# Just wanted to share Some Food pics and knife action shots from My last restaurant.



## ms4awd (Jun 10, 2013)

Eel butchery Unagisaki In Action - Masamoto KS series 180mm


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## ms4awd (Jun 10, 2013)

These are giant Tiger Prawns we get locally in the Philippines. Absolutely Fantastic. This batch weighed approx 250 grams per pc head on with shell. Prepared here slowly roasted over bincho charcoal glazed with house made tare made with eel stock and artisinal shoyu and mirin i get from japan finished with a dash of yuzu juice. In The Prawn Head shell is a Persilade of young Razor Clams with Minced Prawn, Mushrooms and Garlic and herbs. We also serve it with Prawn " Sweet Breads" (For Prawns this size the brain and innards of the head can be removed whole pounded lightly with corn starch then fried... results in a crispy exterior and velvety interior much like veal sweet breads.) Caramelized Garlic Puree.


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## ms4awd (Jun 10, 2013)

Another Pic, First Course of a tasting we did last year... Nigiri of SRF Wagyu Rib-Eye Cap tataki with black truffle Relish, Seared Foies Gras with PX caramelized Shallots, Hamachi tartare with caviar and Fresh wasabi on brioche and Fresh sashimi of Hamachi Belly and Hamachi loin.



Here are King Prawns getting ready to be covered in salt and roasted to order


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## Mrmnms (Jun 10, 2013)

prawns and first course right down my alley. Very nice!


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## WildBoar (Jun 10, 2013)

I'm not a seafood/ sushi guy, but all I can say is "Holy ****!" You were producing some very nice food.


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## danielomalley (Jun 10, 2013)

Fantastic presentation! What time's dinner?

-d


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## ms4awd (Jun 17, 2013)

Some more Pics. this time Meat Entrees :hungry:

Crispy Skin Pork Belly Confit with Grilled Baby Octopus, Burdock Root Puree, Crispy Burdock Root, Morrels and Squid Ink Emulsion



Braised Snake River Farms Wagyu Beef Cheeks with Wagyu Ox Tongue Raviolo, Potato Espuma, Mushrooms and Bitter Mustard Greens



Not an Entree just Yet -- Wild Caught Tasmanian Salmon Getting a Crispy Sear on the Skin side on our French Style Plancha


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## eaglerock (Jun 18, 2013)

Awesome !!


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## Duckfat (Jun 18, 2013)

The Pork Belly confit and Beef Cheeks look awesome! You have me curious about the Salmon though as I was under the impression all Tasmanian Salmon was pond raised.

Dave


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## markenki (Jun 18, 2013)

Wow! What's the restaurant? I'll have to pay you a visit next time I'm in Manila.


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## ecchef (Jun 18, 2013)

Really nice work! :thumbsup: How do you cook your gobo for puree?


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> I was under the impression all Tasmanian Salmon was pond raised.




We get some Wild Caught Tasmanian Salmon/Ocean Trout from one of our suppliers flown in when in season... They tell me its tasmanian salmon but seems to be more in line with tasmanian ocean trout based on my experience in the past. Similar Size, Shape and Color of the Flesh. The Flavor is very clean and not as oily/rich as typical salmon another reason that led me to believe it may truly be ocean trout. Possibly just so its easier to upsell to their clients they say salmon. Salmon is a known commodity while ocean trout is relatively unknown to the local market here. Best of what i have found locally. Wish i could get some King or Copper River Salmon from Alaska that would be awesome but no luck trying to get an importer to bring some in for me. 

The rest of the time we get farmed tasmanian salmon (a bit larger than the trout) although they are farmed in pens in the middle of the ocean in the southern waters of Australia i believe. I looked up the company info my purveyor provided. Good practice and very sustainable operation. So far its been Better than any farm raised salmon i have ever dealt with. Good fat content but very balanced unlike some of the mass produced farmed salmon out there. We get them flash frozen whole head on but gutted. Still has the slime on the skin when you thaw it out pretty good sign of quality. Most fish start to lose the mucus like slime on their bodies even just a day out of the water. So these are harvested in the ocean gutted and sent through a flash freezing cycle. We tried fresh flown in weekly but the whole frozen ones were so much better and more consistent. Never thought i would ever say that but you live and learn.


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## bieniek (Jun 19, 2013)

Very cool photography and labour intensive presentation. Awesome.
Thanks for sharring


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> Wow! What's the restaurant? I'll have to pay you a visit next time I'm in Manila.



This was from my first venture here. we opened outside of the the main center, in the suburb where my home was located. We're in the process of relocating and my new restaurant is under construction, will be in Makati. Dont have a name yet for the new place drawing a blank trying to think of one. Will post some pics of the restaurant and more food when were up an running in a couple of weeks.


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> How do you cook your gobo for puree?



We peel the root and let it soak in acidulated water(if u are looking for a light colored puree). Using lemon or citrus is better than using distilled vinegar but both will work. For this dish i season with yuzu juice before plating so the citrus flavor stays bright.


For a more neutral flavor ascorbic acid works really well if u have it available or stems of parsley has enough vitamin c to prevent oxidation. This way any citrusy/vinegary flavor from the soak doesnt affect the final product. With the parsley stems its trial and error to know how much you need in the water. We cut it sasagaki style(like sharpening a pencil with a knife) and cook them sousvide with the tiniest amount of butter. Cant remember the temp that i do with these its something like 167f for 8-12 hours. You can puree them straight out of the bag and season the puree with salt. Run it through a chinois twice and season with citrus before serving. The citrus gives a good brightness that work with the earthiness of the gobo. Complements fatty and rich proteins well. The puree will never truly be super smooth like is achievable with other root veg, just the nature of gobo but its also not starchy at all. We only use a little to balance out the flavors on the dish. 

An alternative if looking for a darker puree with a smokier/roasted gobo flavor. we peel the root and roast it in the oven for a few minutes to get some browning. We then let it cool and it will start oxidizing, then we do the same process, cut sasagaki then sousvide but this time with brown butter. I ussually do it this way to serve it with fish like grouper or snapper. The darker color goes well with the white flesh of the fish and the roasted erathy flavor is a good comlement.

Also the better the gobo you can get the better the results, ussually japanese varieties are the best, i have tried some from taiwan and korea and they are pretty good as well. The gobo from china is 2 woodsy and fibrous. Look for about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch diameter roots, the flesh should be firm but the root itself flexible( it will bends along the length of the root ) if the root's flesh is mushy/soft to the touch then its old, if it seems to be cracking and very firm or brittle ussually they were harvested too late and are too mature to yield anything good.

Hope this helps


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## Von blewitt (Jun 19, 2013)

ms4awd said:


> We get some Wild Caught Tasmanian Salmon/Ocean Trout from one of our suppliers flown in when in season... They tell me its tasmanian salmon but seems to be more in line with tasmanian ocean trout based on my experience in the past. Similar Size, Shape and Color of the Flesh. The Flavor is very clean and not as oily/rich as typical salmon another reason that led me to believe it may truly be ocean trout. Possibly just so its easier to upsell to their clients they say salmon. Salmon is a known commodity while ocean trout is relatively unknown to the local market here. Best of what i have found locally. Wish i could get some King or Copper River Salmon from Alaska that would be awesome but no luck trying to get an importer to bring some in for me.
> 
> The rest of the time we get farmed tasmanian salmon (a bit larger than the trout) although they are farmed in pens in the middle of the ocean in the southern waters of Australia i believe. I looked up the company info my purveyor provided. Good practice and very sustainable operation. So far its been Better than any farm raised salmon i have ever dealt with. Good fat content but very balanced unlike some of the mass produced farmed salmon out there. We get them flash frozen whole head on but gutted. Still has the slime on the skin when you thaw it out pretty good sign of quality. Most fish start to lose the mucus like slime on their bodies even just a day out of the water. So these are harvested in the ocean gutted and sent through a flash freezing cycle. We tried fresh flown in weekly but the whole frozen ones were so much better and more consistent. Never thought i would ever say that but you live and learn.



I've not heard of wild caught Tasmanian Salmon, but that doesn't mean it's not available. I think the best tassy stuff is from Maquarie Harbour. The Franklin river flows into the Harbour with such force, the top 2 metres of the Harbour are fresh water. This means the fish are constantly in salt & fresh water, which helps kill parasites that live in each. This is what I have been led to believe anyway.

Good looks great also


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

Thanks for the kind words everyone


Hi Huw

I wouldnt be surprised if they were ranched and i was told they were wild caught by the purveyor to justify the price.... I ended up using it when it was available cause it was the best we could get down here... I still believe its ocean trout but i cant complain its good quality... reminds me a bit of arctic char when cooked well.. I try to offer more local line caught fish but it can be a tougher sell down here sometimes...


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

For the gobo puree, i forgot put a bit of stock with the bag before sous vide, helps it cook evenly, and use the liquid fron the bag when pureeing add more stock to adjust cinsistency

On another note if u do try this mustard works well with the puree also


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## Von blewitt (Jun 19, 2013)

I prefer ocean trout to salmon, But its getting harder for me to get, I think the majority is going overseas now.


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> I think the best tassy stuff is from Maquarie Harbour. The Franklin river flows into the Harbour with such force, the top 2 metres of the Harbour are fresh water. This means the fish are constantly in salt & fresh water, which helps kill parasites that live in each. This is what I have been led to believe anyway.



will have to ask about that, maybe my purveyor can source it for us... Thanks for the info


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## Duckfat (Jun 19, 2013)

ms4awd said:


> Never thought i would ever say that but you live and learn.



Thanks for the info! We all have to adapt to some degree. I never would have thought I'd see a cultivated Morel! 
Sea Trout here is very under utilized but it's a fish that Sportsman have prized as long as I can remember. 
Pen farmed Salmon is the Tasmanian I'm familiar with. What we get here looks like it's an Atlantic Salmon strain but does have very nice flesh. The Tasmanian Salmon is just as much as Wild Alaskan Salmon here but the flesh is more appealing than most of the other farmed/pond raised Salmon I see. 
Copper River Sockeyes this season are over $22 a pound with Wild Kings hitting $15-18 (retail).
When you were in LA did you ever have the chance to try Kampachi from Kona Blue? They used Spherical net pens in deep water off Hi. It was a very interesting operation and they had a great product but AFAIK they are now closed.
It's always cool to see products from a different part of the world.
Now lets see the knives! :

Dave


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## Von blewitt (Jun 19, 2013)

ms4awd said:


> will have to ask about that, maybe my purveyor can source it for us... Thanks for the info



Petuna is the "brand" to try for


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## Mike9 (Jun 19, 2013)

Beautiful work - and I was just looking at some beef cheeks yesterday. Do you skin your eels before preparing them?


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> Beautiful work - and I was just looking at some beef cheeks yesterday. Do you skin your eels before preparing them?



For the eel i find it easier to skin after cooking if its cooked in a braise/simmer or sous vide, we do what i termed a burnt confit :with that variety in the pic, basically start it submerged in cold fat place in an oven at about 280f to soften (confit)then we up tge temp to 350 and leave it until its crispy like chicharones... For that we leave the skin on... In tge pic its a yellow eel much leaner than unagi or anago not good for bbq or grilling, we either do the crispy thing or we sousvide it after skinning and use it for tempura... For gray/silver/bpack eels any skin removal is always after cooking... If the eel you use has thick skin you can skin before cooking if its thinner skin they can crispen up if riasted or grilled much like salmon skin and are delicious left on...


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

If leaving Skin on eel and grilling score the skin so the eel doesnt curl up


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> When you were in LA did you ever have the chance to try Kampachi from Kona Blue



I did try it a couple times more for personal consumption, much leaner than hamachi or even japanese kanpachi... Never got to use it at work mostly japanese kanpachi wa on the menu

Knife pics coming soon  had a bit of turnover in the collection waiting on some special ones to come in...


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## Duckfat (Jun 19, 2013)

If you are not skinning why nail the head? Is that for more control gutting the slippery buggers? 

Dave


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

Nailing the head helps to keep the eel from sliding on the board and it makes it easier to keep thr body straight when filetting, for some eels the guts/belly is 1/3 of the body it allows me to filet the portion after the belly in one quick slicing motion along the bone, i filet from the back/top of the eel so by the belly i have to do kind of a sawing motion one hand on the knife the other feeling the tip of the knife through the skin so i dont break the skin... The skin helps keep the filets in tact when braising, the eel in the pic the belly cavity is almost all the way to the tail so the spike allows me to pull it taut while filleting

I also learned a cool trick to help get rid of the slime if the eel, we get them live so what we do is dump them in an ice bath so they become unconscious, chop behind the nape to kill the eel, nail the head then we lather the body with ap flour then use a knife along the body to scale the eel, the ap absorbs most of the slime and you just dust with more as needed we can clean them in half tge time... For a while i was getting .8-1kg giant unagi about 6pcs twice a week this method saved us a lot of time in preprep on the eels...


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## Mike9 (Jun 19, 2013)

Thank you for that - I love eel and we have abundant supply across the river in the tributaries. It's delicious smoked too. 

I might get some beef cheek for the weekend - they sell it at Walmart of all places. I was thinking of low temp smoking for a couple of hours on Saturday then braising on Sunday.


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## ms4awd (Jun 19, 2013)

> Petuna is the "brand" to try for



Thanks Huw... Have heard of Petuna i believe its the company Tetsuya Wakuda sources from IIRC, been trying to get my purveyors that import from oz to bring some of their products in, that and blackmore ranch really like what he's doing with his beef...


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