About Food

My Friend Guu

Guu Izakaya - room

Recently, we visited Guu Izakaya restaurant in Toronto.

It opened a while ago, and I’d walk by and wonder what it was. To be honest, I could not for the life of me read the name on the sign (it’s in a handwritten font, so pretty hard to read). I didn’t know what an Izakaya was, either, until some girl friends that had been to Japan explained it to me.

Izakaya is kind of like a Japanese pub, where you eat small plates (kind of like mezze or tapas) and drink.

This place is pretty popular, with a line out the door most nights. On the night that we went, the line wasn’t too bad so we decided to try it out.

They yell stuff at you when you walk in the door. I have no idea what they’re saying, but they say it with a smile so I think it’s something nice.

Guu Izakaya - Food Collage

From top left: Gindara (black cod), Ikamaru (grilled squid), seafood ceviche, Maguro Tataki (seared tuna), Salmon Natto Yukke (salmon sashimi with seven friends), Kakimayo (grilled oysters with spinach, mayo and cheese).

There were many many fun sounding dishes, so we picked some, ordered beer and enjoyed ourselves. Our favourite ones are pictured above.

I finally had the opportunity to try Shochu (Japanese vodka). The one I chose was made from sweet potato, and had a really earthy flavour – not unlike a cross between vodka and scotch. My subsequent trial of Shochu was completely different, but that’s a different tale…

I don’t recommend getting the trio of coloured, flavoured sake shots. It was cute, but a little too gimmicky. I should have known better.

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves. The energy in the room is incredible, and the food was really tasty. We tried to go back, but there was a 2-hour wait… hm, better luck next time!

Guu Izakaya - beer

Enjoying my drink. Good to see they passed inspection.
About Food

Mussels Twofer

Tomato Gorgonzola Mussel Pasta

No, I haven’t gone mad and decided to eat mussels every day! This post is a TWOFER! This is going to be an ongoing series of posts that show how leftovers can be used to make a second great meal.

Today’s dish was made with the leftovers of my Tomato Gorgonzola Mussels that I posted about earlier this week. Of course, you don’t want to keep leftovers for too long – especially seafood – so I made this up the very next day.

I loved the combination of tomato and gorgonzola, so I decided to make it into more of a sauce. First, I strained the broth to take out any bits and silt that came out of the mussels. I reduced the broth quite a bit, added some tomato paste, onions, garlic, herbs and a touch of balsamic vinegar. I also added some sautéed quartered mushrooms, green peppers (actually, I used poblano peppers because I had them on hand) and more gorgonzola. I added the remaining mussels, and tossed with some whole wheat egg noodles (did you know they make those!! Soo good! I’ve never seen a whole wheat egg though…).

Yeah, so that’s pretty much it! No real recipe here… just a concept. This is a part of our ongoing goal to reduce waste in our home – try to only buy what I need, and use it all up!! It doesn’t have to be boring.

About Food

The Mussel Matrix

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Tomato and Gorgonzola Mussels

I’ve been wanting to post my “Mussel Matrix” for a while, but needed to work through it at least once more.

Steamed mussels are so easy to make, and it’s easy to combine really bold flavours without it being too overpowering. I’ve been obsessed with mussels for the last couple of years, and we had finally found our favourite place in town… and now we find out that it closed.

I guess I’ll just have to make my own personal mussel restaurant.

When I was first looking into making mussels, I found that many of the simple steamed mussel recipes were pretty similar. Just swap out seasonings, veggies, liquids, and you get a totally different dish! Being a bit of a spreadsheet nerd, I thought it would be a good idea to make a matrix of ingredients that you could use with a simple recipe that could work every time.

So here it is!

Continue reading The Mussel Matrix →

Blog Love, Challenges

Anchovy Goddess – BB7

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Anchovies

“That stench… that heavenly stench!”

Yes, today I am the Goddess of Anchovies! As a part of One Hot Stove’s Blog Bites 7 : The Iron Chef Edition, I put on the crown and try using anchovies in two different dishes. Again, I’m tying together the Blog Bites entry with my ongoing love of referring to other blogs, as seen in my earlier “Blog Love” posts.

It all started when I found a blog post with a recipe for Orecchiette with Broccoli and Mushrooms on What You Having for Your Tea, a blog I subscribed to recently. We weren’t eating much pasta at the time, and this dish looked really good and fast. There was just one wee bony ingredient that I was both unsure of and intrigued by – the anchovy.

Anchovy Orecchiette

I didn’t change the recipe much – I just tossed in a few halved grape tomatoes and garlic scapes. It was incredible, and the anchovy was subtle and really interesting. It’s one of those ingredients that seems a little weird, and you figure you can make the recipe without it… which you probably could, but you’d be missing out.

I made this dish twice, and really hoped that I could use it for an upcoming Blog Bites, since the whole point is to highlight recipes from other blogs.

As it happens, this blog bites requires that we choose an ingredient and use it in two different recipes. I added to my personal challenge by requiring that I find recipes on different blogs. In fact, I’m highlighting THREE blogs today, because I took inspiration from one blog and part of the recipe from another blog.

Let me explain.

In the last few weeks, I came across this blog post on Kalyn’s Kitchen, showing a stack of green zebra tomatoes and fresh mozzarella drizzled in Green Goddess dressing. At the time, I was more drawn to the zebra tomatoes, because I love them and hadn’t seen ANY this year (still haven’t).

Jump ahead about a week, and I decide to use anchovy as my BB7 ingredient. I do a quick search of some of the blogs I frequent, and I come across another, totally unrelated blog post highlighting Green Goddess dip, on Morsels & Musings.

Goddess Stack - naked

Taking the Green Goddess dip recipe and combining it with the inspiration to stack stuff and top it with the goodness of the Goddess, you have my second dish. I stacked grilled yellow and green zucchini, sliced tomatoes and a bit of bocconcini cheese and poured some Green Goddess sauce over the top.

So good!

Goddess Stack

The moral of the story is that anchovies aren’t only Fry’s favourite extinct pizza topping, they’re also a way to add a special zip to a sauce or a simple pasta dish. Weird, but nice!

My adaptation of the Green Goddess sauce after the jump.

Continue reading Anchovy Goddess – BB7 →