Sunomono: Another Foodie-On-A-Diet-Friendly Food

So what do you know, I've lost almost nine pounds since starting this Biggest Loser challenge! Not bad for a food blogger on a diet, eh?

I guess trying to lose weight while being a food enthusiast has its disadvantages as well as its advantages. It's pretty clear what the disadvantages are. It's even worse when you're so tied in to what other food perverts are up to; it takes a lot of self control not to want to eat everything in sight after reading about every one else's food adventures via blogs or Twitter. The advantage of being a food enthusiast trying to lose weight is that I can use my knowledge of food to come up with a wider variety of healthy yet delicious things to shove down my gullet.

Take that salad that I featured in the last post, for example. Now you just bought all this wakame seaweed and shaved bonito, but as tasty as it is, you're not going to eat that salad everyday, right? So what to do with all those ingredients? Luckily, this food lover can tell you right away that you can use both to make sunomono--a light, refreshing Japanese cucumber salad that (you guessed it!) tastes good and is good for you!

The best cucumbers to use for sunomono are Japanese cucumbers because of their minimal seeds and thinner and less watery makeup. Japanese cucumbers can be found at Japanese or other Asian markets, but if you can't find these, you can always substitute English or Persian cucumbers; just keep in mind that your salad may turn out a little less crisp.

For a little extra protein and pizazz, I added some octopus/tako (available already boiled at most Japanese markets) to my sunomono, but if you can't get your hands on any or if tentacles gross you out, the salad is just as good without.



Sunomono
(makes about 4 servings)

-4-5 Japanese cucumbers (use 2 English or Persian ones if you can't find Japanese ones, but really, Japanese ones are the way to go; find them at a Japanese or other Asian market)
-A few pinches of salt
-2 teaspoons dried wakame seaweed
-1/2 cup rice vinegar
-1/2 cup dashi (see below) or water
-2 tablespoons soy sauce
-1 tablespoon sugar
-A few slices of boiled octopus or other seafood (optional)
-Sliced lemon wedges for garnish (optional)
-A pinch of sesame seeds (optional)

*Use a mandoline or knife to cut the cucumber into ultra thin slices.
*Toss with a couple of pinches of salt and let sit for about 15 minutes.
*Soak the dried wakame seaweed in enough hot water to cover. Let sit a few minutes to rehydrate.
*Meanwhile, mix rice vinegar, dashi, soy sauce and sugar together until well blended.
*Quickly rinse cucumbers and wakame with cold water and squeeze out excess water.
*Arrange cucumbers and wakame in small bowl or dish, add octopus if using.
*Spoon a couple spoonfuls of vinegar dressing onto the salad, adjusting quantity to your liking.
*Garnish with lemon & sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

*Since this post isn't about making dashi (a post for another day), here's a quick down and dirty version with no pics. Put a 4" square of kombu/kelp in 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and remove kelp as soon as water boils. Remove from heat. Now remember that shaved bonito you used for your tofu salad? Well take a cup of that and put it in the kelp water and wait until it sinks. Strain, and you've got yourself some dashi stock! (You can also buy the instant kind, but you needed something to make with that leftover bonito, right?)

Phototasting: A Gastrophotoblogging Experience, Checkers Downtown 2/6/2010

For those of you who have been with me since the beginning, do you remember when my food photos looked like this???

Well, it took four long years of experimenting with my photography for sushi to represented in a much better fashion on my blog. (OK fine, I got a new camera, but you know what they say. It's not the camera...) Now, I can make photos of sushi look more like this!


Where was Phototasting when I needed it? If only I had a fun workshop to go to back then when I couldn't take a picture to save my life and knew not a soul in our wonderful food blogosphere. If you can relate to what I went through, you're in luck! By coming to Phototasting--an interactive gastrophotoblogging workshop led my myself and other local food bloggers--you'll have an opportunity to learn and practice basic food photography skills while also getting a small tasting of Chef Todd Allison's winter seasonal menu and meeting new people. This workshop is geared toward both Point-and-Shoot and DSLR users, so don't worry if you don't shoot with fancy-schmancy equipment.

The workshop will be held on Saturday, February 6, 2010 from 12:30-3:00 pm at Checkers Downtown. Please see the media release below for more information. Register soon at http://phototasting.eventbrite.com/ as spaces are limited!



Phototasting

Do you like food? Do you like taking photos? Do you like taking photos of food? Phototasting is a unique opportunity to do all of the above with the guidance of several seasoned Los Angeles restaurant bloggers and the gorgeous new Winter Seasonal Menu of Chef Todd Allison. Not only will you practice capturing the splendor of Chef Allison’s culinary masterpieces, but you will get to savor them as well.

This workshop offers simple tips for both point-and-shoot and DSLR cameras and is geared toward photography of dishes in restaurants. Through hands-on demonstrations, you will learn elementary elements of exposure, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. The interactive presentation will also introduce core composition and digital post-production techniques.

LA restaurant/food blogger extraordinaire Daily Gluttony, as well as contributors to The Knot and Tripvine.com, will guide attendees through this fun gastrophotoblogging experience. To register, please visit http://phototasting.eventbrite.com/

A newly renovated boutique hotel, the Hilton Checkers Downtown serves as the perfect backdrop for Phototasting. Come to Phototasting to learn elementary restaurant food photography, sample Chef Allison’s delicious and innovative dishes, and experience the cool elegance of the Hilton Checkers Downtown.

Date: Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Time: 12:30pm – 3:00pm

Location: Checkers Downtown, 535 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90071

(213) 624-0000

Tofu Salad With Wakame Seaweed and Shaved Bonito: A Meal That Won't Break My 1400 Calorie-A-Day Budget

Ohmyfackinggawd watching calorie intake is hard work!

According to a bunch of those health websites out there, I'm supposed to keep my calorie intake to about 1400 a day if I want to lose weight, and that's with three to five days of exercise a week.

1400 calories a day???

One medium apple is 95 calories, and one medium banana is 105 calories. Could I eat only 13-14 apples or bananas a day and be satisfied? Hell to the no.

Even three Altoid mints are 10 calories. You know how all those little breath mints add up over the course of a day!

This first week of my Biggest Loser challenge hasn't been an easy one. I've had to cut out or cut back on alot of foods that were, up until this point, staples in my diet. Over 200 calories and 15% of your daily recommended carb intake for one measly cup of plain rice or pasta? Ouch. I had to find ways to make salads and vegetables tasty, filling and somewhat nutritious, so of course I resorted to an old favorite of mine: tofu salad with wakame seaweed and shaved bonito.

After having been to numerous Japanese restaurants and loving the salads, whether it be Mishima's tofu salad, various sushi bars' sashimi salads, or even the gratis side salad that one usually gets with a bento, I created my own version that's exceptionally simple to make at home.

Using mixed greens, firm tofu, wakame seaweed, shaved bonito and some Japanese dressing, you get a delicious, filling meal that takes up an entire plate and that's only a little more than 200 calories. And not only does your body benefit from all the great vitamins in the greens, but it also gets protein from the tofu and calcium from both the tofu and wakame.

The best thing about a filling, 200 calorie meal is that leaves room for lots of other stuff like an ice cream craving later on in the day.

Tofu Salad With Wakame Seaweed and Shaved Bonito
1 tablespoon dried wakame seaweed*
3 cups mixed greens (any mixed lettuces will do--I like to add arugula for a peppery bite!)
2-3 tablespoons of your favorite Japanese dressing (I usually use a combo of JFC's Ginger Dressing and McCormick Sesame/Goma Dressing because they're tasty and MSG-free unlike many bottled Japanese salad dressings. Or you could make your own!)
1/4 block of firm tofu, cut into squares
1/2 cup dried shaved bonito*

-Soak wakame in hot water to rehydrate, drain & rinse in cold water.
-Toss salad dressing with greens and seaweed.
-Top with tofu slices and bonito and violà!

*Note: Wakame seaweed and shaved bonito are definitely available at Japanese markets such as Mitsuwa, Marukai or Nijiya. They're probably also available at other Asian markets or the Asian aisle of bougie Western markets, but I could be wrong.