Brunch at Cafe Campagne

It's still a breakfast with eggs and meat but a la francaise. You won't find greasy bacon and trans-fat-coated hash browns on your plate. Bread? Demi-baguette or brioche, of course.

I ordered the "Eggs scrambled with herbs and served with pork and herb sausage".

The potatoes were nice and crispy, and the pork sausage was very flavorful even with little fat content. My only complaint was the eggs. They seemed slightly overcooked (or maybe not enough heavy cream), though they tasted nice with the right amount of salt.

My friend's choice was the "French French Toast" (Brioche fried in bourbon egg batter, served with maple syrup). I didn't taste it because I am not a big fan of french toast (or any kind of sweet meal) but smelled wonderful. The dish was approved of by my two friends at the table.

In Seattle, it's not easy to get cafe au lait,because many coffee shops serve only cafe latte (well, I don't drink coffee regularly so probably I just don't know where to go to get cafe au lait). Cafe Campagne does serve one (you might want to make sure that you get it in a large cafe au lait cup though).

The cafe is on the Post Alley. If you want to take a break from sleeping in on weekends, meeting with your good friends for a french breakfast after buying fresh flowers at the Pike Place market could be a good way to start your weekend for a change once in a while :-)

The best part is leftovers

Unless you're are Prince Kobayashi, most people usually end up taking some portion of the 12 oz of Rib eye steak home (See the size of the Daniel's steak), but I love the leftover steak because my favorite dish "garlic pilaf with the rib eye steak" is on the way.

Ingredients: diced leftover steak, leftover steamed asparagus, 2 cloves of garlic, green onions, rice, butter, salt and pepper

1. Heat canola oil in a pan and saute the steak and garlic. Be careful not to burn garlic.
2. Add green onions and asparagus. Add rice.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Drop butter at the end.More butter, more flavor of course :-)
   

My signature Shrimp Toast

Nearly twenty years ago, back in Tokyo, I tried a wonderful shrimp toast from a Chinese dim-sum menu. It was one of the most popular items at the restaurant.
A few years ago, I had a hankering for the shrimp toast. After searching for some info on the internet, I came up with my original shrimp toast recipe, and it worked great.

Since then, I don't know how many times I have made it, but people seemed to like it a lot. So I am sharing the recipe here. It's very simple yet the flavor is pretty intense!

Ingredients: 1 lb raw prawns(black tiger, white prawns, whatever is available at the store) peeled and deveined, 1 egg white, potato starch, salt, pepper, white sesame. Thinly sliced sandwich bread(3-4 pieces - I use Japanese bread).

1. Clean the prawn and dry them with a paper towel.
2. Chop with a knife or mince the prawns in a food processor.
3. Put in the egg white, potato starch (1 tbsp), salt and pepper and combine the mixture well.
4. Trim the crust of the bread and spread the shrimp paste on it so that the spread in the center is a litter thicker than on the edges. Sprinkle white toasted sesame on the spread
5. Deep fry the shrimp toast with mid-low heat (bread tends to burn easily) and turn up the temperature slowly.
6. Cut the toast into four squares.

Here you go!

Daniel's Broiler

My vote for the best steakhouse in Seattle is Morton's. However, the restaurant could be very pricy so I have some backup choices when I am the one to treat dinner. This time I picked Daniel's.

Daniel's in Eastlake used to be excellent. I loved their Rib eye steak. Over time, the quality has become sort of hit or miss and I had some reservations about my choice this time, feeling as if I was playing a Russian roulette.

But it turned out be a good one :-)

Well, the best part is yet to come! To be continued...

Pickled Eggs Japanese Style

Pickled eggs are one of those southern favorites in the U.S., but as you might know, Japanese love to pickle everything too.




Here is a recipe from my favorite Japanese cooking magazine. If you're familiar with Miso(soy bean paste), then that's the only Japanese ingredient you need to get at an Asian grocery store (like Uwajimaya).

Ingredients:Miso paste, Sugar, Yogurt, and of course boiled eggs(I prefer soft boiled eggs).

1. Mix the Miso paste(3 to 4 tbsp), sugar(3 tbsp) and Yogurt(3 tbsp) well until the mixture is smooth.
2. Put the peeled boiled eggs in a container and pour in the miso mixture.
3. Leave the container in the room temparature for 2 to 8 hours.

The recipe is super simple, and you'll be amazed at the richness of the egg yolk combined with mild miso flavor. You can sprinkle some red chili pepper (Shichimi) on them. Great with beers :-)