Akida @ Broad St

Desperately trying find a decent Japanese restaurant in Richmond, it was ironic that the best one thus far (admittedly n=3) is within walking distance of our apartment. My husband, once again, found good reviews of Akida online and we decided to give it a shot. We had high expectations: we were patrons of Sushi-Ota in San Diego, which we consider to have the best sushi in that city. Akida has two locations, and the one close to us is in an unassuming unit next to a Food Lion. You couldn't quite see into the restaurant so I had actually thought it was closed a few times I walked past it.

The menu looked interesting, and there were some specials written on little whiteboards scattered around the restaurant walls. We had four in our party so we ordered a couple of appetizers, a sashimi platter and a few rolls. We were presented with an amuse bouche, which was a pleasant surprise. It was a slightly spicy seafood salad made of surimi crab and cucumber. I forgot to take a picture before trying it *grin*.

The agedashi tofu was ok... I had better. The bonito shavings on top of the tofu was a nice touch but the tofu was of a firm variety, not quite the silken type that is typical of agedashi tofu. The fried oysters (~$8) were a better choice: coated in panko and deep fried, they were served with sauce that reminded me of A1 steak sauce.

The sashimi platter ($25) was pretty good as well. There were slices of salmon, tuna, snapper, mackeral, octopus, and cooked shrimp (ebi). The sashimi was fresh and I guess the only bone I'd have to pick is that the slices were too thick. The platter came with miso soup and rice.

Off the menu, the rolls we ordered were the avocado salmon roll (~$4), the dragon phoenix roll (~$8) and the oshinko (pickle, in this case, yellow pickle) roll (~$4). Off the specials board, we ordered the Queens roll (shrimp tempura and spicy tuna) and the Naruto roll (low carb alternative as they use cucumber instead of rice). They were all excellent.

Sushi is never inexpensive so I think need to spread out my Akida visits before I burn a hole in my wallet. ;0)

Food: 8/10
Ambience: 7/10
Will I return and why?: Most definitely! Esp when my sushi craving strikes.

Cafe Gutenberg

We discovered Cafe Gutenberg on a Saturday morning when we were exploring the Farmers Market across the street. True to its name, there are shelves of books for purchase, and magazines to browse as illy coffee is sipped (or guzzled). We are huge Peet's fans, so finding a decent coffee spot was high on our need-to-find list. illy's no Peet's, but WAY better than the ubiquitous S.... you know what I'm talking about.

We came here for dessert, and we shared the hazelnut creme brulee ($5; they have different flavored creme brulees every night) and the chocolate turtle tart ($5; on the regular menu). I wasn't so hot about the creme brulee for a couple of reasons: 1) I reaffirmed my purist tendencies for plain ol' vanilla creme brulee, and 2) it was too light, almost fluffy, and seemed eggy rather than creamy. It was almost like a meringuy custard, if that makes any sense.

The flourless chocolate tart was excellent, fortunately. The caramel aspect of a turtle wasn't too pronounced since it was only drizzled as a sauce, giving the chocolate room to shine. The tart base was made up of pecans, and it is insanely good, especially with a good cuppa joe. I had their tiramisu previously and that was v. good too.

I love this place for its uniqueness, for the great service, for its comeback from Tropical Depression Gaston (check out the water level signs on the first floor), for its mission statement. I'll stop before I go all Jerry Mcguire-ish and embarass myself. I resonate with this place and will come back here again and again even if the food sucks. But it doesn't suck.

Food: 8/10
Ambience: 10/10
Will I return and why?: Yes, for reasons described above, for the Gutenberg wine and cheese experience (3 wines of your choice with a cheese platter), for the coffee, for their cultural events,... I could go on.

BBM3 from bucaio

I received my package from my BBM3 Santa, Kai of bucaio!!! There was a TON of goodies packed in there! Aside from the letter detailing the contents of the package, Kai also included a couple of flyers from her local supermarket (RusTan), including a Halloween flyer. The food items were a mix of candy, and sauces for Philipino dishes. There were so many different kinds of candy: mangosteen (my favorite tropical fruit, after durians), jackfruit, mango/tamarind, mango/pineapple, and a sticky sugar candy. My fav- the dried Mangorind. I could eat it all day! The mangosteen candy, though made with milk, butter and sugar and mangosteen, of course, had a nice coconut flavor to it.
Kai included a few suggestions for using the sauces. One of them I'm particularly excited about is the crab fat (orange sauce in the jar). I've mentioned to her my liking for pansit palabok, and the crab fat is to be used to that end. I will be using the sauces in the near future and will post more about my BBM3 items.

Kai, thank you so much for all the stuff! I hope I do the sauces justice!
And thanks to Cathy for organizing BBM3!

Animals as Chocolate, Part 1

For some reason, my husband enjoys buying chocolate shaped as animals for me whenever he's on a business trip. Sure, I like, scratch that, LOVE chocolate, but as animals??? And I'm not talking about chocolate bunnies one gets at Easter, but strange animals. When he was in Germany a few weeks back, he brought me back these hippopotamuses (hippopotami?). Yup, hippos. They are made by Kinder and are called Happy Hippos. I used to eat Kinder chocolate as a kid so I was familiar with the chocolate and cream-filled wafers. These aren't different (apart from the anatomy) from those sticks, except that there are some chocolate sprinkles on the bottom side of the hippo. Hippo frolicking in a muddy pond, perhaps? Anyway, they are yummy.

Shackleford's

My husband read about Shackleford's somewhere online and so off we went! When we arrived without reservations, we found ourselves waiting for 15 mins. Not bad for a Friday night at a popular joint. Even though we requested non-smoking, I found that the dining room was smokey. I got used to it after a while. We ordered the Baby Steamer ($12.99) to share, which was a platter of 3 Virginian oysters, 6 littleneck clams, and a quarterpound shrimp. We requested the oysters to be raw and the rest cooked. The oysters were very fresh, and were mild and sweet. My husband liked them a lot but they were a little too mild for me. The clams were ok, and the shrimp were cooked and seasoned with a spicy celery-ish salt. Old Bay and cayenne perhaps? They were decent but nothing to write home about.


We were much more impressed with our entrees. Husband had the atlantic salmon oscar ($17.99), which was a "grilled salmon topped with lump crabmeat and hollandaise, served over chive mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus". Yum! Salmon was cooked nicely (I am picky about salmon doneness), and the 'toes were creamy and delicious.


I had the Crab and Shrimp Norfolk ($17.99), which was 6 large shrimp and lump crab meat with a garlicky sherry butter sauce over some crostini. Wild rice and green beans came as sides. The sauce was everything I wanted it to be (actually, I would cut back on the salt, but I'm not complaining). It was a sauce that reminded me of the broiled escargots at a restuarant my dad would take me to when I was younger. (Yeah, I ate escargots when I was 5. Butter anything and I'd eat it.)

Overall Rating:
Food: 8/10
Ambience: 6/10. Too dim and smoky.
Will I return and why?: Yes, for fresh seafood that is cooked well.

Carter Mountain Orchard

It's the tail end of apple season in Virginia, but since we were out in Charlottesville to leaf gaze, we decided to make our way to Carter Moutain Orchard to see if they still had Pick-Your-Own apples available.

The only apple varieties that have not been picked out were Fuji, Winesap, and Pink Lady. Since we had picked a whole bunch of Fujis a few weeks ago, we opted for the Winesaps and Pink Ladies, especially since the orchard folks told us they would be our best bets. My husband likes the Winesaps, since they are a little tangy and very crisp. We didn't have high hopes for Pink Ladies, since the ones we purchased from grocery stores were always mealy and not very flavorful. One good thing about picking your own apples: FREE SAMPLES! We could try the apples as we picked to figure out if we liked that variety. It turns out that good Pink Ladies are firm, crisp, sweet (but not overly so) and apple-y. We picked about 7 lbs at $0.79/lb. Here's a row of Pink Lady trees.

Another draw of Carter Mountain Orchard is their apple cider doughnuts ($4.25 for 6). It is a cake doughnut made with apple cider, and a light dusting of cinnamon sugar. Yum! We requested ones that just came out of the fryer. Double yum!

Brunswick Stew Festival

My first blog entry. EVER! I have been reading several food blogs for a few months now, but have always dismissed having one of my own, mostly due to laziness on my part. Till now, that is. My husband and I relocated to Richmond, VA a couple of months ago, and I thought that it'll be a perfect time to start a blog as we explore the culinary offerings of this city. 2 months, ok, 3 months later, voila.

We've found some good eats here (more on that in later posts), but it was our outing today that finally motivated me to get my blog going. We went to the 6th Annual Brunswick Stew Festival located at the 17th St Farmers' Market in the historic River District. It was more of a whim since neither of us really knew what Brunswick stew really was. It turns out that it is a stew containing, in essence, meat, corn, lima beans, potatoes and tomatoes. There were about 20 different stands serving up their own version of Brunswick stew, and samples were available for purchase at $1/sample. (One could buy gallons of stew from any of the vendors but we left the festival before the stew was sold in amounts larger than a sample cup.)

Since I'm new to this food blogging thing and I do like my food, I forgot to take a picture of the stew before I ate it. So... I present to you my first food blog photo...... This stew was my favorite out of the 6 we sampled, and for which we voted for the People's Choice Award . There was a certain depth in its flavor, which I presume to come from some tasty cut of meat, as well as a hint of peppers (I was reminded of a gumbo), not a bad flavor combo. It was the "Original" stew from the Episcopal Church of Our Creator. This stand also had a "Traditional" stew that I did not sample. This stuff sticks to your ribs so 6 samples were plenty.

Will definitely try to make my own version at home. Stay tuned...