eating at benii.

benii, a smallish japanese restaurant in upper tumon in the star building. tucked in the corner. near the paint store. you know it? apparently i have over 60 photos of food from there, a sign that i might like it? a lot? maybe it's safe for me to a review. maybe. i've just sort of forgotten how.

the restaurant has been open since around october of 2007. it's a bright, clean, yet cozy space, with a contemporary vibe. there's nothing intimidating about the space except for the almost constant crowds. neighbourhoody. laid back but not slack. very little has changed since my first meal there, besides the modest expansion (which added only about 4 or 5 tables, but still 25% bigger than it once was). there is nothing intimidating about the menu, either. there's not a whole heck of a lot of fusion going on here. it offers a little bit of everything: set menus, bento boxes, noodles, izakaya-style small plates, sushi. food has always been prepared by chef shibata-san's kitchen; it is consistently fresh, done well, with generous portions at a more than reasonable price. it is a local favourite, and i'm pretty sure it's because shibata-san and co. are like, the Fry King Masters of the Island Universe. i am so not kidding about this. i'm pretty sure that's why it's always packed with locals. and why i'm there at least once a month.

behold, a sample of the hotty hot deep-fried love: tonkatsu, panko-breaded pork loin, juicy within and crispy all around, served with a wedge of lemon to cut through the milky sweetness of the pork and sweet salty tonkatsu sauce; panko-breaded prawns in a traditional (albeit spicy) japanese curry with pickled ginger and rice; chicken karaage , the best chicken nuggets you'll ever have; lightly fried tofu steak on a bed of sizzling onions and topped with dancing bonito flakes and nori. not oily! not heavy! never dry nor goopy! needs nothing more than a bowl of rice and a utensil.

the sushi rolls are the least traditional things on the menu: dynamite egg rolls of tamago omelette and flying fish roe with wasabi mayo; surf and turf rolls with korean style beef and broiled unagi eel; dragon rolls of broiled unagi eel and tempura shrimp. there's even a SPAM roll, which is probably a lot like one of their best sellers (yes, also fried): the bacon roll made from a thick slice of smoked bacon tempura battered and fried then rolled in sushi rice and nori. omgwtfbbq if you are a bacon lover this is bacon love.

of course, not everything is fried. you can get the traditional nigiri sushi, along with sashimi and hawaiian-style poki. my regular favourites are the tuna sashimi with natto or the negitoro bowl with chopped fatty tuna belly, a little flying fish roe and tamago omelette on a bed of hot white rice. the tuna poki comes with crispy prawn crackers, and you can get two different sized platters of fresh sashimi.

there are a vegetarian options, including a very nice fried eggplant curry, and an intriguing sounding avocado-tempura curry, and salads. the green salad and tofu salad are popular due in part to benii's soy sauce-based salad dressing (you can buy small bottles for home at the register), but honestly, some of the other "salads" are salads in name only, and probably not the healthiest choices on the menu.

the spicy chicken salad is karaage chicken doused in a korean kimchi-spice based sauce, then generously zig-zagged with kewpie japanese mayonnaise. there's some green salad leaves underneath, crushed under the weight of the generous portion of meat. the teriyaki chicken salad is similarly doused, but the korean-style bbq beef salad is spared the kewpie (but is still all about the beef, not the greens). they are all quite tasty, despite the heavy hand with the sauce (you may want to ask them to go easy on it).

if you can't decide what you want, there is a bento box special which includes salad, rice, miso soup, an appetizer and a bit of fruit along with the rotating special dishes.

i'm told there's also dessert available, which is amusingly, also fried. a tempura-battered ice cream sundae. eek! maybe one day. for now i'm content with everything else.

okay there is always a bad, which for benii is that the wait at weekend dinner service can be loooonnnnnnnnnnnng. they don't take reservations. the kitchen closes at 9.30pm and it's closed on sundays. the service is generally good, except when it's packed (which is often). the space is not that big, so when there are crowds, it's a bit hard to maneuver, and the din can be quite loud. be prepared to wait. it's usually worth it.

update 7 april 09: benii has expanded into the space next door so it has almost doubled in size; there's more seating for larger groups and also much more counter space seating. the lunch and dinner menus have merged and there are more salad and seafood options. oh! and way more fried food. gaaah!

benii
in the star building, next to the paint store.
888 n. marine corps drive, upper tumon.
tel: 647.1090.

3 good reasons why one should consider bentou

bentou/bento/o-bento: boxed meals, usually lunch, as envisioned by the japanese, but not necessarily japanese in itself. let this great o-bento essay and the bento bloggers explain. i've totally hopped on the bentou bandwagon and here are three reasons why.

1. relatively economical: it's a good way to use up leftovers, and by bringing lunch to work, you save from not eating out.

2. theoretically healthier: because there's a certain amount of aesthetics involved and they are manually assembled, one would hope you'd think about what goes in the box and into your stomach.

3. PORTION CONTROL!

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ah, resources: cooking cute, lunch in a box, 毎日のお弁当.

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yesterday's bentou was ebi-don, breaded prawns in egg, with sautéed onions, green onions, and seaweed, and seasoned with dashi, mirin, soy sauce and a little sugar. this used leftover panko-crusted fried prawns, but make free to use leftover tenpura or beer-battered prawns, or heck, any leftover seafood or plainly cooked meat available. cooked on relatively low heat, the egg takes on a savoury custard quality that is a soothing blanket for the bed of rice it covers.




ebi-don

2 previously cooked breaded or battered prawns (roughly 1/4 lb)
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
butter and/or oil
1 stalk of green onion, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup of reconstituted wakame seaweed (or cooked, well-drained spinach)
1 cup dashi or any soup stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp (not helen) mirin
1 scant tbsp brown sugar
2 large eggs (or 3 small ones), very lightly scrambled

sautée the sliced onion in a small amount of butter and/or cooking oil until just translucent. adjust the temperature of the stove to medium low. combine half the green onion, all the seaweed, dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar with the eggs in a bowl. add the egg mixture to the onions in the pan. as the eggs cook around the edges, push the cooked portion towards the center of the pan. place the prawns in the center of the pan and push into the egg mix gently; continue to move the eggs inward or on top of the prawns. when the eggs have mostly cooked, turn off the heat, and cover the pan with a lid; leave for five minutes. the residual heat will cook the rest of the egg. garnish with the remaining green onion. serve on top of a bed of rice, with pickled daikon radish.

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more of my bentous here....

reason #4: whimsy allowed in homemade lunches, apparently

lunch at issin: a quick note.

for any guambats on island, just a notice: issin at the westin hotel is celebrating its 20th anniversary by offering a 30% discount on all items from the sushi bar. imo, issin is one of the best japanese restaurants on island, so i'd take advantage of this almost cheapness before it goes back to being über-pricy. we indulged today with some of their regular lunchtime specials: the issin bento pictured above, which includes prawn tenpura (tempura), grilled salmon and sashimi, and also the prawn tendon-six fat prawns on a bed of rice.



of course, we indulged with some spicy tuna rolls and spider soft shell crab rolls. the highlight of the meal, however, was the freshly grated wasabi horseradish that came with our sushi and sashimi. good stuff, that.



if you do go, you can always have an after meal coffee at the not starbucks in the westin lobby. guam lacks an actual starbucks franchise (which is not a bad thing, i don't think), but as the westin serves starbucks brand coffee in all their restaurants, they've got starbucks-esque drinks in their coffee bar. whoot. and cookies the size of your head.



but really, i would just go for the amazing view.




issin and cha cha cha (the not starbucks)
westin resort,
105 gun beach road (x-street pale san vitores)
tumon.
671.647.1020.

the devil wears pirikara.

i have lately been obsessed with these shoes; i don't think i've thought this much about a pair of shoes since my first doc martens in my teenaged years. i don't know what it is--i scoff at the "sex and the city" girls who would rather have uncomfortable, expensively clad feet than pay the rent, i generally only rotate out two pairs of shoes (black, not black) at a time. still, they're gorgeous, aren't they? sexy burgundy patent leather on a honeyed stacked wood heel, i imagine those louboutins are the cobbled equivalent of a very good, very expensive french wine. and at 4 2/5" high (2/5th inches!), i would be TALL. er. however, at US$710, i could also stand on a stack of 710 one dollar bills and be just as tall, only like, richer. maybe i'll just take up drinking sexy, oaky, expensive french wines.

so, i have shoes on my mind; when i saw this bento lunch box on the fantastic e-obento website, i knew i had to completely rip it off faithfully recreate it. these fabulous gams were made with fresh sardines, marinated overnight in a pirikara spicy sauce of soy sauce, sesame oil, ground fresh chilis and grated ginger, then grilled and served on a bed of steamed white rice, and a green salad on the side. the shoes and skirt were carved from a red capsicum pepper. yay. and at roughly $4 for all the ingredients for two servings, i'm still $706 richer.

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feel the need to play with your food? check out cooking cute (check her links page for other bento blogs).

ochazuke.

i have been feeling under the weather sicksicksick with a head and chest cold for the past three weeks. it's v. tiresome, and in my state of lumbering phlegmosity i find it rather funny that whilst my natural inclination is to take an axe to my chest to rip my lungs out, the only things that really seem to make me feel better (besides that lovely course of antibiotics), is plain rice and weak tea. i have also turned to the rather delicate combination of both, ochazuke, many a time in these past few weeks.

ochazuke is a light japanese dish that is a combination of hot rice with green tea or dashi (fish stock) poured over it (ocha-tea + tsuke-moisten), with a few toppings or garnishes. typically these include nori (roasted seaweed), wakame (seaweed), tiny rice pellets or crushed arare rice crackers, tsukemono, umeboshi (pickled vegetables, sour plums), dried bonito shavings, or tarako (cod roe), but aren't limited to these options in any way. also, you are not limited to what kind of tea you use--while brewed sencha or bancha (regular green tea) is the norm, hojicha (oven-roasted green tea) and genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice) are often used, and i have tried it with some black teas like oolong as well (however, matcha--the powdered green tea that is used in a lot of the desserts on this blog--isn't appropriate in this case).

i have to admit, that when i am at work (yes, i go to work sick; i work in a medical office and i have coughed on people. you call it rude, i call it repeat business. kidding. sort of. ), i tend to rely on the many packaged varieties of ochazuke available. however, it is simple enough to make it on your own with whatever ingredients you have on hand.

i have eaten some form of ochazuke for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or sometimes just as a snack. in the mornings, i tend to go quite simply with white rice, wakame and nori seaweeds, some crumbled rice crackers and brewed green tea. it is very mild, slightly salty, toasty, filling and happily provides me with enough caffeine to jump start my day.



if i need a little more of a wake-up call or a pick me up at work, i will add umeboshi (sour plums), for a little bit of a kick, switch out the white rice with some brown or red rice, and pour out half tea, half dashi or konbu seaweed stock. i do rather love that i can finally put my lovely totoro bento bowl to use at lunchtime; i go the local japanese deli and pick up a few yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls), which i use in place of the steamed rice altogether--this along with one of the little ochazuke packets and some tsukemono pickles, make me a happy little bento boxer.



since i am on the mend, i have been adding a little bit of fish to my tsukemono for an island-style poke (a hawaiian fish salad, pronounced 'poh-keh'). a little bit of raw ahi (yellowtail) and gochujang (kimchi paste) add some needed protein and a garlic and spicy pepper kick that is better than any over-the-counter prescription medication for clearing out the sinuses.

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there's more on ochazuke on maki's, chika's, hanna's, mari's, and alice's respective blogs. read up, eat up!

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wee update 03 october: pokemon ochazuke !



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yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls)

1 cup cooked short-grain white rice, cooled
salt
soy sauce

shape 1/3 to 1/2 cup of rice in an onigiri mold, cookie cutter, an appropriate measuring cup or freehand it; pack it firmly together so it doesn't fall apart. sprinkle a little salt on both surfaces, rub lightly. grill the patties on a preheated grill or griddle (a very hot pan will work, too), until golden brown. brush lightly with soy sauce at least once during cooking.

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spicy poke

1 japanese cucumber, or any thin-type cucumber, diced
1 cup diced takuan radish
1 pound fresh ahi tuna, diced
toasted sesame oil (about 2 tablespoonfuls)
toasted sesame seeds (a few tablespoonfuls would be nice)
2 stalks green onions, chopped
1/3 to 1/2 cup gochujang (kimchi seasoning paste)
hawaiian rock salt, or kosher salt

salt the diced cucumbers lightly, then set aside for at least 10 minutes. place the cucumbers on a clean kitchen towel, then squeeze lightly or pat firmly to remove some of the excess moisture. combine them with the diced takuan and ahi in a bowl, drizzle with the toasted sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds and green onions, then toss. add gochujang to taste. add salt if necessary. keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

chirashi for hina-matsuri.

chirashi sushi, or "scattered sushi": sushi rice--mixed with boiled lotus root, shredded carrot, brown enoki mushroom, and bamboo shoots--topped with shredded egg omelette, salmon roe, salmon, prawns, pickled ginger, and um, some boiled mountain greens. i regret to say that i didn't make this myself, but it was a special bento from my favourite japanese supermarket/deli, tokyo mart. it was offered in honour of hina-matsuri on friday, march 3rd. hina-matsuri means "doll's festival", and it is meant to celebrate young girls' health and happiness.

i don't really know why chirashi is considered typical food for this festival; i would imagine it's because it's fresh, healthy, and colourful. is there more?

the dolls pictured above are not the type of doll, hina ningyo, brought out for the festival. those are considerably more ornate and formal. however, given the spirit of the festival, these kokeshi make a lovely standby, and are no less welcome.

curry bento

ah, i love a curry bento on rainy days. japanese curry is sweeter, thicker and not as spicy as other curries, and is almost just a condiment to accompany your starch of choice. this particular curry was very mild with chunks of carrot, radish, and potato. this bento has potato (poteto) croquettes instead of rice, as well as a cabbage salad and a little bit of pickle. needs more pickle. good thing i have a jar of pickled shallots at work just for this lapse.

i have to say, though, one of the most attractive things about the curry bento is the packaging. look, i have a package of curried food!



no denyin' that.

back to work bento

ah, back to work. it's not even christmas and already i am in debt up to my ears (and wondering about buying another camera--anyone have any opinions about panasonic DMC-FZ20? anyone? anyone?), so hi ho (no--not you), hiho, it's off to work i go. since it is oyster season in japan, it must be oyster season on guam :-) yay! oyster bento on offer for the next few weeks! this one is obviously panko-breaded and fried, and served with a tonkatsu sauce. juicy and delish.

girly bento

this is from aji-hey! (or is it aji-hey!! ?), an izakaya-style restaurant in front of my condo. they just opened a bento place in our office building as well, so there's no escaping them! another name i like to say: aji-heeeey-what's that? aji-hey! where are you going with that?! it's run by an insanely cute japanese couple, and it features 6-8 different bento boxes each day.

this one is soooo girly, it's all about the grazing, with each element in the forest of food consisting of one or two bites each. starting from the top left-hand corner, going clockwise: fried salmon chunks pickled with radish and carrot, a corn croquette, shu mai, shoyu-cooked hot dog, karaage fried chicken, a cherry, a piece of pumpkin stewed in soy and mirin, tamago egg omelette, a tiny panko breadcrumb-coated prawn, grilled salmon, and pickles. >whew!< did i forget anything?

aji-hey bento/snack house
itc building, tamuning