eat Cake!) on the edge of downtown Davis. Actually, with limited hours* and only a small, handpainted sign to announce its presence, make that a secret gourmet ghetto. (Miss T found out about Fat Face on one of those hipster websites she’s always cruising.)

I won’t launch into the whole story of how Fat Face started out making gourmet popsicles for sale at the Davis Farmers Market before opening up shop and expanding into the foodie sandwich sector. Wait… maybe that is the whole story. What’s important about Fat Face’s story is that their sandwiches are pretty fancy (albeit fancy-priced) and delicious.

From lunch last Friday:

Beer Poached Figs sandwich. Beer. Figs. So many things could have gone wrong, but this sandwich was so right. I don’t even like figs, but the caramelized onions, goat cheese, and arugula somehow made them work. Knowing that beer poaching was involved also helped. Tasty.

This was billed as a Peach/Bacon Bits sandwich, but these bacon bits weren’t those bottled, dried-up crumbs that your mom used to sprinkle on salads to get you to eat them. This peach (!) sandwich was chockfull of cut up bacon and an amazing feta cheese concoction. I could have eaten three, but my cardiologist has me on a restricted diet of only two bacon sandwiches per day.

If you’re in Davis during one of the twelve magic hours per week* that Fat Face is open, spy them out and give them a try.

*Severely limited. Wednesday—Friday, 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

…or snack, actually.

For our LOST finale viewing, Miss T and I opened up a few of the last items we recieved via product resupply drop—DHARMA Initiative Beer, Lemon Lime Soda, and Cheddar Baked Snack Crackers.

A good, happy, sad time was had by all. Namaste.

…(and wine).

Sometimes you don’t want wheat ale, double stout, Albanian pilsner, or double-hopped Bavarian pale lager. Sometimes you just want beer. DHARMA Initiative Beer. After a hard day of being a workman in Dharmaville or an afternoon spent repairing a DHARMA van, nothing hits the spot like a cold, refreshing DI Beer. Mmm… beer.

It’s been noted that DHARMA Initiative stations on the island have long received drop shipments of DHARMA Beer. Until now, here at The Hut we’ve only ever received DI Amber Lager, and DI Stout. Our recent Product Resupply Drop (PRD) included cases of DHARMA Initiative Beer in various differently-shaped bottles and possibly of various different beer varieties—but they were all simply labeled beer.

Good enough for me.

If good old DHARMA Initiative Beer is good enough for you, but none have shown up in your PRDs, you can make do with regular bottled beer and the following downloadable PDF:

• DHARMA Initiative Beer (variety)

The PDF contains body and neck labels for beer, amber lager, and stout. With scissors, tape, glue, and determination, you should be able to fit the labels onto the body of any bottled beer. Neck labels are a bit trickier and require experimentation, so start attacking those beers now. (Though, perhaps it’s best to not drink beer while you’re trying to fit labels onto beer.)

Ah, the wine.

We’ve noted in the past that, clearly, DHARMA folk on the island get shipments of bottled Merlot and Cabernet. We’ve also been recipients of DHARMA Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Muscat, and Sauvignon Blanc. But what about Riesling? Or, Gewürztraminer? Where are all the other DHARMA Initiative varietals? Well, apparently, if a variety isn’t one of the grapes already mentioned it just gets labeled red or white. Again, good enough for me. And, again, if DI Red Wine or DI White Wine are good enough for you, the following PDFs will allow you to turn ordinary bottles of wine into DHARMA Initiative bottles of wine.

• DHARMA Initiative Red Wine labels (variety, 750mL)
• DHARMA Initiative White Wine labels (variety, 750mL)

Cheers, everyone! And, namaste.

…refrigeration required.

I’m not sure why the DHARMA Initiative Ranch Composite we have at The Hut is different than the Ranch Composite that gets shipped to DI stations on the island. Key differences: size – 13 ounces at The Hut, 1 gallon on the island; and, refrigeration – yes for The Hut, no for the island. The DI Ranch Composite delivered to the island is supposed to be good for 7 years without refrigeration. Seven. Years. Without refrigeration.

Now that is a remarkable scientific achievement.

In any event, if you didn’t receive either Ranch Composite you can make a bottle of refrigeration-required DI Ranch Composite with a 13-ounce jar of standard ranch dressing and the following PDF:

• DHARMA Initiative Ranch Composite (13 OZ)

DI Ranch Composite + french fries = delicious… If only there were DHARMA Initiative Oven Baked French Fries.

…from England (English Stilton).

It was good.

Miss T, not being a blue cheese fan, disagreed. This worked in my favor—more for me!

…as seen on my desk shortly before I ate it.

There were a bunch of “extra” cupcakes in the office this week. I grabbed this banana one—it was good. (I think they were from Cupkates.)

…buy DHARMA Initiative Explorers Cookies.

I love this time of year—after ordering several boxes of DI Explorers Cookies via station computer (I think it’s code 2-4, then 1-6-4, or something), our supplies of DHARMA Initiative Chocolate Mint Cookies and Lemon Iced Shortbread Cookies arrived via PRD. The Explorers sell several other varieties of cookies, but Miss T and I like the chocolate mint and lemon iced ones the best.

If you were unable to get your order in on time (it only comes around once a year, you know) and you don’t see any of the DHARMA Initiative Explorers girls* around your neighborhood, you can modify Girl Scouts® Thin Mints and Lemonades™ with the following labels:

• DHARMA Initiative Explorers Cookies (variety)
• DHARMA Initiative Explorers Cookies (variety) (for 11×17-capable printers)

Girl Scouts cookies are pretty good, but they’re not quite the same as DI Explorers’.

*Why is it only the girls that sell cookies? What are the boys up to during this oh-so-important cookie sales season?

…Miss T and I shared a rare roast beef sandwich at Il Cane Rosso. Later, we headed over to Macworld 2010—sans Apple Inc. but still worth a look-see.

Possibly the most spartan trade show booth I have ever seen.

Microsoft Office, uh, icons were on hand. I might have been able to get a better photo but was afraid to get too close to them.

After Macworld, Japantown for dinner at Tanpopo…

hiyayakko tofu…

wonton chashu ramen…

…and kyushu ramen. It was all delicious (though I overordered—the wonton chashu ramen was about three chashu too many).

There was also a fair bit of shopping in the Japantown malls and the NEW PEOPLE ARTIST VILLAGE Vol. 2 at the NEW PEOPLE building.

The Peace Plaza Pagoda.

The NEW PEOPLE building (with the ARTIST VILLAGE Vol. 2 scattered inside).

And, a snail that Miss T spied outside of Benihana. All in all, a good last Saturday.

…in Sacramento.

Chef’s sushi mix (above) and a River Cat roll (below) from Miso Japanese Cuisine.

Mmm… sushi.

…now in cans!

Last week Miss T and I snacked on some DHARMA Initiative food items while we watched the LOST season 6 premiere. Nothing fancy, just some DI Crackers and Cheese and DI Mixed Fruit.

If you’d like some DHARMA Initiative Mixed Fruit for tonight’s episode of LOST, making your own may be the only way to have them in time. (Unless you can somehow get a retroactively-timed product resupply drop—one that will arrive in the past.) All you’ll need are 4-ounce tins of Mixed Fruit and the labels from this link:

• DHARMA Initiative Mixed Fruit labels (4 OZ)

Bon appétit and namaste!

…and a little LOST cheese.

Sometimes you just want a snack. A small one. Not a sweet—something savory. And, you want to have to use a stick in the preparation of your snack. Yes, a stick. (These may sound like peculiar circumstances, but it comes up more often than you think.)

For those small, savory, need-a-stick snack urges, the DHARMA Initiative has you covered—try DHARMA Initiative Crackers and Cheese.

If you’ve searched your station’s pantry and come up short in the DI Crackers and Cheese department, you can restock with generic crackers and cheese, some self-adhesive label stock, cutting implements, and this PDF:

• DHARMA Initiative Crackers and Cheese (.95 OZ)

DI Crackers and Cheese might just be the snack for a LOST Season 6 premiere viewing party! If not, there are many more items at our LOST labels for your DHARMA Initiative needs.

…the DHARMA Initiative way!

Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day (you do know that, right?), and, despite being in an indeterminate place and time, life on LOST Island is no different—breakfast is important. So, when wild chicken eggs, boar bacon, and taro-flour bread are in short supply, make sure you at least have a bowl of DHARMA Initiative Cereal. There’s a wide variety available—from Sweetened Puffed Corn Cereal to Sweetened Multi-grain Cereal—and they’re great with milk or dry.

We were fortunate enough to receive a DI Cereal Individual Variety Pack in a recent resupply drop, but if your pantry is lacking in the DI Cereal department, you can improve ordinary individual-serving cereals the DHARMA Initiative way with scissors, tape, and the following PDF file:

• DHARMA Initiative Cereals (variety) (.81 OZ to 1.52 OZ)

Make sure to try them all! (DHARMA Initiative Cereal not your thing? More DI labels at LOST labels for your DHARMA Initiative needs.)

…two persimmon, three persimmon, four.

My family has a persimmon tree which has, for reasons unknown, produced a bumper crop of fruit this year. Sadly, I’m not a persimmon consumer. For me, a persimmon tree is something more interesting to look at than to eat fruit from:

Fortunately, Miss T enjoys both viewing and eating persimmons.